When you’re afraid to create a program because people know you only as a therapist:
If people know that you’ve been a therapist for a long time, your program is going to look even MORE valuable to them. Your experience as a therapist is part of what sets you apart. It’s beautiful to have more than one identity. If you’re already wishing you’d done this sooner, now is a great time to show yourself that you’re not limited to one identity or one way of working for the rest of your career.
Relaxed marketing is what we want to be engaging in at least 90% of the time. Whether you’re creating content, reaching out to referral partners, running free live events, pitching to podcasts, or writing website copy, whatever it is that you’re doing during your marketing time, you want to engage in it with a more relaxed nervous system.
You’ll come up with better, more attuned work when you do that. And you’re going to be able to make better decisions about what your overall marketing strategy looks like.
In reactive marketing, you’re in scarcity, panic and self doubt. The actions you take from that place won’t be the actions to make your business thrive.
When you’re doing reactive marketing, you don’t do your most creative, interesting or attuned work, so it doesn’t speak to your future participant very well.
It’s not fun or sustainable for you so you’ll be more likely to burn out.
Also, there’s just not much you can do in one day or one moment to see significant results in your business.
For all of these reasons, If you’re spending more than 10% of your marketing time in reactive mode, it’s way too much.
I love encouraging healers and therapists to think deeply and creatively about what their work could look like.
I often say: Step out of default thinking for a moment and give yourself permission to dream into what you want to create.
Who are you serving? How are you working with them? What work do you no longer do or do less of? What does your day look like? Who are you collaborating with?
In this episode I got to talk to 2 sisters who dreamed up a way to work differently by creating a business together!
This is a short episode and it’s really about you giving yourself permission to do the work that is going to feel most joyful and sustainable for you.
I’m going to talk about two different roles we might choose for ourselves as therapists, healers and coaches:
A catalyst who helps people through a big and clear change in a particular area of their lives.
OR
An integrator who helps people grow and maintain changes over a long period of time in many areas of their lives.
Some people create the program they needed for themself.
As you move through a challenging situation and you grow from it, learn about yourself, and find community, you realize:
“This did not need to be QUITE this hard! I want to create a process or a container to help people move through this with more support.”
If you fear bothering people with your marketing, this is for you.
I recently got the worst email I’ve opened in over a year.
I’m gonna share the actual email with you and I’m gonna share my internal reactions and the decisions I made after.
In the context of life, this email is really NOT that bad at all. No trigger warning necessary.
I’m sharing this because I know many of you are really afraid of getting an email like this.
I’ve had a hard time figuring out how to talk to you about this.
I never want to be a dream killer. Or a bummer.
If you’re thinking of creating and launching a signature program, I want you to do it. AND I’m gonna talk about one of the hardest parts of that today.
Then I’ll talk about how to handle this hard part. I promise.
Lea had been helping people with self-compassion for years, but when she started using art journaling in her program, it came together in a more powerful way.
Now she teaches art journaling in every session of her signature program, Everyday Self-Compassion. Once she integrated this practice into her program, she fell even more in love with her work. She’s got a feeling of presence, joy and even goofiness.
Do you ever dream of creating a program you’ll love running over and over again?
My guest Amy has run her program, Grief Medicine, at least 9 times now. Sometimes people wonder if focusing on grief brings her down, but you’re going to hear why working with folks around their grief brings her inspiration and joy.
Today I talk about a few really important things that set apart the people who launch programs and succeed from those who wish they had.
Here are 3 things people who succeed with their programs are WILLING to do.
1: Be willing to work through discomfort in your marketing.
2: Be willing to talk about your program with a lot of enthusiasm, and ask people to help you share it.
3: Be willing to show up and work directly with your participants.
Samantha has shrunk her therapy practice way down and is no longer taking new therapy clients. She’s delighted that her business has transitioned to mostly her coaching programs. She’s found that she’s got abundant energy and love for serving in this way. AND…Samantha has discovered that even the free stuff she provides on social media and on her site helps many queer women live truer lives.
That’s just ONE of the ways that the work she’s doing now is a much better fit for her life than a full time therapy practice was.
