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.
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.
We’re sharing one of our favorite episodes as an encore this week.
How do you create and fill a group program?
How do you navigate a full therapy practice at the same time?
We’re about to go behind the scenes and find out exactly how my guest has done it.
Meet Sonya Brewer, a trauma specialist and relationship expert who specializes in creative life and relationship design for overachieving trauma survivors and their partners.
She created Badass Boundaries, a 12-week group mentorship program for overachieving trauma survivors.
How do you discover the work you’re meant to create? Today’s episode is a master class on how to allow the collective and your spirit to pull you in that direction.
Judy Hu created a framework for boundary healing. Then she wrote a bestselling book: The Boundary Revolution: Decolonize Your Relationships and Discover A New Path To Joy.
She’s a Licensed Mental Health Counselor turned Boundary Coach based in Massachusetts.
You’ll hear the intensely personal and brave process Judy went through to develop and share her work.
Can you REALLY make great money running a program that you love and that’s based on what you do best?
Rebecca Lee does. And she’s got a year-long waitlist.
As a social worker and supervisor for social workers, she felt a pull to create something totally different, something that wouldn’t fit into the box of supervision or therapy or even coaching as we know it.
In the last episode of Rebel Therapist Podcast, talked to Claire Pelletreau about switching roles with her husband so that she’s no longer the default parent.
That change made a REALLY big difference in her business.
Because she made that change she’s able to take on big projects, and make more money.
And that got me thinking about what boundaries help me take on the big stuff that really makes me happy, makes a big impact and sometimes makes my business lots of money.
I used to ask every podcast guest: “What productivity or time management hacks do you use as an entrepreneur?”
I’ve stopped asking that.
I’m no longer lit up by trying to make my habits atomic or maximize my time.
The work of Tricia Hersey, Ebony Janice Moore, Tara McMullin and others has helped me (along with everyone I know) to question whether productivity is the measure to focus on and strive for.
Everyone is scared to launch their first program.
Someone asked recently: what if I’m REALLY scared to launch my program. Like…what if there are powerful individuals and structures out there who might want to do me harm?
What if putting myself out there associated with this work might actually be dangerous to me or my family?
Listen above or on your favorite podcast platform.
I mentioned in episode 196: 332K Of Revenue With Over 2 Months Off that I’ve been engaging in some profound trauma healing, and that’s changed the way I experience my business.
I’ve heard from many of you that you’d like to hear more.
This episode is all about how trauma healing has been changing just about everything about how I experience my work.
Although I avoid binaries, I talk about the difference between the old Annie (less healed) and the new Annie (more healed).
I’ve stopped trying to manage/control my participants’ experiences as a way to feel safe.
I still get anxious in moments, but I no longer identify myself as a constantly anxious person.
I’m more straightforward with my participants and tell them the truth about what I see in their businesses right away. (And they can handle it!)
I’m more patient with the process my participants go through as they build their businesses. I embrace the beautiful nuance you each bring to your work.
I’m asking for help when I’m struggling, rather than reporting when I’ve got it all figured out.
I’m more transparent about what’s going on in my own business and life, rather than trying to make everything seem perfect.
I got a message from one of the grads of Create Your Program recently saying that she was in the middle of launching her program. She said that launching was both a soul expanding and soul draining experience.
I want to talk about some ways to protect and take care of your soul while you’re launching your program.
First I’ll define “launch”: The time when registration is open for a time limited with a deadline, and the things you do to promote your program during that time.
When we’re launching, we’re opening ourselves up to a lot of different feelings and voices, both internal and external.
Here’s the question I answered from a listener I’ll call Susan:
I pretty much constantly have a full caseload. I know that staying full and seeing this many people is burning me out. How do I find time to build a program with a full caseload? I'm really struggling on how to shift slowly out of private practice and into something more sustainable for my own mental health, while also being financially stable. I love my clients but it's exhausting. I hate telling people no, but I'm maxed out and turning multiple people away every week. I've spent the last couple weeks setting schedule boundaries of when I am and am not seeing clients.
Many of us get stuck. We wait to create a program beyond private practice because we want it to be perfect before we launch it. And that can leave us waiting forever.
My guest today is going to help you let go of that idea.
She’s letting us in on the many iterations her programs have gone through.
The business she has now is thanks to being willing to get started imperfectly.
Meet Reverend Maureen Cotton, an Interspiritual minister, serving the spiritual-but-not-religious. She’s a spiritual wedding coach and officiant with her business The Soulful Wedding, which helps couples experience their wedding as a transformative rite of passage.
I thought this episode was going to be titled “A Little Dose Of Healthy Narcissism.”
One of my brilliant past clients pointed out that a little dose of healthy narcissism seems to be necessary in order to grow a program beyond private practice and step into the world of marketing.
Their idea was that perhaps you’ve got to step into a tiny bit of narcissism to have the courage to grow your audience and sell your offer.
Disclaimer: We’re not talking about narcissism like what we see in Elon Musk or Donald Trump. We’re not talking about a diagnosis either. We’re really talking about a bit of bold inner confidence.
My approach to goal setting and productivity have changed in a big way based on what you’re about to hear.
Listener favorite Tara McMullin is back on Rebel Therapist Podcast, talking about a huge pivot she’s made in her work life. She's also sharing her new book, What Works, A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting.
People ask me all the time: How can I compete with the big names?
My short answer: Don’t.
Your program has the potential to be better than those of the big names, if you lean into providing a high touch, highly intimate experience.
In this episode I share how and why you can ignore what the big names are doing and instead be a valuable disruptor in your field.
This is the final episode in a miniseries featuring entrepreneurs who have created phenomenal programs, and the lessons they’ve learned.
Today you’ll hear why one of these entrepreneurs needed to bring her farmer self to her program, why a solo mom realized she needed to create a different program, why one psychologist finds her coaching program liberating, and why collaboration is so so important.
I’m so glad you’ve been with me on this series.
Here's part three in a series within Rebel Therapist Podcast sharing the voices of people who have been through Rebel Therapist programs recently. They have created some phenomenal offerings.
I want you to hear from them because
It will inspire you to realize you can create something amazing too.
You will get to hear a bit about what they learned in creating these programs and that will help normalize the process entrepreneurs go through.
You may fall in love with them. I know I have.
They're sharing all about the programs they've created and the lessons they've learned so far in leveling up beyond private practice.
I’ve craved this sabbatical for years. My sister is a public school teacher and sometimes she takes several weeks off during the summer.
I’ve always envied her weeks off. As my sister went on long road trips with her family or just slowed down at home, I’d find myself thinking…”must be nice.”
Then immediately I’d feel ashamed about my envy.
