So let’s say you’ve created a wonderful signature program, and people sign up. Fabulous!
Then someone asks for a refund.
😕
What should you do?
That’s the question I answer in this week’s episode.
I walk you through how to get through the initial moment, then to make a decision, create a solid refund policy moving forward, and finally to make moves that will help you have less refund requests and more happy participants.
Lots of my clients are afraid to do webinars. Like I can’t think about anything else, I just want to cancel it kind of afraid. Like I’m convinced I will make a total fool of myself kind of afraid. Like can I just get under the covers instead kind of afraid. Like sweaty-as-hell-armpits kind of afraid.
I used to be afraid to do webinars too. In this episode I talk about why it might be worth it to move through that fear, and I share 23 ways to make webinars go better for you and your attendees.
The short answer to the question “Do I have to do a webinar?” is, of course, no. You are the boss of you.
Meet Silvana Espinoza Lau.
She’s a psychotherapist, consultant, and embodied liberation educator dedicated to supporting other mental health practitioners in their journeys of decolonization and liberation. Through Decolonize Your Practice, she helps fellow colleagues decolonize their practices in a wholesome and embodied way so that they can serve their clients in a practice centered on anti-oppression, liberation, and decolonization.
What should I charge the very first time I offer my program beyond private practice?
Um, actually I get this question pretty much EVERY week. It’s one of the most common questions I hear and it’s one of my favorites to dig into.
I’m talking about pricing an offer beyond your therapy sessions...something like a workshop, coaching program, retreat or course.
Introducing Miranda Palmer and Kelly Higdon, the founders of ZynnyMe. They are two licensed therapists coming together to empower private practice owners to serve at their highest and best, improve clinical outcomes through business planning, and to break the statistic that mental health clinicians are the worst paid Masters’ degree.
In this conversation, they let me get extremely nosy about how things work behind the scenes with their very successful and popular flagship offer.
Meet Rae McDaniel: A non-binary gender and sex therapist-turned-coach who works with transgender/non-binary/questioning folks feeling lost while transitioning their gender identity. They are the creator of GenderFck: The Club, a one-of-a-kind, research-based online group coaching community of transgender/non-binary/questioning folks who are on a mission to transition with less suffering and more ease. Rae is the founder of Practical Audacity, a gender and sex therapy practice in Chicago. They also provide training for medical and mental health professionals wishing to uplevel their knowledge in trans-affirming care. Rae holds a Master's of Education in community counseling.
Ask Annie: Why is my email list growing SO slowly? 🐢
To answer this we need to address why email marketing is SO important:
“your money is in your list.” A phrase every person in online marketing will tell you (even the smart and ethical ones 😬) Email marketing is VERY likely to be a core tool to growing your business beyond private practice.
(If you’ve got a traditional private practice and that’s it, you don’t need an email list. )
I invited my pal Jeff Guenther back on Rebel Therapist because I've noticed 2 things he does brilliantly well in his marketing. Not only is he great at marketing, but he's also really honest and willing to give you zero BS as he explains what he does and why.
I expect you to listen to everything he's sharing here and borrow the parts that might work for you in marketing your incredible and unique business.
Just so I don't bury the best part, due to how Jeff has been using TikTok, his company Therapy Den has had a 50% increase in therapy referrals. That's absurdly high.
Looking over some of my 2021 Reflections
Expense creep vs. thoughtful spending and being in a position to be more generous.
Embracing being the breadwinner
Letting go of judgement around making a greater amount of money than my partner.
Knowing that I am making ethical choices with my money, that my clients are making ethical choices, including that we're not trying to pay others as little as possible.
I appreciate Kelly Diels and Rachel Rodgers for their influences on my thinking about money this year.
Listen to how my guest is zigging when others are zagging. This is a business owner who is growing a unique and profitable business by doing things her way, thoughtfully. She speaks to a particular audience and has no desire to appeal to everyone. She's building her thought leadership, and she's not doing it on social media.
I want you to listen to how she does her marketing and then think about how you could borrow some of her ideas and make them your own.
Podge Thomas is a business coach and management specialist. She works with women business owners to help hire and grow strong teams in order to find financial, systemic and structural sustainability.
I love bringing you behind the scenes of successful businesses so that you've got lots of examples of different ways to build YOUR business. In this week's episode of Rebel Therapist, I'm talking to a healer and entrepreneur who has built a robust ecosystem with high priced offerings. I asked her about how she's developed her offerings, her sales and marketing processes, and how she's scaled back her work hours.
Meet Cate Stillman.
Cate established Yogahealer.com in 2001, and Yoga Health Coaching in 2012 for wellness professionals. Her books include Body Thrive and Master of YOU.
If your program doesn't fill, first of all, welcome to the club!
This secret club includes me and almost all of the people you see running successful programs right now.
On one level, when your program doesn't fill, it means absolutely nothing. It means nothing about your future success, your brilliance, or your ability make this business fly.
In this episode I'll share how it felt to me when my own program didn't fill years ago, a mindset process you may go through when a program doesn't fill, and then some questions to help you analyze what might have caused your program not to fill so that you can make changes for next time.
Sarah Buino, LCSW, RDDP, CADC, CDWF is a speaker, teacher, therapist and the founder and president of Head/Heart Therapy, Inc. She’s a member of the adjunct faculty at Loyola University Chicago and hosts the podcast Conversations With a Wounded Healer, which examines the role of one’s own healing while being a care-giving professional. Sarah is obsessed with her 10-lb chihuahua named Batman.
So why am I so sure your first step to creating a business beyond private practice is to create a pilot program?
This podcast episode answers that question.
First, here’s what I mean when I say “pilot program”:
A high quality offer delivered live (usually online) to one person or a small group of people, which may or may not be offered at a lower price than it will be in the future.
Meet Christa Harrison, founder of Healing For Queer Healers Retreats, where she holds space for fellow queer folx.
Christa is a queer therapist in private practice in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma specializing in PTSD and trauma. She's a secular therapist in a sea of folx looking for someone they can feel safe with after religious trauma.
Introducing Ariana Lloyd.
Ariana is an LCSW and business consultant who helps therapists build liberation-oriented private practices. She proudly hails from the dry lands of Eastern Oregon, where she was raised along with her 9 siblings by her Mormon and Jew-”ish” parents. Ariana grew up farming and fighting and believes these strongly contribute to her approaches in both therapy and business. She now lives in Portland, OR with her two young children and her best friend, a golden retriever.
