Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive
Welcome to Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive, the ultimate resource for mental health professionals ready to step into their power, grow their practices, and create a career they love. I'm Dr. Kate Walker, a Texas LPC/LMFT Supervisor, author, and business strategist who's here to show you the path to success.
Formerly Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, we’ve rebranded because, well, we’re way too big for Texas now! This community of badass therapists is growing nationwide, and we’re here to help you create a career and practice you love, no matter where you are.
Every week, you'll get practical advice, proven strategies, and motivation to help you build a thriving practice—one that gives you the freedom to live your life on your terms. From mastering marketing to designing scalable systems and becoming a clinical supervisor, this podcast is your roadmap to leveling up without burnout.
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Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive
151 Marketing for Therapists: Beyond the Couch
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. I'm excited to get to speak to you all. I'm assuming most of you are from Texas, just because I know that's where Kate is and that's where the majority of her work kind of exists. For the most part, I am just north of Charlotte, north Carolina. I'm going to share my screen and go through some of the marketing strategies that I want to talk to you about today.
Speaker 1:The one thing I do want to tell you I'm a former inner city school district teacher. I tell this to everyone whenever I am presenting. I am used to having chairs thrown at my hand because I was inner city. So I have no problem with adults unmuting and asking me questions. So please do not be afraid to ask me any questions. You can interrupt at any time. I will try to keep an eye on the chat. The hard part for me is that once I go to share my screen, it's really difficult for me to see the chat. So I am okay with you unmuting and just saying hey, wait, stop, let's go back to that. So that is not a problem. I just kind of wanted to preface everything with that so you can make sure you get your questions answered. I am going to hit share and I will get my screen pulled up so that you will be able to see my slides. We're going to go through this, not that this, and we're going to share. I'll keep an eye on the chat for you too, jenny, perfect, and interrupt me at any time. Like I said, not share, I want to present. That's what I meant to hit. That's perfect. Thank you, present. There we go. Okay, perfect, all right, so you are here from couch to click, building a marketing plan that works for your therapy practice.
Speaker 1:So some of you may know, I have worked with Kate probably for the past three to five years as her business coach. She has worked one-on-one with me as well as worked in my mastermind program, and she is also a member of my insiders group, which I'll tell you a little bit more about towards the end. If you do not feel comfortable asking me questions in front of everyone, you'll notice my Instagram is at the bottom of all of my slides. Please feel free to send me a DM on Instagram. I'm happy to answer the questions there. If you don't feel comfortable speaking in front of the group, that is not a problem for me at all, and it is me. So let me tell you a little bit about myself.
Speaker 1:This, the shorter one, is actually me in that first picture. I am not only a former inner city school district teacher, but I was a basketball player that played in college. I am now five five. We just recently found out that I grew an inch since being in college. I was five four when I played in college, but I have learned throughout my entire time that being able to be the smallest in the room made me more willing to do the things that other people wouldn't be willing, also kind of made me a dinosaur in the online world. I have been online since 2009 with my businesses. So Instagram did not exist, tiktok certainly did not exist, and Google Plus was a big thing, if anyone knows what that is. But I not only was a basketball player, but I am a business coach. I do mastermind programs with my clients. I run a membership. I'm also a first-time author. I wrote my book Influencer Entrepreneurs your four-part framework for building your audience, growing your business and making money online, and it came out in 2020, april of 2020 to be exact. It happened to be perfect timing because that was, of course, when the world shut down and everyone came online and that book really walks you through what we're going to kind of dive a little bit into. It goes more in depth into that as well. You can find all of your local bookstores.
Speaker 1:I'm also a podcaster. I have been podcasting for, good Lord, 10 years. It just sounds so weird to say so. There is a lot of content over there as well. If you go into your favorite podcasting app and search Jenny Melrose, I will definitely pop up and you will see my blonde, very blonde face on there. That lets you know it is me and there's tons of content over there as well. So if you hear something today where you're like I want to know more about the strategies she's teaching, podcasts will dive into that. Now I'm going to warn you. I also have two daughters and it is six o'clock in over the summer right now. They are 12 and 15 and a half, and I also have two dogs. So if chaos ensues and breaks out, do not be surprised. Please give me some grace. We are doing our best to keep everybody quiet as we go through, but we never know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that I, when I work with a lot of my therapists. One of the big questions I always ask is whether or not you're ready for a marketing plan that is aligned to your professional ethic. One of the conversations I continually have with my therapist is that when it comes to marketing, they often see it as a form of manipulation. They feel like they are over promoting themselves, they are just talking about themselves, when in reality, marketing is helping people find you when they need you. So I want you to kind of have this shift in your mindset and reframe the way that you potentially might have looked at marketing and look at it more as a way that if you don't put it out there that you offer these services, that you do these things for people, then it's kind of being selfish, because now, when they have the problem and you could solve it, they can't find you. So we're really going to talk about different ways today where you can make sure that they're able to find you. You're in the back of their mind because you've already done the marketing. You may not find that you put something out and they're in your office the next day. Marketing is really about a long tail game where they're going to end up in your office six months, two years, and it may not even be them that ends up in your office. It could likely be a friend or family, because they are aware of what you offer. So I want you really to start to think about marketing as a way to help the people find you that need you.
Speaker 1:The way in which we're going to do this is we're going to break down my PAC framework. It's the framework that's going to make sure that you're really clear on who it is that you're trying to bring to you. This is something that I find a lot of people will often struggle with, because we have this ability or want to do is to cast this wide net where it's going to bring in every single person we are for everyone. We are too afraid to say nope, these are my people. I work with police officers, spouses, and I'm only working with those that have only been married for less than 10 years, whatever it might be. We are too scared to niche down when, in reality, niching down and getting really specific on who you were meant for is going to attract those ideal people as well as a larger net that you may find you will go outside of what you initially were trying to reach for. So we're going to talk about this PAC framework in detail so that you can get a better understanding, making sure that your marketing is in line for who you are looking for and how to make sure that they find you.
Speaker 1:The first piece is positioning and what makes you uniquely you. This one I can't even find her because she looks so different. Now this one right here is mine. She's actually much blonder now, but what is it that makes you different? How are you different from everyone else? That's out there, and oftentimes we think that this has to remain in this tiny little square box of it being. I have all of these ABC alphabet letters behind my name of what I am certified in, when, in reality, if you are able to talk from a standpoint of connection, in what you have in your background and what you have done previously, that's where the connection actually comes and that's where positioning comes in for you.
Speaker 1:So when we're looking at positioning, we're trying to figure out what makes you unique. This can often come from really understanding, maybe, your family background. What does your family look like? What did it look like? What does it look like now, when you are trying to figure out how you can set yourself apart. All of these things are going to come into play.
Speaker 1:The next one may be your school life. What was your education? Where did you go to school? You want to give people an opportunity to immediately know you're their person. I had a conversation actually today with a coaching client, also a therapist, and she immediately said to me I know that if someone meets me that I'm a good fit for them, they're going to go with me. She goes because I'm me. I am going to tell them exactly the way that it is and they're going to recognize that and know that I'm authentic. You want that to come across and you want someone that's going to be okay with that. I'm also not only do I live in North Carolina, but I am formerly from New York. I don't always sit well with a lot of people because I can be very bossy, I can be very upfront about things and I may not be for everyone, and we have to be okay with that because we are meant to attract those that we can ultimately help.
Speaker 1:The next piece might be your extracurriculars. If you know Kate and I'm sure many of you do you all know that she plays in a band. What makes Kate different is when you were seeing her on social media. She brings in what she can offer for all of you, with the pain points that she solves, but she also gives you a place of point of connection. It isn't just the square, it is taped who she is and what she loves. Your life experiences could very well be a part of it. It gives an opportunity for clients to potentially connect with you without, of course, crossing lines where you're uncomfortable. And then the last would be your personality. I kind of touched a little bit on this, but your personality, the way that you approach people, the way that you talk to people, the way that maybe you give them a chance, maybe you're a listener and you give them a chance to just kind of sit in the quiet and give them an opportunity to talk about what they need to talk about. That is where they're going to have this ability to connect with you. And you need to know your positioning, because it is what is going to make you stand out and give those people an opportunity to choose whether or not they're the right fit. Now, with the marketing content we're going to talk about, that's how you're going to get in your positioning.
Speaker 1:The next piece is your authenticity. You lead with your heart. This is actually my private podcast for my premium members that they get three episodes a week and this is the photo, because this is very much the way that I am. I talk with my hands. I have a habit of telling you exactly what I'm thinking, I think. This morning I was told three times I'm bossy, but thank you so much. It's just what you're going to get and that is what people are going to connect with when they can see your actual authenticity of who you are, what your goals are and how you are trying to help them. That makes all the difference and what ends up happening when you are authentic is they tell all of their friends, they tell their family, is they tell all of their friends, they tell their family. They end up giving you natural referrals because they authentically, can see what you believe in, what your heart is and how you're going to help them. This is where not only is your practice becoming part of your legacy, but your legacy is giving you the opportunity to not reach one to 10 people that's in your office but it gives you an opportunity to reach many, because when you're teaching the skills that you're giving them in the therapy room to one person. It's very likely that if they have a family, they are passing those skills onto their family members and with this opportunity, it provides you that chance to make sure that you are getting those referrals, getting more people as one of my clients likes to say, butts in seats so that you can potentially create a practice that goes beyond maybe just private practice, but maybe you end up having multiple people that are working for you and potentially the idea of being able to create courses or workshops that could be done virtually, rather than having to trade your time for money by being and having butts in the seats. So this provides that opportunity for you.
Speaker 1:The next piece of the PAC framework is the confidence Knowing that you can confidently tell people what it is that you are going to be able to help them with. They can tell. Now, one of the things that a lot of people will talk about is the fact that, oh, she's so confident. She was born with it, and I truly believe that no one is born with confidence. It is like a muscle you work it. The more you work at it, the better you get at it. Now, one of the first steps is to fake it, and I don't mean especially after I just told you to be authentic, that I want you to pretend you're someone that you're not. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is, in order to do something for the first time, you have to act like you've done it before. That's the only way you're going to get better and more confident in it. The more that you do it, the better you become. The more people you have in your office, the more clients that you work with, you become more confident with those people. So, getting through and pushing through that awkwardness that you can often feel probably the ability of feeling nervous and scared, being able to fake it Do the things that need to happen so that you can get better and better at it being able to fake it. Do the things that need to happen so that you can get better and better at it, being able to practice it, so that you have more confidence as you go along.
Speaker 1:The next piece is to manifest it. You have to talk about what it is that you want out of your practice to others, to more than chat, gbt and AI. You have to be talking to your actual family, a friend, telling them what your big dreams are for your practice, and if those big dreams are to speak on stages, let that be part of it. If you want to be able to write, run a retreat, let that be part of it. You have to put it out there and actually visualize it and manifest it in order to help it happen. And this is where the state it comes in. The more you tell people of what your goals are, the more you're going to not only feel held accountable by yourself, because now you've told someone else, but it's likely they're going to check in on you. How are things going? Where are you with that? I recently had a friend that actually did that this morning with me. Oh, I know you have a huge retreat coming up in November. How is all the planning going? I'm in the middle of summer and I want to talk about this right now, but she's holding me accountable to keep me in line with what my big goals were. And that's what we want to make sure that we are doing by having all of these put together the fake it, the manifest and the stating. It is going to lead to more confidence in what it is that you're doing, so that you can hit those big, scary goals that you've set for yourself.
Speaker 1:The next piece is kindness of the framework, and I know it seems like it wouldn't be a good fit, but I promise it's going to make sense. Kindness is going to come not only from listening to your audience, understanding what their pain points are. A lot of times, what I have found with the therapist clients that I work with you all like to use therapy language. You use what it is that their problem is instead of thinking about what it is that they are actually struggling with. So, for example, if we were talking about someone that is a police officer and or EMDR you do EMDR. You work with trauma. You are talking about resiliency. Is that a word that your actual people are going to be using? Are they going to understand that they need to be more resilient? Or are they going to say why do I feel like crap? How do I get out of bed Like? You have to make sure, when you are listening to your audience and to your people that are in your office, that you're understanding the language that they're using, because we're going to use it in our marketing. We're not going to talk about resiliency unless we're using it in a way where we've already defined it and they understand what that is.
Speaker 1:Another one is I have um, you know when we might be a therapist to a police officer. There's something I can't think of a word, of course, right now where he automatically will go back to trying to do something. It's word hyper, hyper, oh my god, not hyperactive, but, yep, not coming to me. It's something hyper, hyper, vigilant, and I'm like I don't know what that means. I don't. Maybe some of your people will know what that means if they've been with their officer for 15 years and they've heard that from a workshop or from something that he said. But if you've got a newer wife or a partner in, they're not going to be searching for hypervigilant symptoms. They're searching for why is he such a psycho and sitting by the door and always having his head on a swivel and reacting to certain situations. Those are the words that you have to use. You have to know that to use it in your marketing plan.
Speaker 1:The other piece of kindness is giving yourself some grace. As therapists, I have found that a lot of you are perfectionists. A lot of you like to overanalyze what it is that you're doing and think that you can always do it better, and I don't think that it's wrong that you should be looking for ways to improve, but you have to give yourself some grace. You have to understand that your path is your path only. Just because someone has a huge practice with 10 people, 10 therapists working in it, doesn't mean that that's the right fit for you. That doesn't mean that you should feel less of what it is that you have accomplished. So, understanding and making sure you take a step back from what you're doing, because, in my eyes, therapists are all small business owners. If you're private practice, if you're working for a practice, you're all small business owners, and a lot of the marketing that you have to do has to be done by you, potentially someone on your team, but still you have to understand it. So knowing that you need to give yourself some grace is going to be key with this.
Speaker 1:And the last piece, with kindness, is that you have to remember your journey is yours. You probably have gone through some struggles in your life that have changed the path that you have to remember. Your journey is yours. You probably have gone through some struggles in your life that have changed the path that you thought you were going to be in. There are always. Covid is a perfect example. There are tons of examples. A family member gets sick. You end up having to take someone in that's part of your family that isn't yours maybe. There's lots of situations and you always need to take that into consideration and, in the same token, you need to know what your goals are. Your goals may not be to run a million dollar practice. Maybe you're not good at running other people and managing them. So if that's not your goal, why are we looking at what someone else is doing and going, oh, I should be doing better. Apples to oranges. Remember that your journey is yours, all right. So let's talk about marketing channels, because this is the big piece of what we need to know. We talked about the pack framework, which is what you're going to use in your marketing channels All of the copy, the language that they use, the way that you're going to use in your marketing channels, all of the copy, the language that they use, the way that you're going to connect with them through positioning. All of that is going to come into that.
Speaker 1:The first thing that is essential to stand out in 2025 and moving forward is a website, an SEO. Now, seo is just search engine optimization. I know it sounds really scary and crazy, but really what it means is what are people typing into Google in order to find the solution to their problem? That's what SEO is, and in order for you to come up higher than someone else, you need to answer the question and when you answer the question, make sure people are finding it is the best answer they can. They're staying on your website. They're going from one article to the next article, to the next article.
Speaker 1:Your website needs to represent you and who you are, your values, but it needs to be written to a standpoint of who your ideal client is. It shouldn't be written from the standpoint of I, I have done this. I do that. I have EMDR certification. I have taken 30 million CEs. Whatever it might be, it's written from if you're struggling with this, this is what we're going to do. You're showing them the transformation that they're going to go through through your website.
Speaker 1:Your website is also an opportunity where you want to be able to grow your email list, because we're going to talk about the importance of having an email list to do email marketing. That's going to be also one of your marketing channels. I can't resist because I always go back to email. When it comes to your website, you also have an opportunity that, if you want to do speaking, you can have a speaking page and let them know what that looks like and where you've spoken in the past and what they can expect to get from you. If you wanted to do workshops or a course that is digital, so that your clients maybe that are in your therapy room, maybe you do something for the parent if you work with kids, or you do something for the spouse if you work with couples, anything like that would also be included on the website, as well as content, and that's the next piece that we're going to talk about. Your content marketing is going to be blog, podcast and YouTube, and you're answering the questions that they have, which is why it was so important before when I said to you don't use the word resiliency, don't use hypervigilant. That's not what they're searching for. They're searching for why, how, and that's what you want to answer why your officer is acting like this, how you're going to be able to pick yourself out of bed, how to deal with grief, how to deal with shame Any of the things that you have that you can recognize and they recognize. Those are the pieces of content that you're going to be creating. Now it says Blonde Podcast or YouTube.
Speaker 1:Because I believe in repurposing. I think it's really, really important that if you're going to put content out first, I recommend that you start with one that you're really confident with. If you've never done this before, I'm not going to say, oh, you need to do all three. I am not that person that's going to tell you that. I want you to get started with one and get comfortable and confident with it and see how quick you can do it. And then, ideally, what I would love to see is if you're choosing writing and you're going to write a blog post, that's fine.
Speaker 1:Ideally, your next step would be to go to YouTube. If you're comfortable in front of video, I cannot stop singing all the praises for YouTube. It speeds up the opportunity for people to get to know you. Because of TikTok and Reels and the crap that people consume, they have glazed eyes when they look at content now. So in order to really get through to people, you need to be on YouTube long form video answering question and giving them all the solutions that they could have that they need in order to have a solution.
Speaker 1:Now, what I teach to my members of my insiders program is that you take your YouTube, you turn it into a podcast because you pull the audio from it, and then you take the transcript from that and turn it into a blog post. So from one YouTube video, you end up with three pieces of content. Plus you can do social shares if you have to. Now I know for some of you that are not marketing at all. You're like holy crap, lady, you're absolutely insane. Which is why I started with.
Speaker 1:If you're more comfortable just writing, start with a blog post. But it's important that you understand what are the words that they are using to find the solution for their problem, the problem that you solve. And I want you to get really specific about the problem that you solve. Get clear on that. Who is your ideal audience? What age are they? What are they struggling with? What is their family makeup? Are they divorced? Are they single? Do they have an elderly family member that has to potentially live with them? Depending upon what you're dealing with, you're dealing working with grief, shame, police officers, whatever it is. So really start to get clear on the content so that you can put that out there, answering the questions that they have. This is how you're going to get found by others and you again, this isn't going to be. Oh, you create a blog post and ring, ring, ring you've got a new client. It doesn't work that way. Someone is going to read that article and that you're going to sit in the back of their head so that when they're ready to go see someone or they hear of someone needing someone, they're going to recommend you. That's what this content marketing is all about. That's what this content marketing is all about.
Speaker 1:The next piece is email marketing. The idea behind email marketing is you want to have something, that you have direct contact with your people and you would use your email marketing to continue to educate them. So you would offer them a guide, something simple five tips to help feel more confident dealing with shame. Let's just say, as an example, that guide is what they would get. You would get their email in exchange for the guide, and then you're going to email them when you have new content come out, so you can continue to educate them, so they continue to feel like they know you, they like you, and then they trust you enough to become a client where they are getting their butt in the seat. So email marketing is going to be key when you're looking at marketing channels and I've kind of done these in the order that I recommend when you are first starting, order that I recommend when you are first starting If you are already putting content out and you do not have email marketing going. This is where you got to get to this, because otherwise you're putting content out there and people are just going away afterwards. If you get their email, you can continually let them know about new blog posts, new podcast posts, those new YouTube videos that you may have. So it's going to be key that you need to do that.
Speaker 1:The last piece of marketing I will always believe in is networking. Whether you are networking with other therapists, whether you are networking with, let's say, you do, child play therapy, networking with daycare owners, going into the daycare owners and offering them up something to let them know hey, this is what I do, this is what I offer, no pressure whatsoever. Here's a great way. I have a podcast that teaches, that does tantrums for two-year-olds clearly a client I have and recommend it to them so that they can just listen to it to be able to help them in the actual classroom. What will end up happening is when they have a child or parent that comes to them that says, hey, we're really struggling with getting on time to school and my kids are having tantrums all the time. Here's a great podcast that I have heard about and then they listen to it and that's where the client will come from.
Speaker 1:So, really having this ability to network, to create those relationships with those that are other therapists, so you can have a networking and seeing okay, if someone needs this, I can send them to this one, if someone needs that, I can send them to this one but also thinking about networking with the businesses that will be in contact with your people. So, if you deal with grief, potentially looking at I know it seems odd, but a funeral home and offering them 10 simple tips that your family needs to know during their grief, what they need to plan for, and then offering that to the funeral home Because, again, if someone comes in, it's going to be something that they are going to have at the top of their mind because you're offering value. It's always about that value that you're providing. All of you became therapists, I would believe, because you are very heart-led, you wanted to help people. You wanted to make them feel better about the life that they're living and to live a more fulfilled life. It's not always easy. I know that there's ups and downs, but that was the purpose of where you started, so why not offer this as an opportunity for others to know how they can connect with you, how they can make sure that they are getting the services that they may need, or that their family and friends are getting the services that they may need, or that their family and friends are getting the services that they need? Your marketing channels are going to be key to helping you with this.
Speaker 1:I know that a lot of you at least from what Kate has said and what I've heard other clients see to me is that you want to do Google AdWords and you want to be sponsored and you want to. Some people will throw money at ads on Facebook or Instagram. Start free, figure out what language your people are using and the marketing that you need to do before going through and paying to have other traffic coming through your door. I'm going to leave it at that. I was going to say something else and I changed my mind. If you were ready to grow your practice I wanted to offer you all. I believe Kate may have put this in the chat or she was going to send it to you all. This is my strategic growth plan. Ignore this title I don't know why that's there but it's a strategic growth plan that's going to help you really create a content plan. For what it would look like, what would you be putting into it, how would you make sure that your pain points are being hit upon? And then it'll give you a calendar to kind of prepare you for consistently putting out content, getting in front of your audience.
Speaker 1:Now, one of the things that I talked about in the beginning I mentioned my Insiders program. It is a monthly membership where I do three trainings per month and then one group coaching call. The marketing that we are talking about is exactly what I teach. I go into depth so that if you don't understand SEO, there's trainings all on SEO keyword research. If you're wondering about email marketing, if you're trying to figure out your website, I am your marketing friend.
Speaker 1:If you were to scan this QR code, it will bring you, through Kate's affiliate link, to the checkout page for insiders, and then we would access you through a Facebook group and I do all my calls live via Zoom, just very similar to this so that I can get questions answered. Use this code B of B at checkout and it'll give you 40% off every single month. So normally the membership is $49 a month. With Kate's affiliate link and this code, it'll drop it to $29 a month. Do you all have any questions for me? Feel free to unmute. You can wave your hand at me. It'll show a raised hand too. Unmute, you can wave your hand at me. It'll show a raised hand too.
Speaker 2:Well, everybody's deciding. Can you hear me, jenny? Hi, kate, hi, sorry I was late. I'm so glad you're here. I love to be here and I want to interject just some things, because you're doing this webinar for a CE. So while you guys are getting up your nerve to ask a question, please ask questions.
Speaker 2:One of the things that doing this type of marketing, what it does for your ethics. So one of the examples I don't know if Jenny gave this example is for your waiting list. Like, if you have a waiting list for your services and you're able to offer your clients potential clients sorry, potential clients a newsletter or some access to a video where you're giving them three ways that you can use play therapy or three things that you can do before you start couple counseling Right, that is addressing that issue of people just kind of languishing out there waiting for you. Another thing about ethics is to understand that all of this, all of this content that you're creating, that you're writing, is within your scope of practice. Right, it's within your expertise. So those of you who are supervisors out there, you're going to want to be knowledgeable about this for your associates as they're doing their marketing, right? So if they're saying, like I'm an EMDR expert or I am able to do, you know, magical hypnosis or whatever it is. You're able to monitor that so that their content, that they're creating their TikTok dances and their videos and things they're staying within their scope of practice.
Speaker 2:So everything Jenny's talking about, right, this is putting out words, it's putting out video, it's putting out audio that will attract your ideal client, but it stays within your scope of practice, right? All of the things, jenny, you call them content pillars, right? The things that have to do with what you are able to do, whether it's grief or couple counseling or family counseling or EMDR play therapy. You know what is how to 10 ways you can all of those things. You can write content or speak content into a camera and then let the transcript do the work for you. But I wanted to make sure you guys had that piece of this as well, since this webinar is also a CE for you. So if you have questions about that, I have a question.
Speaker 3:So, jenny, and I think maybe Kate, I'm going to need your advice. When I I did maybe, kate, I'm going to need your advice when I did finally create my freebie giveaway thing, I finally got that on my website, very proud of myself for at least getting it on there. I think I've had two people find it. That's it Like nobody has found it. So I remember when I put it on. I'm on Squarespace and I know one of the things that it said there was something to click about. If the person doesn't want to be on the email list but they want to get the freebie, they could get the freebie but I wouldn't get their email or something like that. Is that an ethical like? How does that work with collecting email? I know, jenny, you had mentioned once we have to have an op, like an unsubscribe thing on there, and can you just talk more about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So when it comes to like the landing pages you're talking about or the button that you have on your website for people to actually subscribe, in my opinion, if they click on it and they want a guide, they can receive it. If they then decide they need to unsubscribe, they can unsubscribe. You have that with any email service provider. Like that is part of it, and they have to confirm in order to get that guide once they get the email. So, ethically, you are covering yourself. Like it's on there, my forms will say you will not receive any spam, any of that kind of stuff. Like you get me and me only often. But they know what they are getting. Based on that form, like you're telling them this is your guide and they can see by now, in 2025, people understand that they give your email address. They know they're getting something in their email.
Speaker 3:Okay, yes, so why is nobody finding me?
Speaker 1:So I have lots of questions about that. Where is it on your website is my first question.
Speaker 3:I wish I could answer that I don't. I'm on vacation, so I vacation brain. Right now I'm like not thinking, but I think it's got a separate tab. I think there's a separate tab for it.
Speaker 1:So that's part of the problem, because people have to actually click around to find it. Ideally, what we want to do is we want to have that form on the homepage. So right on your homepage when they come in, I want like something towards the top that says do you want this? Like, do you want whatever it is, the guide is, and they click, put their email address into Then. So you have it here at the top and I would also recommend it down in the footer. It's called a squeeze. You're squeezing all your content so that if they scroll past the first one and they're like, oh, I'm looking at what she offers and all the great things, and then they get down to the bottom and they're like, huh, I'm interested, then they may opt in. It can be the same exact opt-in, doesn't have to be a different guide, but you want it to be on that home page so they can easily find it okay, and it doesn't have to be a pop-up thing, right not have to be a pop-up.
Speaker 1:It does not.
Speaker 1:I recommend like it's okay to have a pop up as long as you're like, within the google terms of like, what you need to have in order to have that pop-up, which most software will make sure that it's compliant at this point. But I actually would recommend that you have it right at the top of your website and right at the bottom, not as a pop-up, it's part of the actual like presentation of it. If you go to my website, jennymelrosecom, you'll see it right there Like. It's very clear. Kate's website is set up that way as well. Um, it's set up so that right at the beginning you can see that it's Kate offers webinars. I offer a guide. Down at the bottom, she's going to offer something else I do as well. It's that squeeze page.
Speaker 2:Okay If you find that something doesn't work. I mean I've got I had like five opt-ins at one time, different ones, okay, there was one that just it was a dud, it just nobody, nobody opted in, it was you know. So I changed it up and that's you know, and people are going to unsubscribe. I mean, jenny, you taught me that it's like, okay, unsubscribe, that's fine, but people who truly want what you have to offer, like if you're giving information about how to grieve over the holidays, well, they may unsubscribe once the holidays are over, but then the following year they're going to recommend you to five friends because they're like, oh my gosh, there's an amazing website that has these great resources.
Speaker 1:Okay, and it's also the words that you were using. Again, like my opt-in at the top says tired of trading time for money. You want them to immediately read a question and go yeah. And then it just says get the strategic growth plan guide, click here. And it takes them right to it. You want to hit them with that pain point so that they immediately see themselves in it and then want it. You want to hit them with that pain point so that they immediately see themselves in it and then want it. If you just say, get your guide and they don't know what it is, or it has a little tiny picture or whatever it might be, they're not going to do it. Okay, yeah, thank you. Of course I also noticed in the question and answer here no comments. That's what it's called, sorry. Also, same brain, sandy, but not on vacation, just a little bit of menopausal and whoo, today has been brain fog all day.
Speaker 1:I also, like Kate, use Kit. There are lots of different softwares that are out there. There's Flowdesk Kit used to be called ConvertKit, now it's just. Kitcom is by far one of my favorites, especially if you are going to offer products and services outside of just the practice, so if you are just going to have people coming in to get butts in seats and that's your only goal. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Kit. It can get expensive. It's very robust. You can go with something simpler Flowdesk, mailchimp, mailerlite is also another great one. Those would probably be the four that I would recommend.
Speaker 2:Other questions so I'm going to talk about ethics real quick. In mail, right, understanding that you have a mail system for clients that's protected health information, that has to have a BAA, that has to be HIPAA compliant, you're going to communicate, maybe through your scheduling software hey, your appointment's tomorrow, don't forget. You have an appointment, by the way, we're confirming you have an appointment. And then you're going to have marketing software. This is your MailerLite or your Flowdesk or a kit, and this is only for marketing information. Now, back in the day, if you hit reply, all that that was going to ruin HIPAA, right? Because you hit reply, all everybody could see everybody else's email. You know it was. It was not good. So I want you to think in terms of the survey you get after you go to your physician's office. Everybody gets a survey after they go to the doctor. Well, the doctor isn't breaking HIPAA by sending you a survey asking you about your experience. They're using marketing email at that point.
Speaker 2:So you setting up two systems. It's not complicated, right, because you've got your client software. This is the scheduling software that's gonna talk to your clients as clients, as a clinician. Then the other software for your marketing. But here's where you can use it together. You can put in a confirmation email for an appointment to your clients, a link to your opt-in. Hey, your appointment's confirmed, it's not for two weeks. In the meantime, click this link and you can get five ways. You can get your five-year-old on the bus in the morning when they get back from dad's house on Monday, and that again you're not breaking HIPAA. You're not doing anything unethical. You're simply giving your clients another resource that they're going to love because they need it, and you're also giving them something they can recommend to friends and family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good explanation, kate. Thank you, eileen. I don't know if I said your name wrong. I'm sorry, go ahead and unmute.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, I've been thinking about doing this for such a long time and I'm just starting to get motivated to do the website and the blogs and the posts and all that sort of thing that I fast forward and I think so. I know you have to have a social media plan. I have family members that understand all that. After a while does it get like sort of oppressive, like okay, it's the first Monday of the month, I get to churn something out, and you know how do you stay motivated to do it?
Speaker 1:It's like anything else I feel like in life, really like sometimes it's got to be hard to go into the therapy room. Oh, I got to meet with so-and-so today. You know there's days where you're going to feel like that In order to get around that, because, like Kate, I travel a bit and also take the summers pretty much entirely off. For the most part, I batch my content. Everything is batched ahead of time. So if I'm going to do I mean I have 10 years of podcast episodes. We have not missed a week in 10 years. It's a bit insane, it's awesome. My perfectionism comes out in that way. That's why I let you all slide with it.
Speaker 1:When it comes to the batching, I know that as soon as summer hits, my house goes bananas. My kids are just here. It's a lot, and they're not even little anymore. So by May 15th is when I normally have my deadline I need to be scheduled until August 15th with episodes, and the way in which I do that is I will sit and I'll know exactly what I'm going to be recording and I will have it outlined, and then I just hit record and I go from one to the next and next and I change my outfits because the way that I do things, I need to, because it's more personal branding side of me. Um, as a therapist, you don't necessarily need to change outfits or be in a different shirt or anything like that. Um, sorry, the sun's coming in really weird right now. Um, but I just will batch all of that content so that I'm ahead, so that I will have the entire summer not having to worry about any of it.
Speaker 1:It's all about figuring out what works best for you and getting on a schedule. You don't have to put out YouTube, like any, once every two weeks. When you first start is awesome, like that's a great place to start once every two weeks. Then I want you to add in email and I don't want you to worry about social media. I know that sounds really weird from a marketer standpoint to say, because everyone's like oh, get on Instagram, do TikTok, get on Facebook, do all the things. Here's the problem. Social media is not about taking action. Social media is about mindlessly scrolling. They are only getting awareness of you. They are not actually consuming and hearing and getting problems solved. They're getting a that was funny giggle off of something that you said. That probably is something that maybe came from inside your practice that they can relate to. They're not even following you, necessarily, and half the time if they are following you, the algorithm doesn't even show them to you. Plus, social media is rented property. You do not own it. They can take it at any point.
Speaker 1:I mentioned Google Plus in the beginning of this presentation that some of you may know of what it was. I had 660,000 followers on it and I was consistently over there, but I was dumb and not growing my email list at the time and they went bye-bye, totally gone. Every single person never had a contact with those people unless they came and found me a different way, and that can happen with anything Instagram, facebook. We never know what is going to happen, which is why you hear me talking about content being blog, podcast and YouTube. And YouTube, yes, it's a social media platform, but the way that it has changed, even when I look at my analytics, so like understanding where traffic is coming from, people are not watching YouTube like on their phone. For me, they're watching it on their TV and that, just to me, like blows my mind that people are sitting in their bed and they're going. Oh, let me listen to, let me watch a podcast. Let me watch this on. That's how people are using it now, because YouTube TV has become such a big thing. That's how people are searching for stuff and they find other videos.
Speaker 1:I believe it right now especially and I think, moving forward, like you've got to have video. It's just a way for people to connect with you. They're going to understand ooh, I don't like them, like they have a weird accent, they talk too fast, whatever it might be, and others are going to go. Yep, that's my person. I know her. I know what she's going to say. I know her mannerisms. I know how she's going to hesitate. I know how she's going to talk about how she is brain fog every once in a while.
Speaker 4:I get her perfect.
Speaker 1:That's what you want. You want to get rid of the people that you are not a good fit for, and the best way to do it it's definitely video.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, well, thank you for that. I just I'm just very aware of momentum and how important that is. I mean, it's important for our clients, you know, and so I just wonder it sounds like it's pretty automated and you just maybe make notes as you go of topics and yes, okay.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's exactly what I teach inside Insiders, like we go through this whole idea of having a content plan for each month, wrapped around a specific topic so that you can stay consistent. It's about creating systems, the systems that you have created in your practice. To have a new client come in, the onboarding, the scheduling, the continuing to come back to you. I teach you how to do that for your marketing.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 1:And if things get big enough and you are able to hire, you're able to take those systems and hand it off to someone else and pay them to do it.
Speaker 4:That would be awesome, thank you.
Speaker 3:Of course Sandy.
Speaker 1:I see you.
Speaker 3:Thank you, of course, sandy, I see you Go ahead. I have another question about well, a question, I guess, about content. So you listed the three the YouTube, the blog and the podcast and I don't see myself ever doing a podcast. I could be wrong Never say never, see myself ever doing a podcast. I could be wrong, never say never. But I feel like I want to start with blogs because, kind of of what you just said, I can kind of sit and write those out and sometimes write, pop out two or three, right, and get them kind of all together. How long do they need to be, though?
Speaker 1:They need to completely answer the question. That, or the pain point that you're trying to solve for the people. There really isn't like an ideal. I would say you have to be over 500 words, I will say that, but there isn't like an ideal. Like I have read, sometimes people will have 3,500 words on a blog post and it should have been four blog posts, words on a blog post and it should have been four blog posts.
Speaker 1:Like when you're looking at creating your content, you want to think about okay, what is like a problem Not a huge problem, but a smaller problem they first have to get over so that they can then go to this problem, then this problem, and there's probably different ways of looking at that problem. So really trying to hone in on that is key. I really talk a lot about and get a lot of trainings on, keyword research. Kate and I worked in depth on that for like probably her year two, with me understanding what words people are using to search for, to find the problem, so that you can then create content that answers that and has it in there. There's a way of making sure that it's all aligned and starting with a blog post. There's nothing wrong with that Sometimes, like for me, it's clearly easier for me to talk Like I could talk all day long. You can clearly see that Others may feel more comfortable writing, and as long as you get started, that's all I care about.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, thank you, of course.
Speaker 1:Any other questions? I'm checking the chat too. I don't see anything else, kate, I don't think I missed anything Did you talk about AI.
Speaker 1:I didn't go into AI but I love that you asked that you know I could talk AI all day long. I know I know. So there's two different things about AI. First thing, I'm trying to make sure I say this the proper way. It is a tool. It is meant for you to train it. It is not going to know you and your people and what it is that you do the first time you go in and use it. The more information you give it about the problems that you solve, the better its answers are, the better it is to help you. So, for example, if I can now like I my book perfect example. I took the PDF from my book. It's over this shoulder, not that shoulder. I took the PDF from my book and I put it into AI and I said this is my book.
Speaker 1:Give me some podcast episode ideas, titles that I could potentially use based on the book, so that I could promote the book. It spit out like 15 different podcast episodes. I was then able to take that. Do the keyword research, then go back into AI or chat. Tvt was the one that I use and I ask it to outline. Give me an outline for this title. I already have my title. I know what it is. It gives me the outline and then I record. That's it.
Speaker 1:Some people want to use a script. I'm not a script girl. You could see from my slides. What was on my slides is exactly what I use. That's my outline. That's how I'm going with it, it's how I talk, it's how I kind of deliver all of my trainings, because I just feel it's more authentic, it's who I am, rather than me trying to read something. So, using AI, any sort of tool like that, making sure that you train it on who you are and what you do, if you have an opt-in, give it the PDF. If you have a blog post, copy and paste the blog post into it so that it better understands what you are trying to solve for other people, how other people can find it and use it and use you and get into your office or use your products and services that you may offer. I'm reading this in the chat Thoughts on development and mental health.
Speaker 1:Am I able to share that content on my social media page? Ethical point of view, since we don't share personal information. So, kate, you can weigh in on this too. In my opinion, yes, I also have daughters. I have teenage daughters, so I would definitely have a conversation with them ahead of time of how comfortable they are, and there will probably come a point where they're like ew, take that off, erase all the things I think it's more like. To me it's not an ethical standpoint. It's more the daughter parent relationship more than anything else that I personally would be concerned with, because when you share things from your social media okay, yes, when you share things from your social media, it's your level of expertise you could share someone else's video that you found on YouTube that you think would be a great resource. I don't see any ethical issues with that, aside from making sure that she's good with it, which you obviously said she was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm with Jenny as far as your ethics. That's really up to you. I mean, ethics are really more about, when it comes to marketing, just being accurate, making sure that you're staying within your scope of practice and not over promising and guaranteeing things that you can't guarantee. All right, jenny, I'm going to stop because we are at 5.59. And you guys, look at the QR code. Jenny, you still have your PowerPoint up, correct?
Speaker 2:And I've got people asking in the chat where you can find the information your certificate, things like that in your Kate Walker training profile, when you click on this webinar that you signed up for, everything's in there the webinar number for your certificate. That is on the Google form as well. We did post that link again. And if you miss the QR code or you missed one of the links to Jenny's guide, that is also in your profile. We wanted to just make sure it's all in one place, because I sometimes don't like email. Email sometimes doesn't like me, so we just wanted to make sure you have it. But so if you have questions for Jenny, please, jenny, they can reach out to you and just ask questions, right?
Speaker 1:Yep, my Instagram is on there as well, as if you go to my website, you will find it there. The strategic growth plan is on JennyMowerscom. It's right at the top Because, again, I believe in that squeeze page and I am happy to answer any questions at any point.
Speaker 2:Yes, and she's wonderful. She's my business coach, in case y'all didn't guess. But everything I learned about creating content, seo, attraction, marketing and now that SEO is, you know, kind of getting blown up by AI, she's helping me pivot. So I highly recommend her services to get your practice If you're looking for growth, if you're looking to get things to a different level or you're just starting out. You know, as you can see, Jenny, you were a teacher before. I mean before this right, I mean that's what you did. You were a teacher. So, if you guys couldn't tell, so, thank you guys so much for joining on a Thursday night. Jenny, thank you so much for being here and I will see everybody when I see you. Take care.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, kate, and thank you all for attending. Bye.