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.
Hit subscribe and get ready to unlock your badass potential. Your thriving practice starts now!
Badass Therapists Building Practices That Thrive
150 Website Fixes Today
The digital landscape for therapists has fundamentally changed. Gone are the days when optimizing for search engines could guarantee visibility. Now, AI dominates search results, pushing even the most qualified professionals to page two or beyond.
This shift demands a return to relationship-based marketing – what I call moving from "shiny" to "sticky." Rather than competing for fleeting attention with expensive ads or algorithmic tricks, successful therapists are transforming their websites into valuable community resources that foster genuine connections with potential clients.
Your website should do more than showcase your credentials and beautiful headshot. It should position you as an expert while making the visitor the hero of the story. This means crafting copy that speaks directly to their challenges and offering valuable resources before asking for anything in return. Whether it's a downloadable guide for helping kindergartners transition after summer or resources for college students navigating accommodations, these lead magnets create meaningful exchanges that build trust.
The most powerful change you can make today is revising your website's language. Use ChatGPT to help craft client-centered copy that addresses specific pain points. Then create compelling calls to action that offer genuine value – never simply ask visitors to "join your email list" without providing something worthwhile in exchange. Remember, when someone clicks on your resource, they've transformed from a cold lead to a warm one who has actively engaged with your content.
Ready to make your website work harder for your practice? Start by identifying your ideal client's specific challenges, create resources that address those needs, and make sure every element of your site speaks directly to the person on the other side of the keyboard. The days of being the shiniest option may be over, but the opportunity to build meaningful connections has never been greater.
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.
All right, welcome everybody. Welcome to your Tuesday coaching. If you're watching me live awesome, I hope you have questions. If you're watching me on a replay, go you, because you're doing something great. I am still drinking coffee coming to you from Grandma Central, my favorite place in East Texas. So today I'm talking to you about if I can clear my throat website fixes you can make today. Now, I've focused a lot this month on like you can start a practice today. Website fixes you can do today. That's assuming like today I'm assuming a lot. I'm assuming today that I don't need to teach you how to get into your website back office. So if that's the case, if you don't know how to get into your website back office, I'm not teaching that. But take what I'm giving you today and again, if you're watching me on a replay, you're going to be able to, you know, stop and start. You can be able to take notes. Hopefully we've even got a transcript in here for you and that way you can at least take this to the people who do your website and they can do this. So what the focus is and if you have not looked at the training that we just did last week on Book Solid. You know it was two hours, two CEs on the marketing for 2025.
Speaker 1:This is post AI marketing and I talk about going from being shiny to being sticky and a lot of other kind of business coach type. People are talking about this getting back to basics, because being shiny, the shiniest thing on page one, isn't working unless you are the National Institute of Mental Health or you're not Grok. I mean, if you're AI great, you got it made You're always going to be at the number one spot. We know, I know nobody ever clicks on the sponsored posts. I hope nobody clicks on those. I mean, if you click on those, you're going to go down and you're going to end up buying something that's probably not the thing you thought you were going to buy. So, sponsored posts, ai posts, national Institute of Mental Health, edu, gov, anybody with an MD or a PhD after their name I mean those are going to stack the top of page one.
Speaker 1:So we are back in the business y'all, as marketers, as advertisers. We're back in the business of building relationships and as I talk about this, you know it's harder. I mean there's a lot more involved here. And it's as I talk about this, you know it's it's harder. I mean this. There's a lot more involved here, and when we do get that training posted, which Step it Up members? You will get that as an asynchronous two hour CE. You know, I did the thing live and I saw a lot of eyes glaze over.
Speaker 1:I mean, we're talking about things like opt-ins to put on your website. We're talking about things like opt-ins to put on your website email series, newsletters, things that are time intensive and marketing intensive. And, yes, it's so much easier if I could just tell you to do a TikTok dance or have a really beautiful Pinterest button or Pinterest badge and people could go to that. But you just can't compete unless you have a billion dollars and a marketing department that can put stuff out, you know, every five minutes or whatever the algorithm says we're supposed to do this week. So I want to build that as your foundation.
Speaker 1:I'm not. I don't want to, you know, raise your hopes. You are creating an environment where people stick around. That's why I'm calling this sticky. It's a sticky framework. So it starts by number one positioning yourself as an expert in the community, and you do it the old fashioned way. Maybe you give talks, maybe you pass out your business cards, maybe you offer to provide a training, and when you have that captive audience of 30 to 100 people, this is where the sticky comes in. You give them a QR code, you give them a call to action so that they go to where. What's the title of this training today? Your website. We want them to use your website as a community resource, and the only way that can happen is if you have resources. And so, talking about building an opt-in right and I'm not going to talk about what we do after that, because this training is about changes you can do to your opt-in. So having I'm sorry, your website wrong word creating an opt-in, creating a call to action widget so they can schedule a 10 minute consultation, and you can change your website copy so that it makes the person at the other end of the keyboard the hero of the story.
Speaker 1:Now, what I wanted to share with you guys today is a list. Now, this list is just and I'm only using one screen today, so I apologize for that so if you're commenting, or I do have the participant open, but I do not have chat open, so let's see if I can do this. Yeah, okay, I can't. So, um, so the toolkit that I have up that I'm reading from. I've got my eyes over here.
Speaker 1:Creating a lead magnet that's that resource. That is five things you can do to help your kindergartner transition to school after summer. That's five things you can help your client do to get through the holidays after the loss of a loved one. Things that you can do for the college-age kiddo that's going off to college with an IEP or a 504 and they don't know how to talk to their professors. So, creating a lead magnet, setting up an opt-in form and I'm not going to walk you through that today, but go back to the training that we just did, where I walk you through how to use and I use ConvertKit. You use whatever you want. If you use Kit, yes, I have an affiliate link, yes, I will get a commission, but you don't have to use ConvertKit. It's what works for me and that's what I walk you through. You set up the opt-in form using ConvertKit. Then I'm going to skip the part about the email sequence. Building a landing page If you want to do that, great, I taught you how to do lead pages.
Speaker 1:So I want you to think for a second about two types of clients and some of you who went through the training. You heard me talk about this. There are people who have the luxury of shopping, right, so they don't have. They're not in crisis. They're going and they're checking out all of the different therapists and they're able to take their time. But they're going to come to your website and you're going to have so many fantastic resources that they may want to get on your email list. So what do you have for them on your email list? Do you have a course they can take? Do you have a YouTube channel that they can go to and see other ways that their college-age kiddo can get through a semester with a 504 plan? Or what if they can't find the ADA office? Or what if they're shy and they don't go to the ADA office and they don't know how to talk to their professor, right? So do you have those resources? Do you have it in a YouTube video so that they are connecting? They, being the person at the end of the keyboard, are connecting with you while you're talking them through this.
Speaker 1:So, on your and I'm going to click around. Let's talk about copy now, because this is something if you can get into the back end, into the back office of your website. And again, I'm not teaching you that, let me move stuff around. You know I get so spoiled with two screens, so we're still okay here. This is what I wanted to get to. Talking too much about you.
Speaker 1:So one of the things I kind of brushed over in the training was making the client the hero of the story. The training I did last week was really more about how to create the opt-in, how to do the newsletter, what that nurturing sequence would look like. So following up, because these people love you, right, They've already, they've seen your shininess they click the button. So that is attraction marketing. That's kind of the definition of it. But when you have the copy, how do you make the client or the potential client the hero? And this is a change you can make today and all I want you to do is go to ChatGPT and ask that question, give chat some information like okay, here's my ideal client.
Speaker 1:They are the parent of a college-age kiddo that is familiar with ARD meetings. They're familiar with advocating for their kiddo. They're familiar with therapy. They're familiar with advocating for their kiddo. They're familiar with therapy. They're familiar with finding resources, but they're frustrated because their kiddo won't dot, dot, dot, take the initiative and find the resources themselves. Their kiddo doesn't have the. They're super smart but they don't have the social skills to go ask the right questions. Their kiddo is the type of kiddo that will wait until they're about to fail before they ever take the initiative to go find right so you can fill in that information when you go to ChatGPT Then say I need four sentences, no more than five.
Speaker 1:Create copy that I can put on my website and I want you to tell me the best place to put this. So ChatGPT is going to come back and it'll give something that's maybe terrible or it sounds too academic. You're going to say no, no, no. And if you want, I mean and this is what I do, I mean I wrote a book called the Clinical Supervision Survival Guide. I upload in my book. I said talk like that, that's how I want you to sound.
Speaker 1:If you have YouTube video transcripts, chatgpt, still I think it can't listen to video and find your voice. It can't listen to audio and describe your voice, but it's great at identifying a PDF and reading a PDF and identifying how you say and how you talk. So say that was great, but give me three more examples and they'll say great, okay, here you go. Three more examples, and I recommend that you use this copy here and then you change it into four different blogs that you can post there. Oh and, by the way, so that's chat talking to you and you say, well, great, if you're like me, you'll tell chat thank you, which is weird. But then you will say, okay, now I need a call to action and an idea for a downloadable resource. Oh, and, I'd love to give a talk next year to the PTO where I can give the audience access to a QR code. Can you give me some ideas for a talk I can give? So on and on and on.
Speaker 1:Once you are able to describe your ideal client to chat. Now the only thing you know chats, they're not a marketing. You know all it does is it goes and scours the webs, right, so it's not a marketer. So if you want it to, for instance, you get the verbiage and you're like, ooh, you know, my client's more of an urgent type parent. They're the type of parent that you know if they find weed or a condom in their kiddo's bedroom, right. Then you might want to say you know, that's great, but I noticed that it's really not. There's not an urgent feel to it. I need more of an urgent feel and I need resources for more of a high anxiety parent or a parent who's in, you know, crisis mode. So those things, I mean, if you're still going to your website right now and it's, you know, your fabulous headshot, which is great I want your fabulous headshot and your contact information, which, if you've been listening to me and you have those two things, give yourself two thumbs up, good job.
Speaker 1:Now it's time to make the copy sticky. Make the potential client the hero. Give them a call to action. Click this button. Watch this video. Download this resource. I swear to action. Click this button. Watch this video. Download this resource. I swear to goodness, if all you say on your button is join my email list, I will come through the camera and I will smack your keyboard out of your hand.
Speaker 1:Do not invite your potential client to just join your email list. Nobody wants we all have to get tricked into joining an email list. Okay, that we have to. It's gotta be an exchange of something, right? I'm not going to join your email list unless you give me something free, okay, so don't just have joined my email list and just enjoy the brilliance. That is me. So that's the step you're going to have. Yes, you're still going to do the shininess, you're still going to do seo, but you're not going to rely on it and you're going to make chat gpt your brilliant assistant and correct it. You know, and if stuff doesn't work, we? We talked about KPIs last week. If you go in and your four KPIs remember what those are the number of calls, the number of connected calls, the number of appointments booked and the number of first appointments made where somebody actually showed up If those don't increase after four to six weeks, go back into chat and say, well, that sucked, that didn't work. Or you know what? I'm going to put this over here on page two, we need a better idea. For page one.
Speaker 1:I know for me I have three distinct potential clients for Kate Walker training For my therapy practice. I was really just focused on a couple surviving infidelity, so I had a lot of blog posts about you know how to say you're sorry. What does recovery look like? What makes a good apology, how do you know if somebody's recovering in the right way, etc. Etc. But then I kind of got interested in the adult kids right, the failure to launch or the struggles to launch. So my blog shifted.
Speaker 1:Now, if I was still building that practice, I would embed at Canva. You know Canva C-A-N-V-A. I would go in and I would create a Canva banner that says did you find a condom or did you find a bong? Something like that. Or wondering what to do next, freaking out and don't know what to do next. Click here, right. When they click, then you better have something because you've got to. When somebody clicks, they've gone from being a cold lead to a warm lead. They have just taken action on your website.
Speaker 1:I don't include that as a KPI because it gets really, really in the weeds to try to keep track of. You can there's a way to use Google to track how many clicks you get and where they click and how long they're on your website and all those things. But you're not a food blogger. You're not selling meatloaf recipes, right? If you had billions and millions of visits, then we would talk about that. You have your 300. You're trying to get 300 people to get into your pipeline, into your rotation of clients and potential clients. Okay, that's it. So the KPI sticks. You get them to click, get on your email list, form a relationship with you so that they can either become your client or your raving fan, who will tell the world about you. All right, I'm going to hit pause.