For the majority of the counselors and coaches the number of clients during the last few weeks dropped significantly. This is unfortunate for both the helpers and the clients, since today clients need your support more than ever!
This is why now it’s especially important to look at the ways you can attract more clients, as well as being ready to support them in today’s unique challenges.
Attract More Clients
Below is a replay of an online workshop I ran on April 12, 2020.
What we talked about in the workshop:
#1 What are the best ways to create clients today.
#2 What are the best ways to support your existing and new clients during these challenging times.
#3 Connect with other counselors and coaches around the challenges you are experiencing today.
Here are the links and the info I’ve posted in the chat during the workshop:
My therapy website: https://www.heartandmeaning.com
My coaching website: https://www.truenextstep.com
Signup for a free strategy call with me: https://www.the6figurepractice.com/schedule-a-free-30-min-strategy-session
FB group to connect with each other and for daily tips about growing your business: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2174406112863019/
The text of the email I’ve sent to my past clients, existing clients, and anyone who had ever sent a contact form to me or scheduled a consultation:
Free Support During COVID-19
Do you or someone you know feel overwhelmed during these times and need more support?
As a service for the community I’m offering 5 free one-time support calls each week (does not apply to my current clients).
These are not simply consultations.
Every week I’ll be setting aside 2.5 hours to support anyone who needs it right now: Whether you or the person you’re thinking of can afford long term therapy or coaching right now or not.
At the end of our call you or the person you’re thinking of will feel more resourced and clear, and that would be helpful by itself. And if it feels like a good fit we might talk at the end about longer-term ways to work together. I’m here for you or for anyone else you’re thinking of that might need it.
Since I am committed to serving my existing clients, and my schedule is busy, the spots for the support calls are limited to 5 each week: if you’re not my current client or if there’s a person who might benefit from it (you can simply send them the link) please feel free to schedule your call below. The calls are limited to 1 call per person or a couple.
(link to the scheduler was: https://www.heartandmeaning.com/free-support-covid-19 )
Attract More Clients For Your Private Counseling Practice
Sasha Raskin: Good to see familiar faces too. So usually in those trainings it’s about 1/3, 1/4 of the people that sign up show up. And it’s only Sunday morning, so I congratulate you for waking up early or waking up late or … to make this happen.
So I’ll love for it to be a conversation, so you could all … we can all support each other, because we’re in the same boat right now. And I’ve seen different therapists; different coaches deal with the situation in different ways, right? That whenever you woke up, if you have the chance to put your camera on that would be awesome.
Usually I’m doing those webinars and I’m just talking. I really wanted this to be more of a conversational meeting. So just general guidelines I’m recording this meeting just for others to be able to see it if they couldn’t make it today. So whenever you share something I’ll trust your wisdom to share what’s appropriate. And if you have the chance to give yourself the permission to spend that time …
Hi, Tristan. Good morning.
… to spend this time and really focus on the conversation, and give yourself the freedom from this device, that 500 people that’s screaming for your attention this is a great opportunity to do so. So we’ll keep the participants muted just so it won’t do some weird feedbacks and when small tiny noises add up it can actually become quite noisy.
And for everyone’s sake let’s make it conversational and collaborative, and let’s talk. I know myself I can go into content a lot and just talk and talk and talk. So I’ll do my best not to do that today.
So I’ll tell you a little bit about myself, what I want you to know about me, maybe one thing that I don’t want you to know about me, what we’ll do today. And then we can get started.
And also we’ll start from where you are today in your businesses, since it’s really about you. So something about me. This is my third continent; I lived in Russia, Israel and the US now. So I’m collecting accents as I go. So if you don’t understand something let me know.
I’ve been doing mental health clinical work for more than 10 years now, and doing some coaching as well. So I worked with people on the whole gamut of human experience where they are in their lives, from high achievers to mental health challenges, and heavily think in between.
As a therapist I’m focusing on couple’s therapy and family therapy. As a coach I focus on business coaching and ADHD coaching, I have ADHD so that’s kind of my thing. So one of my coaches, Rich Lipton, he says, “Well, when you try to figure out your favorite client that also means looking at you in the mirror.” And a few years ago I realized that coaches and counselors are my perfect client, so that’s kind of my baby project to help counselors and coaches to build their practice, because that’s not really being given in … no coaching training and no counseling master’s program, you’re not being given the business skills that you actually deserve, which is a shame.
What I don’t want you to know about me. Let’s see, I’m very excited to help you all and also to make it interesting for myself. So my fear I guess is that I won’t have answers to all the questions. And just being okay with that. This is a new situation and a lot of things change, so I can share on my end what I see that is happening, what I see that is changing. And definitely there are no magic permanent solutions here.
I do think that with the challenges that happen right now it’s actually an incredible opportunity. So you create the growth in your practice that maybe you have been putting it off for later.
So raise your hand if … Martha and Tristan, if you want to use the chat. Raise your hand if you’re a counselor. Okay, raise your hand if you’re either a coach or a coach additionally or a consultant or something. Okay, raise your hand if you already have a private practice and seeing clients.
Participant: Can you say it again please?
Sasha Raskin: Yeah, raise your hand if you already started seeing clients. So that’s a question where you’re at. Raise your hands if you’re thinking about going into private practice or have one to three clients.
So maybe a little bit more vulnerable. Raise your hand if you have had during the last few weeks some fears about losing all your clients. If you’re anxious about the situation health-wise, sometimes at least. If you sometimes during the weekends feel like an impostor and thinking about going back to work on Monday and I hope and I’m not sure that I can help my clients, sometimes at least experience that.
Charles, I see that you’re saying something but you are muted.
Participant: Yeah, what did you say, Sasha, during the …
Sasha Raskin: Impostor syndrome.
Participant: Oh, impostor syndrome.
Sasha Raskin: So I’m on that one for sure. Raise your hands if you literally have less clients today than you had two months ago. If you have less client inquiries coming in that want to do maybe a consultation with you. And if you’re not sure what to actually change marketing-wise, right? You have some ideas but you’re not ready sure 100% what needs to change.
So type in the chat your biggest challenge or danger to your business right now, as you think it is. I know that there is a big cloud of, “Ugh, what do I do?” And try really for the sake of our conversation to distill. And any of you that are part of maybe a group practice or an agency, you can think about your organization as well.
Martha, I will be able to send you the recording, not a problem.
Actually let me give you an example. When I try to distill my own, just starting with assessment and clarity and also kind of the mindset change that I have right now, the first thing that popped up for me was I’m going to lose a lot of clients.
And when I took another minute or two to think about that, it was actually very different. It was because of that fear, so my biggest challenge to it, because of my fear to lose clients I will do too much work and I will actually fill up my time too much and I won’t have enough time for my partner and for myself.
Okay, wonderful. Now as important of a question, think about is it a situation … is this challenge unique to this situation right now, to everything that’s been going on with Covid-19 and isolation and the switch to online? Or is it a reoccurring challenge for you? It’s not the first time that this problem comes up and you had it more than a month before.
And I know that for myself this working too hard is definitely something that’s been present in my life since grade school, literally.
Okay, Chao, so this is new for you. You said that you’ve lost half of your clients. This is tough, and it’s scary too. This is half of your livelihood. So I feel you. And you’re saying fear is nothing new.
Dennis, it’s not your first time and was your fear to burn out. So this definitely resonates with me.
Maxim is a body worker therapist. I don’t have a chance to practice except from teaching body work online. As a beginner psychotherapist I fear not to have clients because of economical crisis. Is it something new that you’re experiencing right now or that was existing before?
Yvonne, moving to a different state. Something right now that’s a problem or …
Participant: In a month or two.
Sasha Raskin: I meant like you have this as a challenge before the whole Covid-19 situation started or …
Participant: Just right before, yeah.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah, and that’s … I think that’s important to recognize that the situation has new challenges and every crisis can actually highlight the fears and the challenges that businesses have usually, especially that happens if there’s not a solid enough foundation for your business and in your mindset as well. Marketing for therapists is all about having a clear system that brings real results in place. Psychotherapy marketing or life coach marketing is crucial for a thriving business.
And I think that shows up in crisis, and that’s where the opportunity comes in. So I can, for example, use this opportunity to identify the bottlenecks in my business. Bottlenecks, for example, I’m not sure how to talk to clients when they come in or I don’t have an automated system for clients to find me, I’m too scared to set pricing for myself that would actually make it sustainable, I’m charging way too less or, vice versa, trying to charge too much. Definitely counselors usually under compensate.
So let’s talk about this, I’m actually happy that we have a chance to talk to each other not just to use the chat, because if all the 60 people that sign up would show up today it would be just me mainly talking, which can be fun for me and it could be … I could bore you to death.
So who wants to share first? Just regarding say a few words about what you’re doing and a little bit more about your challenge, and how does it actually show up in your life and business before.
Maxim, you’re raising hand, go.
Participant: Yeah. Hi, everyone. I’m a body work practitioner and I am starting to practice psychotherapy. I’m still starting as a psychotherapist.
And what isn’t new for me is looking for clients from zero point. I’ve moved from one city to another several times and started from a new several times. And also I did that in the situations of crisis in Russia, it’s not new. But I never was … I’ve never been really efficient in that term. So it always was kind of a chaotic process. Sometimes I would find some clients and they would be lasting or not lasting or sometimes don’t find, so not really stable.
And nowadays this crisis which is only starting, I guess might be deeper than previous ones, it might be the deepest in past two decades in Russia and in the world.
And on one hand I guess many people would need psychotherapy, but on the other hand this question of marketing and of price is crucial. So that’s what I wanted to say.
Sasha Raskin: So you’re not a stranger to trying to find clients and having challenges with that. And also how to make sure that they come back second time, third time, fourth time, right?
And we’ll touch both on those two points today, it’s not just about how do I find a way to bring new clients right now but how do I make sure that the clients that I already work with stay, right? And some can’t really, and that’s okay. But how do you stay in the relationship with them and serve them as much as possible right now, because they might come back later on and there are some creative ways to work with that, because it’s definitely much easier … it’s not definitely much easier, but you can be creative with ways of retaining your clients right now. And many times it would be easier than getting a new client, creating a new client.
Hi, Kathy. Thank you for joining. If you could type in the chat where in the world you are right now. And we’ll try to make this as conversational as possible, so if you have the chance to put your camera on that would be wonderful.
And Maxim, you’re saying this has actually been something that has been going for you for a while now.
Charles, do you want to go?
Participant: Yeah, sure. So I’ve been a counselor since 1985, and private practice since 2002. And this is new for me. Getting … thinking about it carefully the biggest challenge for me is … well, first of all as I mentioned in the chat people are worried about finances. So there was immediate drop-off on there because of … the Covid is one thing, but the economic thing that’s going to follow, nobody knows so people are worried.
Sasha Raskin: So you and your clients are going through parallel processes, you’re worried, they’re worried. And that it’s important to remember when you’re anxiously thinking how to get coaching clients or as a private practice therapist – how do I even keep my current clients?
Participant: I’m not so worried about me; I’m worried they’re worried. So people have cut down the amount of appointments they’re coming in, etcetera. I’ve thought about should I cut down my rates to make it available for them? I’m not sure.
One thing I know that’s critical and where I’m vulnerable, and we all have to deal with this – people’s fears. So for instance, I tend to be a strong macho kind of guy in crisis, so I tend to be an optimist. And the people that are really scared in crisis … I’m a pessimist when it’s not crisis. But so people are scared, and I don’t want to minimize their fears, I don’t want to either amplify them. I want to help them deal with them realistically. There’s a lot of … we’re really in a Buddhist sense faced with reality now, less denial, more facing our vulnerability and uncertainty which is really the reality all the time.
And, but how to help people deal with this? This seems to be a challenge combined with their financial fears.
Sasha Raskin: Yes, which correlates so much with marketing, right? The best marketing is being the best therapist or coach you can be, right? Because then people vote with their feet and come back. Totally.
And this is something new for you? If you’ve been into since 2002, right? And I’m wondering if something like this was happening in 2008 for you or not really.
Participant: No, not really circumstantially. I had moved here … Actually, yeah, it did happen with me. I had lost my job in 2008.
Sasha Raskin: So you can relate to your clients right now?
Participant: Yeah, and I’d had an earthquake in San Francisco in 1989 and other crises myself, I had a couple of fire, a big fire and stuff like that. But to have the masses be like this and this kind of panic in the air, range of from panic to minimization in the air, this is new for me and I suspect all of us.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah. Isn’t it just … and I’m seeing the extreme of the general human experience, right? Looking at the glass half-full, looking at the glass half-empty. And also the different ways of humans to approach this, kind of solution-focused versus … in therapy or coaching I just need to talk about that, right?
Participant: And you too in Israel and Moscow, I think you have something to teach us because you’ve seen your population have these extremes more than we in the United States have I would imagine.
Sasha Raskin (couples therapy & couples counseling): Yeah, definitely seeing different cultures kind of like as individuals have very specific approach. And Maxim is living in Russia still so he knows more about that.
By the way, anyone here, raise your hands if you can relate to what Charles said about your clients experiencing a lot of fear, not knowing how to actually work with that, not being sure at least. Yeah, it definitely happens to me.
How about what Maxim said? Anyone that can relate to sometimes challenges of finding clients and also sometimes keeping them, not being sure what just happened, why … I was doing such a good work, why did my client leave? Yeah.
So I hope it helps. Pretty much this is not unique to you, this is a universal experience of coaches. And I’ve talked to tens of coaches and pretty much this is an experience that people have across the board.
Thank you, Charles.
Who wants to share next?
Hi, Kathy. And you’re in St. Louis, Missouri.
Participant: I am. I’m in St. Louis. I’ve been doing private practice since 2008, just part-time, I had full-time job working with the insurance companies doing various works and EAP programs, just at my private practice part-time.
Sasha Raskin: So you started doing your practice.
Participant: I started, yes. And then just the end of last year I decided to quit the 40-hour week rat race and …
Sasha Raskin: Oh, congratulations.
Participant: … and do private practice full-time. So I was literally just getting the business off the ground when this hit. And I don’t know if anybody else can relate to this, but for like January I had 84 sessions, February I had 76, March I had 55 and I’m on track to have 30 for the month of April. So I’m really taking a hit.
I do a lot of … probably over half my private practice is employee assistance work. So my clients don’t have to worry about paying for their sessions, they’re already paid for. Half of those are going, “You know what? I’m doing okay, I’m staying at home, I’m not at the office so there’s not a lot of stress. Let me call you in three weeks.”
I had one couple that I was working with prior to the St. Louis lockdown that was on the verge divorce, and I’m afraid I’m not going to see them again because I think it’s … this is really taking them to that level of we shouldn’t be together because we’re around each other 24/7 now. So I’ve tried to stay in touch with them as much as I can through text messages, emails. Just trying to get them to at least either work with me individually or as a couple to try and help them through this no matter what they decide.
I have a few clients that are concerned about where life is going to go after this. I had one person that was laid off two weeks before the lockdown in St. Louis, and she had three job interviews and all of them are saying, “Well, we’re on a hiring freeze because we can’t train you because we can’t bring you into the office.” So she’s worried is that job still going to be there when this is all over.
So I’ve got a lot of mix of everything going on in my practice right now. And then, again, I’ve made sure that all my EAP panels, all my insurance panels know that I’m available for Telehealth and everything like that. But there’s no referrals coming in.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah, so here it is you take this big leap of faith and trust, well, trust yourself, trust the universe, trust clients and, okay, I’m done with working too hard, I’m putting everything I have into private practice. And good news and bad news, life throws at you the biggest challenge that you’ll have in your favorite practice.
Participant: Yeah, definitely.
Sasha Raskin: And I would put a question mark on that actually. I don’t know if that would be the biggest challenge. That can be the biggest accelerator of growth, right?
And the thing is that, and I know this when I’m working with my clients, coaches and counselors in building their private practice plateaus, can actually feel as painful as dips.
Participant: Correct.
Sasha Raskin (add coach & adhd coach): Raise your hand if you relate. I have this experience. I’m spinning my wheels, I’m doing all this work and nothing happens. Okay, crisis, I can blame something external, right? Everyone’s going for that. But what’s happening, like I’m putting hours into it and nothing is happening, right? So those will be challenging.
And usually what I see if I step out and I look at counselors’ growth in private practice it would be something like that, like that, like that, like that, like that. And if we zoom in on those and those, you’ll have dips in all of them. But zooming all out it would look something like this, right? But not steep. Wouldn’t it be nice if it would …
Participant: Yeah, it would be nice, but that’s not going to happen.
Sasha Raskin: There is a threshold. And I’m curious, Charles, if you experience that when you reach a point, maybe I see it around tenth clients or so in private practice when things become more predictable, right? Clients are coming in and this kind of … this sense of fear of not knowing how to do it seems to calm down, right? So the big win I see in growing your private practice is reaching that threshold point.
Well, there is … in Chinese philosophy there is this Wu Wei, doing without doing idea, right? When the work becomes effortless and you just become … it stops being I’m a therapist and I’m a business owner and I do marketing and I do … It just all becomes one. It’s just, “Yeah, of course, I’m going to do the marketing work because that’s how I start to communicate with my client. That’s how they get the buy-in when they start working with me. They already know that I’m going to help them so my work with them will be more efficient,” right?
Thank you for sharing, Kathy.
Who can relate to that? I’m putting a lot of effort into trusting that I’m going to make it in private practice, and then it doesn’t go as planned.
So Kathy, you’re by far not alone. For whatever it’s worth, right? It’s, yeah, that’s good, and what are the solutions? So I get it. Thank you.
So who wants to share next?
Participant: I can go. So I’ve been a life coach for a year now, so this is like my new baby right now that I’m growing. And my goal is to … I have another … I had another full-time job before this, so now I definitely have more time for business, for the life coaching.
And I’m putting a lot of effort into this, and then yet I’m facing a lot of struggles in terms of I’m seeing like I have clients, I had some clients that I was coaching and everything is good, and like the sessions are going nice, and like the person has more time now and everything. And then boom, and the person says, “Well, I just have to take care of my finances and coaching maybe not a good time, I cannot do a lot,” and this and that.
And I’ve been hearing this and feeling this from a lot of different ways, from a lot of different … yeah, like the way I was trying to communicate to my clients I’ve been hearing this feedback from different ways.
And so my struggle is now I have to adjust in some way. I’ve been playing … I started doing more online marketing, and that’s what I’m doing. And I’m testing this, and so this is one thing that I do. And I can so relate to what Charles is saying regarding rates – should I change my rates, should I … What would be the best way? Because like first of all I want to serve people, and then I know that I cannot under pay, like put my rates lower than it should be. So this question is like in the back burner.
And then also like my vulnerability, I tend to in those situations I tend to be like Charles said, I tend to be more positive. And I feel like it’s not like maybe that bad, but also I don’t like when I heard people with this kind of mindset because I’m not honoring their fears fully. So this is my vulnerability that I’ve been dealing with lately. And so that’s pretty much where I am right now.
Sasha Raskin: Yes, so noticing that you already had clients, and then they’re leaving and it’s not … it’s clear and it’s not clear, right? On the one hand, yeah, maybe for some kinds my prices are not that high, so maybe it is doable and the other they’re saying, well, we need to take care of our own finances right now. And you think what do I do with that when they say that.
Anyone can relate? Yeah. That’s a big one.
And also being in this … at least emotionally vulnerable stage in your private practice, when on the one hand you already see success, you’re starting to create clients and you’re starting to gain confidence. But then, well, what’s happening, right? And maybe the stories that I start telling myself about myself, right? Am I not good enough or maybe I’m missing something. So that’s a big one. Thank you, Dennis.
Participant: Thank you, Sasha.
Sasha Raskin (if you’re looking for “couples therapy near me“): Who wants to share next? By the way, show of hands if it’s helpful to hear from others the challenges that they are going through. Okay, good. I want to make sure that you are getting the best.
Participant: Where is Dennis and where … Dennis, where are you? And the people who haven’t identified where they’re from I’d like to know that, I’m just curious.
Participant: I’m from Chicago. And then are you asking … Did you ask about the niche? Because I didn’t hear you.
Participant: No, just I didn’t see where you were from, someone identified that.
Participant: Yeah, well, I’m from Chicago, but originally from Ukraine so I’m European.
Sasha Raskin: All right, Tracy or Evan or Tristan or Martha if you’re around.
Participant: Yeah.
Sasha Raskin: Hi, Tracy.
Participant: Hi. Can you hear me?
Sasha Raskin: Uh-hmm.
Participant: So I started having a little bit of clients, doing well and leaving the end of the year, and then … So I was already getting a little bit nervous about that before the virus hits. But I’m also in the middle of changing websites, so it’s a tricky time for marketing because I’m … I bought a new domain name, I’m kind of retooling the whole piece so I’m …
Sasha Raskin: Congratulations, that’s a big step.
Participant: Right, and I feel like it’s like this … I want to say do or die, but I’m in this place of like I have to do something different because what I have been doing hasn’t been working. And I recognize the pieces … the marketing pieces that were lacking. And so I am actually feeling quite hopeful, which is strange. It’s strange to admit that.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah.
Participant: But I’m sort of in a place of like I’m growing this new thing and I feel it’s very time sensitive, but also I feel like hopeful that it’s going to create more stability for me. So I think the questions I have are more around how do I bridge between the websites in the middle of this when my other website I hadn’t done enough marketing. And I’m in a community where there’s tons of therapists, Boulder has lots … a glut of therapists.
So for me I’m not so nervous. I mean, some of my clients left because their HSA account is empty and they have to build it back up, or a couple of them have some health issues and they’re just sort of hunkering down and they can’t, the fear of spending money. So it runs the gamut, but for me I think it’s more how do I bridge between the two so I can capture some clients in the meantime.
Sasha Raskin (couples therapy boulder): So within all that you said something very interesting. Anyone here when you sometimes, sometimes, feel okay – I’m going to be okay with this situation. And you experiencing guilt and do not want to share that with others.
Participant: Yeah.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah, that’s a big one for me. So you have been in position. Kudos to you for creating changes to your existing marketing. I think that takes first of all … well, the coach to assess the situation as it is. And also owning your own part in it, right? So it sounds like you’re not putting the whole responsibility for clients to come to you on the clients, you’re saying, “Well, what can I improve and what can I do different? And, yeah, maybe I’m going to start the website from scratch and build that up,” right? And really take a look at what’s working and what’s not working.
This is something that’s missing for so many … probably for so many therapists. It’s putting the locus of focus on the potential clients. And it sounds like you’re saying, “Yeah, Boulder is saturated, and maybe it’s not just about Boulder,” right?
Participant: Yes, yeah.
Sasha Raskin: It’s I think Boulder is probably the best place to be as a therapist, because there is so much awareness that even a therapist has a therapist and that therapist has a therapist, right? So it’s the Mecca, this is the place to be. I do not think we’re going to reach any point of saturation anytime soon.
Participant: Right. Well, and I also think it’s like reaching … it’s not that many people you need to reach. You make it seem like, “Oh, I got to reach a thousand people,” and it’s like, “25, 30 clients a week. 25 would be sweet spot,” right? So it’s not … Well, you want to keep generating new clients, but it’s not I got to reach 10,000 people, right? So you create this sense of deprivation that it’s not really realistic, right?
Sasha Raskin: What’s the mindset and what’s the reality. It reminds me, I’m in a very loving relationship right now, and I remember the periods between my different long-term relationships. And so I felt that I need to meet hundreds of women, right? And no, I need just to meet one person, right? That will be my person.
And when I switch that around, that’s like, “Okay, this is not a quantity thing. That’s a quality thing.” And keeping in mind, yes, the bigger my pool of the people that come to me, the bigger the chances that I will find my people to work with me, right?
Participant: Yeah.
Sasha Raskin: So any people that can relate? You’re creating changes maybe to your website, to your marketing, and you’re not sure if it’s going to work. And good for you for making improvements. I make improvements all the time. And I’ll share some of those with you that might help you during this period.
Thank you, Tracy.
Participant: All right, thank you.
Sasha Raskin: Anyone else? So I think Yvonne you’re the only person who didn’t share, and Martha is coming in and out. So if you hearing this, Martha, and you want to pitch in at some point please feel free to do so.
Participant: Yeah. So, hey, how’s it going? Happy Easter y’all.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah.
Participant: Yeah, I’m kind of working at an agency now, and we’ve experienced the whole Covid thing and gone from seeing people face-to-face to totally remote, over the phone or over video. And so I’m like kind of getting used to that. That’s a little bit different sort of a process.
And when we went to that things really dropped off, like people just stopped coming into their counseling sessions. And I was kind of right in the midst of that. And that was pretty hard, but it’s starting to build back up now.
And now my thing is that I’m working on translating that experience into a private practice in a different state. So like it’s really good to hear of the challenges that you all have had, gaining clients, losing clients. I mean, doing different things with your practice – that’s all really helpful to me. Because I’m going to a place where, I mean, there’s just nobody there. It’s like I don’t know what sort of practice it will be, and I don’t know if I’ll have five clients, ten clients, thirty clients. I’m not sure what they’ll need, I’m not terribly sure of issues that people are facing up there.
So it’s just a lot to deal with all at once. And to try to translate that into like creating this vision and then this hope that is a website, that’s going to be like the message throughout the whole thing is … I don’t know, that’s what I’m working on right now.
Sasha Raskin: So you’ve actually seen some people here that we have the transition to online, something shifted, right? Maybe people actually most or some prefer to meet in person, and that’s kind of the human connection that’s so important for many. And suddenly without that it feels … many probably without trying, right? Have you had the experience of them hearing that it’s going to be online and it’s like I’m out of here?
Participant: I think that the …
Sasha Raskin: Always you hear after at least one session online.
Participant: No, it’s all online now.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah, the people that left did they leave when you said it’s going to be online or after they scheduled a few sessions already online and then they feel …
Participant: No, they were all people that I’d been seeing for a while.
Sasha Raskin: And they didn’t come and try one session or they tried online session and then …
Participant: They’re just starting to come back, because they’re in a program that they have to.
Sasha Raskin: So it already shifted, right? The situation actually …
Participant: Yeah.
Sasha Raskin: … in many ways getting more challenging with the pandemic. And … Aw, you have your kiddo there. That’s a big change that I saw in working with clients. I met all of my clients’ children and dogs and cats, and this is a new way to work. And I actually enjoy doing those house visits with my clients and seeing, “Oh, that’s how they live.” So it feels like a deeper level of connection actually. So like another barrier is gone in the therapeutic relationship or in the coaching relationship. We get to connect on a deeper level.
And when I mentioned that to my clients they send me pictures of their house members, household members that I didn’t met yet, right? “And that’s my daughter, and that’s my cat.” Just very, very sweet. It just reminds that it’s not about individuals, it’s about how we stay connected right now. The best way to help each other as therapists and coaches. And the best way for clients to be resourced. Thank you, Yvonne.
Would it be helpful right now to touch on some strategies that can be helpful to try at least? Raise your hand it if it would be helpful. Okay, good.
So let’s talk about two big ones that out so much connected, (1) how do we get new clients, (2) how do we keep the existing ones or the new clients that come in? And of course, you can, right? So kind of like with the serenity prayer, right? There are things that you can control, there are things that you can’t, and the wisdom to this zone between them. And there are a lot of things that can be under your control.
So first thing that I think is incredibly important, and this is the main thing. If you’ve seen the six-figure practice program this is literally the main thing that will bring success, which is the amount of hours that you put into marketing, right?
So if you can use this time, and maybe you actually have more time right now, without the need to commute to places, right? And maybe having less clients and feeling the urgency, because it’s so easy, like for example, with the new website you talked about, Tracy, right? To put it off for tomorrow and then tomorrow comes in a year from now, right?
Participant: Yeah.
Sasha Raskin: So kind of using this momentum that’s created. Well, this is you actually said leave or die, right? That’s a very strong survival statement, right? So using that as let’s make tomorrow now, right?
So committing to working on creating those marketing changes, and trying different things. And literally scheduling that, right? So can I put one hour into it every day, can I put two, three, four hours? I find it so interesting, when I’m doing a lot of business coaching, and many times it’s a transition between career and a business. And there’s just for some reason there’s such a big gap between the perception of being an employee and being a business owner.
With an employee, when someone is paying you and you’re bidding basically someone else’s business, you’re doing eight hours a day, for example, right? And you’re expected to do those hours and you’re expected probably not to be on Facebook and watch Netflix during that time.
So what happens when you’re left to your own devices and you’re actually building your own business and you’re not treating it as a full-time job? So when we have like kind of the initial … when I have the initial conversation with therapists or coaches, helping them to look at their situation and I ask them, “Well, how much time did you put into working on your private practice during the last week?” And usually it’s around one hour, two hours kind of situation, in normal times, right? So it’s a matter of commitment.
And in times when I was and am working on marketing or my private practice, when it was six hours, eight hours, 12 hours a day I never reached a point where I found myself what do I do now. There’s always something to do, right? And I see a lot of nods here.
So how can I use this time to create momentum? And instead of living it for the weekend literally starting your day with it, right? Two hours at least, and there is so much things that can be done. Which is talking about how can you support your clients the most, right? So kind of the name of our today’s meeting, how to support more clients than ever – so it’s quantity and quality. How can you reach more? And also the people that you do work with, how can you help them the most?
And across the board I see that the most helpful thing for my clients is to have their own Corona project or their own quarantine project. Basically this one project that they can focus on instead of being sucked into the endless news and kind of just passive, spending your time passively. How can they create something either for themselves or with their family members and build something?
And it’s the clients that we work on that with them they feel they get a lot out of working with me, both as in couples therapy and in individual coaching – and that’s the biggest one. So we work, we do actually right now most solution-focused therapy. So it’s important to talk about how it feels, how there is anxiety and fear, and it’s challenging times. And we always focus on what can be done right now, right? And I think that’s what you talked about, Charles, how can we empower people to create something during this time.
Guess what? You as therapists and coaches, go through the same parallel process. If you can use this opportunity to build your private practice this is the best thing you can do for yourself right now.
So let me give you a few examples about the things that were helpful for me. I’ll share my screen with you. So before I do that, you probably have a lot of people or some amount of people that already reached out to you in the past, right? Maybe they did not become clients or they were past clients and your existing clients. So this is a great opportunity … and colleagues as well, right? This is a great opportunity to gather a list of those people.
Now if you have online scheduler to schedule free consultations, I use Acuity Scheduler. If you don’t have it built-in you can definitely build it in to your private practice. Let me show with you. So it looks like this. Can you see my screen right now?
Participant: Yes.
Sasha Raskin: Wonderful. So every time someone schedules a consultation with me their email is actually stored, and if I want my telephone.
And so what I did is I went to my … and also you probably have a contact. Contact form on your website as well. Nod if you do. So those store … It’s funny, I see the photo of my office and I’m there only to water my plants – I should do that today. The good old days. Oh, man. So the contact forms also store the email addresses of the people that reached out to you, right?
So what I did I gather that list and I’ve actually never done that before, because I have a system in place and I have so many inquiries that it can actually sometimes be overwhelming. So it definitely do not need to go to my … to the people that reached out to me, but it never … nothing came out of it. But right now this is a great opportunity.
So I gathered a list and it came down to since I started using those contact forms, and I think it was 400 people. And you can do it for your … If you your website is on Wix they have it embedded. If you have it on WordPress you have a contact form, you have it there.
And you can be creative if you don’t have those yet, you can literally collect manually. Even if you have five or ten emails, email addresses that you can work with – this is a great opportunity to start.
So what I did is I wrote an email, and it looks like this. This is inside the editor. It would be great opportunity actually to start working with an email sending system. I work with Active Hosted, there is MailChimp, there is Aweber, right? So this is another opportunity to start building systems in place.
And it says free support during Covid 19. So what I’m offering is free 30-minutes support calls for basically anyone, and as a service for the community. Now that does not apply to my current clients, and I’m limiting those to five, not to be overwhelmed. And you decide, maybe you don’t have to limit it.
And it talks to either the person who’s receiving it or the person they’re thinking of that might benefit from it. And I received a lot of … Now when they get that email the button leads them to this page that I built specifically for it. So same text, the button takes them to this form.
By the way, if you don’t want to build up a new page on your website you can make it easy, right? You can literally send an email and reply to the email if you want to schedule it, right? I just love having systems in place so it’s helpful.
And then they can choose their time. And they can enter different information that actually is really helpful. By the way, since it’s an opportunity to improve your website, a few tips that I’ll give you – make the phone mandatory field in your contact form, always. This actually doesn’t happen by default. Why? Because many times people will make spelling mistakes in their email addresses and some people have the email inbox paranoia, they will do anything not to respond to emails, right? So it’s a great opportunity for me just to call them, send them a text, so that’s very helpful.
By the way, this stores this information for later use just like I’m doing with this, right?
Another tip that will … So really quick, Charles, you mentioned the Buddhist approach and this opportunity of it. So I think this is the greatest time to see and reflect back on nothing is temporally, right? And even though it can feel like it. So this too shall pass. If you do the work now you’ll be ready when the dust settles, when people maybe get used to the situation and it’s like, “Okay, I guess I do need therapy right now, it would be helpful.”
Rebecca, thanks for joining us. We kind of talked already, introduced ourselves, talked about the biggest challenges, so you should have a lot of information already in the chat. And what we are doing right now is we’re just talking about some different strategies that you can use right now to both get new clients and keep your existing ones. Could you type in the chat if you could turn your camera on? That would be wonderful, so it would be kind of more of a conversation and more personal, if you have the chance to do so.
So, yes, the dust will settle, and you have more elements of your client creation system in place.
One of my biggest challenges was once I had a good system in place to get clients was that so many people were scheduling those consultations and never showing up. And I would just waste my time. Raise your hands if no-shows to consultations were ever a challenge for you or you experienced that.
So I would end up with, I don’t know, ten consultations a week on my calendar, and many of them won’t show up. And that’s a time that I could be spending working on with a client. So just adding this line completely changed everything for me, right? Once I scheduled this appointment I commit to be available on time or to cancel and reschedule the call for the eight hours in advance.
And then out of ten maybe one person doesn’t show up. And you can see all that on my … Let me just post in the chat just a few links. Let me just stop the show real quick and post a few links, so you could get some ideas of where to … this is my therapy website, this is my coaching website.
Participant: Question for you, I guess I have the same thing that if you don’t cancel, and I put it within 24 hours of advance notice.
Sasha Raskin: Yep.
Participant: And I send out invoices and bills and probably get about 50% return on those no-call, no-shows and billing them because they didn’t honor their agreement. How are you doing with that if they don’t show up?
Sasha Raskin: So I do it in a very different way than 99% of the coaches and therapists out there. First of all, 24 hours it’s so random and people just do it because everyone else is doing that. What does it really give me? Nothing. Can I schedule a different client within 24 hours? No, I can’t, from today till tomorrow, like that’s not going to happen. So 48 hours is actual real time, both for my cancellation and reschedule policies. So change that to 48 hours.
It’s okay. I haven’t heard anyone say, “Oh, my God, 48 hours, what do you mean?” It just makes sense. That’s actually very … that’s happening a lot in the medical field.
Participant: Well, what I ended up doing because I found that wasn’t as helpful is I send out a text message reminder 24 hours in advance. So I’ve gotten more or less cancellations, no-call, no-shows by doing that than I was by having that if you don’t do it within 24 hours you’re going to get billed for it.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah. So another thing that completely transformed my practice is … and I put it in place pretty much like one or two months after I started, it is billing upfront not later. And if they want to cancel I just issue a refund, not a problem. If they want to reschedule they have it as credit. So once someone fills in my forms and signs the paperwork, in the paperwork it says the credit card on file will be charged as soon as you sign it, right? And at the end of each session for the next one. Done.
There is commitment on the client’s part, right? “Okay, if I’m going to be charged, I already made a commitment, I’m going to show up.” And it’s very different from clients who think … Like, you don’t put yourself in this, “Ugh, I don’t want to charge someone.” And they are already charged, you don’t have to do this conversation.
Participant: You don’t do a lot of employee assistance work or work with insurance companies, it’s just straight pay?
Sasha Raskin: I don’t walk and have never worked with insurance ever.
Participant: Okay, and that’s … for my area that’s what really got my practice up and moving very quickly is that I work with all the EAP panels, so I work with all the insurance companies. And my fees are at the same level that the insurance companies pay me. So people were seeking me out, (1) because I had the availability, but (2) because I will bill their insurance company or I do accept their EAP program. So in some way that works for me and in some ways it hasn’t, and I’m just trying to find the balance of what’s going to work best.
Sasha Raskin: Great question. So first of all, good for you for finding a solution to build your clientele fast. That’s wonderful. Bad news with that is with having a system in place for gaining clients, you have to have at least, I don’t know, five, ten sources of people reaching out to you. If I rely just on one I’m in the hands of insurance companies, for example, right?
Participant: Right. Yeah, I’ve had several sources at this point.
Sasha Raskin: That’s wonderful, right? And I don’t think that there’s any challenges from the insurance companies to bill someone up for. Is there?
Participant: I mean, you can do their co-pay upfront. It’s frowned upon, but even if you look at like some of the ethical standards and things like that now with employee assistance you absolutely can’t do that.
Sasha Raskin: Got it.
Participant: But with insurance companies I’m only getting maybe a third of what it is versus if I get their co-payment on the date of service as well as billing the insurance company. I’m just trying to find the balance. I think what I need to do is explore out and doing more of the private pay and trying to find those clients that want that private pay fee.
Sasha Raskin: Yes, wonderful. There is so much freedom in private pay it’s ridiculous. And there are wonderful things in working with insurance, right? So one way to kind of work with that is having sliding scale in place for people who cannot afford that but then having the freedom of private pay, right? Not dealing with all the forms and the limitations.
Any questions so far? Maybe about what I shared.
Oh, let me just share with you some results. I had past clients come back to me from that email. I had past clients and existing clients refer new clients to me. I had existing clients kind of encourage to stay even more, it’s like, “Oh, this is so wonderful what you’re doing.” That helped me to feel that I’m doing something helpful during this time. So this is kind of more than a consultation, I’m really trying to figure out with them what can they do right now to be resourced in this situation.
We might become clients, we might not. So when they feel kind of this zero attachment to result, and Rich Lipton calls it needy script like, “Ugh, I have to get this client.” That is … people do not like that.
So I’m serving and some of them become clients, and this is really good. And it kind of motivates the clients that they have to stay because it just feels good to them. So I would definitely try that out.
Any questions about that?
Participant: Yeah, I don’t know if you’re going to get into this or not. You can hear me, yeah?
Sasha Raskin: Yeah, perfect.
Participant: I don’t know if you’re going to get into this or not, I imagine you’ve seen it a lot and experienced it. But the resistance to the whole marketing thing, therapists usually have this. So anything you can say about that I would love to hear.
Sasha Raskin: There are a few elements to that. So mindsets, skill set and energy, those would be the three main ones. First of all, mindset, thinking about marketing as just sleazy sales, I don’t want to do it. And you laugh, Tracy, so sounds like that resonates.
So let’s reframe that if we can for a moment – what is marketing? It’s literally just a conversation. It’s just done without at the beginning you not being there in person. That’s it, right? Your website, for example, is literally just a representation of you. If you can have a voice that helps them to connect with you before your phone call, and phone call will actually, the consultation call, is a part of marketing. That’s important to know as well.
This is the best thing that you can have. Actually your website will work because people that find your website they will contact you, higher the chances of. And when I ask on the phone call, kind of more towards the end, “Do you have any questions for me?” So I use kind of a script and that’s what I teach in the six-figure practice program that takes them from emotional journey and understanding what they can do even if they don’t become a client, and also the conversion rates are just amazing.
So when I ask them, “Well, do you have any questions for me?” Many times I would hear, “No, not really. We kind of already feel that we know you from your website, and we feel you can help us, and we feel that you get us.” How wonderful it is if you can create a situation where your client, potential clients, already feel hold and seen by you without you being there? That’s pretty amazing, right?
And the whole mindset of I am a therapist, I’m not a marketer – well, actually you are. If you have your own business you have to treat it as a business, otherwise it’s just a hobby or a volunteering work. And if you don’t have clients you can’t actually help. That’s the sad truth. You can do pro bono work, and even if you do pro bono work many clients want to actually see you. They still need to find you and there’s definitely more commitment when clients pay.
So realizing that it’s actually … there is this book about therapy, and this therapist shares that there is a moment in the sessions when the client understands that no one is coming to save them. It’s actually not up to the therapist to help them, right? So wouldn’t it be wonderful if me as a therapist can realize that as soon as possible – no one is coming to save me with my marketing, right? Even when you have a step-by-step system, like you can check it out later on on my website, you still need to be doing the work. That is the big thing.
And even when you hire someone to do part of it you still need to put time and effort into it yourself. So this is mindset.
In terms of strategy you have to know what to do. There is so much noise out there and it’s not that all the strategies out there don’t work, but there’s a time and place for different strategies, so in the six-figure project program we use the hunter-farmer framework which just breaks down it into four different types of strategies that you have to use in different points of your private practice. At the beginning there is something you do not want to use, at the end there is something you do not want to use.
So for example, if you have three clients right now posting posts on Facebook with motivational quotes and ideas on how to support yourself right now probably won’t get your clients in the door. So it’s important to know what to do at the beginning, at the middle, and kind of towards the end.
And the goal is with having a step-by-step system is to grow your private practice to a sustainable level that can bring your financial freedom and the ability to save money as well, so you wouldn’t need to live paycheck to paycheck and having this existential fear of, “Oh, my God, my money is running out.” Guess what? No one in private practice is paying you pension; you have expenses like rent in an office … well, not right now. But taxes, insurance and many other things that people don’t take into account.
So six-figure, why I chose that name? It’s a really good place to shoot for, and you can have actually sliding scale and even pro bono work in that. There are ways to do that where you are … which is a sign you’re helping your perfect clients, you have enough clients and you’re not under charging people, at least not all of them. So this is possible to build within a year to two years, from zero, six-figure practice. And finding your kind of your voice and your way to do that.
And in terms of marketing you start with paid advertising mostly, right? And some other free strategies. But this is a big part of it. And just a little bit of free strategies. And then within a year to two years you’re doing this thing, you’re doing more and more of free advertising and less and less of paid advertising, right? So then you have a system in place so you won’t need to pay for advertising ever again, or maybe just a little bit when you want to spike it up.
So having the knowledge of what to do and when and working on your mindset, the way you can do it is just work either one-on-one or just join a program with someone that knows the road ahead and can lead you through that. And there are a few out there, just find something that gives you … that you can connect with the person and gives you all the information that you need in one place, right? So that’s pretty much it.
And energy-wise, that’s the commitment we talked about – how many hours am I going to work on it every day? And once you do it, for people to build habits it takes around … from what I saw, from 8 to 21 days. If you have it as a part of your day it becomes effortless, kind of like brushing your teeth, you actually start feeling bad for not doing that which is a very good place to be.
So we’re coming towards the end of our time today. So I wish we could talk more about your personal struggles and how to address that, and that’s kind of natural group conversations.
So I’m doing kind of like what I shared with my past and existing clients, same thing – if you want we can talk about your next steps for your business. I’m sharing this link right now, and if you want to take a look at what you need to be doing during the next two to four weeks, we can schedule time for us to talk. Again, zero attachment. Maybe at the end we can talk about how can we work together individually or one of our programs, but really no strings attached. If I can support you during that time then I did my part, so you can help others, right? You are a portal to helping so many other people, so that would be a great way for me to serve you.
Can you share maybe one … So I put the link in the chat. Share one insight that you had from our conversation today, and also one action step that you can commit to the whole group right now that you will do during the next seven days.
And I would just … since we’re short with time; I’m just going to call you by names so we won’t do this popcorn thing that takes sometimes forever. And I will just start with the order that I see you.
Kathy, one insight that is important for you to understand and also one action that you can commit to.
Participant: I think action is going to be exploring a little more towards a website and making that happen. And also I think my big thing is I’ve been networking and promoting so much with the treatment programs in the State of Missouri and within my area with the insurance companies and EAP panels, but I got to figure out how to hit outside of that. I’m getting a lot of referrals by word of mouth, from past clients, from current clients, things like that, I just got to expand and build on that more.
And I’ve got a Facebook business page that’s been … I’ve been trying to get some of my clients to pay attention to that, especially some of the ones that are on hold right now because they feel like they’re doing okay. So I’ve been trying to get them to at least pay attention to that so that I can keep them engaged as well.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah, wonderful. And just a few words just so we’ll touch on how to … I noticed that I didn’t mention that, how to keep existing clients – MSU, make shit up. Finding ways to make it possible for them. First of all, just the free … well, we talked about that already. But what I did with some of the clients, for couples I work with for two hours. Many of them it’s hard for them to find that time because they have their children there and also paying, so we just do one hour instead.
For some the budget doesn’t allow them, so we pace it out more, right? So we do for example once in two weeks or once in three weeks. You can do even shorter sessions, right? So you can say, okay, I know 50 minutes is a lot right now, let’s do 25 minutes, half an hour, I can charge you half of what I’m charging, but then you’re not lowering your cost, right? Because you want to keep that. They will still find it helpful. Yes, you can’t go in depth really in half an hour, but honestly I have three couches, one therapist – one of my coaches we do half an hour sessions, just knowing that it’s limited by that time I get to do so much within that half an hour. So experimenting, right?
Some clients say, okay, we can’t do it right now for a while. And then something that might be helpful is for you to say, okay, how about we schedule a session for a month from now and we just check in before that, right? So you still … there is a continuation there. And with some if they say, well, I lost my job – so I just don’t charge them upfront, right? Or if I can ask, well, I can just check in with you a day before, if it feels for your budget we can do it that way.
So that’s been helpful. So those are some of the things, right?
Max, you go. One insight, one action that you commit to.
Participant: Yeah, one action is the Corona project. I actually have one invented in my mind and I already started to do it.
Sasha Raskin: Good.
Participant: So just continue body and like teaching how to care about your eyes in this crazy time when it’s so much exposed.
Sasha Raskin: That’s amazing.
Participant: And that’s what I’d like to do. I wrote down like six useful things for me, and they are equally useful, listing all the clients and potential clients and make it now, make it today. It’s very useful for me.
Sasha Raskin: Wonderful. That’s such a wonderful idea with the eyes, yeah. Sometimes with all the Zoom calls that I have throughout the day I feel like I’m bleeding out of my eyes, so that’s such a great.
Okay, Charles, one insight, one action that you commit to.
Participant: So the insight was just, Sasha and everyone, confirmation of all … everything, it was everything that I thought, just confirmation whether that we’re all in a similar boat with this situation and that the marketing strategies that I thought what would be appropriate.
I thought your thing of the free Coronavirus service to the community was very good, and having more … I needed to do a little more outreach with previous clients, with long history of clients.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah, exactly.
Participant: But the truth is I’m using this period as a reevaluation, a relook at my life from having kind of been a workaholic, not alcoholic, workaholic. So I’m not in a hurry to do anything in the next week, I’m just going to see how the dust sort of settles and then go from there. I appreciate this very much. We can be so isolated as private practitioners, and so it’s really nice to get the confirmation from you all.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah, wonderful. Thank you, Charles.
How about you, Dennis?
Participant: Well, I like the idea … the biggest takeaway was to reframe and to put this like Corona project a name for it. I think it’s very useful. And just to maybe … Yeah, so I’m just going to … I don’t want to go into deep contemplation about this, but I think this would be a really useful idea that I can use with my clients.
And also like my action would be to send … to reach out to some of my previous clients and request a free session or just this … yeah, free session as a way to serve people, and maybe just to serve and maybe who knows that might be that will generate a couple of clients for me.
Sasha Raskin: Wonderful.
Participant: So that’s two things that I’m pretty much was right now.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah, wonderful. So, and it’s very helpful for people to know that like no strings attached, like this is a support right now. If you want to work together, that’s great. If you don’t, that’s lots of love too, right?
So I’m wondering. Okay, I want to meanwhile give you a few resources. This is the Facebook group that you can join, it’s fairly new, to connect with each other, right? And I’m posting a lot of resources there. Also I want to literally copy-paste the text that I sent to my clients. If you want, please feel free to copy it, make it your own. So it’s posted right now, so it’s in the chat. I think it would be a great way to start.
And you can do this on Facebook, you can do … It’s not just emails, right? You can text it to your clients, a short version of it. You can have phone calls. One of my coaches is doing like short video calls … not video calls, short videos. He records a little video and sends it to the client, which is a very cool thing.
Okay, Tracy.
Participant: Yes, let me get back to … So I’ve had a couple therapists reach out to me recently about creating a grief group, and I do grief as part of my practice. And so I think action-wise is finding a good strategy to advertise, like what’s the best way to advertise that. And I am also looking at doing a separate … I think there’s two grief and death of someone, but the grief and fear of what’s happening, what’s going to happen with your finances for clients. So I’m going to probably do two separate groups, two different kinds of grief.
Because you can’t … doing those together is not good for the person who has a death loss, it can be … It’s complicated, right?
Sasha Raskin: Yeah.
Participant: And I think for that it’s figuring out the best way to advertise, and do that, like get that going quickly. And then I think the insight is I feel like I’ve wasted quite a bit of time looking at things, but it’s like what am I doing marketing daily? That like is like, okay, committing, really committing to what pieces can I do, right?
And I have someone who’s … a company that’s going to work with creating my new website, so this week I have more time to go, moving some of the old stuff to the new. So I’m in the middle of a lot of stuff right now.
Sasha Raskin: Wonderful. Feel free to reach out, we can talk … we can brainstorm about good ways for you to market those groups. Simply choose a time that works for you for the link that I sent.
Participant: Okay, thank you.
Sasha Raskin: Wonderful. So it’s great to hear that this is an opportunity to start new projects, that’s great.
All right, Yvonne. Thank you, Tracy.
Participant: Yes, insight, I like what you said about marketing as being a conversation that you’re just not there, because that’s where I feel most of my conversations are anyway. I’m kidding.
But, I mean, kind of rephrasing that into essentially that you’re actually talking to people, you’re not just like throwing words out and like you have an agenda, you don’t care what happens. But you have an agenda, and that’s okay, like that’s what they’re supposed to do, you’re supposed to build your practice, and looking for a response.
And if people latch on to that, great. If they don’t, it’s not like you’re wasting your effort.
Sasha Raskin: Yeah.
Participant: And so within that like trying to build that marketing idea into the whole presentation of the website, kind of going out for, Tracy, what you’re saying a little bit too of having a bunch of new stuff going on. But creating that image, but also having the message behind the image. I think it was a really helpful take away and action plan.
Sasha Raskin: Wonderful. And that’s the biggest challenge for therapists and coaches, thinking that they don’t know marketing. Well, there are strategies that you can use. But the whole concept, you have been talking to others all your life. And guess what? You chose it as your career to talk to others. You’re good.
Participant: Yeah, right, yeah.
Sasha Raskin: Really understanding that the way you show up powerfully as a therapist or a coach in the relationship, if you can translate that to your website, not doing like some cookie cutter weird thing, right? Just talking as a human being – BAM, you created a bridge to your potential clients. They will want to work with you.
By the way, so something that we didn’t mention today is how to switch to online with your marketing. I just pasted a link to my blog. There are a ton of articles there. It’s all free, right? Free resources, many of those are videos, lots of stuff on how to (a) transition to working online, (b) how to create changes on your website so it would actually be found as something that you do online and clients can understand it real fast.
And also just different marketing strategies and some ideas about how to do sales, right? In an authentic way, not like a used car salesperson. By the way, if you have been talking to car salespeople lately it’s still … it’s the same thing. They talk to you as a human being. This is long gone, the kind of the 80’s idea of a pushy salesman – that’s not working anymore, people do not relate to that. So good news for us.
Thank you, Tracy. So thank you, Yvonne. Thank you, Charles. Thank you, Maxim. Thank you, Kathy. Dennis, you shared you’re … Martha, are you there? Let me know. One, two, three. Gone.
Okay, so another thing that I was thinking I really enjoyed this group. I feel it’s like helpful for me too, right? And just I can hear that all of … many of your challenges are my challenges too. And I have this idea in my head of maybe doing a group for four weeks for a month, something like a private practice life raft, and what can we do right now to create big changes, and maybe the connection piece but also sharing more strategies on what you can all do.
So raise your hands if that’s something … it sounds like a good idea for you to do that for four weeks? So I’ll send you the details. And I hope we can probably start in two weeks from now. You can definitely find like long term programs on the website, I just posted the link.
I think what you need right now is not necessarily … well, it can be a great opportunity to create the whole marketing system for your practice. And maybe a one month short program that’s more individual can be more appropriate right now as first next steps to do right now.
Thank you all for sharing your challenges and also being vulnerable and showing up. This is for me it’s Sunday morning, for many of you too, Sunday night for Maxim.
Participant: Yeah.
Sasha Raskin: This is … It takes … This is the big step, right? Showing us when it’s difficult and you have doubts. So the fact that you’re here is already huge, huge, huge.
So thank you so much. Feel free to reach out.
Participant: Good health. Thank you much.
Sasha Raskin: And, yes, stay safe, healthy and connected in a safe way.
Participants: Thank you. Thank you for your support. Great session, everybody.
Sasha Raskin: All right.
Participants: Bye-bye. Bye. Great call, Sasha. Thank you.
Sasha Raskin: You’re welcome.
Participant: Thank you.
Sasha Raskin: More than welcome.