← Abundant Practice Podcast
Abundant Practice Podcast
Episode #668: Strategies For Faster Growth
00:29:14
member Arielle, a therapist preparing to transition into private practice, joins me to seek guidance on marketing, networking, and SEO strategies as she considers relocating. We explore ways to retain clients during a move, how to effectively reach...
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Foreign.
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Hi, welcome to the Abundant Practice Podcast. I'm Alison from Abundance Practice Building. I have a nearly diagnosable obsession with helping therapists build sustainable, joy filled private practices. Just like I've done for tens of thousands of therapists across the world. I'm excited to help you too. If you want to fill your practice with ideal clients, we have loads of free resources and paid support. Go to abundance practice building.com Links all right, onto the show. So I've talked about therapy notes on here for years. I could talk about the features and the benefits in my sleep. But there are a couple things I want you to know about therapy notes that doesn't typically make it into an ad script. First is that they actually care if you like their platform. They don't only make themselves available on the phone to troubleshoot so you don't pull your hair out when you get stuck. They also take member suggestions and implement those that there's client demand for. Like Therapy Search, an included listing service that helps clients find you internal and external secure messaging clinical outcome measures to keep an eye on how your clients are progressing. A super smooth super bill process, real time eligibility to check on your client's insurance. In my conversations with the employees there at all levels, they all really believe in their product and they want you to love it too. Second, they are proudly independently owned. Why should you care about that? Because as soon as venture capital becomes involved, the focus shifts from making customers happy to making investors happy. Prices go way up. Innovation plateaus. Making more money with as little output as possible becomes the number one focus. With over 100,000 therapists using their platform, they've been able to stay incredibly successful and they don't have to sacrifice your experience to stay there. You can try two months free@therapynotes.com with the coupon code Abundant.
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A
Hi.
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B
Hi Ariel.
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A
Hi. Nice to meet you.
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B
Nice to meet you too.
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A
I feel like I know you because I followed you on social media for a long time. But like real life conversation, this is.
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B
Yay, I'm real amazing. Well, what would be most helpful today?
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A
Yes, sorry I didn't put a lot of notes.
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B
No reason.
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A
It's hard to. So I currently have been in private practice for a year, but I've been working with the same agency for I think seven years. And so in the last year I'm trying to kind of transition more to private practice and scale down the agency work. Right now I'm at about 80% agency, 20% private practice and primarily I've been doing private practice or I've been getting my referrals just, like, through community, like, other therapists and people that I've known for a long time. And so I've been going through the program, and it's been so helpful. And I feel like I'm at the place where, like, I've gone through the marketing foundations, but I'm really trying to, like, implement them. And the ones that I feel like I've kind of checked off is, like, I've built the website, I've done my professional listings. I've, like, niched down quite a bit, and that's been helpful. And then I've. I've done, in the last couple of months, networking. And the primary networking that I've done is with, like, mostly individual therapists, I think. Mostly because I was nervous about it.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Kind of safe. But I also kind of feel a little bit like I'm getting. I feel a little bit stuck because I haven't seen many results from the fruit of my efforts, which I know it's a wild time right now. Like, this is thing. This isn't just a me thing, but it feels a little bit hard to, like, I don't know, I think I'm just being hard on myself and, like, it's kind of hard to have the motivation. I will also say I'm the primary bread winner for my family. So, like, I have to see so many clients and work a pretty full schedule. So trying to do marketing and, like, really builds the private practice on the side feels like it's hard. It takes a lot of extra work, and I'm. Some weeks I'm like, I don't have the energy, but I'm trying to, like, stay consistent.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So where I feel like I really need help, though, is trying to figure out kind of like, I've got some questions about, like, the networking stuff that I'm doing. I also want to ask a little bit about SEO and just kind of see, like, where I can because my time is so limited, where I can, like, put my efforts to give me the biggest bang for my buck with my practice. The other thing it's kind of important to know, and then I'll stop talking a little bit. But, like, the other piece that's important is my husband and I are thinking about relocating, like, in the next year, probably in a year from now. There's a part of me that's been a little resistant of, like, doing such heavy local marketing and local networking, even though I feel like that's most natural for me. And. And I've been doing. But, like, I feel like I'm, like, building all these connections here, and then I'm just gonna, like, pick up and move and have to start all over in a different.
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B
Okay, I wanna speak to that first. Cause it's a really reasonable concern.
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A
Right.
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B
And if you maintain those relationships via email or text or, you know, zoom or whatever. So many therapists are virtual only that it doesn't really matter if you live there or not. If you have the relationship with people, you stay licensed in that state, you're going to still get referrals from them.
- [05:49]
A
Yeah.
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B
So if you're open to doing virtual when you move, then you should be solid.
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A
Yeah, that is true. That's very helpful. Do you feel like it's helpful for folks in my position to start doing networking in the state that I'm not in yet as well?
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B
I personally, because I've moved to different states a few times in private practice, I usually wait a month before I move and start reaching out. And if you're already licensed, because I moved before online therapy was a thing. There was talk of Skype therapy at the time, which tells you how old, how long ago that was.
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A
But I think I saw this again. Sounds weird to feel like I know things about you and you just met me 10 seconds ago. But I think I knew this because when I found you, I was very excited because we're thinking about moving to North Carolina, right?
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B
Yep, yep.
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A
Calm down. Oregon on the east or west coast?
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B
Yeah.
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So I think my biggest concern about that is, like, the time change. Like, it works now for me here to take North Carolina clients, because earlier in the day, but the opposite, I'm like, I'd have to work evenings, which I don't want to do because I've got little kids or like, later.
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B
So let's also challenge that. I'm just here to challenge you. You don't have to work evenings. They can move to their mornings and your afternoons or noon and three, you know, like. Yeah, it's all doable. It's all doable.
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A
It's doable.
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And where in North Carolina are you planning to move? Do you know yet?
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A
We're looking at Charlotte.
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B
Awesome. Yeah.
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A
Yeah. So bigger city than where we live now by quite a bit. But I don't know. I'm hoping maybe. I know there's probably way more therapists than Briswell, but, you know, if I can practice here, I can build a practice there 100%.
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B
And that's something. When I moved from Seattle to North Carolina, I was like, you know, what if it was a fluke? What if I just got lucky and that's not the case? What works in every state works in the other states too. Everybody worry that their location, whatever it is, whether it's a big city or a small town or medium sized city, whether it's rural or urban or southern or northern or whatever, everybody's worried that their place. Place is different. It's not, it's. I mean, like we've worked with people in 60 different countries now. It's not different anywhere. There are some cultural differences for sure, but not based exclusively on location. North Carolina is waiting for you. It will be great. Oh, lovely.
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A
Excited about it. So, okay. Networking wise then, you feel like it's still okay to like go hard with the networking?
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Yeah, yeah.
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Start neck working there a month or so before I move.
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B
Yeah, yeah.
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A
Okay. Right now do you feel like it's. I, I feel a little bit stuck because again, I've been working or networking a lot with individual therapists and I have tried to take like the pieces that you've recommended as far as like other people who are in my niche or are seeing like people adjacent to my niche that we could refer back and forth, other people who see my niche that are full. But I, and I will say it's only been like three months that I've been doing this. Gotten any referrals from any of those people?
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Yeah.
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A lot of work to not get like even one call.
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Yeah. Are you following up with them? Like, are you maintaining a relationship with them over those three months?
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Yeah, yeah, maintained. But I also feel like they're kind of slow right now.
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That's it? Yep.
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A
Out of like extra excess.
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B
And I think that's the tricky part. I mean, that's always a tricky part when you're networking like within your niche, for instance, that like, if you're networking with a bunch of other people who are trying to fill their practice, you're not going to get anywhere. Now if you maintain that relationship when one or both of you are full, you're, you know, it'll be great. But that's a long game and what it sounds like you need right now is the short game. And because 2025 is just really weird and because it's a summer, it's just a slower time for referrals right now. That doesn't mean it's going to be like this in September. I really expect and anticipate more of a flood, and I shouldn't say flood, having just lived through this hurricane. More of a rush of people in the fall because I keep comparing it to how it felt in Covid. It's like everybody held their breath. I think right now the economy is so unstable. I think there's a breath holding that. There's. I'll deal with it myself. That happened in the first part of this year. And then the weather gets nicer and that's part of what happens with the summer slump every time. And people are like, people who quote unquote, didn't have the money for therapy, are going on vacations or doing these kinds of things. And so it's less stable now. But I think that after putting off the care that they need for eight months, I think that the fall is going to be. This is a prediction and I am not a futurist, but I think that it's going to be good for a lot of us in the way that everybody held their breath for a month or two when Covid first hit. And then it was such a. Such an intense experience of people calling all the time. That's what I'm hoping. There is more competition now with big therapy tech than there was back then. So that also makes it harder, but definitely not, not impossible. It's just taking people a little longer.
- [11:26]
A
Mm. Do you feel like for the more immediate stuff, networking at like doctor's offices or places like that, kind of the bigger.
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B
Yeah, if you can get in with a doctor's office, I mean, you're not going to like sit down for tea with a doctor or anything. But if you can get in with their referral coordinator and even a phone conversation and can I send you some stuff? And it, it also depends on your niche. Tell me more about your niche so I can guide better.
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A
So I feel like this is a very common one I'm seeing online right now, but basically women, working women 25 to 45, dealing with stress, burnout, anxiety, high functioning anxiety.
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B
Yeah, yeah. So these women are coming into their doctors. They've got like high blood pressure when they've never had high blood pressure, maybe high cholesterol when they've never had high cholesterol. They're pissed off, but they can't express their piss offedness. Especially as you get up to the 45 range. You've also got perimenopause on board. And so people are like, they're not able to mask in the way that we have all been taught to mask our emotions.
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A
I'm also getting a lot of folks who are getting diagnosed with autoimmune diseases other ways where it's like we've carried the stress in our body for too long and now we can't deal with it, you know, so it's like they're dealing with medical stuff but they recognize part of it as psychosocial as well.
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B
Yeah, the, the Venn diagram of type A's, type A women and eldest daughters and like the autoimmune stuff, it's like nearly just a big circle. So talking to doctors about that, right, Saying like, I work with type A stressed out women, many of whom have autoimmune disorders and I'm helping them reduce their stress in hopes that it's going to reduce everything, including flare ups. Any good doctor is going to understand the dynamics there. And basically selling what you do to the doctors from the perspective of like, how does it help them? Why do they give a shit about a type A woman? They give a shit because those women are landing in their office not necessarily for antidepressants, but for exactly what you're saying. Like the autoimmune issue.
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Okay.
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B
And then there's the grief. As a type A woman, eldest daughter type with an autoimmune disease, like there is a grief that goes along with like, my body won't let me do what I want to do and I'm.
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Pissed that I've always done.
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B
Yes. Right now do I have to deal with emotions? Gross. So to just, you know, to be able to address. I work with a lot of women who are like newly diagnosed. They're having a really hard time. They've always denied listening to their body. They always kind of shut it down and pushed just a little harder and now they can't. And they don't know what to do with themselves and they don't know how to sit still and they don't know who they are without achievement and they feel guilty for not being productive. Lay out all the things that the doctor is going to see or intuit about that woman and maybe they are that woman too and you will become their go to for their folks who are diagnosed with like, good at like.
- [14:47]
A
Knowing the words for all these niches a long time.
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It's how my brain works.
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You know how long it took me to like make copy to just find those words that you just like rattled off in two minutes.
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B
Well, I'm glad it's helpful.
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A
Because that's exact. Those are like exactly the pain points.
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B
Yeah. Really speaking to, speaking to your ideal client too. Because there are a lot of therapists who work with women with anxiety, but they don't include the autoimmune piece. So that's another thing to talk to therapists about is like, I mean, if you made that like stressed out type A women with autoimmune diseases, like, that's. That sounds so specific and so small, but that is such a huge number of women.
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A
Okay, okay. Stress out type A women with autoimmune. It's just gonna be like the header on my website.
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B
Yeah. What's funny is if you just said women with autoimmune, it's the same exact woman, but when you put stressed out type A, they're like, oh, she, she really knows me. You know, like, it feels very. Yeah.
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A
Okay. And though still. Still do the networking with other therapists as well. That's still helpful.
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B
Yeah, that's still helpful. It will be. If you can find the ones that are already full, then that's going to help. And I would go with couples therapists because that's also like a big relationship shift and dynamic of like, she doesn't want to be taken care of. The partner may or may not want to take care of because they partnered with this very independent, very capable person. And so when somebody can't fully take care of themselves, sometimes that's a hard thing for a couple.
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A
I was also wondering about SEO. Done any specific SEO, but I started the training online and I guess I'm just wondering if that. When I was thinking before what you said about the networking here and there, if I'm thinking about moving, I'm wondering if that's like another a better way for someone who's kind of in transition to be getting clients potentially.
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B
Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure how competitive the Charlotte SEO market is. You know, the bigger the city, the harder it is to get on page one. If you're not on page one, it's pointless. And not like for all search terms, but for the search terms that matter most for your people. So I would google around and see if it's a bunch of. If it's all like Psychology Today and Better Help and Alma and these big platforms, you're not going to be able to push them off of page one, most likely. But if it's like a third that and then the rest are real people, you might have a shot.
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A
Okay.
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And I really like simplified SEO consulting. That's who does that training. They have a whole like, they'll do it for you or they have courses to teach you how to do it that are a lot more in depth than the training they did for us. So you can also play with that. They're the SEO company I trust most because I've paid a few of them and they're the only ones who ever got me results. And a lot of my students have used them and love them, so.
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A
Okay. But even then, like, if. If it's just the big. The big tech companies on page one, even using them probably wouldn't be that.
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B
I don't. Because they can't guarantee results. Right. And if you can't guarantee results, I don't know that I want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on something like SEO, you know? Right.
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A
Yeah. Blog writing. I'm working in the thing.
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B
Great. Necessary for SEO. So that's a good pairing. Yeah.
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A
Okay. How do we feel about using ChatGPT for blogs?
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B
Not wholeheartedly positive. I think if you write the blog and then you've put it into ChatGPT and you say, like, you use it as an editing tool essentially of like, please keep the tone. Please maintain my candor. You could say, read this blog and tell me things. I could improve upon it, and then they'll give you some tips. Or please edit this to 800 words, because all blogs need to be at least 800 words for SEO. If it's currently like 500 or 600, like, please maintain my tone and make this blog post 800 Words. And the thing about ChatGPT and writing, you have to give it really specific, really good prompts for it to be anything other than like, hey, are you feeling depressed and down in the dumps? You know, like, it's so cheesy. So if you can infuse more of you in it, whether that's on the front end or the back end, it's usually faster if you write the majority of it and then have it edit. And then you edit. But most of the time, you can tell a ChatGPT written blog. If you look at therapist blogs, it's pretty obvious. And you can say, I've written this blog. Keep my tone. Will you please optimize it for SEO for these search terms.
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A
Oh, right, right, right, right, right.
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B
So that can help with that piece too. But again, you gotta edit. And this is the same, like, all the copy on your website. It's the same thing for that.
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A
Okay. Other than for SEO, like, do clients really read the blogs? Are clients reading the blogs?
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B
Yeah. So I think about, like, you've got your website.
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A
Yes.
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B
And you've got networking. And the purpose of everything else that you do from a marketing perspective is to bring people to your website. So blogging on its own typically Doesn't. Unless you've got. Because that's on the website. Unless you're doing search engine optimization or you've got a social media channel that's pretty active that you can link to it. The age of your people, you've still got some readers in there. The younger folks slant towards video. I would say most millennials are in the video realm, and then Gen Xers like myself, we can kind of be split between video and reading. So I love a twofer. I'm. I make videos, like all the time, but I'm much more of a reader when I'm consuming other people's content. So I'll do like, I love a twofer where it's. You do a video of it. And this is another way you can use ChatGPT. You can write us, you can have chat, or you can write a script for a video. You can do the video or if you're better, the opposite way. Like, you do a video and then you have it transcribed and then you can put that into ChatGPT and say, this is a video script. Will you please turn this into an 800 page or 800 word blog that's optimized for SEO? Please maintain the tone, keep it friendly and warm, and you will still have to edit the hell out of it. But it. It shaves off probably 30 minutes worth of work.
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A
Okay, fair enough. So you're thinking video and blog is probably like the combination of the two?
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B
Yeah, I really love the combo of like, video blog, SEO, because I feel like the main purpose of blogging in 2025 is for SEO. And I think that your niche is specific enough and the things that your ideal clients come in with, like, that's specific. Things they say are specific enough. Like if you wrote a blog post on something about, like, the frustration of not being able to do all the things you're capable of because your stupid body won't let you. If you can come up with a great title that explains that more concisely than I just did, and it's something that your ideal clients would search, then even like coping with autoimmune for a type A1, you know, like, there are ways that you can hit a bunch of those search terms, but you've got to think through really carefully the keywords that your ideal clients would use. And you can use Google's Keyword Planner. And you could probably ask ChatGPT, like, here's the like. This is. This is my ideal client. Describe in as much detail as humanly possible and then say, like what search terms would my ideal client use to find therapy?
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A
Right.
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B
And give you an idea.
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A
Okay.
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B
And then plug those into Google's keyword planner. You'll have to create a free account, but that'll tell you how often that search term is used, how kind of expensive it is. Like, if you were to run ads to it or something like that. Like, if it's more in demand versus less in demand. What was that?
- [23:46]
A
My husband does some marketing, so he's kind of tried to show me the keyword thing, but it didn't really make sense until I did this side of it. Now I'm like, oh, that's what he was trying to show me.
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B
Yeah.
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A
20 cents per click for this keyword or that thing? That website shows all the keywords and how searchable they are. How much you have to pay in, like, ads to get them. Is that what you're talking about?
- [24:11]
B
Yeah. So like, that, that'd be Google adwords or ad Google Ads, which are really hit and miss for therapists.
- [24:18]
A
Okay.
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B
I've hired three different companies and never had any luck with it because as an eating disorder therapist, I'm up against the treatment centers, and they're happy to pay hundreds dollars per click because they're going to make so much money. I am not happy to pay hundreds of dollars per click. But there are people who have different specialties that do have some success. But I would lean on your husband for the Google Ads thing because it's pretty complicated.
- [24:45]
A
Okay, but what was the. Sorry, what was the one that you said that was not Google Ads then.
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B
Oh, so just like the keyword planner. So that can help you know what you're wanting to get ranked for. For SEO.
- [24:57]
A
Okay, okay. This is all gonna make sense at some point. It's not gonna sound like a foreign language.
- [25:04]
B
Yeah, it's really not. You're putting things. You're like, oh, wait, I know about Google keyword planning. Like, it's all. It's all coalescing.
- [25:12]
A
Yeah, exactly. Okay. To do videos, I need to have social media.
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B
Not necessarily, but it doesn't hurt. You could put videos on YouTube. Like they. Because they have to be hosted on something like YouTube or Vimeo. I would recommend yout for them to even be put on your website typically. So I would have them on YouTube. If you want to do social media, I feel like your niche is really primed for it. If you don't want to do social media, I want you to save yourself the time suckage.
- [25:45]
A
And I really don't want to do social media. Feel like I'm supposed to because I'm a millennial.
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B
Don't do it.
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A
I don't even do it. My personal life, I hate it so much.
- [25:56]
B
Yeah, don't do it. Don't do it.
- [25:57]
A
I love following other people like yours, Paige is wonderful, but I don't want to do it.
- [26:02]
B
Yeah, then don't.
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A
Permission to not do it as permission.
- [26:06]
B
To not do it. Granted.
- [26:09]
A
Okay. So I could still though the video will still be helpful to do videos and put up on YouTube.
- [26:15]
B
Yeah.
- [26:16]
A
Okay.
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B
I mean, it's unlikely you're going to get a bunch of people seeing it, but with a combination of like video and blogging and SEO, if we kind of made those all one thing, like one strategy, then you're hitting at a few things because, you know, like, Google owns YouTube. And so while written content is much more likely to be at the top of Google, like on the first page of Google, it's also giving you some options there.
- [26:43]
A
Okay.
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B
With video. Yeah.
- [26:45]
A
Okay. Okay. I have time for one more question.
- [26:49]
B
Yeah.
- [26:49]
A
Yeah. Any other places for professional listings, Online listings other than site today that you feel like are fruitful?
- [26:58]
B
So I would test a bunch. Like, I would do probably three to six months. If you get even one client that sticks around for a while, then it's worth the cost. But I would look at therapy den. I would look at inclusive therapists. If there's anything modality specific that you do, like the IFS folks have their IFS one, EMDR folks have the EMDR one, then I would go on that modalities as well.
- [27:26]
A
Okay.
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B
But for your niche, there isn't an obvious. You know, sometimes there will be like an OCD one or something like that. There might be an autoimmune directory somewhere with like different professionals that understand and, you know, get it.
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A
Okay.
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B
I would Google what your ideal clients would Google and see what they find.
- [27:49]
A
Okay. And then try for three to six months. If I get one or two, great. If not, probably not for me.
- [27:57]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [27:59]
A
All right.
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B
Amazing.
- [28:01]
A
Thank you.
- [28:02]
B
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, It's. You've got a lot on your plate. If you're also thinking about moving, even if it is a year away, there's still just. It takes up a lot of brain space.
- [28:13]
A
Does.
- [28:14]
B
Yeah.
- [28:14]
A
We're going to keep trucking along slowly and surely.
- [28:17]
B
Good. Amazing. Well, let us know in the Facebook group if you're in there. I don't know if you're in there or not. I'm just thinking about you hating social media. Well, and that group is sweet. So it's never a bunch of drama. So let us know how it's going in there. And yeah, I'm around.
- [28:38]
A
Sounds good. Thank you.
- [28:40]
B
Take care.
- [28:41]
A
Bye.
- [28:41]
B
Bye. If you're ready for a much easier practice, Therapy Notes is the way to go. Go to therapynotes.com and use the promo code abundant for two months. Free. If you're listening, you probably need some support building your practice. If you're a super newbie, grab our free checklist using the link in the Show Notes. I'd love for you to follow rate and review, but I really want you to share this episode with a therapist friend. Let's help all our colleagues build what they want.