Episode 95: How to Successfully Relocate Your Private Practice

Summary

Podcast Summary: Private Practice Startup Podcast

Episode 95: How to Successfully Relocate Your Private Practice

Date: July 21, 2018
Hosts: Dr. Kate Campbell & Katie Lemieux
Guests: Alison Puryear (Abundance Practice Building), John Clark (Therapist, Business Coach, Unconditional Media)

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode addresses the complex process of relocating a private therapy practice — whether moving across town or to a different state. Guests Alison Puryear and John Clark, both therapists and successful practice builders who have personally moved their practices between multiple cities, share in-depth strategies, actionable steps, and candid stories. The discussion covers digital marketing, networking, licensing, legalities, emotional impacts, online counseling, and other critical nuts and bolts to help practitioners ensure a smooth transition.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Relocation Stories & Backgrounds ([04:01]–[07:39])

• John's Journey:

  • Built initial private practice in San Francisco, focusing heavily on online marketing due to a competitive, tech-savvy market.
  • Relocated to Charlotte, NC: “I built my first practice in San Francisco...I resented being in such a saturated area...then I realized, once I left, it’s probably never going to be as hard as it was there.” ([05:28])
  • Successfully rebuilt and scaled a group practice in Charlotte using primarily digital marketing.

• Alison's Journey:

  • From part-time practice in Athens, GA, to full-time launch in Seattle (a city where she knew no one), then later to Asheville, NC.
  • Built each new practice primarily through aggressive networking: “When I moved to Seattle...I met 90 people in 90 days, which is not something I recommend for people to do. But I was in a new city and really lonely and I’m super extroverted.” ([09:16])
  • Emphasizes playing to personal strengths: “There’s a lot of ways to market a practice...the opportunity for therapists right now is that there’s a lot of ways to market a practice, you know.” ([07:47])

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Personal Strategies: Digital vs. Networking ([08:33]–[12:39])

• Networking (Alison):

  • Prioritized relationship-building over tech.
  • Sought partnership with organizations aligned with her target clientele.
  • Focused on “networking with the right people” for effective, efficient results. ([12:39])

• Digital Marketing (John):

  • Built Charlotte practice almost entirely online; networked with only one person in two years.
  • Defined “networking” as including online outreach, not just face-to-face.

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Market Research & Local Nuances ([09:56]–[12:02])

• Conduct Pre-Move Market Research:
  • “Start doing your market research as soon as you can.”
  • Key questions to local therapists:
    • What’s working for your practice now?
    • How are clients finding you?
    • How much can I charge here?
  • Recognize market differences (e.g., insurance vs. private pay dominance).

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Digital Preparation & SEO Timeline ([13:16]–[16:59])

• Start Your Website Early:

  • Begin building/launching a site 3–6 months prior to moving, even without a physical address.
  • Early launch is crucial: “If you know anything about SEO, you know that it takes time...it’s going to take a number of months.” ([13:27])

• Best Practices:

  • Build with region-specific keywords, but don’t feel locked into geographic names for your practice.
  • Begin content strategy and blogging in advance.

• Indexing with Google:

  • Critical step: “It’s kind of like raising your hand saying ‘hey Google, I’ve got some new pages over here and I want you to come take a look at them.’” ([16:06])
  • Follow Google’s process (search “how to index pages with Google”).

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Business Name, Incorporation, and Local Legalities ([16:59]–[20:38])

• Licensing & Incorporation Laws Vary by State:

  • Some states (e.g. NC) require coordination with licensing boards for PLLC setup.
  • May need to close your previous state’s corporation and open a new one.
  • Always check for unique taxes or business licenses when moving.

• Business Name Considerations:

  • If it includes a city/region, you might have to abandon or sell it.
  • Using a personal name may limit future sale options.
  • Verify name availability in your new locale.

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Relocation Steps: Physical and Digital ([20:52]–[23:06])

• Office Setup:
  • Don’t overcommit: “Renting a whole office...is not a good idea. Start small, sublease...” ([20:52])
  • Once physical location is secured, update your website, Psychology Today, and set up Google My Business (GMB) listing.
  • GMB setup tips: Fill out every section, use professional photos, post regularly (new Google feature).

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Insurance, Online Counseling, and Licensing ([23:06]–[25:57])

• Insurance Considerations:

  • Check whether insurers in the new state cover online sessions.
  • Online sessions with prior-state clients can cushion your income: “I had a lot of clients who I did private pay online sessions with. So that actually covered more than my rent.” ([23:19])
  • Ensure all telehealth is legal in both states.

• Licensing Reciprocity & Preparation:

  • Begin licensure process ASAP: “The second you know you’re moving, get that process going. It took me the better part of a year.” ([25:57])
  • Some states (e.g. FL, NY, CA, NC) are notoriously slow or strict.

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Financial Planning & Emotional Realities ([25:57]–[29:35])

• Buffer Your Finances:

  • Part-time work or clinical jobs are acceptable strategies for transition.
  • Avoid working “from a deficit” — desperation can negatively impact consults and marketing.

• Personal & Emotional Impact:

  • Build both personal and professional communities in your new city.
  • Allow space for the emotional toll of transition: “Make sure you’re leaving space and time to actually feel those feelings.” ([28:05])
  • Support system is crucial — “Have a trusted friend or partner you can have your temper tantrums with.” ([29:35])

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Key Obstacles and Takeaways ([29:41]–[36:05])

• Expect the Unexpected:

  • “So much of it has to do with persistence...our ability to be okay with the unknown and recover from setbacks.” ([30:05])
  • Each market has its own “private practice culture” — be ready to adapt.

• Importance of Messaging:

  • John: “You have between six and nine seconds statistically to convince someone to keep reading on your website...focus on getting the words right...the more therapist websites that are out there, the more noise there is.” ([35:09])

• Growth Pace Is Flexible:

  • Some practice builders will want to grow fast and spend more, while others may prefer a slower pace.
  • Google AdWords can help regulate client acquisition: “It gave me the control in starting this business...to get clients right away.” ([32:37])

• Impact of Market Size and Competition:

  • Bigger cities = more competition (stronger SEO required); smaller cities = quicker results from basic strategies.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “When I moved to Seattle...I met 90 people in 90 days, which is not something I recommend...but I was in a new city and really lonely and I’m super extroverted.” – Alison ([09:16])
• “Start doing your market research as soon as you can...what’s working for your practice right now?” – John ([09:56])
• “If you know anything about SEO, you know that it takes time...” – John ([13:27])
• “Indexing your pages...is kind of like raising your hand saying ‘hey Google, I’ve got some new pages over here and I want you to come take a look at them.’” – John ([16:06])
• “The second you know you’re moving, get that process going. It took me the better part of a year, which seems ridiculous, to get something transferred...” – John ([25:57])
• “Make sure you’re leaving space and time to actually feel those feelings...do the things you need to do to build your personal community, not just your business community...” – Alison ([28:05])
• “So much of [success] has to do with persistence and our ability to be okay with the unknown and recover from setbacks.” – John ([30:05])
• “It’s doable. Like, it’s a lot to pack up your life and move to a different place and then unpack your life and start a business. I mean, it’s a lot and it’s doable.” – Alison ([34:46])
• “Focus on getting the words right...the more therapist websites that are out there, the more noise there is...” – John ([35:09])

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• [04:39] Guests share their multi-city private practice stories
• [08:33] Alison and John describe their divergent relocation strategies
• [09:56] Key market research to do pre-move
• [13:16] Setting up your website and SEO months in advance
• [16:06] Indexing website pages with Google explained
• [16:59] Incorporation/legal changes when moving states
• [20:52] Step-by-step online and local setup (GMB, Psychology Today)
• [23:06] Working with insurance, online counseling during and after move
• [25:57] Licensing transfer headaches and early action
• [28:05] Emotional impact and building new support systems
• [30:05] Expect the unexpected/persistence is key
• [32:33] Setting financial expectations and using Google AdWords to grow at your own pace
• [34:46] Final actionable takeaways from Alison and John

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Closing Takeaways

• It’s a lot, but it’s doable. (Alison)
  Take what worked before and apply those strengths, but be ready for each locale’s unique twists.
• Preparation and clarity matter. (John)
  Clarify your message and start your digital groundwork early; know that persistence and adaptability are essential traits.

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For resources, links, and more, visit www.privatepracticestartup.com

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Private Practice Startup, where we inspire you from startup to mastery. We chat with entrepreneurs, experts in the mental health and business arenas, and successful private practitioners to give you the tools needed to make your dream practice a reality. Visit theprivatepracticestartup.com for awesome resources, free trainings, and so much more. Here are your hosts, Dr. Kate Campbell and Katie Lemieux.

[B]

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Private Practice Startup podcast. I am one of your hosts, Katie Lemieux, and I want to say I'm here with my sidekick, but really virtually here.

[A]

You're virtually here. Yes. I'm looking across at you. So nice to see you. And welcome back, everybody, for another episode. It's Dr. Kate Campbell, by the way, just in case.

[B]

So we wanted to say welcome. If you are brand new to Startup Nation, we are rolling out the red carpet for you and welcoming you to our family.

[C]

And.

[B]

And we also have a special gift for you. Head over to PrivatePracticesStartup.com, go over to the resources tab and download your A to Z cheat sheet essentials for building and growing your dream practice. And of course, if you're a loyal listener and family and friend already, we want to say welcome back. So we're really excited about today's episode. We have two awesome and amazing people here and actually we got to meet one of them live and in person, spend time with her. I actually was her roommate in Orlando, the awesome and amazing Alison Puryear. Hey. Hey, Alison.

[C]

Hey.

[A]

Welcome.

[B]

And on the other side of the four square or whatever game we're playing here on Zoom, I feel like, you know, tic tac toe, I'm not really sure is John Clark.

[D]

Hey, guys, how's it going?

[A]

Welcome back to Mexico.

[D]

Thank you.

[B]

These are two amazing therapists and practice building folks in our industry. And if you don't know them yet, why not? And if you do know them, of course you know that they're amazing. So Alison is the owner of Abundance Practice Building, where she helps helps therapists see that private practice is totally possible. And John is a therapist and business coach who helps therapists fill the empty slots in their calendars. And just a little shout out to John and his team at Unconditional Media actually utilized you guys for SEO and had an amazing experience. You guys crafted SEO in a way that most people haven't. So I didn't have to spend thousands of dollars paying those monthly fees and it actually created great results. So thank you for that.

[D]

Yeah, I love hearing that.

[A]

How's that? Spontaneous Testimonial price.

[B]

I love giving prop shout outs to those who deserve it and help people. So appreciate you guys. So this actually, this actually this podcast comes today from a request from one of our Startup Nation superheroes. And the request was, how do you move a private practice? And you guys have actually both done that. And the cool thing is Alison interviewed John on her podcast on how to do that. So we're going to also add that to the Show Notes page. So the link will be there so you can listen to that podcast as well. But before we get started, Kate will share a message from our sponsor.

[A]

Yes. Today's podcast episode is sponsored by the Private Practice startup podcast. Attorney Approved Private Practice Paperwork. It's a tongue twister. And if you're a clinician in private practice, you know that having legal and ethical paperwork is super important because you don't want to be at risk with any legal issues. You want to protect yourself so you can continue doing what you love. And it's super time consuming to create that from scratch and let alone very expensive to have it reviewed by an attorney. So we took care of that for you. We have both a la carte and packages available, so head over to privatepracticestartup.com and look for the Shop tab. You'll see all of our paperwork options there. We also have business paperwork and supervision paperwork. And if you want to experience the paperwork and the quality, you can head over to the resources tab on our website and you can download a free copy of the HIPAA form and get your release of information for just free. So make sure to check that out.

[B]

Awesome.

[C]

And if you want, I know I.

[B]

Mentioned John and unconditional media regarding SEO. We also did a podcast with Perry Rosenbloom last time. SEO. Get Google to love you. So there's so much information to know about SEO. I don't think you can probably invest enough time learning about that. And especially since Google kind of rules the world, they change a lot of things. It's important to stay up to date. But hire the experts. That's my advice. So let's jump into our topic today, which is how to successfully move a private practice. And I think maybe where we should start is just kind of where have you guys had private practices and then where did you move to?

[D]

Yeah, it looks like Allison's on the move right now. I'm just gonna jump in and looks like she's making lunch.

[B]

I think Allison said, oh, crap, there's noise in the background or something. I gotta run and move.

[C]

Can I tell you something totally unrel. Real quick is that our next is a famous YouTuber for like motor things. So he just went by on a legit skateboard that was motorized. He just like.

[D]

That sounds so made up.

[C]

Yeah, I totally made that up.

[A]

So he's totally on the move. Alison is on the move and moving. Private practices. Yeah, something that I have zero experience with. My private practice is in Fort Lauderdale and it's staying in Fort Lauderdale forever. I'm not going anywhere.

[D]

I made the joke already that my first piece of advice is just don't do it. Don't move unless you have to or unless it's for the betterment of your partner's career, your partner's life, your life, I don't know. But I built my first practice in San Francisco, which was a good place to learn a lot of hard lessons and to learn, especially when it comes to using the Internet to, to promote a practice and in my case almost exclusively using the Internet to promote a practice. So at the time I didn't realize how all the important lessons I was learning and there was times where I resented being in such a saturated area in such a tech savvy area. But then I realized once I left I was like, it's probably never going to be quite as hard as it was there. And that was definitely, that was definitely the truth when I came to Charlotte, North Carolina, where I am now and started my practice here. So yeah, that's kind of where I learned things the hard way.

[A]

Jumped into the deep end and learned how to swim.

[D]

Absolutely.

[B]

And then you had three places.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. So I started out in Athens, Georgia, which is like a small college town, and then moved to Seattle and I was just part time in Athens. For some reason I felt the need to hold on to a full time job and a part time practice for five years, which I would not recommend. So then when I went to Seattle, I was so burned out with working for people who didn't know how to manage people that I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this full time. This is a great idea in a city where I know zero people. And so. But it went really well and I really enjoyed it and you know, aside from all the crying and worry, and then moved back to the southeast and I'm in Asheville, just two hours away from John. So I'm in Asheville, North Carolina now and started there as well. And it's great that like, like I'm glad both John and I are here because we have very different experiences and growing practices when I interviewed him for my podcast. I was like, this is like the flip side of the coin in building successful practice. It's awesome.

[D]

This is why if we ever, in some bizarre universe started a group practice together, we would do great.

[C]

Yeah, we'd be full in like four days.

[D]

Yeah. It'd just be like totally different approaches, but getting the job done regardless. It's like the outcome is the same. Which is part of what I love about. About your options. Right. And like, really doing marketing that plays to your strengths. That's. That's the opportunity for therapists right now is that there's a lot of ways to market a practice, you know.

[B]

Thank you for saying that. I think that sometimes therapists feel like they have to fit this specific or perfect, like, strategy and do everything. And I tell them that all the time. I say, what are your natural talents? Get rid of the rest, outsource that, hire someone else. You don't need to do everything. And that's just so important. And it's exhausting when we're trying to do everything. But we would love to know a little bit about, like, what you're saying, Allison, is your guys personal experiences in regards to moving and relocating and opening a practice.

[C]

Yeah. Well, my tack has always been really heavy on networking. I want to throw my computer against the wall at least once a week, just in general. And so I. I felt really outmatched with the idea of understanding the Internet and technology. I just felt like, okay, I know how to connect with people, so I'm going to use that strength and hopefully that will work. And so when I moved to Seattle, which is when I really needed to start learning how to market, I met 90 people in 90 days, which is not something I recommend for people to do. But I was in a new city and I was really lonely and I'm super extroverted, so I was going to shrivel up and die if I didn't do it.

[A]

That's aggressive.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. And it worked like it. It took a little while to start getting those referrals, but those seeds that I planted really sprouted. And I had a website that had great copy, but you would never have found it unless somebody gave you my card. Because I didn't even know what SEO stood for, much less had the first clue how to do it. So I basically employed that plus a little bit of SEO when I moved to North Carolina. Just networked my tail off and, you know, got involved with some organizations that are aligned with my ideal client population. So that was what worked best for Me.

[B]

Awesome. What about you, John?

[D]

Well, I think one part that I would add, I think some folks don't think about is start doing your market research as soon as you can. Like, as soon as I knew that we were moving to Charlotte, I created a list of therapists that I would call, really, just not necessarily for the sake of marketing, because I hadn't shown up yet. No one's going to know who that guy am. But I was asking therapists generally three things. What's working for your practice right now? In other words, how are clients finding you? That's one of my favorite questions to ask any therapist. Right. Because what's working in San Francisco wasn't necessarily going to work in Charlotte. So what's working for you? How do clients find you? And then determining how much can I charge? Right. And at the time, moving to Charlotte, I was told unanimously that you cannot start a private pay practice here. So that's the culture I was coming into in private practice, was you need to be on insurance. And oh, by the way, all the good panels are full. So, you know, everyone's painting this really dark picture.

[A]

You're doomed.

[D]

Yeah, you're really doomed. And then looking, starting to think about where should my office be? What's the location? That might make sense for me. But, you know, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Right. So again, asking therapists to let you in a little bit on what's working and what the climate is like for private practice in your new city.

[B]

And I'm going to assume, like as you're reaching out to them, you're starting to build relationships. So just kind of like Allison was building relationships, you were kind of building relationships in this way.

[D]

That's the weird thing about me, is that I have scaled this group. My group practice has been open for now less than two years since I moved here, maybe a year and nine months. And I've got four full time clinicians and I've only networked with one person in two years. So that's a bizarre kind of caveat. So everything, absolutely everything that I've done has been digital up until this point. So certainly making some connections. I made a friend that way. But in terms of like hoping that these new connections would become referral sources for me was not necessarily my approach right off the bat.

[B]

That's interesting you say that because I built the majority of my own practice digitally as well. Didn't do a lot of, I did networking, but I was doing it in a way that was exhausting me. And I Wasn't looking for who held my ideal client because I didn't know. I just was giving it all to everybody. And I was like, I'm not doing this networking stuff. I'll just stick to online stuff.

[D]

Well, I think we have to define networking too, because I think a lot of therapists just go out there and go, oh, someone on a Facebook group said I should be networking, so I'm gonna do that. So, and this is where I would go back to Alison, say, okay, so if you're gonna network, like have a goal, have a reason why you're doing it, know why you're doing it, and network with the right people.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. I think efficiency is so important in networking, like making sure it's effective and it's efficient. Instead of just like, I mean, you may as well just put cards on everybody's mailbox if you're going to just like, you know, like, yeah, bleh.

[A]

So marketing.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. Instead, like forming relationships with the people that your ideal clients are going to go to before they find you. And that's what I've usually done. And that's going to differ based on your ideal client and your niche and all of that.

[A]

And we actually have a podcast that we just did with Joe Muirhead, Focus on Networking. So we'll put the links for that in the show notes as well.

[C]

Awesome.

[A]

I'm curious, John, about your online digital strategies. How early on, before you actually relocate, do you start working on the preparation digitally, like in the online aspect?

[D]

That's a good question. Yeah. I took a couple notes and broke this up into basically two timelines. So the first, the first kind of phase I would say is in that three to six month phase when you're about three to six months out. That is when you should start your website and launch your website and have it go live. Even if you don't have an office yet. You probably don't have an office yet. But that shouldn't stop you from getting a head start because if you know anything about SEO, you know that it takes time. You know that. And we have to tell all the folks we work with, all the therapists that we, that we do SEO for that. It's going to take a number of months. And in fact, that three to six month window is really kind of an industry standard for actually seeing SEO results after the work's been done. At the time I created, I named my business with a region specific keyword. At the time that was the general theory was that that is best practice. It's not so much that way now. So I would say for folks getting ready to name a practice, don't feel pigeonholed into making it, you know, chicagocounseling.net IO or whatever, try to squeeze in these keywords for like what could be kind of an ugly name that you don't like. So the general consensus with SEO is that certainly having a name like mine, which is Charlotte Counseling and Wellness, can help and did give me a head start in terms of leveraging keywords, but you really don't have to. And if I could go back, I probably would just name it something a little more creative, just for what it's worth. But in that three to six months, I would go and set up your website, set up your services pages, which are going to be really important for both SEO and Google AdWords, optimize your search engine related phrases, at minimum, optimize those phrases to include your region specific keywords. And again, I didn't know that I was going to be in the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte, but I knew I was going to be in Charlotte, North Carolina, working with adults with anxiety and depression or whatever. So I could go ahead and plug those, plug those keywords in and then another important step was to index those pages with Google. So if you are going to do some of your SEO, and I know we can talk about this for six hours, but those are two things you could do and make sure you're indexing them with Google. So Google actually knows that you're kind of on the map somewhere now and you can start getting that traction. So I'd set those, I would set those things up, set your pages up, set the keywords up and then I would start your content strategy basically and I would stick with it for that many months out.

[A]

And I'm not sure all of our listeners know what it means to index with Google. So can you talk about just what that means?

[D]

Yeah, it's kind of like Google. And rather than teaching specific tactics for SEO, I like to try to help people understand how Google thinks. And so Google doesn't know that you exist yet. And so indexing your pages and if you just go to Google and type in how to index pages with Google or using the Google Crawl feature, it's kind of like raising your hand saying hey Google, I've got some new pages over here and I want you to come take a look at them. It's a way to speed up the process in getting recognized by Google versus just existing out there on page 72 of Google. And then People and then slowly getting some traction kind of by happenstance. So it's a way to kind of accelerate that process and tell Google that your site is important and it has some regional keywords that you want Google to notice.

[A]

Hey, Google.

[B]

So what you're saying is it's important to raise our hand.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

You know, I'm sure a lot of people are wondering, listening to this podcast, like, as you move from state to state, like, what about incorporation? And you're talking also about your name. Do you keep your name? Do you let go of your name? Do you close that incorporation? Can you guys talk on that?

[C]

Yeah. So I had to close mine in Seattle and then reincorporate or start a new corporation. I'm not sure I hadn't. I had somebody else do it. But here in North Carolina, which I'm sure John encountered too, is like, when it's your practice, you can't become a corporation without going through your licensing board. And so there's all this weird, like, paperwork back and forth between the state and the licensing board that you have to manage. So for which I did not have in Seattle and was got really confused about initially. So, yeah, I had to close up shop there and open up here.

[B]

Can you talk a little bit more about that? Because we don't have that in Florida. We don't have to go through our licensing board for incorporation.

[C]

Yeah, I think that it's basically like to be a PLLC as a therapist here in order to be the professional. And I don't think they'd let you do it otherwise. It's really just pieces of paper where the state says, yeah, we're cool with this. And then the licensing board says, yeah, we're okay with this too. And then they get married. I don't know. But nothing happens. And somehow we're legitimate.

[A]

So I would assume that you have. In addition to that, you have. Obviously you have to update your address to the new location. And then do you guys have city and county business tax licenses there in North Carolina? Because we have to set that up in Florida.

[C]

Yeah. We don't have a city business license here in Asheville, but apparently there is this. This, like, tax for helpers that I didn't realize about the first year I was here. That's like 200 bucks a year or something. Florida has a similar thing. I know. Or no, Tennessee has a similar thing. I know. But just like a rando thing. You're supposed to magically know that you need.

[D]

I'd love to meet the person that came up with that tax, they're like, what other, what else do we need? Other barriers we need to put in front of therapists to help people. How about the helpers tax call? Let's call it 250, you know.

[B]

Yeah, I know.

[D]

Like, are we doing enough, right?

[B]

I thought we're doing enough to save the world and make a difference. And it's like boom, slam on a text, right?

[C]

Yeah, yeah. It's ridiculous.

[D]

I think going back to the business name thing, certainly if you have a region specific business name, then you're going to want to leave that or potentially sell it or at least sell your URL or the assets of the business. In my case, I had grown my practice in San Francisco under my personal name, which meant that I, after all those years of work and ranking on page one of SEO, I could do absolutely nothing with it. So that's something to think about. In general, that's a reason why I don't endorse naming your business johnclarktherapy.com if you think you might ever potentially move, no one's going to buy that business or if you go into a group practice, you're going to run into issues. But we are working with one therapist who's moving actually from the Bay Area to Asheville. And so her site is under her personal name. And we're going to have, we're basically just going to redo the SEO work and bring that, help her bring that business to Asheville and reuse that website, optimize it for the new locale. And then she will need to file for her PLLC in North Carolina and also make sure that her business name isn't taken. So that would be another thing. If you have a name like thrive somethingcounseling.com and you bring it to, let's say, Charlotte, you would need to make sure that at least that name's not being used and you want to get it registered with your county or city and just follow all those steps.

[A]

So, John, you talked about website and SEO and starting to work on that three to six months before you actually relocate and what are some of the other online strategies that you've used that you found really helpful in building your practice?

[D]

So I would, once you've, once you've taken care of those things and let's say you've done all those and you've maintained some consistent content strategy for those months leading up to your arrival and then you finally arrived. So you're going to be looking for an office space pretty quickly. I think I Said this on Allison on your show, that I always recommend not growing faster than your business itself. So when you move to a new place, renting a whole office or in a lot of people's cases, like an office suite is not a good idea. So you land to a new place, you don't know anyone, and you put a. And you put a giant overhead, you know, against yourself. So I think starting small, subleasing, but then in terms of the digital stuff, once you have an office, which is going to be important, obviously plugging that address into your website, your Psychology Today profile, and setting up your Google My business listing is one of those things that you can't do until you have a physical address because they have to send you a postcard in the mail. So if you could do it earlier, I would definitely recommend it because there's a ranking system to that in itself. But the second you have an office, get your Google My business listing set up. There's a couple kind of rules of thumb for that as well. Make sure you have all the sections filled out in their entirety. Make sure you have high quality, professionally taken photos in every category. So everything from, like, pictures of the interior of your office, the exterior, your logo. Google wants to see that you have basically a complete profile and that you've covered all your bases. That's going to help you in the actual ranking on the map and on that map view that you see at the top of a lot of search results. And then the last thing I'll say is Google My business just released a new feature where you can actually publish a post, kind of like you would do on Facebook to promote your Google My business listing. So I would. I don't know precisely how that factors in, but obviously if Google's making this an option, they want to see us using it. So for my practice, we're posting every single week a new blog post or whatever it is to the actual Google My business listing.

[B]

Cool.

[A]

That's interesting.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. And I'm also curious because I'm sure there's a lot of people listening as well that are wondering, like, what if I take insurance? Like, what do they need to be prepared for? What's the process? What do they need to know switching states?

[C]

It depends on if the insurance will cover, like, online counseling or not, which I would also recommend. Like, that's one thing that made the transition a lot easier for me from Seattle to Asheville is I had a lot of clients who I did, you know, private pay online sessions with. So that actually covered more than My rent. Oh, shoot. The room was about to go off.

[D]

Hold on. That's a great point, though. I can. I can pick up on that. And that helped me a lot in the transition as well, financially, is seeing a handful of clients from California while I was making that transition. And that did help a good bit until I had an office and could get my own clients. But, yeah, having something like that, that can be a cushion and a transition is a great idea, Alison.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And one thing, one thing I'm thinking is, I know in Florida it's really hard to. There's like no reciprocity license wise. And so you have to jump through some hoops. And so probably in that, like three to six months.

[A]

Month.

[B]

I would recommend six months at least, especially if you're moving to Florida, New York or California. Is contact the licensing board there to see what's required to transition your license. Because I love that idea, is if you're already licensed in X state and then you transition a Y state, you can do, you know, and continue to do technology assisted counseling. So that's awesome. While you're growing your practice. That's a great little ninja tip. So, Allison, you were saying?

[C]

Yeah, I was just saying, like, my online, like, my online clients brought me a cushion with me and I was able to keep doing the good work. And I was pretty selective about who I invited to that option because I wanted to make sure that they were stable and appropriate for online counseling. Yeah. So that was something I was really grateful for.

[B]

So part of that is just knowing, you know, the laws and rules in your state around technology assisted counseling. Like, say, for example, you haven't done that yet, but you're like, oh, here's a great way to buffer is know them in the state that you're licensed, so you can assure you're practicing legal and ethically to do that. But great. I love that idea.

[C]

Yeah, I think too, with people who are like, people who are coming from states that are a pain in the neck to get licensed. Like, it's not just the state you're moving to that can make it really hard to get licensed, it's also the state that you're in. So the second you know you're moving, go ahead and get that process going.

[A]

Yeah, we're in one of those states.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. North Carolina is a tough state because they have a lot of really weird rules about which classes you had to have taken in grad school. And so I've had people that I've helped build who had to go, like, They've been licensed 10 years in another state and they have to take class online before they get licensed here.

[A]

We hear that often.

[B]

Yeah, same here in Florida.

[D]

So what can really make or break your transition, you know, again? And I didn't start by mentioning that part, but certainly the second you know, you're moving, start that process. It took me the better part of a year, which seems ridiculous, to get something transferred, but you just never know and you don't want that to be the thing that inhibits you from starting a practice when you arrive. The last thing I would say about just kind of making it work strategically or even financially is I don't think there's anything wrong with targeting or picking up some part time clinical work or agency work or shifts at the hospital or whatever it may be to kind of help with that transition and to get connected with people. We know that private practice can be isolating. It can be just you in your office, seeing clients and then going home, you know, and so I think, you know, getting plugged into something can help both just kind of socially and with your transition and also give you that cushion financially. Because the last thing that I want to see is therapists who are working from a deficit and are working out of that, out of desperation to fill their empty slots. And so I think the transition poses that risk for a lot of therapists is that they might start from that point of being desperate. And I think that changes the dynamic of your business, of your interaction with clients, of how you do initial consults with clients, in the end, your marketing. So I definitely don't want therapists to be operating from that deficit.

[B]

I'm glad that you said that because not only is it in transition, I know I have a similar story. When I like went into private practice full time, right during the holidays, I couldn't read for six weeks because I was like so paranoid. And I actually did go back to. I went back to part time work. I was a part time clinical director for six months. And that's okay. And it's all part of many of our journeys. And don't take them as, you know, you missed it, you didn't do it right or whatever. It's just part of your journey. It's a little hiccup or the transition. And so really just giving you guys permission that however you do your private practice journey, it's cool, great. It's okay. So appreciate that.

[C]

I think another important thing to consider too is like, how do you typically do with transitions personally and making sure that you're Leaving space and time to actually feel those feelings, like, do the. Like do the things you need to do to build your personal community, not just your business community, and still connecting to the people from your old community in order to keep you buoyed. So that's a really good point.

[A]

I'm actually. I'm not moving cities, but I'll be moving private practice locations, like very close to where I'm located now. I've been here almost eight years in this location, and the building was purchased by new owners, and we've got some issues with parking and stuff like that now. So I'm not renewing my lease. And I'm excited about the change and the growth. We're going to be expanding a little bit, but along with that comes anxiety and, you know, there's a lot of other balls in the air. So it's like that anticipatory, like not knowing what. What to expect. And I've been looking for a new office space now for about a month and a half. We've looked at about 12 spaces. I'll be going again tomorrow for hopefully final round of picking the right space. But yeah, there's. I mean, that's a really good point that you bring up about the transition and the change. And I can imagine if I was moving both my house, my whole personal life, you know, my son's school, and there's so many parts to that. Being able to give yourself space to deal with the emotions that come up around that. That's a really good point.

[B]

I was thinking about having a trusted friend or partner that you can have your temper tantrums with.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Somebody on call. What were some of the things that maybe you guys didn't. Didn't anticipate and then that kind of showed up as you transitioned.

[D]

Good question.

[C]

It is a good question.

[B]

I could do the Jeopardy. Song. No, I'm just kidding.

[D]

I think. I don't. I think going into private practice is. The nature of it is knowing that things aren't always going to go the way you think they are. And so much of it has to do with persistence. Success in private practice has a lot to do with persistence and our ability to be okay with the unknown and recover from setbacks. Sometimes I really think that's a big. That just has a lot to do with whether people make it. Make it, you know, whatever that means for you in private practice or where they go, this isn't for me. And I also. I like to give a lot of people permission that this isn't for everyone. And it's okay. And it's a lot. It's a big thing to take on, to grow a new business in a new city on top of everything else you're going through, on top of that transition. But I guess I would just, just know that there is going to be a slightly different kind of private practice culture wherever you go, and people are going to have different reactions to therapy. Or for instance, the work I did in San Francisco with clients who are stereotypically very therapy savvy and very looking for very, very specific kinds of therapy was a little bit different in coming to Charlotte. Right. And also in San Francisco, they were ready to pay out of pocket. That was very, very normal. And then coming here, it was more of a. We had to do more of a sell to help you understand why we're working in this private pay model. So just be ready for those things and go into it knowing that you're in a different market. And so you're going to have to. You're going to have to adapt as you go.

[B]

Great.

[C]

That's a great answer. Yeah. I think for me, like John alluded to this earlier of, like, the second time around, you've learned so much that, like, it's easier with quotation marks because it's not easy easy, but you've learned enough in the first go round that you can usually apply even if there are some individual differences between cities, because who you are and how you market is translatable across, you know, cities or countries, probably so. And I think for me, like, when I filled up here like it was. I felt sad that I wasn't gonna get to do that again, which is why, why I went to practice building. And now I'm a stage mom living vicariously through everybody else's practice building. But it's. Yeah, I think the fact that I realized how much I had learned when I moved here, even though there were some things kind of stacked to make it a bit harder, like I had a toddler this time and that kind of stuff. Yeah.

[B]

Awesome.

[D]

And what I also. Oh, sorry, last thing.

[B]

No, go ahead.

[D]

Some people want to grow really fast when they move to a new city. Some people are okay with growing really slow, slow. And this is something else, and I think we talked about on your show, which is that people want to know, okay, what are all the steps? Or how much money is it going to take? And it's really like, it just depends. When I moved here, I wanted to be pretty aggressive. I also had the ability to do my own SEO work, which not Everyone has, and I certainly don't always recommend. But then getting here, I had already known. I told myself, okay, I'm going to set aside this amount of money per month and have kind of a monthly budget as to what I'm going to put into this business to get clients right away. And I would do myself a disservice if I didn't mention Google AdWords in this episode. But AdWords gave me the control in starting this business to go this month. I'm putting 500 bucks, I'm going to be a little more aggressive with my AdWords, and then next month I'm going to bump it down to 200 or whatever it may be. And also going, I want to target a really specific client and a really specific part of Charlotte. That helped me a lot as well. So getting Google's attention with SEO, but also having kind of my finger on the trigger with AdWords as well, helps me feel like, you know, I can kind of open that fault, open and close that faucet as I need to as I build until I have, you know, just as I'm establishing other ways of clients finding me well.

[C]

And that makes me think too, John, about how, like, when you were in San Francisco, like, there's a. There's more kind of like SEO competition, so to speak.

[D]

Big time.

[C]

Yeah. Versus. I mean, like, I did like the tiniest, most amateurish SEO things to my therapy website, and it soared to the top of Google in my niche, in my city. So, like, there are some cities where, like, if you move to a smaller city, like both of us did, it was like the trumpets start blaring, like, you know, so I think that's another thing to consider about this city where you're moving is some of the marketing might, might be a lot more impactful than where you're from.

[B]

Definitely.

[C]

And vice versa.

[D]

Definitely.

[B]

Awesome. And what would you guys say your final takeaway is from your message today or your messages collectively? What do you want people most to know?

[C]

I think that it's doable. Like, it's a lot. Like, it's a lot to pack up your life and move to a different place and then unpack your life and start a business. I mean, it's a lot and it's doable. So, like, do the things that work to get you clients before. It'll probably work here, too.

[B]

Awesome. What about you, John?

[D]

I've talked a lot about getting web traffic to your new website today. And I would say that the big caveat for all of that in any digital Marketing, for that matter, is clarifying your message, getting really clear on the words that you're going to use to describe what you do. The more therapist websites that are out there, the more noise there is, the more confusion there is, the more you have clients sitting there with 10 tabs open of different therapists websites. So you have between six and nine seconds statistically to convince someone to keep reading on your website or they leave. And so I would say focus on getting the words right, focus on really clarifying your message before and or during this process of getting more traffic to your site. So always kind of keep that in mind and as things get more dense online, keep in mind the importance of finding the right words to describe what you do.

[B]

Awesome. Well, we really appreciate you guys hanging out with us. I know sometimes it takes an act of God to get like the four of us together. We just so appreciate you guys as people, as practice builders and helping therapists grow and build their dream practices. And of course John really weighs heavily as he was talking about and really the media aspect, the digital Allison's also networking, just the whole abundance mindset. And so again, if you haven't checked them out as of yet, make sure you do so. And all that stuff will be on the show notes page. And next week we are going to have Dr. Lisa Herman who is going to talk about building an online group practice. So this is not a brick and mortar group practice, this is an online group practice. So you'll definitely want to listen to that. It's a really cool niche. And if you do know a colleague of yours that's moving or maybe you're moving yourself, make sure you share this podcast with them to really help them set them up for success and think about these things that they may have not thought about. So Startup Nation, thanks again for hanging out with us. We had a great time. Feel free to subscribe, rate and review on this podcast. We'd love to know your thoughts, your ideas, how this stuff is inspiring you and working magic in your practice building life. And so until next time, thank you for allowing us to inspire you from startup to mastery. Take care everybody.

[A]

See you next time. Thanks for joining us on the Private practice startup. Visit theprivatepracticestartup.com for awesome resources, free trainings, attorney approved private practice paperwork and so much more.