Stay ConnectedHealers are often drawn to this work because of their own histories and emotional pain. the only way to thrive and avoid burnout while we help others heal is to do our own healing.
On this podcast, Annie Schuessler-Zam talks to all kinds of healers as they share vulnerable stories about pain, healing and growth.
Some of us fit right into the middle of our own niches. We have created the programs we really needed ourselves. That would definitely describe me, and it describes this week's guest.
My guest this week is someone who created a totally unique and expansive program for women with ADHD.
Liz Adams is a neuropsychologist specializing in ADHD. She is also a woman with ADHD. Liz has a huge passion for empowering women with ADHD, and she's excited to bring her novel approach out into the world!
Here's some of what we talked about:
Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/193
Here's the question I answered from a listener I'll call Susan:
I pretty much constantly have a full caseload. I know that staying full and seeing this many people is burning me out. How do I find time to build a program with a full caseload? I'm really struggling on how to shift slowly out of private practice and into something more sustainable for my own mental health, while also being financially stable. I love my clients but it's exhausting. I hate telling people no, but I'm maxed out and turning multiple people away every week. I've spent the last couple weeks setting schedule boundaries of when I am and am not seeing clients.
Here's some of what I talked about in my answer:
On seeing more clients than you want to:
"I noticed that a lot of people (and this was absolutely me) feel like: I should be able to do all of this AND all of that because I see someone else doing it…And the thing is, it doesn't matter what someone else's capacity is."
Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/192
Many of us get stuck. We wait to create a program beyond private practice because we want it to be perfect before we launch it. And that can leave us waiting forever.
My guest today is going to help you let go of that idea.
She's letting us in on the many iterations her programs have gone through.
The business she has now is thanks to being willing to get started imperfectly.
Meet Reverend Maureen Cotton, an Interspiritual minister, serving the spiritual-but-not-religious. She's a spiritual wedding coach and officiant with her business The Soulful Wedding, which helps couples experience their wedding as a transformative rite of passage.
Here's some of what we talked about:
Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/191
I thought this episode was going to be titled "A Little Dose Of Healthy Narcissism."
One of my brilliant past clients pointed out that a little dose of healthy narcissism seems to be necessary in order to grow a program beyond private practice and step into the world of marketing.
Their idea was that perhaps you've got to step into a tiny bit of narcissism to have the courage to grow your audience and sell your offer.
Disclaimer: We're not talking about narcissism like what we see in Elon Musk or Donald Trump. We're not talking about a diagnosis either. We're really talking about a bit of bold inner confidence.
I mentioned this concept to a coach I was working with and she said "That's a great podcast episode!"
So I put "A Little Dose Of Healthy Narcissism" in my list of future podcast episodes. And it sat there…and sat there… for a year.
Then I realized that a little dose of healthy narcissism isn't really what I focus on or where my clients, friends or colleagues who are making great money with simple businesses are focusing.
Even that coach who told me it would be a great episode doesn't run on narcissism or bold confidence.
Side note:
If you do have a little dose of healthy narcissism going for you, wonderful! Especially if you're queer, you're a person of color, you're a woman, and/or you hold any marginalized identity, your confidence is a beautiful and radical thing. I love it.
I just don't believe you've got to cultivate bold confidence before you can make your business fly.
You don't need to wait until you feel confident, and you don't need to focus your energy on building your confidence.
For those of us raised as girls, confidence can be extra tricky. We've been taught forever NOT to act too confident.
Confidence is tricky for MANY of us.
So if it isn't about stepping into a little dose of healthy narcissism, what DOES help you feel confident selling your offer?
It's about falling in love with and geeking out on your work, and specifically on your signature offer.
I've had the best year ever in my business. Again. And it's not because I've cracked the code on being super confident.
My confidence goes up and down throughout the day and throughout the seasons.
My confidence depends on what's happening with my hormones, what's going on with my kids, maybe even whether something reminds me of high school when I didn't sit in the lunchroom but instead hid in the library.
But I've got confidence in my offer.
My offer is great at helping therapists create and sell their programs, and I'm getting more and more known for it.
I've totally fallen in love with my own offer.
I created it for people I care about and listened carefully to, based on what I do best. I've then improved it with every iteration. The program also has amazing guest teachers who do things I can't.
I've put my best work and resources into it.
CYP is an amazing process and there's nothing else like it for therapists in private practice to create and sell an offer beyond private practice.
So every time I get ready to talk about my offer as a podcast guest or on my podcast or I run an open house or update my sales page, I think: "Dang this is an amazing offer!"
Putting your best work into your offer is the foundation of having confidence in selling that offer.
Sometimes that confidence might look like a bit of narcissism.
Like…maybe I seem narcissistic right now. 😀
I know some business owners who LOOK like they have a little dose of healthy narcissism. But knowing them behind the scenes…they don't.
Their confidence soars because their offer is working really well.
But what if your offer is new and you can't lean into the results it has already brought people?
You're probably not going feel as confident selling your offer the first time as you will the 3rd time.
AND you still need to fall in love with your pilot offer.
Part of what makes your pilot offer incredibly valuable is that (if you've taken my advice) you're delivering it live in a highly interactive way, you're putting your experience, gifts and personality into it, and you're tuning in and responding to feedback.
A couple of my close entrepreneur friends just launched new offers.
In moments in the process, they faced self doubt.
But as they worked to boost their confidence in selling their offers, they thought about their offers. They reminded themselves about the value of what they'd created.
They reminded themselves about how much love, thought, skill and experience they'd put into creating these offers.
As I'm recording/writing this in November, folks in the current cohort of CYP have just created their pilot programs. They've carefully niched. They've crafted high-quality, high-touch programs filled with so much love and experience and their unique perspectives. They've created the programs only they can create.
Most of them are totally nervous. And that's totally OK. As they go to the next step, which is creating a plan to grow their audiences and to sell their offers, they will remember how much they love their offers.
They've already sold their offers to themselves, so now they'll be able to sell them to others in total integrity.
To sum it all up: How do you grow your confidence in selling?
Focus on who you're creating your offer for, and make that offer highly valuable. Put your best work into it. Make that a positive obsession*
When you fall in love with your own offer, you can share that love and find your bold confidence, even on a bad day.
*Borrowing the phrase "positive obsession" from author Octavia E Butler.
Show notes at http://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/190
How do you create and fill a group program?
How do you navigate a full therapy practice at the same time?
We're about to go behind the scenes and find out exactly how my guest has done it.
Meet Sonya Brewer, a trauma specialist and relationship expert who specializes in creative life and relationship design for overachieving trauma survivors and their partners.
She created Badass Boundaries, a 12-week group mentorship program for overachieving trauma survivors.
Here's some of what we talked about:
Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/189
People ask me all the time "What should I do now to grow my business?"
Often they say: "I heard….is a good idea. Should l do that?"
Every online business expert is selling their thing to us. (Including me!)
Our friends and colleagues tell us that what they are doing now is THE thing that works.
It's confusing to figure out what to invest our time and money in and what to try.
What should YOU focus on next?
People ask me whether they should:
How do you figure out what you should do?
I've gotten really clear that before we talk about WHAT you should do, we need to talk WHEN you should do certain things.
If you ask me whether you should hire a social media manager or create a monthly membership or take a copywriting course or really anything…my first question will be:
Where are you in your business right this minute?
I used to be way more agnostic about this. If you worked with me in 2018 you might have heard me say…sure it might not be ideal but…you COULD try a monthly membership as your first thing. I didn't want to take anyone's freedom away.
I got clear pretty fast that doing things in the wrong order sets us up to lose money and feel miserable.
As you're creating a business beyond private practice, and stepping into the world of online services that are not therapy, you can waste a TON of time and money doing things in the wrong order. Even if those are not the wrong things to do.
I sometimes hear very sad stories from people who started with the wrong things.
People tell me they invested in 20K coaching programs as one of their first steps in business beyond private practice. Those programs taught them to use complicated funnels including paid ads and webinars.
I've talked to other folks who started hiring a team as their first thing. They figured since the marketing felt hard, they'd start by hiring someone to "take over all of their marketing."
Other people got advice that they should grow a huge social media following as their first step.
Their businesses were not at the right stage for any of those moves, and their frustration and sadness comes from feeling like they've failed, they've wasted tons of money, and even believing it's their fault.
Any of those moves might make sense at the right time.
I'm not saying coaching programs should never cost 20k. That's not the takeaway.
For some business owners, hiring someone to help you implement your marketing strategy might make sense when you're at a certain stage.
And developing a social media following is still part of a sound strategy for some business owners.
Here's a small tangent on that one. Growing a huge audience as your first step used to work. That's why people keep teaching it.
Tara McMullin, one of my mentors, and my guest in the last episode, wrote a wonderful article titled: You Can't Grow an Audience Like You Used To (and That's Okay)
Tara walks us through the history of online marketing and explains why the strategy of growing a huge audience and THEN starting to sell stuff to them worked in the past and is not working any longer.
If you're thinking…"but that's what Pat Flynn did! That's what Amy Porterfield did!" you might want to read that article.
End of tangent.
You've gotta take steps to create and then grow your business in the right order. Just like you have to build a house in the right order. You shouldn't start with the roof.
So what ARE the first things to do when you're in stage one of a new business?
(Perhaps you've already got a private practice, but we're talking about creating a NEW business beyond private practice. Any new business starts at stage 1.)
Stage one has 3 steps. Those 3 steps are to identify a viable niche, create a highly valuable offer for that niche, and sell that offer.
Let's go through each of those for a moment.
The first step is to identify a viable niche.
If you want to hear me talk through the process of choosing your niche, head to my episode titled The Best Niches Beyond Private Practice.
Sometimes therapists and healers want to skip or rush through this step.
Niche work can feel tedious. It can feel limiting. It can feel…NOT like what you want to do first!
And maybe you know you can serve a whole bunch of different niches really well. Maybe in your private practice you haven't niched and you're very successful.
Well… creating a signature program and a business beyond private practice with a vague or broad niche is VERY difficult and sets you up to feel discouraged and sad.
So go listen to that niching episode to hear examples of viable niches and what makes a great niche.
Step two is to create and a pilot or beta offer for that niche.
Do this quickly so that you find out whether your idea works and so that you can start making money.
Your pilot is going to be highly interactive, and you're going to deliver it 1:1 or to a very small group. You're crafting your pilot for the people in your niche, based on exactly what they need from you and what you're great at delivering.
Sometimes therapists want to skip over this step and create a passive online course or start building a monthly membership.
Don't start there. Because:
The formats I recommend for a pilot are:
Once you've done those first 2 steps, identifying your niche and crafting your pilot offer, you're ready for the next step.
Step 3 is to sell your program.
You'll do this through a relational/soft launch. You're going to tell everyone you know that you've created this pilot, and you're going to invite your first participants.
A relational launch will include reaching out personally to your colleagues, announcing your offer in communities you belong to, sending personal invites to potential participants, offering discovery calls to people who are considering signing up, and maybe running free interactive events like a Q&A or a free workshop over zoom.
If you're not sure whether enough people are aware of your work and ready to make those referrals, you're going to start with a 1:1 offer even if you KNOW you're going to turn it into a group offer soon.
A lot of people ask me how long it takes to move through those 3 steps.
You can go through them in 8 weeks or you can take up to a year.
That length of time depends on:
There's one more thing you might want to do in stage one. You're probably going to want to start an email list.
If there's a good chance you're going to stick with this niche, you'll likely regret not having started an email list.
And don't do ANYTHING else until you're through stage one.
Don't focus on branding or naming or Tiktok or anything else.
Those activities will take you away from your first 3 steps. And you won't get much value from those things until you've done those 3 steps.
Any skilled branding expert or web designer or copywriter is going to ask you to tell them about and show them your foundation. Then they can help you amplify it. If you don't have a business, there's nothing to amplify.
But what about tech platforms?
The only tech/platform things you might need or want are:
And perhaps you'll want
Invest in a working with a business coach in stage one ONLY if you think they will help you get it done faster, you can pay for that help without going into debt, and it costs an amount you can soon make back.
Find a person or program who will help you only focus on those first 3 steps until you've gotten through them.
Once you've served some people with your pilot, you've got a business and you can start discerning what you're going to do next grow your business.
You're in stage 2.
Stage 2 is when you can focus on reaching more people, honing your messaging, and reiterating and improving your offer.
I've got a program for you to get you all the way through those first 3 steps of stage 1 in 8 weeks.
It's called Create Your Program.
I designed CYP to help you start a solid business beyond private practice, whether that's gonna be your main thing or a profitable side hustle.
Some people come to CYP as their first move beyond private practice.
Other folks come to CYP after they've invested in programs where they learned marketing strategies their businesses weren't ready for.
After CYP they're in a much better position to use what they learned in those other programs.
Get on it so you hear when I open registration.
In CYP I guide you step-by-step from niching all the way through launching a pilot program. This is a small group experience where you'll get a lot of brave work done in a supportive group of driven and open hearted entrepreneurs like you.
If you're worried about the legal part of this, you are not alone. We have a guest attorney come in to answer your legal questions and recommend your first steps in that area.
The last two times I opened registration, CYP filled early, so do make sure you're on the waitlist so that you hear as soon as it opens.
Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/188
My approach to goal setting and productivity have changed in a big way based on what you're about to hear.
Listener favorite Tara McMullin is back on Rebel Therapist Podcast, talking about a huge pivot she's made in her work life. She's also sharing her new book, What Works, A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting.
A bit more about her:
Tara McMullin is a podcast host, writer, and speaker who's been making business make sense for small business owners for over 12 years. She's the host of What Works, a podcast about entrepreneurship for humans that's been downloaded over 4 million times. She's also the co-founder of YellowHouse.Media, a podcast production agency. Tara brings a unique perspective to business thinking informed by her background in theology, interests in endurance training and critical theory, and strengths as an autistic creator.
Also, Tara was my business coach/strategist for as long as she WAS a business coach/strategist.
Here's some of what we talked about:
Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/187
People ask me all the time: How can I compete with the big names?
My short answer: Don't.
Your program has the potential to be better than those of the big names, if you lean into providing a high touch, highly intimate experience.
In this episode I share how and why you can ignore what the big names are doing and instead be a valuable disruptor in your field.
"We spend a lot of time and energy trying to mimic the big names and their current programs when really we should be leaning into what is not so easy to scale."
Show notes at http://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/186
If you're wondering what kind of program you should create when you move beyond private practice, keep listening. Our guest has created a totally unique program. She figured out its format by trusting herself. She had to move through the doubt and questions that so many of us deal with.
Is this enough? Am I enough?
Mishara also talks about why she's retired her license. You're going to love her reasons even if you know you're keeping yours.
Introducing the brilliant Mishara D. Winston.
Mishara is a former adventure therapist who is passionate about the power of play. A self proclaimed play historian and cultural healthcare nerd, she helps communities celebrate the mental health care systems within their own cultures and helps health care professionals save their own lives.
Here's some of what we talked about:
Show notes at http://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/185
This is the final episode in a miniseries featuring entrepreneurs who have created phenomenal programs, and the lessons they've learned.
Today you'll hear why one of these entrepreneurs needed to bring her farmer self to her program, why a solo mom realized she needed to create a different program, why one psychologist finds her coaching program liberating, and why collaboration is so so important.
I'm so glad you've been with me on this series.
Introducing four fabulous entrepreneurs: Laura Kasper, Rebecca Lee, Monica Bahan, and Gail Reich.
Laura Kasper, PhD, helps burnt out Silicon Valley executives with their stressful personal and professional relationships. She was a manager at Accenture before becoming a psychologist 17 years ago. The tools she uses in her program are grounded in her work as a Modern Analytic group therapist and her training as a facilitator for Stanford Business School's famous emotional intelligence class, Interpersonal Dynamics.
https://www.cofounderconflictdisruption.com
Rebecca Lee is a philosopher, farmer, leadership strategist and also licensed clinical therapist. She is the owner of Just Living Therapy where the work is centered around supporting helping professionals kick burnout and bravely live in their own authenticity. She lives on a multigenerational farm with her family and a menagerie of farm critters, so if you visit her at Just Living Farm, don't be surprised if she puts you to work, and definitely don't be surprised if she talks to you about dirt!
https://www.justlivingtherapy.org/
Monica Bahan is a therapist turned spiritual coach. She helps busy moms to shift from head to heart, hear the voice of spirit, and let their souls shine bright. She's also a solo mom herself, lighting the way for her wild little one.
Gail Reich is a psychotherapist and photographer living in Chicago. She loves athletics, especially ultimate frisbee. And since she enjoys challenging norms and thinking outside the box, she is excited to see where her coaching program goes.
Show notes at http://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/184
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