[00:00:00] Hey, hey Shauna, here you are listening to the delightful audio sode. These are email episodes where you get tips, tricks and information about the mental health industry and how you can create content, products and services that are complementary to the work that you do as a mental health therapist. Today I have five trend predictions in the mental health industry 2024, and you are going to want to hear these. So let's jump right in. So I'm an Etsy seller, and I do have an Etsy shop right now. There's nothing in my Etsy shop because I've been thinking more and more about where I want to place my products and how I want to go about that. But I also get trend predictions for the year of 2024. I got trend predictions for the year of 2023. Etsy gives you like a color of the year, depending on what color they think is going to be big for that year, and they also give you places people are going. So this led me to think more about what does it mean for the mental health industry? What do we see trending? What do we see people talking more and more about? And what is it that people want or need? A big thing for 2024 is that people are getting more and more overwhelmed with the fast paced nature of our society, as well as the amount of strain that people are experiencing when it comes to their finances, as well as strain from the stress of their work environments. So I see this reflected in a lot of the 2024 predictions. I went through various sources, from Forbes to CBS News to some articles that I saw, even from EPA networks, to talk about what we may see trending in 2024. So the first thing that I thought was really interested is more expert content that is backed by science. We know that the young generations, Gen Z and even young millennials are turning to social media to get a lot of their information. They're pulling in a lot of content. Before, when we were seeing people pull in a lot of content, they were getting this content from many people, right? It could have been coaches, it could have been other people with their experiences in mental health. And many people were coming to self diagnoses, and which I think is important because there had been and continues to be a lack of engaging resources, a lack of affordable resources to get formal diagnoses. So now what we are seeing is a trend towards leaning into experts, a trend towards getting more sound information from people who know these fields, who have an expert knowledge when it comes to this information. And they want information that is backed with statistics and science. They want data driven information, which is good. If you are a professional who does this work regularly, you can be one that provides that kind of information.

[00:03:10] So if you are a therapist who is looking to get onto social media, what I would say is niche down. Get really focused on who it is that you are serving and learn more about them. Give them the information that they are looking for. Right. Give them those statistics. Talk about how certain approaches could be helpful. You don't have to give them the therapy there. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't recommend doing therapy on social media, but I would say talk more about the understanding, the knowledge that you have about certain things and how they are affected by mental health and give them information about how they can get to where they would like to be. The next trend that I think is really interesting is higher demand for more social connections. The reason why I think this is really interesting is because after being in a pandemic and having less social interactions over the past three years, more and more people are craving connections in person. Now, if you are an online therapist like myself, this can be a little daunting to think about, but I want you to stretch outside the box a little bit. Journey with me and let's talk about this, because it doesn't mean that you have to give up your whole virtual practice. As a matter of fact, I would not do that. I have certain ideas about how I would go about meeting this demand for social connections. One, that may mean that I do more coaching and gather more knowledge about how people can gather more social connections outside of therapy with me. So they still meet with me virtually, but they are practicing their social connections outside. Two, I can incorporate some kind of in person sessions, like intensives or doing a very specific program where I am meeting with some people in person. Two, you could also do workshops so you have your practice, but from time to time you have the occasional workshop where you are meeting with a small group of people in person, or you're doing some things like collaborating with other therapists who do yoga or sound work. You can still have those workshops, but you're pulling in others to collaborate and create more in person work that way. And three, a big one that people love to talk about, we are seeing a bit of a travel boom, is retreats. Now you can do retreats in multiple ways. So you can do retreats by hosting the retreat yourself. You could do the retreats by putting on the curriculum, creating the curriculum, and selling the curriculum. You can also do a hybrid of that, of selling the curriculum and inviting people to hire you to host the retreat, or you can create the retreat for the people. So, like, let's say you have a couple, you have the curriculum, or you have your retreat book and you're selling them the program and creating it for them so that they're hosting it for themselves. And maybe you couple that in with some before and after sessions so that they know what to look for when they are going on their trip. So I think that the in person sessions can really mend nicely with virtual work so that you're not putting all of your eggs in one basket, but you're still hosting your online therapy sessions and then maybe doing one or two things in the community to bring in more funds as well as help people in those connections. The next trend that we are seeing is addressing how chronic illnesses are affecting mental wellness and how we can increase our mental wellness to assist us in those chronic illnesses. So this is something that we are taking notice of. We have a society in which people are sicker, where people are needing more physical health care, and some people have long term chronic illnesses that greatly affect their mental wellness. So having an idea of how people are affected by their chronic illnesses and having an idea of how they can continue to live and enjoy life with a chronic illness may be something that you are doing in your practice and something to be aware of. Speaking of physical health, there is going to be a lot of talk about diet culture. Again, we are seeing a lot of people talking about those diet shots like ozempic, and there is another diet shot out there. And so with the introduction of those shots and more and more people talking about weight loss shots and weight loss in general, we're going to see more and more talk about physical health and diet culture. We don't know exactly how this is going to swing. It might swing in a direction of going back into toxic diet culture. So this is something to be prepared of, especially if you're someone who's well versed in eating disorders and well versed in unhealthy eating habits and how that affects mental health, we are going to see overall people talking a lot about their physical health in general, because they are again focusing on how we can become a healthier society.

[00:08:33] Now, imagine that a lot of our physical health issues, a lot of our health issues are driven by our stress in our work environments. And so it's predicted that a lot of people are going to be coming in with these stressors, and we are going to have to figure out ways of helping them reduce the stress and provide almost a holistic view of care. And the last trend prediction for 2024 is wellness backed by science. We're going to continue to see people engaging in self care, people engaging in ways of trying to be healthier, but they want the scientific backing of it. We are going to see people wanting that data and wanting the stuff that is actually going to help them and actually going to work for them instead of the ideas. And so again, I think this is going to be really good for the profession because this is where we shine. We are trained in helping people make change and we have so many modalities and so much access to information that it could be really easy for us as clinicians to create programs and services that are backed by science and backed by individual personal needs of our clientele. So these are the predictions for the mental health industry in 2024. There are much more out there. Did any of these surprise you or worry you? I'll say right off bat, the news around a higher demand for more social connection and possibly more in person services led me to feel somewhat nervous as an online therapist, but that also got my creative juices flowing. The idea of offering intensives or even workshops within my niche got me so excited. And I know this is something that people are interested in because intensives are a way of creating more work in less time, and so people may see big results a little bit faster with intensives, and I enjoy that. And people are looking for shorter engagement in therapy because it can be so costly. So intensives can also be cost effective. Even though you might be paying more upfront, you might be getting more for less time, which is really important because again, people want to be spending more time living their lives. This would also help me to remain online, but also offer other appealing services, which I think is important because again, I don't think it's necessary for us as clinicians to put all of our eggs into the single service basket. I think it's really important that we diversify our incomes and this is just another way to diversify your services. This is what I mean by making these trends fit into what you already do instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. So I would love to hear your thoughts around these trends. I have a space, the therapizing therapist collective, where I help clinicians build their social media while talking about the complementary side hustles for their practices. You can join the group, it is on Facebook. And let me know which one of these trends do you see fitting in with your practice? This is the delightful audio episode delivered straight to you via email. I look forward to doing more of these again. Join the group. Let's get talking and get you moving towards creating a practice where you are building your lucrative career. Bye for now. Bye.

[00:00:00] Hey, hey, Shawna a here, the delightful clinician. And you are listening to a delightful audio sode, the email episodes where you get tips, tricks and information on the mental health industry. In this episode, we are going to be talking about a podcast that I recently viewed on YouTube that was amazing and the takeaways that you can use to help you further your business in the mental health industry. But first, before we even go there, let's talk about the social media themes that I saw this month. I can already see how the mental health trends that I mentioned in the past audio sode is coming into fruition. In this audio sode, there were so many viral videos where I saw an underlying aspect for the need of community. And what does that mean for people when they have a community? One of the trends from last time that I saw was people's desire to have more social engagements. Right. They were spending less time isolated and more time trying to do things with other people. And I think that community runs hand in hand. And I also think that people struggle with having a community, being a part of a community, and knowing what good communities look like and knowing how to become a part of a community, or if even they should be a part of a particular community.

[00:01:30] I'm going to tell you about one viral video that I saw that was just very interesting to me. This is the viral video of Baby Zoe with the parent who was asking how to do baby Zoe's hair. She was only like 20 days old when they released this video, and it just sent TikToks into like a bit of a tizzy. One, because they were coming to another community asking how to take care of their baby. But two, because there was just so many questions about where do you go when you have particular questions, especially if you're raising a child who's not a part of a similar culture or a community that you are a part of and what you need to do as a parent. I think these questions are going to come more into play as we go further, as people are recognizing the importance of having a community. But I just thought this was such an interesting phenomenon because, again, we are seeing so many people struggle with the idea of community, struggle with the idea of togetherness, and how do we go about doing things together in a respectful way.

[00:02:43] So if you have not seen the viral video on Baby Zoe, you can just type that into any search, and I'm sure you are going to see some of the attachments that were with that and people's thoughts about that. But for you, as a clinician, this might be something where you think more about particularly what does it mean to be in a community, how to either become a part of a community or find your community. And how does that tie back into becoming less isolated and more socially engaged? And another question about community that I also want to bring in here, and further proof to me that people desperately want to have togetherness is the rap beef scenario that is playing out. I'm not going to mention names, but there is one rapper who put out a dis track. It came out on Thursday. Another rapper is now spiraling. There's so many things that were coming out of it, but the big thing is their Stan community. They are going as far as doxxing people. They have gotten accounts banned on TikTok, and it's been very interesting to watch. And the reason why I called it a Stan community is because these are multiple people who say that they stand for a particular artist. Now, when I talk about Stan, I am talking about a Stan in reference to the Eminem song Stan. Right. And we know that Stan is a combination of stalking and fan. So a Stan is really just like a stalker.

[00:04:24] You know, sometimes we can take this really lightheartedly, but if you know the song Stan, what really ended up was, like, stan just kind of, like spiraled out of control and ended up having his pregnant girlfriend and his drunk, and he drove off a bridge or something like that in the song. So, yeah, it became very intense.

[00:04:46] What's really interesting is because I knew Stans not like stalker fans, but I knew people with the name Stan in school. It never occurred to me until way later that he was really talking about how somebody ascends into obsession when it comes to their favorite idols and their favorite celebrities. And we can even say this about certain people who are not necessarily Hollywood or artists or musicians, but also maybe politicians, how people kind of become really cult ish. And so my question is to you all to think more about, why does that happen? Why do people go to those lengths? Right? Is it because they need a level of togetherness? Right? Isn't that our human experience is that we are very social and that we need a certain amount of validation, togetherness, a certain amount of connection to other people. And there's going to be people who will be like, no, I'm an introvert. I don't need this. I do need that. But to the most part, most humans do need some of that. We do need some forms of connection, some forms of togetherness. And when you have these kinds of communities that come to the point where they're spiraling out of control. You have people who don't know how to engage in communities. What does that mean for our people? What kind of issues can we see out of that, and what can we do to help people with that? Does that mean that you put on workshops to talk about ways that you can be engaged in your community, ways that you can come together? Does that mean that you're offering specialty sessions that are focused on this particular topic? Just more to think about and more to kind of keep your eyes on. As we go through this year, we're seeing more and more people talk about this. But I think the underlying idea is people's needs for connection. Again, people wanting to get back to being more social, and how can we get back to doing that in a healthy way?

[00:06:54] So that is my tidbit for trending on social medias. Take a look at those things. See if you can find who exactly I'm talking about as well. Let's get into the meat and potatoes of this. We are talking about Mahdi Woodard's podcast interview again. It was on the YouTube channel social proof. It was a really good interview. What I enjoyed about this was like Mahdi talking about his journey as a marketer and how he got to the point that he got to. I took two major takeaways from this. The first is that the vantage point of process and progress and what that looks like. And the second is innovation and how he became innovated and how he moved through this process again. So I'm going to be talking about those in a little bit, and I'm just going to give you some backgrounds of what I heard and saw. So Marty Woodard is a marketing expert. He teaches his skills and his expertise on Instagram. But Instagram is the place where he grew to. He is just like a regular guy from Atlanta, and it's really cool to see. And so he talks a lot about how to create content and how to gain following on these social medias. And now I see and I've noticed that he talks a little bit more about the process of creating good content that people are actually engaged in. I have taken so many of his courses. I'm actually down to just one last one that I want to take. But this was just such an inspirational interview to watch and listen to because he really showed you how much of just like a regular guy he is, right?

[00:08:41] There is no nepotism in there for him. He just was in the right places after a lot of hard work. And he talks about I'm just a kid from Atlanta, and I wanted to party and I wanted to live my life, and I wanted to do these certain things within his journey. And it just really was just such a humble listen. And again, even in all of that, he was dropping gems. He was dropping so much information. There were so many things that was said in there, all for free. That was just like Chef's kiss. So what I liked about this was just how much information was given, just, like, so much value. And what I took away from this is, again, that when you're seeing somebody, you're seeing them at this point in time. You don't get to see them five years before, ten years before. You're seeing them in this moment. And so it was really nice to hear his story and hear about how he's progressed through different phases of his life.

[00:09:49] So Marty Woodard is a former marketer. He used to work for Mars. That was his first job. And when I say Mars, I'm talking about the candy. Yes. Those candies. He worked for the Mars company, and he actually did pet food division. So he talks about this and what this looks like. So on this, he was talking about how to create viral content. And it felt so much more than that. I told you the two things that I took from it was the vantage point of his progress and his process and how much innovation helps drive you forward in your field. He was no doubt dropping gems and bars, but it went well beyond content. One of the first things that I noticed was his process. He talks about how he came to working for the Mars company. He talked about going to different company parties, things like that, how he worked his way up to the level at which he was working. And one thing that I noticed was that how much social media makes you believe that people are like, overnight sensations. We don't really get to see a lot of the process in social media because you're coming as you are. And so it presents businesses as if they don't ebb and flow. And that really skews your vantage point, because the truth is he's been doing this work since the early 2010s. He has fallen many times, and he's picked himself back up, and which each time that he's picked himself back up, he's learned a lesson. And again, like I said, he's not a Nepo baby. He has been doing this work. He talks about how he had a mentor. He talks about how he got his first job from Mars. And his mentor was kind of like, hey, take a look at this. Think about this how he's had people that has helped to guide him, but many a times he had to also learn how to take in that information and how to process it, right? He's had friends who were already millionaires and things like that, and he was looking at one thing one way, and his friends were like, nah, take a look at it this way. And he had to kind of learn his lesson about listening and about when to push and when to fall back. And so I think it was just such a really great episode to just really see somebody's progress in somebody's journey. And in the mental health industry, we see a lot of people's progress and journeys, but we don't always see it from the aspect of growing a business. And again, when you're on social media, you just see so much people where it's like, I made five k overnight, and you're trying to figure out how you made five k overnight. When really that person got to that point after a long process, it wasn't just that one day they woke up and they were making five k. This five k came after three months of build or six years of trying to figure out the right formula for their business. So I really enjoy seeing people talk about things from that aspect of saying, this is not an overnight thing, this is a build. I thought that was just really beautiful and really elegant. The next thing that I really thought was important was talking about innovation. One of the things that I was just really blown away by was how he expressed that. He was at a meeting and someone said, hey, I'm going to put you on some game. And they talked about how they mastered a 32nd commercial. And in the future, you're going to need something like a five second commercial. Right? And this was back in the 2010s, before social media is what it is at this point in time. And he was like, think about it. When you think about people and their attention spans today, and you think about how long you have to really hook someone and get them into watching your videos or into paying attention to your work, it ain't that long. That's your 5 seconds right there. So I think it's really important to be ready to innovate, be ready to look out for change, because we are in a society right now where things are moving, things are grooving, things are changing. I will let you know. I did not suspect when I was coming into the industry that I would see online therapy change so quickly. And it moved from it being a taboo to something that we regularly accept that is done in our field. And I will tell you that one thing that I noticed was the people who were early adopters were the people who were not panicked, who were not questioning if this is something that could be handled during the beginning or during the peak of the pandemic in 2020, when we were talking about offering mental health services online and moving online, you have to understand that those big online platforms that I do not mention, but you know who I'm talking about. Those big online platforms started in 2013 and 2012. Those platforms had been operating for eight years at that point. I had gotten on those platforms back in 2017. So I had been online for three years at that point. So when we are talking about online therapy and people have been operating in those spaces for eight years or three years, and people are coming on and they're saying, like, when things go back to normal, this was already a norm. Therapists were just late. And so when we talk about innovation in the field, I want you to think about that. Do we want to be late to the trend, or do we want to be an early adopter of the trend? Do we want to have the understanding of it? Because when we are late to a trend, we have less autonomy, we have less say so in what needs to happen. We have less ability to advocate, because there are people who are already running it, there are people who are already understanding this landscape, and they have come in and they have done whatever they felt like, and now they're at a point where they are just now getting to pay for some of the repercussions of the things that they've done. If that. We know that when some of these online companies started, they engaged in some unethical practices to get to where they were. Now, of course, we, as clinicians, we are hard when it comes to adopting new things because we have people to care about. We have to figure out and make sure that the people that we are treating, that they are being treated in an ethical manner, and they are being treated in a manner in which they get the help that they need, they get access to the quality care that they need. But just because we are innovating, just because we are offering something new and different, does not mean the thing that is new and different is not of quality. We also have to consider that the traditional services that we have offered have not always been the best. They have not always been the most inclusive. They have not always been the quality care that we express or that we think it is right. It's not always been the competent care that it needed to be. So times change. And as clinicians, we have to be mindful that how we are practicing right now is probably going to be very different in another couple of years. And we have to be malleable, flexible, and being able to take on new things.

[00:17:35] So I want you to think about this. I want you to think about what innovation looks like in our field, and where can we possibly offer different care? It doesn't mean that nontraditional care and different care is bad care or non quality care or unethical care. It is just innovative. It's different than what we were traditionally doing. But how can we offer that with what we have? One thing that I think is really important is recognizing that we do have the talent, we do have the skills, we do have the knowledge to be innovators in this field. I also want you to think about something else. I saw a video recently and somebody talking about these viral cups. You know what viral cups I'm talking about? But they said something, and that really hurt my feelings at first, but I had to really think about it more. And I was like, oh, that's actually true, right? When you've gotten to the point in a trend where the moms are adopting the trend and sharing it with their children, you are probably at the end of that trend. When you see something new and you're like, I'm seeing this thing pop up all over the place. You're actually seeing the rise of that trend. And then there's some people who bring on the trend. They are early adopters to this trend. Trends move in this way, right? You have the early adopters, then you see the rise of it when you start to see it popping up all over the place. But you have questions, and then you have the part of it where it gets into the hands of the people that it wasn't really intended for, and those people are sharing it with their children. Now, we have seen the part of the trend where you're likely to start seeing new things. You're starting to see a new innovation or a new adoption. How can you be a part of an early trend? How can you be a part of something when it's on the ground floor versus when the moms have gotten it? And we're not talking about the trends that moms start because there are some trends that moms start. We are talking about other trends that are typically started by younger generations and how they move through things. So what does that look like? And how can you, as an entrepreneur, as a business holder, find yourself in the early parts of a trend right before it's moving, before it's ascending. And if it is moving and is in ascending, do you know what that looks like? Do you know how to catch a trend on its wave? Think more about that. I also want you to think about where we could have been forecasters in the field. In the last episode, I shared with you mental health trends and the forecast of that. Are you able to look at something and say, oh, I can see how this is going to be something in the future? I felt this way about retreats a couple of years ago. I thought that retreats were going to be what they are today, and now everybody wants to be on a retreat. So think more about that. Can you predict things? Can you see things and see where they're going? And are you able to separate how you feel about that? I know that a lot of us have been taught traditionally that we do certain things in the field. Are you able to separate how you personally feel about something and look at how it moves and ebbs and flows within the industry? I think that is a big thing because a lot of the stuff that we are taught in the field feel very personally connected to many of us. And if we are able to make those separations and say, like, okay, I can see where this is going, and then bring your values back in. If you like it, that's fine. If you don't like it, that's also fine. That's just not for you to adopt in your business. But there are other things that we could potentially adopt that do align with how you feel. But you also have to recognize how things are moving and grooving in the business. And I think that's what this episode of Mahdi has taught me and what I looked at other things that I want you to think about. Where can you be a forecaster in the field? Think about, again, the life and the phase of a trend. And these last two questions are important. What does it look like at the end of the trend? How do you know a trend is ending? How do you know not to jump on a trend? And then for our field, for our industry, when it comes to mental health, who are the early adopters? Who are the trendsetters? That's going to be really important because those are the people that you're going to be watching and following when it comes to your business. Those are your audience. And you might have different people depending on your niche talking about different trends in different settings. This episode for you, is about innovation. It's about remembering the process, remembering that this is all a process for us. It's a journey and we know this. And I hope that you are able to take some really good things about it. Catch that episode. I'm going to drop a link for you so that you can get to it easily and catch more of it. It was such a good episode. It was 2 hours, so it's long. If you got a long drive, just listen to it if you so good. And I will see you next time for another delightful audio sode. Bye. Now, just popping back in here to say there is the therapizing collective Facebook group. I'm going to drop the link for that below. Be sure to check out that Facebook group. Share your questions and your insights from this episode. I would love to hear from you and we can keep going from here. See you next time.

Hey, hey. Shawna here, the delightful clinician. And you are listening to delightful audio sodes, the email episodes filled with tips, tricks and great information designed specifically for therapists to help you build your lucrative career through multiple revenue streams. Today we are talking about taking action and how you can spring into action. Today, what does it mean to take action? The idea of potential energy and kinetic energy is constantly sitting on my mind. And I think when we talk about potential, we talk about it in reference to a spouse or a partner or a significant other, and we talk about how much this person has to become or to do something else. But we really talk about our own potential when it comes to achievements and starting our businesses and things like that. So today we're going to talk about how you can take action and how really taking action is really more of shifting that potential energy into kinetic energy. So let's talk about it. What is potential in kinetic energy? Now, don't ask me to explain too much because I failed physics, but here's the gist. So when we're talking about kinetic and potential energy, we are really talking about movement and the ability for something to go from rest into movement and back to rest again. So potential energy is really just the storage of energy and an object at rest. And when that object is moving, it's called kinetic energy.

[00:01:39] Now, the way that I remember kinetic energy is also like when you think about the science of movement and people taking action, right? When I went to school, there was a whole major of kinesthetics. But going back, when we're talking about kinetic energy, we're really just talking about the energy behind movement. Or at least for the sake of this podcast, remember, I failed physics. So if you want the more in depth experience, that's something you're going to have to Google or find a physicist. Oftentimes when I hear about potential, especially since I work with couples, people are talking about how this one person didn't really live up to their potential, or they are not really seeming like they're utilizing the potential that they have. And again, remember, potential is also the storage of energy. So an object could be at rest, but they have all of this energy that's just sitting there waiting to be used. Waiting to be utilized. I feel like this is a thing with businesses, right? We have all of these amazing ideas, we have the talent, the skills, the expertise, and it's just waiting to be utilized in a different manner, especially if you are in a private practice. Oftentimes we clinicians put all of our potential into the single service basket. Right. We are going to do that one on one therapy because that's what we are taught. But in actuality, we have a storage of energy. We have a storage of expertise and skills waiting to be utilized. I want you to think about potential. And when it comes to you as a clinician and your business, how can you be utilizing some of that storage or some of that time or some of that energy that you have, and how can that be put into other projects? How many times do we stand stuck or we feel like quitting before anything ever really happens or anything ever gets moving? And when I'm asking you this question, think about if you're like, oh, I want to start a side hustle. And you might even build the side hustle. You could put together the whole project and launch it. And you launch to crickets, no one's coming. And then you just chalk it up as a failure. Right? That didn't work. What if that's not a failure? What if we just didn't utilize the full potential that we could have utilized because nobody actually gave us the blueprint to this. What if we need to be better at taking action and following it all the way through the movement? Another thing that I want you to think about when it comes to potential and kinetic energy, think about a ball at rest at the top of the hill. What does it take to get that ball moving from the top of the hill, all the way down the hill and back up to another place of rest? It's going to take some kind of catalyst. It's going to take some kind of push in some kind of movement. But oftentimes, if you think about, like, the game of pool using another ball reference, you have to have a plan of how to get certain balls in certain places and also avoid other balls. Right? Like, you can't just knock around different things. There is a plan. There is the eyeballing of that movement. So it's not just having the thing and creating the thing. It is also having the thing, making a plan, then taking the catalyst to push through that plan the way that you want it to. This episode is all about moving yourself into an action phase. And I've used a lot of analogy today, but I want to get down to the bottom of it this month. This moment is all about taking action. How can you move from storage into movement? And it's not just about kicking the ball. It's about having a plan. So let's talk about what it's like for you to take action in your business. First things first. The goal that you've written, is it actually achievable by you in this moment? Is it attainable? When we talk about goals, one of the things that we talk about is smart goals. Is it specific, is it measurable, is it attainable? Is it realistic? Is it timely? The big thing that happens is we have all of these aspirations, and those aspirations are great, you shouldn't lose them. But those aspirations are not always achievable just yet. You can say, I want to make one hundred k, but do you know how to actually make one hundred k? Have you made your first one k? Now if you haven't gotten there, then perhaps this goal of not realistic, or maybe you have gotten there, but you've gotten super exhausted, you're tired, you don't have a lot of time or energy or space to really create that extra thing that you're thinking about. Now, if that's the case, that's what's realistic. We know, realistically speaking, you don't have the extra. So how are we going to do this again without the extra to do it, we have to be realistic about the things that we want. We have to make sure that it's attainable so that we're not setting ourselves up for failure. And it's okay if you don't exactly know how to get that high just yet. This is not a forever thing. This is again, how do we create movement and get it from point a to point b and then restart that process again? So you want to make sure again that your goal is specific, it's measurable, it's attainable, realistic and timely for who you are and where you are in this moment. And after you've decided that, and after you've gotten to that point, now you have to create a plan. And the plan might be a breakdown of some of those things, right? So let's say you've come to the goal and you're like, you know what? I'm going to make my first $1,000. This seems doable. This 1st $1,000 is going to be on the side. The next couple of questions you're going to probably ask yourself is, do I have a product that I can sell that's going to equal $1,000? How many times do I have to sell this product to get to $1,000? Have I ever sold this product before? Do I have the skills to sell this product? And as you asking yourselves these questions now new steps can be created. And now we are already in part three, you need to create bite size steps to achieve that plan. If you have the question, okay, what am I going to do? I need a product and you don't have a product. One of those first bite size steps might be to create a product. And here we are thinking to ourselves, okay, I have to create a product.

[00:08:44] Maybe you also have to market that product. Maybe you have to figure out if your audience really likes this product. So now we've gotten all of these little mini steps to get to your first $1,000. And you can go back and say, okay, I said I wanted to do this. Over the next month with all of the things that I have to do and the time and the energy that I have, is this going to be enough time for me to do it? So as you're moving through these steps, you're going back and you're checking against what you already have. Now, let's say you're like, you know what? I gave myself 30 days. 30 days is not enough. I'm going to give myself six weeks. Okay, I think six weeks is enough.

[00:09:25] Now, I've written out these bite size steps and I'm going to make them a checklist, right? So every day I have a different thing that needs to get done, or every five days, or every six days, I have a different thing that I need to do to get done.

[00:09:40] And I think I can do this within the time I've blocked out my time. I'm going to spend 1 hour a day on this product or this project to get to this big goal. Now that you've done all of those things, the next thing you want to do is hold yourself accountable to those steps by reviewing the plan and checking it off the list. So at the end of the day, you're going to go back and you're going to say, did I do this today? Yes. Check. And then by the end of the week, you're going to go back and you're going to say, did I do all of the things that I needed to do to get to where I wanted to be? If you did it, you need to check in with yourself. Okay, how can I bring this from here to here? Right? How can I go back and make sure that I'm doing what I need to do every day as well as catch up on the things that I missed? So this is how you're going to take yourself from potential storage through action. You are going to have a goal. You're going to create a plan from that goal, and then you're going to break down that plan into bite size steps to achieve that plan. And then you're going to hold yourself accountable throughout the process. You're not going to wait until you don't achieve your goal. You're going to hold yourself accountable at least once a week to this goal. And now it's time for your homework. For your homework. I want you to create an action plan from one of your own goals. For this to work, you're going to have to have a goal. And I want it to be a really, really small goal, something that you can achieve in six or seven days. If you're listening to this on Tuesday, the day that it's released, great. You can follow this plan. If you're listening to it any other day but Tuesday, just go ahead and adjust the plan as you need it to. You're going to do a check in every two days. So if it's Tuesday, you're checking in on Thursday. If it's Wednesday, you're going to check in on Friday, and then so on and so forth. Right? So Thursday Saturday is your check in on a Tuesday. If it's Wednesday, it's going to be Friday, Sunday, and then you're going to keep going from there. But what I want you to do is have a small goal that you can achieve in the next six days.

[00:11:51] And what you're going to do is get better at holding yourself accountable. So for this goal over the next six days, what I want you to do is write a plan for that goal. And then I want you to break down that plan into the little steps that it takes to reach that goal. Now, on Thursday and Saturday, I want you to do a review of that goal to see how you're doing and if you're on track for accomplishing what you set out to accomplish. And on Thursday and Saturday, depending on where you are, you can adjust as you need to. Now, if you've accomplished it by Sunday, don't add anything new. Just go back and look at the process and think about this. Are you underestimating yourself or are you right where you need to be? Do you have more time than you realize? If you get to Saturday, let's say, and your last day is Sunday, ask yourself, what's going on? Why are we not getting to these goals? Because this should have been something really simple, really easy for you to accomplish. So what's happening that we're not getting to those goals? It could be something in the planning process. It could be something in the time that you've been dedicated to it. I also want you to know that this process is all about accountability as well. So we're really examining ourselves not to put ourselves down, but to look at what it is that we are doing and what we really have, what we are really able to dedicate at this point in time. Do we have the energy to do the things that you want to do? If you don't have the energy, what adjustments need to be made? If you don't have the energy, is it time to work on this right now or do we need to work on something else? And then again from there, you're going to tweak what you need to do. If you're on track, that's okay. That's great. If you're not on track, that's also okay because you're going to adjust and you're going to try again for the next week. And if you've reached that goal, you get to expand into other things and you notice this process and you keep it going. And for extra accountability, you get to post it in the group. So if you are in the therapizing collective group, which there is a link in this post for it, so go ahead and check out that link. Join the group. If you're part of the group, you can post your goal along with the action plans here, and I will be more than happy to come in and check it out and cheer you on, as well as ask you further questions for deeper commitments and achievements.

[00:14:28] So that's where we're at today. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of taking action. I really want to see clinicians build lucrative careers, and my goal is to talk about how you can do that through multiple streams of income. But the big thing about building multiple streams of income is being in action. It's not enough to just say this is something that you want to do. You have to create the steps to get you there. And often enough, they don't tell us these things. They didn't teach us marketing in grad school. They barely even taught about building private practices. If even you got there, they didn't even tell us nothing about how to really go about our careers. So a lot of this stuff we're learning on our own as clinicians, and we have to recognize that we have to put ourselves into action because nobody else taught us how to do it. But this is how people go about achieving their goals is through these steps. So let's try it out. Let's see how it goes. I cannot wait to see what you post in the group and then tune in next week for another delightful audio sode. If you are interested in learning more about side hustles, be sure to join the group as well as be on the lookout for the next first Friday. The next first Friday is going to be the first Friday in March and we are talking about workbooks and worksheets. I'm so excited for that workshop. A lot of people ask about how they can create digital products that are usually like books, worksheets, those kinds of things. I'm going to break it down for you and the big thing about these first Friday episodes is not only is the replay available for free for 72 hours, I bring you from the first steps of market research all the way through launching that product, finding the right spaces where you can launch that product for you. So definitely be on the lookout for the next episode. It is the first Friday of March and you can do so by signing up for my email list. I'll see you next time.

Hey, hey. This is Shauna A and you are listening to delightful audio sodes, a copy of the email newsletter where I give you tips, tricks and great information about managing your therapeutic business. We're going beyond one on one therapy services and talking about ways you can incorporate multiple streams of income as a clinician. So here's the show today in this episode, we're going to be talking about marketing because I really don't think we talk about marketing well enough as clinicians. And what I mean by that is that they did not teach us marketing in grad school. As a matter of fact, there's a couple of things that they missed out on grad school. And I have said this before and I will scream it from the mountaintops. This just does such a great disservice to us clinicians. We really do need to understand more about marketing and how it affects the businesses that we're trying to have. And I think a big thing for us as clinicians is that we have it easy in a way that when it comes to opening up a private practice, when it comes to opening up our business, a lot of times we have the single service therapy model where we are trying to bring in new therapy clients. And one of the first things that we do is put our name on a directory, but they don't even talk to us about how we can make that directory enticing enough for people to come in and get to see our profile picture, get to see what we have to offer and say, yes, this is the clinician for me. I will tell you that I feel like I have perfected my consultation process where at this point in time, I'm about 90% of the people that get on a consult call with me will actually go on to book a session with me and become clients with me. And this is something that I think is really important. As a clinician, you need to be able to understand who it is that you are trying to attract through your marketing as well as who it is that you don't think will be a fit for your services. So one of the things that I've noticed with my consults is that typically the people that are now calling, the people that are now looking to work with me are aligned with my niche and exactly what it is that I do. So that is a form of marketing, being able to share your message and it hit the right people. But again, that's not stuff that they teach us in grad school. A lot of our grad school work is very foundational and it's really just teaching us the basis of the services that we're providing. And for some of us, we aren't getting the same kind of basis. I know that for me, as a degree in community counseling, as well as a concentration in marriage and family therapy, I got a lot, a lot of counseling classes where we are talking about the art of therapy and the founding forefathers of therapy and their modalities and what those look like. I was practicing those frequently in all of my classes. Now, I know that for social workers, they get different kinds of courses. They have some of those counseling courses, but they also have more courses around. Here's how you do research. Here is macro social work. Here's microsocial work. Here are the different expansions of this system that we have. So while we can do very similar things as far as counseling work and therapy work is considered when it comes to the different disciplines, there is one thing that we share in common as far as our education stands, is that most of us did not get business related information as therapists in grad school, as well as marketing related information when it comes to our degrees. That's okay. We're going to fill it in today. So one of the things that I think it's really important to recognize is that when you don't have this kind of information, when you're not marketing, when you're not engaged in these business practices, when you don't have that information and you're trying to build a business, it's going to take up time, energy and money. And that can be really frustrating. And the other thing is, I have no problem with the traditional model of owning a private practice and having the single service model. It is just not the way that works for me as the person that I'm and the clinician that I am. I find that for me, that sometimes I get bored doing the same thing over and over again. And while my peeps are amazing and the work that I do with them is different in many cases, I also find that I would like to continue to expand. But I also know that my capacity is at a certain number.

[00:05:12] So where does that put me? That either puts me in a place where I have to raise my prices if I would like to make more money, or it puts me in a place of having to raise the number in my caseload. So let's say I decide that I'm going to raise my prices because I want to make more money. There's nothing wrong with that. People do this all the time. The issue is that what if I raise my prices and I price out my clients, or what if I raise my prices and my insurance decides like, yeah, you could raise your prices, but we going to stay right here. This is what we contracted at. This is what it is. I can ask for more. That doesn't mean that they'll give it to me, though. So I find that having the single service model kind of puts me in a place where it limits me financially because it puts me in a rock and a hard place, especially if I'm not wanting to raise my caseload and I'm not wanting to raise my prices. And again, if people feel comfortable doing those things, go for it. There's nothing wrong with that. I just know that for me not going to work, and for many clinicians, not just me alone, for many clinicians, we don't always raise our prices. We don't always want to raise our prices. It may not always seem to fit, and that's okay. So what I say to people is, okay, if we don't want to do that, what about introducing something else in our service that allows for us to make that money or to bring in some additional funds without overextending ourselves or having to raise our prices, what would that look like? And if we're getting to talk about that, for many people, they can envision that they can see themselves writing a book. They can see themselves putting out a digital course. And that is wonderful, except for when you actually write that book or you actually put out that course and you launch to crickets, what's the problem? Why are we launching to crickets? We're launching to crickets because we don't know how to market. We don't know how to build an audience without putting ourselves on a directory. And we don't know how to get people to convert from being an audience to warmed audience to actually buying the products that we've created. So there's a knowledge gap. And I think that knowledge gap prevents clinicians from actually taking the action steps because they feel like they can put in all of this work and it not work out, which is very true. The reality is that it does take time to build and get ourselves to a place of actively moving sales. But the thing about it is once you find the formula, once you've taken the steps, once you've put something in place, that thing starts to move. Like once that ball is rolling, it's rolling. And that means that you do get to bring in sales. But the middle piece that we constantly miss is the marketing part in this episode. We are going to talk about how you can market, and I'm going to give you some tips about marketing that's going beyond the average tips that you hear. I'm going to drop some tips right now that I bet you've heard already. And I want you to notice the feelings that you experience when I say some of these tips. When we talk about how else can I market, what does somebody say, oh, you need a website that is optimized for SEO. What's SEO? SEO is search engine optimization. So basically what happens is when I put in a search on Google, does Google read my website or my pages and bring back this information at the top? Because usually when you google something, you're probably going to look at that first page, you may find your way to the second page. So you want your information to come up at first. How do you do that? Increasing your website's search engine optimization? What is that? People are like, okay, how do I do that? You know what search engine optimization is? It's having the appropriate keywords, the kinds of keywords that people are putting in and having enough of it that the search engine recognizes that and says, oh, this content is what needs to come first. That sounds like a lot. It sounds like a lot for people because it's like, okay, how do I put in these keywords? Did you also know that search engines recognize when you're keyword stuffing, there's so many things that comes with search engine optimization that I think a lot of people just check out because they're like, nope, not doing that. So what's the next thing that somebody says to do when it comes to marketing your business? They say, oh, put your business on Google. My business. Yes, you can do that. But the big thing about putting your business on Google Business, and there's nothing wrong with this, but putting your business on Google. My business also opens you up to reviews. And for a lot of clinicians, they get overwhelmed when they get bad reviews. And so we are put into this position of, I want for people to notice me, but then that also puts you in the position for people to be very subjective when it comes to your work. So what happens if you have a couple of bad reviews on Google? Right.

[00:10:40] Not everybody wants to choose that option. There's nothing wrong with it, but we also want to have options when it comes to our choices in marketing. There are many ways to market that doesn't have to be complicated. And I think the thing for us clinicians is that we have all of this knowledge and skill in one particular area. And sometimes it feels like so much to have to go back in and be like, okay, now I need to learn about SEO. Now I need to learn about Google, my business. Now I need to learn about YouTube and social media and Pinterest and all of these other things. And I don't know if I have the time because I still need to see 2025 people to make the money that I need to make this week, right now, here in this moment. So when I give you these marketing tips, I am not focusing on the little things that you can do here and there. I am talking about here is the plan that we are going to take to really expand and get the word out about my business and create connections, because that is the most important thing. Your audiences, your people, they want connections. And the more that you help people feel connected within your boundaries, of course, the more that you help people to feel connected, the more you're going to notice that people are interested in your business. So how do we get people to feel connected? So tip number one, when you're thinking about marketing, I want you to think about marketing as a full blown process. There are many stages when it comes to marketing. I'm going to break down these stages for you. So stage one, marketing research. Stage two, marketing plans. Stage three, warming the audience. Stage four, selling the audience. These stages really happen simultaneously as you're doing other things. So when you are building your business, you want to do market research. And what market research does, it really helps you to understand your audience, their needs, their pain points, what they've got going on and what they want.

[00:12:46] This is the time where you think about what your niche is. And remember, your niche is who you help and the issue you help them to resolve. And as you're putting this all together, you really get to know your people. So once you've done the marketing research, from there, you're going to decide, okay, this is what I'm going to offer. This is what I'm putting together. And then the next thing you want to do is put together a marketing plan.

[00:13:14] That marketing plan, you are going to start from day one. I'm putting this together. I need to know how to talk to these people. What is it that they're talking about? What is it that they need, want they're thinking about? Right. That's part of your marketing research. But the next step is, okay, where are they hanging out? Oh, they're hanging out over on this particular social media app. I'm going to be over there, too, and I'm going to talk about this particular pain point and my approach. I'm going to start making those connections from there, just from my marketing plan. I'm doing this week one, week two, I'm doing this thing. Week three, I'm doing that thing. That's your marketing plan. From there, you're actually going to start executing your marketing plan. Remember when I said week one, I'm doing this thing, I'm creating connections. I'm doing this, that, and the third that's warming your audience. So you're attracting people over to what it is that you have going on. You're warming that audience, and then as you're warming them, you are not even trying to sell in that moment. You are creating connections, but you're also giving them information.

[00:14:21] You're giving them all sorts of kinds of information. Not just this is my idea on the solution, but you're talking about your story, you're talking about case studies, you're talking about different things that you've seen and you are empathizing and again, building that relationship.

[00:14:41] That's all a part of your marketing plan. But now you're actually executing it with warming the audience. This is also a good time to expand that audience, right? This is a good time to get people onto the mailing list. This is a good time to get people engaged and commenting and resharing, reposting. This is a good time to really build those relationships in warming. And then by the time you know it, it's ready to sell. This is when you're going to launch the item, or maybe you're putting it into beta and you are asking those questions. What do you guys see? What do you like? What do you don't like? And then you are launching and selling and again doing the same thing. And in your selling phase, this is the part where you are really talking about the solution. But remember, since you were just warming your audience, since you were just building those connections, you have all of this information now about what it is that they have going on. You've had their pain points from the beginning. So now you're saying, hey, I know you have this going on, and I think this, and this is my big idea. This is my way of resolving it. What do you think? Check it out. Here's what I have to offer. This is the thing of value that I'm dropping to you that I think is really cool and really important, or I think that is going to be a benefit to you, my audience. The next thing that we're going to do is figure out how to expand our network. So expanding your network is not just putting yourself on that directory. Expanding your network is also expanding your colleagues. So it's like, how do I get myself into places where people are actively recommending me? We know that word of mouth is one of the best pieces of marketing that you can have. And many people say, like, they fully build their caseloads off of word of mouth. Again, expanding your network is expanding your ability to get word of mouth. And so not just from clients, but also from colleagues. Expanding your network is also like going out and meeting the people who actively engage with your clients. Is there a particular doctor's office that is looking for a therapist to refer to? I work in perinatal mental health, and I went around with a flyer to all of the OBGYN's offices and said, hey, this is what I do. If you have any clients that you're concerned about, here's my card. Please feel free to hand it out. I also went to fertility clinics as well because I work in fertility impairment, and I did the same thing. Hey, I'm a new practice I'm opening up. I went out far beyond where I am because I'm virtual and said, hey, if you have a clinic, you've got people who are looking to talk through this process. I'm your girl. And I've walked into offices and seen my flyers handed out. I've seen business cards. Those are the kinds of relationships that you want to make, especially if these people have regular access to your clientele. You also want to know where your people are hanging out. If there's like a local coffee house and they have a bulletin board, that might be a good place to put your flyer, if that's allowed. Even the local libraries often have bulletin boards you might want to see. How do you get yourself up on the bulletin board? If there's any vendors, if there's any places that do those bridal events or things like that. Especially if you're a couple's therapist and you do premarital counseling, you should be at a bridal event. If you are a therapist that puts on travel like a retreat, you should be at the vendors for the travel event. That is a good place for you to work with travel agents and say, hey, if you have any clients that are looking for this, this is an intimate experience. Let's work together to see if we can have people come to this particular event in this way. So expanding your network goes beyond the particular things that you are doing, right? It goes beyond colleagues, but again, a really good place to expand is with colleagues as well. You're going to reach out to those other helping professionals. You're going to reach out to the places where your clients are engaged in, where they like as well. The last tip that I have for you today is you want to give yourself time to test your marketing system. You've created this marketing research. You've done the marketing plan. You've warmed your audience. You've sold to your audience. You want to give yourself time to see it all the way through. So instead of coming to the point of I've created this product and I'm just going to drop it and then be frustrated when nobody gets it, you want to start from the beginning, do your research, do the marketing plan. But you also are watching and seeing what works and what doesn't work. You might even want to a b test some of the things that you're doing right. If you decided that you wanted to start an Etsy shop and you were going to do digital products, you might put out two of the same listing. It's the same thing, but this one has different words than this one. Why are you doing it that way? To see what people respond to. Does one of them sell over the other one? Does neither one of them sell? This is your way of testing your information, but you have to give yourself time to be able to test and watch and give a realistic amount of time to actually see results. I know they didn't teach us marketing in grad school, but it doesn't have to be complicated. And I think that's the thing that throws off therapists the most, is that we have so much information at our fingertips that it becomes complicated. And when things are complicated, we back down from it because we have this tried and true system for us, which is the one to one therapy services. But going beyond that, you don't have to be burned out as a clinician, you can bring in other streams of income, but we do have to be able to do some of these things for ourselves. The good thing is your marketing research. Your marketing plan does not have to be fully created by yourself. Hop on one of these AI systems and ask it to write you a marketing plan for a particular product for your particular audience and see what comes out. See how you can tweak that and see how it will help you work through your way so you don't have to do it on your own. Use the robots to help you build and go from there. You have just listened to the episode on marketing. I would love to see some of these marketing steps in action. If you haven't caught up with the other email episodes, they are now available along with the transcripts. And here's the thing, I want you to go and test this. Your mission, should you accept it, is to try out one of the AI systems and put in your prompt for doing your marketing research. You are more than welcome to share your results in the therapizing therapist collective. It is a Facebook group, a free Facebook group where I drop all sorts of videos and tips about social media and side hustle. It's a great place to start and again you can share what you found when you submitted your prompt for marketing research and if you drop into the group, I will even share with you my favorite marketing research prompt. So I look forward to seeing what you all come up with again, drop into the group if you'd like to see my favorite marketing research prompt and I will see you all soon. Bye now. Bye.