Hello and welcome to the Business of Psychology Summer School edition. 

Over the six weeks of the English school holidays, we are doing things a little bit differently around here. If you're looking to start up an independent practice in September, then this is the place to be as each week I'm dropping in with a quick lesson and tasks that can be completed in 30 minutes or less from your sun lounger.

By the end of the six weeks, you will feel ready to step into your practice in September, confident that you can find clients and have a safe and viable business foundation. 

Each week, the lessons will go out on this podcast feed, but if you want the weekly tasks, workbooks, private community, and a live session with me at the end of the summer to hold you accountable and make sure nothing stands in your way, you will need to sign up here: PBS Summer School

I would love to see you in the community.

Full show notes of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links & References:

PBS Summer School Sign Up

PBS Start and Grow

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

Welcome to Lesson 6 of Summer School, our final lesson! Today I'm going to be talking to you about third parties and insurance companies, because often when we start out in private practice, it can be helpful to supplement our own referrals with some from third parties, the most common being associate work for a larger, well established practice, referrals directly from insurance companies, or referrals from case managers representing medico legal firms.

Associate work can be great to help you get your confidence and practice processes up and running at the beginning of your practice. In fact, many people choose to stay working as an associate rather than creating their own referrals.

The upside is you get the benefit of steady referrals and the best associate practices offer training and supervision opportunities or other benefits like free room rental when you see their clients. They also tend to handle the admin for you, so it can be very welcome in the scary early days.

The downside of associate work is less money, but less costs as well, so that might actually be fine. Just check that you don't go below your minimum fee that we worked out a couple of lessons ago, and also possible limitations on your own business growth. You need to check an associate contract very carefully for non compete clauses. These are clauses that state that you can't poach clients from the associate practice, which is very much fair enough. But, some of them do have some quite drastic terms in them. The chunkiest I've ever read was, 'You can never work with any mental health client within a 50 mile radius of the associate practice for one year after you finish with your last patient with us’. And I won't get into the pros and cons of that type of clause here, but just be aware, and if you see one that you think might limit your potential business growth in the future, then walk away from it.

Finally, make sure that the associate practice aligns with your values. It can be really uncomfortable working for an organisation that has very different values to you. You went into independent practice to avoid those kinds of culture clashes, so don't put up with it, you don't have to. Only work with practices that you feel excited to work for and proud to work for.

Now, you probably know if you've been in the professional Facebook groups, that insurance companies often don't pay the best rates. When I have a lot of referrals coming in, I do tend to decline insurance referrals because of that. However, when I was starting out, they were a very important referral stream, and they do continue to be useful when referrals are a bit slow. You just have to make sure that they don't take you below that minimum fee.

You can register for insurance companies like AXA, Vitality and Bupa directly, or you can register with lots in one go through the Private Practice Register, or the Health Code System as it's now called.

It's unpredictable, to be honest, whether these will bring you referrals or not. I have students in Start and Grow who consistently get referrals from the main insurance companies, and I also have students who don't get any. For me, it has been really postcode dependent. Where I am now, I am getting referrals directly from some of the insurance companies, but I definitely didn't in the two previous parts of the country that I lived in. It's nothing to do with me, it is everything to do with what they need in the particular location that you're in. However, I do think it's always worth registering because you might get ideal clients coming to you who want to use their insurance to pay you. I find this is happening more and more, and when we look at the economic trends, more and more people are taking out private medical insurance and they expect to be able to use it. So I think that this is going to become a bigger part of our work over time. Some people might say regrettably, but it is a trend that I'm seeing, so I would get registered. But make sure when you register, you're aware of the cap that they have on their fees, read their terms and conditions, save those terms and conditions on your desktop, or put them somewhere safe where you can check them. And make sure that cap is not below your minimum fee. Also make sure that you set your fee at the very top of what they will pay, because the chances of them ever upping what they pay you are very low. They do not increase their cap every year. They haven't done so for a very long time in a lot of cases, so it is worth getting the most you can possibly get from the beginning.

So my top tips for taking on insurance clients are: 

• make sure you have your provider number, their patient number, and their pre authorization code, and the payment conditions and terms of the insurance provider saved into your practice management system and at your fingertips before you start therapy. 
• You need to know and make sure the client knows what the policy is around missed appointments. For some insurance providers, they will not pay for a DNA but they expect the patient to pay for that themselves. If they don't know that before they miss their first appointment with you, they might well refuse to pay it or be very upset and that's just a horrible conversation. So make sure that everybody knows and you've adapted your terms and conditions to reflect those terms from that particular insurance provider. 
• You also really need to know when you can invoice and when you should expect to be paid because that is slightly different for all of the insurance providers too and you don't want to miss out on the money that you're owed simply because you've got that wrong. 

When you take on cases from rehab companies, you're effectively working as an associate for them, so the same advice that I've already given for associate work applies. As an additional note of caution, however, and this is based on my own experiences, please do check the reputation of the company that you're dealing with before you accept referrals. I have seen psychologists and therapists treated really badly by these companies because they're quite prone to going under without paying their providers. They also often have completely unreasonable payment terms. You can't wait 90 days after submitting your invoice, or even worse, 90 days after the end of a whole course of therapy, to get paid. Not if you're in the early days of your practice, and not, to be honest, for most small businesses out there. It actually nearly put me out of business in my first year. So, where possible, check with peers if they've had good experiences of getting paid and working with these companies and triple check their payment terms are acceptable to you before proceeding. Some of them will negotiate with you. I did successfully negotiate down from 90 days to 30. It can be done, but just make sure that you do. And if they're not open to negotiating, walk away because it will be more trouble than it's worth. 

Your final task of the summer school:

• Firstly, decide if you want to register with insurance companies, and if you do, then make sure that you save all their documentation somewhere and have it all clearly labelled and easy to access. 
• Then if you think associate work would be useful to you, do a Google search for practices local to you and make contact with three to five that you think align with your values to see if they have any associate work available and to set up a coffee or chat with the founder so you can check if their values fit and they run things in a way which works for you.

Okay, that's your 30 minutes for the final time. Go!

Hello and welcome to the Business of Psychology Summer School edition. 

Over the six weeks of the English school holidays, we are doing things a little bit differently around here. If you're looking to start up an independent practice in September, then this is the place to be as each week I'm dropping in with a quick lesson and tasks that can be completed in 30 minutes or less from your sun lounger.

By the end of the six weeks, you will feel ready to step into your practice in September, confident that you can find clients and have a safe and viable business foundation. 

Each week, the lessons will go out on this podcast feed, but if you want the weekly tasks, workbooks, private community, and a live session with me at the end of the summer to hold you accountable and make sure nothing stands in your way, you will need to sign up here: PBS Summer School

I would love to see you in the community.

Full show notes of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links & References:

PBS Summer School Sign Up

PBS Start and Grow

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

For lesson five of our summer school, we are thinking about directory sites. It's a good idea to be on a directory site or two if you're in independent practice. They can be a good source of referrals, but on top of that, they give you a home on the internet that you can direct people to before you get your own website up and running. They show up in search engines and they can give you a real boost of credibility. 

There are a myriad of directory sites to choose from, and the good news is that most of them offer a free trial, so you can test which ones work for you. 

What I do, and what I'm going to talk through today, is I create a perfect profile, which I save in a Google Doc, and then I just copy and paste it into different platforms that I want to try out.

At a minimum, I'd recommend trying out Psychology Today, Counseling Directory, and Find My Psychologist, but it's worth doing a search for a 'psychologist or therapist near me' and seeing what directory sites are dominating the search results near you, because it is different postcode to postcode, and you really want to make sure you're on those sites that are coming top for your area. For example, where I am, if I type in ‘psychologist in Tunbridge Wells’, the first results are from Harley Therapy, Psychology Today and Counseling Directory. So if I was starting out, those would be places that I'd really want to consider. 

There are some basic principles for a good directory site profile, that if you follow, you're going to be streets ahead of most people out there, because most profiles on directory sites are really awful. I'm going to talk you through some top tips, and then if you're in summer school, you will be able to use my template, which I've put underneath this lesson, in order to craft your directory site profile. 

If this is difficult and it doesn't come naturally to you, it's actually worth recording your side of a conversation with a new client and looking at the phrases that you use and what you say and how you explain who you are and what you do when you're really in front of somebody. For me, I can do this as a bit of an imagination exercise. As I'm writing, I just imagine that I'm speaking to a real person that's come to me and is asking ‘how can you help me with X, Y, or Z?’ But I know that that doesn't come naturally for everybody, so sometimes it's about recording those real life interactions, because if you've been a therapist for a while, you're good at this, it's just sometimes difficult to get it out on paper.

You can't speak to everybody in your profile, you're just going to blend into the background. So make sure that you pick a particular client group to speak to. This is something we talk about a lot in Start and Grow; deciding on that specialism and who your ideal client is, is really important. But for now just pick your favourite type of client, the people that you've worked with most successfully in the past and go with that.

When it comes to talking about your approach, say a few confident lines about this, let them know about your experience and literally how you will help them, but don't go into reams and reams about how your unique approach to therapy is X, Y, or Z. People can't make sense of that if they've got no prior experience of therapy, it's likely that every single word you use will just come across as jargon to them, even though it isn’t to us. I would know what you mean, but we're thinking about the ideal client, and if they haven't had therapy before, things like 'safe space' even, just sound like rubbish to them. So try and steer clear of that sort of thing and just talk about ‘my 25 years of experience in therapy, experience in the NHS working in this area to help you overcome the problems that you're facing with X, Y, and Z. I offer...,’ and then maybe something like, talking therapies like CBT and trauma focused therapies like EMDR. That would be enough. You really don't need to overwhelm people with more, which is probably most often more written for our peers than it is for the ideal client. So steer clear of that and just a few confident lines.

Give your core qualification and then maybe one or two other things which really say something about the way that you work. For example, if you are EMDR accredited, that's probably worth mentioning. But if you did a two day course in CFT, that's probably not worth mentioning, but if you've done the CFT Diploma, maybe that is. Keep it to core qualification plus maybe one or two other things if they're really important to the way that you work.

Have an easy booking system and make sure it's really explicit. If the person needs to send an email to book with you, tell them to do that. If they need to phone, tell them to do that. Give one way of doing it. If you've set up something like Calendly or Acuity or you're using the WriteUpp booking system that we talked about in the tools lesson, then tell them about that and tell them exactly how to do it.

If you offer a free consultation, tell them that's what's going to happen and then afterwards you will follow up with your recommendations. However you do it, just make it really clear what needs to happen next and what will happen immediately afterwards.

None of this kind of sliding scale, none of this inquire and then I'll tell you the fee. No. People get really anxious about fees, understandably. Put yourself in their shoes. When I've been inquiring about therapy, the thing that is on my mind is can I afford this and what am I going to pay over the next three months, six months, 12 months, however long I think I'm going to need therapy for. And it's terrifying. People do not want to have a conversation, get to the end of it and have to tell you that they can't afford you. Horrible for everybody. Don't put anybody through it. Make your fees really explicit. 

If you don't have one, put that on your list of things to get sorted, because people need to feel that they have a sense of who you are and what your presence is like and the photo really communicates that, and it's very difficult to get right on your own. You need to make sure that there are no weird shadows over your face, and that you just look how you really look. So making sure that you've got a really good quality image will really help. There's lots of evidence that people do use those to make decisions about who they contact. So make sure you've got the best image you can possibly get. I really recommend going to local networking events and finding a local photographer to do that for you. It's not that expensive and it can make a really big difference to your profile success. 

So overall, the key here is to write your profile for an overwhelmed potential client, not for your peers. We talk about this loads in Psychology Business School and especially in the Start and Grow programme, and we spend a lot of time giving each other feedback on profiles because even I struggled to do this. After years and years of helping other people with their own, I still struggle to get mine right because it's very difficult to see your profile through the eyes of a potential client when you've got all your own stuff in your own head going on about it. So sharing what you've got for feedback is my biggest piece of advice. And don't worry if you need to tweak it a few times to get it right, because we all do. 

If you're in summer school, then there's a template below this lesson that you can use to create a great profile. And remember, it doesn't...

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. In this series, we're exploring the different ways that psychologists and therapists can work in independent practice. I've been talking to a lot of authors recently, and it's always a real pleasure to do so because the passion and commitment that it takes to author a book is infectious, so I've been really looking forward to our interview with Dr Kirstie Rees today. Dr Kirstie Rees is a child and educational psychologist, specialised in the areas of disability, neurodiversity and mental health and wellbeing. She is also the author of a new book, The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Children and Young People with Learning Difficulties.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links for Kirstie:

Website: www.kirstiereespsychology.com

LinkedIn: ​​Dr Kirstie Rees

Book: The Mental Health and Wellbeing of Children and Young People with Learning Difficulties: A Guide for Educators - by Dr Kirstie Rees

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

• Kirstie tells us how she got started in educational psychology 00:51
• We discuss the language used around disability 12:05
• Kirstie talks about her move into independent work 16:13
• Kirstie tells us about what sparked the idea for her book 22:03
• I ask Kirstie about the writing process 26:52
• We discuss going direct to a publisher, rather than using an agent 32:42
• Kirstie gives us her advice for psychologists and therapists wanting to write a book 37:50

Thank you so much for listening to the Business of Psychology podcast. I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to subscribe, rate and review the show. It helps more mental health professionals just like you to find us, and it also means a lot to me personally when I read the reviews. Thank you in advance and we'll see you next week for another episode of practical strategy and inspiration to move your independent practice forward.

Christine is a highly experienced occupational psychologist and leadership development consultant. Her career to date has spanned across the public and private sector and she has held several positions in the British Psychological Society. 

• I introduce Christine and she tells us about her career path and the road she took to independent practice 00:17
• We discuss the importance of talking to people about our careers and asking for help 04:23
• I ask Christine what it was like to be in a management role and introduce psychological thinking 07:20
• Christine tells us where her career went next, after developing her competence as an occupational psychologist in a management role 09:58
• Christine talks about her move into self employment and how she knew what she could do independently 13:56
• Christine talks about the growth of her independent practice 19:25
• Christine tells us about the coaching side of her work 27:26
• We discuss the difference between therapy and coaching 30:00
• I ask Christine how people can skill themselves up to work in this area 36:32
• Christine tells us the first steps for occupational psychologists who are thinking about starting a private practice 40:22
• I thank Christine and she tells us how to find her on LinkedIn 45:32

Links:

Linked In - Christine’s profile 

ILM - coaching qualification accrediting body

EMCC - coaching qualification accrediting body

ICF - coaching qualification accrediting body

**********

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from the new link:

https://psychologybusinessschool.com/client-checklist

**************

SPEAKERS

Rosie Gilderthorp, Christine Hamilton

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:01

Welcome to the business of psychology podcast, the show that helps you to reach more people, help more people and build the life you want to live by doing more than therapy. 

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:17

Today, I'm talking to Christine Hamilton. Christine is a highly experienced occupational psychologist and leadership development consultant. Her career to date has spanned across the public and private sector, and she's had several positions in the British Psychological Society. There's so much I'm keen to talk to you about today, Christine, so thank you so much for coming on and welcome to the podcast.

Christine Hamilton  00:38

Thank you very much Rosie, I barely recognise that introduction, so thank you for it.

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:45

Well, something that I hear a lot from members of the Do More Than Therapy community is that it can be really difficult for applied psychologists who aren't clinical or counselling psychologists to visualise what an independent practice would mean for them. I've also been having lots of conversations recently with students on Psychology Business School, about the difference between coaching and therapy, and what role we can take in leadership development. So I think there's going to be a lot of listeners today who are going to gain a lot from hearing from you. So firstly, it would be brilliant to get to know a little bit about your career path and the road that you took into independent practice.

Christine Hamilton  01:26

It was very much a sort of tacking away and then a tacking back, I would say, when I look backwards at my career, so after my degree in psychology, it was the early 80s, there were no jobs, so definitely resonance with these days, and took clerical jobs after I left University, thought, I'm never going to be able to apply my psychology. So did some personnel management qualifications. And again, there were no graduate roles that I could find in South Wales at the time. But by by chance, applied for a management training scheme, in the Department of Employment and started to see connections between psychology and employment. They're very obvious connections, but it really came home to me that we were in a situation where we had to enable vast amounts of people to get, one, get jobs, retain them, and two get some training that would get them out of dead end occupations, and into new ones. So it was a fascinating time to be involved in large scale schemes to enable some of that transition for a lot of people. So started to tenuously see my psychology in that frame. And then moved on, moved up and managed all sorts of offices and schemes in the southeast of England, and then moved back to Scotland, and happened to see an advert that was about graduate training schemes, and thought, in the NHS, and thought, oh, that's fascinating, that's an interesting area, and discovered that a lot of it was about assessment for part of the year, and then about development. Bringing these young people in to parts of the NHS, helping them acclimatise, and also get professional qualifications. And of course, that's at the heart of occupational psychology. Who is suited to a role, who could deal with the complexities of this particular kind of the public sector, part of public sector, who could become a manager and a leader of people? So I was again, tacking my way back to assessment of people, young people, and got drawn back into the world of psychology through my network. And I thought, you know, this is really an area I need supervision on, spoke to local psychologists, built up my knowledge, used some of their services, piggybacked on their expertise. And then gradually thought, now I really need to go for my chartered status. So it was very incremental forwards and backwards as the job required, and as my interest was piqued, I'd say.

Rosie Gilderthorp  04:23

I really love the method in there about talking to people and being open about what you're doing, and what you'd like to be doing. Because I think often, you know, we're not sure where we're going. We're not sure what we can do with our qualifications, but there are people out there who are doing inspirational things. And usually they're quite happy to talk about it.

Christine Hamilton  04:44

Yes. More often than not, unless they're very very up against it, people enjoy having a cup of coffee when we can do that, and just talking and listening. They love it. I don't think I've had many refusals, personally for me or for anybody else, when I said, would you mind talking to this person about? I could count the fingers on one hand, of people who have said no, and it's been for very good reasons.

Rosie Gilderthorp  05:15

Yeah, me too. And I think if you think about our own behaviour, I think certainly recently, I've been getting messages on LinkedIn, from people who are applying for the clinical psychology doctorate. I always try and help. Because I think we all know how privileged we are, to be able to call ourselves psychologists, it's certainly not an easy route, and you need a lot of luck and other things to get there. So I think there's a lot of goodwill in psychology and in therapy, that means if you reach out to somebody, it's really likely they're going to try and help you. 

Christine Hamilton  05:48

Very much. I think, I think we all have either been there or know close relatives who are there, so there is a lot of appreciation of that. But I think I would say that, and this is my ignorance of other divisions, but I'd say occupational psychology has particular problems, in that we have very, very few, and it's getting even less, opportunities to be trained as occupational psychologists and paid at the same time. Usually, we have to do HR roles, training and development roles under the banner of...

Today’s episode is part of the audio from a class I recorded on efficient processes for our Psychology Business School students. Systems expert Amy Mitchell shares why and how to create processes for everything that create so much space and so much less overwhelm in your day. Working with Amy has really changed my life and business so I knew after we recorded the class that I needed to share it with all of you.

Before we get started I just wanted to let you know that, if you’d like more help taking the overwhelm out of your practice the doors are now open for Psychology Business School. PBS is our complete course covering everything you need to get your practice up and running and bringing you the fulfilment you deserve. We’ve got live classes covering everything from mindset, pricing, business planning to advanced marketing strategies. Plus you get a bundle of legal templates created by a specialist GDPR lawyer just for us so you don’t have to worry whether your privacy policy and terms and conditions are compliant any more.

If you want to: 

• Make enough money to support yourself in your practice
• Break free from the fear of not having enough clients by developing a marketing strategy that works on repeat
• Create REAL work/life balance that doesn’t involve doing your reports at 2am

Then our 12 week programme is perfect for you. Doors will only be open for a week so come over and check out the details at:

https://psychologybusinessschool.com/the-psychology-business-school/

• I introduce Amy and tell you how working with her has changed my life 00:17
• I let you know that the doors are now open for Psychology Business School 00:41
• Amy talks about her love for making things as simple as possible, and using tools to do that 02:04
• We look at the key processes that people need to have in place, beginning with client onboarding 04:53
• Amy tells us the key components a good client onboarding and monitoring system should have 12:59
• Amy takes us through systems we can use for responding to, and monitoring enquiries 17:00
• We discuss putting processes into action, and how to map out your processes without making it into a massive job 22.10
• We talk about processes for invoicing and collecting CPD resources 27.01
• Amy takes us through the tech we can use to help us 33:57
• Amy tells us about the Asana mini training she has 43:53
• I remind you about Psychology Business School 47:02

Links to find Amy

https://www.amymitchell.ca

Asana mini training: https://www.amymitchell.ca/get-asana-mini-training

If this makes you want to try WriteUpp please use my referral link to sign up. It doesn't cost you anything and means they give me a small bonus, thank you!***********

I just wanted to let you know that the doors are now open for Psychology Business School. PBS is our complete course covering everything you need to get your practice up and running and bringing you the fulfilment you deserve. We’ve got live classes covering everything from mindset, pricing, business planning to advanced marketing strategies. Plus you get a bundle of legal templates created by a specialist GDPR lawyer just for us so you don’t have to worry whether your privacy policy and terms and conditions are compliant any more.

If you want to: 

• Make enough money to support yourself in your practice
• Break free from the fear of not having enough clients by developing a marketing strategy that works on repeat.
• Create REAL work/life balance that doesn’t involve doing your reports at 2am

Then our 12 week programme is perfect for you. Doors will only be open for a week so come over and check out the details at:

https://psychologybusinessschool.com/the-psychology-business-school/

***********

SPEAKERS

Rosie Gilderthorp, Amy Mitchell

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:01

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. The show that helps you to reach more people, help more people and build the life you want to live by doing more than therapy.

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:17

Today's episode is part of the audio from a class I recorded on efficient processes for our Psychology Business School students. Systems expert Amy Mitchell shares why and how to create processes for everything that creates so much space and so much less overwhelm in your day. Working with Amy has really changed my life and my business, so I knew after we recorded the class that I had to share it with all of you. Before we get started, I just want to let you know that if you'd like more help taking the overwhelm out of your practice, the doors are now open for Psychology Business School. PBS is our complete course covering everything you need to get your practice up and running, and bringing you the fulfilment that you deserve. We've got live classes covering everything from mindset, pricing, business planning, to advanced marketing strategies. Plus, you get a bundle of legal templates created by a specialist GDPR lawyer just for us. So you don't have to worry whether your privacy policy and terms and conditions are compliant anymore. So if you want to make enough money to support yourself in your practice, break free from the fear of not having enough clients by developing a marketing strategy that works on repeat, and create real work life balance that doesn't involve doing your reports at two o'clock in the morning, then our 12 week programme is perfect for you. Doors will only be open for a week, so come over and check out the details at psychologybusinessschool.com. The details are all in the show notes. 

Rosie Gilderthorp  01:45

Hello, everybody, and welcome to our session on systems, which all of you probably know how excited I am. But I'm particularly excited because today we've got Amy Mitchell here with us. And Amy is an incredible specialist in all things systems. So I shall let you introduce yourself properly Amy.

Amy Mitchell  02:04

Thank you, thank you, I'm so happy to be here, I'm really just grateful that you thought of me because I know that systems can be something that can be really overwhelming. And one of the things I love is to make it as simple as possible and like cut away all the things you don't need and really think okay, what do we want to accomplish here? And how can we get some tools or technology or processes to support us. And so I geek out on making system simple, as much as possible. And I like I really love to help people create systems that align with the person using the system, not just cookie cutter systems. So super excited to talk about your workflows and the way that that you all run businesses. Yeah, so I help people set up systems, and I do it in a human focused way. In a nutshell.

Rosie Gilderthorp  02:54

Basically, the Psychology business School that this is part of is all about reducing the overwhelm of being in private practice. And I've taken Amy's course and used her work to develop my systems, and oh, my word, the difference is massive. Overwhelm just comes down instantly when you know you've got your systems underneath you supporting you. So I'm really passionate about that, I'm really excited that you're here to share it with everybody.

Amy Mitchell  03:22

Thank you so much. I'll tell you a funny side story yesterday, I was on like a YouTube kind of game show with a couple of productivity experts that I met through Janet Marie actually. And we had to bring apps that we really love to increase productivity. And we were kind of competing against each other. And the other productivity experts kind of brought apps that helped you like get more done and bring more into your world and process more. And the apps that I brought were about removing distraction and making things simpler and clearer and I ended up winning. Because people really do want less, not more. And it's so powerful to create systems with that lens. Like I don't need to do more, I need to do more of the right things and actually clear away a lot of the things that are pulling my attention that don't deserve to call my attention.

Rosie Gilderthorp  04:14

Yes, I love that about what you do. And I've been reading some really interesting research recently about the impact of dopamine and our the way that we can become addicted, basically to checking, to the action of checking things. And I think we all recognise that in ourselves, don't we? When things are kind of pinging at us from all angles, it can be really, really difficult to focus on anything that matters to us.

Amy Mitchell ...

In today’s episode, we will cover why you should outsource, how to decide what to outsource and when, the types of tasks that you can outsource and some of my tips on how to do this effectively.

Have you noticed that if you ask me the date or time for something I never know?

It really is a huge problem for me. I am reasonably intelligent, have a good head for many things but I cannot hold any kind of number or date in my mind so, almost as soon as a date or time is mentioned to me, I have forgotten it. Any of the students on Psychology Business School or members of Do More Than Therapy will probably be aware of this fact...

This is a problem in private practice. Even though I use all of the tools like Calendly for scheduling meetings, WriteUpp for running my clinics and Google calendar for everything else I STILL double book myself all the time. And then I procrastinate about putting it right because I find it so stressful to try and find an alternative date for someone.

In the first year of my practice, I lost a lot of money because of this. I would turn down clients because I thought I had no space when that wasn’t true and I came across as deeply unprofessional with some who I had to re-book several times. I also had a contract with a company who wanted me to keep my availability up to date on their online system so they could book their employees in with me whenever they wanted and I just could not manage to do it so I rarely got work from them. 

After 12 months of hating myself, I listened to a podcast that told me about a magical person called a virtual assistant. Until that moment, in my head, I had imagined that only very successful, established practices could afford help with admin. Coming from the NHS land of scarce admin support and the horrendously unequal way that support was distributed, had made me think I wasn’t really worth of it. I am guessing some of you may relate to that way of thinking. If that is you I am hoping this will be a lightbulb moment for you too…

If you are doing less admin you can see more clients and earn more money than you pay for admin support!

I will say that again. If you do less admin you will earn more money.

For me it was instant. I took on my first VA, Samantha Dawkins from Koala VA in Plymouth and within a week she had made me £300 simply by keeping my diary up to date on the online booking system for the company I had a contract with. She is a specialist VA and they tend to charge between £20 and £40 per hour so they are not cheap but, because she is good at what she doe, reconciling my diary every day took her only a few minutes. It would have taken me a full hour.

Even better… Once you hand over tasks that really stress you out like that you have more time available for marketing, networking events and seeing the people on your waiting list so whatever your problem whether you have not enough or too many clients, outsourcing the stuff that sucks your time and that you are just bad at is really helpful. 

Here are some key outsourcing principles I wish I had known from the beginning:

Outsource what you are worst at first. If there is something that takes you ages because it is just not natural for you give it to someone who can do it in half the time. It will free up your time, energy and creativity for tasks that will actually bring money into your practice. There is actually quite a lot that falls into this category for me. As I mentioned the first thing I outsourced was my biggest weakness, the diary. Then I had to look at what else I messed up most frequently… invoicing… 

Next outsource things that are just overwhelming in volume. This didn’t happen to me until this year but I reached the point that the enquiries coming through my website and directory profiles became simply too much for me to handle. Again, I noticed myself procrastinating replying to anyone because I just felt too overwhelmed by my inbox. This was not good so I outsourced my inbox this year.

Then outsource tasks that you might be OK at but that don’t require your expertise. For me, this was video and podcast editing. I actually like doing those things so I didn’t outsource them for ages but I realised that the hours I was spending on them were hours I could be spending recording more episodes and going to networking events, two key priorities for my business this year. So I found the lovely Natali from Lime-VBS. Not only does she do a better job than me (you can probably hear the difference) but she also makes sure that I am accountable to recording when I say I will record. My podcast productivity has shot up as a result.

Finally, outsource the stuff that you are good at but that someone else can do. You will reach the point eventually when you need to take more strategic oversight in your business if you want to grow it. It may be at this stage that you need to think about hiring other people to do some of the tasks you actually love if your vision is to grow something bigger than a one or two person practice. This is exciting but terrifying and is kind of where I am at at the moment. In order to grow something with big impact you do need to have time to think like a CEO and that usually means letting someone else in. There will be some things that only you can do. For example, it wouldn’t make much sense for me to let someone else host my podcast or write my social media posts. A HUGE part of my business is about talking to you guys and the people my clinical work serves and understanding my community on a deep level is literally what I am all about. I get help with graphics etc but I would never want to outsource my podcast or presence on social media. It wouldn’t fit with the purpose of my business at all. It is crucial to recognise when you might need to bring on a more substantial team evaluate your vision for the business. Not every business requires this stage. I will let you know how that transition goes for me! 

When you have been in your practice for a while it might feel like you need to outsource quite a lot of tasks. When this happens it makes sense to map out your “client” experience from the moment they come in to contact with your website to the moment that they are discharged from working with you. Map all the tasks that happen between those two points, clinical (like sessions) and functional tasks like (feedback forms sent, invoices sent monthly etc). This is called end to end process mapping. If you have several different types of client or services you offer you might need to do this for several client groups. For example, I have this mapped out for therapy clients, organisations I support, PBS students and DMTT members separately. Then step back and look at which steps should be done by you and which should be outsourced. Then try to hire one person that can do ALL the outsourceable steps in that process. If you can do that it makes for a far better client experience. I have done this recently as I previously had lots of people doing little tasks for me and communication between us all was a challenge. Now I have one VA, wonderful Anna from Owl Business Solutions, who does all of the admin tasks for all the clinical side of my business. It is already working far better and it means my clients all know that for admin and scheduling issues Anna is the person to go to.   

If you are interested in mapping out your processes and you are a member of Psychology Business School we have a class on how to do this in Asana with processes expert Amy Mitchell so go and have a look at that one.

Diary management

Inbox management

Podcast editing

Video editing

Bookkeeping

Accounts

Community management (someone to help you run and social groups you have)

Graphics for social media

Social media scheduling

Copywriting

If you employ someone you will need to make sure they are trained up in data protection, GDPR and how to handle sensitive data in accordance with your professional bodies requirements. You would also be responsible for any other training they need to do their job well.

However, most of the time you will outsource to freelancers in the first instance. These are self-employed people and it is their responsibility to make sure they have the right training. When I am looking to outsource I create a job description and interview freelancers who seem to fit the bill. I ask them to evidence that they have training in the areas I need them to be good at and have a contract with them that...

Today I am talking to Allie Linn, who has joined us all the way from Philadelphia in the US. Allie used to be a therapist, got burned out and found writing. Now she helps other therapists to write the copy for their websites and I am thrilled to have her here to give us some top tips today.

• I announce that we are running the Find Your Specialism webinar again on 1st April 2021 at 7:30 00:01
• Allie tells us about her journey, and how she found herself where she is today 02:53 
• Allie talks about why it’s helpful to be a therapist when writing for therapists, and finding the right fit 05:26
• We discuss the importance of knowing your own voice and how to find it 09:47
• Allie tells us the biggest mistakes she tends to see us making on our websites 13:22
• Allie tells us what bits of our websites are most important to work on, including how to rank in a google search 15:35
• We talk about crafting a good story, and where to use storytelling on our website 23:25
• Allie takes us through how we can tell if our writing is working for our audience 27:34
• Allie talks about when it’s the right time to use a copywriter 32:59
• We discuss some of the tools available to help with your writing 40:12
• Allie tells us the two action step she wants us to go away and do now 43:20
• Allie tells us where to find her if we want to connect with her 46:04
• I give a reminder about the Find Your Specialism webinar 46:35

Links to find Allie

https://www.allielinnwrites.com

Instagram: @allielinnwrites

https://www.instagram.com/allielinnwrites/

LinkedIn: Allie Linn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/allielinn/

I really wanted to take a moment to tell you about something very exciting that's coming up soon. On Thursday, the 1st of April at 7:30 we are running our Find Your Specialism webinar. This was a big hit when we ran it back in January, and lots of you got in touch to ask if we were going to be running it again, and I'm very pleased to say that we are. So in the webinar we are going to cover why you need to specialise, the secret of a successful specialism, and then we're going to help you figure out what your specialism can be. And I really encourage you, if you are feeling overwhelmed in your private practice, if you're struggling with all the things that you could do, all the shiny objects that are out there, and you need a bit of clarity to move you forward, this is the webinar for you. I'd really encourage anybody who's starting out on their private practice journey to join us for an hour of free training. I'll be there as well to answer any questions that you might have about getting started in private practice. And there will be a special offer at the end for anybody who's thinking about joining our next cohort of Psychology Business School in April. So that is the 1st of April 2021 at 7:30. I hope to see as many of you as possible there.

Link: https://psychologybusinessschool.com/webinar

************

SPEAKERS

Allie Linn, Rosie Gilderthorp

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:01

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast, the show that helps you to reach more people, help more people and build the life you want to live by doing more than therapy. Before we get started with today's show, I really wanted to take a moment to tell you about something very exciting that's coming up soon. On Thursday, the 1st of April at 7:30 we are running our Find Your Specialism webinar. This was a big hit when we ran it back in January, and lots of you got in touch to ask if we could, if we were going to be running it again. And I'm very pleased to say that we are. So in the webinar, we're going to cover why you need to specialise, the secret of a successful specialism. And then we're going to help you figure out what your specialism can be. And I really encourage you, if you are feeling overwhelmed in your private practice, if you're struggling with all the things that you could do, all the shiny objects that are out there, and you need a bit of clarity to move you forward, this is the webinar for you. I'd really encourage anybody who's starting out on their private practice journey to join us for an hour of free training. I'll be there as well to answer any questions that you might have about getting started in private practice. And there will be a special offer at the end for anybody who's thinking about joining our next cohort of Psychology Business School in April. So that is the 1st of April at 7:30. And that's 2021 for anyone who's listening in the future. And I hope to see as many of you as possible there. All the links that you need are in the show notes. So on with the show. 

Rosie Gilderthorp  01:41

Today, I'm talking to Allie Lynn. Allie's joined us all the way from Philadelphia in the US, so we're really lucky to have her. And we're extra lucky because Allie used to be a therapist, got burnt out and then found writing. And now she helps other therapists to write the copy for their websites. And I'm really thrilled to have her here to give us some top tips today. So hi Allie, welcome to the podcast.

Allie Linn  02:03

Hi Rosie, thank you so much for having me.

Rosie Gilderthorp  02:06

So I can't wait to talk about writing, because I am a writer at heart. I've written my whole life. But I know it's something that so many of the students on Psychology Business School, particularly struggle with, because it's not something that you have to be good at to be a therapist or a psychologist. And it's a real skill in itself to be able to communicate with the, with your audience through writing. So I'm really looking forward to getting your top tips. And I'm sure there's going to be loads of notes that people are going to want to take. So top tip go and get yourself a notepad if you haven't got one already. I've got mine. And I'm expecting to be making some notes today. But before we dive into that, let's find out a little bit more about you and your journey. So how did you find yourself where you are today?

Allie Linn  02:53

Yeah, so I was a therapist for five years. Primarily, I was a dance movement therapist, although I did a lot of other types of therapy. And I worked mostly in inpatient psychiatric hospitals, which really burnt me out. I just am not built for that kind of setting. And I kept trying, and I kept trying, and it just wasn't working. And I started getting sick. And I was getting stress migraines, and I couldn't do a job. And it was just, you know, anxiety attacks. And I finally decided to step back. And around that time, I met a freelance writer, she writes for lawyers. But she told me what freelance writing was, I started looking into it. I've always been a writer myself, but, you know, I was more of a researcher in grad school, so copywriting is a completely different set of skills. It's a completely different set of skills from writing books to and so, um, I found a course about a year ago, yeah, about a year ago now. And I, it's very comprehensive, it kind of walked me through like, you know, what SEO is and how to write for, you know, marketing and how to use your writing in a storytelling way and how to write the way you talk. So once I found that it really helped me guide myself into being a business owner,  which I hadn't thought of myself for a while I kind of was like, I'm going to write I'm going to be a writer, but I don't really know what that means. So once I found copywriting, it gave me a lane to go down.

Rosie Gilderthorp  04:44

Because I think a lot of people listening to this might have an interest in writing, you know, maybe they enjoyed writing academic papers, maybe they've written journal articles. But like you say, it's such a different thing when you sit down you're trying to sell yourself through your writing, I think a lot of people, they look at the cursor and it blinks at them. And it's just a total blank. I know that's how I felt when I came to write my first website. I just had no idea what to say about myself or communicate as me on there. So yeah, it's great to hear that, that you managed to kind of find a way to channel your existing talent into that and learn that skill set.

Allie Linn  05:26

Yeah. And also, I think, you know, you don't have to be a therapist to write for therapists, but I think it helps a lot.

Rosie Gilderthorp  05:34

And why do you think that's so helpful? 

Allie Linn  05:36

Well, because I understand the world of therapy. I have done CBT I have done DBT. I have done Creative Arts therapy, I've worked in different settings. So I know, what am I, I, I've studied, you know, different types of therapy. So when I'm talking to a therapist, for the first time I, I have a base knowledge of what their, what they...

Today I am talking to Dr Shabnam Berry Khan about her business, Psych Works. Shabnam is a Clinical Psychologist and member of the Do More Than Therapy membership so I have been wanting her to come on the podcast since I met her on a coaching call last year because she works in an area of psychology that I didn’t know much about and it sounds really exciting.

• Shabnam tells us how she got into the niche area of psychology led case management 01:02
• Shabnam explains what case management is, and who it is there to help 04:42
• Shabnam talks about what elements the work involves, and how that’s related to costings 08:61
• We discuss how psychologists are well placed to carry out case management 11:00
• Shabnam tells us how her business evolved after starting this type of work in an employed role 14:53
• We talk about imposter syndrome and holding your own as a psychologist with other professions that seem more self assured 18:58
• Shabnam tells us how she’s looking for more case management associates, and also those interested in broad range private practice within the medico-legal field, and what you need and don’t need for that 24:51
• Shabnam tells us where people can find her if they want to connect 31:08

Links to find Shabnam

www.psychworks.org.uk

https://www.instagram.com/adminpsychworks.org.uk/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shabnam-berry-khan-135a6753/

*******

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist

*******

SPEAKERS

Shabnam Berry-Khan, Rosie Gilderthorp

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:01

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast, the show that helps you to reach more people, help more people and build the life you want to live by doing more than therapy. 

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:16

Today I'm talking to Dr. Shabnam Berry-Khan about her business, Psych Works. Shabnam is a clinical psychologist and a member of Do More Than Therapy, who I've been wanting to come on the podcast since I met her on a coaching call last year, because she works in an area of psychology that I really didn't know much about, and it sounds really exciting. So welcome to the podcast Shabnam.

Shabnam Berry-Khan  00:38

Yeah, thanks, Rosie, that was lovely. Yeah, thanks for being here. Actually, it's, it's a really nice opportunity to talk a little bit about sort of an area of the application of psychology that I think people may have some misconceptions about. And, or may just not know an awful lot about. So I really appreciate the opportunity. So thank you.

Rosie Gilderthorp  01:02

Yeah, I'm really pleased that you're here. Because, as I mentioned, as a member of Do More Than Therapy, I had the chance to kind of see some of your work, and you're on the blogging challenge, and I could see some of the stuff that you're writing about. But really, I don't think I'd ever heard of case management before. Even though I've done, I've probably done a little bit and been managed by a case manager when I look back at it, because I've done a bit of treatment work for medico-legal, the medico-legal system. But yeah, I really didn't understand anything about how that system works, it's been fascinating to get to know you a bit. And I think you've got a really great example of a niche, because I believe that you're the only psychology led case management service in the UK. Is that right? 

Shabnam Berry-Khan  01:46

I think we are and not by design, I have to say, as many great things, you know, may may may be, you know, maybe may may have come down that pathway, but very much so, it's very unusual to find psychologists in the case management world, it's not like I'm the only one, there are a number of us, a small handful actually, but you find that people are either case managers, or they are psychologists, and what we've tried to do is kind of combine the two. So the, the thing about the case management is that I fell into it anyway. So accidentally, having felt very oppressed, you know, in a sort of NHS role and thinking that oh, gosh, is this what clinical psychology is all about? So that took me about a year, year and a half to work out. This was very different to what I thought it would be like. And I saw an advert in a BPF magazine, one of the BPF publications at the time saying, you know, would you like to be a case manager and I thought, you know what, I'm just going do it. And I was working in a neurodevelopmental service at the time, so it felt like it wasn't a massive leap into what is sort of brain injury, a lot of personal injury clients are brain injured. So we are talking about some, some very sort of neuro based interventions and thinking about people in a very sort of systemic way. And I, I just thought, I'm going to do it, I found out I was really... my friend, my colleague and I were the only team psychologists really doing it. And psychology was so misunderstood. I think. It's probably the best way to describe it in the case management world. Because I guess, because psychologists don't tend to do case management, because they, I think traditionally it's come very much so from a background of practical functional, physical, rehabilitation. So a lot of case managers are OTs, physiotherapists, you do get a number that sort of social work, public social work, background, speech and language therapists, but not really anything that is like what we do in terms of our training. So when we joined, there were quite a few questions around, you know, how can a psychologist be helpful and I'm thinking how can we not be helpful? You know, from the individual to the system, working with carers, thinking about the professional network, holding all those dynamics that we know from the research does very much so facilitate or indeed impede the process of rehabilitation.

Rosie Gilderthorp  04:42

Yeah, so I mean, I think I can see so clearly how our skill set would be really valuable for that system. And but let's go back a couple of paces. And could you just describe, you know, what case management is and the people that it's there to help.

Shabnam Berry-Khan  04:59

Sure, that's a good question. And I, sometimes I get, you know, often I think I know what the answer is. And then I think, oh gosh, it's actually more nuanced than that, or it's more complex than that. So on the in a very brief description, a case manager is someone who supports the client through their personal injury journey, their personal injury journey is one that has altered their life so significantly that pretty much every aspect of their life needs some kind of input. So a case manager supports that package of care and therapy very broadly speaking, in order to achieve those rehabilitation goals. The twist on that is that you are working very much so within that medico-legal framework. So you are very much so in touch with solicitors, if it's an unsettled case, which means that the solicitors are still building the quantum, the financial claim element of the case, what that, you end up working very closely with them. In the event that the case is settled, and there perhaps is a deputy for someone who's holding that claim money that has been awarded, it's a horrible word, but awarded to the client, you then end up liaising with them very much so about what is required and why. So there's a clinical element in terms of justification, in terms of being able to demonstrate the progress, the progress that the client would have with that support. And there's an element of sort of the people management, if you like, of it, the care teams are in place, and they need to know what they've got to do. And there's multidisciplinary teams that need to be chaired, and the input that they provide, and the minutes that...

Today I’m here with Jase Taylor from Oxford Communication Skills. Jase is a communication skills expert and is also married to a Clinical psychologist so he has a lot of insight into what we do and has some really useful insights to help us amplify our messages around mental health. 

The highlights

• Jase tells us the interesting story behind his career, and how he became a communication skills expert 00:48 
• Jase talks about how we can train ourselves to be better communicators 10:51
• Jase defines for us what he means by communication skills 13:06
• Jase talks about when it is most important to get our communication right 16:38
• We discuss being authentic, and how it has to be your message to be comfortable  18:19
• Jase tells us what communication strengths he sees in mental health professionals 31:51
• We talk about bringing out individual style and strengths, and the importance of this for diversity and inclusivity  36:04
• Jase tells us what tips he would give if I was invited to do a TED talk tomorrow 42:21
• Jase tells us how people can find him if they want to work with him 46:17

Links to find Jase

https://www.oxfordcommunicationskills.com

jase@oxfordcommunicationskills.com

Twitter & Instagram: @oxcommskills

https://www.instagram.com/oxcommskills/

https://twitter.com/OxCommSkills

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist

TRANSCRIPT

SPEAKERS

Rosie Gilderthorp, Jase Taylor

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:01

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast, the show that helps you to reach more people, help more people and build the life you want to live by doing more than therapy. Today, I'm here with Jase Taylor from Oxford Communication Skills. Jase is a communication skills expert, and is also married to a clinical psychologist. So he's got a lot of insight into what we do and has some really useful ideas to help us amplify our messages around mental health. So welcome to the podcast, Jase. Before we get started, I know that you've got quite an interesting story behind your career. So could you tell us a little bit about how and why you became a communications expert?

Jase Taylor  00:48

It's a slightly convoluted route. To be honest, I started off training as an engineer, software and algorithms engineer, all the way through A Levels, University and into a full time job. And communications was sort of part of that in the way that it's part of a lot of jobs that people generally do, you have to deal with clients and colleagues and meetings and things. But in general, it wasn't a front and centre aspect of it. But it was following a house move relocation, I found myself looking for kind of interesting evening activities. And I found a local branch of an international competition called Fame Lab, which has a bit of a cringe title, but it's about science communication, and and scientists, researchers, academics, communicating, communicating their science to the public. So I so went along and just sat in the audience, and there were a dozen or so sort of PhD students or whatever, communicating their, their bit of research with with passion and excitement, and it was great, I loved it. And it's an annual competition, I thought, well, maybe, maybe I can have a go, it doesn't, doesn't look too difficult. You know, it's quite cheerful, positive, supportive audience. That sounds fun. So the following year, I applied and got through the first round, and then the second round, and, and I found myself in the grand final on a on a stage at a theatre in London, and came away as a runner up, and it was on the train home, really, with with my wife with sort of certificate in hand, and she just asked me quite bluntly, you're quite good at this, is that a chance for you to do this, do more of this in your in your current job? Or if you get promotion? I thought for a moment, and the answer really was just no. And so the question then became well is it may be time to look for something that, that does let you do more of this. So that was, that moment was the catalyst really. And then within 10, or 11 days of that moment, I was on the phone, receiving a job offer to take up teaching at a secondary school, having so applied and whirlwind interview and all this stuff. And that kicked me off into teaching. And then I realised that teaching was just kind of a really lovely connection to this communication, I thought, well, maybe I could teach others how to communicate so that they can enjoy it as much as I do. And so that's what I've been doing. I started off tutoring and mentoring subsequent rounds of competitors in Fame Lab here in the local heats and then getting involved with kind of national competitors to and it grew from there, dealing with people going off, and then it's a springboard for people who want to go off and do some YouTube channels or TEDx talks, things like that.

Rosie Gilderthorp  03:28

That is so cool. Who knew there was a Fame Lab.

Jase Taylor  03:32

I know, I know. It's not really like anything that you kind of come across in other aspects. There's no, well as far as I'm aware, there's no awards for communicating about, I don't know, pick a subject. But, but here it is, science of communication. And I mean, let's be honest, the last year, the last 18 months have shown if anything, the massive importance of being able to communicate accurate science well, to everybody, without misleading them, or confusing or overwhelming them. It's, it's so important, and lots of, I'm not detracting from people who do this, lots of people are very good at this, but it's something that everybody can improve on, and it's something that lots of people would really benefit from having more, more coaching on, of course. 

Rosie Gilderthorp  04:21

Oh, it's so true. I think my brain was turning over on this subject the other night, actually, because it struck me that there's a huge difference in public perception at the moment, because we are recording this still in the middle of the pandemic. I feel like I've been saying that on this podcast for too long now.

Jase Taylor  04:38

You've noticed that the people have stopped saying it's unprecedented because we've done we've got 18 months of precedent now.

Rosie Gilderthorp  04:46

Yeah, this thing we're all very used to, but he's a bit rubbish. And, and it yeah, it was really striking me that one of the government's scientific advisors was not communicating the advice very well. And I was saying to my husband, like, oh my god, he needs to say this, he needs to say that. Because you know, knowing a little bit about behavioural science, and what gets a message through to people, I was like you've just confused the entire nation on a fairly simple point, really. However, contrasting that with some of the other advisors who are much better communicators, and it just felt like a Russian Roulette really, of who gets pulled out, and depends really what the public is going to be able to take away from it. So I completely agree with you, I think it could not be more important than it is right now. And in mental health, it's, it's just make or break for our clients, really, if you don't understand the evidence base behind what you're being presented with, you know, whether that's CBT, or a medication that a psychiatrist might be recommending, if you don't understand it, that's not informed consent. It's not ethical to do something that that the person on the other end of it doesn't understand. And I think it happens far, far too often.

Jase Taylor  06:08

Yeah. And likewise, if you're involved in some research, and you've got some fantastic new...

Kathy Adcock is a clinical psychologist, a boxer, and the founder of social enterprise In Your Corner. She's also a passionate social entrepreneur. She's here today to talk a bit about her journey, and how we can develop that entrepreneurial spirit.

• Kathy tells us what she does with In Your Corner, and how it all began 02:52
• Kathy explains how she turned In Your Corner into a reality 04:14
• Kathy talks about finding people who believe in the idea and being a sole director 08:21
• We discuss trusting others with your idea 09:24
• We talk about the speed of decision making when it’s your own business 11:07
• We discuss the benefits of doing different jobs in the NHS in order to learn key skills, and how NHS experiences give us the impetus to create a social enterprise 12:00
• We talk about the importance of having qualified and experienced people working on social enterprises, and the impact on costs 15:20
• Kathy speaks about the need to be assertive and not undersell yourself 18:39
• We discuss income, and charging the right amount 20:15
• Kathy explains how entrepreneurship is not just having the idea, but doing it 21:27
• We discuss how marketing is listening, and the importance of listening to feedback and objections 23:42
• We talk about the identity of being a psychologist and an entrepreneur 30:40
• We explore the ownership of expertise, and collaborative versus leadership skills 38:15
• Kathy discusses how the autonomy of the psychology profession is a good fit for entrepreneurship 43:19
• Kathy tells the things she recommends would-be entrepreneurs work on 44:19
• We discuss getting help for, and giving away the bits you don’t want, like finance 46:41
• Kathy tells us where we can find out more, and how to get in touch if you’re interested in becoming a partner 49:12

In Your Corner: www.inyourcorner.uk

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter: @iycboxing

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iycboxing

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iycboxing/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IYCboxing

********************** 

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve

made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace

your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I

was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up

insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if

I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the

impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you

have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what

you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the

thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident

in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist

******************

TRANSCRIPT

SPEAKERS

Rosie Gilderthorp, Kathy Adcock

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:01

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast, the show that helps you to reach more people, help more people and build the life you want to live by doing more than therapy. 

This weeks podcast episode is really special to me because it’s the kind of episode that reminds me exactly why I started the business of psychology podcast. It’s also the 50th episode to be published of the business of psychology so it’s a really big milestone for this podcast. So before I launch into the interview with Dr Cathy Adcock where we talking all about entrepreneurship and how the entrepreneurial spirit can help us to have more impact on mental health and how we can foster that in ourselves which is such an exciting topic which I’m really excited to share with you all. I just wanted to announce that we are having a little bit of a celebration this week and at the same time trying to increase the reach of this podcast. So as you may know (or you may not know) the number of reviews that a podcast has determines how many people the podcast platforms show the podcast to. So if you want to grow your podcast you really need to get some good positive reviews. So with that in mind, I really want to grow the reach this podcast because I’m really really proud of the content that we’ve created. I’m really proud of what me and the members of the team here at the business of psychology have produced and I’m really proud of a lot of the inspiring people that come on and spoken to us. So I want to get his podcast out to more people and a great way to do that is asking all of you guys, listening now, to swipe up on your podcast app go to the show notes bit and leave us a five star review and if you do that, take a screenshot and share it on social and tag me in. I’m @domorethantherapy on Facebook and @rosiegilderthorp on Instagram. Then I will enter you into a competition and you might just win a £50 Amazon voucher. Feeling generous, feeling flush because it is a big celebration week for us this week. So please if you enjoy the podcast if you get value from it, please do rate, review and share it and let’s get this podcast out to more people. So without further adieu, let’s get on with the show!

Today I'm talking to Dr. Cathy Adcock. Kathy is a clinical psychologist, a boxer, and the founder of social enterprise In Your Corner. She's also a passionate social entrepreneur. And she's here today to talk a bit about her journey, and how we can develop that entrepreneurial spirit. Welcome to the podcast, Kathy.

Kathy Adcock  02:51

Hi, thanks for having me.

Rosie Gilderthorp  02:52

So, firstly, I think we'd all love to hear a bit about what you do with In Your Corner. So how did it all begin? 

Kathy Adcock  02:59

So um In Your Corner, obviously, well, I was a psychologist first, and I think that's an odd thing to say. So, I didn't grow up like a sporty kid who was in a boxing gym like that, that wasn't the deal. Like, I was born in the 80s girls weren't allowed to box. So I was trotting along as a psychologist and I kind of found boxing within a commercial gym actually. And then through that joined a boxing club. And I just really got on with it. And I suppose I, I got really interested in, in particular the relationship you have with your coach, and how much they kind of look after you in very kind of physical ways like that, you know, they pour water into your mouth, they kind of wrap your hands, there's something really, you feel very well looked after, as they pat you on the back and send you out. But I also was interested in the kinds of, just the kind of my personal mental health benefits from boxing, boxing's been amazing for my well being personally and I kind of thought there's a lot of boxing for change projects around like there's a strong narrative in boxing run like boxing, boxing helps young people's well being that's not very well articulated. And it's not particularly kind of theoretical. And I was kind of thinking, well, how could we build on that and kind of supercharge it, so that I can kind of combine what I know about what works for like adolescence to what I think works about a boxing gym, and kind of create a way of working, where we're using boxing, not just as an engagement hook, but also kind of maximising its therapeutic potential in an evidence informed way.

Rosie Gilderthorp  04:34

Wow. I mean, that sounds like quite a mission. So how did you first kind of go about turning that into a reality?

Kathy Adcock  04:42

Um, so I guess, I suppose you, you've got to find people who are interested in coming along for the ride. So I guess in the first instance, I was thinking, I mean, I met a coach, actually, who'd had quite an interesting journey himself, so he was experienced. And had had quite a complicated time in the way that quite a lot of our young people have. And I thought, oh, you'd be interested, you know, you'd be an interesting coach in this context, because you kind of get it from a lived experience and perspective. So I found a coach, I actually it was my boxing club at the time that I approached and said, look, I've had this idea. Can I can I do it in your club? And they said, Yes. And I just kind of built on, I guess, the people I knew. And you know, like existing relationships really. So who do I think a safe pairs of hands and boxing? Who do I think a safe pair of hands in, in psychology? And how can they help this endeavour? And, um, I guess I ran a...

I’m here today with Sam Hill. Many of you will know Sam as she is the community manager for us in the free Do More Than Therapy community, Psychology Business School and the DMTT members group. Sam has built her own business around helping peoples’ communities to thrive. It is a real skill and she is here to share with us the secrets of a group that gets people talking. 

• Sam tells us how she came to be a community manager, and what that is 01:06
• Sam talks about how we can measure if a group is doing well, if it’s thriving 02:58
• We discuss engagement and how to get your posts seen and commented on 04:02
• I ask Sam what some of the common mistakes are when setting up a group for the first time 09:49
• We talk about rules, and Sam tells us why we need them 10:38
• Sam tells us to use questions for joining a group, and to be strict about it 12:46
• We talk about using the questions to get people on our email list 14:01
• Sam tells us which rules are the most important to stick to 17:31
• Sam explains how to use units/guides to organise our group 22:03
• Sam talk about the importance of cornerstone content 23:46
• We discuss pop-up groups and how they can be successful 29:05
• We talk about the time needed to run a group and whether you need a community online 36:21
• I ask Sam how people make the decision to bring in a community manager, and what they can get help with 39:56
• We discuss risk management, having a disclosure in your rules, and a fairplay agreement 44:29
• We talk about outsourcing your social media in general, and who should post what  48:03

Links to find Sam

www.samanthajhill.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/groups/975281076155451

https://www.instagram.com/samantha_j_hill/

Links to other podcasts referenced:

Don’t set goals without a clear vision, values and mission! Why psychologists and therapists usually fail at goal setting and how to plan better: https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-business-of-psychology/vision-values-and-mission-psychologists-and-therapists-goal-setting/

3 Ways to Use Facebook for Psychologists and Therapists:

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-business-of-psychology/3-ways-to-use-facebook-for-psychologists-and-therapists/

****************************** 

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist

SPEAKERS

Rosie Gilderthorp, Sam Hill

Rosie Gilderthorp  00:01

Welcome to the business of psychology podcast, the show that helps you to reach more people, help more people, and build the life you want to live by doing more than therapy.  I'm here today with Sam Hill, many of you will know Sam, as she's the Community Manager for us in the free Do More Than Therapy community, Psychology Business School, and the Do More Than Therapy members group. So we keep her really, really busy. Sam has built her business around helping people's communities to thrive. It's a real skill, and she's here to share with us the secret of the group that gets people talking. So welcome to the podcast, Sam. I've been trying to get Sam on here for ages. Because when we first met, I had absolutely no idea what a community manager was, or why anybody would want one. But now I absolutely could not be without you, Sam. So why don't we get started with you telling us a little bit about how you came to be a community manager and what that is.

Sam Hill  01:06

Okay, so, um, I used to run wool shops, I had a knitting business for 11 years. And I built up a really strong, thriving community from that business. When I sold the business, I realised that was kind of what I was good at. And what I missed most about the business was the community. So I had the opportunity to look after my business coach at the times community Janet Murray, she's become like, one of one of my main clients. And yeah, so I that's what I do full time now is help business owners like Rosie to build communities. Essentially, what I think Community Manager is, is customer service online. That's how I describe it, if people don't understand.

Rosie Gilderthorp  01:54

That's a really great way of describing it, because it, it makes people in my experience anyway, since having you on board, it's really helped people to feel looked after. And like we're kind of more on the ball than I could be on my own.

Sam Hill  02:07

Yeah, I look af... yeah I look after people, care for them, make sure they're happy.

Rosie Gilderthorp  02:13

And I know that there's a lot of people listening to this podcast, who want to create a Facebook group, or some other kind of online community, because they're thinking about, you know, selling a product or a service that needs quite big audience. And in some of the previous episodes, I've recorded about Facebook, I'm pretty sold, that if you're on Facebook, a group is the way to do that. But there are groups and there are groups, right? And you can spend a lot of time getting nowhere with a group if you don't really know what you're doing with it. So we love data in the psychology community, you know this. How can we how can we tell how can we measure if a group is doing well if it's thriving?

Sam Hill  02:58

So what I look at first is the insights. So if you're, if you've got your community on Facebook, which is where yours is, there's an insights in there, which is really helpful, and that will show you the first thing you want to look at is the engagement figure. So if people are engaging, you're doing something, right. It's not about numbers, don't get hung up on vanity numbers, you can have 50 people all talking to each other. That's brilliant, you could have 50,000, and your engagement be super low. So that's like the main thing you want to look at. The other one is active member rate, which you'll know I put in your report every month. So that tells you who's looked or seen or commented on any comments at all. That's really important, because as your group gets bigger, you'll find that it, that gets a little bit lower, because lots of people don't see everything that's in the group. So that's kind of where you need to start with, with the insights and data stats.

Rosie Gilderthorp  04:02

Yeah, I mean, that's a really good point. Because one thing I didn't realise until we started working together was how much of an algorithm Facebook really is in groups. I kind of thought that I would see most things from a group that I was a member of, but that's really not the case, is it?

Sam Hill  04:19

No, not at all. And actually, it's funny because I've just done a video recently showing how you can make sure that people are seeing more comments in your group because I was part of a group that I didn't even realise because it wasn't shown on my feed. So the best way to do that in a Facebook group is you can change your notifications so that you see every single post that comes through. So it's best to like ask openly, ask your members to do that. But also the communication; every time you put a post out that somebody comments on the next post will be seen more. So it's really important to get people talking.

Rosie Gilderthorp  05:01

So this is why engagement and active members kind of work together as the most important stats, because presumably, if you're getting lots of...

Before we get into today’s episode I just wanted to let you know about a checklist I’ve created to take the overwhelm out of setting up in private practice. This is for you if you are new to private practice or if you still aren’t completely confident in your systems and processes. It is impossible to be creative and do more than therapy in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have the boring stuff like insurance, policies and data protection sorted. Tick of the boxes on the free checklist and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs. That will free up your mind for some creativity and business planning for 2021! Download it now the link is in the show notes. 

Now on with the show!

****

Social media strategy can be very overwhelming. There are actually a million things you could do to grow your audience on social media but I would argue that these three strategies are most likely to help you grow your group in the shortest amount of time possible. It is important to remember that a group will only thrive if it continues to grow and you provide it with consistent value. So, like everything, you need to think about your vision for your business and your ideal client for the project you are working on right now. Then think about how you can solve a small problem for that client group through your group. That will give you some ideas for helpful content you can create for them. Once you know what value you are going to give to your group and you have that planned out you are ready to open the doors and try and get people in!

The top three strategies for psychologists and therapists growing a Facebook group

1. Speak in other peoples’ groups
2. Post on relevant threads in other peoples’ groups
3. Create high-quality cornerstone content that links directly to the purpose of your group.

Essentially in order to fill your Facebook group, you need to find the people who would naturally want to be in it, wherever they are hanging out. If you are targeting a particular professional group you could do this by sending messages on LinkedIn letting them know what the group offers to them. I do that for DMTT and it works really well. If your group is not united by a profession or you don’t think they are active on LinkedIn you can also find them in Facebook groups. 

Last week we talked about how to build authority using Facebook and one of the best strategies for this is developing a relationship with people who own groups that contain your ideal client group and offering some free training to their group. This gets you in front of plenty of your ideal people and gives them a chance to quickly get to know, like and trust you. This is also a great way to grow your Facebook group as at the end of your talk you can let them know that they can find you there. 

The first step is to set up some calls with your ideal clients and find out where they spend their time on Facebook. Then you develop a relationship with the people running those communities and work out what you can offer to them. 

There are lots of things you can provide free training on that people with relevant groups will be pleased to have in their communities. I have done talks on managing strong emotions for life coaching groups, the difference between “depression” and low mood is a topic I get asked to speak on quite a lot, I have gone into groups and done training repeatedly for communities run by charities including those supporting unemployed people and veterans. Also, in order to promote DMTT, I have done talks in groups relating to marketing and online business on the mental ups and downs of entrepreneurship and I know that some of the members of the DMTT Facebook group found me that way! 

Rather than just broadcasting you should also pick three communities that you think have a good number of your ideal clients in and become an active and helpful member. If you feel you want to mention your group, ping a message to admin and ask if that is OK. It is generally bad form to just post links to your group unless they have a dedicated networking thread or you have an agreement with them. Usually, if your group will be valuable to their audience but offers something different to what they are offering they will be OK with you posting links but the relationship with the group admins is very important so never do that without permission. One top tip is that if you set up your personal profile with clear links to your business page and a statement of what you do then people who “stalk” you from these groups will find your group anyway. 

I know this is where some of you may start to freak out. Some groups do let you join as your business page so you may be able to avoid people finding your personal profile. But I wouldn’t count on it. I wish I could say that there is a workaround that will allow you to build a thriving social media presence for your business while maintaining absolute, tight boundaries over your personal profile but I don’t believe there is. I would never put that much trust in the platform developers. You can have high privacy settings on your personal profile that means that if someone who is not a friend clicks on you all they see is your name, a list of your business pages and a brief description. I do that in fact and at present, I believe it works.  However, I think you have to accept that if you want to grow your business using social media, if you want to sell online courses or books or workshops, then you need to be mindful of anything you post from any social media account because privacy settings are not infallible and some people will look to find out as much about you as they can. I think I probably would if I was thinking about investing in a course with someone and I definitely would if I were considering therapy.

I can’t say that every post or comment I make is something I would LIKE all my clients to read but I do make sure that all of it is something I wouldn’t be embarrassed by if they heard me talking about it in the supermarket. For me, that means I try not to make any political statements or anything that could feel judgemental towards anyone. I also won’t give opinions that I wouldn’t want to be associated with me professionally (say about political figures etc.)  If you decide that social media marketing is part of your vision for your business then you need to figure out a policy of engagement with it that feels right for you and stick to it.

Essentially the strategy is to listen to people, gather information about what they need from you, be a helpful person and, when you can, suggest they come and join your group. If you only do the last bit it won’t help you build relationships and frankly, just won’t work!

You heard me talk last week about the importance of high-quality cornerstone content. This is the content that delivers real value to people and solves their problems. It is your best work, made accessible for free. I promise you if you are creating it regularly then talking to people in your group with become a lot easier. Getting people IN to your group will also become a lot easier! Some people will find your group organically through your cornerstone content. I know that people find the DMTT Facebook group off the back of this podcast all the time. I mention it so people get to know it and naturally want to be part of it. If you produce podcasts, videos or blogs you will also get a few people this way. Any channels you use to promote your cornerstone content will also, therefore, help you to promote your group. If you run FB ads to a podcast or a blog or use the organic strategies for promoting these that we have talked about on these podcasts this will see a steady stream of people joining your group to get more value from you. Seeing that you produce awesome content will also encourage people to want to move a step closer towards working with you. If they see you dropping a link to a really helpful blog post they are much more likely to want to find out what valuable stuff you are giving to your group members. 

BONUS: Make sure you have follow up content that you deliver to your group that encourages them to join your email list. Sam and I will talk more about this in our episode on running a high-quality Facebook group but the most important thing to remember is that to successfully sell something to your group you are going to need to get as many people as possible onto your email list.

Finally, remember that growing a successful group is very very time-consuming. DMTT is my most successful group. We are at 1500 members and I love the interaction and supportive nature of the group. In order to get to that position, I have recorded a podcast episode, written five social media posts, responded to comments, been active in other peoples’ groups, spoken in other peoples’ groups and run FB ads to the podcast every week for a whole year. I’d say I spend at...

This is the approach for you if…

• You hate social media and don’t need to grow an audience for a product or service
• Your business thrives on referrals from your personal network and word of mouth
• Your aim is to have somewhere for people to check you are a real person not to generate engagement or a social presence.

How to do it

• Create a business page
• Link to your website
• Choose good images (ideally professional) of you and your premises if you have them.
• Provide a clear description of who you are and what you do. Make it about the people you help and written FOR them. Think about what they need to know.
• Give clear contact details about how to contact you and book a session.
• BONUS points: Add a video of you talking about who you are and what you do!
• If you have a blog/podcast or similar then post links to these when you create them. This will not get seen by ANYONE other than people who look you up as FB does not give organic reach to business pages anymore but it means that a potential client who looks you up might find them. 

This is the approach for you if….

• You want to get known as “the go-to” in your area of specialism
• You want to develop an audience to sell an online course, book or workshop too (or anything similar that needs to reach a lot of people, remember only 1-2% of people buy so you may need a lot of people in your audience to sell something low ticket)
• You don’t have energy or time to build a community OR you don’t think your ICAs are likely to use FB that much.
• You are active on another platform (e.g. LinkedIn) and use that to have high-quality conversations with your ICA

How to do it

• Follow the steps for the shop front to start with - clearly directing to a platform you are more active on (ie LinkedIN)
• Create high-quality weekly cornerstone content, good blogs, good podcast episodes etc.
• Create weekly videos on your page around the topic of your cornerstone content
• Reach out to people with relevant communities on FB (FB is all about community now) and ask to guest speak/offer free classes on your topic. Point all those people back to your most active platform or website.
• You can use other peoples’ audiences in this way to grow your own online audience if you are complimentary e.g. I speak in lots of life coaching groups about how to deal with strong feelings of depression, anxiety etc.

This is the approach for you if…

• You want to get known as “the go-to” in your area of specialism
• You want to develop an audience to sell an online course, book or workshop too (or anything similar that needs to reach a lot of people, remember only 1-2% of people buy so you may need a lot of people in your audience to sell something low ticket)
• Facebook is your only or your main social platform

How to do it

Follow all of the steps for the shop front and authority builder PLUS

• Create a Facebook group, FB really likes community and doesn’t like pages very much so all of your effort above what we have already established will be going into a group.
• Your group needs to give something TO the people that join it.
• Identify something your ICA’s struggle with (that relates to your specialism) and create a niche group that helps them solve that problem. The best groups are really specific to a particular client group struggling with a particular problem. My favourite group on Facebook is the Doing it for the Kids Community. It is specifically for self-employed parents. The group is used to disseminate a helpful, practical podcast from the people who run it each week AND it provides a space for solidarity and social support between people who share struggles. 
• Use the group to deliver them high-quality content that leads towards your paid offer (that cornerstone content we talk about!) and promote community.
• This is a huge amount of work to start with as in order to foster a good community you need to learn how to keep your group growing and fresh, how to start conversations and how to maximise the likelihood of your posts showing up in peoples’ feeds. We have a separate podcast episode coming up with Sam Hill, our community manager for Do More Than Therapy and Psychology Business School where we will share some tactics and strategy.

Remember you must be clear on why you are doing FB and then pick a strategy that fits with your overall vision for your business. Otherwise, it will just suck your time!

I don’t think I’ve done an episode about the different ways to use a specific platform before so I would really appreciate feedback from you about what you found helpful and what you would like to see more of on the podcast.

In fact, I am really trying to grow the podcast so, as a shameless request, if you have found this episode valuable please do leave us a five-star rating and review in your podcast app. It means the podcast will get shown to more people that need it.

rosie@drrosie.co.uk

***** 

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist

Hello and welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. In this episode, I'm going to talk about the realities of passive and semi passive income for mental health professionals by dispelling some of the myths that you've probably heard. 

Full show notes of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links & References:

Episode 136: Dr Jo Mueller, The Guilty Parent Club 

Episode 142: TikTok, Group Programmes and EMDR Intensive with Dr Claire Plumbly 

Warren Larkin: warrenlarkinassociates.co.uk

Lauren Sawyers: serendipitypsychology.co.uk

Book a Coaching Discovery Call: https://psychologybusinessschool.com/1-to-1-coaching-for-mental-health-professionals/

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

I get a lot of rubbish in my inbox about online courses and how creating one is going to allow me to live a “laptop lifestyle” working from anywhere and having oodles of money and free time. It’s annoying because I think I've made a really successful job of passive and semi passive income over the last few years, but that still isn't anywhere near the lifestyle that I lead. Partly that is because I'm a mental health professional, so the passive and semi passive income that I've created reflects that. I haven't just decided to move into an industry which is particularly lucrative for this stuff, although my things have done well, I have made money from them, and I continue to do so. But I think maybe some of the gurus that are in our inboxes are selling a story which may have felt true to them, but perhaps it isn't the most self reflective story and perhaps doesn't reflect the circumstances in which they started their business, and certainly doesn't reflect the values and ethical considerations that I know everybody listening to this shares. So in this episode, I'm going to talk about the realities of passive and semi passive income for mental health professionals by dispelling some of the myths that you've probably heard. 

For example, many of the people that land in my inbox talking about passive income had a lot of money to invest in their business at the beginning, or maybe they were in a position where they didn't need to take a salary from it for a long time because perhaps they'd left a very highly paid corporate job in order to pursue their dream, or maybe they had a very wealthy partner so they didn't have that pressure to bring an income in early.

This is really important because reaching profitability from an information product like an online course or a digital download, largely depends on scale. If you're selling a £47 course, and you managed to sell it to 10 people, that is a massive achievement. Those sales for a low cost product are really hard to make, especially when you're starting out, but you'll only have made £470 from that. If you have bought one of these courses that often lands in your inbox, and if you have invested in all the tech that they recommend and made a multi modular, all singing and all dancing experience, that isn't going to cover your costs, but reaching those 10 customers every month is a big ask when you're starting out. You're going to be doing a lot of marketing activity for that and it's going to really eat into the time that you have to see clients or do other aspects of your work, so that would actually be a very ambitious target. So the reality is something's got to be different there hasn't it? You know either you're going to have to spend money on advertising to reach that scale sooner or you're going to have to invest more time because you're not going to be able to afford to use all the tools and the tricks that make it all easier for you.

In my view, when you're selling a passive income product, you have to decide whether you're willing to invest time or money or a bit of both. A significant investment is always required. If you have some money to invest, then you'll still need to invest a lot of time in order to know how to use that money to best propel your project forward. It is so easy to sink a load of money into something like Facebook Ads and never actually make any progress from it if you don't understand the platform properly. Investing time is never optional. You will need to spend time researching, creating, networking, promoting, devising marketing strategy, creating content, providing customer service… The list just goes on and on and on.

If you do have money, you can outsource some of those tasks, but not until you really understand what is required and what good looks like. I really think it's disingenuous of people to claim that you can create passive income with very little investment because you are going to be making a big investment of your time, your passion, and if you have it, a little bit of money too.

I know that what I'm going to say here is a bit controversial, but I honestly believe that in 2024 the amount of content that you would need to create to make a good income solely from organically marketing your information product just means that it's impossible for anyone that isn't a professional full time content creator. Of course, there will be exceptions. And if you're only aiming for a small income boost from your information product, you might be able to generate that, but it'll be a lot of work. In general, I don't think it is possible with the way social media platforms work in 2024. The people who really proudly boast that they haven't paid for advertising, but have made millions, usually grew their audience 10 years ago, when algorithms were more favourable and social media was less crowded.

Also, I don't really understand why they're proud of failing to invest in their business by exploring paid advertising, especially as a lot of them are teaching business strategy. And to be honest, it shows a real lack of business strategy to just proudly say you're never going to explore a paid advertising marketing strategy. One of the great things about paid advertising is that it's a lot more measurable. So if you're a professional marketer or really interested in marketing, paid advertising is a great way to go and can be really fascinating because you can see exactly what you get back for what you put in. Whereas with organic marketing, you're always doing a little bit of guesswork. Did somebody see my Instagram post and then see my blog post and then decide to buy the product? You can't actually see that journey, whereas you can track it much more directly from paid advertising. So to be honest, it does make me question somebody's credentials a bit if they're boasting a lot about not using any paid ads.

So far in this episode I have assumed that we've been talking about information products like online courses, because this is what is most commonly associated with passive income in the online world. But there are actually many types of passive income available to you as a mental health professional, and a lot of them are not talked about widely online because they're not available to people that don't have that core professional background. So what you choose to do in order to generate passive or semi passive income, it needs to fit your objective for your business, your abilities and capabilities, and your values. Sometimes information products are great and they're the best way to add an additional income stream into your business, but at other times, other models fit better. Some of those models include associate practice, licensed training or franchise, training other professionals, and even things like property rental.

I'd really encourage you not to get sucked into that tunnel vision that you've created, that is very present in the online space at the moment, where passive income equals online courses or other information products. It doesn't have to. 

I have heard this said so many times and I really don't know how anybody who has any experience of a passive income product can say something which is just patently untrue. Creating a passive income information product costs time and it costs money, as we've seen. For example, it wouldn't be unusual for you to need to invest in some training, or some new software for email marketing, or maybe new landing page software and some editing software, and maybe some design software too. I am all for keeping it as lean as possible when you're starting out. I...

Policies might seem like a boring subject but trust me, the first time something unexpected happens in your practice you will be grateful that you did all your thinking in advance. In the past year I have faced situations where people haven’t paid me for my time and where I have been very worried about the wellbeing of a client. These were horrible, painful, moments but having policies laid out for me to follow meant I could feel confident that I handled them in the best way I could. 

Some of these policies and contracts are legal documents that need input from a lawyer. Others are more essential from an ethical and practical standpoint and juts require you to sit down and think about how you want to handle situations that come up in your business.

Therapy contract

This can be one or two documents depending on how you work but it needs to include at least three main areas:

1. What you expect from your clients
2. What they can expect from you
3. How they let you know if something goes wrong and how you will let them know if something goes wrong

It is worth having a lawyer draw up a contract for you that meets your specific requirements. I don’t want to be the prophet of doom but sadly, in private practice, you will most likely at some point experience people who ghost you without paying or expect you to work outside of your office hours or who claim you have not provided the services you were paid for. Thankfully this hasn’t happened to me frequently but I did once have a client who refused to pay a large sum of money. I was incredibly grateful that my contract was watertight and the matter was resolved quickly. A horrible experience and I will make another podcast about that at some stage, but at least there wasn’t the added anxiety of an ambiguous contract. A good lawyer who understands the nature of your work will make sure your contract has explanations of what will happen in all kinds of situations, including a global pandemic, for example, so you and your clients have a safety net of certainty to fall back on. Clare Veal, our resident lawyer in Psychology Business School has created a template that students can adapt for their practices based on knowledge of how we work 

In my opinion, you also need a plain English section that explains, human to human, the process of working with you, how they should pay you and how to contact you. This needs to spell out what happens if they are paying by insurance, who is liable for any excess on an insurance policy, what happens if they miss a session (including who pays for it) and how much notice you need of session cancellations. You may need different contracts for different insurance companies. I now only work with two so I just have clauses for them in the main contract but if you have several that have different DNA policies of their own you may need individual contracts. All of that stuff falls into the category of what you expect from your clients. 

You also need to set out clearly what your clients can expect from you (and what they can’t) state your working times, how long they should expect to wait for an email response. How they can contact you and whether you are willing/able to provide short notice phone calls or sessions. My life means my clients need to be very clear that when I am not at work I am NOT available so my contract spells this out and gives them other services they can access if they need help and I’m not available. 

You can also state here how you intend to let them know if you need to cancel and what happens to their booking if you cancel as well as how much notice you will give for planned holiday.

Personally, I have combined my plain speaking and legal contract into one document so I can easily get electronic, GDPR complaint consent from my clients before they come to their first session, or in session, with me if there are queries we need to discuss. This has obvious downsides as it is lengthy and is more suitable for some client groups than others. Either way, it is important that both parts are signed and dated (ideally electronically) so you are covered.

In the past, I have worked with therapy models where the contract is far more integral to the work and in that case, I would have one legal document, that must be electronically signed before attending the session and another, plain English, co-constructed document that is created in session between myself and the client.  

Website terms of use

I suspect many of us don’t know much about this but if you have a website you need a policy that lets people know what they may and may not do with the information on it.  It states how much responsibility you take for what people do with the information you provide (ideally none), how they can and can’t reproduce your content, your level of responsibility for damages (again none) and the laws by which you are governed. It seems like overkill but is actually essential and again, it needs to be created by a lawyer. You can find generic templates for this from places like Suzanne Dibble’s GDPR academy or the Federation of Small Businesses. The problem with these is that, although they are a great starting point, the might not fit your needs exactly and that can be a problem with a legal document. If you have the budget getting your own documents drawn up by a lawyer is always best but this can be very expensive. As a halfway house PBS students also get a template for this from Clare Veal our resident lawyer.

Privacy policy

What EXACTLY is going to happen to peoples’ precious data when they give it to you? Now I am no GDPR expert but from what I have learned I am going to be controversial and say I actually LIKE it. At heart, GDPR attempts to make us treat our client’s information like we would want our deepest, darkest secrets to be treated. It can seem confusing at first but really a privacy policy on your website (or that you give out in person if you don’t use a website) just tells people what information you collect from them, why you collect it, how you store it (and for how long) and who you share their information with. You need to list out all the software you use (think Googe Drive, DropBox, Practice management software, accounting software, email marketing software) and tell people you will be sharing data with them. Again you can’t really DIY this. You can get generic templates from places like the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) but I would really recommend either using the PBS templates created by Clare Veal or, if you are more established, getting a lawyer to do them for you. 

When you have the legal side of your policy written out create a user-friendly flow chart of the policy for yourself and any future employees/contractors. I find it useful to have this in ASANA, a project management tool, and for key tasks like uploading progress notes and reports I can map those out and tick off each stage making sure information is shared in the right places and deleted etc. This will help you train anyone who is coming into the business and will give you peace of mind that you are following your own policy.

Cookie policy

My limited understanding is that a cookie is a piece of tracking code that tells third parties what people are doing on your website. Some are 100% essential to the way your website works and others tell Facebook to send you ads about the Oasis 75% off sale. You will have a legitimate reason for using cookies on your site but people need to consent to their presence according to GDPR so you need a policy explaining which ones you use and a pop up on sticky bar allowing them to opt-in. Most website builders make the pop up/sticky bar process easy for you, if not then get a developer to sort it out for you. To write an accurate policy, however, is a bit more involved! If you use one your web developer should know what cookies they have used on your site so you can ask them for a list for your cookie policy and slot them into a template. We have once for PBS or you can get one from someone like Suzanne Dibble or the FSB. If you didn’t use a developer, or you have had your site for a while, you might want to run a software programme that tells you what cookies are operating on that site to give you a list. If I am honest, I did this and found the answer confusing so I got my web developer to do it instead! If you type in find out what cookies are on my site into google you will find software (some free and some paid) that can help you if you want to brave it. I won’t recommend any as I can’t testify to how good they are personally! 

DNA policy

Write down your process for situations where people do not attend therapy. I do not recommend using a template for this. Just sit down and write down, step by step, what you will do. Take it to supervision if you need to. Just map out a policy that you feel comfortable with. You can then make sure your contracts reflect this and you simply follow it when you need it. It might seem like a waste of time when you are starting out but DNAs often carry emotions with them and sometimes that can make it hard to make good decisions about what to do when we are “in the moment”. Having your policy mapped out, and some email templates written, will really help you to respond efficiently next time it happens. 

Safeguarding policy

If your business grows you may want to write a formal safeguarding policy. However, in the early stages, it is still important...

If you are listening to this podcast it is most likely because you want to make a big impact in your psychology or therapy practice. Most people who listen are members of my Do More Than Therapy community where our explicit aim is to reach more people with positive messages about mental health. I have felt for a long time that Instagram is a platform bursting with potential for us to reach our goals but I will be honest I just haven’t managed to crack it yet.

Today I am here with Helen Perry, an Instagram influencer and expert who now teaches small business owners how to grow awesome Instagram accounts. Instagram is a MASSIVE topic so Helen will be coming into the DMTT membership to teach a more in-depth class. Today we are just going to get an overview of the way we could be using Instagram to help more people and grow audiences for our products and services to inspire your content planning.

The highlights:

●     Helen tells us how she got involved in Instagram, and how using it as a marketing platform for her blog turned into ‘how to do Instagram’ becoming her business 00:21

●     We discuss how using social media to listen is really important to learn about your clients 05:04

●     Helen talks about thinking of Instagram as a conversation rather than somewhere to advertise or broadcast 06:54

●     We discuss whether Instagram can be a good platform for mental health professionals, and why it’s seen as the most unhappy or damaging of the social media platforms 07:16

●     I talk about how I came to Instagram after initially thinking it wasn’t for me 09:21

●     We discuss how Instagram can seem really intimidating at the start and and Helen gives her priorities for the beginner 11:02

●     We talk about how people use Instagram to research products and services before buying/using 13:28

●     We look at how to use social media to show why someone should choose you and trust your advice, whilst also setting your boundaries and knowing what you want to share 14:41

●     Helen talks about knowing your audience and the community you want to reach, rather than worrying about your peers 16:56

●     Helen advises us to look at what we love and engage with on Instagram, and how we can replicate that for our audience 19:06

●     Helen explains how hashtags work and why we need them 19:40

●     Helen tells us about Instagram starting to introduce searchable terms in captions 24:01

●     We discuss the myth that ‘everything you post needs to be beautiful’ 26:05

●     Helen talks about Matt Haig as an example of who’s doing well in the mental health space 28:40

●     Helen talks about the power of bite-size chunks of content (such as short videos from Dr Julie Smith), and why we don’t have to provide the whole solution in every post 30:11

●     Helen explains that Instagram is the gateway, and we need to make sure we are taking people somewhere else because there is a limit to what you can achieve on Instagram 34:31

●     Helen tells us how we can use links in Instagram, and how to drive people to content outside 35:23

●     We discuss reducing overwhelm by choosing one social media platform to focus on, being realistic, and seeing it as a long game 37:17

●     We talk about whether social media managers can help us 39:38

●     Helen recommends the tools she uses for content creation 42:04

○  Canva (for graphics)

○  A Design Kit (to add design to photos)

○  VSCO (photo editing)

○  InShot (video editing)

Want to learn more about using Instagram for psychologists and therapists?

As I mentioned at the beginning Helen will be coming into the DMTT membership which is our membership for people who are looking to grow their psychology/therapy business to give us some in-depth tuition but I hope this has got you excited. Also for any Psychology Business School students who are listening, as part of the course, you do get access to the DMTT masterclasses so you will also be able to access Helen’s class. I know some of you will be excited to hear that!

Find Helen at:

https://www.notabout-thekids.com/

@notaboutthekids on Instagram

Get Helen’s hashtag strategy workbook: https://www.notabout-thekids.com/resources/

Matt Haig on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattzhaig/

Dr Julie Smith on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjuliesmith/

_____________

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist

Psychologists and therapists need an online presence and a great way of communicating what we do is through video. It is not always easy to feel confident on video on social media. Allison Puryear shows us how we can entertain and educate in our videos. 

Allison Puryear is a therapist specialising in eating disorders and anxiety in the US who also owns a practice building community called the Abundance party. As you can tell from the name of her community Allison doesn’t create generic, boring content to promote her practice building business or her therapy services. She is a master at being authentic and, frankly, interesting online and I am really pleased that she is here to talk to us today about how you can use video, in an exciting way, to stand out on social media.

The highlights:

•  Allison tells us about what she does and why, stemming from her own experiences with eating disorders and private practice 01:15
• I explain that my passion for putting content out there is because I know how difficult it is to access mental health services 03:16
• Allison takes us through the reasons why it is a good idea for us to make video for social media 04:10
• Allison talks about why we should vet our reasons if we are reluctant to make videos 07:05
• Allison takes us through the common mistakes, beginning with getting hung up on our appearance 10:04
• Allison talks about the mistakes of not preparing enough or overpreparing 12:41
• We discuss live videos and the danger of over-editing 14:00
• Allison talks about the mistaken belief that we need fancy tech to make videos, and how we put things in the way because we are afraid of starting 16:30
• Allison tells us that the only thing a good video needs to have is great content, and what makes great content 18:56
• We discuss needing to serve what the client sees as the problem, and how you have to market to the real life situation rather than the psychological formulation 20:14
• Allison gives us her top tips for making video interesting to look at, beginning with dialling up your energy 23:47
• We talk about how exposure to yourself on video can help 26:21
• Allison suggests blocking your view of your face if that’s a hang up, as it’s about what we’re saying, not what we look like 29:08 
• Allison talks about her tips for batch recording, and why it can reduce the pressure 30:19
• Allison gives advice for improving reach and encouraging engagement 33:29

Links to find Allison:

Allison’s Therapy services: https://www.allisonpuryear.com/

Abundance party: https://www.abundanceparty.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abundancepracticebuilding

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abundance_practice_building/

______________________

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist

How to make social media videos that people want to watch with Allison Puryear - Transcript

Rosie  0:01  

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast, the show that helps you to reach more people, help more people, and build the life you want to live by doing more than therapy. Today, I'm talking to Allison Puryear. So Alison is a therapist specialising in eating disorders and anxiety over in the US. But she also owns a practice building community called the Abundance Party. And as you can tell from the name of her community, Alison does not create generic boring content to promote her practice building business, or her therapy services. She's a master at being authentic, and frankly, interesting online. And I'm really pleased that she's here to talk to us today about how you can use video in an exciting way to stand out on social media. Welcome to the podcast Allison.

Allison  0:52  

Thanks so much for having me. That was like the nicest intro anybody's ever given of me, thank you.

Rosie  0:57  

Well, I really want people to go and follow you to be honest, because your video presence really inspires me. And even on your landing page for the Abundance Party, you've got a really cool video there too. So I think there's a lot that my people can learn. And I'm really excited to introduce them to you. So why don't we start with you telling us a bit about what you do and why you do it?

Allison  1:20  

Yeah, absolutely. So there's this parallel process with my work as an eating disorder therapist, to be honest with you. When I first I was in college, I'd had an eating disorder for, I don't know, eight years, like since early adolescence. And when I went through recovery, I was like, Oh, this is available, like being at peace and not being stressed out about it and like enjoying my actual life is available to me. I didn't realise. And then I was like a recovery proselytiser. Right. I was like, everybody needs recovery. Did you know life is so good over here. And so I was already in school to become a therapist at that point, and so that's when I went through the process, became an eating disorder therapist. Well, fast forward several years, and I had the same exact experience going into private practice, this sense of like, oh, whoa, you mean, I can actually afford to go on vacations, and take yoga classes, and see fewer people, and work with people who want to be there that I do great work with, that's available to me? And so then I became like a non paid private practice proselytiser, and I kind of like, gently bullied my friends into private practice and helped them build. And then fast forward and I was realising like, there are so many amazing therapists, many of whom will leave the profession at some point, because they're burned out, because they're working in places that don't value them. And that's made apparent in so many different ways. And I don't want that to happen, because we need more therapists in the world, not fewer. So because I think private practice is just the best thing in the world, I want everybody who wants access to private practice to access it. So that's how abundance practice building was born. And it's been an awesome ride for the last several years.

Rosie  3:16  

I love that story. And I relate to it as well, because I think definitely my passion for doing anything on social media, because I'm not an extrovert at all, you can probably tell, I'm quite shy, bit of an introvert, but the reason I bother putting any of that stuff out there and have done is because I know firsthand how difficult it was to access mental health services. I know how scary it was, I know that I couldn't see anybody that I could relate to. And so I didn't realise that it was available to me to see somebody who might be nice and friendly. I just had no concept of any of that. So that's very much where my interest in social media started. And similar to you, the reason I started helping other psychologists and therapists is because kind of going through that hellish burn out at the beginning of my practice and coming out the other side and finding something better. It's just transformative, isn't it?

Allison  4:08  

Yeah, absolutely.

Rosie  4:09  

So powerful. So then thinking about video, why would psychologists and therapists bother making video for social media?

Allison  4:19  

Yeah, so I want to say first, you don't have to, like I want to give anybody who's listening whose stomach is churning, just thinking about it, permission to like, maybe keep listening just for fun, maybe to give a friend a tip or something, but like no pressure, if this is not a good fit for you. But the reason, I want you to vet the reasons that it's not a good fit for you, and we'll talk about that some. But the reasons to include video is like, we get to know people so much better. It's similar to podcasts, right? We both have podcasts, people probably tell you all the time, I feel like I know you because they've listened to so many podcasts of yours. And so it just takes that up a...

The secret to remaining motivated and happy running a business is congruence. If your business gives you the life you want to live and it fulfils your professionally you will not burn out. We need to be very clear on why we are in business (vision), what our values are (the person we want to be in our business) and how we are going to achieve it (mission). The problem is most of us feel vulnerable when we think about designing a business this way and that leads us to jump into goal setting to avoid those feelings.

In private practice that can mean taking on any sort of work that you can get and charging whatever “seems reasonable” without really thinking about what you want from your practice. In an employed role that can look like taking any job that comes along, or staying in the same job for a long time without ever really thinking about whether it brings you true fulfilment. I have been guilty of doing both of those in the past. The most obvious example was when I set up my private practice. I had a clear vision of how I wanted to help people (trauma work) but did not consider how I wanted my life to look so I built a busy clinic with no consideration of my family life. 

Vision - what is the change in the world you want to create? Be grand! How do you want your personal life to look? If your business is a massive success how will your life be different and how will the world change?

Values - how are you going to be in your business? What personal qualities are important to you? Values determine how you will behave in your business (and life in general). Everything from who you work with/for, who you hire etc.

May relate to key areas such as:

Health, family, work, creativity, social life, social change, a cause you care deeply about

Examples: I want to be as fit and healthy as I can be. I want to be creative. I want to be generous and compassionate in my work. I want to be calm and kind as a parent. I want to be an innovator. 

Mission - how are you going to take action towards creating that vision. Your mission is the vehicle that takes you towards your vision and lets you live your values. 

Goals - The specific and measurable actions you take. Only when you have vision, values and mission that make sense can you even start to think about goal setting.

Notice that barriers that make it hard for you to think about your business vision. Are there thoughts that are hard to see past? Feelings that are difficult to tolerate? I know I didn’t really think about my business vision until a year a go because I just felt like such an imposter whenever I let myself dream big that I shut it down and went and busied myself in a spreadsheet instead. It is SO worth powering through those difficult feelings in order to build a business or shape a career that fulfils you

It can feel vulnerable to admit to a grand vision. If you are a student on Psychology Business School we will work through those barriers together in sessions and members of PBS or the Do More Than Therapy membership can bring them to peer supervision or office hours. If not then reach out to people who you trust and let them help you think your ideas through. No one lands on a perfect vision or mission statement in one shot. You need to talk it through and think about it with others before you can create something that feels solid. 

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases. 

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs. 

Download it now from https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist

Who is Psychology Business School (PBS) right for?

PBS is the right course for you if:

• You are a mental health professional looking to create a private practice that helps you to live your values, support yourself financially and make a bigger impact on mental health. 
• You know you want to do more than therapy in your private work and/or are considering setting up a social enterprise. 
• You want to build a practice from the beginning or who feel you need to revisit your business plans and processes.

Who is PBS not right for?

PBS might not be the right course for you if:

• You already have a thriving practice and you are confident in your paperwork and processes. You might be a great fit for DMTT membership instead. 
• You are looking to make millions overnight. We teach how to build solid, ethical private practices and how to grow them through offering “more than therapy.” We don’t teach how to get a million Instagram followers in a month.  
• You can’t give some time and commitment. If you can’t give at least three hours a week to working ON your business then you won’t make the most of the course.

 FAQs

What is the difference between Psychology Business School and Do More Than Therapy?

Psychology Business School (PBS) is a new programme for people just starting out in private practice or people who want to rebuild their practice on solid foundations. By the end of the course you will:

• Feel confident that you have all the paperwork and processes you need to work in the online world (templates of all key documents written by a lawyer are included). 
• Break free from the fear of “not having enough” work by creating a marketing process that works for you (without sucking all your time).
• Unlock your creativity and focus on innovative ways to use your skills.

PBS students have weekly sessions that take them through a 12-week step by step programme for developing and marketing their practice. Students have access to the course for six months and can also take part in the DMTT masterclasses, peer supervision and office hours in this time. At the end of six months, you might want to join the DMTT membership and continue to grow your business with the support of a like-minded community.

The Do More Than Therapy Membership (DMTT)  is our monthly membership for psychologists and therapists who have a thriving private practice but want to grow and reach more people without burning out. The membership includes monthly masterclasses with experts in topics ranging from self-publishing a book to engaging with the media. Membership also includes access to monthly peer supervision sessions and weekly coaching calls (office hours) where we offer each other feedback and support. You can find out more about DMTT membership here.

What is included in PBS?

• A 12 week programme of masterclasses (excluding a 2 week consolidation break). Some classes are pre-recorded for instant access and others are live. The classes cover everything from setting up your business correctly to marketing your practice and preparing for growth.
• Downloadable templates for your legal documents created by a specialist lawyer (UK based)
• 6 months of access to the Do More Than Therapy masterclasses including the existing content library and new classes than happen live during your time on the course.
• 6 months of membership of the Do More Than Therapy Facebook Group
• 6 months access to Do More Than Therapy monthly peer supervision sessions
• 6 months of access to Do More Than Therapy office hours

What is not included in PBS?

Personal responses to your questions via social media messaging (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter)

Personal responses to your questions via email (please use the Facebook group to ask questions)

If you feel like you need more personalised attention, drop us a line on rosie@drrosie.co.uk.

When are sessions?

DMTT Office hours: Tuesdays at 2 pm

Peer supervision: Last Wednesday of the Month at 2 pm and 8 pm

Psychology Business School Classes: Thursdays from 12:00 - 13:30. You will receive your term dates in an email but generally, there is a six-week term followed by a two-week consolidation break and then another six-week term. 

DMTT masterclasses: Usually Wednesdays at 2 pm once a month. PBS students have access to all DMTT masterclasses for six months. 

NB. We invite guest experts to speak to us regularly so there will be some flexibility on days and times. You will receive reminders and zoom links via email and reminders on Facebook.

Do I have to attend training sessions live?

I would encourage you to come along live as much as possible so you can ask questions and benefit from the support of other students however all sessions are recorded and workbooks are provided so you can learn whenever suits you. 

What results can I expect?

The skills and strategies we will share with you in PBS are grounded in experience, research and the expertise of our speakers. However, the results you get depend on your commitment to working ON your business. I encourage everyone starting the programme to join a mindset session before the official start date of the course. You will receive your invitation by email and I strongly recommend that you attend if at all possible. If you can’t make it you can watch a replay of the DMTT mindset course. In my experience, the biggest barrier to achieving what you want from your private practice is usually imposter syndrome and overwhelm. Thankfully we can use our therapeutic skills and the support of the community to tackle these. If you are ever struggling to implement what you are learning (whatever the reason) then use peer supervision, office hours or the Facebook community to speak up.

Does the course include coaching?

We have weekly “office hour” coaching calls where you can bring problems you are facing and work for feedback. You can also ask me questions in the DMTT Facebook group which you will be invited to. My working hours are 9-5 Monday to Friday and my team keep the same hours. We will make every effort to reply when you tag us in posts but we may not respond outside of working time. If we haven’t responded after 24 hours (Mon-Fri) then please re-tag us as we might just have missed the post. I cannot guarantee that you will get individual feedback from me during office hour as they can be busy but if you submit your question in advance on the dedicated thread in our FB group I will make every effort to address it. If you know you would benefit from 1:1 coaching then please contact us to discuss our small group and individual coaching options. 

Do I have to be on Facebook to take part?

No. All of the PBS content is hosted in our dedicated membership site and classes take place on zoom so there is no need to be on Facebook if you don’t want to be. That said, the DMTT member’s group (which you are invited to as a PBS student) is a supportive and exciting community to be part of so I very much encourage you to join. 

What makes you different from other marketing courses?

I have done a lot of marketing courses. I enjoy them if I’m honest. BUT they don’t always sit well with the reality of working as a mental health professional. I know that you are time-poor, imposter syndrome ridden and ethical people and this course is built with that in mind. Yes, we will cover a lot of the same ground as more generic courses but everything we do is tailored to YOUR needs.

PBS is part of our social enterprise, The Innovation in Mental Health Project CIC. That means that any profit made from the programme goes into funding new initiatives in mental health or the provision of mental health services to vulnerable groups. So when you invest with us you know you are part of a movement to improve the mental health of the country at the same time.

Can I pay in instalments?

Yes, you can pay in 6 instalments of £99. If money is tight at the start of your practice it can be helpful to consider that (on average) the cost is the same as just one therapy session a month so if we help you get just one extra client the course has paid for itself. 

Do you offer...

Feeling crushed by overwhelm? You need a plan. If you are sticking to a well thought out business plan, that considers your needs,  you are much less likely to get overwhelmed. In this episode, I explain the key things to consider in your plan.

The highlights:

• I explain why I am so passionate about today's topic, as the message I get from the Do More than Therapy community is that overwhelm is the thing that prevents us from building the kind of practices we want to build 00:17
• I talk about how the focus of today’s episode is all about the different ways that focused sections of your business plan can help you cut through overwhelm, and that everything covered today will form the foundation of the first six week term of Psychology Business School, launching in January 02:05
• I explain how a good business plan starts with a statement of your values 03:44
• I talk about how a business plan helps you plan out your projects 04:34
• I look at how a business plan tells you which things you should focus your attention on 05:11
• I explore how a business plan allows you to develop a focused marketing plan 05:57
• I talk about how a business plan forces you to work out the maths and set pricing appropriately (with reference to last week’s podcast) 07:12
• I look at how a business plan makes sure you get the systems in place that you need to work efficiently 08:30
• I talk about how a business plan prepares you for growth 09:41
• I explain that my Psychologists Business Plan is included with Do More than Therapy membership, and with Psychology Business School. Or you can buy it from my website 11:34
• I hope that I’ve shown how a business plan can be a great step to reducing overwhelm, and explain that Psychology Business School is designed to reduce, not add, to overwhelm. It consists of two terms - the first six weeks focus on business plan, and the second six weeks focus on marketing 12:02

The first step to a brilliant business plan is to set your specialism and focus for the year. To make sure you have a specialism that works for you come along to our free webinar on December 18th or January 4th. 

Join the Waiting list for Psychology Business School here.

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist

Sally Farrant is an accountant who goes by the name “pricing queen!” Sally has taken her skills from the corporate arena and now supports businesses to understand their accounts and price their products and services so they actually make profit.

●     Pricing and setting fees is something that stresses out psychologists and therapists in private practice - I ask Sally why she is so passionate about pricing and how she got here 0:40

●     Sally talks about how people tend to underprice and don’t consider all the costs 1:14

●     Sally advises that you should put prices up by a small amount regularly 2:44

●     I ask Sally what the consequences are of getting our pricing wrong 3:30

●     We discuss avoiding burnout and being realistic about earnings, clients, hours, and the importance of pricing properly 4:43

●     We explore how charging high fees can better enable you to help the more vulnerable and disadvantaged 11:05

●     Sally advises on ways to implement price increases, and why it’s important not to make assumptions on what people can and can’t afford 15:30

●     I explore why, as a therapist, it’s important to unpick why someone says they can’t afford it anymore, as it may not be about money 19:26

●     We look at lower cost offerings, and how the client must be aware it’s a lesser offering 20:55

●     Sally talks about recognising what you can and can’t manage 24:57

●     Sally discusses why benchmarking the opposition is one of the biggest pricing mistakes 25:40

●     We talk about advertising your prices to avoid anxiety 28:40

●     Sally explains her pricing calculator and what needs to be taken into account 30:54

●     We discuss the importance of considering why you went into private practice and being honest about what you and your family want and need 35:58

●     I ask Sally how she helps gets people to back on track with their pricing 38:50

●     I’m so excited to let you all know that Sally is going to be doing a masterclass for the psychology business school, our new course to help you build your practice in a way that allows you to live your values, help more people and avoid burnout. So if you know that you need to set your prices properly from the beginning (or put them right) make sure you come and join us.

Links for Sally’s Website:

https://www.businessgrowthbynumbers.com/

Pricing calculator: https://www.businessgrowthbynumbers.com/pricing-calculator-sign-up

Pricing personality quiz: https://quiz.businessgrowthbynumbers.com/

You can find Sally online at:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepricingqueen/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-farrant/

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist

Successful businesses don’t do the same thing all year long. They tend to work in focussed projects. This helps reduce the overwhelm and ensure that all your energy goes to something that will really help your ICAs.

To plan your projects you first need to be clear on your specialism so go back to the podcast on finding your specialism if you haven’t already given that some serious thought.

Then you need to decide on which ideal clients you want to support this year. In the training, I have been doing with the school for social entrepreneurs it has been really noticeable to me that the bigger social enterprises often service a few different groups with different projects. They aren’t trying to catch everyone with the same offer. So for example, the Heart of BS13 project has cooking, gardening and therapy projects all aimed at helping people with different needs. 

https://heartofbs13.org.uk/

It got me thinking that while we need to specialise in our clinical work we don’t need to make every project that we work on fit the exact same client. For example, you might have a specialism in workplace trauma and provide therapy for people who need it, online courses for managers that want to support staff who have been through trauma and in-person workshops for students who need to learn about workplace trauma. Those are three projects you could be working on in 2021 that all relate to the exact same specialism are for target different ideal clients. 

If you are running a business on your own, or with only admin support though, I do believe we should only focus on one project at a time. If we don’t it is hard to make any project as impactful as we want it to be.

What could you do this year that relates to your specialism and would help your ICAs in DIFFERENT ways?

Brainstorm anything you can think of that might help your ICA

Eg. 

Downloadables             1:1 therapy

Books                      Workshops

Podcasts                   Supervision

Online Courses             Webinars

We are all familiar with Maslow (1954). We need to think about the needs we have as people and business owners and the practical needs of the projects we are creating before we decide when to do them.

If you have unmet deficiency needs you will never be motivated to achieve the self-fulfilment needs. 

If you need money coming into your practice quickly you will need to prioritise projects that can do that for you. 

In my experience, for most of us, this is 1:1 therapy or supervision. Other projects tend to take more time to make more money as we need to spend time building an audience.

Map out your projects on a big piece of paper or white board.

Think about what you need in your business, what you need to make the project work

and how intense YOU will find the work. 

This is personal so I can’t tell you your intensity scores. 

For me, I find I am very drained after a therapy session (even though I love it) so therapy is 10/10 intensity. Whereas I can spend a day prepping a session like this and feel totally energised so that gets a lower score for me. 

Write the needs for each one and an intensity score under the project

Now pick the projects that you intend to focus on this year. For now, just choose four and make sure they are a balance of high and low intensity.

Allocate your projects to a quarter of the year depending on the needs they meet and the requirements they have.

For example, if you need money in your business fast or you need to build your expertise in an area then put getting more 1:1 work in Q1 and leave launching an online course until Q4. You can be building the audience for your course launch throughout the year. 

Top tip - consider whether projects might meet each other’s needs. For example, next year I am planning to launch some online resources for mothers with ADHD at the end of the year. I don’t have an audience in that area yet so it makes sense for my Q1 project to be getting more 1:1 clients with ADHD, my Q2 project is launching a podcast and free resources for women with ADHD, my Q3 project is creating a group programme and my Q4 project is launching the online course. 

This is the basics of your business plan, obviously, it will need a lot of extra information adding in as you work out pricing, logistics etc but for now it is just there to help you decide where you will be focusing your attention as we go into the new year. Most importantly, you might refine your projects but now you know your specialism and your intentions none of your marketing efforts will be wasted.

The good news is that if it feels a bit overwhelming to do this on your own I have a free webinar coming up to help you find your specialism so you can plan your focus projects for 2021.

I’d love to see you there live so we can talk about your plans so I am running it on Friday 18th December at 13:00 AND Monday 4th January at 19:30. 

You can save your space here. 

Plus, excitingly, I am happy to announce that we have a new course starting in January which will walk you through turning your basic plan into a fully thought out business plan and everything you need to make that plan a reality. You will hear more about that over the next few weeks when we are ready to share the details :) 

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases.

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs.

Download it now from https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklis

Do you have a specialism? Many psychologists and therapists in private practice don't. Read why you need one if you are serious about doing more than therapy and how to find one.

This week in the DMTT membership we are looking at business planning and specifically planning out what projects we are all going to be working on in 2021. In writing the materials for the course I realised how crucial it is to be clear on your specialism, the projects you want to work on and the ideal clients for each project before you start to even consider creating products or services or marketing. 

In this episode I’m going to talk to you about:

Why you need a specialism and why you might not know what it is yet.

How a specialism is different from your ICA but how it helps you find them

Why thinking in “projects” will help you to plan a private practice that feels more professionally fulfilling.

PP makes it easy NOT to have a specialism as insurance referrals can be broad and we often want to take EVERYONE because we are scared of not having enough work. There is also the imposter syndrome… In the early stage so of my practice my imposter syndrome was so huge that I literally told people that I had no specialist skills and actually refused to see anyone who might require any kind of specialist. Even now when I get an email from a prospective client who says they have chosen me because I am “an expert” in birth trauma I feel like replying saying “oh no you got it wrong, here are the contact details for a REAL specialist”  

BUT I have learned that, even if it feels uncomfortable, a specialism is vital because it:

• Helps you to avoid burnout/overwhelm because you can focus all of your activity on one subject. All your CPD, all your marketing, all of your resources are all on one topic. Doesn’t that sound less overwhelming?
• Provides the reassurance our clients need (wouldn’t you rather see a specialist when you are struggling?)
• Helps you build authority, credibility and an audience who trust you enough to buy products and services.
• Helps you identify your ideal clients (ICAs) for your services. 

Your specialism is the problem clients are most likely to want your help to solve.

Think about some very successful psychologists and therapists that you have heard of. Bessel Van der Kolk - the trauma and the body guy. You know what his specialist subject is but when you look across his career he has applied that specialism to a whole host of different client groups/ICAs. 

A specialism can be quite a broad thing as it is about the struggle that people are facing. Through your career, you might help lots of different client groups that all share a similar struggle. For example, if your specialism is trauma and the body you might start your career helping veterans, move on to helping people who have been through birth trauma and further down the line help healthcare professionals who worked on acute wards during COVID-19. The time and energy you have put into the CPD and research associated with your specialism can be applied in many different ways to different people through your career.

BUT each project you work on through your career will be targeted towards specific ICAs. This helps hugely with marketing and making your message clear for the people who need to hear it and also reduces the overwhelm for you.

Personally, I think the way that NHS services are structured often does not help us (or clients) in the best way. To me, it doesn’t make sense to have services such as “adult mental health” when the only thing the people using the service have in common is that they are 18-65. The reality in most services I have worked in is that psychologists and therapists within those teams will naturally develop specialisms that focus on a particular kind of struggle clients might face. You get to know that Sue is good with anger and Ben is great with trauma. 

I think it is helpful to think about specialism in this this way when you are planning your private practice as one thing I have noticed in the Do More Than Therapy community and other groups that I am in is that people can get stuck in thinking that one particular client group or set of ICAs IS their specialism. For example, people can understandably get very worried that if they specialise they will then ONLY get to see a certain type of person. That can feel limiting and can make us feel incompetent when a client comes along that is outside of the client group we are used to working with.

Instead, if we pick a struggle as our specialism and think of our work in terms of projects that are targeted to different ideal clients we can evolve over time and take on different types of work over our careers while continuing to build our specialism and authority.  

Taking my practice as an example. My interest has consistently been in helping “non-typical” people deal with trauma. Initially, I worked in prisons and the people I saw were often “non-typical” because of their forensic challenges and often learning disability. Then I worked in a LD team and focused on positive behaviour support for people who could not articulate their trauma verbally. Then I started working with birth trauma and mothers particularly mothers that are having a second baby after a traumatic first birth. This could seem like a lot of jumping around in my career if you think in terms of client group. However, there is a thread that brings them all together and that is what I consider my specialism.

If you aren’t sure what your specialism is or what it should be then think about the following areas:

What have you published research on / what are your research interests?

Where have you received the best client feedback

Where do you have the best access to clients (existing audience and networks)

What is your most exciting work

What was/is your NHS specialism

You can, of course, have a “local” specialism and be known as “the psychologist” in your area. Many people have very successful private practices that way and I would strongly encourage you to build the local side of your business when you need clients fast. BUT if you want to do work outside the therapy room a local business won’t give you scope to build a big enough audience and people won’t see you as having as much authority as someone specialised in a particular area. 

I’d love to know your thoughts about specialising and any struggles you may be having with this so as ever please do get in touch I’m at @rosiegilderthorp on instagram or you can find me in the Do More Than Therapy free Facebook group as Rosie Gildertrigg

I hope that has given you a chance to reflect on your specialism and how you might use it to plan out what you want to work on and achieve in 2021. 

If you’d like to think a bit deeper about your ideal clients (and how to find them) then you can listen to my podcast episode on the ideal client avatar (for mental health professionals here).

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases. 

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs. 

Download it now from https://psychologybusinessschool.com/client-checklist

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. In this series, we're exploring the different ways that psychologists and therapists can work in independent practice. Today I'm here with Dr Claire Plumbly. Claire is a clinical psychologist and director of Good Therapy Limited, an online therapy centre for trauma focused therapies. As well as one to one therapy, including EMDR intensive therapy, she runs regular workshops on burnout, boundaries, anxiety, and overthinking. Claire has an active presence on social media, her TikToks and Reels are great, where she aims to make psychological ideas and resources more accessible to the public to help improve well being and debunk those all too common therapy misconceptions.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links for Claire:

Website: www.drclaireplumbly.com

Instagram: @drclaireplumbly

TikTok: @drclaireplumbly

YouTube: @drclaireplumbly

Facebook: DrClairePlumbly

LinkedIn: ​​drclaireplumbly

You can buy/pre-order Claire's book "Burnout: Why an Overwhelmed Nervous System Takes Over Your Life and how to reclaim it" here.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Burnout-overwhelmed-nervous-system-reclaim/dp/1399733419/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32LG4D43LJ8ET&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.-5OSVCNZPOcWP1ROPVvSUA.pDnBAfxB4BThSW0whqsUls1DHmDbpPKu4obK_rWWjCQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=dr+claire+plumbly&qid=1714143131&sprefix=dr+claire+pl%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-1

EMDR Intensive Service Therapist Checklist: subscribepage.io/JHkvuP

References:

Burnout: Solve Your Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

ACT for Burnout: Recharge, Reconnect, and Transform Burnout with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Debbie Sorensen

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

• Claire tells us about how her career in clinical psychology began 01:06
• I ask Claire what encouraged her to move away from working just in the NHS and strike out independently 06:35
• Claire talks about what her business looks like now 11:09
• Claire tells us about her marketing and social media 21:31
• Claire gives us her advice for people that might want to try EMDR intensives or think about starting them 26:38
• I ask Claire about the book she’s written about Burnout 31:40

Thank you so much for listening to the Business of Psychology podcast. I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to subscribe, rate and review the show. It helps more mental health professionals just like you to find us, and it also means a lot to me personally when I read the reviews. Thank you in advance and we'll see you next week for another episode of practical strategy and inspiration to move your independent practice forward.

Does perfectionism stand in your way? Do you struggle to own your expertise (and charge for your time) because of it? Hear how psychologists and therapists can overcome perfectionism and use a book to accelerate their practice with Michaela Thomas.

Michaela is an experienced Clinical Psychologist, Couples Therapist and founder of The Thomas Connection, as well as a speaker and author of The Lasting Connection, about developing compassion for yourself and your partner. Michaela has a special interest in perfectionism and parental mental health, especially for working mothers trying to balance work with motherhood. Michaela teaches busy ambitious people how to let go of the pressure of perfection and give themselves the permission to pause and unwind, so they can find their passion and purpose, and then move towards joy, vitality and playfulness. Michaela's mantra is 'balance over burnout'. 

• Hear how Michaela got to where she is today and how she partitions her time 00:54
• Michaela explains how she came to focusing on perfectionism as her specialism 02:20 
• How Michaela balances her practice and her passion projects 04:03
• Michaela explains how she structures her time to create a sustainable business whilst incorporating boundaries 08:04
• Michaela touches on the fact that Psychologists have to take their own advise 10:30
• How writing a book has opened doors for Michaela 11:58
• Michaela believes that most psychologists are self doubting and self critical 14:57
• The truth about how much research Micheala did for her new book 15:24 Michaela’s laser focus on her couples gave her the freedom to write her book 18:36
• Here Michaela explains how she surrounded herself with others who supported her through the book writing process 21:00
• Discussing outsourcing in order to scale your business and safeguard your wellbeing 23:48
• Michaela shines a light on how the current pandemic is going to affect our industry 28:37
• Michaela’s tips on making small changes for those perfectionists amongst us 31:06
• I share an example of modeling taking time to look after myself 35:57
• Pause Purpose Play - listen to Michaela’s driving thoughts when setting up her podcast and facebook community 36:51
• How Michaela plans her next passion project and what’s on the plan 39:55
• Hear who Michaela would like to hear on my podcast 42:00

www.thethomasconnection.co.uk

Insta: www.instagram.com/the_thomas_connection

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thethomasconnection 

Twitter: www.twitter.com/thomasconnect 

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michaela-thomas

Facebook group: Pause Purpose Play

Podcast: Pause Purpose Play

Book: The Lasting Connection

Are you planning on launching something new and innovative?

Are you hoping to reach more people and build a business that lets you live your values while avoiding burnout?

Then you need to download our cheat sheet - 14 Steps to a simple launch.

We are sharing a foolproof process to make sure you develop your project WITH the people you want to help and then get it in front of as many of them as possible.

Sign up to get it in your inbox now

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/episode/simple-launch-for-psychologists-and-therapists

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

Please do rate, review and subscribe to the podcast and as ever, DM me @rosiegilderthorp on instagram to let me know your main takeaways from this episode and what you would like to see in the next series!

Ever wondered how some psychologists get on the news, This Morning and other high profile shows? It turns out they just talk to journalists... Who knew?! In this episode James Waterhouse, broadcast journalist on a mission to get more psychologists on the TV and radio, talks to us about what the media want and how we can reach people in their living rooms.

Today I am talking to James Waterhouse, some of you may recognise James’ voice if, like me, you cling to your youth by listening to radio 1 as he is a broadcast journalist for the BBC. He has a pretty interesting personal story, which I will let him tell and is on a mission to get more psychologists talking in the media.

You can get in touch with James via Twitter @JamWaterhouse or via email James.Waterhouse@bbc.co.uk

Are you planning on launching something new and innovative?

Are you hoping to reach more people and build a business that lets you live your values while avoiding burnout?

Then you need to download our cheat sheet - 14 Steps to a simple launch.

We are sharing a foolproof process to make sure you develop your project WITH the people you want to help and then get it in front of as many of them as possible.

Sign up to get it in your inbox now

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/episode/simple-launch-for-psychologists-and-therapists

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

Please do rate, review and subscribe to the podcast and as ever, DM me @rosiegilderthorp on instagram to let me know your main takeaways from this episode and what you would like to see in the next series!

My head was in my hands as I sat down at my table and tried to contemplate eating lunch. A year ago I attended Janet Murray’s 2020 sorted content planning event and it was the first time I had spent a night away from my children. My phone was buzzing every two minutes with a dilemma or an issue relating to my daughter’s behaviour. My daughter, Robyn, is a wonderful and spirited character and I appreciate every atom of her hyperactive self. BUT she can be a real challenge to look after. I am often very very tired and I was not surprised to hear that not all was quiet on the home front. Worry, and a healthy dose of “mum guilt,” washed over me like a tidal wave and I started to crumple. A woman I recognised from my online coaching group sat down next to me. I knew we were about the same age and that she had three kids and she looked kind so when she asked me “are you OK?” I told her my worries truthfully. In that moment I’d forgotten I was a psychologist. We were just two mums laughing about the craziness of kids and the ridiculousness of mum guilt. Then she asked me what my business was. I uttered the words “I’m a psychologist” and it felt like a confession! I laughed and muttered something horribly self-deprecating, straight from my self-critic. To my surprise, she looked emotional. I asked what was going on for her and she told me straight “it means so much to hear that a psychologist struggles with parenting too.” She told me that parents that access our services often feel really judged. She explained that they often walk out of our offices and think if only they could “be like us” they wouldn’t have the struggles that make their lives difficult. I had exploded that unhelpful facade in one moment of vulnerability. 

I use ACT and CFT most of the time as my main therapeutic models so I have seen this moment before. The moment someone actually accepts that they may not be a defective specimen for struggling with life sometimes. Self-disclosure in therapy can be really transformative when done in a thoughtful way and it can be in our lives and in our content too. When I talk about content today I am talking about blogs, podcasts, social media posts but also online courses, books or other resources you might create. Anything you put out into the world with the aim of educating people. It makes sense to me that when we are trying to educate people, illustrating our points with an example of our own psychology can normalise experience and encourage compassion and acceptance. 

It is, however, also important to consider your use of self-disclosure carefully because there are some pitfalls that we can fall in to. These are mostly the same as the pitfalls of self-disclosure in therapy but I think the effect can be amplified when we are creating online content because technically what we create could be seen by ALL our future clients. It won’t be, but it could!

1. Disclosing for my own gain not the client’s (making it all about ME)
2. Inhibiting the client’s ability to bring their struggles to me as they start to see me as vulnerable and want to protect me
3. Alienating clients by sharing stories that emphasise our differences/my privilege 
4. Igniting curiosity in the client that encourages questions that I don’t want to answer, therefore making a rupture in the relationship more likely.
5. Encouraging a sense of “friendship” rather than a professional, supportive relationship that exists for the benefit of the client. This could leave the client feeling they need to support me, repetition of the clients “usual” patterns in relationships and also to the blurring of boundaries across the board.

For that reason I have created a system I use to “check” my self-disclosure before I use a story for a post.

I rarely come up with stories to use for psycho-education “on the fly” because my mind won’t always be up to the job when I need to find a story to illustrate a key learning point. I therefore keep a list of stories that I think could make good examples for psychoeducation in my project management tool, Asana. When inspiration strikes me I just make a quick summary of teh story and a note of possible angles I could take. For example, after I had a panic attack in Morrisons wearing my mask (when I recovered) I just jotted down the story and the angles “normalising a panic attack,” “the fear of judgement” and “the importance of breathing out.” 

This will also speed up your content creation as when you need to write a blog or social post you will have ready-made ideas that you can use. 

When I am planning a piece of content I will go to my ideas board and select a couple of stories that could fit. I then ask myself the following questions before using any of the stories from my ideas board. 

1. Is this a scar or a scab? By this I mean is this something that still makes me feel vulnerable or is this something I have moved on from sufficiently that I can reflect on it with only autobiographical emotions. In the vast majority of cases I will only share stories that are scars, that I have moved on from and learned from and that don’t make me feel vulnerable to share. There are some exceptions to this but I tend not to break this rule online and if I am thinking about it I would discuss it in supervision first.  
2. Would I be OK with my most boundaried client hearing it? Because they might...
3. Will it benefit the reader to hear it? How?
4. Is it relatable for the reader or might I risk alienating them? 
5. What is the minimal detail I can include to tell the story?

Obviously, there are no rigid rules but, just as I would in therapy, I tend to use self-disclosure when I am illustrating a new concept so I tend to include the story at the beginning of a piece of content (much like I have in this blog post). This helps engage the reader from the beginning but also makes sure that it doesn’t take up too much space in the session. I finish the story and move into action for the reader to take. Placing the emphasis back on to their experience and making it clear that my story was solely for the purpose of helping them.

If you want to think more about self-disclosure with the support of other psychologists and therapists creating online resources like blogs, social media content, podcast and more then you should join Do More Than Therapy membership.

Our supportive community is a great place to bring questions about self-disclosure and we are also running a business and content strategy course from mid- November where I will help you to create your personalised framework for safe self-disclosure in your content.

No one reading your psychology blog? It is probably because of your topic or title. I'm sharing a foolproof strategy for writing psycho-education posts people want to read.

Sign up to join the 5-day FREE challenge NOW

Good psychoeducation blog posts answer real questions that real people have in their real lives.

Real is the important word here. Whatever we write about it has to be something that a person would REALLY type in to their search engine.

There is no one size fits all for this. For example, if you are writing a blog for yoga instructors about how to incorporate more meditation into their practice a problem like “why can’t I get my class attendees to do diaphragmatic breathing?” would probably be very “real” for them. However, your average stressed out bank manager probably wouldn’t relate to the term “diaphragmatic breathing” at all.

There are some simple steps you can take to figure this out.

1.    Know your ideal client(s). Listen again to the podcast episode on creating ideal client avatars for your product or service and pick just one for this blog post. Then talk to them! There are lots of ways to find them and talk to them and I go into this in the episode.

2.    Record what questions they ask you (note common words and phrases). Go through your emails, voicemails, notes from sessions. What do they tell you they worry about?

3.    Record what questions they ask each other (note more common words and phrases). What is commonly talked about in FB groups where they hang out? What do you overhear?

4.    Read book reviews on Amazon on your topic and again note key words that reviewers are using to describe the problems the book solves. For example, if I am writing a blog for women diagnosed with ADHD I could look at the comments left on Amazon under “A Radical Guide for Women With ADHD.”

5.    Use a tool like “Answer the Public” to sense check the questions you have come up with and add some more.

6.    Use keywords everywhere to check search volumes. Avoid terms with very high search volumes as it will be hard to stand out in the crowd but do go for something that has some people searching for it.

Now you know the sorts of topics people are really searching for and have a list of words they use to describe the problem. It is time to come up with a title that will make them want to read. I do this first so that I keep the structure of my blog tight around one very specific issue.

Key principles for titles

1.    Name the problem not the solution. People don’t search for CBT for anxiety. They search for “what to do when I can’t stop worrying?” They don’t search for “top tips to improve your attachment with your child”. They search for “what do I do if my three year old hates me?” We type our problems into search engines. But most of the time we title our blog posts with OUR chosen solution. If you name the problem rather than imposing a solution in your title you are more likely to come up as a match to someone’s search term. Your content “snippet” which we will create later in the week then needs to tell them that you have the solution to the problem.

2.    Call out your ideal client’s demographic and situation. You probably know already that it is best to be very specific with your blog titles as google can be crowded and it is VERY crowded in the mental health space. To be honest none of us have a hope of our own website’s coming near the top of google search results if we write about big topics like “depression” as all the slots will be taken by highly trusted sites like the BBC, NHS, NICE, Psychology Today etc.

3.    Do the 1am test (can you imagine yourself or your ICA being bothered to type this into google at 1am?)

Example: Based on all of the above if I were going two write for my audience of parents about panic attacks I might choose the title: “How to get rid of panic attacks while driving with kids in the back”

Ps. This would be a good title even though I don't believe we can "get rid" of panic attacks. I would explain why it isn't helpful to "get rid" in the post.

Like what you heard and want support to plan, write and publish your first (or best) blog post?

Are you spending hours on a psychology blog that no one reads? 😿

Do you want to use blogging to find clients who:

 ⭐️ Like your approach and value your specialism?

 ⭐️ Are happy to pay your full fees?

It is easy to give up on blogging because it feels like just another thing on your already overwhelming to-do list.

BUT, done the right way, blogging can get you fully booked with clients who value your specialism. 

Over 5 days I will show you how to plan, write and promote the perfect post so you can be confident every minute you spend on your blog is worth it 🔥

Sign up to join the 5-day FREE challenge NOW

Blogging can SAVE you time and make your psychology practice LESS overwhelming so long as you know why you are doing it and follow a strategy.

Sign up to join the 5-day FREE challenge NOW

There are lots of reasons to write a blog. Including:

1.    Helping more people through psychoeducation

2.    Attracting more clients for your services or products

3.    Having ready-made answers for common questions clients and potential clients ask you

4.    Helping potential clients make an informed choice about whether to work with you/take your course etc.

5.    Digesting research findings to use as a resource for clients you are working with

6.    Communicating research findings for other professionals

7.    Creating a portfolio of your writing so you can apply to write for other organisations

It is important to know which of these reasons is driving your blog writing so you can make sure you prioritise correctly. 

On Monday 19th October we are running a 5 day challenge focussing on writing a blog to help more people through psychoeducation and attract more clients for your business. In my experience that is the quickest way to make the biggest difference to your practice as you can use those posts to inform your whole marketing strategy, build authority AND make it clear to clients what your specialism is and why they should pay your fees.

But we will cover the other reasons for blogging in the DMTT membership “deep dive” blogging course as some of my favourite “more than therapy” work, including writing for other organisations has as come from my blogging.

Are you spending hours on a psychology blog that no one reads? 😿

Do you want to use blogging to find clients who:

 ⭐️ Like your approach and value your specialism?

 ⭐️ Are happy to pay your full fees?

It is easy to give up on blogging because it feels like just another thing on your already overwhelming to-do list.

BUT, done the right way, blogging can get you fully booked with clients who value your specialism. 

Over 5 days I will show you how to plan, write and promote the perfect post so you can be confident every minute you spend on your blog is worth it 🔥

Sign up to join the 5-day FREE challenge NOW

Ever wondered why some websites seem to have thousands of views, and some blogs get hundreds of comments while your amazing content gets crickets? In this episode Vicki Jakes, website and SEO expert tells us what every psychologist and therapists needs to know about getting visible online and getting their blog READ.

You can check out Vicky at https://heyvickijakes.com/

and listen to her podcast at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4vggaOj2oDo3oe715pUnNj?si=gBe6ZV4GSqqUY4ZnhQn5Eg

Are you spending hours on a psychology blog that no one reads? 😿

Do you want to use blogging to find clients who:

 ⭐️ Like your approach and value your specialism?

 ⭐️ Are happy to pay your full fees?

It is easy to give up on blogging because it feels like just another thing on your already overwhelming to-do list.

BUT, done the right way, blogging can get you fully booked with clients who value your specialism. 

Over 5 days I will show you how to plan, write and promote the perfect post so you can be confident every minute you spend on your blog is worth it 🔥

Sign up to join the 5-day FREE challenge NOW

Do you ever feel you are just “therapizing” your clients to try and “be OK” with a bad system? Often when caseloads are high we can get stuck in a role of treating the individual when the mental health professional within us knows that the individual is not the real problem. We are talking systems of oppression like patriarchy, racism, anti LGBTQ+ prejudice. In this episode Dr Rebekah Shallcross tells us how her work with the Feminist Therapy Centre aims to create social change through psychology. Listen in for inspiration and a call to action!

Full show notes and links available at psychologists.drrosie.co.uk

Personally, as a relatively new mother, the systems I was working in no longer were working for me – I was stuck on a band, no permanent contracts – working more than my hours for the benefit of others – not really making the difference that I wanted to see in the world. So I left and I am now knee deep in birthing the Feminist Therapy Centre which aims to be an alternative the mainstream psychology which centres white, male, heteronormative standpoint.

It aims to take account of systems of oppression and how this is really fucking up peoples mental health. And it aims to bring that into the consciousness of people I work with who often times have so internalised patriarchal narratives that they are now oppressing themselves.

If you don’t mind talking personally, I think it would really help to illustrate the point, how did patriarchy show up in your life?

o At points my weight has been unhealthy low

o I had a nose job at the age 25

o I got married because that’s what you do at 27 – and the feeling of stuckness without know what was ‘wrong’ left me with very poor mental health - divorced by the time I was 32

o I have used alcohol as very unhelpful ways of coping o I’m queer, I’m bisexual and I never let myself be that because for me, being brought up in a religious household, heteronormative ideals were presented as the only way to have a normal life

o I haven’t followed my dreams and desires because I just thought they were for other people, I thought they might upset other or I didn’t think I was good enough

Really starting this business is also a way of liberating myself from limiting beliefs about what is and isn’t possible for me

Business coaching! The wonderful Lucy Sheridan and Tessa Clarke The powerhouse who is Emma Svanberg @mumologist whom I work with as part of the psychology collective along with other amazing psychologists Having a partner who is like – yep! Go for it! Who trusts in my ability to make this work

Read about feminist therapy – it is intersectional in its nature and lots of things we already do – such as fully informed consent originates from the feminist therapy its just not acknowledge as its now just so much part of mainstream psychology.

Make sure you are reading widely – look at your bookshelf – are all you books by white men? If so – why? Make sure you are ready women authors, trans authors, black authors, brown authors, queer authors, differently abled authors both psychologists and not! People who aren’t academic (again so white and male) also have important things to say – so think about who are listening to and who you assume has knowledge worth listening to – and then question those assumptions Then put it into practice – ask your clients about the systems that oppress them – how has it affected them

Insta: @dr_rebekah_shallcross

Website: www.thefeministtherapycentre.co.uk

@mamafeminologist

Ever stared at a blank screen watching the cursor blink at you mockingly?

Psychologists and therapists often get paralysed when we try to speak to more people.

The inner critic says we “aren’t good enough” that we “don’t have anything to say”

So we often stop before we start.

Or maybe we write a blog but we don’t REALLY promote it (because promoting ourselves feels gross, right?)

I know first-hand that your writing can make a big difference to peoples’ lives and my free 5-day blogging challenge exists to help you push through the paralysis and get your valuable work in front of the people who need it.

Over five days you will:

• Choose a blog topic and title that people are actually searching for
• Plan a blog that will engage and educate your readers
• Write the blog in under one hour
• Publish the blog and track its progress
• Work through daily tasks (including walk-through videos) and Q&As every evening in our pop up Facebook group

Sign up for the challenge starting on 19th October 2020!

https://innovationinmentalhealth.lpages.co/blogging-challenge-sign-up/

Join The DMTT Membership : https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

Please do rate, review and subscribe to the podcast and as ever, DM me @rosiegilderthorp on instagram to let me know your main takeaways from this episode and what you would like to see in the next series!

Today I’m talking to Liz Stanford the owner of the Calm Birth School about how she has made and managed the transition from teaching hypnobirthing to running an international business that promotes empowering, calm births, around the world.

Liz has made a leap that many of us just write off as "not possible" and listening to her talk about her journey makes it seem a little bit more doable. Liz shares both practical and psychological tips that are relevant to anyone looking to grow and expand into new areas in their business.

Please do connect with Liz if you are interested in training as a hypnobirthing teacher. Training with the Calm Birth School was one of the best decisions I have made. I'm also very happy to talk to you about it if you want to hear a personal story!

Connect with Liz at:

Web: https://www.thecalmbirthschool.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecalmbirthschool

Twitter: https://twitter.com/calmbirthschool

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecalmbirthschool/

Are you planning on launching something new and innovative?

Are you hoping to reach more people and build a business that lets you live your values while avoiding burnout?

Then you need to download our cheat sheet - 14 Steps to a simple launch.

We are sharing a foolproof process to make sure you develop your project WITH the people you want to help and then get it in front of as many of them as possible.

Sign up to get it in your inbox now

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/episode/simple-launch-for-psychologists-and-therapists

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

Please do rate, review and subscribe to the podcast and as ever, DM me @rosiegilderthorp on instagram to let me know your main takeaways from this episode and what you would like to see in the next series!

Do you like the sound of "community psychology" but struggle to know how to make it happen in the real world? Do you find yourself worrying about people who "slip through the cracks" but feel unsure about where to reach them? Maybe you have considered opening a Facebook group or similar but backed down because you were worried about how to manage risk?

If that is you then you will love this episode with Dr Tara Quinn-Cirillo. Tara has successfully stepped out of the therapy room and applied the skills she learned from a career as a counselling psychologist to helping her local community through the pandemic. It is an inspiring story and there is also a lot of practical advice we can all benefit from.

If you want to connect with Tara you can find her in the following places:

Website: https://horshampsychology.com/about-horsham-psychology/

Twitter: @CirilloDr

Instagram: @drtaraquinncirillo

Facebook: Horsham Psychology

The Compassionate Horsham Project

@compassionatehorsham

#compassionatehorsham

Are you planning on launching something new and innovative?

Are you hoping to reach more people and build a business that lets you live your values while avoiding burnout?

Then you need to download our cheat sheet - 14 Steps to a simple launch.

We are sharing a foolproof process to make sure you develop your project WITH the people you want to help and then get it in front of as many of them as possible.

Sign up to get it in your inbox now

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/episode/simple-launch-for-psychologists-and-therapists

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

Please do rate, review and subscribe to the podcast and as ever, DM me @rosiegilderthorp on instagram to let me know your main takeaways from this episode and what you would like to see in the next series!

Ever wondered if you can really call yourself an “integrative” therapist? Jeremy Slaughter talks to us about his innovative approach to formulation, Journey Building, that helps us to truly integrate different theoretical approaches into a cogent formulation. As a member of Do More Than Therapy I have heard Jeremy talk about this before and I was keen to get him on the podcast to share his own journey from accountancy, to psychology to software and the impact he hopes his method, and the software he has designed to go with it, could have on mental wellbeing. Before we get into the episode I just wanted to mention that Jeremy is holding a webinar to get feedback on his ideas and an introduction to using the Journeybuilding doodles and metaphors on Monday 14th September at 1pm. The details of how you can join the call are in the DMTT FB group. DM me @rosiegilderthorp on Instagram if you can’t find them and I will send them over.

You can find more from Jeremy at:

http://www.kipapa.co.uk/

Come over to the Do More Than Therapy facebook group get the details for Jeremy's webinar on Monday 14th September at 1pm.

Are you planning on launching something new and innovative?

Are you hoping to reach more people and build a business that lets you live your values while avoiding burnout?

Then you need to download our cheat sheet - 14 Steps to a simple launch.

We are sharing a foolproof process to make sure you develop your project WITH the people you want to help and then get it in front of as many of them as possible.

Sign up to get it in your inbox now

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/episode/simple-launch-for-psychologists-and-therapists

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

Please do rate, review and subscribe to the podcast and as ever, DM me @rosiegilderthorp on instagram to let me know your main takeaways from this episode and what you would like to see in the next series!

Welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. In this series, we're exploring the different ways that psychologists and therapists can work in independent practice. 

One thing I've come to appreciate over the past few years is how beneficial it can be for professional fulfilment and building your personal authority to maintain connections to a university. Dr. Anna Oldershaw is a clinical psychologist working independently and as a reader in clinical psychology at the Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology, which is part of Canterbury Christchurch University, and it's where I trained as a clinical psychologist. I've known Anna for a little while, as we've been working together on the marketing strategy for the emotion focused therapy courses that Anna convenes and teaches on at Salomons. Before I met Anna, I really didn't know very much about EFT, but when I started reading up on emotion focused therapy and I heard Anna describe the difference that it's made to clients, I got really excited about the possibility that it holds, especially for clients that might not get the most benefit from some of the talking therapies. So I'm really pleased to have Anna here today to talk to us about emotion focused therapy, EFT.

Full show notes and a transcript of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Links for Anne:

Website: emotionspeaks.co.uk

Email: anna.oldershaw@canterbury.ac.uk

EFT Links:

Salomons; Emotion Focused Therapy

Emotion Focused Therapy (emotionspeaks.co.uk)

Training in Emotion Focused Therapy (emotionspeaks.co.uk)

The next Core Skills Training runs at Salomons from 17th -20th June 2024 and can be directly booked here. Early bird discount is available until 31st March. 

The Advanced Empathy Workshop which focuses on how we communicate empathy and use our empathic resonance in therapy is useful for those who want to explore how to maximise the impact of their therapist empathy on client process. It is online on 25th and 26th April and can be booked here. 

People can contact the EFT Institute on EFTI@canterbury.ac.uk

Passive Income Workshop:

The Passive Income Workshop is happening on Monday the 25th of March at 7pm live.

I'm running the workshop on how to bring passive income into your practice, so you can create more space. It's honest, with no get rich quick promises, but I will share what's worked for me and the many psychologists and therapists that I've supported to bring passive income into their practice. Crucially, I'll also share what you need to have in place to make it work so that you can create a realistic plan.

Don't worry if you can't make it live, there will be a recording, but if you can come along I'll make sure that there is a good chunk of time to answer questions, so you'll leave with a plan to bring more flexibility, financial stability and freedom into your practice. If that sounds good, follow the link and I'll see you there:

Creating passive income in your practice: A guide for psychologists and therapists

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

• Anna gives us an overview of what her working life looks like at the moment 01:27
• Anna talks about how her interest in EFT began 03:40
• I ask Anna about the similarities between EMDR and EFT 12:38
• Anna talks about the groups that benefit the most from EFT 14:48
• I ask Anna about the availability of EFT 18:26
• We discuss how EFT could work for people who struggle to engage with CBT 20:48
• We talk about the benefits of therapy during training 30:12
• Anna talks about the benefits of training and specialising in this area 33:55
• Anna talks about the challenges and support she has balancing her work 38:44
• Anna tells us about the next training cohort for EFT at Salomons 42:09

Thank you so much for listening to the Business of Psychology podcast. I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to subscribe, rate and review the show. It helps more mental health professionals just like you to find us, and it also means a lot to me personally when I read the reviews. Thank you in advance and we'll see you next week for another episode of practical strategy and inspiration to move your independent practice forward.

If you are a psychologist or therapist you probably know you should write a blog. But how do you get more people to read it? Here are my top 5 tips for getting your amazing content seen.

One of the most frustrating realities of being a psychologist or therapist who needs to build an online audience is the horrible truth that no one will just magically land on your website. If you want anyone to benefit from your expertise and support you need to write content that pops up on google when they most need it.

Firstly, if you have not already, you need to know your Ideal Client Avatars. Your blog posts will be easier to write and are FAR more likely to reach people if you write them for ONE specific person. If you need convincing or you haven’t fleshed out your ICAs yet then if you are a DMTT member you can take the short course on that subject inside the membership or if you aren’t a member you can listen to last month’s podcast episode on that subject. No other advice will work if you don’t know exactly who you are writing for.

There is an art to to getting your blog (or other content) found but here are five steps you can take to get more eyes on your brilliant content.

You can use a tool like Answer the public to find out what searches people are making in your area of expertise. This is one of the reasons it is so important to only try and market to people with one (or a few related) specific problems. For example, if I were to type “depression” into answer the public I would find so many hits and such high search volumes that I would never be able to choose what to write and the chances of my blog post standing out against all the psychology today, NHS and other trusted sources would be very low. However, if I know my ICAs really well I could search for something only “they” will be looking for. For example, I might write a blog post for a parent searching for “how to help my thirteen year old who has ADHD and anxiety” or “what to do if my twelve year old won’t stop wetting the bed.” Those are much more specific problems that I know my ICAs might be searching for at 2 o’clock in the morning when they are worried.

What would they say to their friend over coffee? What are they typing into google? This is another reason why launch in 14 steps is all about trying to actually have coffee (or a virtual one) with your ICAs so you can pick this language up. Remember you may not like the language they use but you might need to use it in order to be found.

One blog post can easily become several social media posts, a podcast, a Facebook live. Think creatively, draw out key parts of the content and make it multi media.

You can then drop the link to interested people who will boost your traffic and make sure google knows your content is good.

Readers need somewhere to go at the end of your content, make sure you don’t leave them hanging.

BONUS tip – give your best stuff away. Don’t hold back. Marketers that tell you to give the why but not the how are unethical (in our space) and shooting themselves in the foot in my opinion. You are trying to establish trust here. If people want to they can find EVERYTHING for free on the internet. I’ve written something like 54 ACT and CFT based blog posts for parents on my website. If someone wanted to they could print them all and use it as a self help book. They don’t do that because they are busy and because it wouldn’t give them the same experience as working with me. If you want to establish trust and authority then you need to be generous. Look at Russ Harris if you need an example. He gives away virtually everything for free and yet I still chuck my credit card at his books and courses whenever he releases anything new because I want to have it in the most accessible and easy to learn format. Often when I look at blogs written by psychologists and therapists for their websites I feel a little bit sad because they don’t really say much other than “book me”. In my opinion every blog should aim to genuinely solve a problem for someone. Google also doesn’t really recognise blogs under 1000 words (or so I have been told).

There are lots of issues that come up for us when we are trying to write content that genuinely helps people, draws them towards our services and helps sustain our businesses so this is a topic we will revisit regularly. Please do get in touch and let me know the specific things that you get stuck on.

In order to make blogging, podcasting or any content marketing work for you it is crucial to know your ICAs, have a content creation strategy, an SEO strategy and have a good way of measuring your progress.

This is exactly why we have a masterclass on understanding your google analytics data with Vicky Jakes, website and SEO expert coming up in the DMTT membership in October. Vicky will be talking to us about how we can tell if what we are doing is working. To learn more about the membership and how you can join click here.

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/episode/simple-launch-for-psychologists-and-therapists

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-business-of-psychology/ideal-client-avatar-psychologists-therapists-marketing

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

Answer the public (to find out what people are searching for) https://answerthepublic.com/

Uber Suggest (tool for checking search volumes) https://app.neilpatel.com/en/ubersuggest

Ever wanted to know how to bring psychological thinking to the government? Susie Ballentyne is an applied psychologist who currently offers research and consultation, cognitive behavioural coaching and psychologically informed leadership development. Susie has held influential positions bringing psychological theory and practice to government decision making. The impact she has had in her career is truly inspiring. This was a fantastic podcast to record and I am sure many of you will want to contact Susie to find out more so all of her contact details are at the bottom of the page.

If you want to join a community where you are inspired and supported to have a bigger impact then check out the Do More Than Therapy Membership.

Here is how Susie describes herself:

You can find Susie in the following places:

https://www.susieballentyne.com

info@susieballentyne.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/susie-ballentyne-mbpss-7483b132/

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-business-of-psychology/ideal-client-avatar-psychologists-therapists-marketing

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

If you have decided that you want to do more than therapy in your business, and if you have ever visited a website that talks about “online marketing” it is HIGHLY likely that Facebook now targets you with lots of ads from Californian online marketing tycoons telling you how to create the perfect “funnel”.

It would be very easy to switch off and ignore that messaging because we don’t naturally enjoy the idea of funnelling people. I know I never clicked on anything with that word in it until recently. However, now I understand it, I actually think, a little like the ideal client avatar that we looked at a few episodes back, that we need to know about funnels and how to use them.

Essentially a "funnel" is just another way of talking about the journey someone takes from knowing nothing about you to working with you. It constitutes steps 3 through to 14 of the “14 steps to a simple launch” guide you can download. In my mind I break it down into four stages.

1.Making people aware of you

2. Building know, like and trust or showing them you are an expert

3. Letting them know what you offer and how it could help them

4. Making sure they know exactly how to get it (if they want it).

The idea is to move people through the four stages so they feel confident to buy what you are offering if it lines up with what they need. In this episode I am going to break these down a little to give you an overview of what you are trying to achieve at each stage.

You may have 7 PhDs and be an absolute professional authority in helping people diagnosed with bi-polar to lead full and rich lives. You may be the best at it and your peers may be really excited that you are making an online course. But if no one who is struggling with bi-polar knows that you are the best at it you are still not going to have anyone to sell your online course to. This is where most of us are when we start out on our journey as we often don’t have much of a public profile and we often don’t really like shouting about our expertise.

Activities for this stage: Blog posts, valuable social media posts, podcasts, videos on social media, in person networking events, press coverage, good search engine optimisation, publishing research, writing a book or a book chapter. You can amplify all of these things using paid advertising once you know what works well. The aim is always to build your credibility and authority so that when people are struggling in a particular area your name comes up.

People need a lot of reassurance before they are willing to consider investing precious time or money in our products or services. This is especially true when it relates to mental health, people who are suffering feel vulnerable and are not going to want to risk taking a course that might make them feel worse. This stage is all about proving that you can help. Depending on the group you are talking to you might also want to emphasise hope for change and showcase stories of resilience and people who have come through difficult times.

Activities for this stage: Getting people onto your email list through downloadable guides, cheat sheets etc or free webinars, value packed emails, highly valuable social media content (in your own group if possible), talking to them individually in your community and in your emails.

This is where you give them clear information about what you are offering, how it can help them in specific and tangible ways. At this stage you are still inviting feedback on your offer and responding to this feedback (that never stops!) This is also a good time to show them the social proof that change is possible and that you have helped people to achieve change in the past.

Activities for this stage: Emails and social media posts explaining what you are doing and the benefits it can bring for people, emails and social media showing social proof, events and webinars that showcase what you are offering (like a free live event that is related to your online course as this helps people understand what working with you would be like)

People are busy and often overwhelmed so you need to make it very easy for someone to buy what you are offering. There is plenty of evidence that people don’t read most of their emails and even if they read it, they might not be in a position to click “buy” at that moment. This stage is therefore about making sure nothing gets in the way of someone who wants to buy your product or service.

Activities for this stage: Reminder emails, frequently asked questions posts, videos troubleshooting common problems. I hope this has been a helpful definition of the horrible marketing term “funnel”.

It is helpful to use this alongside the launching in 14 simple steps downloadable guide link above.

As ever please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast and do let me know what you think you can find me in the Do More Than Therapy Facebook group or @rosiegilderthorp on Instagram.

If you are a psychologist or a therapist and you want to offer a new product or service you first need to find, and learn from the people you want to help. This is a deeper dive into the first two steps of the "how to launch in 14 simple steps" episode. You can download your checklist to keep you on track with the 14 steps here.

A couple of episodes back I talked you through a strategy for making sure you get to know the people you are trying to help before you even think about designing a product or service, let alone marketing it. If you haven't listened to that one yet then go back and listen to that one here. If you are a member of the Do More Than Therapy membership there is also a short course on this strategy in the membership that walks you through developing and using your ICA.

Once you know who you are trying to help you now need to think about where you are most likely to be able to meet them and, most importantly, have rich and meaningful conversations with them.

Wherever you find them you need to be asking the IMPORTANT questions. These include:

1. What are you struggling with?
2. What have you already tried to do to solve it?
3. What gets in the way of your attempts to solve the problem?
4. What have you been offered that hasn't worked for you and why didn't it work?
5. What makes you want to solve this problem? What do you hope life would be like if the problem went away.

In all your conversations make a note of the language people use and make sure you replicate that in all of your materials and marketing, even if eventually you want to move people away from some of the key words they currently use. To help with this get permission to record your conversations wherever possible. You can then use a tool like rev.com to get them transcribed so you can pick out keywords.

Here are some suggestions for places you can go (on and offline) to try and talk to your ideal clients.

• Set up zoom calls, explain that you want to help more people like them and you would value their in put. You will be surprised how many people want to help and even if you only get one person saying yes to this it will be SO valuable.
• Take them out for coffee (COVID permitting)
• Surveys (great in conjunction with other methods, Survey monkey is a free tool you can use for this)
• Use the feedback and testimonials you collect at the end of your work. These will tell you what mattered most to the people you worked with so you can make sure your new offer is built around that and that you mention it when you come to market your new offer.

• Ask for introductions from colleagues at work, friends and family who may know the people you are trying to help. It feels very vulnerable but you need to tell everyone you know what you are doing and ask them if they know anyone who is willing to talk to you about your plans via zoom or coffee. It is essential that they are involved in the development of your idea so don't let fear stand in your way here.
• Only AFTER you have done the above and had some in depth conversations you can try joining relevant Facebook groups. Ask permission from the admins and offer to provide something free to the group in exchange for being allowed to be in there if needs be. this could be a free facebook live or resource. Be in the group to LISTEN and learn the struggles and language used by the people in there. Do not try and sell anything, or even offer blog posts until you are a well established member of the group and have a relationship with the admins. If in doubt always message an admin and ask for permission before posting. The relationship with the admins (who may also be your ideal clients) can be extremely valuable in itself, even if they don't let you post in their group. Search the group for conversations where you can add genuine value and comment with your best advice/support. ONLY link to your site occasionally and if it is exactly what the person needs. Again, if in doubt check with an admin before offering a free resource.
• Use LinkedIn if your ideal clients have a particular job role. You can use the search function on LI to search people by job title which can be very powerful. For example, if I wanted to help businesses support their employees through COVID I might look for HR directors or similar on LinkedIn and message them. It is important at this point to just ask for the help you need. Mention that you are researching a new project and be genuinely open to the feedback you get. I really hate it when people try and sell me stuff on LinkedIn but it is a platform that is all about professional collaboration so people are often open to helping you, especially if you have hit on a topic they are really struggling with.
• Networking events (online or in-person). These are, in my opinion, valuable whoever you are trying to reach. They usually involve sitting in a room or on a call with lots of other business owners and talking for two minutes about your business. Then there is usually a speaker and some free flow networking time. It is my idea of a nightmare. BUT if you go in with a laser focus on what you need to find out and who you need to talk to you will find people will hear your passion for your project and want to help. It may be that they fit your ideal client avatar themselves and you can have a conversation then and there. Or (more likely) they know someone who they can put you in touch with. Often I have left an event feeling as though I anxiously sweat through my most corporate "blouse" (what even is that?) for no reason but then I get an email or a LinkedIn message that takes my project forward in some way. If you are open to it there really are amazing opportunities when you make yourself vulnerable like that.

Finally, and I forgot to mention this on the podcast, talk to your PEERS. One of the reasons I set up DMTT is that I believe we could and should be our own greatest champions. There is so much need out there that, in my mind, there is NO competition. We are all in it together. The reality is that if you want to launch an online course and you want it to be profitable you need to build lots of know, like and trust and a very large audience (thousands at least). That is a big ask for one person. BUT if we join together on these projects we combine all of that expertise, audiences and our individual strengths. The task becomes less daunting, and most importantly, we are much more likely to help people effectively when we work together.

Once you have found your people and started to have meaningful conversations with them you can move on to step three of the launch checklist and think about offering them something small as a test. Read more about step 3 here.

If collaborating with your peers sounds good, and you like the sound of helping more people, living your values and avoiding burnout you should check out the DMTT membership. We are a social enterprise designed to help you do exactly that.

Are you planning on launching something new and innovative?

Are you hoping to reach more people and build a business that lets you live your values while avoiding burnout?

Then you need to download our cheat sheet - 14 Steps to a simple launch.

We are sharing a foolproof process to make sure you develop your project WITH the people you want to help and then get it in front of as many of them as possible.

Sign up to get it in your inbox now

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

You can follow me on facebook @DoMoreThanTherapy and instagram @rosiegilderthorp and Linked In: Rosanna Gilderthorp

I'd love to see you in there :)

In this episode social entrepreneur, fundraiser and art therapist Sue Hamilton-White tells us the secrets of writing successful funding applications for projects that help vulnerable groups.

Join the Do More than Therapy Membership waiting list now to get in when the doors open for just two days next week.

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

14 Steps to a simple launch

Are you planning on launching something new and innovative?

Are you hoping to reach more people and build a business that lets you live your values while avoiding burnout?

Then you need to download our cheat sheet 

14 Steps to a simple launch. We are sharing a foolproof process to make sure you develop your project WITH the people you want to help and then get it in front of as many of them as possible.

Sign up to get it in your inbox now

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

Find out more about the Do More Than Therapy membership

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/

Know How Non-Profit

https://knowhow.ncvo.org.uk/

Untapped

www.untapped.org.uk

Are you planning on launching something new and innovative?

Are you hoping to reach more people and build a business that lets you live your values while avoiding burnout?

Then you need to download our cheat sheet - 14 Steps to a simple launch.

We are sharing a foolproof process to make sure you develop your project WITH the people you want to help and then get it in front of as many of them as possible.

Sign up to get it in your inbox now

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/launch-in-14-simple-steps

Launching your first online product or service as a psychologist or therapist can be really daunting BUT you can do it! The secret is keeping it simple and making sure you have the right audience in place FIRST before you go spending lots of time and money on anything. This episode and the checklist that goes with it will help you stay on track and spend your time on the things that actually help you reach people. I also recommend using software like Trello or Asana to track all of these activities and make sure you don’t lose focus in what is usually a 6 month process.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Do More Than Therapy membership or joining the FREE Facebook community come over to: https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/home

You can follow me on facebook @DoMoreThanTherapy and instagram @rosiegilderthorp and Linked In: Rosanna Gilderthorp

If you would like more support with getting your business or project off the ground do come and check out the Do More Than Therapy membership for expert masterclass, our core mindset course, downloadable resources and an amazingly supportive community of likeminded people. https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/home

You can follow me on facebook @DoMoreThanTherapy and instagram @rosiegilderthorp and Linked In: Rosanna Gilderthorp

Today I am going to talk about the concept of an ideal client avatar (or ICA), how it can work for you, including some adaptations I have made to the concept, how to create one and how your imposter syndrome can be a superpower when it comes to getting to know your ICAs.

The Ideal client avatar (ICA) is something you will hear talked about A LOT in the marketing world. The principle is that marketing is way more effective if you create all of your content, your blog posts, podcasts, social media content, advertising, as if you are speaking to an individual. So in order to create marketing that really speaks to people you need to get to know that individual really really well. You need to know what they like, dislike, what they do with their time and crucially what they need and what barriers they face in getting what they need.

This concept makes a huge amount of sense. When we imagine we are speaking to a real person we write more empathically, we are more likely to create products and services that meet their actual needs (rather than making stuff that we like) and we are more likely to put our content and our adverts in the right places for them to actually come across us.

BUT many mental health professionals, myself included, resist the idea of the ICA for a few good reasons.

1. We often don’t WANT people to need us (so ideal sounds a little wrong)
2. The people we help can be extremely diverse (and we want to respect and welcome that)
3. We want to sound “professional” in our content

For all of those reasons the idea of the ICA can seem a little unsuitable for psychologists and therapists and that is certainly where I was at when I first launched my hypnobirthing workshops two years ago and I came across this idea for the first time. 

However, I found that it really is much easier to create content, write the text for your website and create offers that people actually want when you know your ICA and just talk to one person. So I decided to try and find a way of adapting it so I felt I was still serving people ethically and in the way I wanted to.

These are the adaptations to the ICA method that I made. 

1. I have at least 5 ICAs reflecting diversity as much as possible
2. I have different ICAs for each of my products and services. For example the ICAs that I have created for my self pay therapy services are different to my ICAs for my low cost therapy programme. This is essential as they are likely to respond to different messages and I am likely to find them in different places (Psychology Today vs GP referrals)
3. I create content for only one ICA at a time but make sure I spread my time between the ICAs. This works because my ICAs for one product and service will likely have a lot in common so it can be as simple as keeping the same text but having images that reflect all five of them. Sometimes different ICAs will require different messaging all together but not always and once you know them well you can adapt things quite naturally.
4. I use my skills as a psychologist to gain a deeper understanding of my ICA and in my head I think of it as co-creation not market research.

Developing ICAs, if done the right way, will make sure you co-create with the people you are trying to serve so you can make the most positive difference to their lives. 

I have been on trainings where they have told me I need to know what colour underpants my ICA wears. Personally I think that level of detail can be helpful if it helps you to visualise the person better so you can talk to them authentically but I ACTUALLY have conversations with my ICAs and I find that as a result, I can speak to them authentically without needing to know the colour of their underwear. So you can try to build a picture of every possible detail about your ICA y but to be honest I wouldn’t bother. I would focus on just a few key areas. I will talk you through those key areas now and then suggest some ways you can find out what you need to know.

1. What do they care about? When things are hard what is it that motivates them to keep going? What do they want to stand for in their life? It is deep stuff but you can see it in behaviour even if you can’t see it in words. 
2. What do they worry about? What are the problems they are facing? What are their hopes and dreams for the future?
3. How do they talk about their values, worries, problems and hopes. What specific language do they use?
4. What do they already do to try and help themselves? What barriers do they face and what are the problems with the current solutions they have access to?
5. What media do they consume? What influences them? Is it podcasts, social media, publications, Netflix shows?
6. Where do they go? Where can you find them? Online, networking, through GPs, where do groups of people like this hang out together?

Details like what type of mobile phone they use and what car they drive may help you to answer some of these questions and may be very relevant of you are say, considering providing free online therapy and you need to know whether your ICA is comfortable using zoom on a phone, in that case what type of phone they use would come under “what do they already do” and the barriers they may face to accessing existing solutions. So don’t get tied up in spending hours on creating levels of detail that are just fantasy. You probably don’t have time!

Existing clients

Friends/family

Reach out on LinkedIn (free chat, be honest about why)

Zoom calls 

Social media

Testing (as part of your simple launch) creating small things and seeing how people respond, getting into conversations.

Surveys

We are a professional group who experience HIGH levels of imposter syndrome. By that I mean we often feel uncomfortable with being seen as experts, we often think we don’t know “enough” to be worth anything to anyone and we can really struggle with taking centre stage because we feel like we will be found out.

In my mind imposter syndrome often includes high levels of shame. Anyone who works with CFT knows that shame is the emotion that makes us want to hide ourselves from view. It makes us want to be small. It makes us terrified of criticism and the judgement of others. It is really painful and it mostly crops up when we are “daring greatly”. When we are locked in shame it is very hard to be vulnerable enough to truly engage with others, including our ICAs/the people we are trying to help.

If we can move past our shame and open our minds to connecting with others I think this sense that “we don’t know it all” gives us a huge advantage over other professional groups when we need to do some marketing. If we tune into our imposter syndrome and notice our thoughts about it mindfully (I talk about how to do that in the mindset course in the DMTT membership) we can identify when ether really is knowledge we DON’T have and we need to go and get it from the people that do.

The most common mistake in marketing is people assuming that they know their ICA and what they want without actually listening to them. Our raging imposter syndrome might make it uncomfortable for us to stick our necks on the line and ask for these conversations with people but it means that when we do we have the humility to actually listen.

They key is to notice imposter syndrome, notice how gross it makes you feel and commit to take positive action that drives your mission forward. In the second and third classes of the mindset course in the membership I give you some practical strategies on how to do that so do check that out if you are already part of the membership. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself whenever you feel imposter syndrome:

Who can I connect with who knows one of my ICAs for this project well?

Do I know this ICA already? Can I set up a meeting with them?

Do I feel stuck because of a barrier that also impacts on my ICA? Can I set up a conversation with them to co-create a way around it?

Where can I go (online or in person) to observe and listen to my ICA? Write down five key words they are using to describe their lives/the problem you are trying to solve.

We need to move past shame and into curiosity in order to get to know our ICA.

I hope this episode has been helpful as an introduction to the concept of the ICA and how we can uniquely use it as mental health professionals not only in our marketing but to improve our work.

It is a topic that I believe includes mindset, marketing, business and creativity which are the key areas we cover in the Do More Than Therapy membership so if you would like more support with getting your business or project off the ground do come and check out the membership for expert masterclass, our core mindset course, downloadable resources and an amazingly

Today I am talking with Danielle Bodicoat, an independent medical statistics and writing consultant. With 12 years experience as a researcher and lecturer and over 80 published papers to her name Danielle set up a business called simplified data and now specialises in helping health professionals and researchers with bio statistics and medical writing. She is a statistician and writer in one and loves to help people with systematic reviews and meta analysis. What a useful woman to know!

I fully recommend that if you are thinking about doing your own evidence review do go and sign up to Danielle’s free e-course. It has some great practical tips to help you avoid common mistakes and feel more confident in the process. https://www.simplifieddata.co.uk/avoid-common-systematic-review-mistakes/

Find Danielle on LinkedIn (@daniellebodicoat) and on Twitter (@danibodicoat).

Her website is www.simplifieddata.co.uk

If you are interested in finding out more about the Do More Than Therapy membership or joining the FREE Facebook community come over to: https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/home

You can follow me on facebook @DoMoreThanTherapy and instagram @rosiegilderthorp and Linked In: Rosanna Gilderthorp

This episode is module one of the mindset course I have created for the DMTT membership.

You can view the slides and the rest of the course (which is a mix of pre-recorded and live modules happening through July) for FREE on a 14 day trial of the membership at https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/the-do-more-than-therapy-membership/

Don't delay as the doors to the membership close on Sunday at midnight!

In this episode I coach Do More Than Therapy Founding member Alice Fiorica in how best to launch her first ever webinar. We talk mindset, marketing and why getting uncomfortable by talking to family, friends and colleagues about your project is more important than Facebook ads.

We examine the reality of online marketing and how reaching out to your connections is FAR more likely to fill your webinar than putting out a Facebook advert to people who don't know, like or trust you yet. We discuss how to ask your contacts to help you promote your new online services without annoying them and how to make the most of the feedback that is all around you to create something people will know they want.

Join the Do More Than Therapy membership to learn how to live your values, help more people and avoid burnout.

Find out how to join and sign up for our FREE online summit at:

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/

Direct link to sign up for the June 22nd online summit:

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/event/

If you are looking for 1:1 support with your project then contact me on rosie@drrosie.co.uk

If you are a Do More Than Therapy member you could access some "on air" coaching for free!

If you have been thinking of integrating mindfulness into your practice but want to experience the benefits yourself first Alice's webinar is a great place to start.

You can find Alice at Cross Roads Psychology

www.crossroadspsychology.co.uk

You can find Alice's helpful blog at:

https://training.crossroadspsychology.co.uk/stress-blog

And her webinar landing page at:

https://training.crossroadspsychology.co.uk/stress-uncertainty-course

In this episode I share some of the knowledge I have learned from my marketing coach, Janet Murray. I could not recommend her Build Your Online Audience programme more highly. If you want more of your business to involve helping people through social media and email it is well worth the investment.

http://www.janetmurray.co.uk/?partner=45

Hello and welcome to the Business of Psychology podcast. Today for our final episode of the current series we're going to be talking about how to adapt your practice when your needs as a business owner change, or you realise that your practice isn't meeting your needs anymore.

Full show notes of this episode are available at The Business of Psychology

Is this the year that you take your private practice seriously? Maybe you are just starting out or perhaps you want to grow your practice with a team or passive income. Whatever stage you are at, I would love to support you. For new practices, I have our group coaching programme, Start and Grow where you will find all the support, resources and knowledge you need to create an impactful and rewarding practice. 

https://psychologybusinessschool.com/psychology-business-school/

For more established practices come and take a look at my coaching for growth packages. I have a couple of spots left for individual coaching so let me help you get 2024 off to the best start possible.

https://psychologybusinessschool.com/1-to-1-coaching-for-mental-health-professionals/

Links & References:

'But What Can I Do? Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It' by Alastair Campbell

Rosie on Instagram:

@rosiegilderthorp

@thepregnancypsychologist

One of the joys of private practice is being able to adapt your work to suit your life and the challenges that you might be facing. Many of us go into private practice because we really need that flexibility, maybe because of caring responsibilities or something else. Certainly for me, that has always been the driving force behind my practice.

And recently, I've had to become more flexible than I ever thought was possible in my work. I've thought really long and hard about what I want to share about that, and why I want to share anything about it at all, and I've debated this back and forth a lot in my mind. But I've decided that I do want to share some of that particular struggle with you, because, frankly, I know a lot of us go through similar struggles, and it can feel so isolating.

I know that I found myself looking at other people's content on social media and just feeling really sad and a bit lonely because I can't help but assume that their lives are so different to mine. I get that comparisonitis, and I want to make sure that I'm not contributing to that problem, because I'm sure if you look at my social media, or you read my emails, or you look at my website, it might seem like everything's rosy in my life, and like my business is always flourishing. And I don't think that's helpful, and I don't think it's healthy, and it's not a culture that I particularly want to contribute to.

So I'm hoping that by honestly sharing with you some of the struggles that I've been going through in my personal life, and how that's impacted on the business, that I can give you a bit of hope if  you're going through a difficult time, or you have been through a difficult time, and you're wondering how your professional life can emerge from something that's quite challenging.

The first thing I'm going to do is say a little bit about what's been going on for me, and then I'm going to talk you through a framework that I've used with my coach and that you can use for making decisions about what to do in your business when you need or want to make a change, either in response to stuff in your life changing or just every year as you adjust your goals and your priorities.

Okay, the personal bit. The bit I'm probably going to edit loads of times! I'm not going to go into too much detail because it concerns my children and they're not really old enough to give their consent for that, but the bit that I want to be honest about here is the impact on my business, so you need to understand a little bit about the context. My two older children, quite simply, are not fine in school. Really, really not fine. And to be honest, that came as a real shock to me. But it probably shouldn't have, because looking back to when I started this business, it actually was because my eldest was never fine in nursery, she just couldn't tell me that was, why she was ill all the time and not eating. So, in a lot of ways, this business has always been about the fact that my children need me to be around a lot and they're not necessarily able to make use of full time school or other child care options that might be available to some families.

Now my kids are seven and five and a half and I've got a two year old as well. The older two are really struggling to attend school regularly and that has meant that my working time has become really, really erratic. In the first year of them struggling, I could never really predict when I was going to have a day like today, where I've got a quiet house and I can record podcast episodes and speak to my coaching clients and do high quality teaching and therapy work. Or when I was going to have a day when my whole day would need to be spent making sure that they were safe, trying to regulate them, and putting a lot of energy into my kids. I didn't know what to do about that lack of predictability, and if you've been a coaching client of mine over the past 18 months or so, you've probably been aware that I've had to cancel things quite often. I've had to move things around at short notice. And if you know me in any capacity, personal or professional, you will know that that's immensely stressful for me. I really value customer service in my business. Whatever I'm doing on whatever side of my business, whether you're a therapy client or whether you're a member of my alumni membership in Psychology Business School, I always prioritise being there when my clients need me, being able to respond to emails, being able to turn up for appointments on time, all of that stuff that, when you analyse your business values, certainly for me, they're really core to what I care about in my business. 

Because I was taken by surprise by how much my kids struggled, and there's a lot of toxic positivity out there (a lot of people kept saying to me “oh it will get better next week because we've got less disruptive stuff happening at school” or “oh it'll be all right in a few weeks time once they settle”, there was a lot of “it'll be all right  in…” such a short time frame) and because I don't like making a fuss, and I really hoped it would be alright, I kept going along with that for longer than I should have. And instead of making some difficult decisions in the business, I just kept trying to reschedule things, rearrange things, and make it work, without making fundamental changes to the business. And that was terrible for my clients, it was terrible for my stress levels, and ultimately, it was terrible for the income in the business.

This is something which not that many people who talk publicly about business will talk to you about, but my business took a real hit. Because I was unable to see people when I was supposed to see people, I was having to give refunds out. I suddenly had to cut back all of my therapy client work. It just was a mess, and it really wasn't good for anybody. So I about six months ago, I realised that I needed to take control of this situation and I needed to fundamentally change my business to fit with this new pattern of life. That meant having some really difficult conversations.

Essentially, I've managed to create space that is protected, so I know that my husband or my parents will be around to provide childcare in the event that the children are not in school, on a day and a half per week. That is the time when I do all of the work which other people are depending on. That's when I see all of my therapy clients, it's when I see my coaching clients, and it's when I do calls for my members within Psychology Business School. That's really alleviated the stress for me because I know now that that time will not be compromised. I will not have to reschedule. And it means that if the children are unable to go to school on the days of the week that I don't have that back up childcare, yes, it's inconvenient because I don't have time to do the paperwork or maybe record a podcast episode that I wanted to do, but nobody's getting let down as a result of it. I've got that freedom to just take a deep breath and give them what they need on those days, and that has been massive for me. 

The business is now getting back on track in all respects. Everything is growing again, but it has meant that I've had to change the way that I approach the clinical side of my business. And you might have seen that I have started  rebranding my practice. It's now much less about me and more about the brand, which is Know Your Mind Consulting or Know Your Mind Psychology, so you can go and check that out if you're curious. 

I've really leant into the

In this episode one of my marketing heroes, Liz Melville, tells us how to approach launching an online offer such as an online course or webinar.

The scientist practitioner in me loves Liz's data driven approach to marketing. If you are looking to create a clear plan for getting your big idea in front of people this is the episode for you.

If you are a psychologist or therapist with any plans to launch something online this year then you need to come along to the Do More Than Therapy online summit on Monday 22nd June.

We will be talking getting your money mindset right, living your values from the start, creating captivating online workshops and fostering community on Facebook with industry experts.

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/event/

Register for the summit here or simply join the group and leave your email address to receive details.

Liz can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lizmelvillesm

Join her free Facebook group the Launch Lab here

https://www.facebook.com/groups/launchlabpodcast/

Check out her new, "launched" programme, "Ads on Fire" and old episodes of "Ads that convert here"

https://lizmelville.com

Do you ever wonder why some people seem to find opportunities at every turn? Are they born lucky? Or can they see things you can't? I have noticed that anxiety is holding lots of us back as psychologists and therapists without us even realising it. Here is how ACT can help with that.

Join the waiting list for the Do More Than Therapy membership at https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/membership-waiting-list

As psychologists and therapists we are well used to helping people whose anxiety gets in the way of them living the lives they want to live. 

You probably also recognise that anxiety has held you back at some moments in your life too. Whether you’ve had your own therapy or just reflected on it personally most of us have key moments in life when it has become especially clear to us that we have a lot in common with our clients. There have been lots of those for me, like when my son was poorly as a newborn and I found myself experiencing panic anytime I went into the hospital for an appointment for over a year afterwards. I could barely think when talking to his consultant, let alone ask the questions I wanted to ask. At these times we know that we share the human condition with our clients.

But I have noticed that many of us don’t recognise the impact our completely natural anxiety is having on our ability to help people in new ways. 

I’ve talked on this podcast before about how ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) and CFT (compassion focussed therapy) are my “go to” models in the therapy room and how they also help me personally too. One of the ways I have found using ACT helpful is to help me notice when I am avoiding unpleasant feelings of anxiety by staying in my comfort zone when my values are actually telling me I need to do something different. 

What worries me slightly is that I think I was avoiding scary things in some really subtle ways without having any idea that I was doing it. We don’t often talk about this unconscious avoidance when doing ACT with clients as there is usually a lot of conscious avoidance to deal with first but it strikes me that this is likely to be a big issue for many people who are generally doing OK in life but feel something is holding them back. 

Never having the idea/not entertaining it – I never used to see opportunities for press coverage

Forgetting to follow up – I would get really exciting emails or calls from people, even the BBC once, and totally forget to respond.

Procrastinating – it may surprise people who know me that this is on my list as I am not much of a procrastinator. I tend to rush things when I am scared rather than putting them off but certain things, like legally forming my CIC, I knew I wanted to do for AGES but just kept putting them to the bottom of my list because I was SCARED. 

Studying – Maybe this is controversial but I think many of us do extra courses on top of our core training, not because we genuinely think we need them, but because it buys us more time before we have to start offering the scary new therapy or because it alleviates our anxiety slightly to have an extra certificate. I’ve done this so many times but I recently decided it had to stop, that is one of the reasons I added the CPD planner to the psychologists business plan, as I realised I needed to be more intentional. For example, I seriously contemplated whether I needed to get a £4000 coaching qualification before I even recorded this episode for you. So great was my imposter syndrome. But when I sat down with a few books and a big note pad and mapped out which ACT principles I thought would help you the most I realised I already had what I needed to give some value. In the past I would have been so scared of the feeling of vulnerability that I am getting right now I would have spent 4k of the profits from my business to try and get rid of it. That is money that could be far better spent being reinvested into low cost therapy or innovative mental health projects. 

Not Looking for mentors/partnerships – there are lots of people I have wanted to work with that I have not even reached out to because I thought they wouldn’t want to talk to me and I couldn’t stand the thought of putting myself out there like a teenage girl sitting in the school canteen on her own. So I just never did… Ironically since I have been putting myself out there with this podcast some of those people have actually contacted ME. It does frustrate me what I could have achieved if I had just allowed that anxiety to be there BUT my mind so completely could not tolerate the feeling of anxiety that I didn’t even realise I was avoiding it.

Getting to know the people in the Do More Than Therapy community I have realised that I am not on my own with this and that many of us, if not ALL of us, struggle in the exact same way. 

First off we need to get better at recognising when anxiety is present for us. I have found that with my clients who are generally able to live a full life already it is the unconscious avoidance of unpleasant experiences that is a bigger issue that explicit avoidance of anxiety. In my ACT training we never talked much about this as when we are working with people who meet the threshold for clinical intervention there is usually a lot of explicit avoidance to deal with but many people, myself included, might have become quite good a dealing with the anxiety they know about but there is still this unconscious avoidance that they don’t even know if happening. 

Connection to our bodies and minds is crucial. I did an 8 week mindfulness course with Bangor University and the body scan they taught me is pretty perfect for this. For anyone who doesn’t have a “go to” mindfulness to the body exercise I will link to one I adapted for my clients in the show notes but there are loads out there from Headsapce, Calm, Insight Timer and Youtube. The basic principle is to notice each part of your body in sequence, and return your attention to it whenever it wanders. Mindful breathing exercises can also work really well for connecting us up with our bodies and minds.

Once we notice that anxiety is showing up and we suspect it may be making it harder for us to live our values ACT challenges us to try and make room for it rather than distracting ourselves from it or fighting with it. 

If we can get good at making room for it then we won’t feel the need to avoid it unconsciously or consciously. Personally I have found since I started practicing acceptance regularly this has made a huge difference to my ability to notice opportunities. I think I used to be so avoidant of feeling anxious that I actually didn’t see opportunities that were staring me in the face but now I spot them a lot more easily.

So how can we do this? I actually believe that the most powerful intervention is just having the intention to be accepting of your discomfort and to recognise the impact that living a life of avoidance has had on you. However, an exercise I use when I am struggling comes from Russ Harris’ ACT made simple.

Russ tells us to imagine the feeling we are trying to make room for as an object inside our bodies. To imagine it in minute detail, everything about it from the texture, colour, weight, size, movement. Then once we have that firmly in our heads we can breathe in to it, imagine ourselves expanding around it, literally making room for it. I use this all the time with my clients and in my own life and usually find we start off doing it formally, almost like a meditation, but quickly transition to just bringing the image of the object to mind when we need to make space for something uncomfortable. 

I hope this helps you to send your mind the message that you are OK with a bit of discomfort because making a big impact in mental health will never be comfortable. 

Finally, I would love some feedback on how you are finding these episodes. I think that ACT is incredibly useful for coaching people who are already successful to live their values more fully, perhaps to live more “wholeheartedly” as Brene Brown puts it. I have found myself using ACT in this way with some of my insurance company clients who start therapy because they are dealing with work related stressors but by the end are basically looking for more fulfilment in life. It feels vulnerable to use ACT in a “non clinical” way but the more I think about it the more I don’t really believe in the clinical/non-clinical distinction so I’m giving it a go. I’d love to hear if you found this useful so please do send me a message either in the Do More Than Therapy group on FB or as a private message. It helps me to make this podcast what you need it to be.

If you have ever had the feeling that your current job isn't allowing you to live your values but you don't feel sure what you can/should do about it this episode will help you get unstuck. Dr Sarah Swan shares how she navigated the practical and emotional challenges of giving up a senior NHS role to strike out into the world of private practice, business consultancy and the ACP.

Join the FREE Do More Than Therapy community on Facebook and leave your email address to get the details for the online summit on 24th June!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/domorethantherapygroup

Join the Do More Than Therapy Membership waiting list at:

https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/membership-waiting-list

You can find out more about Sarah and her work here:

http://swanconsultancy.co.uk/organisations/businesses/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-sarah-swan-91a84112a/

https://www.facebook.com/swanconsultancy/

Find out more about becoming a member of the ACP and the COVID-19 response to help members and non members at: https://acpuk.org.uk/

Fear of failure/public humiliation is the number one reason psychologists and therapists put off that big project they have been wanting to do. The good news is we can use the same skills we apply to clients to overcome this and do great things. This is the first in a series of mindset coaching episodes to get you off the starting blocks.

To join the waiting list for the Do More Than Therapy membership visit https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/membership-waiting-list

To take my quiz to find out what is holding YOU back from being creative in your work visit

https://www.drrosie.co.uk/quiz

Russ Harris' FREE COVID 19 resources and meditation tracks

https://www.actmindfully.com.au/free-stuff/free-audio/?fbclid=IwAR3xexTBkUaVFECL2mTcskh_ghuSvfRcaAQW3wn3A0B0fcmCWodAEKNSuB8

My quiz is designed to help you figure out what is getting in the way of your creativity as a psychologist or therapist. A theme that has come out over and over again is the fear of failure. We often get stuck in our practice, knowing we want to do more but paralysed. Sometimes this is because we don't know WHAT to do, which is why the Do More Than Therapy membership, and this podcast, have practical topics like "how to publish a book" with Tim Lewis. But often, we do know what to do, we just can't seem to make ourselves do it. This is usually because we are paralysed by fear.

Most of us feel this fear when we are stepping outside of our comfort zones and doing something new to us. I certainly get it when I'm recording this podcast!

I use a lot of ACT in my work and I find it helpful to think of the fear of failure as "fusion with the outcome" of our venture. By that I mean we have started to act as though several things are true:

1. That our thoughts are reality
2. We can predict the future
3. Whether the project succeeds or fails is entirely down to us
4. That success or failure of the project means something about us as a person.

People who have been successful in life often get away with this style of thinking as it makes us work very hard. The problem comes when we apply it to innovative projects because failure is an essential part of the process of creating something great and in order to be resilient enough to keep going we need to see the venture as separate to our self worth.

If we don't separate from the outcome of our venture we will be operating from a place of fear. This means our body and mind will switch off the capacities for creative problem solving, social connection, resolving conflict and resting and digesting. Basically we will be unable to do our best work.

Also, if we don't get instant success (which we probably won't) we will think it is because "I am a failure". The logical behaviour if we believe this is to give up and hide from others. This is the most harmful thing that could happen to your ability to make an impact on the mental heath landscape.

It may be helpful to consider all of the factors that must align for your project to succeed.

• Your intervention (book, course, podcast etc.) has to be what someone else needs at that moment.
• They need to understand how it helps them.
• They need to be able to afford it.
• They need to be able to prioritise the issue.
• They need to believe change is possible.
• They need to be willing to invest in themselves.
• They need to have 15 minutes of peace to make the transaction.
• They need to remember to click the button while the cart is open.

How many of these things can you influence?

There are things you can do to increase your chances of success. Getting to know your community properly as we discussed in the episode on social media, honing your writing skills or hiring someone with those skills and using testimonials can all help people.

But you can never influence whether someone can afford what you are offering (whether that is individuals or commissioners) and whether they are able to prioritise this issue. There are a whole host of societal and family reasons behind these factors.

You also cannot read minds. You will get things wrong and the only way of finding that out is to launch, fail and get feedback.

I learned these lessons the hard way. A few years ago I launched an online course that was a flop by all measures. But I'm glad it happened. Feedback told me two things. Firstly that you need a massive audience to launch an online course, I did not have one! I've since learned that for every 100 people in your online audience (assuming they are all in need of your course) you are only likely to sell a course to one or two of them. So with an audience of 50 I was essentially stuffed.

But I also, painfully, learned from that and some other failed ventures at the time that my topic, although incredibly clinically important, wasn't something people were willing to invest in. My course was a CFT based approach to mental health in pregnancy. I suffered a lot in my pregnancy and knew that CFT could help prevent women like me from pathologising themselves and starting motherhood feeling like a "failure". I had all of the passion you need to get something like that off the ground and the lived experience to make it relatable.

What I did not realise is that we are not, as a society, yet able to priortise mental health in pregnancy. When I got feedback women told me that they "couldn't spend money on them when there was so much to buy for baby" (it was a very low cost course) and that "I should be grateful as we have wanted this baby for so long, I just need to snap out of it."

Heart sinking right?

The truth is you don't really know what people value until you ask them to part with money for it. This is true on an individual and a government level. For example I pitched to my local children's centres about providing low cost hypnobirthing workshops for "at risk" mothers as there is evidence (it is in the NICE guidance) that the principles of hypnobirthing can help prevent birth trauma and this was a stated priority in our area. They were very enthusiastic but ultimately were not willing to pay for it.

I was devastated and I needed to use a lot of compassion and ACT to get through it but I am so glad I learned these lessons.

Russ Harris has some great meditations for de-fusing from thoughts that are getting in your way. I have provided the link to these above.

Personally I use a journal to help me with this. If I am having a thought that makes it hard for me to move forward I write it down, look at it and evaluate whether it moves me forward or keeps me stuck. If it keeps me stuck I will literally close the book on it and every time it starts bothering me again I get the journal out (I have a tiny one for this) look at it and close it again. I find the phsyciality helps communicate to my mind that I created this thought myself but I know other people just do this mentally by labelling the thought and thanking the mind for it.

If fusing with the outcome is holding you back don't suffer in silence! Come an join us in the do more than therapy community and lets support each other through it. If you have found this episode helpful please rate, review and subscribe as it will help more people to find it.