Dr. Susan Giurleo is a psychologist and private practice consultant–the Biz-Savvy Therapist.  She talked to WTCI via email about what she does and how she does it.

What’s your background? What do you do now?

I am trained as a PhD counseling psychologist and focused my research around education and career development. Over time my interests shifted a bit to helping children with developmental issues such as ADHD, autism spectrum and learning disorders. I was a school psychologist for awhile, worked in a group practice and then got tired of working for others and went out on my own. The whole idea of starting a business was overwhelming and scary to me. I had no business background and neither did anyone in my immediate family. But I was motivated to learn because I wanted to create my ideal practice, utilizing evidence-based approaches to help kids and families in distress.

I spent a lot of time learning how business and health care work. Once I got the business fundamentals down, I started to learn how to market my practice. I quickly realized that marketing involves psychology at its core. The best marketing speaks to people’s needs in a way that allows them to understand products and services and make purchasing decisions.

Learning how to market my practice was fun and rewarding. And led me to where I am today.

Now, in addition to my private practice, I write my blog BizSavvyTherapist.com and provide business coaching and consultation to mental health professionals in private practice. My focus is on the marketing of small practices because I feel that is where people can do the work they love and make a very good living at the same time.

All of the business skills I talk about and teach are ethical and promote good mental health. I teach a strategy called “content marketing” (some call it ‘information marketing’). This approach combines valuable psychoeducation to the public,while at the same time promoting a practice and mental health services. Content marketing allows a practitioner to position herself as an expert or the “go to” person in her community for a specific treatment issue or condition. Based on solid, ethical content clients start to self-identify a fit between their needs and a specific practice or provider. At the same time referral sources such as physicians, lawyers and other professionals come to see the provider as a reliable source of information and quality care for their clients.

The BizSavvyTherapist allows me to combine my passions of promoting mental health, education and entrepreneurship. I feel that the more clinicians I can empower to have strong practices, the more people we can help and serve. It feels like a win-win–more clients, more healing and more income for providers.

How do you go about working with clients using content marketing?

My coaching process has evolved over the past few months.

Initially I ask my coaching clients lots of questions about their reasons for becoming a therapist,why they want to build a practice, what their ideal practice looks like and who they want to help.

To build an authentic practice each one of us needs to know our “why.”  Why do what you do? Who do you help others? What drives your decision to work for yourself?

The truth is, it’s not easy to be a small business owner. Yet, so many therapists start their graduate training with this goal in mind, but graduate with no idea how to go about the process of making money in a helping profession. So, we need to get at the heart of our motivations to be in the business of helping.

Once there is clarity on the why, we then explore how that translates into a profitable business. From my client’s core passions and interests we develop a focus, or a specialty from which they can build an authentic, rewarding business. We generate a business plan that incorporates a balance between their business and the lifestyle they desire. I call this “career/life balance.”

Once this base business plan is in place, I can teach and advise how to do the “nuts and bolts” work of building a website/blog, provide services that clients want and will pay for, and multiple income streams and marketing.

Ultimately, the goal is for therapists to have a solid business that helps people with specific needs and generates a good profit.

In this way, helping professionals can do the work they love and get paid well. It’s not hard to do once people are very clear on their motivations and goals.

What are the basic marketing lessons that apply to therapists?

The cornerstone of any success business requires that we offer something specific that solves a problem or addresses a pain point for people. By default, therapists are trained to help people in pain, but we are rarely specific enough about this.

Human beings naturally categorize things, ideas and people. We are hard wired to sort out “what’s in it for me?” Therefore, we pay close attention to the details of a business or service offering. We are willing to invest our resources (time, money, energy) into something that looks like a good fit for our needs.

This means that therapists need to become more specialized and demonstrate an expertise in one treatment area. People don’t work with generalists. They want providers that can meet their specific needs.

Without a focused specialization, all marketing efforts are wasted. No one can successfully market “therapy.” First of all, how do you define that well enough so people see that they need it? And, let’s face it, no one will trust someone who says “I can help you with any problem you may have.” Would you trust a physician who says they can treat any ailment from cancer to schizophrenia? Of course not. So the first basic marketing lesson is to develop a specialty.

After deciding on a focus for your practice, the next step is to develop a marketing “home” where all of your marketing activity comes together. I always suggest this be a website built on a blog platform (WordPress is my preference). Having a robust web presence allows people to access your information 24/7 and eliminates any need for brochures since the website has all the information people will need.

The website becomes the place where you provide information about your specialty, articles that are informational and helpful to clients (and potential clients). You can list services, products, free newsletters, etc. Once these basics are in place you then branch out into social media using Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic back to your site. It really can be quite elegant and efficient once you get a good basic online structure set up.

And the third marketing tip: show yourself online. Put a picture of yourself on your webpage, get rid of those pictures of sunsets, beaches and drops of water (they don’t mean anything to people). When you engage in social media, always have a picture of yourself associated with the account (whether it be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or another networking site). Therapists are essentially marketing themselves. We don’t have a product. If you won’t show your face online, people will not trust you. Our culture increasingly expects to see faces of others online. The internet is the new community center. I know many therapists are uncomfortable with the concept,but we can’t change cultural shifts. If you want to engage in a marketing plan, be ready to show yourself. Nobody will every visit with an anonymous therapist.

Are there marketing ideas that don’t fit for this profession?

The one things many marketers recommend that therapists can’t use is testimonials.

Ethically, we can’t ask clients to give us feedback that we then share with others.
Sometimes business minded clients will offer a testimonial, but I recommend a policy of not using them because our ethics codes are clear that testimonials can be a place of misused power differential. That really is the only area where we need to adjust our marketing efforts.

However, I also want to say that I hear a lot of talk in professional circles about how therapists should not use social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) but that is incorrect advice. There are many ways we can use these platforms ethically and safely to promote mental health and to market our practices. As long as the information shared is factual and never references real client stories or situations, social media is a powerful tool. There is a lot of debate about this, but many of the people engaged in these discussions don’t seem to really understand the flexibility in these platforms. It is absolutely possible to have an ethical social media presence. I recommend therapists learn how to use Facebook and Twitter with their “professional” hat on, rather than approach it as they would as a private person.

I talk about ways to use social media on my blog.

Any final words of wisdom for people building a private practice…?

Start with one thing. Take one action. That could be meeting with a professional colleague for lunch or coffee, writing an article for a local publication (online or off line), heading over to WordPress.org and starting a blog. The process of building and marketing a practice can seem overwhelming, but when we break it down into steps and stick with it, a lot of progress can be made in a short period of time.

I wish every one the best in their practice building efforts!

Find Susan Giurleo, PhD on the web at BizSavvyTherapist.com, ChildDevelopmentPartners.com, and on twitter: @susangiurleo.

1. Relying on email and website traffic alone to promote your business.

2. Counting on your reputation and personal charisma to convince people to do business with you.

3. Promoting your own free workshops or teleclasses instead of guest speaking for others.

4. Spending unbudgeted amounts on promotional opportunities.

5. Maintaining multiple websites, ezines, blogs, or social networking identities with different themes.

Details on her site.

12:00-1:00PM EST – Dr. Susan Giurleo, Biz Savvy Therapist
Topic: “First Steps to Building Your Innovative, Powerful, Profitable Practice”

1:30PM-2:30PM EST – DeeAnna Merz Nagel, OnlineTherapyInstitute.com
Topic: “Text-based Therapy: An Introduction to Email and Chat”

3:00-4:00PM EST – SCHEDULE CHANGE Brian Whetten, Selling By Giving
Topic: “The One Challenge You Have to Address if You Want to Build a
Six Figure Practice from a Place of Love and Service”

4:30-5:00PM EST – BONUS CALL with Laura Dessauer, Business Success for Therapists
Topic: “Want to Know the Top 5 Mistakes Therapists Make in Building Their Practice?”

How to stop giving your money away to insurance companies and the biggest mistakes therapists make in building a successful fee-for-service therapy business

How to help your potential clients TALK THEMSELVES into working with you and what you’ll need to know to attract way more clients without compromising your values

The mindset shift and business model change you need to learn so you can easily double your current income

How to use coaching to build a fee-for-service practice making six to seven figures a year

The reason why you may be procrastinating in your business and the biggest gift you can offer your clients

The marketing approach that helps your community, while growing your practice at the same time

How to expand your practice using text-based therapy: what you need to know about using email and chat with your clients- everything from encryption, client screening, and cyber-cultural awareness

How to create a signature presentation that leaves your potential clients asking for more

Practical tools you can use to earn expert status and how to utilize technology and marketing strategies to engage clients, build credibility, and earn loyalty

Specific ways social media improves your visibility online and how to use directories and google local business center to gain exposure and attract new clients

How online networking sites and technology can bring therapists, students, and interested professional together in a global web community, maximizing your practice exposure

And so much more!

From Tamara Suttle, some Best Practices for Direct Marketing.

Casey Truffo vlogs about How to Find Speaking Engagements (“pink spooning” an upcoming teleseminar).

Lynn Grodzki suggests the Six Steps to Reduce Your Risk in an article on her site.

And so on and so on and so on…

Add @wherethclientis on twitter to get the up-to-the-second feed from these and other consultants.

For your reading/sampling/learning pleasure, an excerpt from The Blueprint for a Successful Practice: Methods of Marketing Your Business & Increasing Your Bottom Line by Illinois-based therapist and consultant Gina L. Spielman, LCSW, C.H.

Chapter Five:  Attracting Your Ideal Client

Maybe you would like to attract a certain type of clientele to fill your caseload and have been unable to do so? Of course, working diligently on many of the previous methods and suggestions mentioned should help you meet this goal. This chapter gives some additional words of advice on how to attract your ideal client.

DETERMINE WHO YOUR “IDEAL CLIENT” IS
You might not be quite sure what your “ideal client” looks like. If this is the case, I suggest doing some soul-searching to figure this out. There is a good chance there are certain types of cases you enjoy working with more than others. This is important to identify for yourself and your contentment with your practice. What types of cases seem to fill you up, and which ones seem to deplete you? Which cases tend to make you look forward to sessions, and which seem to make you dread them? Many of you will have a clear feeling or picture here, however there will be some of you that may need to take a bit of time to figure this out for yourself. Once you do, it can benefit you in many ways. The most important way is that it will contribute to your happiness in your work. It will also assist you in writing a professional profile on yourself that will portray your specialties and interests, which will attract your ideal client. Clients may also be able to sense whether you are truly excited to work with them or not, so it is a win-win situation if you know what your ideal clients look like and then they are attracted to you.

GETTING “QUALITY” REFERRALS
Perhaps you would like to learn how to receive more of a certain type of referral, such as non-managed care or higher fee? There are plenty of self-pay clients out there and making yourself stand out will definitely help attract them, many times at your full fee. In my practice, at this point all of us are certified hypnotists in addition to our primary licenses. This has done very well for us in our area, because it is difficult to find a mental health professional who is also a hypnotist. There certainly are not many on managed care lists. So in that way, we certainly stand out in the crowd for clients looking for some hypnosis with their psychotherapy. Therefore these clients are more likely to bypass some or all of their insurance coverage to see us. So think about what additional training you might find interesting and would enjoy doing. Some interesting certifications that I have come across are in the following list. The good news is that none of them seem to be extremely difficult to achieve, yet they serve the purpose of conveying a niche or communicating a specialty:

• Certified Hypnotist (C.H.)
• Emotional Freedom Techniques Certification (EFT-CC)
• Distance Credentialed Counselor (DCC)
• Certified 12-step Consultant (CTC)
• Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory (SASSI) Certification
• Certified Anger Resolution Therapist (CART)
• Stress Management Counselor-Certified (SMC-C)
• Certified Bereavement Facilitator

Whatever your interest is, fully research any possibilities and choose the training that you feel the best about and are able to do. This will make you stand out in the crowd to your ideal clients and their referral sources. Make sure you place this on all your marketing materials and word it such as “Certified Anger Resolution Therapist”, and if you can place the certification letters behind your name that will work well (just make sure to explain all of your credentials so that potential clients can see them clearly and quickly, and understand what they are). So, if someone needs anger management, and you are a CART, they will likely call you first.

On your marketing materials, you can also list major trainings you have attended. Include wordings such as “ICASA/ICADV Certificate: Trained by the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault & the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence”. It does not have to be a formal certification to include it as something important. Doing this increases your credentials and also gives a clearer picture of your professional interests.

You may also choose to join various associations, such as one for Cognitive Behavioral Therapists, to show that it is one of your methods and you keep up on all the recent news about it. CBT is one method or theory that is frequently sought out by potential clients as well as referral sources. So taking something a step further by joining an association, or showing you have had additional related training, will make you stand out.

Having some unique specialties or interests will help. For example our “Holistic Approaches to Well-being” has generated many referrals. I am simply a practitioner member of a holistic health association and have taken an interest in learning new research along with natural remedies. It is my approach to look at the whole person as well as their life and everything around them, in addition to spirituality and energy. This is how I see all cases and it has done well for me and the counselors in my practice. It also draws the clients in. It is certainly not the usual approach clients will likely get from someone perhaps in their managed care provider network.

So, being aware of trends, filling current needs, and making yourself look different than the average counselor will be important. One of the frustrations we hear from clients is that they cannot find a specialized therapist in their managed-care network. So, set yourself apart and demonstrate your true value in the marketplace through specialization. Many people that are in the market for healthcare value specialization.

WHAT IS YOUR IDEAL CLIENT LOOKING FOR?
Ask yourself what your ideal client might be seeking. Know the answers to this question, and make sure all of your marketing materials will be attractive to your potential ideal clients. What are they looking for and what would they like to see? If you want to work with grief/loss, perhaps your ideal client would like to see that you belong to a professional association of grief counselors, and that you have written an article on grief that you have posted on your site. This will be quite attractive to this type of clientele, and none of it terribly time-consuming or expensive.

Another example situation might be where the potential client is looking for someone who has been through a similar problem, and she feels it would be necessary for the counselor to have that type of personal insight and understanding. For example, a client who needs assistance coping with physical illness might search for a counselor who has been through a severe illness herself. So on this counselor’s marketing materials, she may want to mention that her approach to helping clients cope with physical illness comes from dealing with her own past illness. This counselor will definitely stand out in this client’s eyes with this information on her marketing materials. There is a unique understanding here that only someone with these types of experiences can provide, and this can be extremely important for a client like this.

WHERE WOULD YOUR IDEAL CLIENT COME FROM?
Ask yourself where your ideal clients may come from. Might it be from the phone book? Might they come from an EAP plan (an employee or family member of an employee)? Maybe they will come from a certain type of internet website? Or maybe your ideal client attends divorce support groups in the suburbs? Perhaps they will be referred by a specific insurance company? Wherever your ideal client may be, or may be looking, you are going to want to have a presence there somehow, and make sure everything there is complete and looks professional. For example, if they might come from a specific insurance company, make sure that company’s list is completely accurate as far as how and where you are listed. As I mentioned earlier, it would surprise you to know how many times I found my provider information to be incomplete or inaccurate. These lists are what potential clients, as well as referral sources, are viewing.

BE AWARE OF TRENDS
Watch the news and read your local papers to look for trends! This can spark ideas on current needs in your area and how to fill them. For example, after watching and reading my news, I see opportunities for professionals trained in career-oriented counseling, grief/loss, marital therapy, financial counseling, suicide prevention, insomnia relief, and more.

WORK WITH EAPS
Contracting or working with some EAPs can also give you a referral base of clients who can eventually be self-pay or have insurance coverage for ongoing services. (See Chapter One for more on EAPs).

Keep in mind that if you are not the right therapy provider for a client, which may be determined after her EAP assessment, it is usually fine to refer out to another more suitable provider for the treatment piece. So, do not feel like you have to take every EAP case as a long-term therapy case. Just explain to the client that you feel that another therapist would be a better fit for her actual treatment, include the reason(s), and then make the linkage to the treatment provider.

ANOTHER WORD ON SELF-PAY CLIENTS
Often we get clients that are not sure they want their insurance billed for psychological treatment. This could be a legitimate concern as we really do not know what the insurance will do with their confidential information. There may also be a treatment plan or reviews necessary, so there may be additional concern with that. Clients also need to be told that, in the very least, a psychiatric diagnosis will have to be submitted to their insurance for any coverage to be released. This diagnosis could remain in their permanent record. So, if the client is teetering back and forth about whether or not to use insurance, explain all of this clearly and then he may choose not to use insurance. Then you have a self-pay client, at least initially (note: he may change his mind later).

If you have a client that is looking for something specific only, such as hypnosis, life coaching, or career counseling, it is probable that his insurance will not cover it anyway, so there you go! If you are offering services such as sports psychology, career-oriented counseling, or anger management (for courts), the insurance will only pay if there is a covered psychiatric diagnosis that needs treatment. So you will have to explain that to these clients and also that a psych diagnosis will be submitted and will then be on their insurance record. Some will chose not to have it submitted and will rather self-pay.

I also know that marital and family treatment is not always covered by insurance (particularly HMOs). So, if someone calls asking for couples counseling and she has a very limited HMO that you are not in-network for, let her know that she might not have the coverage anyway. Have her call you back if it is determined that her insurance does not cover this, because they might as well see you for their couples counseling then, right?
Some are predicting that if universal coverage gets passed (or if government gets more involved), marriage and family therapy will not be covered. They are also saying that mental health, if it even gets covered at all, will be even more scrutinized for “medical necessity” and “evidence-based treatment” than ever before. They think that people are not going to want to pay taxes on something that is for “personal growth” only. This all may be true, but it might turn out just fine for everyone reading this book, because now you all have the ability to exist without relying on insurance cases alone!

DON’T FRET IF YOU’RE NOT IN-NET!
If you are not in-network for a potential client’s health insurance, try not to let that be the end of the call. Ask if he has a PPO plan or another type of plan with possible out-of-network benefits. Because if he does, there will likely be some coverage for him to see you (and sometimes it is not much different than the in-network benefits, especially when you factor in contracted rates compared to Usual and Customary out-of-network rates, which can be much higher). So, you can offer to give him a receipt for services that he can submit to insurance for re-imbursement. This is usually called a superbill receipt. (See Chapter Three for more information under the section “Use the Superbill Receipt”). In my practice, we like using these, as opposed to submitting to out-of-network plans, because we get paid upfront this way and we do not usually have to deal directly with all the insurance issues that seem to frequently arise. This does not mean you will not get pulled in to help in some situations, but it is usually much easier and more lucrative this way. There are some therapists who continue to bill out-of-network plans because there are some benefits to doing so, such as Usual and Customary PPO rates being quite nice, and clients also usually appreciate the billing service. We have found, though, that many clients will go the superbill or self-pay route just because they want to see a specific person, either because they have the specialty or technique that is needed, they have a desired office location, they came highly recommended, or simply because they felt a connection with the counselor and therefore put that before any payment issues.

There are some clients or patients, however, that simply are not going to be able afford to go the out-of-network route even if they really want to see you and you have negotiated down to your very lowest amount, or even offered to bill insurance for them. Unfortunately, those sometimes have to be referred on to someone else, but always say “call us again if your situation changes”, because you never know what can happen in the future, or who they might refer later on. Always keep a good reputation within the community by being helpful, courteous, competent, and open to new referrals.

Some clients will choose to bypass their insurance altogether. You will find that some people will forgo managed-care, or HMO, reimbursement. So they will self pay for services that are of high value because they can be of higher quality, offer real privacy, offer more control in decision-making (such as length, frequency, location and amount of sessions, or methods used), and are truly customized for their individual needs. You can tell callers exactly this, and still show respect for their insurance carrier at the same time. Leave the client to make the decision, and hopefully it will be an educated one. Remember not to jump straight into offering sliding scale to these folks. Wait to see what their financial situation is first, and then you may decide to offer it if absolutely necessary. You can always try contacting them again in the future to follow-up and further discuss, if you have not heard from them in a while.

MAKE SURE THEY KNOW YOU TAKE CASH!
It is important that you make sure you include statements such as “private pay” or “cash/checks accepted”, as well as “sliding scale fees available (if necessary)”, on your marketing materials. You will want to make sure that non-covered clients know they can see you. As I said previously, we have had clients ask us if we take cash! Ummm, YES we take cash! We have also had clients feeling reluctant to speak to us because they did not have insurance. Well, we had to explain that it is just fine as we do take cash, checks, and credit/debit cards. In addition, we have told clients that we can be very creative with setting up their treatment and payments depending on various circumstances when needed. Some of these have turned out to be exceptional long term clients for us.

SEEK ORGANIZATIONS AND GUILDS THAT LINK PEOPLE TO MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS PRACTITIONERS
As mentioned earlier, there are some new and unique organizations that are creating ways for people to access providers and services that may not be covered by (or involve) their insurance. This avenue can therefore be a way to obtain more self-pay clientele. A few of these organizations are contacting employers to provide a membership card for employees. This card would entitle them to discounted services from provider members. There is no insurance to deal with, and no one to approve or deny sessions. Instead, providers agree to offer their services at a discount to members, and the clients pay upfront. From what I have seen, there is sometimes a fee to become a provider member, however this usually includes a listing in their directories which is an added bonus. So, asking around and searching for “guilds”, as well as topics such as “alternative health care provider lists” and “health savings cards”, may bring you to these types of opportunities.

DRESS TO ATTRACT THE TYPE OF CLIENT YOU WANT
Think about the type of clients you want to attract and how they might dress while coming to sessions. If you want to attract adults that are upper class or business professionals, you might usually want to wear business suits, dress pants or dresses while conducting sessions. These types of clients might be slightly uncomfortable if you are always wearing jeans or something more casual. On the other hand, if you want to attract children, adolescents or more casual (or perhaps blue collar) adults, then wearing a business suit or dress may make it difficult for your ideal clients to connect with you. But if you are usually in jeans, casual pants, or a very casual dress, then it may help you to connect with these clients. If your caseload is a mixture of all types of clients and you want to keep it like that, then I suggest you wear casual pants or casual dresses/skirts during most of your sessions, so you fall somewhere in between and will be able to connect well with all clients.

OFFICE SPACE THAT ATTRACTS YOUR IDEAL CLIENT
Your office space can attract your ideal client and keep them coming back. Therefore, make sure your office always looks inviting because you never know who could be looking in. You will want them to get a positive feeling of what it might feel like having a counseling session in your office. If you want to attract children, then make the office inviting to them. Having toys, small scale furniture for them, colorful décor, and children’s activities all will help. If you want to attract more adult upscale or business-type clientele, then you might want to make the office look more upscale or business–like, and you may want your offices to be located near upscale residential or corporate areas. If you would like to attract the teenage client, then having “cool” things in the office will help, such as certain games, décor or magazines, because if it is fun or “cool” for them there, then teens are more likely to return for services. If you want more hypnosis clients, then make sure you have the appropriate furniture for them to be the most comfortable. If your desire is to work with more handicapped clients, then of course you will have to make certain your space is 100% handicapped accessible. Working with larger-sized clients will require you to have various sizes and shapes of furniture. If your office is small, there are ways to create optical illusions to make it seem more spacious. Get some help in making it feel more cozy if it seems too big. Just make sure the office, and the contents, accommodates and makes comfortable the type of clientele you want to attract and keep.

MAKE SURE YOUR AVAILABLE TIMES AND DAYS MEET THE NEEDS OF YOUR IDEAL CLIENT
Having days and times available that will be convenient for you and your clients is crucial. I have found that a mixture of some daytime, evening and weekend hours works quite well when building a practice. Also make sure the times are tolerable for you because you will not last long if the times you can use the office are not the times you want to work or have a lot of energy. It just will not work in the long run and clients may sense this as well.

TAKE CREDIT CARDS
Accepting major credit cards will most likely attract more self-pay and superbill clients and it might be easier for them to pay for additional services as well. It will also help for any bulk payment situations. (See Chapter One under the “Accept Major Credit Cards” section for more on credit cards).

A WORD ON SPECIALTIES
If you have a specialty where you are highly trained and skilled, but you do not particularly like doing the work, shift the training and knowledge a bit to something you do like. For example, a therapist might be trained in alcohol abuse counseling but may not like doing that specific type of work. She could leverage that skill by working with related topics or populations. For example, she could add to her marketing materials that she works with family members of alcoholics, or codependency, or that she does evaluations only. She could also make a shift to a general “addictions” specialty, which may include issues such as smoking and habit cessation, internet addiction, and so forth. So you can use what you have learned from having previous specialties, and shift it a bit towards the particular issues or populations you would like working with. It will be better for your practice in the long run if you enjoy the work you are doing.

OFFER SPECIAL SERVICES FOR THOSE WHO LIVE FAR
Reaching out to populations that live far can add to your income as you can gain more “ideal” clients as well as increase your “income streams” this way. For example, a beginning hypnotherapist may want to offer longer sessions to those who live far away from her office. Also, someone who specializes in grief counseling may want to market to farther away areas and offer telephone sessions to attract more grief/loss cases. These far-away places might be rural, underserved areas within your state. The possibilities are endless if you think about it.

Find the rest of the book at the WTCI Bookstore.  Gina Spielman is online at www.ginaspielman.com.

What’s your background?

I graduated from Boston College with a degree in psychology and received my masters degree in counseling from the George Washington University. I became a licensed professional counselor shortly thereafter. I knew early on that I was going to pursue some kind of career in mental health, but I just didn’t know how or what it would look like.

I remember, quite clearly, that I struggled mightily once I received my masters degree. I had all these grandiose ideas about starting my own private practice but had absolutely no idea what that truly entailed. When I think back to that time I wish someone would have given me a good shake or dumped some cold water over my head…anything to wake me up to reality!

I spent a few years trying to build my career as a clinician and it was quite disheartening. I took jobs hoping to move one step closer to my career goals only to find myself feeling boxed in and stuck in a series of dead end jobs.

But here’s the honest truth about my circumstances at that time. Most of it was my fault. It took me years to realize that the mental health profession, like any other industry, will gladly define you if you let it. And that’s what I did. I didn’t make an honest effort. I spent my days hoping the field would find a place for me. It did, but it was never what I had hoped.

I can look back on things now and laugh, but at the time it was truly a painful process.

The “light bulb”, for me, did not go off until 1999 when a friend of mine shared an amazing story about how he landed his dream job within the profession. I gained a significant amount of insight from his story, and began to move away from the blame game. I took note of all the wonderful marketing and sales concepts he used to find success – ideas like permission marketing, the true definition of value, sales progressions, and the importance of building relevance and credibility. I’ll explain these concepts a bit later. I mention some of them here simply to illustrate that there were a lot of unique approaches to business development I had never thought of at the time. All of them provided motivation for me to change.

Rather than expecting things to come to me, rather than passing up on opportunities or going through the motions, I decided I’d be the initiator. Rather than being average at a lot of things, I chose to become very good at a few things. I set new goals in this direction and have spent the past several years learning, growing, and taking advantage of new opportunities that come my way. It has made all the difference in terms of my personal enjoyment and the general satisfaction I get from doing my work.

What do you do now?

At present, I am a writer, consultant and the Director of Business Development for a large behavioral health care organization. Essentially, I am responsible for ensuring my organization’s treatment facilities are growing. It’s a fun job because I have a say in the services we offer and I am able to partner with people in the community who are doing some incredible things with regards to mental health services.

After 1999, I realized I had interests and passions within the field that could be nurtured elsewhere. So I began getting involved in business consulting. I worked with Industrial/Organizational Psychologists on work culture and social dynamics to help improve business performance. As the years passed I starting learning skills I felt could be successfully integrated into a mental health paradigm. It seemed to me that a lot of valuable business development innovations and techniques were underutilized in our industry.

What excites me about utilizing sales and marketing concepts in the mental health field is the fact that they can be applied to all settings within the profession. They certainly apply to private practice, but also have relevance in organizations, schools and even as part of the job search process.
When I realized this and started using these concepts within my company I saw our outcomes improve considerably. And when others began using them they saw similar results.

How do you apply some of the principles/approaches (e.g., the true definition of value, sales progressions, the importance of building relevance and credibility) when working with clinicians on private practice building?

There are numerous ways to apply these principles within a mental health model. I tend to take a different approach when people ask me how best to grow a private practice. Here are a few ideas I use as a way to begin applying some of these concepts.

Break Away from a Traditional 1-to-1 Financial Model

When I was working as a private practitioner I was stuck in a “this for that” model. I would provide a 50-minute session in exchange for an hourly fee. The problem with this approach is that I tended to reach the limits of my earning potential quickly. There are only so many hours in the day and there is just so much that the market will bear for my services. I see a lot of private practitioners struggle as they try and grow their practices under this framework.

Where do you turn once you reach the boundaries of your service delivery model? I suggest looking for ways to diversify. Expand your service offerings and/or partner with others in an effort to create multiple streams of income. When you hear stories of people who move from slow and steady growth to immeasurable success what you find, more often than not, are people who leverage the power of passive income. They have found a way to generate income with less effort not through smoke and mirrors but by setting up systems to where they can add value in numerous ways.

I understand that the phrase “passive income” elicits all kinds of negative responses. Many people associate it with pyramid like schemes. But passive income has value if used with purpose and principle. Consider this example.

When I lived in Washington, DC I knew a psychologist who had a thriving practice with offices in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. She understood the power of systems and built a practice around up and coming therapists in the DC metro region by offering a win-win opportunity. Talented but inexperienced clinicians received mentoring, supervision, counseling experience and a percentage of earnings while my friend received her own percentage from each practitioner.

This is not a new model for any of you I am sure. However, what struck me about this approach was the fact that it had a snowball effect that seemed unstoppable. My friend’s reach within the marketplace was astounding. She had income coming in simultaneously from numerous clinical groups, individual sessions, trainings and workshops without her having to be present for each and every activity.

As a result, she had more time to focus on other business matters such as networking functions, clinical research, strategic development and writing. It made her smarter and more marketable within the field.

Understand that “Markets are Conversations”

A lot of ambitious practitioners choose traditional models of advertising to get the word out that they are open for business. I’m a big believer in marketing one’s services aggressively, however, if you’re not careful you’ll spend a significant amount of money with very little results. I often tell people to be careful not to create marketing materials or to place advertisements that exist in a vacuum. A brochure that you mass mail, business cards you drop off and print ads you place without any kind of follow up will have very limited impact. You need to have a step-by-step process put in place that will take people from point A to Z. I often refer to this practice as a “sales progression”. When creating a marketing plan you should identify strategies that build upon one another. For example, if you give a free talk be sure to have a system in place where you are able to follow up with your audience. Have them sign up to receive a newsletter from you or offer them a free tele-seminar that will take place weeks after the training. You want to put systems in place so people have an opportunity to experience what you have to offer and then they are given an additional opportunity to progress to the next level (e.g., seeking individual counseling, signing up for an intensive paid workshop, joining a new group you are facilitating).

There is a considerable shift taking place across all markets that has implications for how you choose to advertise and market your services. Standard marketing messages often have very little emotional appeal and are easily ignored. In addition, today’s markets offer a plethora of choices. People can easily ignore your message if they perceive no value. So how do they pay attention to your message? People are looking for substance and value. They are finding it more and more online by asking questions and participating in conversations. You need to find ways to be a valued contributor to those conversations. The great news about this shift is that you do not need large amounts of money to market yourself effectively. You don’t need to be on TV or in a magazine to reach your audience.

Your effectiveness as a marketer is not about how slick your brochures are or whether or not you have a compelling name for your practice. It is about your ability to identify communities and to be a valued contributor to the conversations that are taking place. This image should help clarify my point further.

Change Your Definition of “Value”

“Value” is often defined as what one receives in return for some sort of payment. A much better definition of “value” is: the act of offering something beneficial to others without any expectation of receiving something in return.

This is where true growth and opportunity takes place. My friend, who I mentioned earlier, used this model to find his dream job in the field. Initially, he turned down two jobs from one of the largest mental health employers in his area effectively ending any chance of working for them in the future. This would have been true had he not decided to make the decision to help the company find better candidates for the two positions he turned down. And once he filled the two positions for the company his value and credibility went through the roof! He made himself indispensible by thinking of others and helping them achieve their goals. The result: they asked him what he was looking for in a new job and then they created it for him!

A great way to build your network and to increase your relevance in your market is to find unique ways to offer unexpected value for your potential referral sources and clients. They will be impressed by your generosity and you will be nurturing a consumer base that will have powerful long-term effects.

Find David Diana online and order a copy of his free e-book, “Change Therapy,” at www.davidpdiana.com.

I wanted to share with you and your readers a recent tele-class on the
Top 5 Mistakes Therapists Make in Building Their Therapy Practice.  Here’s what we covered:

* What you keep doing that is a total waste of time and money, and
where you should be focusing your time and energy to see maximum
results

* What most therapist fear and how you may be doing exactly what it
is your scared of, and what you can do instead to help many more
people

* A big mistake all therapist have made, however if you continue to do
this you will never grow your business.

To listen to the free replay visit:
http://www.attendthisevent.com/Classic/?eventid=10335117

There are many factors governing the success and satisfaction of your practice. If you are taking steps to start or develop a private practice, or just thinking about it, I applaud what you are doing. Along the way, you do not need to master scores of business and marketing principles and learn hundreds of success secrets. Just a few–the right ones– will accelerate your goal attainment.

I have a free gift for you. I would like to extend the offer to you of a free 20 minute telephone consultation with me to help you with your most pressing business or marketing challenge.

This is not a sales pitch. You set the agenda. I will offer answers, suggestions, ideas and some coaching around the challenge you present.

To schedule your free telephone consultation session, click the link below, which will take you to our online scheduler. It is very easy.

There are a couple rules, however. First, in order to qualify for the coaching session, you must complete the eCourse “The Five Keys To Being Financially Successful in Private Practice” including the exercises –or– read the first three chapters of the Today’s Private Practice book. Second, one week prior to the scheduled session email me with the specific question or situation you would like coaching or advice about.

I hate the idea of “rules” here, but I am in the coaching and consulting business and want to make sure the people I offer this time to are serious about their business.

I hope you will take me up on this offer. To schedule your session, click on this link to our online scheduler:

http://appointmentquest.com/provider/2070131020

I look forward to talking with you and providing whatever help I can as you build your private practice!

Have you purchased the book yet? If you would like to buy it go to:

http://www.TodaysPrivatePractice.com

The time you spend learning the Today’s Private Practice approach to a thriving managed-care free private practice will be well worth it.

It’s my honor to serve you. I hope you will give me the opportunity to share with you what I know about how to book yourself with private-pay clients.

More about William Morgan at his website, www.williamdmorgan.com.

If you’ve browsed around for a book about building a private practice, you’ve heard of Lynn Grodzki.  She is the consultant’s consultant, author of several definitive books on practice-building, including Twelve Months to Your Ideal Private Practice, and, more recently, Crisis-Proof Your Practice.  She talked to WTCI via email.

What’s your background?

I have had a checkered career! I worked a lot of odd jobs and got my BA in Art and Design, started and ended a few small businesses and then spent seven years as general manager in the family business. I got a Masters in Social Work in 1988 from the University of Maryland and quickly became a psychotherapist in private practice (LCSW) in Maryland. After a decade of running groups and seeing individual clients, I combined my earlier interest in entrepreneurship with my love of psychotherapy and became a business coach for therapists and healing professionals in 1996. I began teaching my Private Practice Success Program locally in the Washington, DC area to therapists and healers and in 2000, I published my first book: Building Your Ideal Private Practice (WW Norton.) I also took time to formalize my coach training to help me work with professionals. I am a Master Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation, and a faculty member for CoachU, a large coach training organization.

What do you do now?

I work as a psychotherapist in private practice, specializing in counseling for cancer recovery. I also work as a business coach for small business owners. As a business coach, I specialize in working with change-agents: therapists, coaches, healers, and other service-oriented consultants who help others make change in their lives. I write and give workshops. During the past decade, I have worked with thousands of professionals to help them learn how to operate small businesses that offer them a high degree of integrity as well as enhanced financial success.

I am the author of five books about practice-building for therapists, coaches, and consultants, all published by W.W. Norton. I also write articles on practice-building for national magazines and a free monthly email newsletter that goes out from my website, read by over 7000 subscribers.

I am also a breast cancer survivor and volunteer my time as the founder of www.healingwithbasketball.com, an exercise clinic for breast cancer survivors, now sponsored by George Washington University Cancer Institute, Office of Survivorship. I live and work in Silver Spring, Maryland and can be reached by email at: lynn@privatepracticesuccess.com or at my website at: www.privatepracticesuccess.com.

What do you see as the most and least useful first steps toward expanding a private practice?

Building or expanding a practice can feel overwhelming. The first problem most of us have is to start doing things, piecemeal, without a plan. In our clinical work, we try to listen carefully to a new client, identify a series of problems or diagnoses, and then formulate a plan of treatment. Working with a small business is similar. You want to do what I call an “honest inventory” to see where you are starting from, identify the strengths and weaknesses of your existing practice, and then formulate a business plan that can show you what steps to take, when, and how.

Which of your books is the best to start out with?

Two of my books are relevant for those at this stage of practice building: Twelve Months to Your Ideal Private Practice: A Workbook (2003) is a business plan broken down into a year-long process, with exercises, worksheets, and lots of strategies and steps in all areas of practice development. It’s a great book to use alone or with others in a supportive setting. If you want to use this program with others, one way to get support is to join one of my telephone classes (see: www.Strongstartclasses.com) where small groups of therapists from across the country get  facilitated coaching based on the Workbook.

The most current book, Crisis-Proof Your Practice: How to Survive and Thrive in an Uncertain Economy gives you a business plan for today, one that includes the best ways to market, develop an internet presence, and find the viable business models that help therapists and other service professionals stay successful now.

Any words of encouragement for practice-building therapists as we enter 2010?

Economist Paul Romer once said that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Any crisis, global or personal, becomes a defining moment in time. It is fraught with difficult challenges but also filled with a remarkable opportunity for making major, important changes. My website has free articles, checklists, ideas, and a monthly newsletter that can show you how to proceed. Buried within every crisis, often veiled by the multiple daily worries and tasks, is a hidden jewel: the rare opportunity to stop and see your private practice and yourself with new eyes. With the proper framework you can use a crisis, any crisis, as a jumping off point to re-examine your business, shift its direction, and make it more purposeful and more profitable. Let me show you how!

Find Lynn Grodzki on the web at www.privatepracticesuccess.com.  Her books are featured at the WTCI Bookstore.