It’s a question I’m asked often. How, praytell, did a 40-something former marketing and journalism gal become a therapist?
It was a gradual move. In my previous career, I was in marketing and content writing. When my kids were small and I was moving around the country as a military spouse, I shifted to freelance writing. I wrote mostly for military publications and websites and it was great having the flexibility and ability to work from home (wherever home happened to be at the time) and around my kid’s schedules.
Then a funny thing happened. My kids started getting older and the pull to go back to work became stronger. In my writing world, though, I realized something: I was writing features and interviewing tons of people around the country on different topics. And they’d all tell me lots of stuff. Private stuff. The article topic wasn’t even discussed and people I’d talk to, mostly strangers, and usually on the phone, are telling me about their affairs, abortions, family problems. I remember distinctly one phone conversation where an enlisted soldier in Virginia, who had gone well over our 30-minute allotted phone interview time, said to me, ‘Gosh, you are just so easy to talk to. You really listened to me.”
Something clicked for me. I knew that I was easy to talk to – I’d been told that all my life. Moving around the country as a military spouse kinda forces you to talk with different people from many walks of life – in my case, Upstate New York, the Pacific Northwest and finally the Texas Hill Country.
But obviously there’s more to it than that.
I knew a fellow military spouse, an RN who also was pursuing her LPC that was in my book club at Ft. Hood. I spoke with her and asked her a ton of questions. How is the program? What do you have to do? She was completely encouraging and I’ll never forget her telling me this: “Girl, you have to do it. You’ll be great.”
So one year later, I find myself at 6:00 p.m. a Monday night in a classroom in downtown San Antonio, sitting in my first (of many) 3 hour graduate night-school classes for my Master’s in Counseling at UTSA. I had applied for and received a $4,000 grant from the Army (thanks, Uncle Sugah) towards my studies. For the next two and a-half years, I spent a minimum of two nights a week and two summers in class, pulled many late-nights writing papers, completed 400 closely-supervised clinical counseling hours, took two big national certification exams and graduated.
And I loved it. I counseled groups of teens at a Juvenille Justice Academy in downtown San Antonio. I did in-home case-management with at-risk youth and their families on the west and east sides. I worked at a crisis center, detox, and IOP. I visited clients in jail and detention centers. And now, 7 years after starting this journey, I have my own private practice.
I’m finally able to say, at age 46, that I love what I do – and that journalism degree? Well, I get to use my marketing and writing skills on a daily basis, just in a different way – to promote myself and market my own business, and of course, write this blog.
At the end of the day….even the most challenging of days (and believe me, there are many) here is what I know, and the answer(s) to why I became a therapist:
I became a therapist to help others.
I became a therapist to listen to others.
I became a therapist to learn from others.
I became a therapist because I know, from personal experience, that therapy works.
I became a therapist because I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Every time someone walks through my door and sits down in my office, I know what a privilege it is that they’ve chosen me to help them. That is never lost on me. My job, while demanding at times, is fulfilling in a way that no other job has been for me.
There is no better feeling than when a person tells me that I’ve changed their life, or helped them stop using, or made their relationship with their spouse/parent/child better.
So that’s why this former marketing girl is now a therapist. I plan to continue working in this field until I retire. And as long as people want to tell me their stories, I’ll continue to listen.
It’s been exactly one year – today – since my first paying client walked through my private practice office door and sat on the couch. It’s been a great year, and I’ve been doing a ton of reflecting on the past 12 months. There are things I’ve done right, many I’ve done wrong and just about everything in between.
I’ve loved writing about my experience in my “Private Practice Chronicles” series, and due to the positive feedback I’ve received, I plan to continue to write about the things I learn in the upcoming year.
For this anniversary post, I’m sharing a few thoughts on my past year, and the most important things I’ve learned:
You Can’t Network Too Much – My daughter is a competitive baton twirler, and when she complains about practice time, I always remind her that no one has ever gone to a competition and said, “I practiced too much.” But the opposite is certainly true. The same goes for business networking – you can’t do “too much” of it! My networking has been an important and crucial part of growing my practice. The coffees, lunches, tours, emails, cold calls and meetings have been invaluable for making new contacts in my industry – as well as referrals.
Trust the Process – When I graduated from my Master’s, one of my favorite professors gave me a bookmark and wrote this phrase on the back. I didn’t quite understand what she meant at the time, but now I do. Therapy is a process. Owning a business is a process. There are ups and downs, and quite honestly, some days are better than others. Mistakes are made, but you learn from them and move on. But you must trust the process, and each and every lesson it teaches.
Diversify – Besides my private practice, I also write this blog, contract with a local opioid clinic and write and handle social media for other therapists. I am also working on a few other collaborative therapy-related business ventures. Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into only seeing clients in your clinic in case there is a slow month (and there will be slow months!) Have other options – and other revenue sources.
Enjoy Yourself – opening up your own business is scary, and there are lots of unknowns. There’s no steady paycheck, paid vacation time, insurance benefits or matching 401(k). There were times in the past year when my phone was silent and my clinic was empty, and other weeks where I couldn’t keep up with the demand. Through it all, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and am excited and energized to see where my business goes -and grows – in the upcoming years. I love what I do, and the best feeling in the world is when a client tells me how much I’ve helped them or changed their life.
I can’t imagine going back to work for someone else again after taking the plunge and venturing out on my own. It was a long and thought-out decision, and one I’m happy I made. I find it an honor and a privilege to work with my clients. I love meeting and connecting with new people in my industry. Every day I walk into my cozy office and I can’t believe I get to do what I do for a living. I’ve never been more energized or excited about my work.
Happy Anniversary to me, and hopefully, many, many more!
I have two little secrets to share with all you other therapists out there, especially those thinking of starting a private practice. I hate just giving these secrets away, but I’m going to, because they are pretty valuable, and both are something I wish someone would have shared with me before I started out.
Ready for it? Alright, then sit down. And get your egos in check, people. ‘Cause these are some tough truths I’m telling you, but you need to know them and it’s better to figure this out sooner rather than later.
Secret Number One: Not everyone is going to like you.
I’m serious. Not everyone is going to like you.
And that’s ok.
Because here’s the deal – the real deal, the one that no one told you in your expensive graduate school classes, the one that no fancy PhD research study has revealed, the one you are simply gonna have to face: You are not the right fit for everyone that walks through your door.
And that’s ok.
The entire process of therapy revolves around the therapist-client relationship. It has to feel good for both parties involved for it to work. Haven’t you ever had a client that just adored you, but you’d cringe when you’d see them on your schedule? Of course you have!
And that’s ok.
I tell everyone in their intake – especially my teens and tweens – that therapy is a two-way street. The client must feel comfortable with me, and be able to be real with me….otherwise, the whole thing just won’t work. So unless they feel that way, I don’t want to waste their time and money.
But it’s hard. It’s not easy to have someone come in for an appointment, and never call and schedule another one. At first, it hurt my feelers. And made me doubt it I was an effective therapist….and if my practice would make it.
Which leads me to Secret Number Two: It’s not about you.
If they don’t like you, than the therapy process most likely won’t work. And that’s not about you. That’s about the client, and what they need. Maybe the therapy process scared them. Maybe there simply wasn’t the comfort level on their end. Or, maybe it was a good-old fashioned case of Secret Number One.
And that’s ok.
Early in my practice, I saw a client for one session, and never heard from her again. In my opinion, it was a good session (I can usually tell if the session is not working, or the client and I simply aren’t gelling). I was somewhat perplexed that she never called back. My SOP is to give a client after the intake one shout-out (via text or email), then leave them alone if they don’t respond. She never responded, so I thought, well, ok, it most likely wasn’t about me, I just wasn’t a good fit.
Don’t get me wrong. Even if I know I’m not the right fit or someone never comes back after the initial intake, I wonder if they went elsewhere, or I ruminate over the session, wondering if I said something that offended the client or if didn’t ask the right questions. But then, I focus on my clinic full of clients that I do serve, that have seen me for multiple appointments, and are happy enough to refer me to others. At the end of the day, I only want what’s best for my clients. And if that’s not me, then I truly hope they find the right fit for themselves, and get the help they need.
That client I thought clicked? She eventually called me back….for a couple’s session! Seems that was more of what she wanted and needed.
And that’s ok.
I hope these secrets are helpful. If you have any little secrets that you’d like to share about your private practice, I’d love to hear them!
I met Shane Petty, the founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Revved Business, at a networking breakfast earlier this year. We exchanged business cards, and I was super-impressed with an email he sent me later that afternoon, thanking me for chatting it up with him but also telling me he looked at my website and would love to offer ways to improve my traffic.
We had a phone consultation, and within a few days, I received a video link to him going through my website and talking me through his suggested changes – all of which were spot-on, and all of which drove more traffic (aka paying clients) to find me.
Revved Business concentrates on delivering leads and clients to small businesses through online marketing. In previous blogs, I’ve written about the importance of marketing, and Shane was gracious enough to have a Q & A with me to give his expertise on how a business can increase visibility – and get new clients.
JS: Hey Shane, thanks for talking with me today. Tell me about yourself and what your company does.
SP: Well, first I’m a husband of 21 years and a father of 3 kids. I grew up in San Antonio and after attending Baylor University, stayed in Waco for 19 years. I’ve been working in traditional and online marketing since 1996, and launched Revved Business in 2010.
JS: Therapists are notoriously horrible at marketing themselves. How do you suggest someone starts?
SP: You’ve got to define your target market. Write down a description. If Johnny or Sally walked into your office – who are they, what do they look like, what are their ages? Then you need to research your competition. Who are your biggest competitors, who are you up against? A person also needs to know how much a month can you spend to acquire a new client. Say, for example, if a therapy client is worth a lifetime amount of $1,000, you should plan on spending 5-10% to acquire that client.
JS: What are the biggest mistakes you see with small business owners and their marketing practices?
SP: I think one of the biggest mistakes is that they don’t know the ROI of their marketing spend, and that goes back to understanding the basic value of acquiring a client. If you spend $125 for a $500 client, you need to look at that.
Another thing is they don’t understand technology. Today, it’s adapt or die, because it’s all changing so quickly. For instance, Twitter was so popular and now that’s changing – people are on Instagram and SnapChat. So you need to know where you’re ideal client is hanging out.
Also, people don’t have clear, concise, measurable goals. They don’t know what they can or cannot spend. Make a business plan, and revise it as needed. You really should visit it at least quarterly, but it’s better to do it monthly. Especially if things aren’t going as well as you want them to be.
JS: A therapist has started out but has limited marketing dollars. In your opinion, what gives the biggest bang for their buck?
SP: You need to understand, again, where your clients are. Figure out where they are hanging out. Do your legwork so you aren’t spinning your wheels. Are they on YouTube? Then maybe you make some value-based videos. Are they on FaceBook? Facebook Ads are a cheap and easy way to target specific populations.
JS: What are the apps you use and can’t live without?
SP: I use Freshbooks for my accounting system, it’s easy to use and tracks everything. I use Dropbox to manage all my files and share with clients. Facebook is the social media I use the most. People generally are not buyer-intent on Facebook, but they are always looking at you. That could turn into a client eventually if they see you enough.
JS: What is the best advice you can give to someone starting out?
SP: Here’s the thing – you have to figure out if you have more time than money, or more money than time? Probably it’s the former at first. 10-15% of the population are willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. If you have more time at first, then get creative. For example, I was watching the Spurs play on Sunday, but I was on my computer and working on stuff during the game. And always, always count your costs. I’m amazed at business owners that don’t track their costs.
JS: Thanks, Shane, for speaking with me today.
SP: It was my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
You can find out more about Revved Business at www.revved.biz, or contact Shane on LinkedIn.
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