Episode 173: Beyond Private Practice: Diversify Revenue Streams and Expand Your Impact

Show Notes

In this episode, I invite you to explore the multitude of opportunities available for mental health professionals beyond the traditional 1-on-1 therapy model.

From retreats and summits to coaching and keynote speaking, there are endless possibilities to expand your career and income streams.

Here are 3 key takeaways:

1. Diversify Your Streams of Income: Leverage your skills to create coaching programs, retreats, speaking engagements, and more. Explore passive income opportunities through courses, books, and podcast sponsorships.
2. Strategize and Market Effectively: Build a strong strategy and social media presence to ensure your great ideas find their audience. Patience and a well-thought-out marketing plan are crucial for success.
3. Overcome Self-Doubt and Take Action: Embrace the fear and excitement that come with new ventures. With accountability and support, turn your innovative ideas into reality.

I am doing the first launch of the "Beyond Private Practice Program," a 4-month, in-depth, live coaching cohort for mental health entrepreneurs who are ready to take their knowledge and experience and apply it to opportunities beyond the therapy room to make more money and a greater impact on the mental health community and beyond. You can learn more and sign up here: allthingspractice.com/beyond-private-practice-program-join

• For those who join the first launch of Beyond Private Practice, get a special founding members' discount for 15% off using code: BEYONDFOUNDER15

🎙️Listen to more episodes of the All Things Private Practice Podcast here
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✈️ Check out available Retreats
🗨️ Join the free Empowered Escape FB Community
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A Thanks to Our Sponsors: The Receptionist for iPad & Alma!

✨ The Receptionist for iPad:

I want to thank The Receptionist for iPad for sponsoring this episode.

From new patients faced with an empty lobby and no idea where to find their therapist to clinicians with a session running over time and the doorbell ringing, some of the most anxiety-ridden moments of a therapy appointment happen before a session even starts. The Receptionist for iPad, helps you tackle some of that pre-appointment apprehension and anxiety.

The Receptionist for iPad is an easy-to-use digital client check-in system that helps your visitors check in securely to their appointments and notify their practitioners of their arrival via SMS, email, or your preferred channel.

No more confusion and less lobby checking or having clients sign in on paper logbooks. It can even help you upgrade and update your demographic information for your clients as well and even validate parking.

Start a 14-day free trial of the Receptionist for iPad by going to thereceptionist.com/privatepractice. Make sure to start your trial with that link and you'll also get your first month free if you decide to sign up.

✨Alma

I want to thank Alma for sponsoring this episode.

Building and managing the practice you want can be challenging. That’s why Alma offers tools and resources to help you build not just any practice, but your private practice. They’ll help you navigate insurance, access referrals who are the right fit for you, and efficiently manage administrative tasks — so you can spend less time on the details, and more time delivering great care. You support your clients. Alma supports you.

Visit helloalma.com/ATPP to learn more.

Transcript

PATRICK CASALE: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to All Things Private Practice podcast. Today, I want to talk to you about beyond private practice. And it's something I've been thinking about for a long time because I no longer work as a private practice therapist. I own a group practice in North Carolina, but yeah, not a private practice therapist anymore.

And you've heard me say on this podcast, you know, as a neurodivergent entrepreneur, how interests change, and how they expand, and evolve, and adapt, and pivot over time. And I think that's where I'm at in my career, is that this realization or epiphany moment came over me, probably, a year and a half ago, but I wasn't ready to take action on it.

And what I realized is, like, as I've diversified my streams of income to retreats, summits, podcasting, coaching programs, individual coaching, group practice ownership, keynote speaking and speaking engagements, there are so many ways that our skills as mental health professionals and entrepreneurs are applicable in this setting. So, it allows for us to do significantly more than we think we can.

And once we start to realize that, and we start to pursue our passions and the areas that we're really, really excited about, that's when some of this really cool stuff starts to sink in. So, you know, for me, from coaching programs back on when I was doing like the Take the Leap, 6-week, 6-person program, the six-months program, two-day crash courses, individual coaching, group coaching cohorts, etc., that's just one way to make money in this field and in this profession, with the skill sets that you all have. All of you have a coaching program inside of you. It's just a matter of kind of hashing it out, ensuring that it's really well done, getting all the steps in place, which are challenging at times when you don't know what the steps are or what platforms to use.

Then we also have the ability to offer consultation. We have the ability to do intensives. A lot of people are moving into those models now, where you can work really in depth and really deep dive things in a couple of days, or even in a full day instead of spread out over a couple of months.

I also have monetized multiple podcasts with securing boards of 20 different sponsors over the last couple of years, and that's a way that I make money as well. I never thought that people would pay me to hear me speak about things, but that is a thing, and that's doable.

Then there is retreat hosting. A lot of you want to host retreats, or you have been hosting retreats, or you're thinking about it and you're really excited, but you're also really scared. I think that's totally normal, the both ands, right? Like, you can be excited and you can be scared. I know I'm always nervous before retreats, even though I'm going on to, like, this upcoming year will be retreats like number 20 through 26 and a summit thrown in the mix. I'm always nervous regardless because you care about the outcome, so you're going to be anxious. That's just a normal part of this.

Then you can be a speaker. I've been paid to speak all over the world. I did a keynote in Alaska last year. I have a TEDx in Colorado in 2025. There are lots of opportunities for you to speak.

And again, you have so many different talks inside of you. You have so many different books inside of you, coaching programs, podcast ideas, etc. It really is about figuring out how to strategize, how to get these things out into the world, and how to do it effectively because we can all put stuff out into the world, but if we don't have a plan of how to market or a sales page that actually works and makes sense, or we don't have a strategy, or a social media presence, a lot of the stuff, despite being really good ideas is going to fall flat because you're going to get really excited. You're finally going to work through that self-doubt. You're going to put it out into the world, and then crickets. And it's going to create this, like, self-defeating like prophecy of, "See, this is why I don't try these things. This thing is not for me."

When in reality it's like, if we just intentionally build the audience, and we really put the effort into the marketing, we get really clear on what we want this to look like, these things can and will work. But it does take time, and it does take patience, and it does take some frustration. It does take a lot of self-doubt, and perfectionism, and working through that stuff. And then, also ultimately, sharing your ideas with the world is scary. There's vulnerability in that. You've heard me say this many times. Sorry, I'm losing my voice. So, that's another piece of this.

What else can we do in this field? We can write books, whether it's self-published, whether you go the traditional publishing route. I'm in the process of writing a book as we speak, and have a literary agent who signed on to help me with this process. They were really interested in the book that I want to put out into the world, so they're going to help me secure a publishing deal. And you know, that's definitely the more challenging process, but you can also go the self-publishing route. And both are totally valid forms of becoming an author. And it helps you expand your reach. It helps you build your platform, helps you with reputability. You can use your book to leverage more speaking engagements. You can get in front of more audience on podcasts, on different programs.

So, there's so many opportunities here that look different than just one-on-one therapy. And some of you may be listening and you're like, "I love one-on-one therapy. I don't ever foresee myself doing something different."

Although, I think if you're listening to this podcast, you probably are more entrepreneurial or you at least want to be. I think there's a two-fold component in that, right? Like, "At least I want to be more entrepreneurial. Like, that's a piece of this as well. I just am scared. I don't know where to start. I don't know how to build an audience. I don't know how to do with things. I don't know which platforms to use. The technology scares me. Social media scares me." There's a lot of barriers, right? Some of them we put in front of ourselves intentionally, and some of them are just circumstantial, but nevertheless, they can be overcome.

You know, when I graduated with my masters in 2015 I definitely didn't foresee myself doing any of the stuff I just listed, and I'm definitely leaving stuff out as well. But ultimately, I didn't see that for myself. I didn't see myself becoming a group practice owner with 25 clinicians. I didn't see myself doing TED Talks, I didn't see myself publishing a book, giving keynote talks in different conferences across the country, in the world, hosting retreats all over the world, hosting summits. Just hosted my first Doubt Yourself, Do it Anyway summit in Italy. I have another one in Scotland next July, with a lot of spots left that you all are more than welcome to join me in.

So, it's just about getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. Getting really strategic because so many of you have all of these ideas, but want to do them all at the same time. Or you see other people, you see myself doing them, and you're like, "Oh, this is either easy." Or you get into comparison culture where it's like, "I'm not doing enough." That's not a fun place to be. I've been in that mindset so many times in this industry and it sucks because you're just, like, shame spiraling, beating the hell out of yourself, why can't I figure this out? How come someone else is doing all these things that I want to do and they're successful and I can't get it off the ground?

And sometimes it's just, like, the right timing for that person. You know, I will say, for me, launching All Things Private Practice back in August of 2020 was kind of perfect timing. I didn't intend to do it during a pandemic, but I launched a coaching program helping therapists step away from their day jobs to start their own businesses during a global pandemic, where businesses did not give a shit about us as staff and employees. So, it just felt like the perfect storm, in a way, for me to do that at that time. And that has kind of exploded into everything I'm talking about now. You know, we have almost 200 episodes of this podcast out, Divergent Conversations has almost 80 episodes out on that podcast. The coaching programs that I've done have always sold out. My coaching courses always do really well.

So, there's a recipe here, and we can be successful, but there's a grind too. And I don't want to minimize that, like the behind-the-scenes to get all this stuff going, and get it off the ground, and make it successful comes with a lot of trial and error, a lot of failure. I have had so many sleepless nights about, you know, your sales funnel, and your marketing build-up runway for your course, or your coaching program, or your retreat, and the reality sets in of like, "What if nobody buys this? What if I just spent all this money on support staff to help me get this off the ground and not a single person clicks pay?" That's real. That's not a small thing. And I don't want to minimize that.

So, these are all things that we have to navigate when we're creating, and having runway is important. Having enough marketing runway so you can be consistent, so you're not just throwing a Facebook post in like different groups once or twice and saying like, "I don't know why nobody joined." Or you didn't do anything to build your social media presence, and you're like, "I don't know why nobody wants to come on this amazing retreat that I have." And it's like, "Well, you don't have an audience, though. Who's going to buy it?"

So, we have to put in the groundwork. We have to put in the work on the ground to build the foundation. Because once you have the foundation in place, like, that helps you build your newsletter, that helps you build your following, that helps you build your reputability, and all of that stuff matters. So, you want to stay somewhat patient to the best of our ability when we're trying to do these things.

And, you know, I started with zero audience, zero Facebook group members, zero social media following, zero newsletter following. And I would get frustrated when I'd be like, "Why are we not building fast enough? We're doing all these things. How come our newsletter is still at 300?"

My VA would be like, "Patience, right? Like, it's only been a couple months, and it takes time, and we need to build the free offers, and the opt-ins, and the funnel systems, and all the things that…" When I hear those words, my eyes glaze over, but it's the important stuff that, honestly, like this is why we hire and outsource the people who know how to do this stuff because it's important to relinquish some of that control, but also, to delegate intentionally and appropriately, so that you can be the CEO in your business, so that you can be the ideas person, so that you don't have to do everything. That's really freaking important.

Because I've been that person where I've tried to do it all, sales page, the web page, the funnel, the payment stuff, the email scheduling, the social media stuff. And guess what? It's not easy. There's a reason some of those things are not my specialty, and there's a reason I pay certain people to do some of the stuff that I'm talking about.

So, I think that's really important to think about, is just to think about like, how can I ensure that I am delegating appropriately? That I'm hiring the right people? That I am the person doing the things that I am good at? That's where my strengths lie?

So, all of that stuff is really important when you start thinking about creating alternative streams of revenue and going beyond private practice because a lot of you are listening and you're like, "I don't want to do 60-minute increments of time anymore. I don't want to do fee for service. Like, I don't want to be a therapist as much as I thought I did."

And that's okay. There's a lot of shame in that statement. I know it because I've lived it. And there's a lot of hard work that goes into getting your license. And it can almost feel like you're abandoning the profession, but I started to reframe it with, like, helping the profession from a different way, or lens, leveraging my skill set to help more people instead of, like, one hour at a time.

And for some of you, one hour at a time is sufficient, and it feels good, and it's comfortable, and it's safe, and that's okay. But for those of you listening who are like, "I do want to do the things that you're talking about. I have all of these cool, creative ideas, but I don't know how to implement them or start them." Or, "I've tried before and it didn't work, and I'm really scared to try again."

Well, that is why I am pivoting and creating a small coaching cohort called Beyond Private Practice. And Beyond Private Practice is for those of you who have been in private practice, whether you consider yourself like mastering it, bored of it, burnt out from it, it doesn't matter to me. The goal of Beyond Private Practice is that you want to step beyond the one-on-one therapy space. You want to either move into group practice ownership. You want to start a podcast. You want to start a coaching program. You want to offer courses. You want to host retreats. You want to get your podcast off the ground and monetize it. You want to write a book, and you need accountability, and you really have this idea, but it's scary. That's what this program is for. That's who this is for, in general, and that's why I'm launching this.

So, if this feels like something that feels good for you, and it feels like something that you want to participate in, make sure that you are paying attention for the upcoming launch that's going to happen early March.

We're starting this program off with 10 people total. And it's going to be, specifically, catered towards exactly what I've said. It's going to be a six-month program. And we're going to work on all of the things and all of the ideas that I've talked about today. That's what we're working on in Beyond Private Practice, and we're getting them off the ground so that you can successfully launch, and have accountability, and have support from someone who has done these things successfully, and has the resources that can support you.

We're going to bring in guest experts. We're going to bring in people who are copywriting coaches. We're going to bring in social media marketing people. We're going to bring on people who can help you with your platforms, with your hosting, with your websites, with your memberships, etc. Going to get your podcasts off the ground. Going to get your book ideas off the ground. Going to get your retreat ideas off the ground. So, that's who this is for.

And if this is of interest to you, make sure you are joining my newsletter. Make sure you're following me on social media, and make sure you're paying attention to this upcoming offer because this is going to be a very small cohort so that we have a lot of group time for everyone to feel supported, so that you get your individual one-on-one time, so that you have the ability to really work through this stuff because these are big, scary ideas sometimes, and we are going to make sure that it feels really safe, and that you feel really comfortable, and confident, and have the clarity to launch into the world and move beyond that one-on-one therapy space.

Make sure to subscribe, like, download, share this episode. New episodes are out every single Saturday on all major platforms and YouTube. Make sure to doubt yourself and do it anyway. And I hope to see some of you in the Beyond Private Practice initial launch. Take care. See you next week.