June 26, 2025 • 25 mins
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever have a business idea that you loved but it just
didn't make money.
Today, I'm going to teach youhow to spot what's profitable,
what's draining your energy andyour wallet, and what to do with
those passion projects thatjust aren't working yet.
Hey, I'm Dr Kate Walker,welcome to your Tuesday Coaching
(00:25):
, and today I'm going to.
I want to read this because Iwant to make sure I get the
title correct.
But what if it's not profitable?
Three things to do with badideas that will help your
business, and I'll probably giveyou more than three.
I just like doing odd numbers,so it's either going to be three
or five.
So here we are three, probablygoing to be more than three, but
(00:45):
let's let in folks.
I've got five people in thewaiting room.
These are Step it Up membersand they get to attend the live
group coaching every week thatwe have it, and it's pretty much
every week at Step it Up.
So here we go and we've gotpeople joining.
Get everybody in.
I want to make sure that I keepthat open and we've got notes
(01:10):
being taken.
Everybody grab your chat andmake sure you have that handy
and I'll get that open so I cancatch questions as well,
grabbing my notes.
So this topic is near and dearto my heart.
And it's funny because I seeEllie on the call today, because
I said something in ourbusiness coaching chat today
(01:32):
that was like why do themistakes always have to come
first?
So that's kind of ouroverarching concept here,
because when I see people inreal life, you know a lot of
times what they'll comment islike oh, it's so cool, you've
got so many things that work.
And y'all, they have no idea.
The things that I have cut,chopped, tossed, trashed.
(01:54):
And I will tell you this, everymistake I make always costs
money, whether it's 15 bucksbecause I bought licenses
instead of the free trial orwhatever, it's always going to
come before whatever it is thatactually works.
So I'm putting that out there,because if you are here, live
(02:15):
with me, or you're listening ona replay and, by the way, if
you're listening on a replay, goyou, because you're going to
learn something today thathopefully gets your business to
where you want it to be.
But this is something that it's.
There's this notion that it'sjust going to all.
No, nobody thinks it's allgoing to go right all the time.
Right, we're therapists.
We're constantly telling ourclients it's not going to go
(02:38):
right all the time, but here'show to make it profitable.
So the premise comes from and Iwant to say this I actually
wrote it out phonetically MikeMichalowicz.
Mike Michalowicz, the pumpkinplan.
Google it, find it, read it.
So the idea in the pumpkin planis you know, there are these
(03:00):
folks that grow giant pumpkinsand there are folks that grow
tiny pumpkins, right, so you canguess where I'm going here.
One giant pumpkin seed can sellfor like $10,000 a seed, and
you compare that with having tohave a pumpkin patch and then
people come out and, you know,run Halloween, and they're
taking pictures.
Well, you're not making nearthe money.
(03:22):
You're having to spend all themoney on water, feeding,
gardening, whatever, when youjust could have grown one giant
pumpkin and each one of thoseseeds could have been profitable
for you.
So the pumpkin plan, this ideaof figuring out what's
profitable and then pruning yourbusiness so that you are
(03:45):
focusing on the things thatbring profit and we're not going
to throw out the littlepumpkins.
We're actually going to turnthese pumpkins into something
that brings you more clients.
Or if we're talking sidehustles, I'll use the word
customer, so just keep that inmind If you hear me say customer
.
If you hear me say client, Ireally am speaking to whether
(04:07):
you're we're talking side hustletoday or we're talking about
your practice.
So let's define profitable.
I'm not going to getcomplicated here.
You could go listen to anotherpodcast where I talk about how
to set up a business bankingaccount and how I talk about the
difference between profit andincome, and it's probably one of
(04:28):
those episodes where we'retalking about taxes, because
that's how you get taxed.
Really just want you to takeyour best guess.
And so when you think profitable, does it make money?
And then the next level is doesit make enough money?
Those are the two things we'rejust going to look at.
Does it make money?
(04:49):
Does it make enough money?
All right, so you with me sofar, when you start to look at
defining these products I'mgoing to be very, very general
here because I know we've gotpeople in all walks here.
We've got people very beginningstages of practice and they're
just focusing on hour by hour,and then I've got folks who've
(05:11):
got a big practice and you'vegot enough people and you're
ready to start your side hustle.
So let's define those products.
When we're talking aboutprofitable products, it could be
a side hustle like a course ora webinar or, like me, I did a
DVD set that I filmed in mykitchen and I sold at
(05:32):
conferences.
Holy moly, that was expensive.
So, when you're looking at yourtherapy business, though, I
want you to think in terms oftwo things the type of therapy
so think about your CPT code,right.
Individual therapy, grouptherapy, couple counseling okay.
And the specialty so I'm goingto be very kind of loose there.
(05:57):
So, when we think of the CPTcode, individual could be adult,
individual could be kids,individual could be an
adolescent right.
So when we think aboutspecialty, I want you to dig
down a little deeper there,right?
So are you looking at yourindividual sessions with people
suffering with grief?
Are you looking at couplesessions with people recovering
(06:21):
from infidelity?
Are you working with individualsessions with young adults
struggling to launch in theirlate 20s, early 30s, something
like that?
Okay.
So we have your CPT code.
That's one thing.
Those are products.
And then we have the people whoactually walk through your door
.
(06:41):
Now, everybody I've met in thisbusiness, including me.
We have started out with theI'm going to see syndrome, right
?
This is why I got into thisbusiness.
This is the population that Iam going to see, all right.
So a few years later we usuallyhave a different conversation
(07:03):
at the conference.
When you come up and you'retalking with me, right, because
it's changed right After five,six, seven years, you're like
you know, the thing I thought Iwanted to see in my practice
isn't really the thing that I'mseeing now, and then we discuss
things like you know, it justwasn't a good fit.
I found that it.
You know it was not energizingfor me, but rarely do we talk
(07:23):
about this idea that it wasn'tprofitable, right?
This is a real taboo counselorthing.
We're not supposed to say thata certain type of clientele was
not profitable.
So this is the place where wetalk about that stuff.
So if you, for example, youlive in a suburban community and
you want to see clientssuffering with grief and you're
(07:48):
going to put that out there asyour specialty, but you've got
five mega churches in town thatgive away that stuff for free,
that is tough.
That is a tough, tough market.
And then, if you start lookingat your calendar, like I'm
challenging you to do, and youstart to say and then, if you
start looking at your calendar,like I'm challenging you to do
and you start to say, oh, youknow, most of the people that
come through the door areactually struggling with
(08:10):
addiction, and if I look at thepast two months, they're between
the ages of 25 and 45.
Okay, so this is that momentwhen I want to challenge you to
perhaps flip to.
You know, maybe I should startidentifying this as my
(08:31):
profitable pumpkin.
All right, I'm not even goingto call it a niche, right?
Because niche that gets intomarketing and you know, yes,
we'll get to that, or you can goto a different episode and
listen to that, or a training,but right now, you're just
looking at the people walkingthrough your door.
And if you look at the peoplewalking through your door and
(08:52):
then you start running numbers,holy moly, you're going to get
an eye-opening experience here,because you may look at this and
say you know, I had 80 sessionsthis month.
Only 20 of them were couples,but they made up 50% of my
(09:12):
income.
That's a big pumpkin, right?
When you look at 25% of yoursessions making 50% of your
income.
I'm not talking net, I'm nottalking profit, I'm just looking
at what's making money.
Remember our definition whatmakes money?
What's making enough money?
Well, those kinds ofpercentages.
I mean those don't lie Numbers.
I mean you can do a lot ofthings with stats, but when
(09:34):
you're looking at 20 sessionsmaking up half of your income,
so you see where I'm going heretoo, because this might even
apply to insurance versus cashpay, right?
So if you're looking at your 80sessions and you notice that
those 20, 20 of those 80, and Iknow my percentage that's not
(09:56):
quite 25%, is it 20, 40, 60?
Actually, it is 24, 68.
Yeah, okay, anyway, I don't, Idon't math.
Well, you look at thosesessions and you're like, oh,
okay, that made up half myincome.
That also, they were all cashpay.
I mean, if you knew that 20%,25% of your sessions brought in
(10:18):
half of your income and theywere cash pay.
This is one of those momentswhen you, after reading the big
pumpkin or the pumpkin planright by Mike I'm gonna say it
right again, michalowicz you sayyou know what?
I need to start focusing oncouples who are cash pay.
I mean that would turn yourmarketing on its head, right?
(10:39):
Especially if you were relyingon insurance to bring in clients
.
Nothing wrong with that,nothing wrong with that at all.
Right, you're listening to thistraining right now because
you're wanting to go deeper orand I'm going to go over here to
number four you're starting toburn out a little bit.
I call this the ooey gooey,right?
So this is and I hear this alot you know, I know it's not
(11:01):
profitable, but it energizes me.
I'm like, okay, you know whatPlaying music energizes me too,
but I don't make a lot of money,right?
So I mean, if I started to justfocus on playing music every
single day, things around mewould start to suffer, right?
(11:21):
I mean, my family would be like, hey, we don't see you very
much.
You seem to be doing a lot ofthis music thing.
What happened to the thingsthat make money?
Why aren't you bringing in anincome?
We kind of need your income,right?
So I respect, if you do all ofthis work and you're like I
don't want to give this up.
It energizes me.
Please stay with that, right,but stay with it.
(11:46):
Knowing what you're learning inthis training right now, which
is this, is something that mayhave to be relegated, delegated,
whatever the word is, to ahobby.
All right, I love music.
It was my first degree, I mean,literally, I was a bass major
back in the day, right, but Ihad to look at my life.
(12:06):
I knew I wanted a family.
I knew that I wanted to be aco-wage earner, things like that
, and I had to make toughdecisions.
I mean, we've all had to dothat.
So when you look at this thingthat brings you energy but does
not bring you money resentmentand we know this because we talk
to our clients who lovetriathlons, right.
(12:27):
We talk to our clients who loveto golf on weekends.
We talk to our clients who havea crochet club that they're in
charge of or a bunco groupthey've coordinate for the
entire city and it wears on them, it wears on the relationships,
even though it started off as apassion project.
So we call that an ROI, areturn on investment.
(12:49):
So when the return on yourinvestment goes down so we're
talking about that as moneytoday, but it could also be
collateral damage in your lifeand your relationships that
means your balance will suffer,right, your emotional balance,
your life balance, right.
And when that suffers, thenthat resentment sets in.
So I want to talk about thatBecause, like I said, I do meet
(13:14):
a lot of folks that say I knowthis doesn't make me any money,
but I'm going to keep doing it.
I got hobbies, you got hobbiesWonderful.
That actually helps us achievebalance, but that's not the
topic today, right?
So lots of reasons.
There are lots of reasonsthings are not profitable.
I keep checking over here Ijust want to make sure we don't
(13:34):
have anybody in the waiting room.
So number one, I think, isbecause you're not marketing
right.
I mean, everything you come upwith is amazing because you're
amazing.
You went to school for it, youhave the passion for it, so it's
not because these things arebad ideas.
So when we say you're notmarketing it right, I want you
(13:56):
to compare it to a company thatwould be marketing it right,
right.
So let's say my, a company thatwould be marketing it right,
right.
So let's say my little threeDVD set that I made 10 years ago
.
I thought it was amazing,packaged.
It bought the CDs, paid to haveit all done up, you know so
that it looked professional.
Well, I'm not Sony Records,right, I can't put a you know
(14:18):
team on this to make sure itgets in the hands of every
counselor in the country, right,it's just my limitation.
It was a side hustle, it waspart of something I loved doing,
but at the end of the day, Irecognized it would take more
marketing than I had thebandwidth for right.
So that's okay, that's allright.
(14:39):
There is a way to market andmaybe if I had dug in a little
bit more I could have found thegolden marketing tool.
And I see that a lot.
I think I've talked about thatin this group, you know.
I see a lot of social mediathreads where everybody's like
I'm not getting client callsright now.
I feel like my client intakesare going down.
I don't think it's as manyclients as we saw during the
(15:04):
pandemic.
So I talk a lot about pivoting.
So, yes, there probably is away to market your love project,
your passion product.
But there's another side to thisand I can't remember where I
heard this reference.
I mean, I know it was in a bookI read.
So when somebody hears it theymay say, hey, I wrote that, but
(15:25):
it's the idea of opening aCanadian restaurant.
All right, now, if you're aCanadian right now, please don't
hate on me.
I love Canada and I loveCanadian bacon and I love all
things Canadian.
But I I mean I don't know ifyou open up a Canadian
restaurant in downtown Austin,people might pass you by to go
(15:46):
to the latest, you know, Latinfusion sushi place right it's.
There's a possibility thatthere's just no demand for your,
for your thing right, and itcould be because you are in that
suburban community with fivemegachurches that offer free
counseling for the thing youwant to offer, right, or it
(16:06):
could just be something that'sso obscure that it's just not
needed yet.
Right, it's just not a thingyet.
It could be something down theroad, right, we may have a whole
counseling specialty devoted to.
I lost my job to AI.
Right, and it may, but it maynot be there yet.
So don't give up hope on it,but just recognize it may be one
(16:30):
of the reasons that it's notprofitable, all right.
So what do you do with thesenon-profitable things?
I am going to talk aboutmarketing, right, so you've got
you should have two piles now.
You should have one pile withonly one thing in it, one or two
things, and that is the thingthe product, the CPT code, the
(16:54):
specialty, whatever it is whereyou know you are making enough
money.
Then you got another pile overhere with all this stuff and you
may have been it's maybe 12months worth of stuff that
didn't make you money.
So I had some examples here Iwant to see.
I I I wrote it down.
(17:15):
I mean, what have I done?
I've done the DVD set.
I hosted.
I wanted to host retreats.
I wanted to do marriagecounseling intensives.
I love menus and so I thought,for sure the community I was in
would love like a concierge menuwith all these different items
and things that I could deliver.
I could go on and on and onhere.
(17:36):
So my box of stuff that didn'twork out or make enough money it
was pretty substantial and somany, many, many of those things
became freebies on my website.
So, for example, my retreats ormarriage intenses for couples
who are wanting to surviveinfidelity, that actually turned
(18:01):
into a YouTube video that got1000s and 1000s of views and I
was able to put that YouTubevideo on my website so people
could click and this didn't evenhave my face on it.
This was like and I think itwas narrated by my daughter it
did not have my face, not myvoice, I think it just had like
a headshot of me.
(18:21):
And then some you know, reallykind of not great PowerPoint
images, like before AI, likevery, very canned images.
But those thousands of viewsgot me clients, people, because
I put my call to action rightnext to that right, schedule a
free consultation.
Folks would watch the video,they would schedule a free
(18:44):
consultation.
They would say you know Iwatched your video, or you know
I had my wife watch your video,or I had my husband watch the
video, and so I took mynon-profitable marriage
intensive that I was, andhonestly, I was probably going
to write a book about it.
I had a lot of stuff, y'all, Ihad a lot of stuff, so I turned
(19:05):
it into a video that increasedmy like and trust factor.
When people like you, when theyfeel like they know you and
they trust you then they werethey are more likely to press
that call to action right, andyou've got to have that call to
action right next to it.
Another thing is downloadablefreebies.
(19:27):
You know we've talked aboutthis before.
If you are interested increating sort of a real brand, a
brand around this idea of youpositioning yourself as an
expert in the field, well,you're going to want a
newsletter.
You're going to want to contactfolks and let them know what
you're doing this month, whatnew thing you've learned.
You can start this with afreebie.
(19:48):
Take that thing.
That's not making a profit, butyou know so much about.
So I'm going to go back to grief.
Right, you know so much aboutgrief.
Give me a PDF of five things Ican do over the holidays when
I'm struggling with grief andI'm around my extended family.
Or if I have a spouse that dies, how do I keep my kids involved
(20:11):
with my in-laws?
Oh, my goodness, you could comeup with so many things, and
it's not even time intensiveanymore.
You can do these things inCanva.
You can do these things in AI.
Give me five things that Icould put into a PDF that would
help a potential client who isstruggling with grief.
(20:33):
Now, I'm not going to take youthrough the 10-minute
consultation.
You know there are a ton oftrainings in our Step it Up
membership that you can go toand click on that and see more
about that.
So, and also on the podcast, Ithink I think I've put.
I've told you a lot about that10 minute consultation.
But marketing freebie Also, youknow something else.
(20:54):
That's two things.
Right, we've had YouTube video.
We have a downloadable freebie,but you're like you know, kate,
I don't want to make a videoand I hate emails.
Okay, but I'm going to turn youinto an extrovert.
You can start a networkinggroup in your town.
I know all of you just shivered.
You're like I'm not going to dothat.
Okay, so go to a networkingevent in town and develop a list
(21:19):
of referrals, right?
So if you aren't going to be thego-to person for grief anymore,
but you have five places youfeel comfortable referring to
because you've shaken theirhands, you've given them your
card, you've taken their card,you have talked to them and you
have said, hey, I believe in you, I'm not taking this type of
clientele anymore.
I got to have somebody to referto.
(21:39):
Guess what they're going to doback at you, right?
So when you start going tonetworking events with a giver's
mentality, saying I want togive you business, I'm going to
take you right back to thatphone call, that idea that if
they don't become your client,they're sure going to become
your fan, because they willrefer you to friends and family
(21:59):
and they will say you know what?
I called this person and theyhad five referrals waiting for
me.
And you've heard of ghostreferrals, right?
This is on insurance companylists all the time.
Right, the list looks superlong, but when your clients call
them, nobody's taking clientsanymore.
You are going to make sure thatyou keep in contact with these
referrals to make sure that theyknow you will refer to them and
(22:25):
you might say to them hey, bythe way, if you've got a waiting
list, send them my way.
I've got openings, or I'm asupervisor and I've got these
associates just chomping at thebit to take on some clients.
So, got a waiting list, got awaiting list, got a waiting list
, bring them, send them my way.
Right, this givers gainmentality, right?
(22:46):
So that was what are we up to?
Four, three, four, networking,cross-referring, making sure
you've got a marketing freebie,make sure you've got a YouTube
video.
So, in a nutshell and I don't,you guys may love me or hate me,
but the idea that your websiteis going to become a resource,
(23:09):
it's going to become a communityresource and people will
remember you, they will rememberthat branding and if you've got
a great call to action and makeit easy for them to either
click the button themselves orrefer that button to friends and
family, your business will grow.
(23:29):
And you can reread the pumpkinplan and decide what your big
pumpkin is.
Right, you can decide what itis that you are going to focus
on.
So I'll tell you what happenedwith mine.
So you know my DVD set and youknow I did try business coaching
.
I tried a lot of differentthings and what it turned into.
(23:50):
I had a colleague, cindy Doyle.
She's like well, what are yougoing to do with this?
And I said I don't know.
She's like, why don't you starta Facebook group?
I was like, oh so I startedTexas Counselors Creating Badass
Businesses Facebook group andwe have over 4,500 people in
that group.
Free resources, that's allthat's in there.
(24:11):
Free resources, businesscoaches galore, experts.
It's well administered, it'sone of the nicest groups.
When I hear other people whohave these types of groups say
well, I quit doing it becauseyou know therapists are mean,
not in our groups.
Right, we have the nicest, mostnurturing people.
And that's what became of mythree DVD set, right?
(24:36):
So that giver's gain turnedinto a community.
That community now supportseach other and I'm able to focus
on my big pumpkin.
All right, I am going to closewith that and open it up for
questions.
So I'm going to hit the pausebutton.
If this got you thinkingdifferently about your practice,
(24:57):
don't forget to hit subscribeso you never miss a coaching
replay.
And if you're ready forsomething more?
Sign up for the Step it Upmembership.
Let's build somethingprofitable together.
Ever have a business idea that you loved but it just
didn't make money.
Today, I'm going to teach youhow to spot what's profitable,
what's draining your energy andyour wallet, and what to do with
those passion projects thatjust aren't working yet.
Hey, I'm Dr Kate Walker,welcome to your Tuesday Coaching
(00:25):
, and today I'm going to.
I want to read this because Iwant to make sure I get the
title correct.
But what if it's not profitable?
Three things to do with badideas that will help your
business, and I'll probably giveyou more than three.
I just like doing odd numbers,so it's either going to be three
or five.
So here we are three, probablygoing to be more than three, but
(00:45):
let's let in folks.
I've got five people in thewaiting room.
These are Step it Up membersand they get to attend the live
group coaching every week thatwe have it, and it's pretty much
every week at Step it Up.
So here we go and we've gotpeople joining.
Get everybody in.
I want to make sure that I keepthat open and we've got notes
(01:10):
being taken.
Everybody grab your chat andmake sure you have that handy
and I'll get that open so I cancatch questions as well,
grabbing my notes.
So this topic is near and dearto my heart.
And it's funny because I seeEllie on the call today, because
I said something in ourbusiness coaching chat today
(01:32):
that was like why do themistakes always have to come
first?
So that's kind of ouroverarching concept here,
because when I see people inreal life, you know a lot of
times what they'll comment islike oh, it's so cool, you've
got so many things that work.
And y'all, they have no idea.
The things that I have cut,chopped, tossed, trashed.
(01:54):
And I will tell you this, everymistake I make always costs
money, whether it's 15 bucksbecause I bought licenses
instead of the free trial orwhatever, it's always going to
come before whatever it is thatactually works.
So I'm putting that out there,because if you are here, live
(02:15):
with me, or you're listening ona replay and, by the way, if
you're listening on a replay, goyou, because you're going to
learn something today thathopefully gets your business to
where you want it to be.
But this is something that it's.
There's this notion that it'sjust going to all.
No, nobody thinks it's allgoing to go right all the time.
Right, we're therapists.
We're constantly telling ourclients it's not going to go
(02:38):
right all the time, but here'show to make it profitable.
So the premise comes from and Iwant to say this I actually
wrote it out phonetically MikeMichalowicz.
Mike Michalowicz, the pumpkinplan.
Google it, find it, read it.
So the idea in the pumpkin planis you know, there are these
(03:00):
folks that grow giant pumpkinsand there are folks that grow
tiny pumpkins, right, so you canguess where I'm going here.
One giant pumpkin seed can sellfor like $10,000 a seed, and
you compare that with having tohave a pumpkin patch and then
people come out and, you know,run Halloween, and they're
taking pictures.
Well, you're not making nearthe money.
(03:22):
You're having to spend all themoney on water, feeding,
gardening, whatever, when youjust could have grown one giant
pumpkin and each one of thoseseeds could have been profitable
for you.
So the pumpkin plan, this ideaof figuring out what's
profitable and then pruning yourbusiness so that you are
(03:45):
focusing on the things thatbring profit and we're not going
to throw out the littlepumpkins.
We're actually going to turnthese pumpkins into something
that brings you more clients.
Or if we're talking sidehustles, I'll use the word
customer, so just keep that inmind If you hear me say customer
.
If you hear me say client, Ireally am speaking to whether
(04:07):
you're we're talking side hustletoday or we're talking about
your practice.
So let's define profitable.
I'm not going to getcomplicated here.
You could go listen to anotherpodcast where I talk about how
to set up a business bankingaccount and how I talk about the
difference between profit andincome, and it's probably one of
(04:28):
those episodes where we'retalking about taxes, because
that's how you get taxed.
Really just want you to takeyour best guess.
And so when you think profitable, does it make money?
And then the next level is doesit make enough money?
Those are the two things we'rejust going to look at.
Does it make money?
(04:49):
Does it make enough money?
All right, so you with me sofar, when you start to look at
defining these products I'mgoing to be very, very general
here because I know we've gotpeople in all walks here.
We've got people very beginningstages of practice and they're
just focusing on hour by hour,and then I've got folks who've
(05:11):
got a big practice and you'vegot enough people and you're
ready to start your side hustle.
So let's define those products.
When we're talking aboutprofitable products, it could be
a side hustle like a course ora webinar or, like me, I did a
DVD set that I filmed in mykitchen and I sold at
(05:32):
conferences.
Holy moly, that was expensive.
So, when you're looking at yourtherapy business, though, I
want you to think in terms oftwo things the type of therapy
so think about your CPT code,right.
Individual therapy, grouptherapy, couple counseling okay.
And the specialty so I'm goingto be very kind of loose there.
(05:57):
So, when we think of the CPTcode, individual could be adult,
individual could be kids,individual could be an
adolescent right.
So when we think aboutspecialty, I want you to dig
down a little deeper there,right?
So are you looking at yourindividual sessions with people
suffering with grief?
Are you looking at couplesessions with people recovering
(06:21):
from infidelity?
Are you working with individualsessions with young adults
struggling to launch in theirlate 20s, early 30s, something
like that?
Okay.
So we have your CPT code.
That's one thing.
Those are products.
And then we have the people whoactually walk through your door
.
(06:41):
Now, everybody I've met in thisbusiness, including me.
We have started out with theI'm going to see syndrome, right
?
This is why I got into thisbusiness.
This is the population that Iam going to see, all right.
So a few years later we usuallyhave a different conversation
(07:03):
at the conference.
When you come up and you'retalking with me, right, because
it's changed right After five,six, seven years, you're like
you know, the thing I thought Iwanted to see in my practice
isn't really the thing that I'mseeing now, and then we discuss
things like you know, it justwasn't a good fit.
I found that it.
You know it was not energizingfor me, but rarely do we talk
(07:23):
about this idea that it wasn'tprofitable, right?
This is a real taboo counselorthing.
We're not supposed to say thata certain type of clientele was
not profitable.
So this is the place where wetalk about that stuff.
So if you, for example, youlive in a suburban community and
you want to see clientssuffering with grief and you're
(07:48):
going to put that out there asyour specialty, but you've got
five mega churches in town thatgive away that stuff for free,
that is tough.
That is a tough, tough market.
And then, if you start lookingat your calendar, like I'm
challenging you to do, and youstart to say and then, if you
start looking at your calendar,like I'm challenging you to do
and you start to say, oh, youknow, most of the people that
come through the door areactually struggling with
(08:10):
addiction, and if I look at thepast two months, they're between
the ages of 25 and 45.
Okay, so this is that momentwhen I want to challenge you to
perhaps flip to.
You know, maybe I should startidentifying this as my
(08:31):
profitable pumpkin.
All right, I'm not even goingto call it a niche, right?
Because niche that gets intomarketing and you know, yes,
we'll get to that, or you can goto a different episode and
listen to that, or a training,but right now, you're just
looking at the people walkingthrough your door.
And if you look at the peoplewalking through your door and
(08:52):
then you start running numbers,holy moly, you're going to get
an eye-opening experience here,because you may look at this and
say you know, I had 80 sessionsthis month.
Only 20 of them were couples,but they made up 50% of my
(09:12):
income.
That's a big pumpkin, right?
When you look at 25% of yoursessions making 50% of your
income.
I'm not talking net, I'm nottalking profit, I'm just looking
at what's making money.
Remember our definition whatmakes money?
What's making enough money?
Well, those kinds ofpercentages.
I mean those don't lie Numbers.
I mean you can do a lot ofthings with stats, but when
(09:34):
you're looking at 20 sessionsmaking up half of your income,
so you see where I'm going heretoo, because this might even
apply to insurance versus cashpay, right?
So if you're looking at your 80sessions and you notice that
those 20, 20 of those 80, and Iknow my percentage that's not
(09:56):
quite 25%, is it 20, 40, 60?
Actually, it is 24, 68.
Yeah, okay, anyway, I don't, Idon't math.
Well, you look at thosesessions and you're like, oh,
okay, that made up half myincome.
That also, they were all cashpay.
I mean, if you knew that 20%,25% of your sessions brought in
(10:18):
half of your income and theywere cash pay.
This is one of those momentswhen you, after reading the big
pumpkin or the pumpkin planright by Mike I'm gonna say it
right again, michalowicz you sayyou know what?
I need to start focusing oncouples who are cash pay.
I mean that would turn yourmarketing on its head, right?
(10:39):
Especially if you were relyingon insurance to bring in clients
.
Nothing wrong with that,nothing wrong with that at all.
Right, you're listening to thistraining right now because
you're wanting to go deeper orand I'm going to go over here to
number four you're starting toburn out a little bit.
I call this the ooey gooey,right?
So this is and I hear this alot you know, I know it's not
(11:01):
profitable, but it energizes me.
I'm like, okay, you know whatPlaying music energizes me too,
but I don't make a lot of money,right?
So I mean, if I started to justfocus on playing music every
single day, things around mewould start to suffer, right?
(11:21):
I mean, my family would be like, hey, we don't see you very
much.
You seem to be doing a lot ofthis music thing.
What happened to the thingsthat make money?
Why aren't you bringing in anincome?
We kind of need your income,right?
So I respect, if you do all ofthis work and you're like I
don't want to give this up.
It energizes me.
Please stay with that, right,but stay with it.
(11:46):
Knowing what you're learning inthis training right now, which
is this, is something that mayhave to be relegated, delegated,
whatever the word is, to ahobby.
All right, I love music.
It was my first degree, I mean,literally, I was a bass major
back in the day, right, but Ihad to look at my life.
(12:06):
I knew I wanted a family.
I knew that I wanted to be aco-wage earner, things like that
, and I had to make toughdecisions.
I mean, we've all had to dothat.
So when you look at this thingthat brings you energy but does
not bring you money resentmentand we know this because we talk
to our clients who lovetriathlons, right.
(12:27):
We talk to our clients who loveto golf on weekends.
We talk to our clients who havea crochet club that they're in
charge of or a bunco groupthey've coordinate for the
entire city and it wears on them, it wears on the relationships,
even though it started off as apassion project.
So we call that an ROI, areturn on investment.
(12:49):
So when the return on yourinvestment goes down so we're
talking about that as moneytoday, but it could also be
collateral damage in your lifeand your relationships that
means your balance will suffer,right, your emotional balance,
your life balance, right.
And when that suffers, thenthat resentment sets in.
So I want to talk about thatBecause, like I said, I do meet
(13:14):
a lot of folks that say I knowthis doesn't make me any money,
but I'm going to keep doing it.
I got hobbies, you got hobbiesWonderful.
That actually helps us achievebalance, but that's not the
topic today, right?
So lots of reasons.
There are lots of reasonsthings are not profitable.
I keep checking over here Ijust want to make sure we don't
(13:34):
have anybody in the waiting room.
So number one, I think, isbecause you're not marketing
right.
I mean, everything you come upwith is amazing because you're
amazing.
You went to school for it, youhave the passion for it, so it's
not because these things arebad ideas.
So when we say you're notmarketing it right, I want you
(13:56):
to compare it to a company thatwould be marketing it right,
right.
So let's say my, a company thatwould be marketing it right,
right.
So let's say my little threeDVD set that I made 10 years ago
.
I thought it was amazing,packaged.
It bought the CDs, paid to haveit all done up, you know so
that it looked professional.
Well, I'm not Sony Records,right, I can't put a you know
(14:18):
team on this to make sure itgets in the hands of every
counselor in the country, right,it's just my limitation.
It was a side hustle, it waspart of something I loved doing,
but at the end of the day, Irecognized it would take more
marketing than I had thebandwidth for right.
So that's okay, that's allright.
(14:39):
There is a way to market andmaybe if I had dug in a little
bit more I could have found thegolden marketing tool.
And I see that a lot.
I think I've talked about thatin this group, you know.
I see a lot of social mediathreads where everybody's like
I'm not getting client callsright now.
I feel like my client intakesare going down.
I don't think it's as manyclients as we saw during the
(15:04):
pandemic.
So I talk a lot about pivoting.
So, yes, there probably is away to market your love project,
your passion product.
But there's another side to thisand I can't remember where I
heard this reference.
I mean, I know it was in a bookI read.
So when somebody hears it theymay say, hey, I wrote that, but
(15:25):
it's the idea of opening aCanadian restaurant.
All right, now, if you're aCanadian right now, please don't
hate on me.
I love Canada and I loveCanadian bacon and I love all
things Canadian.
But I I mean I don't know ifyou open up a Canadian
restaurant in downtown Austin,people might pass you by to go
(15:46):
to the latest, you know, Latinfusion sushi place right it's.
There's a possibility thatthere's just no demand for your,
for your thing right, and itcould be because you are in that
suburban community with fivemegachurches that offer free
counseling for the thing youwant to offer, right, or it
(16:06):
could just be something that'sso obscure that it's just not
needed yet.
Right, it's just not a thingyet.
It could be something down theroad, right, we may have a whole
counseling specialty devoted to.
I lost my job to AI.
Right, and it may, but it maynot be there yet.
So don't give up hope on it,but just recognize it may be one
(16:30):
of the reasons that it's notprofitable, all right.
So what do you do with thesenon-profitable things?
I am going to talk aboutmarketing, right, so you've got
you should have two piles now.
You should have one pile withonly one thing in it, one or two
things, and that is the thingthe product, the CPT code, the
(16:54):
specialty, whatever it is whereyou know you are making enough
money.
Then you got another pile overhere with all this stuff and you
may have been it's maybe 12months worth of stuff that
didn't make you money.
So I had some examples here Iwant to see.
I I I wrote it down.
(17:15):
I mean, what have I done?
I've done the DVD set.
I hosted.
I wanted to host retreats.
I wanted to do marriagecounseling intensives.
I love menus and so I thought,for sure the community I was in
would love like a concierge menuwith all these different items
and things that I could deliver.
I could go on and on and onhere.
(17:36):
So my box of stuff that didn'twork out or make enough money it
was pretty substantial and somany, many, many of those things
became freebies on my website.
So, for example, my retreats ormarriage intenses for couples
who are wanting to surviveinfidelity, that actually turned
(18:01):
into a YouTube video that got1000s and 1000s of views and I
was able to put that YouTubevideo on my website so people
could click and this didn't evenhave my face on it.
This was like and I think itwas narrated by my daughter it
did not have my face, not myvoice, I think it just had like
a headshot of me.
(18:21):
And then some you know, reallykind of not great PowerPoint
images, like before AI, likevery, very canned images.
But those thousands of viewsgot me clients, people, because
I put my call to action rightnext to that right, schedule a
free consultation.
Folks would watch the video,they would schedule a free
(18:44):
consultation.
They would say you know Iwatched your video, or you know
I had my wife watch your video,or I had my husband watch the
video, and so I took mynon-profitable marriage
intensive that I was, andhonestly, I was probably going
to write a book about it.
I had a lot of stuff, y'all, Ihad a lot of stuff, so I turned
(19:05):
it into a video that increasedmy like and trust factor.
When people like you, when theyfeel like they know you and
they trust you then they werethey are more likely to press
that call to action right, andyou've got to have that call to
action right next to it.
Another thing is downloadablefreebies.
(19:27):
You know we've talked aboutthis before.
If you are interested increating sort of a real brand, a
brand around this idea of youpositioning yourself as an
expert in the field, well,you're going to want a
newsletter.
You're going to want to contactfolks and let them know what
you're doing this month, whatnew thing you've learned.
You can start this with afreebie.
(19:48):
Take that thing.
That's not making a profit, butyou know so much about.
So I'm going to go back to grief.
Right, you know so much aboutgrief.
Give me a PDF of five things Ican do over the holidays when
I'm struggling with grief andI'm around my extended family.
Or if I have a spouse that dies, how do I keep my kids involved
(20:11):
with my in-laws?
Oh, my goodness, you could comeup with so many things, and
it's not even time intensiveanymore.
You can do these things inCanva.
You can do these things in AI.
Give me five things that Icould put into a PDF that would
help a potential client who isstruggling with grief.
(20:33):
Now, I'm not going to take youthrough the 10-minute
consultation.
You know there are a ton oftrainings in our Step it Up
membership that you can go toand click on that and see more
about that.
So, and also on the podcast, Ithink I think I've put.
I've told you a lot about that10 minute consultation.
But marketing freebie Also, youknow something else.
(20:54):
That's two things.
Right, we've had YouTube video.
We have a downloadable freebie,but you're like you know, kate,
I don't want to make a videoand I hate emails.
Okay, but I'm going to turn youinto an extrovert.
You can start a networkinggroup in your town.
I know all of you just shivered.
You're like I'm not going to dothat.
Okay, so go to a networkingevent in town and develop a list
(21:19):
of referrals, right?
So if you aren't going to be thego-to person for grief anymore,
but you have five places youfeel comfortable referring to
because you've shaken theirhands, you've given them your
card, you've taken their card,you have talked to them and you
have said, hey, I believe in you, I'm not taking this type of
clientele anymore.
I got to have somebody to referto.
(21:39):
Guess what they're going to doback at you, right?
So when you start going tonetworking events with a giver's
mentality, saying I want togive you business, I'm going to
take you right back to thatphone call, that idea that if
they don't become your client,they're sure going to become
your fan, because they willrefer you to friends and family
(21:59):
and they will say you know what?
I called this person and theyhad five referrals waiting for
me.
And you've heard of ghostreferrals, right?
This is on insurance companylists all the time.
Right, the list looks superlong, but when your clients call
them, nobody's taking clientsanymore.
You are going to make sure thatyou keep in contact with these
referrals to make sure that theyknow you will refer to them and
(22:25):
you might say to them hey, bythe way, if you've got a waiting
list, send them my way.
I've got openings, or I'm asupervisor and I've got these
associates just chomping at thebit to take on some clients.
So, got a waiting list, got awaiting list, got a waiting list
, bring them, send them my way.
Right, this givers gainmentality, right?
(22:46):
So that was what are we up to?
Four, three, four, networking,cross-referring, making sure
you've got a marketing freebie,make sure you've got a YouTube
video.
So, in a nutshell and I don't,you guys may love me or hate me,
but the idea that your websiteis going to become a resource,
(23:09):
it's going to become a communityresource and people will
remember you, they will rememberthat branding and if you've got
a great call to action and makeit easy for them to either
click the button themselves orrefer that button to friends and
family, your business will grow.
(23:29):
And you can reread the pumpkinplan and decide what your big
pumpkin is.
Right, you can decide what itis that you are going to focus
on.
So I'll tell you what happenedwith mine.
So you know my DVD set and youknow I did try business coaching
.
I tried a lot of differentthings and what it turned into.
(23:50):
I had a colleague, cindy Doyle.
She's like well, what are yougoing to do with this?
And I said I don't know.
She's like, why don't you starta Facebook group?
I was like, oh so I startedTexas Counselors Creating Badass
Businesses Facebook group andwe have over 4,500 people in
that group.
Free resources, that's allthat's in there.
(24:11):
Free resources, businesscoaches galore, experts.
It's well administered, it'sone of the nicest groups.
When I hear other people whohave these types of groups say
well, I quit doing it becauseyou know therapists are mean,
not in our groups.
Right, we have the nicest, mostnurturing people.
And that's what became of mythree DVD set, right?
(24:36):
So that giver's gain turnedinto a community.
That community now supportseach other and I'm able to focus
on my big pumpkin.
All right, I am going to closewith that and open it up for
questions.
So I'm going to hit the pausebutton.
If this got you thinkingdifferently about your practice,
(24:57):
don't forget to hit subscribeso you never miss a coaching
replay.
And if you're ready forsomething more?
Sign up for the Step it Upmembership.
Let's build somethingprofitable together.
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