March 5, 2025 • 21 mins
Learn how to enhance your therapy practice with essential systems that streamline operations and enrich client relationships. Craig shares actionable insights into various software solutions that fit therapy practices of all sizes.
• Discussing the critical role of systems in business
• Exploring the keys to effective client relationship management
• Overview of Dubsado, a recommended CRM for therapists
• Outlining task management tools like Asana and their advantages
• Analyzing communication best practices using Slack and Google Chat
• Reviewing effective email marketing strategies to keep clients engaged
If your practice needs help getting organized with its finances or just growing your practice, head to therapybusinesspod.com to learn how we can help.
CRM Softwares:
- Dubsado: Get 20% off your first month or year
- Monday
- ActiveCampaign
Task Management Softwares:
Communication Softwares:
- Slack
- Google Chat
Email Marketing Softwares:
**Some links may include affiliate links.
Meet with one of our coaches
*Intro/outro song credit:
King Around Here by Alex Grohl
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As you know, in business, systems are vital.
We have to have a system and aprocess in place for pretty much
everything we're doing Now.
There are tons and tons ofsoftwares out there that help
and assist using these systemsand putting these systems in
place, but sometimes it can beoverwhelming knowing where we
should turn, which softwares weshould be using and how to even
know which ones are the best.
(00:20):
Today I'm gonna walk youthrough some key systems that
you should be using in yourbusiness and I'm going to give
you two or three options as faras softwares go that you can use
to put these systems in place.
My name is Craig and I'm theowner of Daisy Financial
Coaching.
Our team is on a mission tomake your therapy practice
permanently profitable.
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
(00:42):
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money and
serves more people.
This is the Therapy BusinessPodcast.
Now, usually once a year, I'mgoing through our processes and
the softwares that we'reutilizing to see is there room
for improvement?
Can we consolidate?
(01:03):
Is there a better option outthere to really ramp up what
we're doing or maybe a cheaperoption to where we can help cut
some costs In doing so.
I have spent a lot of timeresearching different things
that are out there and because Ijust finished doing that in my
own business, I was going.
While it's fresh on my mind,what a great opportunity to
share some of the things I waslooking at, some of the key
(01:25):
features I really liked and,ultimately, which ones we are
using in my own business.
Now, this is for therapypractices.
So whether you are a mentalhealth practice to a physical
therapist, some of these maypertain to you and some won't, I
know.
In the mental health space,simple practice is a great kind
of overarching option.
(01:46):
It's going to give you a lot offeatures that may cover a few
of these systems that we'retalking about.
So if you are a mental healthpractice, if you're not using
simple practice, I do recommendchecking it out and seeing what
boxes get checked by doing these.
Now, the problem sometimes withusing one software for
everything is it does somethings okay.
(02:06):
Like you know what I mean, itdoesn't specialize in one thing.
It's like we can do this, wecan do a little bit of that, we
can do a little bit of that, andyou find that it's lacking in a
lot of areas.
So what we find is, even in themental health space, they're
using simple practice, maybe forbilling and for their sessions,
but they're using some of theseother softwares for a lot of
their other processes andsystems.
All right, so without furtherado, let's jump in.
(02:28):
I got four key systems that weneed to be implementing into our
business and then somesoftwares you can use to help
with that.
Number one is a CRM.
This is a Customer RelationshipManagement System.
So this is a way for you totrack where you are, where you
are in that journey with aclient or a potential client.
This is vital.
(02:49):
Now, what we want to rememberis that the relationship with a
client starts at first contactand goes until long after they
are already working with you.
So this is not necessarily asales system where we just track
when they came to us until theybecome a client, and then we're
done, and nor is it just on theother side.
We we just track when they cameto us until they become a
client, and then we're done, andnor is it just on the other
side we're just tracking oncethey start working with us and
(03:10):
on way forward.
This is from start to end, tillthe day they say okay, we are
done working with you.
This is in place to do that.
That may mean this is foroutreach.
If they reach out to you,having a CRM is a great way to
track.
How are we getting in touchwith them to get them on our
calendar?
How many follow-ups are wedoing?
Do we want to automate somethings, automate some outreach?
(03:31):
There's a lot of ways we can dothis to get them on that
initial consultation call orinto your office for initial
consultation.
Then from there it's makingsure they become a client.
So, following up with that, ifthey do become a client, maybe
there's some automatedonboarding that you're wanting
to implement so you can see howhaving a software can help with
this.
My team and I we've been reallyhoning in on our follow-up
(03:53):
processes and what we're findingis sometimes people slip
through the cracks.
What we find also is thatautomating everything doesn't
always work and sometimes weneed a little bit of a human
touch, because when somebodyneeds a follow-up or why someone
needs a follow-up may bedifferent from person to person.
So, for example, we just hadthis recording the California
(04:14):
fires just happened a couplemonths ago and we had a
potential client who came to usand she was very interested and
then a couple days later she'sevacuating her office because
the fires hit.
Now if we had an automatedsystem that's going to be
following up with herautomatically, it could come
across as pretty insensitive,because we know what she's
dealing with, what she'sstruggling with.
(04:35):
And here we are saying, hey,you, are you going to hire us?
Come on, hire us.
So at that point automating thefollow-up just doesn't make
sense.
And so we want to go in andmanually follow up, check in
with her, put a note in therethat, hey, let's give her 30
days or so before we follow upas far as business goes.
Now we want to be in touchbecause we care about her.
We care about what's going onin her life and what she's
(04:57):
struggling with.
Regardless of whether she hiresus to work with her or not, we
want her and her business andher life to be okay.
So this is where it's importantto not automate everything, but
we do want some automations Forus.
We automate if somebody reachesout to us let's say we get a
lead from a referral, orsomebody fills out a form on our
(05:18):
website Then we are going toautomate some outreach.
That's just saying, hey, here'swho we are and here's a link to
our calendar.
Here's the next steps togetting you help.
And over the next seven to 10days it's just going to
automatically drip some emailsout to them to encourage them to
get on to a consultation call.
We have a whole episode on thisemail sequence, the follow-up
email sequence that you can gocheck out.
(05:39):
That is so important.
So I'm not going to get tooin-depth with that.
But going into the systems andsoftware, so some softwares that
we see and we love andrecommend, so number one, one
that I've been using for a fewyears, is Dubsado.
So Dubsado is a prettyaffordable, all-encompassing CRM
.
Really that's the purpose of itis to track all of these things
(05:59):
, everything I'm just talkingabout.
It can do workflows, it canautomate some emails, it can
automate tasks where it flagsyou to do something, maybe call
or email or text someone.
It can do your onboarding.
It can have contracts.
It can have questionnaires,different forms, that you may
want them to fill out.
There's a lot of things thatcome into play there.
One thing I do love about it isyou can organize it into what
(06:23):
we would call a board, whichmeans there's these columns so
we can go from new lead to maybeconsultation booked, to follow
up to lost, to one to onboarding.
So there's this whole processthat they can work their way
through.
Then, when they're a client, wehave a current client tab and
we have different things thatmaybe flag us to shoot them a
gift, to celebrate a milestoneor to do different things.
(06:47):
So a CRM is huge.
This is also a place where youcan put notes, so internal notes
that maybe you checked in withthem, somebody called and
somebody emailed or somebodyfollowed up, maybe they
responded with something and youwant to make a note of that.
One thing I love as far asmanaging a team goes with
Dubsado is you have email.
You can do emails inside ofthere, meaning I can correspond
(07:10):
with these leads inside ofDubsado.
It's going to give me some redreceipts, so if they've seen the
email or opened it, it's goingto let me know.
It's going to be a one-stopshop so I can look at email
correspondence.
So let's say, one of my teammembers has been following up
with this prospect and I want togo in and see.
You know what does thatcorrelation or correspondence
look like?
I can go and see their emailcorrespondence.
(07:31):
How have they been interacting,what's been said, what's been
shared?
Where are they in that process?
Now?
Dubsado is lacking as your teamgrows and we are starting to
find that, and so this yearwe're likely going to be
shifting into a new CRM, and thereason is because Dubsado only
connects one email account perbrand.
So inside of Dubsado, you canhave multiple brands, but what
(07:52):
that means is you're having tore-enter client information into
each of these brands.
The way I use the brands is Ihave one Vanessa on my team has
one Alicia, christine everyonehas their own brand so that they
can email back and forth.
They can start workflows andhave them come from them.
If I could ask for one thingfrom them to make it the perfect
CRM is that you can addmultiple email addresses into
(08:15):
one brand, so that way, ifVanessa wants to email them some
onboarding items, she can dothat in one account, not us
having to go and enter all thisnew information into the
separate account.
So because of that, we'restarting to outgrow it and we're
going to need to look at otheroptions.
One of those options that I'velooked at is mondaycom, and I've
heard some great, great thingsabout it.
It does a lot of the thingsthat we were talking about, but
(08:41):
also allows you to have multipleemail addresses and to do
multiple correspondence insideof there.
Now, monday is very, verysimilar to Dubsado.
Again, I haven't used itpersonally myself.
There are some features aboutit that I like a lot.
There are some different waysto track and different things
you can do with emailing.
The workflows and automationsare not quite what I would hope
for.
Whereas Dubsado is really easyto use and navigate, monday is a
(09:05):
little bit more of a learningcurve Because it's so robust, it
takes time to learn.
Now the third software for CRMsis one that we are likely going
to shift to.
I have not had personalexperience with it on the CRM
side, but it is ActiveCampaign.
The reason we are probablygoing to switch to that one is
because that's where we do ouremail marketing is in
ActiveCampaign, so it is areally simple correlation From
(09:27):
what I can tell outside.
Looking in, there is going tobe some learning curves,
especially if you are notalready using ActiveCampaign.
Now I know my way aroundActiveCampaign already because
of our email marketing, so Iknow how the automation
functions work.
So I have a feeling I will beable to hop in there and it
might take me some time, but I'mgoing to be able to implement
it pretty quickly.
If you're brand new toActiveCampaign, just if you're
(09:48):
going to look at this as anoption for a CRM, it might take
you some time to get it up andrunning.
The downside of ActiveCampaignas a CRM is you have to have a
pro plan with them on the emailmarketing.
So, depending on the size,depending on how many emails you
have, that may just be moremoney than you're wanting to
spend if you're not prioritizingemail marketing.
And if that's the case, I wouldhighly recommend a Dubsado.
(10:08):
Or again, if you're a mentalhealth practice, look at Simple
Practice, because they do haveCRM features inside of that
platform.
All right.
The next system that we need asoftware for is task management
If you are managing a team, ifyou're just managing yourself,
or if it's you and an adminhaving some kind of software
(10:31):
where you can have taskmanagement's going.
So this is where I can log inevery day and see what is on my
to-do list for today, what is onmy team's to-do list, what can
they assign to me?
What can I assign to them tomake sure that things are
getting done, the ball is notbeing dropped and that we are
all on the same page.
Now for this we use Asana and Iuse the free plan.
So Asana has a free plan thatis really, really robust.
Basically, the free plan letsyou do a lot of things.
(10:54):
It takes away automation, so wedon't have automations in there
.
Everything is manual.
You can go on to paid planswhere it incorporates a lot of
different things like workflowsand automations, but for us we
are just using it on the freeplan.
Now I have heard Asana can beused as a CRM.
So, going back to the CRM side,it could be used for that.
I think what it's lacking isprobably that email
(11:15):
functionality where you canemail out to clients and send
out all those documents viaemail.
But Asana and Mondaycom arevery, very similar programs.
As you get into those paidtiers, I'm a big fan of Asana.
Again, the free side isfantastic.
We have different projectboards.
We have a lot of our thingswe're tracking.
In fact, we even are trackingour follow-up.
(11:37):
We've used it as a CRM before,where we have the board of who
are we following up with.
Now we just have to manuallyenter it.
So it's not a perfect system onthis free plan, but it is a
great, great option for taskmanage it.
I log in every day to see whatI've got going on that day, what
tasks I need to take on and,again, anything that my team is
asking me to do maybe send avideo to one of their clients.
(11:59):
It pops up there and I can goahead and take care of that in a
timely manner.
Another option is Trello Now Ihave.
I used to use Trello a longtime ago I don't.
At the time they had a freeplan that was pretty good.
When I left, it's because theywere moving more towards the pay
to play kind of option, meaningthe free plan lost a lot of its
(12:21):
functionality because they werewanting people to move to a
paid, tiered program.
So I don't know what it lookslike today, but very similar to
Asana.
You can have these boards, youcan create tasks and you can
assign them to people.
You can create almost like theCRM board where you can move
things down to assigned inprogress, done with your tasks.
However you want to organize itwhatever makes the most sense
(12:42):
to you.
Lastly, is ClickUp Now.
Clickup is really really robustand complicated, but a lot of
people like it.
A lot of people really like allthe functionality that it has.
So if you're somebody who islooking for a lot of bells and
whistles and different thingsthat a software can do, clickup
is a great option.
If you're just looking forsomething simple that you can
(13:05):
jump into that's not toocomplicated, I would probably
steer away from ClickUp.
It's probably overlycomplicated for what you're
looking for.
But again, this is really up toyou.
I want to give you the range ofsimple, free, too complicated,
maybe more expensive, but can doa lot more things for you.
The third software we need issomething for communication, a
system to communicate internallywith your team and maybe even
(13:27):
with your clients, depending onwho you're working with.
Now.
Mental health this is not goingto be the best way to go about
it externally, but internallywith your team, 100%.
Now we use Slack.
Most likely you've heard ofSlack.
If you've had a nine to five,maybe you use Slack then too.
Slack also has a free plan thatwe use and it's perfect for
(13:48):
what we need.
The only downside of the freeplan is as we're messaging each
other.
So Slack is a messaging system.
We can message one-on-one, Ican message Alicia on my team,
just the two of us.
We can have these channels,like our channel for our
personal finance coaching, whereall the personal finance
coaches can engage One forprofit coaching.
We have a channel for clientwins and team wins so that we
(14:10):
can celebrate when somethinggood happens to one of our
clients.
So we have a lot of differentchannels for us to engage.
What I was saying about the badthing and the negative on the
free side is, after 90 days youlose all your correspondence.
So if you want to make sure youcan go back six months from now
to see what did we talk aboutregarding this thing, then
you'll want to have a paid plan.
(14:31):
But to be honest, I have notnecessarily needed it.
There's been, on one hand, inthe past few years, the times
I've gone to search to find whatdid Vanessa say about that and
it was past the 90-day mark andthen I just had to ask her again
.
So it's not a big deal for me,but the free plan is really,
really helpful.
Slack is open on my computer atall times, so when I'm when I'm
(14:54):
working, I have it open so thatI am accessible to my team.
Now for my clients.
It's something if they areutilizing it.
I give them access to me theretoo, because it is a value add.
They can message me.
It's just like texting.
It's easier than email.
There's just something a littlebit more personal to it than if
you were to just be emailingback and forth.
So consider this for yourin-house communications.
(15:17):
If you manage a team ofclinicians, slack is great.
It does have an app on yourphone.
I tell my team all the time toturn off their notifications on
their phone, because sometimes Imight be sitting here nine
o'clock at night and an ideapops in my head and I just want
to get it down so I don't forgetit.
I don't want them to feel likethey have to respond, so that's
why I tell them don't ever feellike you have to respond after
(15:38):
hours.
Sometimes I'm just throwing iton there, so I don't forget in
the morning to ask you thisquestion or to send you this
information.
All right, anothercommunication option is Google
chat.
I don't use this personally,but I just want to give you
another free ish option.
Or if you're paying for G suitealready for your emails, this
is one that may already beincluded in there If you prefer
(15:58):
to keep everything in house withyour email.
If you're using Google meet oranything like that, then Google
chat might be a good option foryou to engage with team members
and engage with each other.
All right, the last system thatneeds a software is email
marketing.
I already told you the one thatI'm using, which is
ActiveCampaign.
It is fantastic.
I'm a huge fan.
I love all the things I can do.
(16:20):
I love that I can automate.
I love that we can send outlead magnets.
There's tags that we can do, soyou can go really in depth with
email marketing.
Now the surface level.
If you are somebody who's likeI don't have an email list, I'm
just trying to maybe start buildone up, then I would probably
start with something a littlebit more affordable.
You know there's mailchimp,which is a lot cheaper, as I
(16:44):
cannot remember if there's afree option.
There used to be whether therestill is or not, I don't
remember but I know they used tohave it free until you reached
a certain number of emails andthen you moved into a paid plan.
So MailChimp is a great, greatstarter option is what I'm going
to call it, although I know alot of larger businesses that
are still using MailChimp.
So it's a great one to startwith.
(17:05):
Where you can, somebody can optinto a ebook on your website
and it's going to automaticallysend them that email with the
link and then it might be ableto send them four or five
follow-up emails trying to getthem to reach out and schedule a
consultation with you.
So email marketing is alsoperfect for your newsletters.
I schedule out in ActiveCampaignmy newsletters a month in
(17:27):
advance.
So I sit down and I do aboutfour or five weeks worth of
email newsletters, schedule themout.
I can look at reports.
I can see open rate, click rate.
It allows me to do A-B testing,meaning I can tweak the subject
lines if I want to see whichone performs better.
There is a rabbit hole you cango down with this.
So, depending on how in-depthyou want to get, activecampaign
is a great option.
(17:48):
Mailchimp again, it's been awhile since I've used it, so
when I did, it was not as robust.
In fact, that's one of thereasons I left was because I
needed to be able to do morethings and separate and tag, and
it was just a little bit moreclunky.
That has been probably five,six years ago, so there is a
good chance.
Their software is updated andit's a really, really good
(18:11):
option.
Again, I know a lot ofbusinesses that use it.
The third option is another onethat I've used, which is
GetResponse.
Now, I say the third option.
There are a ton of emailmarketing programs platforms out
there, so I recommend doingsome research.
These are just the three thatI've had experience with.
I would say MailChimp is thecheaper, getresponse is kind of
middle and ActiveCampaign isyour more of a long-term
(18:32):
solution.
So that's when I shifted fromGetResponse into ActiveCampaign.
I needed something that wouldlast for years and grow with me.
Getresponse is gonna do prettymuch everything I just talked
about that ActiveCampaign can do.
So the only thing I don't knowand again, unless they've added
it since I used it was I don'tthink GetResponse had a CRM
(18:53):
option in there, and so justbear that in mind.
We switched to ActiveCampaignwhen we were doing some
marketing with our quiz.
We have a quiz on our websitethat asks some questions and
then it'll also tag that personso that we know what things
they're interested in.
Also tag that person so that weknow what things are interested
in, and at the time,getresponse just wasn't able to
do all the things we needed todo, which is why we switched
(19:13):
over to ActiveCampaign.
The main thing is having someway to send out emails to large
groups of people in a way whereyou're sending out a newsletter.
Now I don't think you should bejust sending out emails from
Gmail.
The reason is people need a wayto unsubscribe.
I mean, that's legally.
They need to be able to clickunsubscribe, otherwise it's spam
(19:36):
.
So that's where email softwareis going to be your best bet,
because they will inherentlyhave an unsubscribe button where
somebody can click it andremove themselves from your list
.
So find an email software thatyou can use to nurture these
people If they do a consultationwith you and don't end up
signing up.
A way for you to nurture themand send them valuable tips,
(19:56):
information, stay in touch sothat when they are back to
looking for a therapist, you aretop of mind.
There we go.
I know there's a ton of systems, a ton of softwares.
I'm going to try and link allof these in the show notes for
you so that you can check themout for yourself, see which ones
are the best way for you to go.
Regardless, as long as you havea system in place, I say start
(20:18):
with one of these If you'refeeling overwhelmed, I just
threw a lot of softwares at you.
Start with one If you don'thave a.
Are nurtured, that they're notfalling through the cracks Again
.
We have a whole episode onfollow-ups and the number of
follow-ups it takes, because toooften therapists are.
(20:38):
They get an inbound email.
They respond with hey, let'sbook a call, and they never
follow up and that person neverschedules and then they're just
gone and they're not getting thehelp they need.
So it's important.
It's our duty as the businessowner to make sure that we are
staying on top of them, gettingthem on that call.
If you need help building outthese systems and processes, we
(21:00):
are a team of profit coaches whohelp with money systems, but
all of these things are systemsand processes we help our
clients with.
So if you are hearing man, aCRM or a sales process or a
communication process or a taskmanager, all these things sound
amazing.
I don't even know where to begin.
Schedule a call.
In the show notes we'll put alink.
We can help you out with that.
(21:20):
All right, happy hunting on thesystems and softwares you are
looking for.
We are here to support you inany way that we possibly can.
Thanks, for we are here tosupport you in any way that we
possibly can.
Thanks for joining us on theTherapy Business Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview and share it with a
practice owner that you may knowIf your practice needs help
getting organized with itsfinances or just growing your
practice, head totherapybusinesspodcom to learn
(21:44):
how we can help.
As you know, in business, systems are vital.
We have to have a system and aprocess in place for pretty much
everything we're doing Now.
There are tons and tons ofsoftwares out there that help
and assist using these systemsand putting these systems in
place, but sometimes it can beoverwhelming knowing where we
should turn, which softwares weshould be using and how to even
know which ones are the best.
(00:20):
Today I'm gonna walk youthrough some key systems that
you should be using in yourbusiness and I'm going to give
you two or three options as faras softwares go that you can use
to put these systems in place.
My name is Craig and I'm theowner of Daisy Financial
Coaching.
Our team is on a mission tomake your therapy practice
permanently profitable.
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
(00:42):
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money and
serves more people.
This is the Therapy BusinessPodcast.
Now, usually once a year, I'mgoing through our processes and
the softwares that we'reutilizing to see is there room
for improvement?
Can we consolidate?
(01:03):
Is there a better option outthere to really ramp up what
we're doing or maybe a cheaperoption to where we can help cut
some costs In doing so.
I have spent a lot of timeresearching different things
that are out there and because Ijust finished doing that in my
own business, I was going.
While it's fresh on my mind,what a great opportunity to
share some of the things I waslooking at, some of the key
(01:25):
features I really liked and,ultimately, which ones we are
using in my own business.
Now, this is for therapypractices.
So whether you are a mentalhealth practice to a physical
therapist, some of these maypertain to you and some won't, I
know.
In the mental health space,simple practice is a great kind
of overarching option.
(01:46):
It's going to give you a lot offeatures that may cover a few
of these systems that we'retalking about.
So if you are a mental healthpractice, if you're not using
simple practice, I do recommendchecking it out and seeing what
boxes get checked by doing these.
Now, the problem sometimes withusing one software for
everything is it does somethings okay.
(02:06):
Like you know what I mean, itdoesn't specialize in one thing.
It's like we can do this, wecan do a little bit of that, we
can do a little bit of that, andyou find that it's lacking in a
lot of areas.
So what we find is, even in themental health space, they're
using simple practice, maybe forbilling and for their sessions,
but they're using some of theseother softwares for a lot of
their other processes andsystems.
All right, so without furtherado, let's jump in.
(02:28):
I got four key systems that weneed to be implementing into our
business and then somesoftwares you can use to help
with that.
Number one is a CRM.
This is a Customer RelationshipManagement System.
So this is a way for you totrack where you are, where you
are in that journey with aclient or a potential client.
This is vital.
(02:49):
Now, what we want to rememberis that the relationship with a
client starts at first contactand goes until long after they
are already working with you.
So this is not necessarily asales system where we just track
when they came to us until theybecome a client, and then we're
done, and nor is it just on theother side.
We we just track when they cameto us until they become a
client, and then we're done, andnor is it just on the other
side we're just tracking oncethey start working with us and
(03:10):
on way forward.
This is from start to end, tillthe day they say okay, we are
done working with you.
This is in place to do that.
That may mean this is foroutreach.
If they reach out to you,having a CRM is a great way to
track.
How are we getting in touchwith them to get them on our
calendar?
How many follow-ups are wedoing?
Do we want to automate somethings, automate some outreach?
(03:31):
There's a lot of ways we can dothis to get them on that
initial consultation call orinto your office for initial
consultation.
Then from there it's makingsure they become a client.
So, following up with that, ifthey do become a client, maybe
there's some automatedonboarding that you're wanting
to implement so you can see howhaving a software can help with
this.
My team and I we've been reallyhoning in on our follow-up
(03:53):
processes and what we're findingis sometimes people slip
through the cracks.
What we find also is thatautomating everything doesn't
always work and sometimes weneed a little bit of a human
touch, because when somebodyneeds a follow-up or why someone
needs a follow-up may bedifferent from person to person.
So, for example, we just hadthis recording the California
(04:14):
fires just happened a couplemonths ago and we had a
potential client who came to usand she was very interested and
then a couple days later she'sevacuating her office because
the fires hit.
Now if we had an automatedsystem that's going to be
following up with herautomatically, it could come
across as pretty insensitive,because we know what she's
dealing with, what she'sstruggling with.
(04:35):
And here we are saying, hey,you, are you going to hire us?
Come on, hire us.
So at that point automating thefollow-up just doesn't make
sense.
And so we want to go in andmanually follow up, check in
with her, put a note in therethat, hey, let's give her 30
days or so before we follow upas far as business goes.
Now we want to be in touchbecause we care about her.
We care about what's going onin her life and what she's
(04:57):
struggling with.
Regardless of whether she hiresus to work with her or not, we
want her and her business andher life to be okay.
So this is where it's importantto not automate everything, but
we do want some automations Forus.
We automate if somebody reachesout to us let's say we get a
lead from a referral, orsomebody fills out a form on our
(05:18):
website Then we are going toautomate some outreach.
That's just saying, hey, here'swho we are and here's a link to
our calendar.
Here's the next steps togetting you help.
And over the next seven to 10days it's just going to
automatically drip some emailsout to them to encourage them to
get on to a consultation call.
We have a whole episode on thisemail sequence, the follow-up
email sequence that you can gocheck out.
(05:39):
That is so important.
So I'm not going to get tooin-depth with that.
But going into the systems andsoftware, so some softwares that
we see and we love andrecommend, so number one, one
that I've been using for a fewyears, is Dubsado.
So Dubsado is a prettyaffordable, all-encompassing CRM
.
Really that's the purpose of itis to track all of these things
(05:59):
, everything I'm just talkingabout.
It can do workflows, it canautomate some emails, it can
automate tasks where it flagsyou to do something, maybe call
or email or text someone.
It can do your onboarding.
It can have contracts.
It can have questionnaires,different forms, that you may
want them to fill out.
There's a lot of things thatcome into play there.
One thing I do love about it isyou can organize it into what
(06:23):
we would call a board, whichmeans there's these columns so
we can go from new lead to maybeconsultation booked, to follow
up to lost, to one to onboarding.
So there's this whole processthat they can work their way
through.
Then, when they're a client, wehave a current client tab and
we have different things thatmaybe flag us to shoot them a
gift, to celebrate a milestoneor to do different things.
(06:47):
So a CRM is huge.
This is also a place where youcan put notes, so internal notes
that maybe you checked in withthem, somebody called and
somebody emailed or somebodyfollowed up, maybe they
responded with something and youwant to make a note of that.
One thing I love as far asmanaging a team goes with
Dubsado is you have email.
You can do emails inside ofthere, meaning I can correspond
(07:10):
with these leads inside ofDubsado.
It's going to give me some redreceipts, so if they've seen the
email or opened it, it's goingto let me know.
It's going to be a one-stopshop so I can look at email
correspondence.
So let's say, one of my teammembers has been following up
with this prospect and I want togo in and see.
You know what does thatcorrelation or correspondence
look like?
I can go and see their emailcorrespondence.
(07:31):
How have they been interacting,what's been said, what's been
shared?
Where are they in that process?
Now?
Dubsado is lacking as your teamgrows and we are starting to
find that, and so this yearwe're likely going to be
shifting into a new CRM, and thereason is because Dubsado only
connects one email account perbrand.
So inside of Dubsado, you canhave multiple brands, but what
(07:52):
that means is you're having tore-enter client information into
each of these brands.
The way I use the brands is Ihave one Vanessa on my team has
one Alicia, christine everyonehas their own brand so that they
can email back and forth.
They can start workflows andhave them come from them.
If I could ask for one thingfrom them to make it the perfect
CRM is that you can addmultiple email addresses into
(08:15):
one brand, so that way, ifVanessa wants to email them some
onboarding items, she can dothat in one account, not us
having to go and enter all thisnew information into the
separate account.
So because of that, we'restarting to outgrow it and we're
going to need to look at otheroptions.
One of those options that I'velooked at is mondaycom, and I've
heard some great, great thingsabout it.
It does a lot of the thingsthat we were talking about, but
(08:41):
also allows you to have multipleemail addresses and to do
multiple correspondence insideof there.
Now, monday is very, verysimilar to Dubsado.
Again, I haven't used itpersonally myself.
There are some features aboutit that I like a lot.
There are some different waysto track and different things
you can do with emailing.
The workflows and automationsare not quite what I would hope
for.
Whereas Dubsado is really easyto use and navigate, monday is a
(09:05):
little bit more of a learningcurve Because it's so robust, it
takes time to learn.
Now the third software for CRMsis one that we are likely going
to shift to.
I have not had personalexperience with it on the CRM
side, but it is ActiveCampaign.
The reason we are probablygoing to switch to that one is
because that's where we do ouremail marketing is in
ActiveCampaign, so it is areally simple correlation From
(09:27):
what I can tell outside.
Looking in, there is going tobe some learning curves,
especially if you are notalready using ActiveCampaign.
Now I know my way aroundActiveCampaign already because
of our email marketing, so Iknow how the automation
functions work.
So I have a feeling I will beable to hop in there and it
might take me some time, but I'mgoing to be able to implement
it pretty quickly.
If you're brand new toActiveCampaign, just if you're
(09:48):
going to look at this as anoption for a CRM, it might take
you some time to get it up andrunning.
The downside of ActiveCampaignas a CRM is you have to have a
pro plan with them on the emailmarketing.
So, depending on the size,depending on how many emails you
have, that may just be moremoney than you're wanting to
spend if you're not prioritizingemail marketing.
And if that's the case, I wouldhighly recommend a Dubsado.
(10:08):
Or again, if you're a mentalhealth practice, look at Simple
Practice, because they do haveCRM features inside of that
platform.
All right.
The next system that we need asoftware for is task management
If you are managing a team, ifyou're just managing yourself,
or if it's you and an adminhaving some kind of software
(10:31):
where you can have taskmanagement's going.
So this is where I can log inevery day and see what is on my
to-do list for today, what is onmy team's to-do list, what can
they assign to me?
What can I assign to them tomake sure that things are
getting done, the ball is notbeing dropped and that we are
all on the same page.
Now for this we use Asana and Iuse the free plan.
So Asana has a free plan thatis really, really robust.
Basically, the free plan letsyou do a lot of things.
(10:54):
It takes away automation, so wedon't have automations in there
.
Everything is manual.
You can go on to paid planswhere it incorporates a lot of
different things like workflowsand automations, but for us we
are just using it on the freeplan.
Now I have heard Asana can beused as a CRM.
So, going back to the CRM side,it could be used for that.
I think what it's lacking isprobably that email
(11:15):
functionality where you canemail out to clients and send
out all those documents viaemail.
But Asana and Mondaycom arevery, very similar programs.
As you get into those paidtiers, I'm a big fan of Asana.
Again, the free side isfantastic.
We have different projectboards.
We have a lot of our thingswe're tracking.
In fact, we even are trackingour follow-up.
(11:37):
We've used it as a CRM before,where we have the board of who
are we following up with.
Now we just have to manuallyenter it.
So it's not a perfect system onthis free plan, but it is a
great, great option for taskmanage it.
I log in every day to see whatI've got going on that day, what
tasks I need to take on and,again, anything that my team is
asking me to do maybe send avideo to one of their clients.
(11:59):
It pops up there and I can goahead and take care of that in a
timely manner.
Another option is Trello Now Ihave.
I used to use Trello a longtime ago I don't.
At the time they had a freeplan that was pretty good.
When I left, it's because theywere moving more towards the pay
to play kind of option, meaningthe free plan lost a lot of its
(12:21):
functionality because they werewanting people to move to a
paid, tiered program.
So I don't know what it lookslike today, but very similar to
Asana.
You can have these boards, youcan create tasks and you can
assign them to people.
You can create almost like theCRM board where you can move
things down to assigned inprogress, done with your tasks.
However you want to organize itwhatever makes the most sense
(12:42):
to you.
Lastly, is ClickUp Now.
Clickup is really really robustand complicated, but a lot of
people like it.
A lot of people really like allthe functionality that it has.
So if you're somebody who islooking for a lot of bells and
whistles and different thingsthat a software can do, clickup
is a great option.
If you're just looking forsomething simple that you can
(13:05):
jump into that's not toocomplicated, I would probably
steer away from ClickUp.
It's probably overlycomplicated for what you're
looking for.
But again, this is really up toyou.
I want to give you the range ofsimple, free, too complicated,
maybe more expensive, but can doa lot more things for you.
The third software we need issomething for communication, a
system to communicate internallywith your team and maybe even
(13:27):
with your clients, depending onwho you're working with.
Now.
Mental health this is not goingto be the best way to go about
it externally, but internallywith your team, 100%.
Now we use Slack.
Most likely you've heard ofSlack.
If you've had a nine to five,maybe you use Slack then too.
Slack also has a free plan thatwe use and it's perfect for
(13:48):
what we need.
The only downside of the freeplan is as we're messaging each
other.
So Slack is a messaging system.
We can message one-on-one, Ican message Alicia on my team,
just the two of us.
We can have these channels,like our channel for our
personal finance coaching, whereall the personal finance
coaches can engage One forprofit coaching.
We have a channel for clientwins and team wins so that we
(14:10):
can celebrate when somethinggood happens to one of our
clients.
So we have a lot of differentchannels for us to engage.
What I was saying about the badthing and the negative on the
free side is, after 90 days youlose all your correspondence.
So if you want to make sure youcan go back six months from now
to see what did we talk aboutregarding this thing, then
you'll want to have a paid plan.
(14:31):
But to be honest, I have notnecessarily needed it.
There's been, on one hand, inthe past few years, the times
I've gone to search to find whatdid Vanessa say about that and
it was past the 90-day mark andthen I just had to ask her again
.
So it's not a big deal for me,but the free plan is really,
really helpful.
Slack is open on my computer atall times, so when I'm when I'm
(14:54):
working, I have it open so thatI am accessible to my team.
Now for my clients.
It's something if they areutilizing it.
I give them access to me theretoo, because it is a value add.
They can message me.
It's just like texting.
It's easier than email.
There's just something a littlebit more personal to it than if
you were to just be emailingback and forth.
So consider this for yourin-house communications.
(15:17):
If you manage a team ofclinicians, slack is great.
It does have an app on yourphone.
I tell my team all the time toturn off their notifications on
their phone, because sometimes Imight be sitting here nine
o'clock at night and an ideapops in my head and I just want
to get it down so I don't forgetit.
I don't want them to feel likethey have to respond, so that's
why I tell them don't ever feellike you have to respond after
(15:38):
hours.
Sometimes I'm just throwing iton there, so I don't forget in
the morning to ask you thisquestion or to send you this
information.
All right, anothercommunication option is Google
chat.
I don't use this personally,but I just want to give you
another free ish option.
Or if you're paying for G suitealready for your emails, this
is one that may already beincluded in there If you prefer
(15:58):
to keep everything in house withyour email.
If you're using Google meet oranything like that, then Google
chat might be a good option foryou to engage with team members
and engage with each other.
All right, the last system thatneeds a software is email
marketing.
I already told you the one thatI'm using, which is
ActiveCampaign.
It is fantastic.
I'm a huge fan.
I love all the things I can do.
(16:20):
I love that I can automate.
I love that we can send outlead magnets.
There's tags that we can do, soyou can go really in depth with
email marketing.
Now the surface level.
If you are somebody who's likeI don't have an email list, I'm
just trying to maybe start buildone up, then I would probably
start with something a littlebit more affordable.
You know there's mailchimp,which is a lot cheaper, as I
(16:44):
cannot remember if there's afree option.
There used to be whether therestill is or not, I don't
remember but I know they used tohave it free until you reached
a certain number of emails andthen you moved into a paid plan.
So MailChimp is a great, greatstarter option is what I'm going
to call it, although I know alot of larger businesses that
are still using MailChimp.
So it's a great one to startwith.
(17:05):
Where you can, somebody can optinto a ebook on your website
and it's going to automaticallysend them that email with the
link and then it might be ableto send them four or five
follow-up emails trying to getthem to reach out and schedule a
consultation with you.
So email marketing is alsoperfect for your newsletters.
I schedule out in ActiveCampaignmy newsletters a month in
(17:27):
advance.
So I sit down and I do aboutfour or five weeks worth of
email newsletters, schedule themout.
I can look at reports.
I can see open rate, click rate.
It allows me to do A-B testing,meaning I can tweak the subject
lines if I want to see whichone performs better.
There is a rabbit hole you cango down with this.
So, depending on how in-depthyou want to get, activecampaign
is a great option.
(17:48):
Mailchimp again, it's been awhile since I've used it, so
when I did, it was not as robust.
In fact, that's one of thereasons I left was because I
needed to be able to do morethings and separate and tag, and
it was just a little bit moreclunky.
That has been probably five,six years ago, so there is a
good chance.
Their software is updated andit's a really, really good
(18:11):
option.
Again, I know a lot ofbusinesses that use it.
The third option is another onethat I've used, which is
GetResponse.
Now, I say the third option.
There are a ton of emailmarketing programs platforms out
there, so I recommend doingsome research.
These are just the three thatI've had experience with.
I would say MailChimp is thecheaper, getresponse is kind of
middle and ActiveCampaign isyour more of a long-term
(18:32):
solution.
So that's when I shifted fromGetResponse into ActiveCampaign.
I needed something that wouldlast for years and grow with me.
Getresponse is gonna do prettymuch everything I just talked
about that ActiveCampaign can do.
So the only thing I don't knowand again, unless they've added
it since I used it was I don'tthink GetResponse had a CRM
(18:53):
option in there, and so justbear that in mind.
We switched to ActiveCampaignwhen we were doing some
marketing with our quiz.
We have a quiz on our websitethat asks some questions and
then it'll also tag that personso that we know what things
they're interested in.
Also tag that person so that weknow what things are interested
in, and at the time,getresponse just wasn't able to
do all the things we needed todo, which is why we switched
(19:13):
over to ActiveCampaign.
The main thing is having someway to send out emails to large
groups of people in a way whereyou're sending out a newsletter.
Now I don't think you should bejust sending out emails from
Gmail.
The reason is people need a wayto unsubscribe.
I mean, that's legally.
They need to be able to clickunsubscribe, otherwise it's spam
(19:36):
.
So that's where email softwareis going to be your best bet,
because they will inherentlyhave an unsubscribe button where
somebody can click it andremove themselves from your list
.
So find an email software thatyou can use to nurture these
people If they do a consultationwith you and don't end up
signing up.
A way for you to nurture themand send them valuable tips,
(19:56):
information, stay in touch sothat when they are back to
looking for a therapist, you aretop of mind.
There we go.
I know there's a ton of systems, a ton of softwares.
I'm going to try and link allof these in the show notes for
you so that you can check themout for yourself, see which ones
are the best way for you to go.
Regardless, as long as you havea system in place, I say start
(20:18):
with one of these If you'refeeling overwhelmed, I just
threw a lot of softwares at you.
Start with one If you don'thave a.
Are nurtured, that they're notfalling through the cracks Again
.
We have a whole episode onfollow-ups and the number of
follow-ups it takes, because toooften therapists are.
(20:38):
They get an inbound email.
They respond with hey, let'sbook a call, and they never
follow up and that person neverschedules and then they're just
gone and they're not getting thehelp they need.
So it's important.
It's our duty as the businessowner to make sure that we are
staying on top of them, gettingthem on that call.
If you need help building outthese systems and processes, we
(21:00):
are a team of profit coaches whohelp with money systems, but
all of these things are systemsand processes we help our
clients with.
So if you are hearing man, aCRM or a sales process or a
communication process or a taskmanager, all these things sound
amazing.
I don't even know where to begin.
Schedule a call.
In the show notes we'll put alink.
We can help you out with that.
(21:20):
All right, happy hunting on thesystems and softwares you are
looking for.
We are here to support you inany way that we possibly can.
Thanks, for we are here tosupport you in any way that we
possibly can.
Thanks for joining us on theTherapy Business Podcast.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview and share it with a
practice owner that you may knowIf your practice needs help
getting organized with itsfinances or just growing your
practice, head totherapybusinesspodcom to learn
(21:44):
how we can help.
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