Can Do Gooders Make Money?

I had a great conversation today with someone I’m going to partner with on some things, but it reminded me just how far I’ve come in the last six years of being in the “do gooder” business.  A few key points stand out for me today.

Pacing vs Leading

You do this with clients.  But most therapists forget this when marketing, or when contemplating a vision.  You can’t envision something nobody does (ie: magically everyone on the planet is going to throw a bunch of cash towards preventative work on whatever your area of expertise is.  It just ain’t gonna happen.)

Too many therapists are ready to solve the problem without realizing they first need to PACE…. “yup, yup, yup” behind what their ideal client is doing, thinking, and feeling today.  What?  My engaged couples for example, are busy planning their wedding.  So I don’t poo poo all that “nonsense” but say, “yup!” to the stress of finding a dress.  ”Yup!” to the stress of figuring out who to invite, “yup” to the stress of money.

When they hear my “yup”, and think I’m a little bit interesting, then I can slowly work towards leading them into a product or service.  But if I tried to bop happy wedding planning couples over the head, it’s just going to be annoying.  It’s annoying to get a telemarketing call at dinnertime.  Sure you may want to save the whales/ocean/political group/starving children/feline strays) but right NOW, in this MOMENT, you  just want to get food in your belly!

To do: stop leading!  How can you “follow” your ideal client and get them to be interested in you?  What “earthy”, non-therapisty issues are they struggling with that you can address, even if you know their REAL problems and the REAL solutions are way  more intense than the potential client may even realize?  (Obviously I’m not talking about selling them cleaning products if they struggle with OCD… but they may be struggling with not wanting their kids to pick up their behaviors, or may be struggling with guilt around not wanting to see friends because their self-soothing compulsions are more helpful to them.)

Multiple Ways to Reach Your Goals

How many ways can you think of for your ideal client to reach their goals?  What if you package your one-to-one therapy in logical ways that make more people think you “get them”… my husband  talks about the “90/10″ couple.  They’re 90% doing great but 10% stuck.  Some clients have even told him “We’re a 90/10 couple” and it sold them on going with my husband over other therapists.  That is just packaging a concept around couplehood, not actually creating a number of sessions or anything fancy!

But are there other ways, outside your office, to help people reach their goals?  How can you package psychoeducation?  How far can you split hairs and offer MANY one hour audio programs that fit ONE very specific sub-topic within your ideal client?  Or maybe it’s 15 minute programs, or free You Tube Videos that only last 5 minutes, with the goal being to collect their emails and later upsell a more robust product or service.

My internship next fall is likely going to be with someone who specializes in infertlity and she gave me an interesting article to read on hypnosis.  My marketing brain started firing rapidly just reading this document!  All these issues couples face… wow.  There could easily be an hour product, perhaps in an “interview” format, where you go into depth on needle phobia and all the therapy stuff around that.  Or an hour on the mindset around necessary sex when it’s lost all the zeal.  Another hour on the actual performance anxiety issues both couples may feel about sex.  Another hour on JUST “How to deal with family and friends.”  In those audios you aren’t just answering their struggles, but you’re potentially saying how THERAPY CAN HELP… ultimately getting it back to why one to one work really can be superior and can dramatically improve lives.

Can you begin to see how splitting hairs can actually serve more people (either because not everyone feels they need therapy, can afford it, or has the time?)  And can you see how these are topics these couples directly face RIGHT NOW?  Even though you didn’t get your graduate degree to talk about needle phobia, that’s where your client is and that’s your “yup, yup, yup” way to pace then lead them into the bigger issues overriding all the smaller anxieties.  You could experiment with pricing, but could start really low, say $9.99, or start higher, and see how it goes.

And least you think all this would be super expensive, there are free programs (Audacity being one) that let you record.  And very affordable ways to store the audios and sell them.  AND if you take an anti-perfectionist attitude, these could be created pretty rapidly and improved upon over time.  ;-)

This is a huge topic, but perhaps I sparked your creativity a little bit.  Let me know how you could “yup, yup, yup” your client and potentially create products you’d never think are “worthy” of your advanced degree but are in fact EXACTLY where your client is.