Why You Should Create A Pilot Program With Annie Schuessler

Today I’m talking about the most effective way to fill a signature program beyond private practice: Creating and nurturing Ideal Referral Partnerships. If I were to coach my clients to do only ONE kind of marketing, this would be it. Another word for this is networking. You’re probably already doing this, but you might not be doing it very strategically. When I meet someone who says they don’t do any marketing, but they’ve got customers or clients, I know they HAVE been marketing. They just didn’t see their behavior as marketing. I often find out that the marketing they’ve been doing has been networking. If you have relationships with people who refer to you, even if you don’t do any of it on purpose, you’ve been marketing. Maybe you’ve been networking with colleagues you met at trainings, at agencies you worked at, or from working with the same client at some point. You hit it off with these folks. Some of these people have referred clients to you or introduced you to other people who referred clients to you. If you're an extrovert, you might have experienced a TON of this with very little conscious effort. It’s time to get strategic because your time is limited. Michelle Warner teaches a course called Networking That Pays. She points out that we can each only maintain a finite number of meaningful relationships (between 100 to 250, according to British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, author of How Many Friends Does One Person Need). We need to be strategic about WHO we spend our limited networking time and energy with. You’ll also need to be more strategic when you’re selling a signature program because you’ll probably be serving MORE new people each year than you do in your private practice. If you do long term work, you may only need 10 new clients a year to keep your practice full, or even less in some cases. To keep a signature program full, on the other hand, you might need 30 or 100 or more new participants each year. The math is a bit different, so the networking will be a bit more strategic. I just peeked at my own statistics. This year, over half of my participants have come through my referral partners, NOT by stumbling upon my podcast or finding me through IG or google or paid ads. But let’s look for a moment at the OTHER kinds of marketing activities I do and you might do too: Sending out a weekly or biweekly email. Creating a podcast episode. Delivering a free live event. Updating my website. Creating a new lead magnet. Setting up an ad funnel. Posting on social. Some of these things do help people find me, and I love that I can do these things in relative isolation. AND… It’s a really bad idea to leave relationships out of our marketing practices. Networking will help to amplify the effectiveness of those other activities. Dialing down your time spent on solo digital marketing activities and dialing UP your time and energy spent with ideal referral partners is going to grow your business WAY more quickly and more reliably. Why is this kind of strategic networking so effective? LOTS of your future participants are already in someone else’s audience. The people who created those audiences are your Ideal Referral Partners. By PLACE I mean things like: a podcast, a free online community, a paid community, an email newsletter list, or a paid small group program. When the person who leads and curates that gathering place invites you in and vouches for you and the work you do, you’re MUCH more likely to have the trust of members of that community. Compare that to the trust that you can establish in a video on IG that is 60 seconds long. I created a step-by-step process for this activity, not because it comes easily to me. Rather I created it because it is very important and does NOT come easily to me. Here’s a quick summary of that process. First, you figure out: Who are my Ideal Referral Partners? They serve your niche They probably serve your niche in a different way than you do. (If you don’t know what your niche is, that’s your task before you can find your Ideal Referral Partners). You have aligned enough values You don’t have to agree on everything, but you resonate with the way this person works and you feel that they have integrity. They have an audience They do NOT need to have a huge audience. A very small audience of people who are highly engaged and in your niche is better than a big audience of folks not in your niche That means they’ve already gathered a group of your potential participants. (It’s OK to spend time networking with people who just work with folks 1:1. But your growth will happen a lot faster if they have at least a small audience.) They may be open to sharing their audience with you in some way How this sharing happens may become clear right away or later on. Then, once you’ve identified an Ideal Referral Partner: Step one: Find where their audience is gathered. (A podcast, a community, a newsletter, a paid program, for example.) Step two: Observe. (Listen to the podcast, hang out in the group, or read the emails.) Step three: Approach them with specific praise or observations and invite connection. (If there’s any way to get an introduction, ask for it!) Step four: Meet (Come with a back pocket idea, but be open to their idea, a different idea, or NO idea happening.) Step five: Try it (Be a guest on their podcast, guest teach in their course, or share each other’s work.) Step six: Check in (Get in touch in from time to time and collaborate again.) When you meet, you’ll start with an open ended conversation. You won’t rush in and say: “I want access to your group.” They are as protective of the time, energy and well-being of their participants as you will be of yours. Plant the seed for collaboration with no pressure. Make it easy to say no. Think about what might be in it for them. Maybe you’re offering access to your audience if that would serve your audience. If you have no audience yet, what’s in it for them is simply your willingness to serve their folks. You’re not there to extract value. You want to build trust both with the person who gathered those folks, AND with the people in that community. Be open to giving more than you get. Be unattached to the particular outcome of you serving their audience. Embrace some emotional discomfort! You might feel tempted NOT to do any of this strategic networking stuff. You might think: What if they ignore my invitation? What if the person I reach out to doesn’t like me? What if I don’t enjoy my time with them? What if it stays completely awkward? I mean, have you ever had a horrible networking date? Those feel bad. I get it. I’m introverted. I find small talk exhausting. I don’t say that because I think I’m above small talk. I understand that small talk is a way to test easy topics and start building a bit of trust. Small talk tires me out because I don’t understand it well, and meeting new people in an unstructured way is a bit painful for me. And that’s what networking dates ARE. I KNOW. Some of the time this process might not go well. But I promise you, some of the time it WILL go well, and it is TOTALLY worth it. Resources Discussed: Michelle Warner (https://www.themichellewarner.com/ Shownotes at: https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/223  

If you fear bothering people with your marketing, this is for you. I recently got the worst email I’ve opened in over a year. I’m gonna share the actual email with you and I’m gonna share my internal reactions and the decisions I made after. In the context of life, this email is really NOT that bad at all. No trigger warning necessary. I’m sharing this because I know many of you are really afraid of getting an email like this. I’m hoping hearing about my experience will help you feel less afraid of getting an email like this. I’m hoping that you feeling less afraid will help you make aligned decisions. I’ll explain all of that in a moment. The email I’ll share was a response to one of my sales emails promoting Create Your Program, the high touch program I run 3 times a year. Here’s what the email said: “Way too many emails with not much info. Blocking your email and please remove me from your waitlist. Feels like clickbait.” I said “ouch!” My partner looked over my shoulder and said “that’s not nice!” I had a moment of panic. I thought: Am I a fraudster? Am I a villian? Am I a jerk who never provides value? AND…Does this person hate me? And then paused and I said to my partner: “No it’s OK. She’s right to tell me. She’s annoyed.” Now I did feel a little peeved with the email sender. I thought: “She could have just unsubscribed. There’s a link in every single email to unsubscribe! Why didn’t she just unsubscribe? Why be like that?” And I wished I could write back to her and explain about unsubscribing and also say I’m sorry you didn’t get value…and maybe you should check out this or that free resource I provide. But I couldn’t write her back because she told me not to contact her. But you know what? She might not know that unsubscribing works. She’s totally within her rights to tell me about her experience and to set a digital boundary. She was clear. She did not call me names or behave abusively. She let me know that she’s withdrawn her consent to be emailed. I very much WANT people to be able to withdraw their consent. So as she asked, I went into my email platform and deleted her from it. Then while I was there I looked into what emails I had sent her, so I could better understand her experience. She had signed up for a free workshop through an instagram ad that I run. Then she’d gotten follow up emails reminding her to watch that free workshop, and then some sales emails about my program. It’s likely that she didn’t actually watch the workshop…which is totally understandable. I’ve signed up for a free workshop or class and then not hit play on it. She also signed up for the waitlist for Create Your Program. She received the maximum amount of emails someone could ever get from me, about 2 a day for a handful of days. That’s because she signed up for my free workshop and then my waitlist, all during a launch of my program, I took a step back and considered…is there anything I want to change about this email flow going forward? In this case, there’s not much I wanted to change. I want people who are new to my list to have a chance to jump on the wait list for CYP, which functions as an interest list. Often people find me right when they’re looking for a program like mine, and it’s important that they CAN sign up right away if that’s what they want. I only run CYP 3 times a year right now, so I don’t want people to have to wait months to have a chance to jump in. I did make one change to my email flow. I already have an opt OUT email that I send to my list when I’m launching. It basically says: “I’m gonna be promoting my program for a couple of weeks. If you want to stay on my list but you don’t want to hear about CYP this round, click here. I’ll be quiet for a couple weeks.” I learned this opt-out approach from Kelly Diels, and I always hat tip to her in that email. Here’s the change: I added a quick opt-out option in just about every sales email. Now if someone on my list opens ANY sales email before the final day of enrollment, they’ll have a chance to opt out of receiving more sales emails in that round. This change took about 10 minutes. Done! I feel pretty great about how that went. When I get criticized, I’m tempted to either collapse into shame OR get mad at the person who criticized me. I felt really good noticing that I didn’t do either in this situation. I felt twinges of shame and anger, and then I quickly found a more grounded spot. On the shame side I felt: “Hmmmm. this feels upsetting. But also, I know I’m a good person who’s striving to do good work. I don’t need to collapse into shame.” On the anger side I felt: “I’m irritated at the person who sent the email. BUT also I know she’s standing up for herself as best she can and I KNOW that’s exactly what people should do. So I don’t really need to be mad.” When I teach people about email marketing and guide them to create a practice of emailing their list regularly, they often tell me they’re terrified of getting a response like the one I got. Here’s the thing: If you email your list, you might get an email like this. But probably not very often. This is the worst email I had gotten in several years. The people I work with and the people who listen to my podcast and read my emails are here to do important work. They’re NOT just here to make money. They want to make good money AND they are invested in creating meaningful work that helps people. The people I work with are critical of any kind of tactics that are manipulative. The people who want to connect with Rebel Therapist LOVE consent. So when people like you email your lists, you’re probably doing so thoughtfully. The good news is that when you send emails, you’ll probably enjoy a LOT of feedback telling you that your work is helpful. When our team member Taitlyn saw the email, she said “this is the FIRST time in the year I’ve worked here that I’ve ever seen an email like that.” What a good perspective. I also noticed that on that same DAY, I got an email thanking me for the valuable free content and naming a specific takeaway they got from it. If you’re increasing how much you’re communicating with your email list, or you are getting more frequent or more bold with your messaging, and you’re fearing some kind of push back…I’m here to tell you it’s probably gonna be OK. You’re going to be able to consider the feedback, take useful stuff from it, leave the rest, and keep doing your important work. Before I close this topic, I need to tell you where this kind of thinking doesn’t apply: I have gotten some really mean and abusive comments on social media. Like someone recently sharing that I am hideous. That feels bad of course, but that kind of comment is so clearly NOT something to let in. It’s coming from a person who is trying to harm a stranger by insulting that stranger’s appearance. I inherently don’t believe that’s a good thing to be doing. When people are dehumanizing in their communication with you, I DON’T suggest you consider their feedback. Fuck that. That’s not feedback. Want to get help from me to create your signature program? Get on the interest list for Create Your Program. You’ll be notified first when we open early access registration. In CYP I work with you and a small group of ethical therapists and healers to create signature programs and start working and making money in new ways. —> Get on the list. ( https://rebeltherapist.me/create) Yes, that’s the very interest list this person requested being removed from. You can easily unsubscribe at any time. Show Notes at: https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/222

I’ve had a hard time figuring out how to talk to you about this. I never want to be a dream killer. Or a bummer. If you’re thinking of creating and launching a signature program, I want you to do it. AND I’m gonna talk about one of the hardest parts of that today. Then I’ll talk about how to handle this hard part. I promise. In Create Your Program, I help a small group of therapists create their high quality, high touch, niched programs. And then I help them launch those programs so that they can actually start making money. Those programs bring these entrepreneurs significant ongoing incomes. Some folks choose to shrink or close their therapy practices or leave their agency jobs once their programs are established. AND…one really hard part of that whole process is launching the program, especially for the first time. Launching basically means sharing your program with people. Launching involves two really hard things: being more visible and asking for help. You have to be visible when you launch because you need to share your program with people so that they can sign up to work with you. You have to ask for help because you need other people to help you spread the word. Launching isn’t the hardest part of the process at all in terms of skills and it’s not the most time consuming part either. But emotionally it can be really hard, especially for sensitive souls. We feel vulnerable and exposed when we launch, and we might even worry that we’re bugging people. On top of that, most of the people in Create Your Program haven’t launched this kind of program before, so these are new muscles they’re using. Launching can even give them queasy feelings. And when something is emotionally hard, and makes one feel queasy, one finds a way to avoid it. In Create Your Program, up until now I always walked people all the way up to that launching finish line. Participants got training and structure from me to create their launch plan. I encouraged them to take the brave final steps and even asked people to take some of that action on the final day of our program. And some people did that! I ask participants to share their announcement emails with me, which are the emails they send out to their colleagues and communities. I always received some on the final day of the program, and a bunch more in the following couple of weeks. Lots of people would use the momentum of the program to follow through and continue implementing. But some others would put it off. They’d say they weren’t quite ready. They’d say they started reconsidering their niche. They’d say life started getting in the way so they didn’t get around to it yet. Or many other valid things. Side note: As a very direct coach, I’ll tell you that these are people who really wanted to launch! They were ready enough, and they had already done enough work on their niches. They had indeed done everything they needed to do in order to launch their pilot programs. When I was describing this issue to my former business coach Claire Pelletreau, she said: “You have to walk them all the way over the finish line.” And I knew she was right. Immediately I made a change to Create Your Program. And I’ll describe that in a minute. Let’s talk about HOW we get ourselves over the finish line to accomplishing hard things in our businesses and lives in general. Well, there’s accountability and support. Those help. But you know what else helps? A Hard Ass Deadline. Accountability buddies usually don’t cut it for the really hard stuff. They’re helpful for getting focused, but not necessarily for getting over the finish line with the very hardest things. Now I’ve got 2 short examples for you: Taxes and Art. This just came up for me around my taxes. I get intimidated by the process of my taxes every single year. I’ve been trying to get my documents toghether to give my accountant for a while now. My accountant has a policy that once you turn in all your documents to her, THEN you can schedule an appointment. I called the office and begged them to please give me an appointment first and promised I’d get the docs turned in 2 weeks before that appointment. And they agreed. Phew. Now I have a Hard Ass Deadline. As you’re listening to or reading this on or after March 19th, I promise you I’ve already handed in my documents to my accountant. My partner is a neon artist. They’re also a neon sign maker. Most days they make and repair neon signs for people and businesses, or they create the neon aspects of art pieces for other artists. But they make incredible art themself. AND almost all of the art they create happens when they’ve got a show coming up. Because being part of a show means having a deadline. They sometimes say: “I SHOULD make more art. I WANT to make more art.” They talk to their artist friends about making art. They get inspired thinking about what they’d like to make. But it’s the deadline that gets them past all the hard parts and forces them to create wonderful pieces, some of which I won’t let them sell because I need to see them in our house every day. Back to how we changed Create Your Program: We’ve added an 11th week. After meeting weekly for 10 weeks, we amp it up in the final week with more meetings and more support. Here’s the Hard Ass Deadline: You have to submit the registration page for your pilot program in order to attend week 11. During week 11, you take steps to launch your program while we are together. You walk over the finish line with me and your cohort in real time. It’s called Nausea Week. That’s because getting visible and asking for help are really hard to do. And during nausea week, you’ll be doing both of those things. It’s worth it. When you actually launch your program, you’re WAY closer to creating the business you want. And you get to start serving the people you made your program for. I would LOVE to have you join me for Create Your Program. We’re enrolling right now and the last day to sign up is March 26th. We’re already half full, so please register now. I can’t wait to help you walk over the finish line and launch your signature program! Register at https://rebeltherapist.me/create Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/221

Lea had been helping people with self-compassion for years, but when she started using art journaling in her program, it came together in a more powerful way. Now she teaches art journaling in every session of her signature program, Everyday Self-Compassion. Once she integrated this practice into her program, she fell even more in love with her work. She’s got a feeling of presence, joy and even goofiness. I deeply resonate with the need to feel like my full self as I do my work. How about you? You’re about to hear how she transformed her program over the last several years, why she loves running it, and why she’s got fewer therapy sessions in her schedule. Lea Seigen Shinraku is an artist, teacher, licensed therapist and founder of the Center for Creative Self-Compassion. Through her transformative program ~ Everyday Self-Compassion ~ she helps people who struggle with self-judgment connect with their innate creativity and joy, so they can feel more calm, connected, confident and playful in meeting the uncertainty of being alive. Here's some of what we talked about: Working with people who are finally ready to really learn how to do self-compassion An example of how Lea teaches art journaling How Lea designed her program Why including art in her program made her feel more joyful and present Creating a follow up program to Everyday Self-Compassion How she fills her program How she draws people to her work with free offers and events A tip from Annie (via Claire Pelletreau) on tracking your Meta ads Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/220

Do you ever dream of creating a program you’ll love running over and over again? My guest Amy has run her program, Grief Medicine, at least 9 times now. Sometimes people wonder if focusing on grief brings her down, but you’re going to hear why working with folks around their grief brings her inspiration and joy. As you listen to this conversation, one thing I want you to notice is how much Amy enjoys running this program and never seems to experience it as a grind. You’ll hear how she created her program and how she continues to fill it after so many iterations. And by the way, it’s mostly NOT through social media. Meet Amy Hyun Swart, a therapist, writer, children's book illustrator, and entrepreneur who has been leading grief gatherings, rituals, and courses since 2015, both in-person and online. She was introduced to the healing power of grief work by way of her own life experience, the traumatic loss of a parent at an early age. As a grief activist, Amy views grief as a critical ingredient to move through these collectively heartbreaking times without losing our shared sense of humanity. Here's some of what we talked about: Why her program went from 6 to 10 to 8 weeks long How grief is handled SO badly in our culture Co-hosting local grief gatherings Co-facilititating BIPOC Art of Grief courses Creating safety and connection in her program How she fills her program each time How her program has changed over time Why she’s still feeling inspired by her program after 9 iterations Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/219

Today I’m gonna talk about one of the fastest and least stressful ways to start a group program. Let’s say you’re excited to run a signature program beyond your private practice, and you know you want it to be a small group. I relate. I LOVE running groups. Just a few reasons you might be in love with the idea of creating a group program: Participants benefit from each other’s wisdom and feel less alone. You make more money. A sense of accountability is often bigger in a group. Groups give you energy. You’re gifted at running groups. In a group, you get the richness of discussion. Let’s imagine this is you. You’ve written up a sales page or registration page for your program. You’ve told everyone you know all about it. You’ve sent out emails to your small but growing email list. You’ve posted on instagram, in FB groups and anywhere else where it’s appropriate to post. You’ve reached out to every single colleague who might make a referral. You’ve even reached out directly to a handful of people who you think would be great participants with a no pressure invitation to check it out. All your friends and colleagues are excited for you. You keep hearing: “People will want this!” You’ve got the outline ready. You’ve got the zoom link ready to share. The group calls are on your calendar. You’ve figured out how to accept payments. You are just SO ready. You offer a free consultation to anyone who has questions about the program and might want to sign up. And then the consultations start… You talk to one person who might be interested but not right now and is wondering when you’ll run it again. You talk to another person who might be interested and will let you know. You talk to a third person who decides to sign up. Yay! You talk to a fourth person who says they want to do it but then realize they’ll be away for the first 3 weeks of your program. And then…no more consultations. No more sign ups. And your start date is next week. Arg! Did you do something wrong? Is your group not meant to be? First of all, you are not alone. This has happened to me. This has happened to many people who run successful group programs now. This often happens when you’re transitioning to a new kind of business. Even if you already had a full therapy practice, this can easily happen when you step into selling a program for the first time. Perhaps your mistake (if you made one) was to start with a group program. Perhaps you should have started with a 1:1 structured, niched and outcome based program. What?! We just talked about why you really prefer to run a group. But you STILL might be better off starting your pilot program 1:1 and then turning that offer into a group when your business is ready. Listen to the episode in which I break down why starting with a 1:1 structured, niched and outcome based program might be your fastest, least stressful way to create a group program. Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/218

Maybe you plan to double or significantly increase your income this year. If you’re in private practice, you might look at the numbers and think you should double your sessions. And you totally could. People are out there looking for a therapist exactly like you. You might feel like adding sessions is your ONLY option to increase your revenue. That’s not true. You’ve got other options. Check in and be honest with yourself. Will adding to your client load exhaust you or head you towards burnout? If you’re already seeing 12 clients or 15 clients and you’re starting to feel a bit of dread around sessions…do not double your sessions. On the other hand, If your’e excited about filling up your private practice further, follow that excitement and do it. Like I said, there are plenty of people who need a therapist like you. If you’re like SO many therapists I know, you might have the time in your schedule to add more sessions, but you don’t have the capacity in other ways. You don’t have the energy, the self-care practices, attention or focus capacity to add even more sessions. I want to invite you to take a step back and look at your business model. Your business model is basically the way your business is set up to make you money. It’s the combination of the things you get paid for. If your business model is built on 1:1 private practice sessions, and that isn’t sustainable for you…you are in good company! There’s nothing wrong with you. A full private practice might not be the right fit for your nervous system or your particular gifts. There are other business models. For years I thought I should be happy to have 25 or more therapy sessions a week. I had worked so hard to build that business. I was helping people and making good money so I thought I should just be grateful. But that business model wasn’t right for me long-term. Then I started helping therapists build their private practices and I talked to tons of therapists privately about what really works for them. I discovered that LOTS of therapists don’t find it sustainable to have 25 or more sessions each week. Like me, they built their private practices and then discovered it wasn’t right for them. And they felt guilt or shame like they SHOULD want the full private practice they worked so hard for. They started to feel drained and overwhelmed. Either their work or their life outside of work or both began to suffer. Therapists often don’t want to tell people they feel overwhelmed by a full private practice. So they think they’re alone. If working in a different way at least some of the time would be a better fit for you and for your nervous system and your gifts, now is the time to start building a different business model. I know that it’s really hard to carve out time and space to do something different. But it is SO important to start building a business you’ll be more fulfilled by. The business model I help people create is based on running your own high-touch, niched, outcome-based signature program. If you’re someone who loves teaching or facilitating and you’d love to really focus in on a topic you’re passionate about, a signature program might be a great fit for you. If this resonates with you…but you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of getting started…mostly because you’re not even sure HOW to get started, do not let that stop you. I end up hearing from grads of my program that they just wish they had realized sooner that it was possible to grow a signature program. They are so relieved to have another income source and another place to direct their creative energy. They’re happy that they no longer have all their eggs in the private practice basket. If you think you want to run a signature program, don’t wait. Don’t set yourself up to stumble along exhausted trying to build something AFTER you’ve burnt out. AND Don’t just make little tweaks to a business model that is showing itself to be unsustainable for you. Start building your signature program. If you want to make a lot LESS mistakes and get there a LOT faster, with a step-by-step process, join me in Create Your Program. That’s where I help a small group of therapists and healers to create signature programs they’re really excited to run and then start selling them. This is exactly the process I needed when I was ready to build a business beyond private practice. Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/217

As this episode goes live, registration for Create Your Program is open. This is my process to help you create and launch your signature program beyond private practice. If you’d like to start growing another part of your business and make money in a new way, this is the best time to jump into Create Your Program. If you register by Sunday, January 7th, you’re going to get lifetime access to a bonus training that has helped grads of CYP to fill their programs. Go to https://rebeltherapist.me/create now to register. I can’t wait to see you inside. Today I want to talk about a few really important things that set apart the people who launch programs and succeed from those who wish they had. Here are 3 things people who succeed with their programs are WILLING to do. 1: Be willing to work through discomfort in your marketing. My last guest, Samantha Fox, is great at this. Just like most people who sign up to work with me, Samantha was really nervous about getting more visible and sharing her work with large audiences. Her program is called Unbox Your Sexuality. She helps women all over the world who are realizing they are not as straight as they thought they were. She had to work through her discomfort with being known as a queer thought leader. A few years later, she’s so glad she did! She’s constantly creating content, including videos, and sharing it with people all over the world. She’s guested on about 20 podcasts and gotten comfortable using her voice in that way. She gets to hear from people she's never met about how much her work has changed their lives. So even though she is an introvert and she used to be afraid of visibility, she’s now a very public leader who feels abundant love and energy for the people who find her from all over the planet. 2: Be willing to talk about your program with a lot of enthusiasm, and ask people to help you share it. Thing is something that the prior guest, Sonya Brewer, knows how to do! This one sounds obvious, but asking for help is NOT natural or easy for many folks who sign up to work with me. Sonya said that she shared the news about her program, badass boundaries for trauma survivors, with everyone she knows. She asked people: “Who do you have for me?” Sonya was able to do this because she knows her program is excellent. She sees the transformations her participants are able to make, and so she’s willing to spread the word. Many people start to shrink or hide or even apologize when it’s time to sell their programs. Even if this doesn’t come easily to you, I know that you CAN learn to ask for referrals with enthusiasm! I used to shrink when it was time to talk about my work, and now I ask for referrals with ease. I no longer feel like hiding how awesome I know Create Your Program is. I’ve iterated it over 28 times. I’ve worked over 200 therapists through it. I’ve worked with a curriculum designer. We’ve got the best expert guest teachers who come in and teach particular vital things. CYP has grads like Sonya and Samantha and so many others who have created SO much value. Now when I talk about Create Your Program, I exude a lot of enthusiasm. I also don’t care any longer if some folks don't like me because of my confidence. For every person who feels annoyed at my confidence, there are a few people who are encouraged to be a bit more confident themselves. So follow Sonya’s lead and shout your program from the rooftops. 🎉 3: Be willing to show up and work directly with your participants. That means being willing to create a high touch program. NOT a program that’s self-led. This one might freak some of you out. Maybe you’re burned out, you want less contact with clients, and you dream of having passive income and not dealing with clients at all. I want to encourage you to reconsider that approach. Showing up in your program and leading your participants through it does NOT mean you’re constantly working. You still get to have boundaries. You still get to set things up in a way that feels good to your body. AND…at least for the first several iterations of your program…and maybe forever…show up live for your participants. People will get WAY more out of it. Self led programs have a very low completion and implementation rate, something like 5-15%. Cohort based, live programs tend to have completion rates that are as high as 80% and higher. One person who talks about this Deb Benfield from episode 213. I recently went through Deb’s program as a participant so I got to experience first hand what a difference it makes to have access to her! Now that her program is up and running, she continues to make small tweaks to it, but she isn’t pouring TONS of time and energy in every single time. She knows how to show up and walk participants through the process. Even though it is far from passive, it’s fulfilling and easeful for her. So if you’re feeling tempted to create and launch a “passive” self-led course, please reconsider. If you’re burnt out on clients, you might need a little rest before you create your program. Like me and SO many of the grads of CYP, you might find that working with participants in your signature program feels very different from therapy sessions. If you’re burnt out on being a therapist, you might still feel energized by running your signature program. Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/216

Samantha has shrunk her therapy practice way down and is no longer taking new therapy clients. She’s delighted that her business has transitioned to mostly her coaching programs. She’s found that she’s got abundant energy and love for serving in this way. AND…Samantha has discovered that even the free stuff she provides on social media and on her site helps many queer women live truer lives. That’s just ONE of the ways that the work she’s doing now is a much better fit for her life than a full time therapy practice was. As a sexuality coach, Samantha Fox works with women worldwide to support them as they discover that they are not as straight as they might have thought. She’s developed an experiential method called Unbox Your Sexuality that creates a monumental transformation. The method helps women in unpacking, unlearning, and relearning schemas and narratives that we carry with us due to being born into a patriarchal society. Here's some of what we talked about: Why Samantha is happy she’s shrunk her therapy practice and transitioned her business mostly to coaching Choosing the niche of women who are curious and coming out as queer Creating her signature program: Unbox Your Sexuality Why she feels great about being visible in her work (even though she used to be afraid) How she fills her program using podcast guesting How she creates and repurposes her videos and the apps she recommends Creating lead magnets that attract the right people Dealing with trolls on social media How Rebel Therapist helped her build this program Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/215

We’re sharing one of our favorite episodes as an encore this week. How do you create and fill a group program? How do you navigate a full therapy practice at the same time? We’re about to go behind the scenes and find out exactly how my guest has done it. Meet Sonya Brewer, a trauma specialist and relationship expert who specializes in creative life and relationship design for overachieving trauma survivors and their partners. She created Badass Boundaries, a 12-week group mentorship program for overachieving trauma survivors. Here's some of what we talked about: Sonya’s framework to help trauma survivors transform their relationship to boundaries Creating Badass Boundaries, her 12-week group mentorship program for overachieving trauma survivors How Sonya helps people befriend their bodies as they do boundary work The benefits of offering 1:1 asynchronous coaching in the program How she filled her program Sonya’s advice about running valuable and joyful free workshops (engage with your participants!) How and why Sonya runs her discovery calls Navigating building this program while also running a full private practice Leaning what works for her as a socially motivated person, including having a coach and scheduling co-working sessions Her weekly planning ritual Why she chose “mentor” as the name for her role in this program rather than “coach” The anxiety provoking process of keeping her two businesses separate Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/214