Rebel Therapist

Rebel Therapist is the podcast where you'll get support in being a therapist entrepreneur. I'm Annie Schuessler, therapist and business coach and strategist for therapists. I'll support you in taking your work beyond the therapy room to make an even bigger impact. I interview Rebel Therapists who are already doing work beyond the therapy room, from running workshops to writing books to creating online courses. You'll hear about how they created their unique businesses, the mindset work they've done, and the mistakes they've made along the way. Get the inspiration and information you need to be a Rebel Therapist, starting now.

Neurodivergence And Liberation In Your Business With Jennifer Alumbaugh 05/07/2024

The Most Important Marketing Strategy (It Doesn’t Require Social Media) 04/16/2024

The Most Important Marketing Strategy (It Doesn’t Require Social Media) 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 ( Shownotes at: /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/30839633

The Email You’re Afraid Of Getting 04/02/2024

The Email You’re Afraid Of Getting 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. ( ) Yes, that’s the very interest list this person requested being removed from. You can easily unsubscribe at any time. Show Notes at: /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/30558373

Getting Over The Finish Line With Hard & Important Stuff 03/19/2024

Getting Over The Finish Line With Hard & Important Stuff 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 Show notes at /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/30402193

A Program Based On Art Journaling With Lea Seigen Shinraku 03/05/2024

A Thriving Grief Program With Amy Hyun Swart 02/20/2024

The Least Stressful Way To Start A Group Program 02/06/2024

The Least Stressful Way To Start A Group Program 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 /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/29779628

Don’t Double Your Therapy Sessions 01/16/2024

Don’t Double Your Therapy Sessions 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 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 /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/29396458

Be Willing To Do These Three Things For A Successful Signature Program 01/02/2024

Be Willing To Do These Three Things For A Successful Signature Program 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 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 , 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 /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/29290583

How I Shrunk My Therapy Practice And Built A Signature Coaching Program with Samantha Fox 12/19/2023

Creating A Badass Group Program with Sonya Brewer (Encore) 12/05/2023

Being A Disruptor with Deb Benfield 11/21/2023

Why I’m Keeping My Business Tiny 11/07/2023

Why I’m Keeping My Business Tiny I’m grateful to be running a tiny and simple business right now. I have no plans to grow this business up to 7 figures. I was a bit hesitant to tell you that! I feel some fear that you won’t think I’m a badass, or you’ll think I have upper limit problems or limited beliefs. Maybe you won’t want to hire me because I’m not as ambitious as you hoped. Or if you’re my friend who runs a larger and more complicated business, maybe you’ll think I’m judging you when you hear what I have to say about running a tiny business. (I’m not. I promise!) But since I have the desire to be radically honest and I think this serves you, I’m sharing it anyway. I trust you to identify the parts of this that fit for you and the parts that don’t. Note: I’m talking about service based businesses, because that’s what I know best. Capitalism tends to point us towards one vision of what it means to be a successful business owner. And that’s being a business owner who always makes and does MORE. Capitalism tends to pull us AWAY from noticing when we have enough, or even considering what enough might be. Us feeling enoughness or satisfaction is NOT helpful to capitalism. Here’s the default vision of a successful business owner: They’ve got a company bringing in revenue of 7 figures or more. They’ve hired a big team. They expand their business to serve more people year over year. These numbers are all as big as possible: total revenue, number of team members, number of followers, and number of people served. This person might be a coach who runs a course or membership with hundreds or thousands of members at a time. Perhaps they also have many many other offers at many price points. But when I look around at my colleagues and friends who are having a good time and feeling fairly stable financially, I tend to see a people with tiny and simple businesses. Here’s the vision of that (tiny) business owner: They’ve got a tiny team, like zero or one employees. They’ve got smaller revenue, like under 500k, but they get to keep more than half of that money. Their tech is simple. They don’t have much overhead. They have one or two high-touch offers. Sometimes people come work with me hoping to create huge empires. I’m delighted to help them because the first phase in creating an empire should be to create a really solid small business. And that is what I help with. When you start with a tiny, strong and simple business, you focus on creating value. And that’s where every business needs to start. Listen to the episode to hear 2 stories of folks who scaled big, hated it, and decided to simplify and shrink their businesses How I keep Rebel Therapist simple How you can still serve more people with a tiny business Show notes at /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/28493957

Discovering What You’re Meant to Create with Judy Hu 10/17/2023

Ask Annie: Should I Create My Own Program Or Teach Something Well Known? 10/03/2023

Ask Annie: Should I Create My Own Program Or Teach Something Well Known? I got this question recently from someone getting ready to expand their business to beyond private practice. They want to start offering a non-therapy program within their own business. “Should I create my own program from scratch, or should I just deliver an established method from a well-known person?” For example, although it’s not the example this person gave: Brene Brown’s Dare To Lead method. Here’s my answer without knowing any of the particulars. First of all…nothing is new under the sun. Whatever program you offer will be influenced by your learning lineages and your mentors… So the REAL question is: will you create something new by bringing together many influences, giving them all credit, and blending them in a unique way? OR Will you primarily use one established method from a mentor and jump through the hoops of getting that license or certification or purchasing that curriculum, so that you can use it in its entirety and put their name on it? To figure this out, ask yourself: What is the truest, most high quality and aligned offering you can make right now? Which choice will be of the highest service to your participants? A good reason to use someone else’s method is that you feel clear that it is the most aligned choice. A misguided reason to use someone else’s method is that you think it will be easier to create and sell it. Since you’re creating this program within your business, you will likely be working just as hard with either choice. Whether you sell someone else’s method or create your own, you will… Identify who it’s for (your niche) Create or adapt the program Do messaging and marketing work to bring in participants In the business I’m running now, I’ve created my own method while giving a ton of credit to the people I’ve learn from. You can’t get through my program without hearing about Tara McMullin, the business strategist who has had the biggest influence on me. And you hear about many other folks whose influences are woven into my programs. At this point I’m so hooked on creating my own processes and weaving together many influences, I can’t imagine I’ll ever teach someone else’s entire method ever again. But once I did! In this week’s episode, I share a story about running a couples workshop using someone else’s method with permission. Listen to learn from my experience so you can skip my mistakes. Show notes at /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/28187750

Creating a Program for Parents with Danika Maddocks 09/19/2023

Real Advice About Making Money Beyond Private Practice: Open Coaching Call Replay 09/05/2023

Permission To Create The Program You’ll Love With Rebecca Lee 08/15/2023

No More Half-Assed Business Boundaries 08/01/2023

I’m No Longer The Default Parent with Claire Pelletreau 07/18/2023

Ask Annie: How Do I Find The Energy To Create My Business? 07/04/2023

Ask Annie: How Do I Find The Energy To Create My Business? I used to ask every podcast guest: “What productivity or time management hacks do you use as an entrepreneur?” I’ve stopped asking that. I’m no longer lit up by trying to make my habits atomic or maximize my time. The work of Tricia Hersey, Ebony Janice Moore, Tara McMullin and others has helped me (along with everyone I know) to question whether productivity is the measure to focus on and strive for. We’re here to heal, play, love and rest and BE, and when we do more of those things, we make it more possible to create the world we want. When we’re talking about running a small business, which is my lane, I find that to create something new like a new business or a new program, we need something different than productivity or time management. We need to nurture our creative energy. How do I know time management and productivity alone are not the answer? When suddenly given a huge amount of time, we don’t usually make as much progress as we had hoped to. We might use that time scrolling or spinning our wheels. Lots of folks discovered this during lock down. So when a person asks me how many hours a week it takes to build a program beyond private practice, I could say…at least 3, better 5, and better yet 10. But really, I find that nurturing your creative energy for an entrepreneurial project is more important than how many hours you give it. Side note for folks running private practices: Running a private practice might be a bit different… It’s a terrible idea, and I don’t recommend it, but you may have noticed that you CAN run a private practice with scraps of energy, at least for a while. You probably know how to scrape together those scraps or energy to show up for your clients. Here’s what Katherine Eastlake says. She runs a private practice and has a program for therapists wanting to deepen embodied practice. “I can be fairly dysregulated and settle quickly when a client walks into my room/pops up on Zoom. But when I am writing my newsletter or designing a training, I feel like I need more time and space to ground myself and orient to the process. It is a different energy with different requirements of my mind and body.” To move beyond private practice and create something new, like a signature program, you can’t just add time and productivity hacks. Pomodoro timers and to-do lists are not going to get you there. You need to access your creative energy, and that means devoting yourself to replenishing that energy. Here are five ways I nurture my creative energy: 1. Devote myself to the things that make me feel expansive. I get creative energy when I devote myself to all the things that make me feel more expansive. I need to play, feeling my feelings, talk to people who inspire me, listen to podcasts and music that move me, go on walks, sing, and dance. 2. Set deadlines that people know about. There’s a sweet spot for each of us between having deadlines and having the freedom to move at our own pace. I crave more freedom when I’m facing too many deadlines, but when completely lack deadlines, I’m not creating a lot. Even this episode would not necessarily be here if I had no deadline for it. I used to be so internally motivated that I could set my own deadlines that no one knew about and I’d meet them. Um…hypervigilant much? You spotted that? Yes I was. Now I find that I need to share my deadlines with others. 3. Make room for discomfort in the creative process. Expect really itchy moments when you have to keep trying/writing/talking/moving your pen so that the work actually happens. Expect a 3 hour task to take 10 hours sometimes. Expect to feel like you can’t do this and know that doesn’t mean you can’t do this. Expect to feel like leaving. Let your frustration tolerance build. All of that discomfort is part of opening up to creative energy. 4. Avoid certain things. In order to access creative energy, I avoid… Social media Comparison Expecting myself to get other things done as much or as well New tech platforms or tools 5. Find or build a community so we’re mutually supporting each other in accessing our creative energy. Build or find a Community of other creators who commit to creating when the world wouldn’t say they have to. Entrepreneurs are a good bet because they’ve signed up for the tricky thing you’ve signed up for: They’re creating what they want to create AND they’re finding a way to make good money with it. That’s a different challenge than creating only for the sake of creating. And speaking of community, I have an assignment ready for you, if you choose to accept it. Choose someone you trust who believes in you and will give you a loving kick in the pants and send them an email. Here’s your loose script: “I’m planning on doing something brave. (Here’s what it is). I may try to talk myself out of it. Will you please support me and encourage me in doing it?” Please bcc me if you like at . I’d LOVE to know that you did this assignment. Show notes at /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/27346167

Creating A Program For Love, Joy & Resistance with Damon Constantinides 06/20/2023

Ask Annie: What If I’m REALLY Afraid To Launch My Program? 06/06/2023

Ask Annie: What If I’m REALLY Afraid To Launch My Program? Everyone is scared to launch their first program. Someone asked recently: what if I’m REALLY scared to launch my program. Like…what if there are powerful individuals and structures out there who might want to do me harm? What if putting myself out there associated with this work might actually be dangerous to me or my family? GREAT question. Let’s agree NOT to give it the usual online marketing answer: “Just do the mindset work.” This visibility stuff comes up for ALL of us. I have it. Everyone I’ve ever worked with has had work come up around their childhood, their upper limits, self esteem, or imposter syndrome. We all need and deserve to do some important work around getting visible, using our voices, and taking up space. AND…it’s gaslighting to say it’s the same for everyone. When you are deciding to get more visible and you’ve got a marginalized identity or you’re sharing messages that oppose our power structures, your visibility work is not just about getting out of your own way. For example, if you’re speaking out against anti-black racism or you’re talking about fat liberation or trans liberation, you’re being brave in a significant ADDITIONAL way. My niche is not as risky. I’m a business coach & strategist. Yes, I’m queer and I’m a woman. AND I have lots of privilege: having money, being white, being cis-gendered… and on and on. Even with all of that privilege, I absolutely need and deserve to have colleagues I can get really vulnerable with and feel through my own visibility and exposure fears. We all do. In terms of this question: “What should I do if I’m REALLY afraid to launch my program? Should I switch niches? Should I move forward?” I do not have the right answer for you. I don’t think there is one. Here are a couple things I’m pretty sure I DO know so that you can figure out your path. ONE: Find people who really understand what you have at stake and can support you emotionally and spiritually. If you’re part of a marginalized group and/or if your work is related to opposing a power structure, you cannot do this alone. What if those people who you need to go to for support as an entrepreneur are also afraid? That doesn't mean that they can't support you and that you can't support them. We need to give up on the idea that we must be totally through the woods before we can help others. It's just not true. We can actually have mutual support while we're figuring this stuff out. Asking for help might mean saying: “Please stay on the phone with me while I work through what to do in this scary moment.” Or “Please sit on my couch while I press send on this email.” TWO: Don’t rush through your fear. Feel the feelings that are coming up, and let the fear speak. Don’t rush it to go away. Fear isn’t the only force making decisions, but you can listen to it and allow it to have a seat at the table. I’ve got a great example coming up on the podcast. Next time we’ll be hearing from Dr. Damon Constantinides. He created a Trans Masc Sexual Pleasure group. That’s brave. Trans folks are always under attack, and especially right now. Damon talks in the episode about his decisions about creating his program and making his work visible. Show notes at /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/27043050

How I Cleared My Debt And Bought A House In One Year with Podge Thomas 05/16/2023

Less Trauma In My Business 05/02/2023

A Liberated Way To Lead Groups With Tracy Gantlin-Monroy 04/18/2023

Ask Annie: How Can I Not Feel Totally Freaked Out During A Launch? 04/04/2023

Ask Annie: How Can I Not Feel Totally Freaked Out During A Launch? I got a message from one of the grads of Create Your Program recently saying that she was in the middle of launching her program. She said that launching was both a soul expanding and soul draining experience. I want to talk about some ways to protect and take care of your soul while you’re launching your program. First I’ll define “launch”: The time when registration is open for a time limited with a deadline, and the things you do to promote your program during that time. When we’re launching, we’re opening ourselves up to a lot of different feelings and voices, both internal and external. Some of these feelings and voices can be really painful. Scarcity, shame, and fear can come in. We might have thoughts like : ”Who am I to offer this?” “What if no one signs up?” “I’m annoying people.” Some of these feelings and voices are exciting. You might feel joy that you’re offering a wonderful program, and excitement that people are asking questions and signing up. You might have fun talking about your program and getting to run a free event. You might feel abundance as people sign up and as you give great stuff away. I’ve found that I need to manage my energy and feelings during a launch. Here are some things that work for me and lots of my clients: Allow yourself to feel your feelings and don’t tell yourself that you’re doing something wrong if you feel stressed. That only adds judgement to stress. And at the same time… Remember that you are not your launch. Say it to yourself. I am not my business and I am certainly not my launch. Don’t compare the inside of your launch to the outside of other people’s launches. The tough moments of a launch are usually not visible. Don’t count on this one launch to pay the bills. See if you can set up your business so that it doesn’t live and die by this one launch financially. If you get less people than you hoped, you can be disappointed, but don’t let that destroy your finances. Track and know your numbers. Some good numbers to track from launch to launch are: The number of people on your email list at the start of your launch The number of people on your waitlist when you open registration (if you’ve got one) The number of people who signed up for your free event during the launch The number of people who attended your free event The number of people who viewed your sales page during your launch When you’ve got that data, you can compare it from launch to launch and the process will feel less like a mystery. Plan your launch at least a month ahead of time. Create a calendar of what you will do to promote your program. Plan to send more emails than you are probably comfortable with. (Remember that you’re sending these to the people who are interested in your program. Tailor your launch experience for the people who are most interested in your program, not the people most likely to unsubscribe from your list.) Pre-schedule those emails and do everything you can ahead of time so you’re not taking action from a pressured place during your launch. Stick to your plan. Don’t panic and remove things from your launch calendar. Don’t panic and add a bunch of things. Repeat your launch. You don’t need to rewrite every single email from scratch. You don’t need to create a totally new free event. Make small tweaks each time you launch rather than exhausting yourself with a totally new plan each time. Create a document where you place your intentions. Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Write down what you most want for your participants, What you’ll be creating for them, how you want them to feel as they go through your program, and any other intentions you’d like to set. Then create a blank spot for each participant you’d like to have in the program. Draw an empty oval or rectangle for each one. As they sign up, fill in their names. This is just for your own private use. It’s a physical place to represent your launch and your program. Remember that you don’t know how your launch went til it’s over. Once I spent most of a 2-week launch feeling bummed out because my program wasn’t filling. Then it totally filled in the final 48 hours. I realized I’d never get that time back. Now I return to that memory when I start to think I know how a launch is going before it’s over. Set your schedule in a way that will support you during your launch. Maybe that means working less during your launch because you expect to feel distracted. Tell your loved ones how to support you during your launch. This might mean: “Remind me that I am not my launch. Remind me that I don’t know how it went until it’s over.” Give yourself a big dose of credit at the end of your launch for doing the things you decided to do, NOT just for the results. If your launch has ended and your program didn’t fill, go listen to episode 162: When Your Program Doesn’t Fill. Show notes at /episode/index/show/therapistclubhouse/id/26420754

Filling A Program Using Social Media with Heidi Savell 03/21/2023

332K Of Revenue With Over 2 Months Off 03/07/2023

Building A Community Membership with Laura Reagan 02/21/2023

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