The Practice of Therapy

Gordon Brewer: Well, hello everyone, and welcome again to the podcast. And I'm really happy for you to get to know Justin on. Welcome, Justin.
Justin: Hi, thank you so much for, for having me.
Gordon Brewer: Yes, I've been looking forward to this conversation and Justin his company is called inflow and we're going to talk about that. And I think you'll find it very interesting just thinking about your branding and how they help people with that.
But Justin, as I start with everyone, tell folks a little bit more about yourself and how you've landed where you've landed.
Justin: Absolutely. So I started off my design career. Like most graphic designers as a freelance graphic designer. I started working in the local Detroit music scene. So I would do album art posters, merchandise, that kind of thing for all different kinds of brands and even some small local businesses.
And then from there, I ended up moving on to working for a company for about not eight for about eight to nine years. And, you know, I started there as a graphic designer and I slowly kind of worked my way up to becoming senior designer and then art director and then eventually the creative director.
During my time there I learned a lot and met some really incredible and very talented people along the way. And at this point I would actually like to mention that I am really proud to say that I just closed that chapter of my career last September. One of the major reasons why my I decided to leave was simply because my my own struggles with mental health.
The environment I used to work at was was a little bit toxic. And so, you know, that that really started to erode me away as a person, just both mentally and physically. And so I started inflow kind of on the side with the hope that, you know, it could, it could be a way out and with the, with the love and support and encouragement and guidance and motivation and more love and, you know, everything positive from my wife, who is a clinical psychologist herself, I, I gained the confidence and the clarity to try.
To, to start inflow and really, you know, put myself into that position and take that risk to, to better myself. Last year we went to APA in 2024 in Seattle, which turned out to be an enormous success and so successful that I ended up resigning two weeks after we got back. So that's kind of how inflow really got started.
And that's kind of how inflow is, is continuing to grow and continue to kind of move forward right now.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah, that's that's I love that story and thanks for your vulnerability and just talking about your own struggles. That's I mean, that's great. So, yeah,
Justin: yeah, I've had the, you know, the, the wonderful privilege of working with some of the nicest people I've ever met doing inflow so far.
And, you know, inflow is relatively new, but the people I've met along the way so far have been just awesome and amazing. And so. You know, for me to be able to do the work that I'm so passionate about doing that I genuinely love to do, you know, it's, it's, it's not only just being not only just seeing, you know, what the impact of design can do for practice, but, you know, being a part of that, being a part of that impact, being a part of that, that journey for, for all these different practices and all these different stages that they're at.
And, and by extension, you know, the community that they serve it's, it's really powerful and it's really, it's really is a, it feels like a privilege for me to, to be able to do this.
Gordon Brewer: Right, right. Yeah. And it's I know I know in just my conversations with people and the consulting I do and that sort of thing that coming up with a name for a practice is really one thing that's, I think, important to branding, but.
I guess maybe just kind of walk us through just, you know, as you think about branding and why it's important and that that whole aspect of things. Yeah.
Justin: Yeah. You know, branding is such a, it's such an important part. Like you said it's very, it's very deep. You know, you can kind of see branding as, you know, it's the aesthetics.
It's, it's making sure things look nice. It's making sure everything is, is kind of aligned with the brand, but it, it goes so much deeper than that, right? Branding, it, it allows you to tell your story. It allows you to put, you know, your experiences, your unique values, your, your journey to where you started from to, to, and all the little moments that kind of got you to where you are right now, you know, running your own private practice and growing, you know, branding allows us to kind of take all that.
And almost digitizing in, in a way, and, and kind of infusing that into every aspect that that comes out of your, your practice, right From, from your letterhead to your website, to your logo, to the, the color choices that we make. You know, that, that all, that should all be consistent, that should all kind of relate back and, and help kind of tell your story visually.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. Yeah. And so in thinking about, you know, one of the things one one of the books that I recommend to people is, is Donald Miller's the story brand. You might be familiar with it or not, but anyway, when you mentioned just telling your story, I think that's an important, important piece to it all.
You want to just maybe kind of walk us through how you work with people and And just kind of that whole branding process.
Justin: Yeah. So our, our, our, our approach to design and kind of working with clients is, is I would like to say a little bit, a little bit more loose in the sense that, you know, we, I understand that every practice is different.
And so every, every practice owner is different and their stories are different and, you know, their goals for the practice are different. And, you know, the, the stages that they're at in their practice is going to be different. And so we like to kind of start off by just simply having a conversation, you know, just getting to know them, getting to know, you know.
What are their goals? What what are their values? What exactly are they trying to do? You know, and with that, that information and that that kind of backstory, we're able to kind of then take a step further and really start to focus on, you know, what their branding is going to look like, what they're what they want to try to do, and then kind of where they want to be in the future.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah, yeah, and that's I think that's you know, starting with your why is what I always tell people is, you know, what's the underlying motivations for, for everything you do really within your practice in terms of, in terms of the business side and the marketing side sort of thing. So. Yeah. So what's sort of as you've done this work, what sort of kind of mistakes do you see people make in trying to get their message out and the branding and that sort of thing?
Justin: Yeah. So, so I would say like the most, the most common, I guess, mistake or pitfall that I see a lot of practices make is going to be is an outdated website. I think that, you know an outdated website, it cause website is usually going to be kind of like one of the first Interactions that that a visitor will have with your practice.
And so, you know, making sure that your website is consistent, making sure your website is is easy to navigate, making sure your website is is intuitive as far as you know, what kind of what a patient or what a visitor may be kind of looking for at that particular moment in their journey on your website, taking all that into consideration and kind of developing and designing a website that kind of addresses those I think is a very powerful thing.
And I see. Quite often people tend to just kind of put a website together that is more informational. Whereas, you know, we approach design and we approach website building kind of, you know, how do we, how do we address these questions? How do we kind of guide people and visitors through the design, through the, through the practices processes and services to, to kind of really kind of tailor that, that experience for them.
Gordon Brewer: Right, right. Yeah. It's a, you know, I've heard it, heard people speak of this in terms of when you go to a website, you want to kind of have a clear picture of what you should do when you get there. And a lot of times, yeah, I think with our Within our fields, you know, people are looking for some kind of help with things.
And, you know that's again again, another tangent we could go on is the importance of creating a niche for yourself of having a really kind of specific issue or thing that you, number one, enjoy helping people with, but also something that. People see you as an expert in and so that that attracts people, I think more by having that and yeah, having a nice,
Justin: having a nice clear, you know, focused goal, you know, clear focus kind of mission for your practice and, and, and, you know, the group that you want to kind of communicate and work with.
I think that's
Gordon Brewer: right. You know, one thing that I think a lot of people maybe might be curious about is just thinking about. With the whole branding piece knowing kind of where to start in terms of maybe coming up with a logo, what colors to use, that sort of thing, what do you, yeah, what advice can you give around those things?
Justin: As far as, you know, like I said, it really comes back to, to your story. I, I approach like, I approach design very much kind of trying to infuse, you know. People's stories into the brand. So I would say, you know, when it comes to the logo design, it really is kind of up to you and what you feel best represents you in your practice, right?
It's, it should be symbolic, but at the same time it should also be relatable and it should also be kind of appropriate for, for the goals and the values that we practice. I would say,
yeah, it's a little hard to, to really be able to pinpoint kind of like where to start with that, with the logo design. It's much like just kind of what resonates with you. What would resonate with that also resonates with, with your audience, with the target, with your, with your, with your community. Yeah,
Gordon Brewer: yeah, I know that.
Yeah. And I think you know, thinking, I know, like we mentioned before, people thinking about what to name their practice. You know, there's lots of different directions you go, and I, one of the things I would say in my own experience, that I did well early on, there's been a lot of mistakes I've made along the way, but one of the things was in naming my practice, and that it it really, the name really helped with my SEO and you mentioned the online Presence.
I mean, Kingsport, Kingsport, Tennessee is the, is the city I'm in. And so it's Kingsport Counseling Associates. And so that I feel, fortunately that name was available when I went into all of this. And so, yeah. And so that's helped, helped a great deal with.
Justin: Yeah, definitely. Taking into consideration as you know, everything we do nowadays is online.
So, you know, at least being being cognizant and being aware that, you know, all the decisions that we make for for your practice for your design kind of relates back to SEO. It takes into consideration, you know, how would this look like on Google? How will this look like on different search engines? And how do we sort of, how do we make sure that we're doing the right decision?
I think that's Thing to really optimize the way your practice is found.
Gordon Brewer: Yes. Yes. So what are, what are some of the, what are, what would you say are some of the key elements to that as far as what you've found so far for SEO?
Justin: Yeah.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. Yeah. Like SEO and just helping people find find your practice.
Justin: Yeah.
SEO is a very big one. There's certain things that we can kind of do on the website that will really help to basically. Allow the search engine to quickly find you. You know, simple things such as kind of making sure that your file names are named in a way that SEO will will find it right, even if it's a simple, even if it's simple icon for like a phone for a phone icon for your contact information, making sure that you're naming those files in a way where SEO will be able to pick up on that and use it is really important.
Also Using alternative texts, kind of using meta tags, stuff like that on the back end to make sure that, you know, basically you want to make sure every element of your website is visible, not just what people see, you know, yeah, it's a really good way to kind of approach that there's SEO is a pretty deep and, and complicated.
Sort of subject. And so we do as much as we can with what we can, but there's definitely more specialized companies out there that can really dig into the code of your website that will then help you help your practice get found a little easier.
Gordon Brewer: Right, right. Yeah, that's a whole, all taught as you're right.
Yeah. SEO search engine optimization is a whole topic in and of itself, but yeah, so, so within flow, tell, tell folks how you work with people and how maybe they can get started and you know what that looks like.
Justin: So, yeah, so we, we, like I said, we, we genuinely love. To work with, with our clients. You know, working with our clients and, and working in the healthcare field has, has been such a privilege.
And, you know, we really like to try to get to understand our clients, get to understand what their story is, what their goals are, and, and try to infuse and incorporate that into, into the designs that we, we, we create for them.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. So, yeah. So when you if somebody were to get started with you, what.
What would that look like for them besides contacting you? Obviously, but yeah, so
Justin: we would just set up a quick meeting. We would kind of discuss kind of what we're trying to do, what the goals are, what we're trying to achieve, and then the design process is relatively straightforward. You know, we will, we will come up with a couple different sort of initial concepts, initial designs based off of what, you know, what I think would be a good direction based on what you think is a good direction and some sort of combining the two into, into a, a hybrid sort of design, and then from there, we just kind of refine, right? We just take a look at all the designs we have. We really like, you know, we can decide we really like this direction and this direction, and then from there we just refine, refine, refine. And so we're, we're, we're happy with a very consistently designed design brand.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. Yeah. Tell us. Tell us about some of the maybe some of the people or you don't necessarily have to disclose things. But I mean, some, some of the projects you've worked on that you've really felt really good about.
Justin: Yeah, we've worked with so we work with a lot of, new practice owners. You know, these are people who have either worked at organizations and are kind of branching off or people that are just kind of just getting their, their career started.
You know, like I said, I had the privilege of working with some of the nicest people and you know, I'm really proud of the fact that there's, I worked with some clients who we were able to really define and refine their brand and, and really come up with a visual identity for them that that is very representative of who they are and their approach to to therapy.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So tell folks a little bit about tell folks about the best way to get in touch with you and how they can maybe get started in starting this conversation for themselves
Justin: are. Yep. They can visit our website. It's going to be inflow dash designs dot com. And then on there, there's going to be contact information and a couple of forms that they can fill out to kind of get started as well as our pricing and kind of the different services that we offer.
One of the things that, you know, we're, you know, one of the things that we're really proud of is, is our transparent pricing structures. So, you know, when you first start working with us and in the first meeting, you know, you'll, you'll know right away what, what, what the cost of the project will be. There won't be any sort of.
You know, hidden fees or or any sort of surprise, you know, add ons at the very end, which you. What you want, the price that we tell you in the beginning is going to be the price that you will work with throughout the project.
Gordon Brewer: Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. And we'll have, we'll have links in the show notes and the show summary for help people to get to that easily.
And Justin, I'm so glad you, you joined us and hopefully we'll, we'll, we will have more conversations here in the future, just about branding and how people can. Be helped with all of that.
Justin: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me on. It's a pleasure.