The Practice of Therapy

Gordon Brewer: hello everyone and welcome again to the podcast and I'm really excited for you to get to know today.
Jenny Melrose. Welcome Jenny.
Jenny Melrose: Thank you, Gordon. I'm excited for the conversation.
Gordon Brewer: Yes. And Jenny is a fellow podcaster, and I'm gonna invite you to take a look at her podcast or get to her podcast. It's the practice to profit,
So Jenny, as I start with everyone, tell folks a little bit more about yourself and how you've landed where you've landed.
Jenny Melrose: Yes, I would love to. So I actually have been online since 2009 when dinosaurs roamed the online space.
Instagram didn't even exist, so I've been online for a very long time. I learned how to market by bootstrapping and figuring out how to create digital products to be able to then turn around and sell my first business. I ran a food blog called The Melrose Family for. 10 years and sold that for six figures in 2019 and since 2015, which is when I launched the podcast, I have been helping online business owners that are really trying to understand how they can monetize better and not have to trade time for money inside of their practices.
Gordon Brewer: Yes. And I know that is something that is always a hot topic for, I know a lot of my listeners, and I'm sure yours as well, is how can you do make more money besides just butt in chair one-on-one? And I like to say, go from the one to the one to many kind of way of doing that. And yeah.
I'm anxious to hear your ideas about all of that.
Jenny Melrose: Yes, no, very much excited to share.
Gordon Brewer: Yes. So when you think about, when I guess maybe a place to start is to think about if a therapist is thinking about diversifying their income, what is a good starting place for them and to think about that?
Jenny Melrose: Yes. So I think the biggest thing to understand is that you already have clients that have certain pain points. They're coming to you because you are a niche. Prep specific, probably therapists, whether you deal with kids with A DHD or you're dealing with couples that are work in law enforcement, whatever it might be, that your practice is kind of niche to work with people.
And those people also need support outside of the therapy room, especially potentially their loved ones. As a parent myself of a child that was DI diagnosed with A DHD at a young age. Young girl, we struggled with a lot of different things, and even though I am a former teacher, I had a hard time communicating with her because I didn't understand the anxiety that came with it.
And if the therapist that I was going to for her had a resource for me, like a workshop that walked me through some of the ways to best communicate with her, some of the prompts I could be using, I would have jumped. All over it. I was scouring the internet for all of the resources possible, but I really wanted her resources because that way I could actually utilize the language that she was using with my daughter in therapy.
It would be all part of being able to help her, not only in the therapy room, but then also at home to give me the tools to be able to work with her. And that's where I recommend most therapists start to think about what resources do the people that I'm already helping need? What could benefit them?
What pain points are they continuing to come with me, come to me for? The great thing about it is that. You are not limited one trading time for money where you're talking about you only can see so many people in a week without burning yourself out. And as well as there's only so much time in the day.
So it actually gives you an opportunity to diversify your income, have income that comes in passively through. Oftentimes when you're sleeping. And it also gives you an opportunity to not only help those that are already coming to your practice, but others outside of it that probably have very similar pain points and can't find the right resources to help them as well.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah, and I think one of the things that I think too is that I know having been a therapist now for. Oh, gosh, almost 25 years now. What we find, I guess anytime we work with people is a lot of the same. We it's kinda like we play the same things over and over again with our clients.
And so it's our, like you mentioned, our expertise is the stuff that we see that certainly not a one size fits all, but. I think a lot of times people bring very similar problems and we were able to take our approach with that.
Jenny Melrose: Yes, anytime you're continually getting asked the same type of questions or this giving the same strategies to people, that's a sign that it's needed.
And you can put it into different formats. Whether it is a workbook, they can go through a workshop where it's a video, a course. There's so many options out there to be able to continue to help those people that you are hearing, they ha all are having a similar problem.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. So when you think about that concept what what do you see as the, you've described it, the low hanging fruit as I like to call it.
The things that people could start with that could really, okay. This could start bringing in money. Next week kind of thing.
Jenny Melrose: Yes. I think the biggest thing that people have to understand is that in order to create that product, creating the product is simple, right? You're the expert. You know what they need.
You can provide them with the right resource. It's gonna fit your time and energy that you have in order to create it. The big piece is making sure that you're growing your email list, so being able to not only have people that are part of that are clients that are coming into the practice, but then also.
Offering something to the public that if they were to search for it on Google in chat, GBT and ai, it could be used as a resource for them to give you their email address in exchange for whatever you're sharing with them. Whether it's a free guide or IT checklist, something along the lines that's going to help them.
But it. Valuable to them. 'cause it'll give them that transformation and they will want to give you their email address so that once you have that email address, it gives you the opportunity to then nurture them by providing them with more help. And then also to invite them to purchase a product because they really want that transformation.
They want the full extent of how to fix it.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. And I couldn't agree more. I think that's one of the things that I've learned over the years, just with the consulting that I do and working with people is that having an email list is really your, I don't like, like this phrase, but your foot in the door.
But also it helps you build credibility. They get to know and trust you and you can give them great resources and that sort of thing along the way. And it doesn't necessarily always have to be about selling anything. It's just a way of connecting and, yeah.
Jenny Melrose: Because most therapists are already trying to figure out a way to attract those people that need their services, so they're creating content, whether that is on a website, a podcast, YouTube, or even on social media.
If you are already doing that, being able to capture their email address and have them to be able to continue to have those conversations. You have so many options to diversify If you're only doing one-to-one right now could you do a group intensive? Could you do an in-person retreat? There's so many options of how you can diversify that if you have that email list.
You can ask them, what do you need? When people continually are asking the same questions and telling you what they need, that's your best bet to start there and provide it.
Gordon Brewer: It what are some other ideas that you've seen with people as far as diversifying their income?
You're talking about providing resources in the form of either. A PDF or even a workshop or a course, that kind of thing. What are some other ways that you've seen people be successful in, in, in doing this kind of thing?
Jenny Melrose: Yes. So some that I have clients that I work with are doing, like I said, group intensive programs, but they'll do it like a six month group that stays together working on different things online so that they can do it via Zoom or even potentially coming into the practice.
You obviously have to stay within your state because of regulations that you all already know that. And that in-person retreats are definitely something that I have clients that are doing. I also have clients that are creating. Programs that can then be utilized in other, avenues I would say.
So one of my clients primarily works with law enforcement and their significant others. They're partners and she provides through speaking she provides training for actual departments. To really help the officers be able to better communicate not only in when they're working, but also with their spouses at home.
And what she has done is she's created a Train the trainer program where they can purchase the program and now they can actually teach it and utilize it, and she doesn't have to travel to all of these different departments to speak and train. It gives her an opportunity to really. A hundred acts her reach.
It's quite crazy what you're able to do with something like that.
Gordon Brewer: And not to get too complicated, but then you can trademark your program and you can build it from there and build a whole brand just around a specific program.
Jenny Melrose: Absolutely, yes. I have clients that has one has a signature program that is meant for supervisors that she started off just in the state of Texas and now it has gone national where she's made sure that she's hitting all of the requirements to be able to teach 'em how to be a supervisor.
I have others that actually teach ES to some of the therapists, and then I have a lot that are speaking specifically to their audience and creating. Courses or even memberships where they can get support and just have that accountability to stay on track with what they were taught.
Gordon Brewer: As you mentioned creating, creating the product or the thing, I think is, like you said, is that's the easy part. It's just a matter of putting things together. Yeah. And even now with with AI and the ability to streamline, pulling things together and resources and that kind of thing is just incredible. But the big thing is as you've already alluded to, Jenny, is just, this idea of if you build it, they will come, but that's not true. You've got to build it and tell people about it. And so you wanna speak a little bit about marketing these things? You mentioned the email list, which I think I absolutely agree. That's the number one thing people need to develop and foster.
Jenny Melrose: Yeah. Yes. So in order to get that email list to grow, to have people find it and know what you're doing, you do have to do some marketing. And I know that a lot of people automatically think they should be going to social media and some of them just get hate. The idea of it as well as. I also hate the idea of it because social media is rented property.
You don't own it, you can't keep it. It is you're just feeding the beast trying to stay up with trends and it's not something that's sustainable, especially for someone that's running a practice that has to give so much emotional support, often to their clients. It drains your energy. Immediate gratification from social media is not where I would want you to spend your time.
What I would rather see you do is most of you already have websites where you're using the website in order to be able to have them sign up for know what you offer, where your office is in that website. You have the opportunity to create articles, to write content that answers the questions that they have, so that if you are someone that maybe works with couples that are having issues because she's going through perimenopause and they're sleeping on the opposite sides of the bed, so you actually, we work with couples that need help reconnecting, thinking about what are they gonna be searching for.
And because when you put an article on your website, Google can find it. Google searches it. So when they Google something of how do I get my hu husband to, or how do I get my wife to not push off from me and not want me to touch her? Those types of, that type of content that you can write an article about is huge.
Now, writing an article for some people, they go, oh, I don't wanna do that. Like that takes can be a lot of time if you're not a writer. Personally, I used to love to write, but I'm better at speaking. I do it much faster, and my ideas just come together. So what I have actually done is I repurpose my content.
So I create a video that's going to answer a problem that goes on YouTube. I pull the audio from it, that becomes a podcast, and then the that gets turned into the blog post. Using AI because many of the tools that you use for hosting now, I per I use buzzsprout for my hosting uhhuh. It has the ability to actually utilize AI based on your audio to create that blog post.
And then I go through and edit and make sure that it's in my voice and I'm using the transcript to make sure it's got all the content that I want in there. But you need to have something that. People can search for and YouTube and podcasts and blog posts are the way in which they can be searched.
Because when Google goes through and searches a site and it looks for that problem that you're asking about, that's where it pulls its information from.
Gordon Brewer: And that's what you just described, Jenny, for people that might. Have heard this term, and I know they have is SEO search engine optimization, and that's how you get people to your website is doing exactly what you described is having rich content that is relevant to what people are searching for.
Jenny Melrose: Yes. Keyword research. Yeah. Key. Knowing the words that they're using. And I think often what I find with my therapist clients is that they use therapy words, they use the word hypervigilance and passive aggressive. Like they'll use words that they're, people are not using to describe it. So you have to be able to really start to understand what are the words your people are using, right?
Such as like a wife might say, why is my husband always gotta have his. Back so that it's not towards the door, and that's the hypervigilance. A wife may not know that word. So utilizing the words that they're using, the things they're searching for is key first.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. That's a the other thing I think about is maintaining all of that.
And so what are some of the things that you, kinda suggest as far as you build the thing, you put all the stuff together and you start creating content. What are some good ways to kinda keep that maintained?
Jenny Melrose: Yes, so as therapists that potentially are running either group practice or even a private practice, I.
I teach this idea of CEO rhythm of trying to understand how many hours can you be in the therapy room, how many clients can you handle emotionally, energy wise, that you're not gonna burn yourself out? And then looking at your week, Monday through Friday, what days are you seeing clients and trying to then look at the days where potentially you are not.
Where you can create this, where you can have the content that just naturally is going. I recommend that if you can do once a week, it's ideal as far as putting out new content, but it doesn't have to be once every two weeks, once a month, once you get started and starting foundationally with knowing who you are trying to attract, what are their pain points, what are their problems, and that's where AI comes in having a conversation.
With chat, GBT or Claude to say, these are the types of clients. You're not giving the information, you're not breaking hipaa, you're not giving any sort of specifics. You're just giving them a general idea of who it is that you're working with and what are their pain points. And it will help you really come in and get a focus on, okay, this is the opt-in I should create as far as the guide.
Here's an outline of some topics that I could create content for. And then once you have the topics. You can ask it to create an outline. That's exactly, I am in chat to BT every single day, but I don't utilize it to replace myself. I utilize it as it has specific roles within my business. It's the marketing specialist, it is the email specialist, and I utilize those to help me speed things up. What used to take me hours upon hours, not with ai, takes me like 20 minutes.
Gordon Brewer: It is. Yeah. It's phenomenal. I was having a conversation yesterday with somebody about how we were using ai and you've get what I love about it not to get too far off on a tangent, is you can give it an idea.
That you're working on and okay, it pulls together the all the little details that maybe even things you haven't even thought about that, that are relevant to that. And then you can take that and put it together in a form that is you, and it fits your personality and all of that kind of thing.
Jenny Melrose: Absolutely. It's the way that I try to teach people to think about it is if you were to hire someone to work within your business, you would have to train 'em on the mission, your values, all of the information that's branding wise for what it is that you do. You do the same thing with ai. You go in and you tell it, this is the mission of my business.
These are my core values, and this is what I really want my people to be able to walk away with. Once you give it that. Background information, it understands you so much better and can guide you in the right direction as far as trying to figure out what could be the right product based on the pain points that you tell it you're hearing from your people.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. It's such a, it's such a phenomenal tool. Yeah. And there's, it's just gonna, it's just gonna get better as we learn more and more about all of that technology and that kind of thing. And so I think some people approach it with a little bit of fear of being like, the machine is gonna take over, but I don't know that's gonna happen.
But I think it's gonna be, it's actually gonna make us learn how to think about things differently.
Jenny Melrose: Yes, I totally agree. I think it, it just is changing the way that I can do my business without having to hire multiple people for my team right now, I'm able to utilize it to help me brainstorm, to help me research, do best practices.
If I'm gonna write a YouTube description for my video content, I am going to first say. Do the latest research on YouTube for what I should have in my description based on algorithms and trends, and then I will tell it, here's the actual blog post, or here's the transcript from the video. Help me create the description and,
It's brilliant.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah, it really is. It really is. Jenny, I know we've gotta be mindful of our time and there's, I know there's so much about all of this that we could talk about. But tell folks more about how they can access your resources and that sort of thing and your pod. Say some more about your podcast and the kind of people that you have on there.
Jenny Melrose: Absolutely. So you can head to jenny melrose.com. Right up, as soon as you get to the website, you will see my strategic growth guide, which is gonna help you really start to figure out how you can grow your business in the way that we're talking about with the content, making sure that it's SEO keyword research for you.
And there's also a button there for a discovery call if you have questions. I love to actually have a conversation because not all businesses are one size fits all. I do find that I can better assist with which program is the right fit for you. So the discovery call is absolutely there, right on the jenny melrose.com and my podcast is there as well on the website.
Practiced a profit. It has, like I said, it has been around for 10 years, so there's over 480 Selma episodes. I have not missed. One week in 10 years, and it talks about all of the CEO mindsets and strategies that you need in order to grow your business, that works for you and for your family. You will not hear me talking about you need to be making seven figures, eight, nothing crazy like that because that's not the right.
Fit for every person, right? You have to do what is right for you and the vision that you have for your life and your business. And I am very much aware of that and make sure that we give content and strategies that can be put into practice without having to work 90 hours in a week.
Gordon Brewer: I'm looking forward to listening to the podcast and, it's, it is crazy that we haven't run across each other before now because we both had podcasts about the same length of time.
You started, like you said, back in the dark ages of podcasting, but but that's great that you've been able to keep it up. And I admire you for keeping up the work because it is like you said, putting out a podcast every week is a lot of work. And it
Jenny Melrose: definitely can be.
Gordon Brewer: Yeah. Yeah. But I think it's yeah, we'll have to have a whole conversation about that at some point as well. But Jenny, any parting thoughts that you have for folks as we kinda close out this episode?
Jenny Melrose: Yes. So I would say, I think the, one of the biggest things that I see with my therapist is they have a tendency to stay within their, the kind of Facebook groups of therapy niches and get stuck with figuring if she's doing that, I should be doing that.
Or if he's has seen great growth, it's gonna work for me. And like I said before. Business is not one size fits all. You have to find the right rhythm for your personality, for your family, and for your business that you wanna see. So when you're looking at this, really start to think about what is my path?
What are my goals, and how can I get there without sacrificing my beliefs and my energy and not burning out?
Gordon Brewer: I think that's great. And I love your philosophy. I have very much the same philosophy about all of this. I think it's about not do, doing what fits for you is the most important thing that we can do, rather than trying to mimic what everybody else is doing.
And I totally agree with that. Jenny, hopefully we can have another conversation again here soon. And I'm glad that you joined me on the podcast.
Jenny Melrose: Thank you so much for having me, Gordon. I appreciate it.
Gordon Brewer: Yes.