In this episode, Gordon speaks with Laura Long about her “badass” coaching business, YouTube channel, and private practice. Laura explains how her private practice started as a side gig while working at an assessment center for foster care parents. Then, Laura analyzes how her practice became lucrative and why she started her own coaching business. Later, Gordon and Laura discuss being your authentic self, why you should not be afraid to fail, and how to create the private practice you want to have.
Meet Laura Long
Laura Long is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the owner of YourBadAssTherapyPractice.com, where she helps ambitious, Type-A therapists push through their fears and unleash their inner badass in private practice.
Laura offers free practice-building tools through her email list and her brand new Youtube channel. Her signature 8-week online course has successfully graduated over 200 therapists, and she also runs small mastermind groups and a private online community reserved for her students.
Laura is best known for her off-the-cuff coaching style that includes colorful language, a witty sense of humor, and an uncanny ability to keep it real. Her unique approach to marketing and customer service challenges the status quo and helps therapists to become better business owners. She shows therapists how to grow and scale their practices without losing their minds – because building your private practice should be fun!
You can read Laura’s blog at www.YourBadAssTherapyPractice.com and follow her antics at www.Facebook.com/YourBadAssTherapyPractice.
Private Practice as a Side Gig
Laura took a break from therapy for and worked at an assessment center for foster care parents. To make some extra money on the side, Laura started a private practice; it gave her permission not to take it very seriously. She treated her private practice as a hobby and only got a few clients. The foster care agency became a toxic environment and Laura decided to grow her private practice instead. With no plan, Laura felt she had made a rash decision by quitting her steady paycheck for the unknown world of private practice.
Becoming Lucrative
Private practice was no longer a hobby and Laura needed to make her private practice something lucrative. Nose to the grindstone, Laura figured it out. Now, Laura gets to help other people start their private practice, and she wants everyone to know her journey was not as easy as it sounds. There is no best way to get to your result as everyone’s journeys are different. For instance, Laura hired a coach to assist her with a YouTube channel. Her coach answered the tiny little questions that would come up. Her coach told her there was not one right way but gave her suggestions on things to try.
Coaching
Laura started coaching others when there were no Facebook pages or websites to help aspiring therapists. In 2016, Laura began to her actual business to help therapists. It’s an eight-week course giving advice and tips for starting your practice. Also, coaching on YouTube has allowed her to grow her practice and help others to begin their practices. A common question asked from her viewers are how to get more clients. Lately, her fans have been asking how to get more clients while still being themselves. Therapists want to be more authentic in their marketing and be more selective in the type of clients they take.
Resources Mentioned
Being transparent… Some of the resources below are affiliate links. this just simply means we receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you use the links to purchase. Thanks for using the links!
Practice Solutions
Brighter Vision
Therapy Notes
Money Matters in Private Practice
Jump – Steve Harvey
Money Matters In Private Practice | The Course
Laura’s Resources
Throw away your business cards and join Laura Long for her 8-week program, “Your Badass Therapy Practice,” where she distills the secrets of top-performing private practice clinicians and helps you unleash your inner badass!
Laura’s Course
YouTube Channel
www.Facebook.com/YourBadAssTherapyPractice.
www.YourBadAssTherapyPractice.com
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Meet Gordon Brewer, MEd, LMFT
Gordon is the person behind The Practice of Therapy Podcast & Blog. He is also President and Founder of Kingsport Counseling Associates, PLLC. He is a therapist, consultant, business mentor, trainer, and writer. PLEASE Subscribe to The Practice of Therapy Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play. Follow us on Twitter @therapistlearn and Pinterest “Like” us on Facebook.