Carrie Sears on Why Branding Matters | MP 23

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Carrie Sears on Why Branding Matters | MP 23

Are you in the process of creating a new brand? Do you have a brand that you’re not happy with? What actions can you take to improve your brand?

In this podcast episode, Sam Carvalho speaks to Carrie Sears about why branding matters.

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Therapy Notes logo representing how Therapy Notes has sponsored this therapist podcast episode on branding for a private practice.There are many ways to keep your practice organized, but TherapyNotes is the best. Their easy-to-use, secure platform lets you not only do your billing, scheduling, and progress notes but also create a client portal to share documents and request signatures. Plus, they offer amazing, unlimited phone support so when you have a question you can get help FAST. To get started with the Practice Management Software Trusted by over 35,000 professionals go to TherapyNotes.com and start a free trial today.

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Meet Carrie Sears

Carrie SearsCarrie Sears is the Marketing Director for Blue Boat Counseling in Columbus, Ohio. She owns and operates the practice with her husband, Andy, who is a counselor.

Her career started as a food scientist and turned consumer insight specialist in the corporate world after earning a master’s degree in marketing. Carrie and Andy took the plunge about 2 years ago to grow their group practice and make it their sole livelihood, with branding and website design being an integral part of their success.

Visit Andy and Carrie’s website and connect with them on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

In This Podcast

Podcast Summary

  • Blue Boat Counseling’s branding
  • The process of setting up the branding
  • Carrie’s perspective on branding
  • Branding lessons
  • Consistency
  • Actions to improve your brand

Blue Boat Counseling’s branding

Carrie’s husband, Andy, is a therapist. They started this journey by working with Joe Sanok, doing one-on-one consulting before joining Joe’s Mastermind group. Andy told Joe that he wanted to grow his solo and they were talking about how to name it. One of the options was to name it after an object, not as common of a way to go about it but there have been some successful practices around that. This really appealed to Carrie from a branding and marketing perspective. If they have this brand that’s around a thing, they could take it in a lot of directions and really hone in on their colors, what the logo looks like to, and how to make it easily recognizable.

In terms of deciding what the object would actually be, Carrie needed to pick Andy’s brain a bit because the whole practice started with him because of the passion he has for what he does. Carrie knew that the color would be blue but the boat part came from a childhood memory.

The process of setting up the branding

It started with the name and then they really had to think about what they wanted the practice to look like. Andy took all types of insurance when in solo practice so part of the group transition was moving to that private pay model. It needed to be a bit more upscale so the website and branding needed to fit that.

They did the practice name and then worked on the logo which they had a graphic designer help them with. Once the logo was done, and it was exactly how Andy remembered the boat as a kid, they worked on the tagline and had a website designer help them. That’s where most of Carrie’s time was and still is, spent, with the copy, their images, their logo, and also having the social media fit in with everything. From there, it was all about SEO – they had this website that they love but now they needed people to see it so spent hours working on SEO.

Carrie’s perspective on branding

Do your market research

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or detailed, just do the background on your local area, if you’re a local practice wanting to market yourself locally.

  • What are potential clients in your area searching for on Google when they look for counseling? You’ll want to use these terms on your website.
  • What are the names of other local practices? – Who are their ideal clients? What do their websites look like? How do they represent themselves in the community?

This isn’t to find out what people are doing to emulate it, it’s to find the white space where you can differentiate yourself.

Spend the time

It’s hard taking the time on something that feels a bit abstract in the beginning, having no payoff, but it is worth it. Take the time to create your brand. Consider all the elements: your name, colors, logo, typography, graphic and web design, etc. Marketing strategy is built around a brand so take the time upfront.

Don’t be afraid to be different

being different and standing out can feel uncomfortable but Carrie challenges everyone to push themselves a little bit here because it’s not the time to blend in and be like everyone else. Hone in on who you’re targeting and do what resonates with those people, while standing out in your area.

Make it about you

When it comes to branding, your practice’s identity comes from you and people are looking more and more now than ever for personal connections with brands. Adding elements to your brand that have meaning to you and tell a story, will allow people to connect with you.

Branding lessons

If you do that soul searching, and really figure out what it is you want, that branding makes a huge difference in how you can get there.

Branding matters! Clients need to know, like, and trust you, and they do that through your brand. When people see the brand that you created, it matters, and people remember it when you have cohesive elements and it looks like it comes from you.

Branding needs to be prioritized. Branding can be personal, it can be about your story and who you are, which can be scary but it can also be a nice way for therapists to understand branding better and want to get involved because then it’s not this external, massive task, it’s just creating a visual identity from their story.

Consistency

Consistency is so important. You might get sick of your own branding colors and social media templates but consistency is actually so powerful for the person on the other side.

Actions to improve your brand

If you’re in a position of needing to improve your brand, make a list of the key branding elements. Go down the list and start asking yourself if you’re happy with each one. Do you like your colors? Do you like your logo? If you don’t then it’s not going to bring the positive energy to your clients. If you’re not happy with elements then you need to change them. It may be daunting but if you make the commitment and go all in, it will pay off in the end.

Useful Links:

Meet Sam Carvalho

Samantha Carvalho DesignSam Carvalho is a graphic designer living in Cape Town, South Africa, with over five years of experience in both design and marketing, with a special interest and experience in the start-up environment.

She has been working with Practice of the Practice since 2016 and has helped over 70 therapist entrepreneurs take their practices to the next level by enhancing their visual branding. She loves working with a variety of clients on design-intensive tasks and is always up for a challenge!

Follow Sam on Instagram to see some of her work. To work with Sam, head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding.

Thanks For Listening!

Feel free to leave a comment below or share this podcast on social media by clicking on one of the social media links below! Alternatively, leave a review on iTunes and subscribe!

Podcast Transcription

[SAM]:
Between writing notes, filing insurance claims, and scheduling of clients, it can be hard to stay organized. That’s why I recommend TherapyNotes. Their easy-to-use platform lets you manage your practice securely and efficiently. Visit therapynotes.com to get two free months of therapy notes today. Just use the promo code JOE when you sign up for a free trial at therapynotes.com.

Welcome to the Marketing a Practice podcast with me, Sam Carvalho, where you will discover everything you need to know about marketing and branding your business. To find out more about how I can help you brand your business, visit www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram @samanthacarvalhodesign.

Thanks for joining me today on the Marketing a Practice podcast. A couple of weeks ago, we interviewed Cortland MacPherson of Little Ray Telescope, and in this episode, I’ll be continuing with the theme of featuring private practice owners who have already established their practices through unique, successful branding. So, today’s guest is Carrie Sears, who is the marketing director for Blue Boat Counseling in Columbus, Ohio. She owns and operates a practice with her husband Andy, who is a counselor. Her career started as a food scientist and turned into a consumer insight specialist in the corporate world. After earning a master’s degree in marketing, she and Andy took the plunge about two years ago to grow their group practice and make it their sole livelihood, with branding and website design being an integral part of their success. Hi, Carrie, thanks so much for joining me today.

[CARRIE]:
Sure. Thanks for having me, Sam.

[SAM]:
So that’s quite an interesting background you have there, from being a food scientist and becoming a consumer insight specialist; can you tell us a bit about that transition?

[CARRIE]:
Sure. So yeah, I was a food scientist first. And I worked in food, lead research and development, working on beverage products for some years. And the parts I really loved about my work was when we got to take our products to consumers, and really start to understand how they felt about it, what they liked about it, and kind of dig into consumer behavior and understand that. So since I was interested in that, and I thought that I could be kind of a bridge between marketing and science within the corporate world, I decided to get a marketing degree and take my career in that direction because I could communicate with the scientists and the marketers because I had a little bit of knowledge on either side. So I spent probably 12 years working for a big corporate food company where I, as part of consumer insight, I used to moderate focus groups if you’ve ever been a part of one of those, where we really tried to understand their behavior and understand consumer likes and dislikes.

[SAM]:
Awesome. So that’s really given you some great experience in the field of marketing, and I’m sure it helped having that knowledge when you decided to set up the private practice.

[CARRIE]:
Yes, a lot. So, in the corporate world, there are so many people working on a project or a given product [unclear] that you might be working on one little aspect of it, but you get exposure to all the pieces and parts. So I worked with a lot of marketing people and, you know, my work was understanding consumers, but I worked with branding and marketing people all the time, and also had some of the knowledge from my schooling and so, yeah, when it came time to do this, I was definitely ready to take on that part of the process and into working with the brand for our group practice.

[SAM]:
Yeah, that’s awesome. So, can you tell us a bit about the story behind your branding, and how you came up with the name Blue Boat Counseling and the associated branding of the practice?

[CARRIE]:
Sure. So, my husband, Andy, is a therapist. And we actually started this journey by working with Joe. Andy did some one on one consulting with Joe before joining a mastermind group. And during the one on one consulting Andy was starting to talk to Joe about the fact that he wanted to grow his practice, his solo practice at the time, into a group. So Joe was asking him questions about… because we were talking about what we could name it, and he was kind of talking about how you could go down these different paths and one of those being you could look at naming it after an object. It’s kind of a more not as common of a way to go, but that there have been some successful practices around that. And so I was thinking through that idea, it really appealed to me because from a branding perspective and a marketing perspective I thought, if we have this brand that’s around a thing you can really take that in a lot of directions in terms of, you know, it’s not so abstract, like, in our case, it’s a boat. So, while we don’t try to have cheesy boats everywhere or anything, it really allowed us to home in on our colors and what that logo looked like and be able to make something that people recognize when they see it.

But as far the name; so that was how we arrived at looking at an object, and so I started picking Andy’s brain because I thought this whole practice started with him. It really has been about him from the beginning, because this is his passion of what he does, as being a counselor, and so I started asking him questions and getting in his head as if he were my [unclear] I guess, and trying to understand where we can go with the object angle. And I’ve known him more years than I haven’t known him, so I knew if there was a color involved it would be blue because of his affinity for [unclear], but the boat came from the fact that he used to ride… he would go to amusement parks with his family when he was young. And he had two brothers, he was the middle, and they would go on rides at his amusement parks. Well, Andy would wait in line. So, they’d have a little boat ride or whatever, and he would wait in line for the blue one. So, it’s his turn to come up and if it wasn’t blue, he wouldn’t get in and he would let other kids go in front of them until it was blue. And so, there was a lot of symbolism in this because it’s very much about that’s who Andy is. He’s very strong willed and if it’s not what he wants, he won’t go after it. So it was very much about him and being strong willed, but also something I’ve heard him say, in all of his years is, his passion is helping people find themselves and a place to be able to be who they really are. And for me the symbolism was all about that, like that’s what he was doing as a kid, he was just being his true self, waiting for that blue boat. So, our tagline is “Be you” because it’s all about being who you really are. So that’s what our blue boat is supposed to symbolize; being yourself, being who you really are.

[SAM]:
That’s awesome. And do you have a lot of instances where clients will ask you about the story behind the name and you get to share that?

[CARRIE]:
For sure. There are times when people wonder where it comes from. We do also have… we don’t highlight it on our website, but it we do have a little part on our website that says “Our story” for the people who are wondering and want to know the background behind the name, it is on the website as well.

[SAM]:
Okay, yeah, that’s great, because I think it’s definitely a unique name, especially for private practices. I don’t think… usually they’ll name it after themselves, or it will be a more generic kind of name that’s tailored towards therapy or counseling. So, I think, as you say, having it named after an object and the fact that it’s been so successful is really awesome, and just goes to show the power of storytelling in branding.

[CARRIE]:
Yes, for sure. And that was the other part that I say, in doing this, before we really decided on the name, we also did a lot of research in our area. We’re definitely a very local practice in our community and so we did a lot of market research. This is my background. And I started really understanding the practices in the area. And really, I found a lot of the names really blended together. You know, we’ve got Directions, Foundations, Bridges, you know, they all kind of… none of them really stood out. It seems like they were easy to blend together and forget. So that was the other part of this, was it’s an opportunity to differentiate yourself as well by picking something that’s not like everyone else.

[SAM]:
Yes, absolutely. And I mean, even just in the two years or so that I’ve been working with private practices, I’ve also found a lot of similarities in a lot of counselors’ branding, and I think it’s, on the one hand, I understand the notion to want to go with what’s associated with counseling because people assume that that’s what clients will be drawn to. But on the other hand, I think, more and more now it’s becoming more important to stand out and to do what you can to be a bit different from others.

[CARRIE]:
Yes, that was the direction we felt was the right one to go. And so far, it’s working.

[SAM]:
Yes. So, who is your target audience? And how have they responded to your branding?

[CARRIE]:
So I think as far as target audience, we kind of… our practice, we have four therapists right now, including Andy, and everyone has really a different, you know, they’re kind of different camps of where you can live in terms of your group practice where you hone everybody in on a more ideal client. Or you can have everyone live in these different camps of ideal clients and kind of become more of a general practice. I would say that’s more where we are. So, in terms of our ideal clients scope, it’s kind of broad, in that each therapist really has their own ideal client, and they’re all different. But in terms of an overall umbrella of who we target, you know, obviously people who fit those ideal presenting issues. But as far as clients, we’re looking for people who are looking for more of an upscale counseling experience, you know, versus, I’m just looking for a practice that takes my insurance. We’re a private pay practice, and so people who are ready to be invested in it and not just focusing on do you take my insurance. [Unclear] really looking for more of a connection with the counselor, and trying to find the best fit, rather than just asking the insurance questions.

[SAM]:
Yes. And what was the process of setting up your branding? So, you obviously first started with the name and once you’d found the name then did you move on to the logo? Did you have a brand style guide or…? Can you walk us through that process?

[CARRIE]:
Um, sure. So, it started with the name and, within that, we also really had to think about what we wanted this practice to look like. Andy used to take every insurance you can think of as a solo practice. And that was part of this group transition, was also moving out of that, out of that into private pay model. So we really had to think about what we wanted this group practice to look like, and coming up with the name and then deciding that this, the feel of it really was going to be a bit more upscale; we felt like our website and branding needed to fit that. So, we did the practice name, and then we worked on the logo. We had a graphic designer help us with the logo. And from that, iterations of doing that, I mean, for Andy, that boat had to be exactly what was in his mind. So that’s… if you see our logo, that’s the boat he remembers as a kid. So, once we had that, the colors just came from that and those [unclear].

And then it was working on tagline and having… we also had a website designer who helped us. I would say that’s where a lot of most of my time was spent and continues to be spent, is on our website, with our copy and our images and our logo and then also having the social media fit into that. So yeah, I think practice name, working on the logo and colors, and the typography and the colors kind of came from that. And the tagline and then really focusing in on our website with a website designer is kind of the process we’ve taken. And then from there, it was all about SEO to try to… So, we have this website that we love; now we need people to see it. Yeah, so then I have hours and hours of working on SEO as well.

[SAM]:
Yeah, I can imagine you spent a lot of time with the imagery in your website because, when taking a look through your website, it’s got such rich imagery and the images obviously take up most of the space on the screen when you’re going through it, and it really makes such an impact when browsing through it. But what I really liked about it was that it’s… because what I’ve found as well with browsing a lot of counseling websites is at times there will be images that have been inserted just for the sake of having an image on the page. Whereas you can see with those you’ve put a lot of thought into each image and each image carries a lot of impact and helps communicate the message that you’re wanting to communicate through the image.

[CARRIE]:
I appreciate you saying that, because I do have… it’s probably almost my downfall in terms of time management is that I really try hard to make those images fit what the copy is in that space on the website. So, thank you for saying that. It kind of feels I’m justifying my time a little bit.

[SAM]:
No, absolutely. And just from a design perspective, you can see that you’ve put that time in because I think for me, it’s so easy to tell when someone’s just picked the first image that’s come up in their search. And as I say, they’re just putting the image in for the sake of using an image. And I often say in that scenario, rather just don’t use the image, then just make sure that your copy conveys what you need it to. But yeah, even just landing on your home page, I mean, the whole screen is just filled up with this image and it’s just… you know, your logo and the call to action and I feel like your call to actions are really strong as well and consistent throughout the website, which is also so important. And so, you can definitely see you’ve put a lot of time into that and it is obviously paying off.

[CARRIE]:
Yes, and it does take time and I know it’s hard for… especially if you don’t… if I were to say, if you don’t have a me, somebody like me, working for your practice, because Andy and I are fortunate in that I’m not a therapist, that is not a hat I wear and marketing is not a hat Andy wears. So, Joe has asked us many times about how we work together – that’s really how, is that we don’t step on each other’s toes at all. But in working in the practice, this is what I do for the practice, so I understand that scenario that, you know, if you’re a therapist and wearing all the hats, it’s hard to find the time to do that. But it is so worth it, even if you have to spend some money to hire a professional to help you with it as well. I think it’s so worth it.

[SAM]:
Yes, absolutely. So, can you share with us three to five bullet points that kind of expand on your perspective on branding?

[CARRIE]:
Sure. So, I kind of have touched on probably all of this a little bit. But I think putting it into some bullets is probably helpful to kind of streamline it. So, the first thing I would say is do your market research. I know that term may not be comfortable for everybody, but this is my background, and it’s also why I’m such a proponent of it. But at the same time, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy or detailed, but doing that background on your local area, if you’re a local practice and wanting to market yourself locally, you know, what are clients in your area, potential clients, what do they search for on Google when they look for counseling? Because those are terms that you want to use in your website. What are the names of other local practices? Who are their ideal clients? And what are their websites look like? And how do they represent themselves in the community? You know, these are all questions that I asked and started really digging into what I could find about the practices in our community. And this research is not to say like, do all of this and find out what other people are doing so you can emulate it. This is like, helping you to find that white space of where you can differentiate yourself and what fits for you, what are your ideal clients and who you are, who you want to be, but I’m in that space where you [unclear] and doing your market research helps you. So that would be my first one.

And the second one is spend the time. It’s hard to take the time on something that feels a bit abstract in the beginning [unclear] pay off, but it is really worth it, and it does take some soul searching to create a brand. I mean, corporate companies spend millions and millions of dollars creating a brand, they actually try to avoid creating one whenever they can because it is such an undertaking. So, it does take time. But it’s worth it. Especially to stand out, consider all the elements within branding like your [unclear], but your name, your colors, your logo, your typography, all of those things, graphics, web design. Because if you kind of halfway do these things and throw something together, it can actually be more time consuming to make big changes to it. So, take the time up front, and also your marketing strategy is built around your brand, so it’s a lot easier to build what you want to do from a marketing perspective. Should I just keep going?

[SAM]:
Yeah, keep going.

[CARRIE]:
The third thing is don’t be afraid to be different. So, we’ve talked a lot about this and this [unclear] do what you feel comfortable doing. But, you know, being different and standing out can feel uncomfortable, but I would challenge everyone to kind of push yourself a little bit here and this is not the time to blend in and be like everyone else. At least that’s my feeling. I know we want to do what clients are comfortable with but sometimes it’s okay if you’re not the right fit for everyone. So, if you really can hone in on who you’re targeting and do what resonates with those people, and standing out at the same time in your area, then I think it’ll [unclear] your potential clients who need your services. This is another way that helps, I think, wear a marketing hat, is your clients need you and if you blend in with everybody else, you’re just making it hard for them to find you.

And the last point I want to say about branding is make it about you. And this is not… you know, we hear so much about this is not about you, it’s not about you. And you know, in a lot of respects that’s true. It is about your clients; you want to speak their language and talk to them in a meaningful way. But when it comes to branding, I think your practices identity comes from you and people are looking more and more now than ever for personal connections with brands. So I’m not saying, go out and be me, me, me, but adding elements to your brand that come from you, and have meaning to you, and tell a story, will allow people to connect with that, and when it’s a reflection of you people are able to connect with you. I think that’s what people are wanting.

[SAM]:
Absolutely. And I think it just reiterates what we said earlier about the power of storytelling. And I think when it comes to private practices, in particular, people want to have that personal connection. And want to be able to relate to the counselor that they’re going to be so vulnerable with. And I can imagine that even just coming to do counseling, and inquiring about the name behind the counseling practice, and having that conversation first and foremost, how that almost breaks the ice for the rest of the counseling session. You already feel even more comfortable with that person.

[CARRIE]:
Yes. It does make people feel connected to the brand if they read the story, and they understand that this comes from Andy. He’s a real person, he grew up here and he loves blue, and hey, I like blue too. Any little thing that makes people feel connected to you, I think is a good thing today.

[SAM]:
Absolutely. And I entirely agree with point two, about spending the time, the necessary time to set it all up and to do it properly in the beginning, rather than to have to go back and redo it. I think if you put enough time and thought into your branding from the get go, and I know a lot of the times people don’t have the money and they feel like they need to bootstrap it or do it themselves, but I totally agree with what you said, that, make those sacrifices in the beginning and then have a timeless brand that’s going to last for 10 or 20 years as opposed to one that after five years, you’re going to feel like you need to relook at and then end up spending even more money than you would have in the beginning.

[CARRIE]:
Yeah, for sure. And you see it all the time. I mean, [unclear] seen it? I remember, just in the mastermind that Andy was in, there was someone who at the time, wanted to work on changing her brand. And it was so daunting to her. She almost didn’t want to take it on because she regretted the choices she made in the beginning. So yeah, I would definitely say spend the time.

[SAM]:
And then it ends up being an even bigger job than it did in the beginning.

[CARRIE]:
Oh, for sure. Yeah, cuz we’re correcting everything. You have to not only start over, but undo what you’ve already done. Yeah.

[SAM]:
Yeah. So, what have been some of the biggest branding lessons that you’ve learned over the years?

[CARRIE]:
So, when I think about this, the very first thing that comes to my mind is just that branding matters. I feel like, when a therapist, as we would say, just hangs a shingle or just goes out there and opens their door, you feel like if you get yourself out there in the community a little bit or you sign yourself up for all the insurances, which these are the things that Andy did in the beginning, like when he first learned about private practice, so it seemed like the things that you are, quote-unquote, supposed to do. And you can get referrals that way and you can make it work. But is that your ideal? Is that really what you want? So, I feel like if you do that soul searching, and really figure out what it is that you want, that branding makes a huge difference in how you can get there. So for us, you know, especially for a private pay practice, if that’s your business model, I think… we’ve heard the saying of clients, that’s people who know, like, and trust you as a brand. It’s absolutely true, and they do that through your brand. So the more you kind of cultivate it and you know, I have a friend not very long ago say, she said, do you make all of your images for social media and I said, yeah, you could hire that out or whatever, but I did ours. But she’s like, oh my gosh, when I see one, I immediately know it’s yours. I immediately know it’s a Blue Boat image. And I was like, about to cry, because I’ve never… you don’t get that opportunity to have somebody just bring that up, you know, the clients come here for help. They’re not really coming in here to talk to you about your brand. So I miss out on that part, but it was great to have somebody like acknowledge that and it makes you realize the power of, you know, when people see the brand that you create, it matters and people remember it when you have cohesive elements and it looks like it comes from you. So I think that’s just the first thing I think of is that it matters, and that sounds kind of simplistic, but I feel like sometimes I think what I’ve learned from being around therapists now and my husband being one of them, is that feeling like that’s kind of secondary, you know, and of course to the therapy, it would seem that way to the therapist, for sure. But in terms of owning and running the business, it’s kind of at the forefront.

[SAM]:
No, I think it’s awesome, the way you put that because, as you say, for a lot of therapists, it might be secondary. But obviously, if clients aren’t being attracted to the business through the branding, then the thing that they’re most concerned about doing they won’t be able to do so. The reality of it is that they do need to prioritize the branding. And I think the way that you’ve gone about putting in the perspective that branding can be so personal, and it can be about your story, and about who you are, and about revealing that. And although that’s scary and it can be vulnerable to do that, I think that can be a nice way for therapists to understand branding a bit better and also want to get involved in branding a bit better because then it’s not this external massive task. It’s actually just telling their story and creating a visual identity out of this story.

[CARRIE]:
Yeah, for sure. When Andy and I were starting this… if you just have somebody who can sort of take notes as you ramble on about things, this is what I did. And now we kind of picked up [unclear] that we thought could work just from me taking notes about Andy talking about things, you know, and then from there, we kind of created it, so it doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking. You just need somebody to listen to you while you… and kind of probe you some questions about what matters to you and you can get there, for sure.

[SAM]:
And that’s such amazing feedback that you received about your social media. And I think that’s something that people maybe get sick of me saying as well, but just consistency and how important consistency is and it may… I mean, you might even get sick yourself of your branding colors or, you know, playing around with the same social media templates the whole time, but you don’t realize how powerful it actually is for the person on the other side.

[CARRIE]:
Yes, for sure.

[SAM]:
So, if business owners were to take action on improving their brand, what are some of the first things that they should look

[CARRIE]:
So I think if I were in a position of needing to improve my brand, I probably would just take, you know, we’ve kind of touched on like, key branding elements, I would kind of just take that list, and go down that list and start asking myself, am I happy with what I’m doing today, as it fits in this bucket? Do I like my colors? Do I like my logo? If you don’t like it, if you don’t feel it, it’s not gonna bring that energy to your clients, that positive energy to your clients if you don’t feel it yourself. So I would just maybe go down that list of branding elements and ask yourself how you feel about what you’re doing today in those areas, and if you’re feeling like, I’m not really happy where I am, then I think you need to change it. I mean, we talked about that it can be daunting to do that. But I think if you make a commitment and the decision to just go all in and not do it a little bit here and there, like you just decide to take it on and do it, then it’ll pay off in the end. But that’s probably where I would start, is just really getting a list together of branding elements, go through it, and evaluate where you stand, and see where you need to make those changes. And if you feel like it’s all not where you want it to be, then go all in and just kind of almost start over. It’s daunting, but you’ll be glad you did; it will be worth it. It will be worth the time.

[SAM]:
Or reach out to someone who can help you with it, like me.

[CARRIE]:
Of course, and all this is to say if you… and I mentioned this before, I know this can be hollow, this can be very daunting, especially if you are a therapist, even if you’re a group practice owner, and you’re a therapist and you’re a therapist with other therapists working with you, you don’t have maybe any admin or marketing support who work in your practice, for sure. Then looking to hire someone like Sam helps. And I’m not just saying that because you are who you are, Sam. I genuinely mean it. If it’s not something you can take on yourself, I think it’s completely… I’m a believer that it’s money well spent.

[SAM]:
Yes, absolutely. I agree with that as well. I’m blowing my own horn here, but I mean even if it’s not me just hiring any other marketing or design professional to help can make the world of difference. So, if people wanted to take a look at your website or some of your social media platforms where can they find you?

[CARRIE]:
So, you can just go to blueboatcounseling.com, and we are on Facebook, we are Blue Boat Counseling Worthington, and then we’re just @blueboatcounseling on Instagram. Find us there.

[SAM]:
Awesome. And if every private practice owner in the world were listening right now, what would you want them to know?

[CARRIE]:
Well, I’ve kind of said a lot of things, but the branding matters still comes to mind. But I would say, do the soul searching about what kind of practice you really want to have if you don’t feel like you’re there today. And then do the work to create the brand that fits your vision, because it’ll help you get there.

[SAM]:
Great. Thanks so much, Carrie. It’s been awesome having you and I know that this is going to be super valuable to everybody who hears it. So, thanks so much for being on the Marketing a Practice podcast today.

[CARRIE]:
You’re welcome, Sam. Thanks so much for having me.

[SAM]:
Thanks for listening to the Marketing a Practice podcast. If you need help with branding your business, whether it be a new logo, rebrand, or you simply want to have a print file designed, head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram @samanthacarvalhodesign.

Finally, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on iTunes if you like what you’ve heard. Talk to you soon.

This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests, are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.