How to Trend on Instagram with Dana Carretta-Stein | POP 775

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A photo of Dana Carretta-Stein is captured. Dana Carretta-Stein is an EMDR Therapist. Dana Carretta-Stein is featured on Practice of the Practice, a therapist podcast.

Do you want to take your social media to the next level? Do you want to trend on Instagram? What are some great tips on how to use Instagram and TikTok to launch your social media presence?

In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok speaks about how to trend on Instagram with Dana Carretta-Stein.

Podcast Sponsor: Level Up Week

A photo of the Podcast, Sponsor Level Up Week, is captured. Level Up week sponsors the Practice of the Practice Podcast

You’re probably entering that phase where you start to set yourself up for 2023, you’re thinking about what your goals are gonna be, what you’re not going to do, and what you hope to achieve.

But regardless of where you are within your private practice journey, I’m challenging you to make these last few months count, to dig deep, and to make next year the one for big changes within your business – and more importantly – within yourself.

So if you’ve been looking for a sign to either start your own private practice, grow from solo to group, or become a next-level group practice boss, this is it…and you’re certainly not alone, because Practice of the Practice is doing something we’ve never done before.

We’re so convinced that now is the time for you to grow that we’re dedicating all our resources to help you do it. We’re all in. Every single one of us. And we’re inviting you to go all in and level up.

From September 12 to 15 we’ll be running ‘Level Up’ week to help you decide what will work best for you in your private practice journey. There will be webinars, Q&As with experts, and a chance for you to meet your accountability partners, facilitators, and community.

So if you’re ready to make a change and level up, register at practiceofthepractice.com/levelup and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages @practiceofthepractice for live updates and event details.

Make September 2022 the month that you start your journey and level up.

Meet Dana Carretta-Stein

A photo of Dana Carretta-Stein is captured. She is an EMDR Therapist, EMDRIA Approved Consultant and Author. Dana is featured on the Practice of the Practice.

Dana Carretta-Stein is an EMDR Therapist, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, and Author of The EMDR Treatment Planning Templates and The EMDR Therapy Progress Journal. Dana is passionate about the importance of trauma-informed care and the effect it has on emotional, physical, and mental well-being. She is an expert on EMDR Therapy and loves helping other EMDR Therapists feel more confident and informed using EMDR Therapy in their practice. Dana is also the owner of Peaceful Living Mental Health Counseling, a trauma-informed counseling practice located in Scarsdale, NY.

Visit The EMDR Coach and connect with Dana on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

DISCOUNT: The EMDR Therapy Progress Journal: use the promo code JOE to receive a 10% discount

In This Podcast

  • Want to level up? Create systems
  • Creating great content
  • How to trend on Instagram
  • Dana’s advice to private practitioners

Want to level up? Create systems

After Slow Down School, Dana experienced a shift in her approach to building and leveling up her private practice.

She realized that she needed to build flexible and productive systems to support her business.

[Business planning] is the opposite of a therapist’s brain, which is learning how to be more logical and structured, not emotional, and going to figure out the systems that work. (Dana Caretta-Stein)

Roadmaps and some level of organization can be a tremendous help. So, help yourself out by creating these systems that do the admin and the bureaucratic heavy lifting so that you can focus on providing therapy or building your business.

Creating great content

Plan and build out your content amongst these three categories:

1 – Educate

2 – Validate

3 – Entertain

When I think of concept planning, [the content] has got to hit one of those points because those usually are what’s helpful for people. (Dana Caretta-Stein)

If you are creating reels for Instagram or TikTok, don’t overthink it. Quick is best, and the videos are short, so keep the information to the point.

  • Plan and jot down any ideas that come to mind
  • Have a day where you batch record a whole host of videos
  • Have a separate day where you edit, add captions, and then post

How to trend on Instagram

1 – Use trending audio

2 – Interact with other people’s Instagram accounts, videos, and comments

3 – Be authentic! Speak directly to your audience and invite other people to join in on the conversation

Keep doing that consistently. Consistency is the number one, biggest thing, pushing out the information and eventually, people will catch on and it will grow and grow. (Dana Caretta-Stein)

Remember! Take regular breaks from social media. Even though you need to stay active, dedicate an hour to it a day, and then take regular breaks.

Dana’s advice to private practitioners

Work on your shit! You are a therapist in private practice, so work on yourself so that you do not take it out on your clients or clinicians.

Books mentioned in this episode:

The EMDR Therapy Progress Journal: An interactive guide to support you through the life changing process of EMDR Therapy by Dana Carretta-Stein, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

Useful Links mentioned in this episode:

Check out these additional resources:

Meet Joe Sanok

A photo of Joe Sanok is displayed. Joe, private practice consultant, offers helpful advice for group practice owners to grow their private practice. His therapist podcast, Practice of the Practice, offers this advice.

Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners that are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.

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

[JOE SANOK] This is the Practice of the Practice Podcast with Joe Sanok, session number 775. I’m Joe Sanok, your host and welcome to the Practice of the Practice podcast. We are doing a series this month all about how I leveled up. So people who have leveled up in one way or another, they may have just said, I want to start a practice. What did that look like? Maybe they grew a group practice or jumped outside of their private practice into something else or maybe all of that. So I’m so excited today to have my friend Dana Carretta-Stein, who man owns a practice, has a group practice, is the EMDR coach on Instagram, I mean, so many different things that she does. It’s the_EMDR_coach, and that’s on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook all over. Dana, I’m so excited to have you on the show today. [DANA CARRETTA-STEIN] I am so very happy to be here, just to hang out with you. I’m in [JOE] Yes, we go back a long, a long way. Tell us a little bit about you starting your practice, why you started it, how you leveled up within that. [DANA] Yes, I started, I mean I started being a therapist back in, I think 2013 was when I first started working privately and then launched my own practice, Peaceful Living Mental Health Counseling in 2015. Then from there, I always knew, even before when I was still in grad school, I always knew I wanted to do a group so I was always in the forefront of my mind. Then tried a couple things, I think with every other person who starts a group practice, there’s like you launch and then there’s failures and then you launch again and then a couple more things and the constant up and down. Then in, I think it was 2018 was when I really moved. Well, before that even I started coaching with you, which really helped because I was failing in so many ways. I’m like, what’s not working? Was listening to your podcast and I’m like, my husband at the, my boyfriend at the time was, “Hey, I think you should go to the guy. Go to the guy that’s the professional on it.” He wound up being my husband, love that guy. I started coaching with you and then in 2018 is when I really started expanding more and more. I had been, it was after my first Slow Down School where I learned so much about growing the group and I was trying to also grow my family so I really knew that if I really wanted to be able to grow my family but still have a functioning business that wasn’t going to tank when I was on maternity leave, like I needed to do more. Since then, it’s really, really grown. That’s when — [JOE] Let pause you at that moment right after Slow Down School. When you’re realizing that, like what mindsets had to change for you or what things shifted in the way that you thought about your business? [DANA] I think it really came down to systems, like having the right systems in place. We always joke we go to graduate school to be therapists, but no one really teaches us about business planning. It really, it’s the opposite of a therapist’s brain, is learning how to be more logical structured, not emotional and really hone in, figure out the systems that work. I remember sitting with you with that notebook and saying, okay, we’re going to get rid of this like EHR, start using this one. You’re going to have, like pull this off your calendar by this date. We structured it, we set deadlines and goals and measurable things that we could achieve in a specific timeframe. Then I do well with that. I need organization, I need a roadmap, otherwise I feel like there’s so many ideas and I have a hard time seeing far through the trees, so to speak. So it’s really just having structured systems to make it flow and make it work. [JOE] It’s so funny you talk about right after Slow Down School because there there’s a handful of consulting sessions that just stand out in my brain in my life. I don’t know why, there’s just something about it, but I remember after Slow Down School I was doing consulting at my house and I was doing a call with you and we were talking about real estate because. Eric was really good with real estate and you’re like, ‘Where should I rent? What should I do?” The AC in that old house, in the attic bedroom where I did all my consulting, like sitting up there it was out and it was so hot and I just remember sweating. But as we’re talking to this big part of your life, like should I do this and we’re running numbers and it’s really exciting, but I’m like, I’m so effing hot. But it’s so cool to see like as you took action, as you and Eric figured out offices and all that just how fast that started to grow. When you started doing a group practice with the mindset of I want to have a family, I want to grow that, what were shifts that were difficult but needed [DANA] Biggest thing was being able to see less clients so that I could focus more. I needed to work on the business, not in the business. So taking our big thing I struggled with that we talked a lot about was taking Saturdays off my calendar seeing clients. [JOE] Yes, because what you were driving quite away to go do that too. [DANA] Yes, I was in two locations. I was still working in Norwalk, which I did love, I loved Barbara Heeran, who I worked with. I still adore her. She taught me so much and it was just hard to think emotionally leaving there where I worked with her. But I needed to be in one place. I remember the phone call I had with you when Eric was like, oh, I don’t think you should get the bigger office because I was in a one office set up in Hartsdale, New York and I wanted to move into where we are now, this four-office suite. Eric was like, oh, I don’t really think you should do it. I’m like, let me call Joe. It was like, you talked me through it logically in a way of like, yes, it makes sense to do it because I needed room to grow, so like being able to do that and really not be afraid to take those risks and know that they would pay off was really, really helpful. It’s like okay to be afraid, but don’t let the fear stop you [JOE] I think that like, how much of a risk can an individual tolerate? So it’s like you and I talked and you knew you needed the numbers, the information, not just for yourself but for the important people in your life, Eric. So just to say like what does that individual consulting client need to figure this out from their point of view? Because I can think you should have a four-office suite all day long, but ultimately if it doesn’t work out, you’re the one that’s going to be stuck paying that for five years or however long your lease is. So really figuring out for yourself, like, okay, I need to have the heart side, but the head side and all of this as I make these decisions. [DANA] Exactly, just the balancing of the head and the heart. That’s a good way to put it. [JOE] When did the group feel like, wow, this is really working? Because I know at the beginning when you were starting a group, you’re, what have I done? Everybody feels that way. Oh my gosh, I just, I remember when I signed for Mental Wellness Counseling and got this big corner office view of the water, I’m excited for it, but I was, the number of how much I would pay over five years, I was like, oh my gosh, so much money. But then at some point for me it shifted like, oh my gosh, this is actually working. When did that shift for you and what was going on? [DANA] Well, in the very beginning I knew I had like a plan of, when we moved into the suite, I saw long-term goal and short-term goals. So I knew in the beginning when we didn’t have a ton of therapists, I rented out space. This is probably because I’m married to a real estate broker but I was like, okay, well I love to decorate. I created this beautiful space and I put it on psychoffice.net, Psychology Today and we had a ton of renters and that was great for bringing in income, bringing down the cost of the lease because Westchester real estate is not cheap. So it really helped to offset that. That gave me more money to play with to be able to do things to build a practice. So it wasn’t such a huge risk and I wasn’t like working with a penny, so to speak. It helped bring down my overall overhead. Then things really started working when my first go at the group practice thing was when I had, I started working with Kate Cocrello. She was jordano at the time. She’s wonderful and we learned a lot and grew together. Then she moved to Florida and then I decided to stop doing the group practice thing for about to refocus and then it really took off when I met Lauren. Lauren, who works with me, my best friend, our clinical director here, it just helps to have, when you’re growing, to have individuals who, obviously one thing that always stuck out that you taught me was when you’re trying to hire people, if you can’t have dinner with them or enjoy like having a meal with them, it’s probably going to be hard to work with them. I met Lauren and oh God, her mom laughs all the time that the two of us are twins. That really helped to have, we don’t like to do things alone. So Lauren was really helpful just by my side. We grew a lot of stuff together. Then the pandemic hit and mental health and the need for mental health really like expanded and we were already looking to hire so it really just fast tracked all that. So now there is me, Lauren, Stephanie, Annabella and Sean, so there’s five of us, and Michelle is our office manager. A lot really unfolded just when the pandemic hit and there was such a need around here for more care. Because with Lauren had built the systems in place, so then onboarding people thereafter became a lot easier because I already had the outline. [JOE] I want to underline that if you keep track of how you onboard people and create a system for that onboarding, it makes the onboarding even easier for people. So often it’s like okay you’re setting up their G-Suite for them and all these other things and then the next time someone comes along you’re like, how did I do that? It’s like creating yourself some checklist as you go. The first time takes a little bit of time, but then when you’re ready to hire more, you can absolutely do it. So when did you start to make this shift into social media, the EMDR coach? I mean because that’s definitely leveling up outside of the practice in a bigger way. Was it just like a, I’m going to just try this? How’d you think through doing something outside of the practice? [DANA] Yes, so it really, it was May, 2020. The pandemic start, we were two months into the pandemic and I for a while had been trying to do more and work towards my hours to become an EMDR-approved consultant. So me being me, I already enjoy social media, not maybe as much personal anymore just because it’s a became a job but I looked at it as marketing wise, how do I get more information out there so people know about me and want to consult with me as a consultant. I started the EMDR coach page and just began putting out information and started looking more into how to really grow a social media page and mixing what the experts “say to do.” Plus, also just, I’m a very big believer in authenticity and so just doing things, doing videos, doing posts, that just is what’s in my brain. It’s things that I hear in session all the time. I’m really good at observing common themes I hear with clients. So I’m like, okay, this seems to be like a recurring theme with people. Maybe more people would resonate with this if I did a post about it. So that really is what started it all and then I had one post that just went viral. I remember Lauren texting me, she’s like, “Yoh, did you see your Instagram post? It’s like going nuts.” I was like, “What? I have no idea.” I was like in the shower. It was the one of signs of childhood trauma and it had, I think that had 2.2 million views. [JOE] Wow. [DANA] It went, it really took off. It wasn’t just that that made my following grow. It was that I had the content there already that was similar with that post. So once that post went viral, it directed people to my page and then they looked at the other post that I had and it resonated with them. So then more and more people began to follow and it’s just been growing and growing. It’s still growing. I think it’s up to 56,000 followers on Instagram now and 76,000 on TikTok so it’s up there. It’s not like any of the people that have millions and millions, but I’ve noticed that the more followers you have, the more sometimes stressful it can be and yes, all of that. So I just try to stay focused with just trying to create content that resonates with people. [JOE] I’d like to take some time talking about content, but then I also want to take some time talking about monetization and how that works. So from a content perspective, how do you think through content, how do you plan it? Do you just, is it whatever hits you or do you have a content calendar? How do you come up with content and make sure you stick with it? [DANA] I have a Trello board, which thanks to you because you told me Trello. I have three categories that I, my content creating plan is, it’s got to fall under one of these three umbrellas, which is educate, validate, or entertain. When I think of content planning, it’s got to hit one of those points because those usually are what’s helpful for people to give them something informational. Everybody wants to feel seen and heard, so to say something validating so people don’t feel like they’re alone and to also throw in like, I mean, you’ve known me for a long time now, so I have my silly, crazy, hyper funny side. So to also throw in some of that, the entertaining thing, like the stuff I just, my natural self to let that shine through as well. It falls under one of those categories. Whenever I get an idea, I just throw it on the Trello board. Sometimes I’ll get random quotes that just pop into my head, so I’ll throw it onto the Trello board. I’ll be like a towel on my hair just out of the shower and I grab my phone and put it on. That’s how I plan it. Then when I sit down and do my planning, I go there so I don’t have to sit down and think of things. It’s already there. Then I just have to organize and schedule it. [JOE] It’s amazing how many, whether it’s authors or speakers or content creators that have such a similar process where they’re just gathering information that at some point they may or may not use. Even as I was writing Thursday is the New Friday and even the two years before, leading up to writing it I’d see a news article about something that has to do with time or productivity or slowing down. I would just add it to like the stories part of my, or the news part of my Trello board. Then when it was time to write the book, I knew every chapter I wanted at least three solid pieces of research, three good stories and then like, what’s the main point of this chapter? So when you have all these things to then go back and be like, oh yes, I forgot about that. I just recently heard about this really interesting experiment that I don’t know if it’ll make its way into my content at some point, but in the seventies, there was this university that partnered with the Grateful Dead and they wanted to see if a crowd of people that were high on all sorts of substances could use ESP to send images to these people that were sleeping across the town. [DANA] Oh my God. [JOE] Like what a crazy research study. The Grateful Dead, all these people on psychedelics trying to send mind wave things across town? When I see something like that, I just put that in my Trello board, like, that’s crazy. At some point that might emerge or maybe it won’t. [DANA] Yes, you’ll I have a board that’s just like shit to remember, stuff that I just found interesting and I want to look back on it and see if there’s some way to weave it in. Or maybe it was just for me. [JOE] Yes. So then when you sit down to actually make content, I mean you do a lot with your videos and they seem pretty well produced, are you really, how much time does it take you to do a typical real? [DANA] It can be time consuming, but it also can be really quick. I often find that the ones that are really quick or the ones that perform the best, it’s like if you overthink, it’s too much. What I usually do is I’ll separate recording from, what is it called, like copywriting, creating the captions and things like that. What I’ll usually do is I’ll have one day where I batch record and I’ll record a bunch of things with a mix of some of the ideas I came up with, also mixed with trending audio, which is a great way to get stuff to push out. Then I will, another day go through them and write the captions because the creative writing process is different from the recording process, but it’ll typically take me to do like one real depending on what the content is. Once it’s recorded it’ll probably take me maybe 10, 20 minutes to throw things on the screen, write a caption and kick it out. I’ve done hashtag planning as, I have batches of hashtags that have done well, but sometimes I skip those and I just do what goes with the post, so to speak, so I’ll mix and match stuff. I’m always trying different things to see because the algorithm is always changing so always doing something different. But it’ll take about 10, 15 minutes to do one once it’s recorded and just edit it and good to go. [LEVEL UP WEEK] I think it’s time that we speak about you and your goals for a minute. Hear me out. For a while now, we’ve been speaking about, about how to market your practice, how to grow your practice, and how to be a better boss and encourage a company culture but isn’t it time to start making it happen? I’m serious, I’m challenging you to just do it. Take that leap of faith, put yourself out there and level up in your practice. Think about it. You’re probably entering that phase where you start to set yourself up for 2023. You’re thinking about what your goals are going to be, what you’re not going to do and what you hope to achieve. But regardless of where you are within your private practice journey, I’m challenging you to make these last few months count to dig deep, to make next year the one for big changes within your business and more importantly within yourself. If you’ve been looking for a sign to either start your own private practice, grow from solo to group, or become a next level group practice boss, this is it. You’re certainly not alone because Practice of the Practice is doing something we’ve never done before. We’re so convinced that now is the time for you to grow, that we’re dedicating all our resources to help you do it. We’re all in every single one of us and we’re inviting you to go all in and level up. From September 12th to September 15th, we’ll be running level up week to help you decide what will work best for you in your private practice journey. There will be webinars, Q&As with experts and a chance for you to meet your accountability partners, facilitators, and community. If you’re ready to make a change and level up register at practiceofthepractice.com/levelup and follow our Facebook and Instagram pages at Practice of the Practice for live updates and event details. Lastly, before I jump back into this episode, I just want to say that I really hope to see you there, even if it’s just online. Remember that leveling up week isn’t about us. It’s not about me or about Practice of the Practice. It’s all about you and growing your practice, whether it be your first solo practice or growing you from group practice boss to reaching a national audience. Make September, 2022, the month that you start your journey and level up. [JOE SANOK] Right now, for 2022, when this is being recorded, which it may change next week, but what would you say are the top things on Instagram that people should know? Like you said, trending audio, what are things like that that the average person might not even think of when they’re doing Instagram? [DANA] When they’re using Instagram to build their own —? [JOE] Yes, whether it’s features or things that Instagram likes. What’s the best thing for the algorithm right now? [DANA] Trending audio is a big one. There’s so many things with the algorithm that it’s all really just speculation because Instagram’s never come out and said, “Hey, this is really how you can really grow.” They basically just want you to use their platform and spend as much time as possible on there. Some people say spending like 10 minutes beforehand, scrolling through the feed, liking and commenting on other people’s posts, then posting your thing and then another such and such amount of time liking and commenting is a great way to get pushed out because Instagram’s like, oh, they’re spending more time on our platform, we’ll help them out. Again, that’s just like a speculation. My biggest thing is it just comes down to authenticity. If you are speaking like pain to outcome, so if you have a niche, a person that you’re trying to talk to, you’re creating content that really speaks to them. Just keep doing that consistently. That consistency is the number one biggest thing, pushing out the information and eventually people will catch on and then it’ll grow and grow. Oh, so and so really knows what they’re talking about. Yes, I want to follow. [JOE] How many hours a week do you think you put into Instagram, like if you edit it? [DANA] That’s a great question. I really should count [JOE] Even just a guess [DANA] If I were to guess, because sometimes I want to be more structured with how I build it into my calendar because there are times where I do it at night when I’m laying in bed but I would say at least if it’s at least an hour a day. So yes, maybe sometimes more. [JOE] Okay. Then from an ROI standpoint, when you look at people signing up to do consulting with you, people wanting to work with you seven hours of seven hours, so that could be seven hours you did clinical work that could be seven hours you spent with your family, how do you think about ROI on that time? Maybe what are some traps where people think, ooh, if you have a bunch of followers, you’re definitely going to make money. Or like where has it made you more successful? Yes, just from ROI standpoint, speak to that. [DANA] Yes, absolutely. In terms of the return on investment of my time, there’s definitely been a great ROI because my consulting, all my groups are full and I have a wait list. So in terms of being able to put myself out there as someone who knows what I’m talking about when it comes to EMDR, I’ve succeeded at that. I think people do feel like they see that I understand EMDR and they resonate with the way that I teach because it’s not just what I know, but it’s can I teach it in a way that really resonates with them? So that has been great. I also, from that have created, I first came out with the EMDR treatment planning templates, which is something that I heard time and time again from my consultee of where do I start, what do I do? So I created those to not just help them but to help EMDR therapists everywhere and because I had that following, it was a great wait. It’s like an email marketing list. Like there’s a great audience that can see that you could let them know that this is what you have. Then recently I also just wrote and published the EMDR Therapy Progress Journal, do that was a pretty big investment of time. That one took me longer. It took me about six months to put all that together. It was a very big labor of love but in terms of ROI, I had the followers there to also see what I’m selling, like what other information outside of my services do I have. [JOE] Are there any either boundaries on your time or things like that that you think through? Because I know that social media can feel like it’s like an insatiable sponge that just can totally suck everything out of you and you never have an end goal? How do you know when like enough is enough for the week or when would you say what, seven hours I’m going to cut down to four hours because my groups are fuller? How do you think through the boundaries for yourself around social media? [DANA] Absolutely, because it can suck you, feel like you’re investing so much time. So I do what, I practice what I preach. I check in with my nervous system and I just, I can tell if I’m feeling dysregulated, if my neck is tighter than usual, if I’m just more edgy, I look back and say like, okay, well what’s going on? Maybe I’m spending more time than I usually do or if I’m thinking about stuff that’s happening on Instagram, whether it was a comment that someone made or something even if it’s taking up more mental space than I would like it to then I know I need to thicken up the boundaries a little bit, pull back a little bit so that I can take a break. I think taking breaks from social media is really healthy and helpful because it can be very consuming. [JOE] Yes. I mean I have so many ideas from a consulting perspective that we can talk about offline. If you have a waiting list and you keep growing an audience, like let’s keep you growing. [DANA] Yes, well that’s why I’m doing the live event next Wednesday. I mean, it’s like an ask an EMDR therapist. It’s because people ask questions all the time and it does become very draining, not like that they’re asking, but there’s only so much time in a day and I can’t ask answer them all. Because I have a kid and I have a husband and I have staff that I’ve got to take care of those people first. So I said instead of always feeling like I have to respond to everything, I’m going to be available for an hour and a half, it’s a paid event, so you have to buy a ticket to be there. It’s capped at 25 people and you can ask your questions there and you will, my time, I’m dedicated at that time to answering those questions [JOE] I love that [DANA] So it was a way to be intentional and be available to people but with boundaries. [JOE] No, that’s awesome. We were talking right before we started about potentially you come into Killin’It Camp and teaching Instagram and all this stuff. Got to check in with Eric first but the plan now is you’ll be one of our speakers poolside at Killin’It Camp down in Cancun. That’s super exciting [DANA] Talking about all the things that we love, how to grow on social media and waving it all in how to manage it with having small children. [JOE] Well, and I just want to sit with you and be like, what can I do better? Teach me your skills on Instagram [JOE] Well, as people think about leveling up, if they’re just getting started, if they have a group practice, if they’re building things outside of the practice, what advice would you have for them in regards to mindset, actions or just any takeaways in regards to leveling up. [DANA] My biggest feedback I would give is just be really intentional because one thing I think we all struggle with, but then entrepreneur mindset is we have all these great ideas. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. So to be really intentional, map out all the things that you want to do and then have that come to Jesus, talk with yourself and see does that actually, is that realistic? Even though this is a great idea, like how much would it interfere with the other things that are important to me, like family time and my own mental health. Because otherwise it’s a great way to burn out. I’m speaking from experience, I’m like writing the book. I definitely overdid it and was a learning experience in many ways so being intentional is really important. [JOE] Awesome. Well, my final question is, if every private practitioner in the world were listening right now, what would you want them to know? [DANA] That’s a good question. Group practice owner, this is me over analyzing, a group practice owner or just a therapist in private practice? [JOE] Any private practice person out there. [DANA] So to, this is one thing I talk all the time, work on your own shit. If you’re a therapist, especially in private practice, work on your own shut so that you don’t take it out on your clients. That takes you so far because you cannot help a client. You can only take them as far as you’re willing to go in your own work. So if you’re having difficulty, why am I not attracting clients or whatever it is, what are you not doing in your own work? So pay attention to yourself first, human first, then therapist. [JOE] So awesome. Oh my gosh, that’s so awesome. Well, if people want to connect with you, if they want to follow your work where should we send them? [DANA] They can follow me on Instagram, the_EMDR_coach. There’s actually someone trying to impersonate me right now with an extra underscore, so look out for that. We’ve reported them to Instagram, but Instagram doesn’t see that they violated any guidelines so just be aware. Make sure there’s only, no underscore after “coach.” Make sure it says Dana Carretta-Stein. They can’t — [JOE] You know that you’ve made it when you have people that are copying you. Welcome. You’re at that level. You made it. I know so many people do that and you really made it. [DANA] Well, it would be nice that if Instagram would then verify this because that’s the point of verification, but they keep declining it. I’m like, what’s, because yes, it’s a whole scheme there. But yes, they could follow me on Instagram, on TikTok, same handle, the_EMDR_coach or they could visit danacarretta.com for my consulting information or private practice is peacefullivingmentalhealthcounseling.com. [JOE] Perfect. You also have a promo code for the EMDR Therapy Progress Journal. Do you want to give that promo code? [DANA] Yes. If anybody who wants to get 10% off of the Progress Journal, just go to danacarretta.com and when you check out use Code [JOE]. [JOE] Awesome. So you can just go there or if you forget, just head on over to our show notes. We’ve got some amazing show notes there with all those details. Dana, thank you so much for being on the Practice of the Practice podcast. [DANA] Thank you. So much fun. [JOE] Well, go take some action. I’ve watched Dana over the years go from just a solo practice then to a group practice and then a mega group practice and now doing all of this Instagram consulting and just growing and growing and growing. After we stop recording, I’m going to give her some tips on what I think could be next for her. Some free advice, she can take it or leave it. But we’ve also got some amazing things to help you level up. First, we have Level Up Week kicking off on September 12th. September 12th kicks off a week-long webinar. We have, not a week-long webinar. That would be terrible, just sit there and stare for 24 hours a day. No, we’re having 10 or 12 webinars that week on every single phase of practice. Whether you’re just getting going we’re going to have webinars about that. If you’re starting a group practice going from solo to group, we have webinars for that. If you have a growing group practice or even if you want to level up beyond that, we’ll be talking about Audience Building Academy. I’m bringing in Nancy, my writing coach who helped me get the Harper Kellen’s book deal. We’re going to be doing some Q&A around how do you get a traditionally published book, and other guest speakers that we’re bringing in. So excited about just all of that during Level Off Week. You can sign up over at practiceofthepractice.com/levelup. And then Killin’It Camp 2022, Cancun Mexico at the Club Med. We were able to negotiate all-inclusive for under $200 a night. If you want to bring your family and if you want to hang out, we’re going to be really getting to know each other. We’re doing some of the breakout sessions, pool side, taking the best parts of conferences. For me when I go to a conference, it’s usually having drinks with someone after the conference or hanging out at the pool and having these deeper conversations where I get the most ideas and content. We’ve taken that best idea and so we get together in a large group setting, but then we also are going to have a bunch of small group breakout sessions, poolside and cabanas and all over the place. It’s going to be amazing. So you’re not going to want to miss that. That kicks off October 20th down in Cancun, Mexico. You can grab your ticket now. They’re on sale over at killingitcamp.com. Thank you so much for letting me into your ears and into your brain. Have a great day. I’ll talk to you soon. Special thanks to the band Silence is Sexy for your intro music. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. This is given with the understanding that neither the host, the producers, the publishers, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.