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This is the practice of the practice podcast with Joe Sana. Session number 1080. I’m Joe Sandrock, your host. Joe Sanok 00:01:23 And welcome to the practice of the Practice podcast. I am so excited that you were hanging out with us today. Every day, almost every day depends on sponsors and things like that 5 to 7 days a week. we are doing this show, and we want to help you build a thriving private practice that you absolutely love. And this week is Level up week. So we are doing 16 live webinars this week. You’ve probably already attended a few of those to help you if you’re in solo practice, if you are starting a group, or if you already have a group practice. Also, all of our memberships are open right now. They’re open this week and next week. Then doors close. We only open this twice a year, and we’ve got hundreds of other therapists that are in private practice in these membership communities. So we have live meetings, via the platform circle, every Tuesday for our group practice owners, every Wednesday for our solo practice owners. But the group practice owners can come to that, too. Joe Sanok 00:02:16 And then on Thursdays, people starting a group practice, that’s when we have our meetings for those. And, it’s just amazing to see these communities form to to see people having really just major successes. Usually people are as full as they want to be within 4 to 6 months. most people, when they’re in group practice, launch, we’ll make their first hire during that program. If you don’t do it, you get to come back through the program totally for free. And our group practice owners, I mean, they’re just rocking it out. so if that sounds good to you, being in community with people, getting good insights, all of that, make sure you level up this week or next week over at practice of the practice comm for Level Up. it’s always an exciting time where we have panels and we have experts and all sorts of just things going on. So when it comes to leveling up, Amy Morin is a person that has done this and it’s so awesome to have her here during Level Up Week. Joe Sanok 00:03:09 Amy is a psychotherapist and the international bestselling author of the 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do series. Her books have been translated into more than 45 languages and sold over a million copies. Her TEDx talk, The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong has been viewed 24 million times, and she’s the host of the Mentally Stronger podcast. And she lives on a sailboat in the Florida Keys. Amy, welcome to the Practice of Practice podcast. Amy Morin 00:03:37 Joe, thank you so much for having me. Joe Sanok 00:03:39 So as a fellow sailor, I’ve got to say, I am so jealous that you get to live on a sailboat for five summers. I spent five days a week helping at risk kids on an old Concordia cutter, 50 foot long wooden sailboat that looked like a pirate ship. And I got to do therapy on the sailboat with all these At-Risk kids. And we got these grants and started this program. And, you know, I realized after a while that, you know, being on a boat five days a week meant that I really couldn’t do anything with my private practice unless I was just wanting to be exhausted all the time. Joe Sanok 00:04:11 So kudos to you for living on a sailboat. That’s incredible. Amy Morin 00:04:15 Thank you. You know, I think I had come across your story like early on, and I think I knew that about you. I just didn’t put two and two together that, that you’re that same person that I had found on social media who was saying that years ago about, doing some therapeutic things on a sailboat. And my husband had always wanted to live on a sailboat. It was never really my dream. But before I was working as a 9 to 5 therapist in rural Maine, and it really wasn’t an option to live on a sailboat. But now that I get to write books and do other cool stuff, we said, well, we might as well give it a shot now. And it’s been eight years now that I’ve been on a sailboat. Joe Sanok 00:04:50 Oh my gosh. And do you guys mostly stay in the keys or do you like go to other islands around there or. Amy Morin 00:04:55 We do that with the. I’m kind of a fair weather sailor. Amy Morin 00:04:59 we are mostly in the keys. We own what’s called a DACA minimum. So I have a tiki hut on land and dock space so that if I want to be tethered to the dock and in a calm canal with high speed internet and all of the good stuff, I can do that. But the ocean is just around the corner. So we can go sailing, jet skiing and go out and play in the water whenever we want to. Joe Sanok 00:05:20 Oh my gosh, I love it. That sounds amazing. Well, this week is level up week and it’s really exciting to have so many people on this week that have leveled up in different ways. Now you’re a psychotherapist turned international bestselling author, amazing TEDx speaker. I want to hear about, say like the year or two before things really started to take off. Like, what did life look like for you when you were doing therapy before you started maybe getting into more of the audience building type of things? Amy Morin 00:05:48 Sure. I was a therapist in rural Maine. At the end of my work up there, I was working for a qualified, federally qualified health center. Amy Morin 00:05:59 So it was a doctor’s office, very small town. Pretty much the only other therapist in the area happens to be my sister, who had an adjoining office with me, and I was seeing patients, full time for a while. And then right before, I took the leap to move to the sailboat, I had cut down to part time, and I was writing a couple days a week. My first husband had passed away, and I needed extra income, and one of the best ways to create income seemed to be as a freelance writer. So some of the content I was creating was about mental health stuff. Some of the content was just more generic stuff that I was writing for various websites, but it allowed me to write in the evenings and on the weekends outside of when I was doing therapy, and it was a great way to earn extra money when I felt like I was able to do it. It was something that I did for about ten years, I guess, before writing the book. Amy Morin 00:06:53 And obviously as a therapist, you can only work so many hours. It wasn’t an option to work nights and weekends for practical purposes, but also mental health purposes. And I didn’t want to go get another steady job on the weekends because as I was grieving, I didn’t always feel like I was able to do that. But freelance writing seemed like a good fit. So I balance my time between seeing patients in the therapy office and freelance writing on the side. Joe Sanok 00:07:18 Oh, wow. Joe Sanok 00:07:18 So. So when did that transition start to hit? Like, I guess, were you thinking, man, I really want to do a Ted talk. I want to write books. I want to do speaking. Or was it like, did you dip your toes in a little bit? Amy Morin 00:07:31 So most of the writing I was doing was just was just for the income. Initially, I made $25 an article, and if I could churn out a couple of extra articles a day and on the weekends, that’s what paid my mortgage. Amy Morin 00:07:43 But I went through a series of losses in my 20s. I lost my mom when I was 23. I lost my husband when I was 26, and just as I was about to turn 30, I lost my father in law. And it was on a really dark day in my life that I wrote an article called 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do. And the day that I wrote it, it was just going to be a letter to myself because I was in a dark place and I needed that letter. But I found that letter was helpful. So I put it on the internet, expecting a handful of people to read it, but 50 million people read it, and that’s what launched my career. I actually didn’t plan to write a book. I didn’t set out to do a Ted talk or anything like that. It was just that one article that went viral led to a literary agent who called and said, hey, you should write a book. And within a month we had a book deal. Amy Morin 00:08:32 And then things happened pretty quickly after that. But I had already spent the ten years practicing my writing and had all of this experience, both as a therapist, but also as somebody who was struggling with mental health. So I felt like that combination of things made it so. If they thought I could write a book, I was going to do my best to try. Joe Sanok 00:08:52 So that process of writing a book, since you were already writing articles. you know, I’ve heard a lot of authors say, oh, it was so hard. You know, it was just difficult for me when I wrote Thursday’s The New Friday, I loved it. I felt like I had sketched it out. I had kept track of kind of research and stories, and it was really it was just like putting puzzle pieces together. What was that process like for you when you wrote your first book? Amy Morin 00:09:17 So I was under a time crunch. We by the time we inked the deal, it was March, and my publisher wanted the book done in June, and I was still working as a therapist, so and I still had another part time writing job that I didn’t dare let go of, because I wasn’t sure that this book was going to turn into anything. Amy Morin 00:09:34 So I was researching the one chapter one day, writing it the next day, and I would send it off to my editor the next day And and that was it. I had about three days a week to set aside to work on the book. I did it fast, but I felt like all of those years of writing had prepared me for it. And because I had so many case studies from the therapy office and so many things like it was like the book was already inside me. So sitting down to write it felt doable. I think a lot of people now will say, well, it takes five years to write a book, and I could easily take up five years to write a book. But because I had that deadline, I was able to to churn it out in a short deadline. I thought, you know, it’s not every day somebody invites you to write a book. So if they give you a tight deadline, meet it. So I was able to do it. Joe Sanok 00:10:19 Lor, you know, work expands to the time given. Amy Morin 00:10:21 And that’s and that’s so true, because otherwise I could have, you know, edited and and rehashed and read over every chapter a million more times and probably still would have never felt like it was as good as I wanted it to be. Joe Sanok 00:10:33 I mean, my timeline was a little bit longer, but it was we signed on April 15th, I still remember because it was tax day and it was, they wanted it by the end of September by, by, October 1st. But I knew we were going to be leaving on the road. This was 20, 20, to live out of a camper, like early September. So I was like, okay, September 1st is my deadline, and I want to be about 20,000 words above what they want so they can just brutally edit. They’re they’re good at editing, they’re good at, you know, condensing it. And so I just had the word count and I knew that really all I had was one day a week that I could fully dedicate to that I needed to keep practice, the practice going, the podcast going, the consulting going. Joe Sanok 00:11:15 And so similar to you, it was. I knew every Thursday I had to write a full chapter. And so at the end of I’d love to hear some of your process, because I think that people are interested in kind of the back side of backside. That sounds naughty. The back end of, of kind of creating these sorts of things. So my process was, you know, I would at the end of the Thursday, I would have my whiteboard and I would take everything that I had gathered in Trello for the next chapter and put it up on the whiteboard, and then also think about, just like, what questions do I have? So, for example, I have a chapter on curiosity and I was like, okay, what comes to mind around that? And like, curiosity killed the cat. Like, where did that come from? And so just like anything related to that chapter, and I would put it up there and then I would just let it marinate for a week. And then when I came in on Thursday morning, it was just like, oh, I had all these ideas or throughout the week I might, you know, write something on the whiteboard if I thought of it or, it was great to kind of let my mind in the background. Joe Sanok 00:12:10 Think about that next chapter. What was your process like as you were writing that book in such a short period of time? Amy Morin 00:12:17 Yeah, mine was similar as well. So I outlined the 13 chapters. It was things like the first chapter is mentally strong. People don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves. There’s another chapter about, not shying away from change. So I knew every chapter was going to have a little quiz. In the beginning, it was going to have some signs that you’re struggling with this thing, some strategies about what to do. Instead. There’d be some case studies and anecdotes from my therapy office, but I also wanted some stories of other people, like a historical figure or somebody in in pop culture. So as I outlined these chapters ahead of time, I knew to kind of be on the lookout for these things. So if I ran across an example of somebody who was shying away from change, even if that wasn’t the chapter I was on yet, I could go home from work that day and jot that down. Amy Morin 00:13:05 Or if I were sitting around and I thought, oh, you know, well, another way that self-pity sometimes manifests is, is this then I could always go back and plug it into that chapter. So I guess in a similar way to you always had it in the back of my mind, and it was just a matter of of thinking about it throughout the week, because if I had just sat down and the only time I thought about it was as I was writing, I probably would have missed a lot of the big picture stuff. Joe Sanok 00:13:30 Yeah, yeah. And I think that just that whole like being paralyzed by perfection. You know, when you’re trained as a therapist, you know, whether you had a dissertation or a thesis or even just papers, it’s like you didn’t usually turn in crap. and you tried to do your research and do all that. And when you’re writing a book, not that we’re writing crap, but it’s like when you’re on a tight deadline, there’s less of a kind of overthinking. Joe Sanok 00:13:54 And similar to that, that Buddhist idea of kind of first thought. Best thought, it seems like, at least for me, things flowed more like they would in a conversation that then we could structure a lot easier than sitting with just like a blank screen in front of me. Amy Morin 00:14:10 I think so too. And there’s always that fear of not wanting to say the wrong thing. And the thought of obviously, in our practice with our therapy clients, like you don’t want to say something and then think, oops, I shouldn’t have said that, or maybe I was too, too forward with that. But we do all make mistakes. But there’s something about putting it in writing that can feel a little scary of, oh, if I put this down in writing, If I put this article out there, I put this on my blog, or I write a book. Somebody might misconstrue it or so the words might get twisted. Or maybe it’s going to come out in a slightly different way then I think it’s going to, and you could certainly overthink it. Amy Morin 00:14:46 In my case, I think, again, the timeline crunch worked to my advantage because I didn’t have a lot of time to overthink. Joe Sanok 00:14:53 So when did the TedTalk opportunity come up? Amy Morin 00:14:56 So let’s see. So the book, the article that went viral came out at the end of 2013. The book came out in the end of 2014, and the TEDx talk was at the end of 2015. So it was a year after I wrote the book. Joe Sanok 00:15:10 Wow. And so and that just took off right away, or did that take a little time to take off? Amy Morin 00:15:15 That took time as well. So I remember when it went online and I remember thinking, actually, the day I gave the TEDx talk, I was really nervous. It was an amazing place that we gave it. It was a theater, a really cool theater that we all got to give our talks in, but it was really dark and it was the only time I had ever given a talk to an audience that I couldn’t see, so I couldn’t see their reactions while I was talking. Amy Morin 00:15:39 So I had no idea if they were sound asleep, if they were listening, if they were laughing, crying. I didn’t know. So I was incredibly nervous on stage and my voice cracks the whole time. So I remember after I stepped off the stage thinking, oh, I kind of hope nobody ever sees that because I’m giving a talk about mental strength, and I don’t sound like I have a ton of mental strength. And initially it really didn’t take off it. It was pretty slow burn for several weeks. I remember I even sent it to a couple of my friends to be all, hey, can you click on this? Because it didn’t have that many views? And I just remember thinking, all right, so maybe 500 people will see this, I guess. I guess that’s okay. But over time it’s gotten about 10,000 views. I think it still gets about 10,000 views a week to this day. and it’s just been word of mouth, people sharing it, clicking on it and sending it to their friends, or putting it on their own website to share. Amy Morin 00:16:33 And so it’s been a slow burn, but it certainly, has grown over time up to, I think, about 24 million views right now. Joe Sanok 00:16:41 Man. Joe Sanok 00:16:50 It’s never too early to start thinking about tax season. That’s why I’ve partnered with my friends over at herd. Herd serves as the financial back office built specifically for therapists in private practice. They’re an all in one financial solution that combines software with human support to handle bookkeeping, taxes, payroll, and more. Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned clinician or are in your first year of your practice, herd will identify growth areas and streamline best financial practices for your business. When you sign up with heard, you’ll connect your bank accounts so your transactions will be automatically pulled in and categorized. My favorite thing about Hurd is their allocation guide, which helps you decide how much to pay yourself each month and how much to set aside for taxes. You’ll also receive financial insights such as profit and loss statements and monthly reports. You can say goodbye to poring over spreadsheets and guessing your tax deductions for quarterly payments. Joe Sanok 00:17:53 Focus on your clients and Hurd will take care of the rest. Sign up for a free consultation today at. Join hurd.com/jo and get one month free with promo code Jo. Again that’s join hurd.com/jo. Now for me the book Talk Like Ted is just such a good book in regards to kind of learning public speaking and kind of learning how to do a good Ted talk. How did you prep for your Ted talk? Amy Morin 00:18:23 So after my book, hit the shelves, I started to get speaking invitations. I guess it was even after the article went viral, and I had never been on a stage in a huge conference room or anything like that. And the very first talk I was invited to give, it was on a stage with people like Gary Vaynerchuk and I. I know, and I remember thinking like, okay, I’m going to have to fake this because I have no idea what I’m doing. And I got through that first one, and I don’t think I did horrible, but I knew that I needed some help. Amy Morin 00:18:58 I didn’t know how to make slides that even show up on a screen that big. And how do you, how do you speak to a roomful of people when there’s people, in the stadium, like, setting? And so I was one of the other speakers at that very first event I spoke at was named Sally hogshead. She’s an amazing. Joe Sanok 00:19:14 Oh, my gosh, I love Sally. Amy Morin 00:19:16 Yeah, she’s amazing as a speaker. Joe Sanok 00:19:19 How to Fascinate quiz I did with my whole team. It changed the way that we mental wellness counseling operated. Amy Morin 00:19:27 See, and I had. Amy Morin 00:19:28 An incredible experience watching Sally. I thought, oh, that’s somebody that knows how to get up there and give a and give a talk. And so I did some research about her online. Found out she had a speaking coach by the name of Nick Morgan. And I thought, all right, if she has a speaking coach then that’s probably what I need to. So I called up, Nick Morgan hired him to, to teach me. Amy Morin 00:19:50 How do you give a speech and make it entertaining yet how do you impactful. How do you give a speech to an audience of 10,000 people? I’m a social worker that I think I once spoken like a church basement to five people who were struggling with domestic violence. I’ve never done this before and invested a lot of money, but hoping that it would pay off in the end. A lot of time working with him to figure out how do you craft a speech. And so I worked with him on that too. Like, all right, now, how do you give a speech that’s only going to be 15 minutes long? How do you get up there and say something that’s meaningful and impactful, yet short and concise? And so he certainly read through my earliest drafts and helped me come up with a talk that, that I felt good about giving. Joe Sanok 00:20:34 Yeah, I feel that way. You know, when it comes to public speaking, one of those like oh my gosh moments was when Simon Sinek invited me to join his team and to do speaking through Team Simon and to do that sort of thing. Joe Sanok 00:20:46 And it’s just like, okay, I got to raise my game here. I have to definitely level up. my skills that, you know, I had given talks, I had done the podcast, but nothing at that level. and so to just that idea of, okay, who are the experts that are out there? And that’s the value of consulting with experts that have done what you want to do. as you’ve transitioned out of therapy. what’s been difficult about that and what’s been exciting or fun? Amy Morin 00:21:12 so I guess stepping out of the 9 to 5 office was exciting, because then I had the freedom to move on to a sailboat and to do things differently and not feel like I was, going to have to be just worrying about the billable hour anymore. That’s probably been the the most exciting part. The most difficult part has been just then not knowing how am I going to earn royalties from my books? Am I going to make money from this course? am I going to get enough speeches this year? Like not having a regular income is definitely scary as well, and uncomfortable and not knowing about all of the opportunities. Amy Morin 00:21:51 As a social worker, I was trained on the billable hour and making sure that we are helping people one on one. I didn’t know how to do things on a bigger scale or a different level. also wanted to figure out what’s that balance? I want to make sure that I’m helping people, but I want to make sure that I’m charging fairly for my time as well. And finding that balance is something that I continue to wrestle with. That times is like, how much do I give away for free? What do I charge for? How do I make sure that I still fulfilling my mission of getting these ideas and principles into the world? But also, how do I make sure that, that I am charging and building a sustainable business and one that I can continue to expand? Joe Sanok 00:22:33 Yeah. So then how do you think through kind of this new business, knowing that it’s not the same as, as kind of a billable hour model. you know, I know a lot of therapists, you know, are excited about the opportunities that especially, I think, with just such attention and mental health post, 2020. Joe Sanok 00:22:52 maybe speak to some of the opportunities that people like, don’t know are out there, but then also how you personally are thinking through your business and leveling up within the business. Amy Morin 00:23:02 Yeah, there are so many opportunities. People are more interested than ever in getting valuable quality mental health content, whether they’re consume it via an online Line course or somebody starts a mastermind and they do online therapy, online groups, speaking to businesses. Businesses are always looking for consultants on wellness and mental health. brands are looking for ambassadors in mental health. As you know, podcasts can be a lucrative way to get sponsorships. People are always looking to sponsor newsletters. So it’s about, I think, putting yourself out there. And then for me, the opportunities have been pretty incredible that have just come my way, things I wasn’t necessarily looking for. I partnered with Lego last year to become their spokesperson because they had discovered that the the way that we praise little girls impacts them when we say to little girls, hey, you’re pretty, your, your perfect. Amy Morin 00:24:01 And we say to boys, you’re brave and you’re creative, that that obviously takes a toll on them. And so it was one of those things that I would have never thought to reach out to Lego and say, hey, let’s work together. But Lego reached out to me because I’m putting enough content out there. And so I love that. I love that opportunity that just by putting myself out there. So many things tend to come, come to me with things that I wouldn’t have ever thought of. But then the trick is also to make sure that I say no to the things that aren’t in line with the brand or my mission. And even though sometimes they’re quite lucrative and they’re amazing. So I’m always. Amy Morin 00:24:34 Looking, I gotta pause. Joe Sanok 00:24:35 You and just say, it’s so awesome when two guests are back to back. And I didn’t plan it at all for it to just dovetail so perfectly. You know, those of you that are listening, if you didn’t listen yesterday, we had Doctor Charlotte Maki, who is one of the top researchers on girls and body image, and that episode is right in line with what Amy was just talking about. Joe Sanok 00:24:58 So make sure you listen to yesterday’s episode, episode 1079. I go, it’s like part A, part B as to kind of what we’re talking about here. So sorry to interrupt there, but I wanted to make sure that we mentioned yesterday’s episode because it just I literally just interviewed her right before you today, and we didn’t even plan that. Amy Morin 00:25:14 Well, you know what’s even more amazing? She’s actually being interviewed on my podcast tomorrow. Amy Morin 00:25:19 Shut up. Say hi. She was. Joe Sanok 00:25:22 Delightful. She was so fun. Oh my gosh. So I guess we just got to round this all out. And I’ll be on your podcast and we’ll make it, you know, when she launches a podcast, we can both be on hers. Amy Morin 00:25:32 Absolutely. Isn’t that funny when those things happen? But like I say, opportunities sometimes that you weren’t expecting come your way. You meet people who are doing interesting things, and you just never know when something just like this happens where you say, hey, do you know so-and-so? You introduce me to somebody, or we realize we know the same person and we have that connection, and then incredible things can happen. Amy Morin 00:25:52 Because if you just took that example of what you do compared to what I do compared to what Charlotte does, we all do something a little bit differently and have our hands in different strategies, and we’re all creating content in different ways. Yet here it is. We can all come together, probably in some pretty creative ways. Amy Morin 00:26:10 Yeah. Joe Sanok 00:26:11 I love that. And I think that that that’s what I like about this phase of kind of my business and my career is that it’s often not as linear as when I was doing clinical work. And for me, I like that kind of creative agility that that happens while still having kind of the core things I do, but also having unexpected things that, you know, just seemed way different than when I was in the clinical world. You mentioned something, a minute ago when you said and saying no to things that kind of aren’t on brand or something along those lines. I want to hear more about how saying no helps you, say yes to the things that matter. Joe Sanok 00:26:47 And then I have a follow up question, but I’ll save that till after you’re done. So when you say no to something and that allows you to do something like more on brand, tell me about that process. Have you always been that way, or did you have to kind of learn that the hard way? Amy Morin 00:27:00 It’s something I’ve learned the hard way. There’s been opportunities I’ve said yes to and then wished I hadn’t. And it’s either because it turned out to be not on brand or it just really isn’t in line with what I wanted to do, or it was something that took up way more time and energy than I expected. And one of the problems has been that I might get an opportunity these days that is literally half the salary of what I used to make in an entire year. And it might be a one day project with somebody. So my tendency, of course, is to say, yes, please. Absolutely. But whenever I do that, I have to then remember, like but also what is it still costing me? Is it going to cost me a part of my reputation? Is it going to cost me credibility with future sponsors or advertisers? Might it harm my mission if it’s not in line with that? So fortunately, over the years I’ve gotten better at taking that step back and saying, okay, it’s yes, this is a really exciting opportunity. Amy Morin 00:27:55 It’s lucrative, and it would be amazing. Yet here are the potential downsides. And just because it sounds exciting or it sounds like a really cool thing to do, doesn’t mean I should do it. And I think it takes a while for my brain to kind of catch up to to where I am in life now to know that, yeah, you can say no to more things. And yes, a decade ago you would have jumped at an opportunity like this. But now you’re in a different place and you don’t necessarily have to do those things and it’s wise to say no. Joe Sanok 00:28:23 Yeah. So my follow up question is, you know when you’re kind of known for a very particular thing. So for you becoming mentally strong or you know kind of doing the opposite of, you know what the things that mentally strong people don’t do when you’re known for something that clearly, I think a lot of creative people can get bored with that topic. They can get, like, I just want to shift gears into something else. Joe Sanok 00:28:48 Like, how have you kept this topic interesting for yourself? Because, I mean, you’ve been doing this for a long time. like, what have you done to make sure that you are continuing to engage your own mind in a way that you want to, and not just staying on brand for the sake of making money, but to stay on brand because you genuinely find that interesting. Amy Morin 00:29:06 Oh yeah, that’s a great question. So one of the things I found helpful as the years have gone on is to figure out, like, what else can I pair mental strength with? So take mental strength and money. I could easily do courses, podcast, do lots of things about how can people stay mentally strong when they’re getting out of debt, or when they’re trying to save money? Or I can pair mental strength with sports, for example. How do you stay mentally strong when you’re trying to run a marathon or you’re training for a triathlon? Or I can pair it with parenting. And how do you raise mentally strong kids? So I found that that’s been the most helpful thing is to just figure out what can I pair it with, and then what kind of content can I create around around that so that I can continue to grow my brand but still stay on brand, but also branch out into something that’s a little bit different. Amy Morin 00:29:52 So I can keep researching more things and keep it exciting and and keep creating fresh new ideas that aren’t going to bore my followers to death either. Joe Sanok 00:30:02 Yeah. That’s awesome. for the podcast. When did you launch that and what have you found? helpful with that. But also, what do you wish you would have done differently? Amy Morin 00:30:12 Oh, that’s a great question too. So I originally launched a podcast, right at the beginning of Covid and, but a couple of months after launching it, I joined forces with another a bigger company had said that they wanted to sort of take over our podcast. So we joined forces, did that for a couple of years, went back out on my own about a year ago, and have thoroughly enjoyed that. I love meeting new people, having guests on my show also love to be able to do solo content. The biggest lesson I learned was probably that partnering with somebody meant a lot more than I thought in terms of like the legalities of who owns what. And I learned, I don’t want to give away any of my intellectual property. Amy Morin 00:30:54 I want to make sure that I own my stuff. That’s a lesson I’ve certainly learned over and over again as I create content for other websites or I write articles for places, is just how important it is to look back at who actually owns it. Just because you wrote this article for this website, who owns it? So I learned so much about that. And even with podcasting, if I record a celebrity on my podcast, who owns that recording? That’s why it’s so important to make sure that you, you know what you’re doing and have a good idea of that. Otherwise, some of those questions can come into play. We had an incident with a celebrity who said something and wanted to take it back, and that came into play of, well, who owns that recording. Joe Sanok 00:31:36 Yeah. Joe Sanok 00:31:36 So awesome. Well, the last question I always ask is if every private practitioner in the world were listening right now, what would you want them to know. Amy Morin 00:31:45 I would want them to know that there are so many opportunities to take the knowledge that you have in private practice and turn it into other forms of content like this. Amy Morin 00:31:56 Things that you say to your clients, the things that you do in therapy, the growth that you’ve seen from people. There are countless opportunities to take that knowledge and do other things with it, so that you can build multiple streams of revenue if that’s what you wish to do. Joe Sanok 00:32:14 So awesome. Well, if people want to get your books, if they want to learn more about your work, where should we send them. Amy Morin 00:32:20 My website’s the best place, which is Amy Morin lcsw.com. I had the website long before I started writing books, and one of the things I do happen to do is I do mental strength coaching. But I found that a lot of people who actually hire me for coaching are people who want to know, how do you write a book? How do you create multiple streams of revenue? So I do offer that as well. If any of your listeners are interested in talking further. Joe Sanok 00:32:45 so. Joe Sanok 00:32:46 Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the practice of the Practice podcast. Amy Morin 00:32:50 Well, thank you for having me. This has been fun. Amy Morin 00:32:59 You know, sometimes, Joe Sanok 00:33:02 I really like just digging into the level up journey instead of just the content that that people are creating. you can go to lots of places and, and read about what Amy says in regards to the secret of becoming mentally strong. You can watch the Ted talk, you can read the books. But for me to just hear how other people think through leveling up, like hiring a coach, hiring, you know, speaking coach, what are the things that just helped, you know, Amy get better at the craft of becoming an influencer? so often we see online all these, you know, influencers that do whatever, but we’re talking to therapists, we’re talking to people that have are highly educated, that want to impact the world on a different level. And so if that’s you, and you’re interested in that, we actually have audience building Academy, which is kind of from the philosophy that you shouldn’t go build an e-course or go build all this content first and try to sell it. Joe Sanok 00:33:59 You need to build the audience first. And so audience Building Academy, it’s available on our teachable site. You can find it through going on our website. That’s something that if you’re looking at kind of leveling up, that might be something that would be helpful for you. We also have a podcast launch school, which is going to walk you through how to start a podcast and do all of that. If you go to podcast launch school.com, we have tons of plans to help support you and your podcast, whether you’re just getting started or I already have one. So we have lots of resources. Don’t forget this is Level Up week. all this week and next we have opened up our communities. Whether you’re in solo practice, whether you’re in solo practice, starting a group practice, or you’re in group practice, we have a community for you. Sign up for those communities over at practice and Practice. Dot com forward slash level up. We’d love to see you in there and connect with you. Also, we could not do the show without our amazing sponsors, and the end of the year is right around the corner. Joe Sanok 00:34:48 it’s not too early to be thinking about tax season, and that’s why we’ve partnered with our friends over at herd. Herd serves as the financial back office and is built specifically for therapists and private practice. They’re amazing. They are an all in one financial solution that combines software with human support to handle your bookkeeping, your taxes, your payroll, and more. You can sign up for a free consultation call today over at Join Herd. Com forward slash Joe that’s join h e a r.com/joe and get a month for free with promo code Joe at checkout. Thank you so much for listening and letting me into your ears and into your brain. Have an amazing day. I’ll talk to you soon. Special thanks to the band silence sexy for that intro music. And 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 producers, the publishers or guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical or other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.