Live Consulting with Alisha Sweyd: How to Promote a Podcast | FP 87

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Are you thinking of starting a podcast to help you market your practice? What are some effective tips that you can learn from to boost your podcast’s success? What is a podcast launch party?

In this podcast episode, Whitney Owens does a live consulting call with Alisha Sweyd about how to promote a podcast.

Meet Alisha Sweyd

Alisha Sweyd is the Director and Co-Founder of Code 3 Counseling in California. She co-hosts the Code 3 Counseling Podcast with her father, Shawn Cavin. She specializes in working with first responders and their families. Working with people who believe in service above self, Alisha truly values the part faith can play in helping these people heal.

When she is not working on building and scaling her practice, Alisha enjoys spending quality time with her husband and two young children or reading a good book by the ocean along the Monterey coast. Alisha also finds fulfillment in helping to strengthen marriages in her church family through different events and resources.

Visit her website. Connect on Instagram and Facebook.

Listen to her podcast here.

In This Podcast

  • How to use a podcast to promote a practice
  • How to get comfortable on your podcast
  • Podcast launch party

How to use a podcast to promote a practice

For some private practitioners, advertising their services can feel stressful at times, especially if they are concerned about coming across as inauthentic or money-focused.

However, in order to reach more people to help more people, some advertising is necessary, and there are ways in which you can advertise yourself without being surreptitious.

You’re not doing it to be sleazy, you’re not doing it to gain a buck – you’re doing it because you genuinely believe that this is going to help people. Now, if it helps your practice at the same time, great! Because you know what? If your practice is doing well then you are helping more people … always going back to what you know to be the foundation of the reason that you started the podcast, I think that’s so important. (WhitneyOwens)

If you are using a podcast to market yourself and your practice, even conventional marketing strategies such as social media, go back to your ‘why’, go back to the reason why you got into this work, and advertise from that perspective, because that is genuine.

How to get comfortable on your podcast

Behave in the same way you would in a normal conversation:

If you are used to forming ties to clients or business partners through face-to-face conversation, act the same way you would in person on your podcast – even if it may feel strange in the beginning. Crack the same jokes, bring up the same stories, and be yourself.

Be less formal:

Preparation is important for podcasts, and scripts can help you keep a direction for your conversation, however, a podcast is a form of virtual conversation.

It might be beneficial to you, to your podcast, and to your listeners if you jump on and go and let the conversation go where it wants to – if you don’t like it, you do not have to air it – but this free-flowing way can help you to gain confidence and familiarity with talking and thinking on your virtual conversational feet.

Imagine you are talking to your ideal client:

Envision your ideal client in front of you, the person either that you generally work with or the person that you would like to work with, and have a conversation with them. Speak to their needs and invite them into the “conversation” and therefore into your practice.

Think about your favorite podcasts:

Why are they your favorite? What about them brings you back again and again?

The big picture is the more people that listen to your podcast, the more people that are going t get help. You’re not doing it to make yourself famous … you’re doing it because you genuinely want to help first responders. You have got to promote, promote, promote you podcast for that reason, and not because you’re trying to necessarily make money. (Whitney Owens)

Keep a notepad next to you during sessions and write down common questions that your clients often ask you and make individual shows on each of those topics or questions.

Through podcasting, you can build relationships:

Podcasting is often therapy in-between sessions, and when you have brought out enough content and advertised yourself well so that people listen in, you build a virtual relational network with your listeners where they provide you feedback on what they like, what they need and are curious about, and then you can start to curate and produce content that speaks to those needs.

Get onto podcasts with other therapists:

Connect with other therapists and counselors and be a guest on their podcasts and invite them on yours, because then you can share the audience base and connect with a whole other group of listeners.

Podcast launch party

Having a podcast launch party is a great way to boost your podcast significantly on listening platforms. You get your family and friends altogether at an event – say lunch at a restaurant for example – and then and there everyone rates and reviews your podcast.

Through this launch party, your podcast instantly gets numerous reviews and ratings which boosts it on platforms through which people search for new podcasts to listen.

This is a fun and effective way to bring in reviews and also to encourage networking because people might in person remember to tell you about potential guests you could have on your show, or interesting topics that you could cover that you might not have thought of yourself.

Useful Links:

Meet Whitney Owens

Photo of Christian therapist Whitney Owens. Whitney helps other christian counselors grow faith based private practices!Whitney is a licensed professional counselor and owns a growing group practice in Savannah, Georgia. Along with a wealth of experience managing a practice, she also has an extensive history working in a variety of clinical and religious settings, allowing her to specialize in consulting for faith-based practices and those wanting to connect with religious organizations.

Knowing the pains and difficulties surrounding building a private practice, she started this podcast to help clinicians start, grow, and scale a faith-based practice. She has learned how to start and grow a successful practice that adheres to her own faith and values. And as a private practice consultant, she has helped many clinicians do the same.

Thanks For Listening!

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Faith in Practice is part of the Practice of the Practice Podcast Network, a network of podcasts that are changing the world. To hear other podcasts like Empowered and Unapologetic, Bomb Mom, Imperfect Thriving, Marketing a Practice or Beta Male Revolution, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.

Podcast Transcription

[WHITNEY OWENS]
Welcome to the Faith in Practice podcast. I’m your host Whitney Owens recording live from Savannah, Georgia. I’m a licensed professional counselor, group practice owner, and private practice consultant. Each week through personal story or amazing interviews, I will help you learn how to start, grow and scale your practice from a faith-based perspective. I will show you how to have an awesome faith-based practice without being cheesy or fake. You too can have a successful practice, make lots of money, and be true to yourself.

Welcome to the Faith in Practice podcast. Thanks for taking the time to listen to this episode today. It means the world to me that you take the time to be a part of this show. So if you haven’t already please go rate and review the podcast, share it with other faith-based practice centers so that we can start helping others start, grow and scale their faith-based practices. I am not one to tell you things that you need to do without doing a myself and so I have been asking and promoting the mastermind group that I’m going to be leading, starting in July. I also want you to know that I highly value mastermind groups. As you may have known by listening to this show, I was a member of a mastermind group for two years. It was during that time that I hired my first clinicians, got my systems going in my practice, learned how to manage my finances and so much more. Those relationships I made in that mastermind group continue to help me, not only with my practice, but personally.

These are some of my best friends. In fact, one person that I’ve met in the mastermind, Jessica we hung out last October for the Killin’It Camp conference, even though it was virtual. We got a house midway between the two of our places where we live and we spent four days together and it was spectacular. So mastermind groups really can help you with your business. It also can bring you some of the best friendships that you can have. In fact, I also am in a current mastermind group, started this up a few months ago, because I was seeing that I needed some extra accountability. It can get kind of lonely when you’re growing your practice and so I wanted to find some people that could do it with me. So there are four of us and we meet together every other week and hold each other accountable to the work that we’re doing and it’s been amazing.

Ever since we started meeting have already been making some changes and yes, I might have made those changes on my own, but just having other people to support me and help me has made the world of difference. In fact, recently I did a time audit where I really wrote down everything I was doing. In fact, this was something I really wanted to do, but at the same time didn’t want to do because gosh, writing down everything I was doing, talk about that accountability, the annoyance of having to have my notebook by me, my pen, writing everything down and then I looked back at it and I was amazed. I was spending time in places that I didn’t really realize, like I knew some of these things were taking up my time, but I had no idea how much they were taking up or maybe I was trying to ignore it.

So through my mastermind group, they helped me make some changes on that. So if you’re thinking I want a group of people to grow a faith-based practice with, please reach out to me. I would love to get you connected to the group. I have two mastermind groups that are looking to start in July. One is for those that have a solo practice wanting to grow their case loads and the other is for people who are just starting a group practice, but need to really get those foundations set and get their systems in place and look at some of the finances and their KPIs and things like that. So if you fall into either of those categories, I’d love you to consider the mastermind group. To get more information. You can head over to practiceofpractice.com\faithmastermind, or send me an email [email protected].

So in this month of June, we are doing live consulting here on the show and I am excited to be interviewing Alisha. Alisha is in my current mastermind group and when she started the mastermind group, she was feeling exhausted and overwhelmed with not only her caseload, but there was just so many to-do’s within building a practice and you don’t really have the ability to fan them out yet and so she wasn’t really sure where to put her time and energy. And then at the end of the mastermind group, she said to me, “Whitney, this group has meant so much because I have learned to work less. I’ve learned where to prioritize, I’ve hired an assistant, and now instead of my business draining my energy, my business gives me energy.”

Oh yes. So cool. Like I wanted to cry when she said that, because what better gift could she have than enjoying the work she’s doing again? And so I’m excited to be able to share Alisha and who she is with you guys. She also started a podcast called Code 3 Counseling for working with firefighters and police officers and first responders. So if you are working with that population, I want to encourage you to check out her podcast and to share it with other clinicians and other clients so that they can learn about mental health in the first responder world. All right, well, we’ll go ahead and get started and here’s the live consulting that I did with Alisha Sweyd.
[WHITNEY]
I have Alisha Sweyd. She’s the director and co-founder of Code 3 Counseling in California. She also co-hosts a podcast called Code 3 Counseling Podcast with her father, Sean Kevin. She specializes in working with first responders and their families, working with people who believe in service above self. Alisha truly values the part faith can play in helping these people heal. When she’s not working on building and scaling her practice, she enjoys spending quality time with her husband and her two young children or reading a good book by the ocean along the Monterey coast. Alisha also finds fulfillment in helping to strengthen marriages in a church family through different events and resources. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
[ALISHA SWEYD]
Thanks Whitney. I’m really excited.
[WHITNEY]
Yes. Well, Alisha, why don’t you share with people a little bit about you and where your practice is right now, kind of the dynamic of it, clients you see, how many clients you see, cash pay, insurance, give us an idea.
[ALISHA]
Okay. so my practice is Code 3 Counseling. I specialize in working with first responders and their families. I really like working with couples. Those are my absolute favorite, as first responder couples. I see about between 15 and 20 clients a week on my busy week. Sometimes I have like lows, but on average it’s usually about 15. I’m a full cash pay practice. I do work with a couple of EAPs but EAPs that don’t require diagnosing, that’s one of the things that I really don’t like to do with my responders, is provide diagnoses. I find it just perpetuates the stigma around getting mental health services. And the EAPs that I work with have different lists for people who work with first responders. So I don’t just get random people through the EAPs. It’s all first responders.
[WHITNEY]
That’s great. So when you think about your caseload, what percentage are first responders? Is that everybody or a majority?
[ALISHA]
It’s about 85 to 90% now. It wasn’t always that way, but now it’s, I’m only taking on new clients who are first responders or like word of mouth referrals, people who get referred to me. I know a lot of pastors in local churches and so they’ll refer people to me specifically. And those people I do take on and work with because I like to have those relationships, but if they’re not a first responder and they’re just calling through Psychology Today, I don’t take them anymore.
[WHITNEY]
Great, great. I love that your niche and you’re sticking to it.
[ALISHA]
Yes. That’s great.
[WHITNEY]
Yes. All right. So what is your question for me today?
[ALISHA]
So my question is really around how to use my podcast in like a non sleazy kind of way and use it for marketing purposes really because, I have a hard time with advertising myself in those kinds of ways and sharing the podcast, it’s been very hard for me. Like my stomach is in knots Whitney, just editing it and doing all of that stuff. I get really anxious and nervous about people, maybe misinterpreting the podcast or me promoting it as like, I’m just trying to get people to come and pay me lots of money when that’s really not what I’m trying to do. So it’s how do I do it in an authentic and genuine way that feels normal for myself and for the people who are listening to it and who see me promoting it.
[WHITNEY]
Well, first of all, I love your heart behind that. And I know, at the beginning of this podcast I was talking about it. So I know where this came from. So I want you to believe in that first, like you’re not doing it to be sleazy. You’re not doing it to gain a buck. You’re doing it because you genuinely believe this is going to help people. Now, if it helps your practice at the same time great, because you know, what, if your practice is doing well, you’re helping more people. It’s all about helping first responders and so going into it with that attitude and always going back to what you know, to be the foundation of the reason you started the podcast. I think that’s so important in any kind of work that we’re doing, even as a therapist. You know, going back to why you started your practice and why it’s important. So I think some things to consider here is how did you market your private practice in a way that was authentic to you? That didn’t feel like you were trying to gain a book?
[ALISHA]
With my practice, it really was like the face to face kind of stuff. I would go to local departments and meet with different command staff and talk with them face to face and build that relationship in a way that felt really normal to me. And it felt fun because I would joke around, I’d laugh. We joke about just the like different quirks of first responder culture and people in the culture, especially when it comes to how they deal with their emotions and things like that. It was fun and it was silly. So with the podcast I don’t get my side of receiving some of that relationship and so I think that that’s where I really struggle with it feeling authentic because it’s not like a back and forth normal conversation. It is very one-sided, which is hard for me. So that’s where it’s really different for me. It’s, I’m not doing this face-to-face so I’m not reading their body language. I’m not seeing if they’re responding to my jokes or not or if I think I’m funny and I’m really not.
[WHITNEY]
Yes. And I will, so many things to say here. So much of your podcasting, like personality and how you feel with the podcast gets better with time, I promise. I remember Joe saying this to me and other people I’ve known that really recorded a lot of episodes and then listening to my first episodes now I am way better at this than I was my first two episodes. So that’s okay. Like, you’re going to get into your rhythm. You’re going to find your jokes and you’re to laugh on your podcast and you’re going to have fun. I think about what it’s like when you meet with these guys in person, or gals, whoever you’re meeting with. When you’re meeting with them in person you’re laughing, you’re telling jokes that first responders only understand. Do that on your podcast.
[ALISHA]
Okay.
[WHITNEY]
Yes. Be yourself. You don’t have to, like, I think podcasters have it together too much honestly. I think it’s a lot more authentic when we just jump on and we go, and I know that that’s probably not easy for you and it does take time to get used to that. But you know, record a podcast. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to air it, but just get used to talking, get used to being yourself. Maybe even visualize some of your ideal clients when you’re talking and that you’re talking to them. Another thing to think about is I want you to start thinking about your favorite podcasts that you listen to. Do you feel close to those people because you listened to their podcast?
[ALISHA]
No.
[WHITNEY]
You don’t? Okay, we’re very different then. I mean, I feel like when I really follow somebody’s podcast, they’re like my buddy, like I’m running and they’re telling me things and I’m learning things and I’m like, “Man, he’s cool.” So I don’t know, like, I think there’s something to be said for like, you develop a relationship through listening to somebody’s podcast.
[ALISHA]
I think for me, because the podcasts that I listened to are usually, I was connected with that like person or that entity before they became a podcast, and so I had that relationship before even I even started listening. So I think that that’s where I’m getting caught up. I hadn’t thought about that. I think that that’s where I’m getting caught up on. I want that relationship before I get them listening, but I can’t do that. That’s why I’m doing the podcast. Or like, I’ll just turn on in my …
[WHITNEY]
Oh good. Well, maybe a challenge would be taking a podcast that you have no relationship with the person whatsoever and start listening to it and see how you feel.
[ALISHA]
Okay. I could try that.
[WHITNEY]
Yes. I want you to remember big picture though, is the more people that listen to your podcast, the more people that are going to get help. You’re not doing it to make yourself famous or to be some big wig. You’re doing it because you generally want to help first responders. You have got to promote, promote, promote your podcast for that reason and not because you’re trying to necessarily make money. I encourage you to contact every first responder relationship you have and tell them about your podcast.
[ALISHA]
Okay.
[WHITNEY]
How does that feel to you?
[ALISHA]
That makes me nauseous.
[WHITNEY]
But there’s a reason these people like you. I mean, if you think about relationships you’ve developed with the police department or fire department, they send people to you because they believe in you and your work. Why wouldn’t they want to listen to your podcast? It’s all going to edify the work you’re doing. I would definitely tell all your clients about it. And if that means, oh yes, print out little cards, whatever it is. I mean, think about all the time. Do you have clients you talk to and you say, “Hey, here’s a great book or here’s a great podcast about this topic we’re talking about.”
[ALISHA]
Yes. But it’s not mine.
[WHITNEY]
Well, they come, they pay you every week for therapy. This is a way that you can make the therapy go between sessions, which is what we all want as therapists. And you’re only going to bring more to the table. And I would be taking the things you’re hearing in your sessions and I would have a notepad beside you, start writing down the common questions people have as first responders that are common issues and make a show on every single one of those. Like, so what I started doing recently was I was getting the same questions over and over. So I started making a podcast episode on those questions. Like if I’m going into a Facebook group of practice owners, and they’re saying, yada, yada, yada, I’m like, “Oh man, I know the answer to that.” I’m just going to make a podcast about it. So I make a podcast and then I can take those shows and when people ask those questions again and again, and again, I just stick them in there. And that way they get the answer to their question. It helps them. It helps me, but really, it’s really about helping people.
[ALISHA]
Well, and that was one of the things that I had wanted to do with the podcast in the beginning was have like homework for them to do. So if I see somebody who’s really struggling with burnout and I’m finding it out either at the end of session or I’m in a couple session and I’m dealing with conflict, but I see burnout as a part of all of this, having them listen to the episode that talks about burnout so they can get the education outside of sessions. But in that moment, it feels genuine because it’s like, “Oh, hey, here you are. You’re dealing with burnout. Here’s something that I know will help and then next time you come in, we’ll work off of what you heard. And I know what you listen to because I’m the one that put it together”. But then telling them when it’s not, “Hey, here’s like a homework assignment,” it feels very awkward. Like how do you even bring that up?
[WHITNEY]
Well, you just let them know that there’s tools and information on this podcast that can help you have a better mental health. I know it feels uncomfortable. I want you to go with what you know is logically okay more so than your emotions.
[ALISHA]
That’s hard. That’s like really hard.
[WHITNEY]
Right, because if you let your emotions guide this, you’re not going to tell anybody about your podcast in the world space now. Just like as a therapist, when you’re at a party and somebody is talking about their depression, I don’t know, do you say to them, “Hey, therapy might be a good idea?”
[ALISHA]
Yes.
[WHITNEY]
Okay. So you promote therapy knowing that it’s going to help somebody and they can choose to do it or not. You can tell them about your podcast and they can choose to listen or not. But if you’re not telling them, no one’s ever going to know. You are your biggest advocate. Also I would encourage people on your podcast, if this would help you to tell them, to get in touch with you. Give them away, “Hey, I would love to hear from you. Please shoot me an email and tell me what’s going on in your life or tell me how I can help or tell me how you’d benefit from the podcast or please rate and review the podcast.” I will say my first, maybe 10 months of podcasting, honestly, I think I told you this, when we talked, I was ready to give up. Like it was so hard and I wasn’t getting any feedback from anybody. Does anyone even listen to this show? But then it was something about right at that 10 month mark, I started getting tons of feedback of people loving the show and, “This is how I’ve benefited from this episode.”

Or somebody was like, “I hired an assistant because you did an episode about hiring an assistant.” I was like, “All right. Like I made a difference in somebody’s life by listening to this podcast episode.” And at that time that girl hadn’t paid me a dime but I made a difference in her life and that was so cool. So encourage people to give you feedback because I think that will help. I know that you don’t want to ask for feedback, but that’s how you develop relationship and that’s how what’s working and what’s not working with your podcast.
[ALISHA]
Yes. Well, and that feels a little bit like it’s that missing piece that I have where I’m getting the relational part built. Because that’s where I really feel the most uncomfortable. It’s like, I’m just recording myself talking, and I have no idea if the other person is receiving it or not. And that feels really scary but, having that feedback is actually really, I think it’s really helpful for me because then it’s that kind of back and forth talking. It’s just not as like quick and in the moment, like I’m used to.
[WHITNEY]
Yes. And you know, Alisha, ultimately, you’ll not always going to know what people think about you.
[ALISHA]
No.
[WHITNEY]
Like you got to do what you think is the right thing to do. And you might not know what they think about you and your podcast. And if they walk away and they think, man, she is, we keep using the word sleazy, but man, she’s so sleazy fine. They don’t have to listen to your packaging. They can listen to somebody else. But even if you reach 10, 20 people that love your podcast, that’d be worth it, right?
[ALISHA]
Oh yes.
[WHITNEY]
Oh yes. That’d be worth it. You’ll find those people. You’re going to have to reach out to, I’d reach out to those connections that you already have, people that are your current clients and people who are, connections that you have in the community. I also would do what you’re doing with posting on social media, sharing it with all your therapist friends, and I would try to get on people’s podcasts that are therapists. So like, even right now, if there’s somebody right now, who’s listening and they’re thinking, “I have a first responder client.” Oh wow. I’m going to tell them about Code 3 Counseling podcast. That’s going to help that person’s treatment while they’re working with me.

Wow. That’s so great. So anyway, I encourage you to get on podcasts with, and it could be people like me that their podcast is about helping businesses and stuff, but maybe even get on podcasts that are a little bit more clinical in nature and talk about your podcast. Maybe get on those episodes to talk specifically about how to help first responders and then, sorry I had the other idea of a connection for you that we’ll talk about later, but I hesitated there. So get in front of those podcasts. Talk about, “Hey, here’s the five mental health tips for first responders,” and at the end of the episode, you say, “Hey, and by the way, I have this podcast.” Then people will go listen to that show or listening to it because they need help with first responders and then they make it to your podcast.

I have found that some of the best ways to grow my podcast have been getting on other people’s podcasts. And you’ve already got that email list started. I saw your website and your pop up, get this free thing, you get on this email list. That’s awesome. And then when you have things, maybe a special episode that comes out or something you want to promote, or maybe you’re speaking at an event, like you can let them know about that ways to connect with you. Your email list is gold. So make sure you keep up with that and you’ll have that.
[ALISHA]
Yes. Okay.
[WHITNEY]
How are you feeling?
[ALISHA]
My stomach isn’t in knots.
[WHITNEY]
What’s up? That’s awesome. Well, good. See you’re already feeling better. And that’s how God moves in great ways.
[ALISHA]
Yes, He does.
[WHITNEY]
Good. so you feel like you have an action plan moving forward?
[ALISHA]
Yes. I’m going to reach out to the people I already know and let them know about the podcasts, like on a one-to-one level. And then I am going to start looking at clinical people’s podcasts because I was looking more at like podcasts that are for other first responders. But I like the idea of the clinical piece, because I do want other counselors and therapists to be able to use it for them too. Like if they have a client who’s dealing with trauma as a first responder and using the podcast as supplemental work for them too, it’s not just for me. It’s not like I want to keep it to myself. So I like that. That feels comfortable and good and it feels like me.
[WHITNEY]
Yes. Well, I also like what you’re saying too about getting on other first responder podcasts. I think that’s really good. So I would do that and I would offer to interview them as well, do podcast exchanges. I love doing those. You can also do reverse podcasts. Like if somebody interviews you and you really like it, ask them if they’ll give you the podcast and then you play it with reverse, like it’s you being interviewed on your own show. There’s lots of ideas. Another thing that I love doing for my show that I encourage you to do is to have a podcast launch party.
[ALISHA]
Oh, what?
[WHITNEY]
If you want to get some people together that you know, or like obviously your dad and your husband have connections with first responders, like they’ll get together somewhere, if it’s a park or whatever, and everyone shows up and everyone rates and reviews your show right there. As I’m telling you, you’re going to ask people to rate and review your show and people either aren’t going to make the time to do it, or they don’t know how to do it. You’d be amazed how many people don’t know how to do it. So when I launched my show, I invited all my friends and people came by a local restaurant. We sat outside, well, this was prior to COVID, but we still sat outside and we rated and reviewed the show and I had to pick up people’s phones and show them how to do it because they couldn’t figure it out. That’s helpful. You want your show, if you can get those reviews within the first few weeks, especially if you can pick one or two days to get, to make that happen and get a ton of reviews, that’ll really elevate your show. But yes, I’ll do some kind of launch party.
[ALISHA]
I like the lunch party and that’s fun too, which is, I like to do fun things like that. And it’s, I can also see the relational piece of getting that feedback and getting it in the moment and hearing, oh yes, you should do this or interview this person or talk about this topic, that people might not start the time to send me an email or like comment on social media to let me know. I like the launch party idea. That’s fun.
[WHITNEY]
Yes. It is fun. It is fun. And I feel like maybe I got 80 something reviews within those first few days. In fact, girl, I went to church and walked around and made people give their ratings and reviews. We can solicit reviews for a podcast, not for our private practice. I was like, “Here. Review, review,” and people, these youth, my husband’s a youth pastor. Boy, they wrote some funny reviews, but, “Whitney is awesome.” And that was it. I got about 80 something reviews and now I’m over a hundred. So anyway, if you are loving my podcasts, I’m just putting in a disclaimer, please go rate and review my podcast. If you haven’t done so already and then I want you to also rate and review Code 3 Counseling. All right, Alisha, you’re in my mastermind group. Can you tell everybody what a mastermind group is and why you love it?
[ALISHA]
Yes, I would absolutely love to. So the mastermind group for us, it’s five people with Whitney and we meet twice a month on Zoom and we’re all over the US. Oh my goodness. I’m over on the west coast, we got on that east coast. It’s just a lot of different people and they’re all fun. I really like our group. I think our group is really supportive and encouraging and it’s really helpful. Whitney, because of the way that you just lead the group, I have found it really wonderful. You use the videos outside of the meeting times for us to watch and learn about a topic and then we come and we talk about it and you know, we answer each other’s questions, you answer our questions.

We get the consulting from you, but then we also get the encouragement from other peers, which I find very helpful, not just the one-on-one consulting, like it’s a group support. I mean, it’s almost like a support group for people who don’t know what we’re doing and we’re trying to figure it all out. And then we also have the hot seats. I love the hot seats and I come with a question or something that’s really, I’m struggling with. And it was actually in a hot seat that got me to hire my assistant because I was in a hot seat talking about burnout and how to manage that a little bit better and it was when I realized by you and everybody in the group that, yes, I need to not be the one answering the phones anymore. So that was huge., huge for me.
[WHITNEY]
So there’s a plug for productive therapists.
[ALISHA]
Oh yes.
[WHITNEY]
That’s your right gear for your practice and fantastic. You know, sometimes people reach out later and go, “Well, who were you talking about with Alisha?” So anyway, now y’all know productive therapist is a VA company, but yes, that’s been a game changer for your practice.
[ALISHA]
Oh my goodness. And it’s really the reason that I’ve gotten so solidified in my niche is having her, having my assistant, Vanessa to answer the phones and to weed out people who aren’t going to be good fits because one of the problems that I was struggling with was I get the phone call, I realize we’re not a good fit, and then I would try to help them find somebody who could be a good fit for them. And that would end up taking like 45 minutes and then I didn’t spend the 45 minutes blogging that I had meant to do and it was just, yes. So having her do that, it’s so much easier. And then all of my new clients have been either word of mouth referrals or first responders, which is what I love working with and, yes, I just have so much more energy in my practice now and I feel like I have, I’m getting the energy back from my practice that I’ve been putting into it and I didn’t have that before the mastermind group. That was definitely a piece that was missing.
[WHITNEY]
Girl, that’s like the best thing you could have said right there. I love that. You’re getting the energy back. That’s so beautiful. And we work so hard on our businesses and so to have that back is so great. I love it.
[ALISHA]
It’s really nice to go home and not be exhausted.
[WHITNEY]
Oh yes, definitely. Definitely. Well, I’ve loved having you in the mastermind group and I love hearing about how it’s made an impact in your life. So thank you for sharing that today. So I want to ask you what I ask everyone that comes on the podcast. What do you believe every Christian counselor needs to know?
[ALISHA]
One of the things that I have found really helpful, especially through the mastermind group is recognizing God’s calling in the work that I’m doing and being okay with being where He’s put me at in moments where I feel overwhelmed or struggling and leaning into Him a little bit more than into my own abilities as a business person. You have reminded me of that a lot in the mastermind group and just praying about it and bringing it to God and asking Him if this is where I need to go, or if that’s where I need to go. Getting that clarity as a business owner has just, I find so much more peace in the decisions I’m making, because I’m leaning into Him more as a business owner and not just working with clients and praying about my clients and about stuff like that, but really praying over my business and bringing Him into that whole process. I think it’s so important for us as Christians to have Him be in all the moments and not just the ones that we think are the ones where we’re reminded to pray about our clients and things like that. So I think that that’s really important for us to remember.
[WHITNEY]
It’s so is, and our business is our extension into the world. Like it’s the way that God moves in the world as He gets to use us to do it. So it’s so important that we grow our businesses so that we can help more people.
[ALISHA]
Yes.
[WHITNEY]
Yes. Well, girl, I’m so proud of you. You’re killing it and I can’t wait to go home and listen to the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on today.
[ALISHA]
Thank you, Whitney.
[WHITNEY]
Thank you for listening to the Faith in Practice podcast. If you love this podcast, please rate and review on iTunes or your favorite podcast player. If you liked this episode and want to know more, check out the Practice of the Practice website. Also there, you can learn more about me, options for working together, such as individual and in group consulting, or just shoot me an email, [email protected]. Would love to hear from you.

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, Practice of the Practice, or the guests are providing legal, mental health, or other professional information. If you need a professional, you should find one.