I often hear from health care providers that they would like to blog, but can’t come up with topics to write about.

It can be difficult to translate what we learn and read in our academic world into short and straightforward blog posts until you do this one thing.

Listen

Your patients and clients are telling you what to write and how to write it. They come to you every day with questions, complaints and confusion that you then explain to them face-to-face. Your blog topics come for those conversations.

For example, in my practice working with children with ADHD families come to me with anxiety about homework and their child’s extreme disorganization. They live in a state of constant chaos and stress. Once I realized that many families were struggling with the same issue, I wrote many blog posts about how to help a child get organized. I wrote one post about organizing a backpack, another post about organizing a school locker. I did videos on how to organize a school binder and a homework agenda book, etc. These posts were such a hit I was able to put them together in a series and sell them as my “Homework Survival Bootcamp.”

While these topics may seem simple and mundane, it is exactly these ideas and tips that people need when they go online searching for help. People don’t want a medical definition of depression. They want tips on how to cope when they feel too tired to get out of bed.

And any health care professional can do this. If you work with people with diabetes you could post healthy recipes, simple exercises, tips on how to comfortably check your blood sugar. Dentists can write about  the best toothbrush to use for best cleaning (honestly there are so many kinds I get totally overwhelmed when I need to buy a new toothbrush). Pediatricians can offer a series on summer time safety or summarize the research on how food dyes impact children’s health.

The topics are endless.

The more specific and action-oriented your post, the better. People want to read about tools they can use right away. They want to read about their health in accessible, easily understood language and formats. Eliminate jargon and professional-speak from your posts and write like you would speak to a client in your office.

An Additional Benefit

One additional benefit of answering common questions on your blog is you have a place to refer people when they come to you with a frequently asked question. Maybe a psychotherapist often gets asked questions on how to mange insomnia without medication.   Your response could be written in a post called , “Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Getting a Good Night’s Sleep,” and you can refer all your clients to the post or print it out and give it to those who specifically ask. This saves you time while increasing your visibility online and in the community.

So the next time you find yourself stumped for ideas on what to write about, take time to listen to the people around you and answer those questions in a general way on your blog. Chances are if one person has that question, many others do too.

Our next Health Care Blogging post will focus on finding your blog tone and “voice.”  How you write and communicate is almost more important that what you write and communicate.

To receive this blog series in your email box, sign up for the RSS feed in the box to the right where is says “Recent updates by email,” or download my free report sign up below for my free 7 part e-course, “7 Essential Steps to Grow Your Practice” and get the blog post series as well in my newsletter that comes out on Thursday.

This past week I’ve spoken to many of my clients about blogging. Most understand the need to have a blog, but most are also not blogging on a regular basis.  Often people get bogged down in the process of writing, generating ideas and feeling that their writing is good enough.

The two  questions I get asked most often is: “How do you write so fast?” and “How can I get better at writing?”

What these questions really mean is, “I don’t feel my writing is up to par and I want to get better quickly.” Often these feelings also lead to people not publishing anything on their blog until it is what they perceive as “good enough.”

You will read lots of advice on blogging on many blogs. Most of it is accurate, lots of it is overkill. People will tell you the right headline, caption, picture, turn of phrase, call to action will make or break your blog’s success.

To that I say: phhhttttt.

There are 5 keys to any blog’s success:

1. Know your reading audience well. And by “know” I mean you know what these people do on the weekends and what keeps them up at 3 AM.  Writing random blog posts to random readers is a waste of time.  Writing laser focused posts that speak to your community’s needs, thoughts and feelings is a fast track to success.  When you know who you are writing to, it makes it very easy to come up with topics and get down helpful tips and advice in your blog.

2.  Know that blogging is more than writing. Now blogs can include video, audio, infographics, interviews, photographs, etc. Please don’t let your writing skills stop you from publishing on your blog. In fact, the more creative the blog, the more compelling and interesting to your readers.

3. Consistency + Quality = Success. There has been some debate in blogging circles about consistency vs. quality.   The truth is you need both a consistent posting schedule of quality content to build a loyal readership and establish yourself as a trusted professional.  For example,  I post every Monday. By posting just once a week, I can make sure that this post has some hope of being good quality. If I posted more than once a week, the quality would probably suffer. Readers who want to keep track of what I post here, know to check in on Mondays. This also gives people confidence that I am trustworthy and good to my word. I keep my promises, even if it is to just publish  a decent post every Monday.

4. Hit PUBLISH.  My observation is that 80% of success comes from just showing up. Honestly, lots of the people you see out there who you consider successful (at anything) are not the most amazing writers, performers or professionals. They are the most public and show up consistently. Hiding behind an office door, an archive of blog drafts and your fear of being seen will not lead you to any level of success. People need to know you exist to work with you, right?

5.  Practice in real time. My son’s first grade teacher used to tell him, “Practice makes better.” Which is great advice to 7 year olds whose writing, reading and math skills are just emerging and certainly far away from “perfect.” When learning any new skill, you need to work like a first grader: do your best and show it around, get feedback and keep improving. Most bloggers look back on their first few months of posts and are amazed at how far they have come. We all start somewhere and need to trust that practice makes better.

Bonus tips on blogging success:

• All blogs and reading audiences are unique. You’ll need to figure out what your community wants from you in a blog. This means that copycatting someone else’s blogging style isn’t a smart thing to do.
• Personality matters. Unlike academic papers, people read blogs for information and entertainment. Writing in a formal style is boring. Write with some personality to attract readers. [This blog is a perfect example. As I tell people who question my writing tone here. "I know how to use big words, I just choose not to."]
• You are not writing the next great American novel. Your writing doesn’t need to be super sophisticated with deep metaphors and compelling imagery. You need one main idea, a few sentences to explain it and a conclusion. [See this post as a demonstration of this concept.]

Now you can go off and blog, right? Any tips you can offer your colleagues on blogging? Any questions I can answer for you?

Our next post in the series will be on how to generate topics to blog about.

To receive this blog series in your email box, sign up for the RSS feed in the box to the right where is says “Recent updates by email,” or download my free report sign up below for my free 7 part e-course, “7 Essential Steps to Grow Your Practice” and get the blog post series as well in my newsletter that comes out on Thursday.

We need more health care professionals to blog for the public.

The health care community knows this, but hasn’t put much effort into getting any blogging movement going.

Yes, there are blogs like KevinMD, PsychCentral, WebMD and some articles on these sites are helpful. Others are directed at a professional audience, while others aren’t written all that well.

As a psychologist and health care consumer I want to read well-written articles by health care professionals directed to helping me understand my health better.

“What’s the point?”

There are two main points to blogging.

The first is a public service action that helps the community you want to support learn more about their health. This is the reason you initially wanted to be a health care provider, right? You want to help people.

The second point is to attract your ideal patients and clients to your practice.  An informed patient is usually someone who will do the work (whatever that is) to get better. Someone who takes the time to read your blog will know that you are smart and effective. They will also be more willing to pay you for your services.

Often health care providers get all tangled up in blogging. Either they don’t understand the points outlined above, claim they have no time, or want an immediate ROI.  Once they get over these hurdles,they then over analyze their content and writing and get all anxious about their blogging performance.

This leaves the public with very few trustworthy health care blogs to refer to and total frustration when they want to do some research on their provider’s credentials and expertise online.

Blogging really doesn’t have to be this complicated and anxiety ridden.  In addition, it is a low cost, low time investment way to do a lot of good for the public and  your practice.

So this week, I am going to offer you a series on health care blogging. I’ll outline what blogging is and isn’t, how to create useful content in a timely manner, how to leverage a blog for community service and additional income streams. I’ll break down blogging into a simple system and process you can use to grow your practice and help more people.

To get the series sent to your email, you can enter your name in the box to the right that says “Recent Updates by Email,” and/or you can sign up below for my free  7 part e-course, “7 Essential Steps to Grow Your Practice” and get the blog post series as well.

It’s been well established that the way to build significant income and wealth in a small health care practice is to leverage multiple income streams. Ideally, this income is passive (so you can make money while you are on vacation or asleep) and/or leveraged (and you serve many people at once, rather than one at at time.

Often, when health care providers initially understand the  potential of multiple income streams they are excited to develop them right away. There are 10 steps you need to take before adding new income streams to your practice. Here they are in order of importance.

1. Start with a full face-to-face client case load. The fastest way to a stable income is through individual client sessions. These pay at the highest hourly rate and it can be relatively straightforward to attract 10-20 people to work with you. If your caseload isn’t full and you run off to focus on other income streams you will end up with few clients and weak income streams.  You must focus on one thing at a time.

2. Have a niche and be known for something.  People invest in information from experts. When you have a problem to solve you will search online for an expert to help you sort it out.  Maybe you want to learn how to tomatoes in your garden. You don’t want to learn from the “grow a garden” guy. You want to learn from the “I grow awesome tomatoes” woman.  Maybe you buy her book, watch her YouTube video, or download her low cost  Kindle short to learn more about growing tomatoes. She has a multiple income stream because she is an expert on tomatoes, not gardening in general. The same goes for people who are looking for mental health information. They want to learn from the person who is an expert in childhood ADHD, or how to cope with childhood trauma, or learn from someone who clearly understands panic attacks. Be known for something and the income streams are a closer reality.

3. Develop a professional, unique web presence. A multiple income stream practice is established on the internet. Your website needs to be well designed and uniquely branded to who you are and your specialty. You may not invest in an “out of the box” design that hundreds of other therapists have, too.  You need your own online real estate that is yours to own, update and adjust as needed.

4. Offer a free “taste” of your expertise. The first step to developing a content driven income stream is to offer people a free sample of your content. If you receive my weekly newsletter, you have downloaded my free content. Maybe it was an email course, a video series or audio lesson. Maybe you have downloaded all three over the years. You need one free taste of your expertise to offer people who may one day become clients or customers.

5. Develop a robust email list. Once you have your free goodie, you will offer it on your website in exchange for an email address. You must have an email list of about 300-500 people before you offer anything for money. The reality is between 1-5% of any list will buy what you offer. So if you have a list of 100 and try to sell an ebook, 1-5 sales does not an additional income stream make. Developing this list takes time. This is why you need a full practice to sustain your income and give you time to build this new income format.

7. Set up the tech. In order to sell things online you need some technology built into your website. This will include an autoresponder (like Aweber) , a shopping cart (like Paypal), and the technology needed to provide the content such as audio, video or webinar. If all of this sounds like gibberish to you, it’s ok. You have time to sort it out, but you will need to understand how to integrate all of the above,whether or not you hire someone to do the actual work for you. [As an aside, I am explaining all of my tech tools this month in my Biz Savvy Success Circle.]

8.  Commit to marketing and sales. To generate a new income stream, you must market it and become comfortable with closing a sale. The internet is too cluttered a place to simply tell folks you have a new e-book, point them to a sales page and see the money flow in.  If you cringe at the though of marketing, selling or promoting your expertise, you either need to do some personal work to sort that out, or pass on the idea of passive income streams.

9.  Understand that this is a different way to work. Sometimes when people hear the phrase “passive income stream” they think the money comes in passively, as in no work is required on their part. This is a misunderstanding.  It takes work to create a new income stream. Yes, once you write the book or record the audio course you can offer it for sale forever. But you still need to create the product and market it for as long as you want to sell it. This is work, but it does allow you more freedom to “set it and forget it” so that you can get your marketing all set to go and then let the technology deliver it for you while you see clients, go on vacation or hang out with your kids. It’s a different way of working.

These 9 steps can look simple or daunting depending on how you choose to look at it. If you keep your expectations realistic and take the process one step at a time, multiple, passive income streams are within your reach….

Looking for ways to establish an innovative practice based on serving your true clients and developing additional income streams? Sign up below for my 7 part e-course, “7 Essential Steps to Grow Your Practice.” The first step will come straight to your email box today!

As therapists we work to serve our clients. At our core we have a belief that our training and expertise can help people move from a place of pain and distress to a better emotional and mental state. We are the ultimate client-centered business.

Today, Seth Godin wrote an important article for those of us in health care to consider. You can read it here: Who is your Customer?

In health care, who is your client? Is it the person who comes to your office for relief? Or are you working for an insurance company?

If the insurance company pays you most of your fee, the insurance company is your customer.

Think about it. Everything we do in a practice that accepts managed care reimburement is to please the client (insurance company). We have to submit  acceptable diagnoses, use the right forms, get on the phone for hours for authorizations, accept limits of sessions, etc. Would you give this much time to the clients who come to you for help? Would you sit on the phone for hours with them to sort things out? No. You would not. Yet we do this every day for insurance companies.

I don’t take insurance. They are not MY customer!

Many of you have private pay practices. Or you aspire to build that practice model. This task is made harder by the existence of insurance companies who are other therapists’ customers.

First, we all only offer what insurance companies pay for, whether or not we take insurance. You have the 50 minute hour and the group. These are reimbursed by insurance. Other modalities are not. So you offer your services in that format, no matter who pays.

Second,  the public is confused. They don’t realize that when they use insurance their health care providers are really working for the insurance company, not them. But they pay a lot of money for insurance and want to get what they pay for. Can you blame them?

Third, people are conditioned to accept the insurance-reimbursed model (this includes us, the therapists).  When clients come to you and you offer them the 50 minute hour, even when they agree to pay out of pocket, they are always a little put out that their insurance isn’t covering this. Because what is different between your 50 minute hour and the 50 minute hour of the therapist who takes their insurance?  As far as the public can see, probably not much. And those of us with private pay practices, don’t offer anything unique that makes us stand out.

The Solution: Serve Your Real Client

Whether you accept insurance or not , the way to grow your practice and support people as a true client is to focus on serving their needs in a big way.

Make client/customer service a priority. Offer services and products your clients really want and need, not what the insurance company will pay for. For example, if you think your clients do best with 2 hour appointments, a weekend retreat, a workbook to track their treatment progress, offer those for a fee.

Make the experience of your practice an exceptional one. Have your waiting area pleasant, clean, with up-to-date amenities like water, a coffee/tea maker, and relevant reading material.

Communicate effectively and efficiently. Have someone answer and return calls immediately. Offer online scheduling, email/text appointment reminders. Be of value and of service to everyone who reaches out to your office, even if it’s to offer a referral to other resources.

Ultimately, you need to give your REAL clients the amount of attention and energy that you have been giving those insurance companies. We all need to shift that time and energy into really serving those we care about, not some huge corporation who can never be pleased.

After you shift your attention to your clients’ needs, you will see your practice and income grow. People are happy to pay for services that really matter and help them get better.

But you need to choose. You can’t please the insurance company and the people you want to help. So, who is your client?

Looking for ways to establish an innovative practice based on serving your true clients and making the money you deserve?  Sign up below for my 7 part e-course, “7 Essential Steps to Grow Your Practice.” The first step will come straight to your email box today!

Photo by: Ian Eure

Business advice is free on the internet. You can find thousands of blogs full of no cost free advice, free reports, free videos and webinars and coaching. And I know people who have taken advantage of very free thing they can find and have no real business to show for it. Others take the free stuff, use it to springboard an idea and get some momentum going to start something profitable.

But what separates those who succeed from those who fail (or fail to launch anything)?

To answer that, we need to talk about the difference between strategies and tactics.

In business a strategy is a plan or a goal that you want to achieve to move your business forward. For example, my goal is to  sell to more customers this year and one strategy to do that is to grow my email list.

A tactic is the action steps you will take to achieve the strategy. To grow my email list my tactics are to send postcards to licesned therapists nationwide and offer them a free video and webinar in exchange for their email address.

More than one way to get there

My strategy (to grow an  email list) is a popular one. Probably every online entrepreneur in the world wants to grow their list.

However, my tactics are customized to my target client.

Not everyone should send post cards or offer a free webinar to grow their list.

I just happen to know (because I did some research) this approach has a good chance of being successful for MY business.

Free advice focuses on tactics

Have you seen the latest free (and paid) reports on how to use Facebook, Twitter and Google+? Are you following the latest video series on the psychology of online marketing? These are the current “hot free goodies” people are consuming in the internet marekting world. I know three of the folks creating this content and they are great guys. They are also talking to you about TACTICS, not strategy.

Using Google+ is a tactic. Offering a free series is a tactic. Blogging is also a tactic. Do you need to use all of those things? The only way you will know is if you have a clear strategy. Is this making sense?

Strategy isn’t sexy

The reason why we see so many shiny offerings on the tactics of social media and online marketing is because they are new, exciting and sexy. They are like the Ferrari of marketing : shiny, red, fast and young.

Strategy, however, is like having a long talk about your future with your grandfather. Definitely not sexy. Grandpa wants to know your goals, how you will afford college and pay your student loans, afford your wedding, send you kid to private school. Ugh, not fun to talk about. But Grandpa is on to something. He wants to know your plan. If you want to make a million bucks selling self-help webinars online and marketing them via a blog and Facebook Grandpa doesn’t care. He wants to know the goal (make a million bucks), the strategy (selling your expertise online), you come up with the tactics to get there.

Success is in smart strategy backed with informed tactics

This part is a little advanced, but you’re smart so you’ll get it.

To succeed in business, you need to know what you want, who you help and how you will help them. You need to develop a strategy to meet your goals. This is long term thinking and planning. When you are planning your goals and strategy do not think about tactics. At this stage IGNORE all those fancy free classes on social media and software is going to be a “game changer.” This is not the time to chase those rainbows.

Once you have a goal (example: Make $100,000/year offering in-office counseling and selling online ebooks), you can then device your strategy that might look like this:

• Increase client caseload to 20/week
• Build email list to 3000
• Sell $10 ebook to 400 people

Only then can you look at your tactics. So what are you going to do to increase your caseload, and build your email list? [And always remember, tactics are based on your target client. For instance, if you want to connect with parents Facebook is a great tactic to add to your list. However, if you are trying to reach therapists, postcards may be a better bet : ).]

Tactics could include:

• Blogging
• Newsletter (email and snail mail)
• Free offer on your website
• Use social media
• Follow up with referral sources
• Etc.

The bottom line comes down to this

Those folks who focus on strategy will succeed, while those who chase tactics will never get very far. And it is very easy to get sucked into prioritizing tactics because that is what everyone is talking about online. My advice is to slow down, chart a course and then decide what tools to use.

Looking for ways to establish an innovative practice based on sound business strategy and online service delivery approaches?  And, yes, I talk about strategies!  Sign up below for my 7 part e-course, “7 Essential Steps to Grow Your Practice.” The first step will come straight to your email box today!

Today I spent the entire day meeting with my coach and mentor, Sandy, planning out my business for 2012.  We got out the big sticky note pages, put them on the wall and detailed the work I need to do to meet my goals for the next 11 months.

Let me say this: it’s a lot of work.

To make a lot of work into a reasonable blog post I’ll tell you that the goals are these:

• Increase my email list significantly
• Write a comprehensive course on practice development/multiple income streams
• Host a live in-person workshop and networking event in the Fall of 2012
• Continue to offer exceptional value to the Biz Savvy Success Circle and increase membership there
• Increase my public speaking events.

How will I do all of this? I will:

• Develop and implement an off-line/direct mail campaign
• Build a new video/webinar freebie to offer you and new prospects to build my list
• Carve out lots of time to write
• Get some articles and short e-books on Kindle
• Continue to write this blog, my newsletter (weekly) and use social media (daily)
• Research event locations
• Market my workshop event starting in July
•  Host more free teleseminars/webinars

Yeah, did I mention it will be a lot of work?

But I am motivated, excited and taking action starting TODAY to make all of the above a reality.

Commitment and Putting in the Work

I invest in my business financially and time-wise. Ultimately, I know that to do otherwise is to fail.

But like everyone, I get stuck and overwhelmed and can feel like I am spinning in circles. This is why I hire Sandy to get me going in the right direction. This is why I block out 5-10 hours a week in my schedule to write. This is why I make hard decisions about where to focus my energy and what to let go. [Trust me, I just made some very hard decisions in this regard.]

Some business building experts who sell “easy” money work even harder than I do. They put in the time, money and resources necessary to get others to buy their stuff. Unfortunately, the stuff they sell isn’t 100% honest. They sell what people want to hear, not the reality of what it takes to really build a business.

Reality is reality

I can’t sell half-truths. Building any business is work. I am writing this blog post at 9:30pm. I have clients from 9am – 8pm, with an hour off for lunch on Friday of this week.

I work hard.

Do I make good money? Yes, it’s good enough.

Do I have flexibility? Yes, more so than if I worked for someone else. But, no, I do not have a 4 hour work week, nor can I jet off at any time.

Am I home with my son when I need to be? Yes, most of the time and, again, more than if I worked for an employer.

Do I have to be self-motivated? Oh yeah.

Do I have to make sacrifices? Sometimes. Don’t we all?

Anyone who has their own business lives these realities.

It comes down to deciding:

Do I want to work hard for someone else, or do I want to work hard for myself?

Because in today’s ever changing economy and health care framework, even a job with an agency, hospital, or school isn’t a sure thing.

So knowing that nothing is guaranteed, how to you answer the question above? How do you want to invest your hard work? Who do you want to answer to at the end of the day?

And those answers aren’t easy. But once you do decide, I urge you to commit. Do the work. You owe that to yourself and the people out there who will benefit from your expertise.

Looking for ways to establish an innovative practice based on sound business strategy and online service delivery approaches? Sign up below for my 7 part e-course, “7 Essential Steps to Grow Your Practice.” The first step will come straight to your email box today!

This past weekend I went skiing with my son, AJ.  He’s 8 and a daredevil sort, but he has a cautious side which I really appreciate.

The mountain we were skiing had a very well appointed “terrain park.” For those of you not familiar with skiing jargon, a terrain park is where there are ramps, rails and big jumps set up for skiers so inclined to jump, skid and aerial trick down the trail. Needless to say my son was thrilled!

So, we went down the trail and he tried little jumps first and did fine. He was being safe and smart and didn’t fall.

The next time he went down, AJ wanted to try the bigger jumps. They looked safe enough to me, so I agreed he could try. However, he approached them cautiously and didn’t have enough speed to get up the ramp, leading him to ski backwards down the ramp which is probably more dangerous than actually going over the jump.

So I yelled to him as he headed down the hill, “Go faster if you want to make the jump!”

Mom’s usually don’t say those things. But I wanted him to be successful and I knew he’d be careful and not go careening off of the slope at top speed, but he needed more speed to do what he wanted to do.

My Business Advice

This is the same advice I give coaching clients who want to build their practice business. “Go faster if you want to make the jump!”

If you want to jump from clinic work to your own practice, go faster.

If you want to jump from $50,000 income to $100,000 in income, go faster.

If you want to jump from 5 clients a week to 20 clients a week, go faster.

If you want to make passive income, go faster.

Just like AJ needed more speed and momentum to safely clear his ski jump, you need more speed and momentum to leap from where you are now to where you want to be.

No Crazy Risks Required

I’m not saying take crazy risks (AJ was not taking crazy risks), but I am saying you will need to take actions quickly and decisively to make good things happen. Otherwise, you get ahead a little bit and then slide backwards (just like AJ) which is a real motivation killer and leaves you right back where you started.

But you need to take initiative and move. Sitting in a perpetual state of “deciding” and “thinking about it” won’t make change happen.

Often we want to know with certainty what’s next. What will happen if we have a blog, develop a teleclass, offer a free video.

But just like AJ and I couldn’t know with certainty what would happen after he took the ski jump (would he land safely, would he fall?) often you need to take the leap with confidence, and see what happens. AJ landed safely (many times) and my guess is you will, too.

Looking for ways to establish an innovative practice based on sound business strategy and online service delivery approaches? Sign up below for my 7 part e-course, “7 Essential Steps to Grow Your Practice.” The first step will come straight to your email box today!

photo credit: phunnyfotos (and not my son)

This video was developed for pharma reps BUT the statistics are compelling for anyone who wants to connect with physicians and nurses and develop a referral and collaborative relationship.

How can you make your website one that other health care providers refer to their patients?

I work with some coaching clients who are filling up their face-to-face practices and read to begin offering online courses and programs. They’re smart, dedicated and hard working, willing to do what it takes to move their practice to the next level.

But even with all of their energy and enthusiasm, they often get stuck in feeling overwhelmed by the technology they need to understand to get a practice up and running online.

If that sounds like you, please keep reading.

Offering online services is a great, new way to make a living. But it’s not as simple as having a website and using social media. You need to have an online marketing system using an autoresponder (such as Aweber or MailChimp), a way for people to pay you (via PayPal and a shopping cart) and you need to utilize blogging platforms and social media. If you want to use online audio and video, you need to learn how to leverage those as well.

I imagine just reading that sentence is making some folks nervous.

Let’s pause for a moment and try to simplify things

Before you dive in to learning a whole new way of using online tools, consider what you want your practice to look like and how you want to work.

Do you want to work from home?

Are you interested in creating passive income streams (such as selling a book or workbook or workshop)?

Are you thinking of using audio or video in your work this year?

Does it make sense for you to market online using social media and an email newsletter?

Sketch out your plans. Then look at the technology that will help you meet your goals.

Start here

I always recommend therapists start an email list of interested clients and prospective clients. This is done via an autoresponder. If you know what that is, great, go forth and start building that list. If you don’t know what that is, you can now go ahead and do some research on how to set up and use an autoresponder.

The learning is ongoing

When I started out in this work 7 years ago, I was just like you. I had NO IDEA how to work online and was utterly confused by all the technology and terminology.

So, I set a goal to make sense of it all.

I took several courses on building online businesses, hired a personal business coach and spent my evenings reading websites and gathering information on how to use all of this new technology.

This process repeats itself over and over and over again. New technology emerges daily. The platforms shift and change and update on a regular basis. There is no such thing as “set it and forget it” when you are working online. Mastery of technology is a misnomer and a moving target for everyone.

It’s ok to not know

We are used to a traditional education model where a professor teaches and we essentially reflect back what s/he told us in the form of tests or papers.  It’s a closed loop without a lot of guessing involved in terms of what the outcome should be.

Using technology to build a business is nothing like graduate school because everything is new all of the time. There is no “expert” who has studied all of the possibilities and knows the “right” answer.

In many ways this is freeing because we all start in the same place (clueless) and can grow based on our interests and drive. In other ways this is anxiety-producing because we are conditioned to look for the “right” answer and there is none. With this anxiety we can stall out and produce nothing new because we are waiting for someone to tell us if we are right or wrong. Here’s a little secret: no one can tell you what is right or wrong for your business because they don’t know your needs and goals and are kind of making it up as they go along, too.

Which is ok if you see yourself as an explorer and an innovator.  And inherent in that identity is the understanding that you will be learning new techy things all of the time. And it’s ok to ask questions! I ask questions all the time. In fact, I’m going to a half day retreat with my coach this month with 2 pages worth of questions : ).

How to manage the overwhelm

If you are just starting out in this technological journey, you are hearing a lot of information and probably feeling like you need to jump in and master it all.

But I’m encouraging you to resist that temptation.

Take one thing. Maybe it’s figuring out the autoresponder. Do that one thing and master it to the best of your ability. It make take a few days of study and experimentation. Keep in mind that none of this technology is rocket science. With some study and focus, you will figure it out. Ask questions when you get stuck. You can do that with peers or use the help service for any of these online platforms. Most have very helpful customer support.

Once you feel comfortable with one technology, integrate it into your business and start to learn another. Maybe your next choice is sending an email newsletter (which is directly related to the autoresponder that you now understand). Focus on feeling competent in  the next thing before moving on.

Continue learning and widening your tech competence one step at a time.

While I do encourage you to use social media and have a robust online presence, there is no need to rush in all at once and feel scared and anxious.

And now I am off to learn how to integrate Google Plus into my business. Always something new to learn : ).

What are you focused on learning this week?

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