The Future of Marketing for Therapists: Why Your Psychology Today Profile Won't Fill Your Practice Anymore [Ep 67]

Welcome to the Thriving therapyneur podcast. The show for ambitious therapists who are ready to unapologetically make more money, scale their impact and build their dream coaching business. I'm Carly Hill, therapist turned coach turned CEO of a seven figure online business. I created the Thriving Therapeutic Podcast because I'm obsessed with helping big hearted therapists outgrow the office and build successful and sustainable online businesses. So if you are wondering how you can continue to make an impact without sacrificing the life you love, welcome Therapeneur. This is exactly the place for you. Think of it like the business school we never had. I am so excited to dive in with you. Let's get started. Welcome back to the Thriving Therapeneur Podcast. I'm your host, Carly Hill and today we're going to zoom out and we're going to talk about something every therapist and wellness professional needs to understand if you want to thrive in the next decade. And that is the future of marketing. So we're going to go back to 2010 to now and we're going to talk about the way we attract clients, how that's changed in more than 15 years than it did in the 50 years before that. So gone are the days where a Psychology Today listing or a couple of referrals could fill your practice. And you may be wondering, well, Carly, why are you going all the way back to 2010? And the reality was, I was not practicing during that time. I was still in school. I was not a licensed therapist until 2018. But I have been studying the market trends for a long time, ever since I became an entrepreneur. These past five years, I've been studying the market trends, especially the online market trends. So if you're trying to grow the way you did back then, hoping and waiting for people to find you, you, you will be left behind. And it is important that you stay up with the market trends. So I want to be clear right from the start, this is not an all or nothing conversation. You do not have to give up your therapy practice to build a coaching business. In fact, many therapists I work with, they still love their private practice. They like to keep it alongside their coaching work. It's never their goal to get rid of it. Majority of the clinicians I work with just want to reduce their clinical hours. And yes, there are people with very successful private practices making multiple six figures. But here's the difference. In private practice, you're still trading dollars for hours. Your income is capped by your time and you're capped on energy. Coaching gives you Another lane. It's a scalable lane. You can serve more people, you can create programs, you can leverage technology, you can break free from that ceiling. So this is not about abandoning therapy when we're talking about the future of marketing and scalability and sustainability. Rather, it's about expanding your possibilities and again, keeping up with the times. It is definitely a time in an era where people are moving into the online space. The e learning world has just grown exponentially since the pandemic hit. A lot of people were forced to move online and it hasn't stopped growing. So. So let's rewind to 2010 for a minute now. Again, I wasn't a licensed therapist, but I've studied the shifts in our industry and the way the markets have changed over the years. And when you look back at 2010, the picture is really clear. Marketing was very simple and honestly, it was very limited. You had your Psych Today profile, Maybe you had a referral list from a doctor or insurance panel. You were ahead of the curve. If you had a static website with a headshot and a bio, that was it. Clients found you if they stumbled across your name. Marketing wasn't about visibility. It was more about being listed and having word of mouth referrals. And while it worked in a sense, it also kept therapists trapped. We were invisible unless somebody referred us. We had zero control over lead flow. I talk about lead flow, lead generation, inbound and outbound leads, and many of my podcast episodes where essentially you should be able to turn up the dial and turn down the dial of your lead flow. When you want more clients, turn it up. When you want less clients, turn off the faucet. It's like a faucet. You should be able to turn it on and off anytime you choose. And they were at the mercy of low paying models. It kept them in the overworked and underpaid model. The old way was passive. You weighed it and you hoped someone showed up. Fast forward to now in 2025, everything looks different. So clients aren't just Googling therapists anymore. They're on Instagram, they're on TikTok, they're on podcast, they're on LinkedIn. They want to see you, hear you, connect with before they ever book a call. Marketing today isn't just about being listed. It's about building trust and authority. It means that one piece of powerful content, just one piece of content, let's say social media content, for example, one piece of content can do more than 20 surface level posts. That means you have to post with intention and strategy, not just surface level stuff. You have to stand out. If you sound like everyone else, you're going to blend in. And storytelling is the new sales pitch. Story sells. People want to know your values, your perspective, your humanity. They want to know you and they want to be able to see themselves in you. 90% of us are our own ideal client. What is your hero's journey? What is your story? The therapists who resist this shift, they're going to stay stuck. They're going to be left behind. The therapists who embrace it, who show up with being authentic and they show up with this strategy. These are the ones that are going to scale. They're going to expand, they're going to step into the online world with ease. If they want to add coaching, they're going to step into coaching with ease. Hey there. Did you know we give away one of our incredible digital products every single week? All you have to do is leave a review for the show, then submit proof using the link in the show notes and you'll be entered to win. Prizes include amazing resources like our passive income course, the license protection bundle, top business trainings, my best selling book, and so much more. It's super simple and your review helps us reach more listeners just like you. So take a moment to share your thoughts, enter to win and maybe you'll be our next winner. Here's something else we need to talk about. The state of the market right now. The market is alive. It shifts constantly. And if you're not paying attention, you're going to get frustrated. And you'll get frustrated thinking, well, what worked last year is not working anymore. And that is the truth. You have to stay up with the market. It's alive, it's shifting constantly. You have to pay attention. So here's the reality in 2025, the days of relying on automatic buyers. What is an automatic buyer? Carly those are the people who just saw one ad, one post and they just instantly said, yes, that's dwindling. The pool is getting smaller and smaller. People are skeptical. We're dealing mostly now with repetition buyers, duration buyers, repetition buyers. They need to see your content and offers multiple times from multiple different angles. You have to have retargeting, you have to have emails, you have to have posts, you have to have stories. You have to hit them from multiple angles multiple times. You have to stay top of mind. People will forget about you. They have to see your stuff at least 20 times. Duration buyers, they're the ones who's going to sit on the sidelines for three, six, maybe even 12 months watching you quietly. And then one day something clicks and they finally say yes. I know this to be true. I ask my clients often I'm in coaching calls and I'm making an example out of this because they're complaining. You know, sometimes people are just saying no or they're, they're not speaking up, right? I see that they're seeing my content, but nobody's buying yet. And I make an example and I say, raise your hand if you were a silent lurker before you invest it in the therapist to coach accelerator. How long did you lurk and did you sit there on the sidelines? Almost everybody raises their hand. They're a duration buyer, they're vetting you out. And of course there's always new buyers, right? The people who, these are the gems who come in, just binge watch your content, they know what they want and boom, they buy. And then we also have the never buyers. I kind of call these like the freebie seekers, the ones who, no matter what, they won't move. Chasing them is a wasted energy. So what does this mean for you? It means that your marketing can't just be a one hit wonder anymore. You can't rely on one launch, one webinar, one email. You have to be willing to show up consistently, nurture people over time, build an audience over time, build your pipeline over time, constantly have new leads all the time. And then you have to build trust across different touch points. This is why the therapists who adapt are the ones winning. They're not just throwing spaghetti at the wall with ads. They're not just posting and praying. No, they're creating an ecosystem. They have organic marketing that keeps them visible. They have email nurture sequences that build trust. They have offers that meet clients at different of readiness. You have to know the level of buyer's awareness. And here's the key. This is where coaching comes in. Because repetition and duration buyers, they want depth. They want to know you and trust you and feel like you're the guide for their transformation. And here's something important I want to talk about too. Sometimes clients genuinely need therapy. They need a licensed clinician, a diagnosis, a treatment plan, and they're meeting criteria for medical necessity. And that's where your private practice is the right fit. But other times, clients don't need treatment. They need coaching. They need mentorship, accountability strategy, a container for transformation that isn't clinical in nature. They're not meeting textbook DSM criteria. They have a situational problem. It's Non clinical. And this is where your discernment as a clinician is so powerful. You get to decide, is this person a fit for my therapy practice or are they a fit for my coaching business? It's one or the other. It's not both. Because you can't move them from therapy client to coaching client or coaching client to therapy client. It's considered a dual relationship. It's not ethical. But here's the key point. When someone is ready for coaching, when they want a structured program, a group experience, or support in creating results beyond medical necessity, perhaps they've already been to therapy. They've hit a plateau in therapy. They're going to come into your coaching program. And because your online marketing is so good and you're staying up with the trends, it's going to convert. So let's connect the dots. Therapists often ask me, Carly, do I really need coaching in my business? Can I just market my therapy practice better? And here's the honest answer. Yes, you can absolutely keep a thriving private practice. Some therapists are making multiple six figures, like I said earlier, doing exactly that. But the main thing you need to understand is those numbers usually come from trading dollars for hours. Your schedule is maxed. Your income is tied directly to your time. Adding coaching isn't about replacing therapy. It's just about adding another layer. It's another income stream. It's another way to reach more people without burning yourself out in the therapy chair. Here's why it matters. Scalability, client psychology and freedom. Let's talk about these three things. Scalability, Marketing today rewards models that can grow. What does this mean? It means that coaching lets you serve groups. You're tapping into the one to many model instead of the one to one. You're running programs. You're creating digital products that live on forever. They're evergreen. That's what evergreen means. Things you can't do in the same way with therapy, the client psychology. People aren't just looking for sessions anymore. They want community. Yes, you can do group therapy, but the structure empowerment of coaching is different. The transformation is different. The psychoeducation is different. Freedom coaching allows you to choose. Maybe you still see two clients a week in your practice and then the rest of the time you're running your coaching programs. It's both. It doesn't have to be either or. You're not dropping your therapy title. You don't have to get rid of your license. You don't have to get rid of your private practice. Some of my clients don't even have a private practice yet, but they start a private practice and a coaching business at the same time. Again, it's not either or, it's both. And so if you have been feeling capped or tired or like your schedule is maxed out, coaching can be the pathway for you. It can unlock more options. This is the way the market is trending. You can have a successful private practice and a thriving coaching business. One doesn't cancel out the other, but coaching is the piece that lets you scale beyond your time. So here's my final thought. The future of marketing is human. It's about connection. It's about being different. It's about building trust at scale. And if you're listening and you've been feeling stuck, you've been feeling invisible, like you have so much gold to offer, you're damn good at what you do, you're a good therapist, but you want to reach more people and you want to have more freedom and flexibility and security and you feel that cap on your income. You feel that cap on your time. Let this be your wake up call. The model has changed. The opportunity is here. There is no better time than right now to hop into the online coaching industry. Coaching is the bridge that can give you more freedom, income, impact. It's not about giving up therapy. It's about just giving yourself more options, more sustainability and more space to thrive. You have the knowledge, you have the clinical experience and it's time to leverage it. If you're ready to step into this and just learn how to position yourself as a coach and build the kind of business that thrives in this new era. Era. I'm here to help you. I would love to help you and I welcome you with open arms into my world. I have so much knowledge to give to you. I pour into my clients, I spoil my clients. And if you never become a client, cool. I have so much information for you as well. If you haven't read my book, I'd start there. It is an A to Z guide of therapist adding coaching. I cover everything from protecting your license to figuring out your niche, you to pricing your offer, creating your offer, marketing, sales, money, the whole nine yards. The link is in the show notes to connect with me and get access to all of my mentorship and resource options. Thank you so much for tuning into the thriving Therapreneur podcast. Until next time, my love is with you and I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to the thriving Therapy podcast. I hope that this episode has inspired you to reduce burnout works and smarter and see the freedom potential you have as a therapist. We would love to have you inside the Therapist to Coach Accelerator Facebook group where we have live trainings and cheat sheets on all things marketing, sales and adding coaching ethically and legally. I am here cheering you on and I'll see you around.