In this solo podcast episode, Kelly Alhooie outlines a step‑by‑step playbook for clinicians launching a private practice in 2026. She begins with the basics of local visibility, urging practitioners to set up a Google My Business profile and master local SEO. She then stresses the importance of picking a clear niche that aligns with personal passion, arguing that niche focus drives revenue and audience resonance. Kelly explains how to "borrow" audiences by partnering with complementary professionals (e.g., yoga studios, hormone doctors) and hosting joint community events, positioning community workshops as the most reliable client‑acquisition channel—far more effective than paid digital ads. She expands on monetization strategies, recommending diversified offers such as teletherapy, group coaching, online programs, and Trainerize‑based exercise plans, and outlines a pricing framework that mandates cash‑based sessions of at least $200 and 50‑minute treatment lengths. Kelly warns against cheap, poorly optimized websites, detailing essential SEO and AI‑friendly features (backlinks, FAQs, high‑quality images). She advocates hiring a niche‑experienced coach who stays current on AI and digital‑marketing shifts. Throughout, she emphasizes a deep personal why, ownership, and self‑development as the mindset foundations for successful entrepreneurship, while providing contact details for further help via PelviBiz.
Chapters
Here's what I would do if I had to start a business all over again in 2026. The first thing I would do is make sure I did Google My Business profile to make sure, especially if I'm a brick-and-mortar practice, that I am showing up locally on Google because local SEO is key. That is, that is, you can still win in 2026 with that. So that, that's The first thing. Second thing I would do is I would see and learn communication skills and see who I can collaborate with. So, how do I collaborate with a certain niche that I want to go into? Now, I know most of y'all. I know before you leave the comments are going to be like, "Look, Kelly, I don't want a niche. I love everyone." Okay, cool. Well, we're gonna have to niche, and I really still stand by that to this day. Niching is where I've seen. Millions of dollars being made compared to non-niching, where it's very hard for people to get started and moving and all the things. So I 100% would make sure that if you say, if I wave a magic wand today, what is the thing that I love treating, money aside, then I would go with that. Because when you feel that you want to talk about it, when you're passionate about it, then you're going to be able to resonate with people through a camera, AKA social media, and you're going to be able to get, you know, the word out there. And so once I found my niche, then I would say, okay, cool, now where do those people hang out? How do I go find those people? And so then I'm going to go and be like, okay, if I'm treating chronic pelvic pain, well then I'm going to go to yoga studios. If I'm a dietitian, well guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to go in, um, To maybe, uh, what do you call it, naturopath doctors, or I'm gonna go to hormone doctors. I'm gonna go see how I can provide help to them. If I'm a vestibular therapist, then I'm gonna go to where people maybe go to yoga, maybe they go, um, like a hiking club. Maybe, maybe those people are people that are trying to like find their balance again and So I'm gonna go to places where I think those people are going to be. And then what I do is put on an event with them. Let's collaborate, let's do this event. And when you do that, you would be surprised how many people want to collaborate. And when you collaborate, you're borrowing their audience so that you now have that audience. Comparatively, what I find that many people try to do is A, they stay very broad 'cause they wanna hit everyone. B, they are like, well, I'll just like have people come to me. And it's like, you don't have an audience yet, so no one can come to you because no one knows about you. So instead, you have to go and borrow other people's audience first. Always and forever, go borrow other people's audience. Quick interruption. For those that have questions on today's episode, please text my personal number. It's 703-783- 32388. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have to get you unstuck. Let's get back to the episode. And forever go borrow other people's audiences so that people start to get to know, like, and trust you in the community. And then I would say if you really want to amp things up, put on a community event, like a big community event, and like we're getting all locally, uh, business owners to come together. And again, this is for brick and mortar. I'll get to online in a second. Okay. But like for brick and mortar, the more that you can build community, no one can take community away. It's not Google Ads, it's not Facebook Ads, it's not AI. It's nothing can replace community because when you have a strong connection with your community, guess what they're going to do? They're going to be like, oh, hell yeah, I'm going to go come see you again. Oh, I remember you. Community is king. And I think these days the advantage that you guys could have is build community over trying to go digital, as much digital, because everyone's trying to go digital. So go the opposite, go the opposite direction. It always wins when you go opposite. So like, if I'm building in 2026, that's what I'm thinking about. I'm also thinking about other ways of how to like monetize my skills. So besides one-on-one, and I've been, I've been talking about this forever, um, where doing teletherapy, Doing group coaching, doing programming where you, on Trainerize, create exercise programs, especially for women. Women want someone to be like, good job, you're eating correctly. Good job, you're doing these exercises that's gonna get you flatter abs. Like, good job, you're shaping up those top part of those shoulder caps here, those arms, right? Like, and they want it simple, clearly laid out. There is so much information. Out there, and I know most of you guys are going to be like, "What Kelly? Like can't they just go to ChatGPT and type it in?" Yes, they can go to ChatGPT, but then they're still guessing whether or not that's the right thing for them in the situation that they're in. So maybe they're a postpartum mom, maybe they're just trying to get over an eating disorder, maybe they're like a hardcore gym goer and they don't know how many calories to get in and out and what protein and all things. And it's too confusing, and they don't rely on chat. They need a human to to tell them that because the human provides certainty. Chat does not provide certainty. And so we think that it is like well they could just go to chat. But the reality is most people will not trust it just yet, and some people will trust it with their life, by the way. Okay, so it just depends. But you need different offers, and so you need to know how to create. Different offers. Also make sure that you have a wellness, that you have some kind of wellness. In today's healthcare, healthcare is wellness. And so I see so many health practitioners that basically are just like, yeah, I just provide one service and that's it. And that's amazing to start. However, I need you to also think as you're creating the offer, do you have an upsell? Do you have a downsell? An upsell would be like a dry needling offer. A downsell would be like you have an online program that maybe has cohorts or maybe it's group coaching and group coaching is your downsell. Like those are the things that I need you thinking about when creating your company. The next thing I see is for when you're starting a company is pricing is always low and people price low because they wanna just like prove that it works. So I get that, I understand before you come after me and say, well Kelly, I'm just trying to test the market to see if it works. I understand, but like, once you have like 4 clients, raise your price so that when you have 15 clients, it's not as painful and you're not like, oh man, I should have raised my prices. Like, just raise your prices. And if you're a therapist, you need to be over $200 a session. That's the cash-based model. That's how it actually works. If you're not over $200 a session, the model doesn't work. And so we were like, well, Kelly, that's so greedy. No, it's not, because what happens is you have to eventually pay for an admin, you have to pay for coaching, you have to pay maybe for a space, maybe not, but still, like, that's something to come. Okay, you have to pay for supplies, you have to pay for licensure, you have to pay for insurance, you have to pay taxes. Okay, all those things add up. Oh, by the way, you pay your salary. Like, and so $200 is the minimum that you can charge Because people don't realize it, aka therapists or providers do not realize that that is— you're gonna make profit, yes, which you need to profit, but like, it's not like you're living large at $200 a session. I'm just letting you know, okay? So be very mindful of that, that I want you to start out on the right foot. Also, be very mindful that you only do like 50-minute treatment sessions. And not— I've seen so often still in 2026, we have 90-minute sessions, we have, uh, 1-hour and 15-minute sessions. I'm like, what are we doing? We're overwhelming the crap out of them. Don't overwhelm your patients. That's the fastest way to make the patient go bye-bye. It's the fastest way. So like, please don't do that. Start the business on the right foot. Also, I, I've seen this a lot too, these mistakes that we see all the time at PelviBiz. Is people will go and get a cheap website. I understand you don't have money, so you go on Wix or you go to cheap— what is it called— cheapcampaign.com or something, I forgot. But, and you buy these websites. Well, the problem is, and maybe you even pay a developer to do it, and you're paying like $3K to the developer, and then all of a sudden we got to do the whole thing because it's not set up right. And they don't have backlinks, they don't have SKUs, they don't have Um, good pictures, quality pictures. There's no FAQs on there. There's no words to your niche on there. Um, all these things are big, big problems because it doesn't pick you up with AI. It doesn't allow you to post blog posts, which again affects AI, um, affects your ranking, affects if you are the expert. All this stuff matters. And so I think when you start a business— I don't think— when you start a business, I highly recommend you getting a coach. And I'm not just saying that whether or not it's me, whoever, but you need a coach that has been there and done it, what you want to do. Don't hire a coach that isn't what you want to do. So like, the person needs to have done what you want, um, and they also— there's an and here— They also need to stay up on every single thing that is coming down the pipe with AI. Like, this is being recorded in August, and Facebook just sent us a lovely message that was like, hey, basically they're trying to become Claude or ChatGPT, and they want us to use their, you know, AI thing to put out ads and do all that. And it's like, yeah, Facebook knows that they're losing the game. They're trying to keep up, and they're giving it to everyone for free. And it's like, yep. So like all this stuff, which is why I also let go of my brick-and-mortar practice— I had something inside of me besides like being able to move and just like have a different life. There was something inside of me that says like, to be able to understand the full change that is happening in the digital marketing space, I had to let go of a company so I can study the crap out of this all day long. And it's paid off because we are on top of it. And the only way I'm on top of it is because I have time and I choose to fill my time with understanding AI, digital marketing space, AIO, EIO, SEO, like all of the stuff that where things are moving. And also like not forget about the basics. which is workshops and communities. The number one way, I don't care what the internet says right now, like I have a hard stance on this. The number one way to build a company in 2026, if you are a physical therapist, a chiropractor, a massage therapist, a dietitian, is community workshops, period. Not ads, not trying to be found on Instagram. It is community workshops. It's the number one way. I stand by that. I've coached over 450 providers. And I can tell you it's always proven time and time again to get clients, always, if you do it the right way. Um, some people don't do it the right way, and so then they feel like they have to rely more digitally, which is fine. Um, but that's a different skill set. It's just a different skill set. And so some people are good at in person and some people are good digitally. Uh, and so knowing your strengths and knowing your weaknesses and knowing like, hey, which way do I want to go? Mm-hmm. Then hone in on that because that makes makes it fun and like you feel good about it. Um, not to say you don't need to know both, uh, you do, but start with the thing that's the easiest for you, right? And so my point to all this is I do believe everyone should and could start their own business in 2026. I do believe they have to have a deep why behind it. So I'm giving— I just gave a lot of tactile But I truly believe there has to be a big why for you to put yourself outside your comfort zone, putting your face on camera, going and talking to people, learning how to communicate, being like, hey, I'm just starting a business, and being vulnerable and being like, like, I'm just showing up the way this is me. Like, can you help me? Like, asking for help. A lot of us females, that's very hard to do, right? So like, I— it is— it's a lot of work to go from the beginning to, you know, to Tier 1. However, it's the most worth it thing. Even with all the trouble and whatever else, it is the most worth it thing you will ever do in your lifetime, and it is the best self-development. And if you just want to live a filled life of being your highest level self and your highest version of you Then this entrepreneurship is it. If you're like, look, I like to be comfortable. I don't like people to point out that I have problems. I don't want to work on myself. Entrepreneurship is not for you. And so I just find it fascinating to be an entrepreneur, and I will never go back. And I am such a component of it that you can make anything happen. You just gotta gotta make it work and go do the hard thing. Like go do the hard thing, and no one else is to blame except. For you, and you got to take ownership of that and say, "I'm the person that's either going to make it or I'm the person that's going to break it," and that's it. So happy 2026, guys. I mean, we're wrapping up to the end almost 2027, and you know, get after it. Game on. If you guys need help, DM us at PelviBiz. P E L V I B I Z. At PelviBiz. If you guys are watching on YouTube, you can see my shirt here. P E L V I B I Z. Go ahead, send us a DM and just say, help me, I need help, I don't know which way to go, and then we'd be happy to chat and help you out. All right guys, talk soon.
