STP 155 | How to Stop Sounding Generic in Your Therapy Marketing
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[00:00:05] Adrienne Wilkerson: AI's not going to replace humans because it can't replace empathy. It can't replace intuition. It again is a fantastic. Pattern recognition system, and it can make some very, what feel like intuitive leaps because of the amazing patterns that it's recognizing that we probably wouldn't even recognize because we can't collate and analyze that much data.
[00:00:31] But without intuition, without empathy, it comes to some conclusions that are really bad because it's drawing, it's analyzing data without that human element.
[00:00:48] James Marland: In this episode of the Scaling Therapist Podcast, I sit down with Adrienne Wilkerson, CEO, and co-founder of Beacon Media and Marketing. I loved our conversation [00:01:00] about how her team helps therapists and health professionals. Grow their practice, not just with gobs and gobs of marketing, but the right marketing, marketing with a human connection.
[00:01:12] We talked about how, how the world therapists and the world really is just wrestling with how do we use AI and take advantage of what it brings to us, but keep the human element, keep what makes us. Special and she has just a grounded, practical view of how marketing works and what the, what the real reason why people choose you over other people.
[00:01:43] Why do they do that? She's gonna share, in this episode, she's also gonna share, uh, about how to make marketing feel like you again and. How to connect with your ideal client, and it, it all starts with just tapping into your best [00:02:00] resource. You being authentically you, if you have ever felt stuck trying to sound right instead of being yourself, this conversation's gonna help you reset and move forward with clarity.
[00:02:14] Before we begin, I wanna give you a resource if you're feeling stuck, if you keep putting things off because you're not sure what the next step is, this resource is for you. For me, for me, it was fear. I have a lot of fear and anxiety about my ability to be successful, about what it, what it would take to maintain success.
[00:02:38] And if I'm honest, I've put off doing some things because of just this, this fear of can I do it? Can I be successful? Now, this, that might not be your fear. You, you probably have something unique and special to you, but if you've paused on something that matters to you. There's a good chance that fear is part of what's holding you back.
[00:02:59] If you're [00:03:00] ready to start moving again, I want to give you this free resource called the Unpause Playbook. It will help you take your next step and reconnect with the excitement of living on purpose of living out your mission. So go to course creation studio.com/unpause to get started and put your mission in motion.
[00:03:21] Now onto the interview with Adrienne.
[00:03:27] Hello and welcome back to the Scaling Therapist Podcast.
[00:03:32] I'm your host, James Marland. This is the show where I help therapists take their wisdom and turn it into additional streams of income. Today I am here with Adrienne Wilkerson, CEO, and co-founder of Beacon Media and Marketing. I met her and we, I, we talked about I met her at a conference and we talked about marketing and media and therapists and just like how important it is, but how difficult it is, and just how, I know as a [00:04:00] solopreneur, I wanna do it all myself, but it's not always the best thing to do.
[00:04:03] And I, so I I said, Hey let's do a podcast show about this. She graciously agreed to be on the show. Adrienne, thank you so much for being on the Scaling Therapist Podcast.
[00:04:14] Adrienne Wilkerson: I am so excited to be here. I'm so glad. It's always amazing the people you get to meet at conferences and then when it rolls into things like this, uh, it's always a joy. So thank you so much for inviting me.
[00:04:26] James Marland: Yeah. And I'm, I wanna pick your brain up about a couple things. We're gonna talk mostly today about marketing and connection, and we the start of the conversation's about ai because AI's all over the place like.
[00:04:38] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yes.
[00:04:38] James Marland: Ai, I am gonna replace my social media manager, ai. I'm gonna replace my blog, my webpage developer. I get I subscribe to App Sumo. It's like a place where you get,
[00:04:48] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:04:49] James Marland: or new apps
[00:04:50] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:04:50] James Marland: they're always like, click here and you build your website in one click and do everything in one click. and I'm like, oh, like [00:05:00] what am I missing out on something?
[00:05:01] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:05:02] James Marland: Start there about how AI is, how it works, and how it doesn't work,
[00:05:07] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:05:07] James Marland: of the pitfalls for marketing your therapy practice.
[00:05:11] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah, no, that's, I'm really glad you brought that up. I think there's so much mystery around ai, so much transition, so much all over the place, and so even for us as marketers living in this world and trying to navigate through it. Uh, I feel like it changes moment to moment, day to day for sure. So I will say everything that I'm going to say today, take it with a grain of salt.
[00:05:35] And, but I do try to talk more in concepts and theories around AI because the details are changing so often.
[00:05:43] James Marland: Oh, it is. It's only been out three years. Just imagine how much change has gone on in what we do day to
[00:05:50] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:05:50] James Marland: Even in Google, the web browser,
[00:05:53] Adrienne Wilkerson: Oh.
[00:05:53] James Marland: like Gemini is now on my Chrome browser. It
[00:05:56] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yes.
[00:05:57] James Marland: to
[00:05:57] Adrienne Wilkerson: yep.
[00:05:57] James Marland: read your tab. I'm like, oh my word. It [00:06:00] is gone. It is so fast.
[00:06:02] Adrienne Wilkerson: It is.
[00:06:03] James Marland: But it's changing things, so
[00:06:05] Adrienne Wilkerson: It's,
[00:06:06] James Marland: But what,
[00:06:06] Adrienne Wilkerson: yeah. Yeah. So the really, the, some of the kind of foundational concepts around AI that I think are really important to remember is that, AI is an amazing pattern, recognizer. It is fantastic at it, but all the answers it's giving you everything that it's trying to do or produce for you is the result of patterns that it's recognizing and reproducing.
[00:06:33] And so from that standpoint, at least for right now. And I hope this doesn't change. To be honest, AI's not going to replace humans because it can't replace empathy. It can't replace intuition. It again is a fantastic. Pattern recognition system, and it can make some very, what feel like intuitive leaps because of the amazing patterns that [00:07:00] it's recognizing that we probably wouldn't even recognize because we can't collate and analyze that much data.
[00:07:07] But without intuition, without empathy, it comes to some conclusions that are really bad because it's drawing, it's analyzing data without that human element.
[00:07:20] James Marland: Context. Somebody
[00:07:21] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yes.
[00:07:22] James Marland: AI is great at processing all this data, but if it doesn't have the right context of where you're at
[00:07:26] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:07:27] James Marland: are or
[00:07:28] Adrienne Wilkerson: Exactly.
[00:07:28] James Marland: are or the language, you know, those like subtle things that
[00:07:32] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yes.
[00:07:33] James Marland: do, like automatically, instinctively, it will produce something that sounds good and it will try to convince you that it's good, but if you really knew.
[00:07:45] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:07:45] James Marland: If you really knew the difference between good and bad, you would be like, oh, this is really bad. Here's a,
[00:07:50] Adrienne Wilkerson: Correct.
[00:07:51] James Marland: Of pattern recognition. Do you ever wonder why a lot of AI pictures have this yellow hue to it? Have you seen those things
[00:07:59] Adrienne Wilkerson: [00:08:00] I have, but I, yeah.
[00:08:01] James Marland: Yeah, it comes out slightly yellow. I read an article that said the data that. That, that it used to train on images was older, photographs that have that septa yellowish color.
[00:08:17] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yo,
[00:08:18] James Marland: it says out of 10 million pictures, 800 million of them have this yellow hue.
[00:08:25] Adrienne Wilkerson: right?
[00:08:25] James Marland: means I'm gonna produce something that has a yellow hue.
[00:08:29] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:29] James Marland: you might not want a yellow hue,
[00:08:31] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:08:32] James Marland: look like something that you asked for, but it's gonna inject. The it's context into what you want
[00:08:40] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:40] James Marland: It's great at pattern recognition, but if you don't want that yellow hue you're gonna have to like really engineer it and tell it
[00:08:48] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:48] James Marland: to do those things. Yeah, AI is it tells you what you think it wants to hear
[00:08:54] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:54] Yeah.
[00:08:55] James Marland: That's not great for that human connection.
[00:08:58] Right.
[00:08:59] Adrienne Wilkerson: [00:09:00] No it's not. 'cause you're really only, the quality of what you get out of AI is really only as good as the prompts that you give it. And so that's the part where, at least at this point I keep coming back to, AI isn't going to replace humans, but people who use AI we'll replace humans who won't use it
[00:09:20] James Marland: Mm-hmm.
[00:09:21] Adrienne Wilkerson: it can speed up what we do.
[00:09:24] It can, you know, help us process through a lot more data and be able to make better decisions potentially market better to people we want to build a connection with. But it's not going to cr create that connection in and of itself. We still have to add that human element in. And so oftentimes the thing that I just say at the end of the day.
[00:09:46] AI is an amazing help meet. It's a good copilot, but it's not going to be able to fly that airplane. I mean, maybe figuratively or realistically down the road, but
[00:09:56] James Marland: Yeah.
[00:09:56] Adrienne Wilkerson: figuratively, for right now. Yeah, it's a great [00:10:00] thought support, but it should never replace actual human connection and. That's really at the end of the day, what marketing should be about is establishing that connection human to human.
[00:10:15] And this gets more intricate, much more difficult to navigate. The more that we keep existing in this digital world, it's harder and harder to create connection. And, you know, the therapist world Mental health world has some unique challenges that can be barriers to creating true connection that honestly is a little easier in other industries and more challenging for the mental health world to be sure.
[00:10:45] James Marland: Yeah I did a lot of mental health intakes in
[00:10:48] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:49] James Marland: my first 20 years of a career. And people, they, they came in skeptical
[00:10:55] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:56] James Marland: Why, you know, are you really here? They're asking, are you [00:11:00] really here to help?
[00:11:00] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yes.
[00:11:01] James Marland: really care?
[00:11:02] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:11:03] James Marland: a number to you? Am I just a paycheck to you?
[00:11:05] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:11:06] James Marland: and when you could com connect with them con have some compassion, some empathy, some human understanding,
[00:11:14] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:11:15] James Marland: They would open up and when they opened up, they got help and support.
[00:11:18] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:11:19] James Marland: they didn't feel that. You know, there, there was they were skeptical and they didn't
[00:11:24] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:11:24] James Marland: The, in the, you know, the doctor's instructions.
[00:11:28] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:11:29] James Marland: probably that's a pitfall of ai,
[00:11:33] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:11:34] James Marland: Right? It doesn't do the human connection. At least not right now.
[00:11:38] Adrienne Wilkerson: No.
[00:11:39] James Marland: it doesn't replace what humans bring to the equation, which is vitally important for the therapist.
[00:11:45] Wouldn't, would you
[00:11:46] Adrienne Wilkerson: Abso, I absolutely would agree. And I mean, again, that's where AI can create a good rough draft. It can create maybe a good first attempt at that blog or that social media [00:12:00] post or content for your website. But I said we can never copy and paste straight out of AI into something because it will, people pretty much instinctively know.
[00:12:11] I mean, whether they get hung up on the M dashes or not, which is a thing for me 'cause I'm a writer. I have been writing to date myself amateurly professionally since, you know, late 1990s. And I've been using M Dashes forever and I don't like the day I stole them. But that's, you know. But now that's the thing, like if you use M dashes, it's ai
[00:12:33] The time.
[00:12:34] That's an easily recognizable thing that people pick out now, but instinctively. There's almost always a reaction to purely AI written stuff. And even if we can't pinpoint what that is, there's still a like, it's kind of flat. There's nothing that hooks my heart and makes me wanna keep reading.
[00:12:55] It just kind of feels
[00:12:56] James Marland: Yeah.
[00:12:57] Adrienne Wilkerson: lifeless. A little flat.
[00:12:59] James Marland: I [00:13:00] use AI to help me organize my thoughts for my
[00:13:02] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:03] James Marland: episodes,
[00:13:04] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:13:05] James Marland: will give it a topic and probably a document. I have like lots of documents and training materials on it, and then I will talk into it for a few minutes,
[00:13:14] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:15] James Marland: just my ideas. Then it, I'll be like, help me organize my thoughts and do a cohesive outline.
[00:13:20] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:13:21] James Marland: what it spits out is grammatically correct, but lifeless
[00:13:25] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm.
[00:13:28] James Marland: and like the stories and the heart I poured into and I talk, you know, I do voice work
[00:13:32] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:13:33] James Marland: text to speech stuff. It's gone.
[00:13:36] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:13:36] James Marland: sanitized and removed.
[00:13:39] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yep.
[00:13:39] James Marland: to go back in and add my stories and that's not exactly
[00:13:43] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right?
[00:13:43] James Marland: no connection, there's no heart here.
[00:13:46] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:47] James Marland: it just missed it. Even though I've, I have are they called? GPTs and templates and
[00:13:52] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:13:53] James Marland: instructions for it. It still takes away, it, it makes it grammatically [00:14:00] perfect, but human humanly void.
[00:14:04] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yes.
[00:14:06] James Marland: but people can tell. So
[00:14:08] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:14:08] James Marland: let's uh, let's talk.
[00:14:10] We, we were chatting about connection and how to build connection. So that you are chosen over other people,
[00:14:19] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:19] James Marland: everybody's, like a lot of people have webpages and social media ads and marketing and all these types of things, but you really have this passion for helping, therapists and business owners really connect with people on the human level.
[00:14:37] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:37] James Marland: about that a little bit and what are some of the things you can do
[00:14:40] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:14:41] James Marland: that connection?
[00:14:42] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah. I think to me, the heart of marketing. Is to build connection and you know. It's a term I've heard a lot in the business world as I've, you know, grown up in it. But we as humans, we hate being sold and we can [00:15:00] tell when we're being sold, and that's a turnoff, right? But we like to buy, whether it's a consumerism stuff or if we're really looking for help, we're wanting.
[00:15:12] Help. We're wanting somebody, we're wanting to buy help in this case from somebody. And when we just keep running into ads and marketing, that makes us feel like a number, that's, we are just gonna keep going until we find somebody that we feel like we know, like, and trust. And that's that connection piece.
[00:15:33] And so when our marketing comes from a place of connection, first. It has a whole different tone to the marketing. And at the end of the day, yes, our marketing is about creating leads and new clients and funding our business. 'cause if we don't have a business, we can't help people. You know, it's, it's a cycle.
[00:15:55] But I feel like, just like we were talking about ai, there's a [00:16:00] fundamental flatness to it, if you will, and marketing that starts with the goal of just lead gen. As opposed to marketing. That starts with the, from the point of view of connection, one still feels flat to me. The other one feels like there's heart to it.
[00:16:20] There's a life behind it. I feel like I matter when marketing companies or therapists start with, how do I connect with my ideal client? Because if you connect with your ideal client, the likelihood of them wanting. To do business with you, wanting to come see you, wanting what you have to help them in their life is so much greater.
[00:16:44] And I think that's where one. A lot of therapists, and I grew up with a therapist as a father. He just retired after 30 years. So I've grown up in this world. Um, my fa my husband was a behavioral health counselor for many years as well, so, I'm very [00:17:00] familiar with the backend of how mental behavioral health addiction recovery world works and.
[00:17:05] I know that most therapists, they got into this business to help people and they wanna help as many people as possible. So telling them they have to focus on an ideal client is really hard, but it's so important. There's a another term in business that none of us business owners like to hear, but everybody is nobody.
[00:17:29] James Marland: It's death. Yes.
[00:17:31] Adrienne Wilkerson: You can't help everybody. You can't be all things. To all people. And so we're seeing this more and more in the mental and behavioral health world as people niching down, what's my passion? Is it a BA therapy? Is it you know. Ketamine to help people get through addictions. Is it eating disorders? Is it helping parents who have a child with [00:18:00] a disability?
[00:18:00] How do they help their marriage as they're walking through raising a child with disabilities? And so, yes, you could probably help a lot of people. But who's really core to your heart? Why did you become a therapist? There's usually a really good story, you know, sometimes a very tragic one, but there's usually a very specific reason that triggered you into therapy.
[00:18:27] For my father, he, his stepdad was an alcoholic and he grew up most of his life, the child of an alcoholic. And so when he became an adult, he didn't wanna get married. He didn't wanna have kids, he did not wanna pass this on to the next generation. And then he met my mom and everything changed. And so now he's like, I gotta figure this out.
[00:18:51] And so he started going on this personal journey of growth and discovered adult children of alcoholic syndrome. And he is like, oh, this is [00:19:00] not just me. This is something a lot of people struggle with. And so that launched him into. A, a, you know, 30 years of being, 30 plus years of being a therapist. And so that was core to his practice when he started was, and he ended up branching out and hiring other therapists and, you know, became quite a big deal.
[00:19:22] But that was his start. That was his passion, was how do I help other people that are struggling with what I'm struggling with or what I struggled with? And so you got a niche down. Because that's where you're able to build real connection. Because there's a story, there's a reason for getting started.
[00:19:41] And so with therapists it's hard 'cause we don't wanna project our issue or our things onto our patients, and we don't want there to be, you know, too much of a, sometimes an unhealthy connection can happen, and so therapists are trained not to share too much of their personal [00:20:00] story. So this becomes hard.
[00:20:02] Then how do you establish connection if you're not? Wanting to get too deep into that. So one of the things we tell our, our therapists that we work with, and this is not an easy thing, but it's a very important thing, is video. And what I liked about what you shared about your story is when you were doing those intakes.
[00:20:21] A lot of times you are able to make connection with them and we can duplicate some of that with video. And the great thing about the way that video is working now is it doesn't need to be polished. In fact, it should not be overproduced. We're not talking a, you know, camera set and boom mics and, you know, 18.
[00:20:46] So not, we're not thinking. You know, studio here, and that's what a lot of us think when we think of, I have to be on camera. And it's no.
[00:20:56] James Marland: studio isn't authentic to you and it wouldn't
[00:20:58] Adrienne Wilkerson: Exactly.
[00:20:59] James Marland: [00:21:00] client.
[00:21:00] Adrienne Wilkerson: Exactly.
[00:21:01] James Marland: studio, if you're not a studio type person
[00:21:05] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:21:06] James Marland: and your clients aren't studio type people, but you think that's what you have to do,
[00:21:11] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:21:11] James Marland: go out and spend all this money on the studio, you're probably repelling the people.
[00:21:16] Adrienne Wilkerson: Absolutely.
[00:21:17] James Marland: with you.
[00:21:19] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yes.
[00:21:20] James Marland: that's gold right there.
[00:21:22] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah,
[00:21:22] James Marland: is amazing.
[00:21:24] Adrienne Wilkerson: so it.
[00:21:25] James Marland: be somebody else.
[00:21:26] Adrienne Wilkerson: you don't. And in fact, that's, you said it beautifully, people are not going to react, respond to that. Well, And the people that do are probably not your ideal client either. You know, we really encourage people, get a, get decent tripod, get some good lighting. You don't want, you know, half your face in shadow or you know, the light darkness right here.
[00:21:49] You know, all you can see is a mouth moving. But get a decent camera, get some good lighting, and share stuff that is [00:22:00] relevant to your ideal clients. So if you are specializing in anxiety, for example, talk about specific situations that could instigate anxiety and give a tip on how to navigate that situation.
[00:22:17] Keep it to like 20, 30 seconds. Keep it short. Keep it sweet. And by that I mean keep it authentic. Be real. Make eye contact with the camera. Think of yourself as sitting there talking to a patient. If your patient walked in and described this situation that triggered anxiety in them, what would you tell them?
[00:22:41] What would be the short version of what you would tell them, but what would you tell them? And share that. Now, there are definitely areas where when you're posting those videos, it's important to put disclaimers in with those to say, you know, you're not providing advice, these [00:23:00] are not your patients. So there, there are definitely some things there.
[00:23:03] But when you present it as being helpful, let me share some tips that could. Help you.
[00:23:11] James Marland: Hmm. There's ways to kind of frame it where you're not actually giving them counseling as if they were in a session with you, but you're using that to connect with them because you know, if you're, again, specializing in people with anxiety, you are treating people with this, you know that what situations tend to trigger anxiety and it's gonna be different for everybody, right?
[00:23:36] Adrienne Wilkerson: But there's some pretty, there's definitely some that you can share and whether they're your patient or not, you could share a little story and share. Here's a tip. That's one way to be able to make connection with people because they can see your face, they can see a reaction. They can see as at least this much body language, you know, kind of a [00:24:00] thing.
[00:24:00] But. Again, don't overproduce 'em, keep 'em short. And just keep 'em very real. And that's, for example, a good way. And all of your marketing really should come through the lens of how do I build connection? How do I help the people that I wanna connect with? And that will shift the tone of what you put out versus just citing a bunch of services or just citing a bunch of.
[00:24:28] Data facts or bios, so really think mm-hmm.
[00:24:33] James Marland: a book by Matthew Dix, I think it's called Story Worthy. I was gonna look it up as you were
[00:24:38] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:24:38] James Marland: from the Moth podcast.
[00:24:40] Adrienne Wilkerson: Okay.
[00:24:41] James Marland: and he really helps you do what you're talking about and take those five second moments of understanding
[00:24:49] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:24:49] James Marland: into something that connects with other people.
[00:24:51] And as you were talking about anxiety, I was like, oh, I have a perfect story. I went to a mastermind.
[00:24:58] Other business leaders and [00:25:00] I kept comparing myself to them
[00:25:01] Whoa, they are way farther ahead in their career than I am. And if I speak up, you know, I'm gonna be made fun of. Or they'd be like,
[00:25:10] Adrienne Wilkerson: sure. Yeah.
[00:25:12] James Marland: And so I was like, you know, mouthing it a little bit.
[00:25:14] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:25:16] James Marland: somebody was like, Hey, James, we were talking and you had this question. And so then I was like, forced out there
[00:25:23] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right. Yeah.
[00:25:25] James Marland: be like, I was planning on being quiet and now he, now I have to talk. I asked my question and the leader and the group discussed it, and we had a good conversation
[00:25:34] Adrienne Wilkerson: Wow.
[00:25:34] James Marland: like you know, I conquered my anxiety a little bit.
[00:25:38] And then the rest of the rest of the mastermind went a little better
[00:25:41] Adrienne Wilkerson: Sure.
[00:25:41] James Marland: over that first.
[00:25:43] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:25:44] James Marland: of anxiety, of sharing some things
[00:25:46] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:25:46] James Marland: if you there, people listening to this right now probably have, if mul multiple stories about whatever specialty or niche that they are in. They [00:26:00] have that story,
[00:26:01] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:26:01] James Marland: and they'll have, you know, and if you watch for them, you'll have one tomorrow.
[00:26:06] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yes.
[00:26:06] James Marland: a story about exactly what you wanna talk about. It's not the mountaintop moments,
[00:26:12] That people wanna hear about, they don't wanna
[00:26:14] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:26:14] James Marland: your vacation to Hawaii or whatever. They wanna hear about that small moment when you were afraid to drive in traffic on the DC
[00:26:23] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:26:23] James Marland: or
[00:26:23] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:26:24] James Marland: I hate the DC Highway, by the way.
[00:26:26] Adrienne Wilkerson: Oh boy. Yeah.
[00:26:27] James Marland: It's so busy and I avoid it but there's a story there. Why do I avoid it? 'cause I had a bad experience
[00:26:33] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:26:34] James Marland: So those things, you're not talking about you, not sharing your, there's boundaries there,
[00:26:40] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:26:41] James Marland: that connection,
[00:26:42] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right?
[00:26:43] James Marland: what makes you human?
[00:26:45] What you said the know and trust factor. How why would they choose you?
[00:26:50] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:26:51] James Marland: over somebody else.
[00:26:52] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:26:53] James Marland: know you. gotta like you, and then you gotta trust them. And if you're just using AI that removes your humanity,
[00:26:59] Adrienne Wilkerson: [00:27:00] Yep.
[00:27:00] James Marland: You're missing out.
[00:27:02] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree.
[00:27:04] James Marland: I had a couple other points.
[00:27:05] One is if you're people love to buy, but they hate being, this is a callback to like 10 minutes ago. But people love to buy, but they hate being sold to. They're Googling. If they're Googling anxiety services or relationship services therapists in my area, they're not looking to, they, they want something, they have a
[00:27:24] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right?
[00:27:24] James Marland: want it solved.
[00:27:25] They
[00:27:25] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:27:26] James Marland: to buy something. they have started to search, they are looking for a solution.
[00:27:31] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:27:31] James Marland: the more you can do to connect with your ideal person to show that you understand them, you know what they're going through. That you have the solution. The quicker you can do that, the easier it is for them
[00:27:43] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:27:44] James Marland: that purchase for them.
[00:27:45] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:27:46] James Marland: And then the last thing is if you're, you said if you're everybody, everything is, everybody is nobody. If you can sell to everybody, you're selling to nobody. How I like to li listen to that or how I view that is if your boat if [00:28:00] you have a boat and everybody can get on it. If it's for everybody, then nobody will be getting on it because they don't know where they're going.
[00:28:09] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right.
[00:28:10] James Marland: don't know if you can help them. They don't know the destination.
[00:28:12] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right. Mm-hmm.
[00:28:17] James Marland: England, you know, I'm on the East Coast, so a boat from New York City to England,
[00:28:21] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:28:21] James Marland: I, if you wanted to go to England, you would get on that boat. But if you're just getting on a boat for a boat ride nobody will get on your boat.
[00:28:29] Adrienne Wilkerson: Nope.
[00:28:30] James Marland: go somewhere.
[00:28:31] Adrienne Wilkerson: Right. I wanna know you're going where they wanna go. Yeah.
[00:28:35] James Marland: yeah. So unless you're just selling like you know, you know, I, you know, I'll, you can, I'll listen to you. You know, that's not, you're not gonna, anyways,
[00:28:46] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:28:47] James Marland: just loved how you said your things that I was
[00:28:49] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:28:49] James Marland: about, how you were presenting it and processing it. So as we wrap. Stop. do you have a, a tip on how to [00:29:00] create that connection? Video is one tip, actually.
[00:29:02] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:29:02] James Marland: is a very, it's a
[00:29:03] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:29:04] James Marland: star of the
[00:29:05] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:29:06] James Marland: here. Do you have any other tips before we tell people where they can find you?
[00:29:10] Adrienne Wilkerson: I think another big one is really take a deeper look at your bio on your website, um, and make sure that it goes beyond your credentials and the kind of thing that everybody puts on there. Again, can you tell a story? Can you create connection? If you can do a video bio. That's amazing. But that's a really simple one, is to take another look at your bio and does it really create connection?
[00:29:41] Um, does it tell your why? Or does it just cite off where you went to school and your credentials? And all of that's important too, but it should bere wrapped up in a story and a why that matters to the person who's looking at it. So it's really not about you. It's about the person that you're trying to build [00:30:00] connection with, and does your bio create connection?
[00:30:03] James Marland: Yeah. Can they see themselves in you
[00:30:07] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:07] James Marland: Do they wanna be like you that resident identity. I see the connection and they have they're where I want to go. They who, they're who I want to be. That type of connection is goal. Adrienne, this has been wonderful.
[00:30:20] I'm sure we could talk a lot longer, but uh, you have, you have a lot of resources on your webpage and some
[00:30:26] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:26] James Marland: that you offer. If
[00:30:28] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:30:29] James Marland: in using this type of marketing and creating that connection, where do they go and what will they find there?
[00:30:34] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah, thank you for asking. Um, our website's a great resource, like you said, a beacon mm.com. We've got some great articles on there, you know, kind of goes over our list of services, who our ideal client is, and hopefully if you're that we're gonna create some connection with you. On our website, uh, we're also on all the major social media channels.
[00:30:56] Beacon MM is usually. The, the handle there. [00:31:00] I'm very heavily involved in LinkedIn personally, so as CEO and Founder. So if anybody wants to follow me there I'm always looking for new connections and love to answer marketing questions. We also have the Beacon Way podcast. You can find us on all the podcast places as well as YouTube.
[00:31:17] Um, and that's another, uh, great resource for people who wanna learn more about marketing and how to run a business. How to navigate being a leader and, and a therapist. You know, having to leave your lead, your business as well as being a therapist. So, yeah, hope you out there. Follow us and we can build some connection.
[00:31:36] James Marland: Yeah. Yeah. That's wonderful. And I love your approach. I love the connection first approach. I, you people, as a business owner, I want results, but how do you get there? You know, there's different approaches on how to get there. And I love the connection first. It's like it taps into the heart.
[00:31:51] You know? It's like, why, like if they, if. If I can connect with people and I understand why the, how I can help them and [00:32:00] why they're choosing me and what I'm bringing and what's special about what I'm doing. it's just such a, it's such a joy. Like the,
[00:32:08] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:32:09] James Marland: really.
[00:32:09] You're serving the
[00:32:10] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yes,
[00:32:11] James Marland: the most. 'cause
[00:32:12] Adrienne Wilkerson: absolutely.
[00:32:13] James Marland: to you and you're connected to them.
[00:32:15] Adrienne Wilkerson: Mm-hmm.
[00:32:16] James Marland: at the end of the day, it's not a. A, a chore. It's a joy. Yeah. It's
[00:32:21] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah.
[00:32:21] James Marland: but it's just different.
[00:32:23] Adrienne Wilkerson: Yeah,
[00:32:23] James Marland: I hope that everybody gets to experience that in their career.
[00:32:27] So
[00:32:28] Adrienne Wilkerson: yeah,
[00:32:28] James Marland: you so much for being on the show.
[00:32:30] Adrienne Wilkerson: yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:32:32] James Marland: Alright, listeners, thanks so much for listening. It's now time to get connected to your ideal customer and put your mission in motion. β
[00:32:47] Thanks again to Adrienne for sharing her wisdom and reminding us that the human connection is what matters. I particularly loved the section about creating [00:33:00] those little short videos and connecting with your audience through your personal stories, and then reexamining your bio page and making sure it is connecting and talking to your audience.
[00:33:13] If you've been feeling stuck or, or unsure of your next step, make sure you grab the Unpause [email protected] slash unpause. It's gonna help you move forward again so that you can put your mission back in motion. Finally, a special thank you to our pro level sponsors of the Scaling Therapist Services directory.
[00:33:35] That's, Hey, Bosco. Profit comes first, and Freedom Business Solutions. Thank you so much for your support. We couldn't do this without you. That's scaling therapist services.com and you can find services to help you grow your therapy business. Thanks again for being listeners to the show. You are why I do this.
[00:33:55] I'm here to help you and support you. Keep showing up. Keep [00:34:00] serving, and we'll see you next time.
