WOW…
I published my last post about how to choose niche products and services for your target market less than 48 hours ago, and I’ve been deluged with emails for help with how to personalize it and make it work for you.
I’ve gotten questions like: “What are some ideas for niche items for my target market?”, “How do I choose a target market?”, “How do I get people to my site so they can buy my products?”, and “Can you help me find more clients so I can then have time to work on niche services?” — all great questions.
The problem is, as much as I’d love to, I just don’t have the time to answer everyone. Me shooting back a two-sentence response to any of these questions wouldn’t be enough.
These are the kinds of things we work on in my Basic Training Boot Camp. We take 30 days to answer all of your questions by giving you unlimited email access to me as well as (4) 1:1 Coaching Sessions with me. That gives us the time to really target your goals and put it all to work in just 30 days. In addition to all of that personal time with me, I give you the Enhanced Version of my most popular program: 7 Steps to FREEDOM in Private Practice. With that you get 14 videos, and a boatload of samples, worksheets, resources and files — things I use every day in my own 6-figure practice.
Anyway… as a good-will gesture and “thank you” to everyone who responded so quickly to the last post, I’ve decided to run a little contest. A contest I think you will want to get in on. I’m going to give away a FREE Basic Training Boot Camp! (a $497 value)
Simply leave a comment below, telling me why you think you would most benefit from the Basic Training Boot Camp
That’s all you’ve got to do. No strings attached. You comment below (emails to me don’t count). I’ll have an objective colleague review the comments, and the winner and I will start working together in June. What a GREAT way to kick start or build your practice!!
Click HERE for more info on the Boot Camp and what people are saying about it!
After meeting you at the NYMHCA conference I am inspired to work harder at my private practice. I am hungry for more to make this happen.
What a great opportunity, Dr. Legge! Thank you for setting up this giveaway. I think the Basic Training Boot Camp would help me get out of my endless planning/note-taking mindset and give me the kick in the pants I need to put my plans into action. I’ve attended lots of webinars and workshops on practice-building and I’m full of ideas. But, none have offered that hands-on component that your Basic Training Boot Camp does. (…Especially the help with committing to a target market. I could really use me some of that.) I think the coaching sessions will provide me with the practical accountability I need, and the email support will offer the between-sessions trouble-shooting I need to help me on my way! It’s the perfect blend of help I need in growing my practice right now.
Dear Dr. Deb and her esteemed colleague,
I am totally impressed with your generosity of spirit and all you do for counselors in the private practice arena.
The reason I think I could greatly benefit from and really utilize your boot camp is: I had a successful private practice and then unfortunately was ill and needed 4 operations in 4 years, plus I experienced the loss of my beloved father and had a near fatal car accident.. My practice evaporated as I did not have the energy to maintain the momentum to help it grow. I am finally starting to feel like myself again, but I know I could use a big boot camp kick in the butt to help motivate me, re-energize me and help me get me back on the right path again. Counseling for me is not a career. It is a calling I was given the talents for at birth and meant to do in this lifetime. I have been giving it away for free recently, as I cannot listen to people who are suffering and not advise them how to move in the best direction for personal healing. However, it is now at the point where I do need to earn more money to survive. Thank you for considring me and taking the time to read what I have written.
Sincerely,
Aileen Gould, M.S.,NCC, LMHCA
The Basic Boot Camp would enable me to make one of my dreams come to pass. The information and materials gathered would lead to me to provide a professional, innovative, excellent, faith-based counseling & consulting service in a private practice setting. Roadblocks along the way would be avoided and I would be lead down the right path towards a successful private practice. I have plenty of ideas but need guidance and mentoring to help pave the way. I have the drive, passion, and faith to launch Agape Empowerment Counseling & Consulting Services.
I have read a few books, started a private pracitce and picked several therapist’s brains about getting my practice moving. I am so passionate about my work and I have come a long way, but I feel like something is missing. I need to fine tune my business. This is not, “just a hobby”, this is my livelihood.
Deb,
I really would love to win your boot camp because I think others tower over me in their knowledge (especially with billing and insurance)! I unfortunately can’t afford the boot camp at this time 🙁
Linda
Dr. Legge,
I truly believe I NEED a Boot Camp. I have been struggling to find direction, to put into some sort of plan the ideas that either come to me or are given to me from every angle, some helpful, some not so helpful and many contradicting each other. I also need to re-evaluate what I have done so far and to determine if what I am doing now is the best choice for me. I have not been able to invest as much financially into my practice and believe that this training is something that I will not afford but would love to participate in and learn from. I think I am a great student, I really enjoy learning and would benefit greatly by having someone “teach” me what I need to do from beginning to end and how to put it into action.
I am a 60 year old relatively new therapist! I started college when I was 51-years-old. Once I graduated with a BA in Psychology, I got accepted into an MSW program. Unfortunately, that same summer I was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. I didn’t take “their” word for that and found a neurosurgeon at Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles who removed it. That was in 2006. Recovery was horrendous…couldn’t walk…couldn’t see…lost the hearing on one side, and everything seemed topsy turvy (double vision). So, I couldn’t pursue my dreams. But wait…maybe I could. I laid in bed with a “pirate patch” over one eye and a laptop on my belly, held textbooks up to my one good eye, and got a 4.0 in a Masters in Mental Health Counseling from Capella University. After recovering, I began working..practicums, internships, a real job! I am a Child and Family Therapist for an agency that treats abused and neglected children and adolescents.
I added 50 hours of DBT training and have taught DBT skills to teens for over two years. I have also maintained a beautiful private practice office and saw my own clients, with the dream of doing this full time as soon as I got licensed. Last month, after 10 years of hard work, I got licensed as an LCPC and an LMFT. I have so much I still want to do. I want to have an Internet presence, with videos and a blog. I want to have a full practice. I want to lead groups and teach workshops. And I don’t feel I have as much time to pull it all off (being as I am now almost 61 and am not in perfect health). So, that’s why I have been dreaming of your boot camp and longing to make that jump…just can’t quite afford it yet. And the clock’s tick’in.
Good luck to everyone!
Deb,
I formerly worked in the marketing and sales world, and transition recently into the counseling field in an effort to help people. However, I have notice the bleak and limited vision that many counselor have about income opportunities in this field and especially private practice. Therefore, my desire is to take my knowledge from Sales and Marketing and marry it together with internet marketing and the counseling profession to help teach other therapist creative ways to make money on and offline. I have a wealth of ideas. Yet, the one thing that hinders me is having so many ideas that I am not sure where to start. I believe that I am suffering from the paralyze of analyze and could benefit from the boot camp by gaining focus and direction on where to start my endeavor. I do not feel I need ideas for this project; however, I could benefit from the accountability and mentorship of someone who has gone before me. The coaching would be valuable to me in order to maximize my efforts in this outreach. Thank you for your consideration. Shellie
Hello Dr. Legge,
I will be 62 next month, and have started an encore career as an Hypnotherapist. I studied for a year at Mueller College of Holistic Studies, and continue to take all the free classes I can find. I am also accepting all the free help I can get as well, because my husband is retired Navy, and attending school too, so we are living on just his retirement from the Navy. I have started to really market myself, but have never really had any concerted training in this area, so your boot camp would be just the thing for me!! I seem to be leaning in two directions for a niche… PTSD patients, and the Transgendered, gay and allies community. I know they seem to be two very disparate specialties, but I think they have a lot in common, and I think I can be of help to both communities.
Hi Deb – I’ve been following you for awhile now and always love what you have to say. I work in private practice as a therapist and I’m a life coach, as well. I have a strong mentor for my coaching practice, but that same sort of savvy person for my therapy work has eluded me. I think what you have to offer can help me a great deal as a new therapist; I’m creative, engaged in my work and have a lot of energy around wanting to find “my people” for the work I do as an LMFT. Thanks for this opportunity — very grateful.
I am interested in your boot camp because I have developed a fairly detailed marketing plan, have implemented much of it, have found it to be moderately successful and have found many of the tips you have provided in your emails and newsletters to be useful, practical and comfortable. I have been trying to find ways to work smarter instead of harder, and think the boot camp could help. The fact that I am entering to win this training, rather than simply paying for it is indicitive of the fact that I have a long way to go. I would appreciate your consideration. Thanks so much for all of the sharing of ideas. Michelle Pinheiro, LCSW
I have treasured the knowledge you have shared about how to go into private practice! I am just finishing my masters and this is something I will be grappling with soon. I have learned a lot in school, but no one ever talks about this practical side, how to manage the business of counseling. I would love to win this boot camp!
I’ve always wanted to make a difference in people’s lives and despite my aversion to risk; I just recently took the leap to private practice. Once I develop my practice I believe this will be the best choice for my professional life and for my family. I believe that I am gifted in what I do; however, for me to truly make the impact I want to make I need to further develop my business sense. I have read many books and have been following you religiously (I am truly grateful for the information you share with all of us). I am someone who will take the initiative and run with it, I feel that I just need a little more guidance to be successful. I will work hard to utilize the information I gain from you to create my version of “the dream” which I will use as a vehicle to serve others. Thank you for your time and the inspiration to be successful in private practice!
Thanks again!
Steffanie
Dear Deb,
I’ve been in private practice for almost 4 years. I’ve grown my practice to 3 licensed counselors, 3 resident counselors and one intern. I’ve started several groups and have developed an educational and super fun program for girls that is just starting to gain momentum. With all this great stuff happening, I still can’t seem to make any money!! Crazy, but true! I’m able to pay my bills and take some money home each month, but some days I think I’d be doing better and making more money if I were a single counselor practice. I’m obviously missing something in my marketing and organizational skills. I could really use the Boot Camp to take an established structure and successful practice to the level of really making a decent living.
Thanks!
Dr. Legge,
I would like to win your boot camp simply to keep a promise – you see, my Dad was probably the greatest entrepreneur of all time – he had a 5th grade education, yet he had said that he always knew he wanted to work for himself and help other people and that’s what he did – fearlessly, I must say – after I graduated from college, he looked at me one day and asked me to promise him that I would work for myself and on that day I promised him that I would…the day is now, Dr. Legge – my Dad, who is now 83, has Alzheimer’s and even though his memory is slipping away fast, I still want to honor my promise to him. Although I did open my practice in November, I still am holding on to a full-time job that I’m afraid to let go of because of fear, I guess – your boot camp will certainly provide me the tools that I need to immerse myself completely in my practice with confidence and be successful. My Dad touched many lives and in our field, we touch lives as well – the only difference is that my Dad couldn’t “swim”, but jumped in anyway and struggled to stay afloat – on the other hand, your boot camp could serve as my practice’s life jacket and if I jump in all the way, the only thing for me to do is float and stay at the top…thank you for the opportunity to share my story – hopefully, you’ll be able to help me fully realize my dream of having a thriving practice…and keep a promise. Thank you so much, Diane
Hello. What an exciting opportunity you are offering! I live in Montana in a beautiful area; rich in scenery, spiritual scope, and beauty. It is an economically poor area and the population is not as dense in other states. I have been working for an agency for the past 4 years. It is very hard work and the pay is not good. I had come to the conclusion that to get ahead and do work that would be truly effective, I would have to go into private practice. Since this area is not highly populated, in order to make this work, it will be necessary to make use of all avenues possible, especially the internet. A lot of the advice given seems to work for cities where target populations are possible. I feel that it is crucial to the success of such a venture would depend on getting the right personal help to find creative ways to establish and grow a practice in such an environment.
Hi Cathy!!
Thank you Dr. Legge for the opportunity to win such an amazing prize. I am a relatively new clinician and in need of guidance to kick start my private practice. I have a lot of questions about where to start and how to be as successful as possible in this field. I am highly motivated and believe I have a great deal to offer but need direction to be successful. I would love a chance to try that with your bootcamp program. Thanks again.
I would love to be able to work with you one-on-one and think that this is an excellent idea! I have referred everyone I know to your website because I have been Blessed to gain insight and ideas on how to market the company I joined with a few months ago. Your insights have helped me and my partner pave the way to help educate others on what Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Equine Assisted Learning is, and helped to reach people that we could help with our services. With what you are giving away, I could only be so Blessed to be able to work with you and gain more insights on how to market ourselves to more difficult markets and be able to educate others on how horses can harness emotional healing and growth. I am a new clinician, so being able to have the opportunity to work one-on-one with you would be absolutely amazing! I look at your website every day and smile when I get your daily e-mails. I hope to be chosen, but anyone of us who have written on this page would gain a tremendous amount of insight! I do hope to be able to work with you in the Boot Camp and wish everyone who has written luck in winning as well! We are all winners for being able to have information shared by you every day! Thank you so much for being who you are and generously sharing your information with us!
Dr. Legge, While I am 20+ years out of school, I only began a (solo) private practice two years ago. I work out of a home office which is exceptionally well-laid for this purpose. However, I live in a rural area where there are, surprisingly, a large number of psychotherapists (graduates of nearby Smith School for Social Work and Antioch/New England Graduate School tend to stay in the area, or were already living here when they went to school).
The niche I expected to serve (attachment disordered clients, foster and adoptive families), which I thought was needed a provider in this area does not seem as big as I had anticipated, or they don’t know I’m here. On the other hand, my name has gotten out and around, and I have built a fairly reliable practice (discovering areas of experitise I didn’t really know I had) , but could use your help in several areas. These questions are the ones that com efirst to mind:
* how do I make my name stand out amongst all the others in this rural area?
*what unique marketing ideas can I employ on an extremely limited budget?
* how can I make schools and pediatricians’ offices be interested in my services (for referrals)?
Hoping you will choose my practice to assist in June, I am
Laura Hoskins, MA LCMHC NCC
Tall Trees Associates
I am a veteran and find myself in a unique area to assist veterans and there families and I have just this past 9/11/11 open my practice. I am hungry to learn all I can to give the assistance I didn’t have that lost me a marriage and drives me to keep families together.
I would love to win a chance at the bootcamp give away. I am in the process of opening a private practice, and this opportunity would be invaluable to me in that regard.
Hi dr.legge,
I just wanted to say thank you for putting “out there” a wealth of information for those of us getting started on this journey of private practice. As is probably the case for most people starting out, it is hard to know where to place your limited time and resources. So a chance to win something like the boot camp is really fantastic. I am currently a stay at home mom to two young girls. I am ready to get back into the work force and create something if my own. Being a therapist has been one of the greatest honors of my life. I am constantly humbled, amazed and inspired by the beauty of bearing witness for another human being.
Having read the other enteries, there are so many amazing stories, i want everyone to win!
Well where do I begin. I had a dream of becoming a licensed practitioner of the Healing Arts, Love the way that sounds, it started in 2001. I have been an energy healer for over 18 years and decided at the age of 50 to go back and get the masters degree and a license to be able to provide my clients the benefit of using their insurance. Hah! what did I know, I didn’t really consider the time, energy and commitment it would take to do all of this, and perhaps I didn’t really want to know, jumping off the diving board so to speak. I certainly had my challenges. I began my internship to finish up my degree and two weeks later Hurricane Ivan submerged my house, my five year relationship ended, and my daughters beloved horse died a gruesome death from colic. Loss of home, relationship, love object, and career change, could have sent me over the edge. What kept me sane for the next two years putting my house and life back together were the clients. I had to “get out of myself” to be present for others. And I continue to be awed by the resilliency of my clients. I currently am an advocate for victims of crime (murder, rape and incest) at a community mental health clinic. (translation=hard work little pay).
I have been working for the last eighteen months in a co-operative with other therapists and it is not satisfying to pay 35% of my income to the owner of the co-operative. And actually I don’t think co-operative really describes how the business operates. The people “in charge” really come from scarcity, this entire area of the country is in scarcity, and I want to get out of that mentality.
I have a unique niche and am ready to make it in private practice. I am again on the diving board ready to make a leap and could use a push.
You rock Deb Legge, I am so inspired by your creativity and would love to have your energy in my corner of the world.
Trish Johnson LMHC
Hi Dr. Legge,
I hope this is the answer to my prayer. I was laid of work last year. I knew all along that I wanted to be in a private practice setting but did not know how to begin, what I needed, and I was just simply scared. Well, God gave me the nudge I needed and I opened a small practice. I realize I, like many therapist, have tried it the hard way. However, I believe you can show me a different approach that will help me to truly achieve my dreams! I am ready to learn, work hard, and implement! So please be the answer to my prayer!
I have recently been introduced to your site through my new business partner. We were lucky enough to find an amazing price for an office building and plan to open a private practice very shortly. Your information and expertise would be invaluable to our success. We have each raised our families and are now ready to begin the endeavor of our dreams….please help us achieve those dreams with success. We’ll provide the hard work, dedication, blood, sweat, and tears…we look to you for the guidance and wisdom. Thank you!!!
Hi Dr. Legge,
I and LPCA working toward licensure in the state of North Carolina. I am just leaving a for-profit mental health agency, and looking to start my own private practice. When I decided to become a counselor, I knew nothing about the “business of counseling” I just knew that I was created to be a counselor. I have a natural gift and ability for this profession. I can’t explain it, I just do it! And it has been rewarding to me and many others that I have had the privilege of serving.
With that being said, I NEED help starting this business. So far, I have a website, an office space, and (thanks to you) a newsletter-in-the-making! I truly want to be channel of light and positive energy in my community, and I need people to know that I exist as such. Your Basic Training Bootcamp would allow me to do just that! LET PEOPLE KNOW THAT I EXIST, and am here to serve them! Thanks so much for your website, and the work that you do!
Hi Dr. Legge,
I just completed my supervised hours to become an LPC. I have a private practice and a steady client schedule. I’m ready to take it to the next level and I think your boot camp would help me do just that!
Hello Dr. legge!
What a wonderful, generous, and spirited opportunity you are providing! I have always been impressed by your willingness to sincerely help other counselors to succeed.
I have read the entries of so many other incredible people wanting to make a difference in spite of any adversity they may have to overcome. I am still in school, just a few months from graduation, so I realize that there are many deserving others who are ready to take advantage of your “Boot Camp” right now.
I just wanted to say Thank you & hope sometime in the future to work toward private practice with your help & expertise!
Sincerely, Nancy
Dr. Legge,
Having had the opportunity to work with you in both at Medaille and in workshops I have attended with you has been a true honor and inspiration as I inspire to be a competent and successful counselor.
I have been working in the counseling field for the past 7 years, primarily for agencies which serve a population who suffer from addictions as well as other mental health concerns. Over the years I have learned that the programs lack a various aspects that have proven effective in promoting the well being of the clients among these populations. These issues along with the general constraints of working for agencies I feel at times holds me as a counselor back from utilizing the many skills I posses as well as limiting my potential for growth at times.
As I thrive to become the best counselor I can I work hard to stay updated on my knowledge and clinical skills in hopes to provide clients with the positive and beneficial experience in counseling. In doing so I try to attend trainings, review journal articles and other literature, work with some of the top physicians and counselors in the field seeking support and mentoring.
Growing as a clinician I have a strong goal to work with a population which is highly underserved due to limited effective resources, young adults who struggle with opiate addiction and mental health issues as well as their families. This is not to say this is the only population I feel passionate about working with. By having a private practice I feel I can offer this population a great opportunity to increase their insight and improve their quality of life. However, I have found over the past two years it is extremely hard to find a senior clinician in a private setting willing to take a chance and support my dreams, especially given my age.
I have been hoping to work with you in the Boot Camp since completing a workshop with you well over a year ago. Yet, with the struggles I face economically due to student loans and general cost of living the fee has not been feasible at this time. Having the opportunity to work with you in the Boot Camp I feel will provide me with the tools, skills, and knowledge to set out and achieve my dream of being a dedicated and motivated clinician in a private setting.
Thank you for all you have and continue to do for the field.
Amanda Brennan
Hi Deb!
To tell you the truth, I’ve been in private practice
for 26 years, specializing in grief and loss,
plus working as the Bereavement
Coordinator for Hospice and I run a bereavement
camp for children and teens……and I’m just tired!
I am hoping to turn my practice in to a Grief Center
with a few other clinicians, which is what our community
needs desperately. With working my daytime hours
at Hospice, it gives me my health benefits from
the hospital, however, I only have Fridays and Saturday
daytime hours to see my clients…..then two other nights
out of the week, I work nights. I have fibromyalgia and
CHronic Fatigue, but you’d never know it!
My body is very achy and it needs more rest, but I need to
work to pay my bills, so I keep going. I do take an hour
2x/week to exercise, but I really need to double that time
to fight the Fibromyalgia symptoms. I love all of what I do,
and there is a great need here, but there has to be an easier way
to earn more money. I would love your help Deb!
Warmly,
Karen L Goldman, LMHC,BCPC
Hi Folks. I am so humbled and amazed and inspired by all of your replies. Thanks so much for reaching out and sharing your story with all of us; I am very grateful and I will be reaching out to each of you over the next couple of days. Later this week I’ll announce the name of the winner to everyone in our Influential Therapist Community. The Boot Camp will begin June first.
Hi, I’ve been a CRC and LMHC for more than 10 years but a counselor for almost 30. I recently started a private practice but cannot seem to get clients. This is a challenge that may drive me out of the private practice and back into not for profit.
I am not sure what I am or am not doing and would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this with someone who has been through it. I am located in Brooklyn NY and feel that there is a large pool of clients but I do not know how to access them. Thank you for your site and the great ideas I have gotten from reading your blog.
@ Ana — If you are looking for ways to set up your referral sources and get new clients, you can check out my new video: http://influentialtherapist.com/5-super-strategies/
@Ana: Don’t give up! Keep plugging away at establishing and building those referral relationships. Get yourself noticed, and let the world (Brooklyn) know how you can help them! Good luck to you.