Perry: In this episode of The Therapist Experience, I’m speaking with Jeffrey Sumber LCP PC. This is the Therapist experience, episode number 13. Welcome to the Therapist Experience, the podcast where we interview successful therapists about what it’s really like growing a private practice. I’m Perry Rosenbloom, the founder of Brighter Vision and I’m excited to introduce our guest today, Jeffrey Sumber from Jeffrey Sumber LCP PC. Jeffrey, are you prepared to share your therapist experience?

Jeffrey: Absolutely.

Perry: Alright, so glad to have you here Jeffrey. Jeffrey Sumber is a licenced psychotherapist, relationship consultant, motivational speaker, life coach, ceremonial officiant and educator. He is also the author of the best-selling book, ‘Renew your Wows! – 7 powerful tools to ignite the spark and transform your relationship’. Jeffrey received degrees from Colgate University as well as South Western College for attending Harvard University for an advanced degree. He also had the opportunity to live and study in Zurich, Switzerland at the prestigious CG Jung institute in 2005. Jeffrey has been mentored by some of the brightest teachers in the field of Psychology and relationships of the past 20 years, including: Wayne Dyer, Harville Hendrix, Irvin Yalom, Sue Johnson, Arnold Mandell and Lawrence Stibbards. Jeffrey has a couple’s institute and a thriving private practice in Chicago, where he lives with his wife, Kari. Jeffrey, I gave our audience a little overview of you there but why don’t you take a minute and fill in the gaps from that introduction and tell us a little bit more about you personally and about your practice.

Jeffrey: Sure, just happy to be here today and appreciate you inviting me. So, I live here in Chicago and work in the beautiful Andersonville neighbourhood on the North side and I have an amazing office; beautiful brick walls and it makes me happy every time I walk into my building.

Perry: It’s so important isn’t it?

Jeffrey: It is really important. I have lots of creature comforts and I do a lot of sand tray therapy so I’ve got lots of action figures and little figurines and I’ve got tonnes of books and it’s just a really warm, cosy feeling every time I come in so it makes me happy to do the work in this environment.

Perry: So Jeffrey, one thing we find really fascinating is exploring the ‘why?’ with therapists. We want to hear your story and find out why you got into private practice. So tell us, why did you choose a career in therapy and why do you choose to focus on couples?

Jeffrey: That’s a great question. So, years ago when I went to College when I was 18, I thought I would major in Psychology and I went to a school back in the day, before I really knew what I was looking for. I just assumed that Psychology was Psychology and that I would have a nice brick wall to look at and a cosy couch and we would talk. And when I went to Colgate, it was very research oriented and very science oriented and so I remember the first day of my Psych. 101 class when this Psychologist walked up and down the aisle, gesturing with a brain, dripping from formaldehyde and he paused – I was sitting on the aisle – and this formaldehyde was just dripping on my toe and it was a considerable turn-off and I ended up getting a ‘C’ in Psychology and promptly decided that I would go a different route. And so, it was years later after I graduated from Divinity School with a Theology degree that I decided to shift gears towards making a difference, individually, one-on-one and that’s really why I got turned on to Psychology. I did some work with a man name Bruce Scott when I was living in Taos, New Mexico and he really inspired me in terms of what a Psychologist could do in the world and he had worked extensively with Arnold Mandell in process work and Bruce just really embodied a sense of transformation and I just loved that ability to move through the world that wasn’t necessarily a religious dogma or institutional approach to change, it was really about process and relationship and the space between.

Perry: How do you feel going and attending Divinity School has helped you in with your work with couples?

Jeffrey: That’s a great question. Well, I wrote my thesis at Harvard, Martin Buber and Paul Tillich, and Martin Buber wrote a book called ‘I and Thou’ and since I read that book in College I think it’s definitely been probably the most impactful book I’ve ever read and the premise of everything in life, creation – if you believe in God, source or some higher being – everything that’s possible in the Universe exists in the bounds of relationship and the space between. And that’s really been a theme in my life and a pursuit in my own relationships to be as mindful and hold the space in relationships as sacred and so, sometimes I have failed terribly at that but overall, I would say that I’m better at that today than I ever have been and the work that I do with couples is a deep reflection of the philosophy that I hold about what life on this planet is about, even when we don’t see it concretely.

Perry: That was really well put, thank you. So Jeffrey, you have a thriving private practice on the North side of Chicago, this amazing office with brick walls and everything that you envisioned that you wanted to do in Psychotherapy but you didn’t always have a thriving practice.

Jeffrey: That is true.

Perry: So, let’s go back in your entrepreneurial journey to a time where you were as low as you could possibly be, where you were struggling or where you encountered a major struggle in private practice as an entrepreneur and you were just ready to throw in the towel and say, “Alright, I’m done, I’m moving onto something different – I don’t want to keep doing this.” So, I know everyone listening to this podcast can relate to that moment so tell us about that moment. Share with our audience what you were doing then and what happened and then share with us how you persevered and overcame that struggle.

Jeffrey: Sure. So, I had a rather unique route towards private practice. I started my career working for an agency in New Mexico and we were a mobile crisis unit, doing suicide and homicide interventions and so from there, I started my own agency in New Mexico, providing developmental disability services and so I had a big team of people then. And so, I had some momentum and some ideas about business and creating business but when I moved to Chicago, I didn’t know anybody and I had no resources. I had lived off what I had created from New Mexico for a couple of years and so by the time I had decided to open a private practice, I was super low on funds and a little bit anxious about how everything was going to come together and I remember the day that I opened this office and sat in here, staring at the ceiling saying, “OK, well, it’s going to be great once I have a client.” And so, there were no clients for the first six or seven weeks and it can be very demoralizing in those first days and weeks and so I had to get CEUs so I went do that and I went to John Bradshaw CEU event and I sat next to this amazing social worker named Roseanne and we hit it off, we had lunch together and two weeks later, I got my first referral from Roseanne and I remember doing a little ‘happy dance’. It’s something so exciting just to know that it’s going to be OK and that you finally have positive momentum. It wasn’t actually until six months later that I hit my magic mark which was for me, at the time, twelve clients. I knew if I could have twelve clients on a weekly basis that I could pay my bills. And so, I would say that I opened in May and it wasn’t until the end of December that I hit twelve. So, it took a good six months but it did happen and I worked really hard at advertising and social media was not as big back then but I did what I could to make that happen.

Perry: So share this: how did you go from one to twelve? What do you feel was the best marketing move you made during that period of time to bring from that ‘one’? And gosh, I remember the first client I ever got and that ‘happy dance’ I did.

Jeffrey: Totally.

Perry: I think we can all remember that moment but it sort-of feels like getting that ‘one’ is the easy thing. How do you go from the one to the twelve or the one to the fifteen or whatever that magic number is for you, that you need to pay your bills?

Jeffrey: Yeah, that’s a great question. For me, this was probably ten or eleven years ago and Twitter and Facebook was not the tool of the day and so there was still a lot of print media and advertising and so I hired a Graphic Artist and I made some really nice ads and I bought space in magazines, local newspapers and I paid a web designer to make a really awesome website which I think, at the time, was not as popular for therapists to have websites. Most of the ones that had any web presence were typically through ‘Psychology Today’.

Perry: So what time was this we are talking about? Was it ten years ago, five years ago?

Jeffrey: Yeah, ten years ago. So this was 2005/2006 so yeah, ten years. Back in those days, print advertising was still important so I definitely advertised a lot. I was not against walking around the neighborhood and shaking hands with people and dropping off business cards and putting up flyers in the cafes and I went to some events in the area and rented a table and talked about depth psychology and gave out flyers.

Perry: What events did you go to?

Jeffrey: At that time called ’88 team – circus of the spirit’ here in Chicago and it was kind of a New Age gathering of crafts and fire-throwers and drumming and I just had a table and I made some poster-boards with ‘Transpersonal Psychology Explained’ and I just talked to people and I gave discounts for my services.

Perry: And did that work for you, that marketing tool? Did it drive in more business for you and get you more clients?
Jeffrey: It did. I probably got one or two actual clients from those events. It was not an Earth-shattering amount of business by any means but it definitely got some awareness out there and it was all just part of building momentum.

Perry: And that momentum, it’s like a snowball.

Jeffrey: Totally.

Perry: With that first client, you’re just gathering the snow but you need more snow to get a snowball but eventually, if you’re making a big snowball and you’re pushing it downhill, eventually it’s going to gather up steam on its own and you’re just going to let go of it and it’s going to roll down the hill.

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Perry: And it will be gathering more steam and gathering more snow.

Jeffrey: Lots of coffees.

Perry: Lots of coffees!

Jeffrey: I’m a fan of taking people for coffee.

Perry: Who do you take for coffee?

Jeffrey: Doctors, other therapists, people in the neighborhood. You know, “Hey, I’ve got the practice, I’d love to buy you a cup of coffee and tell you what I’m up to.” So, if anything, it just builds my relationship with people around the neighborhood and it lets people know that I’m here and reminds them that I do newsletters now – and the newsletters have been extremely important for me in terms of reminding the world that I’m here and this is what I think about.

Perry: Are your newsletters geared towards potential clients, or existing clients, or referral sources?

Jeffrey: Yeah, all of it.

Perry: All of it. So, tell us about your newsletters – how do you structure it? What kind of value do you provide in them?
Jeffrey: The newsletters, they used to be, back ten years ago, way too long and way too detailed and you know, my mom and my wide read them.

Perry: A bit too professorial?

Jeffrey: Yeah, they were a little too much and so I learned over the years to make them a little bit lighter and more impactful. If they’re more than four or five paragraphs long, then I think I’m failing at keeping people interested. I use nice photos that I don’t steal from Google anymore because I had to pay Getty Images for those.

Perry: Oh, boy.

Jeffrey: So, be careful about that. Now I use public domain photos for those but yeah, just Psychology concepts, relationship concepts and now that I have a book, I will take quotes from my book and excerpts and really just inspire people to do their own work and they’re largely geared toward personal growth and development.

Perry: So there are a tonne of great gems there that you just shared. You know, one being: don’t steal images from Google.

Jeffrey: Right.

Perry: Just because you find an image on Google, doesn’t mean that you can use it.

Jeffrey: Yeah. That was a rude awakening.

Perry: There are websites you can use such as Creative Commons, you can go to creativecommons.org and use images there for free. Or you could always buy royalty-free photos from stock photo companies and those generally cost one or two bucks each.

Jeffrey: Right.

Perry: And another one was just providing value and making it light-hearted with your newsletters and staying front-of-mind for people. So, Jeffrey, what software do you use for your newsletters?

Jeffrey: I use MailChimp. MailChimp is awesome. It’s easy to use and it’s free if you have lists of people – email lists – that are less than a five hundred or a thousand people. So, for most of our purposes, if you have more than a thousand people on your list, there’s more robust software out there for you but for ‘small potatoes’ like myself, MailChimp is a perfect way of doing it.

Perry: Even if you have more than a thousand, MailChimp has some great functionality. It’s good software, it’s one of the most popular newsletter services out there.

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Perry: We used to use MailChimp here and we transitioned to a different tool for a number of reasons but MailChimp is a really great tool and the fact that it’s free for up to five hundred or a thousand, you can’t beat free.

Jeffrey: Yeah, you can’t beat free.

Perry: You certainly cannot. So Jeffrey, you went to school to become a therapist, not to get your MBA.

Jeffrey: Right.

Perry: But along the way, you’ve actually opened up two businesses; one down in New Mexico and your private practice up in Chicago.

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Perry: We often, when I’ve spoken to therapists, whether it’s on the therapist experience or whether it’s just talking to potential clients or existing clients or going to trade shows, people often say, “I wish I would have just been taught something in graduate school, something about starting a business”

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Perry: “I didn’t know anything, I had to teach myself everything.” So, this is the MBA for therapists that we want them to get. So, what’s the one thing that you wish you could have learned in school about starting your own business?

Jeffrey: That’s a good question. I think that personal relationships are probably vital to succeeding in business. We could go get an MBA, we could learn how to market, we could do all these things but when it comes down to it, you can’t be successful unless you connect with people on some level. Maybe that’s content, maybe it’s meaning, maybe it’s in other ways but there’s got to be a sense of who you are and people have to relate to that and resonate with it. The greatest research in Psychology has shown that it doesn’t matter what particular ideology or approach to therapy you use, that more than anything it’s the therapeutic relationship that makes the most change and impact. So, I think it’s the same when it comes to creating a business – there’s got to be a focus on the relationship, whether it’s the existing clients, you know, I tell people all the time that I think the greatest compliment to me is a referral. If you like what I do and you feel it’s made a difference, every time someone in your life is going through something and is talking about needing a therapist, your greatest compliment is the referral. I wish that I had a little bit more foundation for that when I was in school to understand what private practice actually looks like and that it doesn’t just magically appear and that there’s a lot of foundational work and all this infrastructure stuff; the newsletters and the advertising, that’s definitely substantial and I wish more schools provided that. But personally, I think it’s the personal relationships that everything connects to.

Perry: I couldn’t agree more. No matter what type of business you have, whether you’re running a private practice, whether you’re a carpet cleaner, whether you’re a website design company, people want to do business with people that they know, that they like, that they trust. And in a private practice, you need to go out and develop those referral relationships and get people to know, like and trust you. You need your existing clients to refer to you. They need to know, like and trust you and the work you do, it’s all relational. The work you do in private practice, whether it’s seeing clients, whether it’s building relationships for referrals, they need to know you, they need to like you, they need to trust you otherwise they’re not going to do anything with you. So Jeffrey, you’re also an author.

Jeffrey: I am.

Perry: What inspired you to write a book?

Jeffrey: I had always wanted to write a book actually, ever since I was in grade school, I just wanted to be an author and the anxiety for decades was that I have nothing original to write so would I write a book if there’s nothing new? The truth is, and something that’s really resonated with me in the last fifteen or so years is, yes, there isn’t really anything new but there’s lots of different ways of saying the old stuff and no everybody resonates with the way it used to be communicated and so my book, ‘Renew you Wows!’ is definitely my approach to relationship and is definitely a reflection of my own life, my own journey and my own personal wisdom that I have gleaned from my own relationships. So I definitely think that writing a book has been transformative, not just for me but it’s also been extremely useful for a number of people who have read it and used the concepts and the tools in it and my clients have definitely benefitted tremendously from it.

Perry: How do you use it in your private practice? Do you give it to your clients, do you use it as marketing with referral sources? Because you know, being a published author, that has sway, that has authority with it. So, share with us how you use it in your private practice from both a ‘helping clients’ perspective and also from a business perspective.

Jeffrey: Yeah, it’s definitely the greatest business card you can have. I used to spend so much money on business cards and I find less and less concern with business cards and I’d rather give you my book. It cost me something like four dollars to print wholesale. It’s definitely a more valuable business card than a dollar card. And there’s real value in contents that I think somebody will take and make change as a result. And if that book gets passed on to someone else, that’s really the whole point of being a though leader, of sharing what you have to share and so, from a business perspective, I had to re-do my website last year with the book launch in May and it definitely re-shaped what I was marketing and how I was marketing myself – I went from, “I’m a good therapist.” to “I’m an expert in my field, you should read my book and all these famous authors agree.” And so, it’s definitely a tremendous boost in credibility, it’s different from, “I should go get some couple’s counselling” and it’s become, “Well, this guy wrote a book on it so he’s got to be good.”

Perry: Exactly.

Jeffrey: So it definitely makes a big difference.

Perry: Jeffrey, thank you so much for sharing and of course we’ll have the links to your book and to your website in this week’s show noted which can be found at: brightervision.com/session13

Perry: So, before we move on to my favorite part of the show, we’re going to take a quick break for our weekly website tip from one of Brighter Vision’s leading website developers. Jeffrey, we’ll be back in just a minute here.
This week’s website tip comes from Andrew Oetjen, a lead website developer at Brighter Vision, the world-wide leader in customer therapist website design. To learn more, go to www.brightervision.com

Andrew: This may seem like a silly question but have you ever done a Google search “therapist” plus your City? I’m sure everyone listening just said, “yeah” and if you have, I’m sure you’ve seen the map with listings below it, right? Ever wondered how to get on that map? As with everything SEO and Google, there’s a lot of factors considered, you can’t even be placed on the map if you don’t have a Google ‘My Business’ account and you need to have one set up. It used to be called ‘Google Places’ in case any of you are freaking out because you set up a ‘Google Places’ account years ago and realise you don’t have a Google ‘My Business’ account – it would have automatically moved over. So first thing’s first, go to google.com/business and then click ‘start now’ and fill out all of the information. It’s essential that your business information is the same here as other directories so make sure that you go to any other listings or directories where your information is and make sure that everything is accurate and up-to-date. Google will then need you to verify your business and that you are who you are. Once all that is done, your business will then be on Google. Of course, that’s no guarantee that you’ll be listed on the front page but at least you’ll have a chance. Next week we’ll have advice on how to improve your Google listing spot through SEO. For the resources mentioned here, please go to: www.brightervision.com/session13
And now back to our conversation with Perry and Jeffrey.

Perry: Alright Jeffrey, now we’re about to move into our final part of the interview., the part we like to refer to as ‘brighter insights’ and our whole goal here is to just distil down what it is you’re telling us into quick little sound bites and information that therapists can use to inspire, motivate and excite them into growing their practice. Are you ready?

Jeffrey: I am ready.

Perry: What or whom inspired you to become a mental health professional?

Jeffrey: Bruce Scott and his ability to embody the process of relationship.

Perry: What do you do to clear your head and get a fresh start to your day?

Jeffrey: I do something that I learned from Toby Robbins which is called ‘priming’ and it involves deep breathing, gratitude and goal setting.

Perry: What are some tools that you’ve used to leverage the power of technology in your private practice so the technology is no longer a hurdle but instead an asset to you?

Jeffrey: I use WordPress platform for my website and I can make changes as I need, I use MailChimp for newsletters, I use social media and Twitter and Facebook to get the word out that I’m here and that I’m rocking.

Perry: Love it. What’s a quote that you hold near and dear, something that’s helped formulate your perspective on life or has inspired or motivated you?

Jeffrey: I am a huge fan of Carl Young’s quote, “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside, awakens.”

Perry: I love that quote. We actually use that quote, or piece of it on our hub Brighter Vision’s sites, it resonates with a lot of our clients, it’s a really great one. Jeffrey, if you could recommend one book to our audience, what would that book be?

Jeffrey: It would probably be my own book, ‘Renew your Wows!’

Perry: There we go. We knew that one was coming.

Jeffrey: Yeah.

Perry: Good plug, I like it. Right Jeffrey, last question here: if you moved to a new City tomorrow, knew nobody and all you had was just your computer and $100 to start your new private practice, what is it that you would do on your very first day?

Jeffrey: On my very first day, I’d just sit at a cafe and have a really good cup of coffee. I would sit and I would breathe and I would relax. I would trust that the Universe has my back and that no matter what happens, it’s going to be great.

Perry: I love it and I hope that others take that advice because you can’t get much better than sitting down at a cafe and having a nice cup of coffee and just relaxing.

Jeffrey: Totally. You’re going to be in your best state as soon as you’re relaxed.

Perry: Any parting advice for our listeners?

Jeffrey: When you do start getting your practice up and running, make sure you put money away every month for your retirement.

Perry: Ooh, that’s a good one. Do you use anything like a simple IRA or SEP-IRA or anything?

Jeffrey: I do have a SEP and I contribute towards it every year and the first job I had, I was 27 years old and I was a new therapist and my supervisor said, “whatever you do, put ten dollars a week away in your 401K because it’s matched and you’re going to appreciate it” and it has actually served me very well over the years.

Perry: And for our listeners that aren’t aware a SEP IRA, SEP stands for ‘Simplified Employee Pension’ I believe.

Jeffrey: Sounds right.

Perry: And basically, it’s a really great vehicle if you are a solo show and if you don’t have any other W2 employees working for you, what a SEP allows you to do is to put away pre-taxed dollars, an absurd amount of money, up to forty or maybe fifty thousand a year and of course, speak to a financial advisor or a tax guy or gal about this because I’m no expert but it is a really great vehicle that allows you to put away a lot of pre-taxed dollars and it’s designed specifically for small business that do not have any other employees. If you have employees, you’re going to have to match a lot of that. If you put thirty thousand away, you’re going to have to offer that same matching potential to your employees.

Perry: So Jeffrey, thank you so much for all of your time and of course everyone listening, you can find out all of the great resources, find links to Jeffrey’s book and everything that we’ve spoken about over at brightervision.com/session13
Perry: Jeffrey, thank you so much for sharing all of your expertise and knowledge. We so appreciate the advice that you’ve provided and the therapist’s experience that you’ve shared here. Thank you again.

Jeffrey: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Perry: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have a question for us, you can email it to us at: [email protected] and please take us up on that. We want to have an episode, or two or three, where we’re just answering your questions because we know you have them so share those questions with us, that way, we can provide more value to you. And of course if you’re interested in launching a website, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Brighter Vision is the world-wide leader in custom therapist website design. For just $59 a month, you’ll get a website that’s as unique as your practice, unlimited tech support and complimentary search engine optimization so that way, people find you on Google. To learn more, head on over to brightervision.com and just drop us a line through one of our contact forms and we will be in touch within one business day. That does it for today. Thank you again for listening and we will see you next week.