TTE 47: Using Vlogging to Market & Grow Your Private Practice
Raquel Buchanan has always been a presenter. So naturally, Vlogging, via Facebook Live and YouTube Videos, became the most successful & effective way that she has marketed her private practice.
Here is Raquel’s Therapist Experience.
Best Marketing Move
Vlogging! 🙂
Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Thanks to Raquel for joining me this week. Until next time!
Transcript
Click here to read the TranscriptRaquel: Of course.
Perry: Alright, well I’m so glad to have you here Raquel, let me give our audience a little overview of you and then we’ll hop into the interview.
Raquel: Great.
Perry: Raquel Buchanan is a Mental Health professional in Southern California and has worked in county mental health programs, private practices and non-profit organizations providing psychotherapy and case management services. Raquel focuses on building self-esteem and self confidence in her clients and she specializes in working women and teens. Aside from her clinical work, Raquel enjoys creating life and relationship how-to videos and engaging with her audience through Facebook live. Raquel has a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Hope International University and is a PhD candidate at Grand Canyon University. Raquel, I gave a little overview of you there. Why don’t you take a minute, fill in the gaps from the introduction, and tell us a little bit more about you personally and about your practice.
Raquel: Well great. I am in my fifth year of clinical practice actually, I’m an MFT intern and while I have been an MFT intern, I have realized that I can help so much more people with knowledge that I have and not limiting it to just the therapy experience. So what I wanted to is that I wanted to share this information with people who traditionally don’t seek out psych0therapy so I used social media to sort of delve into a kinda a life coaching, a tutorial and instruction to help people have better relationships, more success in life and recover from mental illness.
Perry: How long have you been actively engaging in an audience through social media like that?
Raquel: I actually began vlogging in 2007 when it was very very new.
Perry: And so for our audience who’s not familiar with that the term “vlogging”, could you explain that to them?
Raquel: It’s blogging but with videos so you’re just kinda writing about anything basically that you want to but you’re putting it in-front of the camera and saying it your audience in person.
Perry: That can be intimidating sometimes.
Raquel: Without a doubt, yes.
Perry: So you started vlogging in 2007 to get a message out there so what has that experience been like? What got you started with that? And tell our audience about that.
Raquel: I have always just been someone who was a presenter. I mean, I used to put on little shows for my family and pretend like I was on the news and so I had this knack and I think growing up with the life experiences that I have that were non-traditional, for example, I have a brother who has non-verbal autism and something about that experience and growing up isolated in that experience made me want to reach out people who were having diverse life stuff happening and I wanted to get out there and show those people that we can make things of ourselves even if the statistic are not in our favor and I just kind of decided to use the technology that was there and do it actually because I love to do it and not because of any marketing or business venture I wanted to do.
Perry: That’s how the best the best marketing eventually evolves though right, like it saying that you’re passionate about something, that passion comes through and ideally you start building an audience and what were the early days like? Who were you speaking with? Did you have an audience or not really?
Raquel: Oh jeez. I had an audience and it was called blog TV and I had an audience of trolls and if you don’t what I troll is, a troll is a person who just criticizes and attacks in anything that they could possible do. Usually, these people have fake profiles, the inter-webs are a crazy thing but I had audience of trolls who I would stand in front of the camera and just talk about life and they would say the meanest things to me and it actually for a while kept me from really blogging and vlogging to my full potential but as I have continued you know there’s a common misconception that you’re gonna get clients right away or you’re gonna blow up in just one video and it’s actually taking that repetition and that practice and putting yourself into the search engines by constantly putting up video so I wasn’t getting the clients right away and at that time in 2007 , I really couldn’t anyways but these were people who had followed me, the ones who weren’t trolls and had watched me evolved and they look at me and say , “hey, there’s something about that girl that I like and I noticed that she’s been stable overtime and her message is the same and she look pretty successful,” so I almost used it when I was younger as a way to be a role model for people like us.
Perry: How did that transition from…. I have so many questions from there. I guess first, how did you persevere through all the trolls cause they can be nasty.
Raquel: Yes, I mean, I have had them attack my appearance, my content, my family.
Perry: Oh my god.
Raquel: I had them say very mean things about people who were in pictures with me and it’s like there’s comes a time where it’s like I want to protect myself but then I also want to protect people that are close to me and how I got through it was really sharing this with my family and friends, the people that they were talking about and the people that did know me and you know, they were just saying, “Raquel, like none of this is true. Why are you going to listen to someone who doesn’t even know you?”
Perry: And so you persevere through that and then when did it really start? Were you able to start getting clients from all of you video blogging?
Raquel: That would have to be right after I had gotten my intern number, I immediately knew that I wanted to start in the private practice because pay is a little bit lower when you’re working for a county mental health agencies. You’re working for community based agencies, the pay is a little low and the work demand is a little high and it wasn’t what I thought that I would best flourish in so I immediately went to private practice. I put up my own little website. I had my supervisor’s name on it and I immediately started blogging and making video blogs and so I was getting clients and they’re like , “hey, you’re on top of the search engine.” I’d ask them, what is it about me that made you chose me and they said well, you’re on top of the search engine and I liked what I saw on your profile so I think the video marketing allowed the person not to have that fear of seeking a therapist and knowing that I was actually a real person who cared about them and you know that’s a quality that I wanted to demonstrate.
Perry: And that’s one of the really major advantages of putting yourself out there on video, if you just have a bio photo, it’s helpful but you’re not speaking to an audience. You know here you and I are speaking the people who are listening to us are getting to know, like and trust us. Their understanding who we are, they hear our tonal inflections, they can’t see either of us right now. They have an understanding of how we like to converse with each other and the things that we hold dear just for how we speak to each other and if you’re on a video camera, you’re also then seeing those facial expression so if somebody is seeking therapy, I think the statistics is something like they are seeking therapy and doing searches about therapy for about two years before they actually reach out somebody.
Raquel: Yes.
Perry: And by you having a video there, it removes that barrier for them. It allows you to be more warm and inviting to them and so you get a sense pf who Raquel is and it might make it that much easier for somebody to actually seek therapy and seek it with you specifically because you have a number of videos on your website that represent your personality.
Raquel: Actually, I read this article last night, I was looking at the statistics of people who use the internet and I think it’s people with mental illness are twice, three times more likely to routinely and consistently checkup social media, use the internet and I actually found 79% percent of people with mental health issues are using the internet and 70% percent of them are using it for mental health reasons whether that be finding a social media group to help them cope or finding information on mental health disorder or even looking for mental health services so the internet and video blogging, its putting me right where the people are that I want to work with.
Perry: So Raquel I’d love to go back to a point in your career as a mental health professional where you could’ve called it quits where you’re just as low as you could possibly be in your journey and you were just ready to throw in the towel because those moments are so telling for entrepreneurs and for people in this field so we’d love to understand where you were at that point? What was going on and more importantly, how did you persevere through that adversity?
Raquel: Wow, jeez, I can feel it like it was yesterday. So this was the right after I graduated, it was that small period of time right before you get your intern number and specific to me , well I actually know this is a very hard time for many other people too because there’s so much possibility and not always a sense of direction but particularly for me , I was having a little bit of trouble getting my intern number and I also have stuff come up in my personal life that just made it a little bit harder to really push and that was a time where I just wanted to give up because I felt like it was just a little too hard or harder than it had to be but I had and I would always preach this forever is find yourself a good group of friends, a tribe, colleagues who are there to empower you and giving you good loving and trusting feedback. I honestly could have done nothing without these people. They gave me a reality check for one, they said, “come on Raquel, snap out of it, like you can do this, you can do anything you want anything you set your mind to.” So it was those group of people that I trusted and I could come that definitely helped me get through this low point.
Perry: Having a tribe to support and bounce ideas off and to be your support through those challenging times is as crucial as an entrepreneur, as someone who is putting themselves out there with vlogging and everything. Having that tribe around you is so important and I think this is so of the best advice we’ve gotten on this show so far. So thank you so much.
Raquel: You’re Welcome.
Perry: One thing we’ve found with therapist have a challenging is with pricing themselves well in the early days and even in the later days too, we have some clients here at brighter vision that are still struggling with finding the right price for their services and they could be in practice for 20-30 years. Would you mind sharing with our audience what your current session rate is to see clients and what your journey to that rate has looked like?
Raquel: I actually have very funny story about this. My current rate is 125$ dollars an hour and when I first started my journey in private practice, I said to myself okay Raquel, you know what you’re going to set your fee at 35$ dollars, you getting 35$ dollars would be good enough and I realized that when I started to listen to people, I felt really bad for them and their situation and so at the time, I had arrangement with my supervisor where we did like 50/50 split. Technically, if I was getting 35$ dollars she was getting 35$ dollars, that’s like 65$ for the session but then there was this one client in particular that got me down to 15$ dollars a session and if you split that 50/50 that’s below minimum wage and actually, that is illegal for us not to be paid at least minimum wage and so my supervisor seem to be not really familiar with that so I decided you know, Raquel, I think there’s something wrong this, like you need to go and seek some additional training and go to a seminar on building you know your private practice, building a business because clinical work is not a business like you have learn that additional stuff and so I had gone to this wonderful seminar and kind of had ‘ah ah’ moment. A moment of realization of where I was not working smarter but harder and I wasn’t giving myself enough of what I actually deserved and so there was this thing in me that said you need to charge more and actually the 125$ dollars an hour comes from what my supervisor sets and this is where MFT interns are kind of at a point of disadvantage because we’re kind of at the whim of what our supervisor wants and what we can get paid by out supervisor but I’m very happy with my fee right now.
Perry: So what was the name of the seminar that you went to?
Raquel: Jeez. It was a building a successful private practice. It was hosted by Wayne Brazil of Pacific Coast Psychological Associates.
Perry: I’m just taking notes right now, I’ve never heard of Wayne Brazil before. How did you happen to find this and what inspired you to seek out the seminar here?
Raquel: It was actually offered through Hope International as a supplement to our course work. You would get a ‘C’ if you participated in this particular seminar and Wayne Brazil, I’ve had the pleasure of having him as supervisor and he still continues to be my mentor so that’s kind of how I was familiar with him, he’s a teacher at Hope as well and he owns a successful and I’m talking successful practice so of course you wanna learn and surround yourself with people who are doing it right.
Perry: Oh yeah, absolutely and that’s so fascinating that your school allows you attend the seminar and get it as a CEU and it was a seminar on building a business essentially because I’ve never heard or at least I can’t think of any other time that I’ve heard someone that their school allow them to pursue business building as a way to help them in their graduation or provided any resources for building a business and building a private practice. That was through Hope International University?
Raquel: Yes.
Perry: Man, they’re doing things right there. I gotta reach out them and find out why that’s not being done elsewhere and how they’ve manage to do that through their University there, that’s fantastic.
Raquel: It is. I could go on about Hope. They’re also co-amp accredited, which not alot of schools have that. Great education, hands down.
Perry: Well Raquel, over the years , we found therapist really struggle with marketing there business or that they feel like marketing and sales is kinda like this dirty word but it’s something that seem to come pretty natural to you with being a presenter and putting yourself out there and I have a feeling that I know the answer to this but I’d love to hear in your own words what do you feel is single best marketing move that you made for your private practice and why do you feel like it’s worked so well for you?
Raquel: I’m so excited to answer this question actually. The single best move that I made for my private practice was actually buying and creating a logo for my video, an intro logo. Cute, little , hand-sketch thing with tunes in the background and the reason the that it was the single best I made it was because it empowered me and it solidify my brand, it also rallied this excitement, something was my own. It game me ownership and I think that it added a level of professionalism to the work that I do.
Perry: It absolutely does. You know I’ve seen your videos Raquel and they are very high quality and that video into logo, it really helps you stand out. It shows that you’re taking yourself seriously, that you’re taking your work seriously and that’s all really crucial to building that successful brand and getting people to know, like and trust you through video blogging and I know some therapist who just do a quick video blog on their phones and it’s kinda off the cuff and I’d love to hear what your thoughts are on that cause I know you do some Facebook live feeds which can be pretty off the cuff as well. So what are your thoughts on the trade-off and the importance of professionalism in creating a video blog?
Raquel: I would never not encourage someone to not to do it. I think that the number one thing about it getting that practice so even if you get on camera and you ramble about how cute your dog is , like that’s perfectly fine to me but I think that when you get to a place where you are comfortable in front of the camera it should be a healthy balance of both those kinda off the cuff videos with some more structure videos so that you are really showing your audience I’m a person but I’m also a professional and I find that people get so stuck on professional that they take after take after take and never put it out, so if you only have that energy to do that off the cuff video, do it, because at the end of the day, it’s all about SEO content anyways so it really can’t hurt doing it off the cuff.
Perry: So for individuals listening who might have been vlogging for a while or might just be getting started and that still feel kinda intimidated by the camera , what are some advice you would give to them to help them get their videos to the level that they want and to feel more comfortable in-front of the camera?
Raquel: The best that I could give is actually not from me. It’s a short passage and a quote from Mary-Ann Williamson and do you mind if a read it?
Perry: Oh please, go right ahead.
Raquel: Okay. So it says our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are more powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented or fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of god. Your playing small does not serve the world, there’s nothing enlighten about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are meant to shine as children do. We are born to manifest the glory of God that is within us, it is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others the permission to do the same as we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Perry: That is a great passage. Where was that from Raquel?
Raquel: Mary-Ann Williamson. I think that it was also quoted by Eleanor Roosevelt too in a speech, I could be wrong.
Perry: I mean it’s powerful and uplifting, I could see being quoted by Roosevelt. So going back to your video intro logo, where did you have that done?
Raquel: Fiverr, for as low as 5$ dollars.
Perry: How did you go about putting that into your videos?
Raquel: So I have a couple ideas of it where I wanna go with it as I wanted it to look like it is an off the cuff diary so I do it as like my diary as like an intro in the beginning of my videos and I carry the sound to the outro and I use IMovie, just kinda stick it in there.
Perry: And you do all yourself?
Raquel: Yes.
Perry: For those who are listening how challenging is it from a tactical perspective to get that the way you want it?
Raquel: At first, it could be difficult but like anything with practice it makes perfect and I have to admit though that I do have a little experience over the rest of the people. I took some classes in high school that familiarize me with video editing.
Perry: But now, you could hop on to YouTube and google a few things there and find the tutorials that you’re looking for. iMovie, it is pretty straightforward you could get a lot of great things done on iMovie. We use garage band here to help with our mixing and our intros for our podcast. I personally could not do it very well at all but you know, that’s what we use but there’s so many great tools out there and educational opportunities to assist you with that and Fiverr is fantastic. Great spot to get really inexpensively done artwork for marketing material and things in your private practice.
Raquel: And you’re supporting your local artist which is great.
Perry: Your local artist you said?
Raquel: Yeah, most of these people who work for Fiverr, like independent contractors, they have their own little business, they’re just trying to sell their product you know so I really like that.
Perry: Yeah, I’ve used Fiverr for voiceovers before, I haven’t done it for any artwork but I know people who’ve had a lot of great experience there and a lot of them you know- do you have advice on figuring out how to get a good contractor on Fiverr because I know a lot of people who have a lot difficulty finding the right person to work for them.
Raquel: Oh, I think I’ve just been lucky, honestly. I kind of went through a couple of the pages. Look for what I was looking for and other people that had an example that was really important, do you have an example of the style that I want? If you don’t it may be harder for you to create that cause you don’t really know what I’m looking for so I don’t, I’m sorry.
Perry: That’s alright. That’s great advice there. I’ve hired a lot of freelancers on Upwork. It’s probably my preferred method over Fiverr just because I don’t have as much experience on Fiverr but I’ve heard great things and the same things applies. You know asking the freelancers for samples and for work and sometimes if it’s a more complex project, just hopping on a Skype call is really helpful to chat with them and get a sense of who they are and ask them to you know communicate to you in their own words , what is it that you want done. It helps ensure that you guys are on the same page with the work that’s gonna be done for you.
Raquel: Perfect. Yes.
Perry: So Raquel, you went to school to become a therapist not to get your MBA but pretty quickly you decided to open your private practice. What’s the one thing that you wish that you would’ve learned in school about starting your business that they never taught you?
Raquel: Well, you know not a lot a of programs like we had kinda talked about talk about business building or really inform you about business building so there’s actually a lot that I wished that I had learned in school but I think the biggest thing that I wished that I would have been taught about is that when you are an MFT intern, there are certain legal and ethical considerations that go into employment as an MFT intern and often times we are unaware of what we are and are not responsible for which can really impact our clinical experience even our satisfaction with where we are interning at. I wish that I knew that we had to be paid at least minimum wage and that we are not responsible for paying for additional marketing things that it falls on our supervisor to do that. Another huge thing is that a lot of us we are so excited that we will even take volunteer positions where we should actually be paid, we should be paid for that work and there’s legal things support us for being paid and those volunteer positions and there’s like criteria, there’s six criteria that if you’re doing this job you should be paid for and some of us are not. So I wish I knew about the responsibility of the supervisor to provide for you when you’re an intern.
Perry: Where did you begin educating yourself on that?
Raquel: CAMFT. Reading all the legal articles like I possibly could.
Perry: Fantastic and of course, we’ll have a link to CAMFT to Fiverr and to some of Raquel’s fantastic videos in this week show notes which everybody can find over at brightervision.com/session47/. Okay Raquel, now we’re going to move over into the final part of our interview, the part that we like to refer to as brighter insights and what I really love about this part is that we get to distilled down all of your great advice into quick little sound bites and inspiring moments that people can use to motivate and excite them in growing their practice. Are you ready?
Raquel: Yes.
Perry: What or whom inspire you to become a mental health professional?
Raquel: I was just kinda always meant to do this work. I was gravitated towards peer counselling and conflict mediation in high school and was apart of my school’s program but I also volunteered at a lot of classrooms for the special education and it was just kind of natural progression for me to do this.
Perry: What is it that you do to clear your head and get a fresh start in your day?
Raquel: I talk to my dog.
Perry: What kind of dog do you have?
Raquel: I have a Beagle.
Perry: Oh, the good ones.
Raquel: Yeah, he is great.
Perry: What are some tools you’ve used to leverage the power of technology in your businesses so technology is no longer a hurdle but instead an assets for you?
Raquel: Video blogging.
Perry: And when you’re video blogging, do you have a camera that you use more often than not, like do you use your phone, what kind of tools do you use to help you with that?
Raquel: I use my iPad and a silly crazy light from Walmart that you can for light 10$.
Perry: A crazy what? I’m sorry.
Raquel: It’s a crazy silly light, it’s got like five different light bulbs on it.
Perry: Is it really called a crazy silly light or….
Raquel: Probably not. That’s what I call it.
Perry: Alright, so good lighting to help you know making sure that the scene is appropriately set in terms of lighting. What’s a quote you hold near and dear something that’s helped formulated your perspective on life or provided guidance for you?
Raquel: It is definitely that quote form Mary-Ann Williamson.
Perry: Great. If you could recommend one book to our audience, what would that book be?
Raquel: Great book, terrible title but it’s the emotionally abusive relationship, it’s more of a clinical book.
Perry: Okay Raquel last question. If you move to a new city tomorrow, you don’t know anybody there and all that you had with you was your computer and 100$ to start a new private practice. What is it that you would do on your very first day?
Raquel: I would go into the local Starbucks and buy myself a local coffee.
Perry: Sit down, relax and enjoy it or……
Raquel: Yes, and check out the sites. I get a feel for the people that I’m gonna be serving.
Perry: Any parting advice for our listeners Raquel?
Raquel: Continue to do you. Work as hard as you can and don’t pay attention to any of the naysayers.
Perry: Fantastic. Well Raquel, thank you so much for being so generous with you time, your expertise and you knowledge. We appreciate all the great advice that you provided and the therapist experience that you have shared.
Raquel: Thank you so much Perry. Thank you for having me.
Perry: And of course, you guys can learn more about Raquel and all the great work that she’s doing at this week’s show notes at brightervison.com/session47/ and of course if you’re interested in launching a website, brighter vision is the best company you can do that with. We build custom websites for therapist for only 59$ a month. We’ll take all of your tech support and do you seo as well so people can find you online and if you’re vlogging like Raquel is, we can help you get those videos onto your website, do the seo for them and help you get more exposure online. Head on over to Brightervision.com and drop us a line through one of our contact forms and we’ll be in touch with you right away. That does it for today, thanks again for listening and we’ll see you next week.
Raquel says
Thanks for the interview, Perry!
It was a pleasure meeting you and learning more about Brighter Vision. You have an amazing organization that is a valuable asset to out field. Thanks for all you do!
Sincerely,
Raquel
Perry Rosenbloom says
🙂 Thank you, Raquel!!