WP 34 | How to Start a Coaching Business with Katie Read
Welcome to The Wise Practice Podcast! In this episode, we have an exciting guest, Katie Read, who is not only a keynote speaker at the Wise Practice Summit but also a remarkable individual. Whitney Owens, the host, and Katie share a special connection as they both understand the challenges of being moms and entrepreneurs. They have supported each other through their journeys, and their trust and friendship have blossomed. Let's dive into their conversation about starting a coaching business and discover some valuable insights!
A Journey of Necessity and Passion
Katie's transition from being a therapist to starting a coaching business was a result of various life events. Moving to a new state and becoming a special needs mom made her realize that her previous work schedule was no longer sustainable. She needed to find a way to contribute to her family's income while accommodating her children's needs. Initially offering marketing and copywriting services, Katie discovered her passion for helping therapists expand beyond traditional practices. She found joy in assisting entrepreneurial therapists with their marketing, adding coaching as a service, or venturing into online courses, retreats, and conferences. Katie's enthusiasm is contagious, and she firmly believes that therapists possess unique abilities to create impactful coaching experiences for their clients.
Understanding the Difference: Coaching vs. Counseling
"People always want to know the difference between coaching and counseling," says Katie Read, a therapist, and coach. She explains that while coaching is unregulated and anyone can claim to be a coach, therapists have an ethical code to follow. As a therapist, even when working with coaching clients, you still adhere to the same ethical standards. Read emphasizes the added layer of responsibility that therapists have in their coaching practice.
Therapists can use their expertise in coaching, addressing non-clinical levels of need. Read provides an example of treating anxiety in therapy clients versus coaching clients. The interventions used may be similar, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) exercises, but the level of need differs. Therapy clients may have clinical anxiety while coaching clients might have specific, non-clinical anxiety related to public speaking or dating. It's crucial for therapists to be observant and refer clients to therapy when necessary to maintain an ethical coaching practice.
Setting Up Your Coaching Business
When it comes to starting a coaching business, Read advises therapists to separate it from their therapy practice. Having a separate business entity, such as a separate LLC and bank account, helps protect both the therapist and the public. While some therapists may consider adding a coaching page to their therapy website, it's safer and more informative to create a distinct coaching business with its own website.
Read acknowledges that building a website from scratch may not be necessary initially. Therapists can start by leveraging social media, networking locally, or engaging with other business groups. The key is to protect and educate both the public and yourself, so keeping the two businesses separate is crucial.
Knowing the Rules and Insurance Needs
When adding coaching to their practice, therapists often wonder if they can still refer to themselves as therapists. Read explains that while some states have specific rules regarding advertising, it's generally acceptable to mention both therapy and coaching. However, therapists should check with their individual licensing boards to ensure compliance with any restrictions.
Therapists should also consider obtaining liability insurance for their coaching business. Read highlights the importance of professional liability insurance, which covers general business liability and potential errors and omissions. This type of insurance protects coaches from unexpected legal issues, such as using unauthorized photos or facing claims related to their content. Many therapists can secure coaching coverage through their existing malpractice insurance providers.
While coaching is an unregulated field, therapists must adhere to their ethical codes, regardless of whether they are working with therapy or coaching clients. The distinction lies in the level of need and intensity of the client's situation. Coaching clients typically have non-clinical levels of need related to specific challenges, such as public speaking anxiety or dating anxieties. Therapists can utilize similar interventions for both therapy and coaching clients, but it's crucial to recognize when a client requires clinical therapy and refer them accordingly. Maintaining ethical practices ensures the integrity of coaching services and protects the therapist's license.
To navigate the advertising aspect of a coaching business, it's essential to consult with the respective licensing board. While some states have specific rules regarding how therapists can advertise their coaching services, the general rule is to be transparent and open about being a therapist who also offers coaching. Checking with the licensing board provides clarity on any restrictions, allowing therapists to proceed confidently. Regarding liability insurance, coaches typically require professional liability insurance, which covers general business liability and potential errors and omissions. This insurance protects against unforeseen situations and legal issues that may arise during coaching sessions.
Steps to Get Your Coaching Business Going
Once the separation and legal aspects are taken care of, Read advises therapists to focus on defining their niche. This step often poses a challenge, as therapists are trained to help a wide range of clients with various issues. However, defining a niche is crucial for effective marketing and attracting clients.
To identify your niche, Read suggests considering what problem potential clients are facing in their own language. Therapists should switch their mindset from focusing on positive outcomes to understanding and addressing the specific problems clients want help with. People are more likely to seek solutions for their problems rather than generic improvements in their lives.
After identifying a niche, therapists can begin marketing their coaching services. Social media marketing is a powerful and cost-effective way to connect with potential clients. However, Read also recommends exploring other avenues, such as local networking, writing letters to friends and colleagues, and reaching out to influencers who already have the attention of your target audience.
Ultimately, therapists should experiment with different marketing strategies and find the ones that align with their strengths and preferences. It's crucial to enjoy the marketing process to maintain authenticity and enthusiasm in reaching potential clients.
Embracing Vulnerability: Unleash Your Story
Overcoming Fear and Embracing Authenticity
Many therapists may feel apprehensive about sharing their personal stories and experiences due to the vulnerability it entails. However, as a coach, embracing vulnerability becomes a catalyst for personal and professional growth. It allows coaches to connect with their clients on a deeper level and brings authenticity to their work. By stepping out of their comfort zones, coaches can unleash their stories and experience the liberating feeling of being their true selves.
Sharing your story not only empowers you as a coach but also attracts your ideal clients. Whether you cater to faith-based individuals or those seeking a spiritual approach, owning your story helps you connect with your target audience right from the start. By sharing how you've overcome challenges and achieved personal growth, you become a source of inspiration and hope. Your journey becomes an asset that resonates with your clients and allows you to create a profound impact in their lives.
Pricing Your Coaching Services: Valuing Your Worth
"There is a spiritual evolution that begins to happen when we begin to look for ourselves and our own lives for the best." - Katie Read
Overcoming Guilt and Charging Appropriately
As coaches, setting the right price for your coaching services is crucial. Many faith-based coaches may feel guilty about charging higher rates, considering their work as a form of ministry. However, it's important to shift this mindset and recognize the value and impact you bring to your clients' lives. Charging appropriately not only benefits you but also opens doors to reach a wider range of clients who are willing to invest in their personal growth and transformation.
Charging higher rates allows coaches to work fewer hours while still providing exceptional care and attention to their clients. This balance ensures coaches can maintain their energy and avoid burnout, resulting in better outcomes for their clients. Moreover, increased income from coaching provides coaches with the opportunity to make a difference in various ways, such as volunteering, pro bono work, or even writing books that can impact and transform the lives of many.
Is Coaching Worth It?
"The unexpected life-changing benefits of finding a way to work that created security for my family, I would've never anticipated." - Katie Read
Katie lost her security when she moved one state over. She never wanted to be in a position again where she was dependent on another entity for her security. She decided to create financial security for herself. She never felt this way as a therapist. She acknowledges this is work and it is challenging, but for her, the hard scary work is worth it. It has created joy for her and her family. It has also created time and location freedom for her to do things she never thought possible.
Tips for starting a coaching business for therapists:
Define your target audience: Clearly identify the specific group of people you want to coach, such as faith-based practice owners, Christian parents, or individuals with specific needs.
Leverage your story and expertise: Highlight your personal experiences or specialized knowledge gained from therapy work or education that can provide value and attract clients.
Offer package pricing: Consider structuring your coaching services in packages rather than charging hourly rates. This allows for a more focused and valuable experience for clients.
Start with shorter coaching packages: Begin with six to eight-week coaching packages to maintain client engagement and prevent potential challenges associated with longer-term commitments.
Overcome guilt and pricing concerns: Recognize the value you bring and the impact you can have on clients' lives. Charging higher rates opens doors to a different audience and enables you to support your own well-being and contribute to causes you care about.
Prioritize self-care and avoid burnout: Setting higher rates allows you to work with fewer clients, providing better care and preventing burnout. This ensures you have the energy and focus needed to make a meaningful impact.
Embrace the challenges and personal growth: Starting a coaching business requires facing imposter syndrome and taking risks. Embrace these challenges as opportunities for personal growth and transformation.
Create a long-term vision: Consider the long-term benefits of building a coaching business, including financial security, the ability to donate to causes you care about, and the freedom to allocate time for personal projects or pursuits.
Conclusion: Taking the Leap into Coaching Starting a coaching business as a therapist may seem overwhelming, but with proper planning, separation, and understanding of ethical responsibilities, therapists can successfully embrace coaching as an additional avenue to serve clients. By defining a niche, establishing a separate business entity, and being aware of state regulations, therapists can navigate the process with confidence. Coaching provides an opportunity to extend their impact, tap into their creativity, and ignite their passion for helping others. So, take the leap and unlock the potential to make a difference in the world through coaching!
Links and Resources
Find Katie on social networks using: @heykatieread
Find some free resources from Katie here.
-
WP 34 | How to Start a Coaching Business with Katie Read
===
Whitney Owens: Hello friends. Thank you for listening to The Wise Practice Podcast and I'm looking forward to talking with Katie Reid today. Um, I was, Prepping for this podcast interview. Thinking about Katie, and this is gonna sound cheesy, but so true. It's like a girl crush.
Katie Reed: Like I think Katie's the coolest. So I'm
Whitney Owens: really excited to have her on my show and she's also gonna be one of the keynote speakers at the Wise Practice Summit, and so I just feel so
Katie Reed: honored to ha be able to hang out with you today.
Katie Reed: And I am so excited to be here. And you know, it's funny, I feel the same way about you because you and I bonded early over having some similar kiddo stuff in our lives, and it has been so nice just to know that here and there when we needed to, one of us could text the other and be like, oh my gosh, this stressful thing is going on with my kiddo.
Katie Reed: And that we immediately just had that trust with each other, which I just love. So yeah. Well,
Whitney Owens: I, the feeling is mutual and it is helpful because not every mom gets it, so it's Right, right. Important to have, especially, and being entrepreneurs,
Katie Reed: so, yes. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
Whitney Owens: Well, let me share with our audience for a few minutes, a little bit about you, and then we're gonna get into talking about starting a coaching business.
Katie Reed: Um, but let me tell you about
Whitney Owens: Katie Reeve. Uh, she helps professionals step into their biggest lives so that they can serve in the biggest ways. She's an L M F T. And has been for years. She directed large agencies, taught grad school, supervised 40 plus interns, has written psych training materials, spoken at MO multiple conferences, and has had practices in various cities.
Whitney Owens: She is the creator of the clinic. The clinical,
Katie Reed: no, I'm saying this wrong. Clinic coach. Coach Clinic. Coach Certification,
Whitney Owens: the clinician to coach Academy and the six figure
Katie Reed: flagship program.
Whitney Owens: She is a special needs mom, a rescue dog mom, eager but terrible karaoke singer and an interior designer wannabe. Oh, I love all those definitions right there.
Katie Reed: Um,
Whitney Owens: which by the way, there is a
Katie Reed: piano bar karaoke. Yeah. I would love to do some
Whitney Owens: karaoke. And there is a dueling piano bar right beside the hotel. Uh, I will show you where it is and we'll be having a good time.
Katie Reed: Okay, good. As long as I don't have to karaoke alone, I will group karaoke anywhere very happily.
Katie Reed: Nice. Nice. Wonderful.
Whitney Owens: Well, Katie, why don't you share a little bit of your background, cause I know you have been a therapist for a very long time and kind of a little bit of how you got into coaching. Cause I love that story. And then we can kinda talk about how to
Katie Reed: start a coaching program. Okay, great.
Katie Reed: Sure. So for me, um, it was sort of a matter of necessity. I, we moved states with my husband's job, so I had become a special needs mom. My life had kind of turned upside down. I was already struggling with just the typical therapist role anyway. I had gone from, You know, directing mental health agencies by day and doing either teaching grad school or seeing private practice clients by night to suddenly becoming apparent.
Katie Reed: And that schedule wasn't sustainable anymore, as we all know. Uh, but then once my kiddos were diagnosed and my day filled up with lots of. Appointments and things that they needed. I couldn't be the person anymore who just shut off my phone and sat in the therapist's office with my phone off all day seeing clients, and then we were transferred with my husband's job.
Katie Reed: So it was sort of all these things happened at once and suddenly I was in a new state. My kids still had a ton of needs. I could not just go open an office. I had to go through a. Huge long relicensure process and I needed to make money for the family, like we needed income from me to make ends meet. And so I started out of pure necessity thinking, okay, what can I do?
Katie Reed: Like while I'm going through relicensure, how can I maybe earn grocery money for the family? Like bring in something. And I started offering marketing and copywriting services because that was a. Skill I had from past lives before being a therapist, and it grew actually relatively quickly. And what I realized was that what I really loved was helping therapists with marketing when they were outgrowing the office in some way, like beyond just the typical traditional therapy practice.
Katie Reed: I loved the excitement and the energy of the people who either they were adding coaching or they were trying to build an online course, or they were trying to lead a retreat, or they were thinking about a conference like you do. And I got so excited by these very entrepreneurial therapists and helping them with their marketing.
Katie Reed: And over time, that really grew for me into such a passion and specifically helping all of us learn to add coaching as a service in addition to our therapy practice if we want to. And what what I think is so amazing about it now, like when I first started, I would not necessarily have said to you, oh my gosh, every single therapist has a coaching program inside of them and they should all pursue this.
Katie Reed: And this is such a great potential way to keep yourself engaged, to keep yourself a helping professional, to stay in the field longer without burnout because you're reengaged and you fire is lit and you're excited about what you're doing every day. And now I would say that to you in a heartbeat because the number of.
Katie Reed: Unbelievably creative people just sitting on these amazing life stories, right, that they can bring, yeah. To all their clients. These amazing experiences. Plus the wealth of knowledge from grad school, plus the huge ethical and legal base that we all work from every day. It's just amazing. And to me, the.
Katie Reed: Coaching field is still so much in its infancy that I just get so excited about the impact that therapists can have there on that whole field as it develops, and on really creating for clients just amazing ethical, beautiful coaching experiences as people seek either therapy or coaching. Yes. Uh, I just love watching
Whitney Owens: you talk about this cuz you are all
Katie Reed: lit up like I do.
Katie Reed: You're passionate and you love it and, and I can just see and think of all the people you really
Whitney Owens: have worked with and you've really seen that come out of them. And
Katie Reed: it is a gift, like getting
to
Whitney Owens: see that creativity and something new in the world,
Katie Reed: changing lives. Yes. It's amazing, right? Mm-hmm. You've gotten to see it too.
Katie Reed: It is so, so, so cool. When you see somebody kind of step into their own personal fire and personal power a little bit and realize, oh wow, I can do even more than I thought I could do, and I can impact even more people beyond the little, like five mile radius around my therapist office, I can have an even bigger impact in the world.
Katie Reed: It's amazing. Yes, yes. Oh, thank you for sharing your story.
Whitney Owens: So let's get into how do we start a coaching business? So first, let's talk about the difference between
Katie Reed: coaching and counseling. Okay? Absolutely. People always want to know this. So for us now, the reality is people always come and they say, well, I saw somebody who's a trauma coach and I saw somebody who's, you know, a mental health coach and all these things, and I say, yes, coaching is unregulated.
Katie Reed: So anybody can go out there and say they're anything, right. For us though, we work by an ethical code no matter what. And so we are therapist first no matter what. We have an ethical code to follow. And even if you're seeing a coaching client, you're gonna follow your same ethical code. So to me, we have an extra layer of responsibility that we add in.
Katie Reed: So the way that I teach my clients in, uh, the Clinic Coach Academy, is that we say to them, listen, you might be using. All of your same expertise. You might be using the things that you're so good at treating and helping with, but the difference is going to be that your therapy clients are gonna be coming to you with a clinical level of need and your non therapy.
Katie Reed: Those coaching clients, they might be suffering from, let's say anxiety, but they're not suffering from anxiety where it's a agoraphobia and they can't leave their house and it's, you know, generalized anxiety. It's these really intense levels of need they might have. First state anxiety. They might have public speaking anxiety.
Katie Reed: They might have very specific but non-clinical levels of need around the same thing that you're already an expert in. So you might give similar interventions, let's say, to, um, your generalized anxiety disorder therapy client that you would to your. I'm nervous to get out there. Back in the dating scene client, who's your coaching client, they might actually be very similar interventions.
Katie Reed: They might be, you know, exercises, C B T, different things that you're helping them with. The difference is that level of need and as long as you're very observant of that as a therapist and that when you realize somebody actually does have a clinical level of need, they really do need therapy, and you refer out just the way you would normally then.
Katie Reed: You are creating that ethical therapy, I mean the ethical coaching practice that protects your therapy license. Mm-hmm. That's such a great explanation
Whitney Owens: in delineating the two there. Okay. So a lot of therapists, and you see this like every day, are thinking, okay, I wanna add a coaching element to what
Katie Reed: I'm doing, or another business.
Katie Reed: Like how did they first go about figuring that out? Yes. So, um, we take everyone through this step-by-step in our program and what I can tell you is really the most important thing to do, and everyone feels like it's this huge, overwhelming thing, and I'm just here to tell you it's not. It's a couple hours of work.
Katie Reed: At the end of the day, you really do want to separate out your two businesses. I know there are people that will just. Slap a coaching page onto their therapist website. It's not very safe. It doesn't leave you protected. It doesn't do a lot of education for the public about the differences, and you don't wanna be one of these people who's seen as just trying to skirt state line issues.
Katie Reed: By calling it coaching. You really do want it to be. Its own separate business. So the way you're going to define your niche is gonna be separate. You're going to get maybe a separate L L C depending on the state that you're in, uh, a separate bank account for your coaching business. You can get a very, very simple, separate website for your coaching business.
Katie Reed: Some people don't even necessarily need a website. They get started just by talking about what they're doing on social media. Sending a letter to friends and colleagues, networking locally, or networking in other business groups that they're in. And so you don't even necessarily need to be worried about building a whole nother website from day one.
Katie Reed: You can get started much more simply than that, but you do just wanna think, okay, I want to protect the public and educate the public, and I wanna protect myself and my license. So do separate out those two businesses and just help let them grow independently of one another. Then the secondary question is, well, can I tell people that I'm a therapist?
Katie Reed: And so for this, there are occasionally states with specific rules about this. So the rule of thumb is you're not trying to hide that you're a therapist who's a coach. It's a great thing that you're a therapist who's a coach. You can talk about both things, but there are certain states where, and you would just need to check with your individual board.
Katie Reed: We have had clients who checked with their state and the state said, no, actually you can only talk about it in this. Away on your coaching website. So here and there, there it's rare, but there are states with their own little individual rules about what you should or should not say. So we always recommend right away, we have scripts for our clients to call their board and exactly what to ask.
Katie Reed: But we do recommend call your board, check in, see if there are any restrictions on advertising that you should be aware of and go forward with whatever they tell you. Oh, that's great advice to be able to know
Whitney Owens: that and. I totally echo you, like definitely separated out. Um, a question though, I wonder if you get this one.
Whitney Owens: Do you need to have liability insurance with your
Katie Reed: coaching business? It's different. So yes, but it is different. So typically with coaching, we do professional liability, which is like general business liability. That can include something called errors and omissions insurance, which this comes into play.
Katie Reed: Let's say, for example, this actually happened to me recently. Not that it was an insurance issue, but I had a photo taken outdoors. It was in front of a piece of public artwork. And never even crossed my mind, like posted the photo on social media, didn't even think about it, and somebody said to me, you better be careful.
Katie Reed: You might not have the right to use that photo. I know, right? It's that tricky kind of stuff where, and so I just took it down. But for example, If that artist had been the one to see it, it is. I don't know that they would have, but they could have come to me and been like, I'm suing you. You posted my photo without my permission.
Katie Reed: Like I don't, you don't know if that might happen. So those kinds of things are covered by errors and admissions. You don't need malpractice. And a lot of times people can get coaching coverage right through their current malpractice provider, and that's always a good place to start is just call them, say I'm launching a coaching business as well.
Katie Reed: What are your rates for me on business? Professional liability insurance, those basics that you would need over there. Yeah, I think it's so
Whitney Owens: important. Um, and then when I started the consulting business definitely
Katie Reed: did that. My current liability
Whitney Owens: insurance with our practice didn't offer it, but I went through someone locally.
Whitney Owens: Um, but even podcasting, it's something you have to think about having liability insurance for your podcast in case somebody listens and does something crazy,
Katie Reed: you know, and wants to see for what you said. That's so true.
Whitney Owens: Yeah. We can say at the end of our podcast, duh da da da duh. But our statements don't always make a difference.
Whitney Owens: So it's important that you have that.
Katie Reed: Yeah. That is so true. I never thought about that, but that makes total sense. Yep. Yeah. Alright. Okay, so someone
Whitney Owens: has decided and they've separated it out. What are some of the steps after
Katie Reed: that to get going? So one really important step is figure out your niche. And I will tell you this is hard for us therapists.
Katie Reed: This is a sticking point for nearly everyone who comes into my program, even if they kind of think they know their niche coming in. And the reason I've thought so much about this over the years of doing this, like why is this so hard for therapists? I think there's a couple reasons. One is we are trained to help everyone with everything.
Katie Reed: And so when a therapist has to kind of narrow down say, what is the one thing I wanna talk about for the rest of my life? What's the one thing that I'm excited to help people with every single day? It's honestly hard to narrow down. Like we like a lot of different things. It can be tricky to narrow that down.
Katie Reed: Also, within coaching, we can. And this is a big selling point for a lot of people. We can actually use our personal stories usually in very different ways than we might as a therapist. I, as a therapist, never tended to disclose much of anything about my personal life. Whereas as a coach it's very different and I can absolutely, I.
Katie Reed: Use my personal story as a way of creating that twin ship, that connection with potential coaching clients and a lot of my clients who are coaching more based on life experiences that they've had. Mm-hmm. That's an important part of what they do, and so that all becomes important. And then the final thing that I think makes it tricky for us is that we, therapists are used to.
Katie Reed: Looking at things in a very positive light. In a very light. I'm gonna help people find balance, and I'm gonna help people connect to their intuition and be authentic and all of these things That sound wonderful. But because we're not used to using problem language saying, here is the problem that you're having, that you want help with, because we're not used to doing that, it can be hard for us, honestly to switch our brains over and define the problem.
Katie Reed: Mm-hmm. And when we don't, the challenging part is people pay. For solutions to problems. They don't necessarily pay just for their life to get a little bit better, like just to be a little bit more in balance or a little more in touch with your intuition. It's not as compelling as if someone's saying, I have this problem.
Katie Reed: I have to, I mean, we'll go back to like the dating example. I went through a divorce and I've gotta get back out in the dating world and I'm. Scared as heck, and this is a problem. Now, that person, they're in a problem. And the reality of people is that we are all thinking about our problems all day long.
Katie Reed: And we're not usually walking around thinking, I just wish I were feeling a little more authentic today. You know, we're thinking like, I wish my boss wasn't such a jerk today. Like we're thinking in problem language. And so for therapists, that step of defining a niche is really about identifying. What do your potential clients see as their problem in their own language?
Katie Reed: And then how do you uniquely with you and your personality and your values, want to help them solve it? And so that's kind of that next step is defining the niche and from there we move out into marketing. And marketing can take a million different forms. Obviously, you and I know social media marketing is one of the best.
Katie Reed: It's free. It's a direct way to start getting out there to people. I. Letting people know what you're doing, sharing who you are, sharing your message of hope for clients that you wanna work with, and just beginning to make offers, uh, to let people know what you're doing, to let people know what's unique about working with you.
Katie Reed: There are many other ways though. There is local networking. There are letters you can write to your friends and colleagues. There's ways to reach out to other people who. Maybe already have the ear of your potential audience. So for example, if one of my coaches and I'm, I actually have several coaches served uniquely a Christian audience, I would say to them, you should really try to meet Whitney and you should apply to be a guest on her podcast, because that is already the.
Katie Reed: Audience that she's speaking to, and that's one of the best ways to start getting yourself out there and get your name known, is by looking for people who are already influential and who already have the eyes and ears of your potential ideal client.
Whitney Owens: That's such good advice. In fact, as a faith-based consultant, it is.
Whitney Owens: I'm very niched. I mean,
Katie Reed: woo. Yes. You know? Yes. And so what
Whitney Owens: I have actually gotten a lot of people through is going on podcasts of people who work with all private practices, hoping those faith-based people are listening.
Katie Reed: Right. And well hear it. Yes. Mm-hmm. I love that. I love that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and
Whitney Owens: I think, you know, you would agree with this, with marketing, there are all these avenues, but like figuring out the one that you actually enjoy too,
like
Katie Reed: the one that works, but also what's fun.
Katie Reed: And so yes,
Whitney Owens: not doing Instagram or social media or writing blogs or whatever. If you're not, if you're not in it, then it's not gonna be authentic. And
Katie Reed: finding the things that are fun. It's so true, isn't it? And then it just feels like a slog. I know. What we tell people is we kind of tell our clients, experiment with everything.
Katie Reed: Yes. If you know you're a good writer, double down on writing. Write some amazing posts. Do guest blogs on bigger websites. Do write on amazing website for yourself. Write all the things like double down on writing. If you find that you actually kinda enjoy video, you don't mind it. Then do the reels. Do the tos, you know, do the stories, do whatever it is.
Katie Reed: Teach people on video or jump on podcasts like this one. Do the things that bring you energy. Like I love getting to sit down and chat with podcasters like you. I get podcasts all day. I find it very energizing. It's a one-on-one conversation. I feel like you and I could chat all day. This podcast would get a little long if you and I started chatting.
Katie Reed: But we could, yes. Cause that's just, you know, that vibe and I love that. And different people are gonna have their thing that they love and when you discover that stick with what works for you, just go for it. Mm-hmm. Definitely.
Whitney Owens: Definitely.
Katie Reed: Um, do you find that. I was just thinking
Whitney Owens: some about how you're talking about sharing your story and just the difference between clinically what that is and as a coach, what that is.
Whitney Owens: Do you find therapists get kind of hung up in that step because um, I could see some of them being uncomfortable with the vulnerability or maybe they're more introverted and they kinda like how we market. We get
Katie Reed: nervous.
Whitney Owens: Do they get nervous when they're doing their website and actually sharing their story?
Whitney Owens: Cause it's so foreign to them to share a
Katie Reed: story. You know what's interesting? I have found the opposite to be true. Oh yeah. And I might have guessed the same that you did, but I have found the opposite to be true over and over. People come back into our group after they've had their, you know, first, second, third coaching client, and they're like, I feel like I'm stepping out of the box.
Katie Reed: I feel like I'm coming out of the closet, like I'm myself. Finally, I can kind of bring my whole self into the work instead of the fear they always had before that. Oh, well, if I say anything about having a similar experience to my client, is it an overshare? Am I taking over the session? Am I using the session for my own personal benefit?
Katie Reed: They're so worried about that as therapists, and instead they step into coaching and they're like, oh. My story because I'm now dealing with a niche who's all very interested in my story and very interested in how I got through whatever this was in my life. Now it becomes this huge asset that they're excited to share.
Katie Reed: And interestingly, like you're talking about, your audience is faith-based practice owners. I cannot tell you I have a large community of faith-based folks. And then I also have a large community of what, who would call themselves more like Lou Spiritual and who always felt like they had to sort of keep that under wraps.
Katie Reed: Yes, as a therapist, and now they're just out there going, I help Christian parents with this and this and this, and it's very specific and it's very targeted, and they know the exact people that are gonna come walking in the door are their people right from the beginning. It's almost like you're unlocking
Whitney Owens: something within them, right?
Whitney Owens: They're finally coming alive and getting to share the very thing they've been wanting to share
Katie Reed: for so long. Exactly. Love. I love that. Yeah, exactly. And which is not to say that every single person moving into coaching needs to have some life story that they're coaching from. They certainly don't. And we have plenty of people who simply coach out of an expertise that maybe they learned about in grad school or that they've already done as a therapist or you know, whatever it is.
Katie Reed: So it's not to say that like you need to have this big dramatic life story by any means. Like that's not the reality of it. We all have different things. It's just some people they do have that and they do feel like, wow. I. And finally stepping out from behind the curtain. And I'm not just doing the work, but I'm also feeling more and more like myself in the work.
Katie Reed: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So let's move into a question
Whitney Owens: we get very often when it comes to coaching. What do I charge for my coaching appointments?
Katie Reed: That's such a good question and I recommend, uh, we're gonna mention at the end that I have a bunch of free guides on my website. Great. And so I do wanna make sure people go there cuz we cover all this material much more in depth on those free guides.
Katie Reed: What I recommend for most of us starting out, and I will tell you plenty of clients ignore me and charge more than this, but I say in the beginning, think in package pricing. And the way I break it down for people is I say if you are gonna do a four session coaching package, Start out by charging at least a thousand dollars for that.
Katie Reed: Now, why do we pick that price? So chances are two 50 an hour is probably more than you're charging as a therapist and 99% of the country. So it's already a big step forward in terms of your personal income and we'll teach you, there's other things that we add into coaching packages to make them even more valuable than just that session hour.
Katie Reed: So it feels even more valuable and it gives even more to the client without creating more work for you in between. Um, but we say start there and then extrapolate that up. So for example, if it's a six week package you wanna offer, it'd be 15. If it's an eight week, it'd be 2000. And so extrapolate that upwards.
Katie Reed: We also recommend, or I recommend in the beginning, Stay in that sweet spot, maybe six to 10 weeks. I find six to eight weeks is a nice place to start. In the beginning when we start getting into bigger and longer coaching packages, they get harder to sell. Uh, it gets harder for people to plan their lives around.
Katie Reed: And what we find inevitably is that life just happens. And so the goal that somebody could be so excited about and so focused on for six weeks, well once we've been trying to work on it for six months and life has happened. They have kind of changed situations might have changed, like we've had people who they moved or they went through a divorce, like other major life circumstances come up.
Katie Reed: And so keeping the packages nice and focused and a timeframe that feels really manageable, where the person is still gonna be excited the whole time and really energized by the work that you're doing. It's a lovely place to start from as a coach. Yeah. So let's go a little bit more in depth with
Whitney Owens: pricing here.
Whitney Owens: Cause sometimes faith-based practice owners, we feel some guilt. I mean, everyone feels some guilt, but like, especially if you're talking about people going into Christian areas with coaching, like, well, that's my ministry. You know, I get money from counseling practice. This is something extra. I should be doing it lower cost.
Whitney Owens: Like how would you respond to some
Katie Reed: of that? So there's, so, I have so many different responses to this because I've just been through this over time and I get it from both sides. I was absolutely the person who always wildly undercharged as a therapist. I worked in inner cities as a social worker for many years.
Katie Reed: I, you know, none of my clients could have afforded therapy and I felt totally guilty about every dime that I charged for it. Now I'm in a very different place and it is interesting, and I'm gonna say something a little bit controversial. I actually feel like. There is a spiritual evolution that begins to happen to us as people when we begin to not only seek things that are free, things that are cheap to look for the cheapest version of something, but when we begin to look for ourselves and our own lives for the best.
Katie Reed: And there are a lot of people who have traveled this road already, and they really do seek out the best. And what I will tell you about charging higher ticket prices for, and we all as therapists wildly underestimate our worth and our value and our knowledge. It's such a therapist mindset trap that we all get into.
Katie Reed: We just do. What I will tell you is when you begin to charge higher ticket prices, there is a whole audience of people who desperately need your help. If. If reality TV has taught us nothing, it's taught us that really rich people have really big problems too. And so there is a whole audience of people, not necessarily Kardashian level, but you get the idea.
Katie Reed: There's a whole audience of people who will never, ever come to you when you're charging the lowest possible prices. They'll never benefit. From meeting you and getting to know you and being part of your services. Because one of the ways that we all as human beings justify the value of something. If you put, you know, a Tesla next to a Honda and said they had the exact same price tag, you would really look at those two cards very differently.
Katie Reed: But because one is so expensive, you immediately look at it and think, whoa, that must be a really high value vehicle. And it's the same with our services that we offer. And so we actually open ourselves up to a. Whole different range of clients when we begin to charge appropriately for our time and our care and our attention and our knowledge and our skills and the whole lifetime that has gone into you being this person that you are right now.
Katie Reed: Uh, so that is one way that I do want people to have a little bit of that mindset shift is just realizing that there's other things too, when you charge more for your time. You are able to work fewer hours. So what can you do with those extra hours? Well, you can do any number of things you can. You can, for one thing, bolster your own life and your own family's life by being there for them more.
Katie Reed: But you can also volunteer. You can also do pro bono work. You can also write the book that's going to help so many people. The one thing that I'm so aware of as a coach now is because there are, I laugh sometimes at like, The hundreds of hours of me teaching free on the internet that exist. Yeah. There's too much of me on the internet.
Katie Reed: I'm sure. Probably you too. Mm-hmm. But. The amount of just information that I have put out over time that's completely free. I help people every day as a coach in ways I never did as a therapist, and I only know this because I get the letters going, I've been following your stuff for three years and you've never heard of me, but you helped me do this and this and that.
Katie Reed: That's amazing. To realize that you're having that impact and you never even knew it because you can put out this free information, or because like so many of our colleagues have, you might buy back enough of your time that you are gonna write that book. Mm-hmm. And you know, somebody can go buy a book from you for seven bucks, 15 bucks, that changes their life.
Katie Reed: Well, you need to be able to buy back your time to have that capacity to be able to go do that. And then finally too, and this is one that I think a lot of your people will understand and appreciate. I know for us, for my husband and I, we as, because of my business and because of growing my business and the way that I have, we were able to donate more to charity last year than I used to make as a yearly salary in the early days of being a therapist.
Katie Reed: It's insane. It's insane. And when you think about that level of agency in the world, that you can have that money to donate to the causes that are important to you to create the world that you want to see. I just think so much I, if I could do nothing else if, if I could help move wealth, reassign wealth into the hands of the helpers, I think that is one of the most powerful ways that any of us could change the world today.
Katie Reed: I really truly do. I really, truly do. Hmm. I mean, that's just something I could sit with for a while. Yeah, it's so, it's true, right? So like they've done the studies, like they've gone to little African villages and they give money to the women and the whole village benefits because the women are carrying the village.
Katie Reed: And when you look around at the helping professionals who are carrying the village around them, in all of our different communities, I see it the exact same way. Mm-hmm.
Whitney Owens: Yeah. And you know, we didn't even like touch on
Katie Reed: burnout, but you're right, we didn't. Yeah. But when
Whitney Owens: you charge, don't charge enough, you like get burned out as a therapist.
Whitney Owens: And so by having higher rates, I mean, what I say for my coaching clients, I only take on two a month because it's so consuming and I wanna give that energy. And if I take on more than that, I'm not gonna be able to give. Well, yeah. They're not gonna benefit like they could. And so, Yeah, having those higher rates allows me to care better
Katie Reed: for people.
Katie Reed: Absolutely. Absolutely. For yourself, for your clients. I think you show up so much better for your clients when you're energized and there is. The reality is you will work just as hard for a $7 client as you would for a $700 client, but one will just leave you far more burned out on the other side.
Katie Reed: Mm-hmm.
Whitney Owens: Definitely. So question I have here at the end, and I actually got this question the other day. I do coaching and helping people start group practices,
Katie Reed: and
Whitney Owens: somebody said to me, Whitney, is this really gonna be worth it in the end?
Katie Reed: Like this is gonna be a lot. That's a lot of work. And of course I had some things to say about
Whitney Owens: that, but I would love to hear what you have to say.
Whitney Owens: If somebody's sitting here going, you know, Katie, coaching sounds
Katie Reed: like a lot of work and I'm really uncertain. Is
Whitney Owens: it really worth
Katie Reed: it? What would you say to them? It's so interesting, and I'll talk a little bit about my story and I can talk about a couple clients as well. Um, It's kinda gonna make me emotional and you might have been through some of the same thing I, the unexpected life-changing benefits of finding a way to work that created security for my family, I would've never anticipated.
Katie Reed: So what I mean by that is that is I moved one state line. And my security was taken away. Yep. You know, we were transferred one state. Now I know some people think, well, that'll never happen to me. Well, we thought it wouldn't happen to us either, you know, and I have clients who've been in the same boat.
Katie Reed: And so that felt so terrible to me that I was literally for a year trying to get in a very long relicensure process. New exams, the whole shebang. That felt terrible to me, and it was during that time that I really felt for myself, like I never wanna be in a position again where some outside entity has decided that I can or cannot create income for myself, support my kids, support my family, that I never wanna be in that position again.
Katie Reed: I mean, thank God my husband still had his job. We weren't like destitute, but it was still a terrible position to be in. And so that right there, Creating something, using my own brain, my own creativity, figuring it out, knowing that for the rest of my life I now have the skills to create financial security where I need it.
Katie Reed: There is nothing like that and I, I'll be really honest, I didn't ever feel that as a therapist. I never felt that before. And then beyond that, It is a lot of work and it is challenging and showing up, actually building a business that doesn't just rely on referrals. Coming in from an insurance company or from Psychology Today, building a business that relies on you getting out there and making it happen, and, you know, creating clients and creating attention and energy on what you're doing.
Katie Reed: It's hard. It's scary. Yes. Like we all go through it. We all, myself included, just get racked with imposter syndrome. I still get it. I still have to be brave on a daily basis to show up and put things out there and risk being judged. All of that is very hard and I. The strength that it's created on the back end, I feel like a completely different person than five years ago when I was just stepping out and starting this business.
Katie Reed: Um, the joy it's created, getting to pay for, I was just telling you, I am taking my family to Europe for a month. That's insane. Like that would've never been anywhere on my horizon of possibility. Before this. And so being able to create these experiences and these memories and just knowing like, oh my gosh, I did that.
Katie Reed: Like I can create that. It has been such a life-changing experience and we have had clients. Not gonna get emotional, but we've had clients where it's very much the same, where they will come to us. We have won. One of my favorite stories, and this is just a fun one, her coaching business is doing so well that she's actually decided to close her therapy business because she and her husband want to buy a, well, they're, they bought a boat and they're just traveling the world.
Katie Reed: They're gonna live on a boat. Because she can coach from anywhere, and so they're getting to finally pursue their lifelong dream of traveling the whole world. How amazing is that? We have had people who said, uh, one woman who actually works for me now, but she had, when she became a coach, that was what allowed her to have a big, complicated intrastate adoption.
Katie Reed: And she said, if I was still just a therapist in one state and I couldn't have traveled back and forth and done all the things we had to do to make this adoption happen. That could not have happened as just a therapist in private practice, but because she had moved into coaching and she had flexibility of time and location, Her entire life has changed, right?
Katie Reed: Like she has this wonderful daughter. Now, as a result of all that, we have other clients who they said the same thing. I had to unexpectedly move home, take care of an ailing parent. Yes, it had something else. Or you know, things that have come up in people's families where they weren't expecting this emergency situation, but because.
Katie Reed: They had done that groundwork and they had begun their coaching business. Now they have that flexibility in their lives to do what's most important, which is to be there for your family, to be able to be available and to have that time and that space and that freedom. And I do get emotional when I look at that, and I just think if we can help every helper to have that, then all of us as helpers become better helpers.
Katie Reed: Because now our lives and our needs are taken care of so much more that we can actually become better helpers and therefore we can help other people even more and even better at a higher level than we even are right now. And I love that. I know.
Whitney Owens: Yeah. And seeing your passion in that, and it's just making me think the importance of all of us, like finding our thing, you know, and then building our business on that.
Whitney Owens: And, you know, and a lot of times that means your thing is coaching and whatever it is that you were freed from, and you wanna teach that to everyone. Um,
Katie Reed: it's, it's just such a beautiful thing. Yep. Yep. I love, and I love that what you said too about finding your thing. I think it's so true, and I think you and I, you know, 20 years ago, or not, maybe longer, when we went to school for therapy, we, this didn't really exist, like the internet didn't exist in the way it is today.
Katie Reed: There really wasn't even a coaching industry out there. There are just so many possibilities now in the world of online courses, consulting, online education of any kind. There is an endless array of possibility that's available now. And when you do go searching and when you do find your thing, it's incredible what you can do.
Katie Reed: It's incredible. Mm-hmm. Definitely.
Whitney Owens: Well, I wanna remind people to head to katie reid.com and then if you do, um, slash
Katie Reed: free, I believe, uh slash yes, I believe it's backslash Free or Backslash freebies, one or the other. But you'll see the little free tag up on the head header bar too. Awesome. And then you can get all those free guides.
Katie Reed: And then Katie's also on Instagram. Hey Katie Reid,
Whitney Owens: if you wanna watch her videos. And like she said, she's putting out content all the
Katie Reed: time. Free stuff for you. And let me actually, we have a new Instagram page. This is all brand new. So, um, if you want my free content that is all about marketing your coaching business, go to Instagram, go Toto Academy, you'll wanna follow that page.
Katie Reed: And then on Instagram, my other page is Hey Katie Reid. And we actually, I do have a podcast. It is a micro podcast. It's brand new and the podcast is very much about. Resilient psychology, motivation, kind of all the things that I've learned and I'm learning as an entrepreneurial therapist, so bringing together kind of the best of entrepreneurship, but also of my therapist background.
Katie Reed: And what we do is we just send out every day to people, literally a little tiny two minute. Daily podcast and it's just that little boost or that little bumper, that little something to think about in your day. Uh, it's called the Growing Edge Micro Cast. And if you go to hey katie reid.com, you can opt in there.
Katie Reed: It's all free. It's my little passion project. We're not like selling anything. That's just my little fun project. So you can go to hey Katie reid.com to opt in there or Hey Katie Reid on Instagram. Either way. Yes. I love
Whitney Owens: it. I love it. Well, Katie, it's been such an honor to hang out with you, and then the Wise Practice Summit, just to plug that for just a minute, it's gonna be October 5th through the seventh here in Savannah, Georgia.
Whitney Owens: We're gonna be hanging out at the Alita Hotel, which is a hotel to use your Marriott Bonvoy points. So I'm excited about that. It's like a boutique. Hotel with Marriott, so I'm still, it's right on the water. I know. And you can pretty much get to anywhere you need to get to downtown Savannah. Um, so Katie is gonna be a keynote speaker the first night, so it's gonna be our big opening night and then we're actually gonna have a fancy dinner afterwards with drinks and buffet and, and have a rooftop.
Whitney Owens: And it's gonna be fun. So, oh, I can't wait. Anyway, to get that information, head to whitney owens.com and you'll hit Summit and you
Katie Reed: can get your tickets there. So now wait. Me too. Well,
Whitney Owens: thank you so much for taking the time to be
Katie Reed: on the show today. Thank you. This was awesome. It was so good to see you.
Show Notes and Podcast Production by James Marland
