Marketing Your Mental Health Service by Attending Coferences
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[00:00:00] Microphone (Yeti Classic) & Logitech BRIO: Hello. So this episode we have are talking about conferences and how to get the most conferences and, you know, Some of us in the episode, admit to being introverts. And so I took the advice we gave and the, just how to make connections. And I made this worksheet. Uh, the worksheet is conference connection. Worksheet. Uh, on my other screen here and I gotta look at it. So if you are. Uh, watching this on YouTube, you can see the download. This is a free download for people who subscribed to the newsletter. And it's a game. Like I made a game out of going to conferences and you give yourself points for it. It's like challenge yourself to make connections. And it's just simple things that we talked about in the episode. Uh, meet five new people, get five emails, take five selfies. Uh, make five invitations, like invitation for lunch or dinner, or to go do things. Say yes to new things. That was a big takeaway for me from my last conferences. If I wouldn't have said yes to some invitations. Um, I would have met some really cool people, so say yes to things. Uh, another great resources visit five sponsors. I mean, those sponsors are there. Uh, most often, yes, they have a service, but they could be great connections. Great networking services. Great. Just great people. Great resources. If they go to a lot of conferences, they know a lot of people. And, um, often they're just friendly and ready to, to talk to you. So visiting sponsors might be. Easier than meeting new people. I then talked to five speakers and then follow up with five people. The last thing you do. Is follow up with. Uh, people in the conferences. And I made a game out of it. So every checkbox, every time you do one of those new things, you get a point gave yourself a point. And so the meet five new people, you can get five points for that and you add up your pay first page now. One of these boxes is probably more difficult for you than others. So I said, give that make the box worth two points. So if meeting five new people is difficult for you. Um, give yourself two points per new person that you meet. So you can get a total of 10 points for that box, or maybe it's make five, five. Invitations is really difficult. You it's okay. Meeting people. It's okay. Getting email addresses. But inviting people to like dinner or to hang out or, Hey, let's go. Uh, in Georgia recently, there was this cool bridge and there was a, you know, walking down the, the. Parkway. I don't know what it's called boardwalk. It wasn't quite a boardwalk by walking down next to the river and visiting the shops. Um, go into some museums. Uh, make some invitations that doesn't mean they have to accept for you to get the point, but you just got to get out of your shell and make those invitations. And this is the way to, uh, To challenge yourself to make, get the most out of your conferences. At the end. Uh, you, you total up page two total of page one, and then you give yourself a total and let's say, Uh, you, you make 20 points. Okay. Well, then the next conference you go to you say, okay, my, my previous high score was 20. My goal this time is 25 and you challenge yourself to just get out there and meet more and more new people. So I'm really excited about making this, uh, because I go to. I, if you're like me, you go to at least one conference a year. And you're always wondering how do I get the most out of it? What's my return on investment and almost hands down almost every time. The biggest return on investment is the people you meet. And if you're an introvert. Semi introvert like me. Then. You need a way to kind of game-ify or challenge or give you some self, some goals to meet the conference. So this download is on the blog. It's on the show notes, and if you're a newsletter subscriber, this will be delivered to your inbox. Uh, already. All right. Thanks. And, uh, Enjoy the show.
[00:04:29] James Marland: Uh, okay. Okay. Okay, here we go. Uh, hello. This is James Marland, your host of the Scaling Therapy Practice. This is the show where we encourage you to take deliberate stor. I said I was gonna work on this. This is the show where we ask you to take deliberate steps towards sustainable growth. I'm here with, uh, Dawn Gabriel and Lisa Mustard.
[00:04:53] James Marland: Hello.
[00:04:55] Dawn Gabriel: Hi,
[00:04:57] James Marland: This week we're gonna talk all about, uh, conferences, marketing your practice or your service, your mental health practice through conferences and attending a conference. Uh, this is a, uh, apropos, I guess because I just got back from the Wise Practice, uh, summit, uh, Dawn was there
[00:05:14] James Marland: and. It was, it was amazing.
[00:05:17] James Marland: Uh, like all these ideas going through my head and I'm also like really tired.
[00:05:25] Dawn Gabriel: Me too, man. I can barely get my brain in work mode. The
[00:05:30] James Marland: I, I drove, uh, well, we broke it up into two days. It was 12 hours of driving, but it was like four hours one day and like. Seven or eight the next day. So it was, it was good. But, um, yeah. So we're gonna talk about conferences, uh, how to market your practice during conferences or what do you do? Uh, we'll talk about our experiences.
[00:05:47] James Marland: The first thing we're gonna do is our tool tip or tech of the week. I think my tip, uh, it's gonna, it's gonna just come from, uh, the, the book or the podcast. Um, I. Uh, profit First for therapists, uh, with Julie Harris. And what she suggested in the book is, uh, for things that you need to save money for, just make it something you break out of for your line item, uh, and start saving, you know, just if you're gonna just like.
[00:06:19] James Marland: any of the other big topics, like if you're gonna save for a hiring a staff or save for a building or save for a bigger purchase, just, just, just build it into what you, the percentage. And so I saved a small portion of my, you know, income over the last couple weeks or months. And it paid for most of the conference.
[00:06:40] James Marland: And I think that was a big deal because I was really worried, you know, how am I supposed to afford all the travel and all the things and uh, go, is it really worth it? And that tip really, you know, helped me take, uh, it, it really helped. Um, and so that is the tip of the week. If you wanna go to conferences, just, uh, make it part of your budgeting practice.
[00:07:07] James Marland: So, uh, let's get into the show marketing about conferences. It's our topic. Um, and we've all been to conferences and we've all participated. We're gonna focus on the roles of, of going into conferences. And, uh, the first is how do you market your practice, uh, or your service as just an attender? Like, what are, what are some of the things you can do as, uh, attending, uh, Dawn, what do you, what do you think?
[00:07:35] Dawn Gabriel: Yeah, I think This is old fashioned marketing, is the fact that you're gonna be meeting people in person and just try to be friendly and go out to lunch and dinner with people that you don't know and just really be social. Um, that would be my first recommendation is just going, you can't undervalue the, um, You. Yeah. Don't undervalue how important it's to be in person with people and just feeling their energy and their vibe and hearing them laugh. And it's just so much fun that people get to know you and
[00:08:13] Dawn Gabriel: remember you. Like, this was my second time at this po at this pro um, summit where I had seen a lot of people the year before and it was like, oh yeah, I met you last year.
[00:08:23] Dawn Gabriel: And it was a way different bond. So that would be one. Um. Another one I would say, uh, and then I'll let Lisa share hers I don't wanna take 'em
[00:08:32] Dawn Gabriel: all. Another one is, um, having like, instead of a business card or something, like have a little QR code where it goes right to your website and people can just scan or, um, actually one of the guys there had a, um, I forget what it was, but it was a business card that if you scan it, it puts all his information right
[00:08:51] Dawn Gabriel: into your phone.
[00:08:52] James Marland: Oh yeah, that was from Therapy Flow. That was, uh, Joshua. I'm gonna get him on our podcast here soon. Soon. He was amazing.
[00:09:03] Lisa Mustard: Sweet. Well, I am such an introvert at conferences. I am. I, it's like, I know I need to go, I wanna be there, but when it's, once I get there, I have a, I, I kind of like, have to force myself to interact. Um, and so, you know, I pr, I like going with somebody, a friend, you know, just
[00:09:23] Lisa Mustard: taking a friend with me, go
[00:09:25] James Marland: friend. Yeah.
[00:09:26] Lisa Mustard: um, and then challenge myself.
[00:09:28] Lisa Mustard: So I have to like, challenge myself to Okay, talk to five pe new people today. You know, like, I have to, I have to put myself out there. And then once I kind of get into it, um, you know, I can, I can, I'm fine. I, I guess it's, um, I like the idea of having cards available or some type of, you know, being that I'm a my, my Goal is to, you know, I guess spread word about the podcast. I probably would have something like Gordon. Um, you know, he came through town on his way to the conference and so he gave me some coozies and I got a hangout with Gordon and that was just wonderful. So I was like, Ooh, coozies are good. So, you know, have some type of swag that you can like, give people. I gave him some pins that have the therapy show on there, so I dunno if you guys
[00:10:10] Lisa Mustard: got one Oh, you good?
[00:10:11] James Marland: somewhere.
[00:10:12] Lisa Mustard: Oh.
[00:10:12] James Marland: It's not in this room, but it's in the other room. And I saw, I saw somebody else with a pin on their backpack. I don't know who it was,
[00:10:18] Lisa Mustard: wi well, Whitney took a picture and texted it to me. Maybe that was her. I don't know, but
[00:10:22] James Marland: Okay. But I saw them out there like the, it was just a little swag.
[00:10:26] Lisa Mustard: Yeah.
[00:10:27] Lisa Mustard: I love that. So, um, I'm really bad about, you know, going to conferences, it's just so bad about it. Like, I like your tip about saving for him. Um. You know, I like the ones, I like staying local as just because, I don't know, I don't necessarily wanna get on an airplane and travel.
[00:10:44] Lisa Mustard: I know I'm just such a homebody, but
[00:10:46] James Marland: So, so
[00:10:47] James Marland: do you can, do you live in a place where there are local conferences?
[00:10:51] Lisa Mustard: Yeah.
[00:10:51] James Marland: Like, I haven't looked, but my, my wife is like, this was fun, but maybe we should do some local
[00:10:57] James Marland: things.
[00:10:58] Lisa Mustard: Yeah.
[00:10:59] Lisa Mustard: I'm lucky. So like here in South Carolina, the South Carolina marriage and family therapist, they have a conference and
[00:11:05] Lisa Mustard: it's, I mean, south Carolina's not very big, so it's like I can go to the beach or I can go to the mountains in like two hours. And the same thing with the, um, counseling association.
[00:11:13] Lisa Mustard: They have, you know, their own conference. And so I am lucky in that sense. I can go And then, um, Sometimes I'll pick places where my kids can go. So like Orlando would be fun because we would make that a, a, a family trip, you know, that's kind of how I like to do it. But they are getting older, so yeah, I don't know.
[00:11:32] Lisa Mustard: I'm just kind of a homebody,
[00:11:33] Lisa Mustard: so I like
[00:11:34] James Marland: Well,
[00:11:35] Lisa Mustard: Atlanta's
[00:11:36] James Marland: I, I took my. I took my wife and we said, oh, we'll go see the sites. But I don't think we set aside enough time to go do them. Do you set aside a day to just
[00:11:47] Lisa Mustard: Mm-Hmm.
[00:11:48] James Marland: go to some of the things or how do you, how do you find the time
[00:11:51] Lisa Mustard: Well, yeah, so it's, I don't know. So this is kind of a, I'll make it a short story, but this is how the podcast started was I went to a, um, conference in Charleston. Doll knows this. I went to a conference in Charleston and I was sitting in the audience for, it was like two day conference, you know, sitting in your, but in a chair for eight hours a day.
[00:12:07] Lisa Mustard: And I was like, I am in Charleston, one of my favorite cities in the southeast, actually in the country, and I have to sit my butt in a chair. And it was gorgeous weather out. I was like, I just wish I could take these, these You know, presenters and put 'em in my earbuds. And so like, lo and behold, that's how my show started.
[00:12:22] Lisa Mustard: But so yeah, I definitely would make time for some, uh, I mean, Savannah's amazing. Savannah.
[00:12:28] James Marland: It was,
[00:12:29] James Marland: Savannah was a really pretty, lots of historical things. I did go on the walking tour with, uh, Whitney's husband James did. Were you, did you do that, Dawn? I don't remember,
[00:12:40] Dawn Gabriel: no,
[00:12:41] Dawn Gabriel: but
[00:12:41] Dawn Gabriel: I loved
[00:12:42] Dawn Gabriel: Savannah. I fell in love with
[00:12:44] Lisa Mustard: Very cool.
[00:12:45] James Marland: yeah, there's, there's so many cool buildings, right, right. Downtown. Well, we, we walk like . A mile, like a mile, half a mile out and a half a mile back, and just every street there was something to look at and read and do and eat. And.
[00:13:00] Lisa Mustard: the
[00:13:00] James Marland: It was a pretty, pretty neat city. so introvert, I'm fairly if I have to, I'll lead something, but I'm just more happy to let other people do things.
[00:13:15] James Marland: So for the introverts in the audience, um, one of the things, one of the things that, uh, helped me and I didn't start doing it till near the end, and I'm like, I wish I would've been doing this. more is just taking selfies with people. You know, you stand next to something cool, like there were fountains in old architecture or light, you know, there was a building that was lit up and, Hey, do you wanna take a selfie with me?
[00:13:40] James Marland: People love to do it. Like it's, uh, and then you could just introduce yourself and say, great, thanks. I'm gonna post this, you know, on the page. Uh, tag me as a friend.
[00:13:48] Lisa Mustard: right?
[00:13:49] Lisa Mustard: Yeah.
[00:13:50] James Marland: Low, low key, um, low key, just getting to know people. 'cause I think that's one of the main things of going to the conferences, is just meet, just as you said, meeting people and, and getting connections.
[00:14:03] Lisa Mustard: Yeah.
[00:14:05] Dawn Gabriel: I
[00:14:05] Dawn Gabriel: think let, I'd like to make a distinction between the type of conferences Lisa
[00:14:09] Dawn Gabriel: was speaking about and then
[00:14:12] James Marland: sure. Sure.
[00:14:13] Dawn Gabriel: summit we were. At, I think you do need to research what type of conference it is. 'cause I've been to boring conferences where,
[00:14:20] Dawn Gabriel: like Lisa said, you're just sitting for eight hours.
[00:14:23] Dawn Gabriel: Those
[00:14:24] Dawn Gabriel: suck
[00:14:24] James Marland: Uh
[00:14:25] Lisa Mustard: Yes.
[00:14:26] Dawn Gabriel: I don't go to those either
[00:14:28] Lisa Mustard: Yeah.
[00:14:28] Dawn Gabriel: but like finding like more
[00:14:30] Dawn Gabriel: boutique conferences or more like a hundred people
[00:14:33] Dawn Gabriel: or less, like between 102 hundred. I feel like those are the best. 'cause you get to know
[00:14:38] Dawn Gabriel: those people, um, and to the, and they're more. Streamline to like what you like and they leave a lot of time for like going out and eating lunch.
[00:14:49] Dawn Gabriel: So you don't have like 45 minutes to lunch. You have an hour and a half for lunch
[00:14:53] James Marland: Mm
[00:14:54] James Marland: mm.
[00:14:54] Dawn Gabriel: because honestly, I think some of the best conversations had at a conference, Are not in the session.
[00:15:01] Dawn Gabriel: It's in
[00:15:02] Dawn Gabriel: between sessions and at night. And to me, I've built some great friendships because of that. Not, um, yeah, sometimes I even skip sessions.
[00:15:11] Lisa Mustard: Me too. Me too. I skip 'em.
[00:15:15] James Marland: I, I, I, I won't tell on you, but, uh,
[00:15:18] Dawn Gabriel: no, it's just live for everyone to hear.
[00:15:20] Lisa Mustard: Right. Yeah. And I think, and I'm glad you, you made that distinction because I was referring to like conferences that were more clinical, where you're, you
[00:15:28] Lisa Mustard: know, listening to the presenter and you're the research and then the, the way they show a video and how they were, and you're just like, uh, No. In some of, I, I. I, the conferences I have recently been to have been very good. I think everybody's just so happy to be back in person. So they have
[00:15:44] Lisa Mustard: been like, they've been fun, they've been energetic. The local ones, I'm, I'm not, and I'm really not bashing 'em. Um, I think it's just that I have to be in the mindset like, this is what I'm here for, you know. But
[00:15:54] Lisa Mustard: I do, I love the boutique idea and I know, um, I don't know if you wanna, you're putting one together, Don, right. In Colorado
[00:16:03] Dawn Gabriel: Mine's more
[00:16:04] Lisa Mustard: retreat. Okay.
[00:16:05] Dawn Gabriel: really small,
[00:16:06] James Marland: What's the, so, okay, what's the difference? Because what's the difference between a conference and a retreat?
[00:16:13] Dawn Gabriel: I think the size, like my retreat, I, I keep it to eight to 12 people, so it's very
[00:16:18] Dawn Gabriel: customized and very specialized to Like you niche down really
[00:16:25] Dawn Gabriel: tiny. Um, and it's for more of my listeners and my followers
[00:16:29] Dawn Gabriel: and
[00:16:29] Dawn Gabriel: my audience where I think a conference would be, yes, definitely more clinical in nature, but also, um, it's, I would say it's closer to 70 to 200 people.
[00:16:41] Dawn Gabriel: It's, or, or bigger. It's definitely for more. Um, I mean that's my
[00:16:46] Dawn Gabriel: theory. More learning
[00:16:48] James Marland: And I know on your retreat, you, you're highlighting some of the, um, like amenities and stuff, uh,
[00:16:55] Dawn Gabriel: Yeah. Like
[00:16:56] James Marland: the walks, the, the, the atmosphere, the ambiance, the uh, some of those other things.
[00:17:04] Dawn Gabriel: yes. It's definitely more tapered.
[00:17:07] Lisa Mustard: It.
[00:17:08] James Marland: and go ahead.
[00:17:09] Lisa Mustard: ask, is Whitney gonna do it again next year? Oh, great.
[00:17:12] James Marland: She is,
[00:17:13] Dawn Gabriel: She just announced the
[00:17:14] James Marland: she's gonna have it in a new city though. Where's it gonna be?
[00:17:18] Lisa Mustard: Charleston
[00:17:19] Dawn Gabriel: It's actually by you. It's um, it's not Charleston.
[00:17:23] Dawn Gabriel: What is it, James?
[00:17:25] Lisa Mustard: Oh,
[00:17:25] James Marland: Uh,
[00:17:26] Dawn Gabriel: It's one of the cities in the
[00:17:28] Dawn Gabriel: Carolinas, I think. The
[00:17:29] Lisa Mustard: Might be
[00:17:30] Dawn Gabriel: Charlotte.
[00:17:31] Lisa Mustard: Oh, Charlotte. Oh, okay. North Carolina. Charlotte.
[00:17:33] Dawn Gabriel: Is that close to you at
[00:17:34] Lisa Mustard: Yeah. Once again, it's like an hour and a half, two. Like I'm in the center of everything. Like, nor Charlotte's an hour and a half C Charleston's. An hour and a half. Greenville's, like an hour and a half. Atlanta's like three hours.
[00:17:45] Lisa Mustard: Yeah. So I'm, I'm in a good spot. I just need to leave. I never, I never leave. Y'all come here.
[00:17:50] James Marland: You could, you could drive to the, the airport and go
[00:17:53] James Marland: anywhere,
[00:17:53] Lisa Mustard: Well, that's exciting. Okay. Well, I'm, I'm excited for her. It sounds like she's growing it then if she's going
[00:17:58] Lisa Mustard: to a bigger city. Okay. Very cool.
[00:18:00] Dawn Gabriel: And this is her, this will be her third
[00:18:02] Dawn Gabriel: year hosting one. So a lot of
[00:18:04] Dawn Gabriel: the people are gonna be similar. I'm
[00:18:06] Lisa Mustard: Okay.
[00:18:07] James Marland: Yeah, it was, it was nice seeing the, some of the same people again, like going once, being an introvert, relative, introvert, uh, it was more difficult the first time. Um, the, the one thing I, I wanna say about being an introvert and like doing, uh, meeting people and building those relationships is say yes
[00:18:27] James Marland: to things.
[00:18:27] Dawn Gabriel: it's so true.
[00:18:28] James Marland: So
[00:18:28] Lisa Mustard: Yeah.
[00:18:30] James Marland: like, uh, we were, it was winding down the, the end of the first night. people were looking for things to do and me and a couple other people were just sitting at some tables or like there was a nice rooftop thing to have conversations and then half the group left and said, Hey, we're gonna go do this.
[00:18:49] James Marland: Uh. Piano, dueling piano bar or something. I don't know. I'm like, eh, I don't know. I don't know if that's what I wanna do. Uh, piano, like what kind of music are they gonna play? Like, is it just, am I gonna be bored? I wasn't bored, but, so anyways, one person, there was the extrovert and was said, we gotta go. We gotta go.
[00:19:09] James Marland: We gotta go. And so I was like, okay, I'll give it a try. Knowing in the back of my head if I hate this, I am. Outta here. And, uh, I couldn't talk to anybody in the bar.
[00:19:21] James Marland: 'cause the music we sat right, right next to the stage. Oh yeah. You, you were there of
[00:19:25] Dawn Gabriel: I was there.
[00:19:26] James Marland: Yeah, yeah. You were behind. I was up front. And you were just a little bit behind.
[00:19:29] James Marland: It was hilarious. Like, like people were like, uh, our group I guess was paying money to get songs played and then people were singing really loud and, uh.
[00:19:42] Lisa Mustard: It
[00:19:42] James Marland: It was just, it, it was one of my highlights of the, the night. So, but you don't have those things unless you're willing to try new things and say yes to crazy people who are like, oh, let's, let's do this thing.
[00:19:56] Lisa Mustard: That's true.
[00:19:57] Dawn Gabriel: Love it.
[00:19:59] James Marland: Uh, anymore, anymore about, uh, I know we could probably have a longer show on this, but any, anymore, uh, for marketing yourself as being an attender before we move, as, uh, being a sponsor? Nope. All right. Let's move to, uh, so how, if you're a sponsor, if you're, if you have a product or a service, uh, podcast, you know, like we do, uh, how can you, um, market your, your service as a sponsor?
[00:20:29] Dawn Gabriel: Yeah, so usually for sponsorships they have different levels. Um, there's usually like two or three different levels you can choose and each level
[00:20:39] Dawn Gabriel: includes certain, um, basically access to you. And so the first level is usually like putting something in a swag bag. So you could put
[00:20:49] Dawn Gabriel: like a. a. chapstick or whatever, ACA cup, a mug, whatever you want.
[00:20:54] Dawn Gabriel: Um,
[00:20:55] James Marland: What do you wanna see in that bag? When you open a swag bag, what do you wanna see in it?
[00:21:00] Dawn Gabriel: I wanna see useful, practical stuff.
[00:21:02] Dawn Gabriel: Like I, I'll use pens and notepads, but sometimes things will surprise me and there's a really cool thing. Um, like this year there was like a wine Tumblr and,
[00:21:13] Dawn Gabriel: um, the
[00:21:14] James Marland: Shout out to shrink. Think.
[00:21:15] Lisa Mustard: Oh,
[00:21:16] Dawn Gabriel: whoop. Uh, yeah, so there was some cool things I put in carabiners this year.
[00:21:21] James Marland: Mm-Hmm.
[00:21:22] Dawn Gabriel: um, well, 'cause my theme is more hiking, so people
[00:21:25] Dawn Gabriel: can always use carabiners. Um, you can do so, yeah, that's usually one. And then the second level is usually little more exposure to you. That is usually like a booth or a table.
[00:21:37] James Marland: Table. Yeah.
[00:21:38] Dawn Gabriel: And then the third is like the bells and whistles. And that's usually, you probably have Like you have more speaking opportunities to talk to the whole, um, the whole conference about what you do, so, and all the
[00:21:51] Dawn Gabriel: stuff below. So those are the different types of ways you can sponsor, and that's where you pay money to basically get in front of all the people at the conference. Okay?
[00:22:01] Lisa Mustard: That's cool. And I know, um, were you, well, Gordon was a sponsor
[00:22:05] Lisa Mustard: site craft, so, and then I guess Shrink Think was a sponsor too.
[00:22:09] Dawn Gabriel: Yeah.
[00:22:10] Lisa Mustard: Did you guys sponsor? No.
[00:22:12] James Marland: I did not.
[00:22:13] Lisa Mustard: was just wondering.
[00:22:14] Dawn Gabriel: I did
[00:22:14] James Marland: I just went out as an attendee,
[00:22:16] James Marland: although I picked up one of your pens at Gordon's table, Don,
[00:22:20] James Marland: they were nice, they were very nice pens. I do enjoy a good pen. I used it the whole conference.
[00:22:26] Dawn Gabriel: Oh
[00:22:26] Dawn Gabriel: good I love it.
[00:22:27] James Marland: Yep,
[00:22:27] Lisa Mustard: A good pen.
[00:22:28] James Marland: yep.
[00:22:28] Lisa Mustard: Hmm.
[00:22:29] James Marland: I, I, I have the pens on the table. I started using, I'm like, no, I'm gonna use this better pen.
[00:22:34] James Marland: So.
[00:22:35] Dawn Gabriel: bad good pens. But usually one thing to mention about the swag bags is you, there's only one like, like if someone else puts a pen in, you couldn't come in
[00:22:43] Dawn Gabriel: and put another pen. You have to
[00:22:44] James Marland: Oh,
[00:22:45] James Marland: okay. You gotta pick something different.
[00:22:46] Dawn Gabriel: gonna sponsor, get in there quick
[00:22:48] Dawn Gabriel: and pick
[00:22:49] Dawn Gabriel: your thing.
[00:22:50] James Marland: Daniel had, um, well he had mugs from the previous year, but he had, uh, he had, uh, coasters that I'm gonna use around my house now. So that was a nice
[00:22:59] Lisa Mustard: are good.
[00:23:00] James Marland: piece of swag
[00:23:01] James Marland: and, uh, you can't see it, but I'm gonna start. People started, oh, well if you're listening to the show.
[00:23:08] James Marland: Uh, people had stickers,
[00:23:10] James Marland: so I started putting them over my journal, so I got stickers from people. So, um, I really enjoyed that and, uh, I kept looking for stickers to, to stick on my bag or on my thing. So, uh, or on my, uh, notebook, my journal here. Um.
[00:23:24] Lisa Mustard: Cool.
[00:23:26] James Marland: The, the other thing that, uh, I think Whitney had them on her podcast or was doing like that was a, something that she did, uh, for the sponsors is she would give them a, a radio spot.
[00:23:37] James Marland: I, it's not radio, a podcast spot on her sponsor. She also did social media for them, um,
[00:23:44] Dawn Gabriel: her e her newsletter, her
[00:23:45] Dawn Gabriel: an email blast.
[00:23:47] James Marland: Every, every . Every session was introduced by a sponsor, I believe it seemed like. So they said, Hey, I am this and this from this, and this is what I do. And hey, here is the speaker. So it got them in front of all the people, and I really like that because it could showcase what they were doing it.
[00:24:08] James Marland: It was more than just, just, uh. Just like, oh, they're sponsoring the show. And then, um, some places have, uh, the selfie area, so their, their logos on the selfie area and it looked like the people who paid more money got bigger or more spots on it. So, um, that was good. What are things so. If you're thinking about sponsoring a conference, uh, what should you think about, like, uh, Lisa, have you sponsored a conference or sponsored a summit or anything?
[00:24:40] Lisa Mustard: Uh, no, I haven't sponsored anything yet. Um, long story short, I did try to place an ad in a, um, the agenda book. So I paid for it,
[00:24:51] Lisa Mustard: had it designed, and then somehow they never got it. So when I got to the conference, I was flipping through it and I was like, where's my ad? I was so ticked. I mean, I was almost like crying.
[00:24:59] Lisa Mustard: I was so mad. but they ended up refunding my money. But I so. I
[00:25:03] Lisa Mustard: was just kind of miffed and so I,
[00:25:05] Dawn Gabriel: Yeah.
[00:25:06] Lisa Mustard: I felt like, I don't know, I just felt like they could have offered me something like, Hey, next year we'll give you a big page for free because we,
[00:25:13] Lisa Mustard: you know, I haven't been back to that conference. I just kind of got a sour taste in my mouth.
[00:25:18] Dawn Gabriel: for sure. I would like to speak. I feel like as far as sponsoring, I think you need to know where you're at in your
[00:25:29] Dawn Gabriel: business. If you don't have a lot of overhead, if you don't have a lot of money saved for it, and you're not, I, I don't know. I, it depends on who the audience is. I don't think. You gotta figure out what the return on investment's gonna be. Um, and I feel like, like if you're speaking at the conference, I don't think you also need to sponsor because they're going to see you enough as a
[00:25:53] Dawn Gabriel: speaker. But if you're not speaking is depending on how much money you have, are you, how many clients will you get to re to kind of get back the ROI
[00:26:03] Dawn Gabriel: on that? And so, um, if you can maybe. I'm an extrovert so it's easier for me to like meet everyone in person And ha a lot of my listeners were at this one. And so
[00:26:15] Dawn Gabriel: I didn't sponsor this time mainly because I was watching the budget really heavy, but I brought QR codes and downloads that PE I gave to people like, Hey, scan this and get my download.
[00:26:25] James Marland: Hmm.
[00:26:26] Dawn Gabriel: and so I feel like for me, I just didn't wanna spend the money this year 'cause I'm still kind of building and I don't have a lot of.
[00:26:34] Dawn Gabriel: Money saved yet
[00:26:36] James Marland: Overhead. Yeah.
[00:26:37] Dawn Gabriel: But if you are sponsoring, you need to know is this your ideal
[00:26:40] Dawn Gabriel: client in this audience or not?
[00:26:44] Lisa Mustard: Yeah.
[00:26:45] James Marland: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:26:48] Lisa Mustard: that. Smart.
[00:26:49] James Marland: right, so moving on. Um, have you either of you spoken at a conference?
[00:26:56] James Marland: Don has, I have. Um, uh, what, uh, what, what would you say if you're planning on speaking at a conference, uh, how could you market yourself or your practice? Through that. The, the one thing I wanna say, I'll get us started is your, your, your, uh, your speech should add value.
[00:27:15] James Marland: It should not be a 60 minute sales pitch
[00:27:18] Dawn Gabriel: Oh
[00:27:18] Dawn Gabriel: yeah.
[00:27:20] James Marland: So what it, what, uh, how would you, uh, uh, dawn, how would you, uh, market yourself when you go to a conference?
[00:27:28] Dawn Gabriel: Um, I get, I agree with you. I think What you're speaking on needs to have a lot of value. Um, I, I don't, I feel like I'm gonna steal Lisa's 'cause she's like the lead magnet
[00:27:40] Dawn Gabriel: queen, but the, the key is having at the end, like throw up a lead
[00:27:46] Dawn Gabriel: magnet
[00:27:47] James Marland: Call to action
[00:27:48] James Marland: to do this. Yeah.
[00:27:49] Dawn Gabriel: To get a, to get emails and people to follow you and get on your newsletter. Um, but yeah, I think just having a really good content
[00:27:59] Dawn Gabriel: preparing and honestly, what I see every single time at conferences, whether they're the boring ones or the fun ones. People get two, me included, get two in our heads when we're speaking. We over prepare, we over
[00:28:13] Dawn Gabriel: put stuff on PowerPoints, and one of the best breakout sessions I went to this year was, um, my friend Steph Corporal, and she literally made us all sit in a circle. Push the tables out and it was like a huge discussion in a workshop's
[00:28:30] James Marland: What.
[00:28:31] Dawn Gabriel: It was freaking amazing. And I think all conferences should be that way because you have so much information downloading.
[00:28:37] Dawn Gabriel: You need to, you need to process.
[00:28:39] Dawn Gabriel: And that's what we did. It was a bunch of group practice owners talking about building happy and effective teams
[00:28:45] Dawn Gabriel: and we got to all interact.
[00:28:47] Dawn Gabriel: It was Superb. So I say be out of the box
[00:28:51] Dawn Gabriel: a little bit too, and people will remember you
[00:28:55] Lisa Mustard: Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. And I, I was gonna say something similar, like, you know, um, I would say make your presentation really different, whatever that, however you can do it. Um, so that would be my first thing, but also provide a lot of value and give them I mean, I guess it's different like they're paying to be there, so they're hoping to come away with things that they can implement or, you know, start putting into practice what, whatever the conference is about. So give them the, the best that you can and then, you know. If you are hoping to maybe get a customer or a client like they're thinking to themselves, man, she just gave me all that in 45 minutes. Imagine what it must be like to work with her one-on-one when she really knows what my, what I really wanna do or what my, my goal is. Um, so I think it's always like Dawn, like Dawn was saying, over provide, but also. Read the room and know when it's time to not be on a PowerPoint and maybe just sit around and, and do more of a process thing, I guess, depending on how many people are there. And definitely have a lead magnet. And I would probably do something in the very beginning, like, pull up your phones and go to this website right now, and you can get this for free.
[00:30:06] Lisa Mustard: Like, I would just have 'em pull out their phone before we do anything, you know? And, and then at the end probably I've, I've been to stuff before where, um, They had friend me on, friend me on, uh, Facebook before we keep
[00:30:19] Lisa Mustard: moving because she just, the, the present, the presenter wanted to like, she delighted on Facebook and so she wanted them to see her, you know, moving forward.
[00:30:26] Lisa Mustard: And it was like, I want you to friend me on Facebook and then send me a message and, and private messenger. So not only was she connecting and growing her network, she was also just really working the algorithm in her favor. And I thought that was really smart. Um. .But yeah, I mean, lead magnet for sure. You wanna get people on your email list, maybe even, you know, if you, if you can offer like a free consultation or you know, hey, tonight, this evening when we're done, I'll be hanging out at the bar and I can, you know, the first 10 people,
[00:30:55] Lisa Mustard: I'll buy you a drink.
[00:30:56] Lisa Mustard: Let's just talk. I mean, just things like that, you know, maybe keep, have know, know your budget um,
[00:31:03] Dawn Gabriel: The first two
[00:31:04] Lisa Mustard: Yeah. Right.
[00:31:05] Lisa Mustard: Or like, I can buy you APBR draft and that's $2. No, I think, you know, um, yeah, I think, I think just stay, just try to be outta the box and just be creative. 'cause that's what people are gonna remember is your, you know, that you weren't the usual up there because keep it fun.
[00:31:28] James Marland: And I remember stories almost more than, um. Like their PowerPoint, like you can it, the stories call you back to their content. I think if you have a good story, it really, um, makes an impression. I, I think of two stories like William . Talked about imposter syndrome and he talked about, I think it was a, a, a football player made a play and the coach pulled him outta the game and berated them.
[00:31:56] James Marland: And he, the football player, you know, that impacted him and stuck with him. And that was like an illustration of, uh, you know, uh, you can be, uh, performance mindset. Like you can have that in your head and like, you have to be perfect otherwise you're no good and that type of thing. And then, uh, I think it was Katie.
[00:32:17] James Marland: Was it Reid, Katie,
[00:32:19] Dawn Gabriel: Yep.
[00:32:19] James Marland: is it Reid? Like she talked about your ideal client has these blue shoes moment. I don't know if you remember that epi that where you, you see, you see the shoes now. Anyways, she showed, she showed, uh, high heels. I don't have these blue shoe moments, but I have like maybe computer or tech moments where I see this thing across the room and it talks to you and is like speaking to you.
[00:32:42] James Marland: And she used that as an illustration. Like when you find your ideal client, you have these blue shoe moments, and I'm like, wow, that's
[00:32:49] Lisa Mustard: That's cool.
[00:32:50] James Marland: that's a really powerful story. She also didn't use many, um, uh, like bullet points. They were all, it was all like slides and pictures and not
[00:33:01] Dawn Gabriel: she combined a story. She totally did a totally different presentation
[00:33:04] James Marland: Yeah. It was different.
[00:33:05] Dawn Gabriel: a story with a slide. So you
[00:33:07] Dawn Gabriel: like in my head, I just remember all the pictures now
[00:33:09] James Marland: Mm-Hmm.
[00:33:10] Dawn Gabriel: the stories explaining it. Yeah.
[00:33:12] James Marland: It was great. It was It was, a really good, memorable and different presentation. Uh, some of the other people might have had like heavier . Deeper content, but her stories just kind of like carried the, the thing, and you remember it. You want those types of presentations that you're gonna remember and look, I'm talking about it to other people.
[00:33:33] James Marland: So that's, that's a way to market it. All right. Uh, let's, uh, let's, we, uh, man, we could keep talking about this, but let's go, let's go into the, the takeaways. What's, uh, Lisa, what's one takeaway you want the audience to know from our conversation today?
[00:33:48] Lisa Mustard: That I need to go to conferences. No, I'm just kidding. Um,
[00:33:53] James Marland: You get
[00:33:54] James Marland: email, Lisa and tell her to go to your
[00:33:57] Lisa Mustard: yeah. I need to go to conferences. Um, I think what's most important is know why you're going to this conference. Like, be intentional about why you're going, what do you, you know, like of course you're there to learn, but you're also maybe there to network, to, to learn about new opportunities, um, collaborate, uh, you know, just try to, just See it as an opportunity for growth, you know, and, and I guess that's maybe what I need to do is do that myself.
[00:34:26] James Marland: And Don the takeaway.
[00:34:28] Dawn Gabriel: Wow. I, I am really impacted by thinking out of the box. Like I love some of the stuff Lisa said of, um, yeah, just having a different presentation. If you're presenting or if you're going, I would say Um, research the conference to know what
[00:34:43] Dawn Gabriel: type it is so
[00:34:44] Dawn Gabriel: you, you can plan ahead and be more comfortable with how you interact with people. Um, but go with a purpose, uh, but also just be
[00:34:51] Dawn Gabriel: genuine. Sorry, that was like
[00:34:53] Lisa Mustard: No, that's important. I, it's really important to be genuine, you know, like it's, that is super important. I like
[00:34:59] Dawn Gabriel: Yeah.
[00:34:59] James Marland: Yeah,
[00:35:00] Dawn Gabriel: like
[00:35:00] Dawn Gabriel: anyone else, but do it
[00:35:01] Dawn Gabriel: your way.
[00:35:04] James Marland: I guess my, my takeaway would be develop relationships. Uh, sure. If you're going to market, uh, you, you do want ROI, but people can smell just you said the genuine, genuine people can smell when you're just, you know, you're not interested in them. You're just like, oh, I wanna use you for a, a email list or a sale.
[00:35:26] James Marland: Uh, just go in, add value, develop those relationships. Um, and that will turn, you know, as I keep going back to these conferences, it turns into some amazing friendships. And, uh, that's who you, that's actually who you wanna work with, right? You wanna work with your friends, you wanna help your friends, you wanna support your friends.
[00:35:46] James Marland: So go in and have the mindset of adding value and just adding relationships.
[00:35:52] Lisa Mustard: Awesome.
[00:35:54] James Marland: Okay. Well that, that'll be a wrap for this episode of the Skilling Therapy Practice. I wanna thank Lisa and Dawn for showing up. Uh, you can visit them at, uh, Dawn is Soul Care for Therapists. And Lisa is the Lisa of the Mustard or the Therapy Show with Lisa Mustard.
[00:36:12] James Marland: Uh, uh, thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time.
This was really a fun show to record and produce. I learned a lot about going to conferences and getting the most out of conferences, especially with relationships. Make sure you. Uh, go to the blog and the show notes and download the tool of the week, which is conference connection worksheet. It's a little game that you can play to. Challenge yourself to make relationships at conferences.
The scaling therapy practice is part of the psych craft network. The scaling therapy practice podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.
The opinions expressed on the show are that of the hosts and guests. And if you need professional help in areas like therapy. Lawyering, whatever Loring is called lawyer legal, legal matters. Accounting. Please seek a professional in those areas. This is the James to the scaling therapy practice. We will see you next time.
