Ever feel like you’re doing all the right things… yet nothing seems to be moving fast enough?

In this episode, we’re peeling back the curtain on the slow, quiet build that nobody talks about but every thriving private practice is built on.

If you’ve ever wondered why other counsellors seem to be racing ahead while you’re still trying to find your rhythm, you’re not alone. And no, you’re not doing anything wrong. In fact, you might be closer than you think.

Inside this episode, we explore:

• Why the early stages of marketing feel so painfully slow
• The surprising truth about the momentum you’re already building
• How tiny, almost forgettable actions start working together beneath the surface
• Why consistency beats confidence every time
• The real reason you freeze and how to unstick yourself gently
• Five simple, doable seeds you can plant this week

If you need a little encouragement, a little direction, and a big sister voice reminding you that you absolutely can do this - this episode is for you.

Come and feel a bit lighter about it all.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Counsellor Business Reset
• Feel Awkward Marketing Yourself? Here’s How to Make It Easier
• Grow Your Private Practice Membership - Quick Wins, support, and everything you need to build a thriving practice
• Framework First £9/month - A monthly blog framework so you always know exactly what to write

Over the years I’ve had messages from therapists saying the podcast has been their companion on dog walks, in the car, or when they’re feeling stuck and need a nudge. If the show has been that for you and you’d like to support it, you can now Buy Me a Coffee.

It helps keep the lights on and the episodes flowing, one brew at a time.

👉 Buy Me a Coffee

Today we're talking about the cumulative effect of marketing, and this is the part that nobody really sees, but everybody benefits from because many therapists think they're doing it wrong when their marketing just doesn't take off instantly, but it's not supposed to. You know, it's something that builds slowly.

Quietly with one small action at a time. You know, it could be a new blog that you write here, a conversation you have with your hairdresser about what it is you do and who you help. There learning a new skill while you are waiting for your next client to show up. It all stacks up and over time, those small steps work together in ways that you can actually feel.

So in this episode, I want to show you how those little actions create momentum, why you can't rush it, and how starting small is not just okay, it's exactly how you grow a practice that lasts. So let's get into it.

Welcome to the Grow Your Private Practice Show a podcast for therapists who wants the confidence, the tools, and the gentle structure to grow a sustainable feel good business without burning out or pretending to be somebody that they're not.

So I'm Jane Travis. I'm an ex-therapist and mentor and a big believer in slow marketing, human pace, and building a practice that actually feels like yours. So let's dive in.

Hello, hello, hello and welcome back and if this is your first time here, you are very, very welcome. Now I think that there's a moment that many therapists quietly carry around that's kind of stuck frozen feeling where everything you're supposed to be doing just feels really big, too much, too overwhelming.

You know, it's like standing at the bottom of a. A big hill at wearing only only flip flops and having to carry too many bags and wondering how come everybody else is halfway up while you are still struggling out where to begin. So if that's you, pull up a chair because a. I've been there more times than I can count, and I know how easy it is to freeze, to feel behind, to wonder if you're just not cut out for this.

And I want to tell you something that I wish somebody had told me earlier, because it's not about doing everything, it's about doing something consistently. So imagine that you are standing in a garden packet of seeds in your hands, so you don't just plant them all at once, do you? You don't just dig up the whole space in one weekend. You don't just stand over the soil and go grow, grow. But what you do do is you take one seed and you press it into the cool soil and you water it and you walk away.

And even though you don't see it yet. Something's happening. The roots are starting to form before the sprout appears, and that's exactly how marketing for counsellors works. Because generally speaking, we tend to not have big, dramatic launches. We tend to not have like detailed marketing plans to execute. No Marketing for us tends to be more about the cumulative effect of lots of tiny steps that quietly build something bigger over time. And let me just tell you that this is a really good thing. Launches are a pain. Take it from me. I've done lots of launches.

They're hard work, confusing, and yeah. Yeah, they're not easy. Let's just put it like that. Because the bit that it's difficult to hear sometimes is that you just can't rush it. You can't rush marketing your practice. You know, you may have noticed that I don't make those sort of wild promises that you sometimes hear of, you know, six figures in six weeks, or, you know, I don't have a magic formula to make your dream clients appear by Tuesday.

Very sadly, I wish I did, but that's just not how it works. So if you hear a lot of people giving you those sorts of promises, I would say just, just take, take a step back and think about it, because I don't think it helps anyone to pretend otherwise because building your practice takes time. Real human time. It takes consistency, it takes a bit of courage, and it takes a willingness to keep going even when it feels slow or awkward or uncertain. And here's what you might not believe yet. All of those little things you are doing do matter. So every blog, every tweak, every update, every post that you put out there, every conversation where you tell somebody else that you are a counsellor and who you work with matters every, I dunno if this is working, but I'm gonna try it anyway.

These are all the seeds that you are planting and they're building something steady underneath the surface. Now, here's what I've noticed again and again. The thing that stops therapists from doing their marketing isn't a lack of interest, but it's that feeling that it's too big, it's too long, it's gonna take too long, or it's just too complicated.

And when you are already feeling stretch, you know, we don't just have a business, we have a life. You know, so you, you might have, you might have kids, you might have another job that you have, you might have. You know, an illness that you are dealing with or having to look after somebody else. But you know, people, we are all pretty stretched, aren't we?

And when you are already stretched, even doing a short piece of training can sometimes feel like it's too much. So inside the Grow your private practice membership, I created something called Quick Wins, which are short training. So they're usually around about 15 minutes. Maximum of 30 minutes that kind of take the pressure off and help you to feel that quiet.

Oh, do you know what? I think I can do this moment. That's a good one, isn't it? Now you'll find things like how to make your blog post more conversational so that your voice sounds like you. How to build an ideas bank so that you never face that blank page again. How to use call to actions that actually work so your audience knows exactly what to do next.

So these are small, simple things, and they're gonna help you to take one real doable step, even if it's just in your tea break, because momentum doesn't come from perfection. It comes from planting and cultivating one seed and then another seed and another seed. And I'd like to just share with you exactly what this looks like in real life.

So if you are feeling stuck, here are five tiny little seeds that you could plant this week. So you could take a look at the first paragraph of your directory listing, and you can give that a bit of a tweak. You could pick one blog topic and produce a mind map of what to include or use the framework first.

I'll share a bit more about that later. Or you could take a look at your homepage and, and ask yourself, would a stranger know what I do from my homepage? Would that would a stranger? Understand who I help. And then you can make some changes, or you could set up or update your Google business profile, or you could tell one person what you do in everyday language.

So pick one, do it and give yourself a big pat on the back and then next week. Do another one. You don't need to do everything. You just need to have that momentum you just need to keep going because then you get that cumulative benefit. Now before I go. I just want to. Tell you about something that definitely works on a cumulative basis and something that could completely shift how you feel about blogging, because yeah, it's blogging. I'm talking about blogging, of course, I'm talking about blogging. Blogging is something that is so good for therapists to do.

Now, the blog that you write today. We'll still be getting read in months and years to come. So I've been blogging for a long old time, but, and I've been doing lots of podcasts as well. So when I put a, so for example, when I put a new podcast out, probably the majority of people that go and have a look at it when it's new are going to have a look at the podcast that's literally just gone out.

But the podcasts that get seen and listened to over the month. Aren't all that one. You know, it's not all the latest one, the latest podcast. So often people go on my podcast and they look at all of the other podcasts that I've produced, and that's the beauty of content creation. That's the beauty of blogging.

So people, like I say, they can read it in months, in years to come. And so if you've ever thought yourself thinking, do you know what? I'd love to blog. I never quite have the time, or I don't really have the skills or the confidence. I promise you, you're definitely not on your own with this because this is exactly why I created the framework first.

Now, for nine pound a month, so less than a lot of people spend on a coffee and a biscuit. You get one simple step by step blog framework every single month. It's delivered directly into your inbox on the first Monday of the month. There's no passwords. There's no. Nothing to sign into. And each one is designed to help you to write with clarity, with ease and with confidence, and without having to drown in making lots of decisions.

So you'll get a clear angle, you'll follow a step-by-step guide, and then you hit publish and you feel quietly chuffed with yourself. So it's blogging, but with a plan and a shortcut. So each framework works you through exactly what to cover in what order, and using the insight that you already have from sitting with clients.

So you don't need to do further training on what to talk about. You already know this is about, you know, helping you to get that from out of your head and onto a piece of paper so you're not scrambling around Google or trying to sound clever. You are writing, like you speak, you're speaking to the people who need your support.

So picture this, you sit down, you open your laptop, and instead of the usual, where do I even start? You already know what you're gonna write about, so you're not having to overthink, you're not having to fiddle about, there's no pressure, no perfectionism spiral to go down. That's the ease of the framework first.

And because it's just nine pounds, it's the sort of decision you don't have to agonize over. You know, if it helps you to publish even just one blog. It more than pays for itself. So if you want blogging to finally feel like it's doable, I really recommend that you go and have a look. You'll find it at janetravis.co.uk/framework-first, but also in the show notes that go with this podcast.

So come and write your next blog with me. Okay, so growing your practice isn't about dramatic leaps or overnight transformations. It's gonna be the slow, steady build that comes from taking small steps again and again and again. And it's about keeping that momentum, keeping that interest, which, let's face it, can be bloody annoying. You know, you're probably thinking, well, I want it. I want this to work, and I want it to work today. But it does take time to learn new skills. It takes time for all these things to work for you and for you to get this cumulative effect on them. So look, take it easy on yourself.

Don't be too harsh on yourself if it's not all happening really, really quickly. Updating one paragraph on your directory, or writing the outline of one blog post of making one tiny tweak to your homepage, choosing to do a quick win in the membership. Each of these seeds might feel a little bit insignificant on their own, but together they create a real momentum and you can't rush this and you don't need to.

You just need to keep showing up for yourself in small, manageable ways. And if you want support while you do that, look, I'm here. But the real magic comes from you planting those seeds, nurturing them, and watching your practice grow in a way that feels grounded, doable, and yours. Okay, that's it for today. I really hope that this has been useful for you and, maybe helps you to stop worrying about the fact that it's taking a while for your business to take off. That's just the normal way of things. So, that's it really. So like I said, if you do have any counselling friends that could do with a hand, it would be fabulous if you shared this with them and come back next week where I've got some more to share with you.

So until then, take lots of care. Speak to you soon. Bye-bye.