Easy to start doesn't mean easy to succeed. In a market where AI and other tools have made it easier than ever to launch a practice, create a website, and start seeing clients, Anna explores why the ease of getting started says very little about what it takes to build a full-fee, premium practice. The work required has changed, but that doesn't mean success is no longer available.

In this episode, Anna challenges the idea that if your practice feels hard right now, something must be wrong. She talks about perseverance as a skill, the danger of relying on easy tools that make everyone's marketing sound the same, and why building a "craftsman-style" practice requires more than pressing the easy button. If you've been questioning yourself because your practice isn't growing as easily as you expected, this episode is a reminder that the hard season may actually be part of the process.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

1️⃣ Why easy to start is not the same as easy to succeed—and why a hard season doesn't necessarily mean you've done something wrong.

2️⃣ Why perseverance is a skill you can build and why the therapists who succeed aren't necessarily the ones who took the easiest path.

3️⃣ How relying on the same easy tools, including AI, can create a "sea of sameness" and make your practice forgettable.

4️⃣ Why building a "craftsman-style" practice requires thoughtful marketing, continued effort, and keeping your expertise and humanity at the center.

Resources & links mentioned

• Confident Copy: https://walkerstrategyco.com/cc
• Done-for-you services: https://walkerstrategyco.com/services
• The Walker Strategy Co website: https://walkerstrategyco.com

Connect + subscribe

Enjoying the podcast? Subscribe so you never miss an episode—and feel free to share it with a fellow therapist who's building their private practice. Explore more marketing support for therapists:

The Walker Strategy Co website: https://walkerstrategyco.com

About Marketing Therapy

Marketing Therapy is the podcast where therapists learn how to market their private practices without burnout, self-doubt, or sleazy tactics. Hosted by Anna Walker, a marketing coach, strategist, and founder of Walker Strategy Co—each episode brings you clear, grounded advice to help you attract the right-fit, full-fee clients and grow a practice you feel proud of.

Hey there.

2

Welcome back to Marketing

Therapy, episode 87.

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We are coming up on 100 episodes of this

podcast, which is absolutely unreal.

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I've said before that if you told

me a year and change ago that I was

5

making a podcast, I, I wouldn't have

believed you, and yet here we are.

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One of the best things I've ever done.

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Now, this episode, I'm

excited about this one.

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It's might be a little

more tough love style.

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It's more off the cuff in response

to some conversations I've had

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recently and just some things I've

noticed out there in our industry.

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I feel like it's a message

some folks need to hear.

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That makes it sound like

it's all gonna be negative.

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But I just…

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I, I wanna comment a little bit on some

of the cultural messages we're seeing

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out there when it comes to growing a

private practice right now and share

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maybe a couple shifts or reframes that

I think can serve you well right now.

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Now, in last week's Perfectly Fine

Website Problem workshop, one of the

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rules we talked about when it came

to becoming the obvious choice and

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being chosen by premium fee clients,

is that easy does not equal effective.

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That the things you can do to, in that

case, create a website, but in the

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case of this episode, create a website

and do literally anything else related

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to creating your practice, there

are a lot of easy things out there.

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But just because it was easy doesn't

mean it's actually gonna work, right?

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So AI can write you a website in,

you know, four and a half minutes.

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You could launch a

practice in a week, right?

26

Like, the ease of creating a

telehealth-only practice right

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now, easier than it's ever been.

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You get a couple of things set up.

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You hang your shingle.

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You start seeing clients.

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So easy is available to us in ways

it never has been before, but easy

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describes the process and yet says

absolutely nothing about the end result.

33

And often, I think we're being

sold the message that if it's not

34

easy, it's not worth doing, or if

it's not easy, something's wrong,

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that everything should be easy.

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You're being sold ease.

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And then being told that if it doesn't

feel that way, you've, you've missed it.

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You've missed something.

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You're doing something wrong.

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You need this thing.

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There's so much content out there telling

clinicians that if they're having to

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work hard, something is wrong, right?

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There's this culture in private

practice, but also just in business

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ownership in general about manifesting

and vision boards and calling in

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the clients and intention setting.

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And these are all good things.

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Like, holy cow, do I believe in the power

of intentions and intuition and mindset

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more than I ever have as a business owner.

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But that doesn't actually

replace the work required.

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And when I sit down with therapists

in discussions about our done-for-you

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services or talking about Confident Copy

is a good fit for them, a lot of times

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they ask me what I've seen change, right?

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What's true about the market now?

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Because the one thing we

know is that it's different.

55

And if I had to summarize what is

true about marketing right now and

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about growing a practice, particularly

a premium fee practice, it's

57

that you have to be more engaged.

58

You have to be more boots on the

ground than maybe you wanted to

59

be, or maybe you have been in

the past or you expected to be.

60

You're going to have to be more engaged in

your marketing than you probably thought.

61

And that's a tough pill to

swallow for some people.

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But the sooner you swallow it,

the sooner you can actually start

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seeing success in this market.

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But I think we're told that that's

a bad thing, and it's just not.

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It's not a bad thing.

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It's just the reality.

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It's actually a very, very

good and healthy thing.

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The anti-hustle culture out there

says that if it doesn't feel easy,

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if your business doesn't always

feel good, that something's wrong.

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But wanting something is not the

same as working for it, and desiring

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is not a business plan, right?

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I think sometimes we fall into a trap,

intentionally or otherwise, that when

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things are hard, when you're having to

work hard or you're in a hard season,

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that means you did something wrong.

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I mean, ask me how I know.

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This message is as much

for me as it is anyone.

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But is that actually true?

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When you're having to work

hard, is that a bad thing?

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Or is that just something

you've been conditioned to

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believe about your practice?

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That just because you want it, you get it?

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Now, wanting it is the first step,

100%, but it doesn't stop there, right?

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So just because you want something or just

because something was easy does not mean

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it's gonna get you where you wanna go.

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Just wanting or just doing the

bare minimum isn't necessarily

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gonna get you where you wanna go.

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There's a lot of work there, right?

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There's a lot of intention and trying

and failing between wanting it and

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starting it and actually getting

the results that you're after.

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So maybe instead of hard meaning

that you did something wrong, maybe

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hard is literally the mechanism.

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When you rise to the occasion of

what your business is asking of you,

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maybe that's when the results follow.

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Maybe if you're doing the hard work, that

is exactly where you're supposed to be.

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If you showed me one hundred fully

booked therapists right now, I could

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show you one hundred people who had

persevered more times than they can count.

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Right?

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Who had laid awake at night

and thought about burning it

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all down and working at Costco.

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Again, ask me how I know.

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Who had considered if they'd done the

right thing and then chosen to keep going.

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You see on Instagram, you're scrolling

and you're seeing the people talk

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about their caseloads, you're seeing

them talk about their incomes.

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What you have no idea of, what you

can't see, are the eighteen months

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of uncertainty preceding this, right?

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The big pivot they had to

make in their practice.

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The huge leap of faith that they made.

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The old cringe website

that they started out with.

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Everything that got them to that point.

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And unfortunately, I mean, we all know

some of the pitfalls of social media.

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I'm not telling you anything new.

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But I think right now we're at risk of

seeing these things and believing that if

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we're not there yet, or if it doesn't feel

a certain way on our way to those results,

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that we have done something wrong.

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But when you compare your beginning,

your middle, to that person on

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Instagram's current chapter of having

a two hundred and fifty thousand

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dollar practice or whatever it is,

you're seeing the movie trailer.

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You're seeing the sexy

attention-getting thing.

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You didn't see the movie.

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You didn't see the plot twist and the

ups and downs that led there, right?

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And you know this.

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Again, I know you know this.

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But starting a practice right now

is easier than ever to get started.

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It's easier than ever to get a website.

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The barrier to entry to open up an

online-only therapy practice, lower

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than it's ever been, and yet the effort

required to build a full-fee premium

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fee caseload is requiring something

new of today's therapist Easy to start

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is not the same as easy to succeed.

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And I think out there right now we're not

seeing that talked about honestly enough.

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The greatest skill in today's

most successful therapists,

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today's most successful business

owners, is perseverance.

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And I say skill here

intentionally, not trait.

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That is something that you exercise,

that you improve upon, right?

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You're putting in the reps.

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You're putting in the perseverance reps.

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Not when things are going awesome, but

when you're needing to keep your nose to

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the grindstone even when you're not seeing

the results yet, when you're needing

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to make investments ahead of time, when

you're needing to trust your ability

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and the fact that you're doing the right

thing even when it doesn't feel like it.

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Now, I hope this episode isn't coming

across as just Debbie Downer, because

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I've spoken to therapists in the last

month who have raised their rates to

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four hundred plus a session, who've

booked more clients in the last eight

143

months than they did in the last two

years, who are getting right-fit premium

144

pay clients even from Psych Today.

145

Like, all of these things

are available, right?

146

People making 10K months

who've never made them before.

147

It's absolutely still possible.

148

But I feel like the most kind thing

to do is to be honest about what those

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people had to do to get there, right?

150

And let's not lose sight of that.

151

Let's not let the message out there

that if you want it hard enough,

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you'll get it, keep us from the fact

that hard work is still required

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and that that work has shifted.

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The type of work you need to do now to

get clients is different than the hard

155

work you needed to do five years ago.

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But if you do it, the

results are still out there.

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And so, like, like I said, I

hope that's encouraging for

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you, not just all Debbie Downer.

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Nothing's wrong.

160

If things feel hard right

now, what if nothing's wrong?

161

What if nothing's broken?

162

What if you're actually

exactly where you need to be?

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Today, that is what builds

a successful practice.

164

I got an email last week as our

Confident Copy Live cohort was

165

wrapping up enrollment, and she

said that she was scared of AI.

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She said that she was worried that

she was gonna join Confident Copy

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and just be told to go use AI, 'cause

that's what everyone else was doing.

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And spoiler alert, that's definitely

not what happens at Confident Copy.

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But she really lamented the fact

that she's been going from therapist

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website to therapist website, and how

they're all saying the same thing.

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That's where that easy doesn't

equal effective is showing

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up, 'cause she's not wrong.

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You and I both know she's not wrong.

174

Websites are starting to sound identical.

175

And it makes sense because everyone has

access to the same easy tool, and because

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they want ease, and they want things

to just feel good, and they're looking

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for speed They rely on that easy tool.

178

They haven't added anything of their

own, or they don't know how to add

179

anything of their own, and the output

ends up being exactly the same.

180

But we know that being forgettable is the

most dangerous thing your practice can

181

be right now because that sea of sameness

is what your clients are wading through.

182

All of that output from those

therapists who are just running to

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AI for their websites is exactly what

your clients are reading right now.

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No wonder their skepticism is

higher than it's ever been.

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If all therapists are doing is using that

same easy tool and not adding anything

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of their own, then you're essentially

just making yourself a commodity, and

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people are going to make decisions

based on how cheap you are, where you're

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located, not fit and connection, which

is ultimately what they do actually want

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and what I want them choosing you for.

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I want people choosing you not

because you're the cheapest.

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Of course, I want clients choosing

you because you're the best fit

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for them When my husband and I got

married, we decided to invest in

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an Amish-built dining room table.

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We'd moved into this really beautiful

loft apartment in a really fun

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neighborhood in Philadelphia.

196

It was in an old factory.

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There was a spiral staircase,

and an exposed brick wall.

198

It was, like, the perfect place to

live as our, as our first place.

199

But we needed a table.

200

We had this tiny little dining room nook,

and we were there in the Northeast out

201

in Pennsylvania, where there are a lot

of really talented furniture makers.

202

So we came across one who built

a custom itty-bitty table for our

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tiny little nook there, where we

could, you know, have dinner and

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eat our meals and things like that.

205

And I have no idea how

much we paid for that.

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And the amount we paid

obviously isn't the point here.

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But we chose to invest in a craftsman

table, in people building something

208

with their hands, and we expected

something as a result of that, right?

209

We expected to pay more because of that.

210

We expected that it would

be a high-quality item.

211

We expected that it would last.

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That's a lot different than

the couch we bought from Ikea.

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All right?

214

And we did buy a couch from Ikea.

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We actually still own it.

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My husband is downstairs laying

on it as he's recovering from back

217

surgery because it's so stinking flat.

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It's literally just a piece of plywood

with a little bit of cushion on top, which

219

is apparently great when your back hurts.

220

But that table we bought is a lot

different than the Ikea couch.

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I want you to have a

craftsman-style practice.

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But what did that craftsman do in

order to be able to create that table?

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They learned the art.

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They practiced the art.

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They had to get better and better.

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They honed their craft.

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They probably made tables or other

things that didn't turn out right.

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They made mistakes.

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It didn't happen automatically.

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I want you to have a

craftsman-style practice.

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I want people to view you as a

craftsman-style practice, because it's

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when they do that that they are going

to be interested in paying your higher

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fees and, and whatever that might be.

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But there's work required there, right?

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We can't expect people to view you as the

craftsman-style clinician that you are and

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operate on Ikea-style marketing, and maybe

that's an entire podcast episode to come.

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But I mean this even beyond the website.

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I mean just your attitude and your

approach to how you're getting clients and

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what it takes to be successful out there.

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You can't become a craftsman-style

practice on Ikea-style marketing.

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Times have changed, right?

242

It's harder than it used

to be, point blank, 100%.

243

But the success that is available

to you, it's greater than ever.

244

The way that I view it, especially with

the onset of AI and things like that,

245

is I actually believe that this has

elevated the value of really, really,

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really high-quality, specialized therapy.

247

I actually think it's done a service when

it comes to your potential and what's

248

available to you as a clinician, but only

if you're able to rise to that occasion.

249

And rising to that occasion is going

to require more than just manifesting

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or just wanting to press the easy

button or just wanting it, right?

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Hanging a shingle and

expecting the clients to come.

252

You're gonna have to have some of

that tenacity and some of that grit,

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but that's how you hone a craft.

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You keep working at it.

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Mass-produced things, the IKEA

couch, they do their job, right?

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But no one's gonna pay a premium

for that, and I don't want you

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to be a dime-a-dozen practice.

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I want you to have one that is a

destination, something where I come

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to you expecting a high-quality

service that does something unique

260

and different and valuable in my life.

261

Now this could sound like I'm

poo-pooing AI, and if you know me,

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you know that that's not the case.

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I am not anti-AI at all.

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I'm all about using it wisely, right?

265

Increase efficiency, brainstorm, get

unstuck, operationalize, whatever.

266

But the danger here is

outsourcing the thinking, right?

267

A craftsman might still use power

tools, although I don't actually know

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if the Amish folks that, that built

our table used power tools, but, like,

269

those things are still available.

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Use the tools available to you, but

use them thoughtfully, and recognize

271

that we can't outsource the very thing

that people are going to choose you

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for, which is your ability to show

up in that room as the human that you

273

are with the skills that you have.

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We can't outsource that to a robot or

to anyone I hope I'm making sense here.

275

This is more just something that's kind

of been on my heart as I was having

276

conversations with clinicians in the last

week or two, but especially this year.

277

For a lot of clinicians I've

talked to, it's been a hard year.

278

They've noticed a slowdown in

inquiries, or they felt uncertain

279

in ways that they hadn't before.

280

And it makes so much sense to

doubt yourself, to question things.

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Of course it does.

282

But then what do you do with that?

283

Do you decide?

284

Do you assign value,

worth to the bad thing?

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Do you decide that because it feels

hard or because you're questioning

286

that something is wrong, that

you've done something wrong, that

287

success isn't available, that you

can't reach your goals, that it's

288

not possible to be successful?

289

Or do you take it as information?

290

Do you take it as a rep in

building your perseverance skill?

291

Do you recognize that the hard thing,

the hard season, is the mechanism to

292

become the therapist you want to be,

to build the practice that you want?

293

If you were to show me one hundred

fully booked therapists right now,

294

I couldn't show you a single one

who hadn't gotten there who had

295

gotten there taking the easy route.

296

Not one.

297

The success you want to see in

the practice that you're building,

298

the caseload or the premium rate,

the de-paneling, whatever that

299

might be, it's made of the hard

work you're putting in right now.

300

I think about seasons where things felt

really easy in my business versus ones

301

where things were harder, and I was having

to lean in a bit more, and then I came

302

out of and I look back on, on those.

303

Think of how much more satisfying that is.

304

The amount of connection and

satisfaction I've gotten out of

305

my business after coming through

hard seasons and persevering versus

306

coasting and hoping the results came,

it's completely different, right?

307

Easy right now doesn't equal effective.

308

Easy to start a practice doesn't

mean successful practice.

309

Easy to write a website

doesn't mean effective website.

310

We can apply this to literally

anything you're looking at.

311

But the heart of this episode really is

that the message you're seeing out there,

312

that if something's hard, it's broken, I

just don't think it's realistic or fair

313

or kind to be telling you that right now.

314

Now, are there things

that can make it easier?

315

Sure.

316

We love working with our done-for-you

clients and creating a website and

317

taking that off their plate, right?

318

We love when folks jump into Confident

Copy and finally have a process they can

319

follow and know why they're doing it.

320

They still gotta do it, but

knowing what you're doing, right?

321

There are-- absolutely use

the resources around you.

322

It's not that you just have to

sit and struggle and toil away

323

But getting where you wanna go,

let's be honest, it's gonna,

324

it's gonna take some work.

325

And in this market, that work

looks a little bit different.

326

So where might you be able to

differentiate yourself simply

327

by not taking the easy way?

328

Where could you be keeping your eyes

set on the ultimate goal that you

329

want instead of getting caught in

what feels difficult right now and

330

making meaning of it that isn't true?

331

Because you're building the reps, you're

building the skill, and that skill is

332

what's needed in order to create the

practice that you want As always, if

333

there's anything we can do to make it

easier while still supporting you in the

334

hard work, we're here to do that, whether

that's Confident Copy or our done-for-you

335

services or just this free podcast

336

Remember that easy to start is

not the same as easy to succeed.

337

And if there's hard work between

those two, between starting and

338

succeeding, then you're probably

exactly where you need to be.

339

I hope you know that you have someone

here in your corner cheering you on

340

and wanting you to be successful.

341

I'll see you in our next episode.