You’d think that after creating hundreds of blogs, podcasts and YouTube videos between us, my friend and counsellor Sarah Dosanjh and I would have this content creation thing pretty much sorted by now.

You’d be wrong.

Recently, we’ve both missed some of our usual publishing dates, which got us talking about consistency, what keeps us creating after all these years and, more importantly, why we’re still doing it.

Because yes, creating useful content can help people find you and ultimately bring you clients. We are running businesses, after all.

But what if that isn’t actually the best reason to keep doing it?

In this episode, Sarah and I chat about what we’ve both learned after years of creating content, why finding something you actually enjoy matters, and the surprising things you can get back from the content you put out into the world.

We also get into what happens when you miss a week (apparently my brain goes to ‘IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF THE END?’ while Sarah worries about being punished by the YouTube algorithm), why Thursday mornings are officially a ‘no Jane’ zone and the important role £1.49 unlimited Wetherspoons coffee can play in getting things done.

It’s basically two friends who’ve been doing this for years comparing notes on what actually keeps us coming back.

And I think you might look at creating content a little differently after listening.

A huge thank you to Sarah for coming on and having this conversation with me. I always love talking to her, and I think there’s something reassuring about admitting that even after years of creating content, neither of us has got it all perfectly sorted. And actually, I’m not sure that’s even the aim.

And, seeing as Buy Me a Coffee actually came up in our conversation, it would be slightly ridiculous of me not to mention it now, wouldn’t it?

So yes, if you enjoy the podcast and you fancy buying me a coffee as a little thank you, you absolutely can right HERE.

And I promise to spend it responsibly.

By which I obviously mean on coffee.

About Sarah Dosanjh

Sarah Dosanjh is a psychotherapist and author of the bestselling book I Can’t Stop Eating, which is now also available on Audible.

After her own recovery from binge eating disorder she has gone on to specialise in helping others do the same.

And she's a busy women! She has recently trained to be an ADHD coach, and will receive her accreditation soon. She's appeared on various media outlets such as BBC Breakfast, Sky’s Roundtable and BBC Radio One, and has amassed over 3 million views on YouTube.

AND she has an online course starting soon:

Sarah has a new six-week live online course starting on 9th September called Wired to Binge?, which explores the connection between ADHD and binge eating or feeling out of control around food. So if that sounds relevant to you, or perhaps to someone you know, you can find out more on Sarah’s website, thebingeeatingtherapist.co.uk.

Connect with Sarah:

YouTube

Instagram

Facebook

Life After Diets Podcast

And our conversation went somewhere that I think is much more useful than, "You just need to be more organized," because the question isn't simply how do I make myself more consistent? Perhaps there's a much more important question to ask first''

Hi, I'm Jane Travis, and welcome to the Grow Your Private Practice show, where we talk about how to get found by the right clients and grow your private practice without making marketing any more complicated than it needs to be. Because marketing isn't just about knowing what you should be doing, it's about finding ways to keep showing up in a way that works for you, your business, and more importantly, your actual life.

So let's get started.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back. Now, today I'm joined by my friend Sarah Dosanjh, who is known as the binge eating therapist. Now, she's the woman behind the Binge Eating Therapist YouTube channel, the author of the book I Can't Stop Eating, which is now available on Audible as well, so you can listen to it in the car, and she's been on BBC TV, BBC Radio.

She delivers training and courses, and she's a speaker. She's, she, she pretty much knows what she's talking about now. Now, Sarah's been creating blogs and videos for years. So when we discovered that we've both been having some very similar thoughts about consistency recently, I thought, "You know what? I think we need to have a conversation about that," and that's exactly what we did.

So let's get into it

And it sounds really boring, doesn't it? It sounds, oh, consistency, I've got to do something regularly. That sounds really boring. But I think sometimes when we look into it a bit more closely, we can see why we might do that. So we're gonna have a little bit of a look at that.

But I, I wonder as well that sometimes with the marketing, whether there might be that trap of, okay, I need to do loads of marketing, and then I'm, then I've done, then I'll arrive once- Yeah ... everything is, like, super successful. And, and this is all about the process stuff, isn't it? And if we don't get the process stuff, we're not in a place where we can be motivated by the process, we're gonna have a really hard time sticking it.

So I didn't go and go and write, "I have to get this number of subscribers." I didn't start it thinking, right, this is gonna be my thing and I'm gonna do it for years, or... My only goal, it was a very process goal of I'm gonna do it weekly, and then I'll see how I feel. And then it just so happens that I have learnt a lot and really enjoyed the process, and that's why I can still do it, because I still enjoy making the content

There are so many ways people can choose to, you know, so many types of marketing, and, you know, there are just numerous, numerous different ways of doing it. But it's finding something that you actually enjoy the process of, and that is the thing that brings the consistency, 'cause you, you enjoy it. So for me, when I do my blogging or my podcasting, I like that creative part of it.

I like thinking about the stories I can share, and if I can share, something that's slightly off the beaten track so that people can sort of think, you know, think about it and think about something from - slightly different point of view. And I get an enormous amount of pleasure of sort of thinking about things and sharing them in slightly different ways that help people to find their own way into doing it.

So for me, I've always enjoyed that, and I've always loved English. I've always enjoyed writing. So obviously... And also because I'm an introvert, writing is a perfect, you know, perfect vehicle for me. You're very different though, aren't you?

How do you then... I'm, I'm just curious how you would normally work with that. I might be a bit off-piste, but I'm wondering if some people listening would be like, "It's all very well listening to you guys talking about creating all these things, but I'm not sure that's what I wanna do from a marketing perspective."

Mm-hmm. And I think there's a lot to be said for an experimental mindset of saying, "Look, I'm gonna give it a go. I'm not gonna half... You know, I'm not, like, gonna, like, half-ass it. I'm gonna really go for it, learn as much as I can about it, give it a real good go, and then at the end I'm gonna just review it and think, right, do I enjoy it?

Is it something I want to keep learning? Is it something I, get s- out of myself, you know? Is, is it something that... Or am I actually hating it? You know, do I actually hate doing reels or something like that, but I've started doing them because I feel like I have to?" Yeah. But then you can make a proper decision based on the knowledge of how you actually feel about it.

I think that's the most important thing.

That's your way of expressing something. The, the challenge is I think when people get really in their heads about it, 'cause comparison comes in, impostor syndrome comes in, all of those things too. And so what you're doing when you're creating something, you might be going, "Okay, yes, I wanna be able to build a practice, I wanna make sure I always have enough clients," and all of that kind of thing too.

But you're also offering a service And this part I don't know that gets spoken about as much, but when you... That, for me, is actually a really motivating part of it. People that will never work with me that leave comments and stuff that will say things like, "I've recovered thanks to your channel," or, "This was exactly what I needed to hear today," or, "How are you in my head?"

Whatever it is that they say, each one of those is like a little like a, ah. Yeah. You know it. I know 'cause we've shared it before. When you've got an email from someone or someone's bought you a coffee on that Buy Me a Coffee thing, details below, I assume if people want to buy you a coffee. Like, how nice it feels to know that you've done something that's meant something to someone else, and then selfishly they have like a, m- me- my perspective, they then have like a positive image of me, which does just, it feels nice.

I'm a human being. Mm-hmm. That also feels nice.

You know? Have people that want to become clients and know that they'll get an... They'll get the impression of you and think, "Yeah, I'd like to work with them." And they can do that all within this place where you're not having to be all sales-y and weird and, "Oh, come to me," and, you know, you don't have to do it in a way that feels just really icky.

And let's face it, most counselors absolutely hate that idea that they have to in some way sell themselves.

Mm. it feels... It do- does, doesn't it? It feels so good when you get something like that. It feels just amazing.

but as well as I think that I would even argue the case that sticking to something like doing a podcast, right, you could count that as CPD. CPD is continual professional development. It doesn't have to be formal training. And I would say I have developed more in my thinking as a psychotherapist developing the way that I work through the time I've spent making my videos, breaking these concepts down, 'cause when I'm doing that, I'm learning.

Mm-hmm. So it could be for someone else that part of the payoff, if you like, or one of the motivating things is that they learn a lot- When they're creating content and putting something together. There are so many, like, personal and professional benefits to be had by having a stab at some of this stuff, and not forcing yourself into going, "I'll do it forever."

I think another one, and you, maybe you hear this sometimes, Jane, is that people feel like they missed the boat or it's too late to start now There's always something new going on. Mm. You know, Substack isn't even that old. That came out not that long ago, and so if you like essay writing and blogs, Substack is a really good, you know, shout.

there's always new stuff coming up that you can get in.

Genetic? Generic.

Generic.

And you can, you can share maybe, examples of how this might look in real life, and that's powerful. I don't work very well with, like, a therapeutic idea. I work well... I, I used to, go... I had my TA training over at the Burn Institute in Nottingham, and it had Adrian Lee working then. She was, she was a brilliant storyteller.

I can remember all of her stories. She used to tell these fantastic stories. And when she told her stories, it really made everything real to me, and that's why I love this idea of find a little way, just a little bit of a story and put it in a certain, in your own words. And it helps the person that's, like, listening to you or reading what you're writing about to, to think about how, how it is for them, rather than some, like, big, deep therapy idea.

It's like, "Oh, well, maybe that's why I keep apologizing all the time," or, you know, or whatever the thing is.

Yeah. I might have heard someone say something in a certain way six months ago. I hear it in a very similar way said again, but it's what I need, 'cause we just need that constant reminder about so many things, especially when it comes to our mental health, which is what, you know, therapists are supporting clients with a lot of that time.

She's had a full break from it, and she decided to set up a new account where she was just talking about where she currently is in life, which is in this transition place where she feels like she's left, a big part of herself and her life behind, but she doesn't quite know what the next thing is. A lot of people can relate to that, right?

And so she said the other day she just chatted, did, like, a 15-second reel, chucked some words over the top of it, talking about how she was feeling, and it got 60,000 views.

So I don't know how that squares with being able to go and share. I know how I feel about it. I'm just wondering how you feel about it when you're talking about somebody who goes out there and shares that sort of stuff.

You could be, use the example of a psychodynamic therapist. Obviously, they're different types, but yeah, for the traditional psychodynamic therapist, they might love working with attachment. That might be the topic that lights them up when it comes in the room. So they can talk about an attachment through, like, just being so interested in what they're talking about as opposed to, I don't know, let's take something like ADHD is a big topic, but let's say ADHD isn't something that's touched your life much.

It's not a topic that particularly hooks you, but you think, "Oh, I should be making ADHD content because everyone's talking about ADHD." I would, I would always urge against that 'cause I just can't imagine doing it that way myself. Mm. So I think there's a way to be authentic and really connected to what you're saying that doesn't mean you're disclosing loads of stuff about your personal life if that's not what you wanna do.

It's like you get into your flow. You, you find the place where you're interest... And when you're interested, creativity flows as well and all of that. Mm. And to be able to express your creative side in this, 'cause if you're only doing this kind of marketing stuff, 'cause, "Oh, I have to get clients, I have to get clients.

Let me get a blog out, let me get a blog out," and you haven't tapped into your creativity at all, that's gonna feel like a slog.

But because they've got that placement, it's like, "Well, I've got all these skills now. I've got experience and skills, so I'm gonna make that the thing that I wanna work with." But it's not necessarily the thing that they're really interested in. Mm-hmm. So a- again, it becomes, it becomes forcing yourself to do something when y- you don't really want to.

It's like, it's like forcing yourself to do a hobby that you didn't wanna do. Mm-hmm. It's just not gonna work, is it?

for me, I would just check out how that feels. Like, let's say use the bereavement placement example. Okay, how would I feel about talking about bereavement for the next couple of years if that was the predominant thing? And to imagine it, and to just notice what the reaction is inside of you. And we just take a beat to be with that and how that feels and lean into it.

I think most of us would get a sense of like either a, "Oh yeah. Actually, yeah, yeah," or a, "Mm. Mm," like resistance. You're gonna feel resistance if that's not what you wanna do.

That can change, When we know why we're doing it, like you say, it's not that we're saying, "Right, I have to do a blog so that I can tick it off 'cause I said I'd do a blog every month, and therefore I've got to do it. Whether I want to do one or not, you know, I'll do the, the most basic blog that I have to so that I can tick it off."

whereas if you turn it around and think, right, why am I doing th- this, then that... I suppose that's where the- we can start talking about having that passion.

Mm. So let's say it starts off with you look at how to market your private practice. So your original motivation was you wanna go out and get more clients Well, what happens if you're, you're full? You're full for a couple of weeks, does that mean that you just stop everything?you can if that's what you want, but as we know, clients will move on and they'll progress, and clients will leave.

And so needing that steady stream of clients to come in is important as well. I, I love the idea as well as just, and you know, you and I are in that position because we've been doing this for a while now, is that we have a back catalog of content that people can go to. So let's say, I don't know, a therapist starts blogging, and they've written 20 blogs, and they're not really sure if it's really getting them more clients or not, but then someone finds them and they go to their website, and they see all these blogs, all these things that they've written.

It... I think it gives you a certain amount of credibility, regardless even of the quality of the content you're creating . It's a certain credibility, I think, when someone's created, been out there creating stuff. I'm... I think as a client I would find that really appealing. Mm. I'd get a sense of them through that.

You know, do they pass the armchair chat? Armchair chat, armchair chat, the armchair test. I never realized that was difficult to say before.

I'm not very into SEO, but it's s- it's such a good thing, you know. It's basically every blog that goes out there is saying to Google, "Hey, look what I'm doing. Show this to people, 'cause people are gonna find this useful," so yeah. And you build followers as well. So not everybody's going to become a c- a, a client, but like I say, well, like we were saying at the beginning, like you were saying at the beginning, when you get somebody who emails you and says, "God, that...

It was like you were in my head, it was like you were talking to me. I really needed that today," you know, you're, you're then getting that really good feeling of actually I am helping people, whether they become a client or not, and that feels really good. That feels really good.

I was given her details. She gave me that information just for free and was really lovely about it. And then that meant when I was actually looking for somebody who did her services, she's the one I thought of straight away- Mm ... because she offered me something for nothing. I know that's a bit different to marketing, but if you're putting things out there, you'll get messages from people who are asking you things.

I had one the other day from someone who said, "I'm really stuck about where to start," and blah, blah, blah. And of course, it's quite hard for me to give direct advice over email, and I don't wanna be in a back and forth, but I sent her a kind email back, and I suggested a couple of my videos that might tie in with the kind of thing that she was talking about.

And she sent me a lovely message back. She said, "I appreciate that so much." She goes, "Whenever I've reached out to professionals before, the first thing they've tried to do is to sell me their services." Mm. She goes, "And you didn't mention that at all."

you know, it's probably quite likely she's gonna think of me.

The thought of somebody emailing them for advice might feel like that that takes energy from them or encroaches on their, you know, sort of professional boundaries in a way.

It's not their place to even talk to people in that particular way. I know there are, are counselors out there that will have something in their, like, their, their bio that they can't give ad- give advice or anything like that. But when somebody does contact you and says, "Oh, you know, I'm struggling with this particular thing," then you can share a blog with them or a, a podcast or a YouTube video or whatever to say, "Well, actually, I've talked about something similar."

Or you could even share somebody else's blog- Mm ... or somebody else's podcast or somebody else's YouTube and say, "Well, you know, I follow this person. They're very interesting, and they did something. This might be really helpful for you." So it's, it's just, again, a, a way of just helping people, and then they'll remember that.

And again, you'll get that fee- that good feeling as well.

Do you know who that was?

But what I've noticed, 'cause I've gotten that routine with doing my YouTube videos, is there are times where, you know this, before, an hour before I'm gonna record it, I don't even know what I'm gonna talk about yet. And I often find that just going through the motions, I have my little Thursday morning rituals.

It's my no Jane time. I don't talk to Jane because, you know.

Mm, 90% of the time the ideas start coming. And I think sometimes as well, waiting for, going like, "Oh, I don't know what I'm gonna talk about," actually taking some time to really think about that and go, "Let's just produce something, even if I don't put it out there." 'Cause the act of starting to produce it, like switches something in the brain, and the brain starts offering more.

So I suppose it's about finding your own way of doing it. I love your idea of like every Thursday I know that I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna go through this process. I think that's a really, really nice way of doing it. But we all have our different ways of doing it, I guess, don't we? So again, it's down to that experimental thing about learning what works for you, because there isn't a right or wrong.

And, and this I think is part of the, being able to do it consistently as well, is it's that line between what do you wanna talk about, write about, produce, versus what's gonna be helpful to other people.

It's not even so much, oh, I just don't want to. I don't feel like I have enough investment to really have anything more to say than someone wouldn't find out on Google.

Like, for me, I like, I like creating little stories and, you know, finding that thing that makes it not just a, "Oh my God, I've got to do some marketing today."

It's kind of a tick, tick, tick situation, isn't it?

And I think, you know how our brains can kind of be cued, as in C-U-E-D? When I wrote my dissertation, I wrote it in the Wetherspoons in Acton, in London. Posh. And, yeah, super posh. You could go there for £1.49 unlimited coffee, and it was good coffee, and I'd go there 9:30 in the morning. I think it opened pretty early.

And because I was so used to when I went there, what I did was I worked, my br- I'd walk in and my brain would just switch gear- Mm ... and it was ready to go, whereas I'd find that much harder to do in my own environment.

of like it gets my brain ready. It gets my brain going before I even know what I'm gonna talk about.

We've done it a lot. Do you, how do you feel if you miss one? 'Cause what happened for me when I've, I've missed one a while ago, it's in the, in the heatwaves I found that I just couldn't work. Yeah. And it's, I just can't. My brain just can't, can't do it. And I'd, I'd like to always have a couple already done in, in-

in hand. I've always wanted to do that, and so has my editor. He would like that as well. but I just can't seem to do that because I, I do it and I record it, and then I think, "Should have said this," and then I have to do the whole thing again. So I find that I just, you know, do it more as m- as I do it. If that kind of makes sense.

But I did, I felt guilty. I thought, "No, I'm supposed to do this every week." And that, that, that consistency I was so proud of. I'm not particularly a consistent person, but I had that consistency and that- that felt so important to me, and I felt like really, just really proud of it. So the fact that recently, 'cause like l- last week I didn't do it.

As you know, my dog's not been very well and I just didn't. 'cause things happen, don't they? Mm. Things just happen. But I did, I felt... The first time I felt really guilty. I thought I could have done it. I could have, I could have pushed through the fact that I was just a massive puddle and couldn't think of anything to say.

but I've kind of come, come to terms with it a little bit now for exactly the reason that we've talked about, that I've got 260 episodes out there and they're still out there and people still listen to them, like, you know, week in, week out. So it made me just really appreciate that. Mm-hmm. The, the body of work sort of pays you back in the end, doesn't it?

'Cause there was one time, for the first time except when I'd gone to India for a month and I couldn't do it, but there was one time not that long ago this summer where I missed two weeks in a row because I was actually really struggling with my energy and my focus. And then I was nervous 'cause I was thinking, "What if I can never do this again?"

Like, what if when I go to it I've lost the capacity to connect and engage with it in the way that I want to?but fortunately that's not been the case. Mm. But that's it. It's always like algorithm, algorithm will punish me, or this is the point where I, I somehow get out of the pattern and the habit and I'm never able to do it again.

You're not supposed to try a hobby and just stick with it forever. You're supposed to try different things. But I think I got a little bit of that criticism of, "Oh, you never stick with anything," you know. "We pay for this and then y- you ne-..." And I think I had a bit of a story similar to you of I can't keep things going.

I can't, I can't do this. So that pride I had of, right, this is something I'm doing consistency made me, it gave me a real buzz that, like, look I'm... Look at this, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. And then when I stopped I think there was a part of me that's like, "Is this the beginning of the end?"

There's something happening-

yeah, it's just fantastic. Love it.

Are you alluding to the fact that in a f- couple of weeks time I'm doing an ADHD and binge eating course?

It doesn't have to be s- exactly binge eating, but if you feel like you're feeling quite out of control with food. and then come along 'cause a few of us, we're gonna get together and explore this intersect between ADHD and binge eating 'cause it's a huge topic. There was,research not that long ago which identified that 30% of people who have binge eating also have ADHD.

So-

So a huge thank you to Sarah for coming on and having this conversation with me. I always love talking to Sarah, and I think there's something reassuring about admitting that even after years of creating content, that neither of us got it all perfectly sorted. And actually, you know, I don't think that's really the aim of the game anyway.

Now, as I mentioned in the podcast, Sarah has a new six-week live online course that starts on the 9th of September, and it's called Wired to Binge. And in it she's gonna explore the connection between ADHD and binge eating or feeling out of control around food. So it doesn't matter if you've not been, diagnosed or might be that you just have a feeling that, you know, you recognize some of the symptoms.

I think this might be something interesting to check out. So if that does sound relevant, or perhaps you know somebody, you can find out more on Sarah's website, which is the bingeeatingtherapist.co.uk .co.uk. I'll put all of the details in the show notes as well so you can go and check it out.

And seeing as buy me a coffee actually came up in our conversation, it would be slightly ridiculous of me not to mention it now, wouldn't it? So if you've enjoyed this podcast and you fancy buying me a coffee as a little thank you, then you absolutely can. I'll put that link in the show notes too, and I promise to spend it responsibly.

And by that, I obviously mean I'll buy myself some coffee. So that's it for today. Like I say, if you have enjoyed it, remember to click follow so that you keep, up to date with all of the episodes. And thank you so much for listening, and I hope to see you next time. Take care. Bye bye