Your website can be strategically sound, professionally written, and technically converting—and still be missing the thing that makes the right clients choose you. In this episode, Anna explores why sounding like yourself isn't something you layer on top of good marketing. In today's market, it's part of the strategy.

Drawing from recent conversations with therapists—and one particularly meaningful compliment from a client's mom—Anna breaks down what happens when your copy is polished but doesn't feel like you, when it's attracting the wrong-fit clients, and when strategy and personality finally work together. She also walks you through a six-part self-audit to help you determine whether your website actually reflects the therapist clients will meet in the room.

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

1️⃣ Why strategic copy can still fall flat if your personality, voice, and point of view are missing.

2️⃣ How sounding more like yourself helps potential clients feel connection before they ever book a consultation.

3️⃣ Six simple tests to evaluate whether your website sounds like you and filters for the right-fit clients.

4️⃣ Why your unique approach and perspective are becoming some of your most important marketing differentiators.

Resources & links mentioned

• Episode 86: https://walkerstrategyco.com/show-notes/86
• Done-for-you copywriting, branding, and design 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.

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Happy September.

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What?

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September 2026.

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I mean, they tell you that as

you get older, time goes by

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faster and faster, but I didn't

believe it until I experienced it.

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What a wild year.

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I for one am glad to

leave the summer behind.

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July and August 2026 are

months I don't care to repeat.

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Personally, we, we went through a lot.

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My husband had not one but two back

surgeries in August which left him on

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strict bed rest for weeks on end, and me

handling, wrangling, caring for, keeping

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alive three humans our three little kids.

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Fortunately, my mom came out for a

bit and was the, the lifesaver that a

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mom can be in the middle of all this.

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But anyway, we, we find ourselves

here in September and looking

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at the rest of the year, right?

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We are at a time where many, many

clinicians experience an increase

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in inquiries, which hopefully your

practice is set up to receive.

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And it's funny talking about my

mom here because it was someone's

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comment from their mom that brought

on the idea for this episode.

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We wrote copy for a therapist in July,

and she launched her copy in August,

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and she got back to us this week

telling us that not only had she gotten

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four new clients since launching the

website and Psych Today profile that we

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had written for her, but that her mom

read her copy and it sounded like her.

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I mean, that's a crazy compliment, right?

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It's one thing for you to think something

feels good, but for your mom to reflect

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that back to you, someone who likely

knows you better than just about

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anyone, what a special comment, right?

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And this really got me thinking about

the fact that a lot of therapists

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think strategic and sounding

like them are a trade-off, right?

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You gotta pick one or the other, and

usually they're gonna pick strategic.

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Hello, right?

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But I actually think that

these are not at odds at all.

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In fact, I've had, I can count

at least three conversations in

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the last week at the time of this

recording that confirmed this for me.

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I talked to one therapist whose

copy was strategically sound.

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So she had that strategy bucket

totally filled, but it completely

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lost her in the process, and she

didn't know what to do about it.

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I talked to another one whose copy

was technically converting, but

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bringing in all of the wrong people,

and then one who got it right, right,

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and had them both true at once.

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So just in the last week, these three

therapists all wrestling with, "How

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do I make sure my website does what

it needs to do, and still makes sure

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that I'm showing up there," right?

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And this is something we talked about

really recently in our Perfectly Fine

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Website Problem workshop that we ran last

month in August, and the third rule we

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talked about when it comes to becoming

the obvious choice for premium fee clients

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right now is that people choose people.

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Right now, people choose people because

the Internet is drowning in marketing

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right now that sounds like there's

literally no one behind it, 'cause

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there actually might not be, right?

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And as a result, everyone's

skepticism is higher.

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And so it's that idea of being

unmistakable that we talked about in

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a recent episode, that the therapist

with caseloads of premium fee clients

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are the ones who are right now

impossible to mistake for everyone else.

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And you can't do that if

you're not bringing yourself

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into your marketing, right?

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You've likely been trained to downplay

your personality and your voice and

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your point of view, the whole blank

slate thing, right, in grad school.

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But the fact is that right now you

are your biggest differentiator.

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Now, what's interesting is that

credentials, modalities, having a

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niche of some kind used to be enough

to differentiate you because no one was

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that sophisticated in their marketing.

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And now we find ourselves

here in 2026, everyone's

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marketing is more sophisticated.

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Everyone has access to Claude

who can give you a strategy

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to Donald Miller's StoryBrand.

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Whatever it is, we've all

heard of these things.

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We're all used to it, and

as a result, what used to be

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differentiators are now table stakes.

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Having a solid website, I mean,

it was the whole basis of our

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perfectly fine website problem.

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You can have a perfectly fine website,

and it's still a problem because

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perfectly fine is table stakes these days.

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So if everyone around you has

the credentials and has at least

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semi-sophisticated marketing, then what

is actually left to choose between?

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You, your personality, your voice,

your point of view, the very things

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that cannot be copied, the very

things that make it unmistakable

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that there actually is a human behind

what this client is looking at.

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So the whole kind of thesis of this

episode that has come as a result of

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the conversations I've had recently,

is that your personality and your

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voice and sounding like you are not

a nice to have layered on top of

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good copy or good marketing strategy.

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They are the strategy.

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Okay, so here are the couple of scenarios

where I saw this play out, and I wonder

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if you see yourself in one of them.

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So one is when strategy

shows up without you.

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So I talked to a therapist who had

worked with a different marketing company

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who specializes in therapists and had

had her website written, and it was

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technically, strategically, totally sound.

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She paid a lot of money for it.

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It was professional.

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It had good structure.

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It hit the right points.

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Like, technically did what

website copy is supposed to do.

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But what she was kind of lamenting

is that it was missing her.

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It was missing her unique point of view

about the anxiety work that she does.

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It was missing her unique approach

when it comes to the kind of

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integrated, holistic approach that

she takes to her work with clients.

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So she read it, and she felt

like she wasn't showing up, and

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she recognized that her clients

would be seeing that too, right?

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We know that clients are looking

at a bunch of different websites,

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five, seven, nine other therapists'

websites, and she recognized.

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She had the insight to realize,

"Oh my gosh, this is what my

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clients were experiencing.

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They can read something that

is technically sound, but

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they have no idea about me.

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They aren't getting to know me,

and therefore they don't know if

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I'm the right therapist for them."

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And so I think this is a really great

example of the fact that strategy only

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copy can technically work, but it does not

build the kind of connection that makes

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someone choose you specifically, and I

want people choosing you specifically.

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I want people saying, "I looked

at a bunch of different websites,"

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or, "I don't care what your fee is.

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I want to work with you."

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And those are not pie in

the sky possibilities.

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Those are real life things that can

happen and that I hear happen in

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the therapists that we work with.

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Because technically fine is not the

same thing as connection, and people

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right now are desperate for connection.

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They want to know there's

a human behind it.

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I shared a stat recently in one of our

Facebook Live trainings that 68% of people

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regularly wonder whether the content

they encounter online is even real.

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Two-thirds of the people reading your

website are wondering if it's even real.

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Y'all, we cannot gloss over the

importance of this right now.

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Okay?

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Connection is critical and especially

in the industry that you're in,

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especially in the deeply relational

work that you do, people are craving

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it, and it's actually possible to

start creating that connection before

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people even get in the room with you.

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That's the beauty of a website done right.

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So that's the challenging rub here is that

you can do it right, check all the boxes,

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but still miss that one piece, that felt

piece that people are ultimately seeking.

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Okay, the second one that I wonder if

you see yourself in, the second scenario

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based on, again, a conversation I had.

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This is from a Confident Copy Live member.

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We just kicked off our final cohort

of 2026 last week, and so we had

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a great kickoff party where I got

to meet each of the clinicians and

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hear more about their niche and

their approach and things like that.

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And she shared something really,

really interesting, that her site

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is, by most measures, working.

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She is getting inquiries.

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Awesome.

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Cool.

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We could stop there, right?

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But what was actually wrong is that

these people aren't the right fit.

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So her website was doing a good job of

converting, but it was not attracting

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right-fit clients and blessing

and releasing those who weren't.

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Her copy, she could see, didn't reflect

her and where her niche had gone.

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It wasn't reflective of the

clinician she is today and the

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clients she wants to be seeing.

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We talk a lot about how good

websites, good copy should attract

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right-fit clients and also bless

and release those who aren't.

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We call that filtering.

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If your copy isn't correctly filtering,

then it's not working for you, even

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if the inquiries are coming in, right?

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'Cause marketing, good marketing, is not

just about generating inquiries, period.

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It's about generating the right inquiries.

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So your copy should be created in such a

way that the right-fit client is going to

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recognize themselves, and the wrong-fit

client is going to self-select out.

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They're gonna say, "Nope, that's

not the type of anxiety I'm

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experiencing," or, "Nope, that's not

the type of experience I want out of

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therapy," before they book a call.

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Can your website do that?

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Does it both attract

and bless and release?

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It's gotta do both to really do its job.

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Now, if you don't filter, if your website

doesn't do that for you, then every

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wrong-fit inquiry is time and energy and,

quite frankly, some disappointment, right?

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When in fact, that time and

energy could have gone towards

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someone who was the right fit.

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So a website that sounds like a

generic, sanitized version of you

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can work, but it doesn't necessarily

get the right clients for you.

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Now, here's that third scenario,

again, based on a conversation I had

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when both are happening, when there

is both strategy and personality.

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So a therapist came to us, and she

currently had a website using the

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SimplePractice website extension,

which you'll hear me say is better than

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nothing but is not gonna get you where

you wanna go, especially if you're a

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private pay therapist just because of

how limited you are in the number of

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pages and the formatting and what you

can share and what you can't there.

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It's just, it's not gonna do the

heavy lifting, and she knew that.

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She had it as sort of a placeholder.

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She'd actually purchased one of our

Squarespace templates, but she got the

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template, and she's like, "What do I say?

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Who am I?

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What is my niche?"

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She's kind of having all these existential

questions, and she wasn't getting

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the clients that, that she needed.

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So she came to us.

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She had the template.

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We got to know her on a really deep level.

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We provided recommendations and

consultation on what to focus on,

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how to position herself, whether or

not she should continue focusing on

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individuals or just lean into the

couple's work that she was enjoying,

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and created that copy for her.

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So she was able to easily drop it

into her Weld template, in this case,

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one of the templates from our shop.

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We also wrote her a new Psych

Today profile to coordinate with

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that updated copy, and she went

and launched it early in August.

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And then we heard from her in the

last week of August that she had

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gotten four new clients since those

things had gone live, and she was

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the one who said that her mom read

it and that it sounded like her.

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Again, I love when people get clients.

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I love that compliment from her mom.

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That really represents the fact that

because she brought herself into her

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marketing, it was actually turning into

the types of clients that she wanted.

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So remember, strategy and authenticity,

not necessarily a trade-off here, right?

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They can actually compound each other.

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They can serve one another, and that's

what makes good copy really, really good.

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Because we know that the specificity

of who this clinician was, her

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unique approach to her work with

couples, her unique approach to

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even her work with individuals

is what made the strategy work.

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I just don't think that a generic

version of that site would have produced

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those four right fit clients for her.

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So that's why the question I'd

really like you to ask yourself is

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not just, "Is my copy strategic?"

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But, "Is my copy strategic and me?"

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Okay?

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So I have six questions.

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I wanna do a little self-audit with you

as you look at your website to determine

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if this is doing what it needs to do.

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Okay?

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First is the read aloud test.

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Okay?

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I want you to pull up your homepage

or your about page right now, and

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I want you to read it out loud.

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Literally.

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In your office, by yourself, whatever

it might be, read it out loud.

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Is this something you would actually say?

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My guess is, based on some of the

conversations I have with you and the

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websites I read, the answer is no.

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Okay, good information.

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Move on to number two.

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This is a quick one.

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Pronoun check.

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Are you writing I or did

you write in third person?

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My friend, if you are writing

in third person, please go

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make that change right now.

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We've gotta have I, you, me language

happening in your website, right?

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We are establishing and initiating

a one-on-one conversation between

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you and your ideal fit client.

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We cannot do that if we're saying, "Jane

Smith, LCSW, is a therapist based in

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Nashville who is passionate about…"

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No, no, no, no, no.

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We've got to be talking like a

real person, as a real person.

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Okay?

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Next one is what I call the swap test.

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Could another therapist in your

niche paste this copy on their

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own site and it would still work?

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If yes, you're missing you.

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You are missing the you factor there.

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There are absolutely things you

do that other therapists do.

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There are absolutely parts of

your website most likely that

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could be applied to another

therapist's website and be relevant.

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But as a whole, it

should be unique enough.

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It should have such a differentiated

point of view that it doesn't

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actually apply to others.

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Okay, next up, the jargon test.

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Are you using too much clinical language?

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Are you overusing modality names?

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Are you trying to sound more professional,

buttoned up, LinkedIn bio style

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versus you talking in your own words?

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Okay, so look for jargon.

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Look for those words that your clients

themselves would not understand and

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therefore may just be intimidated

or confused by and replace them.

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Okay, next up, our friend or family test.

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Okay, call your mom just

like this therapist did.

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Have someone who knows you, who

knows you well, read it cold.

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Does it sound like you?

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Are they getting a sense of you

as a person and as a therapist as

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much as they know that part of you?

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Is that coming through?

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And then finally, the filtering test.

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This is my favorite one of

this entire list of six.

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Read your website as a wrong fit client.

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So hold in your mind someone who

is not the right fit, someone maybe

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you had to refer out or you got on a

consultation with you or disappointed

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by because it wasn't a good fit.

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Does anything here make

them self-select out?

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Or would just about anyone

think that they're a fit here?

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So again, hold in your mind a

wrong fit client and read your

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website through that lens.

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Are they able to self-select out?

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If not, your website is not doing

the filtering that it needs to Okay?

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So here's the thing.

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These six audits, the read aloud test, the

pronoun test, the swap test, the jargon

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test, the friend or family test, the

filtering test , if your website doesn't

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pass these, it's probably not 'cause

the strategy is wrong, but the strategy

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very well may be missing you here, okay?

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And that is critical right now.

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Again, people choose people.

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They are desperate for connection.

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They are desperate for personality, okay?

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And personality does not have to

come at the expense of strategy.

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Right now, you are your

biggest differentiator in

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the market that you exist in.

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You probably feel like there are

a ton of therapists around you.

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Most therapists that I know would say,

"Yes, my, my market is saturated."

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Right now, you sitting there in your

office, on your walk, in your kitchen,

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or wherever you're listening to this,

you are your biggest differentiator.

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You are your biggest opportunity

to stand out and to be chosen by

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the right fit clients for you.

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If your website is only strategic

and only has the bones of what is

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technically fine, then it is leaving

that advantage completely unused.

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If your website doesn't have strategy

or this, then we really need to talk,

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but you gotta have this piece, okay?

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If you saw as you went through that audit,

those six questions, those six tests,

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that there are gaps there, then maybe you

need a little distance from your work.

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It's one of the interesting things that

I often hear from the therapists that

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we write copy for is that they're too

close to the work that they do, that they

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don't know how to describe it anymore.

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They need someone to reflect it back to

them, which is one of my favorite things

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about our process is that we really deeply

get to know you, and then we're able to

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develop copy, share it back with you.

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And I even had a therapist tell me in

our copy review session yesterday, she

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said, "I wanna book with that therapist."

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I'm like, "Yes, that's what I want you to

experience when you read your website."

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Oh my goodness, that's who my clients

are choosing to work with, and

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holy cow, I kinda like her, right?

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That's what I wanna see happen.

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Now, our done-for-you services, our

copywriting, but certainly our design as

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well if you're looking for the visual and

aesthetic piece, this is about creating

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something that is both strategically

sound and genuinely like you.

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Okay?

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Both of those things together.

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I tell my team all the time we have

a very, very small team a handful of

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copywriters, a handful of designers

who are all deeply trained on the

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specific process we use for therapists.

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But we take a great care in

really deeply understanding you.

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I can tell you about Jenna.

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She's one of our copywriters.

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She was working with a clinician, we're

about to share the copy with her later

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this week, who is pretty academic.

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Very, very, very, very well-trained.

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Really knows her niche, is very,

very confident in her approach.

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She's a clinical psychologist.

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And Jenna had the forethought, after

meeting this therapist and understanding

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the work that she does and how she

wants to be perceived and how her

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ideal clients are making decisions,

to remove contractions from her copy.

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So rather than can't,

cannot, that kind of thing.

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And there are a couple places we still

used them, but I was reviewing the

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copy that Jenna had written, 'cause I,

I review everything that we write for

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our clients, and I was like, "Oh my

gosh, I could hear her saying this."

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So we really sit with you.

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We really sit with your approach,

your voice, and also what matters to

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your clients, how they're gonna make

decisions about their therapist, and

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then we craft copy that literally

should sound like what you say.

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Now, we have a revision

process, and we always value the

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collaboration with clients to

get our copy to its final state.

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But it's really, really incredible to see

what happens when you get a little bit

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of distance from the work that you do and

you have someone else reflect back to you

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what makes you different, why you're good

at what you do, what type of experience

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you offer, and then for it to feel

like, oh yeah, that's exactly it, right?

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That's why I love our

done-for-you services.

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Now, of course Confident Copy, our

templates, our other great resources.

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In the case of the, the client whose

mom loved her copy, she had purchased

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one of our templates and was able

to plug the copy that we wrote in

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for her and get those clients using

the, the template that we'd created.

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So if you're someone who is more kind

of, you know, gonna bootstrap it and

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that sort of thing, then awesome, DIY it.

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But DIY it knowing that at least the

strategy's there, and then don't forget

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to bring yourself into it, right?

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Make sure that whatever you create

can pass that self-audit, those six

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tests that we just went through.

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If you're interested in chatting

about our done for you services,

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please book a call with me.

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Yes, actually me.

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Sometimes people are like, "Oh, I

thought I was gonna get someone else."

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I'm like, "Nope, it's me."

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But if you wanna sit down and chat about

whether our done for you copy, design,

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branding services would be right for

you, I would love to get to do that.

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Head over to

walkerstrategyco.com/services.

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You can take a look at some of

our packages and schedule a call

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based on your availability there.

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We are, at the time of this recording,

beginning to book into October

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and November, so if that's a good

timeframe for you, get on our schedule.

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If you're looking at the new year, we

could also book out further from there.

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So now is definitely the time to be

thinking about that, especially as, like

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I mentioned at the top of the episode,

we're getting into September, we're

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getting into this busier season, and then

we're gonna get to the top of the year

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where we have yet another traditional

influx of inquiries and things like that.

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Whatever it is that you do, please

bring yourself into your copy.

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Please, please, please bring

yourself into your copy and don't

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let strategy sanitize what makes you

different right now, which is you.

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Which is your unique approach, your point

of view, and the really, really, really

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incredible work you do when you're in

the right room with the right clients.

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I'll see you in our next episode.