Most practice owners have stumbled through the maze of marketing, often feeling like they're navigating without a map.
This episode promises a wealth of actionable advice designed to attract more clients and amplify your practice's success. Owner of Tricycle Creative, Ross Herosian, shares how to establish a clear marketing plan, utilize 'push' and 'pull' strategies effectively, and use content creation to grow your therapy practice.
Tricycle Creative
Marketing Clarity Podcast
Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
Most practice owners have stumbled through the maze of marketing, often feeling like they're navigating without a map.
This episode promises a wealth of actionable advice designed to attract more clients and amplify your practice's success. Owner of Tricycle Creative, Ross Herosian, shares how to establish a clear marketing plan, utilize 'push' and 'pull' strategies effectively, and use content creation to grow your therapy practice.
Tricycle Creative
Marketing Clarity Podcast
Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
Most practice owners struggle when it comes to marketing themselves or their business. I mean, it's not something they really teach you when you're getting your degree, and it can feel uncomfortable trying to focus on sales and bringing clients in. It can feel almost counterintuitive or selfish or self-serving. Well, it's super important that we put ourselves out there in a way that can draw people in, that can get people the help that they need, and we wanna make sure we're doing it in the right ways. Today, I invited my friend, Ross Hiroshin, the owner of Tricycle Creative, to come in and talk to us about ways to market yourself and your practice so that you can draw in more people and the right kinds of people.
Craig Dacy:My name is Craig and I'm the CEO of Desi Financial Coaching. Our goal is simple and I'm the CEO of Desi Financial Coaching. Our goal is simple to help you run a therapy practice that is permanently profitable. If you own a solo or group practice, we're here to help you build a business that creates more time, makes more money and serves more people. This is the Therapy Business Podcast. Ross Hiroshin, thank you so much for joining on the pod. How are you doing?
Ross Herosian:I'm excited. This is exciting for me, excited, huh, as someone who works with you.
Craig Dacy:You don't even know that you're going to get the third degree today, I wouldn't get too excited.
Ross Herosian:This is a God piece. You are.
Craig Dacy:This is a God piece.
Ross Herosian:This podcast existing is proof positive to everyone out there that if you guilt someone enough, that perhaps something can be done. Now I don't know if that's the best marketing message to put out there, but just just guilt them to be hiring you is you know you're probably right, probably not the way to start with the therapists out there, but it is true. It took me about a year and a half. This is always on your radar and I'm very happy that this is a thing that I'm also honored to uh to be a part of it.
Craig Dacy:Well, awesome I'm. I'm glad you had. You've been pushing me for a couple of years now to start a podcast. So here we are, to our tens of listeners out there coming into your phones and earbuds. Ross, tell them I know who you are, but give us just a little couple of minutes snapshot into who you are, what you do about your business, Tricycle, Creative, everything.
Ross Herosian:That'd be a strange choice to have me on if you didn't know who I was. Yeah, so my name is Ross Erosion. I am the founder of Tricycle Creative and what I do is I'm a marketing coach for usually what I call solopreneurs. So those people who started their business are, you know, sometimes and oftentimes doing everything in the business, and marketing is one of those things that, more often than not, these people struggle with. And what I do is quite simply and why I call my company Tricycle Creative is really come in and create the training wheels so help to grow my clients' knowledge, expertise, know-how.
Ross Herosian:I know people out there may be saying, well, I'm never going to be a marketing expert and I don't come in with that expectation, but marketing is a pivotal aspect of any business and having an understanding of that is really important. And in many cases, what I do is work with a out of college because they're creative. I'm using air quotes now, no social media right and, let's be honest, they tend to be cheaper. But the problem is those hires can be tricky because if you're not the captain of the marketing ship, you're not really sure how to lead it properly, and so that's the gap that I feel I come in and I, I um, train up junior marketers, I expand their skills, I implement strategy from my at this point, oh my God decades of experience of marketing. My God, that makes me sound old saying that, um, and and so I help fill expertise gaps for small businesses and solo printers.
Craig Dacy:Love it, I love doing it Good, I think, and you know, the clients we work with in the therapy world are either typically small group practices you know, in less than 5 million a year in revenue and we also work with a ton of single therapists who are wanting to become group practice owners. But typically in either of those buckets the business owner is one running the show with the marketing. They are trying to do all of it. They don't. No one teaches you when you go to get your, your degree and you get licensed. It's no one's like oh, and here's how you promote and create content and get yourself out there create a post in wordpress, exactly no one
Craig Dacy:tells, and so you know I think there's a lot of discomfort there. Therapists typically become therapists because they have a passion for the work of therapy, and marketing is just one of those. Just like I've loved coaching people, it wasn't. I didn't get into this because I'm like, yeah, I really want to get on sales calls and and promote myself, so I think it can be a foreign thing. And then, even to your point, as they grow and get bigger, I've seen a lot of group practice owners hire out those junior marketers or hire out somebody and put their full faith in them and spend a lot of money on it and then just are frustrated because they don't understand what's going on. They don't see any fruits from their labor. They feel like they're shelling out money and it's not doing anything.
Ross Herosian:So there's a huge element in all of that around the and I hear this a lot on sales calls and conversations I have is that you don't know what you don't know when it comes to marketing Right and that same could be said of me of therapy, being a therapist right Anything that's outside of your kind of realm of knowledge. When you come into it, you're, like I, acknowledging even the blind spots, Like I know I don't know SEO, but there's a whole world of stuff that I don't even know exists. I don't even know what it is Right, and so that very often is an aspect of the first call, the, the initial conversations I have with business owners, you know um is more often than not than not. They don't know where to start, and that's always been my, really just my guiding principle of starting Tricycle Creative is providing, because I, you know, I spoke with enough entrepreneurs over the years where I kept hearing the same thing. You thing I kept hearing that they didn't know where to start. I kept hearing that, understandably, they didn't have the expertise, they didn't have the knowledge, they didn't have the skillset. I kept hearing the same things over and over again and I guess, like any good marketer, when you hear that you create a solution, and so that solution is something that actually you and I did when we started and that's my marketing clarity program and that is like the number one starting place for small businesses that the dozens and dozens I've worked with over the years is.
Ross Herosian:You, you don't know, you can't figure out where to spend money, you can't figure out where to spend resources and, most importantly, you can't figure out where to spend your energy If you don't have a plan right. I like to tell people yes, we all know there's only so many hours in the day, but what a lot of people don't realize is there's only so much energy that you have in the day. But what a lot of people don't realize is there's only so much energy that you have in the day, and oftentimes it is less than the eight hours of work right. I probably have, if I'm being honest, probably about five to five and a half hours of good energy in a day to work. I do listen, I'm going to own it.
Ross Herosian:There's like two to three hours in there where I'm like I can get stuff done. But oh, sometimes it's a little tough, you know, and I think that understanding that and understanding that, particularly with marketing, is going to be something that they're not familiar with. There's a learning curve. You don't know what to do. I mean if, if you're applying those hours to something you know and you love, flies by, but then if you apply, have to apply some of it to time that like you're struggling, or you don't know what to do, of course you're going to get frustrated. Of course, and I and so many of my clients come to me after hitting that frustration point where it's like I tried this, I tried this. I'm really frustrated and you know, my thing is, it's just cause you didn't start properly.
Ross Herosian:You know, I mean, you know this, I have an almost two year old son and it's just, it's kind of like teaching him to ride a bike by literally just putting him on a bicycle and just pushing him and when he falls over, be like, well, why didn't that work? What the hell Like? This is never gonna work. That's what a lot of marketers and small businesses, their approach to marketing, is. They try to jump right on, particularly with ads, and it doesn't work. And then they're like marketing doesn't work, it's like well don't throw the baby out with the bathwater there.
Ross Herosian:I think the approach didn't work.
Craig Dacy:Right, yeah, and it's to that credit too. With ads and things, it takes a lot of money and a lot of patience, and there's especially for the single, the solo therapists out there. That's not what you have a lot of. And even as therapy owners owners, you're talking about that energy you have in a day, I mean what even from solo to group practices, most the time we're seeing them it's like they're still doing 20 to 25 sessions a week, and so they're.
Ross Herosian:They are meeting with clients.
Craig Dacy:Energy should be going right, craig, like I get it, like it should be going to their clients ultimately, yeah, and the goal is eventually, hopefully, to build your business in a way that you don't have to see clients and you have a team of therapists under you and they're they're seeing the clients and you're able to kind of shift out so you can focus your energy on these bigger picture things.
Craig Dacy:But in the meantime, I and that's what I think we're going to dig into today is some strategies for people who are, I guess, trying to get out there, and I'm a believer. I know you're a believer because I went through your program in content marketing, creating content that's valuable to bridge to the audience. But I've always been a believer in it just in the sense of creating that relational piece of people getting the no year personality. Whether they're reading something you wrote or whether they're watching a video that you're on, they can make that relational connection which, in therapy, is so, so incredibly important when somebody's hiring to find someone to have that connection with. I found my therapist because he has a podcast and I listened to him for a few episodes and I was like, okay, this seems like a guy that I could chat with and feel comfortable.
Ross Herosian:You got to tell me that podcast so that I can listen when he airs your dirty laundry.
Craig Dacy:I do listen to it sometimes and you're like and he'll go. I have this client and I'm like oh no, that's not me, okay, okay, like, and he'll go.
Ross Herosian:I have this client and I'm like oh no, no, it's not me, okay, okay, before we jump into the marketing stuff there, is one thing.
Ross Herosian:I just want to say, um, that that just jumping off a point you made about I and this is something. Obviously that is the. What your business focuses on is helping the therapy businesses grow and scale Right and and and. Just you know. I just want to say for anyone out there listening to this, because you might be on the fence about hiring Craig Craig, proof is in the pudding Like, I've worked with you now for maybe two or three years and it's been I don't even know if I've ever said this to you, so I wait for your podcast to air this. It's just been so amazing to see your business grow. Um, truly, like when we started, I think you were that solopreneur I was.
Ross Herosian:And yeah, and your business now has grown tremendously over the years and year. It's just been amazing to watch. So I really did not want to let this podcast go by without saying to the listeners out there who are, you know, contemplating hiring Craig um, at the very least you need to have a conversation with him, because I can tell you he knows how to do this. I've seen it firsthand and I've worked with a lot of businesses, a lot of businesses that have not had nearly the success but also the discipline and growth that you have. So, with that all being said, someone's kind of on your knee here Hold on, I'm getting a little teary eyed.
Ross Herosian:Let's jump back into marketing we were talking about. You know, one thing that I had mentioned to you we were planning for this podcast is that the yes, the content marketing piece talking all about that, and you had said that was definitely something you wanted to hit on. You know, I think if you are wondering how to do marketing and what to do, one of the simplest ways to put this but by is not the simplest way to do it, but it it all. Marketing now is content. I look at everything as content. I'm a content marketer. Right, like this idea that content, marketing and marketing exists somehow separately. It's not the case.
Ross Herosian:Marketing now is content, is creating content, and whether that content is in the form of I know we're going to talk about this but in the form of a video or a blog or a podcast, or even sales materials, even how you conduct a sales call, right, that's something that I myself had to hone over the years when I started my business. I'd never done like sales calls before, right, I had to hone that. But guess what? That is really an extension of marketing and, one might argue, the most intense or most important one, because you're talking to someone one-to-one, right, so putting together proposals guess what? Marketing.
Craig Dacy:Yeah.
Ross Herosian:I mean everything I look at as marketing because it is saying something about you and it is. It is putting in the mind of your prospect or your existing customer, you know, positioning you in their head. Is this someone I want to work with? Is this someone I enjoy working with? Is this someone I want to continue to work with? So you know, as we delve into the conversation today, I just think that's important, that you know, you do think about that, that marketing really is kind of every piece of your messaging, right.
Craig Dacy:Yeah, that makes sense of your messaging Right. Yeah, that makes sense. And I would think, even with your current client base, as you're saying, that I'm like okay, so even just delivering on your, your commitments, is marketing, cause you're, you know, providing quality therapy to your clients. Is marketing in the sense of you're going to keep those clients coming back and telling their friends.
Ross Herosian:It's the follow-up of marketing, it's the fulfillment.
Craig Dacy:Yeah.
Ross Herosian:Right, like anyone can put claims out there, but you know, the important aspect of those claims continuing to work and you not being a fraud is that you deliver on those things. Yeah Right, otherwise that marketing is going to run out at some point.
Craig Dacy:So true.
Ross Herosian:You in jail, depending on the severity of it.
Craig Dacy:I think that, yep, there's a lot of faux pas, a lot of lines you could cross, especially in the therapy world. Well, tell me about a couple strategies. So when we talked, there was two boxes almost that you put marketing into, to simplify it in a way. So what are those two strategies and tell me about them.
Ross Herosian:Yeah, so you know, I think one of the biggest things when I start working with clients is how overwhelming digital marketing is. Again, one of the first things that I do with many first-time clients is actually walk them through a course that I call the Digital Marketing Order of Operations, and it is something that I put together for small business owners and solopreneurs that helps them understand really like, where to start. Right, because if you do them out of order, that is where you may have your failure sooner. Also, I think you kind of mentioned this Listen, when you first start, you may not have the money to do some of these things. So there's and there, I know you know this but like the way I teach and coach, it's, um, what's the? I'm trying to think of the uh compounding interest.
Ross Herosian:Yeah, right, so what that means is like, okay, as your, your money just continues to grow and grow and grow over, like previously learned knowledge, and so I start with the basics and then, before you know it, when we've moved up several levels, you've expanded on that, right, and so I think, as we kind of talk through all these strategies, the two boxes that I tend to kind of put things into, is kind of a push and a pull, yeah, and so a push strategy are strategies that put your messaging and content in front of online audiences, who may already be aware of you, right? So this could be a email, if you have an email marketing list, right? And when you first start out, some of those may just be your friends and family right let's be real, mine were too my open rate were so high.
Craig Dacy:Everyone was opening my emails. I was like what is this industry standard of 10% or whatever it was? I'm like I'm getting 100% open rate.
Ross Herosian:You get texts from your parents like that was a great email.
Craig Dacy:Yep, yep, every time. Do you want to hire me?
Ross Herosian:I don't know what you're talking about. Thanks, you want to hire me.
Craig Dacy:I don't know what you're talking about. Thanks for nothing. You're not my target market, mom.
Ross Herosian:Thanks for that, it's true, that's true, I wouldn't hire, I wouldn't work with you anyways. So when we're talking about those push strategies again, like that's the email marketing and also that's the organic social media, so those are people who are already following you on social media. So those are people who are already following you on social media and that's all social media. I think, for the sake of this conversation, I'm not going to differentiate too much, but it's, you know, whatever platform that it may be, people who have decided to follow you to get more updates.
Ross Herosian:There's a great book I hope I'm not wrong on this I want to say it's Seth Godin. It's called Permission Marketing. Really great. Seth Godin is a very accessible writer for people who want to learn more about marketing, very accessible. There's components of his teachings that I bring into a lot of my coaching. But, and the idea that if someone kind of makes this decision to gives you permission to message them, that's a big step and I think people don't acknowledge how big of a deal that is. Right, we take it for granted, right, we take it for granted, um, but the whole concept there, when you think about it is, is like yes, I've given you permission to show up on my timeline with my friends and family so by subscribing or following or something they're saying.
Craig Dacy:Yes, I want, like you, have permission, to show up in my feed yeah, absolutely.
Ross Herosian:Or show up in my inbox or put something in my mailbox if you're, you know, like, like they're, they're giving you. They not only are giving you the permission, but they're they're also saying I'm uh. So those are the two, by no means um exclusive, but those are the biggest ones. The email marketing, organic social especially with organic social, let's be real, that tends to be the first place most small businesses go to. It's most accessible right. May not be the most, may not generate the most return on investment but that's probably a topic for a different day but it's the most accessible, right. So those are the push strategies. The pull strategies are those that put your messaging and content in front of online audiences who are in need of or could use your services, and they may not even be aware yet that they need or could use your service. I mean perfect example how many impulse buys have you made from instagram even this month? Craig, probably a lot, I know. I have it like.
Craig Dacy:I'm like, oh, all of a sudden I need this, you know I totally, uh, last last week very impulse buy, uh got an instagram ad for making instagram like reels and tiktok reels listen, I'm a sucker for those two. It was like 30 bucks or something. Oh, 30 bucks, it's like, all right, I signed up and I got halfway through it and I was like dang it I'm the biggest.
Ross Herosian:I'm the biggest sucker for like creative assets stuff also. I really am. So just learn from us. If you're listening, I've made a couple of those, maybe buy one, like buy one and just know if your experience with the one is kind of meh, I don't really know if it's going to be that much better with the other ones you buy. They're all very similar.
Craig Dacy:You know Very.
Ross Herosian:Yeah, so I bring that up because when we're talking about putting your messaging content in front of online audiences who are in need of your services but don't know who you are, oftentimes, that is an ads mechanism, right? So that's going to be Google ads and social ads. Now, when you look at Google ads, what's the value there? The value of Google ads is that you've at least the person is seeing your ad, because they have, at the very least, if we're doing a search campaign, put in a search term that is in some way relevant to your business, right? It's almost like they've almost like stepped foot in the door and they're looking around, does that?
Craig Dacy:make sense.
Ross Herosian:Right, they've, they've taken some step, as little as it may be, but they're saying I'm curious about this, right? Um, so that is, an advantage of a search ad is that you do get an audience. That is, even if it's one step further down. They're a little bit further down in the classic marketing funnel, right, going from knowing nothing about you to buying from you.
Craig Dacy:Because they're looking for what you're. They're looking for therapists. If they're searching, and that's why you're showing up Versus, like if you're running an ad for females from the age of 25 to 32 and it's prominent, whether they're looking for therapy or not, you might catch a few who are like oh yeah, I've been meaning to get a therapist, but some of them may not be versus Google. It's like that person is typing in therapists in Texas and, lo and behold, you pop up.
Ross Herosian:Yes, it's a very important distinction between Google search. Again, this is going to be a whole nother show about very specific ad structures which make note. I'm happy to do that show with you also, Craig. But Google ads at their simplest when we're talking about search Someone's searched and then that's what generates the ads, and then that's what generates the ads. On the social side of things, how they generally function is they take your kind of indirect signals.
Craig Dacy:They steal your data.
Ross Herosian:They send a weather balloon in to take all your data, and then that's there is a huge and that's not to say google is innocent of that either, but there's a huge component of the way that they generate behind the scenes using their algorithm. You know, um, who gets served these ads is using their proprietary billions millions to to billions points of data on your website interactions and activities, not only on their website, but across the web, right? So, for example, I think you, you just made a good distinction. So let's stay with the therapy example, cause obviously that makes the most sense for the audience here. On a Google ads front, if I go and search, like you know, therapy practice in Austin, texas, right, okay, well, that would launch, you know, if I'm running a campaign for therapy practices and it's and I'm looking at Austin, okay, there's, like in mechanics, a chance my ad would show up. Social ads could operate in the way that maybe they are maybe posting a whole number of posts that are seemingly sad. The thing is, is that you can't, we don't know. We know a good amount, right? Let's say that this person is following a bunch of like, inspirational, but also like, again, those online therapy things. Maybe they've actually done a search which is not as common, but a search inside of that platform. So, again, let's use meta. Maybe they've done a search in there and Um and it, and it's using those signals to then serve. If you have an ad for like hi, I'm, you know, dr, so-and-so I'm a therapist, that kind of thing, it would use those signals along with what targeting information you get it to serve it up to them. So so it's more of a, it's more of a predictive work on the social side than with Google ads, where it is driven by a query.
Ross Herosian:Yeah, now, when we talk about the push and the pull and we talk about content, blogs and videos can actually exist in both places. You'll notice I left them out, but because they can be utilized in either strategy, right. So, for example, a push strategy with organic social media, obviously, uh, you could create a video and share it on organic social media. You could also use that very same video in an ad. Yeah, right, makes sense. So, so, and the same with a blog, right, you could write a blog, and maybe it's, you know, whatever your particular area of expertise is on, you could write that blog. You could publish it on your website. So there we are talking a little bit of SEO.
Craig Dacy:So SEO would fall mostly into a pull, arguably because it would be someone that's doing a search. Yeah, the goal is to get in front of people who are not already following you with SEO Correct.
Ross Herosian:Correct. Yeah, you're looking to serve it up to people who are yeah, don't know about you, but are interested in something, so the blog can show up there. But you could also include that blog in your email marketing campaign.
Craig Dacy:Yeah, right. Or you have people who just regularly come and read your blog every Friday because they know you're going to post something new.
Ross Herosian:Absolutely Right. So I think that you want to look at blogs and videos as being, you know, really flexible and for most of these, particularly nowadays, you're gonna need both. You're gonna especially need video.
Craig Dacy:Yeah.
Ross Herosian:Right, like video? Is it Like the days of saying oh guess what Video is big it's like? Yeah, especially.
Craig Dacy:I mean, just like we were talking about earlier, in such a relationship based industry as therapy, when somebody is looking for their therapist and I always go back to that, that process. I mean I was looking for a long time simply because I could be filtering through psychology. Today I could be reading about these people, but I just it's like it's this overwhelm of I don't know who to go with and so being able to say.
Ross Herosian:The podcast you listen to also gives you a sense of who that person you're working with is.
Craig Dacy:Yes, very much. Yeah, their personality, their just you know how they feel. And as far as approachability, areas of expertise, you know, on a website you can list the areas that you focus on. But there's also just something different about making that connection. What I do as a coach with business owners is very relational and so creating there's so many times I'll get on a sales call with a potential client and they've watched our YouTube videos and they see the same background, they see everything, and that connection and that level of trust is already there because, even though I've never spoken to them before, they've consumed.
Ross Herosian:You have, but that's the thing you have.
Ross Herosian:And and I think that's what's really interesting is I've had that situation too, where I've had people who came to me after seeing me or on a video or hearing me in a podcast and yeah, I mean, I think it's. They get a sense for who I am and I think also a sense for how I work. And this is one of those things when I work with small businesses and this might be slightly different, for for the the therapy business owners out there, but, but maybe not I'm sure this applies is there are some prospective clients that they wanted to hire me but I turned them away. And it's a weird thing when I talk to other small business owners, particularly when they're just starting out this idea of doing that, but I always take the approach that this has to be a right fit for both of us, particularly as a coach. Now, I am not a therapist, but there's a certain irony to it, I would say, is that in my coaching role, there are absolutely elements of being like a marketing therapist for people.
Ross Herosian:They're frustrated, they're confused, they're happy. They don't know what to do, they don't know what direction to go, they don't know how to deal with this. And again, far be it. I have all the respect in the world for therapists and the education and work that you've put in, so please don't misunderstand me to say that.
Craig Dacy:I should have a doctorate. You're practicing without a license.
Ross Herosian:That's right. Yes, I'm not a licensed therapist, but I got to tell you I have absolutely come out of meetings and I'm like that is as close to a therapy session as I've ever been in like to to like inspire someone and get them motivated.
Ross Herosian:You know, it's it's it's something that I understand and, and I guess I just I say that to say it, if someone has a particular issue, right, and maybe that's not your area of expertise, I think you could probably relate and understand that maybe I'm not going to be doing the best, the best service to this person, right, by taking them on, and I think that's an approach, um, that can also apply, weirdly enough, even in marketing, right? I think, when we talk about a lot of people that they don't know where to start and, and you know, going way back back, I'm I'm sure there's a conversation we had when we first started out is, well, what do you know how to do? And, honestly, is there anything you like doing? Yeah, most people, I'm gonna say most. Maybe it's just because I'm projecting most people don't like writing blogs I used to.
Craig Dacy:When I started I was. I loved writing them now really sure yeah, I hated them.
Ross Herosian:I hate them. I didn't have a ton of clients.
Craig Dacy:it's like I was looking for things to do to move my business forward and blogging was just like such an easy. I say easy, but but just a okay, great, yeah, I can create this and put it out there, but now it's a chore, but it's, but no one's.
Ross Herosian:no two people are the same.
Craig Dacy:Yeah.
Ross Herosian:Some people really enjoy video. Some people enjoy podcasts. Some people enjoy podcasts with a co-host, some people enjoy podcasts solo. Some people like social right Are you know, also really good in the community space. Community marketing is also a really big kind of it's been growing the last couple of years of having your own, like private communities, that kind of thing. So everyone's a little different and I think that's even the approach I take as a marketing coach is I don't come in with I rarely have ever come in being like I know exactly what we're going to do here.
Ross Herosian:I let the process, like guide us and so. So yeah, I mean I think the push and pulls under just understanding how these strategies are different and at least doing understanding why it's like. Oh, I wonder why my audience isn't growing or I wonder why they're not engaging here, or I wonder what you know. Um, sometimes it's about evaluating, like, what things you're doing and the end intent of those things.
Craig Dacy:Yeah, yeah, and I think, uh, and this one last thing before we wrap it up but with the poll strategies, you know, I know we talked a lot about the ads and but I mean I was just thinking through. As you're talking about, I was like, okay, like being a guest on someone's podcast is a poll strategy. You're getting in front of their audience, right. I mean it's being a speaker at a conference, oh yeah no-transcript.
Ross Herosian:Surprising. Maybe it's a little weird, I'm not really sure. I'm gonna tell you an anecdote. I like listed myself on my uh alumni page for my college right and I thought literally nothing about it.
Craig Dacy:I was like why not Might as well? Cause I was like free Sure.
Ross Herosian:Right and like two months later, someone contacted me that they saw my information on there and that person turned out to be like a massive client for like six months, like six months to a year. So you know that was a low level of effort. Right Again took me zero and almost next to zero energy, but it did end up yielding a tremendous amount. Now, I'm not saying that every single little thing is going to do that, but you know every single little thing is going to do that. But you know, sometimes that stuff happens right and I was shocked. You know that that did occur. But you're 100% right. There are absolutely little things and maybe things you're already doing that you don't even know are attracting people for sure. So I think, on that note, one of the number one things that I do recommend people do. Again, as we've been talking, I could probably think about 50 million other podcast ideas to bring to your audience. If you'll have me back, it's hard to say I'm difficult to work with, but is that, um, creating your Google, my business account?
Craig Dacy:Oh yeah.
Ross Herosian:It is very low hanging fruit, but it is, um it is one of the most potentially valuable like low level of effort to high potential rate of return things to do. So if you haven't done that, just do a, do a google search. Google my business, create your account, um it it. There are a million different things you can do in digital marketing, but that is one that I feel very strongly about.
Craig Dacy:That can yield a lot of benefits. Yeah, I'm glad I did mine, Although probably a topic for off air or on another episode. But as a virtual person I can't get mine. I can't reply to reviews anymore because you have to have a physical office address and I don't have an office anymore Now.
Ross Herosian:I'm completely office from home yeah, it's very surprising that of all companies and services, google has been kind of the slowest to move that along. But I think they are hesitant because they don't. They're very hesitant of their own little gardens or protective of their own little gardens, so they don't want it to be spam fest yeah, that's why they're big on brick and mortar like oh, we have to. They literally mail you a confirmation. But if you, if you haven't done this yet, when you do it you'll find out.
Craig Dacy:But I actually think they have updated that slightly yeah, I think one of them is like options I saw is like you can go outside and take a video where you have to in in the same video, you have to show the address number and then you have to go to a street sign and then you have to, like show the building.
Ross Herosian:Oh my God, well they're going to have to update that, probably with AI. Now, you know deep face.
Craig Dacy:It's so. It's a. I have my Google, my business. It's still doing awesome, we're still getting reviews, we're still getting a lot of searchability, but so I'm glad I did it. But yeah, I've run into that road bump. I'm like I can't reply to anything, I can't post on it anymore, and I know there's a lot of virtual therapists out there who don't and have no intention of having a physical location, and so that's the-.
Ross Herosian:Well, definitely a topic for another day, because I am sure there are workarounds there and if you know anything about me, more often than not when you come to me and you're like this is not working or broken, I'm like, all right, give me, let me look into this, and usually I figure out some roundabout way of fixing it.
Craig Dacy:So if I have any skillset.
Ross Herosian:it is figuring out solutions to very, very specific, unique problems figuring out solutions to very, very specific, unique problems.
Craig Dacy:Oh, all right, Liam Neeson. Well, tell us how people can find you if they have a specific problem that they need solved.
Ross Herosian:Sure Well, I hope you'll include just the link to my website in this show description.
Craig Dacy:That would be a dream. Yep, it's a monthly fee of $500. We'll just auto-charge you to keep that link live Got it, got it, I'll wire you the cash? No, go ahead.
Ross Herosian:Tricycle-creativecom. You can also go to getmarketingclaritycom to learn more about my clarity program. Now I will say this I am being incredibly selective with new clients I'm taking on right now. Um, because, uh, I I do work with, uh I have some full-time commitments that have changed in the past couple of years here, so I have a handful of clients. I'm very selective.
Ross Herosian:That's not cause I'm cool, it's literally cause back to the energy piece. That's not because I'm cool, it's literally because, back to the energy piece, I run out of energy as a new dad I'm like asleep on the couch, I mean sometimes at like 7.30 at night. So if I'm doing this, I want to make sure I'm being the best Ross and showing up for you. But if you do need help or interested in learning more, please head on over to my website. A lot of resources there. On my blog I also have a podcast called the Marketing Clarity Podcast, so you can check that out. Tons of episodes in the backlog there and I'm trying to get back into being better about that, and you'll hear this other guy on that show pretty frequently too, unfortunately, so sorry I cranked me on that show.
Craig Dacy:I'm the dumb dumb on the show. All right, that's the three links I'll be dropping in the show notes, so I'll invoice you for all three of those. Ross, thank you so much for spouting some knowledge. We'll you'll be back, obviously for sure, regularly as a co-host. Today was I just wanted to pick your brain on what you know well, but I think sometimes you'll just be here kind of hanging with me and chatting business and marketing and money.
Ross Herosian:I love it. I love it. Those are some of my favorite times are, yes, obviously talking business, but, like I said, I've enjoyed our ride together for sure. So I'm again very thankful to be here and thanks for giving me the opportunity.
Craig Dacy:Thanks for joining us on the Therapy Business Podcast. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with a practice owner that you may know. If your practice needs help getting organized with its finances or just growing your practice, head to therapybusinesspodcom to learn how we can help.