Why You Should Use Telesummits to Create Buzz, Business, and Genuine Client Benefits

I’ve been watching Stephanie Adams grow her business in totally unexpected ways even before she got licensed as a Licensed Professional Counselor.  Earlier this year she invited me to present in her first virtual conference  – Mind Your Own Business – and I said “Yes!” because this gal is doing more than a few things right!  One of the benefits to me is that she agreed to share with you guys what she is learning on her journey by guest posting right here.  I’m looking forward to learning from Stephanie and hearing what you guys are doing with the information that she has to share.

  (If you are interested in writing a guest post, check out the guidelines here.)

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A Guest Post by Stephanie Adams, MA, LPC

If you’re like most counselors I know (myself included!), you get frustrated with how long it traditionally takes to build a full client load. You love what you do. You have the training and experience to genuinely help people. But you are not getting the client referrals you need. The bills are coming due. Your stress level is mounting.

Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing models are expensive and largely ineffective. People flip past paid advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and ignore a great majority of pay-per-click ads. Therapist directory advertising is tried-and-true, but at the same time you are one therapist among twenty or more trying to get noticed by a prospective client. Over time, directories may be reliable, but it won’t get you that influx of clients you need to jump-start your success.

You need something that will work fast. You need something exciting. You need something that will make people take notice.

A Different Way of Marketing

There is something out there that will do all that and more! It’s a way of marketing that is ethical, inexpensive, client-centered, and just fun to do! In business language, it’s called a telesummit, but you may have heard of it referred to by a number of different terms: virtual conference, online conference, online speaker series, expert lecture series – or any of a dozen other similar terms.

The concept is simple.  It’s a gathering of experts sharing their knowledge on a specified theme. The benefits to the organizer and to those who attend are many. I’ve found out for myself how effective and fun a telesummit can be as I’ve been developing the first private practice business-building telesummit: Mind Your Own Business Virtual Conference, featuring incredible speakers including Tamara Suttle herself!

Some of the Benefits of Hosting a Telesummit

Here’s just a few of the things a telesummit can give you:

• Instant credibility. There’s something about being willing to gather together a group of people and facilitate growth that shows people you are committed to your subject! You don’t just say you are an expert on eating disorders, for example. You’re also putting in many hours of your own time organizing free education about it!

• Community. Private practice can be lonely and without support it’s easy to get off-track and discouraged. But during a telesummit, you have a half-dozen or more other presenters who all care about the same things you do.  They are keeping you accountable and encouraging you to pursue your passion even more and your commitment to your clients, too.

• Speaking outlet. Whether you’re trying to break into the speaker circuit or you’re terrified to do so (like I was), a telesummit gives you an ideal opportunity to create for yourself the perfect speaking opportunity. You can talk about what you’re most passionate about in a way that feels most comfortable to you: phone, video, audio recording, etc.

• Relationship opener. People need to feel like they know who you are before they can open up to you about their deepest, darkest secrets. Hearing your voice or even knowing you are willing to talk about your passion on a telesummit is a low-threat way to vet a therapist before making an appointment. You’d be surprised. Before you even speak a word, you may have people calling you based your commitment to the telesummit alone.

•  Low cost. Do you have a ton of money to invest in your private practice up front? I didn’t either! Telesummits are inexpensive. The biggest cost is time.  Other than that, it isn’t outrageous. You can expect opportunities for free advertising to open up to you when you’re offering a free event like a telesummit.  Under different circumstances those same outlets would be closed to you for direct advertising of your private practice.

• Fills in the gaps. No one can possibly know everything about a subject. But hosting a telesummit means you can be a complete source of knowledge by creating a well-rounded ensemble cast of speakers.

• Ethical. I hate, hate, hate slimy advertising methods. Don’t you? Though there are ways to do telesummits in a slimy way – baiting-and-switching promised free content with pushy sales tactics comes to mind – if you do it the way I recommend, you’re offering people a free way to get to know you and your passion and inviting them – not bullying them – into working with you.

• Adaptability. Have one weekend to do your summit? Do 20 speakers back to back. Want a longer, more engaged relationship? Do two speakers a week for six weeks (that’s what I’m doing!) Don’t have video expertise? Do audio alone. Schedule conflicts? Prerecord. Literally, you can make your telesummit what YOU need it to be.

So . . . What’s the Problem?

With these kinds of options, telesummits are tailor-made for counselors to market their strengths. But unfortunately, nobody’s using them. Why?

In my experience, there’s two reasons.

1. When counselors hear the word “telesummit” it conjures up scary ideas of a complicated and esoteric process that you might need an extra degree to make use of. The word itself sounds like something that you’d hear from the mouth of a tech geek – so surely there’s no way you could make good use of it!
2. It’s just a new idea for us. It’s something coaches have been getting comfortable with over the past few years, but now we’re starting to hear about it from other therapists!

We all know about in-person conferences, like the annual conference of the American Counseling Association, but the idea of a teleconference aimed at your potential clients – well, that’s something we don’t hear a lot about.  I think it’s time to change that!

I won’t tell you it’s by any means easy work, but it is possible to do a telesummit that can get the results you’re looking for with very little time, little money, and even as a new voice in the field!

So how do you do that? Stay tuned! I’ll be giving you the ENTIRE overview of the steps that go into creating a telesummit for your business in 10 Steps To a Buzzworthy Telesummit That Creates Business and Genuine Client Benefit

Get Free Access to the Entire Mind Your Own Business Telesummit

In the meantime, you can have full access to a FREE telesummit on practice-building tips at the Mind Your Own Business Telesummit, which launched last night with my FREE training “9 Ways You Are Sabotaging Your Private Practice And How To Stop.”  Just click this link to find out how to attend this training and Tamara’s training, premiering August 27, “Blogging: The Very Best Way To Get Noticed And Get Clients.”

You can sign up right here for the entire  The Mind Your Own Business Virtual Conference for FREE!

Have you ever thought about hosting a telesummit before? If you hosted one, what topic would you choose and why?

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 Stephanie Adams, MA, LPC maintains a private practice in  College Station, Texas, USA.  She  co-founded The Counselors and Psychotherapists Network of NOrth Texas and added coaching to her practice for beginning counselors.  You can also find her blogging for the American Counseling Association.