Stepping Up Into Leadership.
I hope you are doing well and enjoying your summer!
The past couple of weeks have been so much fun with a flurry of teleseminars, beta group meetings, exclusive members program calls, and even an in-person presentation.
A topic that came up regularly in these recent conversations was about leadership. It is an unexpected topic.
As you know, most therapists, coaches and healers start out with a simple yet extraordinarily powerful desire (or calling) to help people. There is no inkling of an idea to become a leader.
Yet I watch something interesting happen over and over again. It is very subtle at first. It reminds me of a plant that demands to be repotted.
The therapist (or healer) will pick a niche market that they love. Very often the clicinician herself is part of this niche and, as such, is quite attuned to the problems this niche faces. She develops solutions, concepts, ideas, interventions and maybe even products to help this niche. A passion arises. Confidence grows. The calling becomes about ‘getting the word out’ about the solutions to these problems. The therapist, often quite unexpectedly, realizes that she Stands for Something. And she needs to get her message out. She begins to want to help more people – a lot of people.
Without realizing it, she is like a plant who has outgrown her container. She feels a new sense of aliveness and wants to almost evangelize her thoughts. She often has trouble articulating what is happening to her.
But what is happening?
She is ready and beginning to step up into a leadership role with her niche market. And her message? In marketing language this is called ‘a platform.’ It is what you stand on and stand for. It is your unique message.
Whether or not you wish to step up into a leadership role, it is still important to have a platform – to stand for something. You don’t have to want to be a leader to have a platform.
Some therapists start with their platform. They are clear on their message and then design the ideal client that needs to hear that message. Others pick a niche and elicit the problems from that niche. These problems should be:
* Problems the prospective client knows they have and
* Problems the prospective client wants to pay for help with
From these problems, the platform develops.
So, as your marketing-coach, I invite you to ponder:
1.) What is it you stand for? Your platform?
2.) What is your message?
3.) Can you see yourself moving into a leadership role with your niche?
Larina Kase, Ph.D is very interested in platforms and has a lot to say about them. She has graciously offered to do a presentation on Platforms at the upcoming Practice Building Virtual Conference. If you wonder about your platform or have thoughts or questions about it, you will really Larina. If have already reserved your seat for the Practice Building Virtual Conference, then I think you are in for a treat with this presentation. (If you haven’t reserved your seat, you can get in on the advanced notice list of the event and get a peek at our current early bird prices at: (link on blog page to sign up for adv list.)
I’d love to know your thoughts about platforms and leadership. Please share your thoughts by visiting (#respond link to comment box of this article on as a blog post.)I hope you are doing well and enjoying your summer!
The past couple of weeks have been so much fun with a flurry of teleseminars, beta group meetings, exclusive members program calls, and even an in-person presentation.
A topic that came up regularly in these recent conversations was about leadership. It is an unexpected topic.
As you know, most therapists, coaches and healers start out with a simple yet extraordinarily powerful desire (or calling) to help people. There is no inkling of an idea to become a leader.
Yet I watch something interesting happen over and over again. It is very subtle at first. It reminds me of a plant that demands to be repotted.
The therapist (or healer) will pick a niche market that they love. Very often the clicinician herself is part of this niche and, as such, is quite attuned to the problems this niche faces. She develops solutions, concepts, ideas, interventions and maybe even products to help this niche. A passion arises. Confidence grows. The calling becomes about ‘getting the word out’ about the solutions to these problems. The therapist, often quite unexpectedly, realizes that she Stands for Something. And she needs to get her message out. She begins to want to help more people – a lot of people.
Without realizing it, she is like a plant who has outgrown her container. She feels a new sense of aliveness and wants to almost evangelize her thoughts. She often has trouble articulating what is happening to her.
But what is happening?
She is ready and beginning to step up into a leadership role with her niche market. And her message? In marketing language this is called ‘a platform.’ It is what you stand on and stand for. It is your unique message.
Whether or not you wish to step up into a leadership role, it is still important to have a platform – to stand for something. You don’t have to want to be a leader to have a platform.
Some therapists start with their platform. They are clear on their message and then design the ideal client that needs to hear that message. Others pick a niche and elicit the problems from that niche. These problems should be:
* Problems the prospective client knows they have and
* Problems the prospective client wants to pay for help with
From these problems, the platform develops.
So, as your marketing-coach, I invite you to ponder:
1.) What is it you stand for? Your platform?
2.) What is your message?
3.) Can you see yourself moving into a leadership role with your niche?
Larina Kase, Ph.D is very interested in platforms and has a lot to say about them. She has graciously offered to do a presentation on Platforms at the upcoming Practice Building Virtual Conference. If you wonder about your platform or have thoughts or questions about it, you will really Larina.
If have already reserved your seat for the Practice Building Virtual Conference, then I think you are in for a treat with this presentation. (If you haven’t reserved your seat, you can get in on the advanced notice list of the event and get a peek at our current early bird prices here.
I’d love to know your thoughts about platforms and leadership. Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes! !! I love the encouraging and “go-get-em” attitude you have. I have to tell you, it was something you said in a book of yours a few years ago about setting fees that busted me out of my fear, “Should I be charging this much?”
I’m happy to say I surged ahead charging the fee I wanted to – and I’ve gotten it pretty consistently.
The confidence I have gained has also allowed me to further develop and pursue the online business I have alongside of my practice. I wrote the first of my Therapy-At-Home Workbooks (The Premarital Counseling Workbook for Couples) over three years ago as an experiment. A few years later I added “The Marriage Refresher Course for Couples” and it’s been going great! I’m able to live my passion in my psychotherapy practice – and my writing!
Again, your energy, enthusiasm, insight and resources for people like me is invaluable. Keep up the good work!
Regards,
Lisa Brookes Kift, MFT
As usual, Casey, you seem to have your finger on the pulse of the profession. I’ve had this same conversation with close colleagues/friends lately. As I’ve outgrown my container over the past year I’ve written a book, a blog, and a series of workshops on my platform, called “Families Under Financial Stress”.
During my client sessions I honor the rule under which I was trained – the therapist should never do more than 10-20% of the talking. Yet after witnessing person after person, couple after couple, all struggling with the same issues, I needed more space than 10-20% to offer proven solutions to others. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one.
Yes, I completely agree with the premise you presented, Casey, re the development of passion and interest and how they lay the groundwork for leadership in our chosen niches. I remember back in the early 90s when before CEUs were mandatory, the importance of continuing education in the field of psychotherapy. I took the program chairmanship of my CAMFT chapter and created monthly programs that slowly but surely invited our membership to gather, learn, and network. I did this for three years until the meetings began to top at 50-75 attendees. It was fun to do something I deeply believed in and others came to value. It gave me much visibility in an over-saturated therapy milieu. I took this premise to a new area I had relocated to and brought the concept of Collaborative Law to Albany, NY. I became a founding director (now on exec. board) and we are now over 30 members, with attorneys and mental health professionals working together to help navigate couples through a different model of divorce which incorporates the future healthy well-being of children. It is an exciting time in my life as a therapist where I can make my passion a reality through my leadership.
Casey,
Words can not describe how much I resonated with this post. The biggest struggle for me has been that I feel so called to do this work for free, but knowing that I can’t sustain that!
I wish I could write a grant so that I could give pre-licensed persons free consultation on an unlimited basis. Wouldn’t that be great?!
Thanks so much for your words, that help to describe part of the path that I have taken.
Casey,
I cannot begin to tell you how much I resonated with your post. Failing the written clinical vignette exam by 1 point had such a huge impact on me. I needed support, couldn’t find it, and created it.
Although my test results were overturned and I never actually had to start studying again, I found that so many pre-licensed persons had the same struggles that I did. Most of them lacked information that they needed to make informed, intelligent choices about their career.
The study group and the resulting consultation business were really just about supporting others and passing along the knowledge that I had gained.
I only started charging when I realized there wasn’t enough hours in the day to answer all the questions that everyone had!
The last two weeks I have had two people (you being one of them) that I felt like contacted me “out of the blue” to present. It was surprising and validating.
Thank you so much for this spot on post.
Miranda Palmer, MFT
http://mftguide.com