Stop Comparing Your Therapy Business Online
Have you ever opened Facebook or Instagram for a quick look and come away feeling as though everyone else's therapy business is doing better than yours?
Someone is fully booked. Someone else has thousands of followers. Another therapist is launching courses, running workshops and apparently posting brilliant content every day.
Meanwhile, you're wondering whether you're doing enough.
Comparing your therapy business with what you see online can quickly knock your confidence. But you're not seeing their whole business.
Prefer to watch?
In this week's video, I talk about comparison, the pressure social media can create and why somebody else's business doesn't need to become your blueprint.
Social media isn't the full story
What we see is their successful launch, their lovely client feedback, their 'one session left' fully booked week. What we don't see is the empty appointments, the marketing idea that flopped or the afternoon spent wondering what on earth to post. Remember that you're often not comparing the reality of your business with the highlights of somebody else's.
Comparing Your Therapy Business Can Distract You
There's nothing wrong with learning from other therapists. The problem starts when inspiration turns into:
"Perhaps I should be doing that too."
Suddenly you're thinking about starting a podcast, running workshops, posting every day or changing your entire marketing strategy because somebody else appears to be doing brilliantly.
Before adding something new, ask:
Does this actually make sense for me, my business and my clients?
Their business isn't your blueprint
There isn't one correct way to run a successful therapy business.
One therapist might want twenty clients a week. Another may prefer ten clients alongside workshops or courses or alongside their office job. Someone might love making videos. You might prefer writing.
Your business needs to fit your skills, clients, energy, finances and the life you want to live.
That's far more important than making it look like somebody else's.
Create content that sounds like you
Comparison can creep into your marketing too.
You see someone confidently making videos or writing bold sales posts and think that's what successful marketing is supposed to look like. It isn't. Your content should sound like you.
Potential clients don't need a polished marketing version of you. They need a sense of the person they'll actually meet if they book an appointment.
Come back to your own business
When you catch yourself disappearing down the comparison rabbit hole, bring your attention back to your own business.
Ask yourself:
What's working?
Where are my enquiries coming from?
What do my clients value?
What actually needs improving?
What's my next useful step?
Learn from other people, certainly, but keep in mind:
Their business isn't your blueprint.
Build the one that works for you.
Would you like some help finding your own direction?
If you're overwhelmed by everything you think you should be doing, you're welcome to book a free 30-minute chat with me.
I'm Sue Jaycock, The Holistic Growth Coach. I help holistic, complementary and wellbeing therapists build practical, sustainable businesses that work for them.
If you would like help making your marketing clearer and finding a way to promote your business that feels natural to you, you can book a free half-hour chat with me. We can talk about what is happening in your business and begin identifying the adjustments that could make it feel clearer, calmer and more sustainable.
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