PoP Culture: Meet Diann Wingert

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You all know me, I’m Joe Sanok, the guy that runs Practice of the Practice. I also know a bunch of you. But you don’t know one another.

After three years of blogging, podcasting, and growing this community, I wanted to introduce you to some of you.

Everyday, I get emails from people talking about amazing steps they are taking based on what they have discovered through Practice of the Practice. I invited a number of people to tell us about their private practice journey.

Today I want to introduce you to Diann Wingert, LCSW, BCD. She’s a Licensed Clinical Social Worker & Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work. I met her at The Most Awesome Conference and she’s making huge strides to grow her income and influence!

Name: Diann Wingert, LCSW, BCD

Practice: www.diannwingert.com

Follow Diann on Twitter

private practice diann headshotWhat’s something you learned from Practice of the Practice?

Joe Sanok has inspired me to consider reaching out to the media, to be a more creative out-of-the-box thinker about marketing my practice and has really been a role model for how to have a thriving practice with integrity.

What is your therapeutic specialty?

I am passionate about working with women in their 50s who want to make the rest of their life the best of their life. The second half of life can truly be the better half and I am excited to help women embrace this possibility.

Many women at this age and stage feel the desire to reinvent themselves but often feel stuck and unsure how to go about it. I use a combination of counseling and coaching techniques to help each woman feel energized, inspired and supported through the process.

What is an action you took to grow your private practice?

Networking with local business owners who serve my ideal client with non competing services in my community. Before I started listening to POP, I was mostly networking with other therapists which rarely lead to referrals.

Complete this sentence: When I first started a private practice, I…

…had no idea that there were private practice business coaches and consultants who could help me launch and grow my practice quickly while enjoying the process. I’ve been working with coaches and consultants for the past 3 years. It’s been much more fun and I’m more successful than I was on my own.

How have you grown your income and influence?

Joe has been very influential in helping me realize what is really necessary to be successful in private practice. He teaches and models how to gain solid business skills, develop an online marketing strategy and serve the needs of your community.

Through listening to the POP podcast regularly over the past six months, and implementing ideas in my practice that he inspired, I have become more established in the local community in my specific niche.

Having a well defined specialty has helped me grow in income and influence in multiple ways:

  1. Specialists fees are typically higher than generalists and my fees have increased steadily over the past two years.
  2. I’m doing more community marketing and networking with other businesses that also serve my ideal client.
  3. Have scheduled a number of public speaking opportunities that place me in front of groups of ideal clients or referral sources.

What’s next for you?

Over the next few years, I would like to:

  • Develop additional streams of income that will allow me to pivot into a small, boutique practice and offer various VIP services such as workshops and retreats and packages of services through my community partnerships.
  • Travel: One idea I’m looking into is combining my love of travel with my therapy and coaching practice through a joint venture with a travel agency or cruise line that serves adult women travelers.
  • Public Speaking: I really enjoy public speaking and am not afraid of the camera, so I will definitely be using video blogging to enhance my website and increase my visibility online. I can definitely see creating online webinars or classes down the road, as well.

What is one specific podcast or article that helped you grow quickly?

The Sept 23rd 2014 podcast (Entrepreneurial Habits: 10 things to do by 10:00 am for 10 days) on entrepreneur habits was really inspiring and helped me grow by making me more productive with my mornings.

I see clients from 11 AM – 7 PM on my office days and wasted a lot of time on those mornings thinking I needed to save my energy to get through the day. Now I have a morning routine that helps me get things done and have enough energy, drive and enthusiasm to see my clients and be with my family after I’m done.

If every counselor in the world was reading this, what would you want them to know?

To ignore the people who tell you that you can’t make a good living these days as a counselor in private practice. The only way to fail is to fail to try. Hire the best coach or consultant you can afford, read business and marketing books, surround yourself with people who share your mindset and ambitious goals and go for it.

Don’t deprive the world from what you are called to do.

What are 2-3 resources you love? How do you use them to grow your practice?

Simple Practice is awesome and has allowed me to grow my practice by freeing up time I used to spend on managing my client files, sending reminder texts, emailing new client forms, etc. I love Howard and his team.

Brighter Vision just built my new website and really do allow unlimited changes. You can totally tweak as you go and their customer support is fantastic. They are very responsive and want to see your site rank highly and get you more clients.

Ernesto Segismundo of FYLMIT.com makes video marketing fun and easy. It’s so great to work with a videographer who is a clinician. Prospective clients love being able to see and hear you before they
even pick up the phone. Having a video on your site helps both traffic and conversions.

Joseph R. Sanok, MA, LLP, LPC, NCC

Joe Sanok Private Practice ConsultantJoe Sanok is an ambitious results expert. He is a private practice business consultant and counselor that helps small businesses and counselors in private practice to increase revenue and have more fun! He helps owners with website design, vision, growth, and using their time to create income through being a private practice consultant.

Joe was frustrated with his lack of business and marketing skills when he left graduate school. He loved helping people through counseling, but felt that often people couldn’t find him. Over the past few years he has grown his skills, income, and ability to lead others, while still maintaining an active private practice in Traverse City, MI.

To link to Joe’s Google+ .