Name: Optimizing Referrals for Practice Growth
Uploaded: 2025-04-30T19:30:03.781Z
Duration: 57 min 47 s
Description: Optimizing Referrals for Practice Growth

Transcript for "Optimizing Referrals for Practice Growth": Good morning and good afternoon, everyone, depending on where you are. I am happy to welcome you to our optimizing referrals for practice growth. I'm doctor Lindsay Oberleitner, and I will be your host for this session. I am the director of clinical strategy at SimplePractice and a clinical psychologist myself. I love seeing in the chat all of the places everyone's joining us from. So I'll also share I'm joining you from, Metro Detroit area. Thrilled to have you all here today as we unveil our new clinician referrals feature designed to help you optimize and grow your caseload and connect with colleagues to help deepen your referral network. We heard from many of you before the session that getting referrals can be one of the biggest challenges. So we are here today to help share some of the practical tips on how to get more referrals and how to best use SimplePractice to give and receive qualified referrals. Before we get started today, I wanna share just a few tips to make this session you get the most out of it and make sure we can answer as many questions as possible. First, this session will be recorded, and it will be sent out to you within forty eight hours. Also, please enter any questions that you have about referrals and caseload growth in the q and a box. So if you look on the right hand side of your screen with us, you'll see chat, you'll see docs, and you'll see q and a. Q and a is the section that will will be able to actually see those questions that you have and answer them. So as you look at that q and a section, as you add any questions or even just wanna keep viewing it, you can upload any, upvote any question you most want to hear about. So we will continue to try and answer the most upvoted questions when we get near the end of today. There's also a docs tab, and there will include some important resources, including some that you'll hear from doctor Max Maisel later on top tips for building your referral networks. That will be shared near the end of the session. In just a moment, we're gonna be using a polls feature. It will appear next to the q and a tab on the right hand side, and you'll see a little pop up alerting you to it. If you're having trouble hearing us at any point, please check your audio settings as you'll as you'll see those on screen. And if you need closed captions, you can navigate to the bottom right of the video to turn them on. So a little bit about our time together today. First, you're gonna hear from one of my colleagues, Kate McChesney. She is one of our product managers who's been helping develop this feature over the past several months, and she will take you through a demo of it today. You'll also hear from doctor Max Maisel, one of our SimplePractice customer advisory board members, who will be sharing some of his proven strategies to grow and optimize your caseload. Before we, dive in, we'd like to understand a bit more about your current experiences with referrals and building your ideal caseload. So in just a moment, you'll see a pop a poll question pop up in the poll section located on the right hand side of your screen next to the q and a tab. So, as you're reading, I'll read the question aloud, which is, which of the following sources gives you the most new client referrals? Gonna give everyone just a moment to answer. So when you're thinking about, again, many of these may be, struggles that you face from time to time, but we're just wanting to see the most, common ones, that you, that you get referrals from. So we'll give it just another moment. I see some coming in in the chat as well. So please feel free. I love seeing, all the communication in the chat and everyone getting to talk with each other as well. Just a reminder as we're waiting for a couple seconds for everyone to do the poll that if you do have questions so these are great things to put in the chat. But if you do have any questions, make sure you head over to the q and a. With that, I think we can maybe head to the results now. So it looks like, some of the most common ways that people are saying that they're getting referrals is psychology today or other therapist directories. Also, not far, behind referrals from other clinicians, insurance directories, and a smattering of some of those other pieces as well. So thank you so much for taking the time to answer this poll. So now today, we're gonna show you how our new clinician referrals feature can optimize the referral process, making your workflow more efficient for both you and your clients. So now I am gonna pass it over to Kate McChesney to introduce our new features, and she is gonna go through some demos. Please, again, I know I keep saying it, but I wanna make sure we get the most of your questions as possible. So as you listen to Kate McChesney today, if you do have questions, put them over in that q and a section, and feel free to upvote. Alright. Thanks, Lindsay. Hi, everyone. I'm excited to demo several features we've recently launched to help optimize the referral and intake process. But first, let me share what inspired us to develop these features. We heard from many of you that giving and receiving referrals can be challenging. It can be difficult to find the ideal client for your practice. Many referral sources either provide an inconsistent flow of referrals or don't provide referrals that are actually a fit for your practice. And when you do get referrals that don't work for your practice, you want to help that client get the care they need. But the process for referring a client out to another clinician can be very manual and time consuming, especially if you're a newer clinician and still building out your professional network. So our new clinician referral feature is designed to make that process more efficient, giving you a reputable network of clinicians to turn to when you need to refer out. That way you can be more confident that the client is going to land in the care of someone that can help them, and it also enables your colleagues to recommend you to clients through our Monarch clinician directory. So the goal of this feature is to ultimately provide you with more referrals for less work. Let's see how it works. Now let's imagine that while I'm reviewing the inquiries tab and I'm confirming who's completed documents, who hasn't completed documents, who's been scheduled, I see that a new pending request from Jennifer has come to my practice. I click to learn more about Jennifer, read through her prescreener, and I see that she wants to use insurance. So I'm gonna click and see what insurance card she uploaded. And, unfortunately, she wants to use Cigna. I don't accept Cigna, at my practice, so I'm realizing that she's not gonna be a fit for my practice. So now rather than having to hunt through listservs or searching the Internet, I can really easily find and recommend clinicians, for clients just like Jennifer directly in SimplePractice. I can either click on the send referral button on the client overview page or in a few other locations in the application, I can also send her referrals. So if I click on the three dots on the inquiries page, I have a new send referrals option. I can also go to my client list. Let me update the client status so that we can see prospective clients. And here, next to Jennifer, you also see the option to send referrals. So if I go ahead and click it, with this new feature, I can type a message to Jennifer to provide context for the referral. Let me go ahead and do that. And then I can also review a list of potential clinicians to recommend to her. So this list over here is pulling from all SimplePractice clinicians who have monarch directory profiles published, and I'm able to filter by specific criteria. So for example, we know that she wanted to use Cigna insurance. She also mentioned that she needed some support with relationship issues, so I'm gonna filter by that specialty. And now I'm seeing a list of clinicians that might be a good fit for Jennifer. I can scroll through the list, get a sense of who's available more, coming up more frequently or recently as well as just some more information about them. If I want to dig in more deeply, I can click to view their profile and review even more detailed information about that potential referral. And so I'm gonna say I think these folks might be a good fit for Jennifer. So I'm going to attach their profiles to this referral email that I'm gonna send her way. I can click to preview the message and then go ahead and send it along. And then on the client side, they will receive my email with the message that I've sent along as well as links to those clinician directory profiles that I recommended. So for example, I'll show you what it would look like on the client side. They can click this link. It would open up that clinician's profile in Monarch. The potential client can review information and then either send a message or request an appointment with this clinician if they think that they're a potential fit. And now coming back to my SimplePractice account, if I go to Jennifer's user or excuse me, client profile, you'll also see that in her record, we document that the referral message was sent for easy and accurate record keeping. We are really excited about this feature. And as of a few days ago, every SimplePractice clinician, scheduler, and practice manager who provides behavioral health care has access to it on all plans. But to be clear, this is just our first step in building a strong referral network among clinicians that use SimplePractice. We are continuing to develop and improve upon this feature. For example, right now, we're currently working on the ability to create a favorites list within SimplePractice so that you can start to build a list of clinicians that you frequently refer out to. Now going back, you heard me mention earlier that this tool is powered by our native directory, Monarch. We know some of you are already using Monarch today, which is great. That is the first step to getting set up to receive clinician referrals. For those who aren't, I am going to show you how to ensure that your Monarch profile is active, so that your fellow SimplePractice clinicians know that you're open to accepting new clients and can find you when using the clinician referral feature. First, you'll select marketing in the left hand navigation. On this first screen, you'll need to confirm that the directory is enabled for your practice. If you're a clinician at a group practice and do not have administrative access, you'll need to consult with your practice owner or another administrator to enable the directory. As you can see here, I've confirmed that the directory is enabled, so now I will select the profile tab. Here you can fill out all of the details that you'd like to include on your profile. The more details, the better. However, knowing that many times these types of tasks need to fit in between sessions or even after hours, we've created a simplified setup flow. Just answer a few quick questions such as what specialties I focus on, what insurances I accept. In this case, I will remove Cigna. I can decide whether I want clients to contact me via appointment request, contact form, or both. And then finally, I can add in a brief bio introducing myself and my practice. After these four steps, I can select publish, and my profile will be available to clients when they access the Monarch directory and to clinicians when they search for recommendations for their clients. And there are many additional fields, some of which we surface here in another guided flow, that I can add to my profile to help it stand out, such as, for example, am I currently accepting new clients? Do I offer telehealth sessions? Are there specific age groups or communities that I focus on? All of which I can add in, but all I need to do in order to have an active profile is, complete those four steps that I showed you. So after this webinar, I hope you will all go and set up your Monarch profile and ensure that it's active so you can begin receiving clinician referrals. And as a reminder, you have full control over your visibility in the network and can adjust your settings at any time as your practice practice needs change. And as I mentioned before, we will continue to improve this feature based on your feedback. So now I'll hand it back over to Lindsay. Thank you, Kate, for those informative demos. I know everybody probably has a lot of questions, so please make sure you're continuing to add them to the q and a tab and upvote the questions that you most wanna hear about. So right now, I'm gonna take about three to four questions for Kate here, and then, we're gonna talk some with Max and take the remainder of the questions at the end. So please know if I don't get to your question right now, there will be another opportunity coming up shortly. So, first, Kate, this question, is is there a way to let other clinicians know that you are open to new referrals? Yes. Absolutely. And if we're talking specifically about within this clinician referral experience, as you saw when I was setting up my Monarch profile, if you scroll down to the bottom, there's the opportunity to toggle on and off whether or not I am accepting new clients, and that will also surface to the clinician that's, searching through the list of profiles. Awesome. Thank you, Kate. And looks like our next question, perhaps you could answer a little bit about, where where we're at and how Monarch works, but what's a SimplePractice do to advertise Monarch as a search engine for providers? Yeah. I'll take this in two directions because if we think of Monarch, Monarch as a directory is available to clients if they were to Google, say, find a therapist near me. So this is something that we are actively investing in to ensure that when clients are searching, they can, see you and that the, you know, Monarch as a directory will will surface in their results. Now advertising Monarch as a search engine for providers, we are not necessarily optimizing for, search engine results for providers, but we are, as you saw with this feature, trying to ensure that your Monarch profile is going to be visible to other SimplePractice providers when they utilize this new clinician referral feature. Thank you so much, Kate. And I think we will do one more, before we switch to, quit some quick time with Max Maisel, PhD. So, we will take this one from Sarah. Will referral therapists come up based on closer location to you? Short answer is yes. Absolutely. But you also have the ability to tweak that if you would like. If you notice one of the filters is location. So if there's a specific area that you'd like to try and find, you can absolutely customize that. But by default, what's gonna surface, are folks within your area. Awesome. Thank you so much, Kate, for, taking those couple questions right now. And we are gonna switch, for a little bit, but we will bring you back on stage a little bit later, to talk through some of the many more questions we've seen coming in. So we do hope, that clinician referral feature will help save you time and help make that more efficient, ultimately resulting in more new client referrals coming your way and being able to do that a little bit more seamlessly within your daily workflow. But now it is my pleasure to introduce our guest speaker, Dr. Max Maisel, who is a clinical psychologist and the founder of Beachfront Anxiety Specialists, a boutique group practice in Los Angeles with seven clinicians specializing in the treatment of OCD and related disorders using exposure and response prevention, ERP, and acceptance and commitment therapy act. In addition to his clinical and outreach work, doctor Maisel provides consultation and coaching to therapists across the country, supporting both clinical development and private practice growth. So we're gonna hear from Max on some strategies that he implements in his own practice and strategies he shares with others as he consults on practice and caseload growth. Max is particularly passionate about growing your practice with referrals, and we're really excited for him to share some of his some of his tips with you today. Yay. Thank you so much, Lindsay. Always a pleasure to share the space with you and the Cymbal family. So I'm very excited to be here. And hello from Los Angeles. So I am on Pacific Coast time over here. Still in the morning, technically. So yes. So I I'm really looking forward to our conversation. I'll say before we dive in, I've been playing around with the new referral feature on SimplePractice, and I think it's gonna be really cool. There's some, specific things that I'm particularly excited about. For one, I think it's, like, a pretty unique thing. I'm not aware of any other EHR systems having a built in referral system like this, which is, like, pretty awesome. And then secondly, as we're gonna talk, it'll probably become apparent that one of the most foundationally important things to get a referral network is, developing real authentic relationships with your community, with other therapists and colleagues. And I think that the SimplePractice feature will go a huge way in doing that. Right? It's creating, like, a community and organization within SimplePractice, which will really help people connect and get to know each other, which is pretty awesome. And then like you were saying before too, Lindsay, one of the kind of biggest logistical problems is our our clients are already dealing with so much, and it's so easy for people to get overwhelmed or kinda, like, lose numbers. So just to have the process be smooth and efficient through SimplePractice where clients just get the get the therapist information, it's right there for them, I think is is gonna really limit any sort of drop off that we might otherwise see. Absolutely. Thank you for for sharing some of that. And I think you're right as you highlight this. This is when we're thinking about that whole referral process, it's both the experience on our end as clinicians, also the experience I always reflect back on that experience for people seeking care. Right? And without that kind of seamless interaction, that ability to connect with someone quickly, it also has a major impact in that process. Sometimes people falling off and not making it to care even though they had made that first step. So really crucial on both ends. Absolutely. And, I know as we've heard, it can be really challenging to grow caseloads, and this is something you talk about a lot. And building up professional networks can sometimes be a piece of that as well. And what has been your experience growing referrals for your practice if you can share a little bit more? Yeah. So there's sort of three pieces that all kinda work together. Like I said before, one of the biggest ones is, like, developing real relationships with people. Right? Like, getting to know people, being authentic, just like building your network that way. But then the two other ones that are equally as important is staying visible, especially if you're, like, a high impacted area like New York or Los Angeles where where I'm at. You really wanna be able to stay on the radar of clinicians in your community. And then finally, you wanna establish yourself as, like, a resource, somebody that other people trust with sending referrals your way. So whether it's, like, a specialty or just being resourceful or supporting other people, you wanna make sure you're kinda tapping into that as well. So I think, like, those three things together tend to work in tandem, to really help develop a pretty pretty awesome referral network for people. That's fantastic. And I think each of those, we could dig into a little bit more because there's a lot that goes behind each of those. Right? I think, you know, we often hear about this piece about building a network, but, it can be challenging in many ways. So I'd love to first ask you a little bit about how has focusing on building that authentic relationships and networks been beneficial beyond just growing your, client base? Yeah. It's a great question. I appreciate you asking. It's in a lot of ways. I I will say that, genuinely, some of my best friends right now are, like, therapists that I've met through through, like, networking and and outreach, activities, which is, like, really cool. Also, generally, I think we spend so much time, behind a computer on Zoom intersessions or, maybe, like, a stuffed office space. And, it's so much fun and so vital to, like, get out of the office, grab coffee at a local coffee shop that you've been wanting to with a colleague, checking out local treatment centers, medical centers, hospital settings, outpatient clinics. It's just sort of like getting out, getting in your community, mixing things up a little bit. It's just really precious and cool. And then I think, like, lastly, it just I think it's good clinical care to really know all the best resources and referrals for your clients. Right? So when somebody comes to you with a concern that you need to get them some extra help with, you will have a personal relationship with certain people, and you know exactly how to send them to where they need to go and, what that entails, which I think that clinically can make a lot of sense as well. Absolutely. I love that. Max, you highlighted a few things that really stood out to me there, which is one in that last piece, I think, that kind of that warmer hand off. Right? We know that that makes a really big difference for care. So knowing who you're sending to and being able to say, like, hey. I've met with this other therapy. I've met with this other provider. This primary care whatever direction we're talking about in those referrals is really core to that piece. But I I also really love the piece that you highlighted about just building those relationships. I know many people experience that being in private practice can feel somewhat isolating. Yeah. So having that kind of building that network, although it's really beneficial to referrals, it sounds like it's really been beneficial to you also just in that space to build those real relationships, that continue and may also lead to referrals along the way. Yep. %. That's exactly right. Awesome. And so I know one of the hardest things for many, I know I've been here myself that making those first steps can be really hard in how do you build those relationships. So, I would love if you could break down your approach into some actionable steps that anyone listening, might wanna take to start building those networks. So for one, one of the most important things we could do is cast a wide net in terms of, like, how many people you're reaching out to to create a referral network and who you're reaching out to. It's so kinda like a numbers game. Right? If you reach out to, like, four or five, clinicians or colleagues, like, maybe one of them will turn into a referral source, but if you reach reach out to twenty, thirty, even more, just like probability wise, you'll start getting some, referrals at some point. It's kinda like you're planting seeds, and you gotta nourish the seeds and grow, and some of them won't turn into anything, but some of them will probably pull them into awesome referral plans. And then in terms of, like, who you reach out to, you wanna think both within your sort of, like, specialization or niche and also outside of it. Because if you network with people within your niche, once those people get full caseloads, they'll need to send their clients somewhere and they'll have you top of mind, who's like a trusted referral source. And, obviously, outside of your niche, when they have people that are, like, outside their wheelhouse, they'll think of you and to be able to send any, clients there. And then when I'm meeting with other clinicians, one area that people tend not to think about is making sure you're networking and building relationships with professionals even outside of, like, the therapy world. For example, my practice, so I specialize in body focused repetitive behaviors, BFRB. So, like, trichotillomania or skin picking. So I build relationships and network with dermatologists, right, and go to dermatologist clinics. I also work with tics and Tourette syndrome. So I go to neurologists. Right? Neurologist clinic. So thinking for you, what, like, what sort of professionals make sense? Like, what sort of professionals touch the lives of your clients and not being afraid to kinda go out and build relationships and trusted, meetings with those individuals as well. And and you can be super creative with it too. Right? It could be, like, alternative medicine providers, like massage therapists or acupuncturists, divorce mediators, different sort of, like, school systems. Thinking about what makes sense for you and your practice, and certainly going out there could be a really, really helpful way to establish yourself and to kind of, create, like, another avenue of possible referrals. Love it. I think that's a really important point you highlight, Max, which is really thinking about your own practice and specialty and, like, where does it relate. Right? It's easy because especially if we're at a time where we're looking for a whole lot of referrals and really building that network. You know, it's costing a wide net, but, like, also a focus net on, like, what touches your practice. You know? Yeah. It's not random. Yeah. It's a strategic net. You're kind of, like, being very, like, intentional. Probably the as you talked about, like, you send out 20, maybe you'll have, like, ten, five, whatever really effective ones. The more focused that net though, right, the more large but focused it is on your work area, probably the most effective. And I'm gonna guess for many people, as I've heard this many times, as I felt it, I can remember, back in the day, those first contacts when you're just going out and being like, I wanna build this relationship. Can you talk a little bit about what your approach is to those initial contacts when you're reaching out? Yes. So I so how I like to think about it, there's sort of three ways you could do it, and they're all important. I'll start with the one that probably people hate the most, and they might even cringe a little bit when I say this. But it is really helpful. So cold cold calling people. Right? And what I mean by that is, like, going on SimplePractice, Monarch System or Psychology Today or whatever, and looking at therapists within your area and sending them emails. Like, hey. I saw your profile. You look really cool. I'd love to get to know your practice more. Would you wanna grab, like, a a Zoom coffee, or, would you wanna grab some lunch or something? Make sure if if you do that though, don't make it sort of cookie cutter or standardized. It's really important to tailor it to that person. Thinking, like, in graduate school, you want your cover letters to be very specific, and you want to really kinda because that's like the you're starting a relationship with somebody. Right? So you wanna start it in a more of, like, an intimate, vulnerable way where you're like, hey. Like, I really like this about your profile. I think we could really, kinda help support each other. Let's, let's hang out and and chat more. And then the second one, which is, may maybe, like, a little bit more powerful than that one, is using some sort of, like, asynchronous starting point with which to build the relationship. For example, there's, like, tons and tons, maybe too many, like, therapist oriented Facebook groups, but those are really, really helpful ways. Right? So you can, join, like, a local therapist Facebook group, right, something that's relevant to you and your practice. And if you see a post that you really like, right, send them a direct message like, hey. That post is really cool. I resonated. You seem awesome. I would love to hop on a Zoom call with you and, like, hear more about your practice or, again, like, kinda talk talk more about how we can support each other. Same thing with, like, a lot of professional organizations have very active listservs. So responding to listservs, like, oh, I saw you posted this on listserv. Like, that was really cool. I'd love to chat more and and get to know you. And the third way is probably the most potent way where it's if you're sharing, like, a same sort of, like, physical space or experience with somebody. For example, you go to a workshop or you go to a conference or you go to, like, a a lot of therapists will have, like, open houses, kind of like a meet and greet sort of thing when they open up a new office space. Getting those business cards, getting those email addresses, and circling back. Hey. I had such an amazing time at that, CPT workshop that we did together. Let's I'd love to chat more about it. Right? And, again, you're planting a seed and you're starting to grow a relationship that could potentially turn out to to be something, like, really cool and beautiful. So yeah. So each of those, I think, are unique and important in the wrong way, and, it's finding a good mix and match that works for each individual's practice. That's great. And I think, you know, as you mentioned that I can remember myself being in those scenarios before you go, you meet the person. You take the card and you forget that next step. And I like as you highlight that. It's like, take that moment soon after to reach out and be like, hey. This was a great conversation we had. Right? Because as time goes on, we lose track of those things. Right? Yeah. It's a great starting point. Right? Then you have a you have a shared experience. Right? As we, like, teach our clients, like, social skills, putting relationships. It's really helpful to have a shared experience, but then you can build upon that. And same with us as therapists, more business wise, like, kinda growing your referral network, it can be really helpful too. Absolutely. And once, you know, I think the next step, once we get over our fears and make those initial contacts, my next question is, how do you continue to stay relevant? So it's one thing when we've reached out to someone, they know we're there, But then over time, do they still remember we're there? So what do you do to stay relevant? Yes. So I like to think there's, like, the three or four point rule. So you need at least, like, three or four points of contact with, a therapist with a colleague before you can even expect any sort of referral to come through. So for example, let's say you see somebody post on Facebook, something that you really vibe with and you reach out, like, hey. Let's meet for, like, a a virtual coffee hangout. You meet. That would be one point of contact. And then maybe you see, like, a blog a couple months later that's, like, really relevant to that person. It's like you send them a link. Okay. Saw this blog that reminded you of what we talked about. I just wanted to share that with you. That'd be two points of contact. And then maybe so I'm I'm personally a a huge fan of in person connecting at some point. So if you grab lunch, grab coffee, go on a walk, is a really important way. So maybe you, like, do one of those things with the clinician. That would be three. Maybe you send them a referral at some point. That would be four. So the more points of contact you have with your colleagues and with your, like, kind of therapist community, you're you're staying visible and they'll keep you top of mind. So when they have a referral that they think might be good for you, they remember, oh, so and so, they sent me a quote blog article. Like, oh, that that this got that makes sense for them. They're more likely to send them your way because you'll be on the radar. I love that. It's really helpful. Even as I hear you talking about each of these pieces, I know that I've definitely been there. Those struggles of, like, it's just hard to think, like, okay. I did the hard work and then how do you keep it going. Right? We can think about these all they all make sense as we hear them, but really committing to that plan. Right? Really committing, like you said, those multiple points of contact to continue it. Absolutely. And now that you know, as we've talked some about these kind of one on one relationships that you have built and some really helpful tips there, I also wonder how do you stay relevant in your professional community, both thinking like online, in person, really establishing yourself as an expert? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's there's so many cool ways to do that, and, this is something where you can really tap into your creativity and and, like, think about, oh, like, what sort of therapist am I? Where are my kind of strengths and growth points? And tapping into that. One of the big ones, again, would be, pushing yourself to be active. Right? Whether it's, like, therapists, Facebook groups, listservs, professional organizations. If you see somebody comment or make a post, like, a question on social media, answer the question. Right? Start in dialogue with people, answer, listservs. People will start remembering your name. People will start associating you with somebody that knows what they're talking about. If they see your name pop up, giving good feedback, giving advice, being supportive, you'll start, like, slowly but surely establishing yourself, especially if those are more, like, local based organizations or Facebook groups. Other big ones would be, like, either joining or starting a consultation group. And, ideally, you want that consultation group to be as local as possible. Because if you join a consultation group with, like, therapists from, like, all over the world or all over the country or even all all over the state, again, it's not it's not a bad thing at all, but the more specific you are to your area, just like the more relevant you're gonna be, just in terms of, like, search engine optimization, like, the more, like, likely people are gonna be searching your name in that area. So I think, like, the more niche you can get with consultation groups, the better. Some other areas too, if if you're a public speaker or if you're not and you're willing to be pushing yourself to public speak is huge. I I kid you not. I get, like, at least a handful of referrals, like, immediately after I give, like, a workshop or training. It just comes in and then they sort of, like, trickle down, in the months after. So that could be, like, reaching out to different podcasts that you like and seeing if they could host you as a guest, reaching out to different universities. I'm happy to talk more about ways to kinda pursue public speaking, but that can be really big. And may maybe the last one I'll say is, offering consultations to your colleagues. If if you're not at the point where you feel comfortable or ready to do, like, paid consultations yet, even offering free consultations. Because, again, what you're doing is you're, putting yourself out there and you're showing therapists in your community that, you're somebody that they can trust. Right? And then they'll think of you specifically when there's a client that comes comes across later on. Like, oh, I consulted with so and so. That was, like, super helpful. This might be a perfect fit for their practice. So those are some of the big ones. I'm sure I might other ones might pop up later, and I can share them as they do. But top of mind, those are the ones right now. Those are fantastic. I love that you gave a range. Right? For those who are interested in things like public speaking, that's a great way, especially, I like your highlight of the the large national things are fantastic. But when you really want that, when we're talking about referrals and relationships and that expertise locally, it can be really important to find those ways in your community. So I love that on one end. And then even thinking just, like you said, in those broader ways, sharing our article sharing things, sharing information that you see, I think those are all fantastic and give a range regardless of any individual person's comfort with really putting themselves out there. It's kinda like there's a lot of small steps you can take, and then there's some really big ones that you could take. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. You don't have to publicly think. There's a lot of other ways, but you could do that, or you could, like, write a blog post and, like, post it on on a social media or listserv. There's, yeah, so so many different ways. I guess you could write a book, but, I mean, that's that's something probably all other things. Can't offer much advice on that one. A lot of time spent there. So I like to start with these ones where you can really, like you know, any of us could start to look, right, about what are some opportunities, do some outreach, start posting things pretty quickly. So I love that these are really focused on the, like, something you can act on pretty quickly. And the last question I have for right now before we move on to a little q and a is any final advice you have for clinicians looking to build their referral networks? Yeah. So, it takes time. Don't be sales pitchy. I think, like, therapists tend to have good and kind of BS detectors, and they'll know if you're, just trying to kinda sell them something. So really just focus on having fun. Focus on getting to know people. Focus on, people getting to know you. For me, honestly, it took about a year, maybe more than that, for referrals to really start paying off. So, again, it's one of the things you really have, like, let go and trust the process and trust yourself and know that, like, along the way, you're gonna be meeting really cool people, having really cool opportunities, and it could probably both potentially lead to a whole lot of business and financial success as well. Awesome. Thank you so much, Max, and thank you for sharing these insights. I think it gives a really nice road map and some really practical advice so people can walk away with ways to build those professional connections. And for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, again, in the document section on the right hand side of your screen, you'll see a one page, document that includes a bunch of Max's tips for increasing referrals. But with that being said, we know there are a whole lot of questions coming in, and we're excited to get you some answers. So thank you, Max, and we're gonna keep you here because I bet there are some questions that will be really focused on things you might help us get through and answer. So right now we're gonna take the top five or however many questions we have the time to get through, to make sure, right now that you're continuing to go into that q and a section, upvote questions you want answered, and we'll now bring Kate back to answer any of your questions related specifically to the feature, and Max will be able to answer questions related to any of the professional guidance. So gentle reminder that the chat tab continue. Feel free to use it for conversation, but we will not be pulling questions from there in part because that just moves very quickly, and we wanna make sure that those upvoted questions in the q and a are there. If you do have a specific question for, Kate or for Max, please feel free to indicate it also when you put those questions in. So let's dive in and start, going through some of these. So, let's see. Just wanna make sure that we get to a few of the newish questions that we haven't. So there is a question, and, Kate, I think I will give this one to you. What is the search performance of Monarch relative to psychology today? Yeah. So it I will definitely say psychology today is, kind of the the big directory on campus, so to say. So they definitely are the kind of top of the search, but it's something that, as I mentioned before, we are actively investing in ways to ensure that Monarch is boosted, further in in search performance as compared to psychology today. So, for example, I know I saw some questions about specific things we're doing. We are investigating ways that we can improve our brand and the way that our brand is surfaced within the directory so that we can, lean into some of the most frequent searches. Right? Like, find a therapist near me, or, you know, therapy near me, that type of thing. So, those are some of the tactics that we're taking, to improve our search performance. Absolutely. Thank you, Kate McChesney. And I think, you know, as we as we think about this question, this is something that we're continuously thinking about as Kate McChesney mentioned. Right? And we want to continue. Of course, psychology today is one of those those very large. It's been established for a long time, but we're continuously trying to think about ways to support you in in helping that search as well. And I believe I missed one that was higher upvoted because I saw some answers. So I'm gonna go back up the, list a little bit, and I think that this one is, another one for you, Kate McChesney, as well, which is SimplePractice won't let me indicate that I'm accepting new clients if I don't allow prospective clients to make direct appointments online. Is there a way around this? The short answer is yes. So if you go to your settings, and specifically go to the scheduling settings and disable online appointment request, there's a toggle to turn that on and off. Once you turn that off and go back to your Monarch directory profile, you'll now be able to, update the accepting new client setting, yourself without it checking for any, availability that you've set up. Awesome. Thank you so much. And, another question specific to, oh, sorry. Click the wrong button. So sorry. There we go. I've been on Monarch for a while. Not a new feature. That's correct. Monarch has been around. Some of these other pieces that we're talking about are what have been added, but I haven't gotten a single inquiry on there. Wondering if I'm doing something wrong. So I actually wonder if both Kate McChesney and Max Maisel, I can push this question to both of you. Kate McChesney, for a little bit of advice and thoughts about where we're at with Monarch and and ideas about making sure that everything is set in a way, to receive client referrals and also love to love to bump to you also after that, Max Maisel, to get any insights that you might have. Yeah. So I know I mentioned this in the demo, but I definitely would say the more information that you can provide, the better. So if you look at, the the different settings, there are lots of different categories that you can add on to your profile. Like I mentioned, what age groups you work with, specialties. And so that way your profile is going to stand out, and it's gonna be included in those, search results when someone's using, filters. So highly recommend kind of, personalizing and ensuring that you've included, some information to surface in search query. And then, for more kind of color on that, I'll hand it over, to you, Max Maisel. Yeah. I mean, I think there's I think there's a a lot of different ways. I know. I think, and, Lindsay and or Kate, maybe you can expand upon this. But I think there's, like, several, like, SimplePractice, like, Facebook groups or kinda social media forums. And I'm assuming most people in those forums or groups are gonna have a Monarch profile. So, again, what a cool way to to connect. And, again, I think it'll make referrals so much easier because it's as simple as, like, using the tracking system within SimplePractice and, like, shooting it over to somebody. But, yeah, really, like and if during your networking adventure, as we had kinda just talked about the different ways to do that, if you find out that the therapist or clinician is a SimplePractice u user, and there's, like, a a good chance they are because there are many of us, that could be a helpful way to, like, send them your Monarch profile. Or since this is new and the networking thing is just kinda going on, seeing if you could review each other's profiles and sort of, like, using that as a as another way to connect, I think, can be really helpful. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you both. And I think on on both of those, some really helpful ideas. And I do wanna share I know we're gonna have more information about this as we wrap up. But as Max just mentioned, our we do have a Facebook community group. We also have seen a few people, though this is a specific one, I've seen a few people mention they were in Illinois. We also have a very focused Illinois group as we were testing kind of that allowing that local ability to build relationships like Max mentioned. And, also, you'll be getting a document later about, some interest in potentially, joining local meetups too. So, you will see a little bit more of that information popping into the chat and, across the screen, but wanted to give some highlights there because I think they do really highlight that need for this is a large community. There are many of you even on our call today, and just building these connections continue to be a really strong source of how you have that network, how you grow all those great ways that Max had shared with us. So I the next question I know we talked about this a little bit, but I think it goes a little farther. So I do wanna still make sure to share this, question, which is what is SimplePractice doing to encourage traffic to our Monarch sites via SEO and advertising Monarch as a directory? Right now, it seems like you're asking us to populate your network without doing work to make it useful, promotion for us. And I know Kate can speak some to this as well, but I do wanna say, again, I know just from highlighting some of our earlier answer, we do see this as a really big highlight. This is one of our primary goals this year is to continue to find ways to bring in referrals. We know it is a huge stress for many clinicians, if not most, and we continue to try to find ways to build connections into, various ways that more referrals will be coming in, and, obviously, SEO being part of that as well, but also relationships. So I will pass to Kate if there's more that you wanna talk about here. Yeah. I know I mentioned, the fact that we are assessing our brand and how our brand, specifically the Monarch directory brand surfaces, in in search. So that's one of the key pieces that we're looking at, optimizing. But, also, very specifically, we're looking at our pages and how what can we do to tweak specific directory pages or individual listing pages so that they can surface in even more localized searches, like, you know, therapist in Chicago, or therapist in Detroit. So those are a a few things. But, again, I think, also, our goal is that, this Monarch profile can become valuable to you in multiple ways. Right? It can become valuable in clinicians organically finding you via search, but also that it can provide you with these valuable referrals from this clinician to clinician referral source. So, again, as Lindsay said, just to reiterate, we're trying to, ensure that we can bring as many referrals as possible, to, folks that are needing them. Absolutely. And I think growing that network too and being able, Kate, as you mentioned, that, you know, looking forward, the ability to build that favorites list, right, of clinicians in your area that you've built connection with and have that immediate ability to share information. I think there there's a whole host both from this question thinking about how do we bring kind of flow in, but then also how once that flow of referrals is in, how does it get managed by you and other clinicians around you in building that. So thank you very much for that, Kate, as well, and thank you for that question. So the next one, I think, is, Kate, question as well, and it is, how do I publish my practice in the simple practice directory? Yes. I know, shared a little bit on this in the demo. But as a quick reminder, if you go to your account on that left hand side, if you click on marketing, make sure that you've got the directory overall enabled on that first tab, and then click on the profile tab. Once you click on the profile tab, you'll see the different that quick kind of four step setup process, to just get that that, quick profile created. And then, again, you can dig in more deeply to the categories below, to really customize it. And I wonder with that question as well, Max, if there's anything when you think about your own kind of profile so I know this question was specific to publishing, but wonder if there's anything that you wanna add to how you think about developing your own profile page and things that you really wanna make sure you highlight. Yeah. So and this is probably not gonna be news to most of the people here, but I I do think it's worth reiterating. It tends to not be the most helpful if you, like, put all, like, all the different specializations, clicking all the boxes. So really, like, see if you can push yourself to choose, like, three or four specializations. Because, again, then you're gonna really stand out to people and, it'll be easier for people to keep you keep you in mind. So I think that's probably one of the one of the bigger pieces of it for sure. Absolutely. Thank you so much. So, again, going back to some of those pieces of, I think, that consistent piece of you mentioned building your expertise and your networks, but your profile also being really clear and highlighting, like, if you're in this region and you're looking for someone who treats this or has this approach that it's very clear kind of in your profile as well. Yes. So I know we only have time for a few more questions if that and I do wanna make sure I know I already mentioned it, but just making sure that those links are seen because I know it can easily kind of go through the chat again for our kind of broad SimplePractice Facebook group. For those of you in Illinois, very specific Illinois, therapist group, And also, again, will be that question about the interest in really meeting up in person. I love seeing I can't keep up with the whole chat, but from those that I do get to glance over and read, I love the connections that everyone's working on building, and being able to continue to, you know, find others in your area, find others, who you might build a really good connection with. So I love this. So please keep it going. So on to the next question. So, one of the questions and, so I can I can I can take a start on this, and then if either of you would like to add, maybe, Max, some, some of what you've heard in this area as well, which is from Peter? Does anyone have insight into why psychology today has slowed down? So without being able to very explicitly, know the reasons and the workings of psychology today. We do know this has consistently been a problem. We have asked people. We have talked with many customers directly, who have expressed the same problem, and many people have seen a decline. And we see this as one of the big drivers, that many people cite as why that decline has been happening. So we've heard many reasons, many of which are there are ways, right, to to modify profiles to make them come to the top. There are different ways that people can really highlight or other companies can highlight, particular therapists to kind of move continuously to the top. And although we know this hasn't affected everyone, it has, it it has affected many people. So I guess, one, to not feel alone in this. Two, though we don't have the direct lens into psychology today to answer that, it is a pretty consistent problem that we've been hearing from most people. Max, I don't know if you wanna add any more from what you've heard about, this Yeah. I mean, yeah. I get my guess is as good as anybody. But from what I've heard, like, word on the street or whatever is, that, like, all like, there's a lot of big kind of conglomerates sort of, like, therapy groups now. Right? I don't know if I want to name them, so I won't. But everyone probably knows what I'm thinking about. So I I think there's probably, like, to inundate, like, the algorithms, and there's, like, such a flow of, like, money from those that some of the smaller, more, like, independent therapists get drowned out. I mean, I I personally haven't had a psychology to their referral in a in a very long time. And yeah. So I think I think most people resonate with that question. Yes. Definitely definitely a common one both as a psychologist myself that I see in in forums all the time. But like I said, we hear it even within SimplePractice all the time. So I do appreciate you raising it. I wish I had a very clear answer, but, similarly, same ideas that we've heard. Right? That it's continuously there there are just ways to move people to the top of which it's really hard to do. And one of the things that we're always here for is how do we continue to help you as solo, small group, medium sized group individuals get some of those same kind of resources to move to the top of these searches. So with that, I think we are, probably just about out of time with questions. So, unfortunately, I love as I read through this list, I think they are all really fantastic, and I really appreciate the time that everybody took, to share questions, to continue to chat. Like I said, love the chat. Love seeing all of the interaction and ideas being shared with one another. Hope you were able to get some questions answered about, our new features, and we're excited to continue as Kate mentioned. And I'll say again, we continue to see we know this is a core thing that everyone in practice needs to deal with, bringing in referrals, making it easy, and continuing. So we will continue to help you, find ways to grow your practice more efficiently. A couple reminders, and resources before we wrap up. So one, those docs, that I mentioned, make sure to download them before you walk away. So those linked resources won't be available immediately, if you don't download them now, but they will be accessible again when the recording goes out again within forty eight hours. The resources you have access to are one, Max Maisel's top tips on how to build your referral network. Also, the FAQs and how to instructions for that new clinician referrals feature. So if you still have some of those questions, you can get more details on those instructions as well. A link to join our community page on Facebook if you're not already there with us. We do continue to share updates as we continue to improve this feature and other features. Also a great chance to connect with one another, as well. Also, already mentioned, if you are in Illinois and interested, that Facebook group is also pinned, and a link to our interest form for in person meetups. So this is something we're exploring right now. If you have interest, we'd love to hear from you. So please make sure to fill that out if you are interested in, building some of those local relationships and getting to meet, other SimplePractice customers doing the the work that you're doing in your communities and build those relationships. So I hope that after today, you have the info you need to set up your Monarch profile, start referring within SimplePractice, and I hope you were able to get some tips and ideas today, build some connections maybe even through the chat. And tomorrow, you'll receive an email with a link to the recording of this session. I wanna thank Max again for joining us. Thank Kate for sharing the demo, and thank you all for joining us, this morning, this afternoon, depending on where you're located. Really appreciate it. Thank you all.