The Digital Landlord's Playbook: Own Your Land, Grow Your Brand

Camille McDaniel (00:02.114)
Welcome back to another episode of Christ in Private Practice. Today I wanted to talk a little bit about how we are staying connected in business and how we are building those connections and whether or not they are sturdy because we are sometimes building on other people’s land. And we want to be able to also make sure that we’re building on our own land as well.

solid ground, okay? And when I talk about this, first thing that really popped up in my mind was how sometimes in the past social media platforms have just gone radio silent because they had some type of technical difficulty and they were out of power, you know?

You would go to your Instagram page and Instagram was experiencing some kind of downtime. And if you went to Facebook a couple of times, had this going on, we know what happened with TikTok because it went away for a little bit. And it did come back, obviously, everybody’s on there again. But what happens when a lot of your business

is built on social media platforms that you don’t own? You know, it’s a little risky, especially if you actually communicate with people mostly through kind of like social media networks. And how about this? Because even if you are not super active, you’re not one of the ones who are super active on social media sites, what about the fact that I bet most

of you listening to this podcast right now are part of some type of online group for mental health professionals. How many of you actually have people’s names and email addresses? So if Facebook happens to have more downtime, if the platform decides that it’s going to change, you know, I may have talked about this in a previous podcast episode, but

Camille McDaniel (02:19.404)
like Mark Zuckerberg, when they were doing some, I think they were having court trials or there was something where he was having to testify before, I believe, Congress. And what came out was the fact that he, at one point in time, floated the idea of erasing everybody’s friends so that it would encourage people to start networking and building up connections from scratch.

Like, my goodness, could you imagine the hot mess frenzy that probably would take place on Facebook if all of a sudden people woke up the next day and they had no connection starting at zero? my goodness. Well, here’s the thing though, because he does own the company. so thankfully there are checks and balances in place where people did not actually go along with that idea and they were able to get him to think about something different and go in a different direction.

but it did come up. We don’t know what individuals are talking about in their meetings. We don’t own these companies. So the best thing that we can do is make sure that we have a backup and so that we are building on solid ground in our business and with our clients as well as colleagues. And so let’s kind of look at a couple of ways that we should be doing this. And then I want

kind of take the guesswork out of the idea that this really is a cumbersome process, an overwhelming process, it really honestly doesn’t have to be. It doesn’t really take a lot to keep in touch. And so the first thing that we want to make sure that we have, that we own, is a website. I’m not going to necessarily go into all of the details about it, but you need a website. And on that website, you need to make sure that

your website, whether you have just one website, whether you have two websites, you know, I have different websites for the different businesses that I’m a part of. So I have Christ in Private Practice, right? That is obviously for faith-based mental health professionals who are seeking support and building sustainable businesses and being able to have great impact and reach in their communities. But when it comes to then counseling for clients,

Camille McDaniel (04:36.96)
I have my other website, which is Healing Psychotherapy Practices of Georgia. And then my husband and I are part owner where my husband does website design, video editing, motion graphics, and that is for our other company, Spectrum Sites. So you wanna make sure that if you have a website, I’d just like to say this because sometimes we are multi-talented.

And, and we do like to sometimes condense things. And so you may find a number of things listed on just one website, and it doesn’t really fit. So I would just encourage if anybody’s listening, and maybe you are someone who provides supervision and resources and services for mental health professionals and students. And then you also are doing things that are related to maybe care with your clients, whether that’s marriage and family therapy or trauma work or

whatever you happen to specialize in, and maybe you have something else as well. Just make sure that when people come to your website, they are clear on your specializations. That when they come to the website, what you say you do to that particular audience is exactly what they see when they come to your website. Because it’s really confusing if you say that you work with like couples.

and families and when people come to your website they see information on clinical supervision and a lot of trainings regarding ethics and things that just don’t apply to them kind of makes it feel like the couple’s work and the family work is just maybe a kind of afterthought or just kind of a side to your main work. So just be careful about that and now back on track. So

You have a website and that is going to be your land. Think about it like this, social media networks can be super valuable but you don’t own them, they are not your land. So not only can the network go silent when they have technical difficulties but you can get locked out of your accounts and…

Camille McDaniel (06:54.274)
then you can’t speak to any other people who happen to be following you or connected to you, you know, depending on what’s going on. We don’t really want to have those types of problems. So what I would then focus on is making sure that you have in place ways to stay connected. So when you happen to meet people online, you know, ask them, Hey, can we stay connected? You know, like,

Do you mind? Can I use like your email maybe from time to time? I can see what’s going on with you. See if you have any services that might help some of my clientele or other people that I know in the profession. And maybe sometimes if I have something, I can share it with you. Is that okay? And if it’s okay, then now take their name, take their email address and put it on your listing. And if you don’t have a listing, like a email content management,

service which I think is always great because it allows people to unsubscribe. If you don’t have one you can look into there’s like MailChimp, there’s Content Constant Contact, there’s Aweber, there’s I think it’s Mimi something I’ve forgotten the name there actually are a ton there are a lot of different ones. I think with MailChimp

I don’t use MailChimp, but I know a number of people who do and I believe with MailChimp, they even have a free offering if you have under a certain number of people on your email list. So it makes it really great for people who are really just starting up with getting an email listing going. And you can have different lists under one account. So you can have like a list for colleagues, you can have a list for maybe even clients.

I know that we have one in our practice. You can have a list for if you happen to be doing trainings and launching new trainings. Let me also though, let me jump back real quick to the clients. The way that we collect information to put clients on our email list is through our intake form. On our intake form, it says, can we keep you up to date monthly with our newsletter? And then they can give permission, yes or no.

Camille McDaniel (09:13.164)
And then if they happen to indicate yes, then they will go on our email newsletter listing for the clients that we have and serve in our practice. But we want to make sure that we get people’s permission. And so as we move forward, when you’re talking about, okay, so if I build this email list, now I have to send people emails and I don’t have time for that and this is going to be a lot. No, you don’t. Let’s slow down. This is the same way as we encourage our clients.

to keep in contact with people so that they can have community. We are going to just set maybe a really easy pace for ourselves to make sure that we are sending out emails at a rate that is good for our schedule. No one says you need to send people emails every week. You don’t have to do that. I have an open rate of

anywhere from like 45 to 50 percent open rate which is really good open rate but I send an email out twice a month. I used to send an email out once a month and every time and let me just say this is an email that I send to the clients in my private practice. So I used to send an email just once a month and I noticed that that actually was doing all right. It always got people to like call in

but it was just doing okay with the open rate. And when I actually bumped it up and made the content really relevant, dynamic, and I sent it out twice a month, and people started to open it up at a higher rate. Now with Christ in Private Practice, I send out an email weekly because I wanna make sure that people are aware that a new…

podcast episode came out and so they can watch it on YouTube or they can listen to it on Apple or Spotify, you know, so I do send out a newsletter weekly but the open rate for that again, I have like, like 45 to 50 % open rate, it’s like really good. So it’s working well. And you just want to make sure that you know, the information being sent is good. But

Camille McDaniel (11:25.494)
when we are talking about building for our private practice, that’s just going to go back to making sure that we have options, that we have a plan B in case something doesn’t work. If you happen to notice that all of a sudden there’s problems with one of your social media platforms, you don’t have to stress out because you have been collecting email addresses all along.

Here’s what you’re going to, going back to the schedule, here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna say, you know what, right now I know I can at least send out one email a month. Ideally, if you could send out two, that’d be great, but you know what, start where you can. Okay, what are you gonna say then? Develop what you’re going to say. So if you happen to work with children,

then you are going to think about what are some really important topics that parents are grappling with as it relates to being able to support and care for their children who are experiencing some type of mental emotional health challenge. You can then write on that, give good quality tips, give some tools, give some resources, have some of those resources on your website. Why? Because you want

people to come back around to your website, you want your website to be a resource in their life so that they come to it not only for their own needs, but maybe they even refer to other people when other people that they know also have a need. So you’re going to just write a website or excuse me, you’re just going to write a newsletter that’s going to have information that your particular audience really is looking for.

It’s obviously not going to take the place of a full session, but it is definitely enough that might hold them over until they have their session. Give them a little something to think about, some more to learn, something to try. And then after that, you’re done. That’s it. That’s all you had to do. And guess what? If that was easy, then do it twice and schedule it out.

Camille McDaniel (13:49.41)
That’s the benefit of having an email management system because you can actually create your newsletter and you can then schedule it for the future and you’re good. Go on about your day. See, you got two months worth of newsletter content already set and ready to go to keep in touch and you’re done. That’s really not hard, is it? Okay. So then that’s what you want to think about doing. And when you have a little bit more energy and time,

then you’re going ahead and maybe you can add one more bonus newsletter. How about it? And as far as maybe an email list for colleagues, that’s where you can literally just send one time a month, they’re probably just as busy as you are, and you can send something out to say hello, and this is what I’ve been up to, and how are you all doing, and see if anybody has like,

room to maybe like chat, get together for a lunch hour, know, tell a, tell a health talk or you know bring your lunch and we can eat and catch up and maybe you can have just a couple of times on your calendar that you do that each month with people. Again, building networks outside of

basically land that you don’t own so that you have a good plan of action. You have a way to keep connected on these social media platforms and that is awesome but then you also have a way to stay connected just in case things go a little wonky on this other land that you have your business information on but you don’t own.

The other thing that you may want to do is while you are on social media platforms, know, offer people something that requires them to sign up to get the thing. So it could be tips and tools as we are approaching the holidays and how to get through the stress or how to develop boundaries during the holidays with, you know, family and friends who have poor boundaries or.

Camille McDaniel (16:04.062)
It could be a number of things that you might want to help people with, give them some tools, give them some tips, make it engaging, make it kind of fun. And then you can offer that on your website. And you can also share that link in different groups that you happen to be in. Now, I would encourage you, if you are going to share in online groups, give something before just asking for something. So,

please engage with the individuals that are in the group. Really do become invested in answering some questions or sharing a really helpful article or sharing a helpful tip, something along that lines because it is really, it’s kind of the same online as it is in real life.

If you walk up to somebody at a, I don’t know, a networking event or maybe a convention or wherever a lot of mental health professionals are gathering, and if you just walk up to someone and you don’t state your name and you don’t say hello, you just start telling them about the networking event that you’re putting on or the training you’re putting on or the podcast episode they should listen to, how will that be received?

Isn’t that going to seem kind of, that’s going to be rude, right? It’s going to seem rude. It’s going to seem awkward. And that is a little bit of how it sometimes can seem when you happen to be in online groups and people aren’t chatting or they’re not even presenting it in a way that’s like, you know, say hello or something. How are you doing? How’s the group doing? You know, this episode was really important to me because of this.

reason or that reason, you know, engaging them in conversation and then sharing whatever it is that you have going on, your training event or your networking event or some other consultation group, whatever it may be. But I would just encourage you, try to actually practice the social skills when we are trying to build the networks. It really is helpful. There’s so much

Camille McDaniel (18:24.556)
going on in the world as as far as like people just talking and sharing their knowledge that sometimes if all you do is just tell people what they can sign up for they sometimes kind of just get a little numb and they just don’t hear it anymore. It’s like just too much noise all around them. So again I would say build relationship online and then you can go further.

with sharing your information, sharing tips, tools, and maybe have it attached to some kind of sign up so that people are able to then get on your list and keep in touch with you. Now, I do encourage full transparency when you’re gonna do that. Like it’s like, hey, know, can you sign up? have this.

you know, tips and tools or interactive, you know, newsletter I’d like to share with you. If you would like to get on the list to continue to receive information that’s going to be geared toward providers who help couples and families or whatever specialization, then by all means, I would love to connect with you. Please get on the list. You know, that helps people to not feel kind of blindsided, like I thought I was just going to get this, you know.

this tip, this tool, and now I’m receiving a ton of emails from you, know, type of thing. So there’s some etiquette that we wanna go ahead and use with it too. But that’s really what we’re going to work on. I think we need to jump in and start now, start today, start building up your backup plan. You know, there’s a scripture in the Bible, Ecclesiastes chapter 11, and I’ve…

it might start with verse two or three, but definitely like right toward the beginning of chapter 11. And it’s talking about really actually multiple streams. So it’s saying, you know, like, have have like seven ventures, even eight, because you never know when devastation is going to come up. And it reminded me of this same concept of a backup plan when it comes to building your land on someone else’s social media platform. So kind of like

Camille McDaniel (20:33.344)
renting you know space versus building on your own platform and what to do if the social media networks go away or they have downtime. You want to have a backup plan because you never know what devastation might come your way. So this is just a way for us to stay connected with our clients, stay connected with our colleagues.

give valuable information and build genuine connection and community and make sure that we just have a plan B, a plan C in case one thing happens to stop working. We have a few other things that could hold us up and continue to allow us to get the word out about what we’re doing and to also help to hear what other people are doing depending on whether we’re talking about

a colleague or a client. So I would say jump into it now. Why now? Because we actually are close to the last quarter of the year. Let’s start actually really making connections less in the year strong because I am so sure that some of you all have ideas, things you want to do, more people you want to see or different ways that you want to see them.

and you’re going to want to be able to hear from other people to see what they’re doing and share with other people about what you’re doing. And you want to do it in ways that don’t feel so overwhelming. So you don’t have to send out 20, 30 different emails to all the people that you are now connecting with, but you can put it all on an email list and then you can kind of share with them to just say, hey, what’s been going on? Again, you don’t have to do it often once a month.

start where you can and then when you have something coming up then you can find yourself maybe sharing a little bit more and building off of that. So hopefully that kind of gets you you know going because I know that sometimes we can be like you know what this one particular way is working for me I’m fine I don’t need a backup plan and then we find ourselves scrambling if that one particular way no longer works.

Camille McDaniel (22:49.912)
for whatever the reason, because if tomorrow Mark Zuckerberg decides that he wants to again eliminate all of the friends and have us start from scratch, then he could do that if everybody who is a key player agrees with him and we would have no say to turn it around. Now we could decide maybe we want to evacuate the platform, but everybody would be starting from scratch. and that reminds me of one.

little quick thing real quick, real quick. So the other reason why we may want to take the extra step to connect with our colleagues, especially I’m talking like colleagues that we interact with online and that we really enjoy is because sometimes groups will archive themselves. I have actually been now in two groups that have archived and that

essentially means that you cannot post anything anymore, you can’t respond to anybody, all you can do is look around in the group. And I think one group totally shut down, which is a really long process because I think you have to actually take every person out of the group before you can actually shut it totally down and delete it. But yeah, I have been in groups where they have grown to be very large.

And at some point in time, the original owners of the group are going to be taking their idea for the group, their business concepts or whatever they have been working on or putting out, and they’re moving it to another platform. They’re just moving on with their business model, really. And it no longer involves the Facebook group. And so when that happens, again,

you don’t have the final say about which group is going to archive itself and shut down and you can then no longer then reach out necessarily to the person to say hey let’s try to connect. I mean you can try to friend them, I believe, in an archived group, you can still do that but you can’t post anything anymore, you can’t ask you know any of those questions like you used to be able to do. All you can do is just look through previous posts.

Camille McDaniel (25:12.014)
and see if anybody had already addressed your concern. So I would encourage us to find ways online and in real life, find ways to start connecting in ways that are comfortable for you. I know some of us are more reserved, some of us are more outgoing, but there is a way to connect, whether it be one-on-one, because that’s more comfortable and get those names and emails or whether it be a mass, you know,

posting, whatever is comfortable, let’s just do it because we do need to form strong bonds so that we will be able to build our practices and our businesses in ways that are more sustainable. Sustainability, we’re in this for the long haul and you do need people and you do need connections for sustainability. So let’s not run from it, let’s run right into it.

Holding true to Ecclesiastes chapter 11 when it says have seven ventures, have eight, because you never know when devastation is going to come. Okay? So until then, I want to really hear if you have tried it or if you’re already building and in what ways. Hopefully you’re on my list so that we can stay connected, christinprivatepractice.com. And then I also have something going on for

individuals who happen to be interested in medical mimics. These would be physiological disorders and challenges that mimic psychological symptoms. And that’s actually on my practice website, healingpsychotherapyga.com. It’s gonna come out like in, ta ta ta ta, in about a couple of weeks or so. But anyway.

If you head on over there, healingpsychotherapyga.com, and if you take a look at our wellness programs, you will see that that is one of the training courses that you can actually get on the wait list if it is something that appeals to you and aligns with the type of training you are trying to get at this time, then get on the wait list and you’ll be notified exactly when it is available, which will just be in a few weeks.

Camille McDaniel (27:31.402)
And then you can have your game stepped up as you are more aware of physiological symptoms that mimic psychological symptoms. All right, until next time. I enjoy talking to you and I enjoy hearing from you. So drop me a line, let me know how things are going for you in your practice and we will meet again until next time.

God bless.