How to Level Up Your Consulting Practice With Joe Sanok – PS051
Episode Overview
My guest in this episode is Joe Sanok, a mental health counselor by profession, who has a thriving consulting practice and is now also in the business of helping others establish their own consulting practice. This is a beneficial conversation which will serve those of you who might be starting your own practice or thinking about it. Joe’s mission is to pass on all the learnings he’s had about setting up a consulting practice. In fact, his website is Practice of the Practice.com and he shares his learnings and practices there.
Episode Introduction
Joe, in additional to being a mental health counselor, is a business consultant, writer, speaker and a fellow podcaster. He hosts two podcast shows: the Practice of the Practice and How to Become a Consultant. He is committed to helping professionals level up, wherever they are in their practice or business.
Taking the Leap
Joe tells his personal story of transitioning from his role as a counsellor in a community college to starting his own consulting practice. He became aware he wanted to level up. His motivation was to grow more income – rather than trade time for money. He was curious about passive income. Sources of inspiration to grow his business came from listening to podcasts and reading books on the topic of marketing.
When Joe started his own blog, and then his podcasts, he began to expand his sphere of influence, as both enabled him to develop a following and engage with people who wanted to learn more. As Joe made the transition to develop a business, he recognized he had strengths not only as a counsellor, but also in marketing and business, thereby enabling him to monetize his services while helping others.
Starting a Consulting Practice
We learn that when we start a business we need to identify our niche – who are we serving; who is our customer? Joe reframes this important business need by inviting his clients to identify what will make them unique in their field and how to frame it around one or two services or products you can sell.
Joe offers a number of practical steps and insights to get you started, such as write one quality blog post that leads to one quality opt-in. He goes one step further by suggesting you do some upfront research in your field, perhaps through a survey to find what your market needs. This data gives you the language to include in your quality post that speaks to the needs of the audience. You learn the top priorities before you create too many other things. What comes next is to test out your findings, for example in a Facebook campaign. He advises test the market first, as any marketer will advise.
Follow Your Curiosity
Follow your curiosity is a value that Joe’s holds close. When you do that, your authentic self shows up and people pick up on that. You become an attractor and that’s how your create the space where you can grow, be of service and live to your joy.
Paralysed by Perfection
An early learning for Joe was to not be paralyzed by perfection. In fact, this is such an important lesson, he created a video. He shares this video freely on his site as considers it such an important lesson for anyone starting a business – just get started.
Video Link to Joe's Video and free resources:
Strengths and Fulfilment
I asked Joe to share a high point story since he’s been running his new business and from that story he was able to identify his unique talents and strengths that made it possible. We also made distinctions between what being successful means versus being fulfilled. As we advocate here at Positivity Strategist, Joe also believe you need to do the work that complete you, makes you feel whole and enables you to live a life that is more joyful.
Links Mentioned In This Episode
- Joe’s Website http://www.practiceofthepractice.com
- Joe's Podcasts http://www.practiceofthepractice.com/category/podcasts/
- Twitter URL: http://www.twitter.com/OfThePractice
- LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-sanok-8b140023
- Google+: https://plus.google.com/114654312228841960864/posts
- Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/josephsanok
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/practiceofthepractice
- Most Awesome Conference for Health Care Therapists http://www.zynnyme.com/awesome/
- Pat Flynn http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/
Joe’s Articles/Papers
Teaching Ethics at the Primary Level (Thesis)
The Power of Conscious Choice (Huffington Post)
How to Become a Consultant (Psych Central)
Books Mentioned in this Episode
[amazonjs asin=”B008JF1ODU” locale=”US” title=”Practice of the Practice | A Start-up Guide to Launching a Counseling Private Practice”]
[amazonjs asin=”B00B01879Y” locale=”US” title=”Mental Wellness Parenting | A remarkably simple approach to making parenting easier”]
Let's Stay Connected
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