Social Worker Finds Calm, Makes Cash with Business Course

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Nine days ago, we had a listener question from a therapist who was interested in breaking into the world of continuing education, also known as CE, which as I mentioned then can really be a goldmine, especially if you find the right course in market. Now, CE, continuing education, that's a professional term that typically refers to licensed courses, like really specific kinds of education. And that's also why it's a big market because these courses are typically mandatory, like you have to earn a certain number of hours each year. But there's also kind of an adjacent field here, also the matter of helping professionals improve how they run their business. This can be applied in a lot of different industries.

Specifically in today's story, a therapist helps other therapists set up a private practice. And when you do that, you have all sorts of things come up that you may not have learned in your training programs. Like you learned how to be a therapist, but you didn't necessarily learn how to run a private practice. So in this case, our featured case study, the woman I'm gonna tell you about here in a moment, is there to help them. As with the CE example, this story can apply in lots of ways to lots of different fields.

This one is called "Social Worker Finds Calm and Makes Cash with Business Course." That story's coming up in just 30 seconds. Stay tuned. [Music]

Ariana Lloyd is a psychiatric social worker at a VA hospital and a clinical supervisor for therapists. Many therapists don't know how to run a business, but she's that rare person who loves both therapy and business and wanted to help professionals improve in each area. When two of her colleagues came to her for help setting up their own practice, it sparked an idea.

Ariana realized it was deeply satisfying to be a part of their work and to know how many people they could reach. Plus, with all of the increased awareness about racism in 2020, she wanted to create something where a therapist built a better model altogether. The new project, Lloyd Collective, has two parts. One is an eight-week program where therapists learn how to set up their own liberation-focused private practice. The program includes videos, worksheets, and resources.

Therapists do the work on their own time, then join her each week for two-hour online sessions along with a few of their peers. They can also submit questions to her during the week. By the end of those eight weeks, the therapists have legally registered their business, set up HIPAA-compliant documentation methods, created a website, signed up for a payment processor, and completed everything else needed for their practice. They've also learned ways to make that practice inclusive and accessible. The program costs $1,500 and payment plans are available.

If a therapist is a person of color, an immigrant, or some other underrepresented identity in the therapist's world, they can receive 30 to 50% off the cost. At some point, Ariana hopes to set up an endowment fund for this. The other part of Lloyd Collective is a monthly workshop and fundraiser. This is a free, one-hour online workshop where Ariana and a clinician teach on topics related to therapeutic practice and business development. They pause in the middle of the workshop and do a collective community donation.

Lloyd Collective then matches those donations. In December, the initiative donated $400 to join, which helps people experiencing homelessness transition into permanent homes. And in January, $1,600 went to the Black Resilience Fund. These workshops are a labor of love and a part of Ariana's commitment to anti-racism. They're also a strategy to bring in more members because she promotes them across email and social media, as does the clinician.

Lloyd Collective launched in October 2020, and so far it's brought in more than $10,000. How did it grow so quickly? Well, the therapist's community is very tight-knit, so Ariana gets clients from other therapists or from the networking groups on Facebook where therapists give each other referrals. Her clinical private practice feeds into her business development practice quite seamlessly. And last but not least, those monthly workshops help as well.

Ariana doesn't pay for marketing, although she does spend around $20 a month for a Squarespace website. Other operating costs are around $100 to $200 a month and include internet and payment processing. The logistics of creating the program content weren't hard, but the mental game of doing something new and out of her comfort zone challenged her. In fact, she admits that it was scary, intimidating, and even brought up feelings of shame. But she talked a lot to family and friends for support, and the finished product is getting rave reviews from other therapists.

Ariana's clinical supervision practice started as a side hustle too. After going through a divorce, she wanted to create something that allowed her to spend more time with her two kids. That eventually became her main source of income and helped her realize that starting and running a business can be just as much a vehicle for healing as therapy can. Going forward, she's excited to settle into the business, slow down a bit, and get a dog. She also has a new low-pressure side hustle selling things on Facebook Marketplace.

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A couple quick notes on the making of the course. We touched on it a bit in the story, but for making that eight-week program, Ariana mentioned to us that, you know, because all the content for that program is now created, now she just has to show up to the meetings. You know, she prepares a bit in advance, but mostly just shows up in response to a few individual requests that come in throughout the week. So it's really low maintenance at that point. But to create that content, she spent about three months, August to October or so of 2020, and that was kind of a crunch time.

So during that time, she called it a grueling time. She's actually, you know, really putting in a lot of work, but it's essentially an investment. She's investing her time into creating this program that can then become an asset for her. And because individual therapy is a service that requires time. You know, it's a very important service.

Like I've been to therapy a lot myself, it's helped me a lot. So I'm very grateful to the therapists of the world. But this particular business model, where much of the work is done in advance during that crunch time, can now bring in money for Ariana while she's doing other things. So she still has her clinical practice, and that's her main business. But this side business is not entirely passive, right?

'Cause she is still doing something for it, but it's much better than doing all your work on the basis of trading time for money. So hopefully this model is gonna help somebody else out there who's trying to figure out, okay, how can I create something that can then become an asset for me? 'Cause ultimately that's what this is about, not just helping you make a little bit of extra money each month, but do so in a way that's intelligent and can build for your future. That's our goal here, to help you invest in yourself and achieve a great return. So I'll leave you with that today.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to Lloyd Collective, anything else I mentioned in the episode as well, will be at sidehustleschool.com/1590. That is 1590. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hope you'll come back tomorrow.

You can listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.