[00:00:00] Linzy: Hello and welcome back to another feelings and finances episode of the money skills for therapists podcast. These are our short and sweet Friday episodes where I answer your questions, the listeners of the Money Skills for Therapists podcast, the wonderful therapists and health practitioners and coaches that make up our wonderful community.

[00:00:21] Linzy: Here is a question today from Madeleine.

[00:00:24] Madeleine: Hi, my name is Madeleine, and I’m a therapist, and I’m also a yoga teacher and an educator, somatic educator. And my question is about branding because having two separate businesses… So I loved your episode about money tips for having two separate businesses. And my question is about branding, 

[00:00:52] and if I can brand and have a website under my name that links people both to my clinical therapy practice, and then links people to my work as a somatic educator. And I’m trying to build up the somatic educator component, and I’m trying to be really mindful about ethics of branding for the different businesses, and how to best do that.

[00:01:15] And I was going to have a website just with my name, and then link it to those two things. I know it’s, um, you’re doing more with money, but, maybe you have an insight on that, because branding and marketing is an expense and how to streamline it.

[00:01:29] Thank you.

[00:01:30] Linzy: Thank you for your question, Madeleine. And it’s true. It’s getting more into the branding side, but branding and money do very much connect in how we set up the structures of our business and how we even think about different businesses. Like, are they with the same branch of one business? Are they different businesses and different distinct hats that we have to wear?

[00:01:50] So the first thing that I would think about always when it comes to having those two distinct businesses is thinking about your license, and checking in with your licensing body to see if the somatic educator work needs to be completely separate. Now, different licensing bodies in different states and provinces have different rules; they see things differently. And the somatic educator work… you might be able to practice that work under your therapy license, and you also might not, or might choose not to because of certain rules associated with that.

[00:02:25] So for instance, for me as a social worker in Ontario, social workers cannot use testimonials in their advertising. My understanding, I believe, is that we can’t sell packages. I haven’t looked into that too closely, but I certainly don’t see folks selling packages. And so, I’ve had to make it very, very clear, very distinct that the work that I was doing over here as a therapist is not

[00:02:47] me over here teaching money to other therapists, right? Because if I was to blur those at all, I could be seen as in violation of the code of ethics of, in my case, the college, the Ontario College of Social Workers. So that’s the first thing that I would want to make sure about is even before you get into thinking about the strategy, make sure that you’ve got your legal ducks in a row and that you’re not conflating the work that you’re doing in such a way that it might jeopardize your license.

[00:03:15] If it turns out that you can practice as a somatic educator with your therapy license, and there’s nothing about that that’s going to potentially jeopardize your license, or undermine your code of ethics, then I think having them on the same website makes a lot of sense. Basically, you’re building a personal brand.

[00:03:33] As my friend, Maegan Megginson, who teaches branding, would talk about, you know, you are the expert, You’ve got your personality, you’ve got your vibe, and folks who are drawn to you and like what you do have different doors that they can take in their work with you. They could work with you as a client, and get therapy from you, or they might invite you in as a somatic educator, you know, to do a workshop.

[00:03:56] So, I have seen folks set up websites like that where it’s like the main page of their website is kind of like, here I am. And then it’s almost like you set up two different doors: go through this door for therapy, go through this door for, in your case, somatic education. And I do see the value of that if you’re looking to build a strong personal brand.

[00:04:14] Like if Madeleine is the brand, then it does make sense to have those folks that land on your website because they’re looking for you, because maybe they saw you on Instagram, or they heard you on a podcast, or they heard about you in their community… They can see these different types of work that you do.

[00:04:30] More commonly though, I do see folks brand separately and people brand separately when your brands are different enough that they would conflict if you put them side by side. So for instance,If I’m a therapist and I work with folks who experienced childhood abuse and trauma, which was my specialty when I was a therapist; I did complex trauma, dissociation.

[00:04:51] So if that’s my branch of therapy, but then I have a second business where I sell, I don’t know, punk rock mugs that have sassy punk rock sayings on them. Those two businesses from a brand perspective aren’t very complementary, right? And somebody who comes to me to check out my therapy page, if they also see front and center that I have this sassy mug business, they might be like, That’s like not really the vibe I’m going for.

[00:05:17] So those are kind of two distinct parts of my personality. There are two projects that are separate enough that I wouldn’t actually want folks who are looking for one to find the other super easily. It’s not to say people wouldn’t, if they’re doing an exhaustive Google search, but those are two brands that I would want to live separately.

[00:05:31] In your case, it sounds like there’s a lot more overlap probably between those two things, but I would just want you to think about:is there any reason that you wouldn’t want somebody who’s seeking you out for therapy to also see your somatic educator work? I can’t think of a reason offhand why those things would be in conflict, but just to double check to make sure that your one brand isn’t kind of undermining the other brand.

[00:05:52] If your brands really are truly complementary, and this is a suite of offerings that all kind of live in the same wheelhouse, then I think that building them together can make a lot of sense. But if there’s any potential for conflict, either with your licensing body, or with your potential client slash customer experience, of them landing on the website and one brand kind of putting them off the other brand, then I would encourage you to to have two distinct websites with two distinct brands.

[00:06:20] Both of them, you know, will have an about page that gets to you where they see, oh, Madeleine is the person who delivers this, but that allows you two distinct spaces to give very different messaging, without the risk of one message conflicting with the other message and putting off a potential client for either of those businesses.

[00:06:38] So those are my thoughts. Definitely more branding than we usually talk about, but it’s fun to use a different part of my brain. I’m excited for you, Madeleine, as you build out these businesses, and I hope that you can get good, clear answers from your licensing body and take the path that makes the most sense for you as you’re building out your two businesses.

[00:06:53] Thank you so much for your question. If you, like Madeleine, have a question for me that you’d like answered on one of these Feelings in Finances episodes. Super, super simple. Just scroll down to the show notes of this episode, and you will see a link where you can jump over to our podcast page. There’s a little record button, just like Madeleine did.

[00:07:10] Introduce yourself, give a little bit of context and share your question. I would be happy to answer your question on one of these episodes. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today.