WP129 | Building Sustainable Impact and Income with Michelle Risser, LISW-S
When Michelle launched her private practice, she had a vision of helping clients and building a thriving business. But reality set in quickly—insurance reimbursements were low, and back-to-back sessions left her drained. She found herself trapped in the exhausting cycle of overbooking, desperately trying to keep up with fluctuating client demand.
Like many therapists, Michelle had been told that a packed caseload was a sign of success. Instead, it felt like a direct path to burnout. She knew there had to be a better way—one that allowed her to continue serving clients without sacrificing her own well-being. That’s when she discovered the power of diversifying her income.
By stepping beyond the traditional therapy model, Michelle unlocked financial stability, professional growth, and the freedom to build a business that truly worked for her. Here’s how she—and many other therapists—are redefining success.
The Challenge of Traditional Therapy Models
When Michelle first started her private practice, she quickly realized that relying solely on client sessions wasn't sustainable. Insurance reimbursements were low, and increasing her caseload only led to exhaustion. Like many therapists, she faced the common cycle of overbooking: when client demand was low, she’d take on more, only to become overwhelmed when old clients returned.
This struggle—common among therapists—highlighted the need for alternative revenue streams. Many professionals are told that a full caseload is a “good problem to have,” but for Michelle, it was simply a fast track to burnout.
The Benefits of Multiple Streams of Income
Diversifying work allows professionals to:
Prevent burnout – Sitting in the therapist’s chair all day can be draining, no matter how much you love the work. Having different types of work keeps things fresh.
Increase financial security – Multiple income sources provide stability, reducing reliance on a single revenue stream.
Enhance professional growth – Engaging in teaching, consulting, or other projects deepens expertise and keeps things exciting.
Enjoy more flexibility – Passive income and alternative work allow for vacations, rest, and a more balanced schedule.
For Michelle, exploring opportunities beyond one-on-one therapy was a game-changer.
Finding Your Unique Expertise
When considering how to diversify, Michelle encourages professionals to reflect on their unique expertise using the acronym KEEP:
Knowledge – What do you know? What topics or skills have you developed?
Education – What degrees, certifications, and formal training do you have?
Experience – What professional and personal experiences have shaped your expertise?
Passion – What do you love doing? What topics do you find yourself drawn to?
Michelle’s journey naturally led her to teaching CEUs, consulting, and creating online courses—opportunities that aligned with her background and interests.
Alternative Paths for Therapists
Many therapists believe that starting a group practice is the only way to increase income, but there are many other options, such as:
Teaching CEUs
Coaching and consulting
Offering intensives or workshops
Creating online courses
Writing books or guides
Providing supervision or mentorship
The key is identifying what resonates with you and what is needed in your community.
Building a Business That Works for You
Michelle’s biggest takeaway? Listen to your audience. When she first launched a burnout course for therapist moms, she found that the very people she wanted to help didn’t have the time or energy to engage. Instead, her CEU offerings naturally took off—so she followed the demand.
As she puts it, sometimes your business will show you the path—you just have to be willing to follow it.
If you’re considering diversifying your work, start small. Identify your strengths, test new ideas, and refine your offerings. Whether you choose CEUs, coaching, writing, or a combination of several, you’ll gain the freedom, stability, and fulfillment that comes with a well-rounded career.
Michelle Risser’s Resources
Free CEU Course Planning Checklist
Links and Resources
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Learn More about Wise Practice Consulting
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: Hi, I am Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice owner and faith-based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all. Wanna grow your practice, wanna grow your faith, wanna enjoy your life outside of work, you've come to the right place. Each week on the Wise Practice Podcast, I will give you the action steps to have a successful faith-based practice while also having a good time.
Now let's get started.
[00:00:29] Jingle: Where she grows your practice and she don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:00:48] Whitney Owens: Best practice listeners. So glad to have you listening to the show Today. Means the world to me love when you reach out and you tell me what the show means to you. And it's so fun when I have people on the show. That right when we get onto the Zoom to start recording, they say, I've been listening to your show and love it.
And Michelle is one of those people. I actually reached out to her 'cause I had heard her name and knew that she was doing amazing things in the space for therapists. And then we got on and I found out she was a fan of the show. So I'm excited that she listens. She knows you and she has so much to offer today on this podcast interview.
In fact, Michelle and I were talking about. The fact, had we met in person, had we not met in person, we were trying to remember, but we believe we met in person a couple of years ago at a conference we both attended in Nashville. So I was excited to reconnect with her. And this just speaks to the importance of these lab events.
You can meet amazing people when we all get together. Not only can you get continuing education potentially, especially if Michelle helps you, but you can also. Meet other people that give you so much valuable insights, encouragement, strength. I just, I enjoy it. So I actually, by the time this podcast comes out, I've already spoken at the A CA conference, which for me now is next week.
So I'm looking forward to that. And then at the end of April, really May, first and second, I will be in Chicago. So if you are a listener to the podcast. You wanna meet me in person? I would love to meet you. If you want to hang out with me at the Group Practice Scaling Summit, I would love for you to come.
This summit is specifically for group practice owners. I. It's limited to 50 to create an intimate environment, but also a place where we're really working on our businesses. At that conference, I'm gonna talk about culture in your practice and the importance of creating a good group practice culture. So I would love to meet you there.
If you're in the area, it's gonna be an oak park, which is just outside of Chicago. Like I said, it's May 1st and second, and that's the practice scaling summit.com hosted by my dear friends Brent Stutzman and Nate Hendrix. Seth looking forward to. To that and getting to see them as well. So would love to hear from you.
If you've got questions or you wanna connect with me, or if you're just looking to get some consulting for your practice, shoot me a message through email. Whitney at Wise Practice Consulting. Love seeing you grow your practices. Or if you just like the podcast and wanna say, Hey. Love connecting with people.
So today on the show we're gonna interview Michelle and she is gonna talk about diversifying your income and she also has a, a specific specialty regarding continuing education. So happy to introduce you to her and thank you so much for listening, Michelle.
Today on The Wise Practice Podcast, I have Michelle Rizza. She's a therapist in private practice and a multi-passionate entrepreneur. She believes that diversified income streams are the key to more impact and less burnout from mental health professionals. She's passionate about helping therapists step into their expertise as approved CEU providers.
They can have more income and impact. She's the creator of several courses as well as a group membership program. The Therapist Educators Academy. She lives with her family in central Ohio. Rose on a rowing team is a cat lady with no cats and obsessed with knitting. Thanks for coming on the show.
[00:04:23] Michelle Risser: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
[00:04:27] Whitney Owens: Yeah, so why don't we first just kind of chat a little bit about you and your practice, where you're located, um, and then we can jump into talking about diversifying your income.
[00:04:36] Michelle Risser: Absolutely, yes. So I have a solo therapy practice in Worthington, Ohio, which is a suburb of Columbus.
And I primarily work with perinatal mental health. Um, right now I am only accepting new clients for EMDR Intensive. Adjunct with another therapist. I'm not taking anyone on for long-term. I'm only taking on short-term clients for the intensive work, which I love. Um, I am an EMDR certified therapist as well as an approved EMDR consultant.
So I provide EMDR consultation. I also provide business consultation and coaching around. Helping others become CE providers because that is kind of a daunting process, which we'll talk a little bit more about later. And I offer CEEs myself. I have a CE company and I co-sponsor events, and I also teach my own ce.
So I've got a lot of things going on.
[00:05:39] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well that can be good though, right? I mean, sometimes it can be good. Yeah. Maybe talk a little bit, what are the benefits of having multiple things going on for you?
[00:05:48] Michelle Risser: Oh, absolutely. I just love it for the, I will say for the most part, I absolutely love it. I do have times though, where I burn myself out.
I have to watch that, um, because I like to do a lot of different things and I tend to be someone who my kneejerk is to say yes. So I will say yes until I am too busy. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So. As far as having multiple streams of income, I remember back early on in my private practice right out of the gate I took insurance, and insurance does not play pay great in my area, so I've always had to hustle.
I. To see enough clients and if I was ever in a time where I needed extra money, I would just try to take on more clients. But then it's that thing that I'm sure all the listeners can relate to where you're slow, you take on more clients. Then the next thing you know, all of your previous clients wanna come back all at the same time.
Yeah. Now you're overbooked and you know, and I, I. Really struggle with being overbooked like that. A lot of people in the business world, their answer is always, that's a good problem to have. It was never a good problem to have for me. I was spread too thin, I was burned out. I didn't have time to, you know, properly do my documentation or stay on top of my insurance bill billing.
Like it never worked for me to just be more busy with therapy clients that always backfired. So I had been. Teaching CE trainings ever since the very beginning of my career. My first job was in an agency where I worked with hiv aids as a case manager, and then later as a substance abuse counselor, and I loved that job.
And one of the things I got to do was teach some CEEs because our agency was a CE provider and anybody who wanted to could go teach at another agency, another organization, even with, you know, in-house. And I discovered that I loved that When I went into private practice, I started applying for different conferences and, and teaching CEEs that way, which I loved that.
And then when we got to. The pandemic. I thought, okay, I'm gonna try to throw my hat out there to become an improved CE provider myself. So, um, I started offering online CEEs. I've also offered them in person, and from there it was naturally born that people said, well, how do I do that? So I started my consulting business.
So it's all just kind of grown over time, you know, and built upon itself. Now I see a really busy week for me as 13 to 15 therapy clients. Next week I think I have eight, which that is just the sweet spot for me. I can be a really good therapist to eight client,
[00:08:50] Whitney Owens: not much more. I understand that feeling. Oh yeah, I think I see, um, three a week.
See, and even if I get four, which doesn't sound like a big deal, but that one more can really impact my stress level that week, even though I love the work. Sure.
[00:09:06] Michelle Risser: It's never the clients, it's never the work. It's the structure of being kind of tied to a chair, you know, hour after hour and. It, it can be really tough, so I, I appreciate that.
I'd love to get to a point where I could just do five a week, but I haven't quite got there yet. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[00:09:29] Whitney Owens: Well, the group practices part of what makes that happen. Right. It's that I decreased as we were growing. Mm-hmm. But, but for me, yeah, when I'm sitting in the chair, I love the work, but it takes away from my time of running the practice, which
mm-hmm.
You know, then
[00:09:42] Whitney Owens: all these other things pile up. So I have to like find that like balance of how many hours For sure.
[00:09:48] Michelle Risser: Absolutely. Yeah. My goal is to do about 20 to 22 sessions a week. But those are EMDR consultations. They're therapy sessions. They are business con consultations. I'm even counting when I teach a CE or sponsor a ce, you know, I count that.
So it's like 22 contact hours. Mm-hmm. Is what I'm shooting for. That's great.
[00:10:15] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well, maybe first talk about, when you say diversify your income. Mm-hmm. Let's just break that down. Mm-hmm. What does that mean when we use that terminology?
[00:10:24] Michelle Risser: So it means having additional streams of income outside of your therapy practice and using your unique expertise to offer things besides just one-on-one therapy.
And that can look different for everyone. There are lots, mm-hmm. Of, mm-hmm. Different opportunities and options. For me it's coaching, consulting, teaching CEUs, sponsoring CEUs, and providing therapy. And then maybe we could add, you know, look at intensive separately. 'cause they do have to kind of market them differently and everything.
Sure. Yeah. Um, and doing it that way allows me to not only. Be reliant on the therapy chair. Mm-hmm. Another thing it does is when I'm on vacation, I can just put a little effort into my marketing and I have passive things that I can sell, self-paced courses and workshops and workbooks that once I get that machine going and I use Facebook ads, I also use social media regularly and I have an email list.
But I can do a little push and, you know, get some sales while I'm on vacation, which is amazing for therapy. Mm-hmm. Like the first time I made $39 in my sleep, I almost cried. Uh, just with not, because I've always had jobs that were reliance on me being there and also on the, the. Clients, customers being there.
Like I was a waitress, I was a bartender, now I'm a therapist. We could go on a different tangent about the similarities there
[00:12:06] Whitney Owens: actually. Yeah. Well we're, we're trying to hire an additional intake person. Right now, when I'm looking at resumes, if I see they've worked in a restaurant, I'm always like, oh, right, let's interview them.
They can handle fast. Absolutely. They can take orders. They can listen. They can be nice when people are mean, you know?
[00:12:21] Michelle Risser: That's right. Yeah. Absolutely.
[00:12:24] Whitney Owens: Well, what I love also about this conversation is I think that therapists feel this tendency to start group practices to make greater income. You know? And I feel like that message is out there and it's a good message.
You actually can mm-hmm. Um, but there are so many other ways to do it. Not everyone needs to run a group practice, you know, and it really, and I think you spoke to this so well, it's, you know, when, as being a faith-based podcast, it's like, where is God leading your heart? You know, he's created us in this beautiful, unique way.
What is that unique thing that you bring to your community?
Mm-hmm. And
[00:12:57] Whitney Owens: really tapping into that instead of trying to do all the things that everyone tells you to do, because so many therapists do that. I see. I see that in coaching all day long. I'm sure you do too. Yeah. It's like, I should do this thing.
Well, I, is that what you wanna do? And you know, oh, well I should do this thing. And they're actually. Not marketing it correctly. They don't have a following yet, and then it's like they put a course out there and they've wasted a lot of time and money because they didn't set it up correctly from the run it.
[00:13:25] Michelle Risser: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, and that's kind of how it went for me back in 20 20, 20 21, I think I did a coaching program with Katie Reed. Oh, I
[00:13:36] Whitney Owens: love her.
[00:13:36] Michelle Risser: Yes, me too. Mm-hmm. And that's where I learned how to really set up a second business and how to, what you could offer ethically as a therapist and how important it is to separate your license.
Now what's interesting is now a lot of the things I do on the side. Don't really require that. 'cause I do EMDR consultation. Yes, I teach es like all that happens under my therapy practice. But all of the consultation and the courses and everything that I do are under a second business, my consulting business.
And I learned all of that from Katie and I just sort of followed my gut. I followed my passion. I created a burnout course for therapist moms. And it was really, really, like you said, I didn't have a list yet. I didn't have an audience yet, but I did have a handful of people who were willing to take a gamble and go through my group program and I will be eternally grateful for them.
And what I learned over time is it was very, very difficult to sell because burned out therapist moms don't have time to do a program for burned out therapist moms like. They need things off of their plate, not another Yes. Commitment, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So that actually, funny enough, while I was trying to build that, I started offering CEEs and those, I, I know a lot of people get overwhelmed by the paperwork.
I don't wanna. There's a difference between easy and simple, right? The EU are not simple. It's a bit complicated when it comes to the application process and the requirements and all that, but to me, they are easy. They're so much easier to sell than any other. Income streams that I have, if I put together a live ce, I can usually pretty easily get 10 people just by sharing it with my contacts and, you know, and to me that's a nice little group if I, I just wanna do a short little lunch and learn or something.
Yeah. So, so that's kind of how that took off is I was trying to build more like coaching around burnout, but the ES took off and that was the thing that people that teach me how to do that. And sometimes you have to kind of follow what your audience is asking you for.
[00:16:01] Whitney Owens: Good point. And we see that when we help people build their therapy practices, right?
They, they're like, what should I niche in? What should I do? And yes, you should niche in something you're passion, your mouth, you're sure educated on, but you should also consider what's not offered in your area and mention that. So when I first started my solo practice, there wasn't a lot of people seeing teenagers.
Uh, I was pretty good at it, you know, so I, I niched in that and it went really well. You know, since any kind of
[00:16:27] Michelle Risser: concept, I always tell people that children, adolescents, couples, and substance abuse, those are gonna fail your practice. Mm-hmm. For me, it was substance abuse. I did substance abuse work starting out, and no one else does.
They're afraid of it and they will quickly refer out. I don't do that work as much anymore. I do have a hand, you know, you get these sub niches almost, where it's like you have a couple clients and then they refer their friends and then the next thing you know, you've got a caseload of nurses or whatever.
You know, that happens for me with people in recovery.
[00:17:02] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay, so I'm, I'm just kind of sitting here thinking about listeners and questions I get from therapists. Let's say someone's thinking. I want to create income outside of sitting in the chair and I don't know what to do. How would you kind of funnel direct them in figuring out how to diversify their income?
[00:17:22] Michelle Risser: Absolutely. The first thing I love to help people do is discover their unique expertise. You talked earlier about your unique contribution, your unique gift. I think about the acronym Keap, KEEP. It's your knowledge, which is, um, just the things you know, the things you've learned over time, the, um, the books you've read, everything you've absorbed.
So you've got your knowledge. You've got your education, which is your formal education, your uhhuh, your bachelor's degree, your graduate degree, your continuing education. Then you've got your experience that includes your. Clinical experience, the different populations you've worked with, the different types of work that you've done, um, and it also includes your lived life experience as well.
We never wanna negate that. Mm-hmm. That is so important. I'm a cancer survivor and so one of the exceptions I will make to my, I'm not taking new clients except for intensives. Is, um, if there is someone out there who's just been diagnosed with cancer, I will take that client because people who have not been through that don't know how to talk about it, they, they, people get very squeamish, you know, talking about things like chemotherapy and losing your hair.
And, um, so that's the client that I will make room for, and that's something I never set out to be a niche. It's just life experience that I have. That's right. So you wanna look at your life experience. And then P is for passion. What is the thing that you could jump on a stage right now and talk about for 30 minutes and be just so passionate about it?
You wouldn't even have to have a script or anything.
Mm, I love that one.
[00:19:10] Michelle Risser: Yeah, and you'd be really excited to do that. So I have everybody kind of sketch those out, write out all those lists, and then almost like a Venn diagram look for the overlap. Then once you have that, that's your sweet spot. That's your special sauce.
Even if you're teaching a topic that other people teach, only you teach it with your unique knowledge, experience, education, passion. So then from there, start to think about, well, what would be a good additional income stream for this? Is this kind of a clinical topic that might be good for a ce? No. Is this something that's more for.
The community, the general public, and maybe you want to create a workbook or maybe you wanna have workshops for the community for lay people. That's one of the things a lot of people go, oh, I never thought of that. That was one of my early income streams is when I was doing a lot of perinatal and maternal mental health as I would give, you know, mental health for moms talks.
And I would just find a place to do at the library. I did it once in the back room of a, a baby store, which was really cool. You know? So once you find that unique thing, then you start to think about what would be a good fit as far as something that I could offer with this. And a lot of times there's a, there's multiple you could take.
So throw an example out there. Throw, throw, just throw me a niche or a, an area of passion. Anything come to mind?
[00:20:48] Whitney Owens: First of all, you've made that so easy. The way you broke that down, and I don't know if you can tell, I'm like getting all teared up every year because I'm thinking about, oh, what was that like for me?
And like when you hit passion, I was like, oh my gosh, I could totally get on stage and talk about faith-based practice for 30 minutes. There you go. So, so, you know. Yeah. I think that, um, for me it was that experience of. I was running my practice, no one taught me how to do it, right. Mm-hmm. That's how most of us are.
And then I was trying to figure out how do I integrate my faith? Not push people away, but draw people in. Mm-hmm. And then when I started my group practice, I was like, how do I hire, like I felt that was really challenging and convey my faith without, you know, being unethical or whatever the case may be.
Mm-hmm. And so that was why this all happened.
[00:21:40] Michelle Risser: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. That's another of those areas that a lot of therapists are afraid to touch. So if you are faith-based or open to exploring spirituality and faith, you know, that's a good niche to have. Yeah, definitely. So we take faith-based, and then what I would do if I was working with someone, if I was working with you one-on-one and you're just now thinking about this and you realize that your expertise and your knowledge, experience, and passion are really on faith-based practice, then I would say, okay, let's look at a couple different options.
Let's look at how this could be a CE or therapist. Let's look at how this could be a workshop for the community or a resource for the community. It might be about. It something about strengthening their face faith, but it also might be something like a resource guide of, you know, mental health resources and therapists who are faith-based.
Something like that. Yeah. Um, and then also you can look at is there a digital product or kind of a more passive thing that you'd like to develop Some. Maybe a workbook or, you know what I mean? So I like to look at a couple different areas. And then which of these feels exciting to you? Oh, yeah. That's good.
Mm-hmm.
[00:22:59] Whitney Owens: Yeah. 'cause some people are more like, Hey, I'm the writer I wanna write, or I, mm-hmm. I love doing graphics, or, I love public speaking, like
[00:23:05] Michelle Risser: mm-hmm. You're gonna
[00:23:06] Whitney Owens: get the gamut of what that looks like.
[00:23:08] Michelle Risser: Exactly. Mm-hmm. Yes. And my friend Jenny Hughes and I did a program called Bob that stands for Burned Out to Brave, and it's about creating your very first income stream.
And people had so many different interesting things they were creating like card decks and you know, there are just lots of things you can do.
[00:23:27] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well, well let's kind of move into the continuing education piece 'cause that's your, mm-hmm. Your bread and butter. Um, tell me more about, let's say somebody gets to that point and they're thinking, I wanna do CEEs, but they don't know the first thing to do.
[00:23:41] Michelle Risser: Mm-hmm. Yes. And one thing I do wanna say real quick is that I still offer ces because I believe that when you're coaching or consulting, I think it's so important to be doing that thing. A lot of coaches and consultants aren't like, maybe they did it in the past, but they've closed their practice or they've, you know, they're no longer doing it.
Now they're just coaching and I feel like I, I need to still have my foot in it if I'm gonna consult and coach about it. So, so I'm still offering the ces, but as far as when I help other people become CE providers, the first thing I help them do. Decide which organization they want to apply through, and that's before they even pick their topic.
I would say that the number one mistake is people come in with their topic already in mind and maybe even with their course all build out, and then they wanna reverse engineer it and get es, and that is very hard to do because every organization has different topics that they accept different guidelines.
So I have them choose their organization first. Do you wanna do this through your state? Do you wanna do a co-sponsorship through something like your state level NASW, or do you wanna be the next pessie and go big and get NBCC and A SWB? You know, where do you wanna go with this? What are your goals?
Which one aligns most with your own? Like, for example, what I mean is, um. If you're really, really passionate about social justice, then you probably want to do A SWB because they're very heavily focused on social justice. Yeah, if you want to teach about business topics or professional development, the only one that allows that is NBCC, so that's where you're gonna go.
So I like to choose that first. You've got a topic in mind. You're already starting to understand your expertise, but then you are deciding on which organization and you're looking at that application and what do they require? Yeah, and what, what content areas did they allow? Things like that. And then from there, my approach.
A lot of people are really surprised by this, and it, it can be interesting how it un unfolds, but my approach is really, I would prefer that someone come in without, without having ever built a, without having a course in mind at all, and let's build it to be a CE that's gonna make sure it gets approved.
[00:26:17] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. Yeah, we're, yeah. And so, um, just to clarify, are we talking more about a specific course or are we talking more about the full approval for your organization or are we talking about both?
[00:26:30] Michelle Risser: Well, so we are kind of talking about both, but for most people, if it's your first one, it is gonna be a single course approval because when you want to get provider status, which means you can.
Offer courses as much as you want without having to get them approved. Every time you're the one doing the approving, they usually require that you have done two or three in the past. Mm-hmm. You know, so that's not where most people start. And it's a lot more expensive. Like, for instance, for NBCC to be a provider, it's $800 for a single course.
I think it's, you know, 175 or something. Hmm. So I always start with, unless you've been providing CEEs already that are already approved, don't start with providers. Start with a single course, get it approved, teach it, build on it, offer it again, you know, start there. Yeah. I love that. That's
[00:27:24] Whitney Owens: great. Um, wonderful.
Are there any other, um, issues that you see with therapists doing CE providing just to mention. We know what we dunno. What's so funny,
[00:27:35] Michelle Risser: I, I think about this a lot because one of the things I offer is I review people's application materials before they send them in. And I want everybody out there to know that it is never the therapists experience or expertise people are.
Once they've discovered that unique passion, they are more than qualified to teach about that. They've got the resume, they've got the education. But that's one thing therapists are worried about. I. I have imposter syndrome. Am I qualified? I'm here to tell you, yes you are. We may have to tweak your resume to make sure it shows that, but that's not hard to do.
So that's not a thing. Another thing that's very rarely a thing is the actual content. The content is great. So it's not your experience, it's not your training, what it is. Whitney, I am not even kidding you. What it is is that you put an extra space on your certificate and they are going to come back and make you fix that, and that's gonna create a big delay because it takes four weeks for them to get back to you, tell you to fix it.
You send it in again. It's another two weeks before you hear anything. So I am big on this is where you really have to be detail oriented and almost hyperfocused in a way on. If they provide you with a sample like NBCC does. A SWB does. Yep. Follow it. Exactly. And I mean exactly. Don't put a cute little logo somewhere.
'cause no, use their boring template. You can change it later. But for your application, you need to use, use their exact template because they, those are the things that I see people, I've never seen anyone flat denied. The only thing that will get you absolutely denied without getting your money back is if you choose a topic that is not covered or a not in the scope of a therapist.
Mm-hmm.
[00:29:38] Michelle Risser: So, yeah. But as far as the nitpicky application stuff, it's that, it's formatting, it's. Um, you know, you, you put this in a different order. It's one time I got one sent back because I had a typo in the agenda. I mean, it's that stuff. I'm not saying that to scare people. I'm saying it's, you know, to just say it's not you.
It's not your expertise. It's not your course. It's that you have to get this application. Perfect.
[00:30:07] Whitney Owens: Oh, you can see my facial expressions because I. With the summit, we do this every year. Mm-hmm. And we have to do it for, it's like a single program, so it's multiple people. I mean, we're trying to get, you know, 10 different talks.
Yeah. You do it as a conference.
[00:30:22] Michelle Risser: It's a single program, but it's a conference.
[00:30:25] Whitney Owens: Yes. And my first year I was so stressed. I mean, just like up at 5:00 AM I gotta get this right and you gotta do a sample program and put it on your website. It was just so much. The second year got a little bit better, you know, and we're actually right now in the process of doing the third, you know, this third one, so I can, I can understand exactly what you're saying.
It is really about like, like someone will put the objective, analyze, da dah, dah, dah, dah. And I'm like, no, no, no. Participants will blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Exactly. Damn. Say
[00:30:56] Michelle Risser: that. Oh, and don't even get me started on learn, know, and understand. Oh no. Your participants are not gonna learn No and understand.
They're gonna discuss, analyze, and integrate, and then they're gonna explain, I'm gonna yeast integrate. I like that one. Yeah, integrates a good one. Um, yeah, verbs are, so that's another thing that mm-hmm. That I see all the time that trips people up, is you can only use very specific verbs. Any objectives.
And you're right, it needs to say participants will colon 1, 2, 3, 4.
[00:31:31] Whitney Owens: Yeah. But hey, they, they tell you exactly which ones to use. So
[00:31:34] Michelle Risser: they do. They do. Yeah. They have a list of ones to use and if you stick with that, you're gonna be safe.
[00:31:41] Whitney Owens: Wow, this. This is great. All right, so let's say someone's listening and they're like, mm-hmm.
Man, I wanna get this going. I don't really know. Maybe they're trying to figure out how to diversify. Maybe they're trying to figure out CEEs, how can they move forward and understanding what you do and how you can help them.
[00:31:57] Michelle Risser: Absolutely. Well, I would love for everybody to start by grabbing my free checklist, which the link will be here in the show notes.
Um, and once you grab that checklist, it, it takes you through step by step, the exact order that I recommend doing things in, even things if you are teaching in person, like are you gonna be offering any kind of coffee or, you know, just making sure you hit all those little tasks. Um.
When you sign up for the checklist, you're gonna land on a page that gives you 48 hours to buy my self-paced course. It's called Diversify Your Income with CEUs. This is for the DI wires the self-paced folks who just want someone to show them what they need to do. So step by step to do it, and you can get that for $79 through that link.
It's usually 197, so you get 119 bucks off when you buy it through the checklist. Nice. Yeah. Now if anybody has bought my checklist in the past, uh, so it's one of those, um, it's an automated page that will disappear after 48 hours. So if you miss that deadline or you've already gotten the checklist, please just email me because I'd be happy to send you a discount code so you can grab that course.
Awesome. I'm, I'm working on sprucing it up. Um, putting in even more templates. So when we talk about things like, make sure the certificate is perfect, I have templates for you that you can just plug and play. Um, so I am updating and adding more templates. I am updating some of my video modules just to make sure that they are really concise and to the point.
People are tired, people are exhausted, people don't have time and energy to spare. So I wanna make sure I go through and take out any kind of fluff and just. Here's what you need to know. Nice. Boom, boom, boom. So, and then if someone is more a person who wants someone to sit down with them, do it with them, do it together, come up with a strategy.
If you're really stuck figuring out what your unique area of expertise is, or you're just not sure where you wanna go with all this, um, I would love to work with them one-on-one. I do offer one-on-one consultation as well. Nice.
[00:34:14] Whitney Owens: Wonderful. Yes. Um, you know, Michelle, there was one question I forgot to ask then we'll throw at the end.
Um, sure. Are there platforms that you would recommend? Say somebody wants to do the ce, 'cause I know there's kind of a process and then automation for the CE certificates. What kind of software would you recommend?
[00:34:32] Michelle Risser: Here's what I recommend. Start with the lowest paid tier of teachable. The last I saw it was $39 a month.
And you can. Now, this is for, let me give a caveat here. This is for, if you're doing an on demand course and you need a place to host that actual course mm-hmm. That's where I recommend the lowest tier of Teachable. And then you can use Google Forms to Yep, yep. And Certify 'em is the name of the add-on.
And I do have a tutorial in that course that walks you through, setting that up. Step by step, but you can set up all your automations for free because that $39 tier does not include the evaluation, the posttest, the certificate, but the next one up is 99 bucks. So to me, it's worth it to learn how to set those up yourself and it'll just send them a link to their evaluation and their post test, and then they'll get their certificate and their email.
You can set that all up to be automated, and then it'll go into a spreadsheet in your Google Drive. Um, but yeah, that's the one I like. It's intuitive, it's easy, it looks nice. It's a really nice platform. Now, if you want to teach live and you do not need bells and whistles, this is honestly probably the quickest, easiest way to start is just do a registration through Zoom.
You can do a little landing page if you have a website, but you can also just do a Zoom registration, teach over Zoom, and then do that. Google process, send out those automated evaluations and certificates and easy peasy. Well, you do
[00:36:10] Whitney Owens: make it sound easy.
[00:36:12] Michelle Risser: Yeah. I feel like live is a lot easier. Yeah. And yeah, and with live, you can also, all you have to do is plan it and you can go ahead and send that application.
'cause it's gonna take usually around three months for the bigger ones. And while you're waiting, you can be. Building out, tweaking, honing, making your slides, finding videos, because all you need is an outline to send in the application for a live. If you're doing it on demand, you have to have the whole thing ready to go where they can log in, pick the course, get the certificate.
So there's a lot more work on the front end for non demand.
[00:36:51] Whitney Owens: And these are for individual courses, right?
[00:36:54] Michelle Risser: Yes. Now this would be the same case too though, if even if you were a provider, um, you would not have to go through the ex extra step of doing the application and getting it approved, but you still have to set it up, you know, all these things you still have to do.
That's right. Yeah. Well, this has been.
[00:37:15] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well this has been so informative and obviously, you know, you're stump so anyone listening, um, please reach out to Michelle if it's the CE part, or even if it's just coaching to diversify your income, grow your practice, find your niche, like she's, she's got it all together.
So thank you for taking the time to be with us today. It's been my pleasure.
[00:37:34] Michelle Risser: Thank you so much. I, I kind of nerd out on this stuff. Um, I love this stuff, so if anybody just has a a question, they can also email me, michelle@emser.com. Nice. All right, well thank you so much, Michelle. Thank you, Whitney.
[00:37:50] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owens and The Wise Practice Podcast, oh Whitney Owens and the
[00:38:05] Whitney Owens: Practice Podcast. Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Site Craft Podcast Network. A collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives.
To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to site craft network.com. The Wise Practice podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.
