We were lucky to catch up with Lori Vann recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lori, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

 

Anyone that is an entrepreneur and is honest will tell you that there was a risk in starting that business. If they are really honest, they will admit the stress, worry, and even anxiety that they experienced in making the decision to start a business. There is a reason why I considered starting my own practice, leaving the secure world of corporate mental health with a salary and benefits a risk. Add to it, I started into my full-time private practice in 2008. For those that may not remember, 2008 was not necessarily the best economic climate to decide to go solo.

Another reason why starting my own practice was seen as risky were the stats about small businesses; 20% of U.S. small businesses fail within the first year and by the end of their fifth year, roughly 50% have closed shop. These are not the most encouraging statistics. I am happy to say that I have been full-time in my private practice of Vann and Associates: Coaching, Counseling, Consulting since 2008 and that we are in the top 25% of businesses that make it as long as we have.

In business, you have to continue to take risks or your business will die. I am not necessarily saying that you have to follow the “fortune favors the brave” mentality, but I would say that those who do not try new things become stagnant and will be overtaken by businesses who are innovating to the point of maybe doing “risky” things. I am sure that someone other than myself said this, but I do believe that it is a truism of business that you either innovate or stagnate. Stagnation is just a slow death.

Part of “risk” is investing in your business. Truthfully, there are many things that I tried that did not work out and it cost me time and money. However, instead of being bitter or afraid to try again, I have learned to frame those as learning opportunities that I can then pass on to my coaching clients. Speaking of coaching, some would see that as a risk. I would counter that it depends on who you hire as a coach. Benjamin Franklin said that, “an investment in knowledge pays the best interest,” and when you see your life or business decisions as opportunities to invest, then that helps minimize the risk. Minimize the risk and you will minimize the anxiety.

As a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor, I took a risk becoming a supervisor to interns in 2003. Have there been some very challenging times as a supervisor that created potential legal and Board issues? 100% yes. Supervising anyone poses risks. However, have there been numerous benefits to being a supervisor? A resounding yes. I decided to become and stay a supervisor because I did not want other interns to have the negative experience that I did with the first supervisor that I had as a brand new, naive, and mostly unprepared intern in 1998.

My second supervisor was so much better; he was giving, understanding, patient, and provided me with so many opportunities to grow counseling-wise, gain media guest experience, the ability to speak at his events, try different marketing ideas, and let me organize office participation in major events in Dallas. Each of those opportunities would have initially been seen as a risk. What I gained from each of those opportunities set me on the path of who I am today as a counselor, international speaker & media guest, author, and business consultant.

Risk is not a dirty word in your life or business if it is done correctly.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

 

It started in sixth grade. My friends would come to me with their questions or problems and I seem to have had a knack for helping them out. While I fought against the idea that I could know what my future profession would be at such a young age, I took a vocational test in eighth grade that said that I was best suited to be a counselor or a teacher and not necessarily the radio career that I was thinking about. Interestingly enough, I have done all three; I have been a professor at two colleges and have given over 250 radio or podcast interviews. As I went through high school and college, with each psychology class, I became more and more certain that becoming a counselor was my career path. I graduated from Pepperdine University with a B.A. in Psychology, Cum Laude in 1996 and then went on to graduate with my M.A. in Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage, Family, Child Counseling, Summa Cum Laude, from Chapman University in January 1999. After graduation, I started my professional career in 1999 as a Licensed Professional Counselor Intern and became fully licensed in 2001.

My twenty-plus years of counseling experience in a variety of locations from inpatient psychiatric, a state hospital, non-profits, school districts, outpatient clinics to private practice has provided me with a unique perspective that I have been able to pass on to interns, the community, and fellow counselors through various training events. Regarding the training, I have been a professional speaker since 2000, have trained thousands of fellow mental health professionals, been a keynote for several state and national events, and spoken internationally. www.LoriVann.com @LoriVann_AuthoritySpeaking

My passion is turning the tide on self-injury. I have been privileged to be called by my professional peers “the Guru” and an “authority” on Non-Suicidal Self-Injury. I first started to work and research this epidemic behavior, that has a 60%+ correlation with suicide, over twenty years ago and since then I have treated over 580 past or present cases of NSSI, written four books on the topic, and spoken about this behavior over 115 times. Based upon that experience, I created the Self-Injury Prevention & Intervention Program (SIPIP) for school districts, colleges, clinics, and treatment centers, given hundreds of case consults with peers, formed the longest-running, exclusively NSSI support groups for women and teen girls who self-injure, and the caregivers of those who self-harm, and founded the Institute for Non-Suicidal Self-Injury that provides a variety of free, low cost, and affordable services including three levels of training for professionals. Follow @Institute_for_NSSI on Instagram and TikTok or go to our website to learn more about we are serving the local, national, and international community, www.InstituteforNSSI.com

From the time that I went full time into my private practice in 2008 to now, Vann and Associates: Coaching, Counseling, and Consulting has grown in its scope of services and team members. We currently have 5 counselors at the practice; four are insurance providers with BCBS, United/Optum, Aetna, and Ambetter. We also have a counselor that offers affordable visits for those without insurance at $70 per visit. In addition to counseling, I also provide coaching for entrepreneurs, teens, and adults, and consulting on behavioral health issues to small to medium-sized businesses. www.VannAssociates.com Follow on Instagram @LoriVann_Coaching

No matter what service is being provided, the business is founded on the principle of Here to Serve. We are here to serve our clients, professional peers, and the community. Excellent, ethical customer service is the standard because excellent client care comes naturally when you have a service mindset.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

 

Consistency and persistence are some of the keys to success. Whether it is consistency in attending networking events, media interviews, excellent client care, follow-up with referring treatment providers, social media posts, or participating in a variety of speaking opportunities, I made sure that the business was consistently being represented in my professional circle of peers and in the community at large. Early on I learned that you can’t go to a networking event once or twice and expect people to remember you. What I experienced and witnessed was that someone had to show up to the same event a minimum of three times before people even started to vaguely remember you or approach you. Some of that could be a less than memorable intro but some of it is a vetting process, i.e. are you actually interested in our group and will invest in it, or are you someone that isn’t really serious about their practice and we won’t ever see you again?

The mistake that I see many businesses make is that they focus on either too many marketing experiments at the same time (shotgun approach where you hope something sticks) or they try one thing but when they do not get instant results, they give up on it. Building a reputation and brand takes time, it takes consistency. You have to be consistent in your efforts.

Persistence is another area that many who are successful practice. One and done doesn’t work. Persistent people do not accept a “no” and go away. They figure out why someone said no, correct the situation, and try again. If it doesn’t work the second time, they will try again with another tweak or perhaps overall to their presentation. Persistence is about continuing to tweak an idea or a pitch until it achieves the desired result. You keep after it. In business, you must be persistent because your competition will be; your competition is going to be persistent in trying to become the #1 in your industry. Persistence is about repetition, but repetition of a bad idea is going to continue to give you lackluster results. It is being persistent in finding ways to continuously improve the idea, but then not putting it on autopilot and never looking at it again. You must regularly check the strategy to see if it still works and if it still produces the desired result.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

 

When you start your own business, you may feel the need to try to do it all on your own because only you have the vision or the knowledge or the ability to “do it right” because it is your product, i.e. your baby. You may feel like no one is ever going to have the work ethic that you do and, to an extent, which may be true. However, I had a business coach put it to me very directly that I could not be the chief bottle washer, cook, waiter, CEO of everything. I had to learn to let go and delegate. I had to change my mindset of thinking that I was saving money by doing everything all on my own and instead understand that I was actually losing money by not hiring someone to help me or delegate tasks out to my interns. Have my staff or contractors always done things the way that I would have done them? No, but it is OK because rarely are those times game-changer differences.

I had to learn to let go. I also had to learn to move from a spending mindset to an investing mindset when it came to coaching, education, and hiring people. There have been numerous occasions when people have asked me what I would have done differently in my business and I have said and will continue to say, that I wish that I would have sought out business coaching earlier because I know that it would have helped me not only grow quicker, but it would have saved me money on things that I did not need to spend on the business.