The Portable Practice Method is almost here! Get on the waitlist now: https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/PP-Waitlist.
Are you ready to take your therapy practice on the road and build a life that works for you—wherever you are? Whether you’re dreaming of working from anywhere legally, creating multiple income streams to support a more flexible lifestyle, or avoiding burnout while living your nomadic dream, The Portable Practice Method is designed with you in mind.
After three years of living a fully nomadic lifestyle, I’m so excited to give you a first look at my brand-new course launching in January 2025! This isn’t just another course; it’s a step-by-step roadmap for therapists who want to transform the way they work and live.
In this episode, I’m sharing all the details about The Portable Practice Method. You’ll get an inside look at the three major milestones: setting up your practice to operate legally from anywhere, building sustainable income streams, and creating your dream life while avoiding burnout. Plus, I’ve packed the course with bonuses you won’t want to miss—think presentations on traveling with pets, families, and even a full breakdown of my favorite AI tools to simplify your work and life.
If you would prefer to watch this episode, you can find it on my YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/WLw501HmuvA
If you’ve been dreaming about what’s possible for your practice and your lifestyle, this is the perfect time to jump in. Join me for this exclusive first look at The Portable Practice Method and learn how you can join the first cohort and unlock some amazing early bird bonuses!
In This Episode, We Explore…
Mentioned in the episode:
Connect with me:
Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
The Traveling Therapist Membership: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/travelingtherapistmembership
Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai
Signup to learn more about life as Traveling Therapist: https://www.portablepracticemethod.com/free-training
The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/
Bill Like A Boss Insurance Billing Community: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/blab
Subscribe to the Podcast:
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Sponsored by Alma: Managing a private practice can be challenging. There are obstacles at every turn — from navigating the credentialing process, to managing finances, to finding new clients. That’s where Alma can help. Alma is on a mission to simplify access to mental health care by focusing first and foremost on supporting clinicians. https://helloalma.com/kym
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Transcript:
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I have a special episode today. I'm so excited to share this with you guys. So for the last year, almost, I've been creating a new course for Traveling Therapists. It's called the Portable Practice Method. It's taken me a while, right? I've been a digital nomad for three years, almost three years.
We've been exclusively, exclusively living in Airbnbs only, my boyfriend Ken and I. And I keep saying I need to bring Ken on here for an episode so you guys can meet him and hear his side of it and how he's experienced this whole thing with me. But anyway, the last year, I'd say probably February, I started a Out with a mission to create the most amazing course for traveling therapists to develop basically a portable practice to take with them anywhere.
to give you a little like behind the scenes with that, I know a lot of you guys like to hear about my multiple income streams and how I develop all this stuff. So I started out with, her name's Katie Reed. She developed this really amazing course that. Like teaches therapists how to build courses, right?
And I had built courses before, but I had never like taken this approach and I knew I wanted this one to be perfect, really. So I was like, before I do anything, I want to take this course with Katie to see like, what am I missing? What should I be putting in this course to make sure it's like amazing for all the traveling therapists that want to want to buy it.
And the first thing I discovered was sort of, Market research now. I already knew about market research You guys have heard me talk about this on here before like if you don't have the right offer for the right audience, it's It's probably not going to land well, it's probably not going to sell. So I started out with Katie's suggestion to do a really in depth survey of the Traveling Therapist Facebook group to get a lot of feedback about where everybody was and what they were needing as far as helping them.
be able to become a traveling therapist or build these portable practices that they could take everywhere. So the first thing I realized, and I kind of already knew this, but not all of us are in the same place, right? Some people that are in this audience and listen to this podcast, they just want to like go on the weekends and travel and, you know, maybe see a client or maybe not even see a client.
Some just want to be traveling therapists without seeing clients all the time. Some want to maybe take a month. Go somewhere, but the logistics get in the way. Like, how do I, who do I rent my house to? How do I make enough money to do that? All of that stuff. But they want to just kind of go for a month Or a couple of weeks and then come back home and just rinse and repeat and do that over again You know, how how would that be manageable?
That was how I started out really I was traveling every Every other month for a week really is what I was doing. It was eight weeks a year I was traveling then I was coming back. I was cramming all my clients in and I was really exhausted burned out, you know So for a while there I was just trying to figure out how to do that How do I still work and take these?
Like vacations every other month and still be able to see my clients without getting burned out. So I was kind of in that category for a while. And then as you guys know, if you've been listening to this for a while, Ken and I, in 2022, it was February 2nd, 2022, two, two, two, two. We decided we were just going to sell everything.
That's when our rental lease ended in the place we were at after. COVID and all that. And we just decided, okay, we're just going to do this. We put everything in storage and we've been living in Airbnbs ever since. So, you know, different categories of people. And, you know, we've been more like in the U S maybe in the Caribbean versus some other people I talked to that just want to like sell everything and they want to move to Thailand and just, Stay over in that part of the world and work on their time zones and all that stuff and figure out the best way to do that and take their practice with them.
So there's just so many different types of traveling therapists out there. So it was really hard with this course to figure out how to like hone it in so it would be like helpful for everybody. But here's what I did. I sent out a survey and, you know, I paid for the, for people to take the survey. It was very in depth and I asked a ton of questions.
And what I gathered is there's three main components to this thing that are super important to traveling therapists. The first is the logistics, the liability insurance, the, health insurance, the, you know, am I allowed to do that piece that nobody knows that really holds them back in the beginning? I, you know, not being able to get clear answers from their boards or the countries they want to travel to their liability insurance.
People get stuck there. They don't know how to do that. So part of this course, milestone number one is what I'm calling it. Work legally from anywhere. I have poured a ton. of detail into this section of the course, just trying to help, you know, traveling therapists figure out all of that stuff, get it all written down.
I've got like, I'll, I'll walk you through it in a minute. I want to show you the back end of the course in this, in this episode. And then after that piece, once you've got that sort of figured out, the next part is how am I going to make enough money to do this? And that's where my expertise with multiple income streams comes in.
You guys know I've got 15 income streams, probably more than that. I, I say 15 cause that's how many I've counted, but I know I've got like other pieces coming in. Like I just booked a Like a presentation for a group practice. That's not really, hasn't really been on the services I've offered, but I keep getting asked to do these AI presentations to these group practices.
So I just booked another one. So that's rapidly becoming another income stream for me. Like these guests, presentations, speaking opportunities, which if you've listened to this at all, you guys know I hate public speaking, but I'm doing it. I'm loving teaching people about AI. So that's really in my wheelhouse, teaching people how to use like chat GPT and all of that.
So that's milestone number two of this course is let me build a separate coaching entity, which I walk you through in the course. Let me decide what's my niche going to be. What's the product that I want to sell? How am I going to sell it? What is, where's my audience? How do I sell to my audience? All of that is inside of this milestone two that I'm calling, let me make sure I've got the exact right.
Phrasing it is called milestone to make great money. Basically make great money. How am I going to do that? Am I going to scale up? Am I going to do intensives? Am I going to get off insurance panels? Am I going to start offering like evergreen courses and products to You know my clients or some other audience all together This part of the course like walks you through all of those steps and i'm going to show you again In the back end how to do all of this okay.
And then the third part that my research told me is once people have kind of got that part down, I know legally what to do. The next part is I've kind of got the money thing figured out. I think I have enough clients or I have enough like income streams to help me manage this and sustain it. And then the third part is.
How am I going to actually live this nomadic lifestyle in a healthy way that I don't burn out, that I don't just end up in these places and work all day long instead of actually getting to live my life in these cool places I'm traveling to and, you know, really starting with developing your lifestyle vision.
And I'll walk you through that and show you how I've got that in the course as well. Seeking peer support, all of that on the road. All of the, like, Lifestyle logistics that come into play with living this lifestyle, especially if you're like me and you want to be fully nomadic, there is a balancing act.
And you guys have heard me talk about it on the podcast before, you know, this whole idea around like each week we land in a new Airbnb. I've got to figure out how does the lighting work? Does the internet working, where am I going to set up my computer? So it's HIPAA compliant and I'm not in Ken's way, you know, all of this stuff.
And if I'm in a different time zone, how am I going to manage that stuff? stuff. Do I need to reschedule all my clients to, you know, accommodate a new time zone? Like all of these are real things that I've gone through that I know people in the Traveling Therapist Facebook group have gone through. I've talked about ad nauseam on the podcast, all of these details.
So I have been listening, I've been compiling, I've been keeping all this information together so I can put it into this course and walk you guys through exactly how to manage every week. single step of balancing the lifestyle if you are a traveling therapist. So with all that being said, I'm super excited.
And the, the biggest part about this course that I really want to point out, and some of you may or may not know this about me, I'm totally obsessed with AI. I do everything AI. I've got another podcast called run your private practice with AI. I have a membership group called the clinical AI club where I help therapists run their private practices with AI.
My podcast is partially produced with AI, all of that. So. What I really felt passionate about in this course is incorporating a lot of AI into it to make your experience even better, more robust than just basically, you know, a video that I'm going to give you and some text and some checklists, which I've got all that in the course, but I also put a ton of really cool AI things in here.
If you listen to my other podcasts at all, you hear me talk about GPTs and how you can build these things out with like super sophisticated codes in the back end to make these AI chatbots essentially effectively work for whatever the purpose is that you're trying to get them to do. So I have created an army of traveling therapists, portable practice, GPTs inside of this course that you can use for everything.
And I'm going to show you a little bit of that here. Now, if you're listening to this podcast, it's also available on my YouTube channel. We'll put the link down below in the show notes. If you want to see this part that I'm talking about, like the visualization of the back end of this course, feel free to go down to the show notes, click through, you'll see it on YouTube.
You'd be able to watch it over there. But I'm going to try to like verbally describe it as well. So you guys know what I'm talking about. If you're just listening on the podcast.
And it's not all in here. I've still got like, there's 15 modules I'm still working on that I'm going to put in here. This thing is launching. I think we picked the launch date of January 20th to open the doors. So this, I'm telling about this preemptively because there is going to be a wait list for this initial opening of the course.
I'm so excited about it. So it's not available yet, but there is a wait list. It's going to be in the show notes. You guys can go click on it and join the wait list and you'll get all the emails and all that and the special bonuses, which I'm excited about too. I might just tell you a little bit about that also, but let me go here and share my screen.
Here we go. Okay. So. sharing this tab. Yes. Hopefully you guys can see this. Now, when you log into the course, the first thing you're going to see is just the home button. It just says, you know, welcome to the portable practice method. And I'm looking at this. I've got to change that. It doesn't say that right now.
It's going to say, welcome to the portable practice method. So you log in, you come to the welcome screen, and you're going to be greeted by a presentation that I did actually I did this presentation when Ken and I first decided to become traveling therapists, and I had done a ton of research. Everything I researched I put into this presentation.
So this is like an intro to becoming a traveling therapist, like all the considerations, everything that you need to think about is in here. And the next in this welcome module that you're going to see is actually called the AI portable practice method toolkit. So this is the AI piece that I've created for you guys.
I'm so excited about this. I could spend an hour just like showing you how these, these GPTs work that I created. So the first one is the telehealth regulations research tool. I have programmed this module. AI tool to basically allow you to put in Hey, I'm a therapist licensed here with this licensure.
And this is where I'm going to be sitting for the next three weeks seeing my clients. I need you to research the logistics, the rules, the regulations around this specific situation that I've got going on. Now, this thing is going to blow your mind. And on top of that, it also is, I programmed it to do this, creating a template for contacting the boards and asking the question that you need to ask. So you literally copy and paste this. Follow the link, send it to them and wait for a response. And you could do this for any location that you're going to.
It's very in depth, it's up to date, it searches the web in real time and gives us the information that we need to know. And I programmed it to be very specific to therapists, And it understands the nuances of, you know, the clients might be sitting here, the therapist might be sitting here. It needs to research the regulations on both ends.
So that's the first tool I wanted to tell you guys about with that. Super excited. That's the first of the AI toolkit. And then I've created the traveling therapist time zone tool. This thing is going. To blow your mind. And again, I could demonstrate each of these for you, but I'd rather you hop into the course when it's available and try it yourself.
Cause you are going to be like, so shocked by this thing, the traveling therapist, time zone tool. So you, you talk about where your clients are sitting and also where you're sitting at the time of the session. Not only is it going to tell you like the best times, it's also going to give you a letter to send to your clients.
It's going to tell you when you should send it. Schedule your clients what times it's going to give you instructions on lifestyle management around time zones. What are some other things I programmed it to do list all the ways that this time zone tool can help me. You could just put that in there and it's going to give you a million ideas, but you can literally use this tool to create a real time AI schedule for you based on your time zone, based on if it's daylight savings time or not based on where your client's sitting.
And then let's. Let's say that you've got a schedule you've already established with your clients, but you're moving to a new time zone and you need to rearrange the schedule for them. It's going to create a templates and tools that you can send to your clients with the new times and ask them to fill in, you know, the slots on your schedule.
It's going to do it all for you. It's like super automated. That's another AI tool I've put in the course for you. The third one is the portable practice method, private practice builder. So a lot of my research. told me that some therapists are new, right? They're working for an agency or they're working for a group practice that doesn't want them to travel.
So part of this daunting journey is I've got to leave this stability of the agency or the group practice and start my own private practice, portable private practice. And people get stuck there. It's really hard. I built this AI tool to literally walk you through every. Single step that's going to have to happen for you to build your portable practice and get it up and going really quickly.
So you'll use this tool inside of some other modules to help guide you on that, on that journey. Another thing I created for the module for increasing your income and having a stable income is the therapist niche navigator. So the therapist niche navigator is going to help you based on your expertise, your interests, your favorite client to work with.
It's going to help you develop a niche and how to market that niche. So you can make more money in your private practice and you know, expand it out to multiple income streams. If you've got a niche that you're really good at, you don't know what your niche is, it's going to help you find your niche.
I've programmed this thing like to the ninth degree. Essentially I've programmed it to help you every step of the way with trying to figure out that niche navigation piece. And then the last AI tool that I put in here, and I say that now, but you know, probably knowing me we'll add some more because I'm obsessed with AI, but the Traveling Therapist Lifestyle Planner goes under that third module I was talking about, about finding balance.
I've programmed this thing to think of every single nuance that could come up for a traveling therapist and how to navigate it. And it's going to walk you through tools, tricks. It's anything it can do to help you maintain that really healthy, balanced lifestyle as a traveling therapist. So all of these AI tools right up front are already here for you to come in and use.
And they're available to you if you are a member of the portable practice method. Okay. So that's just the AI piece. I haven't even gotten into the rest of it. And I'm not going to go so in depth with these modules, but I just want to tell you what's in milestone one, work legally from anywhere. So I've got an entire module on understanding the legal requirements, and that's where that AI tool also is available.
module for you to go in and use. The telehealth regulations research tool. That's the that's also the AI tool that I was talking about. Liability insurance considerations. I've got templates. I've got a checklist in there. I've got resources for liability insurance, depending on where you want to work.
Cause we all know if you have liability insurance. In California, you can't see a client in Japan and think that it's going to cover you there because it doesn't work like that. But I get really in depth on how to navigate that health insurance for digital nomads, tons of suggestions, tips, and resources for you.
They're mail and mailing addresses. How do I manage that? I get this question every day. Every single day in the Traveling Therapist Facebook group, I've got all the tips and tricks in there for you. Will the insurance companies allow this? I've got a webinar I already did on this topic that's in here for you to review and watch the webinar to walk you through that process if you're an insurance based provider.
And then I've got some webinars from some other experts. Amber Lida did a webinar for us, the Online Therapist, Freedom and Flexibility. Lisa Lovelace talks about in her presentation. You know, how to have a group practice and work from anywhere. I've got tax information in here from Katrina Haines.
She's a foreign tax expert. She's a CPA that specializes in multi jurisdictional international travel and work and taxes. I've got a webinar from her in here. She also did another webinar on just multi state travel within the United States and how to navigate that. Jenny Schottmiller did a presentation on business travel deductions that's in here.
And then Tamara Howe did an introduction to international travel, how to navigate that. And then we have a webinar on how to become an expat by Maggie Dickens, who became an expat and lives in Portugal. All of that's in here for you under the work legally from anywhere to make sure we're covering all the bases for you.
So you feel super comfortable when you're ready to step out as a traveling therapist. Milestone two, you can build your portable practice with AI. That's that GPT I was just telling you about. And then I've got a series of webinars on how to build multiple income streams that I've done over the years for my coaching clients.
presentations that I've done around building multiple income streams. And I've also got a presentation in here from Katie Reed talking about how to establish your coaching entity. If you want to do that, she does a live Q and a webinar that I give you inside of the course that you can walk through and understand more about how to do multiple income streams.
And then I've got the GPT about identifying profitable niches. I've got a business formation workbook. So it walks you through how to set up an LLC and S Corp, whatever you decide is the best entity for you. I've got marketing strategies. I've got a whole GPT actually built out for that too, that I didn't even talk about in the beginning for marketing strategies to help you market your practice so you can make more money.
And then I have some webinars in here, financial planning for the nomadic lifestyle. Style, creating scalable systems for success and diversifying your income streams and how to do that. So all these webinars are in here for you money mindset for freedom. That was, Oh gosh, you did that presentation for us.
Melissa Alba. She did a presentation for us and then building retreats to get paid. Megan Gunnell, you guys probably know her, love her. She did a whole presentation on how to start building retreats.
And then we've got A marketing webinar that I had a virtual assistant, Tara on demand. You guys might know her. She did a presentation to help us with that. And then finding your flow on the road is another webinar from another guest expert.
All of this is in here under make great money from anywhere. to help you with that piece of the traveling therapist journey. And then the last piece is living your nomadic dream life. So I have the GPT in there that I built for you, the AI tool, that's going to walk you through that. We're going to develop your lifestyle vision.
I put another GPT in there. It's a quiz basically to help you decide like, what do I really want this lifestyle to look like? Like what's going to work for me? And then the AI that's incorporated into it is the. They're going to help you build out the perfect plan based on the type of traveling therapist that you want to be.
And then seeking peer support on the road. Janine Wolf, she put this in here to talk about her, her clinical supervision program that she offers to help. If you're alone, you don't have a group practice. You don't have people to talk to for supervision. She offers that. And she talks like through the whole process, how to, Get supervision, what supervision is and why you need it how to take time off every month, minimalist packing techniques, social wellness, how to stay connected, which is super important.
Navigating time zones, that GPT I was telling you about, the time zone navigator is in this module and it's going to walk you right through how to manage all your time zones. It's super important. It's going to blow your mind when you use it. How to guarantee great wifi. This is a panel presentation I did with three other traveling therapists that have all had to deal with like really complicated wifi situations.
They talk about how they managed it. There's tons of tools in here as well to walk you through how to make sure you're navigating that correctly, socializing as a traveling therapist. And then are you ready to leave the country? This is another just sort of like. Checklist webinar that I did around.
Actually, if you want to just leave briefly and come back, or if you want to leave permanently, it's a checklist to walk you through that. And then lastly, preparing for international travel, more tips or tricks if you're literally leaving the United States and not coming back. So that's it. Part of those are the three major milestones that I was telling you guys about the power of quitting I threw some extra webinars in here that are just other experts that are Tangential to what we're doing is traveling therapists And I think, I think you guys are going to love this.
I've got tips and tricks around tech and gadgets, travel hacking. I've got some great presentations around that that are in here. What do you do every time you travel? That sort of thing. This was an expert walking us through like exactly how to manage every single time. She's got a checklist she goes through.
It's amazing. Multiple income streams and coaching. If you want to sign up for coaching with me, I can help you further pass the course with that. And then travel photography, Michael, he is a travel photographer. He's amazing. He does a series of webinars in here to help you if you just like really want to get into that or if you like Instagram worthy photographs, he helps with that.
And lastly, we've got this section. That's locked unless you join within the first 24 hours of when you sign up on the wait list. And when we actually open the doors, anybody that signs up in the first 24 hours is going to get these amazing extra bonuses. Couples and traveling, how to navigate that with a relationship expert, Cindy Gonzoski how to travel with your pets.
I interviewed a woman that's an expert in. Getting your pets basically to any country you want to take them to. It's a webinar I did with her. And then how to travel with your nomadic family. Addie Wayland did a presentation on being a nomadic traveler and she walks us through every aspect of that. So that's it you guys.
This is the course. Of course, I'll probably add more knowing me before I actually open the doors on this, but But if you want to get on the wait list, get on it. It's going to be the cheapest price ever. When we launched this thing, I'm super excited about it. I'm excited to open the doors for you for you to see this, particularly the AI tools. It's going to blow your mind. If you have questions, let me know. Just go down to the show notes under this episode, wherever you're watching this and are listening to this and sign up for the wait list.
As I said, if you're on the wait list and you're there within the first 24 hours of you sign up when we open the doors, there's tons of bonuses. The ones I showed you, there's also one, how to travel with chat GPT, a bonus I just decided the other day to throw into, it's a presentation I did. It's so cool.
You guys are going to love it. Thank you for listening to this podcast as usual. Let me know if you have any questions and have a great day.