Using AI to Run Your Business Without a Team with Sally Riggs
For years, running a practice meant hiring help, training that help, and waking up to a phone already full of messages before the day even started. If managing a team has never felt like your strength, you are not the only one, and it might not have to stay that way.
In this episode of Run Your Private Practice with AI, I sit down with Sally Riggs to talk about using AI to run your business when you would rather not manage a big team. Sally is a traveling therapist, a travel agent, and a member of the Clinical AI Club, and she lives with chronic illness, so running lean is not a nice extra for her. It shapes everything. She walks through what she is building across both of her businesses, what is actually working, and the honest, messy parts most people leave out.
AI Tips You Don’t Want to Miss:
- Why Sally reaches for Manus, ChatGPT, and Claude for different jobs instead of relying on just one.
- How she rebuilt her practice website in a couple of hours after it once took months.
- The Meta Ads lead magnet that brought in over 200 leads at around a dollar fifty each.
- What to do the moment AI starts spinning its wheels, and why pushing harder just burns credits.
- A simple end of session habit that keeps Claude from losing your progress overnight.
Connect with Karen Sally Riggs:
Website: https://www.sallyriggs.com/
Website | Travel Advisor: https://www.sallyssafeandconnectedtravel.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.sallyriggs
Chronic Illness Packing Checklist: https://ebptools.etsy.com/listing/4499881021/chronicillness-travel-packing-checklist
Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ebptools/
Meta Ad Lead Magnet – Grab a copy: https://mailchi.mp/fora/eh0ztkgo8z
Therapy Intensive: https://www.nyccbtp.com/intensive.html
Mentioned in this episode:
Run Your Private Practice with AI (free Facebook group)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/aiprivatepractice/
Clinical AI Club: https://www.clinicalaiclub.com
Thera AI Hub: https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/AI-Tools-for-Therapists
Connect with me:
- Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
- Join the Clinical AI Club: www.clinicalaiclub.com
Sponsored by Alma: www.helloalma.com/kym
Sponsored by Berries:www.heyberries.com/therapists
Sponsored by Auralink Pro: Start your free trial and use code KYMTOLSON for 20% off www.auralink.com/pro
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Kym: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Run Your Private Practice with AI. I’m so excited, you guys. I am doing a new feature on this podcast. The podcast had tr- traditionally been you know, just me talking about AI and geeking out on AI, and how I’m using it, and how you guys can use it, and that sort of thing.
[00:00:16] But I have two memberships, and you guys have probably heard me talk about that, the Clinical AI Club and the TheraAI Hub. And I got the idea… In our private Facebook group, I’m posting something, like every week I think I’m posting, and it’s just saying like, “What are you building with AI?” And everybody’s saying all this amazing stuff, so I was like, “Why don’t I bring them on the podcast to tell their story and also to share the things that they’re building?”
[00:00:41] So my first ever guest on this podcast is Sally Riggs. And I’ll let Sally introduce herself, but I just wanna say Sally is a traveling therapist. Some of you might know I have another podcast called The Traveling Therapist. She’s nomadic. She is a therapist. She’s also a travel agent. And I actually have used Sally as my travel agent.
[00:01:02] She’s now my travel agent, and I just love her. And she happens to also be in the Clinical AI Club, so I was like, “Who better to start with than Sally?” ‘Cause I know she geeks out on AI just like I do. She’s got a ton of stuff she’s building. So Sally, welcome to my… be my first guest- Thank you … on this podcast.
[00:01:18] I’m glad to have you here.
[00:01:20] Sally: So exciting.
[00:01:21] Kym: I’d love if we could just start out and maybe you could tell your origin story, I guess, of like of… Like, where were you when you decided, “I need something like the Clinical AI Club,” or, “I need to learn more about AI”? Tell us that story of what led you to- Yeah … you know, essentially the membership and then everything that you’ve been doing since.
[00:01:40] Sally: And, I mean, I have been in the Traveling Therapist Facebook group for a long while. And, Mm-hmm … obviously, all the things that you are talking about there, supporting therapists to be able to be flexible to work from other countries, and other parts of the US, and all the different ways that you offer that support, thinking about diversifying your income.
[00:02:02] And so the AI piece, I was aware of you talking about it, and probably similar to a lot of people, hearing lots of people talk about AI. And, You know, “Oh, you should get ChatGPT, and you should have it write your emails.” And I think at, at one point I even went to the App Store and downloaded something that wasn’t ChatGPT.
[00:02:26] Oh,
[00:02:26] Kym: yeah.
[00:02:26] Sally: But I didn’t know that, like, this is kind of maybe 18 months ago, when we were in those early days, and people… And I kind of used it and I was like, “Oh, I didn’t really do anything, and I didn’t really understand the hype.” And then later I realized, totally different icon, not ChatGPT at all. But last summer just over a year ago, so I was planning to go to Japan and I was planning to work from Japan for five months beginning June 1st last year.
[00:02:57] And as often happens with our businesses when we have a big move coming along and I was actually moving out of a rented apartment and putting all my stuff in storage, so it was not just pack a suitcase and go. There was a lot of stuff that I was doing. And of course, right at that time I had I have two businesses, so one that does training for therapists, one that does private practice.
[00:03:22] And all of the VAs, which was numerous VAs that I was using at the time, were threatening to quit or putting in their notice, or I hated them and wanted to fire them. And that had been an issue in my business for many years. Mm-hmm. And I live with chronic illness which is something we’ve also talked about before.
[00:03:44] Yeah. And so for me, managing a staff team is not one of my strengths. It’s not something that I enjoy. And alongside the stress of having chronic illness, I can’t do everything myself. Mm-hmm. So it was a necessary evil for a long time. And then I was seeing you post about things in the Traveling Therapist about AI and what AI could do.
[00:04:10] And I figured I would join- To find out more about these VA AI assistant things that you can set up and people are beginning to use on their website for onboarding patients. Right. And I have had in my private practice an automated workflow, gosh, for about 10 years. Mm-hmm. But that automated workflow, obviously technology has changed rapidly in that time, and what we could do at that point versus what we can do now is very different.
[00:04:45] But you still have to work within HIPAA and all of those things. So whereas there are tons of AI agents that you can purchase and train, you know, for your generic roofing business or what have you, for healthcare it’s a little bit different, and we do need to be more cautious. And so I primarily signed up for that reason, to get some more support.
[00:05:08] And in fact, I wound up working with Galene, who I know has done some, Oh, yeah … presentations for you. Yeah. Where she actually kind of took on a project for me and kind of did some research on possible agents that I could use and how we might train them and, and what have you. And, fascinatingly, and it’s amazing how kind of things move along.
[00:05:29] We didn’t manage to find one because my private practice works in a very specialist way that was able to fully be customized for what I needed without going to one of these companies where you would pay them $10,000 and they would build it totally from scratch. Mm-hmm. And at the time, I didn’t have the finances that I wanted to invest that much.
[00:05:50] And very interestingly, my practice has changed quite a lot in the last year, and I’m kind of now at a point where I probably don’t need an AI assistant to do that type of onboarding, which is great. But I think what it did at the time was, first of all, I was able to download ChatGPT, and it was the right app this time.
[00:06:10] And then for my move to Japan, I wound up using it for helping me to pack, helping me to plan for the move, and a lot of things that were very helpful when I was in Japan. Not so much for travel itineraries, and that’s something we talk a lot in the travel industry, that AI is very good at hallucinating things, and if you ask it, you know, “Can you help me with this travel itinerary?”
[00:06:33] And I think there’s one famous example of a couple that went to, maybe it was Japan, and they booked a hotel what they thought was in Tokyo, and it turned out to be in a completely different city thousands of miles away-
[00:06:45] Kym: Oh,
[00:06:45] Sally: no … because AI had hallucinated that it was in fact in Tokyo. So-
[00:06:50] Kym: Oh, no. …
[00:06:50] Sally: don’t use it for your travel needs, but for planning stuff around travel, packing, you know, medical stuff you know, finding a provider, all of those kinds of things, knowing what medications are available in what country, which is something we talk a lot about in the Traveling Therapists Facebook group.
[00:07:08] Yes. That was incredibly helpful and in fact, I needed to find a doctor for one… Oh, what, because I use the, the fridge GLPs, and obviously there’s only so much you can bring into the country. Yeah. And so I had to find somebody to prescribe that locally. Everything else I could ship, but you can’t really ship the fridge meds.
[00:07:27] Yeah … so really started to embrace as much as I could, trying to use more AI, trying to kind of catch up with the rest of the world, ’cause I felt like at that point I was a little bit behind and I had wanted to use it, but I hadn’t fully appreciated how to use it. Yeah. And I think that’s what I love about what you’re providing here, that you really break it down for people.
[00:07:52] And you know, we say this so much. We didn’t go to grad school for all this stuff. We just went to learn how to be good therapists. And all of the tech, you know, it does take a little while to get up to speed when it isn’t- Yeah … the primary focus of your skill set. Mm-hmm As I was back in the US again November last year- Mm-hmm
[00:08:16] so I hadn’t been able to attend your, At the time, I think it was monthly meetings, and I think you’re now doing two a month.
[00:08:24] Kym: Yep.
[00:08:24] Sally: A- because the time zone, Japan is 13 hours ahead, so they would’ve- Right … been in the middle of the night. And so I, I didn’t get to come to those meetings. Once I was back, I put them in the calendar and started coming, and that’s when I really started to understand all of the things that you can do and the demonstrations that you gave us, and that it’s not just ChatGPT, that there’s also Manus and there’s also Claude, and and the different strengths that each of them have and using them for different things.
[00:08:55] And so now I’m really trying to essentially not ever have to hire another VA. Yes … and conveniently they all fell by the wayside, and I, I don’t have to pay them anymore. And so I’m trying to structure all my businesses in a way that AI can do the things that I need it to do. And- Mm-hmm … obviously, again, we do have to be mindful of the HIPAA things and- Right
[00:09:21] and how that relates to private practice. But certainly in my travel business, that’s so exciting, and I have colleagues- Yeah … that are using Claude Cowork to do, you know, go into their emails and tell them what needs doing and then write emails. And and I need to set that up at a certain point once I start to get more busy.
[00:09:42] And that will be amazing to be able to have- Yeah … that as a kind of working partner rather than having to hire another physical human.
[00:09:50] Kym: Mm-hmm. And it’s so easy with Claude now to just say, “Oh, e- c- connect to my Outlook,” and go- Yeah … and pull, you know, I wanna prioritize this, this, and this. This is how I answer.
[00:10:00] This is my voice and how I, you know, talk to people, to give it all of that and then run the agent. Like set it on a recurring task, and then it just- Yes … literally does it for you every single day. I’ve got all kinds of workflows like that going on right now. Yeah. It’s amazing. So-
[00:10:13] Sally: And particularly for the travel industry, because we- Yeah
[00:10:17] When we are booking people into hotels that we have preferred partnerships with- Mm-hmm … we can, what we call VIP a client, which is when you email the GM of the hotel and you say, “I’ve got Kim coming on these dates. Please, can you get her an upgrade? Please, can you confirm what other perks you have available for her?”
[00:10:38] And that all requires an email that is the same email every single time. Yes. And if you have hundreds of clients, I’m not quite there, remembering who’s going to what hotel and making sure that you’ve sent the email to VIP them and that the benefits are confirmed is a lot of cognitive resources. Yeah.
[00:10:58] Whereas setting that up as an automated task with Claude is just phenomenal, because we had to do all of that manually previously.
[00:11:07] Kym: Exactly. Yes, absolutely. And it’s just evolving every day. It’s so exciting to, to see. Like, I just got off with a coaching client, and we’re setting up the coolest just automations in her business.
[00:11:19] Like, it, it’s just amazing. Yeah. And every day I’m, like, shocked by something else that Claude is doing. It’s like, it’s like my go-to now for everything. Yeah. It used to be ChatGPT. So All that being said your, your mind is, like, swimming with ideas constantly, I’m sure. After everything we talk about in the club, the hub- Yeah
[00:11:37] after every… I think, I think you’ve said, a couple people have said it, like, after each of the meetings, people are like, “Oh my God, I’ve got so many ideas now. I’ve just gotta go play with it.” What, what are you doing? Like, what is your primary, like, build right now? Like, what are you focusing on in your business?
[00:11:51] The traveling business, you know, whatever- Yeah … wherever you are with things, like, what tools are you using? How are you doing it? And let’s just, like, kinda talk about where you are with it right now.
[00:12:01] Sally: Yeah. So I think the, the primary thing I’m using it for in my private practice. So I am in the process of pivoting, and I think this is something we’ve all talked about a lot, the current climate with private practice- Mm-hmm
[00:12:15] and how referrals are down and the reasons for that. And so my previous one-to-one weekly therapy model and my previous specialty, and interestingly, for various reasons within my specialty, also because I’m not eligible for PSYPACT- Right. Mm … and, but also because as a traveling therapist, we kinda sorta don’t wanna do PSYPACT, because the second you step outside of the country, you can’t see any of those patients.
[00:12:46] Exactly … so for all of those reasons, I am transitioning to the therapy intensive model, and really- Love it … pushing. And I created, with ChatGPT, the website or the page for my website. So I’m focusing on type A folks who are burning out and wanting to do intensive nervous system work, and that naturally lends itself to a two- or three-day intensive where we really kind of break down the nervous system stuff and also use some of the nervous system tools that I’ve used before, like the safe and sound protocol or some of the other vagus nerve stimulators.
[00:13:22] So I have, in addition to building out that lovely website and reviewing it for SEO to make sure… I think I used Manus for the SEO- Yeah … and then we updated a few things to make sure their SEO was good. And then I’m having Manus pull lists of therapists. So I’m licensed in five states, and I- Mm
[00:13:43] I’m having him kind of search for private practices that are not using insurance and are focusing on higher functioning type A kind of clients that potentially could refer me somebody for an intensive. And then I’ve been using a software that I think somebody recommended in the, one of the Facebook groups-
[00:14:03] I forget which one it was which is Therapy流, which is a CRM specifically- Oh, yeah … designed for therapists with the HIPAA compliance- Nice … which is great. Yeah. And so I have an automation set up there, a three email sequence, and then I get the CSV file with the emails and the names in it, and I just upload that, and then it enrolls those people in the automation and sends them the emails.
[00:14:29] So that’s my ongoing project at the moment, promoting that. And kind of- Amazing … building new connections with therapists that I hadn’t networked with before around this, and I’ve had some really lovely responses from people that, “Oh, what a great idea. That sounds wonderful. I definitely have a couple of clients in mind.”
[00:14:47] Oh, nice. “When they’re ready, I will send them over.” So very excited for what’s- Yeah … to come with that.
[00:14:53] Kym: That’s amazing. Yes. Yeah. And it’s gonna fit your lifestyle so well. Right. And the chronic illness piece, I mean, we could talk- Yep … about that for days, but the
[00:15:01] Sally: chronic- Exactly … illness piece and… Yeah.
[00:15:03] Anybody who’s thinking about therapy intensives, you know, this is your sign that you definitely should pursue it further because I think it is, you know, if you think about all the ways that we can’t be replaced by AI- Mm-hmm … the one-to-one therapy model actually can be replaced by AI to some extent. Right.
[00:15:25] But an intensive cannot. And if you’re doing somatic work, if you’re doing EMDR, all of those that lend themselves to intensives that’s the niche where we are still not replaceable, and that’s where we kinda need to focus right now. And yes, it fits perfectly for those of us who travel, … and it fits perfectly for those of us who have chronic illness.
[00:15:48] So it’s an exciting time.
[00:15:51] Kym: Oh, it’s amazing. Yes, I love that Yeah. And in the Clinical AI Club, we have a module on how to build out therapy intensives using-
[00:15:58] Sally: Yes …
[00:15:59] Kym: ChatGPT.
[00:15:59] Sally: Which I found incredibly helpful. Yeah. That was my- Yeah … starting point, Kim, which was such a great resource to have. Yeah.
[00:16:06] Kym: That’s amazing.
[00:16:06] Yes. So it’s, like, a lot of tools in there to help make these workflows faster. If you’re thinking about creating an offer or an intensive- Exactly … or something like that, there’s a ton of modules already that are leading you through that process, how to do it quickly with AI. Yeah. So you don’t have to, like, spin your wheels and, like, recreate the wheel, so to speak.
[00:16:25] Right. I
[00:16:25] Sally: mean- Yeah … if you think back, when I first launched my practice and created a website, it took me literally months to put it together.
[00:16:32] Kym: Yes.
[00:16:32] Sally: And yet, this new page was up in, like, a couple of hours. It’s- Amazing … it’s amazing. Yeah. That’s
[00:16:38] Kym: so awesome. Oh my gosh.
[00:16:39] Sally: Okay, so- And the feedback- Oh … so a couple of consultations I’ve done already with clients-
[00:16:44] Kym: Oh,
[00:16:44] Sally: nice
[00:16:45] and they will say to me, “Literally every word of that page resonated with me.” And I’m thinking, “Yep, that’s what happens when you write good copy.”
[00:16:55] Kym: That’s amazing. Yeah. That is so exciting for you. ‘Cause I, I know we talk, we talk about this in the live masterminds a lot. Like, my caseload’s down. Yeah. I can’t get clients in the door, that sort of thing.
[00:17:06] So to hear that you’re able to revamp, get the copywriting down, the SEO, and have people- Yeah … like, kind of regurgitate it back to you, I mean, that is, like, amazing. That’s like the- Very validating … the success path. Yes.
[00:17:19] Sally: Yeah.
[00:17:19] Kym: That’s really cool. Hmm.
[00:17:21] Sally: And then the big projects that I’m working on in my travel business right now-
[00:17:25] Kym: Yeah
[00:17:26] Sally: so I started using Meta Ads.
[00:17:29] Kym: Okay. Oh,
[00:17:29] Sally: yeah. And I used I, I had a colleague who has a particular program that they use. They have some background in advertising and, and so I was following their setup that was recommending also using AI for each of the stages. And I was… They were recommending to use Claude for everything.
[00:17:48] I was able to bring your kind of wisdom in terms of who is better at what, and actually I use Manus for the for the lead magnet, because that’s gonna be slides, and Manus is much better at slides because it can actually generate the images in the slides. You don’t just get a blank deck and then you have to add the sli- pictures manually.
[00:18:10] Exactly … and then I use the new ChatGPT image generator for the assets for inside the campaign. And it generated five pictures, but each picture had with text and without text, and so those 10 assets are running inside Meta Ads right now. Wow. And it’s been less than a month since that ad has been live, and I’ve already got over 200 leads.
[00:18:37] Wow. And my cost per lead is, like, $1.45, something like that.
[00:18:43] Kym: That’s amazing. Yeah. Yes. Wow.
[00:18:46] Sally: And all of the, So the original idea for what to choose as a topic we put that prompt into Claude, and it came up with, I think, 20 ideas. And then I think- Wow … I used ChatGPT to help me kind of refine which one I wanted to pick.
[00:19:02] Right. And then when I picked which one, how to come up with the specific copy, we did that in Claude. And then Manus created the slides, and the, the PDF is absolutely beautiful, and, and the content is, is wonderful. I’m so happy with it. This is specifically focusing on Japan and people with chronic illness who want to travel to Japan.
[00:19:23] But the tagline is, “How to visit Japan without crashing on day two.” Because it’s very easy- Ah, okay … even just with the flight and your first 24 hours in the country, you can induce a crash. Because if you don’t do things in the right way, it can be very overwhelming. Yeah. So, yeah, getting a lot of popularity, lots of downloads.
[00:19:45] And very exciting to have a lot more leads coming into my travel business that I can then work with- Yeah … to, to sell trips. And then the other thing that I’m using AI for right now, so I have an Etsy shop. And originally I just started with… I have quite a few therapist worksheets that I had used in my training business over the years.
[00:20:06] And I had had some of them for sale somewhere else, and I decided to bring everything just into Etsy. And so there’s a lot of therapist worksheets there if you’re looking for therapist worksheets. Yeah. But then I started adding more of the chronic illness stuff and then travel stuff. And so right now we have a packing checklist, or I have a number…
[00:20:26] It’s, it’s the same checklist, but it has a different version. So we have a, a version that opens in Google Sheets or Excel with the dropdown menus. Yeah. We have a version that opens in an HTML website, so it’s like a fully interactive checkboxes, and you can save your progress and come back to it later and all of those cool things.
[00:20:46] So really helping with the progra- process of packing, specifically if you have any type of medical or, or accessibility issue because I think there’s a lot for us to remember there in terms of medications, making sure you have all of your medications for a trip, whether that’s a short trip or a long trip.
[00:21:05] Mm-hmm. And then all of those, like, accessibility aids that you might need, whether you use a cane or a walker or somewhere to sit down in the shower or, you know, all of those things that are easy to forget on a trip. So that is already completed and available for sale. And then I’m still in process and literally I can see the Claude button that is asking me for permission for something right now that it’s still working on.
[00:21:33] Yeah. We’re building out a budget planner. Oh, nice. And I’m very excited because obviously when you live with illness and you have a lot of medical expenses- Yes … keeping track of your deductible is a thing, and then probably you have a little bit of debt which you’re trying to manage, if not more than a little bit.
[00:21:55] And then probably you might have some intention to build some savings pots, like an emergency fund or a flare-up fund. And so we have different tabs for all of these things, and we’re kind of setting it up so that whether you’re self-employed or whether you’re a W-2 person, every time you get some type of income, you can log it, and then you can decide what you’re allocating it to.
[00:22:20] Are you allocating it to monthly expenses? Are you allocating it to a savings pot? Are you allocating it to your debt to pay that down? And then it tracks it all through the year and, and tells you what’s going on. Which as someone who struggles with these things herself and particularly as a self-employed person, right, where we don’t get paid the same amount each month.
[00:22:40] Kym: Right.
[00:22:40] Sally: Trying to manage all of this in my head is stressful, but having a lovely customized spreadsheet to help out. So I’m, I’m hoping… We’ve been, I’ve been working on it over the last few weeks, and we’re almost there. Amazing. So hopefully that will be for sale fairly soon on Etsy.
[00:22:57] Kym: So let me let me just ask this question.
[00:22:59] So I’m, I’m imagining people listening to this and hearing all the stuff that you’re doing. They’re probably some people, especially beginners, might be like, “I would never be able to do any of that.” Like, all of this that you’re talking about. So for me, for me anyway, I’ll say, AI, the, the role that the AIs play in the content creation piece, and maybe it’s different for you, but for me it’s like- It almost does the whole thing for you, right?
[00:23:26] Yeah. You just kind of bring an idea to… It didn’t used to be like that, right? You really had to guide it before. But the way it’s so evolved now, it’s like you just bring like ni- it’s not even prompts anymore. It’s just like, like, “Hey, I wanna do this,” right? And then they’re so smart now, it… Like, I wanna build an Etsy store with therapist worksheets, right?
[00:23:43] You just pop that into Claude and, like literally, it just takes control, and it’s like asking you questions, and it, like, literally guides you through the whole process. And I don’t know if this is for you, but, like, an Etsy store, right? You tell it, like, “I don’t know how to do an Etsy store.” It, Cowork will go in there- It’s amazing
[00:24:00] and it set it up for you. It’ll, like, take over your screen and do the whole thing for you. I don’t know if you’ve had this experience, but-
[00:24:06] Sally: I haven’t quite got brave enough to let it do that. Yeah. So I have Cowork on one of my computers. Yeah. I deliberately don’t have it on my laptop- Oh, right … in case of, you know, needing to do some HIPAA- Right
[00:24:16] related stuff and, and needing to not have it on there. But I haven’t… It has access to save files on my computer. That’s as far as- Mm-hmm … I’ve been brave enough to allow it yet.
[00:24:28] Kym: Yeah, okay.
[00:24:29] Sally: I think, you know, maybe in a couple weeks when I have some other projects finished, I might let it go into my emails or I might let it, you know, one at a time and see what happens- Oh
[00:24:39] and see how it goes. I think one thing that I do find with AI, and I think it’s important to talk about this because I think as a beginner coming in, it can be very overwhelming and you can definitely get into that, “Is it just me? Am I doing it wrong?” Right. And then when you actually talk to people, you realize, no, it’s the same for everybody, but we’re just not talking about it, is the fact that when you’re working on a specific project in a thread, very frequently, and it doesn’t matter which of the models you’re working with, it will get to a point where it starts spinning its wheels and not- Mm
[00:25:16] really moving forward. And it’s a top tip that you have shared with me, and I see other people talk about this on YouTube videos a lot that it is very important at that point not to keep going down the rabbit hole, but to take what you have and move it into a new thread and prompt it to start again.
[00:25:37] Yeah. Because certainly with the packing checklist, I got to that point, and what happens is you’ll ask Claude to make a, a, a correction, and it won’t do it. Right. And then you’ll say, “But you haven’t done it, and I asked you to.” And it’ll say, “I’m terribly sorry. Let me do it.” Mm-hmm. And then it doesn’t do it again.
[00:25:57] Mm. And then, “Oh, I’m terribly sorry.” And then I, my personality is to just get so pissed off, and so then I can waste a lot of credits while I type in best British expletives which obviously aren’t gonna get it to do anything. It just makes me feel better. And really what you should be doing at that point is just moving on to a new thread and starting again.
[00:26:19] So that was where I was with the budget planner, and yesterday we just started a new thread again. So we’ll see where that catches up. But I think it, it, it is something that can- I don’t really understand why, ’cause I guess I don’t really understand the, the coding backend of AI, why it gets stuck- Mm-hmm
[00:26:39] in those loops. Mm-hmm. But it is kind of a, a useful user piece of info that if it stops doing what you need, to just start it again in a new thread.
[00:26:48] Kym: Yeah.
[00:26:49] Sally: Yeah.
[00:26:50] Kym: And and this is just side tip too, is using projects in Claude really cuts down on a lot of that. I don’t know if you’ve experimented with projects at all.
[00:27:00] And this is for the listener too. If you set up a project in Claude, you can add like, reference files, that sort of thing, into the sidebar, and essentially any project you do within that context, it’s gonna have those reference points.
[00:27:14] Sally: Yeah.
[00:27:14] Kym: And another thing you can do, like in these chats that you’re using, you can say, “I want you to summarize,” like before you shut it down for the night.
[00:27:21] ‘Cause what Claude will do overnight, it’ll compress- Yes … and compact your conversation. And when it
[00:27:27] Sally: does that- And then it can’t see what you discussed two minutes ago, and you think
[00:27:30] Kym: again. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So if at the end of your session if you run a, a prompt and you just say like, “I want you to summarize everything we did today in a simple you know, prompt or a simple summary that I can take later and save for later,” you can save that.
[00:27:46] You can upload it to the knowledge file in the project, and then it continues to pull on that knowledge, and you’re not gonna have to worry about losing you know, the authenticity of what you’ve been working on the whole time. Yeah. So that’s a little side tip
[00:27:58] Sally: for anybody listening. And I think tho- those are the kind of tips and tweaks that I’m kind of learning, and, and I think the, you know, the co-work thing, it being on your computer obviously is very different than- Yeah
[00:28:10] what we’re used to before. Yes. And how to set that up, and, and how to set up the parameters. So that’s what I’m sort of trying to, to keep abreast of. But at the same time, also being mindful that I don’t wanna waste too much time just on that, because I need to keep the efficiency of my businesses going, and also I need to be mindful of my energy levels.
[00:28:32] So I think it’s kind of keeping that balance and just knowing that you can always do a little bit better next week and, and that’s okay.
[00:28:40] Kym: Absolutely, yeah. And experiment and see what happens too. Yeah. Yeah. So what would you say is your biggest result right now, if you had to just kind of- Oh,
[00:28:50] Sally: goodness. I mean, I guess the, the Meta Ads project is probably my biggest- Okay
[00:28:55] result, because that’s the one that really has some data that we can look at in terms of, you know, ROI and, and what’s happening right now. I think the therapy intensive is work in progress, and obviously having people sign up for an intensive is a much bigger commitment than downloading a free PDF.
[00:29:16] Yeah. And so it’s probably a much longer timeframe for me to have data, you know, to look at around that and the success of, of those patients in therapy. Mm-hmm. But the, the biggest immediate is the Meta Ads. But I think also part of this is just sort of the feeling piece, right? Yeah. I mean, a year ago I was having to manage all those people- Yeah
[00:29:40] and constantly ask, you know, I asked you to do it and you didn’t do it, or you did it differently, and all of that micromanagement, and just the weight off my shoulders of not even having to… Like, I would literally wake up in the morning, check my phone, and have to deal with three messages from three different people that had done something stupid, and I was already annoyed.
[00:30:02] Kym: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:02] Sally: And I don’t have that anymore. So that is just such a dramatic difference. And- That’s amazing … and knowing that I don’t ever have to go back to that if I don’t want to is also- Yeah … just such freedom. And, and obviously, you know, if I was a glutton for punishment, looking back on all the money that I wasted on all those people, that didn’t move the needle far enough in my businesses but also knowing going forward that we can run, you know, the budget planning of our businesses in a much more streamlined way without- Mm … having to… And, and it’s wild, really. If you think, like, less than, like, six years ago or just over six years ago, I was working out of a huge, expensive office suite that cost me- Mm
[00:30:51] thousands and thousands a month. And then I had to pay for an intake coordinator and an assistant- Ugh … to help with my training business, and that was a huge chunk of… You know, again, probably 5,000 a month went in VA fees.
[00:31:08] Kym: Yes.
[00:31:08] Sally: And now- Yes … we can run our businesses in much more of a scrappy way. You know, I’m paying 20 bucks to Manus and 20 bucks to Claude.
[00:31:17] Kym: Mm-hmm.
[00:31:17] Sally: That’s very different.
[00:31:19] Kym: Exactly. Yes. Oh, I love that so much. That, that to me is amazing. Yeah. Don’t have to hire a team anymore.
[00:31:26] Sally: And then it’s also- mm … you know, from the quality of life perspective, you don’t have to work as much and you don’t have to make as much money to cover those expenses if you don’t want to.
[00:31:37] Kym: Yeah.
[00:31:38] Sally: So again, from a traveling therapist perspective, you know, we had to see 20 clients a week to make enough money to cover all those things.
[00:31:47] Kym: Mm-hmm.
[00:31:47] Sally: Now it’s kind of, do I wanna see a client today or do I wanna go to the beach today? And that’s a very different way of thinking about things.
[00:31:56] Kym: Absolutely.
[00:31:57] Lifestyle freedom.
[00:31:58] Sally: Yeah.
[00:31:58] Kym: Yeah. Love it. Thank you so much. So where do people find you? Of course, we’re gonna put the links in the show notes to your, to your products, but what would you like… Where would people specifically go- yes … for the travel stuff, the Etsy store, the,
[00:32:12] Sally: Yes. If they are interested in working with me for travel my business is Sally’s Safe and Connected Travel, and that is my website also.
[00:32:24] So Sally’s, but don’t forget the S, Sally’s- Okay … Safe, so two S’s in a row, sallysafeandconnectedtravel.com. Yeah. For my Etsy store, I think we go by EBP Tools, so EBP, Evidence-Based Practice-
[00:32:41] Kym: Oh,
[00:32:41] Sally: nice …
[00:32:41] Kym: Tools.
[00:32:42] Sally: Yes ’cause I will always be an evidence-based psychologist even if I’m a travel agent. And lots of cool things on there, but I think, we’ll, we’re gonna put the link specifically to the packing checklist.
[00:32:55] But obviously you can, you know, explore my site if there’s other cool things in there you’re looking for. And for the therapy intensive, now this is slightly… I just recently changed the name of my practice, and we do have a new domain name that forwards to my original website. Nice. But I think when I give out the sub URLs, I can’t do it in that way, so we have to give the old name, unfortunately, which is a bit confusing.
[00:33:21] But if you want- … to know more about my therapy intensive, it’ll would be nyccbtp.com/recoveringtypeaintensive.
[00:33:34] Amazing. I think that’s the URL. But again, we can, we can put it down below for you.
[00:33:39] Kym: Yeah, that’s awesome. Thank you so much. Mm. It’s so great to hear what you’re doing. I love it. It gets me so excited that you’re just having all this progress and seeing- I
[00:33:47] Sally: mean- …
[00:33:48] Kym: seeing this
[00:33:48] Sally: thing work … thank, thank you so much, Kim.
[00:33:50] I think, you know, you’ve put together such amazing programs that make this stuff accessible to us, and the fact that you’re using it in your business every day and excited about it and sharing those things, I mean, I think that’s what… You know, I wouldn’t have known about the ChatGPT image thing or the Manus therapy s- slides thing, you know, if you hadn’t shared that info, and that really does make a big difference.
[00:34:16] Kym: Thank you. That’s amazing. Okay, everybody, we’ll put everything down in the show notes, and check out the Clinical AI Club. We’d love to have you as a member.