Networking As An Introvert: How to Do It...And Do It Well (Episode 56)
If the word networking makes you cringe… you’re not alone.
So many therapists I work with identify as introverts—and they’ve already decided they’re “bad” at networking. It feels awkward. Transactional. Inauthentic. Maybe even a little desperate when referrals feel slow.
But here’s the truth: in today’s market, networking isn’t optional if you want a full private-pay caseload. It’s one of the most consistent drivers of sustainable referrals. And it has far less to do with personality than you think.
In this episode, I’m walking you through the mindset shifts, strategy tweaks, and practical reframes that make networking feel grounded and doable—even if small talk drains you. You’ll learn how to approach networking as connection (not extraction), how to become easy to refer to, and how to play the long game without burning out.
If you’ve been avoiding networking—or approaching it from scarcity—this episode will help you reset.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
1️⃣ Why networking still reigns supreme (and what the latest data shows about fully booked, full-fee clinicians).
2️⃣ How to shift from “I need referrals” energy to calm, abundant connection that actually works.
3️⃣ The clarity + niche adjustments that make you easy to remember—and easy to refer to.
-
Hey, hey. Welcome back to Marketing Therapy, episode 56. Guess what we're talking about? Networking. Networking, networking, networking. Most therapists do not love this. Okay. I understand that many, many, many clinicians that I talk to identify as introvert. If that's you, this episode is for you. All right. Now I've supported over 5,000 therapists in our paid programs and services by now, and if I had a dime for every time I heard, I hate networking, or I'm an introvert, or this feels gross, I would be sitting on a beach somewhere.
Many of the therapists that I talk to describe themselves. As not being good at small talk, hating selling themself, feeling unsure of what to say. All of this crops up around networking almost more than any other part of marketing. You might view networking as this necessary evil, like, Ugh, I have to do it.
Okay. Or maybe you avoid it entirely. It might feel awkward to you. It might feel very, very transactional, and therefore incredibly inauthentic. Or just something other people are good at. Occasionally, there's the extroverted clinician who actually enjoys networking. I can think of a couple of you who like this part and this part comes naturally, but for many of you it does not.
Now we're making an entire episode about this because guess what? If you want a full private pay caseload in today's market, networking isn't optional. It's just not optional. Our state of the industry report is officially released this week. Go to walker strategy co.com/soi if you're interested in downloading that.
But yet again. We see the data very, very clearly that networking matters when it comes to getting clients right now. When we looked at fully booked full fee clinicians, at the end of the report, you'll see a handful of profiles. Things like the group practice owner or the first year clinician, or the fully booked full fee clinician.
The profile for what so many of you are striving toward, what do they have in common? We see that networking with other therapists and networking with complimentary professionals are both for the third year in a row in their top six marketing strategies. Not just marketing strategies that they're using, but marketing strategies that are actually turning into clients.
So networking with other therapists, that means connecting with fellow clinicians who could refer to you, and then of course complimentary professionals, which is anyone else that could potentially send clients your way. Both of those in their top six most effective. In fact, networking with other therapists was the second most effective strategy only to Google Ads, which is curious and something we can talk about in another episode.
But once again, networking reigns supreme.
If you've been in my world for a while, you've heard me say I have yet to meet a fully booked private pay clinician who is not well connected. Your ability to network is not about your personality. It is about the infrastructure. The way you approach this and the process that you have in place for it.
You can run ads, you can SEO optimize the heck out of your website. You can be on directories, but long-term sustainability continues to rely on relationships. And if you are not leveraging this powerful area of your marketing, you are losing out on clients. Especially in this time of what we call the trust recession, where networking provides you the benefit of trust transfers.
We talked about this in a recent episode, and I'll link it for you in the show notes, but networking, trust, relationship. These things matter now more than ever. So in this episode, I wanna talk about some shifts around networking that you probably need to be sitting with and confronting and some ideas, although we have some great past episodes on this, which I'll again link in the show notes.
We talk about networking a lot because it's hard, right? It's hard and a lot of people aren't excited about it. But when done well, it really does unlock a new level of potential in your practice. So. I want you to know that therapists don't quote unquote, fail at networking because they're introverted.
I know many successful introverted clinicians who network well and have thriving practices. Listen, if networking isn't going well for you, it's probably because you already decided you're bad at it. You already told yourself that decision made. You're approaching it reluctantly. You're showing up from a place of scarcity.
You're expecting immediate referrals. So you walk into a networking conversation or a room or a zoom room saying, I'm bad at this. I hate this. I hope this ends quickly. And guess what? That energy, we can't combat it. So your introversion here is not the barrier, but pre-deciding that you're incapable. That absolutely is your attitude, your thoughts about.
Networking are driving how well those conversations go, how memorable you are, how effective this is, and also how draining it is for you. Now, what about those therapists that are really good at networking? What are they doing? Some of them are absolutely extroverted and charismatic and love doing that a hundred percent, but they're not necessarily at every single event.
They're not necessarily extroverted. They're not necessarily loud. Or doing all the things or filling up their entire, you know, free hours that they're not with clients, talking to other people, being good at networking. Right now, when I talk to therapists who are getting most of their referrals from this strategy, or at least consistently getting clients in this way, they're often clear, they're often memorable.
They're often oriented around the long game. They have a sense of calmness. To them. When it comes to the idea of networking, it's not this panicked hair on fire thing. It's this calm, consistent thing that they do, rhythm that they're in, they're easy to refer to.
Now, we have talked often about how you cannot network well if you are not clear on what it is that you do. Especially now when there's so many things competing, not just for your referral contacts attention, but also for your client's attention. We can't afford for you to be bland and generic. 'cause guess what?
They will not remember you. And if they can't remember you, they're not referring to you. So networking only works if people can repeat what you do. Can people speak for you? Like if someone can't clearly say, oh, you should talk to blank. She works with blank, then you are not easy to refer to. Do people know what it is that you do?
Who you serve? What makes you different? Why they should refer to you if they do not know those things, networking is not going to work for you. Just point blank. 'cause they're not gonna know what to say. Or they're not gonna remember you at all. So I encourage you to ask questions like, who do I work best with?
What do I actually help them address? What makes me different from other therapists they could be considering in Confident Copy. We talk a lot about this. We help you create your niche statement and really figure out what sets you apart. But this is an incredible example of why clarity around your niche and who you are as a clinician and who your ideal clients are, matters way beyond just your website.
It matters in every single place you show up, and it is the fuel behind your networking. So do you know those things? Do you know who you work best with? Are you saying that in these conversations? Do you know what you help them address? Do you know what makes you different? And are you communicating these things?
I think this is often where clinicians fall short. They put so much effort into getting in the room or establishing the conversation. Or setting the meeting. But then what they actually say in that meeting doesn't lead to being referable because they aren't sharing some of these key pieces.
Now I encourage you to create kind of like a boilerplate in confident copy. We call that your niche statement, like we need to have some way to describe this. I love a good template. You need to have a base description of what it is that you do, right? Something that feels true to you, that describes your ideal client.
We need that. But you're also going to be adjusting it depending on who you're speaking to. And this is another place I see a lot of clinicians get tripped up. They start saying the same exact niche statement to every person, but if you're talking to a couple's therapist and you work with men.
You're probably gonna talk a little bit more clinically, you're gonna talk about some attachment challenges that maybe your clients come in with, because the person you're sitting across from has that level of understanding, would be able to translate that when speaking to a client.
But if you're talking to a birth doula as someone who works with new moms, that language isn't gonna be as clinical. It is gonna be more about what you offer for those new moms in that initial stage. You know, post-birth, if you're talking to another trauma therapist, if you have a specialty in trauma, you're talking to another trauma therapist, and that's probably gonna be more about your specialization or your subspecialties, your micro niches, your particular approach or modalities.
You could be the same therapist in all three of those scenarios, but you're gonna tweak what it is that you say depending on your audience. So again, having kind of that base description, having that niche statement, we call that your North Star, that describes what it is that you do, what you treat, what sets you apart, and then keeping in mind who the heck you're sitting across from, what's gonna be relevant to them, what language are they going to understand, let alone your clients.
So be willing to be a little bit of a chameleon depending on the room you're in and the person that you're talking to adapt to the networking. This isn't just about one elevator pitch. I've had clients say to me as part of our done for you services, like, Hey, can you help me write an elevator pitch?
Well, yeah, but who are we talking to? What does that person need? What language do they understand? We've got to adapt what it is that you say, depending on who you're talking to. Now I identify as an introvert and I know that I do a heck of a lot better when I'm prepared. So you can prepare yourself for networking.
It's not like you have to go in blind every time. You can have that boilerplate, that niche statement. You could have a couple of bullet points that you wanna talk about. Maybe you do have a simple intro email template that you customize to, based on who you're talking to. Maybe you have a little short DM script that you use if you're touching base with someone on Instagram or a continuity of care email that you often send to other providers, right?
We can have these set up. Give that some thought ahead of time. So if you can feel more confident because you're prepared, then that confidence can ultimately improve the connection that you're making. Now, I need you to hear this loud and clear.
I've heard from many, many therapists in the last, I would say, three months, I was getting a lot of referrals and now they've gotten slower. Or I've heard the term dried up. If that's you, I think that is a larger kind of collective experience that many clinicians are experiencing. On the flip side, I continue to hear from clinicians who are thriving and doing well.
So it's not that it's universal, but if you're sitting there, I think that is a safe to say, a bit of a trend. If you are going into networking, because you need clients right now, you probably shouldn't be networking. That is not the way that networking works and going in with that energy will backfire.
If you are going to take networking seriously, then I encourage you to show up as if you are the thriving clinician you want to be. Even if right now you don't feel like you're thriving, even if right now you do, quite frankly, need referrals, the energy you bring into networking needs to be as someone who is building a referral list to be able to send your clients to not get clients from right.
Show up as someone who has referrals to give, even if you don't yet, keep that energy show up from a place of abundance, not scarcity, and that will serve you so incredibly well. You cannot right now be going into networking, planning to extract referrals. It's not gonna work. Like I said, if right now you are feeling desperate, you probably shouldn't network.
At least until you've had some of these mindset shifts. We cannot be going in to extract. We need to be going in to connect, to be curious. It's why one of my favorite assignments I love to give therapists is to go into their local Facebook group or whatever and state that they are wanting to build their referral list.
For X, I wanna build my referral list for med providers. I wanna build my referral list for couples, therapists. That energy of having referrals to give versus my caseload has room and I'm looking to connect with other therapists. The energy is different and the responses you will get and the interest is going to be vastly different as well. Alright, so connection, not extraction. That part is huge. Now, I mentioned this in recent episodes around networking, but I will remind you again that networking is a volume game.
It is incredibly normal to connect with 20 or 30 plus people and to not hear back from some of them to only connect with a handful of 'em. Some conversations aren't going to feel as natural, but really all you need and often what feeds a practice who does well in terms of networking is 2, 3, 4 consistent referral partners that are really well aligned. That's enough. So here I wanna normalize not getting a response, referrals being quote unquote slow. Do you have some control over how people send you referrals? Absolutely. Getting out and making more connections. But ultimately after that, the ball's in their court.
So it's normal. If it's slow. It's also normal if it takes a really long time. I will often hear from confident copy students that they got a referral from someone they talked to 4, 5, 6 plus months ago. Thank you. This is a long term strategy. It compounds over time and you have to get comfortable with that reality.
Networking also requires a level of creativity. The traditional advice to just go knock on general practitioner doctors' doors. We've moved beyond that. There is so much room for creativity now, in fact, a done for you client of ours. Her name's Chrissy. She specializes in women in the adult entertainment industry.
Just filmed on Instagram stories, her time interviewing, entertainers at an adult entertainment expo in Vegas, and just having really cool, interesting conversations about therapy and mental health and getting support and the connections she made from that are no doubt going to serve her for months and potential years to come. Now, you might not have an expo dedicated to your niche. Maybe you do, but like thinking outside of the box when it comes to who, who is hearing your clients say, I think I need therapy before you do.
I've shared before I used to get my eyelashes done. There's something very vulnerable about laying down with your eyes closed and having someone work, you know, six inches away from your face. You share a lot. And that Lash Studio actually did keep a couple business cards from local therapists on hand, because often they were hearing from these women as they laid down and got their eyelashes done that they thought they might need therapy.
Like, who else is hearing that in your client's life that you could be creatively connecting with who's already working with your ideal client? Who is serving premium out of pocket clients just like you? I've talked about chiropractors before, pelvic floor PTs, acupuncturists, functional medicine doctors.
I personally pay out of pocket to see a functional medicine doctor a few times a year because the care I've gotten there has been so much more effective and useful than my traditional provider, and it's something that I value enough to pay for doulas. Concierge medical practices, doctors that have a subscription model or concierge model.
Other therapists in the premium fee space, whether they share your niche or don't. All of these people are running into your ideal client at a point of need. Have some alignment with the qualities that you would want to be seeing in your ideal client. How could you be connecting with them? How could you get creative?
Really think on who might hear, I think I might need therapy before you do. And how could you be connecting with them?
Now, just like you wouldn't expect to post once on Instagram and then get a bunch of clients, we can't necessarily expect to form one connection, have one conversation, and then the clients just keep flowing in. So there is a level of staying top of mind. You can do that without being weird though. Okay.
There are ways that you can remind people that you exist and what it is, w hat you do in a way that doesn't feel gross or slimy. Now, I do suggest that you probably do track this when you have a conversation, especially if it felt like there was a good connection, you enjoyed them, it felt aligned, track that, make a little spreadsheet and then set a reminder every month or two to reach back out to that person.
Even if it's just, Hey, how are things going in your practice? Or has anything changed over there that I should be aware of when I am sending folks your way? Make it a goal to reach out or follow up with a handful of people each month. Anytime you make updates in your marketing, it's also a really natural touch point to circle back with folks.
When Confident Copy students, for instance, come into the program and already have a website. I always encourage them after the program to circle back with their referral partners, let them know that they've relaunched the website. Same with when we launch our Done For You websites.
All of our done for you clients receive. An offboarding guide with some guidance on, all right, the website's live, here's what to do next. And one of the first things we say is, Hey, go tell people. Tell your personal network. Tell your professional network. So anytime you're making an update in your marketing, it's a really natural time to circle back around to these folks.
So maybe you added a new offer, you are specializing in intensives, or you added a postpartum rage page, whatever that might be. You perhaps hired a team member. If you're a group practice owner who specializes in X, Y, Z. You wrote something, a blog post, a created a reel, whatever relevant to their niche and what might be meaningful to them.
Or you just ran into something that made you think of them. It doesn't even have to be therapy related. These are all ways that you can stay top of mind, circle back, cultivate relationship without being gross or feeling weird about it. 'cause here's the thing, you're a therapist. You are a professional connector.
And if you're thinking, yeah, Anna, but only with my clients. No, no, no, no. You are selling yourself short. You are fantastic at cultivating relationship and building rapport and staying connected and getting curious. And that's something I think introverts are especially good at. Okay. You listen deeply, you ask thoughtful questions.
You, you like to go deep instead of wide, right? You follow up intentionally. These are all strengths. So what if being an introvert was actually a good thing? What if your skills as a therapist translated directly into your ability to network? What if you could show up as the therapist, you want to be in these networking conversations with a whole different kind of energy?
What might that change for you? Networking is not about dominating a room. It's not about being everywhere, but it is about being remembered.
And being remembered usually happens through depth and curiosity and interest, and those are all things you are deeply skilled at. Now remember, if you are showing up to networking thinking, I need a referral tomorrow, that energy will backfire on you. Networking is not going to fill your caseload in the next week.
This is a long-term strategy. It might not generate referrals for months. That doesn't mean it isn't worth it, and I think that's one of the reasons therapists often give up on this strategy because they don't see quote unquote results, quote unquote soon enough. If you enter into this, it has to be with the understanding that this isn't necessarily gonna turn into a client tomorrow or next week or even next month, but it can change the trajectory of your practice over time for years to come.
And how cool to invest in something that you know is only going to get stronger over time. You don't need 50 referral partners. You need three or four really, really strong ones that are maintained intentionally and with genuine curiosity and a desire for connection.
So have I convinced you that networking matters? Have I shown you that? Maybe if you approach it a little bit differently, your experience with it and the things that come from it could be different. I hope I have this week, I really encourage you to clarify that boiler plate. Now in Confident Copy.
That's your niche statement. If you need help creating that, jump into Confident copy walker strategy co.com/confident-copy, but figure out how to talk about the work that you do. Create that base statement. Identify five new potential referral partners, and then reach out to one of them just one this week.
From a place of curiosity, as the clinician you want to be not scarcity. Not needing a referral tomorrow, but genuine interest and then set a monthly reminder to follow up with that person next month. That's my challenge for you.
I've mentioned that confident copy in our Done for You services can be very, very powerful in boosting your confidence and your language for reaching out to folks. So if that's something that you need. Help with if you're interested in learning the whole process, confidant copy is a great place for you.
If you're interested in handing this off to a team of experts so that you can focus more on the work that you do and getting the word out. Once that website is live, then we'd love to work with you in that way. My maternity leave is coming up quickly, which means my discovery sessions are also booking quickly.
So if you're interested in working with us on your website. Copy and or design. I really encourage you to head over to our website, walker strategy co.com/services, where you can book a call to discuss how we can support you. You can see many of our most recent website launches at our portfolio walker strategy co.com/portfolio.
All of these tools, these foundation elements of your marketing fuel, your ability to show up to networking confidently. That's what I wanna see you do. Show up as the clinician you wanna be. And watch what happens when you start doing that. You don't have to become louder. You don't have to become an extrovert, but you do need to become connected, and you do need to be memorable.
If you can do those things, you will see the fruits of this labor. Thanks for being here today. I'll see you next time.
Resources & Links Mentioned:
State of the Industry Report: https://walkerstrategyco.com/soi
Episode 27: How to Borrow Trust and Book More Clients: https://walkerstrategyco.com/show-notes/27
Confident Copy: https://walkerstrategyco.com/cc
Done-for-you services: https://walkerstrategyco.com/services
The Walker Strategy Co website:https://walkerstrategyco.com
Connect + Subscribe
Enjoying the podcast? Subscribe so you never miss an episode—and feel free to share it with a fellow therapist who’s building their private practice.
Explore more marketing support for therapists: The Walker Strategy Co website
About Marketing Therapy
Marketing Therapy is the podcast where therapists learn how to market their private practices without burnout, self-doubt, or sleazy tactics. Hosted by Anna Walker—marketing coach, strategist, and founder of Walker Strategy Co—each episode brings you clear, grounded advice to help you attract the right-fit, full-fee clients and grow a practice you feel proud of.
Rate & Review
If you’re enjoying Marketing Therapy, please consider leaving us a rating or review. This helps more therapists find the podcast (& avoid the marketing spiral).
