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I remember when Raunak Sharma, the Founder and CEO of Thrizer, contacted me.
I was in Mexico City at the start of 6 months of travel and desperately needed the money. It was either "earn more", or "blow through the money I had from selling my old Infiniti G35."
Of course, I preferred the former option.
In his message, Raunak told me he needed an SEO content writer for his startup. He told me to pick a topic and go for it.
So my first blog for Thrizer was about “Is Therapy Covered by Insurance?” And man was it difficult.
I’ve rarely had insurance, and have always paid in cash for my therapy sessions.
So how was I supposed to write about something I know nothing about?
Reservations aside, I had to start where I was at.
So I began writing, researching, and figuring it out on the fly.
Later in my travels, after passing through Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, I was in Nicaragua and earning VERY little.
My business was just a few months old at the time, and I had little recurring work. In fact, I only earned $454 that August for two blogs.
Turns out that Thrizer saved me that month.
Thrizer was my only client at the time and helped me not go (completely) broke while in another country. And for that, I'm grateful!
I continued to do my best on every blog, and I think my effort was recognized. Raunak started giving me more responsibility and freedom.
Around this time he granted me website access so I could upload each blog. This really helped me feel like part of the team.
One huge lesson I learned from these early experiences is that you don't have to know everything.
As marketer Marie Forleo says, everything is "figureoutable."
At the start of my time with Thrizer, I felt like a fish out of water. But I persevered and started to get the hang of it.
That's when I wrote about the high cost of therapy in the U.S.
This piece took off on LinkedIn, where I shared it with my audience of mostly therapists.
They loved the depth and insight. I was happy that it was so well-received.
My approach was to try to explain the cost of therapy from a clinician's perspective. The audience was therapy seekers, and I hoped I could take the displeasure out of paying for therapy.
I got 5 or 6 experts to pitch in, and I even commissioned an infographic on my own dime (by this time I was earning a lot more than $454/month).
Seriously, I was growing with Thrizer. As a marketer and as a person.
Around this time I really started turning the corner and growing into my role.
I got into SEO content planning around the time I was in Costa Rica, so roughly late August 2023.
Simply to learn through doing, I made one of my first-ever content plans for Thrizer. I was excited to share it with Raunak.
He continued to trust me and let me run with it. I even stopped checking in with him and just delivered good content on schedule, more evidence of his trust in me.
Looking back now, that content plan was pretty awful. But I was proud of it and it helped me start to get a bird’s eye view of what SEO is all about. For that, I’m grateful.
September and October were transformative in many ways.
For one, I finally had a long-anticipated tribal ceremony in Peru, right on the Amazon River.
It felt like the more I traveled, both inward and outward, the better my writing got. And the more I helped my private practice clients, the better my writing became for Thrizer.
I began writing confidently on topics like how to transition to private pay and the best insurance panels for therapists in 2024.
And the results were starting to come in.
My top pieces were each getting over 100 clicks directly from Google search results. More on this later.
Also transformative was Colombia and the people I met there.
I got to see with my own eyes how they've turned Medellin around from a cartel war zone to a respectable (and extremely fun) city that welcomes tourists.
(I also got my first big scar on my leg when I fell on a piece of twisted railing... But the stitches were only $45!)
Much to my mother’s relief, I survived the 6 months of travel and headed home in November for my sister’s birthday.
In December, Raunak brought on Sanjana as Thrizer's head of growth. I started meeting with her once a week to talk about all things marketing and content.
Working with Sanjana has been great for a few reasons. She brings a lot of depth of experience to Thrizer. It’s always helpful to have her to bounce ideas off of.
She also started our email marketing to promote Thrizer news, articles, and more. Pretty soon she handed me the keys. (If you read our emails, I'm the writer!)
A bit later she got us content partnerships with Ours and Upheal, two awesome companies in mental health. We also have more on the way 👀
Now we’re doubling down on content and growing our impact. I believe we’re the best OON billing company out there, and our content is reflecting that more and more over time.
In January, I redid our entire SEO System from scratch. I even got some extra insights from Connor Gillivan who has grown multiple companies to seven figures with SEO.
I identified new areas for growth, created a list of podcasts for Sanjana or Raunak to appear on, started tracking our metrics more closely, and a few other things.
And it's been nothing short of incredible...
In one four-month period, we've nearly DOUBLED our traffic.
Particularly flattering to my ego, I saw that four of the blogs I wrote are in the top ten most clicked-on pages for us, each getting over 100 unique clicks.
One of our highest-performing pages is our Thrizer vs. Mentaya comparison page that Sanjana put together.
Lastly, Sanjana started appearing on podcasts like The Boost with Steve Turney and others.
Suffice it to say, our marketing has been taking shape!
Also this year, we began our success stories series. So far we have four written and two published.
Writing them has only strengthened my belief in our mission at Thrizer. I knew we did honest, good work… but I didn’t know we helped therapists 10x their accessibility!
Seeing how our platform enables therapists to avoid burnout, offload insurance billing and reimbursement chasing onto us, and even grow their practices and hire therapists... it's been so fulfilling.
Which brings us to today, my one-year anniversary of working with Thrizer :)
We’ve accomplished so much in the last year (and even before I came on). And we still have big things on the way.
Here's just a few that I can share now:
1. We're an official sponsor of the Mental Health Marketing Conference in Tennessee this October! Grab a ticket while you still can and come stop by our table. We’ll have some free stuff for you (that you’ll actually want).
2. We’re working on mini-eBooks, calculators, checklists, and downloadable guides. Find them in our resources section.
3. We're reinvesting in our social media. We have new content coming to Instagram, TikTok, and even X/Twitter. Be sure to follow us!
4. Something that will be the high water mark for my young marketing career. We're working on something BIG in collaboration with Beacon Media + Marketing, to be revealed in October at the Mental Health Marketing Conference. How big is it? Big enough for me to be excited about it at 11:54pm on a Wednesday as I write this. Stay tuned! 👀
In closing, the last year with Thrizer has been nothing short of amazing.
On a personal level, I've grown at least 10x in marketing skill, knowledge, and confidence.
Professionally, the work we're doing to make therapists lives easier is fulfilling, impactful, and sorely needed.
Here's to another year of making therapy more accessible!
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This blog post is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal, business, medical, or insurance advice. Laws relating to health insurance and coverage are complex, and their application can vary widely depending on individual circumstances and state laws. Similarly, decisions regarding mental health care should be made with the guidance of qualified health care providers. We strongly recommend consulting with a qualified attorney or legal advisor, insurance representative, and/or medical professional to discuss your specific situation and how the laws apply to you or your situation.
