Welcome back to another episode of Everything Is Teachable. Today, we're chatting with the dynamic therapist duo, Stacey and Rachel of Decoding Couples. In this episode, we get to know their story of how they decided to work together, the transformations they've provided their students all over the world, best practices for growing your social media accounts, and more.Rachel Facio came up with Decoding Couples originally as a YouTube series with the idea that she and other guests would decode the complicated ins and outs of relationships.
Welcome back to another episode of Everything Is Teachable. Today, we're chatting with the dynamic therapist duo, Stacey and Rachel of Decoding Couples. In this episode, we get to know their story of how they decided to work together, the transformations they've provided their students all over the world, best practices for growing your social media accounts, and more.Rachel Facio came up with Decoding Couples originally as a YouTube series with the idea that she and other guests would decode the complicated ins and outs of relationships.
Stacey Sherrell was her first guest and it became obvious, VERY quickly, that it was way more fun discussing these issues together since it is what they had already been doing when the camera wasn’t rolling. Behind the scenes, both Stacey and Rachel were struggling in their personal relationships and couples therapy just wasn’t in the cards. They knew their relationships needed change, but all they could find was fluffy self-help tools that didn’t address issues in a real way.They realized this space needed to exist and they would be the ones to create it with their personal and professional experiences. One day, Stacey walked into Rachel’s office with an Instagram page set up and ready to go, and viola—Decoding Couples was official. In just over a year, Decoding Couples has become known for hilariously informative reels and self-paced courses that are creating REAL, positive change for individuals and couples…without ever needing to leave their couches.For all things creator news, important tips, and more, sign up for Teachable's newsletter here: https://teachable.com/newsletter-signup?utm_source=site&utm_medium=podcast&utm_content=newsletter-signup-podcastWhere to find Stacey and Rachel:
Website: www.decodingcouples.com
Teachable school: decoding-couples.teachable.com
Masterclass: https://www.decodingcouples.com/webinar-registration
Instagram: Instagram: www.instagram.com/decoding_couples
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Unknown Speaker 0:00
Everybody has relationships in some way or another. So being able to target this and giving real tools while also talking about the real issues that happen, people don't always like their partner 24/7 Or have these incredible sex lives and there's a lot of stigma around talking about it. So it felt very empowering to us to have each other to talk to one another about it. So we wanted to bring that to the greater essentially Instagram and teachable universe.
Haleigh Fullilove 0:34
Welcome to everything is teachable. The podcast that takes you behind the scenes to learn how everyday creators have transformed their skills and passions into online courses and businesses.
Unknown Speaker 0:49
Welcome back to another episode of everything is teachable. My name is Hayley and I impeachable senior social media strategist and host of this podcast. I'm super excited for you to listen today's episode, we're going to be sitting down and talking to Stacy and Rachel of the dynamic therapist duo, decoding couples. Now, decoding couples actually started during the pandemic, Rachel came up with decoding couples originally as a YouTube series with the idea that she and other guests would decode the complicated ins and outs of relationships. Stacey ended up being her first guest and it became very obvious very quickly, that it was way more fun discussing these issues together, since it's what they've already been doing when the camera wasn't rolling. Behind the scenes. Both Stacey and Rachel were also struggling in their own personal relationships and couples therapy just wasn't in the cards at the moment. They knew that their relationships need to change, but all they could find was fluffy self help tools that didn't really address their issues in a real way. They realize the space needed to exist and that they would be the ones to create it with their personal and professional experiences. One day Stacey walked into Rachel's office with an Instagram page already set up and ready to go and voila, decoding couples was official. In just over a year decoding couples has become known for their hilariously informative reels and self paced online courses on teachable that are creating real positive change for individuals and couples without ever needing to leave their couches. Let's say hello to Stacey and Rachel. Hello, Stacy and Rachel How are you doing today? We are hanging? I'm uh yeah, I'm trying to hang in there, too. I am recording this episode outside right now. things going on in the house. I needed to get out. So to anyone listening. If you hear anything in the background, don't even don't even worry about it. We're just we're just trucking along over here.
Unknown Speaker 2:51
Yeah, exactly. Real life going on.
Unknown Speaker 2:56
Exactly. We keep it real here. So I'm very, very happy to have both of you on today. I've been really looking forward to this. And just to kind of kick things off, I'd love to, you know, hear from both of you about your backgrounds and kind of what led you both to team up with each other?
Unknown Speaker 3:14
Sure. So we are both licensed marriage and family therapists in Los Angeles, California. We turn our own private practices where we work with individuals and couples I specialize in grief and trauma. Rach is highly trained in EFT, which is a modality for couples. We rent a suite together, we are colleagues, we are friends and decoding couples just felt like our natural birth.
Unknown Speaker 3:45
I love that background so much. And I can clearly tell that you guys just both have a wonderful relationship and it's easy flowing. So I love it. I love it super
Unknown Speaker 3:55
easy. We never have any issues. Never. When you spend this much time together, you're like why not create relationships support an entire Instagram empire? Yes. Why? No, exactly.
Unknown Speaker 4:10
That's actually something I wanted to ask, you know, what inspired you to focus your attention on relationships and kind of like the birth, as you said, of decoding couples.
Unknown Speaker 4:20
We were struggling personally when COVID hit with our own relationships. And we definitely enjoyed connecting on this in between space where we weren't necessarily wanting to go into like a full blown therapy or maybe it wasn't an option for us. But we definitely knew that our relationships needed help. So we kind of connected on that. And then we were like, we're not the only ones like there has to be more people in this spot. And the tools and stuff that were out there. Were just very fluffy, little fluffy, not straight to the point. And I don't know when we're all struggling we don't need that kind of stuff, we need the direct stuff. Exactly, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 5:03
everybody has relationships in some way or another. So being able to target this and giving real tools will also talking about the real issues that happen. People don't always like their partner 24/7, or have these incredible second lives. And there's a lot of stigma around talking about it. So it felt very empowering to us to have each other to talk to one another about it. So we wanted to bring that to the greater essentially Instagram and teachable universe.
Unknown Speaker 5:34
Yeah, and I'm just truly so inspired by like all the online courses in the breadth of topics that you both discuss. And I kind of would love to discuss how fellow creators if they maybe want to, if they're like expertise is in more sensitive subjects, how can they approach this in like a really loving and caring way that still has an impact, and it's still also very authentic.
Unknown Speaker 6:01
We learned pretty quickly that you got to be real, and you got to be real about all of it. You can't just be real about your expertise, or maybe the I don't know, the platform that you're speaking on. Like, for us, it's like relationships and couples, you've got to be real about your own shit. And you have to be real when you don't have the answers or when it doesn't end in like this very fairy tale way, we learn that quickly. And we continue to be humbled by that lesson daily. But I think that is something you need to know when you're working with, like, really sensitive topics.
Unknown Speaker 6:35
Yeah, because if you're not real, if we are not being honest about when we mess up, or what we don't know, that's going to exclude people, or perpetuate some of that shame around sensitive topics, such as intimate relationships. So again, I think that transparency, that vulnerability, that realness is kind of our best bet and going into the sensitive topics.
Unknown Speaker 6:59
I love that so much that is so important. And just kind of for something like this, especially with relationships, the fluff, really, it's not helping anyone at the end of the day, I would assume it's not my area of expertise. But I would assume people just kind of need that straight to the point advice and help. So that's really great. And you both mentioned earlier that you have like your private practice. So with that, I would assume that you had tons of in person sessions before. So I'm really curious to know kind of how the transition from offline sessions to now online courses was like.
Unknown Speaker 7:35
Great question. We are still I think in the throes of navigating that we let's see, our first course launched, it went live in July of last year. So it has been almost a full year. And I think it has been a huge transition and learning curve for us.
Unknown Speaker 7:54
We weren't full course load. When we launched our course we were full case loads of therapists. So we were still doing our normal nine to five while launching this baby. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 8:05
it was a lot. It was a lot it was a while learning how to decrease. Basically, the thing that we had worked our entire careers for right to have these thriving successful private practices to allow space for something online was really difficult. And it was also incredible like to use these parts of our brains that hadn't necessarily been used before. And it felt more creative versus just clinical. And yeah, we got to we have reached so many more people, I think in this last, I can't do the math, but we'll say like nine long time. Yeah, then we probably have or maybe like equal to like the 10 years that each of us has been individually practicing. So it has been a huge change. And we're still navigating the balance of both of them. But it's come with some really beautiful upsides of how we relate to our work. Yeah, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 8:58
we have, like, internationally, people reach out to us from like, across the world, from the UK, from Thailand, from wherever. And they're just like, we saw this post on this. And that made me think of this. And we're just like, what, like, we would have never reached that kind of audience or had that impact in private practice. And it's hard to see as many people as we were individually in private practice, but like Steve said, like our brains were just on fire in a completely different way. It was, it's scary. It still is scary. It was scary. It still is scary, to have something super solid and go, Why don't we just like it's not broken. But let's mess with it anyway, you know, like that phrase, and we reinvented the wheel when it didn't need to be but it worked out really well.
Unknown Speaker 9:41
That is beautiful. So not only are you both helping such a larger scale of people literally all over the world. I would assume too, that this is making your services just so much more accessible to people who may not be able to afford traditional therapy At another time, right?
Unknown Speaker 10:02
Definitely in our courses, you know, we have the second one coming out in May. But both courses are way less than what you would spend on traditional therapy. And then they have lifetime access, as well as access to us on an ongoing basis. And you just don't get that in traditional therapy. And financially, it's out of reach for a lot of people to be in ongoing therapy that's effective. And so we hope that while our stuff is not a substitute for therapy, it's like a bridge.
Unknown Speaker 10:31
Yeah. And what are some of the transformations that you've seen from people that have taken your courses, because obviously, working on relationships is not an easy thing. And I'm sure that people feel really accomplished and excited after they finish your course and try to put those tips to use in their everyday life and their relationships. So I'm curious to hear what some of your past students or current students have been saying about your courses.
Unknown Speaker 10:59
I think this is both of our favorite parts of doing this work is whatever opening up Instagram for the day and getting a DM from somebody saying, we just started your course and things already feel different. It's so cool. I've been using you know, whatever, then that person is from like, Mississippi don't lie Haley
Unknown Speaker 11:21
Pisces, that's gonna happen.
Unknown Speaker 11:24
Yeah, I think I think some of the common things that we hear that make us feel really, really freaking good about the work we're doing is people saying, like, I didn't even know that this is what was going on. And now we know that this is like what the issue was the whole time. We've been fighting about this for years. And we learn to this thing, and we're able to talk in this way. And like it's already it's already gone, or it's already feeling better. And that immediate transformation that we were able to give them something they had never heard before is amazing. We really focus on kind of unstacking couples and moving forward with communication, sex and intimacy, really understanding why they get stuck. So we've had a lot of feedback around like communication has improved or I'm not taking x y&z So personal anymore. me feel so much lighter. Yes. I think the other good one is, we've heard a handful of people say, because we took your course my partner has finally agreed to go to couples therapy. Oh, it's my I love like it's made it more accessible. And so it's like, unlocked their next like journey of healing. And really, it just really cool. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 12:35
I think the hope and the willingness is when, like Stacey mentioned, people, really, they're not either taking it personally anymore, or they understand it's not their partner against them. Or they feel like oh, I keep picking the you know, wrong people because we have a quite a few single people that aren't in relationships that take our courses. And people are like, Oh, I just thought something was so broken about me or I thought I would just always pick these kind of your course made me realize why I do what I do. And then I'm not like a bad person I'm just making these choices are based on how I grew up. And those just like you've changed the way I'm dating, it's like, wow, okay, like maybe we do do this again. Maybe we do do a course too. Those are the those DMS are why we're doing horse two, honestly.
Unknown Speaker 13:20
Yeah, that is such a, like a beautiful way to get your feedback and just seeing directly the impact that you're both making on people in real time. So, so excited for you both. That's awesome. And kind of just, you know, you mentioned Instagram earlier about how people DM you and your Instagram page has nearly 100,000 followers, which is amazing. So I would love to dive into social media aspect of kind of how you market your services and your courses. How did you end up building like your online community and kind of growing your audience especially on social media?
Unknown Speaker 13:58
Great question. It was very technical. We had started with these little quick YouTube videos just talking about a certain concepts and I said, Hey, we are how are we going to promote these? Okay, I just made us an Instagram literally two days after Rachel said I think I'm gonna get off of Instagram.
Unknown Speaker 14:16
Social media right here. Yeah, here on it. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 14:21
We just created a kind of out of the blue and the same I think mentality that we bring into our courses of trying to be educational, but also keeping it personal. And keeping it real is how we have always shown off on Instagram and things kind of just took off from the beginning. We
Unknown Speaker 14:41
were the reels. You forced us into the reels took me an hour to do my first reel. So if anyone's watching, and you don't know how to do reels or data, it's because it's hard in the beginning. The learning curve is harsh and if you scroll into our early feed and see our early reels, that's painful. In false,
Unknown Speaker 15:00
love to see the growth, though, and it's also, yes, yes, it's important to note, and it's important for people to know that it really takes a lot of time, it will, it can take some time and effort to like, create those videos and to put that effort into like creating something valuable for your audience. So that definitely doesn't go unnoticed.
Unknown Speaker 15:21
Thank you. Yeah, it's a lot of work. We were lucky that we created our Instagram, right, actually, when reels were even became a thing for Instagram. So we I think we got like, a little boosted, if you will, by adding their new feature, that's something that we've definitely had to learn is like, you use the features that the platform puts out for you. And you show up consistently, and you show up with quality content.
Unknown Speaker 15:46
And that I mean, that's what how you get a community. And then we converted a workshop that we were doing live into the format that teachable has an online course because we were like, how can we make this more accessible, and also do it more passively. And that's really where like, we had that online workshop going. And then teachables platform, just kind of, so we already had that idea. But we were doing it live. And it was just we were like, there's got to be a better way we can reach more people, it can be more passive, and we don't have to, like manage it as much. And so that's kind of how we piloted that idea. We just started sharing it on Instagram.
Unknown Speaker 16:22
Yeah. And then yeah, and it grew. So it was validated. We were like, Yeah, this is a great idea. We can do more with it.
Unknown Speaker 16:29
Yeah, our audience validated a lot. And that gave us the push to be, you know, we constantly were like, would you take this would you take would you do this? What if it was in this form? And they were like, yes, yes, yes. And that's what made us make the jump?
Unknown Speaker 16:39
Absolutely. I feel like that's one of the most important parts before you even get started is to make sure that your audience actually wants it, or you will be disappointed.
Unknown Speaker 16:48
So yeah, we still learn that, yeah, I'll speak for myself, it is humbling when you are excited about an idea. And you're like, This is it, this is the shit, this is going to be amazing. You throw it out there on Instagram, to your 40 followers, your 500 followers, and it's crickets. And you're sitting there going, Oh, it's because you know, they just don't get it. Or it's because it's like, No, get out of your own way. Like, it's because it's not what your audience wants. Because if Instagram has taught us anything, they will verbalize when they like something, you will get engagement, you will get feedback. And when you don't, it hurts my soul a little bit. But I'm like, This is great if people
Unknown Speaker 17:30
are like, No, it's not.
Unknown Speaker 17:34
Like don't do it. No. I mean, that's not to say that there needs may not change, and maybe what they don't need right now is what they'll need later. So sure, it's always still a good idea. I actually when you were mentioning earlier about like the live format, and you're like, Okay, this is that we can find a way to make this like more passive. What is your curriculum currently set up in your online courses? Like, how is it formatted?
Unknown Speaker 18:01
Sure. So we have, it's just all accessible at once. Like there's not a drip or a release on the content. So whenever somebody and I think this is what you're asking, but it when somebody buys it, they have access to the whole thing. And then it's self paced. And like Rachel had said before, it is lifetime lifetime access. So once people start it, they go at their own pace, they can ask us questions like in the little community, you know, forums on there that we have, but they really kind of do their own thing for what works with their schedule and their relationship.
Unknown Speaker 18:35
Yeah, I think that's important. When you're talking about a sensitive topic, you've really got to understand where your audience is at and what impacts them by not doing like the work or whatever your workshop, or your course is going to offer. So just because you want to do six, I don't know live course things on Sundays, at two. But if for us, like people are in relationships, people are doing things. They're not going to come sit down and these like live things. So again, that was something that was like, really humbling, but a learning curve. It's why we do it the way we do the lifetime access the self pace, because we get it's already hard enough to want to work on yourself. Don't put more like blocks in your audience. Yeah, right.
Unknown Speaker 19:15
Right. Yeah, I was going to make that point that it's it's really nice to give that give people that flexibility to do it on their own time, because I'm sure that, you know, a lot of that curriculum is kind of hitting a little deep, and they maybe need some time to process so yeah, I really appreciate that. Yeah, little prod. Little frickley Some Yeah, yeah. So what is next for decoding couples and how do you both plan on you know, scaling your business?
Unknown Speaker 19:46
Great question. So we've had course number one going which we have we went more from actively kind of selling it to now we're currently like passively selling it of being an evergreen In a type marketing funnel, in this step a lingo, so the correct lingo. So we are still kind of tweaking that and having the first course, hopefully just kind of monetize more through that way. And then we are actively working on our second course, which we already have like a nice little lead magnet going on all funnel people towards that and validating our idea for previous part of this conversation. So our second course is targeting kind of a different part of our audience, which is, you are in a relationship and you are looking into the next big step, whether that is marriage, whether that is moving in together, having kids deciding not to have kids being for each other, joining finances, like whatever feels like the next big step for your relationship. This course is like a premarital pre next big step course on steroids. So it's having haul of the hard but important conversations in 10 core areas to make sure that you and your partner are on the same page. And if you are not, how do you identify this and work through it? Or actually doing the next thing and then saying, Oh, shit, why did we talk about this before we just did the thing to tie ourselves together for an exorbitant amount of time?
Unknown Speaker 21:21
I mean, we're really trying to take that like, mystification out of are they the one? Should we move in together? Should we get married? It shouldn't be that, like, Disneyland Magic Cloud, like, what's behind? What am I trying to say? Like behind the door kind of thing? Like it should be? No, you know, yeah, that's so much pressure, you don't know. Right? Here's some stuff to talk about. So you do know, I think it's gonna be great. I also think we're going to upset a lot of people.
Unknown Speaker 21:52
I feel like that's how you know you're doing something right. And for my personal perspective, I really appreciate that you both take the black and whiteness out of relationships, like everyone is so dynamic and unique, and everyone has their own needs. So yes, I appreciate you both taking that approach. So what is one piece of advice that you've both received from a peer or a mentor, when you first started, that really made an impact on you?
Unknown Speaker 22:20
I think one of the biggest things that still to this day we talk about a lot is understanding that when you are creating that you are going to leave some people out. And that's okay. That you cannot make every single person happy. You have to pick your unicorn and you have to pick your ideal, ideal population, ideal client, ideal community and really speak to them. So you are naturally going to be unappealing to certain people. And that is okay. For me. That was like a huge thing to wrap my head around, because I have people pleasing tendencies, and it does not feel good to like know that. Hey, if we say this, like, handful people are gonna be like that. This isn't for me. Yep. You're like you want it. You want it? All right. Like you want everybody to feel intimidated by you don't help us, as many people truly in that way if you are being surface and yada, yada. So for me, that was something that stood out and still does.
Unknown Speaker 23:23
Yes, we still struggle with it. What stands out for me is what rebel nutrition talks about, we've learned a lot from her and about putting yourself out there, I think is something that in our role, especially with a sensitive topic, you are kind of told, actually, you're not told there's not a lot of information about how to be an expert in something but then where to put yourself out there. And she has really pushed like, put yourself out there connect to this topic like yes, professionally you have, you know, this, like clout, so to speak, or this expertise, but we're all human beings and people want to know that you've been there too. And that's leaning into that although very hard and a big shift for like our relationships and our families has been something that I think our community is why they are so like diehard is because we are Real you see a lot of our dirty laundry you see literally and figuratively. But that kind of being that real and putting yourself into a course has really just like not only taken us far, but I feel like it makes it really enjoyable for us. Like we don't feel like we're putting on this different persona, the way we talk to us the way we're on Instagram the way we are with our clients. It all aligns.
Unknown Speaker 24:34
I love that that's so valuable. And then true Florida fashion. It's raining very hard. So hopefully
Unknown Speaker 24:39
we had a plane we had a plane go by. So
Unknown Speaker 24:44
thank you both so much for sharing that. Where can people connect with you or learn more about your services and
Unknown Speaker 24:50
your courses? Instagram is our biggest platform we are showing up there daily, every day every week. So if you want to See if maybe we are a good fit for you or you like what we talk about following us on Instagram would probably be the first place to start. Our courses are all on teachable. So that is the platform that we use for the bigger stuff. And then of course, our website has some good freebies, we have a free monthly newsletter that goes out. So our website decoding couples.com would be the place to start for that kind of stuff.
Unknown Speaker 25:26
Amazing. And before we end this episode, do you both have any last words of wisdom or inspiration for our listeners?
Unknown Speaker 25:36
Do it like if you're thinking of doing an online course do it, I think we were so nervous that we didn't have something to offer. And in this process, we've met so many other online creators, and it's really opened up like a complete new world for us. So if you're on the fence or you're nervous about it, do it like it's so worth it. It's a pretty cool journey and it expands your ability to like, create and just you know, I don't know how another layer in your profession, like go for it. It's absolutely worth it.
Unknown Speaker 26:08
What she said Ditto.
Unknown Speaker 26:10
I love it. I love it. Thank you both so much for joining me today. I really appreciate your time and I will talk to you about soon.
Unknown Speaker 26:19
Thank you so much. Thank
Haleigh Fullilove 26:20
you.
Unknown Speaker 26:24
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