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Devonee:
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Welcome back to Savvy Booked and blessed here with us today in this episode is Melissa DeSilva. Melissa is a successful physical N F T artist, entrepreneur, therapist, and coach who motivates other LGBTQ plus individuals and artists to make their life and career to the next level. She's the author of The Profitable Practice Helping Healing Professionals Build and Grow a successful. Melissa is also the creator and host of the SU successful lgbtq plus podcast, pride, connections, and Chit Chat with the queer and Creative. She has been featured as a guest on several international podcasts and blogs. You can also find her on the weekly YouTube show, the next chapter, where she and her co-host discuss all topics related to being single and getting older in our world today. Melissa has been a licensed social worker for 15 years and started her Rhode Island based mental health agency in 2015 where members of the LGBTQ plus community can find safe and specialized therapeutic services. Currently, Melissa lives and runs her mental health agency from Puerto Rico, while also creating art and physical NFTs that positively impact the world. You can find her N F T work at online N f T Gallery. Queer nft.io. Hi Melissa. Hi. Wow, that was a mouthful. That's ok. It's ok. It's good to talk about all the things that you are up to, which is fabulous. Thank you. I love talking about everything that I'm up to cause I'm always up to a million things, it seems yeah. I have tons of questions, but the first question I have is, what the heck are NFTs? I know a little bit about them, but tell us a little bit more about what they. So NFTs are pretty much digital tokens, but what I am doing is I am creating digital art out of my tangible art. So pieces that I have painted and created, I take them, I make them digital. and I sell them online. And then when people buy the digital piece, they also get the real piece so they can hang it up in the wall on their wall because that's what makes sense to me. But the great thing about NFTs is when artists sell their art, and it gets sold again and again. Artists continue to make royalties on it. And so that's really what is exciting for the art world, is that we can continue to make income on pieces that we've made and sold. And a lot of artists are now taking profits from their sales and donating them to causes that really means something to them. And so really, NFTs are opening a whole bunch of new doors for artists. And the c. So explain again, just how they're sold. Like the new owner can sell it again and make profit off of it. Not the new gave you profit from it, is that right? Yeah. Yeah, because it's sold on the blockchain. It's a public ledger and so you can see who is purchasing it, who owned it at one time. At what at one point. How much it was sold for, and because it's on the public ledger, the royalties are in the contract to go to the original creator, so that's why it works out really well for artists.
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Yeah. How'd you get into it? I got into it because I moved down to Puerto Rico almost two years ago, and Puerto Rico is a huge place for crypto people to come. And they started talking about these NFTs, and I heard the word art and I was like, Ooh, I think I need to pay attention to this. And then I was thinking like, how can I figure out how to incorporate my. Into this new platform. And so just studying and networking and talking to the right people, I figured out how I can combine the two. Yeah. Interesting. And so with your, how does that play a little bit more into your like your coaching practice or your therapeutic work that you do as. As you could tell from my bio, I really have this passion for the LGBTQ plus community. Yeah. And so everything that I've started and my company, anything that I've volunteered for, has really had this thread of working with the lgbtq plus community. And so with my, our pieces that I sell, portion of the proceeds go to lgbtq plus communities nonprofits in Puerto Rico. And where it that common thread throughout my life continues to run. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. So what had you start your practice really, was it back in, in 2015? is that right? Yes. So I was actually a school social worker. That's what I wanted to be when I grow up. I had this amazing school social worker and made a big difference in my life and I was like, I wanna be Tracy when I grow up And so I went to school, I did my internship under Tracy. I. Graduated and I got this job as a school social worker in a performing art school, which was amazing cause I love singing and dancing with everybody. And then after about six years I was like, I don't think I really like this. Which was a shock, right? Yeah. Cause you like worked so hard all your life to be what you wanna be when you grow up and then to realize nah, I, my passion for this is like shorter than the student loans. I'm still repaying During that time, I had a student that was transitioning from female to male, and we were trying to find support community for that client and that student, and we really couldn't find any at the time. And so when I decided that I wanted to go out and start my own private practice, that's where I really wanted to focus my attention on was helping the transgender community. But we also wanted to make sure that our agency. Open to the LGBTQ plus community. So it was a safe place for all individuals under that, an umbrella. And so that's where it started with the mental health agency and right now I have 22 clinicians working under me. And even if you don't identify as LGBTQ or queer just knowing that there are therapists there that are open-minded people are attracted to coming to the agency. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. So just even growing your agency and bringing people underneath you as a business owner, like how did that transition come to be? I actually found that I really love the business side of things. Yeah. I like the movement and the shaken of figuring out how to solve this problem and that problem, and then realizing. You can make money as a business owner. So in school they teach you like you're not gonna make any money as a therapist. But I refuse to believe that. And so I figured out, okay, so if I do it this way and create this type of system, I can actually make money where I can survive and live on an island that I've always wanted to live on. Yeah. And. Realizing like first I didn't wanna be a school social worker. That was difficult for me to come to grips with, but then to realize like I prefer the business side more than the therapy side, that was a little bit jarring for me too, and just being brave enough to be willing to. Pivot in my life and my career and then realizing like I don't wanna live in the northeast forever and to move to the island sure is a big pivot I had to take. But yeah, I really enjoyed the business side of things and finding mentors that could teach me how to do it. All the stuff they didn't teach you in grad school, and that's why I created the book. And and I continue to coach people on how they can build profitable practices on their own as well. Very cool. Yeah. Tell us a little bit more about, about your book. So the book came out of everything that I did wrong. Teaching people how to do it a different way Sure. So I always I feel like I failed forward. It was just just keep picking yourself up and keep moving. And I wanted to create a resource for other therapists where they wouldn't have to keep failing forward. They could read this book, they can get these kits before having to have that experience themselves. Yeah. And so now you can purchase that book in Kindle or paperback on Amazon, and I get people probably like once every other month saying thank you for, supplying this information for us. It's very helpful. Yeah. What's a chapter, if you don't mind sharing a little bit more, like what's a nugget from. Book or something that you went through that you were like, if I would've known I would've done it differently. Oh, if I would've known how difficult insurance companies are to deal with as a provider. Insurance companies. Yeah. Dealing with insurance companies, it is like a nightmare. Just as a provider. It's a system that is really. For everybody involved in it. They don't wanna pay providers. They wanna take the money from clients. And and the prices that they charge and they treat therapists different than doctors. Like sometimes when you go to the doctor's office and say, the is $200 and insurance covers 160, you get a bill for the $40, right? they don't do that for the. it's we will pay you $40 and that's all you get. You can't charge the client the extra. It's just against the agreement. We're not supposed to talk to other therapists about what they get paid because not everybody gets paid the same. Insurance companies will say no. There's too many therapists in the area that take our insurance, so we are not gonna panel. Which isn't
true because we have people calling up saying I can't find a therapist that takes this insurance. So the person, the insurance companies will always win in the end. That's something that I learned. Did not know how insurance work. Most people don't know how insurance companies work. I would say that would be the thing that. probably go back and reevaluate. Interesting. Wow. That's bananas. Also, sometimes it's hard to work in a system that you know is flawed and have no, no power. Sometimes No power. Yeah, no power. Sometimes they will just deny claims just because there's no reason. Yeah. They're just. Now we're not gonna pay this, right? And so I had to hire somebody full-time to pretty much chase down insurance claims because I think they think if they keep denying, forget it about eventually. and we won't have to worry about getting that money. So it's constant, this constant having to keep updated records and I know that clients get frustrated with it and it's we're just as frustrated too because they're not working with us either. Or clients get upset because, we don't take that insurance. It could be the insurance doesn't wanna panel us for whatever reason, or the insurance companies don't pay Sure. Or don't pay well at all. Insurance. And we had to figure out how we're gonna live and how I can pay my staff. So it's a awful system. And that's why you'll find a lot of providers not taking insurance anymore. Yeah. My, my therapist doesn't take insurance, but it's also, yeah. It's super interesting to hear the backend because it totally makes sense. It's like either, Charge what you need to survive or Uhhuh deal with the insurance companies where the, they should be paying out more the same amount, roughly. Yeah. What you would take out of pocket. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And they don't, and and you can't really fight that because it's like this huge monster of a system that they're not gonna win against. Yeah. So what is something that you teach? Besides calling out. The hot mess express of what that is. what do you share in your book to combat that? Or is it more of just like a warning? I give a warning. I'm like, here's the warning. Yeah. These are the pros and cons. Yes, your caseload will fill up really fast, but. You might not get paid for all those cases, or you'll have to chase down that money, or you can do out-of-pocket, but then that limits the number of clients that are gonna be reaching out to you. Sure. The population that might be able to afford you so there's differences, the pros and cons in both of those. And then there's like the in between. So some people will say I'll take state insurance, but I only have this many. And otherwise, this is available for out-of-pocket. Yeah. So some people figure out, what works for them. Sure. How have you seen, the therapy. Space, change in the last five, 10 years. Even. Even it being more accessible online or more opportunities for y for the therapist and the patient or client, whatever be the best phrase for that. What is something that you've seen happen in the last five years that has been in 2015, I wanted. Business to be all online. I was like, I'm not getting an office space. That's just ridiculous. I can do it online. But at that time, insurance companies were like, no, we will not reimburse for online sessions. Oh, we don't think it's ethical. It's, it's not the right way to do treatment. And lo and behold, here comes covid and now it's good to go. And this is after I've rented 13 office spaces. Yeah. To get therapists their room. And now I haven't seen some of my therapists for over two years because, they're just working from home. So that's really shifted this whole like virtual online mental health type of therapy. Is something, even in grad school I was talking about it. I'm like, why are we not offering this online and Right. One of the biggest ethical gurus out there. He will scare you, tell you're gonna go to jail every time you take one of his courses. And he was like, no, nope, not You. It's not the same. You can't really get that energy, you know the feedback. and now it's completely different. Whole businesses that created international, online, yeah. Providing mental health. Yeah. Yeah. I can't tell you like how, even just with my therapist going from in-person to, we actually went online, I think even before. Or it was an option a little bit before Covid and now she Same is just yeah, no, like I mostly just do online now because it's just even more cost effective. It's easier. I think it also just helps people. She love her, but she's about 45 minutes for me. So it's like our hour appointment plus 45 minutes before an app. Yes. Come home. And so this and gasoline prices too, right? Yeah. And if you're hesitant to find a therapist for all of the reasons that we have to want to do therapy, even just the inconvenience of it becomes, becomes one, and so having it all online, that's so interesting that, it was more of a, it's not ethical to do it online. Was more the thought there. Yeah. Yeah. Huh? Yep. It's so interesting how the thought has changed and now I'm like, oh, I have all those office spaces until May of 2023. So what happens May 23 I'm spending almost a hundred thousand a year and just rent alone. Getting spaces. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. I think that's something that's huge. That's just happening in general. Everyone went. even before I started my business. Around that time, it was interesting to see of we were already at like half and half online and in person, but it was interesting to see all of a sudden it was, no, no working from home. And then it was like, oh, okay now all of a sudden Yep. Yes. Interesting to see that shift. For sure. In general. Yeah, which makes sense. But I'm enjoying it. The online world has allowed me to do so much more in my career and it in my move to Puerto Rico. Yeah. Yeah. What was that? Tell us a little bit more about that move. Was that something you've been thinking about
doing for a long time? Was it things happened and then it was like, all right, let's do it. What was the process for. I had always wanted to move out of the northeast because I don't like cold weather. Sure. I just never have. I feel like I'm trapped. My fingers hurt nine months out of the year. Yeah. And so I told my ex-husband, my husband at the time I don't wanna live here forever I wanted to explore. We watch International House hunters and I get these big ideas in my head. and I was like thinking about Costa Rica or Honduras. And I kept on putting it out there. I mentioned Puerto Rico. We came down here, stayed a little bit, but even though he knew this was a dream of mine, I think he was thinking more of like when we retire and I. I'm not gonna wait another 20 something years to retire and then move down. But then covid hit and like a lot of people, things changed. You come to realize a lot of things and we decided that we were just going to consciously uncouple. I decided that I did not want to be married anymore. It ran its course. We were together for 14 years. Yeah, we still care about each other. We were not meant to be together forever. Sure. We just don't have much in common anymore. And so that was the opportunity I took. I said now that we're not together, I'm gonna move to Puerto Rico. Yeah. And so I was like, I'll go check it out for five weeks. And I came down for five weeks and then I signed a six month lease. And from there I was like I'll just continue to stay here. Yeah. And moving your business out there was that. A headache or was it not bad? I have a really great staff and I even brought my staff down here at one time too, and I was like, this is what I'm manifesting. Just so you know, yeah, we had an office space that was like my Puerto Rico manifestation dream And so when I said Hey, I'm going to Puerto Rico, there was no surprise. Sure. And and then my assistant ended up moving to North Carolina. So we still have one person still in Rhode Island. But yeah, they weren't surprised. We've been able to adjust to this online world and it's been working out really well. Yeah, amazing. And it's so great when you are able to just like manifest, decide and then take the action and just see like that whole circle come to be, and you're like, I did. Exactly. Somebody wanna too easy or anything, but I did that and yeah, to live. And it's interesting because like I was walking, I recently moved to the city. I was in a different location for the first part. and I'm walking around the city yesterday and I'm like, I was here with my ex-husband like five years ago. Yeah. And to realize like I would be here five years later as my home, it's just really interesting to reflect back on the journey that has come over the past few years. Amazing. I love to hear it. Melissa, if anyone wants to find you or find any more information, where can they find. you can find me@melissadisilva.com. Awesome. Perfect. And is there anything else that you would like to plug? Anything else that we can find or purchase? Any NFTs? I know we have queer nft io. Yes, and you can find all my R on melissa disilva.com and we'll bring you right over there. Perfect. Thank you so much. It was so great having you on the show. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for everyone listening. We'll see you on the next one.