#84. Why It May NOT Be a Great Idea to Start a Private Practice

It’s rare that anyone tells us what it really takes to run a private practice. In fact, the whole concept of business ownership may be a bit of a mystery - and that’s a sad fact.

So some really gifted healers avoid opening a practice - starting a business - because the whole idea feels so intimidating to them. And yet, the world needs what they have to offer…

And others dive-in wholeheartedly only to find out that the hours are long, the pay maybe not so great, and the responsibility is way more than they were ready for.

This matters.

Knowing what you’re getting into can help you make a better decision for sure, but it can also help you avoid - or at least understand - some of the challenges that you’re bound to face when you hang out a shingle.

So let’s talk about some of the more common reasons why you might NOT want to start a practice first.

Besides, it's good to know what you’re getting into, right?

Of course it is. 😉

~Wendy 
xoxo

P.S. If you’ve been in practice for a while, what would you say about this to another healer who was thinking of making the leap? Do you agree with what I’ve shared here? What else would you add to it?

_______________
MENTIONED:   

Episode 68: Avoiding Money Talks with Clients is a Mistake. Here’s Why.

_______________
MIND OVER MONEY©   < This is going away! 

Click the link below to learn more about this fun, practical and life-changing program. Although it’s been available as an evergreen option for a while now, I’m taking it down. So, if you’d like to join us, now is the time! 

As soon as you sign up, you’ll be welcomed into this popular course on how to shift your mindset when it comes to wealth and abundance in your private practice. In just 10 minutes a day, for 31 days - your whole outlook can change. (And so can your income!)

And this time, I’ve added a custom designed journal to help you track your growth along the way. Check it out.

TELL ME MORE! >> https://www.wendypittsreeves.com/mind

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

You're listening to Ideal Practice, episode number 84. And today we're going to talk about something that most people never talk about, and that is there are a few reasons why maybe you shouldn't start a private practice. Yeah, let's talk about that, so stay tuned. Hi, I'm Wendy Pitts Reeves and, with over two decades of experience in the private practice world, I've built my six-figure business while learning a lot of lessons the hard way. This is the first podcast that shows you how to apply the principles of energy alignment and strategy to build a practice that is profit-centered, but people forward. This is the Ideal Practice Podcast. Hey guys, this is Wendy Wendy Pitts Reeves, your host here at Ideal Practice. Thank you so much for tuning into another episode and hanging out with me here today.

Speaker 1: 1:13

I have the tail end of a little bit of a cold and a little bit of a frog in my throat. I am hoping I can get through this without having to start and stop too many times. How are you doing? What have you guys been up to? I think I mentioned to you in my last episode that I was on my way to California, and I am now back. As I told you I would be, I went out there to Orange County, california, to attend BBD Live.

Speaker 1: 1:40

It's Business by Design Live, which is a huge, huge event hosted once a year by James Wedmore, who is the coach that I'm working with. I joined his program earlier this year. It's been a hoot. I've already learned a ton, which is such a great thing to say when you've been in business as long as I have. There's always, always, always. There are always new things to learn, and this has been no, no difference as far as that goes. I will tell you it was a bit of an adventure just getting there and getting back. For one thing, it's a big city. There's a lot of traffic, there's a lot of stuff happening there, and this was a really big event. But the most and it was fun it was super high energy, lots of really moving stories that folks shared. It's always so cool to go to something like this because you will meet people that you are meant to meet, which definitely happened for me. I met some of the most lovely people, who I may be talking about as well, along the way, but I also I mean, you also have some funny things happen. So one of the funny things that happened for me that I think was happening to a few other folks.

Speaker 1: 2:54

We got the most incredible swag bag I have ever gotten at a conference. Y'all know what I'm talking about. This is like, you know, like the little birthday goodie bags you get your kids get at a birthday party. You go to a conference and they give you a tote bag with all kinds of stuff in it, all kinds of good stuff.

Speaker 1: 3:10

Well, man, he had some pretty serious sponsors and we got lots of cool things in that little bag, which was awesome, but it was heavy and I'm like why in the world is this so heavy? What in the world is in here? Well, what was in there was a full bag of cachaça. That's a super food, a super blend, kind of I think they call it a whole body meal. It was something that many of you who are healthier than I am and are into this kind of thing will be familiar with. I actually was not. Y'all, that's not who I am, I'm not going to try to pretend that I am, but it was.

Speaker 1: 3:52

I knew enough to know that this was a big deal that we got this. And somebody told me that this big bag of this super food was like something like $75 if you bought it at a store and I'm like, wow, well, that's a really nice gift, even though I don't know what to do with it. Don't laugh at me, that's just the truth of it. But I brought it home because I knew that my wife would want it, because she is into that kind of thing. And, oh my Lord, when I went through airport security with that in my tote bag, my carry on tote bag that sent off all kinds of alarms and I actually had to go through security like a couple of different times. I had to repack my suitcase a couple of different times. They actually had to open that bag and test it to make sure it was what I said it was. And I said I don't really know what you do with it, but I think it's really good for you. Oh my gosh, that was so funny.

Speaker 1: 4:49

And in all the comments in the Facebook group for this event afterwards there were people who were saying I didn't have any trouble. I flew all the way to Germany. Nobody asked me anything, and other people were like, yeah, I had all kinds of problems. So that was really funny and it made me think that when you have a sponsor who is giving you something to give to your guest at an event. If they're flying, think about whether they're going to take that home. That was just really hilarious. I have never had that happen at airport security before. So there were a lot of sweet moments at that event and there were a lot of tearful moments of that event, but that was a funny one. Yeah, that was a funny one.

Speaker 1: 5:28

So anyway, I am back home. I am thrilled to be here. I am not ready for Christmas and for the holidays, but you know I still got time. It's all good, it's fine, it'll be fine, yeah, it'll be fine. Ages yet.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Anyway, let's talk about what we're going to talk about today, because I've been thinking a lot about what it takes to run a successful business, a successful private practice, and not everybody is meant to do this. One thing about this event that I was at there were literally almost a thousand people there, and a lot of them y'all were younger people, like folks that in there I'm 20s, 30s, early 40s who had a level of confidence and courage that I couldn't imagine of having at that point, although I say that I actually started my private practice when I was 32. So maybe I'm not giving myself enough credit here, but they sure seemed braver than I remember feeling back then. I just do a lot of things on blind faith. That's what I do, but anyway it made me think a lot about what it takes to be successful, of course, in any business, but especially those of us who are in private practice, because not y'all. Here's the truth that nobody ever says Not everybody's cut out to do this, it's not for everyone. I often tell my people that you have to be a certain kind of crazy to want to start your own practice. And whenever I give a talk or I'm leading an event myself where I'm in the room with a bunch of entrepreneurs whether they are other social workers like me or they are literally people from all over the world doing all kinds of things I often will say we are our own unique kind of crazy, because you kind of are when you start a business. I mean, don't your family and friends look at you like you're kind of nuts sometime? But why would you want to take on this level of uncertainty and challenge and what sometimes feels like a little bit of chaos? Yeah Well, there's the truth. That is true. It's not for everybody.

Speaker 1: 7:30

I was thinking about back when I ran my group practice. Y'all know I started and built and ran a group practice for 20, 25 years and I had a therapist at one point who joined us for a couple of years who was really, really good at what she did. She was a couples therapist and did great work. She was a lovely human being. She added a lot to our practice. I loved having her there, but she only stayed with us for a couple of years before she left and went back to a job in an outpatient clinic that was attached to the local hospital. And I remember being so surprised by that Like why would you leave? Because we had a pretty sweet setup in my group practice.

Speaker 1: 8:11

A lot of people said who worked at my practice said that it was like having a blend of the best of both worlds. In some ways you had the freedom that you would have in a solo practice with all the benefits that you would have in a group practice. That is very much how my practice was, so it was a good deal and a nice place to be, just to be, and she decided after a couple of years that it wasn't for her and she went back to her J-O-B. Well, did that mean that she wasn't cut out for private practice. Maybe, maybe not, I don't know. We're going to explore that.

Speaker 1: 8:51

I will tell you that I never expected to own a business at all. I had zero aspirations to that as I was going through graduate school or as I was dreaming my big dreams as a young adult. That certainly was not in my plans at all. I started private practice out of desperation and I started it for all the wrong reasons. Like a lot of folks will tell you, if you are starting a business because you want freedom and money, that's actually not the best reason to start a practice, because A lot of times you don't have that in the beginning. If anything, you have just the opposite for a while. I heard once that it takes an average of something like three years before most new businesses turn a profit. Probably took me longer, honestly, if I think about it. So I actually started to practice for the wrong reason.

Speaker 1: 9:38

I was adopting, we were adopting our first born and I wanted to be home with this sweet little boy and I couldn't find a part-time job anywhere in a part-time clinical position. So I started to practice because it was the only way I could think of to earn a living and still be a mom. So does that mean I was making a mistake? Because I knew absolutely nothing about running a business of any kind and I made a lot of mistakes. I had no training, I had no coaching, I had no experience, I had no education in this side of things at all, I had no idea what I was doing and at that point no one in my family had run a business. Now, since then that's changed, but back then I literally knew nobody who was running a business. So does that mean I wasn't cut out for this either, because I sure screwed things up in the beginning? I don't know, maybe.

Speaker 1: 10:32

Well, here's the problem. When we don't have an honest conversation about this, it means that some really gifted healers avoid opening a practice, starting a business, because the whole idea feels so intimidating to them and it feels overwhelming and it's like I don't even know what to do, so I'm just not going to do it. And yet the world needs what they have to offer and I actually feel like four people who are the right person for this. Starting your own practice, your own business, is exactly the way to share your gifts with the world and help the most people in the deepest, most impactful way. But a lot of people don't do it because they're afraid, because it feels so intimidating. Other people do just the opposite. They dive in, like me, wholeheartedly, only to find out that the hours are long, sometimes the pay is not so great. The responsibility is actually pretty huge, especially if you work in mental health or any kind of health related kind of field, and sometimes that responsibility is a lot more than we bargain for Not just clinical responsibility, but financial responsibility. So you know this is a daunting thing, and knowing what you're getting into, I feel like would help people make a better decision. I feel like it would help those who really like I'd love to see them try this. I feel like they'd be more likely to do it if they had a better sense of what was involved and how to make it work. And those who maybe it's not a good fit for them, like my friend and my practice well, maybe they could avoid some of the heartache and disappointment that happens when you don't quite know what you're getting into. So let's talk about some of the more common reasons why you or anybody else might not want to start a private practice.

Speaker 1: 12:29

Now, before I dive into that, because I've got a lot I want to share with you tonight. I do want to share one quick little thing. For those of you who hear this quickly when it goes live, this is a sweet little fast thing I'm doing real quick y'all right here. Before the holidays, some of you know that I have a little 30-day money mindset course. I call it a course. It's really a daily inspiration, a daily drip with a little bit of a lesson, a little bit of a way to think, a little bit of a tip for how to adjust your thinking about money in your practice. I call it mind over money and this has been available for a good long while as it's kind of an evergreen thing that you could take at any time through me. But I'm taking that down. I'm going to take the course down, maybe for good, certainly for a long time, and I want to run it one more time before I take it down for good. And it is. I'm going to start it on December 15th, which will be just a few days after this comes out. It is a powerful, fun, light, easy way to think about money. It's a way to tap into more abundant thinking and to clear the path for a more profitable year as we make the transition to 2024, because it's a little bit strategy, it's a whole lot mindset, and both of those are important. So I just want to say this really quick If you are curious about this, time is of the essence. Go to windypitsreevescom my website, wendypitsreevescom. Forward slash mind M-I-N-D for all the information about it. It's just 97 bucks y'all. The DIY basic foundational piece of this is just $97.

Speaker 1: 14:17

I will say, though, two cool things. One is I have added a journal to this that I did not have before. It's a custom design journal that I created myself that will give you a sweet, lovely way to track your a-has, triggers, awarenesses, lessons, cool things that you figure out along the way and track that as you go. It is a downloadable journal that you can print if you want to, or you can fill it out online, but you get that now with this course. That is brand new. I did not have that before. I also have sort of a special upgrade I want to offer. I'll tell you about that at the end of this episode. I don't want to take too much time here, but stick around to the end, because I do want to share that with you, because, for some of you. I think it's going to be just right. So hang on for that. All right.

Speaker 1: 15:07

Let's get back to why some people should not have a private practice. The first reason I want to tap into is your why. Why do you want to do this at all? So it's one thing to step into the career that you're in, to be in the industry that you're in. You're a yoga teacher, you're an energy healer, reiki practitioner, you're a psychotherapist, you're a chiropractor. There's a reason why you were drawn to that work that beautiful, special, important word that you have spent thousands of dollars and lots of time getting trained in, specialized in, experienced in. It's one thing to be drawn to the work. It's a whole nother thing to be a business owner. One of the big shifts that happens for a lot of the folks that I work with as a coach is they will tell me that they start thinking as a business owner for the first time ever. I'm just a therapist, I'm just a reiki master. No, you're not. Not when you start a practice, you are now a CEO of your own show, and learning how to think like a business owner is an entirely different set of skills. It's totally learnable. Anybody can learn this. I am living proof of that.

Speaker 1: 16:29

But I want to ask you, why do you want to own a business? Why do you want to be in charge of a private practice? Why do you want to not just? Why do you want to be the healer that you already are? Why do you want to own a business? I think it's important to get clear about that and to have a sense about that before you dive in, because this is not for the faint of heart y'all. The second thing I want you to think about one of the mistakes I see is when people start a private practice and they say I just want I just want to help everybody. When you don't know who you serve or why you want to serve them in this way, that's gonna make things harder for you. Now, this is something you can figure out, and, in fact, it is One of the first things I think you need to figure out when you are launching your practice or just trying to take it to the next level. That is, who are your people, who do you want to serve and why and why do you want to do it this way? If you tell me I can help anybody, I'm gonna push back on that? Really anybody Kids and adults, couples and singles, whole families, elderly, caregivers, teenagers, three-year-olds, heavy like big T trauma, little T trauma, physical problems, like really you can serve everybody addiction, serious psychological issues, serious physical issues Just let's just say maybe you can. Even if you can, that doesn't mean that's gonna be a smart move for you as a business owner.

Speaker 1: 18:14

I Encourage you to get a little bit more granular, a little more specific about who you want to serve and why. For example, one of the things when I first went into this line of work is I wanted to work with full families, who especially who had teenagers. That in the beginning was what I wanted to do, because I didn't think anybody was doing that and Not everybody wanted to work with kids at all, but I felt like somebody needed to work with the whole kitten caboodle. So that was a big part of the draw when I first started to practice that in terms of who I wanted to serve. Now that has changed over the years, but that's where I started. Who are your people? If you don't know, or if you think it's everybody, that's a mistake. I encourage you to narrow that down a little bit.

Speaker 1: 19:01

The third third reason why you May not want to start a practice or may not be ready is you don't really know exactly what you want to do with those people. How are you gonna serve them? What kind of service are you going to offer and what's it gonna be structured like? How often will you see them? For how much time? Where will you see them? What are you gonna do when things Difficult situations come up? How are you gonna handle those things? Are you ready for the responsibility that comes when you are the person Responsible for this person's care? That was a huge responsibility.

Speaker 1: 19:48

When I started to practice, I remember, in fact, I had one of my best friends that worked at the psychiatric hospital that I worked at. When we were talking about this in the in the early day, she said that she would never want to be in private practice because she didn't want to have what she felt was that much responsibility for someone else's life. Well, that's a tricky way to think about that, and I don't feel like I am responsible for someone else's life. In fact, I know better. I'm not. In fact, I can't be, even if I wanted to be. I am responsible for showing up for them with my best clinical skills, which means lots of things, right, but how?

Speaker 1: 20:30

How do you want to serve? What's the product that you're gonna sell y'all? Now there's triggering language in it. What's the product? What's the program? What's the service? Is it just standard, one hour a week, sessions forever For anybody who will take it, or is it something a little bit more special or something a little bit more unique, or something a little bit more finely tuned to your particular gifts, the way you like to do things and who you like to serve? Now, it is true, you can start a private practice without having this nailed down in any particular way. You actually can start a practice and just say I offer services in whatever your industry is. You're an energy healer, you offer healing sessions. You're a psychotherapist, you offer counseling sessions. You can do that.

Speaker 1: 21:25

I will say that I think you will be more successful faster If you spend a little time sort of thinking about this in a little bit more narrow way. I will say that. So why do you want to do what you want to do? Why do you want to own a business at all? Who are you going to serve specifically and how specifically and how? Those three areas can make a huge difference in sort of opening the door and getting you started off on the right foot when you begin to talk to people about what you do, knowing this upfront.

Speaker 1: 22:08

This is the easy part, y'all. This is the easy part. This is the Hi. This is who I am and what I do and how I do it. This is who I help and how I help them and why I love this so much. Like this is where you start. Then we get into things that are a little bit tougher.

Speaker 1: 22:24

The fourth area when I see people struggle and this is a biggie, oh my gosh, this is such a biggie Is anything related to the money side of running a practice. This was a huge problem for me and I I just I can't say this often enough and if you follow me, you know I do say it quite a lot because I need to, because y'all need to hear this I took the attitudes that I had when I worked at a residential treatment center, running the family therapy department and working with kids from all over the country. I took the attitude I had there Right with me into running my own business and that attitude was I just want to help people. I don't care about the money, I just want to help people. I don't care about the money. I'll do whatever it takes. I'll be here for them. In whatever way I have to be, I'm gonna make sure that my people get what they need. I don't care about the money.

Speaker 1: 23:29

There are no words to describe how big a mistake that was or how much money I lost, because that's the way I thought. When I lost money in those first few years, I wasn't just hurting myself, I was hurting my family, and what I know now is I was hurting my clients. I didn't see it at the time. I've talked about that elsewhere here on the podcast, but it was just a mistake that just cost everybody. So you may not be meant for private practice if the whole idea of asking people for money and getting paid makes you break out in hives.

Speaker 1: 24:09

Now I say may not be, because I certainly wasn't, but I learned. You can learn. But I want you to know this up front, because nobody tells you this. For you to be successful in private practice, you have to be profitable. You have to learn how to sell your services. You have to learn how to sell the difference that you make for people and you have to learn how to ask for and receive payment. Ask for and receive payment. It's a perfectly good thing to do. It is an equal exchange of energy between you and your clients.

Speaker 1: 24:48

I've talked about that also, as before, but this is one of the things that makes a difference for those who are suited for private practice and those who are not. And if you're a little squirmy thinking about this, that doesn't mean you can't do it y'all. It just means know that this is going to be one of the areas where you've got some work to do, and the cool part is you totally can learn how to do this. It'll be fine. It'll be fine, but it's hard for a lot of us in the beginning because it's not how we are wired. The fifth area where you may have trouble that may may mean you're not quite set up for private practice is in your comfort with and willingness to institute habits, systems, boundaries. This is and let's talk about this for a little bit when you have a job y'all.

Speaker 1: 25:46

When you work for somebody else, think about this. Somebody else sets the structure for you. Somebody else tells you when to show up and when to go home. Somebody else decides when you get paid. Somebody else decides what the fees are for your work. Somebody else decides when you get vacation and how much of it you get. Somebody else decides where you actually see people and under what circumstances. Somebody else decides what you're allowed to do while you're working with them and in what way. Somebody else decides how to market that and promote that and get those clients in the door. Somebody else decides how to cover you legally, financially, insurance wise and all the other things that go into running a business.

Speaker 1: 26:28

But when you own your own practice, when you are the CEO of your own show, you're the one who does all that. You decide when you sit down at your desk, when you go to your office, whether you return that call, whether you run that ad campaign. You decide whether you're going to go to a networking event, whether you're going to write better copy for your website, whether you're going to create the video that you know will help your clients understand you better. You're the one who decides when to raise your rates or what to charge at all, whether to offer packages or discounts or not. You're the one who decides it all. You're the one who decides when to take a vacation or whether you're just going to work yourself straight through all your log. You know how I feel about that. Right yeah, it all comes back to you.

Speaker 1: 27:19

So your ability or, if you don't have this ability, your willingness to learn how to institute habits, systems, boundaries is going to be crucial for not just your success overall, but your sense of safety, of well-being, your sense of balance, your sense of control. It's how you make sure that you run your business and it doesn't run you. This ends up, surprisingly. This ends up being one of the things we talk about a lot in some of my masterminds and some of the things that I offer for my people. It's an area that trips people up. If you're used to other people setting all the rules and determining all the boundaries, you got to do it yourself, and it doesn't mean you can't. If this isn't a strong suit for you, that's okay. But again, this is something you have to learn how to do, because nobody cares If you return those client calls or if you sit down and do your billing or if you keep up with your taxes or if you make sure that your your malpractice insurance is paid on time. Nobody cares about that stuff but you. So you have to. You got to be willing to be the one in charge. You have to be willing to have a certain amount of initiative. You have to be willing to hold yourself responsible, because you will be the next area, which is sort of related, where people have trouble and where I don't know what.

Speaker 1: 28:50

I thought about this before I started to practice. I think it just I didn't think about it all. Honestly. I told you I didn't have any idea what I was doing, so I didn't think about any of this. Of course, I thought all I needed was an office space. As soon as I could find somebody who had rent me their office for a few hours a week, all I had to do is tell a few people I was open for business and it would just happen. I was wrong about that.

Speaker 1: 29:10

But one of the things you have to learn to do and I'm speaking to my introverts out there is you have to learn how to promote your practice. You do have to learn how to market your services and for those of you who instantly cringe at that, let me just say learning how to market just means learning how to serve Really good, healthy marketing that is in alignment with your value system and in alignment with who you are as a practice owner and as a clinician, really good. Marketing is just a rich, healthy way to connect with the people who need you the most and make sure they understand that you can help them and like what's wrong with that? That's a good thing, right, that's a really good thing, but it can kind of freak you out a little bit if you're a little shy, if you are used to being in the background, if you are not someone who wants to be in the spotlight, if you like.

Speaker 1: 30:11

So many of us just want to sit in your, in your office behind a closed door and talk to one person in a time, all day long, and just help people, because y'all, your practice isn't going to work if nobody knows it exists the people who need you the most, your future clients who desperately need the help that you can provide. They're not going to find you if they don't even know you're there, or they don't understand what you do, or they don't know how to hire you, or they don't know what you charge and they don't understand that. There are lots of different ways they can make that work. Like marketing. Promoting your practice is part of running a private practice and you got to find some level of comfort with that, be willing to grow into it. It doesn't have to come natural, it's fine, but it is something you have to do. You've got to be willing to be seen so that your ideal clients who need you, can see you.

Speaker 1: 31:08

Yeah, as I'm talking this through, I'm just thinking about so many people that I've worked with as a practice coach over the last several years where we just have come back to these issues over and over and over again, because they are hard sometimes. Now, it's not for everybody. Some folks just some folks do just fine and just kind of click and figure it out right away and do good with it. But for a lot of this, this kind of goes against the grain, and this is why I want to talk about it, because when you decide to run a business, these are some of the things you got to learn how to do. The last one I want to talk about is the one that I feel like is most important of all of them, and that is running a private practice, running a small business of any kind.

Speaker 1: 31:52

Y'all will show your stuff like nobody's business. It will stir the pot, it will trigger you, it will. You will see your habits. You will see some of the things that you do that are self-sabotage. You will run into yourself over and over and over again. I often say that there's nothing like running a business to show you why you need to be in therapy. Oh Lord, that's so funny, but it is true. It is true, and often some of the coaching work that I do or have done as a, as a coachee you know whether I've been on the receiving end or on the coaching end often feels like therapy, because it is so often that we run into ourselves.

Speaker 1: 32:34

Your mindset, your point of view, your perspective on your work, the stories that you tell yourself, the way you interpret what happens in your practice, is extremely important and will have a huge role to play in your success. And I'm going to tell you, mindset is tricky. Even when, even when I think you know I'm pretty positive, I'm pretty confident, I'm pretty, I feel pretty good about the future, I feel like I'm an abundant thinker. I sort of come from that place I still catch myself in subtle ways screwing that up or using language that does not actually help me, or telling myself a story about something that, when I catch it, I realize is doing nothing but holding me back or helping me to shrink instead of expand. For you to go into a private practice and own a business, you've got to be someone who is willing to do the personal growth work as well, because this isn't going to be all about the numbers and the product and the people you serve. This is also going to be about who you become along the way, who you want to be, who you need to be in order to run the kind of practice that you want to run. That's a big part of it. Y'all is our personal growth not just our growth as business owners and the strategy, but the way we grow in terms of how we think about things and the way we approach problems and the stories that we tell ourselves along the way.

Speaker 1: 34:23

So I was telling you about my my colleague at the beginning who decided that she was not cut out for private practice. The truth is, she did just fine. She had a full practice, she had plenty of clients, she was making good money. It actually was not that she wasn't cut out for it, but it was that when she tried it and gave it a good try for a couple of years, it just wasn't a good fit for her. She actually did not like being the point person. She didn't like having the responsibility for making the whole thing work. She just wanted to show up to her job, see her people and go home. She didn't want to think about how to promote her services, how to package her offers, how to set systems in place that were going to make things work Like she did all that and she did it just fine. She was great actually, but she didn't love it. It just wasn't a good fit for what she wanted her lifestyle to be. She would rather somebody else figure all that stuff out. She just wanted to see her people. So she left us after a few years and went back to her job at the hospital. There was nothing wrong with that. So is this a good fit for you? I don't know, but I have laid out for you here some of the things you'll have to know about and be ready to work with when you start this, if you decide to try it. I hope that it is, but there's those sometimes you don't know until you try.

Speaker 1: 35:53

Now, how about for myself? Does it mean that I wasn't cut out for private practice? Because I mean, literally I lost like $13,000 the first year in unclaimed sessions that I had done. That I never got paid for. And that's the money I could measure. There was a lot more that I never did measure, yeah, so so bad, so bad. But that doesn't actually mean I wasn't meant to own a business, it just meant I wasn't very good at it at first. The truth was, the really big surprise for me that I never saw coming was that I learned quite unexpectedly that I loved being responsible for the whole thing. It was a lot, it was more than I had any idea, but I actually loved it. I loved knowing that when things worked well, that was because I was doing something right, and I actually also loved that when things didn't go well, I knew that it was because I wasn't doing something right. I actually loved the fact that it all came back to me. Now, does that mean I didn't beat myself up? No, of course I beat myself up. Does that mean I didn't have some really you know sleepless nights where I wasn't sure how I was going to pay my taxes? Yeah, that happened. But I learned. I read things, I took classes, I went to conferences and workshops and, as they began to come around, I began to hire coaches and I learned. I learned from the mistakes that I made and I learned from the things that went well and I personally loved all of it.

Speaker 1: 37:35

I loved having the freedom to try things, because it's all R&D, it's all research and development. I love that. If I wanted to try a group for adolescent girls, I could do that, and if it worked, great and if it didn't, okay. I loved that. When I wanted to try an adventure based business for women, I could do that, and if it worked, great and if it didn't, okay. I loved having the freedom to explore different ways of serving, explore different ways of earning an income, explore different ways of showing up for my people. I really loved all of that.

Speaker 1: 38:12

So I just I just didn't know how in the beginning, so I had a lot to learn, but I did learn and so can you. So I just wanted to sort of have this conversation because nobody tells you that running a private practice actually can be quite daunting. Now, if you join a big group practice, that means somebody else is figuring all this out and you still don't have to do it. But when it's your own thing, you got to be clear about why you want to own a business, who you want to serve, how you're going to serve them, how you're going to get paid and be comfortable getting paid. You got to be willing to set up the systems and the boundaries, because if you don't, it will run your life and you still need to have a life. You got to be willing to be seen so that your ideal people can find you, and you have to be willing to grow personally and do the internal work that it takes to do this, to be this person, because that's just what it takes.

Speaker 1: 39:14

So I hope this is stirring some things up for you. I I don't want it to be discouraging. What I want it to be is inspiring. I want you to go oh well, you know what I can do that and I'm a little fuzzy in that, but I can figure that part out and I kind of think I've got that part. Those are what I have just talked to you through are the seven pillars of an ideal practice. This is how the things that I think every practice needs to have your purpose, the people you serve, the product you offer, the payments system, all the things around money, the processes that you have in place, the way you promote your work and the perspective that you bring to it. All. Those are the seven pillars of a healthy private practice. That's what we've talked about.

Speaker 1: 39:57

So we'd love to know what you think about this. Shoot me a DM on Facebook or an email. Tell me what you are learning just from hearing this. I'd love to hear that. And one more time before I promise you that, before I got to the end of this episode, I promised I would share one more thing with you. Remember I said that I am launching for the for the last time, maybe ever, but certainly for a good while.

Speaker 1: 40:24

Mind over money. My 30 day, 30 day course is a little, I say course. It's just a little daily email, a little daily drip to help you learn how to pay attention to and cultivate a more abundant mindset. Everybody who's taken this tells me that they love it, that it. It really gets some thinking about ways that things that they hadn't thought about before, and a lot of times it's fun because people stumble onto magic money honestly in all kinds of ways. You'll hear about that in the course. As I said a minute ago, it's just $97 for the basic DIY. You can totally do it on your own and with that, you get the daily downloads, you get an audio version and a written version so you can take it in and whatever way you want to, and you get the new journal that comes with it as well.

Speaker 1: 41:10

But for some of you, digging into the money mindset stuff can be a little tricky. It can be a trigger-y thing to do, and having a safe space to process those feelings and explore anything else that comes up would be kind of nice, right? Even better this is a thing having a place where you can actually celebrate your money breakthroughs. I think that's even bigger because we can't do that either. That's just as tricky. We're fine at talking about what doesn't work. We have a little more trouble talking about what does.

Speaker 1: 41:45

So for some of you those of you who want this I am also offering a little sweet upgrade. I'm calling it my safe space upgrade. The safe space upgrade means when you sign up for for mind over money, you have the option of upgrading to safe space, which means that I'm going to offer throughout. This is just 30 days, y'all, it's just a month. It's really going to get you from the middle of December to the middle of January. What a great way to ease into the new year with a healthy, abundant mindset. But I'm going to.

Speaker 1: 42:19

I'm going to host three live calls over the course of that month and I've got this, but they're all just for one hour over the lunch hour on Eastern time. I've got the dates for that listed on the registration page. I don't remember what they are right now, but they're in there. Um, if you would like to have an option to to actually talk to me and to be part of a small group of folks who are going through this together and want to kind of talk about what they're getting out of it along the way, I totally invite you to choose that upgrade, that's one 97, uh, which gets you access to me for that, for those three calls. That that's new.

Speaker 1: 42:59

I don't usually do that, but I thought I would offer that this time because I know from the past experience that this stirs things up, because that's kind of how it is. So go check that out. You go to windy pits, reevescom, forward, slash mind and do that before I take it down for good. I the the doors are open for this through Wednesday, december the 13th and uh, we started on December the 15th and this is that's it. This is a quick, easy thing I want to do, so I just wanted to offer that for any of you who would like to cultivate a more abundant mindset as we go into 2024.

Speaker 1: 43:34

All right, I talked a long time today. That was a lot, but I really wanted to kind of lay all that out for you, because not everybody is cut out for private practice, and some of you who think you're not yeah, you are. This just tells you what you got to learn, and it's doable. I'm living proof, and so are all of my clients. So that's what I got for you today. I hope you have a great week, everybody, and I will see you next time, next week, right here on the ideal practice podcast. Bye now.