Treat Your Business

118 Why taking a look in the mirror could be the single most important thing you do in your business today.

• Katie Bell • Season 1 • Episode 118

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Welcome back to the Treat Your Business podcast! This episode is a no-nonsense, straight-talking reality check about something absolutely crucial to your success as a clinic owner: personal responsibility.

This isn’t about blame or shame. This is about leadership. Because, let’s be honest, every problem in your business is a leadership problem. If you don’t accept that, you’ll stay stuck in the same frustrating cycles, wondering why things aren’t working – while ignoring the one person who has the power to change it.

If you’re ready for some uncomfortable truths (and a whole lot of growth), let’s dive in.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

✅ Why success in business starts with owning your results – the good, the bad, and the ugly
✅ The Emotional Cycle of Change and how it impacts your growth as a clinic owner
✅ Why so many business owners get stuck in the Valley of Despair – and how to pull yourself out
✅ The secret to what truly makes successful people different (hint: it’s not what they have – it’s what they don’t have)
✅ Why making decisions based on data (not drama) is crucial for business growth
✅ How surrounding yourself with the right people can make or break your success

Katie’s Key Takeaways:

💡 If you want your business to change, you have to change. The person you are today won’t get you to the next level.
💡 Stop waiting for someone else to swoop in and fix your problems – take control.
💡 The most successful clinic owners aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets or best locations – they’re the ones who take extreme ownership of everything in their business.
💡 If you’re constantly blaming external factors (your team, the economy, lack of time), it’s time to shift your focus to what’s within your control.

Join the Conversation:

Did this episode hit home for you? Send me a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn and let me know your biggest takeaway. And if you know another clinic owner who needs to hear this, share it with them!

🔥 Ready to take action? The moment you take full responsibility for your results is the moment everything changes. Let’s make it happen.

🎧 Thanks for tuni

Treat Your Business podcast is proudly sponsored by MBST, the groundbreaking technology revolutionising recovery and rehabilitation. Offering a non-invasive, drug-free solution for musculoskeletal conditions and nerve injuries, MBST works at a cellular level to stimulate regeneration. Expand your services and deliver long-term patient improvements without increasing your workload.

Learn more at mbstmedical.co.uk. 

[00:00:00] Katie Bell: Welcome back to the Treat Your Business podcast. I'm your host Katie Bell and today we're going to have a straight talking, no nonsense conversation about something that is absolutely crucial to your success as a clinic owner. And that is accepting personal responsibility. Now, I want to be super clear before we get into this, that this isn't about blame, this isn't about shame, this isn't about making us feel bad, but this is about leadership, because here's the truth.

[00:00:31] Katie Bell: Every problem in your business is a leadership problem. And until you accept that, you're going to stay stuck in the same cycle. You're going to feel frustrated that things aren't working while refusing to look at the person who actually has the power to change it, which 

[00:00:50] Katie Bell: is you. If you're ready for this slightly uncomfortable episode, let's dive in.

[00:00:56] Speaker: Welcome to the Treat Your Business podcast with Katie [00:01:00] Bell. I am Katie, and this is the place to learn the strategies, tactics, tools, and mindset needed to build your clinic or studio into a business that gives you the time, money, energy, and fulfillment you want and deserve. My team and I work every day with overwhelmed and exhausted clinic owners like you to shift them from a business that is a huge time and energy drain and is not giving them the income they want to confident clinic owners that are making money, saving money, and getting time back in their lives.

[00:01:27] Speaker: So if this sounds like something you want, let's dive in. 

[00:01:32] Katie Bell: So why does personal responsibility matter? 

[00:01:35] Katie Bell: One of the things that we see time and time again in Thrive is clinic owners who come in full of enthusiasm slash also shitting it slightly because they have taken that step to transform their business, they have decided that they need help, they have recognized that they can't just stay stuck doing the same things over and over again.

[00:01:59] Katie Bell: And then [00:02:00] when things get hard, when they have to face uncomfortable truths about their numbers, about their leadership, about their systems, some of them want to throw the towel in. Some of them do throw the towel in and we've had a few clinic owners recently Who have asked to leave our program early.

[00:02:20] Katie Bell: And do you know why that is? And it's not because the strategy that we teach doesn't work. It's not because they aren't super capable. It's because they're refusing to accept responsibility. They are hoping someone else will swoop in and ultimately fix their problems for them. And that's just not how it works.

[00:02:43] Katie Bell: Success in business, just like success in life, requires you to own your results. Like the good, the bad, and the really fricking ugly ones as well. And so I chose to put this episode together because. [00:03:00] It makes me sad when people struggle to accept responsibility and they are constantly looking for all of the reasons why it's not working for them and ultimately it's because they are not showing up or because they are not allowing themselves to be challenged.

[00:03:19] Katie Bell: They don't like being uncomfortable when they are challenged. on things that they don't really know because how are we meant to know this stuff? We need to get taught how to run our businesses and none of us get taught any of this on our courses. So when I want to talk about the life cycle of the entrepreneur because what often happens and I teach this in sales as well, this is called the emotional cycle of change.

[00:03:47] Katie Bell: When you first dive to becoming a business owner. You are filled with uninformed optimism. So you are at that stage of like maybe starting your business, [00:04:00] or you've got this idea, or you've seen somebody else making money, you've seen your friend down the road that they're doing as well, or you've met some other clinic owners, or you've gone to uni with people who've become, a physio and they've run their own clinic, whatever it is, and On the surface, to the public eye, it appears successful.

[00:04:21] Katie Bell: And so we then think, oh, maybe I can do that. Now, this this stage when you're in uninformed optimism can be very short and it can be quite a long period of time. And I was there as well, when I thought, I was working for somebody else, how can it be that hard? He's making it successful, he's going on lots of great holidays like he seems to have got this stuff nailed, and I didn't think he was particularly amazing as a leader or as a boss.

[00:04:49] Katie Bell: Do I definitely know how to do this? And then, what happens is you go into informed pessimism. And that's when you realize that you don't actually [00:05:00] know anything about running a business. You think you know, but you don't actually know. And so you know what you know, which is a whole lot of nothing.

[00:05:07] Katie Bell: You know what you don't know, which is a whole lot of stuff that you're like, Wow, I do not know about my numbers, metrics, KPIs, leadership, strategy, processes, systems, profit first method, accounting I don't know all of this stuff. But then there's this massive segment of the pie, which is all the stuff you don't know, you don't even know.

[00:05:30] Katie Bell: Now, when you're in this informed pessimism stage, it's okay, now shit's become real. There is a ho I'm feeling overwhelmed, I'm possibly on a hamster wheel, I'm trying to do a lot of stuff, and I'm like reading this book and listening to this podcast and I'm going on this course and I'm doing another CPD, all in the hope that something will work and we will get out the other side.

[00:05:55] Katie Bell: to this place of informed optimism [00:06:00] and success and fulfillment, whatever that looks like to you. What often happens is we drop into something called the Valley of Despair, which is where people just circle round in this same place of doing and they don't actually look at who they are being. So they get to this place in the Valley of Despair where They are the same person.

[00:06:25] Katie Bell: They are acting in the same way as the person that they needed to act like when they were like just starting their business or just getting into the kind of the throes of running a clinic or a business. But they've not actually done any self development. They haven't actually stretched their belief systems.

[00:06:46] Katie Bell: They haven't actually worked on self. So we have this same being trying to do. Different things to get them to where they want to be. And that just doesn't work. So what [00:07:00]then usually happens, the majority of entrepreneurs. is that they go, Oh, actually maybe there's another idea, or maybe I'll do something different.

[00:07:08] Katie Bell: And they swoop back round to uninformed optimism. And we just go round in this cycle for years, for months, for however long it takes. Most entrepreneurs don't pull themselves up and out from the other side of the valley of despair into informed optimism and into success and fulfillment. So 

[00:07:33] Katie Bell: I, I wanted to record this because people look at successful people and they go, what is it that they have that I don't have?

[00:07:47] Katie Bell: What is it that they've got? What, how do they do it? What are they doing differently? And I think successful people. 

[00:07:59] Katie Bell: It's not [00:08:00] about what they have, it's about what they don't have, and successful people don't have a part of them that is willing to just throw in the towel, is to just not succeed. They like, just go for it.

[00:08:15] Katie Bell: They drill themselves until they have achieved whatever it is that they have set out to achieve. Think about the British cycling team. I always think are super inspirational. Any athlete is super inspirational, but what they have is no different to what you have. It's just what they don't have is that 

[00:08:32] Katie Bell: part of them that is willing to just give up.

[00:08:36] Katie Bell: And so when I have people 

[00:08:38] Katie Bell: wanting to break their contract with us because we work with people over a minimum of 12 months. Because if you want something to really change in your life, you need to commit, you need to give it the time. And we also know, because I've worked with many of you before, that we are wonderful at procrastinating, we are wonderful at people [00:09:00] pleasing, and therefore we have bag of shit boundaries, which means we are often really busy but we're not actually making a whole lot of progress.

[00:09:08] Katie Bell: Does this sound familiar? It used to do for me as well. Because you're so busy. Implementing and taking action is challenging. We get that. So we've got to create the space, we've got to create the time, we've got to create the belief system in you that recognizes and realizes that you are worth more than 50 pounds to rub somebody's backside or rub their shoulder or whatever it is that you do.

[00:09:36] Katie Bell: I know we do far more than that, but you get my point. We have to take you on this journey of accepting responsibility. Recognising who you are right now is not going to be the person to get you where you want to go.

[00:09:55] Katie Bell: Somebody said recently to us, I've done all these numbers, I did them two years ago. And [00:10:00] we were like, amazing, so why has nothing changed? And it's because they are refusing to accept personal responsibility. They're hoping that they could just pay a consultant. We are not a consultancy business. If you want to work with a consultant, go and knock yourself out.

[00:10:15] Katie Bell: But what happens when that consultant doesn't work for you anymore? You still have no fucking clue how to run your business. Excuse my French. I get very passionate about this. You've got to take responsibility on how your business runs and what your business needs from its leader. And leadership is not a term for somebody who has got a team.

[00:10:39] Katie Bell: You, you are a leader whether you are just leading yourself, your family, or a 

[00:10:44] Katie Bell: huge team. We've got to own our own results. So 

[00:10:50] Katie Bell: I want you to take a moment and ask yourself, does any of this sound familiar? My team just literally don't listen to me. I feel like I have to [00:11:00] say things over and over again. It's a leadership problem.

[00:11:04] Katie Bell: We don't have enough patients coming in. It's a marketing problem, by the way, which is your problem to fix. I don't have time to work on the business. This is a time management problem, a self worth problem, which again, comes down to you. I get it. It's not easy, is it, to look in the mirror and say, I am the reason this isn't working.

[00:11:26] Katie Bell: What's even harder? Staying stuck in the same place year after year. Never getting the results that you want and that you deserve and that you are capable of. Because you refuse to take control of what's in your power to change.

[00:11:42] Katie Bell: Now, you all have values, or you should have values, in your business and in your life. And that is how you show up. It's how you behave. And we have them in Thrive. And one of our values in Thrive is to be responsible. So that means that you [00:12:00] own your own shit, basically. Said in a different way. And at Thrive we work with clinic owners who are ready to step up even though they're overwhelmed, they're panicking, they're concerned, but they're like, if I don't do this I'm just going to stay stuck in a cycle and I'm going to stay stuck in that valley of despair.

[00:12:20] Katie Bell: And I want you to know that the right people, when you surround yourself with the right people, they are there to support you, they're there to challenge you, and they're there to give you the 

[00:12:31] Katie Bell: tools and strategies to succeed. But here is what we do not do. We do not hold space for excuses. Because 

[00:12:42] Katie Bell: Let me tell you this, the most successful clinic owners we have aren't the ones with the best location, they aren't the ones with the biggest budget, they aren't the ones with the fanciest branding, they're the ones who take extreme ownership of everything in their business.

[00:12:57] Katie Bell: They don't blame the economy, they don't blame Trump, [00:13:00] or Musk, or all the other fucking people that people tell me it's all their fault. They don't blame their team, they don't play on their circumstances, they take action. They adapt. They make decisions based on data, 

[00:13:13] Katie Bell: not drama. So that's who we want in Thrive.

[00:13:20] Katie Bell: So if you're looking for someone to pat you on the back and tell you that all the problems that you've got are out of your control, you are definitely in the wrong place. Or you're looking for, in my opinion, for the wrong thing. If you're looking for someone to just swoop in and solve all these problems, then prepare to pay them a shit ton of money and I hope they really work for you.

[00:13:43] Katie Bell: But that for me is again, not accepting personal responsibility of owning a 

[00:13:48] Katie Bell: business and therefore knowing a business.

[00:13:52] Katie Bell: So if this is hitting home for you, I told you this episode was going to be 

[00:13:55] Katie Bell: uncomfortable, and you're ready to do the work, like it's [00:14:00] okay. I always think like I'm in a situation at the moment where there is some big things happening and I don't know I've never walked that path before. I don't know how to get there.

[00:14:14] Katie Bell: If I knew how to get there I would have already done it. But I have to accept responsibility to find out, to learn, to get a support network around me of people that have been there already and done it and can teach me how to get there.

[00:14:31] Katie Bell: So if this does hit home for you, you're ready to do the work even though you feel like you've got no time, that is something that you need help with. Here's what I want you to start doing. I want you to stop blaming. I want you to start solving. So next time you catch yourself saying, God, it's so hard, isn't it, to find good staff?

[00:14:53] Katie Bell: Reframe it to say, what am I doing to 

[00:14:56] Katie Bell: attract, retain and lead a great [00:15:00] team?

[00:15:00] Katie Bell: I want you to make decisions based on data and not your feelings. 

[00:15:04] Katie Bell: Numbers do not lie. And if your revenue is down, look at where the gaps are instead of just saying, Oh my god, it's a quiet month, it's seasonal, it's February, nobody's coming. 

[00:15:15] Katie Bell: Recognize that growth is gonna be uncomfortable. If you're, if you are a person 

[00:15:21] Katie Bell: that loves comfort, then you need to be accepting that where you are right now is where you're gonna stay.

[00:15:30] Katie Bell: And that is cool. I'm cool with that. For me, I'm I am not living my, what we call, my, our level 10 life in every area yet. So I've got to recognize that there's going to be some uncomfortable decisions I need to make. I'm going to have to feel uncomfortable

[00:15:47] Katie Bell: because you've got to feel challenged.

[00:15:49] Katie Bell: That's a good thing. If you're stepping out your comfort zone, that's where the magic happens. Surround yourself with people who [00:16:00] hold you accountable 

[00:16:01] Katie Bell: because this is exactly why Thrive exists because we don't let you sit in excuses. We like wrap you up in like the most wonderful and cuddly blanket. But then we also are going to pull it back and say, okay, we're going to push you to be better because 

[00:16:21] Katie Bell: we have sat in that comfortable, lovely blanket for far too long.

[00:16:26] Katie Bell: There is a great quote in a book called Extreme Ownership, and it's, 

[00:16:33] Katie Bell: By somebody called Jocko Willink, I think. And he says, leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame. 

[00:16:44] Katie Bell: And what we mean there is if your business isn't performing in the way that you want it to do, the first place to look is in the mirror.

[00:16:52] Katie Bell: And one of my other favorite books is Atomic Poets. I'm reading it again for the billionth time. I've even got one of these [00:17:00] clip on Lights, because I usually read on my Kindle, and I have various wake periods in the night, which I just grab my Kindle and read, and I've got the the paperback version, because there's some books, isn't there, I tend to read personal development books in paper form.

[00:17:17] Katie Bell: And I tend to read fiction, crime, girl drama, books on my Kindle. So in the middle of the night, sometimes if I want to read Atomic Habits I've got one of these, David Beckham has it. And I thought if it's good enough for David Beckham, it's good enough for me. It's like a clip on light, turn it on.

[00:17:34] Katie Bell: Oh my God, I can read in the night. Anyway why am I telling you this? Because he talks about the difference between motion and action. And he says motion is like planning and thinking and waiting, but then action. is the doing. And the clinic owners that we see succeed in Thrive are the ones who take action, they don't just talk about it.

[00:17:58] Katie Bell: That's the [00:18:00] difference. So you are, you alone are responsible 

[00:18:05] Katie Bell: for what you don't do, or how you respond to what's done to you. And owning that mindset will transform your business. I'm going to say that again. You alone are responsible for what you do, 

[00:18:17] Katie Bell: what you don't do, or how you respond to what's done to you.

[00:18:22] Katie Bell: Now I know this episode 

[00:18:23] Katie Bell: might have felt a little bit uncomfortable and I am really happy about that because that means that some of you, not all of you, but some of you are going to take some form of action as a result of this and that's a really good thing because if you want to build a thriving, profitable, sustainable business, this is the work you've got to do

[00:18:48] Katie Bell: because you're the leader of your business in your life. You get to decide and the moment that you fully embrace that is the moment everything starts to change. [00:19:00] Now, I really hope you found this episode helpful and guess what? I am going to say that I would really love to hear from you. What is super helpful when you're churning episodes out week in week out and we have done a hundred and something like 120.

[00:19:17] Katie Bell: 117 episodes I think now. Week on week, we have never missed a week. But what's really helpful when we're churning these episodes out is that I know that the content is what you guys really need and what you really want. So I'd love to hear from you. Drop me a message on Instagram, on LinkedIn pop a comment in the video on YouTube.

[00:19:41] Katie Bell: Share this with another clinic owner who maybe needs to hear it. And if you're ready to step up and take your business to the next level, then we are here for you. thanks for tuning in and I really look forward to serving you and helping you on next week's [00:20:00] episode. 

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