In October 2018 I launched my first group coaching program. The group that came together was a fun-loving, passionately dedicated, extremely supportive crew. Together we dove into refreshing websites, rewriting copy, getting out into the world, and generally going all-in on our private practices.
To our collective delight, everyone’s schedules were completely full by the end of the program. I am talking, no more spots for private clients, starting a waitlist, FULL.
Imagine that, will you? We started as a group of people who had private practices and amazing therapeutic skills, along with a lot of confusion (and, if we’re honest, some fear) about how to get clients.
The next round of this program (the Thrive Mastermind) starts up in 2 weeks and to prepare I’ve been watching recorded calls from way back when, looking for clues about how and why the program worked so well. While I was watching, one of the mastermind members spoke directly to the mystery of it all:
“You know, it’s strange. I’ve been trying to figure out what we’ve been doing that has been so effective. I mean, my website is a lot better and I’ve got all these ideas, and I’m enjoying the business side of having a practice for the first time EVER… but it’s not like people are mobbing my website and I’m not running around all over town networking with lead magnets… the only thing I can come up with is confidence… and clarity… and the fact that I’m actually doing something to promote my practice for once. Do you think that’s all it is?”
Is my client right? Is it ONLY confidence, clarity and action? And, maybe most pressingly, is the word “ONLY” even appropriate in that sentence?
Number 1: Confidence
The therapists and coaches that I work with often begin our work together feeling this way:
“I’m a great therapist and I love my work, but all this marketing stuff makes me want to go back to bed. I don’t want to write copy, I don’t want to fiddle with technology, and I have no business experience. I didn’t sign up for ANY of this, and I really don’t feel up to it.”
This is why I focus on helping therapists and coaches to the exclusion of all the other business owners I meet: Because I can RELATE.
When I began my own practice, I was like a fish flopping around on the beach, feeling overwhelmed, covered in disgusting sand, and totally out of breath.
I was an entrepreneur by accident: People were asking me to coach them after my speaking engagements and because I had been coaching through my job for years, I said yes. As time went on and I realized how much I enjoyed it, I realized there was potential for something bigger… if I could just figure out how to do it.
I started by following everyone else down the rabbit hole of online marketing. Suddenly, I was knee-deep in newsletters and avatar worksheets and Facebook ads. I was spending ALL of the (very little) money I made trying to make these things work. I bought course upon course upon course (to date, I’ve completed 8 full-length courses about topics ranging from webinars to copywriting and money mindset) and though I found it all very interesting, I didn’t see much change in the amount of money I made. I started to worry that there just wasn’t a place for me in the world of “business.”
Despair loomed and lots of ice cream was eaten.
THEN, I hired a coach of my own (Cue the angels singing the hallelujah chorus). It was like getting a decoder ring: suddenly everything I had learned in all of those courses and blogs and webinars and books fell into working order.
A WHOLE LOT OF IT fell by the wayside, and the rest of it started to work! For real!
I went from 12k to 90k that year in my one-day-a-week business. All because I knew what to do when. When this became clear, my confidence soared.
I truly believe that this is the real reason I’ve had a full practice ever since: If I want to get another client I know I can. In fact, I have 100% confidence that I can fill my practice from nothing to full through 3 months of concerted effort. I know this because I’ve done it. And it involves no coercion or pressure or other practices that feel out of integrity with who I am. And I don’t have to work with people I don’t feel passionately on board with. That’s the kind of confidence that is created in the Build Your Practice Accelerator; It’s the kind of confidence I want YOU to feel about your practice.
Wondering if the accelerator might be for you? Let’s talk!
Number 2: Clarity
Have you ever experienced one of those ah-ha moments that Oprah talks about? Here’s how it feels to me: Before the ah-ha moment I’m running in circles, throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping for a clue about what the heck I’m doing. I’m expending a TON of energy, but it’s going out in every direction. Sometimes it lands and I end up with a great opportunity or a new client, but most of the time it just dissipates, leaving me pretty exhausted.
Then, the AH-HA happens and everything changes!
Suddenly I know what I’m doing, I know what success looks like, I know who to ask for help, and I know how to leverage my time. I’m suddenly expending less energy, and things are falling into place all around me. Ahhhhhh- haaaa! (Sing this with the “ahh” about 1/3 of a chord below the “haa” and a smile on your face!)
That’s what happens when you finally give in to your niche. I know it’s scary, I know you’re afraid, and I know you DON’T WANT it to be true, but it is. When you know who you love to serve and you go all-in on their success, things are easier. Things fall into place, people want to help you, people want to refer to you, and your business takes off. It’s NOT NOTHING. In fact, finding your niche (aka, your clarity) is the foundation of all that confidence we were talking about a minute ago. Plus, everything is SO MUCH more fun. And come on, why have a business if it’s not fun?
For some of you, it will only be a matter of giving in to what you already know, and the work will be about tweaking, articulating and cutting away the noise. For others, you will go on a date with a few niches, try them out and see how they feel. And then you’ll wake up one day fully committed! It will happen for you in the Build Your Practice Accelerator, I can promise you that.
Here’s a video I made about how to articulate your niche. Take a look!
Now that you’ve watched it, let’s talk about getting you into the Accelerator. I don’t want you exhausting yourself without that clarity anymore.
Number 3: Action
I’m 100% sure that you are already singing in the “taking action” choir. We all are! “You have to take action! Experiment! Be willing to fail!” you say, every single day. You know as well as I know that nothing changes if nothing changes. And yet, despite our impassioned pleas to our own clients, urging them to dive in and get their hands dirty, we aren’t bringing the same energy to our own businesses. Why?
First, I think that many, many (many, many) of us are here almost by accident. We set out to use our skills to help people and woke up one day in business. This usually means that there are a ton of beliefs lying dormant in our brains that kick in whenever we get an idea like “I’m going to write my About page now” or “I think I’ll reach out to the psychiatrist that shares my office suite” or “maybe it’s time to find a full-time office.” This is why I bundle my mindset course into the Accelerator for free and encourage everyone to watch the videos and do the exercises right away. Sometimes we just need some help to believe that success in business is not only possible but probable!
The second reason is that people actually, truly, just don’t know what to do! And the thought of wasting time is excruciating, given how exhausted we already are (see number 2). This is SUCH a reasonable excuse.
Here’s the equally reasonable solution: Join the Accelerator!
It’s your chance to:
- Be surrounded by people who are going to cheer you on and celebrate your successes thereby somewhat forcing you to succeed.
- Get that clarity and get your time back so that you CAN do some new things that could pay off big time for you.
- Learn from your coaches who have done it themselves and who want nothing more than to save you the time and agony they experienced doing it via trial and error.
Ready to talk about it? Schedule a time here.
So, going back to what my client said: Do I think it’s just confidence, clarity and action that created the incredible results we saw?
I do!
I know that the tactics and templates and models that I share matter and that’s why I make sure they are battle-tested and will work for you. But the foundation of success is about you: how are you showing up in your business? Do you believe you can do this? Are you laser-focused? And are you in motion?
If yes, you will succeed. If not, it’s going to be hard.
Let’s do it together! Schedule a time to talk below:
