I want to answer for you the number one question that I get from therapists, coaches, healers, and other wellness practitioners, which is:
HOW
CAN I CREATE A THRIVING BUSINESS HELPING PEOPLE?
Check out my answer in the video below:
In the video, I share three big problems that most practitioners have when they try to create a practice or business and three essentials to doing it right. Because frankly, based on what I see, so many helping professionals go into business in a way that is not going to be sustainable for them. Because it’s one thing to be a great practitioner, to be great at what you do, but it’s another thing to be a great business owner.
When I started making the changes I share in this video, things massively changed for me. Within a short time, I tripled my income and transformed my practice from struggling to thriving and I'm sharing with you three key essentials that you need in order to increase your income and create a thriving practice you love.
One of The most common mistakes I see therapists, coaches, and healers make in trying to create a profitable business is focusing solely on the outer work of building a business–things like developing their craft and learning to be a great practitioner as well as things like marketing, SEO, creating an online presence, and even networking without simultaneously focusing on the inner work of building a business.
Now, those outer work things are important and we absolutely need them. Of course we want to be a great practitioner. But I’ve seen time and time again wonderful people and excellent practitioners start a business with an inner state that will never allow them to be successful financially.
I’ve also seen time and time again people take marketing and business building workshops and programs that give them wonderful and helpful strategies to implement, but they never fully take advantage of what they learn because of the inner resistance that these strategies trigger.
For example, if you’re taking a course on how to grow your business using Facebook but internally you hate the visibility required on Facebook. Maybe you have inner parts of you that say, “It’s not safe to be seen. It’s dangerous for me to be seen.” Can you see how if that’s the case it’s going to be hard to implement what they’re teaching you in that course on being more visible?
Let’s face it, creating a business is so vulnerable and marketing our business can be very triggering. We can have world class business building and success strategies, but what I’ve seen over and over again is that until you work with the inner blocks and programming and even trauma surrounding money, worth, deserving, and allowing yourself to be seen, the outer strategies will never work as well they could.
Instead, when it comes to marketing and business building, people will procrastinate, get stuck in overwhelm, will spin in their heads, or find other ways to sabotage themselves. This keeps them struggling to get enough clients or struggling to create the practice and income they want and feeling terrified about their future. I’ve seen this so many times—in clients, in colleagues and friends, and in myself.
The truth is, creating a business can be really stressful. When you own your own business, not being able to pay your bills, depleting your savings, or accumulating debt are real possibilities that happen to a lot of people. And that takes a huge emotional toll. Struggling in business is exhausting and can feel scary, embarrassing, shameful. I’ve had so many clients who were devastated by the thought of giving up their dream and going back to a “real job.”
One of my clients, Gina, came to me after being in private practice about a year. She said if things didn’t start improving for her within a few months, she was going to apply for salaried jobs. She had children to support and she could not afford to continue her practice because it was not bringing in significant income. Even though she knew many concrete steps she could take to get more clients, she had strong internal blocks about “putting herself out there.” Once she was able to bring healing to these parts of her and the wounds she had around “being seen,” she was so much more easily able to take bold, strategic actions. Within three months, she went from having a few client sessions a week to a full practice.
Now, you may be saying, “It can’t be that easy” or “That would never work for me.” And that’s okay. But I want you to think of it this way. Gina tripled her income in 3 months, but she was starting with a small income. What if you increased your income by 10% or 20%--maybe adding $400-$2000 extra a month or $5K-$20K/year. Would that be worth it? Do you think you have an inner block that might be blocking you from adding just 10% to your income? Maybe its’s an inner block that keeps you from raising your rates by just 10%. Or an inner block that’s keeping you from being more confident when talking to potential referral sources. What do you think that’s costing you? When we have the intention of leaving no stone unturned in the process of clearing out inner limiting beliefs, 5 and 10% changes add up quickly. And wouldn’t it be awesome to add those percentages to your income?
Maybe your problem isn’t putting yourself out there. Maybe it’s talking about money. Maybe it’s doubting yourself. Maybe it’s past experiences holding you back. Maybe it’s perfectionism. Money issues have all sorts of tendrils and tentacles. But again, if shifting just one small aspect could give you a change in your income, would that be worth it?
Now, let’s talk about three things you need to do to create the income you want and a business you love. First, you need to be willing to look honestly at your relationship with money and success, which, frankly, can be triggering and challenging. It takes courage. Our relationship with money and success is often much deeper and more complex than we think. It has to do with safety, security, how we grew up, things that happened to us in the past, self-worth, confidence, personal power, deserving issues, and much more. But if we’re not willing to look at it, it will never change.
But just looking at and bringing consciousness and awareness to your relationship with money isn’t enough. This is where so many programs fall short. The second thing you need to do is the real inner work to heal and shift your relationship with money and success. And I’m not talking about just a mindset shift. And this is one of the things about my approach that is unique—I have almost twenty years of experience using body-centered, mindfulness based approaches that truly transform you in a deep and embodied way. So that when you shift your relationship with money and success, your way of being in the world is truly different.
Imagine what life would be like for you if you could stand up in front of hundeds of people and embody an energy that said, “I’m amazing at what I do, and I deserve to be paid well for it,” and you felt really solid in that. How would life be different for you? How would your business be different? Your bank account be different?
Third, in addition to the inner work, you DO also need to do the outer work. You need to develop a strategic action plan that will help grow your business and put that plan in action. Once you know how to work with your inner resistance and limiting beliefs, doing the outer work that once felt so overwhelming and impossible will feel much more effortless. There will be so much less self-sabotage, procrastination, and overwhelm, and that feels so amazing.
Here’s the thing, if you’re not doing as well as you’d like financially, or if you don’t have enough clients, or enough ideal clients, if you find yourself feeling stuck or overwhelmed, constantly procrastinating, or just unsure of what steps to take, chances are you that you have inner blocks holding you back, which means you’re not making the money that you could be making and you’re losing the opportunity to serve people who need you.
Or maybe you’re just stuck in a rut, plateaued or feel like you’ve hit a glass ceiling in your income. Maybe you want more and think more might be possible but you’re not sure how to get there. This can also be an indication that your inner blocks are holding you back.
One of the coolest things I’ve seen in doing this work with people is how much more confident they feel in the process. Yes, we are working on money issues. But inherent in working with money issues is working on self-worth and self-doubt. When we can go in to work on money issues and have a literal financial payoff for that, it’s awesome. Of course, people want that, and I want that for you. But working on money issues also leads to a HUGE payoff in more confidence, owning our own awesomeness more, and feeling calmer and safer in the world. And that gets me even more excited than the financial payoff, because those things change how you experience the world and how your life looks in so many ways.
Maybe you’re thinking, “Oh, but you know what, I’m just getting started or just thinking about getting started. This is not something I need to do yet.” Let me tell you, when you’re getting started is a time when you most need this. Get started off on the right foot, so you don’t have to struggle for months or even years on a circuitous path. One of the biggest mistakes I made in my own practice was not investing in success coaching sooner.
Or maybe you’re thinking, I’ll go it my own and work on my own blocks. I know how to do that, after all, I’m a therapist or coach. I know about this stuff. Well, I know some incredible self-healing modalities, and I can speak from experience, that that isn’t as effective as we think it is going to be. I found a coach I really wanted to work with, but her coaching program was $35,000, and I couldn’t afford it. I told myself I’d take what I’d gotten from her for free and implement what I’d learned and start saving money for the program for the next year. Well, do you know where I was a year later? Pretty much in the exact same place. We just can’t see our own blindspots and we will get there so much faster with support from people whose job it is to help us succeed. Now I did choose to work with her that next year (not the $35K version, but still VERY much out of my financial comfort zone), and that program dramatically changed my life and my finances.
I believe that when people like you are more successful in business, the world's just a better place. The world needs your big heart and big gifts and YOU deserve to be paid well for your gifts. That's why I'm on a mission to help heart-centered practitioners get out of their own way and grow their businesses.
If you're ready to move forward and make more money in a practice or business you love, I invite you to schedule a complimentary Practice Accelerator Session where we’ll explore the biggest obstacles getting in your way and the number one thing you can do to move forward now. I'm committed that you get value out of the complimentary session I’m offering you, and if we're a fit, then we'll talk about how we might work together.
