Rebel Therapist

At first this will seem like a story about my online yoga instructor. But it’s really a story about making your business more sustainable by stopping unnecessary and exhausting emotional labor. First of all, I know what you’re thinking. It’s so unexpected to hear about a 52-year-old white woman doing yoga. Kidding. This past fall I was getting back into yoga after several years away. I started with a 30-days-of-yoga video series by an instructor. I sensed that I’d like her in real life. She had spunk, made kind of inapropriate jokes, wore fun rocker outfits, and had good banter. She even had a sweet dog who joined her on the mat. It took me about 3 months to get through all 30 videos. When I was done with those, I wanted to do more of her videos. I searched her name on YouTube again, and a different instructor came up. I started trying one of this new person’s videos. It was OK, but this person wasn’t telling jokes. Her voice was lower. There was more silence. I was kinda pissed. I called my partner over and said: “Isn’t this illegal? She’s got the same name, she even has a dog who looks like the other instructor’s dog. Can she DO this? It’s like identity theft.” And Ames said: “That’s her. That’s the same person.” “NO it can’t be” I said. I looked back and discovered the 30 days of videos I had watched were from 9 years ago. This new video was her now. I’m used to all of us aging. This is not ONLY about aging. Something else really big had shifted. I was bummed at first. Where are the inapropriate jokes? Where’s the banter? where’s the rocker vibe? And then I followed the new video and realized her teaching had gotten even better. She was suggesting small adjustments that were gentler on my body. I was relieved that no one had stollen the instructor’s identity. And of course this was the same sweet dog 9 years later. As I like to do, I made up a whole story about this instructor. This is ONLY my conjecture, based on my own projections. I decided that between those videos 9 years ago and now, this instructor decided to stop doing the emotional labor of trying to be liked. When she started her youtube channel, she truly enjoyed making those videos. For the first 10 or 20 or even 50 videos, she enjoyed being silly, providing banter, and dressing with a rocker vibe. She felt satisfied expressing real parts of her personality on her channel. She got feedback from her fans that they loved it, so she gave even more of the same. The pressure to get more subscribers and to make a living as an entrepreneur led her to keep performing these parts of her personality. And then little by little, she stopped having fun with it. It started feeling like emotional labor. For a while, she kept performing this way. The videos were popular, and she wasn’t exactly being inauthentic. It was just a little tiring, but work is supposed to be tiring, she told herself. It’s better than working in a mine. But working in this way was feeling less and less sustainable until she began to DREAD making those videos. She decided she either needed to consider letting the whole channel go, or to start doing the videos in a more easeful way. She decided to just teach the yoga. She decided to focus on delivering great yoga instruction, but to let the rest of the effort go. She decided to just stop performing, and wear what felt appealing and comfortable to her NOW. She decided to let people be disappointed by her more boring clothing and lack of jokes. She started with “Let’s start in a seated position.” rather than “OK it’s day seven. Let’s go to heaven!” with a wink. Her voice came out a little lower because that’s how her body was naturally changing AND because she was relaxing into her easiest way of speaking. She decided that this was the only sustainable and joyful way for her to continue. I’m an entrepreneur too, and I can relate to this story. And yes, I haven’t forgotten that I made this story up. I’ve been through a...

Join me for a Free Open Coaching Call on Thursday, May 9th at 11 am PT. A recording will be available if you sign up. Grab your seat at https://rebeltherapist.me/question. Do you identify with the word neurodivergent? Or not? Either way, stay with us. In today’s episode we’re talking about getting curious about yourself, the way your particular brain works, and what that means about what kind of business will really work for you. You’ll hear my guest and I both talk about some big changes we’ve each made to our work lives in order to honor our operating manuals. I loved hearing how Jennifer gave herself permission to close her therapy practice and create a new business as a consultant instead. And if you’re wondering how to use LinkedIn effectively, you want to hear Jennifer break it down. Meet Jennifer Alumbaugh, MS. They are here to help change the cultural narrative for late identified Autistic and ADHD founders, executives, and professionals. She built Expansive Expressions in order to create and deliver neurodivergent business & marketing training, support systems, and business strategies so that neurodivergent entrepreneurs can build profitable and sustainable businesses. Here's some of what we talked about: Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/224

Today I’m talking about the most effective way to fill a signature program beyond private practice: Creating and nurturing Ideal Referral Partnerships. If I were to coach my clients to do only ONE kind of marketing, this would be it. Another word for this is networking. You’re probably already doing this, but you might not be doing it very strategically. When I meet someone who says they don’t do any marketing, but they’ve got customers or clients, I know they HAVE been marketing. They just didn’t see their behavior as marketing. I often find out that the marketing they’ve been doing has been networking. If you have relationships with people who refer to you, even if you don’t do any of it on purpose, you’ve been marketing. Maybe you’ve been networking with colleagues you met at trainings, at agencies you worked at, or from working with the same client at some point. You hit it off with these folks. Some of these people have referred clients to you or introduced you to other people who referred clients to you. If you're an extrovert, you might have experienced a TON of this with very little conscious effort. It’s time to get strategic because your time is limited. Michelle Warner teaches a course called Networking That Pays. She points out that we can each only maintain a finite number of meaningful relationships (between 100 to 250, according to British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, author of How Many Friends Does One Person Need). We need to be strategic about WHO we spend our limited networking time and energy with. You’ll also need to be more strategic when you’re selling a signature program because you’ll probably be serving MORE new people each year than you do in your private practice. If you do long term work, you may only need 10 new clients a year to keep your practice full, or even less in some cases. To keep a signature program full, on the other hand, you might need 30 or 100 or more new participants each year. The math is a bit different, so the networking will be a bit more strategic. I just peeked at my own statistics. This year, over half of my participants have come through my referral partners, NOT by stumbling upon my podcast or finding me through IG or google or paid ads. But let’s look for a moment at the OTHER kinds of marketing activities I do and you might do too: Sending out a weekly or biweekly email. Creating a podcast episode. Delivering a free live event. Updating my website. Creating a new lead magnet. Setting up an ad funnel. Posting on social. Some of these things do help people find me, and I love that I can do these things in relative isolation. AND… It’s a really bad idea to leave relationships out of our marketing practices. Networking will help to amplify the effectiveness of those other activities. Dialing down your time spent on solo digital marketing activities and dialing UP your time and energy spent with ideal referral partners is going to grow your business WAY more quickly and more reliably. Why is this kind of strategic networking so effective? LOTS of your future participants are already in someone else’s audience. The people who created those audiences are your Ideal Referral Partners. By PLACE I mean things like: a podcast, a free online community, a paid community, an email newsletter list, or a paid small group program. When the person who leads and curates that gathering place invites you in and vouches for you and the work you do, you’re MUCH more likely to have the trust of members of that community. Compare that to the trust that you can establish in a video on IG that is 60 seconds long. I created a step-by-step process for this activity, not because it comes easily to me. Rather I created it because it is very important and does NOT come easily to me. Here’s a quick summary of that process. First, you figure out: Who are my Ideal Referral Partners? They serve your niche They probably serve your niche in a different way than you...

If you fear bothering people with your marketing, this is for you. I recently got the worst email I’ve opened in over a year. I’m gonna share the actual email with you and I’m gonna share my internal reactions and the decisions I made after. In the context of life, this email is really NOT that bad at all. No trigger warning necessary. I’m sharing this because I know many of you are really afraid of getting an email like this. I’m hoping hearing about my experience will help you feel less afraid of getting an email like this. I’m hoping that you feeling less afraid will help you make aligned decisions. I’ll explain all of that in a moment. The email I’ll share was a response to one of my sales emails promoting Create Your Program, the high touch program I run 3 times a year. Here’s what the email said: “Way too many emails with not much info. Blocking your email and please remove me from your waitlist. Feels like clickbait.” I said “ouch!” My partner looked over my shoulder and said “that’s not nice!” I had a moment of panic. I thought: Am I a fraudster? Am I a villian? Am I a jerk who never provides value? AND…Does this person hate me? And then paused and I said to my partner: “No it’s OK. She’s right to tell me. She’s annoyed.” Now I did feel a little peeved with the email sender. I thought: “She could have just unsubscribed. There’s a link in every single email to unsubscribe! Why didn’t she just unsubscribe? Why be like that?” And I wished I could write back to her and explain about unsubscribing and also say I’m sorry you didn’t get value…and maybe you should check out this or that free resource I provide. But I couldn’t write her back because she told me not to contact her. But you know what? She might not know that unsubscribing works. She’s totally within her rights to tell me about her experience and to set a digital boundary. She was clear. She did not call me names or behave abusively. She let me know that she’s withdrawn her consent to be emailed. I very much WANT people to be able to withdraw their consent. So as she asked, I went into my email platform and deleted her from it. Then while I was there I looked into what emails I had sent her, so I could better understand her experience. She had signed up for a free workshop through an instagram ad that I run. Then she’d gotten follow up emails reminding her to watch that free workshop, and then some sales emails about my program. It’s likely that she didn’t actually watch the workshop…which is totally understandable. I’ve signed up for a free workshop or class and then not hit play on it. She also signed up for the waitlist for Create Your Program. She received the maximum amount of emails someone could ever get from me, about 2 a day for a handful of days. That’s because she signed up for my free workshop and then my waitlist, all during a launch of my program, I took a step back and considered…is there anything I want to change about this email flow going forward? In this case, there’s not much I wanted to change. I want people who are new to my list to have a chance to jump on the wait list for CYP, which functions as an interest list. Often people find me right when they’re looking for a program like mine, and it’s important that they CAN sign up right away if that’s what they want. I only run CYP 3 times a year right now, so I don’t want people to have to wait months to have a chance to jump in. I did make one change to my email flow. I already have an opt OUT email that I send to my list when I’m launching. It basically says: “I’m gonna be promoting my program for a couple of weeks. If you want to stay on my list but you don’t want to hear about CYP this round, click here. I’ll be quiet for a couple weeks.” I learned this opt-out approach from Kelly Diels, and I always hat tip to her in that email. Here’s the change: I added a quick opt-out option in just about every sales email. Now if someone on my list opens ANY sales...

I’ve had a hard time figuring out how to talk to you about this. I never want to be a dream killer. Or a bummer. If you’re thinking of creating and launching a signature program, I want you to do it. AND I’m gonna talk about one of the hardest parts of that today. Then I’ll talk about how to handle this hard part. I promise. In Create Your Program, I help a small group of therapists create their high quality, high touch, niched programs. And then I help them launch those programs so that they can actually start making money. Those programs bring these entrepreneurs significant ongoing incomes. Some folks choose to shrink or close their therapy practices or leave their agency jobs once their programs are established. AND…one really hard part of that whole process is launching the program, especially for the first time. Launching basically means sharing your program with people. Launching involves two really hard things: being more visible and asking for help. You have to be visible when you launch because you need to share your program with people so that they can sign up to work with you. You have to ask for help because you need other people to help you spread the word. Launching isn’t the hardest part of the process at all in terms of skills and it’s not the most time consuming part either. But emotionally it can be really hard, especially for sensitive souls. We feel vulnerable and exposed when we launch, and we might even worry that we’re bugging people. On top of that, most of the people in Create Your Program haven’t launched this kind of program before, so these are new muscles they’re using. Launching can even give them queasy feelings. And when something is emotionally hard, and makes one feel queasy, one finds a way to avoid it. In Create Your Program, up until now I always walked people all the way up to that launching finish line. Participants got training and structure from me to create their launch plan. I encouraged them to take the brave final steps and even asked people to take some of that action on the final day of our program. And some people did that! I ask participants to share their announcement emails with me, which are the emails they send out to their colleagues and communities. I always received some on the final day of the program, and a bunch more in the following couple of weeks. Lots of people would use the momentum of the program to follow through and continue implementing. But some others would put it off. They’d say they weren’t quite ready. They’d say they started reconsidering their niche. They’d say life started getting in the way so they didn’t get around to it yet. Or many other valid things. Side note: As a very direct coach, I’ll tell you that these are people who really wanted to launch! They were ready enough, and they had already done enough work on their niches. They had indeed done everything they needed to do in order to launch their pilot programs. When I was describing this issue to my former business coach Claire Pelletreau, she said: “You have to walk them all the way over the finish line.” And I knew she was right. Immediately I made a change to Create Your Program. And I’ll describe that in a minute. Let’s talk about HOW we get ourselves over the finish line to accomplishing hard things in our businesses and lives in general. Well, there’s accountability and support. Those help. But you know what else helps? A Hard Ass Deadline. Accountability buddies usually don’t cut it for the really hard stuff. They’re helpful for getting focused, but not necessarily for getting over the finish line with the very hardest things. Now I’ve got 2 short examples for you: Taxes and Art. This just came up for me around my taxes. I get intimidated by the process of my taxes every single year. I’ve been trying to get my documents toghether to give my accountant for a while now. My accountant has a policy that once you turn in all your documents to her,...

Lea had been helping people with self-compassion for years, but when she started using art journaling in her program, it came together in a more powerful way. Now she teaches art journaling in every session of her signature program, Everyday Self-Compassion. Once she integrated this practice into her program, she fell even more in love with her work. She’s got a feeling of presence, joy and even goofiness. I deeply resonate with the need to feel like my full self as I do my work. How about you? You’re about to hear how she transformed her program over the last several years, why she loves running it, and why she’s got fewer therapy sessions in her schedule. Lea Seigen Shinraku is an artist, teacher, licensed therapist and founder of the Center for Creative Self-Compassion. Through her transformative program ~ Everyday Self-Compassion ~ she helps people who struggle with self-judgment connect with their innate creativity and joy, so they can feel more calm, connected, confident and playful in meeting the uncertainty of being alive. Here's some of what we talked about: Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/220

Do you ever dream of creating a program you’ll love running over and over again? My guest Amy has run her program, Grief Medicine, at least 9 times now. Sometimes people wonder if focusing on grief brings her down, but you’re going to hear why working with folks around their grief brings her inspiration and joy. As you listen to this conversation, one thing I want you to notice is how much Amy enjoys running this program and never seems to experience it as a grind. You’ll hear how she created her program and how she continues to fill it after so many iterations. And by the way, it’s mostly NOT through social media. Meet Amy Hyun Swart, a therapist, writer, children's book illustrator, and entrepreneur who has been leading grief gatherings, rituals, and courses since 2015, both in-person and online. She was introduced to the healing power of grief work by way of her own life experience, the traumatic loss of a parent at an early age. As a grief activist, Amy views grief as a critical ingredient to move through these collectively heartbreaking times without losing our shared sense of humanity. Here's some of what we talked about: Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/219

Today I’m gonna talk about one of the fastest and least stressful ways to start a group program. Let’s say you’re excited to run a signature program beyond your private practice, and you know you want it to be a small group. I relate. I LOVE running groups. Just a few reasons you might be in love with the idea of creating a group program: Let’s imagine this is you. You’ve written up a sales page or registration page for your program. You’ve told everyone you know all about it. You’ve sent out emails to your small but growing email list. You’ve posted on instagram, in FB groups and anywhere else where it’s appropriate to post. You’ve reached out to every single colleague who might make a referral. You’ve even reached out directly to a handful of people who you think would be great participants with a no pressure invitation to check it out. All your friends and colleagues are excited for you. You keep hearing: “People will want this!” You’ve got the outline ready. You’ve got the zoom link ready to share. The group calls are on your calendar. You’ve figured out how to accept payments. You are just SO ready. You offer a free consultation to anyone who has questions about the program and might want to sign up. And then the consultations start… You talk to one person who might be interested but not right now and is wondering when you’ll run it again. You talk to another person who might be interested and will let you know. You talk to a third person who decides to sign up. Yay! You talk to a fourth person who says they want to do it but then realize they’ll be away for the first 3 weeks of your program. And then…no more consultations. No more sign ups. And your start date is next week. Arg! Did you do something wrong? Is your group not meant to be? First of all, you are not alone. This has happened to me. This has happened to many people who run successful group programs now. This often happens when you’re transitioning to a new kind of business. Even if you already had a full therapy practice, this can easily happen when you step into selling a program for the first time. Perhaps your mistake (if you made one) was to start with a group program. Perhaps you should have started with a 1:1 structured, niched and outcome based program. What?! We just talked about why you really prefer to run a group. But you STILL might be better off starting your pilot program 1:1 and then turning that offer into a group when your business is ready. Listen to the episode in which I break down why starting with a 1:1 structured, niched and outcome based program might be your fastest, least stressful way to create a group program. Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/218

Maybe you plan to double or significantly increase your income this year. If you’re in private practice, you might look at the numbers and think you should double your sessions. And you totally could. People are out there looking for a therapist exactly like you. You might feel like adding sessions is your ONLY option to increase your revenue. That’s not true. You’ve got other options. Check in and be honest with yourself. Will adding to your client load exhaust you or head you towards burnout? If you’re already seeing 12 clients or 15 clients and you’re starting to feel a bit of dread around sessions…do not double your sessions. On the other hand, If your’e excited about filling up your private practice further, follow that excitement and do it. Like I said, there are plenty of people who need a therapist like you. If you’re like SO many therapists I know, you might have the time in your schedule to add more sessions, but you don’t have the capacity in other ways. You don’t have the energy, the self-care practices, attention or focus capacity to add even more sessions. I want to invite you to take a step back and look at your business model. Your business model is basically the way your business is set up to make you money. It’s the combination of the things you get paid for. If your business model is built on 1:1 private practice sessions, and that isn’t sustainable for you…you are in good company! There’s nothing wrong with you. A full private practice might not be the right fit for your nervous system or your particular gifts. There are other business models. For years I thought I should be happy to have 25 or more therapy sessions a week. I had worked so hard to build that business. I was helping people and making good money so I thought I should just be grateful. But that business model wasn’t right for me long-term. Then I started helping therapists build their private practices and I talked to tons of therapists privately about what really works for them. I discovered that LOTS of therapists don’t find it sustainable to have 25 or more sessions each week. Like me, they built their private practices and then discovered it wasn’t right for them. And they felt guilt or shame like they SHOULD want the full private practice they worked so hard for. They started to feel drained and overwhelmed. Either their work or their life outside of work or both began to suffer. Therapists often don’t want to tell people they feel overwhelmed by a full private practice. So they think they’re alone. If working in a different way at least some of the time would be a better fit for you and for your nervous system and your gifts, now is the time to start building a different business model. I know that it’s really hard to carve out time and space to do something different. But it is SO important to start building a business you’ll be more fulfilled by. The business model I help people create is based on running your own high-touch, niched, outcome-based signature program. If you’re someone who loves teaching or facilitating and you’d love to really focus in on a topic you’re passionate about, a signature program might be a great fit for you. If this resonates with you…but you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of getting started…mostly because you’re not even sure HOW to get started, do not let that stop you. I end up hearing from grads of my program that they just wish they had realized sooner that it was possible to grow a signature program. They are so relieved to have another income source and another place to direct their creative energy. They’re happy that they no longer have all their eggs in the private practice basket. If you think you want to run a signature program, don’t wait. Don’t set yourself up to stumble along exhausted trying to build something AFTER you’ve burnt out. AND Don’t just make little tweaks to a business model that is showing itself to be unsustainable for you. Start building...

As this episode goes live, registration for Create Your Program is open. This is my process to help you create and launch your signature program beyond private practice. If you’d like to start growing another part of your business and make money in a new way, this is the best time to jump into Create Your Program. If you register by Sunday, January 7th, you’re going to get lifetime access to a bonus training that has helped grads of CYP to fill their programs. Go to https://rebeltherapist.me/create now to register. I can’t wait to see you inside. Today I want to talk about a few really important things that set apart the people who launch programs and succeed from those who wish they had. Here are 3 things people who succeed with their programs are WILLING to do. 1: Be willing to work through discomfort in your marketing. My last guest, Samantha Fox, is great at this. Just like most people who sign up to work with me, Samantha was really nervous about getting more visible and sharing her work with large audiences. Her program is called Unbox Your Sexuality. She helps women all over the world who are realizing they are not as straight as they thought they were. She had to work through her discomfort with being known as a queer thought leader. A few years later, she’s so glad she did! She’s constantly creating content, including videos, and sharing it with people all over the world. She’s guested on about 20 podcasts and gotten comfortable using her voice in that way. She gets to hear from people she's never met about how much her work has changed their lives. So even though she is an introvert and she used to be afraid of visibility, she’s now a very public leader who feels abundant love and energy for the people who find her from all over the planet. 2: Be willing to talk about your program with a lot of enthusiasm, and ask people to help you share it. Thing is something that the prior guest, Sonya Brewer, knows how to do! This one sounds obvious, but asking for help is NOT natural or easy for many folks who sign up to work with me. Sonya said that she shared the news about her program, badass boundaries for trauma survivors, with everyone she knows. She asked people: “Who do you have for me?” Sonya was able to do this because she knows her program is excellent. She sees the transformations her participants are able to make, and so she’s willing to spread the word. Many people start to shrink or hide or even apologize when it’s time to sell their programs. Even if this doesn’t come easily to you, I know that you CAN learn to ask for referrals with enthusiasm! I used to shrink when it was time to talk about my work, and now I ask for referrals with ease. I no longer feel like hiding how awesome I know Create Your Program is. I’ve iterated it over 28 times. I’ve worked over 200 therapists through it. I’ve worked with a curriculum designer. We’ve got the best expert guest teachers who come in and teach particular vital things. CYP has grads like Sonya and Samantha and so many others who have created SO much value. Now when I talk about Create Your Program, I exude a lot of enthusiasm. I also don’t care any longer if some folks don't like me because of my confidence. For every person who feels annoyed at my confidence, there are a few people who are encouraged to be a bit more confident themselves. So follow Sonya’s lead and shout your program from the rooftops. 🎉 3: Be willing to show up and work directly with your participants. That means being willing to create a high touch program. NOT a program that’s self-led. This one might freak some of you out. Maybe you’re burned out, you want less contact with clients, and you dream of having passive income and not dealing with clients at all. I want to encourage you to reconsider that approach. Showing up in your program and leading your participants through it does NOT mean you’re constantly working. You still get to have boundaries. You still get...

Samantha has shrunk her therapy practice way down and is no longer taking new therapy clients. She’s delighted that her business has transitioned to mostly her coaching programs. She’s found that she’s got abundant energy and love for serving in this way. AND…Samantha has discovered that even the free stuff she provides on social media and on her site helps many queer women live truer lives. That’s just ONE of the ways that the work she’s doing now is a much better fit for her life than a full time therapy practice was. As a sexuality coach, Samantha Fox works with women worldwide to support them as they discover that they are not as straight as they might have thought. She’s developed an experiential method called Unbox Your Sexuality that creates a monumental transformation. The method helps women in unpacking, unlearning, and relearning schemas and narratives that we carry with us due to being born into a patriarchal society. Here's some of what we talked about: Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/215

We’re sharing one of our favorite episodes as an encore this week. How do you create and fill a group program? How do you navigate a full therapy practice at the same time? We’re about to go behind the scenes and find out exactly how my guest has done it. Meet Sonya Brewer, a trauma specialist and relationship expert who specializes in creative life and relationship design for overachieving trauma survivors and their partners. She created Badass Boundaries, a 12-week group mentorship program for overachieving trauma survivors. Here's some of what we talked about: Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/214

How can you create a business if you’re a disruptor in your field? If you’ve got a unique voice and you’re finding yourself pushing back against most others in your field, that could actually be a wonderful thing for your business. Today’s guest has carved out an important space right at the intersection of the Body Liberation and Pro-Aging movements. And she’s pretty much on her own as a leader there. Meet Deb Benfield, a Nutrition and Body Relationship Coach with over 35 years of experience working with women to heal their relationships with food, eating and their bodies. You’ll hear why Deb created a program for women in mid-life and beyond, how she designed her program and grew her audience, and what works to fill her program. Here's some of what we talked about: Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/213

I’m grateful to be running a tiny and simple business right now. I have no plans to grow this business up to 7 figures. I was a bit hesitant to tell you that! I feel some fear that you won’t think I’m a badass, or you’ll think I have upper limit problems or limited beliefs. Maybe you won’t want to hire me because I’m not as ambitious as you hoped. Or if you’re my friend who runs a larger and more complicated business, maybe you’ll think I’m judging you when you hear what I have to say about running a tiny business. (I’m not. I promise!) But since I have the desire to be radically honest and I think this serves you, I’m sharing it anyway. I trust you to identify the parts of this that fit for you and the parts that don’t. Note: I’m talking about service based businesses, because that’s what I know best. Capitalism tends to point us towards one vision of what it means to be a successful business owner. And that’s being a business owner who always makes and does MORE. Capitalism tends to pull us AWAY from noticing when we have enough, or even considering what enough might be. Us feeling enoughness or satisfaction is NOT helpful to capitalism. Here’s the default vision of a successful business owner: But when I look around at my colleagues and friends who are having a good time and feeling fairly stable financially, I tend to see a people with tiny and simple businesses. Here’s the vision of that (tiny) business owner: Sometimes people come work with me hoping to create huge empires. I’m delighted to help them because the first phase in creating an empire should be to create a really solid small business. And that is what I help with. When you start with a tiny, strong and simple business, you focus on creating value. And that’s where every business needs to start. Listen to the episode to hear Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/212

How do you discover the work you’re meant to create? Today’s episode is a master class on how to allow the collective and your spirit to pull you in that direction. Judy Hu created a framework for boundary healing. Then she wrote a bestselling book: The Boundary Revolution: Decolonize Your Relationships and Discover A New Path To Joy. She’s a Licensed Mental Health Counselor turned Boundary Coach based in Massachusetts. You’ll hear the intensely personal and brave process Judy went through to develop and share her work. Here's some of what we talked about: Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/211

I got this question recently from someone getting ready to expand their business to beyond private practice. They want to start offering a non-therapy program within their own business. “Should I create my own program from scratch, or should I just deliver an established method from a well-known person?” For example, although it’s not the example this person gave: Brene Brown’s Dare To Lead method. Here’s my answer without knowing any of the particulars. First of all…nothing is new under the sun. Whatever program you offer will be influenced by your learning lineages and your mentors… So the REAL question is: will you create something new by bringing together many influences, giving them all credit, and blending them in a unique way? OR Will you primarily use one established method from a mentor and jump through the hoops of getting that license or certification or purchasing that curriculum, so that you can use it in its entirety and put their name on it? To figure this out, ask yourself: What is the truest, most high quality and aligned offering you can make right now? Which choice will be of the highest service to your participants? A good reason to use someone else’s method is that you feel clear that it is the most aligned choice. A misguided reason to use someone else’s method is that you think it will be easier to create and sell it. Since you’re creating this program within your business, you will likely be working just as hard with either choice. Whether you sell someone else’s method or create your own, you will… In the business I’m running now, I’ve created my own method while giving a ton of credit to the people I’ve learn from. You can’t get through my program without hearing about Tara McMullin, the business strategist who has had the biggest influence on me. And you hear about many other folks whose influences are woven into my programs. At this point I’m so hooked on creating my own processes and weaving together many influences, I can’t imagine I’ll ever teach someone else’s entire method ever again. But once I did! In this week’s episode, I share a story about running a couples workshop using someone else’s method with permission. Listen to learn from my experience so you can skip my mistakes. Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/210

Even if you already work with the niche you want to work with in your private practice, you might ALSO love having an innovative signature program as an additional way to serve them. Danika Maddocks is a parent coach who's passionate about supporting parents of gifted and twice-exceptional kids. She's been partnering with bright kids and their families for over a dozen years as a teacher and therapist. You’re going to hear why she created a signature program for twice exceptional kids, and you’ll hear how she grows her business without becoming a full-time marketer. Here's some of what we talked about: Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/209

“Has it been extra challenging to sell group programs lately?” “How do I figure out what niche to choose and what program to create?” “When is it the right time for Facebook or Instagram ads?” I ran a free and open coaching call recently for everyone in our audience, including podcast listeners, clients, and email subscribers. A record number of folks submitted questions, and I spent over an hour riffing on a bunch of them. We had such a great response from the attendees that I decided to share the entire call recording with you. You’ll hear my answers to the questions above and more, including: My program isn’t selling. Is it priced too high? How do I take a break from my business for a big life circumstance? Is it OK to post or send emails sporadically? Or should I do it consistently or not at all? How much of an expert do I have to be in my topic area? How much of an ROI do you get from social media? Is it a good idea to start a program with a friend? Do I have to get my private practice stable before I start a program? What if some things in my program were influenced by the work of others? How do I carve out time for following through with creative ideas if I’m overwhelmed and exhausted by my caseload? Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/208

Can you REALLY make great money running a program that you love and that’s based on what you do best? Rebecca Lee does. And she’s got a year-long waitlist. As a social worker and supervisor for social workers, she felt a pull to create something totally different, something that wouldn’t fit into the box of supervision or therapy or even coaching as we know it. At first, she struggled with giving herself permission to do it. In this episode, you’ll hear how she created something that only she could create and why her family’s farm is part of it. If you’ve wondered if your idea is too out there, this is going to give you a big dose of permission to create your program. Rebecca Lee is a Clinical Supervisor and Eco therapist who works with therapists, wellness professionals and healers to tap into their own rhythm, health and vision so they can create an impactful and joyful professional lives for themselves. Her work is centered around how we can re-connect with our authentic landscape through social justice, anti-oppression, seasonal landscape relationship, Yoga and Ayerveda practices. Here's some of what we talked about: Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/207

In the last episode of Rebel Therapist Podcast, talked to Claire Pelletreau about switching roles with her husband so that she’s no longer the default parent. That change made a REALLY big difference in her business. Because she made that change she’s able to take on big projects, and make more money. And that got me thinking about what boundaries help me take on the big stuff that really makes me happy, makes a big impact and sometimes makes my business lots of money. In that exploration I realized that I go through two steps when I’m creating a new boundary: Until I’ve really made the decision that I’m going to insist on the boundary, it’s pretty hopeless. TRYING to hold a boundary before I’ve fully decided doesn’t do it. That’s a half-assed boundary. In this episode I walk through a couple of examples of boundaries I’ve created recently that are helping increase my joy and capacity. Both of these are about finally having my own home office. This episode is NOT about me giving you advice that you need to a quiet home office too…or that you have to do what Claire did and switch roles with your spouse. I don’t know what you need or what’s possible for you right now. Rather, it’s about each of us figuring out what we want and need, and then when we can, claiming those boundaries for ourselves. Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/206