Do Less Emotional Labor In Your Business
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...
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Neurodivergence And Liberation In Your Business With Jennifer Alumbaugh
Rebel Therapist
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 . 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...
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The Most Important Marketing Strategy (It Doesn’t Require Social Media)
Rebel Therapist
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...
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The Email You’re Afraid Of Getting
Rebel Therapist
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...
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Getting Over The Finish Line With Hard & Important Stuff
Rebel Therapist
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...
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A Program Based On Art Journaling With Lea Seigen Shinraku
Rebel Therapist
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...
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A Thriving Grief Program With Amy Hyun Swart
Rebel Therapist
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...
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The Least Stressful Way To Start A Group Program
Rebel Therapist
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: Participants benefit from each other’s wisdom and feel less alone. You make more money. A sense of accountability is often bigger in a group. Groups give you energy. You’re gifted at running groups. In a group, you get the richness of discussion. ...
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Don’t Double Your Therapy Sessions
Rebel Therapist
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...
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Be Willing To Do These Three Things For A Successful Signature Program
Rebel Therapist
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 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...
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I used to ask every podcast guest: “What productivity or time management hacks do you use as an entrepreneur?”
I’ve stopped asking that.
I’m no longer lit up by trying to make my habits atomic or maximize my time.
The work of Tricia Hersey, Ebony Janice Moore, Tara McMullin and others has helped me (along with everyone I know) to question whether productivity is the measure to focus on and strive for.
We’re here to heal, play, love and rest and BE, and when we do more of those things, we make it more possible to create the world we want.
When we’re talking about running a small business, which is my lane, I find that to create something new like a new business or a new program, we need something different than productivity or time management.
We need to nurture our creative energy.
How do I know time management and productivity alone are not the answer?
When suddenly given a huge amount of time, we don’t usually make as much progress as we had hoped to.
We might use that time scrolling or spinning our wheels.
Lots of folks discovered this during lock down.
So when a person asks me how many hours a week it takes to build a program beyond private practice, I could say…at least 3, better 5, and better yet 10.
But really, I find that nurturing your creative energy for an entrepreneurial project is more important than how many hours you give it.
Side note for folks running private practices:
Running a private practice might be a bit different…
It’s a terrible idea, and I don’t recommend it, but you may have noticed that you CAN run a private practice with scraps of energy, at least for a while. You probably know how to scrape together those scraps or energy to show up for your clients.
Here’s what Katherine Eastlake says. She runs a private practice and has a program for therapists wanting to deepen embodied practice.
“I can be fairly dysregulated and settle quickly when a client walks into my room/pops up on Zoom. But when I am writing my newsletter or designing a training, I feel like I need more time and space to ground myself and orient to the process. It is a different energy with different requirements of my mind and body.”
To move beyond private practice and create something new, like a signature program, you can’t just add time and productivity hacks.
Pomodoro timers and to-do lists are not going to get you there.
You need to access your creative energy, and that means devoting yourself to replenishing that energy.
Here are five ways I nurture my creative energy:
1. Devote myself to the things that make me feel expansive.
I get creative energy when I devote myself to all the things that make me feel more expansive. I need to play, feeling my feelings, talk to people who inspire me, listen to podcasts and music that move me, go on walks, sing, and dance.
2. Set deadlines that people know about.
There’s a sweet spot for each of us between having deadlines and having the freedom to move at our own pace.
I crave more freedom when I’m facing too many deadlines, but when completely lack deadlines, I’m not creating a lot.
Even this episode would not necessarily be here if I had no deadline for it.
I used to be so internally motivated that I could set my own deadlines that no one knew about and I’d meet them. Um…hypervigilant much? You spotted that? Yes I was.
Now I find that I need to share my deadlines with others.
3. Make room for discomfort in the creative process.
Expect really itchy moments when you have to keep trying/writing/talking/moving your pen so that the work actually happens.
Expect a 3 hour task to take 10 hours sometimes.
Expect to feel like you can’t do this and know that doesn’t mean you can’t do this.
Expect to feel like leaving.
Let your frustration tolerance build.
All of that discomfort is part of opening up to creative energy.
4. Avoid certain things.
In order to access creative energy, I avoid…
- Social media
- Comparison
- Expecting myself to get other things done as much or as well
- New tech platforms or tools
5. Find or build a community so we’re mutually supporting each other in accessing our creative energy.
Build or find a Community of other creators who commit to creating when the world wouldn’t say they have to.
Entrepreneurs are a good bet because they’ve signed up for the tricky thing you’ve signed up for: They’re creating what they want to create AND they’re finding a way to make good money with it.
That’s a different challenge than creating only for the sake of creating.
And speaking of community, I have an assignment ready for you, if you choose to accept it.
Choose someone you trust who believes in you and will give you a loving kick in the pants and send them an email. Here’s your loose script:
“I’m planning on doing something brave. (Here’s what it is). I may try to talk myself out of it. Will you please support me and encourage me in doing it?”
Please bcc me if you like at [email protected]. I’d LOVE to know that you did this assignment.
Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/204