Business Half-Truths

I have a new pet peeve! It’s people who spout off business advice half-truths. (And before you worry, it’s no one in the Abundance Facebook Group; those folks will tell you the full truth).  These half-truthers know it’s more complicated than they say it is, but they don’t just fess up that a part of their brilliant idea/system sucks. Having bought into some of these, I want to tell you some pitfalls of these options so you can make a better informed decision. I want to stress that these strateg…

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Lessons Learned Launching

So here I am, back from maternity leave and getting all my ducks in a row with both businesses so the content of this post is what’s on my mind. Balance is big for me right now and as you’ll see in this post, I was feeling like a train wreck for part of last year. Here's the story: Let’s start with a guy named Jeff Walker; he’s a brilliant, likable, extremely successful entrepreneur who a bunch of multimillionaire entrepreneurs listen to about how to “launch” their products or services. Being a …

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5 Things I Wish They Told Me In Grad School

Amanda Patterson, LMHC, CAP, NCC is a private practice success story. She has been so successful individually that she's built a successful group private practice.  As a member of the Abundance Practice Builders Facebook Group, she has generously offered support to clinicians new to private practice from her wealth of experience. I totally agree with this blog post; I had no idea what was available to me as a grad student and may have started this process much earlier if I had.  It’s been more t…

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Private Practice & Your Life

Let’s talk about your private practice within the context of your life. Not how to fit your life around this entrepreneurial venture. Not what you have to give up in order to succeed. I hate that shit, as you know. I want to make a few assumptions about you. You are a person with beautiful, amazing, interesting things going on. You have interests beyond counseling. You have reasons you want a more flexible schedule and more money. They don’t have to be grand, but how you want to spend your t…

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Stop Seeing Your Clients as Victims

This blog post is a long time coming. It all started with a hater. Not a troll, but someone who looked at the surface of a few things I said, made some assumptions about me, fit that into her paradigm about therapy and therapists and let me have it. I’d had my share of haters by that point, but none that invested a ton of time in writing a diatribe of grievances about my character and the evil I was spreading in the world of counseling. At first I felt really misunderstood. I wanted to defend my…

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Keeping it Real When You Start Your Practice

This month's guest post is by Amanda Dutton, MS, LAPC.  Amanda is an active member of the Abundance Practice-Builders Facebook Group (hop in!). When I say active member, I mean she really puts herself out there, supports the hell out of the other folks; she helps make it the incredible community that it is. Amanda's been a part of the Facebook group almost since the beginning and I'm so happy she wrote a post for you guys that exemplifies what I admire most about her: her authenticity. Her encou…

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When You're Unmotivated

If you're unmotivated in private practice, I’m not going to tell you to get over it. When you’re unmotivated there’s probably a reason. That reason may need to be addressed or it may need to be set aside or it may need to breathe a little. Let’s check in to see what’s going on and what to do about it.

  1. You’re burned out. Totally the #1 reason I hear from the practice-builders I work with. Many are working a job while building their private practice. They’re also doing their best to be a good …

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Does the Way You Date(d) Impact Your Practice?

What if You Dated Like You Practice-Build? This may be a weird analogy, come along with me anyway. You know how when we work with clients over time we see patterns in how they do life? Like maybe they study last minute and complete projects last minute and call their mom on her birthday at like 11 at night. Maybe they’re 5 minutes late to every appointment and their boss is on their case for tardiness. Well, you know your business doesn’t exist in a vacuum, right? I’ve noticed some pattern…

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Real Connection Requires Courage: How to Write Great Copy

Nikki Bonsol is awesome. She's a designer and copywriter who REALLY understands what we do, partly because of her experience working in social services. I'll be honest, I've worked with a copywriter before who really didn't get what we do and it was a huge disappointment and financial mistake. I've been a little leary of copywriters for therapists ever since until I "met" Nikki. Nikki gets that we have professional boundaries. She gets that we need to find that balance of professionalism and aut…

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Creating Physical & Digital Space

Have you noticed what happens to your space as your life gets more hectic? Your house gets messier, your car starts to look a bit trashed, your desk gets covered with piles? Then it feels overwhelming when you come home to the clutter, drive to work in the clutter, open your office door to clutter. Life feels more chaotic. While I believe your office needs to be clean enough that it isn’t distracting to your clients, I’m going to make a case for your home and car to be cleanish as well. I swear …

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