STP 140
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[00:00:05] James Marland: You build your business around your life, not your life around the business.
[00:00:10] Clarity is putting the right destination into the map before you press go. Activity is good. Seeing as people is good. Earning that money is good. Success is good. But, but you gotta be heading in the right direction. Heading in the right direction is better than all the success in the world. So we gotta define what clarity means for your life and your business.
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[00:01:20] James Marland: Hello and welcome back to the Scaling Therapist Podcast. I'm your host, James Marland, and this is the show where we help therapists learn new ways to turn their wisdom into income. Today we're continuing the three pillars of the Scalpel Income Series. This series is about moving from trading your hours to building income flow.
[00:01:44] With new systems. I wanna start out though with, ~uh, the, ~the truth about the service industry, especially therapists, burnout in the field is not rare.
[00:01:57] In fact, ~it's, ~it's normal. [00:02:00] Different studies give different numbers, but they all point to the same thing. There was a large review of more than 9,000 mental health professionals across many countries, and about four out of 10 had high levels of emotional exhaustion, which of course is the precursor to burnout.
[00:02:21] Then there's another summary that suggests ~burn, um, ~therapists experience burnout. Roughly 60% of mental health professionals have had some point experience burnout in their career. If you're feeling that distress, you're actually not.
[00:02:38] You're not rare, you're actually normal. You're average. ~You're like, ~you are the average clinician or average therapist experiencing this stress. But just because it's common does not mean that this type of system, this way of doing things is acceptable. ~It's, ~it's also doesn't mean you're a failure, you're a personal failure or you're doing [00:03:00] something wrong.
[00:03:01] ~It's, ~it's really just the system. It's the pattern. So if the system is the problem, if the pattern is the problem and burnout is normal in the system, then it doesn't mean you are a failure.
[00:03:14] It just means there's an issue with the system. The system is the problem. So this series is not necessarily about squeezing more out of you or getting more productivity. It's about building the road to a new destination, a new system. This road still lets you help people and you get to have a life that you enjoy.
[00:03:40] The hard truth right now is ~the, ~the system that therapists are living in right now was not built for them. It wasn't built for their success. Insurance companies was not built for the average therapist. Agencies were not built for the average therapists. Many private practice models were not built [00:04:00] for you.
[00:04:01] They were built. The system that we now live in was built to push as many billable hours as possible through each day. And then you just, ~you, you ~go to college and you get dropped into the system and told, this is what success is. Fill your calendar, fill your caseload. See as many people as possible.
[00:04:21] That's how you make the most money. ~See, ~see if you can fit in one more session. You didn't design that, that wasn't the business model that you designed. You're just walking on it. You're just living it. And as you walk in this system, as you see it, ~you, ~the cracks begin to surface. You start noticing the flaws. Being fully booked often means that your time, energy, and emotions are stretched to the limit and on paper and in the checkbook.
[00:04:49] That looks really great. But in your mind and your body and your family and all that really matters to you, it just feels terrible. You just wondering, [00:05:00] is this what I signed up for? Now remember, as I said last time, I'm not saying stop doing therapy.
[00:05:06] We need great therapists to see people one-on-one. I'm not anti therapy. I'm not antis session, I'm not anti mental health support, but your main goal, if your main goal is to stay fully booked forever, then that finish line is also the finish line to being exhausted and living a life that ~you, ~you wonder how you got there.
[00:05:28] So ~just let's ex, let's, ~I'm gonna get off that point right now. But the road you're taking to full schedules is also the road that could be hurting you and your family. So I just wanna suggest that there could be a different model.
[00:05:40] I'm gonna suggest the income flow, ~um, ~model. in The first episode, I,~ I, ~I called the bucket model where you have one-on-one sessions.
[00:05:48] You just need to find a system or the aqueduct model that helps you work and gives you income flow, even when ~you're, you're not, um, ~you're not in the room. So buckets are the old way, aqueducts are the new [00:06:00] way. But ~this, ~this is sort of, ~um, you know, ~fuzzy. Like, how do I do this? What does this mean? What are the things I gotta put in place?
[00:06:08] So where, I'm gonna just give you a simple framework that sits, inside the aqueduct image. Picture these as pillars of the aqueduct system.
[00:06:17] ~Uh, and I, ~I break these pillars into three pillars of scalable income. The three pillars of scalable income are clarity, connection, and confidence. Clarity is knowing who you are and what you're doing for helping in creating that income. Connection is how you reach and serve the people you are called to help.
[00:06:41] And confidence is the goals and the vision and the value and the people that give you the confidence to keep going. These pillars work together and you're gonna eventually need all three. But ~I, ~I wanna start with what one of the most important ones to me is the clarity. If clarity is fuzzy, connection and [00:07:00] confidence don't really have a stable base.
[00:07:01] So, ~so therefore. In this series, in this part of the series. Anyways, we're gonna, ~we're gonna work on clarity, and I'm gonna have three episodes on Clarity. Clarity really matters. Clarity is vital to get you heading in the right direction. I don't know about you, but we took a lot of, um, family trips together ~and, um, the ~and, um, the joke was with my dad.
[00:07:21] He would never check a map and he always ended up getting us lost. ~So I. traveling, um, this was, this was myself, and ~I remember traveling, um, this was, this was myself, and I had GPS. I'm like, well, I'm gonna check the map. And I remember traveling to, uh, my brother's house and ~GGPS, uh, ~he was a couple states away, and GPS was taken a stand. These, you know, it avoided the highway.
[00:07:44] It was Google Maps. It avoided the highway. And it took us down some, you know, back roads. And at one point it had us turn. ~Turned ~left up a hill, like a mountain. Well, it wasn't a mountain mountain, but it was like a hill of [00:08:00] Pennsylvania.~ like a mountain. Well, it wasn't a mountain mountain, but it was like ~I'd never been on this road before. We'd been driving for a couple hours and I'm just like, I'm just gonna follow the GPS.
[00:08:08] And, uh, the, the road turned to her dirt, dirt road. And I remember my wife saying something like, are you sure we're on the right road? Do you see the signs here? ~I'm like, no. ~The GPS says that we just keep going up this mountain. So we went up and ~the, uh, ~the vegetation, the trees started crowding this dirt road and it got narrower and narrower.
[00:08:28] And soon the road wasn't even a two lane. It was like a one lane. My wife's ~like ~looking at me and I'm ~like, ~looking at the GPS and the line ~is like, ~just keep going up. So I kept going up and up and up. ~Now ~there was ~like ~hardly any room to turn around. And then ~at the end of the road. ~At the end of the road, there was a pile of rocks.
[00:08:45] Yes, we got as almost as high up as we could. And before we started going down the other side, the road was totally blocked. ~Uh, ~I guess the road was closed and Google Maps had not, updated it. Then I had to like start [00:09:00] backing down slowly. And, uh, down a narrow dirt road with, uh, like trees and ditches on either side.
[00:09:07] Uh, we made it down. It was just some, some sort of thing. Like~ uh, uh, Uh, some, some sort of thing. ~GPS in the system does not always take you to where you want to go. You think you put in the right directions, but sometimes you end up hitting a pile of rocks, and I think many therapists might be doing that with their careers. Because they've been told, this is how you work the system.
[00:09:31] Fill your schedule. Stay as busy as possible, ~say, ~see as many people as possible. Help as many people as possible, give to your career. But then it takes the joy out of your life and it takes, ~it takes, uh, ~the happiness from some of your family, ~uh, ~experiences we're told to take this path and the path leads to success.
[00:09:53] Just keep going. Just keep going. I know it looks rough right now, but it gets better. It gets better. But [00:10:00] at the end of this career ladder, the fully booked max out your schedule ladder, there's a pile of rocks and you have to turn around. I mean, just think about some of the therapists you've known. ~I know three therapists right now who the world sees as ex the world.~
[00:10:12] I know three therapists right now who the world sees as successful and they have good group practices, maybe even multiple businesses, but they've had to work through divorce during this time as well, even while their practices are thriving now. ~No, ~I'm not saying ~that, that ~their practice or their work caused the divorce.
[00:10:38] ~You know, like there, there's ~there, there's no way to know, but you have to wonder just ~the demands, ~the demands that you're under, the demands of finding, maxing out every time, putting off your own needs, rescuing to help other people. ~Uh, ~the hats you wear, the late nights, the emotional, the mental exhaustion of your work, the pressure of running a [00:11:00] business, being a parent and a partner becomes overwhelming ~and.~
[00:11:04] This fully booked system that many therapists are under, that's gotta be a factor. I'm not saying it's the cause and I'm sure there's other things going on, and I'm not blaming ~the ~the therapist or the practitioner either. I'm just saying it's a factor ~like that. ~Burnout and exhaustion impacts more than just your business.
[00:11:24] And if you're not clear on your goals and you feel like this is the only way I can go, you realize. The destination that the system is telling you to take is not where you really wanna go. Clarity fixes that ~clarity that we're getting back to the pillar here, but clarity fixes that. Clar ~clarity answers, well, why am I doing this?
[00:11:44] Clarity helps you design the business around your life, not your life around the business. It makes what's important to you. You know, your long-term goals, your long-term dreams and vision. ~Your, your, ~your life. It makes [00:12:00] that the most important thing and not the business. You build your business around your life, not your life around the business.
[00:12:07] Clarity is putting the right destination into the map before you press go. Activity is good. Seeing as people is good. Earning that money is good. Success is good. But, but you gotta be heading in the right direction. Heading in the right direction is better than all the success in the world. So we gotta define what clarity means for your life and your business.
[00:12:33] In the world of income streams and aqueducts, I think of clarity in three parts. You have to have clarity about your people, clarity about the problem you are solving. Clarity about your product, people, problems, product. Those are the three pieces that shape everything else. ~you, you ~you we're not gonna solve all three today.
[00:12:54] ~We're, uh, ~this is a big enough topic that I'm gonna break this clarity section into three parts. We're [00:13:00] gonna talk mostly about people today. We'll talk about the problem and your product and the price in upcoming episodes in this series. The most important thing I want you to take from this clarity section about people is that the most important person in this clarity section is you.
[00:13:22] Clarity starts with you. ~Um, ~I learned this from Joey Ragona, ~uh, ~from Heart-Centered Marketing. He was on episode, ~uh, ~number 64 from burnout to balance the heart-centered approach to having a dream life in business. And ~he, ~he really. Impressed upon me that you can have a business where you're just helping the right people, doing the right things all the time.
[00:13:50] And ~if, ~if you're the most important person in the business, this is really freeing because it's you and your life, your decisions, and [00:14:00] those are the things you have the most control over you. You don't have control over the market. You don't have control over the economy. You can't control the insurance companies.
[00:14:11] You can't control your clients, the politics in the world, what's going on in the world. You can't control any of that, but you can control you. So clarity starts with you and everything else is seen through the lens of who you are, the authentic person. Before you write your ideal client profile, before you create a product, before we write one word of marketing, you need to know.
[00:14:38] Things about yourself. What are your strengths? What are your limits? What do you enjoy? What can you be paid for that supports your life? You are the lens that everything passes through. ~You're not, ~you're not building a random product that you hope somebody buys. ~You're, ~you're building a specific problem.
[00:14:59] [00:15:00] You are building from your wiring and what makes you, you. Many of us only look at what we're good at. We don't ask if it actually gives us life. Therefore, ~we miss, ~we miss the joy in work. ~There's a, ~there's a big difference between what you're good at and something that is a true strength. I love the book by Marcus Buckingham.
[00:15:25] ~Um, ~I believe it's, ~uh, ~go discover your strengths. ~Uh, ~he wrote a couple books on strengths and in one of those, I believe ~it, ~he was talking about a swimmer. And the swimmer was a champion, got, ~uh, got, um, ~awards and scholarships and on paper they were ~like ~winning races and getting great times. They were successful in the eyes of ~if it winning, ~if winning was the goal, they were successful.
[00:15:46] They hated swimming. ~They, they, ~every practice felt heavy. Every meet drained them. There was no excitement in the swimming sport. So even though it was a strength on one aspect where they could [00:16:00] win it, it didn't feel like a strength. In fact, it was a negative, it was a drainer, it felt like a burden. And therapy might be like that for us, or whatever you're doing in therapy, ~you might like, ~you might do certain things very well.
[00:16:13] That still drain the life from you. Maybe you're excellent with conflict, but after you navigate the conflict, you feel drained and it takes away from your other clients or your family. Maybe you're skilled with paperwork and ~like ~reports and ~um, ~interviews and intake interviews and diagnosis, but you dread it every time.
[00:16:40] You can be very good at some things, but it's not meant to be the center of your long-term calling True Strength, and this is from the Marcus Buckingham book, true Strength tends to excite you and give you energy, and as you're doing it, times stops and you're in a [00:17:00] flow state. Yeah, it still takes effort and you might be tired afterwards.
[00:17:05] But there's this sense of like, this is why I am here. This is what I am here for. Knowing your strengths is part of knowing yourself and your strengths is part of the picture, but we also need to look at the people who could benefit from those strengths. So that's why ~the ~this aspect of clarity is people.
[00:17:31] ~Um, there's a, there's another example. Um, so, so you might be thinking, James,~
[00:17:31] ~here's a here, uh, so ~ here's a therapy related example of doing things that you're good at that you might not enjoy. One of the income streams or income flows for therapists, a clear path to income stream is managing a group practice. You see fewer clients and you add the tasks of hiring, training, and managing new therapists, and then you get some of their income.
[00:17:54] Yet, for some of you, this group practice experience is more of a curse [00:18:00] than a blessing. Hiring. Ugh. Managing people. No thank you. Training. Don't wanna do it. Don't have time. So that path, that group practice path that I was describing, ~that ~that's not for you. You might be good with people, you might be an excellent trainer.
[00:18:17] You might have discernment in hiring and firing, but if you're not ~and ~enjoying it and it doesn't ~and it ~drains you, then why would you want to go down that path? It might not sustain you, it might just kill you. That's okay. There's plenty of other options to turn your wisdom into income. So think about the sessions that leave you feeling more alive.
[00:18:41] You walk out of the room and you think, ~I could, ~I could do more of that. I wish my next client was like that. You look at the phone and you hope that type of client picks up, ~you know, ~calls you and asks for your services because you know. In your heart, you can help them. You've done it before. You can help them quicker, faster, [00:19:00] cheaper than anyone else.
[00:19:02] So who is that person? Maybe take a few notes on this. Who is in the chair? What stage of life are they in? What are they dealing with? What are the conversations that you had that ~what ~was important to them? These aren't just. Feel good memories. These are signs, these are signals, these are data points that these are your people.
[00:19:28] Do a thought exercise for me. Ask yourself a simple question. If I had to spend whole year working with just one type of client, who would you pick? Now, I'm not saying pick the easy ones. I'm not saying just pick somebody that is, is easy and simple and quick. I want you to pick the ones that you are connected to, that their growth and their story matters deeply to you.
[00:19:57] Maybe it's trauma, ~you know, maybe it's trauma, and you, you, ~you feel energized when [00:20:00] you are helping somebody through their story of trauma. Every group of people comes with a set of reoccurring problems.
[00:20:09] Some of those problems drain you, some of them bore you, but others ~you're just, ~you're just drawn to them. You're strangely drawn to them. You notice them, ~you see, ~you see them on the street. You see them in movies. You hear them in conversations. You highlight paragraphs about them in books. They are signs and signals.
[00:20:34] When you light up, that's a sign that you are working in your flow state. You are finding your people, but they're only, they only, they only help if you pay attention to them. One of the things I do on a regular basis is ~I, ~I get tasked with speaking in front of our large group marriage ministry, and there's probably 20 to 40 people.
[00:20:57] I welcome them and introduce the [00:21:00] video we're gonna watch, and, ~um, ~then I recap the video when we're done and, and give a little prayer. ~And guys, guys, ~I'm scared every time, like as the video's playing, ~uh, ~before I go up there, I'm taking notes, I'm looking at the script. ~Uh, ~sometimes ~I, ~I read the script 'cause I'm just too nervous, ~uh, ~to come up with thoughts off the top of my head.
[00:21:22] Sometimes I lose my train of thought in front of the group 'cause everybody's looking at me. Few times I've prayed for people and used the wrong name 'cause my goldfish brain can't remember ~the, ~the problem in their name at the same time. Yet people come up to me afterwards and say, oh, you are so real up there, you're so authentic.
[00:21:45] ~Uh, ~you make me feel welcome and accepted. Thank you so much for your words of encouragement. You do such a great job. ~And you know, ~helping people find hope is something that is so encouraging to me and these signs and these signals I [00:22:00] need to listen to. 'cause it shares, maybe I'm not the best at it, but it shares that it's my authentic self.
[00:22:06] People are responding. ~I love when it, ~I love it when I can help people find their hope. In desperate times. I gotta be watching for those signals. So link those signals to who you are. ~Um, ~as an authentic person. Your authentic authenticity plays a huge role here. People tend to say yes to helpers who they relate to.
[00:22:34] Who they wanna be. Like, ~uh, ~Danny eni uses the phrase resident identity. Now, Danny was in episode one 13 and one 14. ~Uh, ~we talked about how to make your course an obvious yes and how to ~ establish, ~establish your brand with your resident identity. That's, ~uh, ~one 14. He's somebody you should listen to. He's, he is well worth listening to.
[00:22:58] And the idea here [00:23:00] is I see who you are. And something in me says, I want to grow in that direction. That's what you wanna be for other people. You want them to see their story in you and aspire to be like you. So your story of burnout, your story of loss, your still story of rebuilding or re-branding, that will naturally draw people who have felt the same mix of fear and hope the more you own who you are.
[00:23:29] The more authentic you are, the easier it will be for the right person to recognize you. Like, oh, I see myself in them. You don't have to pretend. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to try to be somebody else or compare yourself to other people. You just gotta be the honest guide who walks the path a few steps ahead.
[00:23:55] When you try to be somebody else, when you hide your story, when you [00:24:00] do image management, the people that you can help the most, the people who want to be like you, can't find you. You're covering yourself up. So sharing your real journey becomes of clarity. That ~the, the ~understanding who you are and how that helps the people that are attracted to you, gives you clarity.
[00:24:22] ~once you start and you get a clear, uh, get, ~once you start and get clear on people, everything else really just shifts. Your product ideas get simpler. You stop saying, oh, I gotta help everyone with everything and there's too many things to do. You start narrowing what you do. You start saying, this is the type of person I help.
[00:24:40] These are the problems that they have. This is how I help them. And if you can say yes to those people, then your schedule begins to change. Your pricing starts to feel different. ~You're, ~you're thinking about how can I put myself in the best position to keep doing this [00:25:00] and do it for the long haul?
[00:25:05] Clarity's not gonna be perfect at first. In fact is probably, ~um, ~revealed over time and it's revealed as you take multiple steps and probably some of those steps will be missteps and failure. And that's okay. ~It's, ~it's a discovery process. It's not a pass failed test. You're actually going to discover, refine, and adjust as you go.
[00:25:29] Staying fuzzy and not having clarity means you're taking action without knowing if this is the right destination. You might get stuck on the road, you might end up in the wrong direction. You might travel up the hill and ignore the signs and realize that at the end of this destination is a pile of rocks.
[00:25:56] I wanna give you a simple reflection that you can do it [00:26:00] probably in the next five minutes. ~Um, ~maybe write a prayer paragraph and start out with this sentence. Right now I feel most called to serve people who, ~and, ~and write out what comes out. Now, if it was me, what I would do is I would, ~uh, ~open Gemini or chat GPT.
[00:26:20] Start a voice recorder and, ~and tell, ~tell chat GPT what I'm doing. Say I'm doing a simple exercise to help me find my authentic self. I would just talk into it and I would answer. Right now I feel most called to serve the people who, and then describe them with ~as, ~as vivid as you can. What does their life look like right now?
[00:26:41] What are they struggling with? What keeps them up at night? What are they tired of? What are they longing for? What stage of life are they in? You could, maybe, you can get silly a little bit and say, if they were a Winnie the Pooh character, this is who they'd be. If they were a character from friends, ~this is, they're what they would, ~this is who they are and why?[00:27:00]
[00:27:00] If they were from the office or I don't know, the Avengers, ~the, uh, ~Marvel Avengers, like, who are they? 'cause there's a lot of flawed characters. In those, uh, superhero movies, don't overthink it. ~You know, ~just use plain words and talk as you would be talking to a friend.
[00:27:21] What you're trying to do is build confidence. ~You're, uh, ~while you figure out who you are and what are some paths to additional income stream. One of the things I've done, ~uh, ~to help people with this is I've collected all the tools that I've used over the last couple years. I called it the course Confident, course creator, but it's really for anyone who wants to find out what their strengths are.
[00:27:48] They wanna stop being ~carried, ~carried along, and feeling like a victim. They want to become, take more agency and, and do the things in their life that that are important. it's a mini course. You'll find [00:28:00] several tools. There'll be financial tools, strength building tools. There's an exercise about building your eulogy and ~your, ~your five year, 10 year, one year goals, ~um, ~and vision statements.
[00:28:12] ~Uh, ~Uh, that was from a Donald Miller book, ~hero, ~hero on a Mission. ~Uh, there, ~there's all these tools. ~There's, um. ~That you can use to find out what your identity is, who you are authentically, and ~to build, ~to build that clarity in your life. And once you find that you're who you serve and the problems you solve are gonna be much clearer, you're not gonna be guessing, or I hope this works.
[00:28:35] You're gonna be building your business around your life, not your life around your business. ~um. ~Some of the tools in there are Soul Compass, strength Checker Ability, Atlas Legacy Map, life Compass Blueprint, and Ideal Client Beacon. And then there's a, ~uh, ~practical Money Guide from, ~um, ~my friend and accountant, Julie Harris.
[00:28:54] That's on, like, if you were gonna build a course, what are some, ~uh, ~financial practices? Just some [00:29:00] basic things that you could do. So if you're struggling to grow your confidence and learn. Uh, about yourself. You can grab that confidence Course creator. ~Uh, ~if you go to the store page, it's 1 99, but if you use the link in the show notes, it's ~uh, ~uh, pay what you want, starting at $5.
[00:29:20] 'cause I want to help, like my main goal is to give people hope. And you gotta get this first part down before you move forward. These are the tools I used, these are the things I used to get me. Um. To get me out of my comfort zone and to start building the business that I love because I'm doing it from my authentic self needed.
[00:29:44] I needed that clarity to get moving. So, ~uh, ~clarity's the first pillar. So I want you to, ~um, ~start thinking about your clarity and come back next week and we'll talk about the problem, the problem that you can [00:30:00] solve.
[00:30:00] And I just want you to start thinking, who am I and what are my skills? What is my special sauce that I am, I am great at.
[00:30:09] Thanks again for listening to the Scaling Therapist podcast. if you're wondering, is there more to helping people than endless sessions, anxiety over schedules and eventual burnout? It's now time to take action and explore who am I and who are the people that I am uniquely designed to help.
[00:30:28] Thanks for listening. I would really appreciate it if you liked and shared this episode. I'm here to help you. We'll see you next time.
