Today I 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.
2: Be willing to talk about your program with a lot of enthusiasm, and ask people to help you share it.
3: Be willing to show up and work directly with your participants.
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.
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.
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 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.
Listen above or on your favorite podcast platform.
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:
They’ve got a company bringing in revenue of 7 figures or more.
They’ve hired a big team.
They expand their business to serve more people year over year.
These numbers are all as big as possible: total revenue, number of team members, number of followers, and number of people served.
This person might be a coach who runs a course or membership with hundreds or thousands of members at a time. Perhaps they also have many many other offers at many price points.
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:
They’ve got a tiny team, like zero or one employees.
They’ve got smaller revenue, like under 500k, but they get to keep more than half of that money.
Their tech is simple.
They don’t have much overhead.
They have one or two high-touch offers.
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
2 stories of folks who scaled big, hated it, and decided to simplify and shrink their businesses
How I keep Rebel Therapist simple
How you can still serve more people with a tiny business
Resources & People Discussed:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s really fucking hard to be a mother entrepreneur with young kids, especially if you’re the default or primary parent.
My guest this week has a robust business and she makes good money.
She realized last year that she was afraid to take on big projects in her business because as the primary parent of 2 young kids, she didn’t consistently have the capacity she’d need to carry them through. She and her husband decided to switch roles. In this conversation she talks about what’s changed since they made that switch.
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.
I love to help you make more money. AND…For some of you, the biggest reasons you have for creating your own signature programs are not financial.
You want to create programs to tap into your purpose, to express your love for your communities, to experience and share joy, to resist oppressive forces, and on and on.
Our guest created a program for his community because he loves his community.
Everyone is scared to launch their first program.
Someone asked recently: what if I’m REALLY scared to launch my program. Like…what if there are powerful individuals and structures out there who might want to do me harm?
What if putting myself out there associated with this work might actually be dangerous to me or my family?
You ever wonder what's going on with the personal finances of entrepreneurs?
Like are they all just born wealthy?
How are they taking these risks and making these investments to grow these businesses?
My guest today is going to tell you how in a one year period she was able to clear $25,000 of credit card debt and save $55,000 for a house. She’s gonna really get into the nitty gritty of it.
And no, she didn't grow up wealthy.
Meet Podge Thomas, a Notion Consultant and People Ops Specialist. She works with small business owners to build operational infrastructure through the lens of liberation and justice.
One of the businesses she has helped a ton is Rebel Therapist and I am proud to call Podge a friend.
Listen above or on your favorite podcast platform.
I mentioned in episode 196: 332K Of Revenue With Over 2 Months Off that I’ve been engaging in some profound trauma healing, and that’s changed the way I experience my business.
I’ve heard from many of you that you’d like to hear more.
This episode is all about how trauma healing has been changing just about everything about how I experience my work.
Although I avoid binaries, I talk about the difference between the old Annie (less healed) and the new Annie (more healed).
I’ve stopped trying to manage/control my participants’ experiences as a way to feel safe.
I still get anxious in moments, but I no longer identify myself as a constantly anxious person.
I’m more straightforward with my participants and tell them the truth about what I see in their businesses right away. (And they can handle it!)
I’m more patient with the process my participants go through as they build their businesses. I embrace the beautiful nuance you each bring to your work.
I’m asking for help when I’m struggling, rather than reporting when I’ve got it all figured out.
I’m more transparent about what’s going on in my own business and life, rather than trying to make everything seem perfect.
You want to run a group program? One common question from my participants is: “What skills do I need to learn in order to facilitate a group really well?”
I’ve got someone here on the pod to share her unique process of leading large groups in an expansive, liberated and trauma informed way.
Introducing Tracy Gantlin-Monroy.
Tracy Gantlin Monroy is a licensed professional counselor and resident therapist at Grace Community Counseling & Social Services in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a brain-wise, body therapist passionate about trauma healing. Tracy is the first Black female Brainspotting trainer in the world having been mentored by Dr. David Grand, founder & Developer of Brainspotting. Tracy also runs healing retreats for Black women.
I got a message from one of the grads of Create Your Program recently saying that she was in the middle of launching her program. She said that launching was both a soul expanding and soul draining experience.
I want to talk about some ways to protect and take care of your soul while you’re launching your program.
First I’ll define “launch”: The time when registration is open for a time limited with a deadline, and the things you do to promote your program during that time.
When we’re launching, we’re opening ourselves up to a lot of different feelings and voices, both internal and external.
Heidi Savell is a therapist and polyamory coach. She helps those newish to polyamory find more steadiness and fulfillment in their relationships.
You’re about to hear about the business she’s created beyond her therapy practice, how she built it and why she loves running her program.
Heidi’s giving us a masterclass on using Tiktok and Instagram to move the needle on your business.
