I was born with an entrepreneurial spirit and started my first side-hustle at the age of 10. By the time I went to college I had launched two successful hustles of babysitting and private soccer lessons, and failed at countless lemonade stands, friendship bracelet stands, and the biggest flop of all was my pet rock business. Turns out living on a low-traffic cul-de-sac was bad for foot traffic…

Oddly enough I didn’t anticipate that my adult career would have anything to do with business. I figured I would work at my agency job until retirement and that would be that.

Private practice was another side-hustle that more or less fell in my lap and I kept doing it even while I had my agency job because it was fun and I was good at it.

When I inevitably became burned out in agency life, private practice just made the most sense. But my ambitions pushed me to reach larger so I opted to purchase a business condo and turn it into a wellness co-working space to house my little practice. That turned out to be on of the best moves I’ve made and paved the way for a lot of beautiful things that followed. I learned more business skills, developed a solid reputation, and connected to a community of like-minded therapists. From there a lot of things unfolded organically.

I grew my solo practice into a cozy casual group practice with part-time contractors who were fantastic and easy to work with. Then I launched a tech-startup that was meant to be a therapist matching software but now RIP with my lemonade stand. That taught me infinitely more business skills on launching and scaling, connected me with a new community of founders and funders, and skyrocketed my bravery because I survived going all in and falling flat on my face. It was more of a knock to the ego than the pet rock business, which had very low startup cost aside from paint and gravel.

Next came my decision to go all-in on my practice and apply my newfound business savvy to the one hustle that always came naturally and organically. I doubled down on branding and marketing, started to create systems and processes to orient and manage new staff, and hired my first full-time employees. I figured out how to offer benefits and build up a self-pay caseloads and supervise.

I learned the hard way that there is a HUGE difference between having part-time independent contractors and full-time employees.

The time spent on administrative tasks, marketing, networking, monitoring and tracking outcomes, and managing employee needs is substantially higher, which is minuscule compared to the stress of carrying the weight of peoples’ livelihoods on your shoulders.

That’s the biggest part I wasn’t prepared for. I trusted my ability to constantly learn, iterate, and keep my heart in the right place. I didn’t fully get the implications of my oversights, mistakes, or weaknesses until I was in deep and had to learn the hard way. It was especially difficult because I was trying to build something different. Something heart-centered and softer and more feminine.

I want my clinicians to make great money, and have good benefits, and support to create new services, and a flexible and totally manageable schedule with clients they adore, and without the tense pressures of productivity. I wanted to love my job and my team and be able to take fabulous vacations. It turns out that’s pretty hard to do, and for too long I tried to figure it out on my own.

It’s funny when you step back and think about it… we are building businesses that rely on other people paying us for our expertise, yet we struggle to do the same to support our own growth.

You know without a doubt that you can help your clients better and faster than any podcast or self-help book, but when we build our own businesses many of us turn to Apple Podcasts before we look to hire an expert. I’m speaking from experience here. I didn’t hire an attorney or accountant until I was 2 years in, and I didn’t hire a business coach until I was 3 years in.

Now I don’t do anything in isolation. I contract with experts whenever I get the chance. I consult with peers regularly and have scheduled gatherings with other women business owners to talk tools of the trade. I meet with my business mentor monthly and my administrative team multiple times weekly.

I learned the slow way that trying to bootstrap after launching your business only slows down your growth and increases the likelihood that you’ll have cracks in your foundation.

If I could go back to talk to younger me I would tell her to put down Audible and invest in professionals!

Lucky for you this means that I’ve made lots of mistakes and there is a good chance I’ve faced many of the problems you are facing now. Also lucky for you - I learned from those mistakes and genuinely enjoy helping other people avoid similar traps. I get joy out of helping other people succeed and I am happy to share any and everything I have to help you do just that.

Let’s chat.