How a Therapist Made $20K in 5 Months With Coaching

Hello everyone, welcome back to the show. I am so excited. Today's episode is really special because I am bringing in one of my clients, Maren, who has done something many therapists want to do, they just don't quite know how to execute. Maren's an LCSW. She was already running a successful private practice, but like most therapists, she realized that Having a full caseload didn't necessarily translate to financial clarity or consistent income. She has a unique story of why she wanted to add coaching, and we're gonna talk about that. But since joining the program, the Coach Intensive, she's built and scaled a coaching business alongside her practice. She brought in $20K in 5 months while also redefining how she pays herself and how she runs her business as a CEO. Now she's helping. Other therapists and group practice owners actually take home money, not just generate revenue, but take it home. We're gonna talk all about profit first. That is Maren's middle name. And what I love about Maren is she doesn't just teach theory, she really helps her clients implement real systems around cash flow systems for therapists designed specifically for therapists. And sometimes our brains as therapists, let's be real, they just don't fit into a traditional financial advice model. And that's what I love the work about what you're doing, Marin. So today, let's pull back the curtains. Let's talk about your journey. Let's talk about what shifted for you when you came inside the Coach Intensive. And let's also dive into your niche, what you help therapists do, because this is something that so many therapists struggle with. So, Maren, I am so excited to have you on today.

Yeah, thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to this.

Yeah. So let's start in your own words. I, I gave you an introduction, but can you kind of introduce yourself? What did I miss? Share what do you do? Who do you help? Why do you do this work in the first place?

Yeah, absolutely. So I still have a private practice. I see, depending on the week, 10 to 15 clients a week. I have a private pay practice. So it wasn't for me that when I went in was, oh my gosh, I don't have any money. I'm not hitting my income goals. I had a choice of, do I see more therapy clients, one-on-one work, or do I want to shift something? Because my nervous system was saying, no, I'm not having it anymore. And so as I started to build my coaching business, I have still continued to build my private practice. I don't take on new clients now, so it's more shifted in that way. But I couldn't just leave it dry, so I still had to continue to see clients. And it was one of those of, I either have to do it or I'm gonna have to take on more therapy clients. So I had to make that decision.

And you didn't wanna take on more therapy clients because your nervous system, you knew you were at what I call an energetic cap.

Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

I was feeling burned out. I didn't have the freedom and my income goals weren't quite there. I could have made it if I took on a couple more clients and I would've been okay, but I didn't wanna to do that. There was something else. I knew there was something else bigger out there, and that's what I decided to do.

So before we started working together and you came inside the Coach Intensive, what did your business look like behind the scenes? Because you didn't come in starting completely from scratch. You had built some things, but walk us through what that process was like for you.

Yeah, so I guess it was a little— almost 2 years ago when I made the decision to branch into coaching. And it was actually, I was on with one of my business coaches and said, what do you want to talk about today? I literally went in and said, I have no idea. Let's talk about alternate streams of income. I still cannot tell you where that came from. And then we went through, okay, well, what do you want to do? So I talked about a podcast and then said, well, that's going to take a lot of time and energy to get that up and going. So let's not start there. And so we talked about coaching and I knew from the get-go it was the money side of private practice for therapists because what I had gone through. I had a full-time job, started my practice, had no idea how to pay myself. Saw money coming in, don't know how much to put aside for taxes, don't know what I could pay myself, business expenses. And so I'm not in the hole. And when I was networking with therapists, that was always the question that would get asked. How do you pay yourself? You know, how do you get clients? You know, really not even necessarily how do you start your practice, but it was After my practice has started, what do I do now so I can know that my income goals were met and my nervous system is not in reaction mode all the time? And so that's where it started. And I came to a crossroads of, do I want to build my own from scratch or do I want to implement something that is already there and has the foundation and really bring it to my people? And that's what I decided to do. So I actually went through my certification with Amber Dogger and Profit for Keeps. And she is a Profit First professional. And so it was just, everything came together and I knew that I had to bring this to, to my people.

Amazing. Yeah. To therapists, cuz it is so needed. You're exactly right.

Yeah.

And nobody teaches us this stuff in school, right?

Absolutely not.

Yeah. Okay. So you, alternate stream of income, coaching was your path, you knew out of the gate what your niche was gonna be. You didn't wanna reinvent the wheel, and so you knew, all right, I'm gonna go get certified in Profit for Keeps. This is what I'm gonna teach therapists. Now we have your niche. You've decided to add coaching. You've got past any mindset hurdles if you had to go through them of therapists adding coaching and can I really do this and what is this gonna look like and all of those things, right? Now walk us through what was this process like for you and what did you build on your own? Where were you lost and you found me and then we put the, the pieces together.

Yes. So I had actually, you had had your startup school is when I came into your world and I had actually talked with Tanya before and then we said, yeah, it's really not the best time because I don't need all the foundation, you know, I didn't know, need to know how to form an LLC. I had all my contracts in place. I had all the basics there. And so I went through startup school and that's when the pitching intensive got announced. And then I said, okay, this is it. You know, cause it wasn't for me, how do I start? It's okay, I've already started. So now how do I get all of these systems into place? Cause things were just messy. It was more about Okay, yeah, I thought I had my niche, but I didn't. And I didn't realize that until, until that time. And so I was really able to define who I wanted to work with and also just figure out who, who are the people that I need to support me to do this. And I think coming into your program, there were a lot of things that I didn't realize that I needed, that I didn't know that I needed. And systems was definitely one of those. And, you know, just, I think it was just bringing everything together. I had a lot of the loose ends, but they needed a path and needed to figure out, okay, what do I actually do with this? Mm-hmm.

So what was most helpful for you in coming into the program to help you implement systems? And maybe what were some of those things that you thought maybe you had dialed in, but you didn't until you were really in the thick of building it out, or maybe listening to some of my trainings or coming to coaching calls with myself or my team, et cetera? Everybody's curious who's listening, like, what was that, Maren?

I think it was all the different things. Literally any support that you could have out there, there's a guy for everything. It's what I say.

There is.

Yeah. And I think a couple of things that really stood out to me is I didn't realize how important systems were until I had them in place. I knew what I knew and I was doing what I was doing, but until I did it differently, that's when I really saw, oh wow, this is what it's like. You know, getting my CRM in place, you know, building the workflows, automating things, starting to train my VA for what my business looked like. And even just, you know, on our systems call, walking through of, okay, this is what's going on. Can you help me process out loud? And what does that actually look like? Along with having somebody, you know, having my own coach in my back pocket anytime to say, hey, I have this question, you know, somebody sent me this email, or You know, I don't know what to do with the social media. What would you say? And just being able to talk back and forth in real time. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. 24/7 around the clock support. If you have a question, getting it answered. And when you say systems, I mean, a system is save yourself serious time, energy, and money, right? That's what a system stands for. We can go as high level with systems and talk about it in that way of how it's gonna help you buy back your time and have more freedom and flexibility in your life. Or we can go a little bit more micro and granular and talk about, well, what does this actually mean? It means for you, you know, getting a CRM system like GoHighLevel, uh, getting a project management system like ClickUp, and then actually building out some of the workflows and automations so it can look like you have a team of 10. When really maybe you only have a team of 2 and it's just you and your VA because everything is automated behind the scenes happening, right? And so sometimes it's about talking through, like you said, hey, these are all the things that I'm doing manually.

These are the—

this is the process that I'm doing currently with my clients. How can I do this in a smarter way? And then we can kind of workshop, oh, well, you can have this system, you could set up this workflow. Sometimes it needs to be done manually, but do you have to do that? Can it be your virtual assistant who can do that? These type of conversations is really what was happening behind the scenes, right, Maren?

Yeah, absolutely. And I have ADHD, so I have a lot of everything in my head all at one time. On any given day, there's at least 20 boxes going on. So I needed to figure out what is something that I do not have to hold into this box that I can build it out and have support and talk through it, and then once I've wrote it out, it's there, and then I can go on to the next one. And it may not always be streamlined, you know, I may, it, I may think, oh, I need to start here, but then I'm over here and I work on that, but then it gets someplace and comes, starts to circle back around.

Yeah. Let's go down the ADHD rabbit hole for a second because you're not alone. And I hear this all the time. And so, all right, you're a therapist, you have ADHD, you're running a thriving private practice, and then boom, you're starting a coaching business. You're busy, everyone's busy. I don't have the time to do this is something I hear all of the time. If there's anybody who doesn't have the time to do it, it's maybe you because you're managing a million other things on top of that, right? But how did you not let that be an excuse and how did you manage your time? Was there a mindset shift that had to happen? Walk us through what that process looks like.

Honestly, I think it was just saying, I'm going to do it. You know, uh, it was either I could get in my way and make every excuse in the world to do it. And what's the worst thing that's gonna happen is I try this and it doesn't work and I still have a therapy practice. So it's not like I'm not going to have any clients whatsoever. And I already have my referral partnership, so there's really not a bad thing that can happen out of it. And at the end of the day, whatever I learn here, it's gonna help me in my therapy practice.

You know, it's so true.

Yeah. So it was really one of those. And were there long days? Yeah. Are there still long days? Absolutely. Cuz I'm still working on building my team and building my systems, but I would rather go ahead and do it now and then later on in 10 years from now, I'm not still doing the same thing every single day.

Right. You're putting in the groundwork now. Short-term pain for the long-term gain. I mean, there's always gonna be those 12-hour days when you're in the foundational stages, even when you're in the grow stages. And then when you hit the scale stages, you have a lot more freedom and a lot more revenue, but you can't take a hop, skip, and a jump and go straight to the scale stage, right?

Absolutely. I mean, same thing when I built my private practice, you know, I was working another job. I had to do some evenings and weekends. I didn't see clients on weekends cuz that was a huge boundary of mine, but I was working longer days and I built it and then it, now it's a well-oiled machine, so I don't have to put a lot of time into it. And so now I'm putting my time into my coaching business so I can get to that place where I have the freedom.

I think what you said is really powerful. I have nothing to lose because a lot of. People have the mindset of, what if I put everything into this and it doesn't work out? I'm like, you're asking the wrong question, because what if you put everything into this and it does work out? And oftentimes it's not the, the fear of failure that people have, it's the fear of success. And they know deep down in their bones that it is going to work and it is going to blow up and they are going to be very successful. And oh my gosh, can they hold it if and when blows the F up.

Yeah, it was literally overnight. Like, I was laying all the foundation, and then my VA sends me a message one day and he goes, I'm seeing your name pop up places. I was like, yes, we're doing it.

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, didn't you get your first client within like 3 weeks of the Coach Intensive?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, it was. I think it was literally right at 3 weeks. And I had been waiting, waiting, waiting. I was like, okay, I got— there's gotta be somebody out there. And it was just bringing it all together and all of a sudden it just started to blow up.

Yeah. And so you just took a, a quick pause from coaching and now you're back into my world. You had some things that you wanted to, to do, and so I think you took maybe like a month pause. I don't even know if it, it, it doesn't seem like it was that long.

I'm still working in the background.

Yeah. What updates do you have for me? Or tell me in live time, like, how is it going? What's your revenue at now? I'm so curious.

Yeah, I mean, it's been going really good. I was a little bit hesitant to take the calls because I'm somebody, when I'm in my motivation mode and I'm hyperfocused, I'm in it, and I did not want to lose that. But it was actually really good because I was able to take a a break and just kind of, you know, I didn't go to the coaching calls, but I was still watching, you know, my modules and trainings in the background. And I'm not even kidding you. I know I have said this to you, Carly, for 5 months that I'm going to work on my core messaging and value stack, and I finally did it. Good.

Yes.

Yes. And so when I took a pause to do it, I think it just gave me clarity of who I wanted to work with. And what that really looked like. And I was able to get a lot more clarity on my messaging. And even, uh, you know, with how I'm doing it is, you know, with Profit for Keeps, like, yeah, we do have that framework that's there, but I get to bring my spin on it. And what does that look like for a therapist? And as I've been working with more group practice owners, more of your small group practice owners, like 10 clinicians or less, and was able to identify what I'm doing is we're redesigning this, we're redesigning it so your business can actually support your life and you're not having to be in freak out mode of, oh my gosh, how am I gonna pay my clinicians and what does that look like? And I was able to just really develop some tools for the clinicians that I'm working with. And I think because I took that pause, I could develop some of those in that time.

Yeah. And that development came from the market research, that core messaging document, which is so intense, so deep. I mean, I had— I recorded a podcast episode with, uh, another client recently, and she was like, Carly, that document and exercise alone was worth the whole entire program. Because 100%, getting your core messaging dialed in to that caliber will change the whole trajectory of your business. And you even said, like, I thought I knew my niche, and then I realized Maybe I didn't know exactly who I wanted to help at this level. And then you did it again at a next level through this core messaging doc, and that helped you develop whole entire new systems for your clients to best serve them. But also it helps you on the marketing front as well. And now your messaging is gonna land with them and they're like, whoa, did you bug my house? This is so creepy. You're exactly in my brain.

Yes.

What is going on? And it all stems from that core messaging doc, right?

I said I was going to do it from the get-go and it took me 5 months to get there because I got distracted and this was my shiny object at that point. And then when I went into it, it was like, okay, yes, now I know how I want to work with. But I have no regrets of doing it that way because I needed to work with, you know, or do my market research in this area to see that that's actually not who I want to serve. Not that I can't serve them, but I have more to give in this other area because I was seeing so many solo practitioners that were full and not hitting their income goals. And, you know, smaller group practices that weren't able to pay themselves because they're going off of generic rates. So this is what everybody else is doing, but their business doesn't look like that. Their life doesn't look like that. So we need to develop something that's specific to you.

Yeah, walk us through some of the biggest tangible shifts in your business to get those paying clients. Yes, it was niche clarity, right? Uh, defining your offer. But what did that look like for you in terms of booking sales calls or closing them? What, what did you not know beforehand, and then you came into the Coach Intensive and you're like, oh, this is the steps that I take and then boom, I get a paying client and it happened so fast in, in 3 weeks. Like, what were the actual quote unquote things that you did to get the clients?

Yeah, so actually it's really how I built my private practice as well, is I started with local networking. You know, relationship-based is never going to fail you. Never.

Old school networking never does.

Never going to fail you. And. I think when I started, I thought, oh my gosh, I have to have this huge visibility platform. And yeah, I do have a Facebook group and it comes and goes. You know, that's my ADHD showing up right there of what my energy is at that, at that time. But I had met somebody in a local networking group and said, hey, would you like to come to our, you know, live networking event? And so there were maybe like 5 or 10 people that were there and then she livestreamed it. And it was able to reach like 200 people and, you know, it wasn't together. It was messy and it was the first time I had ever done anything like that. And then that's where my first client came from. And then after that, it was actually somebody that I already knew that I've been saying for a while, you need to do this. And then she finally said, okay, I'm going to trust you. And even, you know, I think it was actually today or yesterday said, well, I'm so glad that I'm doing this because I would've given up by now. And so, and then from there, and I'm even earlier today, I had somebody that I've become friends with through building relationships that, hey, I met somebody today that's a group practice owner and they mentioned, you know, some financial struggles and I of course told them about you. And so she wanted me to do a warm handoff. Of course, yes, absolutely do that. And then the next step for me was, okay, what does my platform look like? I don't have to do everything. Let me choose the one that's going to work for me. Mm-hmm.

This is amazing. Leveraging other people's networks, right? So you got in front of an audience that was already built for you, who was your ideal client. However you do that, whether it is in person through networking. Being on podcast is a great way to do that. Uh, even you being on this podcast, I've curated a group of therapists already, and here you are leveraging my audience, uh, because we're going to talk more about your niche and what you do. So prime example, um, Facebook groups, like sometimes you can ping the admins and you can, you know, be asked to speak in front of thousands of your ideal clients. So huge marketing takeaway right there. Uh, also just old school networking like we talked about.

Yeah.

At the core, relationships, always relationships, trust, and a conversation. Conversations equal conversions. And so you don't need this huge social media platform. And eventually, yes, as you grow and you wanna go to a cold audience and you wanna get strangers to buy from you, absolutely. Absolutely. And you're building that platform right now so you can become what I call omnipresent in the online space. But getting proof of concept, getting your first paying clients through the door, boosting your confidence, being paid to essentially build out this wonderful asset and infrastructure inside your business, it's probably right in front of everybody. It's right in front of you. It's a text message away, it's an email away, it's a conversation away. I always say like, you could be sitting on a gold mine, you're just not packaging or structuring or taking up on the opportunity. And you're a prime example of that. That is just so amazing.

Yeah, and it really was in my back door. And I, you know, I have people all the time now that will— I'll get an email and say, or a text message, oh my gosh, I need to introduce you to this person. And, you know, some days I don't have the capacity to do it, you know, because I can only take so many Zoom calls in a day. But when I do, I try to do it because everybody needs somebody that says, let me tell you this thing that I had no idea, you know, and their world just opens.

So what do you think, or how has this changed your life, or how do you think it will change your life, the decision of going to your business coach? Thinking about passive income streams, additional income streams, deciding it was coaching. How has this decision to add coaching changed your life or will change your life?

Oh, it's absolutely completely changed it, you know, in so many different ways. I think confidence is one of 'em of being able to, you know, I was, my whole therapy business has been built on relationships, so I'm a relationship-based therapist. I call it relational networking. And so it was already there, but I think it's just, you know, when I looked at my income goals, the number of clients that I had to see was more than I had the capacity for. And I worked in an emergency room. I did community mental health. I worked in a doctor's office. I didn't have a say-so in that. And that's why I went into private practice. And then I took a step back and said, but I'm still doing the thing that I was doing when I was there. And I don't wanna do that anymore. You know, if I wanna take a couple weeks off, I wanna be able to take a couple weeks off. Or if I wanna work, you know, 3 days, or if I wanna build a team or whatever that needs to look like, I wanna be able to do that.

Yep. That was the exact conversation I had in my head when I went from community mental health to 9-to-5 brick and mortar therapy job to then my own private practice. And I was like, wait, this is great, but, but wait, this isn't all I thought it was gonna be. Like, I feel like everybody makes out private practice to be like this big end goal of like, one day you'll be a private practice therapist. At least like back in grad school, you know, like that, that's the ultimate end goal. And then you get there. I mean, private practice is great, don't get me wrong, and I think there's a time and a place and it's a great starting point. But if you have a private practice and you're listening, you probably understand this on a deeper level that you get a niche for more. Whether you get a taste of freedom and you're like, oh, I want more of this freedom, or you have a cap on your income and you're like, all right, I want to make more money, but I don't want to see more one-to-one clients. What do other avenues look like? And I just— therapists don't realize that you can be, you know, speakers, and you can be authors, and you could be course creators, and You can do so much as a therapist.

You can be podcasters, you know, and it was for my coaching business and I got to hang out with therapists and I went surfing for the first time and did so many fun things and I was there for work. I mean, who could say they go to Costa Rica for work?

Yeah. Yeah. The opportunities for therapists to leverage our clinical skills. And make good money while transforming lives and doing the work we love to do without sacrificing the life we love is— I just can't scream it enough. I mean, we don't know what we don't know. It, it's like, even when I was in community mental health, you know, my husband would tell me like, well, there's gotta be something better. I'm like, well, I'm just paying my dues. There's, there's, this is what it is. Like, there's nothing better for me. Right now.

Yeah, you know, this is just part of the process, right?

And then I'm like, oh, well, starting my private practice is gonna be too hard. Like, I'm just a social worker, not a businesswoman. And then you're kind of forced into the next step, and you're like, why didn't I do that sooner? It's, it's not that hard. There's absolutely an art and a science, but it's not, it's not rocket science, right? There's a lot of floating pieces, but it's, it's doable if you have the right path and blueprint, do you wish you would've added coaching sooner?

Oh, absolutely. I remember actually it was probably 2 years before when Amber had started doing her certification. I remember an email coming through about it and I said, yeah, I just don't have the time and energy to do this. And then I just, it circled back around in my world and I think, what would this have been like to do it 2 years before? You know, it would've been different, but I would've still made my way. You know, I would've had to move and shift some other things. So I have absolutely no regrets then, but I do wish I would've done it sooner.

Well, let's shift and talk about what you do now on a deeper level, cuz this is such an important conversation and you talk a lot about the difference in your content between making money, actually keeping money, how therapists don't really know, like what do I pay myself? And maybe they feel financially unstable even if they have a thriving practice. And it's not necessarily a revenue problem most of the time. No, it is a system problem, right?

Absolutely not.

So can you break that down for us?

Yeah. So most therapists, when they have a cancellation, they freak out and they go and add more clients. And coaches do that as well. So it's not just, it's not just therapists and it's other professions, but we really do it and we go into freak out mode. And because we're terrified, we're working out of fear. And I say all the time, it's usually not about adding more clients because that's just going to increase your stress level. Because when that person comes back, you're going to be burned out. But it's really about your system and how you organize your money. And a lot of us, you know, myself included, I used to be there, is generic revenue goals. You know, well, this person that That's what they're charging, or this person, that's what their goal and that's what they're making. Am I doing okay? Because this person's making that, but your life looks completely different than that person does. Your business is, looks completely different than that person does. So we need to personalize your revenue goal so we know exactly what your business needs to generate in order for you to be able to do that. And part of that is organizing your money. So every time you get paid, You know, to the penny exactly what to pay yourself, exactly what to put aside for taxes, how your profit account, your emergency, emergency money. I think COVID was a great example of this, of people that had offices and didn't have clients anymore. How are they gonna pay for it? You know, and what that looks like. And then it's really implementing the system. You know, we can have our numbers and that's the first part of it, but we implementation. Is really part of it. And numbers don't lie, you know, they don't lie, you know, it is what it is. They're not emotional if we can take the emotions out of it. But there is a lot of mindset in it as well, right?

So you're saying as therapists we need to do math, we need to crunch the numbers, we need to not base our rates off of thin air and what other people are basing their rates, right? We need to actually run numbers of our own life, our own expenses, what we actually need to pay ourselves, how much time we want off, what feels good for us to work. We, we need to reverse engineer everything and make it customizable to our own life.

Absolutely. And we start it with a financial blueprint, and we're looking at everything. And part of that is, what do you want your money to do? Why are you doing this? You know, what are the things that you want to do that bring you joy to your life? You know, what are those things? And interesting enough is we actually spend more time on the personal financial side than we do the business. And not saying the business isn't important, but that's a lot of times where we don't meet our income goals and where the system really needs to happen. And then once we put it in place on the personal side, doing the business is easy. You know, it's, yeah, I do have to have an EHR, or I do have to have this, you know, versus, you know, oh, now I can't go on that vacation that I've wanted to go on for how many months now that I finally got the courage to book. And now these cancellations, I can't afford it, but I don't want to cut it out, so I just put on my credit card and go into debt.

Well, we're building a, a business that supports our personal life. Right? And so we have to do the personal numbers first to then know, all right, well, how many clients do we actually need? Or what is our rate? Do we have room for a sliding scale? Are we taking insurance? If so, what insurances are we taking, et cetera? How many times, how many days off do, can we actually afford if we wanna hit this revenue goal, but we have XYZ expenses in our personal life? They absolutely go hand in hand. That makes sense to me.

Yeah. And forecasting is part of it. So we know what we need to do in order to take that trip or there's a gap, you know, what needs to shift. But if we do it right, we don't have to get to that place. Oh my gosh, I have a month left and I don't have the money for this. We plan it ahead of time. So we do. And so, and it's actually pretty simple.

Yeah. Well, when you have a blueprint, it's pretty simple.

Yeah.

Right? Yeah. What do you think are the biggest mistakes that therapists are making before they work with you?

So a couple is, one of them is not really knowing their numbers, you know, and comparing to other people. And I think there's, I mean, not, I think there is a lot of shame when it comes to money is something happened and they're scared to be open about it. Money is one of the most stigmatized things out there. And it's so hard to talk about. We don't talk to our friends about what we're making, most of us. You know, we get kind of a general overview. And I also think comparison is really hard. You know, that's one of the hardest things. I mean, when you— it's good to openly talk about money, but it's also one of those of just because your friend or your colleague is doing this doesn't mean that's what, what's gonna fit you. And I think it's putting yourself into a box as well and saying, you know, you can step outside of that box. And we have these core beliefs from grad school, even, I mean, throughout life as well, but we were told we can't make money, so it's really hard to be profitable. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. There's a lot of undoing, as I call it, that we have to do as therapists, and I think 90% of our industry is also women. So being a woman on top of that, there, there's an extra stigma and layer that comes with it. So it's beautiful work that you're doing. I am all for being open about money and transparency. And imagine if therapists had more real, raw conversations around what they were paying themselves. It wouldn't be this hush-hush thing where nobody knew how to do their numbers, or they were afraid to do their numbers, because it— yeah, it wasn't this fearful thing. It would be normalized. And I think you're changing the industry, uh, as a whole to normalize money and numbers and doing the math to support your Your life, which is so needed. Yes. This needs to be a class in grad school.

It does. I say it all the time. I'm like, we need to get this into grad school. I don't know what that's gonna look like yet, but it needs to be in grad school. Cuz if you start, whether you're starting a coaching business or your private practice, wherever you're at, if you know your numbers from day one, you know what to build. But if not, you don't know what to build. Uh-huh.

100%.

I mean. We just build something to build something. We're just chasing nothing.

Yeah. Know your numbers, reverse engineer 'em. So where can everybody find you, Maren, if they want more information of where this came from? I know you have free resources, you do live trainings, the whole nine yard. This will all be in the show notes, but where's the best place for people to find you?

Yeah, I've got a free Facebook group and it's Profit for Keeps for Therapists. As well as my website, which is balanceandbeyondcoaching.com. And I have my profit strategy sessions to see, hey, is this going to be a good fit for me? You know, what would it look like to work together? And I'm really open with people. Uh, I don't want you to be on a call to just sell you something. I want to make sure that this is going to work. We are going to work high touch 101 together and implement something, and we're going to see a lot of change. There might be comfort, but I'm going to be there every step of the way. If I'm building something just for you, I will build something just for you because you're not— we're not going to fall backwards.

I love it. Yeah, this work is very close to your heart because it's your own lived experience, very similar to me and the work that I do. And I can hear your passion come through when, when you say that. So yeah, if you have a private practice and you're struggling with your numbers and paying yourself and just want to get more familiar with your revenue goals and are your rates what they should be, I would definitely recommend booking a call with Maren. Clearly she's great at, at what she does. And I want to tie this full circle as we wrap up. Maren, what piece of advice would you give a therapist now building both a successful private practice and a successful coaching business to a therapist who's on the edge, they want more, whether that be expanding their private practice or getting more familiar with their numbers and being a little bit more profitable, or adding additional revenue streams, going down the path of coaching. They're fearful. They've been thinking about it for quite some time. What would you say to them?

I mean, I think I would just say, let's give it a try. You know, let's figure out what that thing is that excites you and let's start building it. You know, let's, I would crunch the numbers with them to see what do you need this extra income stream? You know, whether that is, hey, I wanna attract coaching, or maybe I want to add this new service that's not one-on-one or a group practice, whatever that might be. But let's look at the numbers and also, you know, what, what is your why behind it? You know, really getting clear of why you wanna do it. Not just saying, I wanna do this just because everybody else is doing it, you know, but something that you're actually passionate about. There's so many great things that we can do as therapists, and I think the clarity around your numbers is where it really starts. I say all the time, the success to any business, the foundation is the financial foundation. We can build up from that, but we have to have that clear structure in place in order to build up, or we're gonna build and it's gonna fall down, and then we're gonna have to rebuild.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Give it a try. Know your numbers. Like Maren said earlier, you have nothing to lose, but you have absolutely everything to gain. So give it a shot. Yeah. Use us as evidence that this is possible. I always say I'm proof that it's possible. All my clients are proof that it's possible, and if you hang around long enough, You'll be proof that it's possible as well. You just have to be willing to take a leap of faith and give it a shot, like Maren said.

And put yourself around people that are doing that, you know, that you can say, okay, that person motivates me. I can bounce this off of this person. And if I'm having a day that I'm exhausted, I can send that text message or, you know, that Slack message, whatever it is, and they will keep pushing you forward.

Yeah. Well, I'm super excited to see your continued success, Maren. I know you're just toe in the water getting started into what you're about to create and blow up. We were just talking off the recording, all of the opportunities that are coming your way. I can't even keep up. It's just incredible what you've built thus far and continue to build. So I'm excited to get back to coaching calls and be in the day-to-day nitty-gritty with you and keep blowing up your business. You are a true testimony to how amazing this work is, and the work that you're doing with therapists is absolutely incredible. So everybody go check out the show notes, uh, check out Marin. And until next time, I will see you in the next episode. Take care, everyone.