Stop Letting Fear Keep You Stuck & Start Making Smart Moves Instead [Ep 69]
29 Oct 2025 · 15 min
Carly Hill explains why therapists stay stuck trading time for money in private practice and how digital products and systems let you scale instead. She shares her jump from first-year income to six-figure months and argues that strategic investments in mentorship and tools collapse the timeline to real growth.
Questions this episode answers
Barry's (AI scribe for mental health professionals); code Carly50 for $50 off first month (website: heyberrys.com).
About $80,000.
About $50,000.
$100,000 in 30 days (sometimes in a few weeks).
She states she has helped many clients go from zero to six figures in four months.
Chapters
Welcome to the Thriving Therapeneur podcast. The show for ambitious therapists who are ready to unapologetically make more money, scale their impact and build their dream coaching business. I'm Carly Hill, therapist turned coach turned CEO of a seven figure online business. I created the Thriving Therapeutic podcast because I'm obsessed with helping big hearted therapists outgrow the office and build successful and sustainable online businesses. So if you are wondering how you can continue to make an impact without sacrificing the life you love, welcome Therapreneur. This is exactly the place for you. Think of it like the business school we never had. I am so excited to dive in with you. Let's get started. Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show. Today we're going to have a real honest conversation, just as we normally do, but not about more techniques or certifications. You guys know I have a coaching certification. I didn't learn anything I didn't learn in grad school. I don't recommend it. I recommend going the business route. But we're not here to talk about certifications or techniques. We're talking about the thing that's keeping you stuck. What is keeping you stuck? Do you know what's keeping you stuck? Because I know what is keeping you stuck. It's fear. It's fear. And fear can either be fuck everything and run or it can be face everything and rise. Fear of putting yourself out there. Fear of what other therapists will think of you when you add coaching. Fear of failing. Maybe it's fear of success. Most of all, it's fear of not getting clients. If you add coaching, I know that's your fear. I actually ran a poll in my community and guess what? Majority of you said the same thing. Your fear is about, what if I don't get any clients? And here's the hard truth. That fear is costing you. It's costing you a boatload in so many areas of your life. You could have made an extra 50 grand this year, but instead you stayed in back to back, one to one sessions because of fear. So today I'm going to show you why that fear is lying to you by fear. Bye, Felicia. Why the safe option here isn't really safe and how to start making smart investments in your business so you can actually scale once and for all and you can do it fast. Let me take you back to the beginning real quick. My first year in private practice, I think I made about 80 grand. My 9 to 5 therapy job, I was making 50 grand. Community mental health. I think I was maybe making 40 grand, I don't know, whatever $18 an hour equals. At the time, those numbers felt like milestones. But I also remember thinking, is this it? Like, this is it? I went to school for years, worked myself to the bone, and this is the cap. I was maxed out. My calendar was full. My income was stuck at the mercy of how many sessions I could fit in. And fast forward to today. I make six figures in a single month. In 30 days, I make a hundred K, sometimes in just a few weeks, depending on what I got going on. And here's the kicker. It's not from working more hours. It's not from squeezing in more sessions. It's not even from raising my rates. It's literally from recorded content. It's from digital products, coaching programs, systems that keep running even when I'm not in the room. I'm in the Bahamas on a boat in clear waters and white Sands, and I'm getting stripe notifications and my clients are learning from me. That's the difference. That's the beauty. That's me leveraging technology. That is me working smarter, not harder. Hey, therapist, quick question. How much time are you spending on notes every week? If the answer makes you cringe a little, I've got a total game changer for you. It's called Barry's. It's an AI powered scribe tool made specifically for mental health professionals. It's HIPAA compliant, private. It's super intuitive, and honestly, I wish it existed back when I was drowning in paperwork. Barry's lets you record your sessions with consent and then automatically creates clean, accurate and compliant notes. So you can focus on your clients during the day and take back hours each week. Hours that you can spend growing a super lucrative coaching business or just enjoying your life without feeling so maxed out all the time. Right now, you can use my special code Carly50 to get $50 off your first month. If you want to test it out, go to heyberrys.com and use code Carly50 for $50 off your first month. Don't let notes steal your time. Let berries give it back to learn more and test it out. That's heyberrys.com and don't forget to use code Carly50 at checkout. All right, back to the episode. So let me paint this picture. This is you. Most likely, you're in private practice. You're bringing in six figures. Multi six figures. Maybe just on the cusp of six figures. Somewhere in that arena, yes, you're really proud of it. You should be. But to maintain it, you're stuck in endless back to back sessions. You're exhausted, you're capped. Deep down, you know there's no way forward. But more of the same thing, if you want to make more money, you have to take more clients. Or you have to get somebody under you and do a 6040 split. And maybe you don't want to do that. Me, I'm bringing in six figures a month. Leveraging technology, digital products, courses, social media, scaling beyond the therapy room, working less, earning more. I'm not trading time for money. I'm packaging my expertise so it works. While I don't. You're limited to the number of sessions you can book. I'm reaching clients around the world, nationwide, worldwide. And let me be crystal clear here, because I'm not telling you, leave therapy, drop everything and just go add coaching. No, this isn't about leaving therapy. This isn't even about shutting down your practice. Majority of my clients keep their practice. They just want to reduce their clinical hours. Maybe you make a full shift, that's fine, that's your prerogative. But it doesn't have to be either or. It gets to be both. And you can keep serving your therapy clients, you can reduce your clinical hours and you can add scalable coaching offers. Here's what I need you to understand. The so called safe option of staying only in therapy. Somebody told me that the other day it feels safer for me to just stay where I am. I'm like, whoa, you can't see it. It's not actually safe. It's really risky. It's going to cost you years of potential income you'll never get back. Like I said at the beginning of this episode, you could have made another 50 racks this year. It's going to cost you years of potential income. The freedom you say you want, but you can't access because your calendar is maxed out. It's going to cost you that freedom. I want to help you buy back your freedom. It's going to cost you the impact you could be making if you could just allow yourself to serve in bigger ways, wouldn't that be amazing? I know you have the itch. So when you say, well, Carly, I'm scared of failing, I'm scared I'm not going to get any clients. I'm scared if I launch coaching, it's not going to work out. If I put all this money in it and it doesn't work out. No, you're asking the wrong questions. And I say that with love. And I'm being a little stern here, but I want to just come through this mic and just give you a little shake for a second. I need you to flip that around. The real failure is staying stuck. The real failure is never even giving yourself a chance. Fear is not a stop sign. Fear is proof you're on the edge of growth. Think about last time. You were fearful about something. What was on the other side of that fear? Could you just get curious for a second? Could you play the what if game? What if you could just go all in and this was wildly successful? What if you just didn't make an extra 50 grand, you made double that and you made an extra six figures, and that is what's possible. I've actually helped many clients go from zero to six figures in four months. We can collapse timelines as much as you want. You're in the driver's seat, and I need you to act like it. Let's talk about investments for a second. When fear runs your business, your decisions can be very reactive. Fear says, I'll just do more sessions. Fear says, I'll just sign up for another certification before I'm ready. Fear says, I'm going to keep my head down and just hope clients find me. But smart investments look completely different. Smart investments ask, all right, what is the one system I can build that's going to generate clients consistently? Smart investments ask, what's the one offer that I can scale beyond my calendar? Smart investments ask, where can I invest so my time and money create the highest return? Where can I invest so my time and money create the highest return? Let's work smarter. It's not about doing more. That's the cool thing. It's not about doing more. It's just about fixing the one piece that unlocks growth. Because you're amazing at what you do, and you're already providing transformation for people. What if you could still provide a transformation, impact more lives, leverage technology, get paid higher and just work smarter, not harder. Again, it's not about doing more. It's just about fixing this strategy that's gonna unlock growth for you in so many different ways. I've seen businesses turn the same traffic into tens of thousands of dollars in sales in just a few days, simply just by tightening up one process that just happened to my client on a VIP day, we tweaked one thing and boom, her sales blew up. That's what smart investments look like. Not piecemealing it together, not waiting, no putting resources where they're going to multiply. Something I hear all the time when it comes to this is okay yeah, this sounds really good, Carly. I'm gonna go all in. But actually, I mean, I don't really need all of this just yet. I think I'm just gonna take it one step at a time. You know, I'm. I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself. All right, so on the surface level, that sounds responsible, but in reality, it is just fear in disguise. I promise you. Because what you're really saying is I don't trust myself to rise to the occasion. I don't trust myself to handle the next level. Let me peel back, let me stay small, let me not get too far ahead, and let me just take a baby step. And that belief is going to keep you moving at the slowest possible pace. If you only ever take one baby step at a time, you're just going to crawl. Meanwhile, the people who go all in, who invest in the mentorship to support the highest level strategy, they're implementing it, they're doing it fast. You're still thinking about it. They've already made the mistakes and refined and they're off again. They are collapsing timelines. They create results in months. It could have taken them years, but it took them months. So the question isn't, should I invest now? The question is, how much longer am I willing to delay the results I already know I want? You don't wait until you feel ready. No, you just decide ready is a decision, and then you have to rise to meet that decision. I paid over a hundred K to make a million dollars in less than three years. I would do that 10 times again. It's an investment. It was always a little bit scary when I was investing in mentors. And yes, I have been burned, but I made smart investments. I didn't wait until I felt ready. No, I just decided, I'm ready for this next level. I'm going to rise and I'm going to make that decision. That decision that I'm ready. I didn't want to delay anything. I wanted to collapse timelines. And I did, and I do, and I continue. So let me ask you this. Do you want to be in the same place this time next year, working nights, weekends, doing paperwork, not hitting your income goals, not having the freedom and flexibility and security that you so desire? Maybe you're just maxed out. Do you want to be in that same place this time next year? Or are you ready to create a business that makes astronomical amounts of money? Maybe you don't want to make astronomical amounts of money that's possible for you. I always say sky is the limit with a dollar sign. But it could just be about the abundance in your life of freedom. Being able to make a decision, being able to say no. What if just a little extra cash in your pocket could allow you to spend more time with your kids, retire your husband, take care of your elderly parents, pay off your student loans, whatever the case is? Are you ready to create that business? You have to decide that the difference is not luck. It isn't talent. It's leverage. It's strategy. It's saying yes to building something bigger than trading time for money. You already have everything you need. The one thing you need to do now is just stop letting fear be the boss of you. You're the boss. Fear is not in the driver's seat say what's up to it I understand why you're here Fear. Hi, I see you but you're not the boss of me. Get in the backseat and I'm driving the car. So as we wrap up, I just want you to remember that I'm proof that this is possible. I'm nothing special. I got here to where I am today because I stopped letting fear run my business. I started making smart investments. And you can do the same thing. Let this be your permission slip if you're ready to see what that looks like. If you're just a tad bit curious, just look at the information in the show notes and we can guide you. If it's not for you, cool. But maybe it is. And maybe mentorship could be the one thing that's missing. It's the one puzzle piece that's going to get you to where you want to go and hit those goals. So remember, it's not about leaving therapy behind. It's just about expanding what's possible for your income, your freedom, your future. I had to give you a little bit of tough love here, but my love is with you. I'm always here cheering you on. You've got this and I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to the thriving Therapeneur podcast. I hope that this episode has inspired you to reduce burnout, work smarter, and see the freedom potential you have as a therapist. We would love to have you inside the Therapist to Coach Accelerator Facebook group where we have live trainings and cheat sheets on all things marketing, sales, and adding coaching, ethically and legally. I am here cheering you on and I'll see you around, Sam.
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