I was at a networking event yesterday and was talking to the person next to me. We got to chatting about fees and how they impact your business and she told me a story.

She had been looking to hire someone. This was a person she had known of for a while. She had a lot of respect for this person. She liked her message and had decided she wanted to work with her.

The decision had been made.

The sale was closed.

Until…

She found out this person’s fees.

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking, “Her fees were too high and she couldn’t afford her,” right?

Wrong.

She found out the person’s fees were a lot lower than she expected and she immediately changed her opinion.

Suddenly…

This person wasn’t the “expert” she had believed.

Suddenly…

This person wasn’t going to be able to help her as much as she had originally thought.

By charging a lower fee, what would have been an easy, pre-closed sale, became a lost client who went on to hire someone else.

Your fee sends a message about the value YOUR CLIENT will receive.

Are you sending the right message or is it time to raise your fees?

Coaches challenge:

Take a serious look at your fees. Do they reinforce or undermine your credibility?

Do they reflect the value your clients receive from their work with you?

If not, it’s time to raise your fees.

If you’re ready to save yourself the trouble of 3-4 years of lost income while you try to figure out what to do to take your business to the next level, You Can. You have everything you need to create the successful business you want, you just need someone to show you how to do it. I would love to speak with you about how I can help. Simply email info@katiegoode.com and we’ll send you all the details.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur and coaching other women entrepreneurs is this:

Where you are financially in your business is a direct result of your beliefs about money.

Watch the video below, to learn more: (Don’t feel like watching the video, read the transcript below the video)

Our beliefs determine our thoughts and feelings.

Our thoughts and feelings determine our actions.

Our actions determine our results.

We create the result we believe we will achieve – whether positive or negative.

That’s actually good news, when you think about it, because with a little attention and awareness we can change our beliefs.

Let me give you an example:

A client of mine was convinced that she couldn’t make any more money in her business – there’s her belief.

This made her feel hopeless, helpless and insecure.

She was focusing her thoughts on all of the “reasons” her belief was true. (We all do this, if we believe something we look for things to validate our beliefs and disregard anything that doesn’t support it.)

Because she believed she couldn’t make any more money, felt hopeless, helpless and insecure, and her thoughts were focused on the reasons her belief was true her actions ensured that she wouldn’t disprove her belief:

When someone called to find out about her service, she wouldn’t call them back for 3 or 4 days, or she would lose their number. She wouldn’t follow up with people she met through networking. There were a number of things she did on a regular basis to sabotage herself and get in the way of increasing her income.

And guess what?

She wasn’t able to make any more money in her business. In fact, she was started to make even less…

We did some work around this belief so she could see that her belief of “not being able to make any more money” was actually created the result she expected.

I challenged her to see if she could come up with a belief that would support her goal of making more income and, after several tries, she realized that it was possible for her to believe that she could make an additional $100 within the next week.

We came up with specific, easy steps she could take to act on some of the opportunities already in front of her (she hadn’t been able to see them before…).

She started to feel hopeful and confident.

She focused her thoughts on how easy it would be to take the steps we had talked about.

She took action on those steps.

And guess what?

She didn’t make an extra $100 the next week. She made an extra $700 with more on the way!

Do you see how that worked? By bringing her limiting money belief into the open she could very clearly see how it led her to create the results she expected.

When we helped her to change that belief, she created new results.

Coaches challenge:

Identify your money belief about your business income and how it is creating specific results in your business.

Next, see if you can come up with a new belief that support your growth and see what results you create.

If you’re ready to save yourself the trouble of 3-4 years of lost income while you try to figure out what to do to take your business to the next level, You Can. You have everything you need to create the successful business you want, you just need someone to show you how to do it. I would love to speak with you about how I can help. Simply email info@katiegoode.com and we’ll send you all the details.

I’m really excited this week. You see, some really good things have been happening lately, but I’ve been feeling a little off.

I’ve realized my life has been a little out of balance and I made the decision to recharge. Boy, am I happy I did because, like all good things, as soon as I opened myself some amazing inspiration and opportunities presented themselves.

So, I’ve got some really exciting news (kind of an early Christmas present to myself) that I’d like to share. And I’d also like to share how you can recharge and refuel yourself, so click play to watch the video below.

Coaches Challenge:

What actions can you take to add a little more balance to some of the areas in your life that haven’t been getting as much attention?

Pick one thing and make the commitment to do it.

You are amazing, exactly as you are,

Katie

P.S. If you live in southern California and you want the details for the yoga teacher training I’m going to be attending, let me know

“It takes 3 years to build a business.”

“Running a business takes a lot of hard work and long hours.”

Sound familiar?

Most of us have either said or heard the same thing at one time or another. In fact, I had two conversations about this yesterday (which I decided was a sign that I needed to write about it).

The people I talked to were just like I used to be, putting a huge amount of time and effort into thinking about how much time and effort it was going to take to grow their business.

Yep, you guessed it… 3 years of long, hard work.

But here’s the thing, looking back it’s so clear that the reason it took so much time and work was because I kept getting in my own way. Just like the people I talked to yesterday.

What happens when we believe something is going to take a long period of time and/or a lot of hard work is that we over load ourselves with busy work.

We create huge lists of “important” tasks.

We get into a habit of “hard work.”

When we expect something to be difficult, we often overlook the most effective solution because it seems easy and “easy” doesn’t fit our belief.

For both of the clients yesterday, the opportunity they were looking for was right in front of them, but they were too busy focusing on their beliefs that being an entrepreneur was “hard” and “took a long time” to see it.

I used to do the same thing and it wasn’t until I let go of the belief that it had to be hard and take a really long time that my business boomed. When I let go of the need to struggle, I could see very clearly the next step to grow my business. (And they were the same steps and opportunities that had been there from the beginning.)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it doesn’t require action to build a successful business. It does. It requires making a consistent effort to do the action that is most efficient (or easy) and will produce the greatest results.

Coaches Challenge:

What “easy” opportunity are you overlooking because you believe it’s supposed to be hard?

What would happen if you started to believe it could be easy to build a business?

P.S. When people ask me now how long does it take to build a business, I’ve started answering “3 years. Two and a half years to work through the fear and limiting beliefs that get in the way of doing the things that will actually produce results followed by about six months of effective action.” Unless you work with me, of course

I remember reading somewhere that an airplane uses 65% of it’s fuel during takeoff. I think the same is true for entrepreneurs

What I mean by that is that it takes a lot of time, energy, and effort during the ramp-up stage. When your to-do list seems endless it can be easy to start working longer and longer hours until, before you realize it, you’re working 18-hour days, 7-days a week and exhausted.

But, it doesn’t have to be this way. It IS possible to build a 6-figure (or whatever size you want) business and still have time for a life.

Here are my 3 favorite tips to stay sane while ramping up:

Tip #1: Have Clearly Defined Work Hours (and non-work hours)

You can’t work 24/7. It’s not healthy, productive, or efficient. When you’re working really long hours with very little down time, your productivity levels decrease significantly.

Sometimes it’s about the never-ending to-do list, but most often, when I’ve talked with my coaching clients what I’ve found is that it FEELS like they’re working 24/7 because they’re wasting a lot of time.

They’re taking care of personal business during office hours, so office hours end up blurring into personal time.

Decide when you want to work and when you want to close up shop and stick with it. Turn off the personal cell, email, Facebook, etc. during your work hours and then turn off the work phone, email, etc. during personal hours.

Tip #2: Work Smarter, Not Harder

I know the to-do list seems endless, but before you start trying to get everything on the list checked off, make sure it’s really something that needs to be done. Just because it’s on the to-do list doesn’t mean it belongs there.

When you’re used to feeling stressed out or overwhelmed it can become a habit.  We get in the habit of being busy so we start taking on unnecessary tasks that produce little results. (Do you really need to try out 14 different fonts for your intake form?)

Choose 3 actions that are inline with your goal (and will produce the biggest results) for each day. Focus on those first, and then delegate, defer, or delete the other things.

Tip #3: Learn to Say “No” So You Can Say “Yes” to Yourself

When you’re ramping up your business while trying to balance everything else in your life, you need to say no to anything that isn’t important to you.

Give yourself permission to focus on what’s important and say “no” to the rest. By clearing your schedule of unessential responsibilities, you’ll have more time and energy for everything else.

But, here’s a really important point. Make sure to put yourself and your self-care on the priority list. Take a little time to do things, just for you, that help you to refuel, re-energize, and re-focus.

Whether it’s taking a yoga class or a bubble bath, getting a manicure or a cup of tea, it’s important to build self-care into your schedule.

By keeping yourself on your priority list your business benefits and so do your friends and loved ones.

Coaches challenge:

Take a minute to decide what you want your work hours to be and then give yourself some time off.

I did this with a client recently. She’d been working 18-hour days, 7-days a week on her business so I challenged her to set a work schedule that would allow her time with her family and then to leave her hours on her voice mail.

She swore she wouldn’t be able to do it because she had too much to do, but she agreed to give it a try for a week.

The next time we talked she shared that she was taking evenings and weekends off and that her productivity had increase dramatically. She cut out and consolidated a lot of things on her schedule. She had MORE time to focus on building her business and she was already seeing results (for her it was an increase in new client referrals).

Ready to take the challenge?

Decide what you want your work schedule to be and then, stick to it for a week.

If you’re ready to save yourself the trouble of 3-4 years of lost income while you try to figure out what to do to build your private practice, You Can. You have everything you need to create the private practice you want, you just need someone to show you how to do it. I would love to speak with you about how I can help. Simply email me at info@katiegoode.com and I’ll send you all the details.

There’s a lot of advice out there about how to build a business, some of it’s great, some of it’s not so great. But the thing I’ve come to understand is that, it doesn’t matter how much advice you access or how great it is, if you’re holding on to limiting beliefs you’re not going to see results.

Because it’s not about “what you know,” (you’re all intelligent, capable people or you wouldn’t be in private practice) it’s about “what you do with what you know.”  

There’s a transformation that needs to take place when you start a business, and the first step is making the decision and commitment to becoming an successful entrepreneur. 

I’ve spent the past few years really immersing myself in studying and understanding the psychology of successful entrepreneurship (and, if you’re in business, you need to start thinking of yourself as an entrepreneur). That’s why the results my clients get are consistent with the results they want.

It goes beyond knowing “what to do” and “how to do it.” Real success comes from doing the “inner” work to change what you believe about yourself, your skills, your clients, and your environment so that you can take empowered action.

What you believe dictates your results.

If you believe that it’s going to be difficult to make more money, it will be. (Your beliefs dictate your actions, after all.)

If you base your fees and your income expectations on the people around you, guess what? You’re basing your income on other people’s money beliefs (and since most of us surround ourselves by people at our same level, you’re reinforcing your current, limiting beliefs).

Coaches challenge: 

Take the first step in shifting those limiting money beliefs by deciding how much you want to make per year, then ask, “what would I have to believe in order to make that much?”

I did this with a client recently. We identified the beliefs she’d have to adopt to start making the amount of income she’d like to make and then gave her a little homework to find “evidence” that these new beliefs were valid.

I got an email from her last week. She shared that since our call, she’d decided to raise her fee and already had a new client at her new fee (who said “yes” without even questioning the amount). She spent the last week really committed to believing it was possible for her to make more money (and recognizing her value) so she felt empowered and confident in all of her marketing actions and in talking with her prospective client.

Ready to take the challenge?

Decide how much you want to make over the next year, then ask, “What would I have to believe in order to make that amount?”

If you’re ready to save yourself the trouble of 3-4 years of lost income while you try to figure out what to do to build your private practice, You Can. You have everything you need to create the private practice you want, you just need someone to show you how to do it. I would love to speak with you about how I can help. Simply email me at info@katiegoode.com and I’ll send you all the details.

I wanted to write about a question I’m hearing a lot lately: “Katie, how did you build your business? What did you do and can I do it too?”

Let me answer the last part, first:

“Yes, you absolutely CAN build a successful business right now.”

All you need is: consistent and compelling marketing, referral relationships, and systems to manage your time effectively and allow you to focus on your priorities.

But, believe it or not, that’s the easy part (and you probably know more about “how” to do them than you realize). The hard part involves two seemingly simple steps:

1. Making a decision

2. Taking action on your decision

It seems so simple, but it’s a huge issue that keeps people stuck and prevents them from getting what they want. So many people worry about making the right decision (or worry about making the wrong decision) that they never decide at all. They flip-flop back and forth for days, weeks, months, and even years, struggling all the while, until they decide by default.

But, here’s the thing… It doesn’t really matter WHAT you decide, but it is absolutely critical that you decide on SOMETHING.

As my mentor likes to say “Make a decision, and course correct.” As soon as you make a decision, you can get into action mode and start moving forward. You can always tweak things along the way.

So the first step in getting what you want, is deciding what you want. Then, you must commit to doing whatever it takes to get it, no matter what.

This is where most people struggle. They make a decision, but when it comes to taking action, they let their fears and limiting beliefs get in the way.

Everything they need to reach that goal is right in front of them, the ideas, opportunities, even the how-to, but their fears and beliefs  stop them from seeing or taking action on them.

I saw this happen recently with a client. She set a goal to increase her income by 50% over the next quarter, we went over all of the different things she could do to quickly and easily achieve her goal, but the next time we talked she was still in the same place.

She wanted to know why it wasn’t working for her and after talking for a minute it became clear that, although she’d made a decision about WHAT she wanted, she hadn’t committed to DOING WHATEVER IT TAKES to achieve it. She kept stopping herself, buying into her fears and self-doubt, coming up with excuses to not do it (not knowing how, not having enough money or time, not being sure if it was the “right” thing, etc.).

She let her fears and limiting beliefs stop her from taking the actions she knew would get her what she wanted. Her fears and doubts became bigger than her want.

I could relate, it wasn’t that long ago that my fears and doubts stopped me from getting what I wanted. I kept coming up with what I thought were perfectly justifiable “reasons” why I didn’t do what I knew I needed to do: I didn’t know how, I couldn’t afford it, I didn’t have time, there was a better way. But the truth was, those “reasons” were just excuses to avoid doing things that scared me, that made me uncomfortable, that pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I let my fear of failure, my belief that I wasn’t “good enough,” “experienced enough,” or “capable enough” stop me from working with my ideal clients, making the income I wanted, and working the hours I wanted.

I spent YEARS stuck in this gunk and it wasn’t until I made the decision to make “what I want” more important than “what I want to AVOID” that things started to change. I started taking action, I hired a mentor even though the thought of spending money terrified me, and I got out of my own way.

Here’s the thing: You wouldn’t have that “want,” that dream or desire, without it being possible for you to achieve it.

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” ~ Walt Disney

Until you’re ready to make “what you want” more important than “what you want to avoid,” you’re going to stay stuck.

If you’re not where you’d like to be in your business, one of the main reasons is that you’re not taking action. If you’re stuck in the same place you were in six months ago, it’s because you’re not willing to let go of your fears and limiting beliefs to take advantage of the ideas and opportunities that are right in front of you (and probably have been for a long time).

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but to get different results, you need to take different actions. To create a change in your business, you must be willing to be courageous, to do the things that make you uncomfortable or scare you, to do what you’ve never done before and step forward. To step into the fear to get to the other side.

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.” ~ William Arthut Ward

If you’re ready to save yourself the trouble of 3-4 years of lost income while you try to figure out what to do to build your private practice, You Can. You have everything you need to create the private practice you want, you just need someone to show you how to do it. I would love to speak with you about how I can help. Simply email me at info@katiegoode.com and I’ll send you all the details.

When it comes to building a successful business, one of the biggest factors is your mindset. Do you believe it’s possible for you to have a successful business? Are you determined to do whatever it takes to reach your goals? Are you willing to do the self-work that will allow you to confidently market your services?

Most of us know that our thoughts have a significant impact on our lives, our happiness, and our business, but sometimes it’s easy to overlook the impact that our environment (specifically, the people in our environment) can have on our thoughts.

It can be a wonderful and supportive experience to spend time with other people who are in our situation. It allows us to be a little easier on ourselves.

But at the same time, spending too much time with people at your current level, will most likely ensure that you stay at that level.

Why? When we’re surrounded by people at our current level, it becomes the norm, the expected. We relate to each other’s experiences, challenges, and struggles at that level. Our thoughts become focused on our current situation. Our beliefs and expectations start to shrink.

Instead of thinking of possibilities, we see “reality” or at least our perception of reality.

It’s hard to feel motivated when you’re spending your time immersed in how things are right now. It doesn’t take long for our actions to hold us to our current level instead of moving us forward.

Growth is hard. It’s uncomfortable and our natural tendency is to stay in our comfort zone.

But you’re not helping yourself or your clients by staying in your comfort zone.

Surrounding yourself with people who have already succeeded in the path you have chosen creates a new comfort zone, new thoughts, and new beliefs. Your focus changes to what is possible which makes it that much easier to step forward, instead of holding yourself back.

Here are 3 simple ways to surround yourself with influencers who pull you forward: 

1) Hire a mentor who has successfully built the business you want to create and who has lead others to build successful businesses.

There’s no substitute for having someone who’s been there, done that, and is willing to believe in you and hold your hand along the way. You’ll be inspired, motivated, supported, and held accountable to setting and achieving goals and to keep moving forward.

2) Surround yourself with successful people at every opportunity.

One of the things I did, and continue to do, is spend time every day with someone who has succeeded far beyond what I might currently believe is possible for myself.

Now you might be thinking, “but I don’t know anyone like that” and here’s the thing, you don’t need to.

One of my favorite way to spend time with super successful people is to listen to them while I’m driving. Instead of getting frustrated by all of the other drivers out there, I get motivated by a recording of Zig Ziglar, Napolean Hill, and many more.

I read their autobiographies. I watch their movies or interviews.

3) Limit the time you spend with people or situations that don’t encourage or support you.

One of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur is realizing that some of the people closest to you are not able to support you in the way that you need. Their own fears and doubts make it difficult for them to be optimistic and support your belief in your own success.

Make a conscious decision to limit the time and energy you give to the people and things that don’t support your positive focus. This might mean setting a boundary and limiting conversational topics or even the amount of time you spend with certain people. It might mean, turning off the news.

“Surround yourself only with people who are going to lift you higher.” - Oprah Winfrey

Wherever you are in your private practice, whether you’re just starting out, transitioning from a job to self-employed, or if you’ve been in practice for a while and are ready to move to the next level, you’re probably looking for strategies to improve your results.

Attracting more ideal clients, creating or strengthening referral relationships, generating more income, generating consistent referrals and income, hosting workshops, transitioning from sliding-scale or insurance clients to full-fee cash pay clients and more.

Where so many private practice therapists struggle is figuring out what action items to prioritize first and how to fit everything you need to do to grow your business into your schedule. Especially when your business isn’t where you’d like it to be (and you’re overwhelmed and frustrated).

This is why creating a system that uses simple strategies to produce big results is so important. It goes back to the whole “work smarter, not harder” mindset.

(For example, if you’re not making the income you want (or need), then your focus needs to be on creating and strengthening relationships with referral sources who will refer the highest number of clients rather than on fine-tuning or upgrading your website.)

Every time you get ready to step up to the next level you can plan to experience a period of ups and downs. When you stretch beyond your comfort zone, you’ll have moments where you’re super excited, motivated, ready to take massive action and create massive change… mixed in with moments where you’re full of fear and doubt, wanting to crawl under the covers and stay exactly where you are (nice and safe in your comfort zone).

Here are 3 of my favorite strategies to stay focused and positive when my comfort zone stretches (So I can get through the fear and doubt stage as quickly and easily as possible):

(I recommend printing these tips out and keeping them where you can see them so you’ll have easy access to them during your next comfort zone stretch.)

Strategy #1: Make decisions from where you want to be (not where you currently are)

One of the best tips I ever heard was to ask yourself, “What would a 6-figure therapist do?” (or “multi-6-figure therapist”, or whatever the next step you want to reach might be)

This is the same question I ask myself whenever I’m getting ready to step into the next level in my business. The reason it works so well is because it pulls you out of old patterns and challenges you to think, feel, act and believe as the successful therapist you want to be.

Strategy #2: Make Increasing Your Income Your First Priority

If you’re in business, you need to generate income. Period.

A lot of therapists focus so much on helping others that they neglect themselves and their business – which results in not being able to stay in business.

You need to be successful in your business in order to continue to help people.

No matter what stage of business you’re in, set a specific income goal.

Decide on an amount that’s a little bit of a stretch, but you believe you can realistically achieve it. Whether your number is to add an extra $50 or $100 this month or an extra $5,000. It doesn’t matter what the number is, but it needs to be specific and it needs to be an amount you believe you can reach.

Once you have your amount, you can focus on the how-to. This (along with other strategies I teach on this topic) will keep you in a proactive and positive state of mind regarding your income, rather than a passive or helpless and overwhelmed state.

And don’t forget, you can always increase your amount once you achieve it, but I’ve found it’s better to start small so you get some success and confidence behind you.

Strategy #3: How You Start Your Day Determines Your Results

In every stage of growing your business you’ll need to take action and maintain the attitude that matches your new level. Which means letting go of actions and attitudes that fit your old level.

I teach all of my clients to start every day by first, creating a positive attitude and confident state of mind, and second, decide on the  3 actions you will take to bring in new clients, referrals, and income that day. Do this before anything else – before checking email, voice mail, or going online.

And Be Sure To Mentor With Someone Who Is Where You Want to Be

Jim Rohn said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.

Which means it’s critical for you toinvest in spending time with a mentor and surrounding your self with people who are positive, motivated, achievers. You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to step into the next level when you have someone to help pull you forward.