April 21, 2025 • 23 mins
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What do you do when you’ve done the mindset work, you’re confidently charging premium fees, and you’ve built a solid foundation for your private practice—yet the clients still aren’t coming?Â
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In this episode of The Money Sessions, Tiffany takes on the tough reality that even when you’re doing everything "right," things can still feel like they’re falling apart.Â
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She dives deep into the real reasons businesses fail, the importance of adapting to a changing market, and what it actually takes to sustain a premium fee practice long-term.Â
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If you're wondering what the next step is when your practice feels like it's stalling, tune in for insight, strategy, and some real talk from someone who’s been there.
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In this episode, Tiffany shares:
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Why so many therapists feel like they're doing everything right but still struggle to stay full;Â
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The sobering statistics about business failure—and how they apply to private practice;
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What to do when you're feeling stuck, frustrated, and ready to throw in the towel;
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THE key to long-term success in private practice.
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Resources Mentioned:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Tiffany, what would you say to therapists that have done the money work, that have premium fee clients, that have a premium fee client practice, but the clients are just not there.
(00:11):
This this therapist wrote in to me, this has been somewhat of a struggle the entire time I've had a practice.
I can't seem to get full or stay full.
So what do you do if it's not about the mindset, if you feel confident in charging $250 or $350 per session, but the clients just aren't there.
What if there's a change in the economy?
What if there's a change in the what's happening in your city?
(00:34):
What are you supposed to do then?
This is what we're gonna talk about in today's episode of the Money sessions.
By the way, if you don't know me, my name is Tiffany McLain.
I'm the founder of Lean In, Make Bank, where we help therapists design, build, create, live into premium fee private practices with our program, the Lean In, Make Bank academy.
(00:56):
The Lean In Make big Academy.
We don't edit these folks, so you're just gonna have to hear me stumbling through.
, my words as I talk about this, but I promise you, my dear listener, that the information you're going to get is going to be powerful.
Even if I sometimes stutter, utter, or mutter, so let's dive into this question.
I think it's really important, especially at this is at the time we're recording this episode by we I mean me.
(01:22):
At the time I'm recording this episode, it's April 2025, and there have been whisperings in the wind of something happening for private practice owners.
it's harder to find clients these days.
It's harder to fill up our practice, and this email I got, which I love, thank you so much, dear listener, dear reader for writing in, the person saying, Tiffany, I've done it all.
(01:45):
I, I, I, I, I listened to your episode about why some therapists can charge 250 and others cannot.
I find myself willing to take risks in business.
I've invested in things to grow the business.
I, I, I'm a badass, right?
I'm doing all these things.
I used to be successful at this, and now it's just not working for me.
What do you say to folks like that?
What's happening in the wider environment?
(02:06):
I love this question and the reason I wanted to put it on a show, bring it into the money sessions is because I think a lot of therapists are out there having these thoughts right now.
Here's how I think about this and in fact I was just talking to my partner at the coffee shop this morning, my life partner, not my business partner.
I don't have a business partner.
My life partner at the coffee shop this morning about this very issue and then this email came in, so I'm like this timing is perfect.
(02:30):
Here's how I think about this.
, when thinking about you in your private practice, hopefully it's a premium fee private practice, but even if it's not, even if you're feeling burnt out and overwhelmed, seeing, you know, having 40 people on your case load, seeing 30 people a week, and you're like, get me out of this.
By the way, if that's you, send me an email, Tiffany at leaninigbank just say get me out of this.
(02:55):
And I will tell you how I can help you.
So whether we're talking about a therapist in private practice or whether we're talking about my business, Lena Meg Bank, where we've served over 800 therapists to help them actually charge fees that makes sense for the kind of lifestyle they want to have, for the kind of business they wanna run.
Here are my thoughts about when something is not working in your business, how do I make sense of this?
(03:21):
So here's the fact.
Listener, my dear friend, here is the painful fact.
Let me just say, if you don't know this about me, I am a huge embracer of reality, and reality is often difficult and disappointing, and not everything that we wish it would be, and I want it all.
(03:42):
I want it all, because if I understand what's happening in reality, I can make decisions that allow me to live the life I want to live, no matter what's happening in the outside world.
So here's the reality, given that.
Approximately 20% of small businesses fail within their first year.
20% is actually not that bad.
That means 80% succeed.
(04:03):
That's pretty good., within 5 years, about 50% of businesses fail.
50% of small businesses fail within 5 years.
Oh, not great, but OK.
Within 10 years, 65%, the majority of businesses that are ever created, the majority fail within 10 years.
Those are the facts.
(04:25):
Those are the facts.
So starting with that, you know, most people who start businesses don't succeed past.
, they don't succeed beyond 10 years.
half don't succeed beyond 5 years.
So what's the difference between businesses that succeed and businesses that fail?
And we'll take this right down to private practice.
Let me also say I'd be curious if it's different for therapist in private practice.
(04:49):
I imagine, maybe we can get some statistics on this.
I imagine therapists in private practice actually have a higher rate of success than like overall people who start businesses.
You can send me the data on that if you can find it, support or deny, go ahead and let me know.
So, how I think about businesses, businesses fail for 11 reason.
(05:11):
Well, that's not true.Businesses fail for a couple of reasons.
One, you run out of cash.
You just run out of cash and you need money and you don't have it and you can no longer pay your business expenses, you can no longer keep it going.
For therapists, we have low business expenses.
We pay for our office, maybe, we pay some,, fees, but really we're getting paid for our time.
So, you know, we don't have a lot of overhead necessarily as an individual private practice owner.
(05:38):
, you run out of cash, something happens in your life, you know, maybe, maybe you get, you have to be very healthy to be a therapist in private practice, physically, emotionally, mentally.
If something knocks you out, you can't use your mind anymore, you physically can't show up, you can't stay in business.
That's, that's just a fact.
Other than those two reasons.
And maybe also the third reason businesses quote unquote fail is you just close it down because you get burnt out, exhausted, or you just don't want to do the work anymore.
(06:05):
So those are reasons you might close down a business.
For me, as a business owner, I have two choices in my life and I'm gonna put this for you actually because you don't care about me as a business owner.
You care about you as a business owner.
This person who wrote me in, she cares about herself as a business owner.
As therapists in private practice, we typically have, I have two options.
(06:27):
Most people listening have 2 options.
Some of you have 3 options.
I'll say something to those of you in the third category in a moment.
We have two options, most of us.
We can figure out a way to make this private practice fucking work.
We can figure out how to make it work for us, or we can go back and get a job at an agency.
A nonprofit, go work for someone else's group practice.
(06:49):
Those are typically our options.
You might also just leave the field altogether and and restart another industry.
it's totally possible.
It's, it's hard.
It's unusual because we have a very specific skill set set and many of us are a little bit older, so they like totally shift careers.
You can do it.
That's possible, but it's usually not what you're thinking.
In in the thousands of therapists I talked to, it's typically if I close my practice, I'm gonna go work for another group practice or I'm gonna go back to an agency life or go work for the state.
(07:17):
Oh no, this is awful, right?
Those are our options.
Now there is a third option outside of going to work for like a whole different, industry.
You might be independently wealthy, you might have a spouse who makes a lot of money, you might have family money.
In that case you can just quit your private practice and be just fine.
Yay, good on you.
that gives you a lot of options.
You can go explore your book writing, whatever you just live your life, you know, stay at home with your kids, travel the world, live your life of leisure.
(07:43):
That's amazing.
I wanna get to where you are one day.
But in the meantime, most of you listening right now, if you close down your practice, you're thinking you're gonna go work for a school, an agency, the state, another group practice.
For the therapist who I end up working with, option two is not really an option.
You all are not going to go back to an agency, you're not gonna get a job at a school, you're not gonna go work for someone else.
(08:09):
It's just not what you're gonna do.
You have to find a way to make it work.
Those are your only two options.
So if you're in a position where you're like I'm trying to do it and it's just not working I've literally done everything there's only really one choice you can make which is to get eyes on your business and if you're like I've already invested in programs I've done this program I've done that program I've done TPA.
(08:30):
I've done, you know, just there's so many programs out there and and my business is still not working here's the.
Reality.
You gotta get more help.
You gotta get other eyes on your business from somebody who's been there.
You need to talk to people who in this environment, whether it's April 9th, 2025, whether it's February 1st, 2027, regardless of what's happening in the world.
(08:55):
You will always find therapists.
There will always exist therapists who are able to do it, who are continuing to fill their practice, continuing to see clients consistently and predictably with fees of $215,250 per session.
Now, here's the reality.
We already know it from looking at this, these statistics around businesses.
You're not gonna find a lot of therapists because only 50% of of practices or businesses overall succeed after 5 years and only 45% succeed within 10 years, and most of the businesses who are succeeding, the therapists are burnt out, overwhelmed and stressed.
(09:33):
There is a reason why so few therapists have premium fee practices.
It's hard work.
It takes a lot of self-reflection.
It takes a willingness to look at reality.
And say, OK, I've done everything and it's not working.
People who succeed, the therapist I work with, what we teach in our program, the limb academy is you haven't done everything.
(09:56):
If you're telling yourself, I'm successful, I've done everything I've worked really well.
I've run the ads, I've done everything and it's not working.
I'm going to go ahead and assert that you actually haven't done everything.
There is more you can do.
There is more to be done, and you need outside eyes on your business.
Even if you've already invested, let me, let me actually talk to you about what this really looks like.
(10:18):
In 2020 I invested.
, $18,000 in a business program and I had good results.
The following year, I stayed with that program and I think I invested $20,000.
Do you know what I got for that $20,000?
I got a system for the $18,000 that I implemented in my business.
It went well.
It's also COVID time, so things were booming in the online business space.
The next year for about $20,000 basically why I joined was to be in a community of women primarily who were having businesses between $500,000 and a million dollars in annual revenue.
(10:48):
I wanted to be in a space with women who were thinking that way, even if it was only an online space, even if I hardly get to know them, I could kind of hear what kind of questions they were asking.
And you know what else I got from the program?
I'm gonna let you take a moment to think about it.
Wow, what did Tiffany get for $20,000?
What were all the amazing, features?
How many 1 to 1 calls did she get?
(11:09):
How many times did she get flown to Bali to have a retreat?
I got one call a month for an hour, with the business owner.
One call a month for one hour.
Now for those of you thinking, you know, we have a program Lim, it's $2500 at the time of this recording, the price is going up, by the way, so if you're interested in joining, go ahead and send me an email, Tiffany at lean and make bank and say I'm ready.
(11:33):
We'll talk with you, see if you're a good fit.
For those of you who are like, you pay $20,000 for basically one phone call a month and to be in a room, a virtual room, be virtually connected to eight women who have, you know, up to a million dollars businesses, $500 to a million dollar businesses.
Yeah, I absolutely did because I know those people can see something about my business that no matter how many things I've done before, I can't see it.
(11:56):
, I paid $12,500 for for one day quarterly, in person.
This is what I did in 2024, 4 in 4 days total over the course of a year to be in a room with business owners who have, you know, up to Millions of dollars of grossing business to learn and hear what are they doing that I'm not doing and I just invested that wasn't that one was not a great investment, to be honest with you.
(12:24):
I always learn I'm always happy to invest.
I always want to be in a space and I 100% no matter what room I'm in, I will learn.
I will take something away, I will implement, I will grow any time I invest money.
That's the kind of person I am.
That's the kind of person we build.
That's who you become when you work with us in the limb academy.
If you're the kind of person who takes a program and invests and is like, I'm not getting my money's worth, ho hum, this is not what I wanted.
(12:49):
You got some work to do on your mindset.
I'm gonna learn no matter what.
If I'm not learning from the curriculum, I'm gonna learn from how they're running their business.
How are they hiring people?
How are they firing people?
What are they talking about?
How did they get these people in the door to pay them $12,500 in the first place, right?
I'm gonna learn, if not from the curriculum from the structure of the business by being on the inside as a client.
I'm gonna find a way to learn.
OK, that was a side note.
(13:11):
About 6 weeks ago I invested, $18,000 for 6 months of working with, a coaching company, to have eyes on my business.
We've been around 70 years.
We've done all of the things Facebook ads, podcast guessing, Instagram kind of.
I know you're listening to Morgan Pommels.
My Instagram has been a little bit weak.
(13:33):
But you know what I'm saying?
we've done all the things.
No, we haven't.
No, we haven't.
If we're not having the success we want, there's still something to learn.
There's still eyes I can have on my business.
You gotta pick the right eyes.
Are you gonna always pick the right eyes?
Nope, and you need to learn from that, right?
You gotta find eyes.
So I wanna challenge the idea that.
(13:56):
If, if you're in private practice, I want to challenge first that the market dictates whether you can have a premium fee practice or not.
If anyone can have a premium fee practice, then you can have a premium fee practice.
Everybody starts from different places.
That's not a fact, but if you're determined to do it this way, and you have the resources or the fortitude or the support to, to figure it out.
(14:20):
You can get there.
You might have more life crises.
You know, there are always exceptions, and you can still find a way to move toward the life you want and have the ease, the joy, the relational connection.
And hopefully the financial abundance, regardless of what's happening in the world around you.
You have your mind, you have your brain, right?
(14:41):
You have yourself, and as long as you have yourself, there's a potential to have a life that brings you joy.
All right, I'm, I digress.
Here's what I'm saying.
Well, first of all, I hope I hit record on this.
Can you imagine if I did this whole thing and didn't hit record?
I did.
Oh, what a relief.
Look at, this is a podcast recording in real time.
(15:04):
There will always be fluctuations in the market.
There are always gonna be external life circumstances.
There are always gonna be, it's gonna be, it's not, here's the point with these statistics we know it's not easy to run a business.
If you're coming into a business expecting it's gonna be easy, expecting you're gonna be able to get a step by step that's gonna help you do anything.
I'm here to tell you that's not how it works.
Having a premium fee practice where you're consistently having clients who pay you $250 for therapy weekly or $300 or $400 for therapy weekly.
(15:32):
It's a game, it's a puzzle and you're not gonna ever just figure it out.
You're gonna figure out something that works and you're gonna be like, yes, and then something's gonna happen in the world, in your family, in your town, in the industry, in the space something's going to happen that's gonna.
What you have been doing to fill your practice and keep it full no longer fucking works.
(15:57):
Oh, and that's a pivotal moment where some business owners continue forward and figure out what do I need to do now in this new environment.
And there are some business owners that throw in the towel or or not even throw in the towel, they're just like, I'm done, I'm tired.
I don't wanna keep learning new things.
I don't wanna figure this out.
Let me go work for somebody else.
No shame.
I might do that one day.
I might get on a podcast one day and be like, I'm closing down limb.
(16:20):
I'm gonna go work for, who would I work for?
I don't know.
But Open AI.
I'm gonna go make $500,000 a year to sit in their offices and drink a latte.
I don't, I don't fucking know.
Who knows what.
But I do know that you have a choice to make.
Here are the facts.I know that most businesses fail.
(16:43):
I know that the industry, the world, things are always changing, and I know that the only way a business can succeed is if you are willing to identify that it's always gonna change and that's a joy of business.
Business is always a puzzle.
Business is always a mystery and you always have to be willing and open to learn and grow and try something new.
That's number 1.2.
(17:06):
You have to acknowledge that you, you can't see everything about your business.
And the only way, if you've tried what you think is everything and it hasn't succeeded, then there's something you need to learn.
And how do you learn it?
You work with somebody like me.
Send me an email Tiffany at leanin make bank and say I'm ready.
I'll ask you some questions, see if you're a good fit, see if we can get some eyes on your business and help you with some things that maybe you have not seen.
(17:32):
You can do that.
You can also go on to the world and find people who are currently doing what you're doing.
If you want to have a caseload of 10 people who are consistently paying you $250 per session with enough referrals that you're consistently feeling OK, safe, taken care of, secure.
You need to go talk to the people who are doing it right now, who are doing it right now.
(17:56):
And if you're telling me right now, which I can already hear in your hands, I know you.
I've worked with you for so long.
If you're saying, well, I don't even know where to find those people, Tiffany, everybody around me has practices who are struggling, then come in to the Lean and Make Bank Academy where you will find these people, where you will be mentored by these people, where you will be amongst the people who are on the journey, who are on the path, where you will be connected to a network of therapists who have gotten there or who are striving to to continue to get there no matter what.
(18:28):
If you want to do that, do you what what what's the mantra, folks?
Let's chant, say it with me.
Go ahead and send me an email, Tiffany at leanin makebank and say I'm ready.
And look, you may email me and I'll ask you some questions and I'll be like, we're not a good fit.
We're not gonna work well together.
I'm very transparent.
I want people in our program to be successful.
If you come on our program and and flame out, that'd be awesome because flaming out is the coolest thing that could happen.
(18:52):
Let's flame out together.
If you come into our program and you're not able to succeed.
That doesn't, that doesn't, I don't like that.
That doesn't feel good to me.
That doesn't feel good to my team, so I will ask you some questions to see if you're a good fit.
If you're not, I'll tell you where I think you should go.
I'll tell you what area of your business I think needs to be addressing and who I think will help you get there.
Here, here are the takeaways, folks.
Actually, I'll tie it together for you.
(19:16):
When I'm on live calls, when I do live trainings, I actually say, you tell me your biggest takeaway, you tell me your biggest aha.
Unfortunately, with podcasts, you can't talk to me, except if you send me an email, Tiffany at Leanandinbank.com, say I'm ready.
Or just tell me your takeaway from this episode.
Here are the takeaways.
Business is hard.
Most businesses fail.
That's a fact.
(19:37):
The, the environment is always changing.
Industries is always changing environment's always changing, meaning you can never, as much as we there we want stability, we want one that we finally crack the code and it's always gonna work.
It is not.It's not, it's not gonna work.
We've been lucky as therapists to have an industry that's pretty stable for the past many decades, but now we get to experience what all business.
(19:58):
All businesses experience which is fluctuations in the market fluctuations in the industry we're now getting inundated by a lot of different types of people buying and competing in the therapy space.
Well, awesome now on a little more of an equal playing field to all the other businesses who've had years to practice adapting, learning, finding ways to evolve as the world evolves and changes.
(20:19):
So you're gonna have to figure out what your practice needs.
Number 3, if you can't figure it out, if you've tried no matter what.
If you tried everything, OK, you have two choices.
You close your business and say it's just impossible, or I just don't want to do it anymore, great.
You can, it's not impossible, but if you want to say I don't want to do it anymore, that's fabulous.
Or you get new eyes on your business.
(20:42):
Find out what you could do, who's doing it, how are they doing it?
Invest with someone who's making it happen right now.
And try those things, those are your options.
Wow, I sound so exacerbated.
What time is it?
30 4?I gotta get to the gym.
I don't have a lot of time.
I busted something to my gut about a week ago.
(21:03):
I have a hernia, it turns out, it's from having my second kid.
But it's been fine and then suddenly last week it just popped.
Oh shit.
Gotta go get a surgery.
Wish me luck, people.
If any of this is exciting to you, or if you feel challenged by it, but you have a little call that's like, I hate Tiffany.
Because I think she's right.
(21:25):
and you want some help?
You know what to do.
Email me, Tiffany at leanin makebank.com, just say I'm ready.
I'll ask you some questions.
I'll, I'll let you know if I think we can help you, or, or if I, if I don't think we can, if we're not the people for you, I'll send you off to somebody who can.
I guess that's it.
Fuck.
Businessman, you're gonna be the kind of person who, who gives up when it gets hard.
(21:49):
No shame.
Or you're gonna be somebody who's like, I'm gonna fucking figure this out and I'm gonna find the people who are figuring it out.
I'm gonna be with them.
If that's you.
That's where you're at.
I'm there too in the season of life.
Let's fucking figure it out.
Together.
Tiffany, what would you say to therapists that have done the money work, that have premium fee clients, that have a premium fee client practice, but the clients are just not there.
(00:11):
This this therapist wrote in to me, this has been somewhat of a struggle the entire time I've had a practice.
I can't seem to get full or stay full.
So what do you do if it's not about the mindset, if you feel confident in charging $250 or $350 per session, but the clients just aren't there.
What if there's a change in the economy?
What if there's a change in the what's happening in your city?
(00:34):
What are you supposed to do then?
This is what we're gonna talk about in today's episode of the Money sessions.
By the way, if you don't know me, my name is Tiffany McLain.
I'm the founder of Lean In, Make Bank, where we help therapists design, build, create, live into premium fee private practices with our program, the Lean In, Make Bank academy.
(00:56):
The Lean In Make big Academy.
We don't edit these folks, so you're just gonna have to hear me stumbling through.
, my words as I talk about this, but I promise you, my dear listener, that the information you're going to get is going to be powerful.
Even if I sometimes stutter, utter, or mutter, so let's dive into this question.
I think it's really important, especially at this is at the time we're recording this episode by we I mean me.
(01:22):
At the time I'm recording this episode, it's April 2025, and there have been whisperings in the wind of something happening for private practice owners.
it's harder to find clients these days.
It's harder to fill up our practice, and this email I got, which I love, thank you so much, dear listener, dear reader for writing in, the person saying, Tiffany, I've done it all.
(01:45):
I, I, I, I, I listened to your episode about why some therapists can charge 250 and others cannot.
I find myself willing to take risks in business.
I've invested in things to grow the business.
I, I, I'm a badass, right?
I'm doing all these things.
I used to be successful at this, and now it's just not working for me.
What do you say to folks like that?
What's happening in the wider environment?
(02:06):
I love this question and the reason I wanted to put it on a show, bring it into the money sessions is because I think a lot of therapists are out there having these thoughts right now.
Here's how I think about this and in fact I was just talking to my partner at the coffee shop this morning, my life partner, not my business partner.
I don't have a business partner.
My life partner at the coffee shop this morning about this very issue and then this email came in, so I'm like this timing is perfect.
(02:30):
Here's how I think about this.
, when thinking about you in your private practice, hopefully it's a premium fee private practice, but even if it's not, even if you're feeling burnt out and overwhelmed, seeing, you know, having 40 people on your case load, seeing 30 people a week, and you're like, get me out of this.
By the way, if that's you, send me an email, Tiffany at leaninigbank just say get me out of this.
(02:55):
And I will tell you how I can help you.
So whether we're talking about a therapist in private practice or whether we're talking about my business, Lena Meg Bank, where we've served over 800 therapists to help them actually charge fees that makes sense for the kind of lifestyle they want to have, for the kind of business they wanna run.
Here are my thoughts about when something is not working in your business, how do I make sense of this?
(03:21):
So here's the fact.
Listener, my dear friend, here is the painful fact.
Let me just say, if you don't know this about me, I am a huge embracer of reality, and reality is often difficult and disappointing, and not everything that we wish it would be, and I want it all.
(03:42):
I want it all, because if I understand what's happening in reality, I can make decisions that allow me to live the life I want to live, no matter what's happening in the outside world.
So here's the reality, given that.
Approximately 20% of small businesses fail within their first year.
20% is actually not that bad.
That means 80% succeed.
(04:03):
That's pretty good., within 5 years, about 50% of businesses fail.
50% of small businesses fail within 5 years.
Oh, not great, but OK.
Within 10 years, 65%, the majority of businesses that are ever created, the majority fail within 10 years.
Those are the facts.
(04:25):
Those are the facts.
So starting with that, you know, most people who start businesses don't succeed past.
, they don't succeed beyond 10 years.
half don't succeed beyond 5 years.
So what's the difference between businesses that succeed and businesses that fail?
And we'll take this right down to private practice.
Let me also say I'd be curious if it's different for therapist in private practice.
(04:49):
I imagine, maybe we can get some statistics on this.
I imagine therapists in private practice actually have a higher rate of success than like overall people who start businesses.
You can send me the data on that if you can find it, support or deny, go ahead and let me know.
So, how I think about businesses, businesses fail for 11 reason.
(05:11):
Well, that's not true.Businesses fail for a couple of reasons.
One, you run out of cash.
You just run out of cash and you need money and you don't have it and you can no longer pay your business expenses, you can no longer keep it going.
For therapists, we have low business expenses.
We pay for our office, maybe, we pay some,, fees, but really we're getting paid for our time.
So, you know, we don't have a lot of overhead necessarily as an individual private practice owner.
(05:38):
, you run out of cash, something happens in your life, you know, maybe, maybe you get, you have to be very healthy to be a therapist in private practice, physically, emotionally, mentally.
If something knocks you out, you can't use your mind anymore, you physically can't show up, you can't stay in business.
That's, that's just a fact.
Other than those two reasons.
And maybe also the third reason businesses quote unquote fail is you just close it down because you get burnt out, exhausted, or you just don't want to do the work anymore.
(06:05):
So those are reasons you might close down a business.
For me, as a business owner, I have two choices in my life and I'm gonna put this for you actually because you don't care about me as a business owner.
You care about you as a business owner.
This person who wrote me in, she cares about herself as a business owner.
As therapists in private practice, we typically have, I have two options.
(06:27):
Most people listening have 2 options.
Some of you have 3 options.
I'll say something to those of you in the third category in a moment.
We have two options, most of us.
We can figure out a way to make this private practice fucking work.
We can figure out how to make it work for us, or we can go back and get a job at an agency.
A nonprofit, go work for someone else's group practice.
(06:49):
Those are typically our options.
You might also just leave the field altogether and and restart another industry.
it's totally possible.
It's, it's hard.
It's unusual because we have a very specific skill set set and many of us are a little bit older, so they like totally shift careers.
You can do it.
That's possible, but it's usually not what you're thinking.
In in the thousands of therapists I talked to, it's typically if I close my practice, I'm gonna go work for another group practice or I'm gonna go back to an agency life or go work for the state.
(07:17):
Oh no, this is awful, right?
Those are our options.
Now there is a third option outside of going to work for like a whole different, industry.
You might be independently wealthy, you might have a spouse who makes a lot of money, you might have family money.
In that case you can just quit your private practice and be just fine.
Yay, good on you.
that gives you a lot of options.
You can go explore your book writing, whatever you just live your life, you know, stay at home with your kids, travel the world, live your life of leisure.
(07:43):
That's amazing.
I wanna get to where you are one day.
But in the meantime, most of you listening right now, if you close down your practice, you're thinking you're gonna go work for a school, an agency, the state, another group practice.
For the therapist who I end up working with, option two is not really an option.
You all are not going to go back to an agency, you're not gonna get a job at a school, you're not gonna go work for someone else.
(08:09):
It's just not what you're gonna do.
You have to find a way to make it work.
Those are your only two options.
So if you're in a position where you're like I'm trying to do it and it's just not working I've literally done everything there's only really one choice you can make which is to get eyes on your business and if you're like I've already invested in programs I've done this program I've done that program I've done TPA.
(08:30):
I've done, you know, just there's so many programs out there and and my business is still not working here's the.
Reality.
You gotta get more help.
You gotta get other eyes on your business from somebody who's been there.
You need to talk to people who in this environment, whether it's April 9th, 2025, whether it's February 1st, 2027, regardless of what's happening in the world.
(08:55):
You will always find therapists.
There will always exist therapists who are able to do it, who are continuing to fill their practice, continuing to see clients consistently and predictably with fees of $215,250 per session.
Now, here's the reality.
We already know it from looking at this, these statistics around businesses.
You're not gonna find a lot of therapists because only 50% of of practices or businesses overall succeed after 5 years and only 45% succeed within 10 years, and most of the businesses who are succeeding, the therapists are burnt out, overwhelmed and stressed.
(09:33):
There is a reason why so few therapists have premium fee practices.
It's hard work.
It takes a lot of self-reflection.
It takes a willingness to look at reality.
And say, OK, I've done everything and it's not working.
People who succeed, the therapist I work with, what we teach in our program, the limb academy is you haven't done everything.
(09:56):
If you're telling yourself, I'm successful, I've done everything I've worked really well.
I've run the ads, I've done everything and it's not working.
I'm going to go ahead and assert that you actually haven't done everything.
There is more you can do.
There is more to be done, and you need outside eyes on your business.
Even if you've already invested, let me, let me actually talk to you about what this really looks like.
(10:18):
In 2020 I invested.
, $18,000 in a business program and I had good results.
The following year, I stayed with that program and I think I invested $20,000.
Do you know what I got for that $20,000?
I got a system for the $18,000 that I implemented in my business.
It went well.
It's also COVID time, so things were booming in the online business space.
The next year for about $20,000 basically why I joined was to be in a community of women primarily who were having businesses between $500,000 and a million dollars in annual revenue.
(10:48):
I wanted to be in a space with women who were thinking that way, even if it was only an online space, even if I hardly get to know them, I could kind of hear what kind of questions they were asking.
And you know what else I got from the program?
I'm gonna let you take a moment to think about it.
Wow, what did Tiffany get for $20,000?
What were all the amazing, features?
How many 1 to 1 calls did she get?
(11:09):
How many times did she get flown to Bali to have a retreat?
I got one call a month for an hour, with the business owner.
One call a month for one hour.
Now for those of you thinking, you know, we have a program Lim, it's $2500 at the time of this recording, the price is going up, by the way, so if you're interested in joining, go ahead and send me an email, Tiffany at lean and make bank and say I'm ready.
(11:33):
We'll talk with you, see if you're a good fit.
For those of you who are like, you pay $20,000 for basically one phone call a month and to be in a room, a virtual room, be virtually connected to eight women who have, you know, up to a million dollars businesses, $500 to a million dollar businesses.
Yeah, I absolutely did because I know those people can see something about my business that no matter how many things I've done before, I can't see it.
(11:56):
, I paid $12,500 for for one day quarterly, in person.
This is what I did in 2024, 4 in 4 days total over the course of a year to be in a room with business owners who have, you know, up to Millions of dollars of grossing business to learn and hear what are they doing that I'm not doing and I just invested that wasn't that one was not a great investment, to be honest with you.
(12:24):
I always learn I'm always happy to invest.
I always want to be in a space and I 100% no matter what room I'm in, I will learn.
I will take something away, I will implement, I will grow any time I invest money.
That's the kind of person I am.
That's the kind of person we build.
That's who you become when you work with us in the limb academy.
If you're the kind of person who takes a program and invests and is like, I'm not getting my money's worth, ho hum, this is not what I wanted.
(12:49):
You got some work to do on your mindset.
I'm gonna learn no matter what.
If I'm not learning from the curriculum, I'm gonna learn from how they're running their business.
How are they hiring people?
How are they firing people?
What are they talking about?
How did they get these people in the door to pay them $12,500 in the first place, right?
I'm gonna learn, if not from the curriculum from the structure of the business by being on the inside as a client.
I'm gonna find a way to learn.
OK, that was a side note.
(13:11):
About 6 weeks ago I invested, $18,000 for 6 months of working with, a coaching company, to have eyes on my business.
We've been around 70 years.
We've done all of the things Facebook ads, podcast guessing, Instagram kind of.
I know you're listening to Morgan Pommels.
My Instagram has been a little bit weak.
(13:33):
But you know what I'm saying?
we've done all the things.
No, we haven't.
No, we haven't.
If we're not having the success we want, there's still something to learn.
There's still eyes I can have on my business.
You gotta pick the right eyes.
Are you gonna always pick the right eyes?
Nope, and you need to learn from that, right?
You gotta find eyes.
So I wanna challenge the idea that.
(13:56):
If, if you're in private practice, I want to challenge first that the market dictates whether you can have a premium fee practice or not.
If anyone can have a premium fee practice, then you can have a premium fee practice.
Everybody starts from different places.
That's not a fact, but if you're determined to do it this way, and you have the resources or the fortitude or the support to, to figure it out.
(14:20):
You can get there.
You might have more life crises.
You know, there are always exceptions, and you can still find a way to move toward the life you want and have the ease, the joy, the relational connection.
And hopefully the financial abundance, regardless of what's happening in the world around you.
You have your mind, you have your brain, right?
(14:41):
You have yourself, and as long as you have yourself, there's a potential to have a life that brings you joy.
All right, I'm, I digress.
Here's what I'm saying.
Well, first of all, I hope I hit record on this.
Can you imagine if I did this whole thing and didn't hit record?
I did.
Oh, what a relief.
Look at, this is a podcast recording in real time.
(15:04):
There will always be fluctuations in the market.
There are always gonna be external life circumstances.
There are always gonna be, it's gonna be, it's not, here's the point with these statistics we know it's not easy to run a business.
If you're coming into a business expecting it's gonna be easy, expecting you're gonna be able to get a step by step that's gonna help you do anything.
I'm here to tell you that's not how it works.
Having a premium fee practice where you're consistently having clients who pay you $250 for therapy weekly or $300 or $400 for therapy weekly.
(15:32):
It's a game, it's a puzzle and you're not gonna ever just figure it out.
You're gonna figure out something that works and you're gonna be like, yes, and then something's gonna happen in the world, in your family, in your town, in the industry, in the space something's going to happen that's gonna.
What you have been doing to fill your practice and keep it full no longer fucking works.
(15:57):
Oh, and that's a pivotal moment where some business owners continue forward and figure out what do I need to do now in this new environment.
And there are some business owners that throw in the towel or or not even throw in the towel, they're just like, I'm done, I'm tired.
I don't wanna keep learning new things.
I don't wanna figure this out.
Let me go work for somebody else.
No shame.
I might do that one day.
I might get on a podcast one day and be like, I'm closing down limb.
(16:20):
I'm gonna go work for, who would I work for?
I don't know.
But Open AI.
I'm gonna go make $500,000 a year to sit in their offices and drink a latte.
I don't, I don't fucking know.
Who knows what.
But I do know that you have a choice to make.
Here are the facts.I know that most businesses fail.
(16:43):
I know that the industry, the world, things are always changing, and I know that the only way a business can succeed is if you are willing to identify that it's always gonna change and that's a joy of business.
Business is always a puzzle.
Business is always a mystery and you always have to be willing and open to learn and grow and try something new.
That's number 1.2.
(17:06):
You have to acknowledge that you, you can't see everything about your business.
And the only way, if you've tried what you think is everything and it hasn't succeeded, then there's something you need to learn.
And how do you learn it?
You work with somebody like me.
Send me an email Tiffany at leanin make bank and say I'm ready.
I'll ask you some questions, see if you're a good fit, see if we can get some eyes on your business and help you with some things that maybe you have not seen.
(17:32):
You can do that.
You can also go on to the world and find people who are currently doing what you're doing.
If you want to have a caseload of 10 people who are consistently paying you $250 per session with enough referrals that you're consistently feeling OK, safe, taken care of, secure.
You need to go talk to the people who are doing it right now, who are doing it right now.
(17:56):
And if you're telling me right now, which I can already hear in your hands, I know you.
I've worked with you for so long.
If you're saying, well, I don't even know where to find those people, Tiffany, everybody around me has practices who are struggling, then come in to the Lean and Make Bank Academy where you will find these people, where you will be mentored by these people, where you will be amongst the people who are on the journey, who are on the path, where you will be connected to a network of therapists who have gotten there or who are striving to to continue to get there no matter what.
(18:28):
If you want to do that, do you what what what's the mantra, folks?
Let's chant, say it with me.
Go ahead and send me an email, Tiffany at leanin makebank and say I'm ready.
And look, you may email me and I'll ask you some questions and I'll be like, we're not a good fit.
We're not gonna work well together.
I'm very transparent.
I want people in our program to be successful.
If you come on our program and and flame out, that'd be awesome because flaming out is the coolest thing that could happen.
(18:52):
Let's flame out together.
If you come into our program and you're not able to succeed.
That doesn't, that doesn't, I don't like that.
That doesn't feel good to me.
That doesn't feel good to my team, so I will ask you some questions to see if you're a good fit.
If you're not, I'll tell you where I think you should go.
I'll tell you what area of your business I think needs to be addressing and who I think will help you get there.
Here, here are the takeaways, folks.
Actually, I'll tie it together for you.
(19:16):
When I'm on live calls, when I do live trainings, I actually say, you tell me your biggest takeaway, you tell me your biggest aha.
Unfortunately, with podcasts, you can't talk to me, except if you send me an email, Tiffany at Leanandinbank.com, say I'm ready.
Or just tell me your takeaway from this episode.
Here are the takeaways.
Business is hard.
Most businesses fail.
That's a fact.
(19:37):
The, the environment is always changing.
Industries is always changing environment's always changing, meaning you can never, as much as we there we want stability, we want one that we finally crack the code and it's always gonna work.
It is not.It's not, it's not gonna work.
We've been lucky as therapists to have an industry that's pretty stable for the past many decades, but now we get to experience what all business.
(19:58):
All businesses experience which is fluctuations in the market fluctuations in the industry we're now getting inundated by a lot of different types of people buying and competing in the therapy space.
Well, awesome now on a little more of an equal playing field to all the other businesses who've had years to practice adapting, learning, finding ways to evolve as the world evolves and changes.
(20:19):
So you're gonna have to figure out what your practice needs.
Number 3, if you can't figure it out, if you've tried no matter what.
If you tried everything, OK, you have two choices.
You close your business and say it's just impossible, or I just don't want to do it anymore, great.
You can, it's not impossible, but if you want to say I don't want to do it anymore, that's fabulous.
Or you get new eyes on your business.
(20:42):
Find out what you could do, who's doing it, how are they doing it?
Invest with someone who's making it happen right now.
And try those things, those are your options.
Wow, I sound so exacerbated.
What time is it?
30 4?I gotta get to the gym.
I don't have a lot of time.
I busted something to my gut about a week ago.
(21:03):
I have a hernia, it turns out, it's from having my second kid.
But it's been fine and then suddenly last week it just popped.
Oh shit.
Gotta go get a surgery.
Wish me luck, people.
If any of this is exciting to you, or if you feel challenged by it, but you have a little call that's like, I hate Tiffany.
Because I think she's right.
(21:25):
and you want some help?
You know what to do.
Email me, Tiffany at leanin makebank.com, just say I'm ready.
I'll ask you some questions.
I'll, I'll let you know if I think we can help you, or, or if I, if I don't think we can, if we're not the people for you, I'll send you off to somebody who can.
I guess that's it.
Fuck.
Businessman, you're gonna be the kind of person who, who gives up when it gets hard.
(21:49):
No shame.
Or you're gonna be somebody who's like, I'm gonna fucking figure this out and I'm gonna find the people who are figuring it out.
I'm gonna be with them.
If that's you.
That's where you're at.
I'm there too in the season of life.
Let's fucking figure it out.
Together.
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