February 14, 2025 • 22 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
oh, and we can edit anything, all right.
Hey, I'm dr kate walker.
Welcome to texas.
Counselors creating badassbusinesses.
And I am here with the winnerof the 599 practice grant,
eleanor brown.
Of eleanor brown.
Eleanor brown counseling inclean texas, and I get to pick
her brain today and find out notonly what she plans to do with
(00:27):
the money and that's super coolbecause I already kind of know
because we talked about itbefore but also just more about
her business.
So you're going to love thisinterview today because she does
a lot she really you do a lot,so let's start with that.
So tell us I'm going toactually put my glasses on and
look at the questions when areyou located and how can
(00:50):
listeners refer clients to you?
Because this is all about sharethe love in the month of
February.
So we want to be able to pushclients to you and as counselors
, we don't often know how to dothat.
So how can we therapists referclients to you?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, I am in the state of Texas, I'm 100%
telehealth, so online only, andI also have Florida, but for the
Texas counselors, I am online,they can find me.
People can find me on mywebsite.
I have a contact form and abook a consultation, and clients
(01:28):
can ask potential questionslike availability and things
like that through the contact.
Or, if they just are ready toexcuse me, do a consultation,
they can book a consultation.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Awesome.
So I am actually on yourwebsite, which looks beautiful
oh my gosh, it is absolutelyfabulous.
And you actually got your name.
You haveEleanorBrownCounselingcom, which
I love.
That, yes, you know.
You've listened to me for awhile, so you know if you can
grab your name.
(02:01):
That is awesome, absolutely.
You've got up here.
It looks like book a free oh mygosh, it's right there where I
can see it.
So if we told clients just goto EleanorBrownCounselingcom,
they would see the blue buttonbook a free, consultation and
boom.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I love that.
All right, what do you loveabout your business, and I'm
thinking particularly as abusiness owner what do you love
as a business owner?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
One of the things I love most about a business owner
and I love it and it's alsoprobably the bane of my
existence is I get to set my ownschedule.
I can pick when I chooseclients, I can pick when I don't
see clients, I can pick whenI'm working on social media and
I can pick when I don't work on.
What I find myself doing toomuch of is working too many and
(02:56):
not putting a good separationbetween home and work life and
working too many hours.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, well, I'll get to the struggles in a minute.
Tell me more about what youlove, because, again, you do a
lot of things.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Oh, I really do.
So some of the things that Ilove doing in-person, things
like I have a conference comingup and I absolutely love being
in front of people and helpingdispel some of the myths that
people, especially Christians,believe about therapy.
And so, as a therapist, when Istarted going into this realm of
(03:28):
wanting to be a therapist, Ihad some Christian friends that
were like you know therapy, youjust trust God and you just give
it to God and oh, but ifthey've got a broke arm, they're
going to go to a doctor.
But that's different, that'sdifferent.
And so I love dispelling thatmyth and I've I've had a person
(03:49):
at the last conference that wedid you mean I'm not evil, and
that right there to foreverything that I've done, that
right there, that warms my heart, just being able to help people
awesome, and you're, you'rehaving a conference again.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Right, you're doing it again this year.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I am.
We're doing it in May, it'sgoing to be on May 31st, it's
going to be an all-day Saturdaything and we're really going to
dig into Maslow's hierarchy andwe're going to dig into faith
and therapy and we're going totalk about boundaries and
attachment issues and we'regoing to have some practical
exercises and really dig in.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Awesome, and so let's go through the names of your
things.
So the conference what's thename of your conference?
What are the names of yourbooks?
What is the name of yourpodcast?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Okay, absolutely so.
My conference is A Better Way,the conference where faith meets
therapy, and it really is thatcombination and the podcast
would just, we have a kind ofsort of haven't officially
announced it yet, so people willget to hear it here, probably,
maybe first.
Uh, but we've just rebranded itand it was a better way.
(05:02):
The podcast, um, but peoplereally didn't know what that
meant and my business coach waslike what does that mean?
So we rebranded it to a betterway to heal, where faith meets
therapy.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So still kind of keeping that.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, yes.
And then the books I have.
I wrote two books and the firstone is a better way,
integrating faith and psychologyto heal inner wounds, and the
second book is A Better Way,integrating Faith and Psychology
to Heal Inner Wounds.
And the second book is A BetterWay, the Companion Guide, and
it really is kind of meant to goalong with the book, but it can
also with the first book, butit can also stand on its own
(05:36):
because I put so much meat intoit.
It was really a labor of loveand that one, that one, was very
little coaching and pretty muchall me.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Nice, and this is one of those things where it's.
This is the wonderful part ofbeing a business owner and
setting your own schedule,because you can do these labors
of love, but they also becomestreams of income.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Absolutely yes.
And the last thing I didn'tmention I also do this brand new
thing that I started doing acouple months before the end of
the year I think, I don't know,October-ish.
I started doing this thingcalled Shame-Free Sundays, and I
love talking about shame.
I talk a lot about shame.
People find me a lot from myshame quiz because people don't
(06:26):
understand what shame is, and soI've got this little bear.
He's hiding out back there.
The purple one and we go on airand we talk and try to dispel
some of the myths about whatshame is and what it isn't.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
That is so cool, awesome, all right, next
question Now you can talk aboutthe struggle.
Where do you struggle?
And if you had to ask for help,what do you need?
And this might also lead towhat you're thinking about doing
with the practice grant thatyou won for 2024.
So where do you struggle?
What do you need?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
One of the things I struggle with most is, of course
, setting those boundaries andworking too much, but I find
myself sometimes working toomuch on things that may not
matter.
I mean, they do matter, butthey don't help propel what I
want to propel out there, and soI spend a lot of time working
(07:25):
on practice policies and thingslike that and legalities and all
this kind of stuff and and Idon't want to do that, that's
boring stuff and I really wantto hire somebody to take care of
that.
So I talked to an attorney andI actually now have my website
(07:46):
legal.
Now I have my privacy policiesand my terms of service and I
have my legal considerations, myrefund policy.
I have all of that on there now.
Congratulations, yeah, yes, andso another thing I really
struggle with is social mediaand telling people.
(08:08):
I don't tell people what I do.
I don't tell people what I do.
People that are on my mailinglist couldn't even tell you what
I do, and when I'm like a dayor two away from about to do
something, I'm like oh yeah, Ishould tell somebody.
I'm going to do this.
Yeah, a little late for thatokay.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So yeah, you gotta, you gotta fix that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I do, I really do, and I one of the one of my goals
for this year.
Can I talk about goals yet?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
oh yeah, go ahead, go ahead yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So one of my goals for this year is really figuring
out what I can hand off tosomeone and handing it off I
have in the past I've tried tohand things off to people and I
the product that I've not got,that I've gotten back, has not
been.
It's been things I've had toclean up and I've spent more
(09:05):
time trying to clean it up thanthan actually what I could have
done, just doing it myself inthe first place, and that's what
I thought I could do, that Icould hand little pieces off in
my workup to getting a virtualassistant or something like that
, and this just hasn't workedout for me yet.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's a huge hard thing and it's so common.
And I'll even take the firstthing you were talking about,
you know, knowing how to spendyour time Like it sounds legit
when you say, okay, I'mdeveloping policies and
procedures and legalities untilyou look and we've been talking
about this in the Step it Upmembership Like is it moving the
needle toward your income goal,toward your growth goal, toward
(09:52):
your retirement goal, and itneeds to be done.
But you did a great job right,you outsourced it to an attorney
and that's her job, and now youhave this great product and,
yes, it costs you money, but itdidn't cost you time, it was
money that you had had.
So sounds like you're lookingfor other ways to sort of get
(10:15):
those sops right in place sothat you can hand things off to
a virtual assistant or a realassistant.
They're all real, but you knowright, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Uh, I don't think we've uh completely outsourced
all of that to chat gpt yet nonot yet, not yet not yet, but uh
, yes, I really want to, um,like, let's say, the podcast
editing.
I love doing the podcast with myco-host and we're finally
getting to where we're actuallyputting something out once a
(10:46):
month, and then I'll have theshame-free sundays.
I don't want to edit it, Idon't want to do that, I really
don't want to do that, and soI've been doing that, and so I
want someone to help me withthat.
I want somebody to help me withgraphics, because I have some
great.
My website is beautiful and Iwant where I'm represented
elsewhere.
I want that to look just aspretty yeah, yeah.
(11:08):
And so coming up with that stuffand what I've outsourced so far
the quality is not where Iwould put this Right.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And it's hard.
I mean, it's hard to not, youknow, throwing out the baby with
the bathwater.
It's like, okay, well, then I'mjust going to do it all myself
instead of well, no, I just needto hire another person, or I
need to test it and figure outanother person who might be able
to do it.
Because I think, as businessowners, we go through that we
have to fire people, right, yeah, contract, right that we just
(11:41):
think, oh, thank you for thatlogo, and then I hate it and I'm
not going to use it.
And you get.
You know, you feel some shamebecause you're like, well,
there's $500 or whatever I justflushed down the toilet, but at
the same time, you, as abusiness owner, have to spend
money in order not to spend timedoing things that don't move
(12:02):
the needle.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
And it sounds like you're getting really good at
that.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I haven't moved theneedle as much as I want to.
So that's what this year.
My word for this year is soak,and I'm really.
(12:27):
I've started a lot of newthings and I now need to soak in
what I've done and really soakit in and set in the policy or
set in the systems, so that Ican hand some things off and
then really perfect what we'redoing, so that we're not just
(12:48):
adding things to be addingthings, we're not just adding
things to be adding things, andmaybe even find some things that
shouldn't, that I added lastyear that maybe that doesn't
really work for me.
So I'm just really soaking inand really trying to dig into
what I have and see what fitsfor me and what doesn't.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I hope people who are listening to this really just
caught that message.
You know, cause, I mean,entrepreneurs were creative and
we love coming up with new ideasand new things.
And so I hear you saying you'rekind of putting a moratorium on
new things, You're just goingto see what all of this does.
So I've got a question that I'moff script here.
(13:27):
So how will you know you wantto keep it or toss it?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Well, that's a really good question, and the thing is
is I love everything that Ihave, that I've started Right,
and so it's like this is my babyand and what I really have to
see is, is this I, if I can'tredo this?
(13:59):
You know, like, let's say, Idid a workshop last year that it
was a complete flop.
If I can try doing that in away that's not a complete flop,
maybe maybe I can keep it, maybeit needs to go.
It seems like it's somethingpeople want.
Maybe I can create it in adifferent manner.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I love that and I hope again I hope people are
hearing that the way you said itwas a flop, it was just sort of
like, okay, yeah, it was athing, it was a flop.
Moving on, as a business owner,you can't look at something
like that and take the shame onand be like, oh well, then,
obviously I'm not meant for thisand oh well, it's just never,
ever going to work.
You have to really look atthese labors of love, these
(14:35):
babies, and think, oh, you knowwhat, this one isn't going to
make it into 2025.
Or this one I'm not going torepeat in 2026.
Or I'm not going to do it live,I'm going to do it virtually,
or something's going to changeabout it.
Yeah, yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
It really is.
It really is.
I have people that are veryclose to me that I can say you
know, I'm really struggling here.
Help me streamline this.
What do I need to let go of andwhat do I need to keep?
And there's some things that Itook on in 2025 that I may let
go because they don't.
They're more of a time suck andit's like I'm struggling and
(15:15):
trying to see if this is goingto be a good fit for me and it
feels like I'm doing all thework and group projects and
things like that, and so thosethings I may have to let go and
that's okay.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah Well, and one thing I know about Ellie is she
does have a balanced time, abalanced life.
I mean you do 5Ks like everyweekend.
You have a pottery studio, soit's not like she's a workaholic
.
I mean I'm sure it fills yourbrain all the time, but I mean
you have other things you enjoydoing.
(15:50):
Absolutely it's reallyimportant that this business
thing isn't an alligator, justeating up all your time and
resources and energy.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Absolutely yeah.
Yeah, it really is.
So I haven't been in thepottery studio much lately.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
And it hasn't been because of work.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Although I filled my time with work instead of rest
because I've been dealing withsome health issues but I will be
back in that pottery studiovery soon but that is what keeps
me going, is that being able totake care of myself.
I go on vacations I've got afew planned this year and so
having that balance is veryimportant.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I love that.
I love that.
All right, I'm looking at myquestions.
So that brings me to.
Well, there are a couple thingsWe've talked about.
Your side hustles We've talkedabout.
You know how things youstruggle with what you need.
Do you, or would you be willingto have anybody reach out to
you and just ask you aboutthings like a podcast or putting
(16:52):
on a conference or writing abook?
I mean, how could peoplecontact you directly, just still
through the website, or isthere a different way they could
contact you?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I think a good place for people to contact me might
be my through my email.
They could email me at leelly,at Eleanor brown counselingcom.
And I mean, it's just like itis on a website, dot com.
And I mean, it's just like itis on a website.
Ok, same way.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I mean because it's not a lot of people that I meet
in the practice owning arena dothe fun things you do.
I mean, except me.
I do a ton of fun things, somaybe that's why I noticed you,
because I'm like, oh, she'sdoing another 5K or she's
throwing another pot orsomething Right, or you're on
another vacation.
(17:39):
I love that and I get that, andI think especially new practice
owners.
You know they're so fired upabout their business they don't
want to do anything else, butthen they realize, oh crap, I
forgot to do other things andnow I'm burning out.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think it's very important toto bring in those fun things
that we can do, the creative,and one of the things that I do,
even with my pottery, is Ireally bring that.
Everything we do as therapists.
We relate it to what we doanyway, but I I created these
(18:13):
therapy, these pottery blogsthat really deal with what
pottery is like, for how that istherapy.
You know pottery as therapy andit was so much fun.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Oh, I love that.
Is that on your website too?
It is there it is.
I just answered my question.
If I click blog, I see all ofyour blogs.
I love this.
Uh-huh, these are, these aregreat and they're beautiful.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
If you type in shame cycle or therapy, both of those
come up on the first page of anygoogle search.
That is awesome, yeah yeah,really excited.
I know you're SEO.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
All right, so 2025,.
What does 2025 have in storefor you?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, I have a lot of personal things.
I am going to Italy.
I'm super excited about that,yes, and I really, by the end of
2025, I really want to expandthe business I plan on starting.
I say expand, I really want todig in this year and soak and
(19:23):
get everything settled well,because in 2026, I want to take
the supervisor training and Iwant to become an LPC supervisor
.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Oh, have you thought about it.
Of course you want to take thatfrom.
I might, I might.
Oh, have you thought about?
Of course you want to take thatfrom.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I'm wondering I might , I might, but you know, I feel
like there's really some thingsI want to get done this year
that really set me up forsuccess, so that when I bring an
intern in here that they'rethey're not coming into a mess.
So I really want to get mysystem squared away.
I want to have, even if I don'thave, a virtual.
(19:59):
There's no way I'm going to doan LPC without a virtual
assistant.
So whether or not that virtualassistant is going to be my
husband or someone else, I don'tknow the answer to that
question yet, but I really wantto have some SOPs in place that
will handle the things I'm doing.
I want to get more consistentwith what I'm doing.
(20:19):
So that's the 2025 is thevision is to really get
consistent and perfect thethings that I did last year.
I do that really well.
Once I do something one time, Ican go back and perfect it
really well.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
That's awesome so soak, perfect, establish systems
, see what works and then justkeep moving in 2026.
Take off again.
Yeah, absolutely, I love it.
Well, thanks for visiting withme again.
Your website isEleanorBrownCounselingcom and if
you are listening to this andyou are a potential client, she
(20:54):
is super easy to contact.
It's a big blue button in thetop right hand corner.
You click that and you have achoice.
It says I'm a new client or I'man existing client, and you
click that and then you're ableto make your consultation
appointment.
So thanks for making it so easyfor us to refer to you and
contact you.
(21:15):
I appreciate that.
Thanks for coming on andtalking with me and thanks for
participating in the 2024Practice Grant Giveaway.
It couldn't have gone to agreater person.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
All right, I'm going to hit stop the recording.
I don't know if I can find it.
There we go, and just when myneighbor goes by with the very
loud muffler,
oh, and we can edit anything, all right.
Hey, I'm dr kate walker.
Welcome to texas.
Counselors creating badassbusinesses.
And I am here with the winnerof the 599 practice grant,
eleanor brown.
Of eleanor brown.
Eleanor brown counseling inclean texas, and I get to pick
her brain today and find out notonly what she plans to do with
(00:27):
the money and that's super coolbecause I already kind of know
because we talked about itbefore but also just more about
her business.
So you're going to love thisinterview today because she does
a lot she really you do a lot,so let's start with that.
So tell us I'm going toactually put my glasses on and
look at the questions when areyou located and how can
(00:50):
listeners refer clients to you?
Because this is all about sharethe love in the month of
February.
So we want to be able to pushclients to you and as counselors
, we don't often know how to dothat.
So how can we therapists referclients to you?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, I am in the state of Texas, I'm 100%
telehealth, so online only, andI also have Florida, but for the
Texas counselors, I am online,they can find me.
People can find me on mywebsite.
I have a contact form and abook a consultation, and clients
(01:28):
can ask potential questionslike availability and things
like that through the contact.
Or, if they just are ready toexcuse me, do a consultation,
they can book a consultation.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Awesome.
So I am actually on yourwebsite, which looks beautiful
oh my gosh, it is absolutelyfabulous.
And you actually got your name.
You haveEleanorBrownCounselingcom, which
I love.
That, yes, you know.
You've listened to me for awhile, so you know if you can
grab your name.
(02:01):
That is awesome, absolutely.
You've got up here.
It looks like book a free oh mygosh, it's right there where I
can see it.
So if we told clients just goto EleanorBrownCounselingcom,
they would see the blue buttonbook a free, consultation and
boom.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
I love that.
All right, what do you loveabout your business, and I'm
thinking particularly as abusiness owner what do you love
as a business owner?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
One of the things I love most about a business owner
and I love it and it's alsoprobably the bane of my
existence is I get to set my ownschedule.
I can pick when I chooseclients, I can pick when I don't
see clients, I can pick whenI'm working on social media and
I can pick when I don't work on.
What I find myself doing toomuch of is working too many and
(02:56):
not putting a good separationbetween home and work life and
working too many hours.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, well, I'll get to the struggles in a minute.
Tell me more about what youlove, because, again, you do a
lot of things.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Oh, I really do.
So some of the things that Ilove doing in-person, things
like I have a conference comingup and I absolutely love being
in front of people and helpingdispel some of the myths that
people, especially Christians,believe about therapy.
And so, as a therapist, when Istarted going into this realm of
(03:28):
wanting to be a therapist, Ihad some Christian friends that
were like you know therapy, youjust trust God and you just give
it to God and oh, but ifthey've got a broke arm, they're
going to go to a doctor.
But that's different, that'sdifferent.
And so I love dispelling thatmyth and I've I've had a person
(03:49):
at the last conference that wedid you mean I'm not evil, and
that right there to foreverything that I've done, that
right there, that warms my heart, just being able to help people
awesome, and you're, you'rehaving a conference again.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Right, you're doing it again this year.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I am.
We're doing it in May, it'sgoing to be on May 31st, it's
going to be an all-day Saturdaything and we're really going to
dig into Maslow's hierarchy andwe're going to dig into faith
and therapy and we're going totalk about boundaries and
attachment issues and we'regoing to have some practical
exercises and really dig in.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Awesome, and so let's go through the names of your
things.
So the conference what's thename of your conference?
What are the names of yourbooks?
What is the name of yourpodcast?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Okay, absolutely so.
My conference is A Better Way,the conference where faith meets
therapy, and it really is thatcombination and the podcast
would just, we have a kind ofsort of haven't officially
announced it yet, so people willget to hear it here, probably,
maybe first.
Uh, but we've just rebranded itand it was a better way.
(05:02):
The podcast, um, but peoplereally didn't know what that
meant and my business coach waslike what does that mean?
So we rebranded it to a betterway to heal, where faith meets
therapy.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So still kind of keeping that.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, yes.
And then the books I have.
I wrote two books and the firstone is a better way,
integrating faith and psychologyto heal inner wounds, and the
second book is A Better Way,integrating Faith and Psychology
to Heal Inner Wounds.
And the second book is A BetterWay, the Companion Guide, and
it really is kind of meant to goalong with the book, but it can
also with the first book, butit can also stand on its own
(05:36):
because I put so much meat intoit.
It was really a labor of loveand that one, that one, was very
little coaching and pretty muchall me.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Nice, and this is one of those things where it's.
This is the wonderful part ofbeing a business owner and
setting your own schedule,because you can do these labors
of love, but they also becomestreams of income.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Absolutely yes.
And the last thing I didn'tmention I also do this brand new
thing that I started doing acouple months before the end of
the year I think, I don't know,October-ish.
I started doing this thingcalled Shame-Free Sundays, and I
love talking about shame.
I talk a lot about shame.
People find me a lot from myshame quiz because people don't
(06:26):
understand what shame is, and soI've got this little bear.
He's hiding out back there.
The purple one and we go on airand we talk and try to dispel
some of the myths about whatshame is and what it isn't.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
That is so cool, awesome, all right, next
question Now you can talk aboutthe struggle.
Where do you struggle?
And if you had to ask for help,what do you need?
And this might also lead towhat you're thinking about doing
with the practice grant thatyou won for 2024.
So where do you struggle?
What do you need?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
One of the things I struggle with most is, of course
, setting those boundaries andworking too much, but I find
myself sometimes working toomuch on things that may not
matter.
I mean, they do matter, butthey don't help propel what I
want to propel out there, and soI spend a lot of time working
(07:25):
on practice policies and thingslike that and legalities and all
this kind of stuff and and Idon't want to do that, that's
boring stuff and I really wantto hire somebody to take care of
that.
So I talked to an attorney andI actually now have my website
(07:46):
legal.
Now I have my privacy policiesand my terms of service and I
have my legal considerations, myrefund policy.
I have all of that on there now.
Congratulations, yeah, yes, andso another thing I really
struggle with is social mediaand telling people.
(08:08):
I don't tell people what I do.
I don't tell people what I do.
People that are on my mailinglist couldn't even tell you what
I do, and when I'm like a dayor two away from about to do
something, I'm like oh yeah, Ishould tell somebody.
I'm going to do this.
Yeah, a little late for thatokay.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
So yeah, you gotta, you gotta fix that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I do, I really do, and I one of the one of my goals
for this year.
Can I talk about goals yet?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
oh yeah, go ahead, go ahead yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So one of my goals for this year is really figuring
out what I can hand off tosomeone and handing it off I
have in the past I've tried tohand things off to people and I
the product that I've not got,that I've gotten back, has not
been.
It's been things I've had toclean up and I've spent more
(09:05):
time trying to clean it up thanthan actually what I could have
done, just doing it myself inthe first place, and that's what
I thought I could do, that Icould hand little pieces off in
my workup to getting a virtualassistant or something like that
, and this just hasn't workedout for me yet.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's a huge hard thing and it's so common.
And I'll even take the firstthing you were talking about,
you know, knowing how to spendyour time Like it sounds legit
when you say, okay, I'mdeveloping policies and
procedures and legalities untilyou look and we've been talking
about this in the Step it Upmembership Like is it moving the
needle toward your income goal,toward your growth goal, toward
(09:52):
your retirement goal, and itneeds to be done.
But you did a great job right,you outsourced it to an attorney
and that's her job, and now youhave this great product and,
yes, it costs you money, but itdidn't cost you time, it was
money that you had had.
So sounds like you're lookingfor other ways to sort of get
(10:15):
those sops right in place sothat you can hand things off to
a virtual assistant or a realassistant.
They're all real, but you knowright, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Uh, I don't think we've uh completely outsourced
all of that to chat gpt yet nonot yet, not yet not yet, but uh
, yes, I really want to, um,like, let's say, the podcast
editing.
I love doing the podcast with myco-host and we're finally
getting to where we're actuallyputting something out once a
(10:46):
month, and then I'll have theshame-free sundays.
I don't want to edit it, Idon't want to do that, I really
don't want to do that, and soI've been doing that, and so I
want someone to help me withthat.
I want somebody to help me withgraphics, because I have some
great.
My website is beautiful and Iwant where I'm represented
elsewhere.
I want that to look just aspretty yeah, yeah.
(11:08):
And so coming up with that stuffand what I've outsourced so far
the quality is not where Iwould put this Right.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And it's hard.
I mean, it's hard to not, youknow, throwing out the baby with
the bathwater.
It's like, okay, well, then I'mjust going to do it all myself
instead of well, no, I just needto hire another person, or I
need to test it and figure outanother person who might be able
to do it.
Because I think, as businessowners, we go through that we
have to fire people, right, yeah, contract, right that we just
(11:41):
think, oh, thank you for thatlogo, and then I hate it and I'm
not going to use it.
And you get.
You know, you feel some shamebecause you're like, well,
there's $500 or whatever I justflushed down the toilet, but at
the same time, you, as abusiness owner, have to spend
money in order not to spend timedoing things that don't move
(12:02):
the needle.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
And it sounds like you're getting really good at
that.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I haven't moved theneedle as much as I want to.
So that's what this year.
My word for this year is soak,and I'm really.
(12:27):
I've started a lot of newthings and I now need to soak in
what I've done and really soakit in and set in the policy or
set in the systems, so that Ican hand some things off and
then really perfect what we'redoing, so that we're not just
(12:48):
adding things to be addingthings, we're not just adding
things to be adding things, andmaybe even find some things that
shouldn't, that I added lastyear that maybe that doesn't
really work for me.
So I'm just really soaking inand really trying to dig into
what I have and see what fitsfor me and what doesn't.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I hope people who are listening to this really just
caught that message.
You know, cause, I mean,entrepreneurs were creative and
we love coming up with new ideasand new things.
And so I hear you saying you'rekind of putting a moratorium on
new things, You're just goingto see what all of this does.
So I've got a question that I'moff script here.
(13:27):
So how will you know you wantto keep it or toss it?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Well, that's a really good question, and the thing is
is I love everything that Ihave, that I've started Right,
and so it's like this is my babyand and what I really have to
see is, is this I, if I can'tredo this?
(13:59):
You know, like, let's say, Idid a workshop last year that it
was a complete flop.
If I can try doing that in away that's not a complete flop,
maybe maybe I can keep it, maybeit needs to go.
It seems like it's somethingpeople want.
Maybe I can create it in adifferent manner.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I love that and I hope again I hope people are
hearing that the way you said itwas a flop, it was just sort of
like, okay, yeah, it was athing, it was a flop.
Moving on, as a business owner,you can't look at something
like that and take the shame onand be like, oh well, then,
obviously I'm not meant for thisand oh well, it's just never,
ever going to work.
You have to really look atthese labors of love, these
(14:35):
babies, and think, oh, you knowwhat, this one isn't going to
make it into 2025.
Or this one I'm not going torepeat in 2026.
Or I'm not going to do it live,I'm going to do it virtually,
or something's going to changeabout it.
Yeah, yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
It really is.
It really is.
I have people that are veryclose to me that I can say you
know, I'm really struggling here.
Help me streamline this.
What do I need to let go of andwhat do I need to keep?
And there's some things that Itook on in 2025 that I may let
go because they don't.
They're more of a time suck andit's like I'm struggling and
(15:15):
trying to see if this is goingto be a good fit for me and it
feels like I'm doing all thework and group projects and
things like that, and so thosethings I may have to let go and
that's okay.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah Well, and one thing I know about Ellie is she
does have a balanced time, abalanced life.
I mean you do 5Ks like everyweekend.
You have a pottery studio, soit's not like she's a workaholic
.
I mean I'm sure it fills yourbrain all the time, but I mean
you have other things you enjoydoing.
(15:50):
Absolutely it's reallyimportant that this business
thing isn't an alligator, justeating up all your time and
resources and energy.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Absolutely yeah.
Yeah, it really is.
So I haven't been in thepottery studio much lately.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
And it hasn't been because of work.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Although I filled my time with work instead of rest
because I've been dealing withsome health issues but I will be
back in that pottery studiovery soon but that is what keeps
me going, is that being able totake care of myself.
I go on vacations I've got afew planned this year and so
having that balance is veryimportant.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I love that.
I love that.
All right, I'm looking at myquestions.
So that brings me to.
Well, there are a couple thingsWe've talked about.
Your side hustles We've talkedabout.
You know how things youstruggle with what you need.
Do you, or would you be willingto have anybody reach out to
you and just ask you aboutthings like a podcast or putting
(16:52):
on a conference or writing abook?
I mean, how could peoplecontact you directly, just still
through the website, or isthere a different way they could
contact you?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I think a good place for people to contact me might
be my through my email.
They could email me at leelly,at Eleanor brown counselingcom.
And I mean, it's just like itis on a website, dot com.
And I mean, it's just like itis on a website.
Ok, same way.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I mean because it's not a lot of people that I meet
in the practice owning arena dothe fun things you do.
I mean, except me.
I do a ton of fun things, somaybe that's why I noticed you,
because I'm like, oh, she'sdoing another 5K or she's
throwing another pot orsomething Right, or you're on
another vacation.
(17:39):
I love that and I get that, andI think especially new practice
owners.
You know they're so fired upabout their business they don't
want to do anything else, butthen they realize, oh crap, I
forgot to do other things andnow I'm burning out.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think it's very important toto bring in those fun things
that we can do, the creative,and one of the things that I do,
even with my pottery, is Ireally bring that.
Everything we do as therapists.
We relate it to what we doanyway, but I I created these
(18:13):
therapy, these pottery blogsthat really deal with what
pottery is like, for how that istherapy.
You know pottery as therapy andit was so much fun.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Oh, I love that.
Is that on your website too?
It is there it is.
I just answered my question.
If I click blog, I see all ofyour blogs.
I love this.
Uh-huh, these are, these aregreat and they're beautiful.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
If you type in shame cycle or therapy, both of those
come up on the first page of anygoogle search.
That is awesome, yeah yeah,really excited.
I know you're SEO.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
All right, so 2025,.
What does 2025 have in storefor you?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, I have a lot of personal things.
I am going to Italy.
I'm super excited about that,yes, and I really, by the end of
2025, I really want to expandthe business I plan on starting.
I say expand, I really want todig in this year and soak and
(19:23):
get everything settled well,because in 2026, I want to take
the supervisor training and Iwant to become an LPC supervisor
.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Oh, have you thought about it.
Of course you want to take thatfrom.
I might, I might.
Oh, have you thought about?
Of course you want to take thatfrom.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I'm wondering I might , I might, but you know, I feel
like there's really some thingsI want to get done this year
that really set me up forsuccess, so that when I bring an
intern in here that they'rethey're not coming into a mess.
So I really want to get mysystem squared away.
I want to have, even if I don'thave, a virtual.
(19:59):
There's no way I'm going to doan LPC without a virtual
assistant.
So whether or not that virtualassistant is going to be my
husband or someone else, I don'tknow the answer to that
question yet, but I really wantto have some SOPs in place that
will handle the things I'm doing.
I want to get more consistentwith what I'm doing.
(20:19):
So that's the 2025 is thevision is to really get
consistent and perfect thethings that I did last year.
I do that really well.
Once I do something one time, Ican go back and perfect it
really well.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
That's awesome so soak, perfect, establish systems
, see what works and then justkeep moving in 2026.
Take off again.
Yeah, absolutely, I love it.
Well, thanks for visiting withme again.
Your website isEleanorBrownCounselingcom and if
you are listening to this andyou are a potential client, she
(20:54):
is super easy to contact.
It's a big blue button in thetop right hand corner.
You click that and you have achoice.
It says I'm a new client or I'man existing client, and you
click that and then you're ableto make your consultation
appointment.
So thanks for making it so easyfor us to refer to you and
contact you.
(21:15):
I appreciate that.
Thanks for coming on andtalking with me and thanks for
participating in the 2024Practice Grant Giveaway.
It couldn't have gone to agreater person.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
All right, I'm going to hit stop the recording.
I don't know if I can find it.
There we go, and just when myneighbor goes by with the very
loud muffler,
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