63. How Coaching Can Transform Your Private Practice with Jena Castro-Casbon and Julie Pera

Have you ever wondered how working with a coach can help you create better work-life balance? Are you neurodivergent and and struggle to keep track of all the moving parts in your career as an SLP? Are you drowning at work and constantly trying to get stuff done in your practice? Then today's episode is one that can't be missed.

I sat down with Jena Castro-Casbon from the Private Practice Success Stories podcast and Julie Pera, one of my coaching clients, to discuss how time management impacts private practice. If you've been wanting to improve the way you spend your time at work or at home and you want to implement systems to help with productivity, then press play and let's GO!

Are you sick and tired of feeling overwhelmed by all the things? I can help. Schedule a free consult today.

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Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.

Transcript

Welcome to Work-Life Balance for Speech Pathologists. I'm Theresa Harp, an SLP and productivity coach, and this podcast is all about how to build a successful career as an SLP and still have time for yourself and the people and things you love. So if you're ready to ditch stress and burnout for a more balanced and fulfilling life, then you are in the right place.

Hey SLPs, today's episode is a special one. I'm actually sharing an interview that I did with Jena Castro-Casbon from The Independent Clinician. She has a podcast called Private Practice Success Stories. Many of you, I'm sure, are familiar with Jena. Maybe you've worked with her. You might have podcast, and in today's episode, I'm sharing a recording from an interview that we did with Julie Pera.

She is a client. a former client of mine and a former client of Jena's. And we're diving into all things about [00:01:00] building a private practice as a neurodivergent business owner and all of the value that coaching can provide you in both your business and personal life. So let's dive in. All right, so we're going to do something really fun today, which is to actually have a conversation about time management and private practice with three different people, one of them being myself.

And then we have two amazing other people who are on our discussion here who all have different aspects about private practice that they have experienced. And again, what we're going to be talking about is time management, Theresa, do you mind introducing yourself first and then we'll go from there. Yeah, absolutely.

So my name is Theresa Harp. I am an SLP and a productivity coach, and right now I work with other SLPs on how to improve their work life balance. Awesome. All right, Julie. And I'm Julie Pera. I'm a speech language pathologist for about 25 years now. And about five years ago, [00:02:00] I started my own private practice and I have worked with Jena's program, Grow Your Private Practice, and also recently finished a 12 week coaching stretch with Theresa.

I love it. And I'm Jena Kaster Kasbaum. I'm a private practice business coach for SLPs and OTs in helping at all stages of the private practice journey from starting to growing to scaling. And one thing I see all the time that comes up is time management and people, you know, as they're kind of getting started in private practice or certainly as their practices are growing, these issues of, you know, feeling like you don't have enough time or you've got too much stuff to do.

And that kind of thing certainly enter into the equation. And so what I would love to do is actually to start with Julie and just kind of ask you, Julie, like how has, you know, time and time management been a factor for you as a private practice owner? [00:03:00] So I think one of the reasons why I leapt into private practice was because I had such a large caseload in the public schools and was trying to juggle all of that.

And so then You know, the benefit of being in private practice has been that I can decide how big my case load is and how to schedule it. That being said, I've Over the five years added in some other, um, subcontracting kinds of things where those things I needed to do to make sure that I had enough income or I felt they needed to do.

And then those things kind of filled my schedule to the point where I was really struggling to get everything done, to feel balanced and [00:04:00] felt like I, you know, It was hard. It was also going through a lot over the past five years, personally. So my mom passed away of ovarian cancer a year ago, June. And so in that five years, because of being a private practice owner, I was able to really be there supporting my family.

My mom and my dad. And then also that definitely affected where I had my time and energy and the emotions that I was feeling took up a lot of space too. Yeah, totally. And yeah, I mean, there's definitely different, you know, seasons of life that people go through in different times where you're pulled in different directions as, as a business owner.

And so, um, thank you for sharing that. And I just, I do see, see that a lot. And sometimes it's hard to kind of know where to place your energy, right? When you either have, you know, you have your own business, you have things that you've contracted for that you're supporting other [00:05:00] businesses. You obviously have your own family and, and not to be lost in the shuffle and all that is you and what your individual needs are, right?

Um, Theresa, what do you think about that? Yeah, I love that, Julie. I love that you brought up the word energy because it's such an important component of this. Yes, we're managing time, but we're also, we also need to manage our energy and also, uh, you know, I'll add to that our minds, right? So it's not, I, I always say it's not just time management, but perhaps even more importantly, it's about mind management and You know, having the ability to having the awareness rather to of of the ways that our energy and our values might change depending upon the season of life that we're in and then how that you know, working for yourself, having that autonomy and authority over how you spend your time is such a crucial benefit to sort of taking that leap and going into [00:06:00] private practice.

And I think it's really important to keep in mind that these things will change and it doesn't necessarily mean that something has gone wrong. It's absolutely okay. It's in fact, it's one of the benefits of working for yourself. Totally. I have a, um, kind of a question, Theresa, for you, which is that like, you know, when I was, when I was a young SLP and it was just in the field, I really thought that, you know, I identified at the time as being a type B SLP.

Right. And I felt like there was basically almost none of us. Right. And there was like one person with an Instagram account, one person with a Facebook group that was sort of started to popularize this idea that type B SLPs existed. Right. And so I also thought when I was in grad school that all of my other classmates were like so much better at time management than I was.

I actually got, my grades were actually really good, but I was working really hard to get those grades and I felt just more scattered and, and everything [00:07:00] else. And then I got actually out of grad school and into the profession. And I started to meet more and more, you know, air quotes, type B SLPs, and I found a lot of them actually, you know, gravitating to private practice.

And that really surprised me because as someone who's, who's worked with thousands of private practice owners, again, I also thought that you had to be like super organized and more like type a in order to be in private practice. But what I found is that so many people like kind of to Julie's point needed to shift into private practice, almost like for self preservation.

Because people were feeling completely overwhelmed by all of the things that were happening in schools and hospitals. And so I'm wondering too, if, if either of you all are seeing that or, or have been surprised by that as I was. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. When you work for yourself, if you identify as a Type A person, [00:08:00] there are pros and cons.

And if you identify as a Type B person, there are pros and cons. Right? And having the flexibility to be able to recognize when structure and organization would be beneficial is really important. But then also, not allowing those things to hold you back, which I think is, as someone who identifies as type A, I think it's very easy to sort of fall victim to those frameworks and systems to feel busy, feel productive, right?

Feel like you're achieving, but you're not actually moving the needle. You're just sort of staying safe and not pursuing those big ideas that might come with more of the type B. It's funny hearing you say type B because I, I think I've swung sort of back and forth in my lifetime. I was diagnosed with a DH ADHD at age 42, and that really explains a lot of it.

But I, I [00:09:00] do remember being in tears one weekend at my undergrad program because a clinic supervisor had said something to me to the effect of, you're so type A, you're going to be dead by the time you're 30. And um, and really I think when it was, was the parts of me that I presented to others, I was so.

focused on it being so perfect and I, I can progress to organize to beat the ban. I love things to be, you know, well organized. And I had a friend like, Oh, you're way too smart. You're way too organized to have ADHD. Well, she didn't realize that some of that is a compensatory strategy for me. And then some of it.

Is it escape? Like, okay, if I need to reorganize those books because that, you know, the, the color's not quite there, the size is a little bit off, well then, uh, uh, not going to be doing that billing. That's really tricky. Yes. [00:10:00] So I, I think maybe I'm an A minus or a B plus now. Well, I think that back then we also weren't really talking about ADHD as much.

I was also diagnosed later. Well, I actually was diagnosed as a child, but I never, like, did any medication or got any therapy or help or anything. But I think that like, that's kind of like the, the, a safer thing that we used to identify as because we'd either didn't know that we had ADHD at the time, or it felt more like socially acceptable or something to say like type B versus neurodivergent, which now like we're having just more awareness of that, not only for our clients, obviously, but also for us.

As professionals. And I don't know how y'all feel about it, but for me, it's very refreshing to be able to see other people who are saying like, no, I identify as neurodivergent and these are the things that I need to be successful. And, you know, for me, Julie, I totally identify with [00:11:00] what you said about like organization.

Like, I also like to be organized in many aspects of my life, but in other ones, I'm completely disorganized and I need help, really. Yeah, I think that, uh, well, as I started my coaching certification program, it was a very, the program was very ADHD focused and which I loved because it had so much content on based on ADHD and I didn't really know all that much about ADHD at the time.

It was sort of one of those things where you, like, you think you know what it is, you hear sort of traits about ADHD, but I didn't really understand it. At the level that I understand it now, which is still very, you know, at that early stages, but to be able to think about how our the way that we spend our time and the sort of quote unquote strategies that are marketed and talked about [00:12:00] that.

We all think, okay, well, I tried this and it didn't work, so there's something wrong with me, or there's something, or that strategy doesn't actually work, right? We just, we try these things that we've heard, and to no avail, and it sort of clicked for me, like, oh, it's probably because You know, people's brains are functioning a little bit differently, and what works for you is not going to work well for you and for you, right?

And so having that awareness is so important, both individually, yes, and then as a coach, recognizing what works for my clients as well, so that we can tailor those strategies to support their neurodivergent brain. I think once I got my diagnosis and I was able to start really listening to, um, lots of podcasts and read lots of books and get more information, one of the most helpful things I came across was Ned Hallowell's concept of the mirror traits, where now suddenly I'm able [00:13:00] to say, okay, so yeah, I can be somewhat impulsive.

Um, And the flip side of that is creativity and that I can look at something and decide, I'm just going to try this and come up with ways to solve the problem that other people who are more hesitant, less impulsive, might just be like, Oh, that's not going to work. And I really do love that I'm coming to be able to more and more and more understand and embrace that, um, idea of being neurodiversity and affirming when I, Literally named my business like overnight after giving my resignation to the schools.

I was looking for a name for my business and I wanted it to reflect that idea of we're all different. And, um, so I came across a quote from the Reverend Dr. Mr. Fred Rogers, and it was along the lines [00:14:00] of, we all have different gifts. So we all have different ways to say to the world who we are. And.

Therefore, uh, came my practice name and he gets speech and language therapy, but it's. Is really important to me that that reminds me I'm not looking for the same outcome for all of my clients and I don't have to be the same SLP as as everyone else. I have my gifts and I have my way of saying to the world.

Who I am. I think I love that story, Julie. And I think that I had a similar experience where, you know, I, you know, I am a, an SLP, I'm a private practice owner, and I'm also a business education leader, right. And, you know, I was reading a book, um, called rocket fuel by Gino Wichman, who wrote the traction series.

And I was on an airplane flying to a business coaching event in California. This is right before COVID you guys, this was February, [00:15:00] 2020. And I was on the plane. I was reading this book and it talked about how in every business, there needs to be two different types of people. One is the visionary. And they're like the leader.

They're the one with the ideas. And then the other is the integrator, which is the person who like makes the ideas happen, more system focused and that kind of thing. And as I was reading this description of the visionary, it was almost like I was reading like exactly about myself, right? It was like, it was about the creative parts and it was about having ideas.

But it was also about being terrible at execution and not really good about deadlines and not really great about follow through. But what it talked about was how that was okay as long as you had someone else to balance you. And the example that they gave that I also really liked that everyone can relate to is, is, you know, um, Walt Disney and Roy Disney.

So Walt Disney came up with all the ideas for, you know, the theme parks and the movie and movies and everything else. But it was his brother, [00:16:00] Roy, who was the integrator and actually made all of those things. happen. So we all have different, you know, personalities and personality traits and whatnot. And I think that the quicker that we can identify kind of who we are as a person and embrace that, and yes, use strategies to help us, you know, you know, be, you know, regulate ourselves and whatnot, but to really get the most out of who we are and what our unique gifts are, Like that will save so much energy, like energy to, you know, Theresa's word and, and stress when we stop kind of fighting against who we are naturally and embrace it and use, you know, whether it's productivity systems or time management systems to actually like, use the best qualities in ourselves versus fighting against the things that we struggle with.

I could not agree more. And I think though an important piece to [00:17:00] that I have noticed at least, I'm curious what you all think, is as a field right now, culturally, we are Incredibly, and I'm generalizing, but incredibly overwhelmed and undervalued in many cases and approaching burnout, going past the point of burnout and It is very difficult to pause and be present and tap into that awareness when you have all of those demands on you and you feel like you have nothing left to give, right?

And so one of the things that I think is so important for any SLP, right, private practice owner or not, is to break that pattern even if you just disrupt it momentarily of like, okay. Pause, right? I, I'm a person. I am a human. I have needs. I'm not a robot. [00:18:00] And like, to be able to just, even if it's five minutes, put some time and energy back into yourself, even if it means you're just doing nothing for five minutes, sitting in silence or doing a five minute meditation, that can have a really important and crucial effect.

When. we are in that sort of survival state for so long, right? And we, I think we all know that, right? We all know that cognitively. I'm not telling you don't telling you something you don't know, but when you're in it, it feels impossible to do that. And I also think that we underestimate the value of just a five minute pause like that.

We think it's not going to make a difference. So we don't do it. And that pattern just perpetuates. I have a question for you, Theresa, that I think will follow up on, on that nicely, which is, you know, you started your coaching business a couple of years ago, right? After you, you know, you, you've got a couple of different kids, you got kids, right?

Several children. [00:19:00] You also have had a private practice also. Right. But like, what was it? That you were noticing about the field in addition to what you just said that led you to settle on helping specifically SLPs and maybe some other allied health professionals too. But with time management and productivity, like what were you seeing that really led you to decide that's the kind of coaching that you wanted to do?

It's a great question. It was an evolution for sure. The, the way that it began was when I was juggling my private practice and my kids. And so, yeah, I have, my kids are very close in age. I have four kids and they're all, they're four years apart. And so, and it was right along the time is when my practice was growing and I love working and I love my kids and I wanted to feel successful in both.

And I was like, how do I do this? How can I build a successful [00:20:00] career and a business and still be there for my kids and have that time? And I didn't want one to cost me the other. So it really started that sort of journey of recognizing the value of time and thinking about it differently. And that was like the early stages of like, okay, here are some simple systems I can do.

Here are some time management strategies to sort of help me feel like, all right, I'm feeling successful at home. Things are like running smoothly. It's a business. It's running smoothly, right? Cause it is like a business when you're in a household and same thing with my actual business, my private practice.

But then what I was noticing was, well, wait a second. There's so many other so many of my colleagues are like, just completely running themselves into the ground. They feel like if I'm, you know, if I am spending some time with my kids, then I'm, my business isn't growing or I'm not treating, I'm not serving my clients.

I'm falling short as an SLP [00:21:00] and vice versa. And. I started to realize that this wasn't just a me thing. It was a we thing. So I needed to, I needed to do something. And the more that I became aware of it, it's like once you see those things, you can't unsee them, right? So that's, that's sort of when I, and it was right around COVID too, like you mentioned.

And I was sort of having like a, I'm not really. feeling, I'm feeling a little bit restless or just a little bit. I need to do something a little bit different. And that's how I discovered coaching. But what happened was once I started that coaching journey, I was like, okay, I've got systems, I've got strategies.

And the clients that I was working with still weren't seeing the changes that I. Was envisioning for them, right? That sort of relief of that pressure of that, you know, wanting to be successful. And I'm like, what am I missing? What's what is the missing piece? And it was what I didn't realize at the time, but have come to [00:22:00] understand is it's not just about.

Implementing strategies. It's about the way that you're thinking about your time, the way that you're thinking about how you're spending your time in your business and how you're spending your time at home. Because I could give you all the strategies in the world. If you go and use them and you still feel lousy and guilty, right?

As a mom, that's not really very helpful. So that was like that, that pivotal shift for me when things started to change. And Julie, I mean, you and I have worked together, so you, I'm sure you can speak to this. Yeah, I think. It's really that idea that what you find that works for you and you get so excited, excuse me, so excited about it, and you want other people to, to have that success, but you can't just hand it to them and have it work.

I guess how each of us do things, the more we're aware of what our own [00:23:00] individual rhythms and motivators and needs and all of that are, the more successful we can be with Maybe it is the same system or we're inspired by the system of someone else, we still have to come to that understanding through something that makes sense for our brain.

So I know during our time working together, I finally came up on my my Libby app to get, uh, Tamara Rosier's book, Your Brain Is Not Broken. And I listened to that, and then I ended up ordering my own copy of it because her way of describing sort of the energy level that goes with different tasks was just so helpful for me.

And then she also describes these these types of patterns you can get yourself in and that really worked for my brain too. Knowing that I had a stretch of time [00:24:00] that maybe it was partly grief and maybe it was a bunch of other things. I don't know but I definitely was getting stuck a lot in what she called the blue area.

So I was doing things that were enjoyable for me, like, you know, playing some puzzles on my phone, listening to, you know, true crime podcasts and your podcast, you guys. But, um, so I was doing so much of that, that you'd consider blue, that then everything else that was, important for me to do like the green things that are important and reenergizing time with friends and family and exercise and nutrition and then the things that are yellow those like boring have twos um like everything else became red and Emergency things and I was just going back and forth from being like stuck for long stretches [00:25:00] in this like I'm doing something that I should enjoy but I started to feel guilt while I was doing those, those things because I knew I had the other things building up.

And now I'm kind of mentally breaking it down okay like those things are not inherently good or bad. And I enjoy them. I have to be aware of like where in my energy flow of the day Where I let myself do a few of those things So that I don't get stuck there and then where in the flow of my day am I going to be?

Best able to get myself motivated and started on those, those have to billing and sorting out, um, all kinds of, you know, administrative stuff. When I think that that's one of the beauties of being a business owner is you are in more control of structuring your day. Right. So I have lots of people [00:26:00] who, for example, they come to me and they said, Jena, like, I'm just, I'm not a morning person.

Like if I could just like, not start seeing clients till 10, that would be amazing for me. And I'm like, here's the thing. You're the boss. Like you can do that. You don't have to start seeing clients till 10. Like, and I think that that's one of the things that like, it takes people a while when they shift from being an employee, like mindset to being a business owner mindset.

To say, wait a minute, I actually am in control of these things and I can do things according to my energy. There are certain things like Julie, you mentioned like, you know, billing and documentation and that kind of stuff that is, you know, more tedious, likely more boring for most people. And so whatever time of the day you do best with that, whether that's, you know, in the morning or maybe it's the afternoon, or maybe it's even like late at night after the kids have gone to bed, who knows, but it's really important for you to start to identify.

What are those energy cycles throughout the day? And I know one thing that's really [00:27:00] helped me is sometimes I sit down and like, I, I'm supposed to be doing something, but I've learned about myself that if I'm really forcing my brain to think, and it's just not clicking, I actually run the risk of doing more damage of like trying to force myself to, to do a thing versus like going for a walk or like going to the grocery store or something.

And And coming back to it. And it took me an embarrassingly long time to, to realize that about myself. But after I did, it has made my work week so much more productive where I just lean into the times where I'm really like on it. And like in a, um, a trans isn't the right word, but like kind of in the zone or whatever.

And if, yeah, in flow, thank you. But if I'm forcing it, like it's not going to happen for me. Yeah. And I mean, both of you are, are really just, you're saying that. being able to work with your brain and not against it, right, and not having to swim upstream, and doing it from a place of [00:28:00] neutrality. So it is just feeling very neutral about it, right?

If I'm distracted when I'm trying to do billing, for example, and it's taking me way longer than it should, that means absolutely nothing about my value as a person, about my ability as a business owner, about my ability as an SLP. It has, it's nothing to do with any of those things. Right. And so being able to not just be aware of, you know, what works best for you and what doesn't, but being able to follow it without any attachment or feelings of disappointment or pressure or guilt, because you're like, this is just who I am.

This is just how I, how I operate and there's nothing wrong with it. Julie, I actually have a question for you, which is how did you, why did you decide to sign up for productivity coaching with Theresa? And then I know thing that you mentioned that it was about a 12 week, um, program, what have you now gotten out of [00:29:00] that on the other side?

So I think my first major investment in my business was signing up for grow your private practice. And I did that and did the, um, at the time it was a six month and then I did the six month extension. And. I got a lot out of that and still wasn't feeling like I really was on top of all the areas of the business that need to be running smoothly.

So I had been knowing that I wanted to invest in myself again at some point and was trying to figure out do I need Do I need an ADHD coach? Do I need a business coach? Do I need an ADHD business coach? And I kind of kept looking around at different [00:30:00] people and doing that overthinking thing about like, who would be the best bet and when would be the best time to do it.

And I've been following Theresa on Facebook in her group there ever since. She did that introduction about herself and gave us a little mini session as part of grow your private practice. And I interacted a few times during some of her lunch and learns. And then finally he just said, duh, you know, I I've met her.

I've seen her style, seen her energy, seen her compassion. I'm going to book a free consultation with her and say to her, am I the right person? the right type of person who works with your type of coaching instead of keep trying to guess and know before I contact the person that they're the [00:31:00] right person for me because I wouldn't expect that of my clients, you know.

Uh, so I reached out, we did that hour long session and then I said, yep, I'm ready. To invest in myself again. I know there was a point about halfway through where I hit my mom's birthday, my parents anniversary, mother's day, all within a very short period of time. And I had a session where I said, I don't think I picked the right time to do this.

I don't know if I can do all the things I need to do. And Theresa just really reflected it back to me about what, What I had said in the beginning were my goals and what kind of were her ideas of what I would get out of it. And did it really matter if I could implement everything perfectly within this 12 weeks versus could I start [00:32:00] to get that momentum?

And so over the course of the 12 weeks, we really talked about some of the systems that I needed to develop to best support. my brain and to best support my ability to moving forward on, um, on board clients more efficiently and also to work on the backlog of stuff that I have that Has built up and built up for different reasons in different areas of the business, knowing that there's no way humanly possible, even if I was back to being my 21 year old self, that I have enough time in a day or a week to just get it all done all at once and have a fresh start.

So how do I create. Some fresh starts for myself mentally so that [00:33:00] I can then slowly work on maintaining those systems moving forward and chip away at that backlog, make things easier for myself in the long term. I mean, the thing, the thing that I'm kind of hearing you say is like, you know, you've, you invested in two things, right?

You invested in your business and in your business education, right? And then you invested in yourself. Right. And your own, like, you know, self, your own self systems, right. To like make your business run smoother and then also make yourself within your business run smoother. And I think that that is like such an amazing thing to have the awareness of the need to do that.

And then to actually like make the commitment to doing it. And I also just really liked that you brought up that sometimes like things aren't, aren't smooth there for a second and you kind of have to like recommit to doing it. One thing I think that. I'll add to that is, you know, kind of piggybacking [00:34:00] off your comments of investing in your business and in yourself.

We are our business, right? We are a service based business. And we, for most of us, we are the brand. We are the business. Like it is our brand. It's, it's what we do. It's, it's who we are for so many of us. And you can't separate those. I mean, you bring your brain, you bring your, you bring it all with you, right?

And so being able to I think sort of break down those compartments or those silos of like, and it's ironic because you think about work life balance in that term, right? Of like work and life, and that is not at all the reality, right? It is more of like this synergy and this sort of integration of both work and life and being able to recognize that They aren't separate from each other as much as you might want them to be.

They can be, in your mind, in certain ways. But, if we sort of [00:35:00] stop fighting that, like, that compartmentalization or that separation and start thinking about how we can integrate them so that we feel good in both areas. And how when you feel good in one area, it actually can help you feel good in the other.

The more we start to sort of open our minds to that possibility, I think the less fighting we have to do internally of like, Oh, I should be, uh, with my kids right now. Or, Oh, I should be writing a report right now. Right? It's just sort of like, Hey, this is life. It's a lot of moving pieces here. And we're just managing our minds and we're managing our time together.

The other thing about reaching out to a coach was that and I think this is a probably a common experience for a lot of ADHD years that I was like, okay, there's really not likely to be a whole lot that she's going to say to me that I don't already know I'm just having that hard time putting it into place.

[00:36:00] So how is having a coach? really going to help if they're going to just talk about the tools I could use and then I still have a hard time putting it in place and I think The result was actually you put two great minds in one place and you look at something and you see some of it differently. So some of what Theresa shared with me was stuff that I hadn't seen before.

There's a productivity chain and you'll have to offer, you know, The name for whose, um, product that is that Theresa shared with me. And that really inspired me to think about things in some different ways. And then also talking through things out loud with someone else who understands really, even the times if Theresa didn't reflect back to me, what she heard, what she did.

Well, I, by talking through that, I [00:37:00] heard myself say the things, okay, this is my little bit of resistance to this, or wait, I had an easier time doing this when I, and then, Taking the time to really process that and hold on to that information about myself, and that's how moving forward. I'm going to be able to keep some of this stuff in place and I will do my little things of like changing the colors or, you know, whatever little things I do to help keep my interest.

And, you know, feel like things are new and exciting and at the same time not lose key parts of that, the important things that helped me figure out how to do the things that I know how to do that are right in front of me and I'm having a hard time. Julie, you came in with such an incredible, uh, degree of self [00:38:00] awareness and self awareness is.

so key to all of this. And there's also the action, right? The, the implementation. And sometimes we have the awareness, but we don't always have the action. Or sometimes we have the action without the awareness and being able to kind of put that together is, is really key. And we all have blind spots, right?

We all have these sort of Pieces of our story that are just a story. It's just our sort of cognitive, um, you know, biases that we might have, or there might be, you know, sort of narratives that we've learned or we've established and then we just, we see life through that lens and being able to work with somebody who can it.

point that those things out to you and sort of, like you said, reflect it back, right? So that you can sort of consider, Oh, well, [00:39:00] maybe that's not exactly the way that, that maybe that's not the reality, or maybe that's, maybe there's possibility for something different. Um, and having someone be able to, to partner with you and share that with you is what coaching is all about.

I think it's also huge coming. From the way back when, whether it was the time and general cultural awareness of our differences, or whether it was just the time in my life, you know, where I was in college and things like that, there was that time when I had this Misunderstanding that everyone around me was working the same as hard as me, and I don't want to discount how hard other people worked, and I think really the truth is we all have different things within our lives that we have to work harder or, um, come [00:40:00] easier to us, but when you are Feeling like you are the only one who struggles with, you know, this thing just needs to be done.

Why am I not starting it already? And then you work with somebody who you respect immensely and absolutely can see that they are an intelligent and amazing and supportive person. And they say either I struggle with that too, or I've met some other. People that I admire and they talk about struggling with that too.

Well, and I think that this also goes to like the beauty of working with a coach, right? Cause something you said, Julie, that I really thought about is like you, sure. You did know these things, right? You knew that you could use timers. You knew that you could do time blocking. You knew that you could do all these things, but were you doing them?

Right. Or were you doing them the most effectively for me? I always seek out coaching [00:41:00] in areas where I know that like, could I could do it on my own, but like, am I doing it on my own? So for example, I've worked with a nutritionist. To help with, with health and weight loss. Right. And when I was working with her, cause also for me, I should add that accountability piece of working with a coach works really well for me.

Like I've learned that about my personality and especially if I pay someone, I am much more likely to show up and do the work. Right. And so I was working with a nutritionist for a while and, you know, I, I lost 30 pounds and that was fantastic. And then I was feeling so good about myself. I stopped working with her and.

Guess what? I've gained those 30 pounds back. So just before the call this today, earlier today, I met with her again and I'm recommitting to health and weight loss. But again, like over the last year, could I have done those things? Yes. Did I do them? No, I did not. And so working with the coach also really [00:42:00] gets that accountability piece up.

So if there's any aspect of your life, whether it's like, you know, business stuff, time management, ADHD, uh, weight loss, fitness, uh, financial coaching, whatever it is. Like, I think it's great to work with a coach because not only are they going to help you see blind spots and help you with the, you know, the tips and tricks and that kind of thing, but they're also going to add that accountability piece to make sure that you make more progress than you could on your own.

I panicked a little bit when we got to the 12th session, or we were approaching it, and I'm like, I'm gonna have to sustain all of this on my own, and am I, and I think, You know, there's the, yes, I can do it. And also, Theresa says, you know, we still could check in at some point. I can use her Facebook group as a place [00:43:00] to kind of put myself out there and have some accountability.

I can figure out different ways to build in accountability. Absolutely. And Julie, you've left with, with systems and, and new sort of rhythms and processes. Um, but you're also leaving with shifts in your thinking and, you know, new awareness. And that's, that is stuff that. cannot be taken from you. And that's what, you know, what coaching, at least the way that I do it, how it works is yes, we can absolutely implement systems and we can talk about how to work smarter, not harder.

And we're also going to talk about how you're thinking about your business, how you're, what happens when you have the, those negative. Self talk right and the limiting beliefs. And so when you have when you have the ability to work through some of those Pieces on your own through the power of coaching You you take that with you wherever you go [00:44:00] I think when the not related to my practice but sort of related to my practice outcomes that really Uh, stayed with me this whole time was a week when my oldest was back from college, so I have a 21 year old son, I have an 18 year old daughter and a 16 year old son, and my oldest was back from college, and the high school was letting out my daughter had just graduated high school, and I was.

frustrated that we, as a household, we were not eating well. And I knew how that affected me and how that it did have an impact on my business. And she's like, well, you know, what would happen if you decided to send that family group text and say, everyone needs to pull this load as far as, you know, prepping and planning dinners.

And, um, So I did it on, you know, there is not [00:45:00] perfect, but everyone did start pitching in more at home. So, like, what if you just let go of this, you know, I've done it before and it doesn't last, or it hasn't worked the way I wanted it to, and just give it a try and see. So, so yeah, so we've had a bunch more healthy family dinners, even though it's not every night at 6 30.

Yes. And I think that's a perfect example of how the different pieces of our lives impact the others. And, and also there's no, there is no right time. There is no perfect time, right? And same thing, Jena, I know you know this from people starting their private practice, right? Um, how many times do you hear SLP saying, I want to start a private practice when it's the right time?

I'm, you know, It's the, once the time is right, I'm going to get it going. And you know, I'm here to say there is no right time. There is no perfect time. It's just the time that you choose to be right. It's the time that you choose to start, right? And being able to [00:46:00] take some, some degree of control over the, um, you know, your decisions and your actions.

Because if you're going to wait for the perfect time, you're going to be waiting forever. Totally. And I think that's really a perfect place to kind of end is to try to just get people in motion, right? To say like, listen, if there's something in your, your life that you haven't had the traction yet, then like, really do some soul searching and think like, okay, what is going to help you get the traction?

Like, is it coaching? Is it signing up for a program? Is it journaling? Is it, you know, is it doing a group text with your family to get everybody on board with something? Right. But no matter what, it's taking some sort of positive action toward helping you, you know, reach your, reach your goals or have more of that.

That balance or whatever else. So, um, Theresa, can you share where people can learn more about you? Absolutely. So I have the Facebook group that Julie was mentioning. It's called the SLP support group. [00:47:00] And also you can find me on my podcast called your speech path, mindful time management for the busy SLP.

Love it. Love it. And Julie, where can people find out about you? So my, uh, practice name, as I mentioned earlier is Many Gifts Speech and Language Therapy. And so you could find me on the web at ManyGiftsTherapy. com. I do have Facebook and Instagram, but I'm still kind of slugging away at using those for marketing.

So they're there. And I would respond, but they're not my primary place right now. Perfect. Perfect. And if anyone wants to connect with me, probably the easiest way is to go to independentclinician. com or I'm at independentclinician on Instagram or my podcast, the private practice success stories podcast.

This was a ton of fun. Thank you so much for, for suggesting that we do this. Thank you, Theresa, for coming on. Thank you to everyone who has listened to [00:48:00] our conversation and I hope that people got value from it. Please reach out to each of our guests on here and share what your takeaways were. Um, otherwise we'll see you on the next episode.

Thank you so much, Jena. Thank you.