[00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to another Feelings and Finances mini episode for the Money Skills for Therapists Podcast. Today, I’m so excited. We have our first totally listener submitted question. I’m going to say that. Edgar, whose question we answered is also a graduate. and so, you know, we have a relationship already.

[00:00:21] Linzy: I so appreciate Edgar’s question. Megan who submitted her questions today is the first, just pure listener. Megan and I have not met, who submitted a question, and I so appreciate Megan, you, for doing so. I know that it’s a vulnerable thing to submit a question. So for folks listening, you can take Megan’s question as inspiration to submit your own question to the Feelings and Finances podcast.

[00:00:43] You can do that on our website on our podcast page. You’ll see a section of when you scroll down just a little bit that says, have a question for Linzy and you can just push record, introduce yourself and ask your question just like Megan did.

[00:00:54] Here is Megan’s question.

[00:00:56] Megan: Hi, Linzy. My name’s Megan, and I love your podcast. Thank you so much for all of your advice and tools for us therapists. My question is around money shame. I’m noticing as I’m starting my small group practice that some narratives from my past of “I’m not good with money,” “I shouldn’t even be running a group practice because I can’t figure out the finances” are kind of seeping in.

[00:01:21] And I know they’re not true. I know that I’m in a growth period. I know that the insurance panel I took on two months ago still hasn’t paid me for most of the sessions from the last two months, so it’s not based in reality, but it’s definitely seeping into my mindset. So I guess my question is: how do you approach or address money shame from your past when you’re in a growth phase with your group practice and there is some tightness around finances?

[00:01:50] Thank you so much for your advice and all that you do.

[00:01:53] Linzy: Okay. So there’s two, two pieces to this question that I hear right away. One is about the stories, like the past stuff. And then the second one is about the discomfort of being in a growth phase. So I’m going to start with the first part first Megan, as you so aptly named, the money shame that comes up as we’re working on our businesses, generally speaking, comes from the past, right?

[00:02:14] It’s like old stuff that we’ve been carrying with us for years and years. And as we’re stepping into new stages of our practice, whether it’s that folks are building practice for the first time, or raising their fee, or in your case, Megan, building out a group, right? And like you’re taking that step. There’s this business phrase that I find really helpful, which is new level, new devil, right?

[00:02:34] You, you do something at a new level and these old things can come up in a new way, right? There’s more to learn. There’s more vulnerability there as we’re doing things that we don’t know how to do, and that is going to bring up some old things, and this is all part of growth. So the first thing that I would encourage you to do is to spend some time with where these stories come from, right?

[00:02:55] You named that they’re from the past; they’re old, old stories. Maybe they’re stories from when you were three years old, six years old, 12 years old, right? And there’s so much power in just spending some time with where those stories come from. Is this from an experience that you had in math class in grade two?

[00:03:13] Is this from the way that your parents would talk to you about your abilities around math or money compared to your sibling, taking some time to unpack those things in the way that you do, right? That works for you, whether that’s doing some journaling, whether it’s talking it through with a friend, whether it’s visualizing, like sitting down and doing some parts visualization.

[00:03:33] I personally love parts work when it comes to working on these kinds of negative stories because it really lets us zoom in on what’s going where’d these memories come from and connect our adult self, right? That business leader, that competent therapist that you are with the parts of us that are younger and more vulnerable and kind of trapped in what in trauma therapy we would call trauma time.

[00:03:55] Those parts that are still living that negative memory, right? And still feel like that, that little kid who doesn’t deserve, or doesn’t know how to do things, isn’t smart. Connecting those two parts of you is really, really powerful.

[00:04:07] So doing some of that internal parts work, or some version, whatever version works for you, Megan, of being able to connect with this thing that happened, this part of you that might feel still small and vulnerable that can come up and is like probably terrified by what you’re doing in growing a business and being able to acknowledge that part of you, take care of that part of you.

[00:04:31] Notice what’s different about then and now. What have you accomplished over the last few years? What can you do now that you couldn’t do then? And then, of course, some of those classic things too of what is the evidence to the contrary, right? What are the exceptions that show you that you can actually manage money and you can learn new hard things, and you can figure things out. You know, whatever these parts of you need to hear is so powerful.

[00:04:55] And it’s something that’s tempting to skip. It’s tempting to just want to push past the vulnerable parts of us that are scared by what we’re doing in our businesses and just like stay in that business growth, like more of those kind of manager actioning parts of ourselves, but spending some time with that shame and that fear, connecting it to the present, showing compassion to yourself, again, in whatever way works for you, is so powerful in letting those parts of you catch up, you know? Whether you think about it as parts of self, like in terms of visualizing little parts of you or parts of your brain, bringing those parts of your brain into the present and online with what you’re doing, because those stories otherwise are going to create drag for you, right?

[00:05:39] And I don’t, I don’t want to say it in a negative way that those parts are drag, they are not, but the parts of us that are still in trauma time that are around survival and staying small or, you know, like feeling inadequate, those parts of us actually do run the way that we manage our relationship with money in our lives and in our businesses.

[00:05:58] So if we don’t take time to be with them and acknowledge them and care for them and love them and do the things that we need to do to help to release those memories, then they’re going to pop up constantly as we’re trying to do the big things. The second piece that you’re talking about is being in what I would call an investment period.

[00:06:13] So an investment period in your business is where you are putting out more money than you’re bringing in. And ideally there’s a strategy there. There’s a reason you’re making these choices. You can see that when you do X, Y, Z, you will eventually get a certain result that is sustainable and, and worthwhile for the work that you’re putting in now.

[00:06:30] But it’s like, as you said, there’s services that have been rendered, for instance, that haven’t come back yet, but you know that money’s coming to you, but the insurance company hasn’t paid you yet. Right? So like there’s energy that you’ve put in that hasn’t yet been returned financially.

[00:06:43] And for all I know, the money has, has actually shown up between the time you leave this question and when you’ll hear this answer, but also when we’re in the investment phase of our practice, that happens a lot in a lot of ways, right? We invest in a program. We invest in new space for a group practice.

[00:06:56] We buy furniture for that space. We’re putting out money and the money’s not coming back yet. And it’s helpful, Megan, to put this in context in business, that that is a normal phase of business, right? In the therapy world, we’re used to this idea of like bootstrapping it, And somehow being in the black all the time, like never being in deficit.

[00:07:14] And that’s something that we get to experience a lot because the work that we do is very simple, right? We just get to sit in a chair or set up a room and people come to that room and we do the thing that we do, whether it’s talking or for folks who do manual therapy, manual treatments, and it’s a very simple business model.

[00:07:28] So it’s easy to kind of be more profitable than other business models from the start. But that doesn’t mean that we’re always going to be profitable every single month. Right? And so with business, what really, really helps and what is most important is the big picture, right? Not what happens in a week, not even what happens in a month, but what happens in your business over the course of a quarter.

[00:07:48] And then eventually what happens over several quarters and years, right? What is the big picture on your finances? These are skills that I teach inside Money Skills to Group Practice Owners, my course for group practice owners. I teach both of these things, both your money stories and working with them and how they’re showing up,

[00:08:04] and settling into how you want to be as a leader, but also developing the ability to understand and see your numbers from a big picture perspective. Having that zoomed out perspective to see like, “Oh, okay. In April, we were at minus 6, 000 that month, but then in May we were at, you know, positive 8, 000.

[00:08:21] And then in June we were at positive 5, 000, and you put those three numbers together, and now you have a picture, right? Now you have three months worth of information that gives you a real perspective on what’s happening overall in your business. We need to get out of the weeds with numbers and take that perspective because ultimately you are building a business that needs to be sustainable over a long period of time.

[00:08:41] And all businesses have ups and downs. We’re not as used to it in the therapy world again because what we do is so simple, but all businesses have ups and downs. And as you get to know your business over time, Megan, you’ll also see high seasons and low seasons. You’ll start to know, if you spend time with your numbers,

[00:08:56] Okay, every summer, our numbers drop by 15%. Our revenue drops by 15 percent every summer. Once you start to have that kind of perspective, when your numbers drop, there’s no crisis. There’s not a big deal. You can plan for it. Maybe you already have a buffer that you’ve put in there. And also you can enjoy that time because you’re settling into the seasons of your business.

[00:09:15] And that’s what we’re able to do when we have that big picture perspective. So, that is the second part of your question that I wanted to address is just starting to develop for yourself the ability to zoom out, putting those numbers together on a spreadsheet. Again, that’s something that I teach in the group practice course

[00:09:31] if you ever find that you were looking for direct support with that, but having that zoomed out perspective, which you can ask your accountant to help you develop, you can ask your bookkeeper looking at your tools from that zoomed out number over time, as you build your practice is going to let you see how your practice is actually doing.

[00:09:48] Thank you so much, Megan, for your question. I so appreciate it. And I hope that your group practice building goes super, super well. I’m excited for you as you’re building this next stage in your contribution in the work that you do. If you have a question, you can jump over to the podcast page on our website, moneynutsandbolts.

[00:10:07] com slash podcast. You’ll see a link there when you scroll down just a little bit where you can directly record a question for me. It’s super, super simple. You just like literally push record, and like Megan, just share your name and share your question. I would love to answer your question on one of these episodes of feelings and finances.

[00:10:24] And for folks listening, if you are a group practice owner and you are interested in Money Skills for Group Practice Owners, that is a course that I run a couple of times a year. It’s cohort based. It’s a high touch intimate course where you get lots of support from me walking you through working out your money stories, settling into what being a financial leader looks like for you, and developing the skills to have that zoomed out perspective and understand in your group practice what numbers make all the difference for you.

[00:10:50] I have a wait list for that course. I will link it here, the Money Skills for Group Practice Owners wait list. And we also have a freebie for group practice owners called How to Stop Feeling Overworked and Underpaid in Your Group Practice that walks you through the steps to start to zoom out and be able to work with your practice on a big picture, understanding how to actually make a sustainable practice that works for you and takes great care of your team.

[00:11:12] I’m going to put both of those links in our show notes. Thank you so much for listening and joining me on the Feelings and Finances episode today.