So, I know that SLPs tend to be planners and want to get all their ducks in a row and have everything perfect before taking action. I am a little bit that way too, so I completely understand.
But what often happens is is that people who get all lost in the details of something tend not to actually take action.
Just in the last 24 hours I got two messages. One was on Instagram. (If you’re on Instagram, send me a DM. I’d love to chat with you.)
The messages were from two people who were either just in their infancy of private practice or just contemplating the idea. They both said something to the effect of, “I’m really worried about how to hire employees,” or, “Where am I going to find people to staff my private practice?”
So, I asked both of them, “Well, where are you in your private practice journey?”
Both of them said that they were at the very beginning. So, I asked, “Do you have any clients yet?” One person said no, and the other person said that they had one. I asked her for some more details about her favorite patient population. She told me and I said, “You know, I think you’re really putting the cart before the horse.” She wrote back and asked, “What do you think I’m doing backwards?”
So, I didn’t know if she was offended by what I said or what, but I said, “It’s not that you’re doing it backwards, but you’re getting lost in details of something that you don’t have to worry about for a while. If you just only have one client so far, worrying about all of those things that come way later is what’s keeping you stuck.”
She wrote back immediately and said, “Oh my God. You’re so right.”
So, I think that sometimes we have to reevaluate, even just take out a piece of paper and write all of the things that we’re thinking about, or worrying about, or wondering about, and think, “Are these things that we should be worried about now, or are these things that it’s serving no purpose to be worried about now?” And wait until you do need to worry about things.
This is a great way to check things off your to-do list is to determine what do you actually not need to do right now.
What is taking up space in your brain and in your busy life that you really just don’t have a place for yet?
You can keep it on the back burner. You can be aware that it’s something that you are going to have to address, but in the meantime don’t. Concentrate on things you can do.
When people join my Start Your Private Practice Program, one of the things that people go nuts for is this checklist that I have. It’s like an eight page checklist of all the steps that you need to complete to get your private practice fully up and running.
I think one of the reasons why I created the checklist was because I wanted people to see the steps in order, not only in which that they should actually complete the tasks, but almost more so the order in which you should worry about the tasks.
Starting a private practice does have a lot of steps, and there are steps that you need to complete in a certain order. But I want to try to help you avoid is getting bogged down by all of the steps that come much later and concentrate on the steps that you really do need to be figuring out now.
For example, if you only have one client, well, your next step is to get a second client.
If you have two clients, your next step is to get third client. Right? Not to be worrying about hiring people down the road or renting office space. You know? Depending on what area of the country you live in … Some areas office space is much cheaper to get, so people end up getting it earlier in their private practice journeys, but there’s no reason to get clinic space. You can absolutely start by seeing clients in their own homes, which saves you a ton of money on overhead, until you have the money to support that. So, that’s another thing. Don’t be looking online or whatever for listings for clinic space until you have the clients to support that. Right?
Your message today is all about really prioritizing your time, and your tasks, and also your worry. Okay?
I hope this message was helpful. I hope this was something that you needed to hear. As always, I’m hanging out in the SLP Private Practice Beginners Facebook group. If you haven’t joined, you absolutely should.
If you are a beginning level private practitioner, you’re in the curious stage, or in what I call the dreamer stage, or a beginning, and you haven’t checked out my free webinar called How to Start a Private Practice Full time or on the Side, Even if You Don’t Know How. You can sign up for that. There’s flexible times to sign up. You can pick a time that works for you. I would love to see you on there. People have said that it’s really helpful, that they didn’t learn anything about private practice in grad school, or they’re having a hard time piecing together the information. So, it’s a 60 minute presentation, and it really helps put a lot of the pieces together. Yeah. So, I would love to see you on there.
Thank you for listening today. I’ll see you next week for another Mindset Monday Edition of the podcast. Have a good week.
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Host: Jena Castro-Casbon, MS CCC-SLP
Jena H. Castro-Casbon, MS, CCC-SLP, is a private-practice consultant who has helped thousands of speech-language pathologists start and grow their own private practices through her company, The Independent Clinician. She has written articles for The ASHA Leader and Presented at ASHA Connect (2017). You’ll find her online in the SLP Private Practice Beginners Facebook Group and in her premium programs, The Start Your Private Practice System and the Grow Your Private Practice Coaching Program.Jena lives in Boston, MA and is a wife and mama to two young boys. |
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If you’ve been thinking starting a private practice full-time or “on the side” I encourage you to sign up for my FREE TRAINING. I’ll make sure you know everything more in a free 60 minute presentation than you ever learned in grad school!
