For rethinking the term "ideal client"…

We are all encouraged to think about our ideal client, but according to Felicia from the Bad Therapist Show, we are missing the mark. What we are really missing, according to her, is selecting clients who are ready to engage in the therapy services that we offer at the frequency that we recommend and in the way that we offer that service. Instead, we walk around with a very surface-level understanding of the people that we want to attract into our business. I 100% agree with Felicia. You can have an ideal client, but if they are not ready to do the work or they don't want to use the modality that you want them to use, they are not really an ideal client for you.

Think about my specialty clinic, PCIT Experts. We need clients not only who are struggling with challenging behaviors in their children, but who are also wanting to engage in an intervention where they are the primary providers of the intervention and are open to using new strategies that they haven't used before.

If a family only wants play therapy provided directly by another therapist, they are probably not our ideal client yet, even if they technically fit the population we serve. In many cases, they may actually need more education about what evidence-based treatment for challenging behaviors in young children looks like before they are truly ready for PCIT.

So they may still be a potential client, but they are not yet an ideal client for our specific service.

If you have been struggling to fill your practice or if you suddenly realize that your definition of "ideal client" is not deep enough to market well, I highly recommend listening to this episode.

For understanding what you need to know to scale…

I loved this episode of the Therapy for Your Money podcast so much that I immediately sent it to my clinic director and office manager.

What really resonated with me is that it was specifically designed for businesses making between 1 and 3 million dollars in revenue and trying to scale. That’s actually a very particular stage of business growth, and honestly, there are not that many conversations about it. You’re no longer in the “I just opened my practice” phase, but you also aren’t running a giant corporation with endless infrastructure and systems. That middle stage comes with its own set of challenges.

But the biggest takeaway from this episode applies to businesses of any size: you really need to know where your marketing money is going.

If you’re paying for marketing, you need a way to determine whether it’s actually working. That sounds obvious, but tracking true ROI is harder and messier than I would have guessed a few years ago.

One of my current projects in my own business is figuring out what’s genuinely moving the needle, where we should continue investing, and where we probably shouldn’t. I’ve had to face the uncomfortable realization that some things I invested in were not actually working, partly because our data collection systems weren’t robust enough to tell us sooner.

If I could go back two years, I would have built stronger tracking systems much earlier.

That’s why I think this episode is worth your time. Of course, they discuss many other things too, but I don’t think enough people talk honestly about how difficult it can be to truly understand where your marketing dollars are going and whether they’re paying off. And honestly, that’s something worth learning even if you’re still a solo provider.

For the moments when you question your sanity…

I talk a lot about scaling businesses on this podcast, but what people don’t always talk about is what scaling actually feels like while you’re in the middle of it. The part where you’re investing heavily, rebuilding systems, shrinking your own profit margins temporarily, questioning your sanity a little bit, and hoping the vision you have in your head is actually going to work in real life.

Recently, I was sitting at a blackjack table at the Golden Nugget (which is objectively a bizarre place for me to be), and I realized something: I hate gambling. Winning gives me absolutely no dopamine. Losing gives me anxiety. It’s all downside, no upside.

But building a business? Completely different.

When I create a strategy that works, when I build something meaningful, when I see a vision starting to come together, I feel genuinely euphoric. And that’s what this episode is about: the very uncomfortable middle space between where your business is now and where you believe it could go next.

I talk about what it feels like to reinvest into growth when things were already “fine,” how I decide whether a risk is strategic or impulsive, and the questions I ask myself when the anxiety kicks in at 2 a.m.

If you’re currently in that phase where you’re wondering, “Am I building something amazing or accidentally creating a disaster?” this episode is probably for you.