Sarah Leitschuh Wants You To Do It All Without Doing It All | PoP 364

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Sarah Leitschuh Wants You To Do It All Without Doing It All | PoP 364

Are you feeling overwhelmed and wondering how you can do it all without burning out? Is it possible for you to get all the things on your to-do list done? What if there were little steps you could take today that would help you run your practice with ease?

In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok speaks with Sarah Leitschuh about how to do it without doing it all and avoid feeling burnt out.

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Meet Sarah Leitschuh

Sarah Leitschuh

Sarah Leitschuh is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who practices in Eagan, Minnesota. Sarah loves supporting other therapists who want to discover how to do the work of therapist in a way that energizes them and doesn’t leave them depleted.

Find out more about Sarah on her website and Facebook.

Sarah Leitschuh’s Story

When Sarah started her private practice she realized that she was struggling to do too much at once, this happened to coincide with becoming a parent the second time around. Sarah was trying to figure out how she could be the best parent, wife and all the other roles she had outside of the therapy office, but also show up how she wanted to in her business and really build a thriving therapy practice.

In This Podcast

Summary

In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok speaks with Sarah Leitschuh about how to do it all without doing it all.

How To Do Less But Keep Things Going

It wasn’t a natural ‘aha’. I was rolling along feeling like I was going all the time. All of a sudden I realized that this isn’t something that I wanted.

Sarah had to get really clear on what her priorities were and made sure to set aside time for things that were important to her and letting go of things that weren’t important to her.

Traps People Fall Into

  • Comparing ourselves to others
  • Having unrealistic expectations of themselves

Finding Balance

Be really purposeful in how you spend your time.

You should pick and choose 1 or 2 areas that you’re going to focus on at a time and work really hard in those areas so that it doesn’t feel like you’re hustling all the time.

Losing Focus

If I don’t prioritize checking in with my goals it will be easy for me just to go to my to-do list and run through all of those things and totally lose sight of my bigger vision.

Part of losing focus is not regularly being in check with your goals. It’s easy to set up goals and jump right into it, but at some point, you burn yourself out. There should be slow and steady progress and checking in on a weekly basis.

How to Do It All Without Doing It All

  • Start with a big picture vision of where you want to be in your business in 6 months/1 year
  • Break it down into actionable steps month to month
  • Map out your time week by week for each of those areas of priority

Books Mentioned In This Episode

Useful Links:

Meet Joe Sanok

private practice consultant

Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners that are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.

Thanks For Listening!

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Podcast Transcription

[JOE]: Between writing notes, filing insurance claims and scheduling with clients. It can be hard to stay organized. That’s why I recommend Therapy Notes. Their easy to use platform lets you manage your practice securely and efficiently. Visit therapynotes.com to get two free months of Therapy Notes today. Just use promo code [JOE] when you sign up for a free trial therapynotes.com. Again, that’s therapynotes.com, promo code [JOE].
This is the Practice of the Practice podcast with Joe Sanok, session number 364.
Well, welcome. I am Joe Sanok, your host. I hope you are doing awesome. I hope your day is going great. Your private practice is rocking, you’re building your income, innovation, influence, and impact. We’re all about starting growing and scaling practices here but also going after those really big ideas outside of our practices.
I am just so thrilled to be talking with you today. We have a lot of things going on right now and I’m just going to list off because I don’t know where you’re at, what you’re into, but wanted to let you know of a few different things. So, if you are just starting a practice, if you haven’t joined our email course, it is totally free and it’s going to help you stay organized in launching your practice.
You can get that over at practiceofthepractice.com/start. We’ve got, you know, a nine-part email course that walks you through a lot of the logistics of starting a practice. Also, if you’re wondering how do you kill it in practice, in April, we’ve got our next masterclass and it’s going to be a live class where I’m there answering your questions. We have over $3,000 in giveaways, including a free, Brighter Vision website for a year. We’ve got Gordon Brewers G-Suite course.
We have free things that we’re giving away; Therapy Notes for a year, all sorts of amazing things that we’re able to give away. Right now, I think the value is up to around $3,000 in prizes we’re going to be giving away during that masterclass. So, you can sign up for that over practiceofthepractice.com/live.
Also, I’m going to be doing some podcasts in the future here that are going to be kind of like an ‘Ask me anything kind of thing’. So, whether it’s private practice or life or my approach to time management, I want to do some of these, ‘Ask me anything’s’ and we’d love for you to either email, so, you can just email [email protected] and just put in the subject line, ‘Ask me anything question’ and if we can use your name, please put that in there.
We’d love to know your location or if you want to leave a voicemail you can just say, “Hey, this is Joe from Traverse City. This is my question for you.” If your name’s not Joe, don’t say that. Then, you know, “My name is Amanda, my name is Brett.” Whatever. And so, you can leave a voicemail over at practiceofthepractice.com/voicemail that’ll redirect you to speak pipe. I think you have a minute or so to ask, but keep it short-winded so that we can have as many of those ‘Ask me anything’s’ as possible.
But I can’t think of anything that’s off the table. And so, ask me questions. And then we’ve got our two conferences this year coming up and we’re taking applications for Slow Down School. Slow Down School we do here on the beaches of Northern Michigan. It’s always a good time and to see what people get done after slowing down. Its mind blowing.
Even though I know that research shows that you can get so much done and it’s how I live my life, you know, where you slow down and then speed up to actually see it in action. And to see people bonding with each other every single year, it’s pretty amazing to see. And so, if you’re at that hovering around a hundred thousand dollars and you know that it’s time to slow down to really focus in on the best use of your energy, you know, you’re flying into Traverse City on Sunday and then we’ll pick you up in a big yellow school bus.
We’ll go out to where we stay and then for two days we’ll slow down, we’ll hike, we’ll have massage therapists come in, hang out on the beach, skip stones. And then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning we just run full tilt towards your business. And then Friday afternoon we go wine tasting in that big yellow school bus again.
And then on Saturday we say goodbye and send you on your way. So, that sounds awesome. Head on over to slowdownschool.com. And then we do still have some tickets for Killin’It Camp. We’re putting that on in Estes Park, Colorado. And so, killingitcamp.com you can go over there. Those ticket prices are going to be going up soon. So, if you’ve been on the fence, we want you to head on over to killingitamp.com.
We’re hoping to have a couple of hundred private practitioners there at Killin’It Camp. And I really think that this could be a great place to bring together kind of all the best resources for private practice. We would love for you to join us there. Wow. A lot of stuff going on. And I couldn’t do it without the team and without all the support of our sponsors and other people that you know, listeners like you.
So, today on the Practice of the Practice podcast, we have Sarah Leitschuh and she’s going to be talking with us all about how you can do it all without doing it all. So, I’m really excited about this. So, without any further ado, I give you Sarah.
Well, today on the Practice of the Practice podcast, we have Sarah Leitschuh. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist who practices in Minnesota. She loves supporting other therapists who want to discover how to do the work of a therapist in a way that energizes them and doesn’t leave them depleted. Sarah, welcome to the Practice of the Practice podcast.
[SARAH]: Thank you Joe. And I am so excited to be here with you today.
[JOE]: Yeah. I’m really excited to talk about just how to do it all without doing it all. Why don’t we start with, when did you discover that you needed to figure out how to do it all without doing it at all? Like is there a story behind that?
[SARAH]: Yeah, definitely. For me when I kind of realized that I was struggling with trying to do too much at once and not having a good strategy around, it was really when I started my private practice and that happened to coincide with becoming a parent the second time around. And that’s where I originally started from, right? It’s this idea of how do I be the best parent and wife and all the other roles I have outside of the therapy office, but also show up how I want you in my business and really build a thriving therapy practice?
And I found that sometimes for me that was hard to figure out how to do both of those kinds of things at the same time. And then that has evolved over time. As my practice has grown, I’ve started to think more about how do I juggle being a therapist, being a supervisor, now doing coaching with therapists, and how do I make sure that I have enough energy for all of that plus my personal responsibilities.
[JOE]: Yeah. It’s amazing how having that second kid, I don’t know. There’s times it’s easier and there’s other times that it’s like a multiplier.
[SARAH]: Oh, absolutely, right? Like you’re, I think it’s a perfect example of how you have to divide your time and energy and that you have to be really extra purposeful of making time for yourself once you add in a second child, right? Because there’s always someone demanding your attention.
[JOE]: Yeah, definitely. So, then what were some things that were helpful during that phase to kind of figure out just how to do less, but then also how to keep things going?
[SARAH]: Yeah, definitely. And I think for me it wasn’t like a natural, like, “Oh, Aha. I just figured this out.” Like I was rolling along, struggling for a while, feeling like I was going all the time, like giving a lot to my family, giving a lot to my business, and there wasn’t any time left for me and all of a sudden at some point I like hit this wall and I was like, “Wait, Sarah, this isn’t what you wanted.”
And I know this is kind of something that a lot of the listeners can relate to, right? Like we don’t go into being a therapist. We don’t go into owning a practice or a business thinking like I want to work all the time. We’re thinking there’s going to be flexibility, there’s going to be freedom, we’re going to choose the clients we want to work with, we’re going to make work work for us, right?
And I at some point realized, “Wait, this isn’t what’s going on for me.” So, the first thing that I had to do and what I’ve helped other therapists do is get really clear on what my priorities were at that time and that, you know, continues to evolve over time. But I constantly am rechecking in with myself about what is actually really important to me so that I can make sure I carve out the time and save the energy for what is important to me and let go of the things that are not important to me.
[JOE]: Yeah. Now, what are some examples of things that maybe you wouldn’t have expected to have to let go of that you did let go?
[SARAH]: Sure. I’ve kind of let go sometimes of things that are, what I see other therapists doing maybe for marketing themselves, like early on in private practice, right? I did a lot of looking around at what other people were doing and feeling like I had to do all the things that they were doing, right? I had to be blogging, I had to be doing presentations. I had to be doing every single thing and part of my shifting of priorities was realizing, “No, I don’t actually have to do that and I need to let go of comparing myself to others and really tune into how do I want to run my practice?”
Who’s my ideal client? How am I going to connect with that most ideal client? And that in fact did include doing way less, and picking and choosing the ways to connect with my client that were meaningful and actually produce the right results for me. And then I wasn’t spinning my wheels wasting time and energy on things that weren’t important.
[JOE]: Yeah. Now, what do you think are some of the traps maybe that people fall into as like you mentioned feeling like they have to blog, they have to do this and that. Well, what other traps have you noticed as you’ve kind of drilled into this work?
[SARAH]: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of comparing ourselves to other people. That really can be a huge rabbit hole of traps, right? We might look at, you know, this is how someone else is structuring their schedule and I need to do it that way. Or this is how someone else is doing their outreach. I need to do it that way. This is how someone else structures their client sessions and I need to do it that way. And the reality is we don’t need to do it any certain way. We need to think about how do we do the work in the way that makes sense to us and really connects us to our passions and let go of, you know, all the things that other people are doing?
[JOE]: Hmm. Yeah. What other traps do you see people fall into?
[SARAH]: I see people falling into a trap of having unrealistic expectations of themselves. And again, sometimes that’s about comparing ourselves to others and seeing that one person seems like they’re doing all the stuff and we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes for that person. But sometimes having high expectations of ourselves is just being unrealistic about how much time we personally have to devote to certain things that we’re interested in.
[JOE]: Yeah. I feel like oftentimes there’s this push and pull between the, you know, online marketers like Gary Vee who are saying, “Hustle, hustle, hustle.”
[SARAH]: Yes.
[JOE]: And then there’s other people that are just like, “Just will it to the universe and it will come to you.” And you’re like, “No, you need to get off your tail and go do the same thing.”
[SARAH]: Yes.
[JOE]: How do you find that balance? Because I mean there, I think there are a lot of people, that, you know, they just expect that they’re going to be Instagram-famous and it’s like, “No, you need to go hustle.
[SARAH]: Yes.
[JOE]: And, but then people overdo that and then they work too much and they burn out and they’re really hard on themselves. But then there’s those other people that it’s like, I don’t know, like you just need to chill out a little bit and like let it come. Like how do you find that balance and when you work with people, like what do you do to help them find that balance?
[SARAH]: Yeah, definitely. And I think that part of it is deciding and being really purposeful in how you spend your time, right? Like you can’t hustle in every realm of marketing or every realm of building your practice, right? I think you can pick and choose maybe one or two areas that you’re going to focus on at a time and work really hard in those areas, but then it doesn’t have to feel like hustling, right?
It feels like I’m being intentional in where I’m focusing my time and energy and I’m going to see the results from that versus the people that are hustling all the time. I feel like they’re trying everything in a halfway kind of way, right? Like they’re not all in to one thing. So, of course they’re going to feel like they just have to keep going and going and going because their hands are in too many pots.
[JOE]: Yeah. And I feel like they oftentimes come across that like they’re backed into a corner, whether it’s financially or emotionally or insecure or whatever, and so they just like throw it all out there. Like I’m a podcaster and I’m a blogger and I also, you know, will freelance for you. And it’s like, “Whoa, you’re just coming. Just coming across as really desperate now.
[SARAH]: That’s exactly the word that I’m thinking of too as you were describing that. It does feel really desperate. And of course, when you’re in it in that moment, you’re not thinking that other people can feel that energy from you, but they totally can. And what we want to come across as is a therapist who is confident in our skills and that we have something to offer and that we know it. And I don’t think it comes across that way when we’re overwhelmed because we’re trying to do too much at once.
[JOE]: Yeah. And I think that, similar to the hustle versus like just will it to the universe, side of things, I think that some people are so sensitive to coming across as being salesy, that they don’t do as many follow up emails as they should be. Don’t put themselves out there as much as they should, because they don’t want to come across that way, which is good. But then it’s also like, “No,” but people still need to know you exist, so.
[SARAH]: Right. Yeah. And that’s a hard thing, right? We get in our heads a lot. I could talk myself out of every single thing I do in my practice if I wanted to, but I really am really purposeful. Like I said, it’s like, “What is my intention and why I’m doing this? And if I can stay really focused on my why, a lot of times I can overcome that negative self-talk that’s trying to tell me not to do something that I really believe would be helpful to my practice.
[JOE]: Yeah, you know, just yesterday, we were in, we do this thing with Next Level Practice. There are membership community called what’s working and what’s awesome is that we use this platform called zoom where I can break people up into small groups of three or four, whatever size groups I want it. And so, we were talking about kind of marketing and goal setting, and there was this great conversation happening in one of the small groups about marketing.
And I kind of popped into the group to see how things were going and they were like, “Yeah, we decided we’re going to do social media and this and this and this,” and I said, “Well, wait. Let’s back up a second. We’re not going to know what’s working if you do all of that at once. I would much rather see you for a month say I’m going to double down on Instagram or I’m going to double down on blogging, whatever your thing is.” Then let’s see if a bunch of people say, “Yeah, I read your blog post and that’s why I came in to start seeing you,” versus, “Let’s just throw everything at the wall and something might stick, but we’re not going to have the data then to know what’s actually sticking.”
[SARAH]: Right. And that’s the hard thing, right? Like, if you’re doing a million different things, right, and you do get some clients but you don’t know where they were coming from, it feeds this idea that you have to keep doing all the things, right, versus what you’re describing like trying one thing and then you see the results. You’re like, “Okay, let me just keep working on Instagram. I don’t need to add in the rest of the stuff.”
[JOE]: Yeah. And I think, you know, for people like us that consume a lot of podcasts and learn a lot, you can have this tendency where you listen to someone’s podcast and you’re like, “Oh, now I need to change this on my website and this and this and this.” And it’s like, well, realize that podcasters interviewing a bunch of different people and you don’t need to do it all at once.
It kind of reminds me of the book, The One Thing, how they say, you know, think about the one thing that’s going to make everything else easier. And you know, I think what, yesterday I had a block of about an hour or so, and I knew that, you know, we’re going to be launching this big idea mastermind group that just opened, the applications just opened yesterday. And I thought, you know, having a short video of me just talking about it would add a personalization to it where it’s not just a landing page.
And so, I took the video and didn’t have Sam edit, directly uploaded it to a private YouTube link embedded in there. That’s going to help me move forward faster than if I had just checked my email. Now I did forget to do all the podcast recording I was supposed to do during that time because I didn’t put it in my calendar. But that same idea of, you know, work expands to the time given I had a half hour, you know, a little bit ago and I just finished up, you know, the podcast, it’s supposed to go live at the time of this on Tuesday. I’m usually not that late. But you know, when you have that kind of focus that you’re talking about, you can get the things done that are really the most important versus those things that it’s just, I don’t know, like they’re just not important. They just suck your time.
[SARAH]: Yes, yes, definitely. That is something that I talk a lot about with my coaching clients so that I try to work on myself is, yes, it’s okay to have a lot of things that you’re interested in, but you really can only focus on one thing at a time. And if you have multiple things that you’re interested in, like doing a podcast and running your practice and whatever else it is, you have to be so purposeful in mapping out your time so that all of it fits in for you. And if it’s not fitting in, you need to think about that and figure out how you’re going to make it fit or if there’s something you’re going to let go of.
[JOE]: Yeah. So, what, like how do people do that? Because I feel like when I work with people or in Next Level Practice or in our mastermind groups, to them it often feels like it’s all important. You know, “My people are on Instagram. My people are on Facebook. I need to update My Google My Business and I need to blog and I need to do internal linking and Meta descriptions, and get off of that bad insurance, and get on that good –” Like it’s all important. So, how do you sort through all of that?
[SARAH]: Yeah, and I think when you look at like a long laundry list like that, Joe, it feels like it’s all important. I don’t even know where to start. And that’s where I kind of go back to what’s your why? What is your main priority right now? Like if it is to grow your therapy practice, you want to bring in a certain number of clients this month, then I would strategize on what are like the one or two main things that you could do this month that’s going to get someone in the door. It’s just like that example you described around your mastermind, right? Like thinking what’s the one thing and a video is going to be way more powerful than email, right? And some of those things that you’re describing on that list, social media and stuff, that’s not going to actually bring a client in quickly, right?
[DANA]: My name is Dana Coretta Stein, my practice is Peaceful Living and Mental Health Counseling and we’re located in Scarsdale, New York. Slow Down School is the most amazing week that you will ever spend in your life. So, it’s my second year doing Slow Down School and I would come back year after year after year, actually don’t want to go home, which is kind of weird. I probably should miss my family, but I don’t because I’m with Joe and everybody.
So Slow Down School is an amazing place to get reconnected with yourself. If you are super struggling with your big idea or trying to get control of your practice and bring the reins in then you need to be here. Slow Down School is a place for you to calm down, get your ideas together, let the dust settle. And then go full tilt with your big idea and moving forward with your practice.
[JOE]: So, if you want expert guides, a supportive community and time to slow down to speed up your business, apply for Slow Down School today. Head on over to slowdownschool.com to read more, learn about what it’s all about, and apply. I talk to every single person that applies for Slow Down School to make sure it’s a fit for you and that you’re really going to get out of it what you need to get. Slowdownschool.com.
So, then if they kind of start thinking through those things that are going to immediately help, and help them with their goals, where do people lose focus? Because I think that, you know, especially, we’re recording this in January, I’m not sure when it’s going to go live, but you know, at the beginning of the year people are running after their goals and then I think it’s January 17th or 18th is like international give up on your goals’ day or something like that. So, people feel really focused. They follow, “Yeah, I’m going to do that.” What makes them fall off kind of the radar with their goals do you think?
[SARAH]: I think part of it is not regularly being in check with their goals. Like it’s easy to set a goal in January or at any point of the year and just like jump right into it, but at some point, we burn out. So, I really liked to propose like a slow and steady progress on everything, but that we also are regularly checking in with ourselves on our goals. So, like for myself on a weekly basis, I’m thinking about what are my goals and I’m scheduling my work first around those main goals and then filling in the rest around that. But if I don’t prioritize checking in with my goals, it would be easy for me just to go to a to-do list and run through all of those things and totally lose sight of my bigger vision.
[JOE]: Yeah. I think that idea of figuring out when your energy is best and working on the most important things then, for me, first thing in the morning is not my best energy. A lot of people, they’re like, “Oh yeah, right at the beginning.” Like my coffee needs to kind of get into me. I’ve been going to the pool and swimming, so doing that kind of before I come in and then it’s like, “Okay, I’m like halfway through my coffee.” So, from probably 9:30 till I would say noon is when I feel really super productive.
So, that’s when I tried to do my most creative work and then other things that you know are just easier for me. So, like a podcast interview to just kind of talk with people, that doesn’t take a lot of actual energy for me. So, if I did that earlier in the day, like why would I use my very best energy on something that’s pretty easy. And so, those are usually in the afternoon. And so, for people to think through, like, when am I best for my clients? What am I best for my blog post? When am I best for that? I love that idea of making sure you block that time out.
[SARAH]: Right. And I think it’s so important to give yourself permission to adjust to that. You know, like I think sometimes we get stuck in, I’ve always done it this way. I’ve always carved out the time at this day or whatever it is. But if it’s not working for you, give yourself permission to try something different. That’s the best way I think, to reduce overwhelm is to just experiment gently with yourself and changing how you always do things.
[JOE]: Yeah. So, the idea of experimenting to me is one of the bigger shifts for most therapists in particular because, you know, we go through Grad school and it’s like all pass fail and, and the idea of like, if it doesn’t work, just change it and have an experiment. That seems like a very different way than most of us are trained to think.
[SARAH]: I agree. And I know that sometimes it’s hard, right? Like it’s hard to do something and think it’s just an experiment because it feels risky. It feels like we could make a huge misstep or we could, you know, fail or be perceived as failing either in someone else’s eyes, our own eyes. But I think that’s part of being a business owner, right? Like we have to make changes, we have to be willing to make those subtle adjustments sometimes and sometimes big adjustments. And that’s part of being a business owner, which is not necessarily what was part of our training in graduate school.
[JOE]: Yeah. So, if we were to get just kind of bullet point out, maybe we could go month by month or quarter by quarter with people. If they say, “Okay Sarah, like I want to do it all without doing it at all. Give me the plan for the next six months to a year. What should I do?” What would you want them to do?
[SARAH]: Sure. So, I would start with kind of a broad whole like either if you’re going to go with a year or go with the six months, a big picture vision of like, where do I want to be in my practice in that timeframe, in the six months or the one year down the line? And map out like very specific priorities. And it would be something for me if for example, it’d be like, okay, I want to make sure that I’m feeling like my number one is always family, right?
So, I want to feel like my family is getting the best version of me, that I’m not rushed when I’m interacting with my family. So, that might be one of the priorities that I would put out there. And then I would add in a business priority. So, it’d be like, maybe I’m going to grow this aspect of my business to this point by six months from now. So, maybe it’s bringing out a certain number of therapy clients, maybe it’s adding a different type of course, or whatever it is, right? That’s going to be different for each of us.
So, I’d start with that really bigger picture and then I would start to break it down. Okay. So, what’s the thing that I’m going to do this month in January that’s helping me get closer to that place and make sure that you have things for each of your priorities that you’re focusing on.
[JOE]: Got you. Okay.
[SARAH]: That makes sense?
[JOE]: Yeah. And then after that, what would you want them to do?
[SARAH]: So, then I would week by week be mapping out your time, making sure that you have carved out dedicated time for each of the areas of priority that you have for yourself. And like I said, like I would try to lead as much as possible with those things that are most important to you. And it doesn’t necessarily mean do it the first thing that you wake up in the morning, but maybe it means lead with those important things at the beginning of the week.
Like I know by the time that Thursday rolls around, I’m just not that excited about anything. So, I’d much rather start with the things I’m most passionate about related to my work on Monday or Tuesday when I have the energy and I’m not distracted by all the other things that have gone on this week.
[JOE]: Yeah. Like I think about, I took the longest vacation I’ve taken just because I kind of wanted to push myself and see if I could get everything going. So, I took three and a half weeks off and it was a great exercise to set things up. But the first couple of days of being off, there was a handful of things that came up that I worked on with the business and like my brain is still kind of in business mode and then you know, it kind of really eased into taking that time off.
But by the end of it I was like itching to get back to work and I’m really glad I had scheduled like two or three hours that was just called Joe’s to-do list and Emily, my director of details, the whole time as she was checking email, would just put in there the things that needed to do.
So, it might be like, you know, refund this money or you know, like check this person’s email. And so, I could, I genuinely didn’t check my email the entire time and she just texted me when there was a couple, I wouldn’t call them emergencies, but things I had to be addressed. But to know that when I get back from vacation, if I know that I have emails I have to go through or there’s like to-do items out there, I don’t want to be packed full of consulting clients that week.
And so, to start to recognize those patterns in your energy, like you were saying that, you know, Thursday is by then it’s like I’m done for the week. That’s really important that we notice that and know kind of what exceptions we can make for ourselves. Even just thinking about that idea of time blocking, I’ve been doing that for years where I block out time to work on certain things, and that then allows me to kind of show up for myself because when it’s in my calendar I view it as like more permanent than if it’s just kind of in my head. So, yeah.
[SARAH]: One thing that I was just thinking about as I was listening to you talk, Joe is I have, really big on this idea of structured flexibility. So, I do a lot of time blocking, but I also trust my energy, right? Like, so, if I have blocked time off for something and I realize I’m just not into it for that day or like it would be forcing myself to push through it, and it’s just more of an energy thing, not because I have mindset blocks or I’m getting in my own way, I’ll give myself permission to adjust. That’s where the flexibility comes in. Like I’m a very structured person because that works for me in terms of making sure I can do all the things I want to do, but I also am really flexible with it.
[JOE]: Yeah. I think oftentimes we fall on one side or the other and it’s good to have that flexibility to be able to adjust it. And I think a lot of our creativity comes from those downtimes, I mean, I started Slow Down School for a reason because I really believe that that those downtimes actually do help us to be more productive in the on times. So, if we’re not listening to what our body may need energy wise or creativity wise, it’s like why try to force if it’s going to be so much easier for you if you just took a break.
[SARAH]: Definitely. I agree with that 100 percent.
[JOE]: Well, Sarah, if every counselor in the world were listening right now, what would you want them to know?
[SARAH]: What would I want them to know? I would want them to know that all of us can take subtle little steps today that would help us run our practices with more ease or to navigate being a therapist with more ease. I think even the therapist who feels like they’ve got this all figured out don’t have it all figured out. We always have to constantly be adjusting. And being a therapist is such important work that we want to make sure that we’re taking care of ourselves too. And if there’s things that we can tweak to make our work easier, we should 100% be doing so.
[JOE]: That’s so awesome. And if people want to connect with your work, what’s the best way for them to connect with you?
[SARAH]: Sure. They can connect with me at sarahleitschuh.com and I know you’ll put up the show notes because that spelling of that last name is kind of Turkey.
[JOE]: Sure. Yeah, we’ll definitely put a link in the show notes for sure. Well Sarah, thank you so much for being on the Practice of the Practice podcast.
[SARAH]: Thank you again for having me. I enjoyed our conversation.
[JOE]: So, take the time to focus in on what you should be focusing in on and just put the other things on hold. It’s totally fine.
Hey, coming up in April, we have our next master class. I want you to sign up for it if you are ready to kill it in private practice, if you want to just limp along, that’s totally fine, this isn’t for you, but if you’re ready to really move forward to grow your practice quickly, to get your ideal client in there, and to learn from case examples and other experts that I’ve interviewed, you’ve got to come to this masterclass.
You can sign up over at practiceofthepractice.com/live. We’re going to be live together, hanging out, talking about your questions, and making sure you know how to kill it. We also have over $3,000 in gifts, like a free year website through Brighter Vision, a free year of Therapy Notes, and a bunch of other things. So, head on over to practiceofthepractice.com/live.
Also, we love Therapy Notes. Therapy Notes has been such a great sponsor and they are helping people to rock out their medical records. There’s no reason for it to be disorganized. Get Therapy Notes. Use promo code [JOE] when you go to therapynotes.com. Again, that’s promo code [JOE] to get two months free of therapynotes.com.
Thanks so much for letting me into your ears and into your brain. We’re doing more around starting, growing, and scaling your practice. Love talking with you all. Have a good day.
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Thanks to the band Silence is Sexy for the intro music.