Rebel Therapist Annie Schuessler

Even if you already work with the niche you want to work with in your private practice, you might ALSO love having an innovative signature program as an additional way to serve them.
Danika Maddocks is a parent coach who's passionate about supporting parents of gifted and twice-exceptional kids. She's been partnering with bright kids and their families for over a dozen years as a teacher and therapist.
You’re going to hear why she created a signature program for twice exceptional kids, and you’ll hear how she grows her business without becoming a full-time marketer.
Here's some of what we talked about:
Why she wanted to create a group program for parents of twice exceptional kids (kids who are both gifted AND neurodivergent) How she designed her 8-week program Using asynchronous coaching between live calls The simple and effective ways she grows an engaged audience and gets referrals The system she uses to sell her program each time she launches Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/209

“Has it been extra challenging to sell group programs lately?”
“How do I figure out what niche to choose and what program to create?”
“When is it the right time for Facebook or Instagram ads?”
I ran a free and open coaching call recently for everyone in our audience, including podcast listeners, clients, and email subscribers.
A record number of folks submitted questions, and I spent over an hour riffing on a bunch of them.
We had such a great response from the attendees that I decided to share the entire call recording with you.
You’ll hear my answers to the questions above and more, including:
My program isn’t selling. Is it priced too high?
How do I take a break from my business for a big life circumstance?
Is it OK to post or send emails sporadically? Or should I do it consistently or not at all?
How much of an expert do I have to be in my topic area?
How much of an ROI do you get from social media?
Is it a good idea to start a program with a friend?
Do I have to get my private practice stable before I start a program?
What if some things in my program were influenced by the work of others?
How do I carve out time for following through with creative ideas if I’m overwhelmed and exhausted by my caseload?
Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/208

Can you REALLY make great money running a program that you love and that’s based on what you do best?
Rebecca Lee does. And she’s got a year-long waitlist.
As a social worker and supervisor for social workers, she felt a pull to create something totally different, something that wouldn’t fit into the box of supervision or therapy or even coaching as we know it.
At first, she struggled with giving herself permission to do it.
In this episode, you’ll hear how she created something that only she could create and why her family’s farm is part of it.
If you’ve wondered if your idea is too out there, this is going to give you a big dose of permission to create your program.
Rebecca Lee is a Clinical Supervisor and Eco therapist who works with therapists, wellness professionals and healers to tap into their own rhythm, health and vision so they can create an impactful and joyful professional lives for themselves. Her work is centered around how we can re-connect with our authentic landscape through social justice, anti-oppression, seasonal landscape relationship, Yoga and Ayerveda practices.
Here's some of what we talked about:
Creating a group program for social workers and other givers who want to find a new way of working and living Helping her participants step into their natural rhythms and give themselves permission to do what they really want to How she built the year-long program, Becoming Home and her other program, Supervision Circle Running in-person retreats on her family farm Providing asynchronous 1:1 support in her programs Using mostly word-of-mouth to fill her programs with a year-long waitlist! Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/207

In the last episode of Rebel Therapist Podcast, talked to Claire Pelletreau about switching roles with her husband so that she’s no longer the default parent.
That change made a REALLY big difference in her business.
Because she made that change she’s able to take on big projects, and make more money.
And that got me thinking about what boundaries help me take on the big stuff that really makes me happy, makes a big impact and sometimes makes my business lots of money.
In that exploration I realized that I go through two steps when I’m creating a new boundary:
I realize that I need the boundary. I decide I’m going to insist on protecting that boundary. Until I’ve really made the decision that I’m going to insist on the boundary, it’s pretty hopeless.
TRYING to hold a boundary before I’ve fully decided doesn’t do it. That’s a half-assed boundary.
In this episode I walk through a couple of examples of boundaries I’ve created recently that are helping increase my joy and capacity.
Both of these are about finally having my own home office.
This episode is NOT about me giving you advice that you need to a quiet home office too…or that you have to do what Claire did and switch roles with your spouse.
I don’t know what you need or what’s possible for you right now. Rather, it’s about each of us figuring out what we want and need, and then when we can, claiming those boundaries for ourselves.
Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/206

It’s really f*****g hard to be a mother entrepreneur with young kids, especially if you’re the default or primary parent.
My guest this week has a robust business and she makes good money.
She realized last year that she was afraid to take on big projects in her business because as the primary parent of 2 young kids, she didn’t consistently have the capacity she’d need to carry them through. She and her husband decided to switch roles. In this conversation she talks about what’s changed since they made that switch.
We also talk about how we each navigate the complicated and ever changing terrain of co-parenting and doing life with our spouses.
Claire Pelletreau is a Facebook and Instagram ads expert and conversion optimization expert. Her mission is to actually help people see a return on the money they’re putting into the Zuckerberg machine without the expensive help of an outside ad consultant. Claire is also the host of The Get Paid Podcast where she asks her guests everything about their businesses, including how much they charge - and how much they earn. Annie was a guest in May of 2022.
She’s also my coach.
Here’s some of what we talked about:
The conversation with her husband that led to switching roles The resentment Claire used to feel about holding the family to-do list Dealing with the cultural expectations of what a mother is supposed to do How she feels different from most moms she meets The joy of sometimes traveling alone Show notes at https://rebeltherapist.me/podcast/205

 
I used to ask every podcast guest: “What productivity or time management hacks do you use as an entrepreneur?”
I’ve stopped asking that.
I’m no longer lit up by trying to make my habits atomic or maximize my time.
The work of Tricia Hersey, Ebony Janice Moore, Tara McMullin and others has helped me (along with everyone I know) to question whether productivity is the measure to focus on and strive for.
We’re here to heal, play, love and rest and BE, and when we do more of those things, we make it more possible to create the world we want.
When we’re talking about running a small business, which is my lane, I find that to create something new like a new business or a new program, we need something different than productivity or time management.
We need to nurture our creative energy.
How do I know time management and productivity alone are not the answer?
When suddenly given a huge amount of time, we don’t usually make as much progress as we had hoped to.
We might use that time scrolling or spinning our wheels.
Lots of folks discovered this during lock down.
So when a person asks me how many hours a week it takes to build a program beyond private practice, I could say…at least 3, better 5, and better yet 10.
But really, I find that nurturing your creative energy for an entrepreneurial project is more important than how many hours you give it.
Side note for folks running private practices:
Running a private practice might be a bit different…
It’s a terrible idea, and I don’t recommend it, but you may have noticed that you CAN run a private practice with scraps of energy, at least for a while. You probably know how to scrape together those scraps or energy to show up for your clients.
Here’s what Katherine Eastlake says. She runs a private practice and has a program for therapists wanting to deepen embodied practice.
“I can be fairly dysregulated and settle quickly when a client walks into my room/pops up on Zoom. But when I am writing my newsletter or designing a training, I feel like I need more time and space to ground myself and orient to the process. It is a different energy with different requirements of my mind and body.”
To move beyond private practice and create something new, like a signature program, you can’t just add time and productivity hacks.
Pomodoro timers and to-do lists are not going to get you there.
You need to access your creative energy, and that means devoting yourself to replenishing that energy.
Here are five ways I nurture my creative energy:
     1. Devote myself to the things that make me feel expansive.
I get creative energy when I devote myself to all the things that make me feel more expansive. I need to play, feeling my feelings, talk to people who inspire me, listen to podcasts and music that move me, go on walks, sing, and dance.
      2. Set deadlines that people know about.
There’s a sweet spot for each of us between having deadlines and having the freedom to move at our own pace.
I crave more freedom when I’m facing too many deadlines, but when completely lack deadlines, I’m not creating a lot.
Even this episode would not necessarily be here if I had no deadline for it.
I used to be so internally motivated that I could set my own deadlines that no one knew about and I’d meet them. Um…hypervigilant much? You spotted that? Yes I was.
Now I find that I need to share my deadlines with others.
     3. Make room for discomfort in the creative process.
Expect really itchy moments when you have to keep trying/writing/talking/moving your pen so that the work actually happens.
Expect a 3 hour task to take 10 hours sometimes.
Expect to feel like you can’t do this and know that doesn’t mean you can’t do this.
Expect to feel like leaving.
Let your frustration tolerance build.
All of that discomfort is part of opening up to creative energy.
     4. Avoid certain things.
In order to access creative energy,