Episode 13: When To Consider Pivoting To Coaching With Katie Read
Navigating the Balance: Exploring Coaching, Therapy, and Personal Freedom
How to Create Flexible Work Arrangements Without Losing Your Spark
If you tuned into Episode 13 of the "Raised to Empower" podcast, you already know we dove deep with our wonderful guest, Katie Reid. We unraveled various threads about juggling careers, personal lives, and the magical balancing act in between. Today, I want to expand on some of those golden nuggets we uncovered because I believe they’re incredibly valuable not just for us therapists and coaches but for anyone striving for a life filled with purpose and balance.
The Beauty of Flexibility: A New Take on Therapy Practices
First off, can we talk about the undeniable appeal of creating online therapy practices? Seriously, the flexibility and freedom it offers are game-changers. If, like many of us, you’ve been tied to the rigid schedules and brick-and-mortar settings, you’ll appreciate the liberation that virtual practices and coaching can bring. Katie shared her own transition from traditional therapy to coaching, emphasizing how she cultivated more inspired hours by working less yet achieving more.
And let’s be real here: Who doesn’t want to be inspired? The practice of structuring our time into focused, creative bursts can vastly improve productivity. Both Katie and I have experienced that sweet spot where creativity peaks and work doesn’t feel like work. This approach not only rejuvenates your enthusiasm but also brings joy back into what you do.
Inspired Hours vs. Uninspired Hours: Finding Your Creative Sweet Spot
Katie’s point about "inspired hours" really struck a chord with me. I’ve often found that my best work emerges from those shorter, focused periods where I’m completely in the zone. It’s during these times that creativity flourishes, and productivity soars. Inspired hours, rather than uninspired marathons, are the secret sauce to getting more done with less burnout.
Think of it as the Pomodoro Technique on steroids—with a dash of magic. It’s about knowing when your energy and creativity are at their peak and harnessing that power. You’ll find that these inspired hours pop up more frequently when you’re engaging in work that truly excites you. For us, that might mean integrating something like coaching into our therapy practices or creating online courses that light us up.
The Financial Freedom of Coaching: More Impact in Less Time
Another powerful takeaway from our conversation was the potential financial benefits of coaching. Katie shared some eye-opening examples of clients who significantly increased their income while working fewer hours. This idea of decoupling income from the traditional "time-for-money" exchange is revelatory, especially for those of us in the helping professions.
Imagine having more personal time, the ability to give back more, and still maintaining a robust income. Shifting from strictly clinical therapy to coaching clients with higher executive functioning allows us to expand our impact and sidestep burnout.
Turning Challenges into Opportunities: Licensing and Relocation Woes
Katie’s transition wasn’t without its hurdles, notably the challenges with therapist licensing during state relocations. Licensing issues can be a massive headache. The whole process, from taking new exams to securing proof of residence, can be daunting. But what Katie showed us is that these obstacles often pave the way for greater opportunities.
Her journey into coaching and online marketing stemmed from these very challenges, proving that sometimes, being forced out of our comfort zones can lead to the most fulfilling career paths. It's a timely reminder that setbacks aren’t the end; they’re often just the beginning of something even better.
Embracing Creativity: Building Courses and Community
One of my favorite parts of our discussion was learning about Katie’s passion for helping clients develop online courses. Not only is this creatively fulfilling, but it’s also an incredible way to reach a broader audience. Like Katie, I’ve found so much joy in consulting and course creation. It’s a way to channel our expertise into something tangible, empowering, and, yes, even fun!
Katie’s Growing Edge Microcast is a quintessential example of blending creativity with service. Her two-minute daily podcast offers quick, invaluable insights that resonate deeply with listeners. Plus, it’s a fantastic way to stay connected with her audience.
Final Thoughts: Empowerment Through Community
Our discussion underscored the importance of community and connection. By supporting and promoting each other, we collectively rise. Whether it’s through Instagram engagements or offering resources like Katie’s "freebie bundle," there’s immense power in fostering a supportive network.
Katie and I both believe that flexibility, creativity, and empowerment—especially for caregivers balancing personal and professional lives—are the keys to not just surviving, but thriving. So, here’s to tapping into our inspired hours, embracing the blend of therapy and coaching, and creating a work-life balance that feels authentically empowering.
Until next time, keep rising and empowering!
Transcript for Episode 13
[00:00:00] Ashley Comegys: You are listening to the Raised to Empower podcast. I'm your host, Ashley Comegys, a licensed clinical social worker with a multi-state online therapy practice. I have a passion for empowering women and mom therapists to break free of the fear, overwhelm, and oppressive systems that hold them back from taking action and building the private practice of their dreams.
[00:00:23] My goal is for you to boldly believe in yourself as a clinician and business owner. If you're looking for a place to learn, practice, building, strategy and skill, while also claiming your own power as a woman and a therapist, then you are in the right place. Welcome to the show. Welcome to this week's episode of the Raise to Empower podcast.
[00:00:45] I'm really looking forward to talking with our guest today, Katie Read. Katie helps helping professionals step into their biggest lives so they can serve in the biggest ways. She's been an L M F T forever directed large agencies, taught grad school, [00:01:00] supervised over 40 interns, written psych training materials, spoken at conferences, and has had practices in various cities.
[00:01:08] She is also the creator of the Clinician to Coach Academy, the clinic coach certification. Six figure flagship program and the Growing Edge micro cast. She's a special needs mom, a rescue dog mom, an eager but terrible karaoke singer and an interior designer. One of you. Welcome to the show, Katie.
[00:01:27] Katie Read: Thank you.
[00:01:28] I'm excited. Yeah.
[00:01:30] Ashley Comegys: Yeah. So I always like to just kind of find out from people, like how did you get where you are today? I know you are a therapist turned coach, so for those who don't know yours, Story share with us a little background of how you got to where you are right
[00:01:43] Katie Read: now. Yeah. So, um, as you can imagine happens with a lot of us moms.
[00:01:48] My life changed a little bit. I had been a therapist forever, like you read, and kind of had all the jobs in the field and loved it. And what happened for me was both of my boys were diagnosed pretty young [00:02:00] with special needs. And my life really turned upside down. I could no longer just go sit in an office.
[00:02:05] I could no longer be a community mental health director all day. I had to take them around to sessions and appointments and all the various services that they needed. Uh, it made our lives really tricky cuz I was still trying to like, I. Be with the kiddos all day. And then the minute my husband would get home from work, I'd be putting on the therapist clothes and running out the door to my therapy office.
[00:02:25] You know, it was one of those rough schedules for a while, and then his job transferred us over one state, and there I was. All of a sudden without a license. Yeah. With all the years of experience behind me, I was back at ground zero on having to go through a long relationship process in a new state and needing to make money at the same time, which was so frustrating because I, all the skills that I had were tied up basically in this relationship process, and I had to get creative about, okay, how am I going to bring in income for the family?
[00:02:57] While I'm waiting for this, and [00:03:00] long story short, what I started to do was actually to offer like copywriting and marketing help to other therapists because I had some skills with that and I knew I could help, and that evolved over time. To the point where when that new license finally did come in the mail, I actually had this really thriving coaching and consulting business already.
[00:03:22] And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not gonna open an office again, after all. At least not then, and I'm gonna see where this takes me. And what I found was a real passion of mine were therapists who were ready for and looking at. At that next level, whatever that meant for them. Whether they were like, I wonder if I could have more creativity by moving into coaching or more flexibility with my schedule moving into coaching.
[00:03:47] Or they wanted to do, uh, online courses, for example, building online courses or leading retreats or any of these ways that we therapists can sort of take our skills, repackage, [00:04:00] repurpose them, serve even more people. Creative and more freedom in our own lives. And for me, that was the whole thing was I was like, I need to create a career for myself.
[00:04:11] Well, a, I need a career that can't be taken away if I have to move. Yeah. Yeah, like that was huge for me. I'm very security motivated and when that happened and like it feels like the rug gets pulled out from under you. And I've actually had several clients now that had similar situations where something unexpected happened in their lives.
[00:04:29] They had to move, and all of a sudden they were at ground zero again. So that's a. Terrible thing that kind of looms over us, unfortunately. So it was that, but also just the fact that my kiddos come first and you know, they needed speech and PT and OT and A B A and like all these different services and I had to be able to work and make money even with my crazy bazaar schedule.
[00:04:54] Yeah, and so that for me was super important and that was what was a huge motivator for me in [00:05:00] doing all of this, was being able to provide for them, be there for them, be at all the sessions, be at all the appointments, and still be contributing to the family and to the budget and everything else.
[00:05:10] Ashley Comegys: I relate to so much of that one, I have a child with special needs and so Oh, you do like having to be able to, I mean, there are some weeks where we have five different appointments just for him in one week.
[00:05:23] Right, right. Or, and then you also have the unexpected of like, oh, the school calls. Yes. And so needs picked up. And then my husband is in the Coast Guard and so I tell people like, I've collected licenses because we've had to move. Yeah. Um, and I've been fortunate that it has not been complicated for me, per se, to necessarily move those licenses.
[00:05:46] But it doesn't sound like that was necessarily the case for you and for
[00:05:49] Katie Read: many others. No. Yeah. I had to start over. I had to do new exams cause I was coming from California. Yeah. Which had their own exams and then moving to Exactly. Oh my [00:06:00] goodness. Don't even, I'm so traumatizing. Lemme tell you. Studying for exams the first time as a 28 or 29 year old versus the next time as like a 42, 43 year old.
[00:06:10] That is a different brain. Yeah. Yes. To retain all of that information.
[00:06:16] Ashley Comegys: Yeah. Even if you are military spouse and like sometimes there are things that you know, can get waived. California is one of those states that is not easy and I've No, I've said to my husband that is off the list, um, of options.
[00:06:29] Because, because of that, yeah. Like, it's really, really challenging. We go through all of this process of. Going through grad school, doing all our clinical hours, sitting for the board exams, and then to have one state be like, oh, well we're not gonna honor that can be just like a punch in the gut.
[00:06:47] Katie Read: Well, I remember at one point, like, so we moved here and I couldn't even start the application process till after we moved because you had to send in proof of residents in the form of a bill to you, in your name at the address.
[00:06:58] Like you can't even get that until [00:07:00] you bring here for a bit. Yeah. And I sent in this massive packet. I mean, they literally, they're like, we don't care that you've been licensed for a hundred years. We need your grad school grades. And like, you know, it's like going back to the beginning where you're like, really?
[00:07:11] Really? I don't even know where that is. Um, and I sent this huge packet in and all the reference letters and all the things, and then I got a letter back. Thank you. Our board doesn't meet during the summer, so someone will look over your packet in three to four months. I. Yeah, that is people livelihood,
[00:07:27] Ashley Comegys: right?
[00:07:28] Right. Certain states are very specific, like, you cannot operate in this state unless you are licensed. And so then what are you supposed to do? You're
[00:07:36] Katie Read: staffed. Right? And this was like before everything went online, during Covid, and so it wasn't this easy, you know, just, I know a lot of people saw online clients in various places during covid out of necessity and like, we weren't, we weren't, the world was not there yet when all of this was happening, right?
[00:07:51] So,
[00:07:52] Ashley Comegys: so, When you were heading in the direction of, okay, maybe I'm leaving the therapy world [00:08:00] and moving towards the coaching direction, was there anything specific that told you, okay, this is the direction to go? Because you said I was starting to help with some website copy and that kind of thing. Like what really helped you to find your area of focus that you wanted to
[00:08:14] Katie Read: work in?
[00:08:16] You know, it's interesting. So I started doing therapist marketing in general, and I did find myself getting a little bored because it's a lot of repetition. Mm-hmm. Like when you're starting out, you need to learn all this stuff, but then once you've learned like basic therapist marketing, it doesn't change that much.
[00:08:30] It's kind of the same for everybody. You learn the basic. Skills and you can rinse and repeat. And I didn't mind that, but I was like, I'm getting a little bored teaching the same things. And then I had some clients come in who were like, actually, I'm thinking of building an online course. Could you help me with that?
[00:08:44] And all of a sudden that was so exciting to me cause it was so creative and I loved getting to work on all of that and help them figure out. How to repackage their skills and how to talk about what they could do and how to talk about the impact that they [00:09:00] could have if people bought this course or signed up for this coaching package.
[00:09:03] And it was so fun. And that just started really becoming a passion of mine, helping with that. And I saw that more and more and more therapists were realizing, wait a minute, there is a way to. Take all my skills that I already have, all my knowledge, everything I went to school for, right? Apply it to people who probably have non-clinical levels of need, you know, higher executive functioning skills.
[00:09:28] I hate to say easier clients, but certainly in some cases easier clients. You know, clients who are really functioning very well. And they just have this one need. They just have this one area where they're like, oh, if I could just get help with this, everything would be great. Yeah. And so for therapists being able to come in and be like, well, I can help with that.
[00:09:48] Like, that's easier than what I do in my day job. Sure. You know, like, I can do that. Okay. And so getting to work with that and have people get into that and see them start to kind of grow and come [00:10:00] alive. And since then we've just had so many amazing stories of how. Therapists have really changed their own lives by leaning into their creativity, you know, looking that imposter syndrome in the face that we all have.
[00:10:16] Yeah. But being like, you know what? There is something more for me than just coming to this little office every day for the next 20 years until retirement. There's something more for me than just serving people in this little five mile bubble outside of my therapy office, right? Like I think that I could do more.
[00:10:35] And so those are the people that I get so excited by because so many of us are, we came into this field because we're creative, because we're intuitive, because we're helpers at heart and. The field can chew us up and spit us out. Like we all know many people who have gone through intense burnout who have left the field altogether.
[00:10:54] To me, I'm like, that is terribly sad. There's gotta be a way for us to use all of our [00:11:00] natural proclivities and continue to be helping professionals. And create the lives that we want and be there for our kids and our families, and create maybe the flexibility like you and I need in our lives to actually have a life where, At the end of the day, you're happy.
[00:11:19] You're like, I took care of my most important things and my most important people, and I was able to still be a helping professional out in the world. Well, and one
[00:11:27] Ashley Comegys: of the things that I connect with, with what you're talking about is that creativity piece that for me, I didn't realize that was missing about myself in my therapy practice until I.
[00:11:39] Started being able to tap into that in things that I've been able to do outside of therapy with coaching or consulting and courses and stuff, and that it's like, oh my gosh, this is fun. Right? Like, I love that we're kinda put in a box to a degree with our therapy, right? Like we're, there's. It's definitely parameters, right, of what we're, are supposed to [00:12:00] not do or do like Absolutely stay within our, you know, scope of practice.
[00:12:04] There's this kind of freedom to explore and kind of tap into this other part of ourselves that, again, I don't think sometimes we recognize is missing until we find it and we're like, oh yeah, this is a piece of me.
[00:12:17] Katie Read: Completely. I love that. I resonate so hard with that. It's what I love to see too. In our clients in the Clinic Coach Academy.
[00:12:25] We'll get people coming into the group who are like, Okay. This was stupid of me, but I stayed up all night because I was so excited. Yeah. Cause I was working on my program and I was writing out everything that's gonna be in it and blah, blah, blah. And I lo I feel the exact same as you. You almost don't realize that you're stuck in that rut.
[00:12:41] Yeah. And that you're just kind of like groundhog dang your life. Right. You know? Until. You find something that gets you excited again. Yeah, and I always compare it to when I was in grad school and I would be so excited to read the book. I'm so excited to talk to my friends and my [00:13:00] cohort about everything we were learning and getting back to that level of excitement again.
[00:13:04] Yeah. Is amazing. I love it.
[00:13:07] Ashley Comegys: Well, I think I, I, you know, as you say that, it almost makes me wonder, like, it must tap into some kind of part of our brain that's maybe like been dormant for. Little while, right? Like in grad school, like it's being used a lot cuz we're learning something new and we're exploring this and we're questioning things.
[00:13:23] And I think when you do start venturing into something a little bit outside of our typical scope, yes, then it is, it's like, okay, I, I've not thought of it this way, or this is something new and it's using that similar part I
[00:13:37] Katie Read: think. Well, and there's an incredible thing that happens too, and I, for me, like I am in my forties, I didn't grow up with the internet as just this regular thing in my everyday life.
[00:13:47] And so it always felt like, oh, anything fancy on the internet, having some sort of internet business, like, that's not for me, that's for the kids. You know? Like that's for everybody who's younger than us. But honestly, being [00:14:00] able, like realizing that a. The, the entire internet really is set up right now for very small micro business owners to be successful.
[00:14:08] It is completely set up to be user friendly for all of us to be successful and realizing, wait a minute, I can do this. I can learn the basic skills of putting out my services online in a way that other people can see it, understand what I'm doing, purchase my services from me. That is the basic skill of lifetime security.
[00:14:31] Yeah. No one can ever take that away from you. Yeah. And so having that knowledge, much like when we went to grad school and we got all this knowledge about how to be a therapist and about human psychology, no one can take that away from you. And now for me, being able to have all of that and also have the skills that allow me to create an income and create security and all of those things for my family, that feels amazing.
[00:14:53] And it feels so empowering to not be like, oh, That's too hard. I'm too old, I'm too [00:15:00] this, I'm too that, you know, but just to be like, you know what, if anybody can figure it out, I went to grad school. I'm a relatively smart person. Like in theory, I can figure this out too.
[00:15:09] Ashley Comegys: Yeah, no empowering was the word that was coming to mind as you were talking, because it is like when you're able to, whether it is uh, counseling practice or it is a coaching program, or it is a course, like when you create this thing and you.
[00:15:24] When you're in the weeds, it can feel really hard, but when you take that step back and you look at it and you're like, I did that. You did that right? I made this. It's mine like that. I cannot describe, like you said, the feeling of empowerment that comes from that, especially for. Moms who we need flexibility and, and not just moms.
[00:15:45] I know I have, you know, listeners and women that I work with who they may not have children, but they're caregivers in other ways. Exactly. And they need that flexibility to be able to say like, no, I'm not doing this today, or I can't do this today. Mm-hmm. And so to be able to have. [00:16:00] The autonomy to create something that works for you and your family's needs is so invaluable.
[00:16:08] And like you said, you can rev it up when you need to and be like, I need more income. And you can turn it down when your family has those additional needs coming up that just need more time.
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[00:17:08] Katie Read: Connecting. Hey. Something I talk about a lot is when you finally realize that you can uncouple your income from the number of hours your butt has to sit in the seat. And be a therapist. Yeah. When you can uncouple those things, the world opens up to you in these amazing ways.
[00:17:31] And like we talked about creativity, suddenly your creativity starts to just spark like crazy and you're like, oh, I could do this, I can do that, I can do this. Yeah. And it's great and it, and you start to realize just how much potential and possibility you have. Using what you already know and I, therapists tend to devalue just how much we know.
[00:17:51] Oh my gosh, yes. It's incredible. Right? Like we all, I, it's the thing I hear all the time from clients is they'll go out in the world and be like, I was talking to this new coaching [00:18:00] client and I was sharing the most basic stuff that I just thought everybody knew and she was blown away by it. And I'm like, right, cuz nobody knows.
[00:18:07] Right? Right. We all talk to therapists all day. We think everybody knows. Nobody knows. Yeah. You have so much rich information that would help so many people that you're assuming already know this stuff and they don't. Yeah. People know, like TikTok videos, TikTok definitions of, you know, mental health disorders.
[00:18:25] Yeah. Like nobody knows the real
[00:18:26] Ashley Comegys: stuff. Yeah. Well, and I think the other part too is, Not just that people don't know, but that they need to hear it from you. Yeah. Where I see this with a lot of women where we get that imposter syndrome or we feel like, well, so-and-so is already doing that, and so I can't possibly, I don't wanna step on their toes and.
[00:18:47] I am so big on community over competition or collaboration over competition because when someone makes a decision, whether it is in therapy or whether it is in coaching or taking a course to work [00:19:00] with so-and-so, they're choosing them because mm-hmm. Of who they are and how they offer and frame things.
[00:19:05] And when someone chooses to work with me, it's because of who I am and what I offer. Right. And I think. We have so much fear in our profession as professionals. Yeah. Yeah. And I really think that holds us back from taking that step and be like, no, maybe I could do this. Because we're worried. I, I think we really tend to be worried about failure.
[00:19:25] Like, well, this other person had success, but what if I don't have that? Yeah. And I, I just want us to shake that from ourselves that like, no, if someone else is doing it, you can do it too.
[00:19:35] Katie Read: Yep. I, you're going for the real stuff, Ashley. I like this podcast. You're going for the jugular and I am a hundred percent in agreement and it's the most common thing that we see and that everyone struggles with.
[00:19:47] I just, I only run one program, it's called Six Figure Flagship, and it's where we do our clinic coach certification and people come in very excited, very gung-ho. And then they hit that point where it's like, okay, now we're at the point [00:20:00] where you've built a bunch of this stuff. Now we're gonna take it out publicly.
[00:20:03] Yeah, and start to let other people know, and that terror that kicks in is so real and it's so palpable and understandable. And it's interesting. I have definitely had my own journey with it. I remember the first time I ever tried to do a Facebook Live, I paced around my living room. I don't even, probably for half an hour, like having a panic attack at the thought of going live, which was so stupid because I don't even think anyone joined the live or saw it or anything.
[00:20:29] But I was. So scared. I was terrified. And I, you know, and all of those things, and I tell my clients too, it's all exposure therapy, right? Yeah. Like the first time you wanna die, the second and third time, you still mostly wanna die. Yeah. And by like the seventh or eighth time, you don't even think about it anymore.
[00:20:46] You just post the reel. You just post the video, whatever it is. Yeah. But, It is that matter of going through it. And I was just talking recently, um, we're launching a new thing. I can talk about it at the end. It's called a micro cast, the growing edge [00:21:00] micro cast. And uh, we just recently in one of the micro casts I was talking about how my relationship to fear.
[00:21:07] Has changed and I'm very grateful for that. And it's all a result of outgrowing the office like you and I are talking about, because I have now had to just over and over and over do things that scared the living crap outta me and I'm still here and alive and talking to you. Yeah. And the amazing thing is, Even, and some of the ones that are like the really, like the scariest, you know, have then yielded the most incredible unexpected results.
[00:21:36] Whether it's new friendships, new opportunities, new colleagues, new ideas. It's just been amazing and it is that I've had to step into fear whether it was. A fear of investing in a certain group. And then I joined it and then I found the most amazing colleagues there. Yeah. Or fear of going to speak at a conference, cuz public speaking, I'm still, I can talk on Zoom all day, but as soon as I'm standing in front of people, I'm like, oh, I'm [00:22:00] so nervous.
[00:22:00] And so like, but doing that and repeatedly doing that and going to speak has just yielded me these beautiful relationships and friendships that I would not have had otherwise. And so my relationship to fear, I, I will still absolutely notice the fear coming up about anything new. I will spiral in it a little bit and then I'll be like, wait, wait, wait, Katie.
[00:22:19] Yeah. Now you know that if you go towards it, not to say that every single time you do something scary, you get some amazing result, but Sure. So often you do. Yeah. That it is always worth the chance. Yeah. And so it has, it's been fun being able to just slowly see that change in my own mind through the experience.
[00:22:40] Ashley Comegys: Even if the outcome isn't your most successful, the perfect, right? Yeah. Right. But I think it teaches you about yourself too. Like, okay, like that felt really good, or I didn't think I was gonna like that and I did, and I wanna do it again. Right. Yeah. And so just learning that process, that everything doesn't have to always be like a win [00:23:00] for it to help you.
[00:23:01] Yes. In
[00:23:01] Katie Read: the journey. That's actually so true and I laugh with my team behind the scenes. Uh, if people knew how many terrible ideas I've had that like my team and I sent to work, creating that just completely flopped. Like if people knew, people look at us and they're like, oh, you're a million dollar business.
[00:23:18] You're so successful. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you saw the number of like hair-brained ideas I had in the middle of the night and I woke up so excited about, and then we spent weeks putting them together and they just. Flopped like, like, you know, again, you just live through, you're like, ok. Live and learn, like you said.
[00:23:35] Sure. Ok. Here we're,
[00:23:37] Ashley Comegys: so, I know a lot of times because we have so much on our plate and we do need that flexibility, and that's where a lot of moms I work with is, you know, we're building online therapy practices because it does give us more of that flexibility. Yep. But if somebody is saying like, okay, I hadn't considered this coaching.
[00:23:55] Option as something either separate or in addition [00:24:00] to my therapy practice, what is kind of the. Thing to help them start thinking if it's the right timing for them to be doing that. Because it can be a lot to like add something else in when you're like, I'm already so busy. Exactly. So exactly. What would be some things for somebody to be thinking about if this is the right timing for them to say, yeah, let me start venturing in this other direction.
[00:24:20] Katie Read: I love that question. So I have also, I feel like over the years of doing this have changed my relationship to time a little bit. And so I can tell you that when I started this business, the only time that I had, I had one child who had just started kinder and I had one who was in two different like special needs preschool programs on two opposite sides of two neighboring suburbs.
[00:24:43] So my day I would drop him at one. Oh, actually I wouldn't even drop him the first one. I had to stay with him cause he wasn't potty trained. So I was sitting on the floor of this loud, crazy preschool with my computer for 90 minutes while he did his stuff. Uh, and then we would drive away across town, bring him to the other one, and I would have [00:25:00] another 90 minutes or so.
[00:25:01] So I had these two little chunks of time. What was interesting about that is that I got so much more done that year than the next year when he went to kindergarten and I suddenly had six hours. I got so much less done. Yeah. Yeah. Because my brain was like, I have all day. I have so much time. What a gift this is.
[00:25:23] And what I realized really in that next year, and looking back and seeing that it's not just the old adage like give the thing to the busy person and it will get done. It's not exactly that. It's that I really feel like we have. Inspired hours and uninspired hours and those inspired hours, you know what they're like.
[00:25:42] You're in the flow state. Mm-hmm. You're moving quickly. The ideas are flowing, you're getting things done. You're telling yourself, I only have an hour to write this piece of website copy, and so it needs to get done right now. And boom, your creativity kicks in and it makes it happen. And [00:26:00] so you can have, when you have just.
[00:26:02] Small little pockets of time, very rich pockets of time. As long as either you are strict with yourself or your schedule is just strict with you regardless. Yeah. Cause you have so much going on, then you can actually get so much more done. And what I find is the days where I have too much time and I have all day and there's not a lot of meetings, my brain just wants to.
[00:26:22] Spread out, get lazy, like not do too much. I actually do so much better in my short little pockets of time, and I think we all work like that realistically. Yeah. And so, so often what we tell ourselves about time and meeting more time, it's honestly a myth. And it's not to say yes, I believe honestly. We all do need time to like zone out to TikTok or Netflix at the end of the day, like I'm not one of those people who's like, well, you should stop doing that because blah, blah, blah.
[00:26:51] No, we need that. Like especially if you're a mom, my gosh, you need that like brain space at the end of the day, but. Every day [00:27:00] has edges, every day has pockets. And the great thing is when you start doing something that engages your creativity, that you know is going to make you more income, that you know is gonna give you more freedom of time.
[00:27:15] So you have these bigger whys. Of what you're gonna do with that time and that income and your family and all these things. When you have that going on, suddenly the inspired hours are coming more and more frequently. Yeah, yeah. And you're more productive and you're getting more done because you're excited about it because it's like that little windmill of creativity going in your brain, you know, and, and
[00:27:37] Ashley Comegys: producing.
[00:27:38] No, I mean, I know when I was. Starting building my therapy practice, it was like I had to build it in those pockets of time. Yes. And there were times when I was like, oh my gosh, I'd rather be doing something else right now, but anything else. Right. I knew that in order to get to the place where I was gonna be able to reach certain goals, I had to do that thing during that time.
[00:27:58] And I think, [00:28:00] again, as a mom, we know what. Exhaustions and beyond field sick. Right. But that I think to remind ourselves that when we are operating in those edges, right, that it doesn't have to be forever. Keeping in mind that like, okay, yeah, it may be for an extended period of time, but that doesn't have to always be that way.
[00:28:19] And so if we are having to fill those other little spaces with that productivity, How can we either somewhere else in our day, make sure we are getting some of that downtime? Yeah. Or you know, to just decompress or make sure that it's not forever that we're staying in that Right. Complete, just overworking ourselves
[00:28:40] Katie Read: completely.
[00:28:42] And when I was building this business and as I continue to work on this business, it's stuff I do like and it's stuff I am passionate about. So I actually feel like that doesn't contribute to my sense of burnout or overwork. Yeah. Even if it is a lot of time. But you're absolutely right. In the beginning, probably [00:29:00] the first year and a half, I worked a lot of like random nights and weekends just trying to get stuff in, and then eventually one day I was like, okay, I'm done with that.
[00:29:06] Like evenings are evenings, weekends are weekends. Again, it needs to go back to that. So one of the things that does happen, just to give people like that little carrot at the end of the stick, if you are thinking about launching into coaching, we had somebody just recently, and I loved this, she came into the group and she was like, okay, I just booked my fifth coaching client.
[00:29:26] Cuz most of our people are starting from pretty scratch. Not all of them, but they're mostly starting from scratch on building a coaching business adjacent to their therapy practice. And she said, okay, I just booked my fifth coaching client and she said, you guys, with these five coaching clients, I am making more this month than I ever made with a completely full therapy practice for a month.
[00:29:47] Wow. And so when you think about how different your life would be working five hours a week versus 25, 30, whatever your typical private practice level is, that's insane, right? Yeah. Like that is [00:30:00] a whole different life. And that is where you now have the choice that maybe you're gonna work 10 hours a week and double your current income.
[00:30:08] Or maybe you're just gonna work five hours a week, right? Cause you want the rest of your time for you and for your family and for everything else. And so when I look at that and think we just had another person come in and within the first three weeks of the program, she's like, I can't believe this, but I've already earned 10 K in coaching fees.
[00:30:26] Within three weeks. Yeah. And so like that, when you think of 10 K, the average therapist salary for the year is 50 k. Right. Right. That's the average. We're the lowest paid of the highly educated professions. Yeah. Which just stinks for us. Yeah. But it is the reality. And so when you think about that and the freedom that can come back into your own life, and at the same time you're being creative and you're still being a helping professional, and you've opened up time.
[00:30:52] You know, I'm not, that most therapists are not just focused on the money because they want to give back and they want to be helpers. Well think how much more you [00:31:00] can give back when you have that time, when you have the extra income to donate more. Uh, all of that is like a huge part of your being able to give back while creating the life that you want for your family and your kids.
[00:31:13] Ashley Comegys: Absolutely. I know you mentioned kind of briefly and you're like, oh, I'll share about it, uh, in a little bit, but you have a new project that's just launching. Share a little bit about that.
[00:31:22] Katie Read: Sure, sure. So this, it's funny talking about field of fear and do it anyway. Um, I wanted more connection with our graduates from our, our, our certified clinic coaches after they graduated.
[00:31:33] And I was like, I just, I hate that people go and then I don't see them all the time anymore. And so I started sending out to them. Just little two minute audio messages that I would send via text in the morning. And they were not like therapist marketing specific or anything necessarily, but they were more like psychology hacks, motivation, mindset, resilience, you know, topics like that.
[00:31:55] And just my little musicing, or maybe if I had a little aha moment on one of these [00:32:00] things, or a little reframe, imposter syndrome, you know, things like that. And we started sending these out. And they were super duper successful with our clients. Our clients love them. Yeah. They were like, it's two minutes.
[00:32:11] I can just listen to it in the car. And it just gives me that little thing to think about for the day. Or some of our clients were bringing it into their own therapy clients or their own coaching clients. Yeah. And kinda using it as a conversation starter there. And so I was like, you know, I think we could offer these to anybody.
[00:32:26] They're not just for therapists necessarily, but they're kind of motivating the therapists and bringing therapists back Sure. Into thinking about these topics. And so we have just launched it out to everyone. I'm, uh, talking to you today and hoping our tech is running smooth behind the scenes. Yeah. So it is called the Growing Edge micro Cast.
[00:32:47] It's like a little micro podcast. Yeah, just a little two minute daily podcast and anybody can opt in. It's totally free. We're just doing this as a way to build community and as a way for me to kind of explore what other topics [00:33:00] are things that I enjoy talking about and that might be helpful for people to learn from me.
[00:33:05] At this stage of my life, you know, having been a therapist, having been an entrepreneur, just taking some of those lessons learned along the way and bringing them out to the larger community. If you go to the opt-in page is hey katie reid.com and I, I'm sure that'll be people. Yeah. And you just opt in and it's free and you can obviously unsubscribe anytime easily.
[00:33:27] Uh, but you just go there. And then also my Instagram is hey katie reid.com and that's where I'm hoping that each day we can get a little conversation going. Maybe about that day's topic. If it hit somebody and they wanted to say something or they had an opinion about it.
[00:33:41] Ashley Comegys: I love where this started as one thing, and it talking about creativity, right?
[00:33:45] You're like, oh, this was just just this one thing I wanted to say connected to these people and that it started resonating. And you're like, huh? Like, oh yeah. What can I do with this then? How can I change this? And. Seeing where this can go and, right. Like it's just starting today and who knows what a [00:34:00] year from now.
[00:34:00] I'm like a couple years, right? Yeah, exactly. That's like, where do I want this to evolve from? So that's really, really exciting. Yeah,
[00:34:06] Katie Read: and I'm hoping, like for me, I've always been like, I wanna write a book, but I don't know what to write a book about. And I'm like, you know what? This might be a way for me to test different types of material.
[00:34:14] Yeah. See what people respond to and use that as guidance of, oh, maybe people would like it if I wrote a book on this topic. But you're right, the creativity thing. It does because as these were slowly becoming sort of successful within our own client base, I have also been thinking how do I help my clients get their own clients?
[00:34:35] Like how do I use my marketing arms to help wrap them in as well and help them get their own clients? And then I was like, oh. The micro cast can be sponsored by the Clinic Coach Academy. So at the end of every little micro cast, we invite people, we say, Hey, if you want a coach who's also a therapist, Come here and check out our directory.
[00:34:56] So then little by little, every single day, everyone who [00:35:00] subscribes will be exposed to Oh, there's a directory of coaches. Yeah. Who are also therapists. That's cool. And so it is, it's like your brain starts to get excited. Yeah. About these little connections that you hadn't thought about
[00:35:10] Ashley Comegys: before, which is so cool.
[00:35:12] And I love how what you're doing is then continuing to support the people that. Have come alongside you and done this work with you. Exactly, yeah. Which is so, so, so needed. Yes. If somebody listening is interested to learn more about your work, to learn more about is coaching right for me? Where can they find your information?
[00:35:31] Katie Read: So I would just start with our freebies. We have a big freebie bundle. Um, it's really robust and if you just go to katie reed.com. You'll see the freebies link, or you can just do katie reed.com/freebies and you can opt in there. And we have packets about how to launch a coaching business, how to launch an online course, how to know if you have a good niche.
[00:35:53] We have all that stuff. It's pretty robust, so I would say start there. It's a good way to dip your toe in the water. You can also, [00:36:00] if you go to that, Hey Katie Reid on Instagram and subscribe to the micro cast, then you'll kind of get more a sense of who I am. And like you were saying, people decide if they resonate with you or not, if they wanna work with you.
[00:36:09] Sure. So then you can get a sense from there, do I wanna work with Katie? Is this a match for me? And so you can do both of those things. And it's a nice way just to dip your toe in the water. Yeah. And see if it might be the right thing or the right time for you. Katie,
[00:36:23] Ashley Comegys: I've loved getting to talk with you today, and I just feel like we have, like, we could keep going, so I'm sure.
[00:36:29] I'm sure this won't be the last time that I have you on. Yes. Good. Because I feel like there's a lot more we could talk about. But I really appreciate you taking the time today and just sharing your energy and your knowledge and expertise with us. Um, it's definitely
[00:36:43] Katie Read: appreciated. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:36:46] This was so fun.
[00:36:48] Ashley Comegys: Thank you so much for listening to the Raise to Empower podcast. Check the show notes for all links and resources mentioned in the show. If you found today's episode helpful or inspiring, be sure to share [00:37:00] it with your therapist friends, and don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave your five star rating and review.
[00:37:05] It truly means so much to me and will help us get our message of empowerment out to other women and mom clinicians, and I'd love to connect with you in our Facebook community. So check out the show notes for the link or head to Bitly slash raise to empower to join us. I'll see you back here next week.