• 00:00:00 – Introduction to STC Elite Mastermind: Melvin introduces the STC Elite mastermind for therapists creating their first online courses.

• 00:03:27 – Chronic High Achievers in Private Practice: Melvin and Janetta discuss how entrepreneurship and private practice attract high achievers and recovering perfectionists.

• 00:05:57 – Childhood Impact on Money Views: Janetta shares a story from her childhood that influenced her views on money and achievements.

• 00:08:19 – Setting Boundaries in Private Practice: Janetta talks about setting boundaries in her practice and learning to refer clients out when necessary.

• 00:10:41 – Chasing the Proverbial Carrot: Janetta and Melvin discuss the tendency to chase success and how to navigate the ever-moving goalposts.

• 00:19:59 – STC Elite Mastermind Enrollment: Melvin invites listeners to join the STC Elite mastermind for therapists creating online courses.

• 00:26:21 – Accountability and Mentorship: Janetta discusses accountability in her solo practice and the importance of mentorship from elders.

• 00:29:00 – Grounding in Business Success: Melvin and Janetta explore finding grounding in business success and defining personal success.

• 00:33:04 – Overcoming Money Shame: Janetta shares her journey of overcoming money shame and learning to have open conversations about finances.

• 00:37:36 – Reflection on Personal Growth: Melvin reflects on the conversation with Janetta and the importance of building a career around the life you want.

Melvin Varghese:
Hey there, it's Melvin. I hope you're doing well. Before we jump into today's session, just wanted to let you know that STC Elite, our mastermind for therapists creating their first online courses open for enrollment. If you've been thinking about creating an online course and have been a fan of the STC podcast and are looking to launch your online course in a community of other therapists, you can check out the mastermind over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash mastermind, or you can download our free online course starter kit. It's a seven day email course that will help validate your course idea. That's over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash course kit. We'll jump into today's session.

Melvin Varghese: Hello, hello.

Melvin Varghese: Welcome to today's session of selling the couch. I hope you're doing well, having an incredible day. So today we are talking about how to redefine what success looks like as a clinician in private practice. I'm joined by Janetta Garrison. Janetta is a licensed clinical social worker. Website is over at crowncounselingandconsulting.com. Janetta and I connected on LinkedIn and we've become friends and I don't know like the way Janetta's presence and just the way that she approaches things. There was some there was just a great vibe that I got on LinkedIn and Jeanette had reached out and had some made some suggestions of like potential topics and I was like we should totally do this one because I feel like many of us as clinicians are struggling with this and are navigating this which is We seem to live in this world where it's almost like more is better. But then once you get to that quote unquote better, there's this new thing to chase. And it can be incredibly discouraging and incredibly anxiety provoking for us as business owners. And so we're going to start our conversation today talking about this idea of this theory that I have, which is basically that entrepreneurship and private practice tends to disproportionately attract a lot of chronic sort of high achievers and recovering perfectionists. And just talking through that, Jeanette is going to share a story from her childhood what she learned about money. Because I do feel like so much of what we learned growing up impacts how we charge and the boundaries we set with clients, whether it's a cancellation or a no-show or any of those kind of things. And then we wrap up kind of with two areas. The first question is, you know, so many therapists, including me, end up chasing this proverbial carrot, only to realize the carrot is not actually what we wanted. So how does Janetta navigate that world? And then the final question is, how does Janetta ground herself in this is enough for my business versus like always having a goalpost that seems to move left and right. I think you're gonna really enjoy this conversation no matter where you are in the private practice journey and even in the entrepreneurial journey. So here's my conversation with Janetta Garrison from crowncounselingandconsulting.com. Hey Janetta, welcome to Selling the Couch.

Jeannetta Garrison: Hi Melvin, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Melvin Varghese: Oh my gosh, I am so, one, incredibly excited for this conversation because I think it's one that goes through a lot of clinicians' minds. But before even jumping into that, I know I told you right before we got started and you said, do not make me cry. So I'm not going to make you cry on this one. But I really just genuinely I'm just so grateful for you. I'm grateful for our friendship, even grateful that something like LinkedIn has allowed us to like further connect. And yeah, you're doing amazing work in the world. And this topic that we're talking about, I'm just I'm grateful. I was thinking about like who better to have it with. And so I'm grateful we get to have it.

Jeannetta Garrison: Thank you so much, Melvin. I appreciate it.

Melvin Varghese: I have this theory. I think that entrepreneurship and private practice attracts those of us who are like chronic high achievers or recovering perfectionists. What do you think about Bell's thought out theory?

Jeannetta Garrison: I agree 100%, I agree. I think entrepreneurship and private practice, there's a lot of overlapping factors. For one, usually high achievers are also the ones who are deep thinkers, who sort of think several steps ahead, who are like always in their head, thinking, planning, being very creative. And in my opinion, there's only a matter of time before that person sort of outgrows the traditional mental health box, whether it be community mental health or there's only a certain there's only a matter of time before they outgrow that and decide they want to step out and do something on their own.

Melvin Varghese: Yeah, I think absolutely spot on. I mean, I know I felt that tension when I was in like traditional W2 employment, I felt like, hey, why are we going to this meeting? And or, you know, what do you mean, I can't do it this way? Or, like, this just seems so much more efficient? Or why are we doing it this way? When you know, like, is probably going to lead to a lot of confusion and all that stuff later. I think that's absolutely, absolutely true. I love the fact that you also said about deep thinkers because I think that's especially 100% true. Thinking about this, thinking about the implications of it, all of that. I was wondering if you could share a story or a moment from your childhood or from your family that impacted how you see money or how you see achievements.

Jeannetta Garrison: Yeah, well, just to give you a little bit of context with my family and the way that I grew up. So I grew up with my grandmother after my mom passed away when I was a child. And so I don't know if it was because of just generation or what, you know, overlapping factors, generation, identity, different things like that. But there was a lot of mystery around, like, we didn't talk about it. Basically, we didn't talk about it. There was no conversation, no out and out conversation about it. So I just sort of gathered and understood through context clues that We didn't have a whole lot, but we could still get our needs met and there was enough for everyone. I remember oftentimes my grandma's house was the hub of everyone kind of coming over, hanging out. She's always cooking. There's people. you know, spending the night staying over, like there's always enough for people to come by, whether they were family or not family, not biological family, but just people who they all called her mom, grandma, same, you know, so there was just like the sense of there's not a whole lot, but there's enough for everyone.

Melvin Varghese: Yeah, you know, my grandparents played a big role in my life as well. So like, even how you describe it, like, I definitely resonate with that. I love that idea of like, I don't know, it's just, I could imagine being like, subtly aware, like of not having a lot yet having this other side, which is very, like service oriented, and just sort of like, we take care of each other. I think that's just like, there's such a beautiful element to it, right? And I think there's the, as with most things, right? Like that tendency to say, we take care of everyone if we're not careful with it, right? You can see how this would play out once you jump into entrepreneurship, starting prayer practice, all of that kind of stuff, right? As you're comfortable, I was wondering if you could share maybe a moment like that where you're like, Oh, gosh, like, I'm really like, just in my desire to want to help, like, I'm actually like crossing maybe a boundary, right, that is actually probably not long term, like good for my health or for my business or any of that kind of stuff.

Jeannetta Garrison: Yeah, you know, I think all of us as therapists have big hearts. We're deep feelers. We're very highly sensitive. I identify as highly sensitive. In the early stages of my practice, I would do things like slide my fee. I had a lower fee than I think was that it should have been. I was making decisions of what my fee should be based on my feelings as opposed to actual numbers and math. I would waive cancellation fee, like all these different things were my decision making around the financial part of my business. My business was simply based on my heart and that's not sustainable. That's not healthy for me or the client. Like I have to be able to hold the boundary. so that they can feel safe and secure in their sessions. Even something as simple or as, you know, simple as being able to refer people out and understanding that, hey, I may want to help every person, but every person's needs or concerns are not in my area of specialty, nor should they be. And it's okay for me to refer people out because at the end of the day, I want people to be able to get the help that they are searching for, even if it doesn't come from me. So I've done that even with clients that I took on after working with them for a while, come to a point where I realized, oh, there's something else here that we didn't discover in the beginning, but now it's peaked his head out and I'll explain to the person what I see and say, here are the options. Basically, I can refer you out. If you continue to work with me, there's going to be sort of a plateau that we reach and leave it up to them to make that decision, but at least give them that information so that they are able to choose on their own. But I think if I had this sort of fear around there's not enough clients, there's not enough, there's not enough, then that will overpower me. That will overpower my clinical judgment. And I would want to hold on to, you know, hold on to everything and everybody.

Melvin Varghese: Yeah, it's almost like a zero sum game, right? There's only a finite amount of clients in the world. And therefore, you know, if I hold on to the ones that I have, that means like, they're mine. I don't, you know, I don't have to share them. And it's absolutely right. Like, I think, I don't know, fear is such an interesting thing. I think especially for many of us, I can speak for myself, like I don't have a business or marketing sort of background. right? And actually never even taken like a business or marketing class. And I think when you have that, plus you jump into entrepreneurship, there's a natural tendency to or fear to fill that gap, right? And fear manifests is exactly that way. There's not enough clients, all of those things you said earlier about like the late cancellation of the no show fee. I was wondering, how do you, I guess, two-parter question, and we'll tackle one at a time. When that happens, right, how do you internally process that now? Like, let's say somebody no-shows or somebody cancels or something.

Jeannetta Garrison: Yeah, now I look at it very differently. So first, I have a clear cancellation policy. I have a policy that's included in the informed consent that all clients receive before we start treatment. I review it in our first session. So it's very clear. And if a client late cancels or no shows, I don't have any internal, I don't have any feelings about me about Janetta, if that makes sense. I don't have any feelings about their canceling because of me. It's more so They're choosing to not. This is their choice. They're choosing to not come to their appointment or something came up or whatever the case may be. And I don't again, I don't have any internal feelings about it. If it's a pattern, I look at it as a clinical thing. I look at it in that way. Like, does this what does this mean clinically that this pattern of late cancellations or no shows is happening? And then that can become a discussion with my clients.

Melvin Varghese: Wonderful. How did you learn to separate cancellation of the no-shows from your competence as a therapist?

Jeannetta Garrison: That's a great question. I think the evolution of being an entrepreneur, because if that happened in the beginning stages of my practice, I would have felt like, oh, my gosh, what did I do? You know, is it did they not? Are they not OK with their sessions? Is it me like, you know, but now it's I separate myself. I view myself more as the instrument for the help. to come through me to the person. So it's not about me. It's not about me.

Melvin Varghese: It is really, I love how you said that because I think when most of us get started in business and entrepreneurship and private practice, there is an element of it is about me because I kind of like set everything up and do all these things and get clients. And you're absolutely right. I think sooner, I think we can all work to separate like our role in it and not give disproportionate weight to our role. in the therapeutic process, I think it's better all around. The other piece of it, which I think you're alluding to, is when we first get started, I do feel like most of us have to have some kind of painful moments. One, we don't have enough data. And then two, we usually have to have some sort of painful moment, i.e. Let's say a client cancels and then you don't uphold your fees, right? And you don't charge them because you're worried they're going to be upset in the next session, right? But then you're like, oh crap, like that was money that was supposed to be budgeted toward, you know? whatever, right? So yeah, I feel I do feel like most clinicians have to go through it. But you know, hopefully listening to this, it at least like help at least one person to say, try not to do that. But yeah, I wanted to talk like spend the rest of our time talking about like the sort of the major crux of like our chat, which is I mean, we've talked a little bit about this personally, but like I know for me, there's always this tendency and I feel it now, definitely at a different level now with private practice and some interesting opportunities that seem to be coming up. There's this tendency, I think, to always like chase this proverbial carrot, only to realize the carrot is actually not what we wanted. Was wondering if you could sort of speak a bit more about that, like your journey, even how you've navigated it, all of that.

Jeannetta Garrison: Melvin, the proverbial carrot. The always moving goalposts, I think that's something that all of us struggle with. And I find myself going in and out of being affected by that at different points in my entrepreneurial journey. I think it's very important when you find yourself sort of chasing that carrot to pause and take a step back and remember your why, remember your intention, remember what was the reason that I decided to open my own business and start a private practice in the first place, right? What was that reason? What was it because of lifestyle? Was it because I wanted to be able to express my creativity or whatever the case may be? Like, what was the reason? And then come back and center yourself based on that reason. Like, am I going further away from the initial reasons that brought me into private practice as I'm chasing this carrot? Right. Like chasing this carrot, whether it's for a lot of people chasing the carrot, it looks like a certain revenue number. Right. And oftentimes that revenue number, it's like, well, my question is where this number come from. where this number come from just pulled out of the sky, this number that people believe that they should have. But in their pursuit of that number, they find themselves maybe spending less time with their family, their friends is taking a toll on their health. You know, it's they're not actually being able to exercise that creativity that they want it to because they're just on this hamster wheel. So I think it's, again, it's very important to recognize when this is happening. I think the other point, the other part of that is be mindful of who you're placing on the pedestal of I need to follow that person. Be mindful of that, whether it's to be mindful of what social media accounts you follow, be mindful of that and where that person's North Star is, because maybe their North Star isn't the same as your North Star. I'll give you an example. So I listen to a lot of podcasts on the couch, it's my fave. And I've also joined several like coaching programs and follow different people. But there comes a point in time where I realize that something is out of alignment here. Either this person's, it's obvious that this person's values are very different from mine. And what they define as success is very different from how I define it.

Melvin Varghese: Hey, it's Melvin. I hope that you're enjoying today's podcast session. Just wanted to also let you know that STC Elite, our mastermind for therapist course creators, is now open for enrollment. If you've been thinking about creating an online course, and specifically if 2025 is the year that you want to create your online course, definitely encourage you to check out our mastermind. It's over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash mastermind. We launched this back in 2021 and since then over 60 of our colleagues have gone through our mastermind. It includes a ton of support all the way from live teaching, live feedback from colleagues and from our team to build out and structure your online course all the way to mindset coaching, all the way to access to our video editing and graphic design team so that you don't have to hire everything separately. We've made it really super comprehensive and I think you're really going to enjoy it. Again the link is over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash mastermind Enrollment does wrap up at the end of August, so definitely encourage you to check it out and consider joining us. And again, we have a free email course. It's seven days. It'll help validate your course idea. I know that's the biggest struggle many of us are navigating of whether the course is actually going to make money. And we put all of this into a simple to understand email course that you can check out over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash course kit. sellingthecouch.com forward slash course kit. We'll jump right back into today's session.

Jeannetta Garrison: And even the means by which to go about and achieve it. It's very different. Or they're out of alignment, say, for example, with themselves. When I talk about being in alignment, I talk about head, heart and spirit in alignment with all three. If anything is off, I'm like, OK, this is not something feels weird. Something feels off. This is not good for me.

Melvin Varghese: Yeah, I think that's such a beautiful way. Head, heart, spirit. I think like, what a wonderful way to say it. And I think the other side of it is trusting yourself, right? Like, I think sometimes we as clinicians, like, I think most if not all of us have great intuition in the therapy room. But then sometimes when we step out and are looking at like, coaches or mentors or even like social media accounts to follow. I think, I mean, again, I can speak for myself because I have this insecurity that there's some business or marketing thing that I don't know, right? Because I'm like, this is trial by fire for me, right? That this person would know more. So then I like put them up on a pedestal. But then the other side of it is, I can easily rationalize why they're doing stuff, even if it is in misalignment to like, how I think about it. Right? Like, yeah, the other, I don't know that I heard a great quote recently, which was, you talked about like, focusing on revenue, right? And there's this thing around like, you know, I think for a lot of clinicians, like either depending on like, solo versus group, right? Like the six figure revenue is like the mark for solo practitioners. The seven figure is usually the mark for practitioners. One thing I heard recently was it's often easy for people to talk about revenue numbers. But the thing you should be looking at is the compromises people are making to get to there, right? Because that compromises, I think that's the glue that holds it all together. And I mean, frankly, like, it's not very enticing to say, like, hey, I built a $500,000 business last year. but I struggle with anxiety and depression and like my relationship with my significant other is falling apart, you know? Not exactly like a selling point, but it's also like the reality, you know, which I've seen and I don't know, like would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Jeannetta Garrison: Yeah, I agree. One hundred percent. It's it's sort of like as a private practice owner, your path is sort of charted for you based on what has what other therapists have done. Right. So start with a solo practice, move into a group practice, then do things beyond the couch, so to speak. But that may not be the path for you. Like I know that's not the path for me. I have no desire to move into group practice. I'm good with solo. And when I talk about growing my practice, it's growing my practice within the confines of still a solo practice and being able to serve people in other ways besides one-on-one therapy. So again, I think people have to really be careful and mindful of where they're getting the, this is what you're supposed to do. Where's that message coming from? And if you choose to follow that, that's okay. it's important to at least think, like, think it through. Don't just automatically do it, but think it through. And as you mentioned, take into consideration what the impact that will, that will have on your life. I know this is something that you say often, build your business around your life, not the other way around. And so if you find yourself where you're building your life around your business is the sun and you're building your life around that, something has gone awry. You know, there may be ebbs and flows in our business where our business requires more of us, right? That's natural, that's normal, where your business requires more of you. But for me, I would not want that to be the standard way of being forever and ever.

Melvin Varghese: Yeah, thank you for saying that. And even normalizing like there are ebbs and flows because I definitely feel it right now. Like it's trying to get this like private practice off the ground. I feel like, I mean, to be honest, like I think I underestimated how much like administrative stuff there is, right? Like LLC formation, touching base with the state board, SIPAC, website, like all of these like little Google My Business, like all of these little setups. And I have been burning the midnight oil and I feel like there's a part of me, I feel like, this is not sustainable. And this is not even like the pace that I want, you know, and yet, I am trying to remember this is like for a season, right? But I am there's still admittedly, there's a part of me, I'm like, gosh, like, am I in like, misalignment of like, how I talk about and how I share about things. But thank you for saying that. Because I think I don't know. One thing I realized is this whole process requires a lot of grace and self-compassion. And I think the other side of it is it's really good to surround yourself with people who want you to succeed, but that definition of success is more holistic. because people that like will understand like, Oh yeah, you're setting up right now. I could understand like, you're probably more crunched than usual. But then like also people that would check me of like eight months from now or six months from now. Like, like Mel, you said that like six months ago, what's going on, you know? Yeah. I mean, how do you, I guess, how do you navigate that for yourself? Like even the ebbs and flows versus like the norm. Like, I mean, how do you, I guess, what is the accountability that you have for yourself?

Jeannetta Garrison: Yeah, the accountability piece. Being a solo, you know, solopreneur, I have to be accountable to myself. That's, you know, my first level of accountability. And as you mentioned, I also surround myself with people who are supportive, people who know me as a person, as a human being, human to human, right? And also other business, other people in private practice. I'm a member of a group coaching program and it's really helpful to be a part of that community because you go in and you read the posts and people are like, Oh my God, I'm panicking. I'm panicking. And all the love underneath the comments is really great. Right. So it's important to have all of that. Another thing that sort of keeps me focused is I love being connected to elders, right? As I mentioned, I grew up with my grandma. She's no longer with us, but I've developed a really great relationship with my great aunt, her oldest sister, who's in her nineties. And Aunt Mary calls me. She'll check it in. She'll text me like you're texting me. She's checking in, you know, and I talked to her about my business and how my business is going. And she pours these words of encouragement into me that it centers me and it grounds me in a way that I don't think people who are sort of in it with me can, like they can, but it's a very different type of way, if that makes sense.

Melvin Varghese: Oh, it absolutely makes sense. I think the older I get, the more I realize how important it is to have mentors that are, like, know and have expertise on stuff. But then also, like, just from an age and wisdom perspective, because, you know, and especially if they're, like, a couple of generations removed, it's so incredibly helpful because Otherwise, you're talking to folks that are in similar life seasons and you're like, okay, so we're all dealing with this together, but then somebody to be able to talk to someone that has, I don't know, who's seen and experienced life in a different way and what feels like huge and significant to us right now, it could be or it couldn't be, right? But it's like, I don't know, it's just nice. So I'm like so grateful you said that. I've got like two questions for you. The first one is how do you ground yourself in this is enough for my business versus this moving goalpost? Because I definitely struggle with this. Even as you sort of gather your thoughts, I'll share like a practical example. I was like right after the pandemic, I got like super active on Twitter and was like writing these threads and a couple of them went quote unquote viral. right. And, and then around like, I don't know, I was like a shade under like a 5000 followers or something. And then I stopped posting there because like I was feeling burnt out. It was too much stimulation. And I just felt like I was playing like myself, like my mood was getting impacted by like the algorithm, right? Like, oh, I put all this time into this post and like, didn't reach enough people, that kind of stuff, right? How do you find your grounding in like, this is good for my business, I'm okay, letting opportunities go, even if they are like fantastic opportunities.

Jeannetta Garrison: It's a great question. I go back to the head, heart, and spirit. So with my head, I look at my numbers. Like, Donnetta, don't bury your head in the sand. I have this aversion to numbers, right? So regardless of what the numbers are actually saying, just the fact of me looking at the numbers, something, a flip just, a switch just flips and I'm just like, ah, so I have to force myself to actually look at the numbers, right? So I have all my spreadsheets, I have, you know, my quarterly bookkeeping meetings and all the things, right? So make sure you're actually meeting the financial Can you pay your expenses for your business and for your life? Right. And then do all the things, all the other things. Right. So whether it's investing, saving, planning for your future, things like that. Right. So this is a head piece. We can't just only, we can't run a business based on vibes.

Melvin Varghese: Yeah. Oh gosh. And I feel like that's so true for us as clinicians who like most of us, like are so numbers aversive. Right.

Jeannetta Garrison: Yeah. So, and then the other piece I look at, you know, going back to the, how do I know this is enough for my business? How am I feeling? Am I feeling like, cause my creative brain is always going. always going, always go. I have all these ideas. I have a notebook full of ideas. And, um, so it's important for me to check myself and think about, okay, Janetta, you don't have to do all the things right now today. You know, some of these things can be in six months, a year, five years, like you don't have to do them all today. So that helps me sort of keep that in check. And then just sort of making sure that I'm actually meeting What I set out to do, you know, am I helping clients with the issues that they came for? Is the work that I'm doing allowing them to facilitate change, right? Facilitate change in that transformation that they are looking for in their lives. I'm so grateful for the clients that I get to work with because oftentimes I learn things from them. But this conversation around money and don't be afraid of the numbers. So there's a little tangent. The conversation around money and don't be afraid of the numbers. If I'm afraid of the numbers myself, then I can't talk to my clients about it. Right. I can't talk to them. It's a taboo. We don't talk about that. But because I'm not afraid of the numbers anymore, I push past that fear of the numbers. I can actually have a conversation with clients around like, OK, you say you can't afford such and such and such, walk me through what's happening in your world, right? What's going down? What's happening, right? Is it a boundaries issue? Is it a financial literacy issue? Is it like, what is it? What is, what is going on? So being able to be this sort of this parallel process between what's happening with my business and what's happening with me as a person.

Melvin Varghese: Yeah, I love it. Like, what a beautiful way to say it. And listen, we should quote, you can't run a business based on vibes like that's that is a quotable quote. This year, I do like numbers, but I do get like a little bit like stressed out looking at them for sure. But this year, I started doing this thing called date with books. And I basically print out my quick books at the end of every month. And the last Friday, go and sit. My last Friday SADA appointment is me sitting there for 45 minutes, looking at my books, being like, okay, where do I need to cut expenses? And then just looking at it, are we in line with what I want to be doing? Or have I like stretch myself in a way that it could be fine short term, but long term is going to lead to a lot of issues. But it's been it's been a process because there's a lot of what I'm still noticing is there's still a lot of like, money, shame, like, you know, like competence or confidence is like, you know, that still comes up for me. I was wondering if you struggle with any of that. And then like, even how you navigate it.

Jeannetta Garrison: Yeah, well, there's the fact that I never took a business class ever in all the schooling, never took a business class. So I'm learning as I go. So there's that element. Then there's also the element of, well, money is a symbol. what does money symbolize, right? For me, it symbolizes stability, freedom, you know, it's a symbol, right? And so oftentimes I think when people have sort of this aversion to money, I'm always curious about what else is happening, right? Like I shared earlier, We didn't have a lot when I was growing up. So for me, if money is a symbol of stability and security, that also means I didn't have a lot of stability, security. Right. So through my own work, my own therapy work. I've come to realize that. I didn't know that. I didn't recognize that before, but I've come to realize that. And that has greatly and profoundly impacted how I run my business because I am able to say no to things that are not in alignment. People approach me with opportunities for things all the time. And I'm grateful for that. I'm so grateful that they see me and they think that I can assist in some manner. But every person that approaches me, I have to think about, is this an alignment, head, heart and spirit? Is this an alignment for me? Is this going to detract from what like my focus in my life, my goal, my North Star? Because, you know, as they say, all money isn't good money. And even if it's not coming from like a shady place, but just feel the fact of if what I have to do to earn that particular pot of money is not in alignment with me, then it's not for me. Yeah, really well said.

Melvin Varghese: Janetta, I am so incredibly thankful for you. I'm thankful, you know, we get to have like raw and real conversations like this. And I think, yeah, if anything, like, I think it's making me really recenter on looking at my numbers. And then also, like, what does success look like for me? And is it like, is it okay if I don't keep growing and, you know, like hit this sort of enough number and say, like, yeah, that's good enough. And, you know, So I'm just, yeah, I'm thankful for this conversation. You're doing some pretty amazing work in the world. Where can we learn more about you and that work?

Jeannetta Garrison: Well, before I go, I just wanted to say thank you so much, Melvin. I really appreciate your heart, your kind heart, your generous spirit. And I've learned so much from you. And I appreciate all the work that you're doing for our field. If people are interested in learning more about me, they can visit my website, CrownCounselingAndConsulting.com. Perfect.

Melvin Varghese: Janetta, thank you again for all of this. I'm grateful for you and have a great rest of your day.

Jeannetta Garrison: Thanks. You too. Bye.

Melvin Varghese: Hey there, I hope that you enjoyed my conversation with Janetta, and especially if you've been chasing this proverbial carrot in this season of life. I hope that today's podcast conversation, more than anything, has just been incredibly freeing for you. I was, again, thinking about this conversation, and the one thing I've realized is, you know, I genuinely try to live out this mission that I talk about, which is You know, building, as Jeanette alluded to, like building your career around the life that you want versus fitting the life that you want around your career. But I feel like especially in this season, as we, as I, you know, get the private practice kind of back up, I feel like things seem off center. And I've been dealing with some burnout. and definitely some anxiety around trying to, you know, things speeding up. And in a wonderful way, this conversation today was so freeing. And just to say, like, this really is my race and I can choose the pace that I go with and go about things. And even as opportunities and things come up, I can always say no or no for a season or any of those kind of things. Janetta's website, again, is over at crowncounselingandconsulting.com. Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you soon. Bye.

Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Selling the Couch podcast. For more great content and to stay up to date, visit www.sellingthecouch.com.

Melvin Varghese: Hey, it's Melvin. I hope that you enjoyed today's session. Again, wanted to just send a final invite to join us in our online course Mastermind, which is currently open for enrollment. If you've been thinking about creating an online course and want to do this in community alongside other therapists, the Mastermind is definitely something to check out. You can learn more about it over at sellingthecouch.com forward slash mastermind, sellingthecouch.com forward slash mastermind. Have a great rest of your day.