Should You Just Do "More" Therapy Instead of Launching a Side Hustle?
Should you just stick with therapy?
When considering starting your own side hustle, this question may have crossed your mind before.
This is your reminder that you can be a great clinician while also being a great...
✔️ Group facilitator
✔️ Course creator
✔️ Membership site owner
...or any of the other side hustle options you’ve thought to explore.
While you can completely transition into your side hustle, it isn’t required. You CAN continue in the therapy room while growing and maintaining an online income stream.
Tune in to the latest podcast episode if you’re still figuring out if stepping outside of the therapy room is right for you.
CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN!
Show Notes:
Hey, risers. Welcome to Empathy Rising. So I'm hitting you with an existential episode today asking you if you are really interested in settling for more of the same, are you looking for something new? Are you looking for something different or do you want to do more of this?
Alright, so the topic from this episode, or for this episode came from a conversation I was having the other day, and I was chatting with a clinician who is interested in joining Side Hustle, and she asked a really great question. She said if I'm repurposing and repackaging my clinical skills, why not just get licensed in multiple states and grow my group practice and grow my actual therapy practice?
And I thought this was a really good question to give us something to dive into deeper about her goals and her dreams. So both from a business standpoint and a revenue standpoint, it's important to evaluate this question. Why not just do more therapy? Why not just do the track that you're already on and grow and expand that track rather than shift to the online income?
And what we ultimately decided, or what she ultimately decided was that Side Hustle wasn't the best fit for her because she didn't want to change the trajectory that she was already on this therapist career, this therapist identity. And for her, it made total sense, but it also got me thinking about, who is a really good fit for Side Hustle, who is Side Hustle designed for, right?
Who is my ideal customer? My ideal student, this is something that you'll go back to and reevaluate continuously. You heard me talking a couple of weeks ago with Amber about just the way a market shifts and the way a market becomes more sophisticated or things change.
And if you don't continue to have a bead on your ideal customer, you're talking to the person you were originally talking to but not acknowledging that person has grown and evolved and changed on their own. And so you always need to be going back and taking a look periodically at has my ideal customer shifted.
So this instance was just the perfect example for me to go and do that. And so when I reflected on this, what I really came to is the perfect person for Side Hustle is a clinician who knows that they have something to give the world in addition to therapy. Can you do therapy on a bigger scale? 100%. And we're going to evaluate that today, but the ideal client or the ideal customer, ideal student in Side Hustle knows that they do great work in therapy and knows that there is something else that they are called to do.
So it was really a cool exercise for me to go back and walk back through this and to take someone saying no to my program, which is a rejection. And rejection I've taken personally before, right? So this shows my growth over time, but to be able to take this quote-unquote rejection and evaluate it and use it to make my business even better.
So I really want to take this and explore it with you. Because the two things can happen currently, right? They can happen at the same time. You can be a great clinician and at the same time, simultaneously a great course creator, a great membership site owner, a great group program runner facilitator, right?
Or in your mind, they might be more compartmentalized where therapy was something you used to do or that you are growing out of or evolving away from, and online business may be the next thing. So sometimes clinicians want to shrink their caseload significantly or leave the field.
Either way, those are fine for me. It's not like you have to give up therapy to be in Side Hustle or give up therapy to have an online income stream. Those things are not true, but either way, whether you want to do them at the same time or whether you feel yourself shifting away, there's a yearn for something new and something different now.
I want to key in here and say purposefully and intentionally that I'm not saying something more. I don't love the idea of striving for more, especially from the experience we've all had for the last 18 to 24 months. The idea of striving for more just sounds exhausting.
But that doesn't negate the fact that there's something inside of you saying a little tiny voice, that's saying there's something else, something new, something different, something else. That's a very different feeling to me than something more. And so looking back on this conversation, I'm actually really grateful for it because it has helped me get even clearer on what it is that I want to be doing and what it is I want to help clinicians be doing in their purposes and their passions going forward.
So I'm making an episode out of this because I think it's really important to take a look at the ramifications of either decision of doing more therapy or of doing something else and something different because sometimes the yearn for something new, something different, something else it's not tangible.
It's a feeling... one of my students used to say, like, a knowing in your bones, right? It's an inner, just feeling expression that you want to embody, it's there. But you also need practical examples of exactly how a Side Hustle is different than traditional therapy. How is it expansive? It's expansive in several ways. And that's what we're going to explore here.
It's monetarily expanded. It expands upon the type of money that the way that you're able to make money and the amount that you're able to make, but it's also impactfully expansive. You're able to serve more people. And what I think is key here is it's personally expansive. You are growing and shifting into the newest version of you, the next version of you and sometimes doing more therapy doesn't help you make that evolution, that personal expansion.
So that's what I want to do with this episode is give you kind of some concrete reasons why you might be called to move in either direction towards more therapy or towards this different path. So the first thing that I want to address is: would getting licensed in multiple states, would building a group practice, be easier than starting a side hustle? Would it just be easier to do? Is it the path of least resistance?
I think the short answer there is yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You'd essentially take what you do on a daily basis and open it up to a wider market. Right now, you don't only serve people in Arizona. You serve people in New Mexico and Texas and California and Colorado and all those other places too. So you are opening yourself up to a wider market.
You also don't have to define a different role for yourself. You are a therapist and you are doing more therapy and so you don't have to redefine what that is for you and you don't have to act or behave differently to make sure that your license is protected.
Other things that you don't have to do is you don't have to learn a new way of marketing. Much of what you would do for your current state would probably transfer over to a different zip code. If you're trying to go to a really dense area or a saturated area with clinicians, there may be some shifts that you need to make or some changes, but for the most part, I think marketing a therapy practice is marketing a therapy practice.
You also wouldn't need to learn new tech or build funnels and you wouldn't need to learn sales strategies. Most of the time when people are looking for a therapist, they already know they're looking for a therapist, they don't need to be converted or sold. It's really, they're just like, okay, do I want to work with you in this capacity? So you're more selling yourself than you are selling therapy.
So doing this, doing more of the same as by far the path of least resistance, right? You just need to do more of what you already do. Now, I want to examine this and how it would actually help you grow. So those three categories, we talked about monetary growth, impact growth, and personal growth. Let's take a look at those. So monetary growth is possible here.
If you work in Montana or you work in Nebraska or you work in, I'm just picking lesser populated states. You've probably got an hourly rate somewhere in the mid-hundreds. And getting licensed in states like California or New York City or New York is the state obviously with higher costs of living or even going for certain cities like Miami or Seattle those would definitely help you grow financially because you could probably charge more.
And some cases you might be able to double your rate. If you're at 130, you may be able to charge something like 260 or more in those particular marketplaces. So I do think there's a chance for monetary growth, double your hourly rate. That's more money than you're currently making. So absolutely that is a chance to grow your business.
When we get to impact growth, I think this one is a little trickier, right? I would argue that getting licensed in multiple states doesn't actually grow your impact. I think instead it diversifies your impact because you can't all of a sudden help a hundred people unless you're going to give a hundred hours of your week to therapy, you can help people in different places.
You can help... if you've got a really interesting niche, let's say you have an LGBTQ niche. And in Montana, you're like the go-to person because there's less people there, but then you want to break into the San Francisco market, the New York market, where there is a much bigger need for LGBTQ services, but there's also more competition and you get to charge a higher rate, right?
You're not necessarily making a bigger impact, but you are spreading your impact. So it diversifies, it doesn't necessarily grow. You can help different people in different places, but you alone cannot help more people unless you take on more hours to do it. Unless you open up extra time, you're not going to serve more people.
Now group practice is different. Of course, if you're hiring clinicians underneath you, then they can see more people. And then you've got a question: Is that impactful? Certainly, it's impactful on the community for sure. Or the states, for sure, because there are more services available, but do you tie that back to the work that you're doing?
Do you tie that back to your personal impact, or is it the impact of your company? So those are just things to consider, but if it's just your solo practice, I don't think your impact grows. I think your impact changes. So personal growth. If you're sticking with more therapy, I think any time you venture into entrepreneurship, or anytime you make changes to your business model, you're going to grow personally right.
Being your own boss challenges you in the worst ways, but also some of the best ways. So figuring out a new marketplace, setting your rate for a new market, seeing if you do need to network differently or write your psychology today profile differently, or whatever. If you do need to do things differently for these new markets that's going to grow and that's going to challenge you for sure.
The question is: How do you want to grow? Just like with a local group practice, you can begin taking on new clinicians in these new states and you can grow into a great manager. You can grow into a great logistics person. You can grow into a great admin person. And this type of growth, the sick, this expanding your therapy practice will certainly help you grow personally.
The question is: Is that the type of growth that you are actually looking for? I think that there is growth potential in all three categories, right? Simply by getting licensed in multiple states or adding clinicians, there's definitely growth in all three of these categories, but I think we need to be fair. And I think we need to look at some of the drawbacks. We need to look at it from both sides.
The first one is that reciprocity and endorsement are getting better. They're getting better, but they're still not 100%. So are you willing to take extra exams? And sometimes in the worst cases courses like extra master's courses or whatever, to be able to practice in that chosen state. So that is something you may come up against.
Even if you get straight across transfer or straight across endorsement or reciprocity or whatever, now you're paying 300 bucks to get your license renewed in one state, 300 in another, 300 in another. You're licensed in five states, and now you've got $1,500 of renewals, right? If your hourly rate has doubled, perhaps the math works on that, but is that expense actually worth breaking into that market or would you rather just go deeper into the market you already serve?
So these are all questions to ask. I think also we have to take a look at regulation, right? Many regulations are uninformed by license. But there are definitely things you're going to need to keep track of state by state. So things like renewal periods—does your state renew every two years? Or does your license renew every two years?
Every one year, every three, every five is that standard across all of the states that you're getting licensed in? The other thing to think about is CCEU requirements. They're all going to require an ethics course. I'm sure, but similar, we're going to maybe need this many hours. Some are going to need a different number of hours.
Some are going to need it to be in really strict and regimented categories. Others are like more of a free for all. That's just another thing that you'll need to keep track of also are: Do different states have regulations on telehealth? Do different states have regulations on... lots of stuff, right?
So when you don't only have to keep track of that for your home state, but any other state that you branch out to, you're going to have to think of that. And then what are the labor laws in each of those states? What is it like to employ people in those states?
I think there are some things that are going to be standardized for 1099 employees versus W2 employees. Contractors versus W2 employees, but certain states might have this weird monkey-wrench type of thing. And that's something that even if you're going the group practice route, do you want to keep track of that? Do you want to understand what's okay in California might not be okay in Florida, and vice versa.
So it's just a lot to think about and to keep track of. The next question is: Do you still want to be trading time for money? Because regardless of a higher hourly rate in some of these markets, even double your hourly rate, you're still going to be tied to a chair. You're still going to be paid by the hour.
And that's why the impact doesn't really grow unless you want to give more time to it. You're still doing one-on-one work. You're in a new market. You're with different people with maybe diverse needs and that's cool. So that could be really interesting and inspiring for you, but you're still trading your time.
Then another thing to think about is time zones. This is something that I work with an online business, right? What time zone are people located in? And if you're on the west coast and somebody is on the east coast and they only have an early morning spot, are you going to get up at four in the morning, five in the morning to give them therapy?
So this may or may not be of interest to you. So we need to start peeling back all of this. So let's talk about this then in the online business realm, the realm outside of therapy, because there are pros and cons here too as well. So from a monetary esteem standpoint, what is the biggest difference is an online income stream is a scalable income stream.
There are offers like digital courses or digital products, eBooks, recorded trainings, those types of things that require zero time for you to delete. Now that doesn't mean you don't have to market them. You still have to market them, but when they sell and they're done and you don't do anything else for them.
So you've created the asset once and it serves you over and over again. We can look at this equation as no time output equals money. Okay, no time output equals money. There are also programs that do require time, like membership programs, membership sites, and group programs, but their curriculums make them standardized to deliver.
So while you give time, the time is defined and stays the same, even if your sales increase. So if you have a membership site, four things you do throughout the month, you do a certain thing on week one, a certain thing on week two, a certain thing on week three and four, and so on.
That is the same output whether you have 10 members, a hundred members, a thousand members, or 10,000 members. So in this case, it's the same output, more money. Same output, more money. This is completely different than therapy because the only way to get more money is to give more output.
So scalable income, regardless of the program type your side hustle sets you up for more financial freedom because the amount of money that comes in is unlimited and more time freedom because that limitless income can be done with no time output or a capped time output.
So you still do get a better trade-off for your time when it comes to how much money you can make if you create a program that does require you to invest time. You don't have to trade one for the other like you do with therapy. So impact has the same notion, right?
Not only is your income scalable, but your impact is scalable as well. Trading your time doesn't limit the number of people that you can help. There are certain programs where you might find that you want it to have a very intimate feel. Let's say you're running a group program around, like, just a touchy nature.
I think of Amanda, who just graduated from Side Hustle and she did faith deconstruction. So that's a topic that you want to handle delicately, or you want to go there with some... Lindsey is another person that I think of, and she's doing a sexual empowerment, like reclaiming your sexual identity kind of program, and that is sensitive in nature.
So there are some programs where you might want to keep them smaller and more intimate, but what you could do is open another time slot. Yes, that's committing a little bit more time, but we can do the math on that and make sure that it works for you. So if you have eight people and that's the max, then you wouldn't open another group or another time slot for two people.
But if you had another eight people, it would make sense for you to open another time slot. Your impact, even with really intimate programs, your impact can still scale, your impact can still grow. Trading your time does not limit the number of people you can help. Tens or hundreds of people can buy eBooks, take your courses, go through rounds of your group program, or subscribe monthly to your members.
Here's where we get a little tricky: live workshops. Technically I host my live workshops on zoom, and I pay for the $15 a month to zoom. And it allows for a hundred people to come in. I think the most people I've ever had in a zoom room at one time was like 70 or 80. So I've never quite gotten to that hundred, but I can imagine if I had a hundred people at a live workshop, or let's say 150 at a live workshop. I don't know how I would facilitate that. I can do a presentation to 150 people. No problem.
But I don't know if I could do a workshop where there's like tangible pieces where you're actually co-creating and working together and stuff. So I don't know if I'd want to sell a hundred tickets where everyone showed up live, but here's what you can do: You can have one price for the live ticket, let's call it a hundred bucks. And then you can say, or if you'd like to, if you want to just do the recording or you'd prefer to watch on your own time, the recording alone is 50 bucks just from the natural market.
There will be the people who are like, yes, I want to be there. Live. I want that hundred-dollar ticket. And then there's the other people who are like, oh, I just want the material. I just want to go through it on my own. It's fine and they'll buy the replay ticket. And then you're still scaling that income.
You're not limiting your impact. So both of those are scalable, but you're making it easier for you to deliver live. So that is one place where it can get a little tricky, but we have solutions for that, which don't impact the money side and don't impact the income side.
And so here's where I definitely think this last category of personal growth. This is the place that I think online income outshines therapy for sure, like pursuing a side hustle versus doing more therapy. Can you grow personally doing more therapy? Sure, but I think that online income and making the shift is where the biggest difference is.
This is the place where you get to imagine who you want to be outside of the therapy industry. And if you're my ideal customer, my ideal listener, my ideal student, that speaks to you. Because the therapist identity, the therapist industry, carries weight with it. Friends are always asking you for advice or somebody finds out that you're a clinician.
And then they're like, oh, my uncle has bipolar and this and that. And then they're just like, they expect you to just be a different human when they find out that you're a therapist, also people making assumptions about you. Oh, they're totally psychoanalyzing me right now. They're totally diagnosing me right now, or whatever.
So there are these weird, awkward things that come with the therapy ideas. And then there's other stuff like not being able to share much of what you do with your loved ones, right? Your spouse, your partner, your best friend, your mom, whoever is asking, like what'd you do today? You got a really crazy day or a really heavy day and you can't share that.
The other thing that happens is you can't share much of yourself inside of your work. Can we self-disclose with a therapeutic nature? Sure. Are we doing this more and more than it was 10, 15, 20 years ago? Absolutely. But it's not the same in online income where you can really go there and you can really be completely transparent.
Some of my students say it feels like just like taking a weight off where they can fully show up to their work and be fully themselves. The other thing that's amazing about online income is that it sometimes gets some flack for, but I see as the biggest benefit is that it isn't regulated, right? The therapy industry is heavily regulated, they tell you how you have to act in order to help others.
So I think the biggest value that comes when you're thinking about branching beyond the therapy room is crafting a new identity for yourself that leans into this new calling. Instead of being told how you work and how you function and the evidence-based this and the evidence-based that do I think those are great things I do, but sometimes you want to explore your method.
You want to explore what something means to you and there's potential for that in online. Crafting this new identity. It's the idea of making a living. It still helps others. It's still helpful. It's still impactful, but it's on your own terms. You're no longer answering to somebody else's rules. You are making your own rules.
Any of these growth points may be most important to you, right? Some people are interested in online income because of the money potential. There's no shame in that. That's absolutely why I started. Others are interested in the impact potential, that scalable impact, that is no longer reliant on your time to make a difference.
And I feel like this is where I'm starting to show. And then the other thing is that personal and that lifestyle change. The time freedom, the location freedom, the things we talk about over and over again on this show, those are, that's another layer of motivation. That's another layer of reason to make this shift and to make this change.
What a side hustle gives you is the ability to decide for yourself what is the most important to you and what you want your career and your lifestyle to look like. There's no longer a board or a body regulating what you can do or telling you what's possible. It's up to you.
If you're ready for that type of growth that happens when you step beyond the therapy room when you really reclaim your sense of autonomy and you lean into this yearning, this calling to do something new and different and something else, this is what side hustle is here for.
I would love for you to join us inside of Side Hustle Support Group because it is the nine-month mentorship that is going to take you from idea to income, and it's going to help you launch this autonomous online business.
Now this online business can certainly be supplemental to the therapy work you're already doing, or it can be this shift, this evolution, this transition that you may be looking for. Either way, Side Hustle can support you.
Now is your time. If this is speaking to you, get your booty in here. Here's where you head over to apply. Just head on over to marissalawton.com/side-hustle to apply that kicks everything off and then we'll have a conversation if it feels like the right fit for you.
So I cannot wait to welcome you into the program that is going to help you make this show. Alright guys, I will be back next week and until then, keep on rising.
