My Transition from Therapist to Coach [Ep 7]

Welcome to the thriving therapeutic podcast, where we explore inspiring stories of transformation and growth for therapist. I'm your host, Carly Hill. And today I'm excited to share my own journey from a small town girl with big dreams to a thriving business coach, helping therapists achieve their dreams.

Let's dive in. Where do I begin? So I grew up in a small town outside of Orlando, Florida, born and raised Florida girl. And from a very young age, I was surrounded by a loving family. I had a great childhood, community oriented environment. My parents instilled in me the value of helping others. I was always volunteering.

Uh, I remember being a Girl Scout and singing in rest homes and bringing meals to people in need, bringing the homeless blankets. It was that type of vibe. And I always dreamed of being a teacher. When I went to college, that was actually my major was early childhood education. I remember as a child, I would always.

Set up all my stuffed animals in my room and teach them God knows what from my whiteboard. I loved kids as well. I probably started babysitting much sooner than I should have knowing I was just a kid myself, but it was the young entrepreneur in me where I would make babysitting business cards and go put them in mailboxes.

I was always. Inspired and intrigued by children and teaching them. And I think a bit of me just love to be in charge if I'm going to be honest. And I felt this deeper calling when I was in college to do more than just. Teach and teach ABCs because I, I wanted to work with younger kids, right? I, I wanted to make a deeper impact in these children's life.

My mom was always a social worker, so I was influenced by her career as well. And this led me to ultimately pursue a degree. In social work, I always joke about when I went and saw my career counselor and we were going over the different options that I could take. And she told me I didn't have to take math when I did social work and I was like, sign me up.

Uh, I was one of those girls that was in like the liberal arts math where you do like X plus Y equals X, Y. So that was amazing for me to not have to take math. And. I'll tell you. I started soaring when I changed my major to social work. I was never the super academic girl. I think I thrived more socially than I did academically.

But when I changed my major to social work, I got straight A's all throughout my undergrad and grad. I was so in My zone of genius. And so went on to become a therapist. My first job as a therapist outside of college was at a community mental health agency. Anybody who's been in community mental health can probably guess how that experience was.

I was so passionate about helping my clients, but the reality was, it was really overwhelming. I had a heavy caseload. It was very low pay. I was getting 18 an hour and I had a master's degree. Also, you're labeled as an intern here in Florida when, you know, you're either an intern or you're an associate when you graduate with your master's degree.

And I feel like it's such an insult, right? So you're, you're almost like you're still in school. It was just constant burnout. And I did that for two years. I knew that something had to change. I was getting free supervision. So we're also taught that. And so that's what I was doing. I was kind of just really chugging through.

I knew that this was not the end game for me, but I also really didn't see too many other opportunities for me until my supervisor at the time, Tina, She had moved on to a brain performance center, and I had been craving that job. I was like, Tina, you have to take me with you. It was a 9 to 5 brick and mortar job.

It was doing QEEGs, brain scans, neurofeedback, biofeedback. In addition to traditional therapy, I was always so fascinated in the neurological side of things. I would read books at the time how the brain waves worked. It was my dream job. And so I waited and I waited until I got that job. I think I actually interviewed maybe like 7 to 9 months before I landed the job.

That's how bad I wanted it. And it was such a breath of fresh air when I landed it. I could park my car. I could actually eat my lunch at this long oval table with my team members. I didn't have to drive all over the county. It was close to my home. I was getting paid more, although I was still only making about 50 grand at the time, and I was licensed.

Now, so I was at community mental health for two years, stayed there free supervision, passed my tests, got licensed, knew I needed to move up, wanted this dream job, but was still only making 50, 000 as a licensed clinical social worker and financial and professional satisfaction. I was still chasing after it.

I loved my job. It was so cool, but again, longterm. It was not sustainable to continue in this way. So I had this realization that I always wanted to start my private practice. It was my, my end goal. And I would stare out the window and I would think about all of the different things that I could be doing.

I was like, wow, I could be at the gym right now. I could be doing returns. I could be folding my laundry. I could have been so much more productive with my time. I think this. Innate entrepreneurship was always within me, but my mindset was really holding me back. I was telling myself the story of, it's going to be too hard.

I'm just a social worker. I'm not a business woman. I don't know anything about starting a business. And it was overwhelming. I couldn't see the step by step plan. And so I settled. And I don't think I would have settled for forever, but I wasn't fully satisfied. I knew I wanted to do something else, but I almost felt paralyzed that I couldn't make the moves.

The pandemic brought an unexpected twist and we were all laid off. So I was faced with a choice between finding another job or starting my own private practice. And I remember this decision, like it was yesterday. I was sitting at the dining room table. I was staring at my computer and I was like, okay, what do I do?

It was scary, but I took the leap. I chose to start my own private practice and it turned out to be the best decision I ever made. But like I said, it was scary. I mean, there were so many unknowns. I really, really, really had to lean into all of the tools I had from being a therapist to launch myself into this entrepreneurial journey of starting a business, starting from scratch.

You all know that we don't learn shit about shit in school when it comes to business, which is a whole other topic in itself. I digress. I mean, I remember crying in my backyard. I did a solo yoga session and just tears were dripping down, releasing this fear of the unknown. It was a journey, a self discovery of immense learning.

I invested in business coaching and it helped me to a certain extent, but I felt like I was kind of fed some false promises and I was really after strategy, strategy, strategy. I was doing a lot of the mindset work myself. And some of these business coaches kept just feeding me mindset and not the strategy.

And I found myself kind of piecing things together and it took off. I had a very successful. private practice. I was well known in my community. I had a couple go to people that really filled my caseload, quite frankly. But there was still this marketing mystery. I was using neurolinguistic programming, subconscious healing, hypnosis, and I was starting to incorporate some of my energy healing as well.

I'm a Reiki master and I was getting clients really fast results, which was great for them, but bad for business. So although I was full and I was I was constantly getting calls. I also constantly needed new clients. And that's where I was intrigued by this marketing mystery. I'm like, well, how do I constantly get new clients?

I was also studying the online industry at the time. And I was like, how are, how is everybody else doing this? And I started seeing all these coaches online and I was like, how, what do they know that How are they so successful? They didn't even go to school for this. I think I was a little bit envious or jealous, if you will, but I was also very curious.

I mean, I was rolling my eyes, but I was studying them at the same time. And I was studying their success in neurolinguistic programming. That's what we do. We study successful people. So that kind of came naturally to me. And when I studied the online industry, studied these coaches, studied really the difference in the definition of therapy and coaching.

That's when I had this big aha moment that I was actually coaching the whole entire time in my quote unquote therapy practice. And that may seem like a silly realization that maybe I should have known as. I was a therapist, but nobody really teaches us the difference between therapy and coaching. I think there's so many nuances and overlaps and being a therapist by trade who had a private practice.

I was doing therapy, but the reality was I was helping people with more situational non clinical less severe problems. Therefore, I was doing coaching, but I was limiting myself. To Florida, the state that I was licensed in, I had a very big desire to impact more lives because I was getting people such fast results and not in a cocky way.

Like I was almost in all of all of the new tools that I was using, especially as I started to incorporate NLP and hypnosis, how fast I was getting these clients results. And it was almost like this drug of like, wow, like this is so fulfilling. If just more people knew about me, I could transform their lives.

And that's where this burning, agonizing desire to impact more lives came, but I couldn't because I could only impact them. The lives of people in Florida. And so simultaneously, when I recognized that I was actually coaching, I could see clients worldwide and I learned the business model that most coaches were using to leverage their time, leverage technology, work smarter, not harder.

AKA creating courses, creating curriculum, creating digital products. I was on a mission to implement all of this in my own business, crack the code fully. It was never my desire to become a business coach and teach this to other therapists. I'm a teacher at heart. I always wanted to be a teacher, like I said earlier.

And so anything I do learn, I naturally teach just like when I started my private practice, I actually started helping all of my friends and colleagues. Start their own private practice too. And I, and I did that for a little while before I moved into. Helping therapists start and grow their coaching business.

I actually, even at a time was helping therapists learn hypnosis and NLP and incorporate that to help clients get faster results. So that's just something about me that anything I learn, I, I need to teach it. And that helps me actually integrate it on a much deeper level as well. But going back to my mission and cracking the code, I was studying like a mad woman to incorporate this in my own business.

And I did, and I started creating courses on Well, helping therapists. I had a course to help therapists start their private practice to help therapists incorporate hypnosis and NLP and get clients faster results on the client side. I was doing women empowerment coaching and I was charging 1750 a month per client.

And I had a package model where I would give them X amount of sessions. I would deliver X amount of recorded trainings on a topic that would benefit them. I was giving them a customized hypnosis recording, and I was charging the package model. I was doing coaching, and this is how I was leveraging my time.

I was creating courses on even, I had a course called woo world introductory to, you know, manifestation, spirituality, and incorporating that in your life and therapists and, and People started asking me, like, how, how are you doing this? And that's really when therapist to coach accelerator was born. It's an online course designed to help therapists transition into coaching.

This program has empowered over 300 therapists to achieve both professional success and personal freedom. As a person, I always craved. Freedom so much. I remember quitting jobs in college. So irresponsible of me. If they wouldn't give me time off because my friends, my family making memories was so much more important to me.

And, you know, of course I wouldn't never do that as I got older and really moved into my profession, but those were the days where I stared out the window and I thought about. How I could be utilizing my time better back in community mental health. I used to front load my clients and I would cram. This is so unhealthy of me.

And this is a one way ticket to burnout cram all 25, 30 of my sessions, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, just so I could have a longer weekend and have Thursday and Friday off. So this, and this freedom, This craving of freedom was always within me and, and you can probably relate to this too, and this is it. This was the way out to create success, to buy back your freedom, to have flexibility, to have security, to maybe pay back your loans, to save for retirement.

To most importantly, do the work that. You love to do that. You're meant to do. You got into the helping field to help people, but not at the cost of sacrificing your own life. So this was the ultimate win win for me in my own business. And it's the ultimate beautiful when, when win win. Ripple effect. that I can help so many therapists impact so many more lives with this business model that I teach.

Not only when you're adding coaching, you can impact lives worldwide, but you're not just doing it individually. You're tapping into a one to many model and you're working in a group where you can impact, or you have digital products where you can impact hundreds of lives at the same exact time.

Together, with this learning, with this business model, with this knowledge, with this inspiration, we can truly move mountains, change the dynamic of the mental health field. And it gives me chills just even thinking about it. I want to thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope my story inspires you to pursue your own dreams and find the balance that you deserve.

I am proof that this is possible. I am proof that you can make more money. My clients are proof that this is possible. And if you stay along long enough, you hang around long enough, you'll be proof that this is possible too. I So if you're a therapist, you're looking to transition into coaching. I would love to connect with you to help you on your journey.

I do not bite. I am very personal. I hang out in my DMS on Instagram at Carly Hill coaching. I'm inside the Facebook group and the therapist to coach accelerator Facebook group. I'm here for you. I'm here to support you. I'm always cheering you on and I want to let you know that. This is absolutely 1, 000 percent possible for you to be more than just a therapist, to be a coach, to be a consultant, to be a speaker, to be a podcaster, to be an author.

You can be all of the above and you can impact more lives than you ever thought you could. And you can achieve more freedom than you ever dreamed of. I'll see you in the next episode. Mhm.