If the thought of "selling" in any way makes you a bit squirmy, you are SO not alone.

Most therapists and helping professionals were never taught how to have a sales conversation of any kind. And in fact, if you're anything like many of my clients, you associate selling with pressure, persuasion, or the whole "used-car sales" kind of energy.

But y'all - if you own a private practice, sales conversations are part of the job. The good news is: it doesn't have to be something you hate. Not at all.

In this episode, I'm showing you how selling can actually be an act of service instead.

In fact - I'll give you six simple steps for having an aligned sales conversation with clarity, integrity, and confidence.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to tell when you’re showing up with defensive or apologetic energy, and how that hurts the process.
• Why your job is to determine whether or not you can genuinely help - not to convince someone to hire you. (In fact - that's the wrong kind of energy completely.)
• Six steps to an aligned sales conversation that are easy to understand, easy to implement, and easy to feel good about.
• Why releasing the outcome may be the most important step of all.

The most important thing you'll hear today?? Why respecting someone else's financial reality does not mean taking responsibility for it.

You owe it to yourself (and your clients) to learn how to sell from a place of service rather than sacrifice... so you can build a financially healthy practice that takes good care of your clients and takes good care of you. 🥰

And hey - if you'd like to get a sense of where your practice needs the most attention right now, I have a gift you can use! Take the free IP360 Scorecard for a quick look at all Seven Pillars of an Ideal Practice™ - what's working, what isn't, and where to focus next.

Wonder if it might be... um... sales? ;)

~Wendy

P.S. The next time someone asks what you charge, notice what happens inside you. Defensive? Apologetic? Or grounded enough to explain, invite - and release? 🫣🙌😘

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MENTIONED

The IP360 Scorecard — https://www.wendypittsreeves.com/360

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LET’s CONNECT:

• Quick Start Consult: If you’re ready to get out of your own way, this 1:1 coaching work session could make all the difference. Learn more here:
  https://www.wendypittsreeves.com/consult
• Want to be a Guest on Ideal Practice™? Submit your application here: https://www.wendypittsreeves.com/guest-application
• Follow me on Facebook or Linked In.

Support the show

Wendy Pitts Reeves, LCSW
Host, Ideal Practice
Private Practice Coach and Mentor

www.WendyPittsReeves.com
Wendy@WendyPittsReeves.com

Who gets to call the shots in your private practice?

Because whether you realize it or not, there are plenty of outside forces that would be happy to answer that question for you. 🤨

In this week's wide-ranging conversation, I sat down with Kelly Higdon of ZynnyMe to talk about what’s changing in our profession – from insurance companies and venture-backed platforms to AI, certification culture, and more.

But underneath all of that was a much bigger question:

How do you hold on to your own authority as the CEO of your business in the middle of so much increasing pressure to conform?

That's what I want to explore today.

In this episode, you’ll hear…

→ Why some of the newest trends in private practice look an awful lot like the managed care playbook of the 1990s, and what that means for us as practice owners. Ugh.

→ How stepping outside the usual rules can open the door to more creative, effective – and sustainable – ways of serving your clients. (You know I loved that part!)

→ Why Kelly sometimes puts coaching clients on a “certification diet.” Made me laugh!! 😉

→ What your mind, heart, body, and spirit can tell you about the decisions you’re making in your business. #truth

→ And why human connection may matter more than ever in a world increasingly shaped by AI.

And - oh my gosh - this is soooo important. Kelly and I will also explore what happens when you stop looking outside yourself for permission (!) and start trusting what you already know.

Why? Because that's how you build a practice that serves your clients well, supports you well, and lets you run YOUR practice YOUR way.

That's what I want for you, my friend. xoxo

Join us.

~Wendy

P.S. If this conversation has you thinking about what you really want your practice to look like – and where you may have handed over more authority than you realized – let's talk.

A Quick Start Consult is 90 minutes devoted entirely to you, your practice, and whatever is getting in your way. We'll sort through what's working, what's not, and what needs to happen next so you can move forward with more clarity and confidence.

Schedule your Quick Start Consult here → https://www.wendypittsreeves.com/consult

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TODAY’S GUEST

Kelly Higdon, LMFT thinks the conversation therapists avoid most is the one about whether therapy is working. As co-founder of ZynnyMe and co-creator of Business School for Therapists, they have spent twenty years teaching clinicians to measure outcomes, talk about them honestly with clients, and build practices that hold up financially because of it. Kelly co-authored Therapist Burnout and Beyond the Hour, co-hosts Starting a Private Practice, and has reached more than 100,000 clinicians worldwide. They believe private practice is one of the solutions to access, and that therapists being the worst-paid master's degree is a fixable problem, not a fact of life.

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MENTIONED

• ZynnyMe — Kelly and Miranda Palmer’s private practice training and resources. Visit their website here → https://www.zynnyme.com/

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LET’S CONNECT:

• Quick Start Consult: If you’re ready to get out of your own way, this 1:1 coaching work session could make all the difference. Learn more here → https://www.wendypittsreeves.com/consult
• Want to be a Guest on Ideal Practice™? Submit your application here → https://www.wendypittsreeves.com/guest-application

Support the show

Wendy Pitts Reeves, LCSW
Host, Ideal Practice
Private Practice Coach and Mentor

www.WendyPittsReeves.com
Wendy@WendyPittsReeves.com

What if the skills and knowledge you already have could become the foundation for an entirely different kind of business? 💡

That’s exactly what happened for my guest today, Dr. Jason Troyer. Jason is a counseling psychologist who spent nearly 15 years as a college professor before an unexpected opportunity introduced him to the death care industry – and eventually led him to leave a tenured position and become a full-time entrepreneur.

What I love about Jason’s story is that none of this started with some grand business plan. He followed his curiosity, paid attention to what people needed, experimented with different ideas, and learned how to turn what he knew into services people were willing to pay for.

Seriously. This is a GREAT story.

Along the way, he discovered that you don’t have to be the world’s leading expert, create something bigger and better…

…or even stay inside the professional lane you were trained for. 😎

So in this episode, you’ll hear:

• How Jason went from psychology professor to full-time entrepreneur (and the $3,000 mistake he made along the way.)
• Why combining two areas of expertise can help you create a niche that is uniquely your own.
• What happened when a potential client told Jason, “I’d pay you double if you’d just do it for me.” 😱
• Why smaller, simpler and more specific can be way more valuable than bigger, better and “perfect.”
• How speaking helped Jason build relationships, establish credibility and grow his business across the country. (And managed to get paid at the same time!)

And perhaps most importantly, you’ll hear why Jason believes it all starts with empathy: simply understanding what people actually need, then finding a way to give it to them.

That’s something we as healers already know how to do. Right? ❤️

So if you’ve ever wondered what else you could do with everything you know – or how you could make more money without simply adding more clients to your caseload – this one should get your wheels turning.

What would happen if you followed your curiosity?

~Wendy

P.S. Listen all the way to the end, because I came back to share the three ideas from our conversation that I’m still thinking about, and one of them gave me something to work on. 😉

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TODAY’S GUEST

Dr. Jason Troyer is a counseling psychologist, author, speaker, and entrepreneur who built a profitable business without maintaining a therapy caseload. He helps funeral homes, cemeteries, and other organizations better serve grieving families through recurring services, educational booklets, workshops, and scalable grief-support resources. After nearly 15 years as a psychology professor, Jason left his tenured position when his business outgrew his academic career. His work shows how helping professionals can turn specialized expertise into ethical, practical, and sustainable income.

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LET’s CONNECT:

• Quick Start Consult: If you’re ready to get out of your own way, this 1:1 coaching work session could make all the difference. Learn more here:
  https://www.wendypittsreeves.com/consult
• Want to be a Guest on Ideal PracticeTM? Submit your application here: https://www.wendypittsreeves.com/guest-application
• Follow me on Facebook or LinkedIn.

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FREE RESOURCE

If you’re looking for even more creative ways to boost your income, check this out. Every single one of these are steps I’ve successfully used in my own practice!

31 Practical Ways to Increase Cash Flow In Your Private Practice (Without Becoming Salesy, Sleasy or Someone You Don't Even Like): https://www.wendypittsreeves.com/cashflow

Support the show

Wendy Pitts Reeves, LCSW
Host, Ideal Practice
Private Practice Coach and Mentor

www.WendyPittsReeves.com
Wendy@WendyPittsReeves.com

When I began my career as a young therapist, I thought there was a right way to do therapy. Assess. Make a plan. Follow the plan. Know what you’re doing.

Almost four decades later? I no longer think that way.

In this deeply personal solo episode, I’m sharing some of what all those years (and more than a few mistakes) have taught me about doing healing work well.

Experience hasn’t taught me that I’m to always know the answer. It’s taught me how to trust myself, how to pay attention, and how to discern what comes next.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why real presence requires a deep trust in yourself — not just your client’s trust in you.
• One painful early-career mistake that taught me a powerful clinical lesson about the purpose of a symptom - a lesson I’ve never forgotten.
• What I’ve learned about the role of silence, the importance of patience, and why our clients set the pace, not us.
• Why authority and humility belong together — and what happens when I can work from both of those places at once.
• What I mean when I say the most important thing I bring into the room is My Whole Self.

More than anything, my hope is that you’ll come away from this episode learning to trust your own experience even more, that you’ll listen to your intuition and own your perfectly imperfect humanity while continuing to grow in the skill of this work.

So good!

I’d love to know what resonates for you. What has experience taught you about doing your work well? Shoot me an email and tell me. I’d really love to hear your story.

~Wendy

P.S. Has this episode brought another therapist, coach or healer to mind? Help them out. Send it their way…. They may thank you later.

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MENTIONED

Episode 209: The Power of Inner Silence: Why Your Presence Matters More Than Your Method with Lex Santi’

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LET’s CONNECT!:

• Quick Start Consult: If you’re ready to get out of your own way, this 1:1 coaching work session could make all the difference. Learn more here.
• Want to be a Guest on Ideal PracticeTM? Submit your request here.
• Follow me on Facebook or Linked In.

Support the show

Wendy Pitts Reeves, LCSW
Host, Ideal Practice
Private Practice Coach and Mentor

www.WendyPittsReeves.com
Wendy@WendyPittsReeves.com

What does it really mean to be fully present with your clients?

As healers, we spend a LOT of time mastering techniques and promising new methods, pursuing certifications and figuring out new ways to help people feel better.

And all of that matters.

But there’s something even more foundational underneath all of that, something we can easily lose sight of: our ability to slow down, quiet our own minds and really see the human being sitting in front of us.

My guest today is psychotherapist, writer and fellow LCSW Lex Santí. Lex is developing a new psychometric framework called AMI—Acceptance Motivation Inquiry—designed to help clinicians better understand a client’s motivation for therapy and their relationship to the problem they’re facing.

But our conversation became about something bigger than the framework itself.

In this episode, you’ll hear…

1. Why moving too quickly – and assuming you already understand what’s happening – can cause real harm. (Speaking from experience…)
2. What Lex calls “inner silence,” and how your relationship with yourself can impact your ability to be truly present with anyone else.
3. How understanding and tracking AMI’s four categories (Seekers, Survivors, Skeptics and Stoics) can help us think differently about the people sitting across from us.
4. Why meeting clients where they actually are matters way more than getting them where we think they should be.

We explored the seduction of methodology, the surprising problem with our “best” clients, what AI can (and cannot!) replicate about human connection, and the extraordinary courage it sometimes takes just to walk through your door.

There is nothing quite like being fully seen by another human being.

And as our tools get faster, smarter and more sophisticated, I believe our ability to offer that kind of presence is going to matter more than ever.

So listen to this one with your clinician hat on.

And the next time you sit down with a client, see what happens when you quiet your own mind, stay curious…and let them show you who they really are.

~Wendy

P.S. I’d love to know what this brings up for you. How does presence show up in your work? Drop me a note at Wendy@WendyPittsReeves.com and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.

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TODAY’S GUEST

Lex E. Santí, LCSW, is a psychotherapist, novelist, and founder of A Key Therapy in New York state. He has been in private practice since the early days of COVID-19, helping adults navigate anxiety, life transitions, relationships, and questions of meaning through mindfulness, narrative therapy, and Acceptance & Motivation Inquiry (AMI), a framework he developed to support lasting change. He is the author of multiple published books, including a novel, and previously worked as a therapist at Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca and Cornell University. Lex is currently pursuing his Doctor of Social Work (DSW) at the University of Kentucky.

Learn more:
A Key Therapy: https://www.akeytherapy.co/
Lex Santí: https://www.lexenricosanti.com/

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MENTIONED

• AMI — Acceptance Motivation Inquiry (New protocol being developed by our guest.)
• AAIT — Acceptance and Integration Training / Melanie McGhee
• Motivational Interviewing
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

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LET’s CONNECT:

• Quick Start Consult: If you’re ready to get out of your own way, this 1:1 coaching work session could make all the difference. Learn more here.
• Want to be a Guest on Ideal PracticeTM? Submit your application here.
• Follow me on Facebook or Linked In.

Support the show

Wendy Pitts Reeves, LCSW
Host, Ideal Practice
Private Practice Coach and Mentor

www.WendyPittsReeves.com
Wendy@WendyPittsReeves.com

What could happen if you stopped waiting for permission?

Permission to want something more…

Permission to try something brave…

Permission to go after that crazy idea that's been calling you forward for so long — even though you have no freaking idea how to make it happen. 😬

That's where we're going this week.

Last spring, I was invited by Emma Lagerlow, host of the Australian podcast It's a Mindset, to be a guest on her show — and our conversation went somewhere I don't often go, here on Ideal Practice.

So I asked if I could share it with you all, too. :)

We had a beautiful conversation about courage and confidence, self-worth and intuition, money and adventure — and I shared quite a few of the experiences that have shaped who I am and how I approach my work.

I also walked her through the seven-step Courage to Confidence Success Cycle — a process I first began to recognize decades ago in my own life, and one I've used over and over again anytime I've set out to do something big, scary or (seemingly) impossible.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why I believe you are already far more courageous than you think.✨
• The seven steps I’ve used repeatedly to move from big dreams to big action.
• Why figuring out the HOW is almost never the real problem. 🔥
• What self-worth has to do with the life and business you're willing to create. ⬅️
• Why sometimes the most important thing you can do is simply give yourself permission to try. 💛

We’ll also wander through Switzerland, the Appalachian Trail, hang gliding, kayaking, violin lessons, money, marketing and a few other adventures along the way. Because apparently that's what happens when someone else gets to ask me the questions. 😂

But underneath all of it is something I believe deeply:

Life is meant to be lived. Fully. Wholeheartedly.

You don't have to know exactly how you're going to get there. You don't have to be fearless. And you certainly don't have to wait until you feel confident.

You just have to give yourself permission to begin.

Enjoy. :)

~Wendy

P.S. Emma originally shared this conversation as Episode 92 of It's a Mindset. I'll also link her earlier appearance here on Ideal PracticeTM, Episode 188, in the resources below.

• It's a Mindset Podcast / Episode 92
• Ideal Practice / Episode 188

• Need a Quick Start Consult? If you're ready to get out of your own way and could use some focused support figuring out what's next, this 1:1 coaching work session could make all the difference. Learn more here. << Add LINK www.wendypittsreeves.com/consult
  
  
• Want to be a Guest on Ideal Practice™? If you have a clear message, an engaging style, and a heart for healers, let's meet! www.wendypittsreeves.com/guest-application

Support the show

Wendy Pitts Reeves, LCSW
Host, Ideal Practice
Private Practice Coach and Mentor

www.WendyPittsReeves.com
Wendy@WendyPittsReeves.com