Planning, Prioritizing, and Protecting Your Private Practice

Camille McDaniel (00:13.228)
Welcome to another episode of the Christ in Private Practice podcast. And I’m glad to also welcome anyone who is new, new listeners. This is your first time joining us. Welcome, welcome. You know, I was looking at some old blog posts that I had written about business and marketing and the journey and just a lot of things that.

They’re not published right now or not easily accessible right now, but I was reflecting on it and it came across one that I thought, man, this just never gets old. It’s applicable no matter where you at in your practice. I was actually in that blog post reflecting on being a mom for the very first time and things that occur as you are adjusting to parenthood that also apply.

to your practice. And it’s funny, it doesn’t really matter honestly if your practice is brand new or if you have been running your practice for quite some time, like I have been and many people are in between brand new and long time, right? And I thought, you know, along the way we have ebbs and flows. Sometimes we feel like we are rocking it. We have…

We have everything together. We know what we’re doing. We know why we’re doing it. And sometimes we are just trying to survive, just trying to keep our head above water. And we don’t honestly know if it’s going to work out. We don’t have a real plan and we’re not sure how to put it all together. And we’re not sure if there’s anyone else in the boat with us, but just know that as business owners, we definitely have periods

in our businesses where we have to reflect and we have to reassess and we may have to pivot and there are some ups, downs and rounds and rounds. And so in this episode, I would like to kind of go back to taking a look in a new way at that blog post and kind of talking about it so that we can plan and prioritize and protect.

Camille McDaniel (02:36.94)
the private practices that we are running today. And so as we get started with that, remember the first thing that I mentioned was a plan for the day keeps insanity at bay. And that is very true. So if you have anyone in your life that depends on you and you’ve ever just decided that you were gonna wing it,

for that day or a couple of days or, oh my goodness, a week. don’t know how your overall mental health is doing if you were winging it for a week, but you know what? We all are in different seasons. And so, Chuck, some of us might be like, a week? What are you talking about? I’ve been winging it for months. But a plan for the day keeps insanity at bay. And what we wanna do is we wanna really start to slow ourselves down and really think about

What are we doing with this business and why? Just what? What are we doing? What do we hope to do in this season? Because if you’ve ever been in a situation where you just wing it and you just throw things out there and see what sticks, sometimes things work out great. And sometimes things feel real reckless and out of order.

and they don’t work out great and you are frazzled and you just don’t know what to do. You’re spinning, but you kind of can’t stop because it’s a whole business and it works, you know, working with people. You can’t just say I’m not doing it anymore. All right, that was, that was an attempt and we’re done. You know, even that is a process when you talk about trying to bring a business to a close that serves people. So if we talk about

planning in private practice that is going to go back to Who am I supposed to serve and why and? Then you’re going to ask yourself after you get the who out there You’re going to ask yourself and what services am I gonna offer am I gonna work with children? Why do I feel led to work with children were versus working with adults or versus working with couples?

Camille McDaniel (05:02.946)
You know, give yourself real answers so that you make it make sense. Is that what you were called to do? You know, is that where you feel the Lord is leading you to use your gifts and talents? Why? Why are you doing it? And then how are you going to offer services? Is this going to be one-on-one? Is this going to be group? Are these going to be workshops for the parents? And that’s the way that you want to help.

the children by empowering their guardians. Don’t add too many things to your plate all at once. One step at a time. I know that we know this because we share this with other people, but do we apply this to ourselves is really the big question. And the truth of the matter is, is we don’t always. So if you have a pen, a tablet, a piece of paper, a laptop or whatever,

Just write down, who am I supposed to be serving? Why? And in what capacity should I be serving these identified groups of people? As you start to list it out, just, I mean, really, just free associate, just start listing anything that pops up in your head first. Then you’re going to go back and you’re going to see what is reasonable, what is realistic at this particular time in your practice life.

Everything is not realistic for right now. There are some great ideas for next quarter. There are some great ideas for next year. There are some great ideas for right now. And you want to slow yourself down because when you are building or going to the next level in business, you can easily want to just pile on everything and do all things. And you can frazzle yourself out that way because again,

unless you are operating with a full team of people where you can divvy out different projects and assign them for other people to start working on, then you really have to be very discerning about what is realistic for you to do right now, next quarter, next year. And if you put it into a nice plan, you will find that the likelihood of it running smoothly

Camille McDaniel (07:27.038)
Increases significantly because you work on one thing at a time and then you have an opportunity to look at the results What are the analytics if you’re doing things online? What are the actual results if you’re doing things like meeting with people in the community how to follow up? You know, you’re not just you’re not just trying to then run after all these different projects and feeling like you’re getting you’re doing a little bit of everything But nothing really well. Yeah

So when you’re starting a practice or, you know, if you’re opening a second practice, you want to make sure that you have a plan that you write down to prepare for your goal. And it can help a ton in relieving stress. Now, what’s the next thing that we want to take a look at? Well, the next thing that I wrote down as I was reflecting, writing this original piece, I reflected on how important it was to say no.

And yeah, and being a new parent and then eventually going into toddlerhood with your child, it is super important to know when to say no. to know that you have to understand that the word no can be just as wonderful as the word yes. And saying no to opportunities to people, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

And we don’t wanna interpret it as such. It’s not disappointing people. It’s not creating friction between people. It’s not in what you say. It honestly is how you present what you say and get comfortable with that. There is a wonderful gift in being able to just recognize when you need to decline on doing something.

At the time again, as I was kind of writing the blog, as I was reflecting, I remember I was writing something about, you imagine the chaos that would ensue if you were afraid to say no to a toddler? Can you imagine all the different things that could occur in a day? And I know I was reflecting on like how things get pulled down off the walls and people put their hands in.

Camille McDaniel (09:53.256)
dangerous places like electrical sockets if you don’t get to them and you know things that you’ve taken time to do like fold your laundry gets thrown all around the room because it seems fun to like jump on a bed of freshly folded laundry, you know and People randomly get called on your cell phone and you know, just a lot of different things I was just recalling when you when you don’t put some firm boundaries and recognize when no

is what needs to be said for the benefit of yourself and the benefit of the other individual. And how that translates in private practice essentially is that you can ultimately hurt your own personal health. You can hurt relationships with other people and you can hurt your business and the growth of your business or the sustainability of your business. If you say yes,

when you really should be saying no. And it really doesn’t matter if what’s being presented to you is a wonderful idea. It doesn’t matter how awesome the person is that’s talking to you or asking you about something or how much you would like to start this new venture. I have a lot of ideas that come into my mind. And I’ve had times where others have

proposed ideas to me and I just love getting started. Like there’s like an adrenaline rush about getting something new started. But you have to remember that after that spark kind of slightly fades, for some people it may not fade totally. You may stay super excited about whatever it is, but there’s a lot of work that goes behind every yes when you’re talking about business ventures, collaboration.

you know, starting something new, you have to see, you realistically have capacity for it? And so you can easily get to a place if you practice, and some people don’t have a problem with this, but many people do have a problem just saying, I love that idea, or I’m so honored that you would even reach out to me, but I just do not have capacity, unfortunately, to take that on right now.

Camille McDaniel (12:17.25)
But if there is any possibility, side note, especially if you really are excited about this opportunity, but if there’s any possibility that you might be doing this in the next six months or six months from now, or if there’s any possibility that you might be doing this in 2026, I would love to be a part of it. But if not, just keep me in mind for anything else that might come up.

That’s honest, right? That honesty can build relationships. That honesty can protect your health. That level of honesty can protect your business growth, okay? So we definitely, want to practice speaking the truth and speaking it in love or speaking it in kindness, but speak the truth of what you are able to do in this moment.

It’s okay to decline. You won’t actually miss anything that was supposed to be for you. If it is supposed to be for you, you will understand that the timing will come together a little bit better. Sometimes there are things that are for you and maybe it does still have a bit of tension attached to it, but it should not be so chaotic. Rob you of your health, rob you of your mental peace.

almost devastate your entire business model. No, that sounds like something then that you probably are doing in your own strength versus something that you are doing within the Lord’s strength. Because while he doesn’t always make things a bed of roses for us to walk on, you know, but, but devastation of our health, devastation of our business, devastation of our

connections with our family. You’re gonna wanna pray on that one. You’re gonna wanna just double check that he would really give you something that would devastate the very things that he gave you as gifts and talents like your life before you jump into that. So let’s practice, let’s speaking the truth. And if the truth is you can’t, well, then you can’t.

Camille McDaniel (14:44.792)
And that’s all right, because you can end up accomplishing a lot of things if you learn and discern what things are not right for you at this particular season, at this particular time. Yeah.

And the next thing that I was recalling that I wanted to share was that long days and long nights happen and they are going to happen. It’s a part of the journey. And instead of us trying to have such a strong boundary that we say we’re never going to overextend ourselves. We’re never going to, you know, work beyond what we want to work. We’re never going to, you know, all the nevers, right? We don’t want to say that.

But what we do want to do is put a limit on it. You sometimes we do overextend ourselves. Sometimes we feel that something is important enough to overextend, but we’re not gonna overextend ourselves as a constant practice. Well, because our body is not gonna be able to sustain that. So we don’t wanna do things that go against the natural.

formation of how our body functions and now our body needs to run because it was formed a certain way. But we just know that sometimes long days happen, sometimes long nights happen. And sometimes we will have to put in that work, but we wanna be able to be clear with ourselves. How far does it need to go? Again, before it starts devastating relationships, devastating health, and ultimately,

If we don’t have health, our business doesn’t have health more than likely unless you have a business that fully is operational when you’re not there. But if your business is not fully operational when you’re not there, then your health is very important for the health of your business. And even if your business is fully operational when you are not present, and we probably could talk about how to.

Camille McDaniel (16:58.496)
get to that place, but not for this episode. But if that is the case, then your not being well still impacts your practice because when you’re not well, you don’t have the ability to make sure that your practice is running in a way that actually suits your brand and how you want to be known in this world. So just because it’s functioning without you doesn’t mean it’s functioning

in a way that aligns with your vision and your mission. And you do need to have your health and wellness in order to ensure that it’s still running along the right path. So then you wanna take a look at, okay, what am I going to do with this? What am I going to say is okay as far as overextending myself? Does that look like, you know what? I can work too late night. Some,

portion of my business is pivoting or some portion of my business is still trying to grow. And yeah, I can put in some long days, but I, if I think about it, like, know, and you want to go back to your own mind and body and family responsibilities and, all of the other things that you might be responsible to. And, and you want to say, you know what, if I’m really honest with myself, I could probably, I could, yeah, I could probably push myself a good two days a week.

and be all right. Well, okay. Well, if that’s the case for you, then if you are in a place in your business where that’s necessary, go ahead and do it. That’s the cap. Can’t go any further than that because if it goes further, it will start to deteriorate your health. I know that I’ve gotten to a place in my life where I am now an early riser. That really actually just, for me,

that happened when I became a mom. Like I just started, my body started shifting and I became an early riser. And so I am not able to push myself beyond when I get tired late at night, cause I’m, I’m up early. So for me, and I may have probably mentioned this before, but you know, around eight 30, nine o’clock, I start getting really tired. And so,

Camille McDaniel (19:18.51)
And so I know I have limited amount of time to push my body. So If I’ve been up really early, especially then if ten o’clock hits me I am loopy now I can actually if I have something that has to be done I’m working on something or something’s going on. I can probably you know push myself I can I can overextend maybe once or twice and Really that’s about it. And so so I am just really discerning about like what I take on

because it has led in past years to then health challenges that popped up because I was pushing myself beyond what I needed to. I didn’t have a boundary that protected my health. And I remember I was like, one and done for me. had to go to the doctor. I was okay. Thankfully I was fine. But I am a person who does not like learning hard lessons.

And so I was just like, nope. All right. When I am tired, I am going to have to rest and I am going to have to really, unless it’s going to cause everything around me to burn down literally. Then I’m like, Lord, you see the effort I have put in today. I really have done as much as I could do. I tried to plan things out. I really tried to be diligent and now I’m resting anything else father I hand over to you. And, and then I let it go. Cause at some point,

for myself and I’m sure others can resonate with this, I have to learn to take my hands off the wheel. If I want the Lord to really be my pilot, then I have to also not teeter into the realm of if I don’t have my hands on it, it’s all going to deteriorate. If I don’t continue to push myself, it’s all going to fall through. If I make such statements in my mind that are just so concrete,

Where does the Lord fit in? I mean, what part is he doing? If everything’s gonna blow up, if you take your hands off of it, or if everything is gonna crumble when you actually allow yourself to go to sleep, then what exactly is he doing in your business? Does he have a space really? And so then you wanna make adjustments so that you allow him to really cover your business. You do the best you can. You push where you need to push. You plan where you need to plan. You say no when you need to say no.

Camille McDaniel (21:42.186)
and you lay it in his hands when you have reached your capacity so that you can take care of yourself overall. So then when we look at these things, when we kind of think about it, these are things that transfer, these are transferable skills essentially to other areas of our life. And we can practice this with regards to business and we can practice it regards to family or friendships.

many other areas of our life. But we want to be able to think about these things that I’m talking about and see if you can implement them. You know, this is an opportune time whenever we get to this point in the year. It’s a great time to be thinking about planning and prioritizing and taking just a moment, one step at a time, one thing at a time, in order to protect ourselves and protect our businesses and the future of both.

So with that, I know that we are going to come to an end with our time together today, but this gives you something to think about and implement and absolutely share with me what your thoughts are. If you have made it to the end of this podcast, then wonderful. Thank you so much for being with me for the full journey. Know that I have put out there in our groups and on our newsletter.

that we do have an event coming this year. We, good news, got some approval for continuing education from the Canadian Psychological Association and just kind of holding tight on the, for NBC, actually it’s the Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association, so CCPA. But we are holding tight.

to see about the final answer from NBCC on their approval. So we will share, I will share updates with you about how everything is going and you will definitely have opportunity to join us later on in the year, but just wanted to let you know. So until next time, let’s put that plan into place one step at a time.

Camille McDaniel (24:06.806)
making sure that we do all things right and in order so that we can see great growth in our gifts and talents as we put them out into the world to help people heal from the challenges that they are experiencing. Until next time, bye-bye.