WP186 | Is Now the Time to Build an Additional Stream of Income? | Podcast Takeover with Laura Long
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What if the next step in your practice isn’t more clients… but something completely new?
In this special Wise Practice podcast takeover, Laura Long joins the show to talk about multiple income streams for therapists, how to know when you’re ready to expand, and why “passive income” usually isn’t as passive as social media makes it sound.
From supervision and teaching to consulting, intensives, and online business ideas, Laura shares practical ways clinicians can grow without burning themselves out.
If you’ve been feeling pulled toward “something more,” this episode is for you.
Sometimes the Call to “More” Isn’t About Seeing More Clients
One of the reasons I was so excited to hand the podcast over to Laura Long for this episode is because she understands something so many practice owners quietly wrestle with. There comes a point where you start wondering if there’s something else you’re supposed to build. Not because you hate therapy. Not because you’re failing. Not because you’re completely burned out. But because there’s an idea that keeps showing up in the back of your mind.
Maybe it’s a workshop. A retreat. A support group. A course. Consulting. Intensives. Supervision. Writing a book. Creating something that reaches beyond the therapy room. A lot of therapists feel guilty even thinking about these things because we assume it means we’re no longer grateful for the practice we built. But honestly, sometimes it’s just growth. Sometimes it’s the next season God is leading you into, and Laura does such a beautiful job unpacking that throughout this episode.
“Passive Income” Usually Isn’t Passive
I appreciated Laura being really honest about this because social media has created so much pressure around the idea of passive income. Therapists are constantly seeing messaging that makes it sound like everyone else is effortlessly building courses, memberships, and side businesses while somehow working less and making more.
Y’all, that’s usually not how this works. Anything meaningful you build is going to require time, energy, creativity, and intentionality. Even if something eventually gives you more flexibility, there is still work involved in building it. Laura talks openly about the fact that alternative income streams are not about escaping work. They’re simply different kinds of work.
I think that honesty matters because so many practice owners already feel exhausted. The last thing we need is another message making us feel behind because we haven’t magically created six income streams overnight. Laura encourages listeners to approach these ideas from a place of curiosity and calling instead of desperation, and I think that distinction changes everything.
Not Every Opportunity Is Meant for You
One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that the goal is not to do everything. In fact, trying to do everything is probably one of the fastest ways to burn yourself out.
Some therapists love teaching. Some thrive in consultation spaces. Some are energized by creating intensives or support groups. Some want to write. Some want to partner with churches or organizations. And honestly, some people truly just want a steady private practice and more time with their family, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that either.
Laura encourages listeners to pay attention to what feels energizing versus what feels draining. She talks about noticing what keeps coming back to your mind even when you try to ignore it. I loved hearing her talk about how different seasons of life shape what we realistically have capacity for. What made sense in one season may not fit in another, and that doesn’t mean you failed. It just means your priorities and responsibilities shifted.
A Good Idea in the Wrong Season Can Still Lead to Burnout
This part of the episode really stood out to me because I see this happen with practice owners all the time. Sometimes we convince ourselves that starting something new is going to rescue us from burnout. But if we are already emotionally depleted, financially stressed, and stretched too thin, adding another responsibility often just multiplies the pressure.
Laura talks about recognizing the difference between healthy expansion and survival mode. That distinction is so important. There’s a difference between feeling creatively pulled toward something meaningful and feeling panicked about needing fast money. Those two mindsets create very different businesses.
I also appreciated how much grace she gave listeners during this part of the conversation. She reminded people that even if now is not the right season to fully build something, that doesn’t mean they have to ignore the idea completely. Sometimes the first step is simply journaling about it, researching it a little bit, or paying attention to what keeps resurfacing.
You Don’t Have to Have Everything Figured Out
One of my favorite parts of Laura’s story is how naturally everything unfolded for her over time. She didn’t sit down one day and create some giant master plan to build multiple income streams. She simply kept paying attention to where people were already coming to her for help and what opportunities kept opening up in front of her.
That’s such a good reminder for therapists because I think we often assume we need to know every step before we start anything. We overthink. We over-research. We wait until we feel completely qualified. Meanwhile, the people around us are already telling us what we’re naturally gifted at.
Laura talks about approaching new ideas with more curiosity and playfulness instead of fear. Honestly, I think that mindset shift alone could help so many therapists move forward. You do not have to know all 400 steps before taking the first one. You just have to be willing to explore what might be possible.
And sometimes that willingness to explore is exactly where something meaningful begins.
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: If you're a local private practice owner, your visibility in your specific community matters more than it ever has before. Local SEO is what helps your practice show up when someone searches for services like yours in your
[00:00:12] area, and it can make the difference between a full caseload and being overlooked.
[00:00:17] At Simplified SEO Consulting, they focus on helping practice owners dominate local search results through strategic optimization, content, and ongoing support. They understand how important it is to connect with clients in your community and to build strategies that support long-term growth. So for podcast listeners, they're offering 10% off local SEO services for the entire duration of your contract.
[00:00:41] So if you're ready to get more visible in your local area, you can head to simplifiedseoconsulting.com.
[00:00:50] Jingle: Hi, I'm Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice
[00:00:53] Whitney Owens: owner and faith-based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all. Want to grow your practice? Want to grow your faith? Want to enjoy your life outside of work? You've come to the right place. Each week on the Wise Practice Podcast, I will give you the action steps to have a successful faith-based practice while also having a good time.
[00:01:13] Now let's get started.
[00:01:17] Jingle: Where she grows your practice, and she don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast. Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:01:34] Whitney Owens: Welcome back to the Wise Practice Podcast. I am so glad that you are here, and in today's episode, we're doing something a little different: podcast takeover by one of our amazing Wise Practice consultants, the amazing, fabulous Laura Long.
[00:01:49] She is truly gifted when it comes to helping practice owners think beyond the therapy chair. So many of us have had that moment where we have felt like there's an idea. We can't quite shake it. We don't know what to do with it. We need some guidance on it, or do we even need to pursue it, right? So maybe it's a new offering.
[00:02:08] Maybe you want to create a program for clients, or you have a book you want to write, or you want to start a side business, and you're not really sure what to do with it. Maybe you want to create a retreat center. Maybe you want to do intensives consulting in your practice or intensive counseling for clients.
[00:02:24] So many different ideas as entrepreneurs, and we don't know which one to grab. We're trying to sense the Holy Spirit in the midst of it all, and we're scared and don't know what to do. So that is when we come in and help you take the next right step. This is where Laura Long shines. So in this episode, she's gonna walk you through how to discern ideas, discover steps moving forward, and how to actually turn those ideas into additional streams of income.
[00:02:54] But even more importantly- She's gonna ground this conversation in something deeper, in the spiritual direction as you understand how God is directing you in your practice. So because building something outside of the therapy room, it's not just about making more money, right? Even though that's nice. For us as faith-based practice owners, it's about something so much more than that.
[00:03:15] It's the passion that God has given us, something we feel called to, and something we feel led and we wanna give to the world. So I'm gonna go ahead and give you a little preview about this because I understand that feeling. I remember when I felt the call to do faith-based consulting for practice owners.
[00:03:36] That's actually in next week's episode. But I remember that experience of feeling called to something, not knowing what to do. I sat on it for a really long time, and then I finally moved on it, and look where we are now. So don't allow your ideas to just sit there. Not only can they serve the world, but they also might give you some revenue that you can use to help your family or to serve the church and do other good work in the world.
[00:04:01] So today, I'm excited for you to meet Laura, learn from her wisdom, and begin asking yourself, "Is now the time? Is now the time to do something different?" So this is episode 186, Is Now the Time to Build an Additional Stream of Income with Laura Long.
[00:04:24] Hello, friends. Welcome to the Wise Practice podcast. I am Laura Long. I am your host for today. Whitney so graciously let me do a podcast takeover, so I'm excited to get to talk to you today about multiple income streams. So today, I wanted to really lay the groundwork for those of you who have been in private practice for quite some time, and you're starting to maybe twiddle your thumbs a little bit, and you're wondering, "What's next for me?
[00:04:54] What is something that maybe I can do?" Whether it's directly related to the client work that you do, or it's slightly adjacent, or it's completely new and different. Maybe there's just something that's rattling around in your brain and you're wondering, "What do I do with this?" And so I hope that today's episode can give you some ideas of what those things might be if you're someone that's still not quite sure what are the different income streams that you might be able to bring into your practice.
[00:05:24] And I hope that I can give you some tangible tools and action steps so that when you're done with this episode, you can actually go out there and start taking some meaningful action on whatever idea that you might have. Uh, I think that this comes up for therapists a lot because Sometimes our work can be really heavy, and if you've been in private practice for any meaningful amount of time, whether you're a solo practitioner or you're in group practice, you have experienced the ebbs and flows of private practice.
[00:05:55] The, uh, months where maybe there aren't as many calls coming in, or months where you don't wanna be in the office seeing clients, and you'd love to have a little bit more flexibility in your schedule. Or maybe you're just wanting to see less one-on-one clients, and you've been given some talents beyond the therapy room.
[00:06:16] And so in this point in your career, you might be wondering to yourself, "Is this it, or am I maybe being called to more?" Uh, and, you know, this isn't a bad thing. It doesn't mean that you're burned out and that you need to stop seeing clients altogether. It simply just means that you might be in a season of growth or evolution, and you're wanting to step into that, but not quite sure what that means or how to even do it.
[00:06:41] So I wanted to share just briefly a little bit more about my backstory for those of you who don't know who I am or maybe don't know all the different ways that I myself have gone about creating alternative income streams for myself over the years. Now, when I started in private practice, it was, uh, about 2013, 2014, and in my mind, that was it for me.
[00:07:04] That was the dream that I had always had, was to be in private practice, so I couldn't even envision a life of anything other than getting to go to the office and see clients day in and day out. That, that was something that was always a dream of mine, and the fact that I got to live it at, in my mind, such a young age, I was still in my 20s when I started my private practice, uh, I thought that, uh, that was, that was the icing on the cake for me.
[00:07:31] And it's funny talking about it now in hindsight because it wasn't maybe two years later, uh, when I was thinking, "Okay, what next? What can I do now? I'm enjoying the work still, but there's just, there's something missing." And I'd always enjoyed supervision. I w- was s- a, a recipient through and through. I loved reading and learning.
[00:07:57] I was just this endless student. And to this day, I just, I love to learn new things. And so luckily, my supervisory experience has always been really pleasant. I've had wonderful supervisors over the years, and so I looked into what it would take to become a clinical supervisor in my state. And so I, at that time, after being in private practice for a few years, I went through the process of becoming an approved supervisor, uh, so that other people could see me for, uh, their supervision hours so that they could become licensed, and that was such a rewarding and long experience, you know?
[00:08:34] It wasn't something that I could just decide one day to become a supervisor and fill out an application, cut a check, and, and go about doing supervision, you know? D- Every state is a little different, but in my state, I had to take additional coursework. I myself had to reenter into a supervisory relationship, which is called supervision of supervision.
[00:08:54] Kinda cool. Very meta. And it took about maybe 18 months or so from the time I decided I wanted to become a supervisor until I was actively supervising interns and associates in my state. And again, that work was so rewarding. And I didn't enter into it because I wanted an alternative income stream or because I wanted to earn more money necessarily.
[00:09:17] It was just another interest of mine, another passion that I wanted to explore, and I was lucky enough to get to do that. And I still, to this day, am a clinical supervisor in South Carolina where I live. Now, after doing supervision for a couple of years, it's almost like when you give a mouse a cookie So after doing supervision for a few years, I noticed that a lot of the associates I was working with wanted to start their own private practices, and they would often come to me and ask me for guidance or assistance on what forms do I need, or what are the steps involved?
[00:09:51] How do I get an LLC? Just some of the basic nuts and bolts. And I found myself, you know, freely giving all this information that I had accumulated over the years, mostly through the school of hard knocks and learning from my own mistakes. I also had friends who were other clinicians in the area calling me or sending me emails asking to take me out for coffee or lunch to ask me questions because they were wanting to leave their group practice setting or their community mental health setting, and they wanted to venture out into the world of private practice.
[00:10:22] So after enough times of people saying like, "Wow, you're really good at this," or, uh, "This has been so helpful. Thank you," I thought, what if I just put out all this information together, and maybe I can do something with it? Now, I didn't know at the time what those options were, but I at least thought, okay, maybe I can...
[00:10:41] This was before the e-course boom. Uh, it was roughly around 2016, 2017, I would say, when I got this, like, wild hair, and I started putting things together in what started to take the shape of a curriculum. And I reached out to my supervisor of supervision, who had also been my previous supervisor. We were very close, and she was the program director of the local university where other marriage and family therapists trained.
[00:11:12] And I approached her, and essentially I pitched an idea for a one-time class where I could teach people about private practice and how to get started. And, uh, she agreed. She allowed for me to come, and I think I either did a guest lecture or maybe I just taught a mini-mester, and we were sort of just testing and validating to see whether there was a need or a desire for this information.
[00:11:38] And oh my goodness, there was. The students got a lot out of it. I got a lot out of it. I learned so much about the questions that people have, you know, because by then I had been in private practice for a few years. And, um, what I ended up doing with that course is I also pitched it to my alma mater. And so then I started teaching this course at not just one university, but two, as an adjunct professor, which was really cool because I always thought that you have to have a PhD in order to teach at the graduate level, and it turns out you don't.
[00:12:12] So at that point, I was still seeing clients in my private practice. I was providing supervision, and now I was adjunct teaching You would think that I would have stopped at that point, but no. Uh, and so I won't, I won't bore you all with the details, but I did end up, uh, pursuing business consulting at that point.
[00:12:32] And so I took all the knowledge that I had gained, both personally through my own venture into private practice, but also teaching students, and I took all of this information and turned it into an online course. And oh, man, that turned into like an eight-year, uh, amazing, wild journey into online entrepreneurship.
[00:12:54] So I learned all about online courses and building an audience and social media marketing. It was a wild ride, folks. Uh, I got to do in-person retreats and masterminds virtually. I got to travel the world, literally. It was, it was just an incredible experience. Um, and everything else sort of had to, you know, become part-time in order for me to really pursue this online entrepreneurship of business coaching.
[00:13:23] I approached Whitney and said, "Hey, I like doing the business coaching stuff. I don't know if I love all that other stuff that I had to do, and I miss my clients and I miss doing supervision, so why don't I just work for you?" And so here I am. Um, I haven't been keeping track, but that's a lot of income streams.
[00:13:39] I haven't even mentioned the fact that I sublet office space, but you know, I'm just one of those people that can't keep my hands still. So I'm here today to help you understand a little bit more about the different options that are available to you if you're curious about adding an income stream to your practice, and I hope that this can be a really valuable resource for you.
[00:14:02] Something that I wanna make sure that I tell you all up front, though, before I start d- diving into different ideas, is I really wanna set expectations. There's a lot of m- messaging online from content creators and people who are putting together, uh, courses or any sort of a group to help you grow a- an online business, and the words passive income are littered all over social media.
[00:14:32] I don't know about your newsfeed, but it's like every other coach or consultant in any industry, not just the mental health space, talks about passive income. And after a decade of exploring other income streams, I just wanna be really honest with you guys that in our field, that's not really how this works.
[00:14:56] Every single income stream that I'm going to talk about requires time, energy, effort And a desire to serve in a different way. So it's not less work, it's just different work. And I wanted to be really clear about that up front, because I'm not the person that's gonna... I, I am gonna tell it like it is. I'm not gonna say, "Oh, yeah, it's super easy.
[00:15:18] Just do this and this, and then it's done." Anything that we talk about today is going to take work. It's gonna take time, possibly time away from your work or time away from your family to set up. And passive income, the only thing that I can think of in my mind that's truly passive is being independently wealthy and probably just putting your money in the stock market and living off of the dividends that you get.
[00:15:42] That is probably the most passive thing I can think of, and that's not what we're talking about today. So now what I wanna do is go through a few different options of what types of income streams a therapist might pursue. Now, I do wanna give you just a simple filter as you're listening through some of these ideas, because the goal here is not to do everything.
[00:16:06] It's just to notice what resonates with you. So as I share some of these ideas with you today, I want you to ask yourself, "What feels energizing? What feels heavy or draining? Where do people already come to you for your help?" Like in my example, there were clinicians in my community, my friends who were coming to me and saying, "How can I start my private practice?
[00:16:32] What's the best way? What's the easiest way or the simplest way?" And then I would offer them support. They would go out and do the thing, and then report back and say, "Oh my gosh, it worked." So I got a lot of positive feelings, a lot of feelings of just reward and fulfillment from being able to help my fellow friends and colleagues start their own businesses.
[00:16:51] And so where in your life are people already coming to you? And I don't mean necessarily clients. Obviously, they're coming to you for mental health support or relationship support, but other people like your friends, your family members. What are the things that people consistently come to you and ask you for help on?
[00:17:12] And it might be surprising to you if those things are not necessarily mental health related, so notice that. Another question that you can ask yourself while you're hearing me give these ideas today is, what do you find yourself naturally explaining or teaching to other people? What seems to come easy for you and maybe is a little bit more challenging to other people in your life?
[00:17:37] Notice that. And then another question is, what fits your current season of life? In the previous season of my life, I didn't have a child, and so I feel like I had all the time in the world to explore different opportunities as they came to me, and really the world was my oyster When I had a newborn, I was available, but in very short pockets of time.
[00:18:02] And in fact, I actually enjoyed, you know, times when my baby was sleeping, um, or when she was at daycare, and I had time to really sit and do some focused work. But I also wasn't available during what most consider normal business hours because I was either with her or I myself was seeing clients. And so I found myself having a lot of time during the edges of each day.
[00:18:26] Late in the evening when, uh, I was feeding or early in the morning when I couldn't sleep, those were times where I was able to create content or do research, uh, market research or find new ideas for things when it wasn't during, you know, the normal day. Now my daughter is 10, and I professional chauffeur.
[00:18:47] I take her everywhere, and she has a lot of activities to do after school, and this is really fun. It's a great season of life for me. It's exciting. That also means, though, that I'm not as available. I, I can't work 8:00 to 5:00. Um, my, my hours are a little bit more limited. And so the things that I choose to take on require me to set really good, firm boundaries with my time because my time isn't really mine as much anymore.
[00:19:15] I'm available, you know, while she's in school, but after school I'm taking her to her activities, and I wanna sit there and watch and, um, be present for those things. And so, uh, the things that I say yes to now in this season of life are different than the things I said yes to just a few years ago and are also going to be different from the things that I will be able to say yes to when she becomes more independent or, heaven forbid, when she starts driving in a few years and she's gonna be, uh, doing her own thing.
[00:19:43] At that point, I might be able to take on additional tasks, or I might, you know, choose a, a totally different path. So think about what c- fits in your current season of life. And honestly, another question would be, what keeps coming back? Like something that just keeps gnawing away at you, and it keeps on coming back to your mind even when you try to ignore it.
[00:20:06] That tends to be a pretty decent litmus test because it could be that that's something that God is putting in you, that maybe the Holy Spirit is coming to you and saying, "Have you looked into this?" Even though you're pushing it away and saying, "No, it's not a good time. This isn't the good... a right season of life for me to be doing this," and yet that thought keeps persisting.
[00:20:26] I want you to notice that and just pay attention to it. Okay, so with those questions in mind, let me walk you through a few directions that you might explore as a clinician. And this is by no means a comprehensive list, but what I did was put some ideas into four different categories just to start the conversation today.
[00:20:47] If you want a more exhaustive list, I've actually put together a free PDF that you can check out by visiting today's show notes. Now, just as a disclaimer, not only do you not need to do all of these things that I'm about to share with you, you shouldn't do all of these things because that is a clear recipe for burnout.
[00:21:10] All I'm asking you to do today is notice what stands out, and maybe you've already thought of one or two of these ideas. That's great. Maybe I'm able to offer a few others that you haven't explored or haven't thought about. That's exciting. So category one is teaching or mentorship. You might be drawn to teaching or mentoring such as supervision, like my story.
[00:21:35] That was something, you know, my first foray into an alternate income stream was providing supervision, and it was a natural progression from the work that I was doing. So maybe becoming a supervisor yourself if you are trained in a particular mo- maybe becoming a consultant in that modality and going through the steps of what that would require.
[00:21:56] Consultation groups are another option. Again, particularly if you are known in your area or in your community for a particular modality or working with a certain demographic, having a consultation group where other clinicians pay to learn from you. And it might not be in a supervisory context, it's more clinically focused, and you may or may not need to explore what that would look like in terms of, um, the legal and ethical implications if you're needing to get additional training in order to become a verified consultant or an official consultant in whatever treatment modality you, you utilize.
[00:22:31] But you certainly don't have to do that for everything. If you're really, really good at treating OCD, and this is something that you feel like there's a strong need for in your community or even on a larger scale, you can consider offering some paid consultation groups to other clinicians who are wanting to learn more about how to treat OCD, just as an example And then also, if you're a, a networker, if you're someone who loves to connect people to each other, you could form a paid networking group, either in your community or based on the particular population that you treat or modality that you utilize.
[00:23:08] You could create or set up a paid networking group so that other clinicians who have something in common with each other can come together and meet one another.
[00:23:17] Hi, I'm Laura Long, one of the consultants at Wise Practice, and over the past decade, I've helped hundreds of therapists develop and
[00:23:25] launch their own programs, workshops, intensives, and other income streams beyond the therapy room.
[00:23:31] If you've been feeling like God may be inviting you into a new season of growth or a greater impact, but you're stuck or overwhelmed on where to start, you're not alone. The Call to MORE Mastermind is a six-month experience where we'll help discern your direction, design a simple first offer, and actually begin building it without burning out your life or your practice.
[00:23:50] If you're ready to move from thinking about doing it to actually doing it, head over to wisepracticeconsulting.com and apply today. If you love developing other therapists, any of these in category one can feel just like a natural progression of your skill set, and you are not allowed to feel like an imposter here because remember, you just need to be one step ahead of someone in order to take their hand and guide them.
[00:24:18] I sometimes will have therapists come to me and say, "Laura, I wanna be a supervisor," or, "I wanna create some sort of paid consultation opportunity for other people because I feel really strongly about this population I serve, but who am I? Who am I to s- to start something like that? Who am I to supervise or try to teach someone a clinical skill?"
[00:24:37] And that's something where I really feel strongly that we undervalue our knowledge as therapists. All too often, we feel like what we know, everyone else already has that information, and it's just not true. So if there's something that you feel really strongly about and you think that you can serve another clinician, you can help them in a meaningful way, all you have to do is be one step ahead of them to take their hand.
[00:25:00] You don't have to know everything, and in fact, you can't know everything. That will come with time, and even then you won't know everything, but you're gonna learn alongside them. As long as you're one step ahead of someone, you can take them somewhere. Now, category two would be clinical expansion. Some therapists expand what they're already doing by offering different services within their practice under the same umbrella.
[00:25:25] So one obvious answer that most clinicians think of when they're in this place would be starting a group practice or adding a location or, uh, just hiring more clinicians or changing their business model to accommodate hiring a clinician, whether it's a 1099, uh, independent contractor or an employee.
[00:25:44] Today, I wanna talk a little bit about other areas, because that, to me, seems like almost the more obvious answer to a lot of clinicians, but not to all. Becoming a group practice owner was never in the cards for me, and it was never something that piqued my interest. And so today I wanna talk more about other ways that a clinician can add to their clinical services without necessarily starting a group practice.
[00:26:07] Not that there's anything wrong with that, but there are plenty of podcast episodes that Whitney has done, and she can speak way more intelligently about the practice of starting a group practice . Okay, so some other ways that you can expand your clinical work would be intensives or inte- extended session offerings.
[00:26:26] So if you find that the work you do is more in-depth, maybe you're someone who does a lot of trauma work, you're doing EMDR, or you do really intensive couples counseling, like EFT, emotionally focused therapy, you can offer extended sessions for deeper work or even intensives. And intensives I feel like are all the rage right now because so many clinicians are seeing the results.
[00:26:53] Clients are making progress more quickly. They're able to go deeper in a longer period of time, rather than having to see their therapist once a week for 50 minutes, and it's like right as you feel like you're really getting somewhere, the session is over. So something as simple as extending your sessions to 75 or 90 minutes, or even making that a standard practice in your business instead of having 50-minute sessions, having all of your sessions be extended.
[00:27:22] Or you can add an offer of doing an intensive. If you have office space available or if you wanna do it virtually, you can do an intensive for a half day, a full day, a weekend. Uh, really the world is your oyster at that point. And so I think that can be a really effective way to expand what you're already doing, what you're already naturally good at.
[00:27:43] And one of my consulting clients put it really well. She said, "I'd rather work with fewer nervous systems for as long a, a, of a period of time than multiple nervous systems." It's always a little bit more heavy depending on the type of work that you're doing to work with a lot of nervous systems in one day.
[00:28:03] Whereas if you're doing an intensive, you might only be working with one or two nervous systems in a day or in a weekend Another thing that you could do for clinical expansion would be creating a niche-based process or support group. Depending on the type of work that you do, it might be that there's a need in your community for a support group.
[00:28:23] I once did a support group for women going through separation and divorce, and that group ended up lasting over two years, and I thought it was just gonna be a six-week group. But the same group of women loved coming together and supporting each other. And so even though a few would leave or a few would join over the two-year period, it was the same core group of women, and it was such an enjoyable and rewarding experience for me, and I hope for them as well.
[00:28:48] So if there's a particular demographic that you would love to serve or if you notice a need in your area, maybe there's, uh, a need for a grief support group, for example, you could offer something like that, and that's something that would be a great way to expand your clinical work without you having to start a completely different business.
[00:29:07] Lastly, another thing that you can do, which I very briefly mentioned I also do, is to sublet office space. If you're in a larger suite and you have access to other offices within that suite that maybe aren't being used or even your own office, if you're part-time or if there are certain days consistently that you're not using your office, you might be able to reach out to a few trusted colleagues and find another therapist who is actually looking for an office during the exact days or times that you're not in there anyway.
[00:29:37] And so while this might not be the most lucrative option, it can help offset the cost of your rent. And I've really enjoyed this because in my practice, I have seven other clinicians that I can refer to, that I can chat with. Uh, they've become friends of mine, and I also-- the control freak in me gets to operate the space in a way that I see fit.
[00:30:01] And so I've been able to decorate it the way that I want to, and I have a nice drink station, uh, set up for clients and for the clinicians who sublet from me. I also get to have more say so, obviously, in who I'm surrounding myself with because when someone expresses interest in subletting, I sit down with them, and it's not really like a formal interview process, but we have a conversation, and I, I wanna make sure that the dynamic and the vibe, if you will, of the space is going to work for everyone, which has felt really great.
[00:30:32] It's been rewarding, and I love getting to meet other clinicians in my area who have different areas of specialization, and, um, we're able to refer to one another. So subletting office space is another great option within that clinical expansion category. These ideas all keep you close to clinical work but in a slightly different format Now category three is content and intellectual property.
[00:30:56] Some therapists feel pulled toward creating something new. That can be workshops, courses. These could be things that are more client-facing or therapist-facing. It could be writing a book or an entire curriculum. I once worked with a therapist who created an entirely new treatment modality that I thought was really interesting, and so I got to help walk her through the process, and I myself was learning along the way about how to get a modality approved, which was really fascinating.
[00:31:30] Another thing that you could do, which is what I've done before, is adjunct teaching. Like I said earlier, I didn't realize that you could serve as an adjunct instructor at the graduate level if you didn't have a PhD. That was something that I just always assumed you had to have, and that was never my intention to get a PhD, so I didn't really look into it.
[00:31:50] And it turns out that for a lot of master's degree programs, an adjunct instructor does not have to have a PhD. I think what's probably more important is that you have a connection, that you know somebody. And so an easy place to start would be if there's a local university in your area or in your town, and also your own alma mater, similar to what I did, where I pitched the idea of the course to my own alma mater, the program director there.
[00:32:15] And because we already had a relationship, it was a much easier sell than if I were to cold call or cold email the program director. So if you've ever thought to yourself, "Man, I wish I could teach this stuff to more people at the same time," then it might resonate with you to consider creating content or putting together workshops or courses or writing a book.
[00:32:37] And then category four is partnerships and consulting. You might not want to build something all by yourself, so forming a key strategic partnership with a church, a school, anyone who provides adjacent services to you, that might be a great way for you to dabble in an alternative income stream without feeling the weight or the pressure of having to build it by yourself.
[00:33:03] If you're a great team player, you love working with others, or if you already have an established relationship with another provider or another organization, you can partner together and put something together that's meaningful that can really help solve a need in your community. Also consulting roles, and consulting can be similar to the work that Myself and Whitney do where we are providing business consulting if, if you're really into the business side of things when it comes to practice building or anything related to mental health.
[00:33:35] But consulting can look like a lot of different things. It can be that you're consulting with executives in more of a corporate structure. You can provide consulting to certain industries if you have, uh, kind of a working knowledge or you're, you're very familiar with a particular industry. It doesn't have to be mental health related even.
[00:33:54] And so I think those would be probably the top four categories. Again, not an exhaustive list, but ideas just to start getting you thinking beyond the one-on-one work that you might find yourself doing and, and ready to explore something else. One thing that I wanna make sure that I talk about is kind of going back to this idea of is it the right season?
[00:34:16] You know, I mentioned that in, in my own life there were certain seasons where I could devote time to something like this, and there have been other seasons where maybe I couldn't. And I think that would be a really good thing for you to discern if you're thinking about starting an alternative income stream, is asking yourself, "What do I have in terms of time, um, financial resources?"
[00:34:38] Because anything that you build is going to take time, and it's most likely going to require some amount of an investment, uh, whether big or small. But just checking in with yourself. There are three, what I would consider, green lights that if you can say yes to these things, these three things, it might be the right time or the right season for you to explore an alternative income stream.
[00:35:03] Number one would be that your caseload is stable or at least that your business is operating in a way that feels stable because some of you might be a group practice owner and you don't manage a caseload. So looking in a more, uh, meta level, does your business feel stable? If the answer is yes, then it might be a great time for you to explore another business model, another opportunity, or just an alternative income stream.
[00:35:30] If your business or if your caseload doesn't feel stable, that's what we would call more of a stop sign or a warning to proceed with caution, and I'll talk about that in just a moment. Number two as a green light would be that you have financial breathing room. If you feel like you're living paycheck to paycheck, uh, if you're having a hard time keeping your lights on at your office, if you're experiencing financial scarcity, anything that you create, anything new is also going to come with its own fears and, uh, there might be some scarcity there about, like, is this thing gonna work or can I really build this?
[00:36:10] So when you're, when you're experiencing scarcity in your existing business, in your primary business while you're building something new and also experiencing some fear and scarcity there, it can overwhelm the system Really, it can. So if you are in a place where you have a little bit of financial breathing room, that is also going to give you more space to explore, to get creative and playful with whatever it is that you're building.
[00:36:39] It's gonna allow you to be experimental and not feel rushed or like there's this sense of urgency. And then the third green light would be that you have both energy and curiosity about this thing that you're thinking about building. If you find yourself thinking about it or brainstorming ideas, or you wake up in the middle of the night and you can't sleep because you're thinking about it, anything like that where it, it's taking up room in your mind and you're curious but you're also excited, that would be something to notice and to take a pause because it might mean that you're onto something.
[00:37:15] If it's something that just keeps kind of nagging away at you. I have an idea right now that, you know, it's like, it's like nagging. Even if I try to push it away, it just keeps coming up, and so I'm like, "Okay. Okay, Lord, I will listen and I will just kind of explore this and be creative about what this can look like, and I'm gonna start kind of small with it."
[00:37:32] So that's something that I would invite you to do as well. Okay. Now, three stop signs or warning signs to proceed with caution. One would be if you're in a place where you're feeling desperate for income. Mike Michalowicz, uh, the author of Profit First, he refers to this concept in his book that he calls the survival trap, and I wish I had time to unpack that whole phenomenon with you today, but if you've never heard of it, go check out the book.
[00:38:00] The survival trap is basically when, as entrepreneurs, we find ourselves in a place of financial desperation, and we just start looking for fast money. So what Mike Michalowicz says in his book is, "Instead of being the world's best at one thing, we end up doing a greater variety of things and becoming less and less efficient at each step while our business becomes harder to manage and costlier to run."
[00:38:25] So you really want to avoid the survival trap at all costs. The second warning sign or stop sign would be if you are wanting to pursue an alternative income stream with the hope that this will fix your potential burnout. Anything new that you do is going to require more of you, more of your time, more of your energy, and more resources.
[00:38:49] And so if you're already operating from a place of lack, if you are feeling like you're dancing on the edge of burnout, now might not be the best time to pursue an alternative income stream, even though you probably daydream about it because maybe the work that you're doing is feeling really exhausting.
[00:39:04] So this would actually be more of a time of reflection and maybe even going to a counselor, to a therapist to talk through what your options would be. But I would probably not recommend you exploring an alternative income stream at this point. And then the last kind of stop sign or warning sign would just be- Be if you already feel overextended in your life, if you have a lot of other obligations, if you're leading a Bible study and you're also the room mom for your child's school, you're taking your kids everywhere.
[00:39:35] If you have a lot of roles beyond your work as a clinician and you feel a bit spread thin, then starting an alternative income stream is only going to exacerbate those feelings. Now, I do wanna give you a little bit of encouragement that if any of those warning signs or stop signs were yeses for you, and you're like, "Ah, dang it, you know, I really, I really want to consider putting this new thing together or starting this thing, but I am feeling desperate for money, or I am feeling a sense of urgency, and I am feeling a little burned out or overextended," I wanna let you know that you don't have to rush this, but you also don't have to ignore it.
[00:40:11] So there are some ways that you can still even brainstorm or journal on these ideas that you have, while also trying to get your place, your private practice at least, in a place where you're feeling more energized, not overextended, and maybe feeling a little bit more financially secure, at which point you can explore this other option.
[00:40:33] All right, so now I'm gonna wrap up by just giving you some ideas on what you can do now. So let's say you've been listening to this episode and y- you're really feeling excited. You are, like, jazzed about a couple of the ideas that either I shared or ones that have already been rattling around in your mind.
[00:40:49] What I would say is, number one, just pick one or two ideas to start with max. Don't go making a, an extensive or exhaustive spreadsheet of all the different ideas because you're just gonna overwhelm yourself. Pick one or two things right now today that feel the most energizing or exciting to you, and then start to do just a tiny little bit of market research.
[00:41:11] Don't over-research this, but a few things that you might wanna look into is, are there other people doing this? And actually, if there are, that's a good thing because it means that there's likely demand for the idea that you have. If you go out and you think, "Oh, man, I have an idea for this really cool course that I don't see anyone else doing," that would actually give me pause because it might mean that there's just not a demand for that particular thing.
[00:41:35] So when you're doing a little bit of research, you wanna find other people who are doing at least a version of what it is that you might want to do. And it doesn't mean that they have to already be doing it in your neighborhood or in your community, but just the fact that something like this or something that's adjacent to this already exists.
[00:41:53] I would want to see that. Another thing would be to just start paying attention. What are people telling you, either in the therapy room or in your friend group? What are people telling you are your strengths, something that you're naturally good at? What are people coming to you and saying, "Oh, gosh, you're so good at this thing.
[00:42:09] I wish I had that skill or that talent or that gift"? And then lastly, I would say that- It's important to keep a child's mind at this stage. You know, when I watch children playing at the playground, I can't help but notice that even when a child doesn't really know what a certain, uh, toy or piece of equipment is supposed to be used for, they don't seem to care.
[00:42:31] Kids just get on these pieces of equipment and just start messing around with stuff and, uh, jumping on it just to see what it does. But they're not cautiously going up to a piece of playground equipment and going, "Oh no, I don't know exactly how this thing works. I'm not touching it." And yet, when we become adults, we seem to have that mentality when it comes to pursuing something new.
[00:42:52] We overanalyze, over-research, and then we don't take any action. It's just analysis by paralysis. And I want to encourage you to take a child's mind with whatever this idea or ideas are that have come up to- for you today. You don't have to know how to do everything. You don't kn- have to know how to start a YouTube channel.
[00:43:12] You don't have to know how to start a course or a curriculum or become the best supervisor in your craft. You don't have to know those things. You will learn as you go. So don't let the not knowing stop you from doing what you might be being called to do. You might be being called to more, and it's important for you to think about, reflect on, pray, journal.
[00:43:37] But don't just get stuck in the idea that because you're not an expert or because you don't know all the 400 steps that you're supposed to do to make this thing happen, that you can't take some action now. Treat it like a piece of playground equipment. Mess with it, play around with it, experiment with it, be playful and inquisitive.
[00:43:57] Notice what feels light and notice what feels heavy, and notice what keeps coming back. All right, so I'm gonna start wrapping up for today. But if you have been listening to this episode and thinking to yourself, "Okay, Laura, I'm ready to actually explore this, but I don't wanna do it alone," then I wanna tell you about a brand-new six-month experience that I'm gonna be facilitating starting this summer, June of 2026, called the Called to More Mastermind.
[00:44:26] In this virtual mastermind group, I'm gonna help a small group of clinicians discern their direction, design a simple first offer, and actually begin building the thing that they've been thinking about. Now, this isn't gonna be a step-by-step blueprint because everyone who joins is gonna probably have a different idea of something that they want to build out, and that's what makes this so exciting and so thrilling because this is gonna be a space for thoughtful, supported experimentation while also giving you some guardrails and letting you know what things have worked, not just for me, but for other people, and helping you maybe to avoid some painful lessons along the way.
[00:45:04] So if you wanna learn more, if this sounds interesting to you, just visit wisepracticeconsulting.com/mastermind, or you can check out today's show notes for the link. And you can check out the information page and learn just a little bit more about what we're gonna be doing together. All right, I'm gonna wrap up, but just so you know, I wanna close by letting you know that you don't have to have everything figured out today.
[00:45:26] You just have to be willing to take the next step. I'd love to take that next step with you friends, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
[00:45:37] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast. Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:45:55] Laura Long: Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Site Craft Podcast Network, a collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives.
[00:46:09] To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to sitecraftnetwork.com. The Wise Practice Podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.
