Mia Poklopovich [00:00:03]:
Welcome to The Freedom Therapist Podcast, your safe space to learn and unlearn all the things about scaling your business without losing yourself in the process. I'm your host, Mia Poklopovich, a previously burnt out mental health occupational therapist and business owner who found her way to fall back in love with business and life all over again. Because success doesn't have to come at the cost of your freedom. You're going to get so much chat, a lot of energy, and, of course, a little bit of chaos because it comes with the territory. I can't wait. Hello. Hello. And welcome to the freedom therapist podcast.
Mia Poklopovich [00:00:48]:
I'm your host, Mia. And I am so excited to be in your ears today on one of our very first episodes. And if you are listening to this, firstly, thank you so much. I am so grateful to have this space, to be able to share my thoughts, my learnings, and share the incredible and learnings of other women in this space as well. I really hope that if you are having one of those days today where nothing is going right, or you're feeling a little bit lost in your business, or you're just not feeling yourself. I hope that you can get something out of this episode that will inspire you even just a little bit to maybe do something different today. Today, we're gonna be talking about what a freedom based business actually is. And this is something that I run my entire business around.
Mia Poklopovich [00:01:50]:
It is how I run my own practice. It is what I coach other therapists on. It is what I work with other women in business on. And it is one of the most, if not the most important part of running a sustainable business that also brings you joy. Now I know as therapists, we often don't get taught how to run a business. Sure. Some of us might have done some extra study. We might have a mentor.
Mia Poklopovich [00:02:19]:
We might have amazing people who help us along the way. But I know when I was at uni, I did not get taught how to run a business. We got taught some really basic, you know, admin businessy things, but there was no conversations around how to scale a business, how to grow a business, how to grow beyond 1 to 1 and how to do it in a way without losing yourself too. Now we are burning out so quickly in our businesses, especially women. We are so incredible. Women are so incredible. We are so amazing at doing it all, or at least trying to do it all that we're that we're also finding it harder and harder to switch off. And when we are running a business, it can so quickly because it is so exciting, and we love it and care about it so much, but it can really quickly take over everything.
Mia Poklopovich [00:03:20]:
So what is a freedom based business? Now therapists, we know. We are taught to be person centered, client focused, and put the client first. And most business owners who are in a service business have those same fundamentals. More often than not, in our initial session in therapy, we ask our client what they would like to get out of a therapy session. What are their strengths? What are their goals? What does achieving their goals really look like to them? And we dive so deeply into their story, and we are so great at helping them reflect and really unpack all of these things. But when was the last time you did this in your business? For your business, for yourself, and for your team? Because we are so awesome at analyzing clinical reasoning and goal setting, but we aren't doing this in our own businesses. And even if we are doing this in our own business, we often aren't doing it for ourselves and our lifestyle too because they are all as important as each other. They are all connected.
Mia Poklopovich [00:04:47]:
So when we start to develop a freedom based business, these are the questions we really need to sit with and we need to ask ourselves. What are my strengths? What are my goals? And what does achieving these goals really look like to me? How does that look in my business? How does that feel in my business? What kind of version of myself do I need to be to be able to achieve these goals? Now the second part of developing a freedom based business is once we have begun to reflect on these questions, once we get really clear on our strengths, on our goals, what it looks like, what our why is in this space, why are we creating this business. Really deep down, why do we wanna have this business? Because everybody has a reason. We need to develop a freedom based business strategy. Now truth be told, I had no idea what a business strategy was when I started OT Inspire. I had never heard the term, and then I started to hear it get thrown around. And when I dived into it, I was like, this doesn't really align with me either. I tried it.
Mia Poklopovich [00:06:08]:
Don't get me wrong. I definitely tried it. I grew my clinic. I grew my staff. I grew in ways that really impacted my time, my creativity, and my freedom. But when we create a freedom based business strategy, it is a holistic strategy in your business that looks at every single component of your business and looks at you as a business owner, your needs, your family's needs, your staff need your staff's needs, and all of the things. It's not just the profit and loss. There is so much more to business and to life than how much money we are making.
Mia Poklopovich [00:06:49]:
So sure. We might have a number of referrals that we know we wanna see per week to make enough to live. We might have sat with the questions and gone right. I need to see this amount of clients. This is my projected income. This is what I need to be able to pay all my overheads and all of my bills. And that is a really awesome start because let me tell you, I was not really doing that at the start. I remember living week to week for quite some time running my practice.
Mia Poklopovich [00:07:17]:
So if you are there and you are still running week to week, you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed, please know that you are not alone. I see you. I was you. I was there, and it's really overwhelming, and it feels really murky. But when we can start to ask these questions, can give us some really valuable insights and start to help us to formulate the beginnings of a freedom based business strategy. So if we're sitting with the number of referrals we wanna see per week or the number of sessions we wanna have per week or how we want our calendar to look, I want you to also go that little bit deeper and think about the bigger picture. So if we know we wanna say have, say, 15 referrals, we wanna work 3 days a week, what does that look like when we book out? Does it change? Is there a plan in place for that? Is there another way we can serve those clients in a different way? And then I want you to go a little step further. And what does that look like when we want to take leave? Now I know you love your business, and I know you're probably in the mode of it at the moment where you're like, I love what I do.
Mia Poklopovich [00:08:40]:
It doesn't even feel like work. But there are going to be times when you're going to need to step back, Whether that is to take a holiday, whether that might be because you need to be there for your family, whether that could be something like sickness or illness, these things do happen. So thinking about that is going to be really supportive as well. And then I want us to go that one step deeper and think about what does my current business model look like in 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years time from now? And sitting with that, am I happy with the way it looks? Is this the way I want it to look long term? Is this my dream outcome? Is this my most expansive self? And it's okay, firstly, if the answers are a bit unclear or maybe no. This isn't what it looks like. Because these are the questions that we start with at the very beginning or just before we scale to be able to formulate a freedom based business strategy. Now instead of sitting with just our week to week, the way that I develop a freedom based business strategy is to start at the end first. When I first grew OT Inspire, it was incredibly profitable.
Mia Poklopovich [00:10:20]:
People were saying, this is doing really well. Mia, you're doing a great job. But what they weren't seeing was that I was working weekends, late nights, all the time, and I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and burnt out. When I started to align my business with a freedom based business strategy, I had to start at the end first. Is this what I wanted it to look like in 10 years time? No. Absolutely not. At this stage, I wasn't going to be able to keep running it for the next 12 months. I wanted a business that at the end was going to let me spend time with my family, was going to let me live where I wanna live, was going to let me travel, was going to let me have the freedom and the creativity to do new things, to keep my mind excited, and was going to give me energy as well.
Mia Poklopovich [00:11:16]:
So when I started at the end, I realized that the business I created and the end goal I wanted didn't match. And that's when the work really started. Now if you have just started your practice, you are in an amazing space to be able to sit with these questions at the beginning. But if you're like me and you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed, a little bit swept away, and you're coming in this as a business owner as an experienced business owner who's maybe looking to grow, scale, cut back, I'm not sure what your situation is. You are also in an amazing position because you have so much experience and learnings that you can use for evidence to be able to figure out how you wanna work, what's going to best suit you, and the type of business that you wanna create. So it's often we think that developing a business strategy, it's a number, it's a profit goal, it's a revenue goal, it's an income, but it's so much more than that. Now I want you to sit with a few things when you are beginning to look at creating a freedom based business strategy. When you look at your end goals of your business, what really matters? Is it time with your partner? Is it time with your kids? Is it loving your work? Is it living mortgage free? Is it growing and expanding in the space in yourself? Is it being able to present or speak or teach? Is it slow mornings? Is it your energy? What does freedom look like for you? And when we get really clear on what freedom means to us, it's all the things.
Mia Poklopovich [00:13:17]:
It's the little things that are often the big things. Because what's the point of having 1,000 of dollars if you have no energy, space, or time for life? It's not worth it. And I want to acknowledge that I am coming from a privileged position in speaking about these things. But I also want to acknowledge that these are questions we need to sit with when we are looking at our profit goals, our revenue margins. And we can be really creative with how our business looks because we are in control of our business. And if you are in a position where you are creating or scaling a business, you have everything you need inside of you. But we just need to get really deep in this as well. And it's not to say that you're not going to work hard because you are absolutely gonna work hard.
Mia Poklopovich [00:14:20]:
I know I had to. I had to work hard to be able to pay our bills, pay our overheads, pay staff wages. There are so many things, and sometimes it's gonna be really tough. But when we create a freedom based business strategy, it gives us a plan, It gives us a bigger picture, and it gives us an end goal to work towards. It can be so easy to get caught up in what's happening around you day to day to see opportunities or see things that might bring in a quick income, but at what cost as well. And these are the questions that as a business owner, if we can start to sit with and start to reflect on every single decision that comes through your door in business, It is going to make you so much more regulated, and it is going to give your business a really solid strategy to scale and grow. It is also going to allow you to work in a way that feels aligned because when we aren't acting with a long term goal in place, when we aren't acting with a strategy in place, when we aren't sitting with all these freedom based business strategy questions and goals and reflections, we start to work in a way that doesn't feel aligned to just keep up. And that's when we start to feel like we're treading water.
Mia Poklopovich [00:15:53]:
Things start to feel too much. We start to get overwhelmed. And somewhere along the way, we create a high stress job instead of a business. When we really want to grow a practice and scale it to reach more people, have long term success in the space. To be able to actually serve your clients and new clients for a long time and to really lean into doing what we love, we need to get really curious about all the things. We need to get curious about the hours we wanna work, about the space we wanna create, about the profit number. We actually need to create the life that we love and how we want to work. There's no right or wrong way, but it is what is most meaningful and aligned with you.
Mia Poklopovich [00:16:56]:
It might be 1 on 1. It might be in the community. It might be online. The beautiful thing about having a practice these days is that there are so many options, but we need to find the one that aligns with us, and we need to lean in so hard and create a long term plan in the form of a freedom based business strategy. So in short and to finish things up today, we need a freedom based business strategy to grow a sustainable energy giving business. It's not a luxury but a necessity. Without this, we begin working overtime. We begin getting overwhelmed.
Mia Poklopovich [00:17:43]:
We begin burning out. And in order to create a freedom based business strategy, we need to start at the end and work our way backwards to figure out how we're gonna get there and what our service needs to look like now and long term. We need to get really clear on our why and what feels aligned for us in this space, and stay really grounded in that. Trust ourselves and give ourselves the space to create the practice of our dreams. Because I know it's scary, and I know how overwhelming business can feel. But if we can start to really get curious, really start to reflect on these things, it's going to help us to not only organize our thoughts, but organize our next steps and figure out what we do next. Because you can have the business of your dreams, and it shouldn't cost you your energy and freedom in the first place. Because that is why we started our businesses in the first place.
Mia Poklopovich [00:18:57]:
And you get to choose. It's your business. I so hope you enjoyed today's episode. It was such a pleasure to be able to talk in your ears. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love so much if you could leave us a review or share it with somebody else who may need it. Every little bit of feedback we take on board and I review personally. And if you would like to connect further, you can find me over at miapoko, m I a p o k o, on Instagram or@ot_inspiretherapy. Have the most wonderful day.
