We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jason Polk a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jason , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

When I was in grad school for Social Work, the eventual goal and dream was to have my own counseling practice.

After I graduated, I decided I’ll wait a couple years until I’m a fully licensed counselor to do that.

During those two years waiting to be licensed, I worked in community agency counseling jobs that were fine, but I was itching to be my own boss. I wanted to take lunch when I felt like it, make my own schedule, and eventually make more money helping clients my own way.

When those two years were up, I was licensed, and I was off to start my practice!

The main problem was that I didn’t really have a plan…

My marketing plan was what I later learned was referred to as, “hope marketing” – hope that people find you.

I was hoping to slowly get new clients from therapist listings like Psychology Today and my new website – which wasn’t built yet.

I was also hoping that the agency I left would refer clients to me.

When I left, I had two regular clients. One was paying $65 per hour and the other was from the agency paying around $80 per hour.

Even seven years ago, $145 per week is not enough to live on…

I had a little bit of savings, about $4500 from cashing out the retirement at my old job, however, it’s not like I was diligently saving that money.

One thing that my journey as a business owner has made apparent is that: I’ve sucked with money.

When I started, I didn’t have a budget, profit or loss statement; I wasn’t clear on how much was coming in and going out. I just prayed I’d get more clients and then I’d have money in the bank.

As a business owner or entrepreneur, it’s clear you need to be hopeful and optimistic, but you also need to balance that with reality. Something I didn’t do.

In the beginning, I wish I relied less on hope and more on logic to look honestly at my financial situation. It would have led to less stress for me and less conflict in my relationship.

It took a lot of this sort of stress and credit card debt to realize that I didn’t have a profitable business.

However, I wasn’t giving up on the dream entirely, I got part time jobs while I continued to build my practice.

I ran some counseling groups for colleagues that owned agencies (those successful in their dream). The pay was decent but that kept my dream alive.

Obviously, there is nothing wrong with going this route. If the goal and dream is strong enough, you’ll do whatever it takes.

This also bought me some time to address another significant problem. Although I was trained in a lot of counseling modalities, I wasn’t an expert in any of them. So, I doubled down and continued to receive training and supervision in couples counseling.

My practice became profitable and full only when I niched down to work with couples and to be the best at doing so (in my opinion) in my area.

I slowly became known as someone who works with couples from colleagues to friends, to former clients. Having a focused niche also allows me to optimize my website for search terms that potential clients may type into Google.

I really recommend focusing on search engine optimization (SEO) for the keywords that you’re an expert in. SEO is free monetarily, but it takes your time. It takes time to understand it, and to do the requirements to keep your site ranking.

If you’ve skimmed the whole article, here’s my advice:

1) Have a decent (but flexible) plan
2) Be real and honest with money (the goal of business is profit).
3) Be an expert at something

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Why do I do what I do?

In the past, I’ve sucked at relationships.

I’ve been divorced.

I’ve been to a lot of couples therapy and that’s how I started my journey as a couples counselor.

I was a counselor at the time of my divorce and I was confused how a relationship so strong could devolve into something where hostility and resentment was the norm.

So I studied how to become a couples counselor. The main reason for me doing so is because I wanted to learn how to do relationships.

I also wanted to learn how to really help couples in my situation. You see, not everybody who works with couples is effective. My ex-wife and I have been to some not-so-good counselors in the past.

Working with couples together, is one of the hardest skills to learn.

But I’ve stuck with it and in the beginning I think I sucked too.

I’ve been working primarily with couples for over seven years and I still love what I do.

Sure there’s often a lot of pain involved in my work.

But it’s so rewarding when motivated couples move from a constant state of disharmony and disconnection to state of connection and understanding.

It truly is rewarding work.

Also, for me, the most valuable thing I’ve gotten out of training to be a couples counselor is that I can apply it to my relationship!

Despite having sucked at relationships in the past, I now find myself in a healthy, happy marriage with my wife Jessica.

Of course we have conflict, but we allow space and provide validation for each other and we have tools to repair and connect.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Fix This Next for Healthcare Providers by Kasey Compton.

This is where it solidified the idea that the goal of business is profit.

It also helps healthcare providers to treat their business like a patient. It gives a hierarchy of needs for what you treat first in your business and if you don’t have the base needs fixed, don’t move on to less important business needs.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Being authentic.

I think people often have ideas of therapists being “woo-woo” or those who will focus on energy auras, light incense and chant in the office.

Most of us are not like that.

Usually we’re everyday people who became a therapist because we wanted to figure out our own suffering.

I still like to watch the Denver Broncos and eat wings and pizza.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://coloradorelationshiprecovery.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason.a.polk/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denverrelationshipexperts
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corelationshiprecovery/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuc-N7XxXU0C9aulIMFt__Q