Shifting Your Business Focus Can Be Scary

It can be nerve wracking to consider shifting your business focus. I can relate.

There is something that has been weighing on my mind more and more lately.

That is: I’m not as relevant to my audience as I used to be.

That’s not easy to say.

I Felt Relevant At The Start

When I started Private Practice Skills in 2018, I had started my therapy practice 3 times since 2012. Seeing private practice clients was my sole source of income at that point.

So as a channel and blog dedicated to teaching people how to start and grow a private practice, I felt what I had to offer was quite relevant. I was teaching the things I was actively implementing in my own business.

I believe that this relevancy continued to follow me for a while. Particularly as we all made huge pivots together during the pandemic. During that time I made a fair amount of content focusing on switching to being a virtual practice.

A Noticeable Shift

And then around the end of 2020 something changed. I started earning more income from Private Practice Skills than I was from my therapy practice. I was meeting with clients extremely part time due to the combination of the pandemic and being at home with my infant nearly all the time.

Even then, I felt like I was just one or two degrees away from what I was teaching. And many of the tools I taught apply to all kinds of businesses: for example, building a brand and optimizing your page for SEO. I’ve used both of those tools to succeed in my therapy practice and Private Practice Skills.

So, overall, I still felt relevant.

My Business Focus Has Changed

But just in the last 6 months or so I’ve started to really realize that I’m becoming less relevant in the private practice scene.

Primarily because enough people know me now through Private Practice Skills that I’ve completely stopped putting energy into marketing my therapy practice. And yet, my practice is always full.

I notice more comments on my videos referencing this. For example, I see folks more referring to me as an “influencer” than a “private practice owner”.

And though I split my working hours 50/50 between seeing therapy clients and running Private Practice Skills, it’s fair to say now that keeping my practice running smoothly happens pretty passively. Currently, I’m directing more of my active energy into Private Practice Skills.

Because of that, I feel like I am losing relevance both in other people’s eyes and my own as far as being a private practice owner.

My Relevance Is Slipping

I don’t think the whole scene of starting and growing a practice has taken a 180 in the last two years or so. Therefore, I think the tools I teach are still relevant. For now.

But, I also believe that eventually, the things I teach about private practice will become more and more outdated as new practices take the spotlight.

And as long as enough people know me from this channel, I may never need to evolve or figure out what the new marketing practices are for private practice. This is true as long as I can get referrals through less conventional ways.

It’s entirely possible that I won’t be relevant again when it comes to what it’s like to be a private practice owner. That’s wild for me to wrap my head around.

Beyond all that, I’m losing relevance in other ways. Because of the reliable passive income I’m generating through Private Practice Skills, I don’t feel pressure for my therapy practice to generate income.

On the one hand, I count that as a gift. I haven’t raised my rates now in a few years and I’ve kept my sliding scale relatively low..

And while this is something I’m truly grateful for, I’m fully aware how unrelatable this is to the average therapist in private practice who relies on that income to pay the bills. Thus, another reason my relevance is slipping.

3 Reasons Why I’m Shifting My Focus

In all of this, I’m coming to accept that I need to welcome a shift in focus. You may have noticed that some of the focus of my YouTube content/blog has gradually changed in recent months.

These are some reasons why I think it’s important I shift focus:

1) Staying Authentic

I only want to make content that aligns with my current skill set.

2) Staying Relevant

As useful as I think the private practice tools I teach are now, there will come a day when they are eventually outdated.
I remember when I first moved into my last office in 2017, an older gentleman in the same building offered me the sage wisdom to list my business in the yellow pages. Then he reflected sadly that he doesn’t seem to get much business from the yellow pages like he used to.
Though we’re not there yet. I think someday the tools I teach now will feel like I’m telling people to get listed in the yellow pages. Our tools need to evolve as society evolves.

3) Model Pivoting

This is actually the main reason why I felt it was worth writing an article about this topic.
This isn’t just about me and my career choices. This is part of being human. When we run a business, whether an online content creation business or a private therapy practice, success follows those who are willing to make pivots.
Whether you’re pivoting with the times such as the yellow pages example I named, or you’re pivoting with yourself to stay true to who you are, making changes allows you to flourish.

So Start Pivoting!

So, if you are feeling like shifting your business focus, you can!

Or if the same strategy that used to work to fill your practice is no longer working, it’s okay to explore other avenues.

These kinds of changes do take time and strategy. But, I think it’s a benefit to both our health and the health of our clients (or in my case, the audience of people following my content) to allow our businesses to change with our individual and societal changes.

It’s modeling health for those who see us make those changes. It also makes our businesses more sustainable for us. My hunch is that doing so can also help mitigate burnout.

If you’ve been feeling like some area of your practice isn’t working or isn’t what you want, I hope this acts as a gentle reminder that you have permission to explore what’s happening there a little better, and if needed, to change your focus too.