Embracing a growth mindset is crucial for overcoming self-doubt and navigating challenges, as highlighted by Josephine Hughes in this episode of the Good Enough Counsellors podcast.

She emphasises the importance of viewing experiences as opportunities for learning rather than assessments of personal worth. Josephine shares her recent journey of stepping out of her comfort zone by hiring a business coach, which initially sparked doubts but ultimately reinforced her decision. Throughout the podcast, she encourages therapists to approach new endeavours with a playful attitude, drawing on personal anecdotes to illustrate how playfulness can alleviate anxiety and enhance creativity. By connecting with one's core values and maintaining a supportive network, individuals can cultivate resilience and confidence in their professional journeys.

Takeaways:

• Seeing challenges as opportunities to learn fosters a growth mindset and resilience.
• Criticism does not define your worth; it's a chance to embrace growth and learning.
• Embracing a playful attitude can lead to more enjoyable and successful experiences.
• We are often more likely to take risks when we believe in our ability to grow.
• Our past experiences and values should guide us, rather than external judgments.
• Investing in coaching or personal development is essential to our growth and success.
• Think about the value of therapy or coaching in terms of years of investment rather than an hourly rate

Keywords:

growth mindset, business coaching, overcoming self-doubt, marketing for therapists, playfulness in learning, personal development, investing in yourself, therapy growth group, private practice success, fear of judgment, embracing challenges, coping with criticism, self-improvement strategies, nurturing creativity, building confidence, effective decision-making, accountability in business, learning from failure, fostering resilience, therapist support network

Chapters:

• 00:38 - Introduction to Growth Mindset
• 00:48 - The Challenge of Big Decisions
• 03:40 - Embracing Playfulness in New Experiences
• 10:19 - The Power of a Growth Mindset
• 13:26 - Learning from Mistakes: A Personal Journey
• 14:43 - Finding Your North Star
• 22:13 - Investing in Yourself and Your Future
• 27:01 - Conclusion: Embrace the Journey

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Josephine Hughes on Facebook

Josephine Hughes on YouTube

My website: josephinehughes.com

The information contained in Good Enough Counsellors is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this podcast are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this podcast. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this podcast.

Josephine Hughes disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this podcast.

Josephine Hughes: 00:00:01

See whatever you're doing as a challenge, see it as something that's an opportunity to learn.

Josephine Hughes: 00:00:08

It's not saying anything about you as a person.

Josephine Hughes: 00:00:12

I think the lovely thing almost about the growth mindset is you can almost embrace the times that they don't work because it shows that you're trying.

Josephine Hughes: 00:00:21

And if anybody criticizes you, well, actually, you know, I'm in a position here where I'm out there and I'm trying to do something new.

Josephine Hughes: 00:00:28

Are you?

Josephine Hughes: 00:00:38

Welcome to the Good Enough Counsellors podcast.

Josephine Hughes: 00:00:41

I'm Josephine Hughes, and today I'm doing something a little different.

Josephine Hughes: 00:00:48

But first, let me ask you a little have you ever made a big, brave decision?

Josephine Hughes: 00:00:55

It's going to push you out of your comfort zone, but you think, yeah, I know this is the right thing for me.

Josephine Hughes: 00:01:01

But then the doubts begin to creep in and you start second guessing yourself.

Josephine Hughes: 00:01:06

And you might even find yourself discussing it with friends, and then they might ask you some questions that make you doubt yourself even more.

Josephine Hughes: 00:01:16

That's what happened to me recently, and I'm going to tell you a little bit more about it.

Josephine Hughes: 00:01:21

During the course of this podcast, I've just taken on a new business coach.

Josephine Hughes: 00:01:26

At first I was really excited, but then I had a conversation with a good friend, and when I told her how much it was going to cost me, her eyes did get a bit wide and she said, are you sure?

Josephine Hughes: 00:01:39

And she started questioning me about it.

Josephine Hughes: 00:01:42

And it did then send me onto this spiral of overthinking and second guessing myself.

Josephine Hughes: 00:01:49

So I'm going to explain a little bit more about that as we go through.

Josephine Hughes: 00:01:54

But I have actually started the coaching now, and the wisdom of the original decision is actually proving itself.

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:04

So what I'm doing today is I'm recording this podcast without having written it first.

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:10

What I've been doing recently is spending quite a bit of time scripting my podcasts out, and I am a very, very slow writer.

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:20

It takes me about an hour to write 500 words I've discovered.

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:24

So to write a 15 minutes podcast takes me four or 5 hours, and then I have to record it and edit it.

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:31

So, you know, it's become a really long process.

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:34

So the first meeting that I actually had with my business coach, that was the first thing that we looked at was how could I do it differently?

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:43

And this is what I'm trying out today.

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:46

It is quite difficult, actually, but what I'm doing at the moment is I'm speaking into the mic.

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:51

I've got a few notes, but I haven't got a script.

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:55

So I am flying scriptless, if that's a word.

Josephine Hughes: 00:02:59

And what I'm doing at the moment is I'm actually staring at some black corrugated sponge because in order to get quite good sound with my mic, I put it into a sound box, which is corrugated sponge.

Josephine Hughes: 00:03:12

So that's what I'm looking at at the moment, a black wall of corrugated sponge.

Josephine Hughes: 00:03:18

Anyway, let's carry on.

Josephine Hughes: 00:03:20

Something that happened at the beginning of the week is every Monday morning I have an accountability session with a group of people, and the person who leads it pulls us a card to guide us during the week.

Josephine Hughes: 00:03:33

And the card that she pulled for me, it's a one word card, and on it it said play.

Josephine Hughes: 00:03:40

And we always have a little think and see how that applies to our week.

Josephine Hughes: 00:03:44

And I immediately knew what it applied to, and actually it applied to what I'm doing now, which is recording the podcast, because I decided that I would approach this exercise as something that I was just going to play with, that I'm trying something new out and I'm going to treat it as play.

Josephine Hughes: 00:04:03

I'm not going to take it terribly seriously.

Josephine Hughes: 00:04:06

I'm just going to try it out and see what happens, and I'm going to explain why.

Josephine Hughes: 00:04:12

Play is actually quite an important and helpful way to approach things if we're trying something new.

Josephine Hughes: 00:04:20

I've got a lovely quote here that you probably are quite familiar with, and it says, growth and comfort do not coexist.

Josephine Hughes: 00:04:29

And I think when we're trying something new, when we're moving into a growthful stage, whether it be our training, our marketing, or moving into a new area of work, we often feel quite uncomfortable because we're pushing ourselves out of the familiar, we're moving out of our comfort zone.

Josephine Hughes: 00:04:51

And this is what I'm doing today with my podcast.

Josephine Hughes: 00:04:54

So it seems really appropriate for that card to be pulled for me.

Josephine Hughes: 00:04:58

But play can be really helpful.

Josephine Hughes: 00:04:59

And I'm going to tell you a little story that illustrates this.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:03

So a couple of years ago, I met up with my group of girlfriends.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:07

We all had our babies together, so we've been friends now for over 30 years, which is incredible.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:13

The person who's organizing it actually organized us to go to a mosaics workshop.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:20

So I think there was seven or eight of us all together.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:22

So we all trooped down, went on this mosaics workshop together, and none of us had done mosaics before.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:28

And actually, it was really quite difficult because we weren't using the normal mosaic tiles.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:32

We were actually cutting up bits of old mug and old plates and using old things that were broken and making them into a mosaic pattern.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:43

It was really difficult.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:45

It was really difficult to do the cutting because that sort of took quite a skill.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:48

And because some of the pottery was quite thick, it made it even more difficult.

Josephine Hughes: 00:05:53

And you have a picture in your head of what you want your mosaic to look like, and, of course, you haven't really got the skill.

Josephine Hughes: 00:06:00

So, in actual fact, it was really quite a stressful experience and we were all sort of a bit worried about it and we were all sort of apologizing and sort of, in a way, saying to each other in advance, well, I don't think mine's going to be very good or this is really working, because I think, really, and truthfully, we were a bit frightened about whether or not we were going to be judged by each other by the time we got to the end of the mosaics workshop.

Josephine Hughes: 00:06:28

And, in fact, I brought mine home and we filled it in and it lasted about six months before I put it in the bin.

Josephine Hughes: 00:06:35

I'm telling you that story because what I'd like to offer is a contrast.

Josephine Hughes: 00:06:40

So recently I've been helping out in my church with the young children coming into Sunday school.

Josephine Hughes: 00:06:47

And over the summer, we did some summer activities.

Josephine Hughes: 00:06:50

And I methadore this lovely little boy, and he absolutely adores craft activities.

Josephine Hughes: 00:06:56

And on a Sunday morning, he will literally run into Sunday school because he knows he's going to have fun, he's going to be doing his craft activities.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:05

I think he's such a sweet little boy and I love being around him and helping him.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:09

Anyway, we were together a few weeks ago and he said, oh, I'm going to make a rabbit.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:15

And he started cutting things out with great gusto.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:18

And I think we were doing something with the rabbit's nose.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:22

And I sort of said, oh, well, shall we get some glue and glue the rabbit's nose on?

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:27

No, I'm going to use cellotape.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:28

He said, you know, and he gets out this cellotape and he's putting loads of sellotape all over this.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:36

And I'm looking at it with my adult eyes, thinking it would be much better if we glued it, it would look better.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:41

But he's not bothered about what it's going to look like.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:44

He was just completely in the moment of really enjoying making it.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:47

And he was convinced that Sellotape was the best option, so it didn't really matter what it looked like.

Josephine Hughes: 00:07:52

And when I contrast what we were like in our mosaics workshop compared to what that little boy was like with his rabbit, you know, who do you think had the most fun?

Josephine Hughes: 00:08:04

And I think it was definitely the little boy.

Josephine Hughes: 00:08:06

And I think children can teach us something about play.

Josephine Hughes: 00:08:09

We forget, actually, that play's about really enjoying ourselves and having fun.

Josephine Hughes: 00:08:17

So how does this apply to what I'm talking about at the moment?

Josephine Hughes: 00:08:22

Well, I wonder if you can think about play and how you feel if you can approach things in a playful way.

Josephine Hughes: 00:08:29

a study that was done back in: 2013

Josephine Hughes: 00:08:32

They looked at university students, and the university students were rated on their playfulness.

Josephine Hughes: 00:08:39

So what they found was that the students who were more playful actually had lower stress levels and they were able to use their coping skills more than the people who were less playful.

Josephine Hughes: 00:08:54

So being a playful person actually does help our mental health and helps us cope with challenging situations.

Josephine Hughes: 00:09:03

And so this is part of the reason why I've approached this podcast with the mindset that I'm just going to play.

Josephine Hughes: 00:09:10

It doesn't matter if it goes wrong.

Josephine Hughes: 00:09:13

Well, to set extent, I am a bit protected from that because I can start the recording again if I need.

Josephine Hughes: 00:09:21

But being playful does actually help us to cope.

Josephine Hughes: 00:09:25

It helps us to be more willing to approach change and helps us to cope during that change.

Josephine Hughes: 00:09:34

So I'm going to just move on now and think, well, what are the implications for that when we're actually facing change?

Josephine Hughes: 00:09:40

And this podcast, it's called good enough counsellors, I tend to focus on the marketing side because that's how I help people.

Josephine Hughes: 00:09:49

This may help you actually in your sessions as well.

Josephine Hughes: 00:09:52

I hope so.

Josephine Hughes: 00:09:54

But really sort of, I'm thinking about it from a marketing perspective, from the point of view that I know many of you who listen in are quite nervous about marketing, a because you're not really sure how to do it, but b because you wonder if you're going to make a mistake and what might happen if you can't do it properly.

Josephine Hughes: 00:10:11

So really what I want to talk about, this little section is about approaching things with a growth mindset.

Josephine Hughes: 00:10:19

So the growth mindset was originally suggested by somebody who was researching children and education and looking at children's levels of ability and what helped them to perform.

Josephine Hughes: 00:10:33

Well, it's absolutely fascinating, this research, when you learn about it.

Josephine Hughes: 00:10:37

And what Carol Dweck, the researcher, said is she divided the children into people who had a fixed mindset and pupils who had a growth mindset.

Josephine Hughes: 00:10:50

Now, the ones with the fixed mindset tended to believe that you were either intelligent or you weren't, whereas the ones with the growth mindset believed that intelligence is something that could be developed and those different mindsets actually led to different behavior.

Josephine Hughes: 00:11:09

If you think that intelligence is something that can be developed, you're much more likely to be prepared to take risks and to be prepared to fail because what you think is, well, actually, I'm just going to try this and see what happens, and then I can learn from it and I can improve, and that will help me reach where I'm trying to get to.

Josephine Hughes: 00:11:30

Whereas if you believe that intelligence is static, that it's something that you're maybe born with and can't be changed, what you actually want to do is, in a sense, show that you are okay and that you are intelligent, and that means that you might not take risks because you're not entirely convinced that you'll be able to meet the challenge.

Josephine Hughes: 00:11:49

And really importantly, what it tends to do is it makes you give up more easily, because if you can't do something, you think to yourself, well, obviously, I'm just not very good at that, so I won't do it.

Josephine Hughes: 00:12:02

I'll give up, you know, I'll have to do something I am good at.

Josephine Hughes: 00:12:05

And also, you can be quite defensive and protective of yourself because you don't want people to see that perhaps you aren't as clever as you should be.

Josephine Hughes: 00:12:13

Notice the should I?

Josephine Hughes: 00:12:14

Whereas I think with the children who had the growth mindset, they took criticism on board because they were able to listen to it and to not see it as something that was about them, about their personality.

Josephine Hughes: 00:12:29

They just saw it as a useful way to learn how to do something new.

Josephine Hughes: 00:12:34

And I think this has something to really, really teach us in the way that we approach our tasks, whether we're in therapy, working with our clients, or whether it's, we're doing our marketing.

Josephine Hughes: 00:12:48

And that's to approach the tasks with a growth mindset.

Josephine Hughes: 00:12:52

Because we're human, we're not going to get it right, are we?

Josephine Hughes: 00:12:58

So it's really, really helpful to think to yourself is, you know, when you make a mistake, this isn't actually about who you are.

Josephine Hughes: 00:13:07

It's just about the fact that you still haven't learned how to do this yet.

Josephine Hughes: 00:13:10

And it's really, really helpful to remember that.

Josephine Hughes: 00:13:13

Really helpful to remember that word yet.

Josephine Hughes: 00:13:17

I can't do it yet, but with practice, I may well be able to do it.

Josephine Hughes: 00:13:22

So that's the second thing I really wanted to talk about.

Josephine Hughes: 00:13:26

I mentioned that I'm recording on this podcast live, and what happened is I did actually have another go, so I'm recording this on a Thursday, and when I first tried, I did it this Tuesday, and what I realized when I listened back to it was I hadn't done enough planning in advance.

Josephine Hughes: 00:13:45

So yeah, I'm going to scrap that and I'm going to come back.

Josephine Hughes: 00:13:49

I'm going to do spend more time planning it because then that gives me a sense of direction and it doesn't sound as muddled for you.

Josephine Hughes: 00:13:56

So hopefully it's not sounding muddled and I will bring it all together at the end.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:00

Carry on listening.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:01

You can mark me out of ten for how good a job I've done.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:04

But yeah, see, whatever you're doing as a challenge, see it as something that's an opportunity to learn.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:12

It's not saying anything about you as a person.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:16

I think the lovely thing almost about the growth mindset is you can almost embrace the times that they don't work because it shows that you're trying.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:24

And if anybody criticises you, well actually, you know, I'm in a position here where I'm out there and I'm trying to do something new.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:32

Are you?

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:34

So let's move on.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:36

I think the other thing that is really helpful is to think about our north star.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:43

We need to connect with what is important to us and what our values are.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:50

And I think, you know, the title of this whole podcast is good enough, counsellors.

Josephine Hughes: 00:14:55

And I think problem that many of us face if we're feeling not good enough is because we're somehow measuring ourselves against that external locus of evaluation, so against what we think we should be or against what we think others think we should be.

Josephine Hughes: 00:15:13

You know, we're always measuring ourselves against some sort of external value.

Josephine Hughes: 00:15:18

And I think it's really important to come back to our own North Star.

Josephine Hughes: 00:15:23

If you think about the North Star, the North Star, Polaris, that's been the guiding light for navigators.

Josephine Hughes: 00:15:31

So it's what sailors would look to in the sky when they were trying to steer a ship.

Josephine Hughes: 00:15:37

So the North Star, the idea of the North Star is this is what guides you through life, and it really sort of represents in this context what's important to you.

Josephine Hughes: 00:15:49

And this is often why when I'm talking about, you know, your fear of being judged is to come back to your why.

Josephine Hughes: 00:15:56

And it's the reason that I'm doing this, it's the reason why I'm working with a business coach.

Josephine Hughes: 00:16:03

It's because I have a why that's really important to me and that helps to guide me.

Josephine Hughes: 00:16:10

So if you do face a situation where you're being criticized or judged, you can actually come back to your why to your north star.

Josephine Hughes: 00:16:21

And this is what happened to me.

Josephine Hughes: 00:16:24

When my friend questioned me about the cost of the business coaching, it really did rock me because it made me think, is it worth it?

Josephine Hughes: 00:16:34

And when I thought about it, I remembered the times where I have been helped by a business coach.

Josephine Hughes: 00:16:40

The first business coach I took on, it seemed like such an enormous amount of money that I had to spend on her.

Josephine Hughes: 00:16:47

And yet now it's a been a few years now, but now what I spent on her, I earned double that in a month.

Josephine Hughes: 00:16:55

And equally, when I worked with one of my business coaches, we thought of the idea of the gloriously unready podcast.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:04

And this episode here probably wouldn't have happened if I hadn't have gone through creating gloriously unready because it just made it so much easier to then launch my business podcast.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:16

Good enough, counsellors.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:18

So working with a business coach can really make a difference to you.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:22

I've got another lovely quote here from Maslow and he says, in any given moment, we have two options to step forward into growth or step back into safety.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:35

Now I knew that I was ready for the next step.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:38

I haven't had a coach for a little while and I was feeling the need.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:43

I wanted someone to help me.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:45

Because when you're working with a business coach, they basically show you what you don't know.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:50

Like creating the gloriously unready podcast, for example.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:54

And I don't know what I don't know.

Josephine Hughes: 00:17:57

But my new business coach, I'm pretty sure he knows an awful lot of what I don't know.

Josephine Hughes: 00:18:03

And that's why I want to work with him and that's why I'm prepared to spend the amount of money that I'm prepared to spend.

Josephine Hughes: 00:18:10

And actually, while I'm grateful to my friend for just saying, are you sure?

Josephine Hughes: 00:18:14

Because that's where she was coming from, a place so of wanting me to double check.

Josephine Hughes: 00:18:19

I also talked with some other friends who really know what I want and they reminded me and encouraged me about who I am and what my own north Star is.

Josephine Hughes: 00:18:32

And that really supported me in coming back to myself and thinking, yes, I do actually know what I want.

Josephine Hughes: 00:18:42

I think that's the thing about coaching is it does help you to think outside the box, and that's a bit of what you do when you're helping your clients.

Josephine Hughes: 00:18:52

So your clients will come to you and they'll be really stuck.

Josephine Hughes: 00:18:56

They don't know what they don't know.

Josephine Hughes: 00:18:58

They don't know how to get outside of that box.

Josephine Hughes: 00:19:00

And as a therapist, you actually help them to see the bigger picture.

Josephine Hughes: 00:19:05

You help them to work their way out of that box that they're stuck in.

Josephine Hughes: 00:19:10

So what I'd really like you to remember as a therapist, that because you help your clients, you are most definitely worth the money that you're charging.

Josephine Hughes: 00:19:20

And I know many of you worry about the price of what you're doing, but the difference that you make to clients and the experience that you bring to the counselling room is what makes you worth them paying for you.

Josephine Hughes: 00:19:36

I think with all of us, it's really important to remember that you're actually not paying for the hour, you're paying for the years.

Josephine Hughes: 00:19:45

And again, this is what I came back to when I was thinking about paying for my business coach, because he's been in business for over 20 years and he's got a very successful business and so I want to know how he's done it.

Josephine Hughes: 00:20:00

And the tips and tricks that he can give me are going to help me grow as well.

Josephine Hughes: 00:20:05

And he is worth, I'm not paying him for that hour.

Josephine Hughes: 00:20:09

I'm paying him for the 20 years of experience that he brings to the table.

Josephine Hughes: 00:20:15

And that's a bit like when you work with me too.

Josephine Hughes: 00:20:19

You know, I've got ten years of working in private practice and all that that entails, but also all the years that I've been working with loads and loads of therapists and helping them with their marketing and learning from what's worked for them and what hasn't worked for them.

Josephine Hughes: 00:20:38

And it's that sort of experience that I'm bringing to the table.

Josephine Hughes: 00:20:42

So when you're paying me, you're not paying me for the hour, you're paying me for those years in private practice, the years I was in business before that, and the years that I've been in business coaching therapists, that's what I'd like you to think about when you're thinking about your fees is that, you know, when clients come to you, they are not just paying you for that hour of counselling, they're paying you for a lifetime of experience, especially the lives that so many of us have experienced, the bereavements, the trauma, the overcoming difficulties that going through therapy ourselves, that is invaluable.

Josephine Hughes: 00:21:23

And that means that we can have a huge amount of empathy for our clients.

Josephine Hughes: 00:21:27

If nothing else, it gives us empathy, but I think quite often it gives us a lot more than that.

Josephine Hughes: 00:21:31

And then, you know, you've got your training, you've got the hours that you've spent on placement and the hours that you've spent listening to people after you've qualified.

Josephine Hughes: 00:21:42

You bring so much to the table, and that's why you're worth so much more.

Josephine Hughes: 00:21:48

And when clients pay you, they're not just paying you for the hour, they're paying you for all those years.

Josephine Hughes: 00:21:54

So I'd really like to encourage you.

Josephine Hughes: 00:21:56

If you're someone who does worry about your fees, remember, they're not paying you for the hour, they're paying you for the years.

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:06

But I'd also like to challenge you as well and ask you, are you prepared to invest in yourself?

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:13

So it may be that you've got clients who are investing in themselves.

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:18

They're coming to you and paying you because they want to grow.

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:22

Are you doing that for you?

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:25

And again, that's part of the reason why I'm working with a business coach, because I believe in coaching.

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:31

You know, why am I expecting people to come to me and invest in me if I'm not prepared to do the same?

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:38

It's almost, you know, putting my money where my mouth is.

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:41

So are you investing in you?

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:43

And if you've ever thought about working with me, the way I'd like you to see it is it's a bit like therapy for your business.

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:50

I'm not, you know, a psychological therapist anymore, but I do help people with their businesses.

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:56

Are you prepared, you're listening to this podcast.

Josephine Hughes: 00:22:58

Are you prepared to invest in you?

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:00

Because I think the thing is, is that with business coaching, you can actually see the results of the money that you're putting in.

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:09

So, for example, when I work with people on the make your profile work training that I do, you know, we see results.

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:17

We see people investing the money in working with me, and the results are that they get more paying clients.

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:23

And the return on investment, if you work with me, is just incredible.

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:27

You know, I've got somebody who's doubled the number of clients that she's working with.

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:32

And you think you might pay to join therapy growth group?

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:36

Yes, it's 50 pounds per month, but she's, she's making that oh so, so many times over, just in a week.

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:43

So as we draw to the end of the episode, I just want to draw all the threads together.

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:49

I did tell you I had a plan, didn't I?

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:51

When we're growing, it feels really risky.

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:54

It doesn't feel very safe, does it?

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:56

We're out of our comfort zones.

Josephine Hughes: 00:23:58

But what can help us is to approach the situation with a growth mindset, to approach it playfully, to relax and enjoy the process.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:08

Think about that little boy in Sunday school with his sellotape.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:12

A lot of it is about having fun.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:15

I have a tremendous amount of fun doing this.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:18

I love playing with canva, for example.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:21

You can have a lot of fun in your marketing.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:23

You don't have to take it too seriously.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:26

Remember, use the growth mindset.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:28

Approach the task you're doing as, as a challenge where you're going to have fun.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:34

And that if it doesn't work, that's all right, because you can pick yourself up again and just try again and be kind to yourself in this.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:41

You know, don't expect yourself to be perfect right from the get go.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:46

You're not going to be.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:47

Why is it that we expect that of ourselves?

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:50

And I think the answer is because we've got a fixed mindset.

Josephine Hughes: 00:24:53

It's all about learning and growing and being kind to yourself in the process, reminding yourself that you're just learning and being able to play.

Josephine Hughes: 00:25:04

And so I'd also say, remember as well, that the results don't say anything about you.

Josephine Hughes: 00:25:13

If you've got your own North Star, you've got your own values, you can actually call on those to help you.

Josephine Hughes: 00:25:20

So that if you do fail, you might think to yourself, yeah, but, you know, I was being true to myself in that.

Josephine Hughes: 00:25:28

And also, rather than thinking to yourself, you know, I've got to rely on other people's judgment of whether or not I'm doing a good job here.

Josephine Hughes: 00:25:37

You actually can measure yourself against your own North Star, against your own values and your own principles.

Josephine Hughes: 00:25:44

And that means that you can be much more robust in the face of criticism and judgment.

Josephine Hughes: 00:25:50

And finally, I'd really like to say about other people, other people can really support and encourage you.

Josephine Hughes: 00:25:58

Like I said about my friends with my decision about my business coach, but also I had people who reminded me of what I was capable of.

Josephine Hughes: 00:26:06

I had people who knew me and knew what I wanted, and they encouraged me, and they reminded me that I could trust myself, I could trust my judgment, and that's what I try and provide when I'm working with people in a coaching capacity.

Josephine Hughes: 00:26:22

And it's also what I provide by facilitating it.

Josephine Hughes: 00:26:25

Within therapy growth group, where there's a group of therapists all together who really do encourage each other.

Josephine Hughes: 00:26:32

And so when we're working together, people, if they are doubtful, they will get support and they'll get encouragement and they'll get people who believe them.

Josephine Hughes: 00:26:43

And that is a real joy to be able to facilitate that within my work.

Josephine Hughes: 00:26:50

So don't take it all too seriously.

Josephine Hughes: 00:26:54

Be playful, have fun, and see what happens.

Josephine Hughes: 00:27:01

Thanks for listening.

Josephine Hughes: 00:27:02

Do come and join my Facebook community, goodenough counsellors.

Josephine Hughes: 00:27:06

And for more information about how I can help you develop your private practice, please visit my website, josephinehughes.com.

Josephine Hughes: 00:27:15

if you found this episode helpful, I'd love it if you could share it with a fellow therapist or leave a review on your podcast app.

Josephine Hughes: 00:27:24

And in closing, I'd love to remind you that every single step you make gets you closer to your dream.

Josephine Hughes: 00:27:32

I really believe believe you can do it.