Embracing Our Perceived Shortcomings As Opportunities For Growth with Mikah Miller | GP 151

Share this content
Embracing Our Perceived Shortcomings As Opportunities For Growth with Mikah Miller | GP 151

Do you sometimes feel held back from your true potential by your limiting beliefs? Can you permit yourself to follow your dreams? Are you taking action that’s in alignment with your highest calling?

In this podcast episode, LaToya Smith speaks about embracing our perceived shortcomings as opportunities for growth with Mikah Miller.

Podcast Sponsor: Heard

An image of the Practice of the Practice podcast sponsor, Heard, is captured. Heard offers affordable bookkeeping services, personalized financial reporting, and tax assistance.

As a therapist, the last thing you probably want to think about is doing your own bookkeeping and taxes. Heard is here to help with that.

Heard is the financial back-office built specifically for therapists in private practice. They combine smart software with real humans to handle bookkeeping, taxes, and payroll.

Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned clinician or are in the first year of your practice, Heard will identify areas for growth and streamline best financial practices for your business.

When you sign up with Heard, you’ll be matched with an accountant who will help you track your income and expenses, file taxes online, and maximize tax savings.

You’ll also receive financial insights such as profit and loss statements and personalized monthly reports.

You can say goodbye to poring over spreadsheets and guessing your tax deductions or quarterly payments. Focus on your clients, and Heard will take care of the rest.

Pricing begins at $149 per month for solo practices and can easily be tailored to fit your business’ financial needs. Sign up for a free, 15-min consult call today at joinheard.com/partners/joe.

The deadline to sign up for 2022 tax services is December 31, 2022.

Meet Mikah Miller

A photo of Mikah Miller is captured. is the Founder and Director of With A Child's Heart Behavioral Health Center. Mikah is featured on Grow a Group Practice, a therapist podcast.

Mikah Miller is the Founder and Director of With A Child’s Heart Behavioral Health Center. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor who specializes in “The 8TH Grade Transition”. She absolutely loves her client kiddos entering and exiting the 8th grade.

Mikah also helps other Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Entrepreneurs grow their businesses from the inside out by learning how to face their subconscious programming, integrate their past, present, and future selves, Align, and GLOW!

Visit With A Child’s Heart, Revealing the Glow Within, and connect on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter (@Mikahmiller_), and TikTok (@MikahMiller).

Freebies: 

1.) First Part of Episode: A free download “The Glow Up Journal” https://www.revealingtheglowwithin.com/free-ebook-for-subscribers   and 20%off code: GLOWUP2023  for A” Pick My Brain” Session

2.) For Episode on Self Love: 5 Day Self-Love and Entrepreneurship Challenge Freebie – 

https://www.revealingtheglowwithin.com/self-love-and-entrepreneurship-challenge

In This Podcast

  • Identify your limiting beliefs
  • Start small but stay consistent
  • You are the only you out there
  • Learn how to integrate your past into your present

Identify your limiting beliefs

Identify them first. The shortcomings, problems, all of those … that’s perception, right? Because a problem is a perception of what you think it really is.

Mikah Miller

Once you identify what you think that shortcoming is, that’s when you start to try to navigate through working your way around it and brainstorming different ideas.

Even though your perception of the issue is what creates the struggle, you need to separate yourself from the problem.

[Do not] let them beat you up, but confront them, own them, and be honest. Or, scratch out the ones that don’t even make sense – the ones that people told us we are [that] we just believed.

LaToya Smith

Start small but stay consistent

Put one foot in front of the other in the direction of your goal.

Each day, make one small decision that will help you – or your future self – to get to your dream.

You’ll be amazed to see just how many opportunities will open up that will take you closer to where you want to go.

I always talk about alignment. You just start putting one foot in front of the other and do things that excite you and give you these full-body “yeses”, opportunities will come to you that will help you grow, that open doors, and you just take those opportunities and things start happening.

Mikah Miller

You are the only you out there

Even though there may be other clinicians working in your niche, or people with similar backgrounds, no one in the world – that was or will be – is like you!

They’re not you! … You guys could all see the same clientele and it still wouldn’t matter because they’re not you, and that’s part of the glow that I’m talking about. Your story, your life, your history, that’s going to attract a certain type of client.

Mikah Miller

You truly are one of a kind because you are a wholly unique combination of nature and nurture as well as experience and education. Ride the wave that is your individuality, because it truly is your greatest strength.

Learn how to integrate your past into your present

Learn how to use your past, learn how to heal your inner child. It’s not necessarily therapy but it’s learning how to bring things with you.

Mikah Miller

You cannot separate yourself from your past, and if you try to, you may end up recreating it in your present because it’s all that you’re focusing on.

However, if you can heal from your past, learn from it, and bring the best of it with you on your journey, you’re setting yourself up for success. You don’t have to carry your past, but don’t force it away either.

Bring all the parts of yourself together in love because that is also going to help you transform your business.

Useful links mentioned in this episode:

Check out these additional resources:

Meet LaToya Smith

An image of LaToya Smith is captured. She is a consultant with Practice of the Practice and the owner of LCS Counseling. LaToya is featured on the Practice of the Practice, a therapist podcast.

LaToya is a consultant with Practice of the Practice and the owner of LCS Counseling and Consulting Agency in Fortworth Texas. She firmly believes that people don’t have to remain stuck in their pain or the place they became wounded. In addition to this, LaToya encourages her clients to be active in their treatment and work towards their desired outcome.

She has also launched Strong Witness which is a platform designed to connect, transform, and heal communities through the power of storytelling.

Visit LaToya’s website. Connect with her on FacebookInstagramStrong Witness Instagram, and Twitter.

Apply to work with LaToya.

Email her at [email protected]

Podcast Transcription

[LATOYA]: The Grow A Group Practice Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice Network, a network of podcast seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like the Practice of the Practice podcast, go to www.practiceofthepractice.com/network. New Speaker: You are listening to the Grow A Group Practice podcast, a podcast focused on helping people start, grow, and scale a group practice. Each week you’ll hear topics that are relevant to group practice owners. I’m LaToya Smith, a practice owner, and I love hearing about people’s stories and real-life experiences. So let’s get started. . New Speaker: Welcome back to the Grow A Group Practice podcast. I am LaToya Smith, your host for season two. As always, I think we have some amazing guests, but I was really excited to meet with this guest because I knew I was going to laugh. I took a look at her website, it was fun, it was full. I know she’s going to offer some very valuable information. Again like always, she’s one of the people that I sought out, I saw on social media and I said I definitely want to have this person on the podcast just to help us out, help out the practice owners, those that are starting to practice, growing their practice, scaling their practice, always valuable information to learn. Today’s guest is Miss Mikah Miller. Mikah, welcome so much to the podcast. [MIKAH MILLER]: Thank you so much, LaToya. [LATOYA]: Yes, I appreciate you being on, I appreciate us working together to get this set up. Mikah, before we jump into today’s topic, tell our audience a little bit about who you are and what you do. [MIKAH]: Well, my name is Mikah Miller. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in Georgia, Metro Atlanta, for those that want the specifics. I own a group practice out in Canton, Georgia. It’s about nine of us out there and we work primarily with children and adolescents. I started off working with just at-risk youth, but of course we’ve grown and we work with all youth from all different types of backgrounds, families, and we do individual counseling, and we also see adults that want to connect to their inner child and do a lot of inner child healing work. I also do speaking engagements and I coach other group practice owners and solopreneurs that are looking to own a group practice. [LATOYA]: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. I know that before we started, we hit the record button, you mentioned you’re launching something new for 2023. [MIKAH]: Yes. So I am launching like a group practice owner hub for solopreneurs that want to be in a group practice or for group practice owners that want to scale and have very successful practices. That is revealingtheglowwithin.com and Revealing the Glow Within, people always say, what is the glow? The glow is really just your magnetic authenticity, when you take your past, when you take your hurt, when you take your pain and you heal from it, healing from it, and you bring your authentic self and you attract everything that’s meant for you, you are in line with everything that is meant for you when you embody the glow. [LATOYA]: Okay, well, I’m excited to hear that, see more about that launch in 2023. That sounds really, really good. You know what too, tell us how you got into speaking engagement. You tend to do a lot of those too. Take us through your time as well as the practice. [MIKAH]: Honestly, it’s part of that getting in alignment part. Because I always said, I did not want to speak but as you continue to heal, as you continue to grow in field of entrepreneurship and learn and study, you get different opportunities. I did have an opportunity to be on a panel, the panel ended up getting, it was canceled in Florida back in 2020 because of the pandemic and then what happened was in, let’s see, it was really January of this year, I was asked to go from being a panelist to be an actual speaker at this presentation. I had like three months to prepare for the presentation and everything in me said yes, and I did it, and I loved it. I loved it and I had an amazing response to it that allowed me to open up a Facebook community and have different consultees. I’ve just been speaking here and there ever since. [LATOYA]: Yes, that sounds amazing, just how it worked out and it sounds like, Mikah sounds like you’re definitely a go-getter and will just get after it. You’re naming different avenues from having a private practice to starting this big learning community to being a speaker but see, so many times we hear from people where they think they can’t do it. Like somebody may be listening right now and be like, no, she can do that, but I can’t do that because, and they’ll list 20 reasons why they can’t, ignoring why they can. So let’s focus, I know today’s topic we’re really talking about, like looking at those shortcomings, but overcoming them. Let’s focus on that space for those listening that are like, wow, that’s amazing, but couldn’t be me. How do we begin to confront those issues or those shortcomings, but not let them stop us? [MIKAH]: Identify them first. What are your, the shortcomings, problems, all of those, that’s perception. A problem is a perception of what you think it really is. So shortcomings, my shortcoming was, just to give you an example, was I felt like as a single mother that I could not be an entrepreneur. I didn’t have the capital, I didn’t have anything to do this. At the time, my mom she was watching my son and she actually ended up having a stroke, therefore, I didn’t, she’s doing well, but she could not watch my son anymore. So there goes community support. Shortcoming is a perception, but once you identify what you think that shortcoming is, that’s when you start to try to navigate through, okay, how can I work my way around this and just start throwing out different ideas. [LATOYA]: I’m glad to hear you, try all of them. [MIKAH]: Try all of them. [LATOYA]: That’s a good point too. First things first, I’m glad to hear your mom’s doing well, first things first is, okay, not to let them beat you up, but to confront them and just own them and be honest. Or scratch out the ones that don’t even make sense, the things that people told us that we are and we just believed. [MIKAH]: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, like, you said, touch on the one that you know have potential and then the one that you know don’t go ahead and scratch them all. But I’m a firm believer that if you try anything once you can never regret what you do. You can only regret what you don’t. [LATOYA]: Yes. So, face that mountain, especially when you say you about to start a business, you got about, you’ll see the room going to go silent most often, and people going to tell you, well, that already exists or it’s not going to work. But what I hear you saying is, listen, list that stuff out and it just, because you want to start a practice and it’s already one down the street doesn’t mean that yours can’t be any different. [MIKAH]: And your pain point might actually be the tool or the marketing tool or that attraction that brings you those customers, that brings you that business. So it’s like, embrace everything that you think might be a problem because you never know. Me being a single mom, guess what I attracted a lot of single parent therapists that came to work for me. I attracted a lot of single parents that brought their children to us. So the things that you think are a problem might just be the attraction that brings people in. [LATOYA]: Yes. So look at it, understand what the problematic areas may be and the shortcomings, and really confront it and then begin to do that hard work around it. Don’t let it stop you, but push forward. So what helped you in that push, especially in those moments where, okay, I’m a single mom, I don’t have the resources, was it people you relied on? Did you take courses or were you just like, listen? [MIKAH]: So being short on income. Things like this, podcasts, listening to, I think I really started off listening to podcasts and getting free game, like getting the information from people that have been through it. Podcasts, I would Google, on YouTube because people will give excuses, well, I can’t afford to coach. I can’t afford. Guess what? You can afford to go on YouTube and click a button and press play. Go on YouTube, research on Google, Facebook was just paramount because at the time Facebook groups and the communities were new. So I hopped in all of them and I got the game from each group and I took notes every day. You don’t necessarily have to start with all the knowledge, but you can attain the knowledge, but you have to be willing to go get it. [LATOYA]: Yes, yes, yes. It’s two part, doing the hard work and then you got to get after it because what you’re saying is it is too easy. Some stuff just out there you could have taken. So don’t worry about, yes, I’m a consultant, so don’t worry about, sometimes it’s not time yet to spend a bunch of money where you can just gather what you can until it’s time for that. Don’t let lack of resources stop you because there’s too many resources. [MIKAH]: Any resources. Now, you might reach a point. Now, I’m not going to say that you won’t reach a point where you can only take yourself so far, because that is true. Once you get to a certain level and you know that you want to scale and you want to reach a certain height, then you have to be willing to invest in yourself and that’s the self-love piece. That’s the piece where you have to know you’re deserving of investing more. [LATOYA]: But that’s good stuff right there, because I think not only is that, I agree with you, that’s the self-love piece, but it’s self-love from the beginning too. If you think that you got these strengths and these gifts, and then somebody says you’re not like, or you don’t like, no, you got to love yourself enough than want to try. I always say that for myself. I’m going to be more upset with me if I don’t even try as opposed to trying and maybe not succeeding. [MIKAH]: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You’re right, it’s self-love from day one because speaking on my pain point, being a single mom, or not pain point, but being a single mom, like yes, the statistics were stacked against me and my son but it’s like, no, but what am I, what am I good at? I’m great with children. I’m a forever student. I’m always going to be a great listener. So I had to really love the great parts of myself, and I had to magnify the great things that were going on in my life and everything else became so much smaller comparison to what I really was. [LATOYA]: Yes. Because what I hear you saying too, it’s not like you got to be everything to everybody. You’re going to be the right version of you for you, for those that are drawn to you. Because like what you said too, a minute ago, we all have our pain points. We have our areas, but when we understand that now we can speak to somebody else a little bit different. So we see that stuff like, it becomes cliche on social media, like the ones drawn to you. Those are your people. But when it comes down to running private practice, those are really your people, like who you call. For the ones that are not, they not. [MIKAH]: It’s just, even if it’s not a specific thing, it’s the struggle. My struggle could be this, your struggle could be something else, but we relate on the struggle. We’re still both struggling. [LATOYA]: Yes. I like that, the idea that one, it’s like changing the narrative. Listen, I can look at this as a shortcoming. I can look at this as a stepping stone and my strength when I face it, pull on it. I got to get after it and get it going. For you, it sounds like it may have been like even, because we say this speaking that 2020 wasn’t that long, but it’s like two years went on, three years soon [MIKAH]: Yes, it wasn’t that long ago. That wasn’t a plan, it wasn’t a plan. I always talk about like alignment, you start just putting your foot, one foot in front of the other and do things that excite you, that give you these full body yeses. Opportunities come to you that help you grow, that give you open doors and you just start taking those opportunities and things just start happening. I met the person that hosted the retreat in like 2019 on Facebook in one of those groups that I was getting the pre-game from. So I met them, became friends with them, and the opportunity they see you on social media, they see your personality and then they approach you. It’s really about just like being yourself every step in the way and being open to saying yes when you feel those full body yeses? [LATOYA]: So you were intentionally, not only did you get, like you said, the free game, Facebook groups podcast, YouTube. It sounds like you were also intentional about reaching out to people, like being conversational. So don’t just be in the room and then stay to the back, but actually letting your presence be known. [MIKAH]: Absolutely. I mean, engage in the groups, talk in the groups. I think people get very used to being in groups so they don’t engage but it was like, no, I need people to know that I need help. When my name pop up it’s going to be a good question. I hope like, I wanted people to know who I was just as personality because I felt like once people knew who I was and what I stood for, that they would feel comfortable and confident sending their kids to my practice. So it wasn’t necessarily about marketing, but it was just about really trying to be myself. Like, I had nothing to lose at that time. I had nothing to lose. I had already started my business, but I was actually growing in group practice and really trying to scale on a pandemic. At that point I was like, listen, you’re doing nothing but sitting at home, so you have nothing but opportunity to be on these social sites and really networking with people. [LATOYA]: Have you always been a go-getter like this or this is something that happened like during the pandemic where you had no choice but to start grinding? [MIKAH]: I have not. I won’t say, I’ve always been, I won’t say a go-getter to this degree, but I think, like I said, when you start walking in your authenticity, when you start healing and learning your pain points, a lot of this stuff came from like me healing minor child too. Because being the child that I was, was very much introverted, very much a people pleaser, very much, I was bullied in middle school and things like that. I didn’t have a voice. I created a voice right as a defense mechanism, which became what I’m called on social media as that funny therapist. It became a voice. But it was because it was more so me trying to fit in. So this go-getter part that you see now is just me healing myself and learning that my voice actually has value outside of always being funny, outside of always being. So it really just grew into this go-getter part but my son is what really pushed me to become the go-getter spirit that people say they see now [HEARD]: As a therapist, the last thing you probably want to think about is doing your own bookkeeping and taxes. Heard is here to help with that. Heard is the financial back office built specifically for therapists in private practice. They combine smart software with real humans to handle bookkeeping, taxes and payroll. Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned clinician or in the first year of your practice, Heard will identify areas for growth and streamline best financial practices for your business. When you sign up with Heard, you’ll be matched with an accountant who will help you track your income and expenses, file taxes online and maximize tax savings. You’ll also receive financial insights such as profit and loss statements and personalized monthly reports. New Speaker: You can say goodbye to pouring over spreadsheets and guessing your tax deductions or quarterly payments. Focus on your clients and Heard will take care of the rest. Prices begin at just $149 per month for solo practices and can easily be tailored to fit your businesses financial needs. Sign up for free for a 15-minute consult today at www.joinheard.com. Again, that’s www.joinheard.com. [LATOYA SMITH]: Yes, I think that’s a beautiful thing. I think it’s also just shows us that we don’t, you can get after it in your own way, but I love the part where you say, like, finding your authentic voice. Like in a space where, in the building I’m sitting in right now, I bet every other door may be a therapist but would always tell people is they don’t see who I see. The funny part is everybody stays busy so it ain’t like one person’s with less work or somebody else’s down the hall but also learning to find who you are in your voice amongst the crowd as well. [MIKAH]: And they’re not you. They’re not you. It could be, you guys could all see the same clientele, but it still wouldn’t matter because they’re not you. That’s part of the goal that I’m talking about, like your story, your life, your history, that’s going to attract a certain type of client. When people go on, I know you’ve gone on, advertised on different platforms and they say, oh, I saw you and I was instantly like, drawn to you, what is that? That’s you, that’s your story, that’s the thing that you bring to the table that no one can see. [LATOYA]: Yes, which all that that you’re saying, definitely, ccomparison is nowhere in there. We all have our own lane to flow in. [MIKAH]: That’s right. [LATOYA]: I like that. Because we can get caught up so easily. That’s what I hear a lot of, even when I first started, I’ll be honest, when I first started my practice I’m looking at the person next door and I’m just like, man, look at all those people coming in, even though you’ve been in practice longer than I have. So it doesn’t even make sense to me to compare myself to that or trying to keep up with somebody else. But there’s such a piece that comes when you realize, listen, this is how I’m going to do it, and you got it to do it that way, but this is how I’m going to do it because I’m building my strength. And I’ve been saying this a lot this year too, I’m maturing as a business owner. Like, yes, I’ve been in practice for years, but I feel myself maturing with the ups and the downs, the highs and the lows that I’m completely different than I was this time last year. [MIKAH]: That’s the growth part. I always tell people, like it’s called growing a business for a reason. People want to get in the game and they’re like, okay, so I need to have this, this, that., this office. I had an office with folding chair from church picnic it. I stole, let’s see, I stole my brother’s plant, he had a floor plant from his office. Then I had like a table that I put, and that was my first office, folding chairs, metal table [LATOYA]: Get it. [MIKAH]: And people, it did not stop, people came in and it was almost like, oh, I get to be a part of this stor. Oh, this is great. People came in, it became funny. It became a whole thing and that’s how I started. I had people that have big offices around me. It’s not about that. It’s about what do you bring to the table? [LATOYA]: And embrace that. Absolutely, I love that. I love that part of it. How do you bring out this strength that you have with those on your team? Do you, can you look at your team and maybe sometimes there people you want to interview and think, okay, listen, this is great, I can really help this person. Or is it, do you find that when your personality comes and you’re a go-getter, people just catch fire with it? Is it like a teaching thing? [MIKAH]: No. You know what it is, I think a lot of it is being able to find that. I’m not big on making my clinicians find a niche but I always ask them what they’re interested in or what are they learning about or what’s going on with them in that moment, or what do they want, and I send them information. But what really has helped me in my hiring process, that is a growing process, the grow to learn how to hire. No one really knows what is good for their practice until they go through some different challenges. But I don’t interview with questions about being a therapist. I always start my interviews with really trying to get to know the person, really trying to see what they believe in, what their values are, what their missions are in just everyday life, not even as a therapist. If they align with my mission, if they align with some of the values that I have and we get along in a conversation, then being able to help pour into them comes very naturally because they’re open to it. I’m a forever student. I look for students and what I want to learn. [LATOYA]: Got you. And you look for the strengths that is within them, right, that lies within and you hear where they want to go and you try to connect to? [MIKAH]: I put them in that space. So they say they only want to work in this type of population or with this population or whatever. I sprinkle some others if they’re open to it but I try to get them fit with that to see, they really do genuinely like that. They flourish. Usually they flourish because they’re comfortable, they’re confident. I’m big on self-care. I’m like, hey, what are you doing to balance that because your energy will translate in the session. So if you’re not happy, the session’s going to show that. So I really try to cultivate environment of balance. [LATOYA]: It sounds great and the fact that you, I’ve heard you say a couple times, listen, I’m always a student. Listen, that’s going to translate into what you’re doing of being a great teacher, showing the others. I love it. I love that part too. So now, like, okay, somebody’s, for the listeners, maybe they want to do speaking engagements, so how does that look like? I know we’re engaging in the groups, I know we’re in the Facebook group, but do they, should they start with Facebook Lives or Instagram lives, or do they write to people? Do they find what’s going on, or do you just take a chance, like hopefully somebody will find you. [MIKAH]: There’s so many different avenues to, there’s just, it just really depends on you. That’s what it boils down, really being yourself. I feel like forcing things, I just play that, to me, that’s just out of alignment. I don’t force anything. So if you can just, everybody can’t do this. If you can pop up a phone and go live and start talking, okay, then that might be your lane. If you can go on Instagram and post some amazing posts and write, now people write those long dissertations and you can just pump out information, that might be your lane. If you can go on Facebook and just cultivate a whole community just because you posted a link and people want to join you, that might be your lane. So I’m just really big on being and staying in your lane of genius. For me, it had, I was never a Facebook live person. I was never a Instagram live person, but I was always like a Q&A person or a post a funny link person. So my personality helped me to just attract people but having these type of conversations where I was doing podcasts or where I was actually going to conferences and conventions and people could actually see the business side of me merged too. [LATOYA]: Okay, so stay in what’s comfortable. Just because everybody else is doing. I’ll do a couple real, and if you feel like when the thought of doing an Instagram reel makes you want to throw up and shut the business down, then that’s not you. Or just because somebody wants to do podcast interviews and you’re like, listen, I don’t want to have a podcast, that’s not you. So wherever your gift is, whether your comfort is and your authentic voice, and find that. Now when you find it, stay there. [MIKAH]: Be genuine. A lot of times we’re doing these things as a mindset of scarcity. Okay, well I see such and such has a podcast and they have sponsors. They must be making money. So let me do a podcast. Are we genuinely doing this to help? Are we doing this because of scarcity? Are we doing this because we need more income or we want to secure income in the future? Make sure your intentions are good too. [LATOYA]: Yes. I’m a believer of that only because, and like I said, I’ve hit my head many times over the years, which is a believer of, listen, when I’m doing what’s we just said a minute ago when I’m doing what’s right for me that overflows going to pour in as opposed to trying to do everything like somebody else is doing it and then you end up falling on your face. [MIKAH]: Yes. I mean, because think about it, like, a lot of people don’t work with children and adolescents because of school hours, because of all these things that, extracurricular activities. There’s no way you’re going to fill up a whole practice and all your clinicians working with just children. That’s not true. Because I stayed in and I stayed in my zone of genius and you get known for that zone and people will do whatever they got. They’ll put their kids out of school if they have to. [LATOYA]: Yes, they sure will. [MIKAH]: Once they, so it’s like, I just am a firm believer in just staying in your lane and really doing what really resonates your soul, like don’t just do stuff just to do it because other people are doing it. [LATOYA]: Yes. It sounds like you got a good, do you have a lot of, well, the learning hub is coming up in January, 2023, which is a big deal. I know we discussed another speaking engagement that you have. Do you find that you are intentional about like, hey, I love this speaking thing. Are you intentional like each month having something one a quarter or when it just, when it connected? [MIKAH]: Honestly right now, because I am balancing, I have a group practice and I do want to, this hub is launching in January, to be very honest, it really has been me just putting one foot in front of the other and the opportunities have just found me. I have not really been very intentional about putting out, hey, I want to speak here, I want to speak here because I’ve never had a desire to make a career out of being a speaker. My mission has always been to help others. So I have learned that when I start talking more businesslike and pouring into different clinicians and stuff like that, I’ve learned like, okay, hey, those nights of me writing notes from Facebook groups and Google and YouTube and all these things that I’ve learned, other people are really gravitating to that information. They want to hear more about it. They want more information. So I’m more so on the side of helping people versus just being a public speaker. But those opportunities have presented themselves to me, and I take them every time. It’s a full body. [LATOYA]: What about like, do you think it’s important too, if we’re looking at, okay, we shouldn’t be stopped by those perceived shortcomings, embrace it. Are you intentional about the people you connect with professionally to help continue to boost that and not put that fire out on the inside of you? Like are you intentional about who it is or certain groups? [MIKAH]: Just like how I hire, I try to hire people with good hearts. I try to hire people that are really for people. I’m not necessarily focused on how much somebody makes. I really want to see what do you do for others? What do you do to pour out and pour back in? What does it look like when I go to the conference? The conference that I went to is an amazing conference and everybody just loves everybody. Everybody is themselves. I mean, you don’t have to dim your lights for them to shine. They are not diming theirs for you. Everybody’s in there just shining, everybody’s bringing something totally different, but still on the same page of helping other people. So I’m intentional about making sure that people that I connect with are genuine. [LATOYA]: That’s a beautiful thing. Maybe one day you have a, I know you’re like, that’s okay, don’t get too far. [MIKAH]: My son is 11 years old [LATOYA]: Maybe one day. So the learning hub, launching again in 2023, for people that want to jump in, learn how to be a speaker or just — [MIKAH]: It’s going to be more so like, learn how to use your past, learn how to heal your inner child. It’s not necessarily therapy, but it’s learning how to bring things with you. It’s like there’s parts of my youth and my innocence and just being a, because definitely, when I was younger, really middle school was what really was the struggle. But when I was younger, I was definitely very much outspoken and fun and free and I had to really learn how to bring that girl back. Like, come girl, come to this practice. We need that energy over here. So it’s showing people how to bring some of those positives with you. It’s showing people how to even your pain points, learning how to use that and grow from that and incorporate even that into your business. It’s learning how to love yourself and showing you how self-love really does reflect on your business, reflects on boundaries, reflects on how you hire, reflects on how you set your your prices. So it really does play a major role. It’s going to be all of those different types of ways that being very introspective will help you in your business. [LATOYA]: I think that’s a beautiful thing. I think a lot of times those steps are missing because we want to, I mean, listen, I know when I start we want to build and get to the money because right now I don’t have any. I’m going to need some of the money. But those are the necessary steps that should not be missed. [MIKAH]: Because self-love is just too simple. Self-love seems too simple to stop and slow down and really think about as a therapist, oh, I know that I’m a therapist. I know that really because you seem to still be charging the same amount of money for sessions that you’ve been charging since 2010. So do we know, you have a clinician that you were supposed to let go three years ago. So when I’m talking about self-love, I’m talking about how that reflects in your business, how you fear abandonment because you, or how you fear confronting a clinician because of fear of loss or fear of abandonment. That’s the part that I’m just shining lights on like that. You can take these assessments and take some of these trainings back to your therapist and really heal from these things and see how that really transforms your business. [LATOYA]: Thank you once again to Heard for sponsoring this episode. When you sign up with Heard, you work directly with financial specialists to track your income and expenses, file taxes online, and grow your business. Plans begin at $149 per month. Sign up now at www.joinheard.com. New Speaker: If you love this podcast, please be sure to rate and review. New Speaker: This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.