Joe Sanok 00:00:00 Using different phone systems and devices to manage your practice is a headache. Open phone makes it simple with a single app that brings your business calls, texts, and contacts into a single place across all your devices. Activate your seven day free trial and get 20% off your first six months when you sign up at open phone. Com forward slash Jo. Again that’s open phone.com/jo. This is the practice of the practice podcast with Jo Sarna session number 1020. I’m just like your host. And welcome to the practice of the Practice podcast. I’m so excited about the topic we’re talking about today, which is finding fulfillment and joy and all sorts of positive feelings outside of just achievement. you know, I think about my own sense of self. you know, I was actually just talking to my partner Claire about this recently and how in any group situation, if it was a group project in middle school or high school, I was the one that would be like, I don’t want to have to be the leader. But, you know, if nobody else wants to lead, I’m happy to lead. Joe Sanok 00:01:22 And inevitably, I’d be the leader of the group and do more work, and there’d be people that slid by, you know, I was an Eagle Scout or an Eagle Scout and followed the rules and, you know, get the mirror badges and all of that. And, you know, I could list all these things and, you know, probably you could do that. You’ve done, and it’s amazing how over the course of a life, you know, these things that early on give us an identity, which is really important to develop. It’s important to feel a sense of being proud around the things that you’ve accomplished. I’m thinking about my middle schooler who right now, at the time of this release, it’s summertime. But, you know, at the time of this recording, it’s still the school year. She decided she wanted to do Honors Science and Honors Social studies this year, mostly to be with her friends. But through that, she’s found. Whoa. I’m. I’m an honors student. Joe Sanok 00:02:09 I’m getting good grades. And, for a lot of academics, it’s been a struggle for her. But for her to then feel that sense from that as a parent, it’s like, I want to encourage that. But then, you know, when she becomes an adult, that may be something that she’s like, oh, I put so much identity into that becoming the human we want to become or that we’re trying to become often is an undoing as well as a creation process. which is why I’m so excited today to have Doctor Esther Zeldin. Esther is a master of making dreams work and embodies the resilient spirit of a Latina immigrant. Her rich and diverse background has been the cornerstone of her trailblazing work as a life coach, speaker, workshop facilitator, former international diplomat, and scientist with a commitment to inclusivity. She has transformed the lives of thousands worldwide, bridging gaps across communities, corporations and countries. Drawing from her unique experience and insights, she’s crafted a powerful formula for balanced success and brilliant productivity, empowering everyone to envision and manifest their limitless life. Joe Sanok 00:03:16 Esther. Welcome to the practice of the Practice podcast. I’m so excited to have you on the show today. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:03:22 Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here. Joe Sanok 00:03:25 Yeah, well, you and I were talking before we started recording, as I often do with guests, to kind of have an idea of the direction of the episode. And one thing that we landed on talking about is kind of life outside of just achievements. Now, that’s not usually something someone just says, here’s what I want to do with my career, you know, like that that develops over time. Are there stories or a good starting point in regards to why that is something that you focus on? Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:03:53 Yeah. No, definitely. I mean, I have several, but I will say, for example, I’ll start with recent Like five, five years ago, I was I’m actually doing like a remodel, cleaning up my apartment. And I found my notebook from five years ago, and it was so great because it was how did I want to feel from years ago? You know, I was someone who always focused on the accolades, like, I grew, I chased the American dream, I achieved it and then realized there was nothing what I wanted. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:04:23 And I found all my validations and every single achievement I made. But then I realized that it would last me 15 minutes when I would achieve that achievement. Because I wasn’t enjoying the journey, I wasn’t focused on the impact and feeling. It was just about reaching that destination. So but it was really nice to see. Five years ago, you know, I had already started the journey of switching that to feeling like, what did I want to feel and the impact and what was I doing that was outside of a metric? And in that notebook I wrote, I wanted to have freedom and impact and I read that and it was just like impacting more people, helping them live like limitless. And about the feeling where I would feel, free with like, that I had control over my own time and that I was doing what I wanted to do every day. And I read that going, wow, that’s what I have. But I didn’t have that before. When I look at notebooks, you know, ten, 15 years ago, before that, it was all about the accolade. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:05:23 And I always felt that, you know, was always off or that wasn’t really what you know, that’s not really what gave me joy, but it was so nice to read five years ago, a vision that I was able to create. And what was also great about that is I couldn’t have imagined five years ago the metrics I have right now. Right? I mean, there’s you can still have metrics and goals, but those are so different. And how that’s evolved and the connections, the synchronicity that I’ve experienced that I couldn’t have envisioned all those little things. But what I could envision was the feeling that I wanted and that is amazing now to have. And that is something I’m super, super passionate about. I work with high achievers, I’m a high achiever ourselves, and it’s really taking that time to focus less on that. And what is that feeling? Because when we have our end of our lives, when we look at our legacy, when we die, right? It’s when people are at our funeral. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:06:17 They’re not talking about all of those accolades and metrics. They’re talking about how we made them feel, have we impacted them, and if we can take that right, that end of our life which feels so far away and break that down into like the 2015 and five, those feelings that gets us closer in our everyday makes, helps us create actions in our everyday life that create those feelings for us, that gives us that alignment and that satisfaction, happiness, and gets us closer to our why. And outside of those metrics that don’t equal to happiness and satisfaction. Joe Sanok 00:06:52 Now I think some people might be listening because they’re in the midst of the the struggle of starting a practice, growing a group practice. And maybe their their lives don’t feel like they’re doing what they want every day. Like what you described. And sometimes the mindset is, well, in order to get to that place of of centeredness, of doing the work I want, I have to achieve, I have to meet these goals. I have to run full tilt for a while. Joe Sanok 00:07:18 Like, what do you say to that mindset? Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:07:20 Yeah, the thing is that there there’s a there’s flow and hustle. Right. And I think you’re mentioning a lot that, you know, there’s a lot of people in that hustle right now, but we need to have that balance. I saw this great show actually yesterday with my daughter, and I liked what you shared about about your child. And my daughter loves these competitive cook shows. It loves them. She’s you know I’m always working on her to have more flow in her life as well. But you know so she loves this cook show. And there I saw this amazing segment where one of the chefs came out and which show is it. Oh my God, I can’t think of the name, but there’s there’s 20 something. There’s there’s 20 something of the top chefs in the world, and they’re all cooking dishes from different countries. Well, it’ll come to me, but it’s amazing. It’s like all the top, high achieving chefs of the world come together, right? And she loves seeing them come up with their dishes and compete with one another. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:08:17 And right. It’s she has that innate in her and I’m always working on her flow. But there was one segment, though, that we had a really good discussion afterwards in the show that the chef came on, and he’s a really Renaissance chef in Spain, and he says, I only opened my restaurant’s restaurant for eight months of the year, and everyone’s like, And he’s like, yeah, because with my team, I spent four months creating, exploring, taking that time for ideas and innovation. Right. And I thought that was so impactful. Right. And of course, he’s at a stage in his life that he can do it in that type of increments. Right The He could do it at the eight months, you know, hustle and four months flow. But there’s no reason we can’t do that every and hour, every day, right? Even if we’re hustling in that everyday thing of, you know, all the logistics that have to happen with the practice and in a business and the team just taking time, like ten minutes, 15 minutes right throughout the day to let yourself sit down and be like, okay, what other how can I be more creative? What are other ideas? Maybe do some breathwork, tap into my intuition of where this wants to go. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:09:27 Is this in alignment with me? Right? There’s everyday decisions in our business that we have to make that is this in alignment with us? This is what we want to do, but we need to pause. Right. So I think that’s my message for folks is like, even in the hustle, there’s so much gift in the pause that we don’t that we don’t do and that we don’t bring open ourselves up to receive. And I liked that message with the chef because he’s like look, I can be open for 12 months, right? He has the demand, but he also understands the importance for him and his team to recenter and take that time to be innovative, because he said, you cannot be the best without a pause. And I thought that was really powerful. And so, yeah. Joe Sanok 00:10:14 You know, it reminds me of an interview I did early on in the podcast, with Brian Kanellis. And he and his brother owned a restaurant in Seattle, and it’s a James Beard rated restaurant, and, you know, one of the top in the country. Joe Sanok 00:10:26 And one habit they have, and it’s the third generation. Their grandfather started it as just like a mom and pop diner type place. And then their dad switched it over a little bit, and then they’ve made it really upscale. And it’s just this beautiful place in Seattle. And Brian was talking about how they send usually 3 to 5 of their top staff head of beverages, head of kitchen, anywhere they want in the world to go to like different restaurants to get ideas, to be inspired, to just see how different people do things and the amount of ideas they came back with that they’ve implemented has made them into a restaurant that’s completely different than they even were a year prior. one thing that I specifically remember from that interview, I mean, this would have been, you know, 2014 probably, that he said was in their beverage area. their head of, of the bar went to this restaurant he really wanted to go to in Japan. And that restaurant had a unique glass for every single drink. Joe Sanok 00:11:26 And they viewed the glass as its own ingredient as part of it. And so they had a huge array of glasses, and they actually brought that back to their own bar, where every single drink had its own type of glass that it was served in, which was a really unique idea. And I mean, obviously an expensive idea too. But I think that when we think about private practice, when we think about our lives and how we’re living them, that sense of of travel, of seeing how other people do things, of slowing down, allows us to not just have that kind of tunnel vision that we often get within our own businesses. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:11:59 Absolutely. And I love that. And I think also there’s, you know, like I love the glasses thing. Right? Because that’s the that’s their unique thing that they’re bringing. Right. Somehow I’m sure in their life, that unique thing of bringing that uniqueness to every single person is really tied to their to their why and probably to the impact they have on people. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:12:18 And that pause, I think, allows you to also think about like, even if, even if you have 100 different practices, each one is totally different. I mean, think about ourselves, right? We we choose different hair salons for, you know, because we click with them. There’s something about that that we keep going or a restaurant or something. There’s, there’s hundreds of choices we have. And I think taking that time to think about what is my own unique superpower, what is my own unique twist, right, that I’m bringing to this? That’s that’s going to create the community that I want to create. Right? Because it’s never just a business, right? We’re trying to make impact, create some sort of community feel around it. And so taking that time to understand why, who am I serving, what kind of impact I’m having, why am I doing this? What’s my superpower that I bring? It could be you connect well with folks. Maybe it’s that that like the glass thing, right? Maybe I bring a uniqueness that I like to showcase to each person. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:13:17 And they see and they feel good. They feel special in that moment. Maybe it’s not. You know, you are really like run like a practice that like everything is super smooth. Prioritize, right? Everyone has a different way of solving problems and a unique how to. But it’s taking that time. So you’re not just like I see so many times in cases like in all types of businesses and folks, people are just trying to look the other side and compare themselves to someone else. And I’m just going to copy what they’re doing because that’s worked for them. And so I’m going to do this without looking at I already have something that really works. Well for me. I already have people that seek me out for this amazing thing that I do, even outside of my own technical expertise. And how can I integrate that in my everyday life and bring that to life? Joe Sanok 00:14:15 From new patients faced with an empty lobby and no idea where to find their therapist. To clinicians with a session running overtime and the doorbell ringing. Joe Sanok 00:14:25 Some of the most anxiety ridden moments of a therapy appointment happen before a session even starts. This episode sponsored the receptionist for iPad helps you tackle some of that pre appointment apprehension. The receptionist for iPad is an easy to use, digital client check in system that helps your visitors check in securely to their appointments and notify their practitioners of their arrival via SMS Email or your preferred channel. No more confusion, endless lobby checking or having clients sign in on paper logbooks. Start a 14 day free trial of the receptionist for iPad by going to the receptionist.com/practice. Make sure to start your trial with that link, and you’ll also get your first month free. If you decide to sign up again, start your trial over at the receptionist.com/practice. Now tell me a little bit about how you’ve structured the work, because I think that sometimes people, you know, hear about whether it’s influencers or coaches or therapists that go beyond maybe the traditional work. like, what does it look like to, you know, make a career in this idea space? Because I think sometimes listeners are like, well, that sounds great. Joe Sanok 00:15:48 Like, I would love to do something like that, but I have no idea even where to start Like, how did you kind of go down this path of, of inspiring people, of like creating things that, you know, actually sustains your lifestyle, things like that? Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:16:01 Yeah. So I think first was really unpacking my, my, my superpower. I think before I had tied my whole identity to being at that time, I had worked in an industry, right? Being a director, having a PhD, where I had tied all of that to the accolade. And then I took that time to really look at what is the what is the umbrella, right? What are the three, what are the buckets? What is my my superpower. Right. So one question I always ask people is if you could solve a global problem, what would that be and how would you do it? Because I’d answer it how you would do it. There’s still steps is how you solve all problems. Right? So whether you’re in a practice, whether you’re a therapist coach, right, you’re using that. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:16:47 That is your way of helping people in your everyday. Your friends your family. You’re that. And then now when you have that umbrella, right, it’s unpacking your life that you’ve been doing that throughout your whole entire life. Right. So a lot of times how I translated that at first to a business was, hey, I used to be on hiring panels, right? And I used to work with I used to help people with even their own building, their own businesses of looking at how do you attract the right talent to your team? Right. How do you build teams? Because I had built for the international development community, I had built a team from the bottom up and raised $100 million and all based on our Y, and serving right by listening to others and serving what they wanted and they needed. And people thought, wait, but how did you do that? And I’m like, well, I centered. We had a we had a common mission and vision. We each had our own purpose and how to we brought that together. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:17:38 So even when you’re building a practice, right, it’s understanding who’s the team that’s around you and working with you. And I realized that I did that naturally because I could find help. People unpack that. So I was like, okay. So when I thought about leaving, because I knew that the mission was so much bigger, and I also faced a lot of resistance in the organization where people were like, I’m like, why do you struggle with changing the traditional development approach? So the traditional approach is that you go to community to a country and you tell you’re the expert in whatever field you’re in and you tell them what they need. And I was like, well, why don’t we take a more, a different approach, holistic approach and ask them what they want and what they think they need, and let’s fund that instead, and of course, guide them along the way. Right. And I’m sure a lot of listeners can relate to that, but it was seen as, something revolutionary radical, because that takes too much time to listen to people and we need to do this. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:18:38 But I saw a lot of resistance when I was reading statistics raised that like, like a huge percentage of people don’t know what their Y is, don’t know what their purpose is. And so that was causing a lot of friction. That’s when I realized that this thing was a lot bigger. But the thing is, that’s why we all think that there’s all these limitations in what we can do. But the thing is that if we have if we can solve a problem for someone, you have a business. So I knew there there are a lot of companies that don’t know what their mission vision is. There’s a lot of places that don’t know how to utilize all their employees outside of hierarchy. There are people who are frustrated, even after achieving all the metrics that don’t know why they’re frustrated. They feel guilty about being frustrated. You know, they’ve they and they and there’s also there was a lot of collaborations I’ve done, for example, with therapists that are like, hey, can you help with the I enjoy the coaching part, right? So can you help with the action planning and taking them to the next steps? Right. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:19:39 So I found that I’m very strong in collaborations that I can help solve pain points for folks. And I made that into a business. And I think a lot of us have these skills, right? Have our own superpower? Have we ready are resolving problems for people every single day, and it’s just a matter of repackaging that into something to serve someone. And so I always say, we’re not selling, we’re serving. And I think that’s something also that the listeners can hear. Right. If we if we change it to rather as it’s we are serving the population. Right. We’re not trying to sell the service. We’re trying to solve the problem in their own lives. Then it becomes a lot easier than to then go forward. Right? Because I always get these people like, well, what I don’t like, I don’t like selling. Oh, that’s, that’s too uncomfortable or that this. But I’m like, but you’re not selling. You’re serving. You’re serving a population that you can serve at that moment. Joe Sanok 00:20:34 Now if you think about the average clinician who owns their private practice, either a solo practice or group, what are some starting points for them to think through their why and to maybe get back to some of those emotions to help guide their practice. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:20:50 Yeah, I think there’s there’s a lot of different questions they can unpack. Right. So I think for example, and it’s harder, you know, it’s so much easier for us to do it for other people than for ourselves. You know, I even find that with myself that it’s a lot easier to help others. And with ourselves we get cloudy, right? We need someone to help us unpack that. And I think so it’s going back to all these fundamental questions like, what was your childhood dream? And I think a lot of people might think, oh, that’s a very basic question, but but it’s really, really unpacking. What are all those adjectives. Right. So a lot of people say the normal things, right. Doctor, lawyer, maybe even psychologist, maybe UN ambassador, the whole thing. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:21:31 But it’s less important about the title, right? Because our brain just created these mental models and associated with what career we saw in front of us. Right. But it’s more important as what would those adjectives about that childhood dream what did you like about it? Was it that they were helping others? Right? Was it that they were connecting with people. What was it that drew you as a as a kid to that? And when we focus on the adjectives, it’s looking at, okay, you should you should see a commonality with who you are today. Right? A lot of those adjectives should be very similar, but then there should be probably some that are like, wait, I haven’t had that opportunity to really unpack that further. Right. So let’s say for example, in my case, I always looked at the UN and and ambassador and a meteorologist and I always loved, also like psychologists that would come on TV during hurricanes and things to help people through. So I liked all three. But what was I like about it? I like that they helped people in times of crisis. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:22:33 I liked that they were trying to do something global and change the world, right? I liked that they were a public face and trying to inspire. Right? Those were the three commonalities. But as a child, I translated that to, you know, looking at their careers and trying to figure out how I could study a little bit of each and do something, but it was really about those characteristics. And those characteristics is what I embodied today. Right. So when you think about those characteristics, what were they how what are what are some that you wish that you could bring out a little more? What do you want to be sought out for? Because that’s another question as an exercise. Right. What are you currently being sought out for? What would you like to be sought out for? And what do you don’t want to be sought out for anymore? Right? Because you can do a lot of different things in a business, and it’s really making those decisions on your every day in your alignment of who do I want to serve and why and and what don’t I want, right. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:23:31 And I think that we don’t take that time to really, really, really work on that and then really work then on the boundaries and limits that go around that. Because even though our purpose has like how we want to be in our every single day and how we want to, you know, our why and every day, it also has another side of it that, for example, in my case, if I help people unpack their purpose, mission, vision, live it out and keep it going, that also makes me very susceptible. For example, in when I make a list of what I’ve overcome and how, it also makes me very susceptible to wanting to help everyone, right? Wanting to be a fixer, not not knowing when to get out, staying in things too long. Right. It has this other side of it. And so it’s really understanding that yin and yang that exists in us so that our so that when we’re living out how we want to live out, we’re making sure that it’s in full alignment with us and that we have those checks and balances. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:24:27 Other questions to think about. I think I mentioned one about the what would you do with unlimited resources, what global problem and how, but unpacking that how and then comparing that to your personal life. Okay, if that was a global question problem. But when someone comes to me with another problem, even even our our children, if you have children or siblings. What? What is the how? How do I when I do that, my three step approach in helping them solve that and then thinking about like your legacy, how do you want to be remembered and why and and what kind of feeling do I want to leave them with? Right. These are all introspective questions that really move us away right from that hustle and really thinking about us holistically so that in our everyday decisions, whether in our business, in our life, right, they’re in alignment with how we want to feel and be. Joe Sanok 00:25:19 So awesome. The last question that I always ask is if every private practitioner in the world were listening right now, what would you want them to know? Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:25:28 I’d want them to know that they are unique, that they have a superpower, that what they’re doing is really making a huge impact in the world. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:25:37 And I think we don’t say that enough that you are you are living your highest aspirations and continue to do so. Don’t don’t give up on it. And even if what you’re trailblazing in your practice is different, but it feels in alignment with you, do it because it may not exist yet, but it’s it may be the right thing for for you and for the people you serve. Joe Sanok 00:26:03 So awesome. And, Esther, if people want to connect with you, if they want to learn more about your work, where should we send them? Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:26:09 Yeah, I’m on LinkedIn. Esther settled on my name, and then I’m also on Instagram. I have a more fun channel, be act change, which is like, be yourself, right. Take that action and then change the world. Joe Sanok 00:26:23 So awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the practice of the Practice podcast. Dr. Esther Zeledon 00:26:28 Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Joe Sanok 00:26:38 Well, last week, if you missed it, ash did a podcast series. Joe Sanok 00:26:43 just all about group practice. We’ve got another series coming up. I’m with Melissa, one of our newest consultants, who has over a 50 person practice. She’s going to be doing that in late July. And then in August we’re going to be doing replays from our level up week in the spring. We did all these interviews and, you know, a bunch of you weren’t able to come live. So we’re going to be playing those starting August 1st for our Level Up Week series. It’s actually going to be throughout most of August. And so how to start a private practice with myself and guests. Marketing a practice with Steve Turney. How to start a group practice psychedelic assisted therapy. Figuring out your return on investment. Tons of different areas that we’re going to be covering throughout August. So that is all coming up. You know, if you do want to work with one of our consultants, I would love to talk with you for 30 minutes. We will dig into where you’re at, where you’re headed, and how you think through the return on investment for your time and money. Joe Sanok 00:27:38 In regards to consulting, you can apply over at practice of the practice.com/apply and then we’ll find a time to chat up to see if consulting might be a good fit for you. We have more than enough people applying for it, and so there’s no reason to squeeze you into anything. we just talked about where you’re at and what would be a good fit. Also, we couldn’t do the show without our sponsors. You know, recently I was, taking my daughter to therapy, and there’s, like, a general lobby area, and it’s a place that probably 12 therapists rent each office. they don’t work together. It’s just like an office building. And so you walk in this main area, and then you have to go up the steps, and then upstairs there’s like a central, just like waiting area. And anytime someone walks in, like 3 or 4 doors open and to see if that’s their client. That is the perfect scenario where the receptionist for iPad would be perfect because new clients could check in on the iPad. Joe Sanok 00:28:37 It would then text the therapist that they’re there. it’s an easy digital client checking system. So whether you have a group practice or you’re in a situation like that where all of you could cost share. The receptionist for iPad. It’s such an amazing way to do it. Also, you don’t have to have clients sign a paper logbook or have confusion and all that that goes with it. Start your 14 day free trial over at the receptionist.com/practice again the receptionist for iPad. Just go to the receptionist. Com forward slash practice and you’re going to get your first month free. Actually not 14 days. You’re going to get your first month free. So thanks so much for letting me into your ears and into your brain. Have a great day. I’ll talk to you soon. Special thanks to the band Silences Sexy for that intro music, and this podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the producers, the publishers or guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical or other professional information. Joe Sanok 00:29:39 If you want a professional, you should find one.