#1 What is your name and job title or license title?
My name is Katie Lemieux, I am a licensed, marriage, and family therapist. For job title, I always say “self-employed”, or “owner”, or even “boss lady” that’s kind of fun.
#2 What do you love about your job or your business?
What I love about what I do, so I would speak mostly from a private practice start-up. I really love coaching and inspiring other therapists to really build and grow their dream practice and work with the clients that they’re absolutely passionate about it. The best thing really is to actually watch them fulfill that, beyond my wild imagination and theirs, that’s like extremely exciting as I think about that right now. I get excited, I get chills, I always call it “the chill-factor“.
#3 What are 1-2 things that you always do in the first 60-90 minutes of your day?
Well, I will have to say, I do take out the dogs, that cannot wait. So I take out the dogs, I definitely make some coffee for sure, and then I have a self-care practice in regards to whether it’s meditation, or reading, or writing, or exercise in that first 60-90 minutes.
#4 What is your go-to drink or snack for productive energy.
Uh, I’d like to say something else, but probably coffee or a 5-hour, or really maybe sometimes not a snack at all. Sometimes I have to jump around, do some jumping jacks, put on a good song if I just can’t shake it. That’s usually what I do to refocus and get that energy moving.
#5 What does a very productive day look for you?
I am a task master-doer, I love checking things off of my list. But one of the most valuable things that I had to learn as an entrepreneur is really to focus, follow one course until success. That’s reducing that shiny object syndrome, so just really focusing on one thing at a time. I know it feels so counter-intuitive, but it really creates awesome production.
#6 What is your favorite way to rest and recover?
Usually, I like to have a lot of down-time. I love watching movies, I think a good murder show is always great. Just relaxing or kind of more intimate setting with friends, just chillin’ out, maybe having a good craft beer or something like that, taking a walk being in nature, those are some of my favorites. Of course, traveling is always great, I always feel it bringing the creative juices on.
#7 Are you a Mac or PC person and why?
Great question and a funny story. I used to be a PC person many years ago until my laptop broke and I had to borrow my spouse’s Mac, and I hated it and then after 6 weeks of using a Mac I finally went to go buy a PC laptop, and I returned it within a week because I got used to Mac. So interestingly enough I’m an Android person, but I have a Mac computer, I’ve never had an iPhone.
#8 What is one of the best business books you have read?
Oh my gosh, that is so hard. I have many business books sitting on my bookshelf about money and everything. You know I don’t know “Profit First” comes first to mind right now. I do love “Rich Dad Poor Dad” as well, by Robert Kiyosaki. Best business books, I don’t know, I think if I look at my bookshelf I would rattle off 10 amazing books, but best business books, I think I would have to come back to that if something really jumps out to me.
#9 If you were a hot sauce, what would your spice level be? (1-10 with 10 being the hottest).
I guess that depends on the previous question about what do I do for energy. So when I’m a little bit energetic I can be a little spicy, but I don’t know maybe I level at around a 6 or so.
#10. Where can people find out more about you and what you do?
Awesome, so I’m Katie, one of the co-owners and co-visionaries of The Project Start-Up, and that’s where folks can find out about us at privatepracticestartup.com, drop the “the”, or you can find us on Facebook or our podcast to all the different things that we do to support therapists across the globe to bring themselves and really work with the clients they love and build and grow their dream practice.
Bonus Question: What is one of your best tips for success and happiness?
Well, success I really believe whether it’s personal or professional is, what I was sharing before, the acronym FOCUS. So, Follow One Course Until Success, so whatever it is you’re doing personally or professionally stick to that, entrepreneurial ADD is a real thing! And it’s hard to stick to one thing. And one of the things that really hit me when I read Russell Brunson’s, one of his books, I’m not sure if it’s “Expert Secrets” or “Dotcom Secrets”, but he shares a story in the back of the book, I think it’s in one of the last chapters, and he shares a story on how he hired a coach. And the coach said, “You know, you online people are so smart and so dumb at the same time”, and he was like “What do you mean?”, and she said, “What you do is you create a product or service and then you market it to your people and then you create a new product or service.” That’s really exhausting and tough, so when you’re focusing on one and learning how to perfect and build, and grow that one thing you can have a lot of great success. And it’s not only financial success, but you can also perfect that in ways of systematizing it and outsourcing it, doing so well that it becomes second nature and you’re not always ”doing-doing“. So that would be my bonus tip, for now, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of others.
