1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000 Therapists are the identified patients of our culture, right? 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:10,000 In our families, we were the ones who named what everybody else refused to see. 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,000 When something felt off, when something wasn't right. 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:26,000 If you were as a little one, you spoke up and this was probably met, this could have been met with a lot of ways, but because you're a therapist right now, it was probably met with be quiet, anger, shut up, sit down, distress. 5 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:27,000 Sadness, right? 6 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:28,000 You named reality. 7 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:42,000 Something doesn't feel right and maybe you didn't always have words for it, but you spoke up or you reacted, you cried, you got disregulated, you were different than other kids because you sensed the emotional resonance in the room. 8 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,000 You sensed when something was not right. 9 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,000 When people were not living in integrity, you knew it. 10 00:00:49,000 --> 00:01:04,000 You, you, you probably had the, the mom or the teacher or the dad who, who spoke to you being a little more perceptive or a lot more perceptive than those around you and then that was not always met with that wasn't always said with joy or encouragement, right? 11 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:06,000 Definitely not in my case. 12 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:11,000 So you, went into the world, maybe you stopped speaking up. 13 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,000 often if you stopped speaking up, you got sick, depressed, anxious, right? 14 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,000 It came out in other ways. 15 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:27,000 you could have been one of the rare few who had parents who encouraged and appreciated you calling out and saying what you saw even when it wasn't the popular opinion, but then you probably didn't become a therapist. 16 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:32,000 You're probably a very successful person not listening to this podcast. 17 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:40,000 If you are a licensed mental health therapist, you became a therapist because you wanted to find a way to say what was possible without destroying those around you. 18 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:41,000 It's just what you did. 19 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,000 It's just, it's just how you, how you went out in the world, right? 20 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:53,000 We are the people who named what everyone else refused to see, and now in the larger society, it's the same thing. 21 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,000 You are the canary in the coal mine. 22 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:02,000 You feel the fractures first in your personal space, in your community, and also within the larger society. 23 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:13,000 You notice the contradictions early, even if you don't have words for them, you might sense it within yourself, attention, especially in our political scene where people try to, where there is a desire to split. 24 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,000 It's good or bad, it's this or that, it's Republican or Democrat, right? 25 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,000 It's, it's, it's immigrants or no immigrants. 26 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:24,000 It's just all the ways we wanna split, divide, be divisive. 27 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:31,000 You, you fight for nuance and complexity in a world that is addicted to black and white. 28 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:32,000 Quick social media takes, right? 29 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,000 Black and white, quick news takes. 30 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:36,000 That doesn't work. 31 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:39,000 You know it's not true. 32 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:44,000 And yes, people don't often want to hear it. 33 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:47,000 They don't want to hear it, but that doesn't mean you're wrong. 34 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,000 It means you're on the vanguard. 35 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:53,000 It means you're paying attention to things that other people are not paying attention to. 36 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:57,000 It means you have your finger on the pulse and that often is gonna make you unpopular at first. 37 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:59,000 You're not gonna stay unpopular, right? 38 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,000 As you start holding complexity, people want connection. 39 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:04,000 People want impact. 40 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:11,000 People want to be around those of us who say what's true even when it's uncomfortable, but not at first. 41 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:13,000 You will be the identified patient for our society. 42 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,000 By the way, my name is Tiffany McLean. 43 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:26,000 I'm the founder of Lean In Make Bank where we have real honest conversations about the clinical work we do and the role of money within that clinical work. 44 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:35,000 This, being on the vanguard, saying what you see, holding the nuance and complexity in a society that wishes things were so easy as an AI algorithm, right? 45 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:37,000 Pop in a question, get an answer, done and done. 46 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:38,000 That's not how the world works. 47 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:43,000 That's how a recipe works for macaroni and cheese, but it's not how complex relationships work. 48 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,000 It's not how relating works. 49 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:49,000 It's not how, trauma, attachment, connection, possibility, transformation. 50 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,000 It's not how it works. 51 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:56,000 It is the role of the modern therapist to speak the truth before it's convenient. 52 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:01,000 It is your role to hold depth when culture is wanting to flatten everything. 53 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:06,000 You fight for the nuance and the complexities that you see. 54 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:17,000 It is your role in 2026 as a therapist to claim authority in a system that would prefer you stay small, and I know you're uncomfortable with the idea of claiming authority. 55 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:38,000 But if you don't do it, big tech will, AI will, the algorithm will, concrete thinking, black and white thinking, that's who's gonna take up space and that's gonna, that's who's gonna set the course for us if we don't start owning our authority, valuing our time and getting paid for it, valuing our thinking, valuing the way we show up in the world and getting paid for it. 56 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:45,000 If you don't start taking up space and getting paid for it, you will become obsolete and the alternative is dark. 57 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,000 The alternative is dark. 58 00:04:48,000 --> 00:05:02,000 If you are going to lead in 2026, if we as mental health clinicians, psychologists, licensed marriage and family therapists, LCSWs, LPPCs, if you are going to lead in 2026, you must own your authority. 59 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:07,000 You must understand how to make an impact. 60 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,000 You must charge accordingly. 61 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:11,000 This starts with you. 62 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:35,000 If you are on insurance panels, if you are taking Medicare, if you are seeing 30 clients a week, overworked, underpaid, and struggling, ceding your, your time and your money to the big tech AI insurance companies and you don't know how to get out, you feel trapped, you certainly are not gonna be able to show up as an, as an empowered change agent who can inspire your clients to get to another place in their life. 63 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:44,000 The first place to start with understanding your ability to make an impact, your ability to have agency is to start in your own practice. 64 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:47,000 What would it mean if you could charge your life first fee? 65 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:48,000 What do I mean when I say that? 66 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,000 That's the fee that allows you to fully live your life. 67 00:05:51,000 --> 00:06:13,000 Have ease, sleep, physical health, mental and emotional health, pay for your own therapy weekly, pay for your own clinical consultation, go on regular vacations, be maxing out your retirement, paying off all your student loans, able to have relationships with your spouse, with your kids, with your friends, with yourself, because you're charging enough. 68 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:17,000 You own your time, right? 69 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:35,000 If you want to truly help others and then step into a place of changing our cultural narrative, being a thought leader, being a change maker, having authority because you, you actually have the skills and the natural proclivity to do so, you have to start with your life first fee. 70 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:39,000 If you could charge your life first fee, $300 per session. 71 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:42,000 See 15 clients max a week. 72 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:44,000 Take 3 day weekends every weekend. 73 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:47,000 Take 6 weeks off every year. 74 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:50,000 Who would you be? 75 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:55,000 With that kind of spaciousness, how would you show up in the world? 76 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,000 Kindness, curiosity, generosity. 77 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,000 How would your clinical work change? 78 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:04,000 What would you be able to do on a bigger level? 79 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:15,000 What would you have to say if you had the space and time and creativity and ease and financial security and stability and abundance to actually show up fully? 80 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:21,000 Speak out, have a voice, whether that's writing your book, whether that's going and doing public speaking. 81 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:30,000 Whether that's simply saying what's true in your relationship, not ceding to codependent dynamics, not keeping your mouth shut cause you don't wanna hurt other people's feelings. 82 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:41,000 What would it mean to show up in professional spaces as someone who's financially abundant, who has made your own space, who got out of being overworked and underpaid and actually stepped into the life you wanted. 83 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:49,000 You could then go out and make real changes as a therapist, but it has to start with you. 84 00:07:49,000 --> 00:08:01,000 If you wanna go on this journey, if you're tired of just being exhausted, being pushed around, being beholden to big tech agencies, even being, being beholden to your own fear. 85 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:02,000 Right? 86 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:08,000 Your own fear, your own feeling of your own lack of agency, your own feeling that you can't actually make changes in your own life. 87 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:10,000 That's no way to live. 88 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:17,000 If you're tired of it, if you're ready for something different, send me an email, Tiffany at leanin Makebank. 89 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:19,000 And say impact. 90 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:24,000 Tiffany at LeanI Makebank.com and just say impact. 91 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:26,000 I'm gonna know what you mean. 92 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:32,000 And I'm gonna show you how you can actually step into truly creating transformative change, truly living your life. 93 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:45,000 Truly having what you want when you started your private practice journey, your, your licensed mental health journey all those years ago, for that little you, that 3 year old you who wanted to speak up but was told nobody wants to hear it. 94 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:46,000 Keep your mouth shut. 95 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,000 You're, you're, you're making things uncomfortable for the rest of us. 96 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:50,000 Fuck that. 97 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,000 It is time for you to take your place. 98 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:55,000 It is time for you to step up and own your authority. 99 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:58,000 It is time for you to actually have your voice and it starts with you. 100 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:03,000 And I'm gonna assert it starts with your fee. 101 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,000 Owning your fee, owning your life first fee. 102 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:09,000 Send me an email, Tiffany at lean and Makebank.com. 103 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:10,000 Say impact. 104 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:11,000 And I will show you how.