Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey. Hey. I'm Shana A. And you're listening to the delightful audiosodes. These are mini episodes designed to spark inspiration and provide practical tips for therapists looking to diversify their professional income and achieve lucrative, fulfilling careers beyond the couch. You're listening to season two, Episode one, Unlocking youg Hidden Talents. Today we're going to uncover your untapped skills as a therapist, how to tap into them and how you can apply them to what you already do, as well as what action you can take to get started. Now, here's the show. I've said it before and I will say it again. Therapist, you have the talent and the skills you need. You just need to leverage them. But most of the time, you're not counting the little skills. You're thinking about the big skills like being able to sew or how good you're at with a certain modality. And I'm talking about other skills today. I'm talking about the skills like active listening, empathy, problem solving. These skills are huge and they're applicable in many therapists. I'm going to tell you a story because when I first started, I was fresh out of school with my bachelor's degree. I had a minor in fashion design. I really wanted to be a designer, and at the time, Etsy was still fresh and young. Every day I would go onto Etsy and I would see what was popular and what was selling. And because of that, I found out that baby clothing was kind of bland and generic and while they were selling, they weren't very creative. Because of that, I realized that the skill that I had was my creativity, and that I can use that creativity to open up a shop, which I did. My shop was called Cozies and Covers. I sold baby items like blankets and bibs, and I was able to do that until I finally closed up my shop about two years later.
[00:01:57] I made quite a bit of sales on Etsy, and that was my first taste of side hustling because I was applying for jobs and I was trying to figure out what my next step was. I hadn't decided that I was going to go back to grad school yet, but I really wasn't making the kind of money. But I really wasn't making the kind of money that I wanted to make. So Etsy gave me a ability to do a side hustle and I was able to utilize my creativity to tap into building some funds while also utilizing the formal skills that I had from my bachelor's degree. I essentially leveraged a basic skill and my Passion to make more money and that helped to pay for gas and food while I was in grad school. I'm not saying that you need to open your own Etsy shop, but what I am saying is that you have skills that could be used to further your career outside of direct therapy services.
[00:02:56] One of the best ways to figure out what your hidden talents are is asking people who know you. You want to ask your colleagues, your friends, or even your Facebook feed what they think your skills are. You can also consider things like what do people praise you for? Do those people say that you're good at listening or that you're really friendly? Do they say that you're creative too? Those things are a clue to something. Those things are telling you about skills that you have that you can use to your advantage. And you can take those skills and those things that people are talking about and apply them to what you would do aside from your direct therapy services. And a lot of the skills that we have, like active listening and empathy observation, those skills can be applied into side hustles like the three Cs. The three Cs are. The three Cs is what everybody typically responds with whenever someone's asking about what else they can do as a therapist. So that includes coaching, consulting and creating digital products so you can use your therapeutic skills in a more goal oriented, future focused setting like coaching. It doesn't have to necessarily be clinical. As a matter of fact, I would suggest maybe not doing clinical work. There's also consulting, offering expertise in mental health strategies to educational institutions or businesses. You can offer an array of different expertise. It doesn't necessarily have to be mental health strategies, but that is your formal skills at work there that you can utilize to offer consulting and, and then creating digital products. Again, formal skills at use. You could develop courses, webinars, ebooks, even just worksheets to help people work through different things. And the thing about this is you're not just going to make generic worksheets, right? You're not just going to make a generic coping skills worksheet. You're going to talk about what you know as a therapist. You're going to talk about your specialty. Because that's what people want when it comes to these kinds of things. They don't want the generic stuff. They want that specialty work that you already have an expertise in to begin with. So I want you to think for yourself. Do you have any of these skills that we're talking about? The answer should be yes. Do you have to have all of these? No. Do you have to engage in coaching, consulting or creating digital products? No, those are just easy applications, but they are a great example of how your skills are applicable in many ways beyond the couch. So go back and think more about this and think about how your skills can be applied outside of your direct therapy work. Today I want to invite you to begin considering your hidden talents. Ask around and find out what people see in you. If you're interested in working with someone who wants to help you leverage your talents and skills, check me out at www. Thedelightfulclinician.com that's www. Thedelightfulclinnician.com on my website you can sign up for a coaching session, join my lucrative therapist school and sign up for the Leverage Challenge. Remember, you have the skills to pay the bills, you just need to leverage them. I want to thank you so much for listening to the delightful audiosodes. If you've enjoyed these episodes, please be sure to look out for the email to listen to more. You can also follow me on social media hedelightful clinician.com I'm on Instagram, YouTube, Threads, TikTok and even Blue Sky. Until next time. We'll chat then.
