Building Your Private Practice to Support Your Zone of Genius
As a private practitioner, you are a skilled service provider who likely values paving your own way. In running your own practice, you are able to set a schedule and build a caseload that supports your life and goals.
You can choose to offer your counselling services exclusively online, you can create courses or resources to diversify your income or you can build a reputation of being the expert in your field and write articles for publications or give presentations for events and conferences. Being a private practitioner does not have to mean that your time is spent solely in sessions with clients.
One of the most exciting aspects of building your private practice is that you also take on the role of an entrepreneur… and as an entrepreneur, you become the visionary of your business. This means that you can create new products or services to suit your audience while also working on tasks that make you feel inspired, confident and engaged.
In order to lean into your role as an entrepreneur, it is helpful to determine your Zone of Genius and work to develop your private practice to support its fullest potential.
What is a Zone of Genius
So what exactly is a Zone of Genius? At its foundation, a zone of genius is made up of the problem solving or thinking that you excel at in addition to your purpose - what impact do you have on others?
It is important not to confuse your Zone of Genius with areas of business or life in which you are competent or even excellent. Being competent or excellent in a certain area is something that can be practiced over time. But your Zone of Genius is your natural ability where you are able to find inspiration and create an impact that positions you as the ultimate expert.
By building your private practice to support the areas in which you thrive and your purpose, your work will be meaningful and engaging. Working in your Zone of Genius entails work that may seem effortless to you. It is this unique combination of natural ability and years of experience, practice and learning that lead to breakthroughs and fulfilment.
Identifying Your Zone of Genius
To identify your Zone of Genius, start by taking the time to reflect on your work and life. Identify what tasks or activities do you do in your daily life and determine which of those seem less like ‘work’. Ask yourself what your unique ability is and how you can incorporate that into your business.
Once you identify your area of expertise, the abilities you have that come naturally to you, you will need to incorporate your purpose. In many instances, your purpose may be helping people in need but this can be done in more than one single way.
Although you are a skilled therapist, you may also find that writing educational content to help others live an inspired life or hosting retreats that create community and bring people together are things that feel fulfilling to you, without feeling burnt out.
These are ways that your Zone of Genius can be incorporated into your business. You are able to do things that keep you engaged in your work while still making an impact.
Using Your Zone of Genius as a Private Practitioner
There are 3 general categories that your Zone of Genius will fall into -- creative visioning, integrative thinking and intuitive doing. As you work to identify tasks that help you feel ‘in the zone’, you will become familiar with how your Zone of Genius can be used in your private practice.
For creative visioning, you are someone who has the unique ability to effortlessly spark new ideas, brainstorm effectively, or investigate or experiment with new ideas. As a private practitioner, you can incorporate this into your business by spending time creating new products to support your ideal clients using well-researched data to make informed choices.
In integrative thinking, you are someone who has the unique ability to plan and outline, evaluate ideas and bring people together. As a private practitioner, you can incorporate this into your business by spending time cultivating a community; perhaps offering group sessions for clients or leading a mastermind group for other therapists.
With intuitive doing, you are someone who has the unique ability to supervise, coordinate and work to improve aspects of your work or life. As a private practitioner, you can incorporate this into your business by expanding your practice with associate practitioners or looking for ways to improve administrative processes in your practice.
Once you have defined your Zone of Genius and identified how to focus on that as an entrepreneur, you can then begin to determine what tasks you can outsource or delegate to ensure you work primarily in your brilliance rather than the busy work!
Working in your Zone of Genius will help you sustain a successful practice that ultimately paves your way to success - however you define it. Are you familiar with your Zone of Genius? If so, how do you ensure to incorporate it into your business?
If you are looking for mentorship to determine how to effectively use your time and successfully run a sustainable practice learn about the Accelerate Your Practice program and the Scale Your Practice Program currently available.
