Speaker: 0:01

Welcome to The Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom Jackobs: 0:36

Welcome back to the heart-led business show where passion meets purpose like peanut butter meets jelly. And today we're thrilled to have Dr. Anne Welsh in the virtual studio. Today she's a clinical psychologist turned executive coach, navigating the nurturing waters of working motherhood with four little anchors at home. Join us as we dive into her heart-led journey of empowering parents to juggle careers and connections, helping them feel understood, valued, and ready to take on the world. So let's welcome Dr. Anne Welsh. Anne, welcome to the show.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 1:11

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here today.

Tom Jackobs: 1:15

I'm, I'm really excited to talk to you as well. So I'm not a parent, but I work with a lot of people who are parents and they, and especially the moms that are stressed out a lot, doing a lot of things. So I think having that conversation today about what you're doing in your practice, I think is gonna be really valuable for those heart-led moms that wanna start a business and, and really learn from, from your inspiring journey. So I'm excited.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 1:39

Great.

Tom Jackobs: 1:41

the first question I always like to ask, of course, is what's your definition of a heart-led business?

Dr. Anne Welsh: 1:47

Yeah, I mean, I define it pretty broadly because I think almost any business can be heart-led. Um, when we are guiding and leading from a place of our values and integrity and emotional intelligence, rather than just looking at metrics or status or kind of traditional markers of success. Right. So it really takes in choosing ambition that aligns with who you are and not just external validation. And there's space for nuance and empathy and reflection. And, and what I like about thinking of all of that is, you know, that fits whether I'm running a Fortune 500 company or my private practice is a therapist, right? Like that, that you have access to being a heart-led leader in all spaces.

Tom Jackobs: 2:29

Yeah. I love that too. And and recognizing that you can still be heart-led in a profit based business. And I think that's, that's, that's really important for our audience to understand and to really hear as well, is that you can, you can have both, you can have your cake and eat it too, which is,

Dr. Anne Welsh: 2:50

Right, which

Tom Jackobs: 2:50

is what everybody really wants, uh, when they start a purpose life business as well. So tell us a little bit about your business and, and what makes it heart-led.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 3:00

Yeah, so you know, I've, I've only recently started using the term portfolio career because it's kind of what I've fallen into, even though it's not what I saw to build from the beginning. But really I do a lot of different things and they're all centered on primarily supporting women in leadership and working moms. So I have a therapy practice and that is all perinatal mental health. So, you know.

Tom Jackobs: 3:23

Hmm.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 3:23

Women that are pregnant or have recently had babies and are struggling with mood disorders like depression or anxiety or just kind of the transitional stuff that happens with motherhood. But then I also have an executive coaching practice and that focuses on women who are in roles, especially in kinda traditionally male oriented fields. So I see a lot of women in biotech and STEM and law and finance. And then I have group coaching for working moms, and then I do consulting with organizations. So I catch it from the other end, and that's around how can they better support working parents and or how can they, you know, bring me in to provide coaching for their leadership or for their kind of high potential folks. So it's a lot of different ways of supporting people. And then I recently layered in writing a book too.

Tom Jackobs: 4:12

So basically you're not doing anything right, so.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 4:14

No, no. I sit around a lot and do nothing.

Tom Jackobs: 4:18

Wow. That is a lot of different things. And I love the, the portfolio kind of business as you described it.'cause it, there are little pieces of, of profit centers at the different pieces. So it broadens your reach, but also in insulates you from any downward trends in any individual piece.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 4:39

Yes. Yeah. And that's kind of how I, I mean, I didn't build it with that thought in mind, but I did build it from where is my energy? What do I have energy to do? And you know, when my youngest, so my kids are all in school now, my youngest is nine. But when she, so when she started kindergarten and I had a little more time to play with, I thought about just expanding the therapy practice and doing that full time

Tom Jackobs: 5:02

Hmm.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 5:02

and I, I kind of had done that with COVID by default because every person I'd ever seen came back and needed support and I was quickly aware of the capacity for burnout there, right? And if I thought to myself, if I do this only and only this full-time, I will gain more income, but I will not be able to continue to show up as the mom or really even the therapist that I wanna be. And so I need to think about other ways to serve and maybe still keep my therapy practice, which is what I did. Um, and I kind of went on a journey of exploring and trying out things and experimenting and figuring out like. What things give me energy and help me show up better because, well, I love my therapy practice. I cannot do that full time anymore. That's just not gonna work

Tom Jackobs: 5:47

Yeah.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 5:47

for me.

Tom Jackobs: 5:48

Yeah. No, that, that's great. And I, I'm glad you made the differentiation between the energy and the, the profit side because I immediately, I went to just, oh, this is a great way to diversify your portfolio, but you're also saying portfolio in terms of energy as well, and I think that's something that a lot of heart-led businesses need to be looking at as well. It's like, what am I good at, but what do I have energy for? And what brings me joy in, in that? Now, so were you always in practice by yourself or what was the shift to having your own heart-led business for you personally?

Dr. Anne Welsh: 6:27

No, I was not, and I was never planning on being an entrepreneur. So I,

Tom Jackobs: 6:30

Love it.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 6:31

I was in grad school and I thought I would, I was getting my PhD. I thought initially maybe I would do some research and I, I might be an academic and I kind of fell in love with practice in a way that I didn't, the practice of therapy, um, in a way that I didn't expect, but my initial desire was to work at a university counseling center. And I got a job at Harvard and was in their counseling center, and it was like my dream job and I loved it in a lot of ways. But, you know, life doesn't happen in, or work doesn't happen in isolation. And I had my second child and I just, working in university mental health can be pretty intense these days. Like the requirements of how many clients you see, is, is a lot. And I was finding that I just wasn't able to do it full-time and be the parent that I wanted home. And so I asked to go part-time and they said no, which was you know in the end worked out well. But although, and now it's kind of, that experience has fuel a little bit for how I work with organizations. I wanted to stay, I didn't want to go into business by myself, but I didn't feel like I had a choice. Um, so I left

Tom Jackobs: 7:36

Interesting.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 7:36

and the practice was just a, my way initially of keeping a toe in the door. It was like, I'm gonna see a few patients a week, so I'm still doing this. I don't get quote rusty. It, you know, I didn't really think of it as a business. I thought of it as just like I'm keeping up my license and seeing a handful of patients.

Tom Jackobs: 7:53

Okay.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 7:54

And it took me a couple years to catch on to like, oh no, this is a business that you're running and you're doing this, and then start kind of building from there. But yeah, so I fell into business completely accidentally.

Tom Jackobs: 8:07

Okay. So how did you learn the business side if you fell into it accidentally? Like, uh, what was that process like for you?

Dr. Anne Welsh: 8:15

It was a lot of, uh, it was a steep learning curve. I mean, I will say as a, as a therapist to start a private practice compared to maybe other types of entrepreneurial ventures is an, is an easier lift. And I don't wanna say it's easy. All I had to do, like I, I, all I had to do was just say I'm a therapist with a private practice. Like I didn't even have to get like an EIN, like I could literally just say I now see patients. And I did get picked credentialed with an insurance, one insurance company. And clients just came my way. Right. And again, therapy, there's a lot of need. And I had worked to Harvard, so I had a lot of referrals coming from their counseling center. So the initial steps we're not that hard. But the kind of mindset work and like the personal steps of taking it seriously, were a lot harder. Right? And like, what do you do when a client doesn't show up and you have this no-show policy and you're supposed to charge them, but is it a good enough reason to charge them? Am I allowed to do that? I mean, I think therapists in particular, we have a lot of hangups around charging for our work.

Tom Jackobs: 9:17

Right.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 9:18

And so I had to work through a lot of that kind of internal stuff, even though setting up a business per se, wasn't that hard.

Tom Jackobs: 9:25

Okay. Interesting. And then you didn't really have to do any marketing either to get patients.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 9:32

Not at first. Yeah. No, and, and not really for my therapy practice in general. Um, I did take one, and, one insurance company, and that was a big decision to leave insurance now, six years ago.

Tom Jackobs: 9:44

Okay.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 9:45

I still don't have to do a ton of marketing. Other, I have a pretty specialized training, which helps, um, I'm very niched in in my therapy practice and, and the, um, peripartum mental health certification I have is not something that everybody has and is in need.

Tom Jackobs: 10:00

Yeah.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 10:01

But I have, as I've added coaching and consulting, I've had to do a lot more marketing and that's been very uncomfortable for me. I'm getting better at it, but it's, it that, again, that was another place of steep learning curve. Lots of personal growth that had to happen as part of that work. And even just up and being visible was like a huge transition from my life as a therapist versus coaching and and the consulting work.

Tom Jackobs: 10:24

Cool. Yeah. And so let's, let's dive deeper, deeper into that transition and how you got comfortable with the business side.'cause that's really the, the focus of, of the show is to help heart-led business owners know that one, you can make a profit and be okay with it. But that you, there's things that you need to learn and, and do. So what, what did you do personally to work on the mindset and overcome some of the internal struggles about having a heart-led business?

Dr. Anne Welsh: 10:54

Yeah. You know what's funny is it's actually a lot of the work I, same work I do with my own clients, especially in my group coaching program for working moms, and, and that is like getting clear on what I thought or felt or needed or wanted outside of the noise. Right. Everybody in their mother is gonna have an opinion on your mothering. Everyone is gonna have opinion on your business, on how you do things, on how you charge for things, on what you charge for things, right? Especially the money. Money is such a, you know, and again, as from the therapist seat, I can tell you money is probably the hardest thing that people talk about. Right? You know, more so than anything else you could come up with money has a lot of stuff behind it. So I had to work through this, like, I call it like a closet clean out where you just kind of think of what are all of the things that I've been told about money and what that looks like, and that included opinions of other therapists and what they're doing. That included, you know, both my parents were physicians and my father had his own practice and my mom worked for a hospital.

Tom Jackobs: 11:56

Oh, okay.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 11:56

And like their perceptions on money and what it meant to charge. And coming from this background of a healthcare family and, you know, essentially think about, well, okay, all their stuff. What do I believe underneath it? And then it was like taking the little tolerable steps, um, and kind of signaling safety to my own nervous system in the, in the process of saying I can do I get to make my own choice. And that might be different than what someone else can choose. And they can disapprove of me for that. And I'm also not gonna die. Like that's okay. I can tolerate that they are gonna see it differently and may even really strongly disagree with me and I'm gonna do it anyway. And I think part of that process was also recognizing that same, you know, that same energy dynamic I was talking about of I have to charge something that allows me to show up. Fully present and not resentful of people asking for my time.'cause that's a horrible thing to do as a, as a therapist, right?

Tom Jackobs: 12:55

Yeah. Yes.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 12:55

or whatever. have to like, want to be there. And so trying to make sense of the money story along with like, again, how I wanna show up and be present and, and recognizing that those two things are actually incredibly linked.

Tom Jackobs: 13:10

Yeah. Yeah. Now it this point so many things in there as well to, to help other heart-led business owners. So take me through kind of, you're talking about the money piece, so what you charged at the beginning for your time, for, for therapy versus what you're charging now, uh, without insurance and, and how that felt. Going through it versus ver where it felt today in terms of how you're charging people.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 13:41

Yeah, I mean, again, I think for me, anytime I think a person wants to make changes, we can do it in baby steps or we can kind of dive off the deep end really quickly, right? It's it's like you gonna jump in the cold water or are you gonna like ease into it? And for me, with charging, it was a lot of the, the tiptoeing in and, and easing you know, and so it was kind of like I'll raise my prices here, I'll raise them there. I'll take a temp on what are other people doing, and then maybe do it again and you know, I, but I, I do think for me, when I made the choice to not take insurance anymore, and there were a lot of reasons behind that, that felt like a big jump. And on one of the things that actually helped was a dear colleague and friend of mine. Elsa was doing it at the same time and it was a little bit like, we were holding hands while we did it together.

Tom Jackobs: 14:27

Like a little support system.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 14:28

You can remind the other person of, yes, this is okay for you, and then you kind of have to take that in for yourself, right.

Tom Jackobs: 14:37

Yeah. Oh, that's, that's brilliant. So what, what was that like in terms of the, the perception of clients and the transition then to cash pay versus insurance pay?

Dr. Anne Welsh: 14:49

I will say most of the bad things that were said were in my head, right? Uh, and most of it was my own kind of

Tom Jackobs: 14:55

Yep.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 14:56

head trash, if you will. Um, Most of my clients were like, yeah, of course. And I did lose some because they couldn't afford it.

Tom Jackobs: 15:02

It's true.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 15:02

I think for me, there was a decision at that point of, I had a bunch of massive headaches with insurance for a lot of reasons and

Tom Jackobs: 15:11

I bet.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 15:12

of nitpicking care. And I thought I could spend my time on this. That's unpaid labor to get this money or I could the handful of clients that couldn't see me in network, you know, that couldn't see someone out of network. I could offer them a sliding scale or even pro bono and I'd be doing free labor that I like versus free labor that I hate, or I, you know, again, but that there were a lot of options that I wasn't trapped in. You have to take insurance or you're a neg negligent therapist, or you're a selfish or greedy, or all of those belief systems around it to can do this. And again, most of my patients were like, great, I'll pay the new rate. And then yes, they have to submit for reimbursement. But again I was already paying for providers for like my kids out of pocket. So why would I require, right? Why couldn't I give myself the same grace?

Tom Jackobs: 16:02

Exactly. Yeah. I'm glad that you broke that down too for, for, for the listeners in terms of you're going to be spending the time administratively on just the BS insurance stuff. So if you get rid of that now, it frees up your time to do things that you really love. And if that's, giving scholarships or reduced rates to clients that really need it, that's a, to me, that's really heart-led in terms of just giving to the community in a way that keeps you full. In terms of the revenue that you're getting, so you're not resentful and, and not working for free, but also gives back to the community for those that are in need as well. I, I love that. That's, that's a really heart-led approach to, to the, to that issue and cut, cut out the insurance. They, they don't need the money.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 16:52

Right, right.

Tom Jackobs: 16:53

or the time. Right. Exactly. Yeah. That's, that's crazy. I'm sure it was, you know, I've talked to a lot of practices and you. They usually have a one full-time equivalent employee that only their whole job is dealing with insurance, and that just seems like a whole waste of time and money to me.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 17:12

Yeah, yeah.

Tom Jackobs: 17:13

Where you could be, your margins would be a lot better if you're cash pay. Maybe you're charging a little less, but you're making more profit because yeah, it is what it is.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 17:23

Yeah, and those are the kind of some of the decisions. Again, like when you train as a therapist in particular, but I, I think this is probably true in a lot of other kind of these service modalities, you don't get trained in that part. You only get trained and providing the service and then you have to learn all of the rest on your own.

Tom Jackobs: 17:41

Yeah.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 17:42

And, and that also takes time. And you know, I think one of the things mistakes I made very early on in my own business was when, when I had that very small private practice, And I think other parents can probably relate, is I was like, well, I'll only get childcare when I'm seeing patients and I'll do all of the rest of it when the kids snatch. That was a horrible idea. I mean, it saved me money'cause childcare is very expensive, and that was part of it. Like I had to try to get the, my feet underneath me and have some income coming in.

Tom Jackobs: 18:10

Yeah.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 18:10

But that is one choice I regret to not acknowledge the time spent on the admin, the notes, the calling, the insurance company, all the other stuff that goes into running a business. I just, it didn't occur to me that that maybe deserved some sort of support and acknowledgement too.

Tom Jackobs: 18:25

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Looking at the full business as a holistic. Yeah. That's so important. Especially as, as you're building a business and navigating kinda the, the new newness of owning a business. If you, if you've never owned one before or had education about what to do, which I don't think any college does that for medical or, or for healthcare or any, any type of those fields, which is crazy. Yeah.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 18:54

Yeah.

Tom Jackobs: 18:54

So where did you go for the education that you needed?

Dr. Anne Welsh: 18:57

A lot of it was trial and error and figuring it out as I go along. And I, I would say that's something I'm still learning. And I probably three years ago now, I also joined a group coaching program myself as a member for women in entrepreneurship. And that's went huge.

Tom Jackobs: 19:17

Yeah.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 19:18

Because that's really allowed me to truly embrace like the business element of it and what I'm doing and think a little bit more strategically. You know, I, I mentioned that I have this like portfolio career I built by accidentaly, it felt like I was throwing spaghetti at the wall. Like just what would it be like to do this? Does that, that sounds fun. And it's been a great way to build it. Like I don't think that, that there was anything wrong with that experimentation. But now I do have more support and a group of women around me kind of saying, yeah go for it. Do that thing, charge more. Go get that corporate contract. Like people kind of cheering me on and then who I can also ask like, Hey, logistically, how did you navigate this? What are you doing here? And it's nice because we're actually all in different types of businesses. You know, someone's in retail, someone's in bookkeeping. But it's just that same sense of there's a lot of overlap in what it means to be an entrepreneur. Yeah.

Tom Jackobs: 20:16

And, and business is business when it comes to the admin side of it. Everybody has to pay tax. Everybody has to do their books and all that. You know, and I, I'm really glad that you brought up that mastermind and, and community coaching program as well, because I think a lot of us, and you, you experienced this too, I think. In terms of building a business, we feel very alone in doing that

Dr. Anne Welsh: 20:40

Yeah.

Tom Jackobs: 20:40

because our family generally doesn't understand, and most of our friends have jobs and they don't necessarily understand. They, they, I always love it. They're like, oh, you don't even work that hard. You know? It's like. What do you mean? Just because I'm calm and have this demeanor doesn't mean I'm working hard. It's just, you know, perception. But it's good to have that community of other entrepreneurs to know that you're not going crazy. Number one and that, and that you can try things and they can support you in trying those things, which is really cool.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 21:14

Yeah.

Tom Jackobs: 21:15

What's been the biggest surprise for you in terms of pleasant surprise in terms of being a heart-led business that you didn't really think about when you got into it?

Dr. Anne Welsh: 21:26

I think early on, the biggest surprise for me, it's two. Like the early on, would be that I actually liked running my own business.'cause I didn't, again, I didn't think I had an entrepreneurial boss spirit in me like if you take, there's a, I don't do a lot of career assessments with folks. It's probably my own coaching and, nothing pointed to go do your own thing. I'm pretty risk intolerant and

Tom Jackobs: 21:49

Wow.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 21:51

I don't like selling,

Tom Jackobs: 21:53

Yeah.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 21:53

That didn't really make me think this would, I really, truly thought I would hate it and was just gonna do it for a little while. And I, the first couple years I kept thinking like, should I go back? Should I go back? And a couple years and I was like, I could never go back. I could never go back to working for someone else. I love getting to be in charge, even if it's scary and risky sometimes, and hard. I love this, like, I love getting to be in charge of how I spend my time and think about how things feel for me. And then the other biggest surprise is what we were just talking about, like the value of community. Because I did work completely independently for a very long time, and in the past couple years I've really been effortful, uh, or put a lot of effort into joining different types of community for support.

Tom Jackobs: 22:36

That's good.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 22:37

How much of a difference that makes for me. And that like is such a great way to learn and to learn about myself, learn about business, and just feel connected with other people.

Tom Jackobs: 22:47

Yeah. Oh, that's, that's so great. What a journey too. What, what piece of advice would you give to a new entrepreneur who wants to have a heart-led business, but's kind of afraid of, of starting something?

Dr. Anne Welsh: 23:03

Ooh. Would say, trust yourself. Like I think a lot of entrepreneurship is understanding or building trust in yourself, but do it again, those little bite-sized pieces.

Tom Jackobs: 23:14

Mm.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 23:14

Little tiny ways of testing and signaling that, yeah, you do know what you're doing. And then the other thing related to communities, ask for help. Like, I think that's the one thing I would've done differently if I could. In, in hindsight, I think I could have grown faster if I had reached out to get some help, whether it was like a one-off coaching session or something more bigger than that or whatever. But that, getting help around all of the stuff in some way, shape, or form makes a big difference.

Tom Jackobs: 23:43

Yes. Yes. And I will repeat that again. Get some help if early on. I mean, it was the same for me. I, I almost, it took me almost going broke, having just only$2,000 left to my name before I reached out for help, and that was a complete game changer for, for the business. When, when we do that, when we recognize that we don't know everything, and there's a plenty of people out there that have done what we want to do and have the, have great advice for us, so yeah. Yeah. Do not go, go through this alone is detrimental to your health and, and well, and your mental wellbeing as well.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 24:19

Yeah.

Tom Jackobs: 24:20

That, that's those, that's great advice, Anne. Thank you for that. And how can people learn more about your practice and what you're, do you know all the different pieces of the portfolios that, that you're working on?

Dr. Anne Welsh: 24:31

Yeah, the, you know, the most likely place you'll find me is in my own Zoom room, like hanging out with clients or with my working moms group. But uh, online they can find me at my website. I have all kind of my different services listed there. And then I'm on LinkedIn almost every day. I love, I actually love hanging out on LinkedIn. I mean, talk about community I am not a huge social media person in my regular life, and I have found LinkedIn to just be like a really fun place to hang out and have colleagues and can talk about things through posting. So I'm on there all the time.

Tom Jackobs: 25:01

That's great.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 25:01

You are free to find me and connect. And then I'm also on Instagram. So in both cases it's Dr. Anne Welsh.

Tom Jackobs: 25:06

Okay. Awesome. Well, we'll link all that up into the show notes, and I think you had a a guide that you wanted to give to everybody as well. Is that right? What? What?

Dr. Anne Welsh: 25:15

Yeah. I have a, a free guide on beating perfectionism, which I know is something I had to work through a lot in building my own business right. And shows up for a ton of my clients. Right. And I think perfectionism is one of those things that actually helps, or it feels like it's helping for a while, and then it gets to a point where it's no longer helping, right? It's actually hurting you and, and trying to help people correct that. So it's just a PDF that you can flip through and get some information on, and that'll be in the show notes as well.

Tom Jackobs: 25:44

Awesome. Yes, that is, everybody needs to download that for sure.'cause we all struggle with perfectionism and you know, from personal experience, it has definitely slowed me down. You know, it's, it's now I, I I have this, uh, one, one mentor of mine said version one is better than version none. So at least get something out there. It doesn't have to be perfect. Get something out so you can validate and and move on. Yeah. Love it. Well, Anne, thank you so much for being on the show today. I, I know you're busy and, and you took this time to, to share your wisdom with us and I certainly do appreciate it.

Dr. Anne Welsh: 26:25

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. This was a really fun conversation.

Tom Jackobs: 26:28

Awesome. Yes, it was. And thank you listeners for tuning in today or watching on YouTube, if that's your, your program of choice. I really appreciate it and make sure that, that you're checking out everything that Anne is doing. We're gonna put all that down into the show notes or into the description section, so make sure you're checking that out. Go down there, read the notes, click on the links, and definitely download that PDF. Everybody should be doing that. That's mandatory reading if you're gonna be an entrepreneur. Awesome. And if you could do me a favor, and that is to share the show with a friend or family member that could use this advice as well, that really does help us share that heart-led businesses can make a profit and be profitable. So make sure you're spreading the word. If you would please. And until next time, lead with your heart.

Speaker 2: 27:15

You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.