EP. 289 {ENCORE} EP. 03 Shifting Your Money Story For Business Success

I see a lot of therapists struggling with their pricing, and it almost always comes back to one thing: their money story. Not their skill level, not their experience, and not even their market. It’s the way they’re thinking about money that’s driving every decision they make in their business.

I’ve been in this work for a long time, and I care deeply about therapists building practices that actually support their lives. You’ve invested in your education, your training, and your ability to help people. Your business needs to reflect that. But when your money story is running in the background unchecked, it quietly shapes your rates, your confidence, and your results.

What I want you to start seeing is this: the thoughts you have about money create the feelings you carry into your business, and those feelings drive your actions. If you’re undercharging, avoiding decisions, or second-guessing your pricing, that’s not random. It’s coming from a pattern.

This is why I wanted to talk about this. Because when you understand your money story and start working with it instead of reacting to it, you can make clear decisions about your rates, your business, and the kind of life you actually want to support.

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What Is Your Money Story and How Does It Affect Your Business

Your money story is the set of thoughts you have about money that creates your feelings, drives your actions, and determines your business results.

Money itself is neutral. It doesn’t create stress, anxiety, or confidence on its own. What creates those feelings is what you make money mean. And most therapists make money mean something very personal. It becomes tied to your worth, your value, and your contribution.

Those thoughts don’t just sit in the background. They directly influence how you run your business. If you’re thinking, “I don’t have enough,” you’ll feel pressure or inadequacy, and that can lead to hesitation, overthinking, or undercharging. If you’re thinking, “This is enough,” you’ll feel more grounded and make decisions from a completely different place. Same circumstances, completely different outcomes.

This is why two therapists can be in the exact same situation financially and get very different results. It’s not the amount of money they have. It’s the way they’re thinking about it and what they believe is possible for them.

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Why Setting Your Rates Feels So Personal

Setting your rates feels personal because therapists tie money to their worth, value, and identity.

When you go to choose a price, it can feel like you’re putting yourself up for judgment. It’s not just a number anymore. It turns into questions like, “Who am I to charge that?” or “What if people think that’s too much?” or “What if they say no?”

So instead of setting a rate based on what your business actually requires, you start making decisions based on avoiding those feelings. You lower your price to avoid judgment. You keep things “comfortable” so you don’t have to deal with rejection. But that doesn’t remove discomfort. It just changes the type of discomfort you feel.

Because on the other side of undercharging is a different experience. That’s where resentment shows up. That’s where you feel overworked, underpaid, and stuck. And now instead of worrying about what people think, you’re dealing with the reality of a business that isn’t supporting you.

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How Do You Use Data to Clarify Your Money Story

Using financial data clarifies your money story by replacing emotional decision-making with objective numbers.

Most therapists skip this step and go straight to picking a price that “feels right.” But without real data, that number is usually influenced by fear, comparison, or what feels comfortable in the moment. That’s where confusion and second-guessing come from.

What I want you to do instead is get very clear on your numbers. Look at your personal expenses and your business expenses. Go through your bank statements and write down your recurring costs. Then define how much you actually need to make to support your life, how much you want to make, and how many hours you want to work. When you have those facts in front of you, your rate stops being a guess.

This is where things get simpler. Business really is math and emotion. The math is your expenses, your income goals, and your available time. When you solve for those, you get a clear starting point for your pricing. And from there, you can make decisions based on what your business requires instead of what your money story is telling you to avoid.

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How Your Money Story Shapes Your Results

Your money story shapes your results by determining the actions you take and the outcomes your business produces.

The same financial situation can create completely different results depending on how you think about it. You could have a certain amount of money in your account and think, “This isn’t enough,” which leads to stress, comparison, and holding back. Or you could look at that same number and think, “This is solid,” which creates confidence and forward movement.

Nothing about the circumstance changed. The only thing that changed was the thought, and that thought created a different feeling, which led to different actions.

This shows up clearly in your business. If your money story is built around scarcity or doubt, you’ll hesitate to raise your rates, avoid conversations about pricing, or make decisions from fear. If your money story supports sufficiency and possibility, you’ll take action, communicate clearly, and make decisions that move your business forward.

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Why You Need to Be Willing to Feel Uncomfortable

Growth in your business requires a willingness to feel discomfort instead of avoiding it through underpricing or inaction.

A lot of the decisions you’re avoiding come down to not wanting to feel something. Not wanting to feel judged. Not wanting to feel rejected. Not wanting to feel uncertain. So the response is to avoid the decision altogether or make a “safer” one that keeps you comfortable in the moment.

But that comfort comes at a cost. When you avoid raising your rates or making clear decisions, your business stops working for you. You end up overworking, under-earning, or building something that doesn’t support your life outside of work.

The alternative is being willing to feel those emotions and move forward anyway. That means setting your rate based on your numbers, communicating it clearly, and letting people respond however they respond. It also means being willing to hear no and using it as a chance to practice, reflect, and improve. That’s how you build confidence over time. Not by avoiding discomfort, but by learning you can handle it.

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What should you do next?

If you’ve made it this far, you can probably see where your money story is influencing your decisions.

The next step is to be willing to be uncomfortable and sort through your own money issues so you can figure these things out.

That might mean looking at your numbers honestly.
That might mean setting a rate that feels higher than what you’re used to.
That might mean having conversations you’ve been avoiding.

You don’t need to have it all figured out right away. But you do need to be willing to look at what’s there and make decisions from that place instead of avoiding it.

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