Free Quiz: Is A Scarcity Mindset Holding Back Your Practice And Website?

You’ve probably heard the word scarcity in the mental health industry before. Scarcity is defined as not enough. Not enough clients. Not enough money. Not enough marketing. Not enough time. These are all things I’ve heard as a consultant and financial therapist working with therapists as they attempt to launch and scale successful practices. 

Scarcity tends to drive when we are feeling tight with our money, such as when payments are coming in slow, when we experience the summer slump, or after a big expense. So how do we shut down our scarcity reactions to thrive in business? How do we reframe an expense as an investment in our business and ourselves?

The first step is understanding our money scripts and how they inform our money behaviors. Let’s take a quick quiz inspired by financial psychologist Dr. Brad Klontz’s Money Script Inventory:

Take The Quiz: What’s My (Negative) Money Script?

(C) Croswaite Counseling, PLLC

Instructions

Read each scenario and choose the option (A, B, C, or D) that best describes your reaction. At the end of the quiz, count how many As, Bs, Cs, and Ds you selected to determine your negative money script.

1. You get a bonus at work. You decide to:

A. Buy that new pair of shoes you’ve been eyeing.
B. Put it straight into your 401K.
C. Text your besties, “we’re going out and I’m buying!”
D. What bonus? You haven’t checked your bank account balance in weeks.

2. You’re calculating your quarterly taxes for your business this year and find yourself:

A. Excited to upgrade to the latest phone you’ve been wanting.
B. Feeling confident that you’ve put enough aside for when taxes are due. 
C. Hoping for a tax return to fund your next much-needed vacation.
D. Starting to sweat. Can’t you put this off until next month?

3. Your parents want to sit down and talk about their estate planning as part of their retirement. You respond by:

A. Giving advice on what they should do with all their money.
B. Worrying about how to maintain the estate if they ask you to.
C. Asking how you can help celebrate their hard work.
D. Brushing them off, saying you are busy for several weeks.

4. You stumble across a video on the importance of running financial reports as a business owner. Your reaction is:

A. Anticipation about your next big purchase.
B. Eagerness to invest your profits for your future.
C. Determination to work even harder to see those numbers grow.
D. An upset stomach and your mind going blank.

5. You are following a colleague online that you admire, and recently see them sharing about a new investment that’s making them more money. You:

A. Invest in the same program, barely looking at the price tag.
B. Roll your eyes. How can they justify the cost when they should save that money?
C. Do a bit of research then call us your finance friend for advice.
D. Unfollow them. Seeing their money content is stressing you out.

Quiz Results: What Does Your Negative Money Script Say About You?

Mostly As: Money Status

“I’ve worked hard for my money, I want to show it.”

• Desire to display wealth publicly.
• More often seen in young adults.
• Can be a tool to see something beyond physical disability.
• Scarcity is a former toxic relationship.

When it comes to scarcity, money status folks aren’t feeling the discomfort directly but rather indirectly, kind of like the psychological stain left after a toxic relationship. In their efforts to display success and wealth to others, these individuals may struggle to have enough money saved away for business investments that aren’t spontaneous.

As therapists in business, they may see the value of a high-end, beautiful website and social media person on staff, but having enough saved for the long-term investment of marketing their practice may feel like a challenge.

Mostly Bs: Money Vigilant

“Don’t spend money, save it!”

• Doesn’t spend money lavishly or gamble
• High anxiety about money, must save it and avoid spending it
• Difficulty enjoying money due to feelings of guilt after purchases
• Scarcity is a mentor

Scarcity serves a mentor to folks with a money vigilant script in the sense that scarcity advises us on our spending and saving of money. These individuals avoid spending money at all costs, especially when things feel “extravagant” or like a luxury.

When it comes to therapists in business, they will struggle to invest in big ticket items like website design, marketing campaigns, and branding sessions due to the higher price tag and questioning if there will be a solid return on investment.

Mostly Cs: Money Focus

“More money would make me happier.”

• May experience hoarding
• May spend in large amounts to show love to others
• Increased risk of workaholism
• Scarcity is a boss

The money focus script feels like it has scarcity as a boss. Why? Scarcity says there isn’t enough money so do more, more, more and money focus says we need to earn more. This dynamic reflects both internal and external motivation to make more money from a place of discomfort, anxiety, and stress. The marker of achievement continues to move with money focus, resulting in workaholism and poor work-life boundaries.

For a clinician in private practice, the focus on money can feel like a hyperfocused obsession, causing them to lose sleep at night as they attempt to invest in a website and marketing campaign that will grow their practice to that next level.

Mostly Ds: Money Avoidant

“I don’t want to think or talk about money.”

• Doesn’t ask for raises or promotions
• Minimizes own abilities and paid opportunities
• Goes hand-in-hand with Noble Poverty
• Scarcity is an estranged relative

Scarcity is absolutely a part of the money avoidant script, but serves the role of an estranged relative where the individual chooses to not to think about them and wrongly assumes that there is no impact on their life. Estrangement is emotional, even when there isn’t regular contact between money avoidance and scarcity. Money is emotional and somatically distressing to money avoidant folks.

Embracing the metaphorical head-in-the-sand, money avoidant professionals struggle to look at, think about, or engage their numbers, resulting in half-formed business ideas, Noble Poverty, and the absence of a streamlined website and marketing plans for their business.

Moving from Scarcity to Abundance: Embracing Healthier Money Scripts for Your Practice

So now that we’ve explored negative money scripts and their relationship to scarcity as the barrier to investing in your business, what are some measures that you are moving into a healthier relationship with your money as a private practice clinician? Allow me to introduce you to the healthier money scripts developed with underearners (like therapists) in mind:

Money Optimism

“When it comes to money, It will all work out.

• Resourceful
• Take on bigger risks with no mental angst
• Gut feeling, intuition reduces money anxiety

For therapists considering investing in a website or marketing strategy, money optimism allows them to research their options and jump into the process with enthusiasm.

Money Harmony

“Money comes and money goes, money flows.”

• Embraces the flow and movement of money
• Does not seek stagnation in their spending and saving
• Holds confidence that money will come in when neede

Clinicians in money harmony will approach a new website and/or marketing strategy as an investment rather than an expense.

Money Plentiful

“There is enough money.”

• Uses money as a tool
• Ever-evolving with their money
• Takes risks

Private practice therapists who embody a money plentiful script will see the value of investing in a website and marketing strategy and will allot funds for the long-game from a place of grounded self-assurance.

Is there one healthier script that you resonate with best?

The Signs You Are Moving Closer To A Healthier Script

What are some signs that you are moving closer to embodying that script? Here are some ideas for how to measure progress as a private practice therapist:

• Investing in bigger ticket items for your business like consultation, coaching, website design, and marketing in alignment with your business goals.
• Supporting money flow within your practice like spending, saving, and investing in your business to reduce taxes.
• Crafting your financial support team to make informed choices on your numbers. Think accountant, advisor, consultant, etc.
• Creating periodic expense and PTO accounts to reduce the emotional impact of unexpected expenses, income slumps, and absences within your business.
• Maintaining funds for continued education and scaling goals within your business.

What would you add to the list based on your business goals and in support of the reframe from expense to investment?

Action Step: Schedule This To Make Money Progress

You’ve gained some language for negative money patterns and beliefs as well as identified forward focus for moving your relationship with money into healthier scripts and patterns to invest in your business. From here, it’s important to set regular money meetings for yourself and your business. You’ve heard of working ON your business rather than IN your business. 

Additionally, I firmly believe that if you don’t schedule it, it won’t happen! So consider a regular money meeting with yourself as a business owner. It could be five minutes to run a report, or several hours to explore client retention, income streams, or a budget for website design. What somatic response did you just have to this suggestion of a money meeting? Financial therapy can help you unpack additional emotional responses to your money. 

In the meantime, place a money meeting in your calendar. Consider all five of your senses and what you would want or need for that meeting to be successful. Is it a certain location? Smell? Snack? Music? Incentive or reward after? By crafting your money meeting with your five senses in mind, you are more likely to do it which brings you one step closer to an abundance vs. scarcity mindset when investing in yourself and your private practice.