TPA is a systems approach to ethical entrepreneurship. That’s the credo. We say it in our team meetings. We repeat it on the group calls.
What does it mean?
I have a mentor who says, “No one thing accounts for much.”
Each part plays its part, but the whole is the context.
The bicep muscle of your arm functions within a certain range. It exerts a certain amount of force and moves a bony segment through space.
But to talk about it without including the shoulder or the wrist, or the forearm, or the fingers… is a little incomplete.
And to exclude the human being (the one who extends their arm to grab the cool glass of water, to lift it to their mouth, to take a long, satisfying drink) is absurd.
The whole is the context.
We take things apart to optimize their performance.
Analysis is a powerful tool. If the bicep is torn and needs to be repaired, we approach it as a thing. A part that needs to be fixed.
When mine was reattached along with my rotator cuff repair, I didn’t need my surgeon to ask me about my diet, or my relationships, or my emotions, or my posture. I needed him to do his job.
When I began the recovery, the rest of me (the whole of me) was there for every step of that grueling process.
When a landing page hits 50 Good Clicks, we look at the conversion rate, make a new hypothesis about the language and the page design, and start a new test.
But the whole click journey is implicated. We interrogate the search terms. We see if they’re consonant with the language of the ads. We see if the ads are aligned with the language of the landing page.
We look at the whole funnel and ask if it fits the niche we’ve identified through discovery. We ask if the market can validate our assumptions about that niche.
We have to fix the thing that’s broken, optimize the part that’s lagging, and always bear in mind that the whole is the context.
Don’t pick and choose your way through the program.
We’re building a machine with interlocking pieces. Each one has its own strategies for optimization. There is a process for getting each “thing” going.
They all take time and attention. They all take care and intelligence. Once they start operating in concert, we get something very special.
What is measured is managed.
And, honestly, calling it a systems approach doesn’t capture all of it.
The system lens still really only relates to exteriors. The measurable inputs and outputs and feedback loops of the machine. But you are not a machine.
And neither are your clients.
Therapy is a human-centered business. We must include interiors.
The subjectivity of your clients and readers. Your experience as a therapist. Your life and well-being as a business owner.
These inner states are all part of the greater context of building a therapy business. Perhaps it would be better to call it an integral approach to entrepreneurship.
Some may relate to the mindset and vision work as fluff. It’s common for people to skip over those sections of the course altogether.
But I’ll argue that vision is not fluff. It is “the mother of all antecedents.” It is the engine, the all-important “why,” that allows us to take courageous and consistent action in the face of daunting circumstances.
And who can say that mindset doesn’t touch every single aspect of their business?
I don’t mean a magical mindset. I’m not advocating for toxic positivity.
I’m talking about poise and clarity. The capacity to stay grounded when panic pushes you to make more changes than you can track coherently.
The awareness to notice when desperation or entitlement sneaks into your conversations with referral partners. A compelling vision to keep you moving when obstacles seem insurmountable.
These are as much a part of your success equation as a winning landing page.
Something you can try tomorrow:
Review your quarterly plan and your progress through the program thus far.
What are you working on right now? Chances are it’s a part (website, PT profile, landing page, referral engine strategy). What concrete experiments are you going to run this week to improve it? What specific tasks are you going to take on?
Then ask yourself how it fits into the whole. Have you skipped over parts of the work to get this part going?
Did you disregard other pieces of the process in your excitement to get to Google Ads?
When was the last time you updated your vision?
When was the last time you looked at it?
Are you taking enough time for yourself this week to fill your tank so you can stick with this for the long haul?
Find some ways to integrate an integral view into your plan this week. That might be committing to reading your CEW once a day.
That might be committing to 10 minutes of meditation or a walk in the woods.
Stop duct-taping tactics together. Build the whole engine at TPA. Click here to get started.