EPISODE 050 | My Return to In-Person Services: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Are you dabbling in the online space and sometimes feel pressured to go “all in” as a Digital CEO? Or maybe you’re offering in-person services and it feels all-encompassing, meaning you’re wondering how you could possibly take on an online revenue stream on the side? 

Do you ever wonder if you can have the best of both worlds?

Well, after being 100% fully online for the last 4.5 years, today I’m pulling back the curtain on my return to in-person services. 

In this episode you’re going to hear me talk about: 

• The changes I’ve experienced in my personal life and why I was motivated to go back to working in my community
• How I’m filling some important gaps in my business with this in-person consulting contract
• The downside of working in-person and why I appreciate my online work more than ever! 

If you resonate with any of my shares in today’s episode, don't hesitate to reach out! I always enjoy connecting with people from our Rogue Community! You can find me on Instagram @otsgonerogue, through our Facebook page @otsgonerogue or by going to our contact form, https://www.otsgonerogue.com/podcast-contact. 

Transcript

Melissa LaPointe [00:00:06]:
You're listening to the OTs on Rogue podcast, where we inspire therapists to think outside the box and do things differently. I'm your host, Melissa Lapointe. My passion is in helping OT entrepreneurs have a bigger impact on the world while building a life they love and doing transformative work that lights them up. On each episode of the show, I'm gonna share tools and tricks to help you flex your entrepreneurial muscles and grow your business from the inside out. I wanna see more OTs step up as visionary leaders, change makers, and influential CEOs. So let's get started. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast.

Melissa LaPointe [00:00:53]:
Now before we dive into today's episode, I wanna take a moment and acknowledge the collective work we're doing on building our awareness. So last week's episode was all about making things harder than they need to be. And after I recorded that episode, I couldn't stop giggling. I couldn't stop thinking. I was having these flashbacks about stories that I could have included. I then jumped on my Instagram and my Facebook stories. So I shared 1 more experience where so some of you may have seen me talk or heard me talk about this. So there was, I forget.

Melissa LaPointe [00:01:34]:
It was a few years ago now, but I had intentions of recording a 3 minute video for a contest that Amy Porterfield was running. And long story short, my attempt to wow Amy with this beautiful backdrop resulted in a backcountry outing with my family that went completely sideways, where in the end, after giving up on recording the video, I did try, get an a for effort. I put 2 hours into trying to record this bloody 3 minute video, but gave up. And then at the very end, when we went to get back into the car, discovered that my family, all of us, we had basically been swarmed by ticks. They were everywhere on us. So needless to say, I did not get my contest entry submitted. So when I shared this story on Instagram and on Facebook, I had encouraged you guys to share some of your stories with me. And, boy, did you guys deliver.

Melissa LaPointe [00:02:31]:
So from coming up with business names to creating our logos, I can relate to both of those. Some of you have had situations of affiliate partnerships gone sideways. Several of you definitely related to my experiences of recording video where, again, we so often make content creation much harder than it needs to be. I'm still thinking about some of my my experiences. And some of you shared stories around onboarding new clients, filling out paperwork, tracking down payment after the fact, different ways of doing things where in hindsight, you were able to see that you were putting in way more effort, that you didn't necessarily have the right systems in place and making things harder than they need to be. So I think we can all agree that at some point in time, we've been there. We made things way harder. And with that being said, there's a level of, like, this feeling of safety in numbers.

Melissa LaPointe [00:03:41]:
So I know for me, hearing all those stories, it really gave me a sense of peace knowing that I'm not the only 1 who struggled with this. I'm certainly not alone. And I also love that so many of us are working towards the path of least resistance. So we've been able to share. We had some laughs, but we're also growing and evolving together. And in this world of entrepreneurship where we can feel quite isolated at times, this is a really good thing. This sense of camaraderie where we can look back and have a bit of a chuckle. Now speaking of feeling isolated, today I wanna share more about the changes that I've been going through with my own business.

Melissa LaPointe [00:04:31]:
So some pretty big shifts in the last 6 months in terms of service provision and 1 of the instigating factors to these changes was this sense of isolation. So if some of you who are full time in the online space or even if you're not, just being a business owner in and of itself can feel isolating. So when I first got started in the online space, it was alongside my brick and mortar therapy practice. So I already I was a few years into my in person therapy practice. So I had an office, I had a studio space in town, so I was working outside of my home. I was going into schools. I was doing home visits. I was also going into other businesses, other nonprofit organizations.

Melissa LaPointe [00:05:22]:
So I was facilitating workshops and trainings. Meaning at that time, the online space was in many ways for me a reprieve. So it's this time where I could work from wherever in my comfy clothes, taking breaks when I wanted, adjusting my hours around my family's schedule, and I loved that. Then in the fall of 2017, when we were coming back to town. So we had been evacuated for 2 months because of the wildfires. We were coming back to town trying to regroup. It was still quite smoky. So just the air quality, it was still quite triggering, but that was also when I had made the decision to let go of my clinical practice.

Melissa LaPointe [00:06:07]:
So I was feeling a tremendous amount of guilt that I was letting my families, my therapy clients, and my community down. I was providing a service that I knew was very much needed, and I felt like a big asshole for pulling it away. So it was a complicated intense time in my life where I was going back and forth between feeling empowered versus feeling selfish. Knowing I was putting myself and my family first, but then, again, so many you know, 1 of my core values is community and connection. And I knew that there were families, there were women that were going to be struggling because I was no longer providing the service that I was doing. Then my son started to show all these crazy neurological symptoms. So this is again fall 2017. So on top of everything else, trying to give up my clinical practice, trying to transition out, letting people know, feeling that I was essentially breaking up with everyone 1 at a time, 1 appointment at a time, 1 consultation at a time.

Melissa LaPointe [00:07:20]:
Then on top of that, I had to start juggling all these different medical appointments and assessments. So I'm, you know, bringing Max to different appointments as we try to figure out what the heck was going on. So, you know, there was also there was some level of advocating. I don't wanna say a lot because I was a well respected medical professional, health professional in our community, and people were listening. They were listening, and they were doing their best to help, and they were right there alongside me jumping through hoops trying to figure out what was going on with Max. My anxiety was starting to creep up on me at that time. I was bottling a lot of my emotions up, and basically, I was doing my best to put on a brave face and keep it together for my son. And I didn't want to be around a lot of people.

Melissa LaPointe [00:08:19]:
So going into 2018, so we had Max's brain surgery at the end of November. And going into 2018, things actually got worse. Now if you're a new listener and you're wondering what it is I'm talking about, you can go back very first episode of the podcast. I share more about that crazy year and all the different things that we were going through in terms of the fires, in terms of max, in terms of our time down at Children's Hospital. With that being said, so we live in a small town, and this all happened really suddenly. So from the first time he started showing symptoms, now it was, I think, 3rd week of September through until his surgery was November 24th. So it all happened. Everything escalated very quickly.

Melissa LaPointe [00:09:07]:
And we live in a small town, meaning word got around. And then we also had a GoFundMe campaign that went viral, meaning everyone knew about Max's story. Everyone wanted updates. They wanted to know how he was doing, and he was doing great. His recovery was nothing short of miraculous, But I was still dealing with the nightmare of his tumor growing back. We didn't know why it was there in the first place. We were just told it was a, you know, it had been growing for several years, and they didn't know why. And we had to go back in 6 months' time to have another MRI to make sure that it wasn't growing back.

Melissa LaPointe [00:09:54]:
So basically, for that 6 months, I was holding my breath. I was also still processing a lot of the traumatic events. So taking him to all his medical appointments, I wasn't telling anyone anything yet. I knew as a pediatric therapist that there was something going on and it was not good, But I didn't wanna tell my parents. I didn't wanna tell my in laws. I didn't wanna tell my sister and my brother because I didn't have answers yet. And until I could give them answers, I didn't see any point in worrying them. So during all this, I was keeping it it bottled up.

Melissa LaPointe [00:10:29]:
Everything was bottled up, handling it on my own, sharing little bits with my husband, but even then was protecting him in some ways. So in 2018, I had a lot to process. You know, being airlifted to the hospital, getting the news for the first time, talking to the anesthesiologist, going through talking to the brain surgeon, his time in the pediatric ICU, like, all of these memories were flooding through my brain. And, yeah, he was doing really, really well, but he still had had brain surgery, meaning things weren't perfect. We were still monitoring his progress, you know, he was making progress in his balance, he was back to school, making progress in concentration and ability to focus. Thank goodness he was in an outdoor kindergarten, so he was in a nature k program, which which made the world of difference in terms of his recovery, you know, seeing progress with his fine motor skills. But we you know, he had regressed in sleep, so he was waking up multiple times a night. I was exhausted.

Melissa LaPointe [00:11:36]:
I was bed hopping, and often when I would wake up with him, I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. My brain would start racing. The memories would come back. He had also developed several food of virgins, and a lot of what he had previously liked all of a sudden had changed. He was so picky, and mealtimes were so stressful. So my husband was still off of work that year, so we were waiting for them to rebuild his place of work. So that had burnt down. We were still under a lot of financial stress.

Melissa LaPointe [00:12:11]:
Then there was the crushing burden of survival guilt. So because during our time at Children's Hospital, we had met a lot of families. We had met a lot of kids who didn't fare out as well as we had. So they didn't get the positive news. They didn't get the positive outcomes. They had to continue for treatment. They there was a lot. We witnessed a lot of families going through tremendously stressful times.

Melissa LaPointe [00:12:53]:
And I know it was never anyone's intention, but the odd time so there were times that I would express how tired I was or how frustrated I was or how stressed I was. And my friends and family so often the reply, you know, and, again, I know they were coming from a good place, but they would say things like, I know, but imagine how much worse it could have been. I know, but you must be so grateful that, you know, you had such a good outcome. And all of this was true. I was so grateful, but that wasn't always what I needed to hear. So I stopped venting. I stopped talking about the frustrations, the challenges, the, you know, the hardship that we were going through, and I bottled it up big time. Another big trigger for me was when I would be out in the community.

Melissa LaPointe [00:13:48]:
So I would run into again really well intentioned people who cared about us, And they would come up to me, and they would give me a big hug, and they would ask me how Max was doing. And I would put a smile on my face and say he's doing really, really well. And then more often than not, they would start to share their own stories. So this is how they were processing and I get that. They would tell me where they were when they heard the news and how upset they were. They would tell me the different conversations they had had with their kids and, you know, often their eyes are welling up in tears and they're sharing more about the difficulties they had in trying to process everything and how in shock they were. This would be in the grocery store. This happened in the parking lot at different stores.

Melissa LaPointe [00:14:39]:
So I remember going to the butcher and being in the parking lot and experiencing this at a kid's birthday party. I remember being at a kid's skate. We're skating around and someone came up to me and as we're skating, they're telling me all, you know, all of this stuff. And I so often would be standing there frozen in time, so I'm trying to hold space for them. And I would put this sympathetic smile on my face, and I would do everything I could to keep it together and not absolutely lose my shit because I was still trying to process so much of this as well. So it was emotionally exhausting, and I started to avoid going into town. So my husband took over the grocery shopping. He so I just would have ordered delivery all day long.

Melissa LaPointe [00:15:38]:
I had no interest in going out. He took on more of the school drop offs and pickups. I avoided a lot of my friends. I canceled on social events. And, basically, when I did have to go to work, I still had work appointments. I would suck it up. I would go, and then I would come home and whenever possible, do the work from my laptop. So I wasn't going into my office if I didn't have to.

Melissa LaPointe [00:16:07]:
I was just trying to live in a cave. By June of 2018, I had completely let go of my practice. Ways because I was able to continue generating revenue. I was able to continue growing my business while managing my anxiety and my mental health. I was comfortable showing up for work excuse me. I was comfortable showing up on camera for work. In part, I'd always have my dog at my feet or on the couch behind me. I often joked he was my therapy dog.

Melissa LaPointe [00:16:46]:
You may hear him snoring. He's right next to me as I record this. So I had full control over when I was interacting with others. I had full control over my schedule. I had full control over periods of solitude. I started to come out of my fog in late 2019, and I remember Christmas that year. I actually wanted to be around people. I started to plan trips again.

Melissa LaPointe [00:17:14]:
I started to do more in terms of community outings, like grocery shopping and getting haircuts and going to the gym, and then the pandemic came. Talk about taking 5 big steps back. But, of course, this time I wasn't alone in experiencing this sense of disconnection or this feeling of isolation. In many ways, it was already my normal. So life continued. And again, I'm very grateful in so many ways for this online work. I love my work as a coach, as a consultant. I love what I get to do as a content creator and in terms of programme development.

Melissa LaPointe [00:17:58]:
But there was still something missing, especially now that the spark had been lit, and I actually wanted to be around people again. So I considered for a moment the idea of going back to clinical work, but my heart wasn't in it, especially after that transition away from it. It wasn't the route I wanted to take, and I was really, really valuing the flexibility in my schedule and the lack of material stuff in my life. So I think we all know that as a clinician, especially as a business owner with a brick and mortar practice, it is hard to not accumulate a lot of stuff. Then in July of 2022, an opportunity popped up on my radar. It was for an in person consulting contract. They were looking for someone part time who already had an established business and a home office, and they were looking for someone to run a pilot program in our community that focused on recruitment and retention for physicians. Now I say recruitment retention, so more heavily focused on retention.

Melissa LaPointe [00:19:06]:
We work with community partners on the recruitment side of things, but our role is more focused retention. So retaining physicians in both our emergency room and our family practices. So like many other small towns across Canada, we are experiencing a significant physician shortage. So it was through the city, and they originally wanted a 25 hour a week commitment, which was too much for me. It was almost a deal breaker, but I decided to apply nonetheless. I then got chosen to go through the interview process. And while I was still on the fence, I decided to take that next step, at the very least, chalking it up to building my interview skills. And so these are muscles that we do need to flex on a somewhat regular basis.

Melissa LaPointe [00:19:57]:
And then they offered me the position. Better yet, they agreed to let me split the position where I was able to accept a contract that was for 10 to 15 hours a week. So a little bit of flexibility, and it's all about leading this pilot program for our community where it's under my own business entity. And I'm making my own hours, and I have autonomy over my own schedule. So I said yes. And starting on August 31st, so meaning at the time of this recording, I've been contracting my consulting services out to our city for almost 5 months now. Now I'm not gonna go into the details of the work itself, of the program itself. So for the purpose of this episode, I wanna do more of a 30,000 foot view and share about my experience of returning to in person work.

Melissa LaPointe [00:20:55]:
Because I know that there are many of you out there that wanna work in the online space, but you're not sure, you know, do I have to do this full time? Can I do it part time? What does that look like? And I know that there are also some of you out there who are working in the community. You're doing the in person work already and you're getting tired of running around, you're getting tired of trying to do all the things of not having control over your own schedule. And I wanna reassure you that you can have the best of both worlds. So I am living proof that you can be both online and offline. You can be growing a business that serves you. So in a nutshell, here's an overview of the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to my return to work in our community. So first, the good because there's definitely a lot of good. I really like having an expense account.

Melissa LaPointe [00:21:56]:
Now I know as a business owner, you can write things off, but it's still, you know, it's still coming out of your account. You're still writing things off, and it's in correlation to your income. And, you know, there's a whole bookkeeping process. It's not this exchange where you write off an expense and you get reimbursed directly a 100%. I really like taking physicians out for supper. So we have physicians coming from all over, and I like taking them on community outings where, again, my business isn't footing the bill. I get reimbursed for these expenses. Now there's a lot more to this contract than wining and dining physicians, but being paid to socialize with some really interesting people, not gonna lie.

Melissa LaPointe [00:22:41]:
It's definitely a perk. Another awesome thing about this contract is that I'm building my reputation as a consultant in our community, and there are a ton of opportunities opening up for me. I realized in the last 5 months that I'm really good at what I do as a consultant and that the skills I've developed in the last 10 years in terms of being a business owner, in terms of project management, in terms of my understanding of tech and systems, and the work that I'm doing as a consultant, especially with my operations consulting, this can apply to so many areas. There is no shortage of work out there. I also now have a professional reference that I can add to my resume that's not over a decade old because not gonna lie. That's definitely a challenge of being self employed. So there have been contracts that I would apply for, and some of these contracts, they would ask for a reference. And my last boss, my last supervisor was from 2011.

Melissa LaPointe [00:23:51]:
That's not really ideal, but it is what it is. Like, that's my last time having a boss. Another obvious bonus to working in person is my social network. At Christmas, we went out. We had a team supper, and I got invited to our city's staff Christmas party. I get to meet my colleagues out for coffee or when we're on the road together. So we also provide service. So this pilot program covers the community that's an hour south of us as well.

Melissa LaPointe [00:24:21]:
So we get to travel. We get to go out for lunch, meaning my social life has had a much needed infusion. I'm really, really enjoying getting out of the house and interacting with others. I feel like I'm an active member of society again, and in terms of community contribution, I'm feeling a sense of fulfillment. I also really like having a consistent biweekly paycheck. Now working online, it often means that there are a lot of fluctuations in your revenue. It's very dependent on when you're launching programs or not. Now we always keep a small number of 1 on 1 clients, so I've been doing this work for long enough that I know the importance of having recurring revenue.

Melissa LaPointe [00:25:10]:
So I'm pretty good with that. We've built some pretty good systems in terms of hitting that baseline number. But there are still some days, some months that it's hard to be consistent. But now I know that roughly every 2 weeks, provided I submit my invoices, which I'm pretty good at doing, I've got a pretty good system for that, the same amount of money, give or take a few hundred, is going to be directly deposited into my business account like clockwork. There is something to be said about having that rhythm in your bank account. And another really awesome thing about this contract that I think a lot of you business owners are going to relate to, I have a supervisor. Now she's lovely. She is not a micromanager, so she very much respects my experience and my skill set.

Melissa LaPointe [00:26:02]:
She so meaning she defers to me a lot. She gives me a ton of independence. She really we work really well together. But and this is a big but. When there are some challenging decisions to make, we've had to make some challenging decisions in terms of funding or when something becomes political because in health care, something always becomes political at some point. She's there to help shoulder the load. So when you're a boss, when you're a business owner, you very rarely have that. You often have to take responsibility for all the decisions.

Melissa LaPointe [00:26:40]:
And it's a really nice change in pace to have someone alongside me in this leadership role. Now it is not all rainbows and unicorns, meaning, like anything, there's a dark side. So what's bad about this in person consulting contract? Of course. What is bad that I am comfortable sharing on a podcast? So 1 thing is that I love that I'm not working alone, but let's be honest. There are times where it's easier to put your head down and just do the work yourself. But I have collaborative partners. I have funders. I have a team.

Melissa LaPointe [00:27:23]:
And while I'm submitting my invoices and my receipts, so it's still through my business, I still have to abide by the rules and the stipulations of the city's accounting department, meaning this isn't the Melissa show, and I have to learn to play well with others. So after being a solopreneur for 10 years, that's taken some work, and I know it's work that I need to do. These are skills that I need to develop, but still it is work. And like any small town, there is always gossip and a little bit of small town drama so personally I like to avoid these situations I'm not big on conflict. I like to avoid the gossip. I like to avoid the small town drama as much as possible. And when working from home and in the online space, I was pretty immune to this, but now I'm not. So there are times, again, I just have to shake my head and put my head down or rather hold my head up high and be like a duck where the, you know, just letting the water glide off me, letting the gossip, the drama, just doing my best to ignore it.

Melissa LaPointe [00:28:37]:
Another downside is that, yes, I have control over my schedule so I can make my own hours, but the reality is there's still some work that has to be completed at a certain time. So we have physicians coming to town. So, again, I'm taking them out for lunch. I'm taking them on a hike or I'm taking them out for supper in the evening. And sometimes I have to work around their schedule when they're in the ER, when they're available. We also have meetings with community partners. So trying to find a time that works for everyone. My colleagues, so the person I'm sharing this contract with, so she's also an entrepreneur.

Melissa LaPointe [00:29:13]:
She's a mom to 2 little ones. She is a husband who works shift work, meaning there's gotta be some give and take in when we're meeting in person. And then I have commitments, so I have, for example, this big presentation coming up. I'm super excited. I haven't done an in person presentation in a long time. Having that energy in the room, really excited about that. But, unfortunately, the presentation so we're presenting on our 6 month milestones of this pilot program, and we're presenting to the board of directors with the hospital district. But this presentation, they scheduled it for their monthly board meeting.

Melissa LaPointe [00:29:52]:
So this board meeting was scheduled long ago, and it happens to be the same day that Max has a school field trip. So Max and his classmates are all going to our local ski hill. So it's been an hour and a half away, and they're snowboarding or skiing for the day. And they wanted parent volunteers, and I would have loved to have done this. So this is something, typically, I would jump the opportunity to volunteer in his classroom or to volunteer with a field trip because for the most part, I schedule my work around my personal life. But this time, I had to sadly say no and send my regrets. So definitely a downside. And then there's the ugly.

Melissa LaPointe [00:30:37]:
So I shared the good. I shared the bad. Now I'm gonna wrap this episode up by sharing the ugly. Don't laugh. Well, actually, some of you who are working online, you're gonna relate to this 100%. And a lot of you, we all went through online work with the pandemic. But 1 of the hardest things about diving back to in person services was the investment I had to make into my wardrobe. My goodness.

Melissa LaPointe [00:31:05]:
I've been working mainly online since 2018. This means that I have a lot of yoga pants. I have a lot of sports bras, and I have very few pairs of shoes. So if you tuned into last week's episode, so I shared a video hack last week. So my my hack for showing up on videos where I'm eliminating this constant need for decision making is that I rotate primarily between 3 different black shirts. I'm pretty casual with my wardrobe, and when I started working again in person, I had barely anything in my closet that classified as business casual or working professional. So, basically, my first check and then some went towards new clothes and new shoes. And, of course, that was in the summer.

Melissa LaPointe [00:32:00]:
Then winter came, and I realized I didn't have a winter coat. I didn't have boots. Again, just different things. Like, oh my goodness. This is an investment. And then last but not least, when it comes to the ugly side of in person work, hands down the things that or the what I enjoy the least meetings. Oh my goodness. I do not miss all the meetings.

Melissa LaPointe [00:32:31]:
I used to have to attend a lot of meetings. So, you know, attending IEP meetings when I was a pediatric therapist, attending team meetings when I was a clinician, when I was a full time employee at the child development center, attending staff meetings, attending, oh, accreditation meetings, attending I don't know. There were always meetings. For any of you listening to this that are managers or in a leadership position with a team, I'm going to challenge you on rethinking the meetings that you're having in terms of quality and quantity. So do these meetings really need to happen? And if they need to happen, do they really need to be an hour long? So often, meetings are a huge waste of time and resources. I feel like meetings are my nemesis. I just can't handle them. So this is where my ADHD brain wants to explode.

Melissa LaPointe [00:33:31]:
I can handle, like, 20 minutes or so. Alright. I'm there, especially if there's some level of interaction. If I have to problem solve or use my brain, okay, I got it. 20 minutes. But after that, especially if it's in a boardroom where you're expected to sit still, this is not a scenario where I thrive. I can tell you that. I am the 1 that's shifting in positions in my chair constantly, so I'm crossing my legs.

Melissa LaPointe [00:33:59]:
My legs are up. My legs are down. I'm in a squat position on my chair sometimes. I'm doodling. I'm fidgeting. I get up to get a drink, not so much because I'm thirsty, but because I need to do something with my body. I go to the bathroom, again, not because I have to pee, but because my brain is screaming at me to get some type of stimulation. Meetings are so painful and half the time we get nothing done.

Melissa LaPointe [00:34:27]:
So what is the solution when we don't meet our outcomes with a meeting? Generally, it's to schedule a follow-up meeting. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard. And it seems that the bigger the organization, the more full time employees there are on staff, the more meetings that they want to have. Now, thankfully, my supervisor for this contract, she's on the same page as I am, and she's given me free rein to adjust the number of meetings that I have to attend as long as the work is getting done. And in full disclosure, we've been able to get so much done on this program as contractors. So both of us have this entrepreneurial background. And when we show up, we are getting shit done. We are working on things in a small chunk of time, so we're not working on this project.

Melissa LaPointe [00:35:22]:
We're not working on this program all day every day. We are showing up. We are putting our heads down. We're getting work done, and then we're out. But this is probably so this is 1 of the biggest deterrents for me in terms of ever becoming an employee again. As an entrepreneur, I've been able to create systems and a work environment that is such a better fit for my ADHD, where I'm no longer struggling, but I'm actually thriving. Now on a side note, I've had a few of you reach out to me and ask me to talk more about my experiences as a middle aged woman, which I cannot believe I just called myself a middle aged woman. I feel like that's more speaking about my mom than me, but here I am.

Melissa LaPointe [00:36:07]:
I am now 44, so I guess that's middle aged. But speaking about my experiences as a health care professional, as an entrepreneur, as a mom, as a middle aged woman who does very well, but who also has ADHD. So don't worry. If you wanna know more, I'm very open. And someone said, you should create reels. You go on TikTok, which I'm still I'm still working on that, guys. I hope you have noticed. I have been showing up more on video.

Melissa LaPointe [00:36:37]:
So my Instagram and my Facebook stories, I've been there. Not every day, but I'm there. And in terms of showing up more and sharing about what's working for me with my ADHD, I have a podcast coming up. So a podcast episode, I should say, where I'm gonna pull back the curtain, and I'm gonna talk more about ways that I struggle, but also ways that I've learned to manage this sometimes scattered, but yet hyper focused brain of mine. Alright. So that in a nutshell is where I am right now with my work and with my business. So this community based contract, it was for 1 year with the option of extending it to 3 years, and I'm pretty happy with how things are going. I'm balancing this with the work that I'm doing with my online clients.

Melissa LaPointe [00:37:29]:
So as both a coach and a consultant, where I have the privilege of working with therapists from all over the world. And then I get to expand my reach through our group programs. So our group programs, we're able to serve more people. So I love my 1 on 1 work, but I'm obviously limited in terms of how many people I can work with at once. But through our group programs, I'm able to build a team, and we're able to see our growing impact on the OT profession as a whole. So that's pretty cool. So all in all, I'm pretty darn happy with how things are going and with what I've created. So for those of you who think you have to choose 1 or the other, who think you have to go all in as a digital CEO, or who think you can't possibly work in the online space because your in person work is all encompassing, I wanna let you know that these are just stories you're telling yourself.

Melissa LaPointe [00:38:34]:
And at the end of the day, you're the author of your own story. You get to decide where your time and your energy goes. You get to decide what you're going to focus on in terms of revenue generating activity and how you're showing up. You guys, we only have 1 life, so don't waste your time doing work that's sucking your soul away or leading you down the path of burnout. Get clear on what lights you up, get clear on your zone of genius, get clear on your strengths, and what kind of a life you want to create. Then find an experienced guide who can support you in some capacity in doing the work you want to be doing, 1 step at a time, leaning into this vision that you have for the future, the lifestyle that you want to have right now, and for how you wanna be showing up in this world. Alright. Let's wrap this up.

Melissa LaPointe [00:39:42]:
As always, if you have any questions or feedback on the show, you can find me on Instagram or you can go to otsgonerogue.com and use our contact form to get in touch. I'm also gonna add the contact form so that link to our show notes. If you are feeling extra kind and supportive, you can share this episode with an OT friend or a colleague, or better yet, you can leave us a review on the podcast. Alright. That is officially a wrap for this week's episode. Take care, everyone.