My Side Hustle Failed Because People Didn't Want It
- Jordanthecounselor
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Jordan Harris Ph.D
What We Learned Running Private Practice Incubator.
From 2022-2025 I ran a small consulting firm with Paul Peterson. We helped clinicians go from having no practice, to having a fully booked practice, to having a plan for financial independence in 9 months.
We've since shut down the practice. Here's what I learned.
You have to give people what they want.
The last thing I learned was that you have to give people what they want. People only buy goods and services that make sense to them. One of the big problems we had in PPI was not getting in as many clinicians as we wanted. Our last cohort had one participant. Last I heard she’s doing really well and has a fully sustainable business. PPI struggled not because our service didn’t work. PPI struggled because we were selling something people didn’t want. Like I said earlier, most people who reached out just wanted help with marketing. Trying to convince them that they had a retention problem or that they had other holes in their business didn’t work.
More specifically most people wanted a simple stress free way to get more clients without them having to do marketing. So selling them on a comprehensive 0-10 business mentorship program just wasn’t what they wanted. In some ways we’d have been better off learning to run paid ads and offering our services to therapists.
So if I were to do it all over again I’d:
Learn to run paid ads and become an ads agency for therapists, or,
Start with a small monthly business group for therapists and scale up from there .
One final word
Part of the reason I’m not continuing this business on my own or looking for a new partner is because I really enjoyed working with Paul. Paul is a person of high integrity and compassion and working with him made me a better human. Our business had some flaws and the timing of those flaws is a reason why I’m deciding to not continue. But by far the biggest reason is I don’t want to do this work without him.
Thank you Paul. It’s been a blessing to work with you.
Jordan (the counselor)
Jordan Harris Ph.D, LMFT-s, LPC-s, is a specialist in what makes a master therapist. He regularly offers trainings teaching this skills of master therapists. You can learn more about Dr. Harris's trainings here.
Jordan Harris Jordan Harris, Ph.D., LMFT-S, LPC-S, received his Doctor of Philosophy in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Louisiana Monroe. He is a licensed professional counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist in the state of Arkansas, USA. In his clinical work, he enjoys working with couples. He also runs a blog on deliberate practice for therapists and counselors at Jordanthecounselor.com You can find him on linkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-harris-lpc-s-lmft-s-418412301/
Paul Peterson
Paul Peterson is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in the state of Arkansas. He has certification and/or training in EFT, hypnotherapy, and mindfulness as well as adult psychological development models. He's been in the mental health field since 2015 and in 2019 worked with a team of authors to publish a content analysis in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. The content analysis reviewed almost 1,000 research articles and tracked trends in publishing and clinical effectiveness research. He has also published a book on a Wholeness-oriented approach to contemporary Christian faith. He gives regular training on clinical skills, hypnotherapy, and business skills for solo practice therapists.
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