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Welcome to Make More Money Without Selling Your Soul. The podcast for bold entrepreneurs ready to simplify scale and reclaim their time. I’m Polly Lavarello, Evergreen scaling strategist and cushy business pioneer. Join me and my occasional guests as we explore the themes of wealth, selling and well-being, because building a business that works for you changes everything. Let’s dive in.

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Hello and welcome to the show. Now, if you are a wellness practitioner, a psychologist, a nutritional therapist, a coach, and you find yourself at the same revenue ceiling, ie earning the same month to month, and not in a way that feels good or expansive or a reflection of your hard work, then you are listening to the right show. You’re listening to the perfect episode, because today I’m going to talk you through a new free guide that I have just developed, which you may already have, and that’s how you found this episode, because there is a link to this episode to be able to listen to the guide, or if you are a regular listener and you’ve just stumbled upon this episode, there is a link to the guide in the show notes. So if you want to read and follow along, you can go do that, or you can simply go, put the kettle on, make yourself a cup of tea and get cozy for story time with Auntie Polly. 

So let me tell you a bit more about the guide before we get into it. So it’s called the three revenue ceiling mistakes that keep wellness practitioners stuck and the fixes that actually work. It’s a free strategic guide for wellness practitioners who are tired of hitting the same income plateau month after month and are ready to break through for sustainable growth. If you are not only a practitioner, but business minded and understand the importance of having a sustainable business, you are in the right place. Okay, so let’s get into it. I’m going to just take you through this guide word by word. So let’s start the very beginning, the three revenue ceiling mistakes that keep wellness practitioners stuck and the fixes that actually work without burning out, selling out or starting over. Yes, I’m looking at you. Let’s share a bit about my own journey. Back in September 2019, I was sitting in my Brighton home office, okay, my bedroom office, okay, my bed, or what I like to refer to as boss, staring at my fully booked calendar and my frustratingly familiar bank balance, my diary was packed solid for the next three months, my rates were good and my clients were getting life changing results, and yet I felt stuck back then. I was a Facebook ad strategist who had fallen in love with working almost exclusively with wellness practitioners. They made up about 95% of my clients. Why? Because I was drawn to their mission, their heart led approach, and honestly, their incredible expertise. I mean, I live in Brighton. Need I say any more. If you know Brighton in the south of England, you’ll know that we’re all a bunch of kind of nature loving, well being, obsessed, junkies. So of course, I love everything that wellness practitioners do, and let’s just say my natural dispensary receipts could tell a story, but But I kept seeing the same patterns keep keep repeating for these brilliant practitioners, stuck at the same revenue levels month after month, and they went well beyond anything that I could fix with ads alone. I had extensive digital marketing background and history, so I could see what the bigger picture was, that they couldn’t see themselves. For me on paper, I was successful. I’d got to the stage where I was charging premium rates. I was working with incredible industry, leading human beings, and delivering amazing results, like seven figure years, multi six figure launches, but I myself couldn’t break through 8k a month no matter how hard I worked. Now, 8k may sound impressive, but when you have a VA, when you have your tech stack that you’re paying for and ads that you want to be paying for monthly, believe me, the take home after that isn’t highly impressive, particularly when you throw VAT into the mix. 

On the other side of scaling beyond that, okay, I had no more hours to sell, and yes, I hit a brief period of burnout in early 2020 I remember thinking, there has to be a better way to do this. I can’t be the only one feeling trapped by my own success. What I didn’t realize at the time is that I was making three major mistakes, and even more importantly, I was operating from deeper internal blocks. That were running the show behind the scenes over the next two years, and a few uncomfortable breakthroughs, which, if you’ve been listening to the show for a long time, you’ll know intimately. I rebuilt my business from the ground up, finally leaning into my zone of genius beyond ads management, I went from being stuck at an 8k revenue ceiling to consistent 20k months and beyond, back in 2022 working fewer hours with simpler systems and clients who truly valued my expertise. But more importantly, I felt joy in my business, not trapped by it. And yes, I celebrated with an unapologetically over the top retro photo shoot, and that’s how I earned the title the lady with the towel on her head. And honestly, I’ve been called worse and more than 1000 wellness practitioners later. Yes, I looked at the stats on air table to see how many people have bought all my courses. 

And we are over the 1000 mark as we enter 2025 and you know, this business has been running since 2020 running since 2020 and selling offers since mid 2020 so an exciting milestone, but I’ve seen the same mistakes and the same hidden blocks over and over again, the three mistakes and the real reason behind them. Each of these mistakes is tactical, but underneath each one is a psychological pattern that quietly sabotages your ability to scale. And here is what I have learned, if you don’t address these mistakes, the cost compounds over time you start questioning whether you’re cut out for business at all, whether you should just go back to working for somebody else, whether wanting more makes you selfish or like you’re in it for the wrong reasons. So let’s start with the surface level mistake. Then dig into what’s really going on underneath. Mistake number one, believing that wanting more money makes you less ethical or too commercial. Case study, Dr Anna, clinical psychologist. Anna was a clinical psychologist with advanced qualifications and a six month wait list. She was published, respected by peers and getting excellent client outcomes, and yet she was stuck at 4000 pounds a month, working long hours and feeling completely stretched. I know I should raise my rates, she told me, but I worry it will make me seem greedy. I didn’t get into this work to sell. I got into it to help sound familiar, the deeper block this is what I call the ethically undercharging practitioner, the part of you that equates earning well with losing credibility, compassion or professional integrity. It often shows up alongside the over giver, the one who over delivers under charges and constantly justifies their prices with more access, more time, and most costly, more emotional labor. These aren’t personal flaws. They’re industry wide conditioning, especially for those trained in regulating, regulated client first professions. 

But they are costing you chronic undercharging and internal resentment, attracting clients who are hesitant to invest financial stress that affects your clinical presence and no space to grow rest or pursue CPD without burnout. Anna’s breakthrough, we reframed her pricing as a commitment device, not just for her business health, but for her clients. Results, she created a 3000 pound six month program, raised her one to one rates and implemented a simple client screening system. Within four months, her income tripled. Her best fit clients thrived in the new format. She had time for supervision, her own training, and finally took a two week break, guilt free, I realize now that low pricing was actually disrespecting my own expertise and my client’s ability to rise to the challenge, she said, the fix recognize that charging appropriately isn’t unethical, it’s professional. Being underpaid does not make you more compassionate, it just makes you more exhausted, unavailable and less resourced to do the work that you are trained for. You don’t need to sell out to grow. You just need to stop selling yourself short. Mistake number two, building a business that can’t scale beyond you. Case study, Andrea facialist. Andrea was a sought after facialist earning 120k a year, and completely trapped. My back hurts. I can’t take holidays if I get sick. My income stops is what Anna is, what Andrea shared the deeper block. This is a solo service trap, a model that depends entirely upon you to make money. I. It’s often rooted in the technician identity. I’m not a business owner, I’m a practitioner. I just want to do the work.

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The identity keeps you in physical burnout, time for money, dependency, no exit, plan, no leverage, no freedom. Andrea’s breakthrough, we turned her method into a scalable ecosystem, a group program that taught her facial techniques, a pre qualifying intake assessment for one to one clients, a practitioner training that licensed her signature process. Her income jumped to 180k in 18 months while working 30% fewer hours and helping five times more people the fix. Ask yourself, how can my expertise create value even when I am not in the room? I’m going to repeat that. How can my expertise create value even when I’m not in the room? If you have a journal to hand, please take a moment to journal on this. Just hit pause and come back to the episode, because this is such an important question. Your hands may be limited. Your knowledge infinitely scalable. Don’t forget that mistake number three, constantly switching strategies instead of mastering one. Case study, Sarah nutritional therapist, Sarah had tried everything, four platforms, three abandoned programs, a podcast, webinars, freebies and Tiktok. I feel like I’m always starting over. She said spoiler. She was the deeper block. This is a classic strategy Hopper syndrome, but underneath that is the hidden leader. This block whispers, if I commit to a strategy, I’ll have to show up consistently, and that means being seen or worse, risk publicly failing. So you start and stop constantly. Stay in learning mode, not action mode. Water down your messaging. Never give anything enough time to work. Sarah’s breakthrough, I had her pick one platform, Instagram, one program, her gut health signature offer, one strategy, weekly posts and monthly workshops. 

For the first three months, she was frustrated. It’s not working as fast as I’d hoped, she said, But I encouraged her to trust the process. By month six, things started clicking. By month 12, she had 5k followers, 12k consistent months, a wait list for her program and the biggest celebration, a spacious calendar. The fix mastery comes from consistency. Pick one strategy and commit for 12 months. Let it compound. Let it compound. What’s really holding you back? These three mistakes are the tip of the iceberg underneath them, live deeper patterns that quietly shape your results, energy and confidence. Let’s look at the six hidden blocks that keep skilled practitioners stuck, the six scale stopping identities. Number one is the ethically undercharging practitioner. Money feels like betraying your integrity. The second archetype is the over giver, over delivering to justify your low prices. The third archetype is the technician. I’m not a business owner, I’m just a practitioner. The fourth archetype is the solo service trap. 

Your income stops when you stop working. The fifth scale, stopping identity is the hidden leader, avoiding visibility by switching strategies constantly. And the sixth and final archetype is the strategy Hopper, always learning, never mastering. Which one do you relate to? Here are some reflection prompts that you can wrap your journal again and take some time to reflect upon which one of these identities feel most familiar. Let me just share. It’s not unusual for you to relate to a few of them, so pick your top two or three. What’s it costing you to let it run your business? No shame, no judgment, just honest awareness, because once you see the pattern, you can shift it. This is not an identity that is permanently your own. It is just what you are living with right now. It gets to change your next step, the everyday sales accelerator, fixing these mistakes and the deeper identity blocks underneath, takes more than a mindset shift. It takes strategy, structure and support. That’s exactly what we do inside the everyday sales accelerator, a 12 month mentorship and implementation program for experienced wellness practitioners who are ready to build a scalable business that serves them too in. Inside the accelerator, you’ll create a healthy, grounded money mindset. Design a scalable offer that grows beyond your time. Master one consistent marketing approach. Build simple systems that work while you serve and experience sustainable growth without the hustle. The next cohort opens in January 2026 however, I’m only taking on a maximum of 10 practitioners for high touch and high results. You can join the waitlist now by simply clicking on the freebie link below and using the link inside the guide to join the waitlist. However, if you prefer, because you’re new to me, to take a simple little step into the process of having a strategized system. Then you could start with a strategic mini offer system for just 97 pounds when you buy it today or within the 24 hours of clicking that link. This teaches you how to create strategic offers that attract premium clients, addressing mistakes number one and number two, while building the freedom and foundation for scalable systems that free you from trading time for money. Final words, you didn’t train for years, build your expertise and pour your heart into your work, just to be stuck under charging, over giving and hiding behind your own brilliance. The revenue ceiling you’re facing isn’t about your ability. It’s about a few fixable patterns, and once they’re gone, you won’t just earn more, you’ll serve more powerfully, rest more deeply, and fall back in love with your business again. What happens if you don’t fix these patterns? Another year goes by, the same ceiling, the same frustration, the same questioning whether you’re meant for this work, but when you do fix them, everything shifts. That’s it. That’s the guide. I hope you found it helpful. I hope you found things that you relate to. I’m very much in the early stages of developing free resources for wellness practitioners to help them step away from imposter syndrome, to help them step away from fear of tech, fear of self and fear of money and making more of it. So if you found that helpful, as always, I very much welcome you to DM me. I always love hearing your thoughts. If it triggered any kind of response in you, I’d love to hear about it. But most importantly, I really encourage you to download the guide, because when you do, you’ll also receive a short, week long series of emails that go into even more depth on those archetypes. And if you relate to any of them, how to move beyond being stuck with that scale stopping identity. And in the near future, a new quiz will be launching helping you identify, your skill stopping identity, so it gets you in my world and able to receive all of that good stuff first, as always. If you found this episode helpful, please do rate the show. Please do share it with others who you feel it’d be helpful to as well. Next week, I will be back in your ears with a another wonderful guest episode. I’ll be with you then.