[WHITNEY]:
Welcome to the Practice of the Practice podcast. This is a podcast takeover with myself, Whitney Owens.

[ALISON]:
And I’m Alison Pidgeon.

[WHITNEY]:
And we’re going to talk all about Group Practice Boss today. So we are having a launch coming up here at the end of December. And this is going to be our second launch for Group Practice Boss. So we thought we’d come on here and talk a little bit about what the first cohorts been like. And so you can hear a little bit more about Group Practice Boss, because we think it’s awesome, and that you should join. So, Alison, why don’t you share the story of kind of how we came about Group Practice Boss?

[ALISON]:
Yeah, so we have another membership community in Practice of the Practice called Next Level Practice that’s more geared towards people who are just sort of starting out or solo practitioners. And we realized we didn’t have anything like that for group practice owners. And for Whitney and myself, being group practice owners, we realized that once you start, you know, hiring a few people, you kind of encounter a whole different set of challenges. And you may want to scale up your practice, but you don’t know how. And so we thought it would be really cool to create a membership community for everybody who’s in that particular sort of stage of being a group practice owner, and wanting to get support, because a lot of times, it’s really lonely. If you don’t know any other group practice owners in your area, you know, there’s just a different set of like, kind of responsibilities and challenges that you encounter. And it’s really nice to hear other people who are, you know, going through similar things or have already gone through it and have, you know, advice for how they handled it, it just helps people to not not feel so alone. So that’s kind of how Group Practice Boss came about.

So we launched it in October of 2020. And I was really pleasantly surprised by the response that we got, and all the people that joined during the first lunch. I don’t know how that was for you, Whitney. But I was like, thrilled with the feedback that we got from people about it.

[WHITNEY]:
Totally, yeah, same thing. And, you know, it’s a really humbling experience too, like, creating something and then seeing people respond to it in such a positive way. But I was also amazed by the caliber of practice owners we got that, you know, we we created Group Practice Boss for established group practice owners, because we understand that those beginning phases, there’s just so many questions that pop up with systems that are very different than the questions that pop up when you’ve been around a little bit. So I love that we have a lot of practice owners who’ve been group practice owners for years, or they have very large practices, and there were some with smaller practices and that’s totally fine, too. But I’ve loved the diversity of different types of phases of group practice, growth of group practice. And so we can really help one another in a lot of really amazing ways.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, so it’s been super fun to start the group and just see how people are responding to the content we’re putting out. So how we have it structured is that every month we do a deep dive into a particular topic, because we know there’s so much information out there about running a business. And instead of getting overwhelmed, you know, putting out lots of different content about different things, we just decided, like, we would just really focus in on one particular theme for the month. So in October, we focused on how to design your business to fit your lifestyle. I know, at Practice of the Practice, that’s one of our big philosophies that, you know, you’re taking this risk to become a business owner. And you really should have it, you know, designed so that you are able to meet your needs of your personal life, whether it’s time related, or income related, or whatever that might be, and not feel like the business is running you. You know, there’s lots of entrepreneurs that will say like, oh, I work, you know, 60-70 hours a week, and we just think that is bonkers. And we would never recommend anybody do that. And actually what we talk to people about is like, you know, how can you delegate? How can you, you know, hire other people to do these things that you don’t necessarily need to be doing so that you can leave, you know, the office every day at three o’clock and go pick up your kids or that you do have enough income coming in so that you could take four weeks of vacation every year or whatever that is for you. So, I don’t know, Whitney, if you have a few more things to add about what we covered that month of October.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, I’m so glad that was our first topic because like you said, it kind of sets the stage for your group practice. And we always need to go back to that because we can get so overwhelmed or bogged down or hearing what other people are doing that we forget about what we want and the kind of lifestyle we want. So it was really great to start off with that. Another thing that we do within Group Practice Boss is have Ask the Expert. And so once a month, we have an expert in whatever area it is that we’re covering that month to come and talk about that. So we had Joe Sanok, who owns Practice of the Practice come in, obviously, you’ll know Joe, and he did the Ask the Expert about just how he’s traveling in his RV, like hanging with his family, living his dream, but he’s also running a business. Like, that’s so amazing. And so him being able to kind of speak with that authority of, hey, you can do this, you can live your dream, and here’s how to do it. So I thought that was really cool to offer that. And another thing we do within Group Practice Boss that I think is really neat, too, is when you have questions even unrelated to that month, because maybe something else comes up that month, we do have open office hours once a month, so that way, there is an option to run in there and ask a few questions that are unrelated to whatever the deep dive topic is.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, I think one really cool thing that I did, we have events every single week. So live events, and they’re always at the same time, the same days of the month. So that you know, and you can block out in your calendar ahead of time. And one of the really cool things that I actually learned in a coaching group that I belong to was about kind of estimating like how much it would actually cost to be able to afford the things that is sort of like your ideal lifestyle. And I think that was a really impactful exercise that we went through as a group. And for a lot of people to realize like, oh, yeah, like this is actually really attainable. Like, they think, you know, often you think like, oh, this is something that someday I’ll have this or, you know, it just sort of, it doesn’t necessarily always make sense from a logical perspective, like how you can get there. And I think that was one thing that was really helpful for people. I know, when I did that exercise, I saw like, oh, I’m really not that far off from where I need to be income wise in order to fulfill all these things that I want in my life. So I think it’s those kinds of things that just help give people insight and really start to connect the dots with like, how do you actually put this into, like, logical steps to achieve them?

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, that’s such a good exercise. And that’s the other thing I love about Group Practice Boss is it’s not just, hey, here’s a worksheet to do or, hey, here’s some information, like you and I are actually walking them through the steps to actually make it happen, you know, and so we’re giving them really tangible things, action plans to do instead of just the information. So yeah, that worksheet was really neat.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, so let’s, let’s talk about November. So the theme in November was delegation. And that was also a very impactful topic for a lot of people. Because most practice owners, of course, start out kind of wearing all the hats, doing all the things, you’re just trying to bootstrap it. And then obviously, once you have a few people hired in your group, that becomes pretty unmanageable. So people know they need to delegate, but they don’t exactly know how to do it, or what to do or what that looks like. So that was something that we spent a lot of time in the month of November talking about, do you want to add some…?

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, I love it. I love that topic and delegating. And like, even within doing that topic, what I love about the Facebook portion of it, it’s like we do these webinars, and then we can like get the feedback of how people are actually doing it like someone posted, I haven’t delegated in my practice, but I delegated in my personal life, and now someone’s doing the laundry for me. And that’s such a simple thing. But it was like we taught something, and then it was happening. And so we’re able to, like do those action steps really encourage each other. I know that another thing that we covered in the webinars was being able to know when to hire out because a lot of practice owners, especially as you grow and you’re figuring out your finances, like when is it time to hire another assistant? Or how do I know that I need a separate person to answer phones? Or how do I know if I need another clinician? So we kind of walked through that process of looking at your money and looking at your workload and looking at your time and here’s the things that you need to consider hiring for and different, like, ways to hire, you know, it’s not like you just have to go out and hire a full time person for something but like, how can you change responsibilities and how can you create a job that works for your practice. I love going through those topics.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, and then we had James Marland who runs the VA company that I own, Move Forward Virtual Assistants, he was the Ask the Expert and he shared a whole bunch of resources that he’s created from running the VA company in terms of like call logs and, you know, delegation templates and all kinds of things. So that was available to all of the members as well. And yeah, it was cool to see too because we have a competition every month, we ask people to post on the Facebook group like what have you delegated this month and like, we’re gonna pick one person to be the winner. And it was so cool to see everything that people did I mean, like, long lists of things that they delegated in a short amount of time. So that makes me feel really good too to see people are actually like doing the work and you know, making progress.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, that’s the great thing about a group is you see somebody doing something, inspires you to do it, right. You know, the relational component of Group Practice Boss is so neat and I spoke to someone who’s a part of the group who just said, this community is just so authentic. Like, that’s what they love about being a part of Group Practice Boss is those conversations. And, in fact, there were two other group members, kind of recently, who decided, hey, I like you, you like me, we’re in a similar phase of our practice, like, let’s get together and do stuff. So they got together for a weekend, they met up between their towns and did work on their practice, like people are meeting and making authentic connections outside of just the webinar time, because they’re meeting within Group Practice Boss and setting up those smaller communities. And so that has been super cool to see people just kind of authentically create that.

[ALISON]:
Yeah. So yeah, I love that sort of like spontaneous connections that happen through the community, because obviously, we’re attracting like a group of like minded people. And so once you find, you know, somebody else in the group who maybe like, is, like you said, working in a similar stage of group practice, or maybe you’re, you know, you live near each other, or whatever the case may be, and like, we yeah, we definitely encourage people to like, you know, take the conversation offline, or, you know, start a little Facebook chat with a small group of people to see how you can support each other, like, I think, to see those connections come out of the group too is awesome.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think I’ll intermingle a few testimonies in here if that works, Alison, because I think testimonies are pretty powerful. And I want you guys to kind of hear what people in Group Practice Boss are actually saying. So I have a testimony here from Stephanie Korpal, she owns Marble Wellness and it’s in St. Louis, Missouri. She’s got a couple of clinicians in her group practice. She said, when running a group practice, there seem to be two themes of questions that arise for the practice owner. Those about the nitty gritty, phone systems, pay scales, vacation policies, and those that are emotional, how do I manage fear? How do I manage the overwhelmed feeling? All you want is a person or even better a group of people to turn to for quick answers or even long discussions, a place to feel safe and supported enough to go down either of these paths. Group Practice Boss is exactly that place, a community of like minded professionals, who are also diverse enough in their personalities and experiences to find answers, challenges, support and even friendships. Joining this group can be one of the greatest gifts to give yourself as a private practice owner.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, that’s awesome. I love Steph, she’s always so friendly and so positive and she’s such a great addition to the group.

[WHITNEY]:
Definitely. And I love that testament she gave, it like, gave me the chills. So she’s fabulous. And yeah, Group Practice Boss is really special. Well, why don’t we do one more here? This is Lauren Hartz, she owns Rooted & Rising Therapy in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. Group Practice Boss provides a space for private practice owners to dream big, and then to move towards the dream in a very intentional way. So Lauren’s been super involved in the group.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, Lauren is out near the Pittsburgh area. So we’re in the same state, although we’re about four hours apart, but I interacted quite a bit with her in the Next Level Practice group. And then when we started Group Practice Boss, she joined us because she was in that stage of already having a couple of people hired. So yeah, she’s another person who’s just like, so lovely, and adds a lot to the group.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah. Well, do we want to talk about December’s theme?

[ALISON]:
Yeah, so in December, we’re talking all about goal setting, obviously, because we’re on the cusp of the New Year. So what I did in December was talk about strategic planning. So I have a template for practice owners to fill out so that they can plan out their whole year using that format. And I think it’s great because I think often we, you know, we get so wrapped up in the day to day of the business like we forget sometimes to carve out that time to you know, look at the big picture stuff and make goals and you know, nobody else but you as the practice owner is going to do that. So I think it’s so important that we’re providing the space and the time and obviously the guidance for practice owners to go through, you know that that exercise. So the other thing that was really cool was we had Michelle Hardman, who’s a therapist, and also a business consultant, she was our Ask the Expert, and she has a whole philosophy around goal setting, she calls it CLEAR goals. And the word clear is an acronym that stands for different things in relationship to goal setting. So that was another really cool presentation that I think just, you know, kind of helps give the practice owners another kind of strategy that they could use to set goals.

[WHITNEY]:
Yes, yeah, she’s great. And then I also led a few webinars on just ways that we get stuck. What are the barriers that keep us from creating goals? And then we read atomic Habits by James Clear, and not only just kind of reading it, but really figuring out how do we create these small habits to make bigger habits in our practice and in our personal lives? And so we reviewed that book too, and had a good discussion about that.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, so I was just super happy with the participation that we get with the webinars like we have lots of people show up every time. So we always have a really good discussion. And you know, people obviously have different facets or different experiences to share in the group. So yeah, it’s so fun for me to interact with people. And I was doing a webinar yesterday and it’s just great to hear like, what everybody’s doing and what they’re thinking about and what they’re working through. And it’s just been great for me to run Group Practice Boss with you, Whitney.

[WHITNEY]:
Yes, yes, it is fun. I love it too. Alison. Let me share a couple more testimonies here. Laurie [unclear]. I’m not sure if I’m saying her name, right. But Laurie, she is here in the group. I am getting so much out of our time, I’m getting pushed out of my comfort zone and getting great ideas and new ways of looking at things, highly recommended. It took me a while to decide and I’m glad I did. I needed to be around more people in my specific situation of owning a group practice. I was getting frustrated with the business groups I was in because I couldn’t do some of the things due to our unique ethics. So Laurie, we love having you in the group as well and you’ve been super involved. And just like with any group, like the people that are the most involved are the ones that are getting the most out of it and making some great changes in their practice.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, it’s interesting to see that people who are really committed to taking the time to like, attend the webinars and use the resources and things that they’re being given and interact with people in the Facebook group. Like, they’re doing amazing things in a short period of time.

[WHITNEY]:
Mm hmm. Yeah. And then this last testimony I have here is from Dawn Gabriel, she owns Authentic Connections Counseling Center in Castle Rock, Colorado. She said, as a group practice owner, you realize there’s so much you never trained for in the realm of running a business, whether you started out wanting to run a group practice, or it just kind of happened, Group Practice Boss is a great place to connect quickly and find people who get it, the excitement, the fear, the adventure and the overwhelm. And it is so good to be understood. And there are great resources to attend either live or watch later to help you with the side business. Whitney and Alison are very involved and tapering their information to what the group needs. They really listen and interact with the group, I highly recommend Group Practice Boss. So thank you, Dawn, for sending over that testimony. And we love having you in the group as well.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, Dawn is one of the people who seems to show up to most of the webinars that we have. And she always has lots of good things to share, because she’s more of a veteran group practice owner. So we really appreciate, you know, her advice to the other group members.

[WHITNEY]:
Oh, yeah. And she’s making a lot of good changes in her practice, too, with some of our systems and changing some of her positions to allow her to have some more time to do some big ideas that she’s got up her sleeve. So I’m excited for her.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, yeah.

[WHITNEY]:
So let’s talk about Cohort Two. That’s opening up in December at the end, right. I mean, a few weeks after this episode airs.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, so we are opening up the group again, there’s specific times when we let in new members and then the rest of the time it’s closed. So we opened it up the beginning of October, and it’s been closed since then. And we’re opening it up December 29th but just for three days, and we were intentional about making it the very end of the year because we know that a lot of people are looking to spend money to get a tax deduction.

[WHITNEY]:
That’s right.

[ALISON]:
So they don’t, yeah, so they obviously have other business expenses they can count towards 2020. And we have a couple different options for payment, because we know it’s the end of the year, and some people are looking for those tax write offs. So if you want to pay for the group all up front, there is a discount, and I believe it is, can you remind me what it is again, Whitney?

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah. So if you decide to pay the annual payment, it is $1596, I believe. So we are giving you a discount, there. Typically the monthly payments are $149 a month. But if you do the advance payment of the full year, you’re getting it for like $133 a month. So you end up saving, and don’t quote me on my numbers, I don’t have a calculator here, but something just under $200 by that, so you’re really like saving yourself almost a whole month of membership by paying for the whole year at once.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, and I know last year, you know, for my consulting clients, they were really looking for, you know, ways to maximize their tax write off, so they were opting for the pay in full option for that reason. Yeah. So, but you can do it either way, if monthly makes more sense for you, that’s totally fine. And there is no kind of commitment in terms of staying in the group. Like if you join, and for whatever reason, it’s not for you, you can certainly cancel your membership. We have found that the people who have joined have stayed, which has been awesome. But we also want you to know that if you know for whatever reason if it’s not for you, or it’s not what you thought, there’s no reason why you have to stay in the group.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, yeah. So we’re gonna open it up December 29th, through the 31st. And then we’re not planning to open up again until May. So we want you to be able to jump in on this so you can go ahead and capture the topics that we’re going to be doing for 2021. And along with that, and I think Dawn said in her testimony, you know, Alison and I, we do plan out like we have the whole year 2021 plan, but we also tailor it to you guys. Because sometimes there’s a topic that comes up that several people are asking about, so then we’ll move that to different months so that we can hit that. So one of them was systems, we had a lot of questions going on with different systems in our practice. So in the month of January, we’re actually going to be tackling that. So you don’t want to miss out.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, that was the one thing almost everybody I feel like said when they initially came in and introduced themselves and said what they wanted to work on. They were like, oh, I know, I have systems and processes that I really need to like clean up, or I just know, you know, things aren’t as efficient as they could be. So that’s something that we’re diving into in January, just because it was such a requested topic. So I think that’s going to be super fun, because that’s something I really like to talk about. I’m very like logical step by step. So that’ll be cool to do like a deep dive into helping people clean up their systems.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, and let me just kind of throw out a couple of the other topics we’re planning to cover in the first few months of 2021. We’re going to also cover creating a positive work culture. So how do we retain clinicians? How do we help them feel valued? Because a lot of good practice owners have been saying it’s, you put so much time and energy into hiring these people training these people, and then they go start their own practice. Like how do we keep that culture and retention doing well? So that we’re gonna cover that probably in February. And like I said, we switch them around based on need, but these are the things we’re planning to cover. In March, we’re going to do money management, so systems for tracking our finances, how do we save money in our practice? How do we handle taxes, reducing the amount of money not collected, especially for insurance based practices, paying yourself, a lot of practice owners wonder how much to pay themselves and how much to pay their employees. So we’re going to cover that.

And then in April, we’re going to talk about tracking your intake calls, because we’ve seen that so many practices get calls and they don’t have a way to manage them. Or they’re not seeing where the referral sources are coming from or why they’re not scheduling. And so we want to be able to have systems for that so you can make changes in your practice to be able to handle that and so that more people are actually scheduling. And then in May, we’re going to talk about retention of actual clients. So how do you keep the clients within your practice, because we know that when you are marketing and getting new clients, there is so much money we spend on the front end that our clinicians don’t even know. So how do we train our clinicians to keep their clients? And how long does the client need to come for the amount of money that you’re putting into getting that client and those kind of topics? So those are the things we’re planning to cover at the beginning of 2021. I’m excited.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, I am, too. I think it’s gonna be really cool to see how the group grows. And as we, you know, dig into other topics, what other things we can provide that will be helpful to the group. So, yeah, it’s just super fun to see something that you, you know, kind of created and hoped other people would appreciate really like, embrace it and find a lot of value in it. And of course, it’s super fun to work with you too, Whitney.

[WHITNEY]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, I think that we have a nice combination. And I love doing it with you as well. And it does provide a consultant to get in touch with people faster, you know, sometimes in some groups, you post and you’re waiting on responses and so this way, Alison and I can, or one of us will get to something a lot faster, because there are two of us. And I do get a lot of questions about the cost of the group, because I know it’s more expensive than some other membership communities, you know, $149 a month. But we were intentional about that, too, because Alison and I wanted to be super involved in what was going on. And so we had to price it in such a way that we would be able to lead live webinars at least weekly. Sometimes we have two a week, and us being able to respond to things, us being able to get information to the group. And so honestly, at $149 a month, I mean, that’s less than someone pays to come for therapy. And so we felt like, well, a group practice owner, it’s one client session to pay for this community to help you grow your business. We feel like it’s well worth it.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, I know, for me, if I, you know, when I was, especially in the beginning of you know, having a handful of clinicians and just navigating all of the things that you have to do for the first time as a group practice owner, it would have been like a total no brainer to pay $149 a month to get all the resources and support from Group Practice Boss.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, definitely. So if you’re listening, and you have a group practice of at least three clinicians, including yourself, we want you to join Group Practice Boss, so you can go to practiceofthepractice.com/grouppracticeboss, and there’s a page there to learn tons more about Group Practice Boss and also to join the waitlist. And then if you join the waitlist, you will get emails that let you know when the doors are open, that sends you the direct link to get involved and just gives more information about Group Practice Boss. If you’re listening to this, and it’s already, doors have already opened, if it’s July 29th, 30th, or 31st.

[ALISON]:
You mean December?

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, what did I say? I said July. Man, I am on a roll here. Okay, thank you, see, this is why you have a co pilot in your Group Practice Boss. Thank you. Yeah, so December 29th, 30th, and 31st. If you’re listening on those dates, just go straight in there and hit the link because you can go ahead and make a payment. And hey, if you’re listening to this later, like maybe in July, then you can join the waitlist for the next time that doors are open. So that page is always available to join that waitlist so that way you’ll get on those emails so that you can join the community.

[ALISON]:
Yeah, well, I think we covered everything Group Practice Boss related. So yeah, it’s been fun talking with you, Whitney.

[WHITNEY]:
Yes, fun talking to you, too. And if anyone has any other questions, you’re looking at the page and you’re like, hey, I just got a couple follow up questions, you can get in touch with Alison at alison@practiceofthepractice.com or whitney@practiceofthepractice.com. We’d love to answer those questions. So Alison thanks for leading Group Practice Boss with me and making this cool dream come true and for recording with me and for fixing July-December.

[ALISON]:
Of course, of course. All right. Talk to you later.

[WHITNEY]:
Bye.

________________________________________

[JOE]:
Special thanks to the band Silence is Sexy for your intro music; we really like it. This podcast is designed to provide accurate, authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical or other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.