[WHITNEY]:
Welcome to the Faith in Practice podcast. I’m your host, Whitney Owens, recording live from Savannah, Georgia. I’m a licensed professional counselor, group practice owner, and private practice consultant. Each week, through personal story or amazing interviews, I will help you learn how to start, grow, and scale your private practice from a faith-based perspective.

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[WHITNEY]:
So I wanted to do this bonus episode to talk to you about how to level up in your practice. Oftentimes, we’re spending so much of our time sucked into the daily goings on of a profit practice, that it’s hard for us to take a step back and think big picture, think like a CEO on where we’re going in our practice. And honestly, December’s a really good time to kind of look back on things, look forward on things and really make some goals moving forward in your practice. So I wanted to record this podcast episode in November, so that you can be thinking about some changes you may want to make in your practice, as you come into the new year.

So I want to take you back to 2017, about this time, three years ago. I had a solo practice, was super busy – as I’m sure many of you remember being at different points in your practice – where I was getting a lot of calls, I was honestly kind of dreading checking my phone after appointments because I didn’t know how I was going to get back in touch with all the people that were calling. And that could have been new clients or just current clients having questions, or needing to change card payments and things like that, and then trying to prepare for my clients. Then I’m also thinking about things I need to change on the website, or managing my social media, or, hey, I need to create an email list, how am I ever going to fit that into what I’m doing? And so as all this was happening, I started following a lot more Practice of the Practice, learning more about how to build a practice and really understanding that I didn’t have to feel like I was in the weeds all the time. There is a way to run a practice, enjoy the work that you’re doing and honestly not dread going to work. Even though I really loved the clinical work I was doing, all the administration work was such a headache, and so overwhelming, it really took some of the joy out of my job, to tell you the honest truth.

And as all this was happening, I’m getting these calls and making waitlists and I’m just sitting here thinking, should I start a group practice? That seemed really scary to me. But I also thought, I’m losing so many clients by sending them to someone else, or clients that are waiting to get seen. And if I started a group practice, I could see these clients, care for their needs, make a bigger impact in my community, and then allow therapists to get jobs. I remember the first private practice I worked for, I was so honored to be hired as a counselor at that practice. And so I could give someone else that opportunity. I could give them clients, they can do the work that they love. And you know what, while I’m doing all those good things, I can make some money on the side. But to tell you the truth, I was terrified of doing that, thinking I would not make it, all those insecurities come out. And just wondering, where’s this all going to take me?

And honestly, it’s kind of a long story in my journey with God and the way that I went through prayer and considered all the options. But then ultimately, I ended up connecting with Joe Sanok, who’s the owner of Practice of the Practice, through winning a consulting call. That’s right. So I won a free consulting call. And to tell you the truth, the night before I won this consulting call, it said to my husband, yeah, I’m thinking about starting a group practice. I know that there’s this contest going on with Practice of the Practice and if I win a consulting call with Joe, I’m going to take that as a sign to start a group practice. And of course, when we say things like that, it’s like throwing the fleece out, right. And then, all of a sudden, I hear the next day, my name announced that I’ve won this consult with Joe and I’m like, oh, boy, I guess I’m starting a group practice.

Anyway, so then I had the consulting call with Joe and I was super nervous. I’ve been following his podcast for a while. I remember sitting at my desk, looking out the window. And he was just so cool on the phone and like, really personal, wanted to hear about my practice. And then he narrowed it down to three things at the end of our call. And these are the three things that he often says that I think are really good advice. If you are a solo practice owner that either wants to grow your practice, or if you’re a solo practice owner wanting to make a group practice, number one, raise your rates. At that time I was, let’s see, I was charging I think it was $90 a session and he said to me, what is the biggest amount that you can think of charging? Ask for that on the next call. And I was like, no, I can’t ask for that. He said, well, what’s it gonna hurt? If you lose a client, is that okay? And I said, well, sure. It’s okay. Like, I have enough clients, like, I don’t need more clients. He said, okay, well, higher your rate and see what happens. So I did what he said. I asked for $125 on the next call, and boom, they paid it hands down, no questions asked, then my rate was $125.

Advice number two, hire an assistant. That really freaked me out. I mean, the idea of hiring an assistant was a lot. So honestly, I tabled that for a little while. And then the third piece of advice he gave me was join my mastermind group. And it’s funny to think back on that now, because I had no idea what a mastermind group was. I was like, what’s this guy talking about? What’s a mastermind group? And he said, well, let’s set up another call and let’s talk about the mastermind group. So we set up another call, and he talked to me about what his mastermind group entailed. I had no idea if I should do it or not. And honestly, I knew I should do it but I wanted to, like, weigh it all out. You know how we are, we know when God’s telling us to do something, we are scared of the risk so we don’t do it. That’s exactly what I did.

So I went home, I told my husband about the mastermind group and I said, if I join this mastermind group, that is me committing to starting a group practice, like, I didn’t want to put all that time and energy and money into it if it wasn’t going to make a difference in my practice, and in my community, and I already had enough clients. So it was really starting a group that was going to do it for me. And so after much prayer and consideration, I joined his mastermind group. So that was the October, or it might have been November 2017, and it… I know this sounds so intense, but it totally changed my life. I think so fondly of those moments where I was so nervous, but then joined this group and it changed me for who I am as a person, my risk taking, my trusting in God, my confidence in myself, but it also changed my practice. And then later I became a consultant. Like, I never would have imagined all these things would have happened by making this decision to start a mastermind group.

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[WHITNEY]:
The Faith in Practice podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice podcast network. A network of podcasts seeking to help you start, grow, and scale your practice. To hear other episodes like the Imperfect Thriving podcast, Bomb Mom podcast, Beta Male Revolution, or Empowered and Unapologetic, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.

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[WHITNEY]:
So I started a mastermind group, and there were six of us, we were all kind of at different phases as far as working on a practice. There was somebody who had a group practice, a couple of people that were solo practice owners wanting to just make more money and systematize their practice, and then two of us looking to hire our first clinicians. So I joined that group at the end of 2017, I hired my first clinician in 2018, in January, I hired my second clinician in March 2018. So within six months, I’d already hired two people. And then by November, to make a long story short, the first two people that were contractors were gone, different reasons for each of those. And then I moved to W-2 employees. So I hired my first W-2 employee in November 2018 and I am honored to say she just had her two year work anniversary, and she’s fabulous. Love her. And now I’m actually about to hire my seventh, no, my sixth clinician, there are seven of us total, including me. So, that’s right. So I basically kind of had to almost start from scratch again, November 2018, and it’s been two years and there’s seven of us, and we’re a cash only practice.

I ended up doing a mastermind with Joe for two years. In that time, I hired clinicians, I set rates, I systematized my practice, I can’t tell you how many times I had to text Joe and say, hey, can we jump on a call because I can’t decide who to hire between these two people? And he would say, oh, well, here’s what you need to do, like, bing, bang, boom. And it made it so much easier. Or, hey, I need contracts for my contractors, and he’d send me a contract, say, hey, here’s a contract, review it with your attorney, and then go from there. Like, it saved me so much time and energy. It was amazing.

And so, as a Faith in Practice owner, I also find faith to be a really important part of the work I do. And as a consultant, I want to make faith a part of the consulting experience. So that could be you’re at one place in your faith or another place where you make it more part of your practice, less a part of your practice, but at some point, you have to consider your culture, your values when you’re growing your practice. And so, I am wanting to launch, or I am launching, two mastermind groups in the month of December. Just a week or so ago, I created an interest list, posted it in my email and on my Facebook page, my Facebook group, and I was just astonished by the interest that came in. I’ve had over 45 people fill out the form and show an interest in a mastermind group. And that is super exciting because that means all of you guys are out there starting and growing your faith based practices and doing awesome stuff in the world. And then the idea that all of you are doing these great things and then I get to be a part of that journey with you and that you’re interested in working with me, it’s like the biggest honor that I could have.

And so based on the interest, and knowing my experience of a mastermind group, I’ve decided to create two different mastermind groups, starting in December, and these will each last for six months. The first group is for people who are solo practice owners wanting to increase their caseload and systematize their practice, and know how to market better and how to spend their time. So we’re going to work on things such as how do you develop a website to attract your ideal client? Or how do you manage your finances and what amount should I be paying myself at the end of the month? Also, how do I manage social media? How do I track my intake calls? How do I manage my KPIs, which are my key performance indicators? What’s the phone system I should use? How do I set up an email series? So all these questions that a lot of solo practice owners are trying to figure out, we’re going to tackle. So if you’re a solo practice owner, and you’re wanting to grow your business, please consider joining this mastermind group. Also, if you’re a solo practice owner, and you’re thinking I eventually want to start a group but I’m not quite ready to hire yet, this is also a good place for you, because you can really set up your systems for your practice so that you’re ready for your hiring by the end of going through this group.

And the second mastermind group that we’re going to run is for practice owners who are ready to hire their first clinician in the next six months. So if you’re listening to this podcast, and you heard my story about starting a group, and you’re like, yes, that is exactly where I am right now, please don’t hesitate to apply. Because I want to help you get your first clinician hired. How cool would it be if you start the group in December, and you’ve got two clinicians working for you by the end of May? And I know that you hear me say that and you’re thinking there’s absolutely no way I can get all that done. I hear practice owners tell me that all the time. You hands down can get that done. Now you do have to work in the mastermind group. But I will help you figure out exactly how to do it, step by step, so that you actually can get those hires made. So if either of these sounds like something that you’re interested in, I want you to head on over to practiceofthepractice.com/apply, and you can fill out an application, and it would send me like a notice, and then we’ll get in touch with you about applying for the group. Also, you can just email me, whitney@practiceofthepractice.com and I can give you a lot more details.

But as far as what is a mastermind group, that question I asked Joe years ago, a mastermind group is when we bring together like minded people at similar places in their practice, so that you can grow your business together. We’ll meet every other week, for six months, that’s 12 sessions total, meet for an hour over Zoom. And during that hour, our time together, it is 10 minutes of wins, 10 to 15 minutes of teaching related to the topics of that group. And then we have a time for hot seats where you share a personal problem, or not personal but professional problem. I mean, I guess you could share your personal problems sometimes, but really professional problems. So you share your professional problems, and then we talk and problem solve that together. And then there’s a short Q&A time for anything else you need.

Also, within these mastermind groups, you get one one on one consulting call with me in the first one to two months of starting the group so I can help you push your group forward or push your practice forward. And then you get tech support from me, resources from me. And we also have a Facebook group that’s just for our community. That way, if you have questions in between, then you can post in there, I do special Lives in there to help you with your practice. So I am super excited about the opportunity to work with you guys. Please go and apply or send me that email.

And I want to give you one more thing to consider. I think about if I had let fear get in the way and not started the group practice. So let’s say in 2017 – this is what I hear from many people and these are normal concerns – I don’t have time. I am scared this won’t work, or scared it will work and what would that mean? But ultimately, I don’t have the money to spend on a mastermind group. So let’s just say I had said that. If I had waited a year, all the income that I had made in 2018 wouldn’t have been made because I wouldn’t have had a group practice. All that I learned and the ways that I grew that year, never would have happened that way because I wouldn’t have had the group practice, I wouldn’t have started it. And so when we choose not to step out, we really do miss out on a lot. So I really want to encourage you to step out. Send me an email or apply and let me know where you’re at in your practice, and I’ll let you know if this group is for you.

So I appreciate you taking the time to listen to this episode. I know you’re super busy and have a ton going on. But it means the world to me that you follow the podcast and that you listen. And I want to encourage you to please share this podcast with other people that you know that have faith based practices so that they can grow their practice too. I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you for listening to the podcast.

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[WHITNEY]:
Thank you for listening to the Faith in Practice podcast. If you love this podcast, please rate and review on iTunes or your favorite podcast player. If you liked this episode and want to know more, check out the Practice of the Practice website. Also, there you can learn more about me, options for working together, such as individual and group consulting, or just shoot me an email whitney@practiceofthepractice.com. Would love to hear from you.

This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. This is given with the understanding that neither the host, the Practice of the Practice, or the guests are providing legal, mental health, or other professional information. If you need a professional, you should find one.