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Private Practice Startup Podcast
Episode 133: Getting Your Practice Ready To Scale Into Another Source of Income
00:39:19
Zoey Holguin, LMFT
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- [00:03]
A
Welcome to the Private Practice Startup, where we inspire you from startup to mastery. We chat with entrepreneurs, experts in the mental health and business arenas, and successful private practitioners to give you the tools needed to make your dream practice a reality. Visit theprivatepracticestartup.com for awesome resources, free trainings, and so much more. Here are your hosts, Dr. Kate Campbell and Katie Lemieux.
- [00:28]
B
Hey, Startup Nation. Welcome back to another episode of the Private Practice Startup podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Katie Lemieux, and we are talking to Zoe Hauguin today, who's a licensed marriage and family therapist. And I had to ask her how she said her last name, so hopefully I got the pronunciation correct. And she's going to be talking to us and you on how to get your practice ready to scale into another source of income. I am so excited about this because you guys, you guys actually requested this. So again, we're bringing you another podcast that you guys are most interested in. And before we get started with Becky's podcast, we hope you guys listened to our podcast last week with Beck. I said Becky's podcast. I meant to say Zoe's podcast, because last week we had Becky. That's what I meant to say. We hope you listened last week to Becky Stone's podcast all about emotional support animals. So that was really helpful and enlightening for both Kate and I to answer some questions that we had. And we are sure that you probably have similar questions. And again, before we get started, so this is our last week. So if you've been listening the last four weeks or the three weeks, this is our fourth week to our podcast. You guys know we are running a contest. So the contest is we are actually giving away a peak package of attorney approved customizable paperwork every week in the month of April 2019. So if you're listening to this in 2020, which I can't even imagine April 2020 right now, but if you are listening, it's just 2019. So make sure you go over to private, private practices, startup.com, head over to the Resources tab and go and opt in for the free HIPAA form. So there you'll get to test drive the HIPAA form, but you'll also enter a chance to win our complete package of 20 plus forms. And that is a value of $511. So one lucky winner each week. This is the last week to do that. So you're going to want to make sure you go ahead and snatch that up. And if you are brand new to our podcast, we want to welcome you. You are our very important Start A Nation superhero and we want to welcome you into our family. So the best way to do that and stay connected with us is hang out with us in Facebook. So a little bit about Zoe. Zoe is a licensed marriage and family therapist and independent marriage and family therapist with a supervisor designation, a California native and Cleveland, Ohio transplant, operating a small group practice specializing in emotionally focused therapy for couples. And most of her career has been actually in leadership roles and she found a passion for assisting therapists and leading other as well. So this is going to be super exciting. And before we hit the official record for the podcast, we were talking about Zoe's love of true crime, which I don't think I've shared much about, but I love murder stuff. Verse 48. I love the everything on the ID channel. All my favorite things. Actually, it's funny because ID channel used to have sometimes they do reruns of Deadly Women. That was like, literally in my wedding vows, my spouse said, I will let you watch Deadly Women if you let me do something or whatever. So that's how much I love the ID channel. So a little fun fact about Katie. There you guys go. I love murder. Without further ado, Zoe, how are you today?
- [03:39]
C
I'm doing fabulous. Thanks for having me.
- [03:43]
A
Yes, it's great to have you on today. We're so excited to have you here. We had so much fun on your epic summit, your CEO mindset and leadership summit. So thank you so much for including us in that. I know it was like all the tech stuff and your emails were ending up in our spam and somehow miraculously we were able to pull it off. Thank you so much for that. It's great to have you on our show today.
- [04:06]
C
Yeah, it was so fun to have you two on the summit. I was like, so tickled that you wanted to be a part of it. And yeah, you guys closed it out with me, which was like so, so much fun to do that together.
- [04:20]
B
I was so delighted and really honored.
- [04:23]
A
Exactly. And we're excited to dive into today's topic because it's going to be a really, really good one. Getting your practice ready to scale into another source of income. So many people ask about this question and they want to know, hey, I have this great idea for an online course. Katie and I are in the middle of our E course and boy, did we have like, no clue how much of a beast this was going to be. I mean, we've wanted to do an E course for a really long time in Private practice, marketing. We've been working on it for like over two years with all the, all the content and everything that we're building and then really, really hard for the past year. We wanted to launch it this fall and here we are in spring and we still haven't launched yet. It's insane the amount of work that goes into quote unquote, passive income.
- [05:09]
C
Yeah.
- [05:10]
B
But we do have a launch date.
- [05:13]
A
We do, we do.
- [05:14]
B
We find that. So we're going to be doing a webinar on April 30, 2019 and we're going to be launching the ecoursing coaching part in May 15th. So that's exciting.
- [05:25]
A
Super excited for that.
- [05:26]
B
And I just shared that with you guys, so. Oh my gosh, that's like ass on the line. We're like, we're going to have to like make this.
- [05:31]
A
We're going to make it happen. We're going to make it happen.
- [05:33]
B
But I will say ecorse struggle is real. The struggle is real.
- [05:40]
A
It is so much work on the front end. It's just crazy. So I'm curious, Zoe, what was it that made you really passionate about talking about this topic today?
- [05:50]
C
Yeah, so I think, you know, I originally kind of entered into the online space really passionate about like leadership. And I still am. But as I started to like scale into another source of income, I quickly realized like along with my peers like that you have to, you have to make space for this. And we would go into these ventures, we'd buy the course, I'm making a course, or we would join a mastermind and we would venture into this thing and then realize I failed at this or I don't have the time for this, I'm just not going to do it. And I added the CEO mindset portion of the therapist leader because I thought when we go past the one to one model to one to multi offering model, we gotta put our CEO hats on and start to think about the multiple departments that we're now running of our business. Even if we're the only. If we're the CEO and we're the therapist and the employee and the social media manager and all these different things. Because we can't do it all. You know, we can try to do it all, but it's not the best, the best way to approach it. And so then I started to think, you know, what are all the things that I have been doing in order to get ready to scale into additional sources of income? And what I do, I continue to do. It's kind of a Constant evolving process. It's like, you know, and I think that, yeah, I just thought I want to help other therapists do this as well because I am passionate about additional sources of income. I don't want to. I've never wanted to just be a therapist. You know, I want to be a mogul and build an empire and I want that to be an okay thing. So that's kind of how I landed on this.
- [07:42]
B
And I really appreciate you saying that, Zoe, because I think for a lot of times I've struggled with. We go to school for so long to be a therapist and it's almost like you do so much work to achieve this and then to be like, meh, I don't know that I really want to do that anymore. That's not what I want to do. I know I've struggled with that. And my ultimate goal is not to do therapy. I do love the therapeutic aspect and so many people who know are like, you're gonna miss it. I'm like, I do love couples work, but to be able to do it, not to pay the bills or have the income and really grow in scale. Because, you know, before we hit record, I was sharing with you that I've been in management and leadership for 26 years. And so that experience has made me a really great business owner. And I love that because in working with Kate and everything in the private practice startup, like, I'm just like head over heels passionate about business and marketing and that's really what I love. Hence why we have the private practice, but even more so on a larger sc. So thanks for saying that because it continues to give me the permission to be like, hey, it's okay, Katie. So I appreciate that. And if you're listening and you're like in the same place too, like we're going to give you the permission too. Well, I guess you should give it to yourself.
- [08:47]
C
But yeah, no, I think, I mean, I love that because I think that I think it should be okay for us to want to build and grow and to want to make money and serious money and, you know, want to have as many streams of income as we want. You know, I just, you know, I'm over the shame of, you know, when I started thinking about private practice, I wanted to have a one to one model, but I wanted to make a lot of money, but then went into community mental health and, you know, my trajectory was a little bit different than I ever anticipated. But I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I've always loved leadership, but I'VE always wanted to make a lot of money and I've always been bored with just doing one thing. So, you know, there's other therapists like us that are that same makeup. It's gotta be okay.
- [09:44]
A
And there's only enough time in the day. So no matter how much you charge, when you're that one to one service based provider as a therapist providing counseling, I mean, you can hit your max and your income level, your ceiling pretty quickly. So to be able to have multiple streams of revenue and diversification of practice, whether you're offering courses or coaching or other types of businesses on the side, it's something that can really keep your passion alive.
- [10:17]
C
Yeah, absolutely.
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A
It can be hard to juggle all the balls though.
- [10:21]
C
Yeah, right. Yeah. And I think that's why it comes down to being strategic about a process in terms of how to juggle the balls, you know, revisiting it time and time again.
- [10:32]
A
Tell us more about some of those things that you recommend in terms of setting up yourself and creating that foundation with those, with that really strategic approach.
- [10:43]
C
Yeah. So I think the first thing is I think you have to make a short and long term plan to refine your practice. And what I mean by that is that you have to think about where do I want to be in three years from now, where do I want to be in one year from now? And then, you know, what do I need to do in the next quarter and what I need to do in the next month? I think you have to be really good at strategic planning. And it doesn't mean that like that is once you hit the, you determine what your three year goal is, that that's it. And it's like locked. You know, I think you're constantly looking at your strategic plan and changing it. But I also think that you have to be looking at like, where do I want to be in a year and what do I have to do to get to that place and making plans towards that. And so, you know, again, like, I knew for a long time I wanted to add additional sources of income. When I first started my private practice, when I moved here to Cleveland, I was on, you know, all the things. Like I was on EAPs and I was on, you know, different insurance panels, but I knew I needed to like get off some of those, right. To be able to make more money and work less hours. And so I kind of set into a process of like, which ones do I need to get off of first? You know, But I would do it in like quarters and chunks. Right. And So I would say that, you know, in the long term and short term you don't. Everything doesn't have to happen all at once, but think about it happening and put some time to it, long and short time to it, and then review it, like review it every quarter, review it every month. You know, how are you going to get there? So I think that's like the first, the first thing that I would recommend is dream a little bit and then put some plans into place and then start working those plans.
- [12:28]
B
One thing I would really like to add that I know that helps me and it just helps me get out of my head is really having a coach, mentor and or mastermind or all three. And you know why I say that is I just started another mastermind today actually and I'm doing a 10 week think and Grow Rich book study. And you know, just to hear other people, it's like group therapy, right? Like you usually get more out of the group therapy than the one on one because people will share an experience or ask a question that it just like unlocks something. And you know, I had a huge like aha moment on our call yesterday for the Think and Grow Rich. But you know, sometimes and then it just, it helps you like continue to move forward. And one of the things that we talked about is the quality of our questions, right? The quality of questions to ourselves and to each other to help us move forward. And I know a lot of times I get stuck in a space and I'm like, well, why am I here? What am I not seeing? But then I hear someone else's question, I'm like, oh, that just unlocked the ability to move forward. So I think in even creating short and long term goals, it's also important to have those accountability people or support people in your life. Man, I just realized today, like I'm like excited talking and when I get excited talking, I just like mumble all over my words. So this is where I gotta take a breath, not get so excited about this topic, right?
- [13:43]
C
No, I think what you're saying is so true. We have to have it. You know what I call like a CEO community or whatever. A community of people who are going to be able to say like, but what about this? Or you know, I think this might be resistance or asking you to look at it a different way to be like, oh man, I didn't, I didn't think of it that way. Wow, you might be right, you know, so yeah, I think that's so valuable.
- [14:08]
A
So having that vision and really starting with the End in mind thinking about, okay, where do I want to be three years from now, five years from now, one year from now and working backwards, setting those goals and, and all of that. What else do you recommend in terms of setting yourself up to take that next step?
- [14:24]
C
Yeah, so the next thing which I know we'll all geek out on is like systematize and automate.
- [14:31]
B
Yes.
- [14:32]
C
And like rinse and repeat is what I say. And so I think this is where, this is like the low hanging fruit in terms of where can you in your existing life as a practice shore up some time? You know, where, what areas in your practice can you streamline? What areas can you get rid of? Like where can you free up more time for free? You know, and what are very little cost, you know, whether it's like you know, doing some zapiers or whatever for 25 bucks a month or you know, basically automating things like through simple practice that using some options that you already pay simple practice for. So I would do that. I like to categorize each area of my practice in terms of the administrative stuff, the client system, the marketing system, the networking systems. And then under those lists of those major categories, what are the major tasks underneath? Administration, maybe accounting, bookkeeping, email. And then maybe under client system, the pre intake process. The intake process. And then under maybe marketing, like if you do any social media. So just thinking about what are your major tasks under each of these things? Networking, like networking with non therapists. Networking with therapists. And then pick one of those things. Just pick one. Like maybe you pick one a month or one a quarter and think about what am I doing in this area, how can I systematize this or automate this, how can I create a system? And then for example, like again if it's sp, like all of my clients are on autopay, like I don't sit there and charge them every single time they auto pay at the end of every night. And so it's, it's, you know, it probably takes three seconds to do it, but it's three seconds times the 15 clients I have that I save that time over the course of a year. You know, I don't know, that's probably like 15 minutes. I don't know, but it's still 15 minutes. I use every feature and simple practice that is automatic that I can like all my client paperwork, you know, all those schedules, self scheduling, all those different things. I mean I have a virtual assistant and all that as well. But you know, for someone who's a solo practice and looking for that time, you know, that could save you significant. Like I'd say you an hour a week, you know, doing all that stuff. So pick that one thing, like whether it's a pre client, you know, pre client intake, and then just work on that one thing, document it, put all the steps down, commit to that system, get that nailed down and then move on to another one.
- [17:13]
B
I'd like to dig a little bit deeper on the systems, but I know Kate has something to say or a question first.
- [17:18]
A
Yes. I love everything that you're talking about here and Katie and I love talking about systems. And we want to come back to that. But first we have to take a quick break from our sponsors for this episode and then we'll dive right back in. If you're in private practice, you wear a lot of hats. And some of those hats are totally great. But some like filing taxes and running payroll, for example, not so great. That's where Gusto comes in. They make payroll taxes and HR actually easy for small businesses like your private practice. Fast, simple payroll processing and benefits and expert HR support all in one place. Gusto automatically pays and files your federal, state and local taxes so you don't have to worry about it. Plus they make it easy for you to add on health benefits and even 401ks for you and your team. Let them wear one of your many hats. You have so many better things to do with your time. Listeners get three months free when they run their first payroll. Try a demo and see for yourself@gusto.com pps that's gusto.com pps there are so many ways to keep your practice organized, but TherapyNotes is by far the best. They're easy to use. Secure platform, lets you not only do billing, scheduling and progress notes, but also create a client portal to share documents and request signatures. Plus they offer amazing unlimited phone support. So when you have a question, they're there so you can get help fast. Get started with TherapyNotes today, trusted by over 60,000 professionals. Go to therapynotes.com and enter promo code PPS as in Private Practice Startup and you'll get two months for free. Also, you can listen to episode 54 where we interviewed Brad Pleiner and took an in depth view into their ehr.
- [19:02]
B
So I have dubbed systems my business foreplay like systems make me so excited. Like if someone talks systems to me, I'm like yes, I don't know, I like to figure it out because I'm such a problem solver. But when you have a system that works oh my God, it's just so sexy, right?
- [19:18]
A
It's in your zone of genius.
- [19:20]
B
That is part of my zone of genius for sure. One of the things though I want to talk about, Zoe, is the mindset about systems. So there's things that we have to overcome as entrepreneurs and I think it's called our ego. A lot of times we hesitate in creating systems because we think that, well, no one can do it like I do. No one can do it better than me. So there's that part of doing that and I know I went through that and actually it's like a muscle. The more that you exercise it, the more, the stronger it gets and then it's easier to do. I know that when Kate and I created several systems. So we have an amazing virtual assistant, Ruth in Africa. We've completely systemized our podcast system, obviously, except for this part. And it's interesting because I will say when you do create systems, it can feel very tedious and a long process. One of the things that I was taught through a business coach was if you touch it, talk to it or do it, you need to document it. I'd like to just talk about some NINJA tips on what we've learned on how to really document systems and we'd love to hear what you share, Zoe as well. One of the things is Kate and I are obsessed with the Google Drive, right? Everyone can be working simultaneously in there and we use video a lot. And I'm really surprised because I have a lot of friends who are also business owners, really more like in the self employed realm and they don't have systems. And me just sharing the thing about video was like this whole new concept for them is when you are doing something, whatever it is, I don't know if you're creating a landing page or you're going through your process for onboarding clients or you're working in simple practice and this is how you bill or whatever it is that you do is do a video recording of that and then that goes in the drive and anyone can then access it. And it's also great for cross training, right? So if Kate's on a two week vacation and oh my gosh, Kate usually does this like, I don't have to say crap, you know, I gotta bother her on vacation as I just go straight to the drive and now I can figure it out. So that's really important. Kate, what are some of the NINJA tips that you know, come to mind when.
- [21:16]
A
Yeah, for me, I'm not someone who I can do systems as Long as it's visual, right? Like Kati will be like, oh, this piece and this piece and this piece and this piece and this connects with that and this connects with that. And I'm like, well, slow down. My brain can't digest that way. I'm a very visual person. So to be able to use a program like Draw IO, we've really enjoyed incorporating that. You can actually draw out the step by step process. Once this person opts in here, then they get this email and if they select this option, they go in this track or this track goes the other way. So you can really map out your whole system and really have technology to help you do that. So you can make it really, really clear. And it's very time consuming on the front end to document the system to get everything all organized. But once you have it streamlined and you can outsource the parts that you don't need to be doing it is the most freeing and exciting thing ever because it frees up so much time and you can focus on the things that you love that you're really good at. And it's just, it's so worth it. It's awesome. It's essential because you can't do all the things all the time. It's just not sustainable. It's not humanly possible.
- [22:27]
B
And that's, that's why it's business foreplay.
- [22:30]
C
Right? Right. And it will, you know, it will prevent you eventually from scaling your business. I mean, and you have to, I think you have to at every level, right? Every way. Every way you up level. You have to look at all your systems or look at all the things you do and ask why am I doing this? Like, can someone else do this? Is this essential for me to do? And you have to again, write another system or another process or outsiders outsourced in a different way. I mean, I think it's. I mean I think it's just so essential. You know, what are some of the.
- [23:02]
B
Ways that you recommend or your systems Ninja tips? Zoe?
- [23:06]
C
I use. So my system Ninja tips are like, I use Mindmeister a lot. So like that's kind of like a Draw IO thing. But it's like the mind. Mind the kind of more of the was it Venn diagram type of program. What was there another one that I was thinking about that just totally left my brain. You know, the other thing I was thinking when I was preparing for the. Preparing for this, I was. I had to really dig deep because I have so many systems and so many things happening that I don't even. I'm not even involved in that. I was like, what systems do I even have anymore? I think I revisit my systems, like on a quarterly basis to refine and make sure that they're operating. That's one thing, because I also think that I feel like I need to be connected as much as I know that they're operating and if they're broken, they'll come back to me because I'll have to fix them again. I also like to just make sure that they're operating most effectively. So I put like a CEO day into my schedule and just review and make sure they're all kind of like, you know, happening, if they can be more efficient and check in with my virtual assistant and see, like, how are things going? Is there any improvements you would make to it? Those are kind of some of the things that I do.
- [24:21]
A
Nice. Yeah, we actually have like a 36/step podcast system. It took us forever to fine tune all of that, but now we don't have to do anything except for show up on the podcast day and have fun creating the content, doing the part that we love, and everything else is systematized. However, in I think next week or the week after, we have several hours that we blocked out to review that whole system, make sure everything is working as streamlined as it needs to be and whether we need to do every step of the system. So it is so important to be able to review those things periodically and enhance them, fine tune them. And then also it's like the tracking and measuring, like, how well is the system working? How can I improve it? What's not working? Yeah, yeah.
- [25:04]
C
I think it's so important. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I think when I knew I was going to scale, I said to myself, what do I have to do with my clinical practice? So I just show up and see clients do my progress notes, hit save, and that's all I do. And that's what I've been working towards.
- [25:20]
A
That's awesome.
- [25:21]
B
So I know we could talk about systems for a long time, but I know there's more to this podcast, so share with us the next thing.
- [25:27]
C
So the next thing is reducing clinical hours by seeing less for more by getting your marketing on point and then networking with the right people. So everybody's going to have their own. You know, I'm not saying like, go cash pay, but I'm also saying that if you, you know, you want more time to see, to spend on your additional sources of income, you're going to have to. The reality is you're going to have to see less clients and you know, oftentimes we have to have the same amount of money. Right. To be able to support ourselves so that we can start this additional source of income. So that could mean, you know, that you maybe drop the lower paying thing, you know, the lower paying insurance companies. It could mean you go cash pay. It could be all these things. I know, I know I had like 30 plus clients and so I knew this last year I've been taking it in quarters where I've just dropped the lower pay. And I'm, you know, in the process of going all cash pay right now. But it's been, it's not like I dropped everything all at once. It was, it was, it's been a whole process. I'm actually in the, like I said, the process of dropping my last one right now. But I've also had to get my marketing on point for that. And I've also had to network with the right people, right. Other cash pay therapists who are going to refer those types of clients to me back and forth. I've specialized, I've niched down all those different things. I've also diversified my students of income in my clinical practice. So I do clinical supervision. I'm a landlord, I have a small group practice. Right. So I have a few employees that see clients as well and work on their caseload. So that has helped me have some kind of income things going on. But I think that we have to see less clients. It's just a part of the game. Not the game, but it's just a part of its reality and so we have to struggle with that. So again, money mindset comes into play with that, you know, kind of grieving, maybe our role as therapist a little bit, you know, those types of things.
- [27:43]
A
Yeah, I'm kind of in that process myself in terms of I have a group practice and in order for me to like really be in my zone of genius, I need to not be tied down with seeing clients and clients, clients all day long. I need to be more, more in the designing creative flow with supporting my team and what it is that, you know, how I can support them in growing all of their practices. So the more clients that they see, the more I'm able to step back and continue to see less clients and really be involved on a higher level. And that's really where I find my most passion and my most reward just from being involved in the business on that level. And it's kind of like a little bit of a juggling act, you know, with. I mean, also with myself. The passion of enjoying working with people and helping them, helping clients. And sometimes I love that so much, I'm like, oh, man, I don't know if I'll ever give up completely seeing clients. It's a little bit of a transition and juggling act to find that sweet spot.
- [28:44]
C
Yeah, definitely. I couldn't agree more. And I think I was talking to a coaching client last week, and, you know, I think this is where the mindset comes in. Like, but all the clients want to come to me, right? Like, I am seeing 30 clients. I have these people that are in my group practice, but they don't want to see them. They just want to see me. They fit with my profile better. They resonate, Right. They'd rather just go somewhere else than see with me. But I also need to build up this person's caseload, you know, so it is a juggling act. It's a mindset act. It's like, okay, so then how do I treat this person's profile to make it a little bit more, like, engaging? Or is it, like, spending more time with that person so that they kind of retain them a little bit more? So it's. It is. It's just. It's complicated. You know, it touches on so many different aspects of, like, leadership and marketing and, like. Or, you know, like, oh, gosh, if I don't see myself as a therapist, or the risk of, like, but I need that income. Like, how can I. If it's so easy for me to get that income, why wouldn't I just do that? Like, I'm gonna have to, like, tolerate maybe not having some income in order to build up their caseload. Oh, but what if they don't build up their caseload? Where am I at? You know? So there's. It's difficult, complicated. There's. There is some risk, and it's.
- [30:01]
A
There's definitely a lot of risk. You know, being in the group practice owner takes on all of that risk. The burden of the risk is on the group practice owner for sure. And then being able to break down all the numbers and look at it from that perspective, too. So looking at the system of, okay, how many clients and referrals do I need to get for the team for those new clients to get started for me to take, you know, to continue to decrease my caseload? So it's like looking at those numbers and planning, and there's a lot of work that goes into it, for sure. Yeah, yeah. But it is rewarding to be Able to take a step back and to be involved in different facets of the business for sure.
- [30:39]
C
Right.
- [30:39]
B
And so once we do that, then what would be next?
- [30:45]
C
Once I think you do that, I think you, you know, you have to be, you know, productivity like maven. You have to be like a time management machine and batch, like a boss. I think you have to, like, you have to one, you know, know yourself how you can work best, you know, the number of clients you want, when are the times in your day that you're the most effective? So I've been categorizing my days. So I have two clinical days. I have consulting days. I have more like CEO days. And, you know, I think you have to do things like turn off notifications on your phone, you know, set boundaries and being okay with, like, they might hate me, but I'm setting them anyway. Amen.
- [31:29]
B
So all of that stuff. And don't you wish your spouse would be the same?
- [31:33]
C
Right? Yeah, exactly. Right, right, right, exactly.
- [31:36]
B
We don't have problems with the Facebook app in my relationship. No.
- [31:40]
C
Yeah, I know. Social media doesn't ever come up when I see my couples.
- [31:44]
A
Never.
- [31:44]
C
It's never a point of time.
- [31:46]
B
Try to spend quality time. Get off Facebook.
- [31:49]
C
Yeah, totally. I'm like, no, the apps get to disappear from the phone. Yeah. And, you know, I think, you know, not task switching and, you know, and doing that. The. The batching. Right. Doing the, like, you know, I think it was the three or four hours of like, just working on one thing, like whether that's content creation or, you know, so as you get more time in your schedule, guard that time and really work. Work the thing that you want to be developing, you know, and guard it like gold. I mean, you've worked so hard to, like, you know, to get to this place where you've reduced, you know, your caseload and you've, you know, outsourced and you've all, you know, like, so guard that time and really work it for your new business.
- [32:35]
B
So one of the things that I've realized about being an entrepreneur is that sometimes a lot of entrepreneurial stuff feels very counterintuitive.
- [32:44]
A
Right.
- [32:44]
B
Like niching down. I remember being the generalist. Right. Because you had the scarcity mindset. And also as you talk about time batching, I really loved reading Tim Ferriss book the four hour Work Week where I really learned about time batching. And I remember, like, one of the simple, dumb things that I did is I stopped opening mail every day. I open mail only on Fridays or on the weekend, period. That's it. And even time batching, like your errands, right? Like, why go to the supermarket on Monday and then you have to go to Marshalls on Tuesday? And well, what if you did all of that in a four hour time range and it's like, beautiful. Kate and I have a work day every week and we used to be really bad at squirreling, we used to be super bad at multitasking, but we've really gotten much better at just really focusing on one thing. And I'm just waiting for the day that when we plan like for four hours, we actually get done in less time. It's always like, oh my God, we're still at this thing. Like, we gotta plan more time. But it's just so helpful because it's almost like a plane, right? Like when a plane takes off on a Runway, there's a lot of force behind that, but as you get cruising altitude, it's a lot easier. And so being able to time batch those activities, and not only professionally, but personally, how can we do that as really, really helpful?
- [33:58]
A
So many of us pride ourselves in being multitaskers and being able to be involved in so many aspects of the business and this and that. But the decision fatigue that goes from like task shifting, I mean, when I've got 15 windows open on my computer and I'm shifting between things and I got emails going here and that's going there, it is exhausting, exhausting. So to be able to just focus on that one thing. So, so, so helpful. Zoe, this podcast has been so fun to have and so informative and I think we could talk about this stuff for like days. Seriously.
- [34:30]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [34:31]
A
So what is the main thing that you really want our listeners to take away from our episode here?
- [34:37]
C
You know, I think there's a couple of things I think that, like, it's a process, you know, it's not easy, but if you work it and you have like the grit and the, you know, you're in it for the long game, you'll get there. You know, being an entrepreneur, I mean, as, you know, building your practice. Right. But even when you're scaling into other sources of income, like, it's uncomfortable and taking those risks is uncomfortable and it's meant to be uncomfortable. Right? And so if you're uncomfortable, you're in the right place, you know, like, and so it's a community of people and it's continuing to be a learner, you know, you know, so that's, that's, that's what I want. That's What I want people to hear, you know, awesome.
- [35:24]
A
And it is.
- [35:25]
B
And I know especially we talked about our E course because that's just where we're at. And it's just, you know, anytime you start something new or a shift, there's a lot of time spent in really creating that and really just giving yourself that, that space and the ability. And I also say this, and I say this because I used to suck at it, is really rewarding and celebrating yourself, even for the small things. And I think that's so essential to actually put not only those measurable objectives of achieving your goal, but what reward along the way are you going to pair with that? And whether it's, I don't know, go get a massage or you've been checking out these pair of shoes or you want to go to this really cool restaurant is to really pair those things along the way. And I think that's the stuff that helps us be inspired. I know for me and Kate, also related to this, it was just kind of like, okay, that's done. What's next? That's not inspiring. That's just exhausting and overwhelming. So really treat yourself and acknowledge all the awesome work that you've done. So, Zoe, I know that you have a giveaway for our audience. What is that?
- [36:22]
C
Yeah, so I have a CEO workbook. It kind of goes over some of these things, but basically it's like an action oriented workbook to determine your business values and turn them into operating principles. It goes over a little bit of some tasks that you could outsource and delegate leadership skills. Also, like how to build a CEO community or a community of people that are like in the same stage of business you're at. And then some long term planning, like how to go about creating the long term plan. So that's what I have for everybody today.
- [36:52]
B
Very awesome. And I know that we mentioned a few things in our podcast today. We'll put those on the show notes page too. We mentioned Draw IO you said Mindmeister. Kate and I talked about the Google Drive. One of the books that I just finished reading was Clockwork, which really talks about the systemization. So definitely check that out as well. And we will eventually have Mike Michalowicz back on our podcast. We got to talk to him about profit first. So that was really awesome. So Startup Nation, before we sign off, we just wanted to do our superhero shout out.
- [37:24]
A
Yes. So our superhero shout out for today is Dr. Aileen Taneleen. I hope I pronounced your last name right. And Dr. Aileen says, I appreciate all the work you two have put into this and just want to say how much I love what you guys are doing. The entrepreneur in me is singing with inspiration. That is so awesome. We hope that you continue to be inspired along your journey and keep us posted with all your practice success.
- [37:52]
B
Cool. And we hope you guys join us next week as we talk with Diane Webb about marketing the clinician. You are not the one you're supposed to be. So as I talk about this title, I'm hearing the authenticity cowbell in the background because really it's all about authenticity and aligning with who you are personally and professionally and marketing that clinician. So again, this is the last week of the contest, so make sure you go ahead and get your free HIPAA download so you can enter the contest. We'll be pulling one lucky person for that paid package. Startup Nation. Hang out with us in Facebook. Just look for the Private Practice Startup in Facebook and we will see you there. Thank you again for allowing us to inspire you from startup to mastery and have an amazing day. Thanks so much Zoe for being with us.
- [38:38]
C
Yeah, thank you.
- [38:41]
A
Thanks for joining us on the Private practice startup. Visit theprivatepracticestartup.com for awesome resources, free trainings, attorney approved private practice paperwork, and so much more.
- [38:54]
B
It.