Episode 308: Avoiding Overwhelm of Building or Growing a Private Practice

Welcome to the Private Practice Startup Podcast where we help mental health professionals grow their dream practices and live a life they love. Which out with successful private practitioners, business coaches and marketing experts bringing you tons of practice building tips. We invite you to take advantage of our private practice paperwork and our signature marketing e-course and we have a gift for you. This is the exact methodology we use to create our six-figure private pay practices and have helped many other therapists do the same. Go to privatepracticestartup.com and on the homepage click the button to download a free copy of your dream private practice playbook. Now on to today's episode. Hey there, welcome back to another episode of the Private Practice Startup Podcast. Hope everyone is doing well today as we move on into November and the last two months or finishing the last two months here of year 2022. How crazy is that? I don't know. These years just go by so fast and you have all these hopes and dreams of what you're going to accomplish and then all of a sudden you look at the end of the year already. It's crazy. Well, along the path of achieving those hopes and dreams sometimes you all might be feeling overwhelmed by building and growing a private practice. So that's exactly what we're going to be talking about today. But before I introduce today's guest, we hope that you guys listen last week as we had a VOSHMIT. Talking about how to be confident when working with reactive clients. Most of our podcasts are about business building and private practice. But every once in a while we'd love to step back into the clinical side of things because we are clinicians. And Bo really helped us talk about how to work with reactive clients and is a great podcast for those of you like myself who don't really love to work with reactive clients. So that was really helpful and don't forget to listen to that. Today we have a return guest, I don't know, five, six, a dozen times already. Our private practice of building a coach, Dr. Kim Grocer. You guys probably heard of her before and if you haven't go back and check out some of her other podcast episodes. But today we are talking about avoiding the overwhelm of building and or growing a private practice. So who is Dr. Kim Grocer? She has a practice in New York as well as Florida. She does love to travel even though we didn't talk about that before. But I know she enjoys traveling, she also enjoys yoga, she is a professor and in 2022 she became a doctor. So that's very, very exciting. Thank you so much Katie. I'm so happy to be here with you today. And we're happy to have you. Of course, of course. So let's kind of just start off with, I'd love you to hear it. Well before we do that, let's take a moment for our sponsor. Is managing your practice stressing you out? Try therapy notes. 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And why don't we start with talking about your coming into private practice and overwhelm and your story and what was that like or how did you avoid the overwhelm? Absolutely. So, you know, I first started private practice back in 2011. I was in a two year postgraduate couples training program and part of the program required you to see clients there. But the nice thing about it was that when you graduated the program, you could take your clients with you into your private practice. And so I had clients and they wanted to follow me, but I had no private practice. So I had to put that together. I had to put that together quickly, right? So I had a part time private practice for up until about 2019 when I decided to leave my position at a group practice and go full time for myself, working for myself. And so that transition was so scary. To me it was scarier than starting the private practice because the way I started, I had clients that I was transitioning. I was working full time at a community mental health agency. So it was really just building a place for these clients to go, right? Whereas going out onto my own and trying to figure out am I going to make enough to pay this office rent at the time I was renting an office in Midtown at Hatton. Am I going to make enough to cover my mortgage? And all these different aspects, am I actually going to get clients to be able to do this? So it was very anxiety provoking, but also exhilarating. It was an exhilarating experience and I think I was able to lean into the exhilaration because I had such a wonderful support system. So first of all, I did coaching with you and Kate. So I literally left my job and walked right into my practice. I had my systems up and ready to go. I had my website ready to go. I knew who I was wanting to work with in my private practice. And so literally, resigning for my job and then on a Friday and then starting in my private practice on Monday. Wow. And that's not most people's stories. No, it's not. It's not usually they're building the practice and then Kate always talks about the field of dream mentalities, right? Mentalities. She had that mentality. If I build it, they will come and that's not the case for you who was like, they were already there, they were waiting for you to build it. Exactly. Exactly. And then to grow it, right? Because I always say, like, so I started my private practice when I was doing it part-time with basically two clients, right? Two couples. So it was very small. Still had to have things in place. But within a year, it grew. And I remember when I was working part-time, I would see as many as 10 to 12 clients. And in addition to my full-time job. And so, but moving into full-time felt like a different beast, right? Because I used my part-time practice and come to travel to save for different events. It helped me pay for my wedding, things like that because my full-time job was taking care of all the major bills. But when that extra disappears, and now you have the added pressure of your business funding your life, it can be overwhelming. It can be overwhelming. But like I said, I had great support system. I had your support, Kate's support. I also did a lot of talking to people who had done it already. So many of my colleagues who had taken the lead who were working full-time and private practice and were successful at it and were living and were happy. And that was really important to me as constant reminders that this is possible. You can do this. You know, you'll be fine. My husband was also very supportive and that helped a lot because I think a lot of times when I was a student, I was like, "Oh, I'm so happy." I was like, "Oh, I'm so happy." I was like, "Oh, I'm so happy." A lot of times, we work with people's mindset as clinicians, but we don't often have the opportunity to examine our own. And then especially when it comes to building a business, thinking about the financials and productivity and getting clients and things like that. And I think a lot of the fear is rooted in how we think about it. Many times we have a scarcity mindset. We're kind of going into it with there's not enough clients. Are they going to choose me? I'm not going to make sure I'm not having money. I'm not going to choose me. I'm not going to make sure I'm having money. I'm glad that you mentioned that because I always joke around and say, well, we became therapists because we don't really love math. But that's not necessarily true. Some people do love numbers. And as a business owner, I know I've fallen in love with numbers. I don't like to like do like do like do like do like, I don't like to have to pull all the numbers and put them in. I like the numbers to be there. And I like to be able to look at the numbers because the numbers do tell a story. And I can't tell you how often more than not like you're like, well, I think this is what's happening. I think this is what's going on my business or my taxes or my this or my that. And then you look at the numbers and you're like, oh, no, that's not or that's not what's working or, oh, I'm getting in the majority of my referrals from the psychology today or, you know, networking. And you're like, oh, but no, look at that 60% came from, you know, this one page on my website. So numbers are so important in the fact and I like him that you say is an evolution is that they do tell a story and they help you predict and project. Where to go and it actually makes life easier. And speaking of numbers. So we've had two amazing guests. We've had it on Dave Frank who's a financial planner and advisor for therapist specifically. So we'll put the podcast in the show notes page that we did with him. And also Andrew Ryzen of heard as well as green green oak accounting has been amazing as well. So we'll go ahead and put those links for those podcasts in there. So if you are in a place where you need some support around your numbers, definitely do that because. Bearing your head in the sand and waiting till April 16th is never really a good. So that's like that's the plan for it major anxiety. If you're into that. That's fine. Sometimes sometimes anxiety like the panic decisions. If that's you, that's okay. You work under pressure. Not me. No, no, no, no, there's there's enough going on in the world that I don't know. I don't need that additional stress or anxiety. So having the system in place having things kind of lined up and taking care of has really. That also has helped with like the overwhelm of building and growing a private practice having things in order. And I know a lot of times when we talk about systems, people kind of get like, oh, systems like it feels so technical. It feels so cold in a way. And if you're like me, trained as a social worker, you know, we think of systems is like the big like healthcare systems and school systems and all, you know, your rocker season things like that. And that's not what we're talking about. It's more of like you're talking about Katie having your step by step, having your things structured in such a way that it's organized that things are taking care of that. If you're if you're tracking your money, you have maybe a day and a time that you sit down each week and look at your billing and maybe calculate how much you brought in this. This month and you have some place for you document that and then you know you go about your business and then you do the same thing next week and then maybe you have a spreadsheet where you have your expenses and you, you know, so forth and so on just having place having a system that's organized and having places for your information that you can go to when you need to pull it. Right. And if you don't love it or whatnot is hire somebody outsource it or get an accountability partner like a financial advisor or an accountant, those are all great things to do for sure. Any final tips I know you have like a five W's or something like that that you like to talk about. What is that Kim? Yes, so if you are building or growing your private practice and you kind of want an idea of some of the steps, I do have five tips before I get into the five tips, I always say that just like building a house, first you want to have your foundation set. Right. And so having that foundation means you are familiar, you know your licensing requirements for independent practicing your state as it relates to your discipline. That's the very first thing right then also making sure you have reputable now practice insurance for private practice specifically many of us who maybe you're working in agencies or you're working in other settings, you may think like, oh well, they've got me covered. You need something additional for your business for your private practice also check to see if they're any specific trainings or CEU's you need to take specifically for your discipline or your specialty right your type of type of practice that you're offering. I use the example of somebody that's providing supervision in their practice, whether that's your whole practice is providing supervision or that's the part of it and many states and locales you need an additional course to be a qualified supervisor. So making sure you have those things in place as well as your paperwork and you already know how practice has a great paperwork package or packages as well as looking into an electronic health record right so again thinking about systems having a place to store your information, your schedule so forth and so on. If you're not into electronic health records thinking of a paper way, you know to to track that information or ways to store that information that are ethical and legally compliant and then for the five tips I will say first is cool right so who are you serving. So if you're starting out in private practice or maybe you are starting to really grow it or maybe you're making a change in your pivoting who do you want to serve and I think that's very important because many times when we start practices I hear clinicians talking about well. I'll work with whoever comes to me you know and I can work with anybody I can work with everybody and especially if you've worked in like a agency setting or some type of community health setting you can work with everybody right you have been working with everybody you work with whoever comes to the door so that's wonderful that's great that's not what I asked you I didn't say who can you work with I said who you want to work with. I love that let's you know you may you highlighted something right like a lot of us have a high community mental health or maybe worked in a hospital or I don't know traditional system and you know did forensic work but in those instances you do have the people coming to you as well right in private practice I mean unless you're taking your whole thing is insurance and you're just taking people from insurance you know private practice you're really having to generate that who you don't just usually have people being dropped off at the end of the day. People being dropped off at your door to be clients so you know even just another kind of thought about that and in your right I mean can you let's all for definitely promote so you can work with anybody which I was saying it was a great you know base and foundation because I know I feel like can you let's all they just through you in the fire and you had to kind of sink or swim and you know a lot of us had amazing training I learned so much and community mental health but like you said Kim like it's who do I want to work with. Who do I want to work with who likes me up who who do I get excited to see on my schedule or be like all the next three hours is going to go by so fast it's almost like fun for me because I just love these type of clients rather than oh gosh I have to see you know the eight year old that has 80 and he's bouncing all over the wall going to get him to sit down to do this activity or game and it's going to be so long it's going to feel like three hours but it's one so that's very important I like that. Exactly exactly I love what you're saying about working in agency or hospital settings to I appreciate it to be because to me always say it was like a boot camp right but that's also where that mindset shift comes in this is your practice you get to decide who you want to work with right and I think that's very important and so taking that into the second tip which is what what services are you offering again many people coming to private practice can probably offer a number of things. We offer a number of different services right or you might be thinking of course I'm going to offer therapy right. But but you know being very specific are you offering individual therapy are you offering couples therapy are you offering group therapy are you offering play therapy right do you do psychological evaluations to you do. Management. Yep retreats you know what is the thing now VIP days right intensive sessions you know longer than normal sessions and couples therapy we have marathon sessions right where maybe you were for the couple for several hours at a time so thinking about what services you want to offer and narrowing that down also thinking about when you are available to see clients and this is kind of like the who right like when do you want to see clients right and so especially if you are working and transitioning into private practice you're building your private practice up while you're working full time thinking about when do you really want to see clients and what your ideal schedule would look like. And narrowing that down so when they call you know exactly what times you have to offer instead of the other way around where sometimes we're trying to fit people in any blank space on our calendar and before you know what that becomes overwhelming for sure. Thinking about where where will you see clients right and what do you need to have in place in order to see clients in that location so for example if you're doing telehealth you need to hit the compliance. Right and so what what is that going to be identifying that and acquiring that if you decide that you want to see people in person again where are you going to do that and what do you need to have in place so maybe it's starting by renting an office space maybe hourly if you're just starting out. You might need a lease agreement right you might also need a type of insurance you know to be in that space so getting those things in place depending upon where you're going to be seeing your clients and then finally how right how are clients going to know that you exist that you're available to see them right so this. This is basically marketing right and we don't always like to think of it that way or we don't think of it that way but that's essentially it how do we know how do clients know that you're available and that you exist because we're in this world again going back to that scares to be mindset a lot of times we think like oh my gosh are they going to choose me. You know are there enough clients to go around and the real issue is do people know that you're out there because when I talk to people that aren't from this therapy world really maybe you're not familiar with therapy but we're wanting to try it the first thing they always say is like how do I find a therapist. Where do I find somebody how do I go about that and so really figuring out how you're going to let people know that you're available and that your services is this and then how they're going to contact you right so do you want people to contact you by email by phone or some other means and having that set up how will you enroll them or schedule them right so once they reach out and they found you and I want to see you how do I how do I schedule a consultation or how do I schedule. My first session. So figuring out how you're going to do that what is your calendar system right what is your process are you going to let are you just going to take calls and then schedule people are are you going to do that consultation call beforehand to figure out if they're the right fit for you. So thinking about how you want to proceed with that and then again how you'll keep track of your sessions and so all of these things relate to systems right how are you scheduling how are you. Documenting the sessions where you keeping those notes and so forth. So I think also I know that's a lot to digest. So if you're feeling overwhelmed by this podcast taking doses. Yes, taking them just take a pause you can come back to it but I think it's really important to remember that. When you're building or growing your private practice focus on having a sturdy foundation and a few systems in place that you can continue to build on it does not have to be perfect out the gate will not be perfect out the gate and that is okay. As long as you have a sturdy foundation you can pivot as you need to you can add on you can take away as you as you continue to grow and develop your business and then also get support and information from trusted and reliable sources. There's a lot of information out there like that reliable. Yes, yes and sometimes that takes a little homework from your part to figure out who that is right so. Looking at whether the people in your support system or the coaches that you're talking to or. The other people that you're relying on are they walking the talk are they doing what they're talking to you about doing also do they have a good reputation when it comes to. What they're helping you with right with their information that they're providing but also their outcomes and be willing to invest in your self in your business to help fast track you so you don't have to learn everything the hard way over years and. I've talked to a lot of people recently more like I've gotten all the free stuff and I'm really overwhelmed because you know initially we think everything that's free is great I'm going to use this I don't have to pay for anything but it starts to get over that gets overwhelming just the amount of resources available to us sometimes can be really overwhelming and then we don't end up using any of it and then we're right where we started right it's like well I have all of this but I don't have the time and I don't have any. I don't have energy oh my gosh it's so much information I still don't know where to get started and I'm still in the same position so not being afraid to invest and I just like to stress that word it really is an investment right the ideas that you're investing in yourself you're invested in your business and you're going to see that return down the line right don't be afraid to invest in yourself so that you can get on track and start. Building always like to say designing know the practice of your dreams. Awesome good stuff so yeah so Kim definitely threw a lot at you but she started and finished with investing in yourself and really having a support system whether it's you know your coach your mentor but also your familial and partner spouse support system talked about tightening up the foundation really knowing your numbers that's personal numbers as well as business numbers and she then talked about the five W's and finished it again off with really invest in yourself and hey I mean there's no other place that you can invest in coaching and write it off I mean if you're not a business owner you can't write it off so it is an investment and it's a write off so what do you want people to take most away from your message today Kim. I think I would say pause take a few breaths you can do this you definitely can do this you do not have to do all the things at once it does not have to be perfect. You just need a few essentials to help you get started and that's the I think the biggest thing is getting started you know trusting yourself trusting the process trusting that if you don't have what you need right now you can find it or it will find you and that you can do this you can definitely do this awesome well thank you so much for being here with us today talking about avoiding the overwhelm of building and growing your private practice. And you can definitely find out more about Kim on her own web website at Kimberly Bons brochure or you can find her on our website at the private practice startup dot com not really sure why website is difficult word for me this last part. I don't know and we'll also put in the show notes the things that we discuss talking about Dave Frank the financial advisor angel rising from her the accountant that serves therapists as well as really hairs from green oak accounting. I know Kim had also mentioned some electronic health records our peak package of paperwork so we will all go ahead and put that in the show notes as well so you can access them. We hope you have an awesome day thank you for being here with us we would love for we would love to know how these podcasts are working for you so you can subscribe but also rate our podcast whether it's on Google you can look for private practice startup you can rate it right on wherever you like to listen to podcasts right to a podcast review on iTunes or or any of those places and we're always open to the possibility of having new guests and new topics this podcast is for you it's designed for you and to serve you so we are here to serve you so we always love to know what it is that you're looking for. Well we will see you all next time have an awesome inspired day everybody and the meantime take care. Thanks for joining us on the private practice startup visit the private practice startup calm for awesome resources free trainings attorney approved private practice paperwork and so much more. [Music]