Brand Your Practice Podcast

All right, well, hello, everyone, and welcome

to the Brand Your Practice podcast, where

you get to learn about marketing, growing

and scaling your private practice. I'm Brent

Stutzman, and today we're going to be talking

about the power of community to fight isolation

and overwhelm. And to help me do that is

Christy Pennison and Steph Korpel, founders

of The Practice CoLab. Christian Steph help

group practice owners work less, make more

and live most by providing the strategy,

structure and support they need to grow their

businesses without burnout. Through live

events, mastermind programs, and collaborative

experiences, they create spaces for practice

owners to step back, gain clarity, and take

action so they can build a thriving, profitable

business while reclaiming their time and

energy. That sounds amazing. Welcome to the

show, Christine Steck.

That sounds amazing to me, too. I'm like,

Ooh, where are those people?

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, it's really,

I've helped a lot of practice owners launch

their scale up their practices around the

country. I'm married to a practice owner.

So we get it. Like I live it and breathe

it all day long and overwhelm is, is definitely

a, it's a real thing. And I actually, you

know, Steph, I met you for the first time,

uh, at the group practice scaling summit

in Chicago. And it's great to have you back

this year. And I would love to like hear

a little bit before we jump in, how did you

guys end up collaborating to create the practice

collab. And then we can jump into today's

topic.

Yeah, so this is a pretty fun origin story.

Christy and I, when we were in our solo practice

days, we were in an accountability group

together just on Zoom. And we had spent a

few one-hour meetings together. And then,

you know, she missed a couple meetings, I

missed a couple meetings. And then sometime

in about August or September of 2020, we

were in one of these meetings and talking

about how we were both about to hire somebody.

And so I just messaged her on the side of

Zoom. You know how you can chat with a specific

person. So I just sent her a chat and said,

listen, I'm going to get out of town. This

would have been actually late September,

I think. I'm going to get out of town and

go to Nashville. for a weekend to do all

the things I need to do to onboard somebody.

Because if I'm at home, I'll do laundry,

I'll cook, I'll let clients schedule, all

of that. So I need a different environment.

I know you're about to hire too. Do you want

to meet me in Nashville? Now, we had spent

maybe 10 hours together on Zoom. as a whole.

I had never met her together. Yeah. Yeah.

Never chatted on the phone with her, anything

like that. So this one says, sure. Let me

check my schedule and I'll get back to you.

like taking this idea completely seriously.

And I was being serious. And so she emailed

me later that night and said, I'm free. I'll

go ahead and book my flight. And so we met

each other in Nashville. Now to underscore

the point of how much we didn't know each

other, I had rented a car and I was picking

her up at the airport because I got there

a few hours before her. And when I pulled

up, We didn't even have each other's phone

numbers. We were using Facebook Messenger

for her to tell me where she was outside

for me to pull up and get her. So the stranger

from the internet and I took a weekend to

spend in an Airbnb in Nashville and we just

worked the whole weekend. Now the first night

we were laying across the hall from each

other, like giving each other our life stories

up to that point.

I seriously think I was like this, like,

so tell me about yourself. Cause literally

we didn't know each other. So it was like,

tell me about your life. Can we convince

this in, you know, five to 10 minutes and.

Yeah. And then the rest of that weekend,

we just spent time working on, um, different

HR thing, an offer letter to onboard somebody,

kind of the starts of an employee manual,

ramping up marketing if we were going to

have to hire somebody, upkeeping. And we

walked away from that experience feeling

so I think I did feeling accomplished to

do list wise, but was what was also so powerful

was sending across from somebody and working

and being able to at any point in time, say,

do you like this wording better or this wording,

or wait a minute, does it make sense to do

it this way or do it this way without having

to stop and call somebody, but they're in

session and then in supervision. So they

can't get back to you until the next week

or those sorts of things. So that live collaboration

and taking the time for our own to do list.

was something we realized was so powerful,

so helpful, so impactful that we knew that

if we were experiencing it, the likelihood

that universally any business owner, but

especially group practice owner was feeling

the same thing and could benefit in the same

way was pretty likely. So as a little bit

more time went by, we decided to make it

a business model.

Invite other people along the journey to

do it with us. And so it's been pretty incredible,

but that's how it all got started.

Oh, that's great. No, thank you for that.

Thank you. Yeah. And, um, yeah. And if you're

joining live here on the podcast here, you

can put a question in.

Yes.

Stephanie and Christine, we can answer that

too. So, or not, you don't have to. So let's

go ahead then. Thank you for that backstory.

Let's go ahead and jump in to the power of

community to fight isolation and overwhelm.

You shared three different kind of talking

points, so I'll turn it over to you to get

started.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, I think

that a lot of times when you are a practice

owner again, we'll go back to that word of

overwhelm. And I was thinking about this

other day, you know, sometimes we can get

so busy building a business, especially a

business that you're passionate about that

you kind of forget to also build a life in

the process. And then sometimes when you

don't have that community or that collaboration

to help you redefine your priorities, help

you rethink about what is most important,

you can really get to start to feel really

lonely and start to really have a hard time.

seeing your stuck places and moving through

that. And so our first thing that we just

really saw was that you know it can be overwhelming.

You can be juggling all the things. You can

feel lonely in decision making. I'm wondering

if anybody listening is resonating with this.

You go to bed at night worrying about your

employees and you know if you are compensating

them in a way that feels good to you but

also takes care of the business. You also

have people that you work with sometimes

that you have personal relationships and

you have personal feelings and then you have

feelings about the business and then you

just lack time to implement all these other

new ideas that you have going around your

head. It's like all the things at once. And

so one of the things that we found is that

when you can take some time to build that

collaboration and that community, that there

really can sometimes provide this, I don't

know, live think tank, so to speak, that

you're not really in competition, which is,

it can be a challenge in this space, you

know, where especially if you're in a community

and there's multiple practices, I don't know,

have you ever felt this, Steph, like where

it's either competition or comparison?

Well, I think there's also a lot of insecurity

you feel when you're first building your

business, so you can feel really exposed.

And so you don't necessarily sometimes I

think you can hesitate to get into community

because you feel like you're not doing good

enough or other people are so much more ahead

of you, or it seems like they have it all

figured out that you may be shy to enter

into a group space because you just feel

like You're an imposter. And so you try to

figure it out all on your own. And you get

further and further into your own solo silo.

And then you feel even more isolated and

overwhelmed and all of that, in addition

to, like you said, Christy, the comparison

and the competition.

There's a really good point there. So in

my undergraduate degree, I was a music major.

And when you're a music major, you're constantly

comparing yourself to other people.

Okay.

I was not, uh, I was maybe bottom of the

pack. I was actually surprised. I actually

got into the program after looking around

and be like, these, these brothers and sisters

are doing like bait, like Beethoven sonatas.

And I'm stuck on Mozart. Like, you know,

like, it's like, it was, it was pretty, uh,

I was a little shocked. Well, anyways, I

switched, I ended up switching my major over

to Oregon performance. And, um, There is

this kid in high school who was playing like

master's level recital work, and I was just

starting out with very simple Bach stuff,

right? And I had my teacher, she says, Brent,

and this is the power of community, right?

She says, Brent, God bless people like Nathan,

right? Because there's gonna be people out

there always gonna be better, they're gonna

be amazing, but you're you, Brent, and you're

really good with people. And you're going

to be going into ministry and working in

the music ministry world in that time. And

God's church needs you. They're not necessarily

going to need Nathan, but you can actually

provide. And it was like, at that moment,

I was like, yeah, yeah, that's right. I needed

that. I needed that. And again, that goes

back to the community, right? So we're going

to be, practice owners are going to be constantly

judging, like, do I need to raise my, lower

my prices? Because maybe I'm too much. Or

maybe they're, you know, they're constantly,

like, comparing themselves to others. And

it takes community to be like, no, no, you're

not crazy. You're just fine where you're

at. You're fine. Keep, keep your head down.

Keep the, keep going forward with what that

plan is. Stick with that ideal client of

yours. You don't have to diversify. Don't,

you don't feel like you have to take insurance

right now. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm so glad you said that Brent, because

so often Christy and I talk about like brainstorming

and new ideas of the group. But you're right.

So much about the group opportunity is also

the holding the line, right? And because

you are constantly questioning and constantly

judging yourself or doing market research

that may pull you in different directions,

a big piece of working with people that know

you and know your business is, no, this is

working for you. It is working. Just go ahead.

I know the waves might feel like a lot right

now, but stay the course. And it's a great

point to make about that power of community

that we don't always underscore.

Well, and Brent, I know as you've helped

support group practice owners, you've seen

this. You can do this so many ways. And also,

at the same time, everybody has an opinion.

And so, you know, we all have our practices

in different communities. We serve, like

you said, different people. There might be

an ideal individual or group that we really

feel called to help those people. And insurance

versus private pay, compensation structure

versus this. I mean, there's so many decisions.

And I often find that one of the valuable

things about a collaborative community is

people get to know your business and they

get to know you. And so when you are in that,

you know, I, I know early on and even still

to this day, sometimes I see people doing

things and I'm like, Oh, I should be doing

that too. Let me go ahead and start, you

know, this is totally me too, by the way,

I'm like a seven on the Enneagram. So I'm

just like, if that looks like a good idea,

maybe I should implement that. But you know,

sometimes we just need to have people in

our corner that can also reflect back to

you, like, Well, I don't know. You said that

during this season of your life, here's your

priorities that you are focusing on, or here's

the things that most align to you. In fact,

we just got back from what we call a collab

experience weekend in Nashville, so we went

full circle. And it's really was interesting

to hear some of the dialogue because, you

know, we each of the people there have completely

different kind of structures and what's most

important to them and what aligns with them

as a practice owner. And I think when you

get in the space of information, which we

get so much information and, you know, bombarded

at us all the time, especially if you're

a lifelong learner and you're like, I just

want to learn all the things like, you know.

If we can't implement everything all at once,

and nor should we, but that collaborative

group helps you in almost the decision-making

process, too, to help you realign what really

feels good to you and what your vision is

for your organization, which can often, we

have that shiny object syndrome that can

get in the way sometimes.

Yeah. Can I ask, maybe before you go on to

the next point, what do you say are like

kind of the top two things that practice

owners, like that overwhelm, two areas of

overwhelm that you're seeing, like maybe

right now or what people typically bring

to the group?

I think, Christy, correct me if I'm wrong,

but I think practice owners are always evaluating

what they're paying their therapists and

always wondering if it's, it's, it's this

constant tug between, is it enough for these

people that I employ and I care about? And

can the business handle it? Right. Because

as a business owner, you really have to see

the business as like one or even more employees.

So you can take care of the business because

otherwise you won't have any profit margin.

Or that's when you see business owners not

paying themselves. And so after a couple

of years, they have to consider closing because

they can't keep going. So I think the overwhelm

of how to take care of their employees is

constant and that's whether you're in year

one or year seven or beyond. I hear that

a lot. And then Kristi, do you have something

else immediately coming to mind?

I'm interested in what you say, Steph. So

go for this and I'll see if there's, there

is one other thing that pops to mind, but,

but I would say that the employee wellbeing

and just fighting that, like, I want to do

well by my employees, but I also need to

protect the business because that's, what's

going to ultimately take care of the employees.

But go ahead, Steph, what were you going

to say?

I don't know if another one immediately sticks

out, so if you have one sticking out.

One thing that I've been hearing a lot lately

that I think is, I don't know if it's due

to economy or just where we are, is I do

hear a lot of uncertainty right now that

I may have not heard in the past. And me

and Steph, we both started, Steph had a little

bit, our practices right before the COVID

era hit, okay. And we actually entered into

group during COVID days, okay. So we've,

during that COVID time, if you had started

or you were growing in group practice, there

was like this definite need for mental health

services. And I still think that need exists

today, even more so. But I have seen a lot

of group practice owners struggle recently

with, you know, should I take insurance or

should I not? Kind of that question that

you had because of some of the challenges

they're seeing maybe in their area, maybe

their calls. You know, I think that's always

a stressor as well as our calls enough. which

I know you speak to that a lot, Brent, the

call volume, where it needs to be to get

our therapists full. And it goes back to

therapist concern, right? Like if the therapists

are full and doing well, then the practice

normally is doing well. But when we see those

calls slow down, it puts sometimes people

in an uncertain, scared mindset to say, do

I need to do things differently? Do I need

to change my model? And so that's another

thing that I'm hearing more recently than

in the past, I would say.

Or even how can I do more? You know, I'll

do, I consider our robust at my practice,

our marketing at our practice pretty robust.

And so I agree with Christy. Sometimes it's

like, what else can I do? Where can I even

pull a lever to make a shift? And yes, Christy's

right. That is something that I think comes

up for a lot of practices across the nation,

especially if, like she said, you got started

in COVID times where there were clients seemingly

everywhere. We're now readjusting to where

there is the need for a true marketing plan,

but also those spaces are a lot fuller, right?

So Google ads, for example, the ROI of Google

ads is not what it was two or three years

ago. So kind of more saturated markets is

how a lot of us feel and how do we make ourselves

known and heard.

That's a big one, right? And I feel like

that's dwindling as a real, I mean, it depends

on where you live and yeah, but even all

those things you're having to reconsider.

And I think when you're in that fear-based

uncertainty mindset, this is where community

and collaboration really helps because I

don't know about you, Brent, but when I'm,

I'm in a, like, uncertain, especially when

it comes to my employees or my team, and

I'm in a fear-based mindset, it's hard for

me to pull myself out of it. And so that

collaborative group really does help you

kind of sometimes vent those frustrations

and overwhelm, but then help you reframe

where you're at. Yeah.

Does that line up with what you hear, Brent?

Because you work with people in such a different

way, you know, you're so adjacent to the

business that I wonder if because you weren't

directly in it, and people aren't maybe necessarily

doing that same comparing and contrasting

if you hear things differently?

Yeah, it depends where they're at in the

stage of growth. So they're at the beginning,

and their brand isn't as developed yet. They'll

be like, should I lower my rates? There was

one that was sort of like, well, my competitor,

they only pay their interns uh, they're like

pre-licensed clinicians, right? So their

employees, a hundred dollars, they only charge

a hundred dollars. And I said, well, I bet

if I went into their QuickBooks, I bet they're

not profitable at all and they're losing

sleep and they can't even pay their people.

So their people are going to feel resentful.

So like it just like, so I had to like, okay,

calm down. Like we're okay on the pricing.

You deserve $175 a session. Like you have

a master's degree and a ton of certifications,

right? There's that. And there's always like,

you know, where are the leads? They're slowing

down. Like where are they coming from? And

Google's not, um, Producing as much. I'm

going to go deeper at the group practice

scaling summit on this, but I'm doing a deep

dive on what I call big therapy and all the

venture capital money that's coming in.

Yes.

Absolutely cannibalizing mom and pop shops.

So if you heavily relied on Google, uh, you're

probably freaking out. And cause Google's

truck has gone to trash and a lot of different

there, uh, those channels that they were

very favorable to small brick-and-mortar

type of things for shops. But the, the, the,

the entrance of Big Therapy and like the

$9 billion that have come into the market

have absolutely cannibalized a lot of things.

So yeah, but that's, you know, it's always,

yeah, leads and marketing is a big thing

that will get anxious. And I'm like, it's

coming back down to 1980s marketing now.

Get your word of mouth. People will do business

with those they trust and you've done nothing.

Yeah, I love how you said this, too. Now,

I'm in a smaller community, Brent, but I

mean, that pound the pavement. Let's go show

up to a community event. Let's send that.

It wouldn't work for everybody in bigger

places, but it really has been a super ROI.

But those are the things that we talk about,

right, in collaboration with people. What's

working for who? How can we share resources?

How can we share ideas? And kind of sometimes

fast track some of that mistake making, right?

Like, Oh, yeah, I made this mistake. Don't

go there. Right?

Well, yeah, that's Yeah. So it's it's definitely

worth the investment of being part of a collaborative

group. Just so you don't make the mistakes.

100% was really costly mistakes.

Yeah.

But yeah, thanks for elaborating on that

question for me a little bit. So I'll let

you jump over to part two of the next one.

Yeah.

Chrissy, you want to start us off on part

two, and then I can dive in.

Well, you know, is, what is part two, Steph?

Is it the ROI? This is why you also need

collaborators. Cause I'm like, um, I know

we had a talking point. It could be like

what, you know, one of the things that we

will say, and I don't know if this is part

two, but I'm just going to go for it. Okay.

Is cause we're, we're segueing into this

is what is the return on your investment

about being, cause we like talking about

ROI. Oh, look, it was that. Thank you, Brent.

See, I know, I just kind of trust myself

sometimes. I see the same collaboration,

like trust what you know. But the ROI of

kind of group collaboration, and this is

what we found. And honestly, when me and

Steph started out on this journey, we were

not thinking about return on our time, going

over to Nashville and that origin story.

We weren't thinking about return on our money

that we were spending to go over there. We

didn't realize all these things, but as we've

been in collaboration and community and we've

helped other people, to join us in this collaboration.

This is what we found. You know, when you

are in a collaborative space, number one,

it saves you time, just like we said, because

you are learning from others and others'

experiences. People are sharing their experiences

with you because it's a safe and trusted

group. and you get to know them really well

and you get to learn. They've been through

that hard thing too. I can't tell you how

many times I've had the honor to pick up

the phone, call somebody, because I knew

they had that same challenge and I was walking

through it, but we were walking through it

at different times. So it saved me time in

a lot of ways because I was able to come

to a resolution quicker. I was able to make

a decision faster. And as you know, Brent,

sometimes when we are stuck in challenging

places, the quicker you can sometimes make

a decision to move through it, the longer

you stay there, right? And I'm not saying

that there's times where you need to sit

back and reflect, which collaboration can

help force you to do as well. Because they

are saying, wait, maybe sometimes there are

times where you need to slow down. And that

can be a really, I guess, ROI. But I think

also, too, just resource sharing. The amount

of resources, the amount of, Hey, I need

somebody to do this. Well, maybe you should

go talk to Brent. You know, he has this great,

you know, resource over there you can go

find out more about him or hey I'm really

looking to scale how do I do this you know

there's so much resource sharing that happens

because what we found is that group practice

owners love to learn and get new knowledge

like they are signing up for all the things

they probably got every free download under

the Sun and if that is you you know what

I'm talking about But, you know, they're

a wealth of information and sometimes they've

really deep dived. A good example is park

and talk therapy.

Walk and talk therapy or park therapy. I'm

glad you brought this up.

There's a bunch of people in a parking lot

talking.

You go to the park to talk and walk. Anyways,

this is just an example, right? This is something

we're wanting to do in our practice because

we have a park next door and it's beautiful.

It's spring. Now my therapist want to get

out and frolic. And so, you know, I called

and asked all these group practice owners

when we were in a collaborative cohort, Hey,

have any of y'all done this? I know Steph

had done it before, but they all brought

such great insights. So in a matter of 10

minutes, I had everything that I needed to

train my therapist on to consider. I had

like a consent form. I had all the what not

to do, what to do, what to think about, what

to not think about. If I had to go find that

stuff on my own, it would probably took me

hours. And I probably still wouldn't have

thought of some of the things that they told

me to think about because they've done it.

And so I think that's a return on your kind

of investment in time is that you just can

learn how to implement a lot quicker. Steph,

what else would you say?

Yeah, it's all of that also so ties together

with your brain space and energy. Right.

So another example is an employee handbook,

right, or SOP. So if you had to build an

employee handbook, and this is also pre-ChatGPT.

It's a little bit easier to do employee handbook

without it taking hours now that there's

ChatGPT.

Where was ChatGPT when I started my group

practice? I do not know.

Right. Thinking through all of those things

or building out all of those things versus

somebody saying, here's mine. And then you

go ahead and personalize it to your practice

and then send it to your attorney. So it

also saves a lot of money. to be doing the

resource sharing, right? Because your attorney's

not building it from scratch or maybe something

for accounting. You learn how to do on your

own and then your accountant just double

checks it versus doing it all themselves.

And then you then have energy to do the fun

stuff or the stuff that interests you and

not constantly be bogged down in the things

that only you can do, but that you don't

want to do. So it's this beautiful thing

of time sharing, which saves money, which

gives you back energy, which allows you more

emotional space, which gives you more time

and all of that. So it's just this really

beautiful, positive impact that then can

create forward momentum And then that's also

how you scale your group practice, right?

Because if you're constantly mired down in

the nuts and bolts, then you're always going

to be replacing the person who resigned and

working on getting that caseload full and

never going from 3 or 4 people to seven or

eight. And then if you want to grow more

to 11 and 12 and beyond that, it's just going

to be always just replacing the next thing.

And I know most people that do want to get

into group practice want to at least scale

it to a place that they can work less and

make more. And you do have to reach kind

of a critical mass in order for that to be

the case. Otherwise, you are a group practice

owner that's working maybe just a little

bit less clinically than when you were solo

and a lot more administratively. And that

is the place that we find a lot of group

practice owners get stuck in, right, is they

have this idea that they want to build a

group practice so they can see maybe 12 or

15 or eight people a week, but also have

a little bit more flexibility, make more

money than if they were just seeing people

on their own. but they get stuck in a place

where they're seeing 15 or 18 or maybe even

20. They have three or four employees. They're

doing all the supervision because they can't

afford to outsource it or think they can't

afford to outsource supervision. And then

they just stay in that place and it gets

hard to kick out of that place from there.

Yeah. It's all, at the end of the day, how

fast you want to close that feedback loop.

You know, how fast you want to close that

question and get your answers.

Yes. And I, and collaboration is really the

space to be able to do that in a, in a shorter

time period, time period, in a more resourceful

way. And just a, a more, um, financially

smart, financially prudent way as well.

Yeah. What is it? Like the life of an entrepreneur,

it's like they're willing to eventually exchange

money for time. At the beginning, we're willing

to like not do that, right? We're spending

time learning the craft or whatever.

Eventually- Because you ain't got the money

at the beginning, Brandon.

You're bootstrapping this thing. And then

eventually like, No, I actually would rather

pay $100 to get this done in 10 minutes than

in six hours. You know what I mean? Yes.

I mean, come on. That's like the Disney Fast

Pass, right? I'd rather get on the It's a

Small World teacups or whatever and not wait

in line. If I can spend $100 to do that,

I probably would.

Yep. Sign me up. Yeah. But I, we see so many

practice owners get stuck in a place where

they can't do that. And they're like, this

isn't the dream I bought into. And so those

are the people I would really say, find your

group, find your community, because that

may be the piece that's missing for you to

be able to make those decisions. Yeah. Yeah.

Anything we add before I jump over to the,

uh, Add break, read break?

No, I think add break is perfect. Otherwise,

I was going to start at 4 and 0.3. All right.

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qualify, and close prospective clients. You

get email and text message automations, built-in

newsletter templates, and a dashboard with

real-time analytics. So you always know how

your sales and marketing efforts are going.

So to get started is pretty simple. Just

go to therasaas.com that's T H E R A S A

A S.com and just see how our customers love

it. All right. If you're still interested,

step two is just go sign up for a free demo

and meet with me. And I want to see if there's

as will actually solve the problems that

you're looking to solve with the CRM and

you get to see how it works. And step three,

if there's as is a good fit for your practice,

uh, go ahead and buy it and we'll set you

up and get you into the onboarding process.

We take it really seriously and we walk with

you every step of the way. It's that simple.

So Therasas has allowed group practice owners

to supercharge their intake team. And really

at the end of the day, it allows practice

owners to sleep a little bit better at night

because they now have full transparency into

their sales and marketing efforts. And they

don't have to rely on three or four different

systems to see how everything is going. So

to see if Therasas is a good fit for your

practice, go to therasas, T-H-E-R-A-S-A-S.com

today and schedule a demo call. The other

thing I want my listeners to know about is

the Group Practice Scaling Summit. Look,

you went to graduate school to be a great

clinician, but they didn't teach you how

to be a business owner. And the Group Practice

Scaling Summit is all about giving the skills

to how to run your practice. So we focus

on marketing, finances, and operations. And

this year's topics, we're going to be focusing

on what I mentioned earlier. We're talking

about big therapy. So my uh, talk is going

to be on building a personal brand in the

midst of big therapy competition and why

building a brand and more specifically your

personal brand is really the key to winning

in that competition. Nate's going to be talking

about pay structures for your clinicians.

A couple of these topics we've already, we've

touched on a little bit in the podcast today.

Uh, we, Whitney, or actually, let's see here,

Ashley's talking about how to work with your

interns and your pre-licensed clinicians

to keep their books full. Uh, Whitney's going

to be talking about how to, um, retain your

clinicians, right? How to keep your clinicians

in your practice. And then Allison's going

to be talking about how to build wealth,

uh, with real estate. She's a, uh, a practice

owner owns, well, she's got 80 employees

here. That's a lot. But she also has five

properties. And this is something as group

practice owners, as you begin to accumulate

a little more wealth, what do you do with

that? Maybe real estate is in your future.

So go to Group Practice Scaling Summit. Just

go to practicescalingsummit.com. It's in

beautiful Chicago, Thursday, May 1st and

Friday, May 2nd. We actually have a third

day. It's an optional day. It's here in Hinsdale,

actually. where it's an implementation day,

so you can take what you learn and begin

to implement it right away. It should be

really great. So imagine a place where it's

sort of like mini Ted talks with question

and answering time with the expert speakers.

Everyone's in the same room. There's no breakout

sessions. So there's lots of interaction

with speakers and you're getting that feedback

loop going in real time. And we also feed

you breakfast and lunch. Not a bad deal.

So go to group practice or go to the practice

scaling summit.com and get your ticket today.

All right. So let's jump back in. Oops, I

need to add you back to the stage. Here we

go. I need to click on the right things.

There we go. Now we're back.

And by the way, such a rock star lineup of

people, you know, some of those people, not

only just you Brent, but I mean, people that

have really shaped us as group practice owners,

um, are going to be speaking. So that's really

exciting.

I mean, this was, I was overwhelmed by like

Brent, I heard you're doing it again. Can

I speak?

Oh, that's awesome. Good for you guys. That's

huge.

So it was a lot easier to get people. Oh,

okay. Yeah.

I will say it's an excellent conference summit,

whatever noun you want to use. I had such

a great time last year. I still talk to people

I met last year, collaborate with them, get

together as friends. And it really just kind

of feeds into that whole community is key.

And kind of might go into our third point.

But for anyone listening, I highly recommend

being there. As soon as tickets came out

this year, I bought it. I've, I told several

people after the Summit last year to keep

it on their radar for this year. Because

I really appreciate the tactical business

advice and not just, you know, I don't want

to call it fluffy content, but again, our

time is so valuable as group practice owners

that I think the topics have to be pretty

well vetted and also delivered in a really

hard hitting way for it to feel valuable.

And I felt all of my time was respected as

valuable last year.

Oh, well, thank you. That means a lot. That

was really one of our goals is to keep it

as tactical as possible. Yeah, because I

don't know what Enneagram I am, but I'm like,

Just don't waste my time. You might already

be like, I think he's probably this number.

All right, well, I'll turn it back over to

you. Thank you.

Yeah, so, you know, getting into how to find

community and how to use it, I think it's

beautiful that we do live in the era we do

because it's pretty easy to find online communities.

And I do think that, in a way, an online

community with people from other areas of

the country than you can sometimes feel safer

because it does eliminate that communication

or that comparison and vulnerability you

might feel by showing up in a community,

in a collaborative community in your own

geographic area, right? Because maybe you

guys are both private pay practices that

serve couples. And you're like, Oh my gosh,

we're literally advertising to the same person.

I don't want to talk about what we're doing

for marketing or Google ads or things like

that. And I get it. So, I do think showing

up in Facebook groups, or going to conferences,

and seeing who you meet there, and who you

hit it off with there, and asking them where

they have found community, or asking them

if they just want to start one, right? I

mean, I started a Mastermind group, I don't

know how many years ago, and it was just

from people I met at a conference that I

liked, and I thought, we would all work well

together, and everybody was receptive to

it, and it worked great. I think you can

also, I do think there is something to maybe

collaborating in your community if you're

maybe in a certain stage of group practice,

or you were just really securing yourself,

which, you know, we all should work toward

being, because there is something to, I think,

in-person getting together, right, that holds

so much power. I think we all feel that when

we are at these in-person conferences or

We do have an in-person therapy session versus

a virtual therapy session. it just can feel

a little bit more rewarding or because so

often these people that start as colleagues

really do shift to being really good friends

and being able to get coffee or brunch or

dinner with a really good friend feels really

good. So I definitely think there's something

to balancing both. But if you are in a place

that it feels too vulnerable, too exposed

to be getting together with people in your

own geographic area, Find a podcast in this

space or find webinars like these and see

who's around. There's usually a Facebook

group that goes with it. So just start showing

up there and seeing what other people have

to offer as far as their group spaces and

see if you can join in on them. Yeah, that's

great advice. Christy, anything else about

how to find a community? Because then we

can talk about ways to use it.

Yeah, I mean, I definitely think that where

you are kind of going into your point, and

I know you're gonna talk about personal brand.

So I would also say, is there people that

you follow that you resonate with, but like,

really aligns with your message, right? Or

what you're trying to do in the world, and

you can always reach out to them or join

their communities, right? And so. That's

part of the reason why me and Steph started

the practice collab, so we could have these

intentional spaces to invite other group

practice owners to join us in collaboration,

because we also know that there's not everybody

is going to be as. bold, I would say, as

us and like a little bit, I mean, we was

a little questionable. It was really questionable.

About like just, you know, internet strangers,

let's meet up in person. And so for those

of y'all that are like maybe not like super,

you know, going to be the one that's going

to take the lead and message somebody in

the chat to say, come, come, can we set up

a mastermind? And we did want to create a

space for people to do that as well because

I know not everybody maybe it comes naturally

to network. I know some people when I say

the word network or collaborate it's like

inside they're like oh you're asking me to

do what so if that's you we see you we hear

you but I do think it's about trying to find

people in the space that you really align

with and look for opportunities to collaborate.

And it could be even by starting to get into

their groups as well. I know that for us,

I'm thinking about Allison Pidgeon now that

you told her she was a speaker, right? Like,

I think about, I'm excited she's talking

about buildings because I would have never,

if I would have never been in a space with

her, I would have never thought about purchasing

office buildings. I would have thought that

was a far out dream, would have never happened.

But because of her influence, it led me to

go in that route and purchase commercial

properties, but you don't know until you

get into spaces. And I always say, get into

spaces and places with people that are either

walking the journey with you in the same

stage or are a few steps ahead of you, because

you're going to learn from them and it is

going to be the best time energy effort you've

spent ever. Because I mean, I don't know

about you, Steph, but I think about If we

had never found community, would we be at

this stage of at where we have been able

to scale as a group practice owners individually

and then collectively what we've been able

to do?

Yeah. If we were at the same place, I know

I'd be a lot more bruised being here, you

know. I'd have a few more battle scars I'd

be wearing and then not necessarily probably.

I was going to say these being in being in

community also helps clarify like your yeses

and nos. So yeah, for example, at the summit

last year. So Alex hair gave her presentation

of like her 50 employees in the three different

states and her structures and stuff like

that. And I know half the room was like,

that's amazing. And I. I don't know. Like,

I yeah, yeah, like, that's amazing. And I

don't know if that was you. But they're like,

I don't want that. Actually, that's amazing.

But I actually that's not for me. But it's

expanding their minds of like, okay, what's

possible? And then what does it kind of take

to get there? And they're like, actually,

I'm really good with like 10. Right? So yeah,

yes, there's always that there's always that

temptation, you know, scale get bigger, get

bigger, yes, bigger is better. And it may

not be for you. I mean, I know for me, it's

like, I'm trying to keep my team really small.

And I love small teams. I don't like managing

people. So I think with groups, it actually

helps clarifies your Yes and No is what you

want. Yes.

Well, and back to the building part, right,

like in some of our collaborations, I've

been able to share the pros and the cons

and everything I've learned through my experience.

And so that helps some people be like, we

just had this conversation the other day

in one of our collaborations. a cohort, one

of our cohorts that meets and they were like,

after I went all the pros and the cons, they

were like, oh, no. And that's where it's

trying to figure out to right size your business

that aligns with you. But those conversations,

I'm glad that you brought up this point.

It helps you clarify. Is that something I

want to do? It sounds really good in theory,

but then when you hear it, you're like, maybe

that's not for me. Or you have the opposite

response to say, heck yeah, let's do it.

And either response is perfectly fine. Like

it's, it's good. This is your business. You

get to figure out what works for you. And

I think to your point, in those collaboration,

collaborative moments or in that community,

it helps you define your yes or no's to say,

no, actually, this really works for me and

where I'm at. And I talk about life, too.

Like, it helps you realign because we're

people, we're humans. And we have these things

called personal lives, you know, where we

like, you know, maybe want to travel more

or, you know, maybe want to spend time with

our families or, you know, do these other

things. And so I think that will also help

you in those community to help you figure

out what is yes and no, to prioritize and

hold the space for the things that are most

important to you.

Well, and it's so helpful to hear the actual

day-to-day life of growing to that size or

owning a building or having employees in

multiple states from a therapist who employs

other therapists, right? Because going back

to Christie's earlier point of we gather

knowledge from everywhere. We read all sorts

of business books and scaling books and culture

books and leadership books. But hearing from

somebody else who has the therapist mindset

and skill set, who's working with other therapists,

which is a really unique intersection, but

hearing about what it's like to go from four

or five employees to nine or 10. And then

once you're at nine or 10 and you're like,

oh, this is nice, I maybe want more, hearing

somebody who is ahead of you and saying,

that's fine if you do that, but here's what

you have to have in place if you do that.

these kinds of HR policies or this kind of

leadership or this is what big problem you

have to expect to get a phone call about

or things like that is also really helpful

because I think any entrepreneur can get

excited by the next or the bigger or things

like that. But to hear this is what your

life would look like, potentially, most likely

as the owner of the business, if you were

to scale. does give people that opportunity

to think through that right-sizing of their

business. So that's another great insight

about being in rooms with people doing the

same thing as you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, good. Well, thank you so much. How

can, for this conversation, I think, yeah,

what you're doing is really needed. And so

how can people find out more about the Practice

CoLab?

Yeah, so we offer three different ways to

be involved with a community. So the first

is what Christy referenced earlier, these

collaborship weekends, these in-person experiences.

I'm sorry I laughed at that. I thought it

was the first time.

It's okay. It's not quite a membership, but

it's also, you know, so we decided to get

a little creative with English.

We're making up new words, putting the dictionary.

So, so in person collaborating and these

are, you know, another way of thinking about

is working weekends. So, We go to Nashville,

we've been to Denver, we've been to Dallas.

And then we also have collaborships, which

are kind of that more membership model communities.

And we meet weekly. And the cool thing about

our collaborships are we help you hold time

for your to-do list, right? So we get together

four times a month. twice. It is just one

hour and we kind of bring emotional processing

or a quick hot topic and just get together

and build a relationship and help people

move through whatever's going on in the business

that week. But then our two-hour meetings,

which also happen twice a week, we do work

sprints. So we are working together, dedicated

focus time on your to-do list, which Any

entrepreneur knows it's hard to find time

for that. So we keep people accountable to

their to-do lists and help them hold the

time for that. And then the third thing that

we do is the collab lab. And that is our

in-person gathering of not quite a conference,

not quite a summit, but presentation of a

topic and then immediate breakout to work

on that topic. So Brent, you guys, you talked

about you have your lineup and then the implementation

day, which is beautiful. So it's similar

to that. We just implement right after the

topic. And so that is in St. Louis in September,

September 17th through 19th. And you know

how it is when like-minded people that are

kind of aimed in the right direction get

together. It just takes off with fun and

community and just that feeling of getting

it. You're just amongst people who get it.

So yeah, those are our three offerings. And

I will say that we typically work with people

that are about two years into their group

practice ownership experience. Those people

who have already kind of stabilized, they

know a lot of the things, but they need to

implement the things. So that's kind of the

space that we occupy in our offerings.

Awesome. Well, that's at the, the practice

colab.com.

Thank you. Yes.

All right. Well, thank you. Well, thanks

for joining.

Thank you for sharing all that too, Brent,

and highlighting our little pages. Yeah,

and having us on.

It's always so great to talk to the people

we love in this space, so it was good to

spend time with you this morning.

I know, and I read the emails all the time.

Anytime I can read or watch or listen, so

we appreciate you.

Did you guys meet in person at Meet You in

Kentucky last year?

Maybe not, but can you introduce us? Yeah,

I get to speak again at Meet You Kentucky.

Nice. So yeah, that was a real that was a

real privilege last year. I'm glad I can

do it again. Yeah. Well, I was going to say,

oh, thanks for reading the newsletter. Yeah,

this is the I'm calling it this. This is

the year the webinar. So yeah, those are

like. are, they still work really well. So

I'm just video-first kind of approach, webinar,

webinar, and get it out to the newsletter.

So yeah, I love it.

We value who you are in our space and really

appreciate you taking the time to have us

on today and giving us the opportunity to

talk about this.

Yeah, well, you're welcome. Thank you. Well,

I appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Yeah.

All right. Now I got to do the disclaimer.

All content on the Brand Your Practice website,

podcast, and other media reflects my own

opinions and should not be taken as legal

advice, financial advice, or investment advice.

Please seek out the guidance of a professionally

trained and licensed individual before making

any decisions. Some links in the descriptions

may be affiliate links. Alright, folks, thanks

for listening. If you found the conversation

useful, subscribe to the podcast and please

join me next time for the Brand Your Practice

podcast.

Thanks, everybody. Alright.