January 8, 2025 • 38 mins
This episode emphasizes the emotional and operational aspects of transitioning from a solo therapy practice to a larger group practice. By sharing insights on delegation, developing effective systems, and clearly communicating expectations with team members, listeners are encouraged to prepare for growth while preserving their energy and sanity.
• Overcoming the fear of delegation and embracing teamwork
• The critical role of systems and procedures in practice expansion
• Recognizing and addressing burnout and overwhelm in therapists
• Understanding the importance of time management and energy allocation
• Effective communication strategies with new hires and team members
Get in touch with Eric:
www.willity.com
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We specialize in helping therapy practices like yours achieve financial clarity, so you can focus on what you do best—helping your clients and managing your team- while we help handle all the businessy stuff they didn’t teach you in grad school.
To see if your practice might be a good fit, schedule a free consultation at therapybusinesspod.com.
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*Intro/outro song credit:
King Around Here by Alex Grohl
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Going from a solo practice to a group practice is
incredibly, incrediblychallenging.
We're used to doing everythingon our own, carrying the weight
of the whole business on ourshoulders and wearing every
single hat that there couldpossibly be.
Then, all of a sudden, we'refaced with this opportunity to
grow our team and to reallyexpand our reach and take a lot
of things off of our plate.
But this can be a really,really tricky transition as you
(00:22):
are hiring somebody, especiallyif they're going to be taking on
clients.
Well, today we have EricWilliams, with Willity, joining
us to talk about making thattransition in a way that is
really beneficial and reallyseamless in your business.
My name is Craig and I'm theCEO of Desi Financial Coaching.
Our goal is simple to help yourun a therapy practice that is
permanently profitable.
(00:42):
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money and
serves more people.
This is the Therapy BusinessPodcast.
All right, eric, thank you somuch for being here.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Good Craig, so happy to be here to talk with you
about this.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yes, me too.
Me too.
So I know you're an expert whenit comes to just helping people
grow and expand beyondthemselves.
But first of all, I want tolearn more about you.
What do you do?
Tell us about your business,what's your area of expertise?
We want to get to know Eric alittle bit.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Great.
Well, so yeah, my name is EricWilliams.
I'm the founder and CEO ofWillity.
We help business owners reallynavigate that transition from
solo to small team or from soloto just standardizing enough of
your business to get someleverage, to get to start to
move in that momentum of growth,really helping people get out
of their schedules, get out ofthe day-to-day grind and start
(01:44):
to standardize, operationalizetheir business so that it's more
manageable.
They get their sanity back,they get their time back, they
get their life back.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Man, that's so important.
I think of my own journey foryears, years.
I was the one seeing clients.
I was the one doing themarketing.
I was the one creating graphicsfor social media.
I was doing the marketing, Iwas the one creating graphics
for social media, I was doingthe sales, I was doing
everything, and it was really,really hard for me to change
that mindset into okay, now Ineed to start bringing some
(02:12):
people in to take that load offmy plate.
Is that something you see?
A lot that it's.
I don't know if it's scary orthere's probably a bunch of
emotions, but do you see a lotof people who are afraid to make
that transition from just solointo having a team?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, yeah, and I think that there's a couple of
stages that we can talk abouthere too.
When people are just embarkingon a solo practice, it can be
overwhelming the amount ofbusiness operations and admin
stuff that they all of a suddenhave to do, that they didn't
have to think about when theywere part of a bigger practice
and they start to take that on.
And so that's maybe the firstchallenge is just taking all
(02:48):
that on and recognizing how muchextra time that takes and
actually getting processes inplace, getting routines and
practices, so that you keep itwithin a bounds whatever bounds
you need that to be to generatenew clients.
You know, when you're firststarting out, you might need to
spend half your time, more ofyour time, on marketing,
bringing in new clients, untilyou fill up your calendar, and
(03:09):
so you kind of adjust it.
But what I find in thattransition from solo to starting
to build a team is and thereason I started with going from
a practice to solo is becausepeople tend not to want to take
on all that admin and operationsstuff, but then, once they
start to bring on a team, theyhold it really tight.
(03:31):
So that's the biggest part ofthe transition is they hold onto
it a lot of the time and don'twant to let it go.
This is common among many othersmall business owners as well.
When you're going from solo,and especially for folks who are
technical experts, who love thecraft, they love what they do.
So when you're in therapy, whenyou're focused on seeing
clients and that's what you loveto do and that's where your
(03:52):
area of expertise is, even thenthat transition to solo, to a
small team, sometimes peoplehold on to it, because most
business owners start to, youknow, feel like this is their
baby.
They want to keep, they want toprotect it, they want to hold
on to it, they want to make sureit's done right.
But holding on too tightly canactually keep you from getting
to where you want to go.
And so for therapy practices,that's serving more clients,
(04:14):
having more people go throughtransformations that you help
facilitate, have insights intotheir own life and experiences.
And by holding on too tightlyto the business, you actually
prevent you and your growingcompany from being able to serve
more people and help morepeople right.
So there's a bit of a mindsetshift in terms of what it means
to grow and be able to move intothat space but at the same time
(04:36):
recognizing that you know asyou grow you can build in
standard practices, processes,start to document them so that
when you're ready to pass themoff and you don't have to pass
everything, it's not like you gothrough this transition.
You're one day a caterpillar,one day you're a butterfly.
It's a slow and steady piecewhere you can delegate one thing
Like you know, when we'retalking about putting together
(04:57):
all the marketing materials,putting together the graphics,
you know if that's taking upfive hours of your week, for
example, is that something youcan delegate off your plate and
free up five additional hours,maybe four, with the
differential of being able tomanage someone to do it, be able
to go in and read and review,right.
You're not delegating fivehours means you get back four
hours because you still need tosupervise that person, right?
(05:19):
So if you think about the maththat's involved, that's one of
the other places where peopleget a little confused about what
are they doing.
How are they moving stuff offtheir plate?
But think about those buckets.
Like, you can move pieces offone at a time.
It's important to delegateenough time to manage people as
you're moving up, making sureyour course correct early and be
able to, you know, supervisethem enough and give them enough
(05:41):
direction and give them enoughsupport so that they're not
you're not just saying, you know, just hire someone one day and
say, go make my social mediagraphics with no extra, you know
, context, background, stuffthat's been done in the past
Like if you don't give them apackage to be able to pass off
to someone, or you know if you,as the business owners,
(06:21):
no-transcript, so that you candelegate stuff effectively
within the context of whatyou're looking for.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, I can relate to that I had when I was by myself
.
You know, I would like toconsider myself a visionary,
creative type, and so processesand systems I love them because
I need them, but that's just notmy natural where I gravitate to
.
And so for years I love thembecause I need them, but that's
just not my natural where Igravitate to.
And so for years it was just Iwas kind of just flying by the
seat of my pants.
I knew what I was doing.
It was all kind of here I hadspreadsheets all over the place
(06:54):
but nothing really solidified.
And then when I started hiringpeople, it was it was kind of a
wake up call on that oh, theyneed to know what I want, they
need to know what to do or howto do it, and it just being up
in my head is not going to work.
And so it sounds like whatyou're saying is almost
preparing those little things sothat when you do hire them it's
super clear what you want, whatyou expect, and so that way you
(07:17):
can fully give it away to them.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, yeah, if you think about some things, some
things happen daily, some thingsthat happen multiple times a
day daily, weekly, monthly Onceyou started getting out into
weekly, monthly, sometimesannually if you think about
preparing your taxes, having toget your brain back into the
space of this comes from here.
This comes from here.
This comes from here.
It's time consuming to get yourbrain back up to speed.
(07:40):
You basically have to relearnand refigure it out every time,
and so what we're talking aboutwhen you do it preemptively is
you're essentially saying, whenI'm going through this process
the first time, or this year,let's say, can I write myself a
checklist?
Can I write myself an outline?
Can I record a video to myfuture self or someone on my
team who's going to be doing itin the future, to explain how
(08:03):
this works while I'm goingthrough it?
Right?
So there's when I use theexample of taxes, cause it's
such a long time horizon thatpeople tend to forget over the
course of a lot of you know,your life goes by over the
course of a year, and so there'sthings like that that happen
once a year, whether it'slicensing and certification
renewal or other things that arekind of occasional and not
(08:25):
regular, not like a daily,weekly occurrence.
You can easily forget Evenweekly and monthly stuff.
It's easy to forget in theinterim time what that's
involved.
So I want to use this asexamples of you can delegate to
yourself in the future.
You can start to build theprocesses for yourself so that
you can get up to speed more inthe future.
But it's something you have tostart to cultivate as you're
going, to start to write downand document those processes as
(08:47):
you're going.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, I think that's great.
You're right.
I file sales tax every year andevery single year I have to
Google how to file sales tax,even though it's super simple.
But it's just one of those.
I do it one time a year and Iforget.
I forget what website to go to,I forget all those little
things just because it's not topof mind.
So as we're looking at peoplewho are solo right now and
(09:10):
they're thinking, okay, I wantto hire somebody soon, whether
it's an admin or whether it'sanother clinician to work with
another therapist, to work withtheir clients, what are some
things people can do to preparefor that?
Now, I'm sure there's a list ofthings they can do from now
until they actually startinterviewing or start hiring.
What could they do?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, yeah.
So, as you said, greg, one ofthe issues is really
understanding where your time'sgoing and what's actually the
kind of ingredients to your week.
To have a successful week, tohave a successful month, you
need to do X amount of marketing, you need to do X amount of
admin, you need to do X amountof insurance billing and X
(09:49):
amount of client meetings,client appointments, and so
understanding, having thatvisibility into what your
schedule looks like actuallygives you uh, you know you need
to document the processesalongside, but it basically
shows you where you can takechunks out of your schedule and
where you can flex right.
So if it's something that youdon't mind, the admin business
(10:12):
operations work you might choosethat.
Hold on to that and hire aclinician because you want more
billable hours and there's goingto be some amount of those
hours that are going to gotowards the overall business
profit revenue.
It could be that the adminstuff is really taking you much
outside of your energy and yourzone.
And so if it's reallyfrustrating to you you're not
(10:33):
bringing, it might be impactingyour, bringing your A game to
your work with your clients too,and so understanding your
energy levels, your tolerancearound these things, can help
give you the visibility aboutwhat's actually going to be the
most valuable for me to delegate.
In some cases, if you delegatefive hours off your plate, that
person is going to be able toget it done in one hour.
Right, because you might bedragging your feet through it,
(10:55):
because you don't't like it andit's not in your area of
expertise.
Someone else might be able todo it quite fast.
Similarly, it could be thatsomeone else is going to take 10
hours to do something that youtook five hours.
That's something that's reallycommon for entrepreneurs to get
frustrated about is someone elsetaking a longer time to get it
(11:15):
done.
But if you look at the math, whoyou're bringing on to do let's
say you know an admin project itcould be that you could use,
instead of those five hours youknow if you're billing three
times, you know the hourly ratethat it costs to delegate that
time to.
You're still making a benefitfrom delegating to that person,
even if they take longer to doit.
So I think, not being toosensitive, you need to
understand kind of what's themath around, what you're
(11:37):
delegating, how much moneyyou're spending versus what
you're able to bring in withunlocking new hours in your
schedule.
But that's how I would thinkabout, because therapists are
really on a like the revenuecomes from billable hours and so
anytime that you're not doingbillable hours is time you're
not making money and it kind ofoffsets.
(11:57):
Not that a lot of people are inthis just for the money, but
it's part of the equation.
It's about the impact and thefinancial piece and so thinking
about where those levers are, tothink about in your schedule,
what you want to change, whereis it going to make sense for
you to delegate stuff off yourplate that you really don't like
, that you don't do well, thatsomeone else could perhaps do
better, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I think that's great and I think, as a lot of
therapists are thinking abouthiring and I see it, it's super
common.
So I was always told and I don'tknow if this is what you
recommend too but a lot ofpeople say the first hire should
be an assistant, a VA or somekind of person to help with
those admin tasks.
But what I think a lot oftherapists find is they get to a
place where they're swamped andtheir calendar is so full that
(12:40):
they are either not able to takeon new clients or they're just
starting to burn out, and sotheir immediate reaction is okay
, I need to hire anotherclinician to come in Not always
a bad thing.
But I think sounds like whatyou're saying is sitting down
and kind of looking and saying,okay, yeah, my calendar's maxed
out, but how many hours am Ispending doing these admin tests
that maybe I could offload andI could then, in turn, see more
(13:02):
clients and make more money inthat realm?
Or do I really need to bring inanother clinician?
Am I burned out on seeingclients already and I need to
bring somebody in?
So I think to kind of reiteratewhat you're saying, looking
down and saying what do I needto offload or what would I like
to offload on my plate right nowand that can maybe guide that
first hire?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, it's a little bit hard to harder to
measure, but energy is part ofthe trifecta, of what you're
bringing to the table on yourday to day, week to week.
It's time.
So you kind of think about thetrifecta that I'm talking about
is time, money and energy, andso there's definitely times I'm
sure, craig, you've had thissituation where you just fly
(13:44):
through work.
You're able to sit down, you'reable to focus, you just fly
through it.
It feels like hours go by, youget a ton done and in very quick
amount of time.
Other times you're kind of likewatching the clock and hours go
by and you still haven't gottenthis thing done Right.
And so that's when I thinkabout energy and focus that
you're bringing real.
That's one of the biggestvariables in the equation is how
(14:05):
much time and focus you can, orenergy and focus you can, bring
to the equation on the specifictasks, and so that's why you
might want to think about stuffthat's not give.
You're not bringing the energyto.
You know, that's where youcould easily hire someone who,
who does love to do that.
When we talk about hiring, too,it doesn't always have to be a
full-time hire.
(14:25):
A lot of people think that it'sthis big leap from solo to
another full-time person.
But there's ways to structureyour business that you're
bringing on, you know, apart-time clinician you can
bring.
You know, bring, bring someoneon for 10 hours or 20 hours
earlier on, or you can outsourcesome of your marketing to an
assistant or an expert in thatwhere it's 10 hours a week or so
or just like a regular monthlykind of billing arrangement for
(14:50):
whether it's hours or kind of ascope.
There's ways to do thisincrementally, and so I think
that's why, without it being ahuge jump from solo to not solo,
it's more of a you can makethis, break this up into smaller
steps, start to test the waters.
You can have a team of four orfive people who kind of equate
to another full-time person, butyou can have actually a mix of
people who are working part-timein your business as you grow.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, I think that's awesome.
I love that I wrote it down.
The energy side is such a goodlitmus test of what you should
offload.
Because again, I'm just kind ofreflecting on my path from solo
to people was, as my calendargot so full and clients couldn't
get booked on it, I kind oflooked down and was like, the
things I was procrastinating arethe things.
(15:35):
I was like those obviously arethe things I don't want to be
doing right now.
Um, and I would sit there doingthem.
And I started just generating alist.
Uh, before I was ready to hire aVA, I was like, okay, this is
something I could offload.
And so by the time I hiredsomebody, I had a nice list of
things that I was eager to getoff of my plate.
Um, and then same with once itgot to a point where I was so
busy that I was procrastinatingclient work where I'm going.
(15:59):
Okay, they would, our clientswould be so much better taken
care of if I had somebodystarting to take on the future
clients.
So just realizing, where, whatam I?
What am I putting off all thetime?
What am I dreading?
Am I looking at my calendar inthe morning and saying, oh, I've
got five client sessions todayor whatever.
If I'm feeling that it soundslike that's a good litmus test
(16:19):
for okay, this is probablysomething I need to start making
a process to offload off myplate.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the energy is such a like.
We don't talk about it all thatoften and it's a little bit
more ephemeral in terms of athing.
It's harder to measure, butthat's exactly right where if
you're dragging your feet onsomething that should give you
some indication about, let mefigure out what to do with this.
And one of the things that'sone of the biggest worries that
I have with business owners alot of the kind of red flag
(16:49):
warning signs is beingoverworked and overwhelmed and
it's kind of a natural ebb andflow as you're growing your
practice to kind of hit thosestretch moments where you don't
quite have enough time and youneed to figure out what the next
steps are.
The warning sign is when youlive there for too long.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Because you know, as as many therapists work with
clients around, overwhelm andburnout.
It can very easily happen whenyou're running your own business
If you're not mindful aboutwhere you're hitting your, about
when you're hitting yourstretch moments, Because
something that can happen isthat a busy week turns into a
(17:26):
busy couple weeks, a busy month,a busy six months a year, and
you're still working 60, 80hours trying to accommodate
everything.
And when we talk about energy,this is why this is a good kind
of pulling in the energy piece,because what happens when you're
overworked and burnt out isyour productivity goes down, and
it's not just about yourproductivity your energy level
goes down you're bringing youknow.
(17:48):
What I like to say is it's likebringing 50% productivity to
this problem, and so you mightbe working 80 hours a week at
50% productivity, and so thatreally means you're only working
40 hours a week, right, so itdoesn't.
When you're doing billable hourswith clients, it may danger
zone, because you start to getinto a downward spiral of not
(18:20):
having enough energy to focus.
Operating at 50% capacity,dealing with the brain fog,
dragging your feet through moretasks, which means more.
You need to work late againthat night to catch up, which
means you're not sleeping, whichmeans that your next day your
brain fogs.
You're about 50% right.
So you can get into the spiralwhere even just a busy week, if
you don't have that recovery,rest and recovery time after, if
(18:42):
you don't kind of snap backinto something that's
sustainable, that it can startto snowball if you don't kind of
make a plan and move quickly.
So the biggest warning signs Isee with clients of mine is that
is when they get go too farinto that burnout zone and they
have trouble walking it backbecause of this, because they
need to start.
You know there's a ways to doit, there's ways to get into the
(19:04):
upward spiral, but you have tostart taking, you know,
essentially slow the downwardspiral.
Put the brakes on, start to putlike a new, a new automation
here.
Save five you know a few hourshere, you know another five
hours here and just start towork your way back up.
So it's a little bit of youhave to gain the momentum back.
But first you have to stop thedownwards slide, start to move
(19:26):
it back up the spiral so you canstart working towards unlocking
more freedom and time in yourbusiness.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, yeah, I think a lot of therapists.
No one teaches a therapist ingrad school how to run a
business.
And you and I were eventouching on this just a little
bit before we started recordingof going from I'm working for
another practice, another firm,and then I decided to go on my
own.
And then you're starting tobuild up the solo practice.
Then all of a sudden you'regoing okay, now I need to grow a
team.
It's a lot of times it's justwe're kind of just flying by the
(19:54):
seat of our pants.
We don't even know.
Like you know, when you gotyour their degree in therapy,
they maybe didn't think aboutowning their own practice.
Maybe it was just like okay,great, I'm going to go get a job
and do therapy.
So all these things we kind offall backward into.
I had no intention of having ateam.
I was, I was, I used to be ateacher and I would just dream
(20:14):
of being able to work for myselfand go to Target at 1030 in the
morning on a Tuesday withouthaving to worry about anything.
That was as far as my dreamwent.
And then all of a sudden Ireach a point where I'm at that
place of burnout and I'm goingokay, now I need to fix it.
So I think hearing this forpeople who are maybe not quite
at that burnout point, this isreally helpful to say.
(20:36):
Maybe it's time to startthinking ahead before you reach
that place.
So that's what we see a lot isit's it's man, I am stressed,
I'm burnt out, I'm tired of this, and this job is, you know,
hours trading, hours for money,and so the only way to make more
money is to get more burnt out.
And that's when we start tryingto hire and it's just kind of a
crazy situation, whereas maybeif you start hiring before
(20:59):
you're ready, is that kind of alike, maybe starting that
process or that thought processis that kind of what you
recommend doing?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Well, I I'd maybe push back on that, I I.
I usually if there's somethingthat I also teach, which is
don't build your systems untilyou need it.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Because if you pre-build things oh, I'm
forgetting the quote, but it'sit's basically if you build kind
of an imaginary system tohandle an imaginary future
problem it's not going to work.
It very rarely is your solutiongoing to be the right solution
for that, because you're thepain points.
The frustrations are differentonce you're actually there and
(21:36):
your life might look different,right, like when you design it,
when you are kind of startingout and say, you know, when I,
when I get my business to five,five clinicians, it's going to
look this way, well, it mightlook very different.
You know, maybe you, your lifelooks different.
You have a kid in between ortwo in between.
You know, like there's andyou're, you may have different
constraints, differentchallenges.
So all those things kind ofdon't over plan on the front end
(21:58):
is what I'm saying.
But build as you go becauseit's easier to understand what
your constraints are andabsolutely the stress points.
The growing pains from zero toone or two is going to be
different than the growing painsto five or six, is different
from the growing pains up to 10or 15 or 20.
And so it looks different forevery business.
But you generally want to thinkabout, you know, you kind of
(22:20):
build for the next stage of yourbusiness and you can anticipate
ahead.
Say, I want to bring in someleeway here, I want to bring in
some flexibility in this processso that when I get to that
point I can flex into, you know,jumping up from two, two to
five, right, so you cananticipate it.
But I wouldn't say don't buildfor it exactly.
Build as you go, because thenyou'll be responding to real
(22:44):
problems that you're dealingwith.
I see this a lot of the timewhen people are doing kind of
figuring out their technologyand solutions, and we've
recently introduced a kind of atech platform backend.
That's also speaking oftherapist, hipaa compliant as
well, but speaking of having allyour stuff in one place so you
can manage your, your tech andtools.
A lot of people might, whenthey're kind of starting out,
(23:05):
say like I need this tool.
I need this tool.
I need to like you know whetherit's invoicing, billing.
They might get a really fancytool anticipating the need for
it, but it's actually maybedesigned for like a hundred
person company or a thousandperson company and it's like
good at that level, but it'sreally not good for kind of the
incidental, like using it onceor twice a week or a couple
(23:28):
times a month, right.
So figure that.
You know.
I use the tech, technology andtools example for that reason
too, because sometimes when youbuild things out, you want to
build for kind of what you have,what you're anticipating having
over the next six months to ayear, understanding that you
need some room to move, room togrow, but you don't know what
the problems and stress pointsare going to be until you're
(23:49):
actually there and there's someexperts who know the path ahead,
what it's going to look like,give you some visibility there,
but at the same time, you know.
If you don't know where it'sheading exactly, just build it
as you go and identify it.
But be be flexible and nimbleabout recognizing where your
pain points and stress pointsare and don't let them linger
(24:09):
too long.
Right as you said like if you,if you let them linger too long,
uh, they can come back to biteyou.
Um, so just be mindful, awareof what's going on in your body,
how you're responding, howyou're emotionally responding to
different things in yourbusiness, and just make a plan
for how to how to tackle that.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah, the tech, the technology is so spot on.
We've I've worked with reallysmall businesses who, who maybe
they got HubSpot as their CRMbecause they're thinking, you
know, I'm going to as we growone day, then we don't have to
change CRMs down the road, andI'm we're going, yeah, but the
cost of changing CRMs down theroad is going to be a lot less
than you pay in years forsomething that is just way too
(24:46):
big for what you need.
So I think that's really great,just kind of almost like
keeping a great pulse on whereyou are.
Where are we today, beingrealistic with that and, yeah,
having an idea of where am Iheaded.
But you know, I think too, Ididn't know who I was going to
hire the first time.
And when I hired Alicia ourperson who took over the whole
personal finance side of ourbusiness she came in with all
(25:08):
these ideas and processes andsystems that she created, which
are far better than anything Iwould have created.
And so, to your point, yeah, ifI had sat down and tried to map
everything out, I either wouldhave hindered what could have
been or it would have been timewasted because she would have
come in and again done something10 times better that we would
have just thrown mine out anyway.
So, yeah, yeah, I like thatidea.
It's just, it's this kind ofbalance of stay and stay in your
(25:31):
place now, but also keep in thefuture in mind, so you're not
caught off guard when it comes.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, right, and I think there's a level of
mindfulness in there too orintention that you bring to your
business.
Right, because if you had lockedyourself into a very specific
vision of your business, youmight have not found her to hire
right, it could have been, orit could have just been that you
know, going through the hiringprocess, a new hire might feel
too constrained in not you knowin the kind of process, and
(25:59):
that's why it's a balance.
Right, because I talk aboutsystems and process a lot, but
the intention around it is tocreate enough support systems in
there so someone's not lost andflailing in a new job where
they have enough of your visionfor the businessmaking framework
(26:22):
so that they can make, theyunderstand how you make
decisions.
They're not just kind ofguessing and hoping that they're
aligned.
You've communicated enough,you've built it into the
structure enough that they canmake an approximately similar
decision with the values thatyou bring to the business, the
intention you want to bring tothe business.
And so that's why we're tryingto talk about capturing enough,
but not too much, of the systemsand processes in your business
(26:45):
so that you have flexibility butyou also have the ability to
train someone up quickly so thatthey can jump in and do this
stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, you're speaking exactly into what I've been
focused on this last quarter andwhat my coaches have been
guiding me through is how toarticulate my vision to my team,
how to not only create a visionof where I want to go, but make
it to where.
They know where we want to goand they can help create that
path but also know what thoseexpectations are.
(27:13):
This year we always have atheme for the year.
This year was client experiencehow can we improve client
experience and make that theforefront, and next year we've
already decided it's going to besystems and processes of how
can we take this, create theseprocesses in order to reinforce
that.
When it comes to sharing yourvision with your team, do you
have any tips there for how totake this kind of I'm going to
(27:34):
call it intangible?
Yeah, you can have a.
Oh, we want to help people payoff this X dollars in debt or we
want to help this many patients, but how can you take a vision
and get help your team kind ofget behind or articulate it to
your team in a way that makessense?
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, yeah, and I think the disconnect is where it
doesn't show up in the day today operations.
Sometimes, when I'm teachingkind of bigger, bigger companies
around organizationalmanagement and team management,
employees experience reallyhappens on the front lines of
their work, with their team,with their manager, right.
So if you have a small team,it's really you as the manager
(28:11):
and their day-to-day experiencewith you and maybe with some
other people on the team right,but you want to create the
measures of success, how peopleare being evaluated for the
success of their own work.
The benchmarks make surethey're aligned with the values
that you have in the business,that you're measuring the right
things for the right kind ofintention, as well as the
(28:31):
day-to-day practice.
And so, if you think about thevalues that you want to bring to
the business, are those beingmanifested in the way that
you're interacting with clients,the templates that you have to
communicate with clients, theexpectations on client follow-up
, and so it's really buildingout the systems and processes in
your business is a reflectionof those values, Because when
(28:54):
you're solo, you're really doingit all yourself, and so you
build your business based onyour own value system, your own
vision for the business, and soyou are manifesting that into
the process already.
It's just that once you hireother people, you need to tell
them what that process is.
You need to give them enough ofthe framework so that they can
(29:15):
do it the same way.
So, when I talk about themental framework, when you're
starting a business and you havethe vision for what it can and
should be and how it should berun.
It's an amalgamation of yourlived experience, your
professional education, yourprofessional work, your
upbringing all sorts of thingsthat are in this kind of messy
(29:37):
algorithm.
I call it an algorithm or anequation or a framework.
Your brain's running this allthe time.
It's the filter that you'rerunning through.
You know a variety offrameworks in your brain to get
to the outcome, the solution,what you think is the right way
to handle this solution.
You want to download enough ofthat so that people on your team
(29:58):
can make decisions that arealigned with the values that you
have, and so that means youknow if it's a client's coming
back to contest a payment for asession, or how would you want
them to handle that Like.
Use that as an example of youknow, maybe a little bit tense,
higher pressure situation.
(30:19):
How would you handle it?
Why are you handling it thatway?
What decisions are you making?
It feels like instinct, butwhat decisions are you making to
say, oh, we should do this orwe should do this right?
So in those moments this is whyit's a little some of these
things are quite hard to kind ofpull out and dissect, and when
I work with clients.
This is a part of the fun partof the work, but also a
(30:40):
challenging part to kind of.
You have have to tease out likehow?
How are they making decisionsin their brain about what's the
right outcome here?
Because when I get, when I goback to saying, you know,
entrepreneurs get frustratedwhen they delegate stuff and
people don't come back with thesame type of quality of work or
the same you know the theoutcome.
It doesn't mean everybody youhire is going to be perfect.
(31:00):
There's plenty of people who,people who aren't good at their
job or finding the right personcan be a challenge to find the
right fit or eventually you findthe right fit with the right
kind of hiring practices.
But all that said, assuming youhave all that right, you can
still fall down when you don'tcommunicate effectively with
people on your team.
And part of that iscommunicating enough of how you
(31:21):
make decisions, how you want tosee those decisions play out.
You don't have to micromanageit, but giving them enough of
the structure, about the values,the process, the
decision-making piece thatyou've thought and dissected,
enough of how you make decisionsso that you can communicate
that to your team and say thisis why I want to see this done
this way.
This is why we should handlethis type of situation this way,
(31:43):
and that's when you can startto build in those kind of what
feels like intangibles, but itstarts to be, built into the
practice of the business andideally in the written kind of
policies and procedures, but atleast in kind of the cultural
practice of how the how the workgets handled in business.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, I I err on the sidesometimes of being afraid of
micromanaging, so that is really, really helpful.
And just the little thing, likeit's almost to me I'm going I
don't want to micromanage somuch that I probably don't.
There's times where I find thatI'm not supporting enough.
They don't, you know, I'mleaving them out to dry in the
(32:19):
way of how would I handle if aclient wants to cancel their
coaching program early, or amillion other things.
Like how would I handle thosethings?
Creating almost like a toolkitfor them to access.
And you're right, it's not aread the script verbatim, but
it's a here's how I would handleit so that they feel supported
and equipped on how to approachthose things.
(32:41):
Once again, things you justdon't think of.
And I think that kind of goesback to your point that by
planning too much, some of thesethings just kind of arrive and
you realize, oh wow, I need aprocess for this.
Like this is a greatopportunity to create a little
system or a standard operatingprocedure, is something that our
team can lean back on.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good way to reframe it
too.
It's not about micromanagingthe team.
It's about giving them enoughsupport so that they don't feel
lost, so that they have enoughof the tools to go back in and
rely on when they are in thosemoments, because it helps
support them in makingindependent decisions as well.
It's not wholly independent,because they're using your
toolkit, they're using theframework for the business about
(33:20):
how to make decisions.
It's just that they havesomething to fall back on and
use as a guide for when they'remaking those decisions.
Because ideally, you're helpingyour team, not involve you, in
every single decision, right?
And so that's why, if you wantan outcome, your vision for this
business, you want an outcome acertain way, you need to be
(33:40):
able to communicate.
Your team needs to be able todo that separate from you,
because otherwise, if they'rebringing you into every decision
, then it kind of defeats thepurpose of delegating, right?
So that's why you need to equipyour team with enough of the
toolkit about how to makedecisions independently, where
their boundaries are, wheretheir boundaries are not, where
they have flexibility, wherethey do not have flexibility.
(34:00):
That's all part ofcommunication.
So we normally think aboutcommunication as just something
we do verbally, but it's thekind of package of stuff that we
deliver, the package of supportthat we deliver to people on
our team to be able to get theoutcome that we're looking for.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, and it's letting your team know.
What does success look like tome?
And I think that's everybodydoes things a million different
ways, and so a team ofclinicians them knowing.
Okay, your definition ofsuccess is that you are arriving
to your sessions five minutesearly so that when your client
logs on that you're alreadythere waiting, or maybe it's
(34:36):
your notes are submitted in Xamount of days.
So maybe they've worked foranother team that notes were not
due for a week and for youyou're like no, I want it done
in 48 hours or whatever it is.
So just being able to clearlyarticulate that.
I think a lot of times there'sprobably disconnect purely from
not letting them know what youexpect or what, what you, what
(34:57):
you want from them, and there'sit's not right or wrong, they're
probably eager to do it, it'sjust they just don't know, they
can't read your mind.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's such a great examplebecause it can be something so
small, as like when you expectnotes to be in the system, and
sometimes entrepreneurs will say.
It's something to theequivalent of like you're not
doing it fast enough and so theclinicians left to say, well, so
then what's fast enough?
I don't know.
Does it need to be done in fiveminutes?
(35:45):
Does it need to be done in aday?
Is it that a week was too long?
But six days is fine, right?
Specificity communicatespecificity.
When you don't have boundaries.
Communicate that they're freeto make a decision about this
thing without too manyboundaries.
Tell them where the boundariesare, where they're not, so that
they know clearly what to do.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Yeah, Awesome, Eric, I could talk to you about this
forever because I'm learning alot.
I've already taken a lot ofnotes myself, but for time's
sake we may need to pick up thisconversation another time for
another episode.
But I would love to directpeople to you because I know
what you're speaking about isresonating with a lot of
practice owners, and it soundslike even not only the ones who
are going solo to group, but Ithink a lot of those group
(36:16):
practice owners out there whoare hearing what we're talking
about and you're going, justlike I am here.
I'm going.
Okay, I could definitely usegrow in this area.
I don't have processes, or oh.
No wonder they're not doingwhat I'm thinking because I
haven't articulated it.
So all these things tell usabout how people can get in
touch with you, how can theywork with you.
Yeah, when can we send people?
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the best place is my website,
willitycom W-I-L-L-I-T-Ycomlittle play off my name and
Willplusability but for peopleto remember it.
But yes, I have a couplewebinars on there to walk
through how to use Streamlineand create a sustainable
business as well, so people canreach out to me through there if
they want to talk about theirbusiness, dig into, you know,
(36:58):
what's stopping them from movinginto this phase that they
really want to in their business, happy to hop on the phone and
do a 45-minute call to reallydig into those things, and
that's probably the best place,right?
Anybody can benefit from justsome time to talk with someone
with expertise, to dig in, makea game plan for how to move
forward.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Thanks for joining us on the Therapy Business Podcast
.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview and share it with a
practice owner that you may knowIf your practice needs help
getting organized with itsfinances or just growing your
practice, head totherapybusinesspodcom to learn
how we can help.
Going from a solo practice to a group practice is
incredibly, incrediblychallenging.
We're used to doing everythingon our own, carrying the weight
of the whole business on ourshoulders and wearing every
single hat that there couldpossibly be.
Then, all of a sudden, we'refaced with this opportunity to
grow our team and to reallyexpand our reach and take a lot
of things off of our plate.
But this can be a really,really tricky transition as you
(00:22):
are hiring somebody, especiallyif they're going to be taking on
clients.
Well, today we have EricWilliams, with Willity, joining
us to talk about making thattransition in a way that is
really beneficial and reallyseamless in your business.
My name is Craig and I'm theCEO of Desi Financial Coaching.
Our goal is simple to help yourun a therapy practice that is
permanently profitable.
(00:42):
If you own a solo or grouppractice, we're here to help you
build a business that createsmore time, makes more money and
serves more people.
This is the Therapy BusinessPodcast.
All right, eric, thank you somuch for being here.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Good Craig, so happy to be here to talk with you
about this.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yes, me too.
Me too.
So I know you're an expert whenit comes to just helping people
grow and expand beyondthemselves.
But first of all, I want tolearn more about you.
What do you do?
Tell us about your business,what's your area of expertise?
We want to get to know Eric alittle bit.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Great.
Well, so yeah, my name is EricWilliams.
I'm the founder and CEO ofWillity.
We help business owners reallynavigate that transition from
solo to small team or from soloto just standardizing enough of
your business to get someleverage, to get to start to
move in that momentum of growth,really helping people get out
of their schedules, get out ofthe day-to-day grind and start
(01:44):
to standardize, operationalizetheir business so that it's more
manageable.
They get their sanity back,they get their time back, they
get their life back.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Man, that's so important.
I think of my own journey foryears, years.
I was the one seeing clients.
I was the one doing themarketing.
I was the one creating graphicsfor social media.
I was doing the marketing, Iwas the one creating graphics
for social media, I was doingthe sales, I was doing
everything, and it was really,really hard for me to change
that mindset into okay, now Ineed to start bringing some
(02:12):
people in to take that load offmy plate.
Is that something you see?
A lot that it's.
I don't know if it's scary orthere's probably a bunch of
emotions, but do you see a lotof people who are afraid to make
that transition from just solointo having a team?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, yeah, and I think that there's a couple of
stages that we can talk abouthere too.
When people are just embarkingon a solo practice, it can be
overwhelming the amount ofbusiness operations and admin
stuff that they all of a suddenhave to do, that they didn't
have to think about when theywere part of a bigger practice
and they start to take that on.
And so that's maybe the firstchallenge is just taking all
(02:48):
that on and recognizing how muchextra time that takes and
actually getting processes inplace, getting routines and
practices, so that you keep itwithin a bounds whatever bounds
you need that to be to generatenew clients.
You know, when you're firststarting out, you might need to
spend half your time, more ofyour time, on marketing,
bringing in new clients, untilyou fill up your calendar, and
(03:09):
so you kind of adjust it.
But what I find in thattransition from solo to starting
to build a team is and thereason I started with going from
a practice to solo is becausepeople tend not to want to take
on all that admin and operationsstuff, but then, once they
start to bring on a team, theyhold it really tight.
(03:31):
So that's the biggest part ofthe transition is they hold onto
it a lot of the time and don'twant to let it go.
This is common among many othersmall business owners as well.
When you're going from solo,and especially for folks who are
technical experts, who love thecraft, they love what they do.
So when you're in therapy, whenyou're focused on seeing
clients and that's what you loveto do and that's where your
(03:52):
area of expertise is, even thenthat transition to solo, to a
small team, sometimes peoplehold on to it, because most
business owners start to, youknow, feel like this is their
baby.
They want to keep, they want toprotect it, they want to hold
on to it, they want to make sureit's done right.
But holding on too tightly canactually keep you from getting
to where you want to go.
And so for therapy practices,that's serving more clients,
(04:14):
having more people go throughtransformations that you help
facilitate, have insights intotheir own life and experiences.
And by holding on too tightlyto the business, you actually
prevent you and your growingcompany from being able to serve
more people and help morepeople right.
So there's a bit of a mindsetshift in terms of what it means
to grow and be able to move intothat space but at the same time
(04:36):
recognizing that you know asyou grow you can build in
standard practices, processes,start to document them so that
when you're ready to pass themoff and you don't have to pass
everything, it's not like you gothrough this transition.
You're one day a caterpillar,one day you're a butterfly.
It's a slow and steady piecewhere you can delegate one thing
Like you know, when we'retalking about putting together
(04:57):
all the marketing materials,putting together the graphics,
you know if that's taking upfive hours of your week, for
example, is that something youcan delegate off your plate and
free up five additional hours,maybe four, with the
differential of being able tomanage someone to do it, be able
to go in and read and review,right.
You're not delegating fivehours means you get back four
hours because you still need tosupervise that person, right?
(05:19):
So if you think about the maththat's involved, that's one of
the other places where peopleget a little confused about what
are they doing.
How are they moving stuff offtheir plate?
But think about those buckets.
Like, you can move pieces offone at a time.
It's important to delegateenough time to manage people as
you're moving up, making sureyour course correct early and be
able to, you know, supervisethem enough and give them enough
(05:41):
direction and give them enoughsupport so that they're not
you're not just saying, you know, just hire someone one day and
say, go make my social mediagraphics with no extra, you know
, context, background, stuffthat's been done in the past
Like if you don't give them apackage to be able to pass off
to someone, or you know if you,as the business owners,
(06:21):
no-transcript, so that you candelegate stuff effectively
within the context of whatyou're looking for.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, I can relate to that I had when I was by myself
.
You know, I would like toconsider myself a visionary,
creative type, and so processesand systems I love them because
I need them, but that's just notmy natural where I gravitate to
.
And so for years I love thembecause I need them, but that's
just not my natural where Igravitate to.
And so for years it was just Iwas kind of just flying by the
seat of my pants.
I knew what I was doing.
It was all kind of here I hadspreadsheets all over the place
(06:54):
but nothing really solidified.
And then when I started hiringpeople, it was it was kind of a
wake up call on that oh, theyneed to know what I want, they
need to know what to do or howto do it, and it just being up
in my head is not going to work.
And so it sounds like whatyou're saying is almost
preparing those little things sothat when you do hire them it's
super clear what you want, whatyou expect, and so that way you
(07:17):
can fully give it away to them.
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, yeah, if you think about some things, some
things happen daily, some thingsthat happen multiple times a
day daily, weekly, monthly Onceyou started getting out into
weekly, monthly, sometimesannually if you think about
preparing your taxes, having toget your brain back into the
space of this comes from here.
This comes from here.
This comes from here.
It's time consuming to get yourbrain back up to speed.
(07:40):
You basically have to relearnand refigure it out every time,
and so what we're talking aboutwhen you do it preemptively is
you're essentially saying, whenI'm going through this process
the first time, or this year,let's say, can I write myself a
checklist?
Can I write myself an outline?
Can I record a video to myfuture self or someone on my
team who's going to be doing itin the future, to explain how
(08:03):
this works while I'm goingthrough it?
Right?
So there's when I use theexample of taxes, cause it's
such a long time horizon thatpeople tend to forget over the
course of a lot of you know,your life goes by over the
course of a year, and so there'sthings like that that happen
once a year, whether it'slicensing and certification
renewal or other things that arekind of occasional and not
(08:25):
regular, not like a daily,weekly occurrence.
You can easily forget Evenweekly and monthly stuff.
It's easy to forget in theinterim time what that's
involved.
So I want to use this asexamples of you can delegate to
yourself in the future.
You can start to build theprocesses for yourself so that
you can get up to speed more inthe future.
But it's something you have tostart to cultivate as you're
going, to start to write downand document those processes as
(08:47):
you're going.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yeah, I think that's great.
You're right.
I file sales tax every year andevery single year I have to
Google how to file sales tax,even though it's super simple.
But it's just one of those.
I do it one time a year and Iforget.
I forget what website to go to,I forget all those little
things just because it's not topof mind.
So as we're looking at peoplewho are solo right now and
(09:10):
they're thinking, okay, I wantto hire somebody soon, whether
it's an admin or whether it'sanother clinician to work with
another therapist, to work withtheir clients, what are some
things people can do to preparefor that?
Now, I'm sure there's a list ofthings they can do from now
until they actually startinterviewing or start hiring.
What could they do?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, yeah.
So, as you said, greg, one ofthe issues is really
understanding where your time'sgoing and what's actually the
kind of ingredients to your week.
To have a successful week, tohave a successful month, you
need to do X amount of marketing, you need to do X amount of
admin, you need to do X amountof insurance billing and X
(09:49):
amount of client meetings,client appointments, and so
understanding, having thatvisibility into what your
schedule looks like actuallygives you uh, you know you need
to document the processesalongside, but it basically
shows you where you can takechunks out of your schedule and
where you can flex right.
So if it's something that youdon't mind, the admin business
(10:12):
operations work you might choosethat.
Hold on to that and hire aclinician because you want more
billable hours and there's goingto be some amount of those
hours that are going to gotowards the overall business
profit revenue.
It could be that the adminstuff is really taking you much
outside of your energy and yourzone.
And so if it's reallyfrustrating to you you're not
(10:33):
bringing, it might be impactingyour, bringing your A game to
your work with your clients too,and so understanding your
energy levels, your tolerancearound these things, can help
give you the visibility aboutwhat's actually going to be the
most valuable for me to delegate.
In some cases, if you delegatefive hours off your plate, that
person is going to be able toget it done in one hour.
Right, because you might bedragging your feet through it,
(10:55):
because you don't't like it andit's not in your area of
expertise.
Someone else might be able todo it quite fast.
Similarly, it could be thatsomeone else is going to take 10
hours to do something that youtook five hours.
That's something that's reallycommon for entrepreneurs to get
frustrated about is someone elsetaking a longer time to get it
(11:15):
done.
But if you look at the math, whoyou're bringing on to do let's
say you know an admin project itcould be that you could use,
instead of those five hours youknow if you're billing three
times, you know the hourly ratethat it costs to delegate that
time to.
You're still making a benefitfrom delegating to that person,
even if they take longer to doit.
So I think, not being toosensitive, you need to
understand kind of what's themath around, what you're
(11:37):
delegating, how much moneyyou're spending versus what
you're able to bring in withunlocking new hours in your
schedule.
But that's how I would thinkabout, because therapists are
really on a like the revenuecomes from billable hours and so
anytime that you're not doingbillable hours is time you're
not making money and it kind ofoffsets.
(11:57):
Not that a lot of people are inthis just for the money, but
it's part of the equation.
It's about the impact and thefinancial piece and so thinking
about where those levers are, tothink about in your schedule,
what you want to change, whereis it going to make sense for
you to delegate stuff off yourplate that you really don't like
, that you don't do well, thatsomeone else could perhaps do
better, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I think that's great and I think, as a lot of
therapists are thinking abouthiring and I see it, it's super
common.
So I was always told and I don'tknow if this is what you
recommend too but a lot ofpeople say the first hire should
be an assistant, a VA or somekind of person to help with
those admin tasks.
But what I think a lot oftherapists find is they get to a
place where they're swamped andtheir calendar is so full that
(12:40):
they are either not able to takeon new clients or they're just
starting to burn out, and sotheir immediate reaction is okay
, I need to hire anotherclinician to come in Not always
a bad thing.
But I think sounds like whatyou're saying is sitting down
and kind of looking and saying,okay, yeah, my calendar's maxed
out, but how many hours am Ispending doing these admin tests
that maybe I could offload andI could then, in turn, see more
(13:02):
clients and make more money inthat realm?
Or do I really need to bring inanother clinician?
Am I burned out on seeingclients already and I need to
bring somebody in?
So I think to kind of reiteratewhat you're saying, looking
down and saying what do I needto offload or what would I like
to offload on my plate right nowand that can maybe guide that
first hire?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, it's a little bit hard to harder to
measure, but energy is part ofthe trifecta, of what you're
bringing to the table on yourday to day, week to week.
It's time.
So you kind of think about thetrifecta that I'm talking about
is time, money and energy, andso there's definitely times I'm
sure, craig, you've had thissituation where you just fly
(13:44):
through work.
You're able to sit down, you'reable to focus, you just fly
through it.
It feels like hours go by, youget a ton done and in very quick
amount of time.
Other times you're kind of likewatching the clock and hours go
by and you still haven't gottenthis thing done Right.
And so that's when I thinkabout energy and focus that
you're bringing real.
That's one of the biggestvariables in the equation is how
(14:05):
much time and focus you can, orenergy and focus you can, bring
to the equation on the specifictasks, and so that's why you
might want to think about stuffthat's not give.
You're not bringing the energyto.
You know, that's where youcould easily hire someone who,
who does love to do that.
When we talk about hiring, too,it doesn't always have to be a
full-time hire.
(14:25):
A lot of people think that it'sthis big leap from solo to
another full-time person.
But there's ways to structureyour business that you're
bringing on, you know, apart-time clinician you can
bring.
You know, bring, bring someoneon for 10 hours or 20 hours
earlier on, or you can outsourcesome of your marketing to an
assistant or an expert in thatwhere it's 10 hours a week or so
or just like a regular monthlykind of billing arrangement for
(14:50):
whether it's hours or kind of ascope.
There's ways to do thisincrementally, and so I think
that's why, without it being ahuge jump from solo to not solo,
it's more of a you can makethis, break this up into smaller
steps, start to test the waters.
You can have a team of four orfive people who kind of equate
to another full-time person, butyou can have actually a mix of
people who are working part-timein your business as you grow.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, I think that's awesome.
I love that I wrote it down.
The energy side is such a goodlitmus test of what you should
offload.
Because again, I'm just kind ofreflecting on my path from solo
to people was, as my calendargot so full and clients couldn't
get booked on it, I kind oflooked down and was like, the
things I was procrastinating arethe things.
(15:35):
I was like those obviously arethe things I don't want to be
doing right now.
Um, and I would sit there doingthem.
And I started just generating alist.
Uh, before I was ready to hire aVA, I was like, okay, this is
something I could offload.
And so by the time I hiredsomebody, I had a nice list of
things that I was eager to getoff of my plate.
Um, and then same with once itgot to a point where I was so
busy that I was procrastinatingclient work where I'm going.
(15:59):
Okay, they would, our clientswould be so much better taken
care of if I had somebodystarting to take on the future
clients.
So just realizing, where, whatam I?
What am I putting off all thetime?
What am I dreading?
Am I looking at my calendar inthe morning and saying, oh, I've
got five client sessions todayor whatever.
If I'm feeling that it soundslike that's a good litmus test
(16:19):
for okay, this is probablysomething I need to start making
a process to offload off myplate.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the energy is such a like.
We don't talk about it all thatoften and it's a little bit
more ephemeral in terms of athing.
It's harder to measure, butthat's exactly right where if
you're dragging your feet onsomething that should give you
some indication about, let mefigure out what to do with this.
And one of the things that'sone of the biggest worries that
I have with business owners alot of the kind of red flag
(16:49):
warning signs is beingoverworked and overwhelmed and
it's kind of a natural ebb andflow as you're growing your
practice to kind of hit thosestretch moments where you don't
quite have enough time and youneed to figure out what the next
steps are.
The warning sign is when youlive there for too long.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Because you know, as as many therapists work with
clients around, overwhelm andburnout.
It can very easily happen whenyou're running your own business
If you're not mindful aboutwhere you're hitting your, about
when you're hitting yourstretch moments, Because
something that can happen isthat a busy week turns into a
(17:26):
busy couple weeks, a busy month,a busy six months a year, and
you're still working 60, 80hours trying to accommodate
everything.
And when we talk about energy,this is why this is a good kind
of pulling in the energy piece,because what happens when you're
overworked and burnt out isyour productivity goes down, and
it's not just about yourproductivity your energy level
goes down you're bringing youknow.
(17:48):
What I like to say is it's likebringing 50% productivity to
this problem, and so you mightbe working 80 hours a week at
50% productivity, and so thatreally means you're only working
40 hours a week, right, so itdoesn't.
When you're doing billable hourswith clients, it may danger
zone, because you start to getinto a downward spiral of not
(18:20):
having enough energy to focus.
Operating at 50% capacity,dealing with the brain fog,
dragging your feet through moretasks, which means more.
You need to work late againthat night to catch up, which
means you're not sleeping, whichmeans that your next day your
brain fogs.
You're about 50% right.
So you can get into the spiralwhere even just a busy week, if
you don't have that recovery,rest and recovery time after, if
(18:42):
you don't kind of snap backinto something that's
sustainable, that it can startto snowball if you don't kind of
make a plan and move quickly.
So the biggest warning signs Isee with clients of mine is that
is when they get go too farinto that burnout zone and they
have trouble walking it backbecause of this, because they
need to start.
You know there's a ways to doit, there's ways to get into the
(19:04):
upward spiral, but you have tostart taking, you know,
essentially slow the downwardspiral.
Put the brakes on, start to putlike a new, a new automation
here.
Save five you know a few hourshere, you know another five
hours here and just start towork your way back up.
So it's a little bit of youhave to gain the momentum back.
But first you have to stop thedownwards slide, start to move
(19:26):
it back up the spiral so you canstart working towards unlocking
more freedom and time in yourbusiness.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, yeah, I think a lot of therapists.
No one teaches a therapist ingrad school how to run a
business.
And you and I were eventouching on this just a little
bit before we started recordingof going from I'm working for
another practice, another firm,and then I decided to go on my
own.
And then you're starting tobuild up the solo practice.
Then all of a sudden you'regoing okay, now I need to grow a
team.
It's a lot of times it's justwe're kind of just flying by the
(19:54):
seat of our pants.
We don't even know.
Like you know, when you gotyour their degree in therapy,
they maybe didn't think aboutowning their own practice.
Maybe it was just like okay,great, I'm going to go get a job
and do therapy.
So all these things we kind offall backward into.
I had no intention of having ateam.
I was, I was, I used to be ateacher and I would just dream
(20:14):
of being able to work for myselfand go to Target at 1030 in the
morning on a Tuesday withouthaving to worry about anything.
That was as far as my dreamwent.
And then all of a sudden Ireach a point where I'm at that
place of burnout and I'm goingokay, now I need to fix it.
So I think hearing this forpeople who are maybe not quite
at that burnout point, this isreally helpful to say.
(20:36):
Maybe it's time to startthinking ahead before you reach
that place.
So that's what we see a lot isit's it's man, I am stressed,
I'm burnt out, I'm tired of this, and this job is, you know,
hours trading, hours for money,and so the only way to make more
money is to get more burnt out.
And that's when we start tryingto hire and it's just kind of a
crazy situation, whereas maybeif you start hiring before
(20:59):
you're ready, is that kind of alike, maybe starting that
process or that thought processis that kind of what you
recommend doing?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Well, I I'd maybe push back on that, I I.
I usually if there's somethingthat I also teach, which is
don't build your systems untilyou need it.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Because if you pre-build things oh, I'm
forgetting the quote, but it'sit's basically if you build kind
of an imaginary system tohandle an imaginary future
problem it's not going to work.
It very rarely is your solutiongoing to be the right solution
for that, because you're thepain points.
The frustrations are differentonce you're actually there and
(21:36):
your life might look different,right, like when you design it,
when you are kind of startingout and say, you know, when I,
when I get my business to five,five clinicians, it's going to
look this way, well, it mightlook very different.
You know, maybe you, your lifelooks different.
You have a kid in between ortwo in between.
You know, like there's andyou're, you may have different
constraints, differentchallenges.
So all those things kind ofdon't over plan on the front end
(21:58):
is what I'm saying.
But build as you go becauseit's easier to understand what
your constraints are andabsolutely the stress points.
The growing pains from zero toone or two is going to be
different than the growing painsto five or six, is different
from the growing pains up to 10or 15 or 20.
And so it looks different forevery business.
But you generally want to thinkabout, you know, you kind of
(22:20):
build for the next stage of yourbusiness and you can anticipate
ahead.
Say, I want to bring in someleeway here, I want to bring in
some flexibility in this processso that when I get to that
point I can flex into, you know,jumping up from two, two to
five, right, so you cananticipate it.
But I wouldn't say don't buildfor it exactly.
Build as you go, because thenyou'll be responding to real
(22:44):
problems that you're dealingwith.
I see this a lot of the timewhen people are doing kind of
figuring out their technologyand solutions, and we've
recently introduced a kind of atech platform backend.
That's also speaking oftherapist, hipaa compliant as
well, but speaking of having allyour stuff in one place so you
can manage your, your tech andtools.
A lot of people might, whenthey're kind of starting out,
(23:05):
say like I need this tool.
I need this tool.
I need to like you know whetherit's invoicing, billing.
They might get a really fancytool anticipating the need for
it, but it's actually maybedesigned for like a hundred
person company or a thousandperson company and it's like
good at that level, but it'sreally not good for kind of the
incidental, like using it onceor twice a week or a couple
(23:28):
times a month, right.
So figure that.
You know.
I use the tech, technology andtools example for that reason
too, because sometimes when youbuild things out, you want to
build for kind of what you have,what you're anticipating having
over the next six months to ayear, understanding that you
need some room to move, room togrow, but you don't know what
the problems and stress pointsare going to be until you're
(23:49):
actually there and there's someexperts who know the path ahead,
what it's going to look like,give you some visibility there,
but at the same time, you know.
If you don't know where it'sheading exactly, just build it
as you go and identify it.
But be be flexible and nimbleabout recognizing where your
pain points and stress pointsare and don't let them linger
(24:09):
too long.
Right as you said like if you,if you let them linger too long,
uh, they can come back to biteyou.
Um, so just be mindful, awareof what's going on in your body,
how you're responding, howyou're emotionally responding to
different things in yourbusiness, and just make a plan
for how to how to tackle that.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah, the tech, the technology is so spot on.
We've I've worked with reallysmall businesses who, who maybe
they got HubSpot as their CRMbecause they're thinking, you
know, I'm going to as we growone day, then we don't have to
change CRMs down the road, andI'm we're going, yeah, but the
cost of changing CRMs down theroad is going to be a lot less
than you pay in years forsomething that is just way too
(24:46):
big for what you need.
So I think that's really great,just kind of almost like
keeping a great pulse on whereyou are.
Where are we today, beingrealistic with that and, yeah,
having an idea of where am Iheaded.
But you know, I think too, Ididn't know who I was going to
hire the first time.
And when I hired Alicia ourperson who took over the whole
personal finance side of ourbusiness she came in with all
(25:08):
these ideas and processes andsystems that she created, which
are far better than anything Iwould have created.
And so, to your point, yeah, ifI had sat down and tried to map
everything out, I either wouldhave hindered what could have
been or it would have been timewasted because she would have
come in and again done something10 times better that we would
have just thrown mine out anyway.
So, yeah, yeah, I like thatidea.
It's just, it's this kind ofbalance of stay and stay in your
(25:31):
place now, but also keep in thefuture in mind, so you're not
caught off guard when it comes.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, right, and I think there's a level of
mindfulness in there too orintention that you bring to your
business.
Right, because if you had lockedyourself into a very specific
vision of your business, youmight have not found her to hire
right, it could have been, orit could have just been that you
know, going through the hiringprocess, a new hire might feel
too constrained in not you knowin the kind of process, and
(25:59):
that's why it's a balance.
Right, because I talk aboutsystems and process a lot, but
the intention around it is tocreate enough support systems in
there so someone's not lost andflailing in a new job where
they have enough of your visionfor the businessmaking framework
(26:22):
so that they can make, theyunderstand how you make
decisions.
They're not just kind ofguessing and hoping that they're
aligned.
You've communicated enough,you've built it into the
structure enough that they canmake an approximately similar
decision with the values thatyou bring to the business, the
intention you want to bring tothe business.
And so that's why we're tryingto talk about capturing enough,
but not too much, of the systemsand processes in your business
(26:45):
so that you have flexibility butyou also have the ability to
train someone up quickly so thatthey can jump in and do this
stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Yeah, you're speaking exactly into what I've been
focused on this last quarter andwhat my coaches have been
guiding me through is how toarticulate my vision to my team,
how to not only create a visionof where I want to go, but make
it to where.
They know where we want to goand they can help create that
path but also know what thoseexpectations are.
(27:13):
This year we always have atheme for the year.
This year was client experiencehow can we improve client
experience and make that theforefront, and next year we've
already decided it's going to besystems and processes of how
can we take this, create theseprocesses in order to reinforce
that.
When it comes to sharing yourvision with your team, do you
have any tips there for how totake this kind of I'm going to
(27:34):
call it intangible?
Yeah, you can have a.
Oh, we want to help people payoff this X dollars in debt or we
want to help this many patients, but how can you take a vision
and get help your team kind ofget behind or articulate it to
your team in a way that makessense?
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, yeah, and I think the disconnect is where it
doesn't show up in the day today operations.
Sometimes, when I'm teachingkind of bigger, bigger companies
around organizationalmanagement and team management,
employees experience reallyhappens on the front lines of
their work, with their team,with their manager, right.
So if you have a small team,it's really you as the manager
(28:11):
and their day-to-day experiencewith you and maybe with some
other people on the team right,but you want to create the
measures of success, how peopleare being evaluated for the
success of their own work.
The benchmarks make surethey're aligned with the values
that you have in the business,that you're measuring the right
things for the right kind ofintention, as well as the
(28:31):
day-to-day practice.
And so, if you think about thevalues that you want to bring to
the business, are those beingmanifested in the way that
you're interacting with clients,the templates that you have to
communicate with clients, theexpectations on client follow-up
, and so it's really buildingout the systems and processes in
your business is a reflectionof those values, Because when
(28:54):
you're solo, you're really doingit all yourself, and so you
build your business based onyour own value system, your own
vision for the business, and soyou are manifesting that into
the process already.
It's just that once you hireother people, you need to tell
them what that process is.
You need to give them enough ofthe framework so that they can
(29:15):
do it the same way.
So, when I talk about themental framework, when you're
starting a business and you havethe vision for what it can and
should be and how it should berun.
It's an amalgamation of yourlived experience, your
professional education, yourprofessional work, your
upbringing all sorts of thingsthat are in this kind of messy
(29:37):
algorithm.
I call it an algorithm or anequation or a framework.
Your brain's running this allthe time.
It's the filter that you'rerunning through.
You know a variety offrameworks in your brain to get
to the outcome, the solution,what you think is the right way
to handle this solution.
You want to download enough ofthat so that people on your team
(29:58):
can make decisions that arealigned with the values that you
have, and so that means youknow if it's a client's coming
back to contest a payment for asession, or how would you want
them to handle that Like.
Use that as an example of youknow, maybe a little bit tense,
higher pressure situation.
(30:19):
How would you handle it?
Why are you handling it thatway?
What decisions are you making?
It feels like instinct, butwhat decisions are you making to
say, oh, we should do this orwe should do this right?
So in those moments this is whyit's a little some of these
things are quite hard to kind ofpull out and dissect, and when
I work with clients.
This is a part of the fun partof the work, but also a
(30:40):
challenging part to kind of.
You have have to tease out likehow?
How are they making decisionsin their brain about what's the
right outcome here?
Because when I get, when I goback to saying, you know,
entrepreneurs get frustratedwhen they delegate stuff and
people don't come back with thesame type of quality of work or
the same you know the theoutcome.
It doesn't mean everybody youhire is going to be perfect.
(31:00):
There's plenty of people who,people who aren't good at their
job or finding the right personcan be a challenge to find the
right fit or eventually you findthe right fit with the right
kind of hiring practices.
But all that said, assuming youhave all that right, you can
still fall down when you don'tcommunicate effectively with
people on your team.
And part of that iscommunicating enough of how you
(31:21):
make decisions, how you want tosee those decisions play out.
You don't have to micromanageit, but giving them enough of
the structure, about the values,the process, the
decision-making piece thatyou've thought and dissected,
enough of how you make decisionsso that you can communicate
that to your team and say thisis why I want to see this done
this way.
This is why we should handlethis type of situation this way,
(31:43):
and that's when you can startto build in those kind of what
feels like intangibles, but itstarts to be, built into the
practice of the business andideally in the written kind of
policies and procedures, but atleast in kind of the cultural
practice of how the how the workgets handled in business.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Yeah, I I err on the sidesometimes of being afraid of
micromanaging, so that is really, really helpful.
And just the little thing, likeit's almost to me I'm going I
don't want to micromanage somuch that I probably don't.
There's times where I find thatI'm not supporting enough.
They don't, you know, I'mleaving them out to dry in the
(32:19):
way of how would I handle if aclient wants to cancel their
coaching program early, or amillion other things.
Like how would I handle thosethings?
Creating almost like a toolkitfor them to access.
And you're right, it's not aread the script verbatim, but
it's a here's how I would handleit so that they feel supported
and equipped on how to approachthose things.
(32:41):
Once again, things you justdon't think of.
And I think that kind of goesback to your point that by
planning too much, some of thesethings just kind of arrive and
you realize, oh wow, I need aprocess for this.
Like this is a greatopportunity to create a little
system or a standard operatingprocedure, is something that our
team can lean back on.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a good way to reframe it
too.
It's not about micromanagingthe team.
It's about giving them enoughsupport so that they don't feel
lost, so that they have enoughof the tools to go back in and
rely on when they are in thosemoments, because it helps
support them in makingindependent decisions as well.
It's not wholly independent,because they're using your
toolkit, they're using theframework for the business about
(33:20):
how to make decisions.
It's just that they havesomething to fall back on and
use as a guide for when they'remaking those decisions.
Because ideally, you're helpingyour team, not involve you, in
every single decision, right?
And so that's why, if you wantan outcome, your vision for this
business, you want an outcome acertain way, you need to be
(33:40):
able to communicate.
Your team needs to be able todo that separate from you,
because otherwise, if they'rebringing you into every decision
, then it kind of defeats thepurpose of delegating, right?
So that's why you need to equipyour team with enough of the
toolkit about how to makedecisions independently, where
their boundaries are, wheretheir boundaries are not, where
they have flexibility, wherethey do not have flexibility.
(34:00):
That's all part ofcommunication.
So we normally think aboutcommunication as just something
we do verbally, but it's thekind of package of stuff that we
deliver, the package of supportthat we deliver to people on
our team to be able to get theoutcome that we're looking for.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah, and it's letting your team know.
What does success look like tome?
And I think that's everybodydoes things a million different
ways, and so a team ofclinicians them knowing.
Okay, your definition ofsuccess is that you are arriving
to your sessions five minutesearly so that when your client
logs on that you're alreadythere waiting, or maybe it's
(34:36):
your notes are submitted in Xamount of days.
So maybe they've worked foranother team that notes were not
due for a week and for youyou're like no, I want it done
in 48 hours or whatever it is.
So just being able to clearlyarticulate that.
I think a lot of times there'sprobably disconnect purely from
not letting them know what youexpect or what, what you, what
(34:57):
you want from them, and there'sit's not right or wrong, they're
probably eager to do it, it'sjust they just don't know, they
can't read your mind.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's such a great examplebecause it can be something so
small, as like when you expectnotes to be in the system, and
sometimes entrepreneurs will say.
It's something to theequivalent of like you're not
doing it fast enough and so theclinicians left to say, well, so
then what's fast enough?
I don't know.
Does it need to be done in fiveminutes?
(35:45):
Does it need to be done in aday?
Is it that a week was too long?
But six days is fine, right?
Specificity communicatespecificity.
When you don't have boundaries.
Communicate that they're freeto make a decision about this
thing without too manyboundaries.
Tell them where the boundariesare, where they're not, so that
they know clearly what to do.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Yeah, Awesome, Eric, I could talk to you about this
forever because I'm learning alot.
I've already taken a lot ofnotes myself, but for time's
sake we may need to pick up thisconversation another time for
another episode.
But I would love to directpeople to you because I know
what you're speaking about isresonating with a lot of
practice owners, and it soundslike even not only the ones who
are going solo to group, but Ithink a lot of those group
(36:16):
practice owners out there whoare hearing what we're talking
about and you're going, justlike I am here.
I'm going.
Okay, I could definitely usegrow in this area.
I don't have processes, or oh.
No wonder they're not doingwhat I'm thinking because I
haven't articulated it.
So all these things tell usabout how people can get in
touch with you, how can theywork with you.
Yeah, when can we send people?
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the best place is my website,
willitycom W-I-L-L-I-T-Ycomlittle play off my name and
Willplusability but for peopleto remember it.
But yes, I have a couplewebinars on there to walk
through how to use Streamlineand create a sustainable
business as well, so people canreach out to me through there if
they want to talk about theirbusiness, dig into, you know,
(36:58):
what's stopping them from movinginto this phase that they
really want to in their business, happy to hop on the phone and
do a 45-minute call to reallydig into those things, and
that's probably the best place,right?
Anybody can benefit from justsome time to talk with someone
with expertise, to dig in, makea game plan for how to move
forward.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Thanks for joining us on the Therapy Business Podcast
.
Be sure to subscribe, leave areview and share it with a
practice owner that you may knowIf your practice needs help
getting organized with itsfinances or just growing your
practice, head totherapybusinesspodcom to learn
how we can help.
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