Ep.50 / Building and Scaling Your Own Private Practice with Psychologist Phil Glickman and Karin Rozell

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Interested in building out your own private practice or scaling what you have? Then this episode is definitely for you because we have two amazing guests sharing their experiences.

Licensed clinical psychologist Phil Glickman, who runs a practice called Wellness Road Psychology shares how starting slow allows you to make mistakes without the pressure of having to succeed right away and the importance of making relationships that you can lean on for advice and guidance.

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In this episode you will learn:

The power of starting slow in order to succeed
How finding the right network can provide valuable advice and support
Why finding who you are serving is the first step in starting your business
The reason mindset can help you grow your business

Show Takeaways:

Interested in building out your own private practice or scaling what you have? Then this episode is definitely for you because we have two amazing guests sharing their experiences.

Karen Rizal is the author of two business books and the creator of the Happy Little Practice Method for Women in Business. With 20 plus years of online education and business coaching experience, she specializes in creating a minimalist private practice that are simple to run in about 25 hours per week. She's on a mission to share the small is the new big philosophy and how less can truly be more through her classes, coaching, and books.

Plus I share one of my real mom moments that actually led to an injury.

“I get to manage things the way I want to instead of being part of a giant machine that tells me exactly when I have to go to meetings and who I have to talk to.” - Phil Glickman
“What helped me the most honestly was having a mentor and someone to learn from.” - Phil Glickman
“You need to figure out who you're going to go for, who are the people that you want to serve, that you want to spend a lot of time with, and what is a problem that they have that you solve?” - Karin Rizal
“I always feel like if I can just get people to get out of their head and just start trying things and testing things, they figure things out much faster than instead of waiting for confidence.” -Karin Rizal

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EPISODE LINKS:

Phil Glickman and Wellness Road Psychology

Connect with Phil on Instagram

Karin Rozell

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Kim (00:02):

Interested in building out your own private practice or scaling what you have? We have two amazing guests sharing their experiences. Licensed clinical psychologist Phil Glickman, who runs a practice called Wellness Road Psychology and Karin Rozell who coaches health and wellness practitioners.

(00:19):

This is Mom's exit interview, the show for moms who want to craft the career and life they want. Each episode, you'll meet inspirational moms across various industries and levels who are working and living life on their own terms, and they'll bring you actionable tips from finance to business development to happiness, to crushing that imposter syndrome. I'm Kim rit. I was a burnt out media executive at Netflix, US Weekly and in TV news. I wanted a career where I was fulfilled at work but present at home with my kids. So I started working for myself and I love it, but not every day was easy or is easy. I wanted to explore with all of you how other moms were creating careers on their own terms. They're carving out flex jobs, starting their own businesses, they're taking back control. Join me and make work work for you instead of the other way around.

(01:23):

Super important, but quick favor. Please tell two people to listen to the show and make sure you hit that follow button. And if you're running a private practice or a business and you're looking to elevate your credibility to attract more patients, more clients, or speaking gigs through video and podcasts, drop me a note and let's see how I can help you. I've spent 15 years in media and now I bring that journalist perspective to help you grow your business with video. Again, we're talking about growing your leads and your credibility. You can check me out@kimredford.com or message me on Instagram. And today I'm super excited to bring this episode because I know there are a lot of doctors, therapists, health and wellness, wellness practitioners who are listening to the show. I know that because you've dropped me feedback. I've had some of you reach out to me to ask for this episode.

(02:09):

So here we are. First, you're going to hear from Phil Glickman. I'll be real. He is Uncle Phil. To my kids, I have really been following his path for many years. We've been friends for years. I know you are going to find so much value from his experience. He is truly a person who loves what he does. He's very invested in helping others, and he's finding success in growing his practice. So I'm super excited to have you hear from him. Quick warning, the audio may be a little different than usual because it took place during a family weekend. Not exactly my normal podcast studio. I'm going to start this interview by admitting we are recording on the floor of my children's bedroom because This's, my old friend, Phil, his wife and I met on day one of maternity leave. Maybe it was like day eight.

(02:52):

Anyway, so I've known Phil for about seven years. Seven, however old our kids are seven and a half years, and I've loved seeing grow his own private practice. And I've sort of been along for the ride as he's grown it from working for someone else to working for himself. And I've loved what I've learned from him as his friend. So I'm bringing him here. So we're going to be talking about that. So I'm going to bring him in now. Hi, Phil. Hi Kim. So Phil, tell me about what's the name of your practice and what do you focus on?

Phil (03:17):

My practice is called Wellness Road Psychology. We work primarily with young professionals, ages 18 to 45 is the most common demographic and people dealing with anxiety, depression, a d d sort of lighter weight, higher functioning type of therapy that responds well at a talk therapy.

Kim (03:43):

All right. So you go to school, you get your degree, and I know this because I know you were working for someone else, right? As a psychologist. Yes. What made you go from the, I would say comfort. Comfort of working for someone else, having them find the clients, having them run the business to deciding I want to run my own practice.

Phil (04:00):

I kind of gravitated towards a merit-based practice, even then where I was working with clients and instead of being on a salary was compensated by the number of people that I saw. And if people liked me and worked well with me and responded well to my kind of therapy, then I would do better. And if they didn't, I would do worse. I was, that's the kind of thing I wanted to do all along. When I was studying, I knew I wanted to do therapy, not research or testing as much. I liked the human interaction piece. So I did that for a while and I think I kind of grew confident. I got thousands of hours of therapy under my belt and knew that I had a brand that I felt good about and that people were responding to. And so I thought, I kind of get this and I can do this on my own. And the way I did it was sort of tapered off, so I didn't just quit and say, oh, hope for the best, hope this works. I tapered down my other job and was able to, because it's merit-based work three days a week, then two, and then kind of quit where it balanced out. And I was able to financially not really have a period where I was wondering where I was going to pay my rent.

Kim (05:12):

And so I think for people who don't know that much about private practice, so some therapists, psychologists choose to do almost commission based work where yes, you get a percent of all the clients and some choose to just get a salary from exactly a practice. It's your choice.

Phil (05:27):

A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people in my program went to the schools, for example, where you get a set salary, you get benefits, you get a more or less guaranteed raise every year and a pension. And so it's safe. That's what a lot of people do. The hospitals do the similar kind of setup then, and then some of those people do a nighttime private practice. But I didn't really want to be part of a big kind of organization in that way, and was excited to forage my own path and do just the therapy part because all those other worlds kind of force you to do more paperwork and management stuff that at the time didn't really appeal to me. Even though I like now the management side, I get to manage things the way I want to instead of being part of a giant machine that tells me exactly when I have to go to meetings and who I have to talk to and felt a little bit less. It just didn't connect with my personality as much.

Kim (06:24):

I'm going to say that we are going to be hearing our kids running around and having fun in the background, but that is what it is as a parent. I think it's funny how ironically you started working for yourself to avoid the paperwork. When you run your own business, you end up

Phil (06:35):

Now. Yes.

Kim (06:36):

You end up getting all that stuff anyway. For sure. Talk to me about your initial goal to start your own private practice, because it's been how many years

Phil (06:44):

Now? It's been, I guess about four years since I started out a little more now. Well, it's 2023, five years, so four and a half, five years. My initial goal was to, I don't know, create a vision where I could lead a practice, I could create a world for employees that felt fun to work at, create a world for clients that felt like I was building a brand that was according to my values, met with what I thought was a good experience. I'm on the therapy side, I'm a therapist, but I'm also in therapy, so I know what it feels like and looks like to be in a setting that just feels positive, feels comfortable for people, and I wanted to instill that first in my own private practice for myself. And then once that hit a critical mass, I could then instill that and pass that down to people that were on my team.

(07:41):

So my vision was to just grow it out. I didn't have an exact number. Right now. We have 12 clinicians about to be 13 or 14 and just keep on growing it. I don't have a set number where that all, I'll suddenly say, that's all I want. And I didn't even know it was going to get to 10 or 12. Well, I would've been happy just seeing where it went. So I think I'm kind of meeting that vision. Right now. It's a bit different because it's mostly on Zoom. We do have one office now, but when I first started it was strictly an in-office thing and then Covid happened. So yeah, I'm getting there and I guess continuing to grow it and have it kind of align with my vision of the values that I'm trying to build.

Kim (08:23):

Okay. So now is that you have 12 clinicians working for you, which I feel like seems really big. So okay. How did you start getting clients for yourself? And then how did you know, okay, I want this to be more than just my private practice where I'm filling up my schedule and then moving on versus now taking on clinicians. But I do want to get back to how do you find clients at the beginning? Cause I feel like a lot of people get sort of overwhelmed with the concept of like, yeah, how do you find patience, not clients. Sorry, it's hard. Patience.

Phil (08:48):

Yeah, it was not easy. I can't take full credit for it. I think a big part of my success was the people around me, the people that helped me and guided me. That's what really therapy is at its core. Its relationships, it's building. And so I was able, in my previous job, to forge friendships with people that had similar goals as me and kind of helped to guide me on the business side of things and how to build it. So they made suggestions as to what platforms to use to market myself and how to look at marketing and how to think about it in a more business savvy way because we're not trained to do that in grad school. All we're trained to do is therapy. So a lot of therapists come into this completely blind. And I was fortunate that I was able to build that, those relationships with people that really knew what they were doing. And so getting on the right marketing platforms, having then paying other people to help me to do it, since I can't do everything all myself and figuring out return on investment and just growing the thing little by little and not being afraid to do that,

Kim (09:51):

Right? Cause I know that over the years we've talked about like you've said, okay, you learned how to do, I guess it's sponsored things on doc, doc or other things. And then eventually finding a marketing specialist, like a paid marketing specialist who can then do it for you, going from a little bit of money a month to a fair amount of money a month, but being really concrete in your spreadsheets and being like, what's the return on investment? If I put in a thousand or 5,000 whatever a month? Yeah. Am I making it back at whatever? Exactly. Percent.

Phil (10:23):

Yeah. So rethinking about it like that, instead of thinking about, oh my God, I'm spending a thousand dollars, that's so scary. Am I getting $1,200 back for that? Am I getting $1,500 back for that? How can I maximize that and think about it a little bit differently so that I can reach the right audience so that I can have my phone ringing? And then this sort of virtuous cycle happens where people start calling and they see that they're having a great experience with my therapist. They say they tell their friend or they write something good online about how awesome the experience was, and then that a thousand dollars turns into more. And then I constantly am putting that money right back into the business. I'm not kind of doing this at this stage, at least to stockpile a big savings. It's all going right back into it.

(11:08):

And the goal is to just keep on growing and keep on creating this vision and get the most out of it, I think. And I really enjoy the learning aspect too. Constantly reading books about how to market myself better or do therapy better or run a practice better and pass that information along to both the clinicians on my team and the administrators on my team. And then that gets them trickled down that energy to the clients too, where this is a place that everybody wants to learn cutting edge new things and grow and be the best version of themselves

Kim (11:40):

So it doesn't bother you. Cause I feel like sometimes some people, and obviously I work in content marketing, so I talk to a lot of business owners or professionals that are like, I got in this to do my business law or real estate or clothing design. They're like, I don't want to market myself. You don't find it's this burden to learn these new things that are a part of growing your business.

Phil (11:59):

No, I think I had to kind of have a change of mindset, right? Because at first it was really scary. At first it was like, I don't know marketing, what am I doing? I'm here in over my head, all I know is therapy. I'm feel confident in my ability to do that, and I love to learn about that. I still do. I still take continuing ed and read books about how to be a better therapist and how to be a better person myself so I can pass that on. But I really have this kind of thirst for knowledge and thirst for learning where the learning curve is much deeper. I'm learning a ton Every time I read a new marketing book, every time I read a new book about how to manage or build a good culture at my practice, I'm twice as smart as I was in that world before that. Versus if I read a new therapy book, I'm like 1% smarter because I already know a decent amount about that. I've studied it for thousands of hours now, so how much more can one book get me right? Versus I've done barely any studying of business or marketing. So every time I read one of these books, I'm like, wow, the matrix where he gets shot up with new information and I'm like, oh my God, I know karate. So it's pretty cool.

Kim (13:08):

I like the matrix reference. Yeah. So it's always time for a matrix reference. Talk to talk me about, I know you're part of a networking networking group or business organization. How much a part of your growth do you feel like that was you a big advocate for joining a group and why?

Phil (13:23):

Yes. Through that friend that I have from my previous employer, he put me onto this group entrepreneur organization, which is, I don't know how to phrase it, I guess it's not a networking group because it's not about networking. It's more of a learning group where you talk about business books that you've read and have accountability meetings and then learning days. And they're also fellow entrepreneurs and a similar kind of, it's clustered based on income, gross income. So they're in a similar stage of the business development, and you just learn strategies of what they're doing, how to grow it. There's a social component where instead of being this kind of lonely entrepreneur who has no friends, you have friends all of a sudden that are wanting to talk about their strategy and their business and what book they've read and recommend a book, oh, you need help with hr.

(14:12):

I know somebody who does that. Or you need help with how to manage team members or employees and how to talk to people in a way that feels productive and make sure that you're happy with the way things are going, and you're not kind of stuck or just going blind into the next stage of your business. So yeah, I love it. I'm part of this organization and I really enjoy the learning days. I enjoy the books we're reading, and I definitely recommend that to somebody if they're trying to grow their business and scale specifically for people that are trying to scale and grow. And I've gotten a lot of benefit from that. So that's another place where it obviously costs money. I invest money into that, but I'm getting money back in the way that I learn things and I get better.

Kim (14:55):

Talk to me about the financial concerns of, I think a lot of times when people are thinking, oh, do I work for myself or not? How's the finances going? And what were the concerns at first?

Phil (15:05):

Well, this was a business that was started a hundred percent by money that I made at my first job. And so all the time I've just been risking everything that I made. And I continue to do that more or less every week, putting the money back into it. So it's scary, but it also is, I think I'm answering the question that you're asking. It's also motivating because it's my money, so I'm scared to lose it. I don't want to lose it. So I'm very kind of screw scrupulous, if that's the right word, about where is the money going? Am I being overcharged? Am I doing under charges or return on investment? And so I get a good kind of feel for where it's going. And I've obviously made plenty of mistakes where I've spent money that, oops, that wasn't the best investment, and then I learned from it. And so these are costly mistakes, but mistakes that in the end didn't ruin everything for me. And yeah, it's a scary thing though. That's part of being an entrepreneur that you don't get if you were to work at a school or a hospital where for sure that when you're 80 years old, you're still going to be making money off your pension and you're going to be okay here. I think a higher upside, but also potential risk that you're kind of taking.

Kim (16:15):

And so your own path. Okay, so you graduated college, you went into finance, and then you decided you wanted to be a psychologist. How did you decide to make that big pivot?

Phil (16:25):

I think just naturally it happened that way. I worked three years in finance. The job was not, I had two different, three different jobs, two at financial tech companies and one at a mutual fund. And then 2008 recession happened, and it looked like I wasn't going to be moving up anytime soon. And no other places that I thought were appealing were going to hire me. And I was sort of at a place where do I want to do this the rest of my life and get paid this amount the rest of my life, which frankly wasn't really a living wage or is there some other option? And my dad's a psychologist. My brother is actually a psychologist too. And so that was put out as an option for me and fortunate enough to do that.

Kim (17:11):

Hi Lily. I'm interviewing Phil for the podcast, rubbing a Real Life. Is it weird seeing us sitting on your floor? Yes.

Lily (17:20):

For two minutes, 39 seconds.

Phil (17:22):

Wow.

Kim (17:22):

That's so cool, sweetie.

Phil (17:24):

Good job, Nate

Lily (17:25):

And Aria's records. 20 seconds.

Kim (17:28):

Wow. Wow. Ooh. Okay. Good job.

Phil (17:30):

Ask Stephanie when she comes back to do it. She can do it for even longer I think maybe.

Kim (17:35):

Bye sweetie. Okay, so it's not so far too, because your family was in psychology and you were Yes. Obviously I know. So I know you're like, you're very empathetic and sympathetic and empathic. Did you always want to be helping people? Cause I feel like it's a lot. It's a great job, but it's a heavy

Phil (17:51):

Job. Yeah. I mean, like I said before, I like the social component. I like talking to people. I enjoy that and I feel that comes fairly easily and naturally to me. I benefited through my life, through self-help and through therapy. I don't know if I should be vulnerable and open up here. Yeah, sure.

Kim (18:09):

Phil (18:09):

Course. I have a d d I've benefited from therapy. Can I say meds? Meds too? Yeah. I don't know. I don't tell people that a lot, but I feel like that's what people do on these podcasts. So yeah, no therapy. The world of mental health means a lot to me and has made a huge impact on my life and I'm really passionate about it. Like I said, I'm always kind of reading self-help books and then trying to implement that into my therapy. I'm obviously taking continuing ed courses, so learning the research and I'm in my own therapy, kind of managing myself made it like, well, you learn better when you tell people, when you repeat the thing. If you learn something and you just read it and do it, that helps. But if you're also saying it out loud to people that drills it in even harder and makes you more accountable for it and makes you more kind of like, I have to stand behind that if I'm saying it out loud now. So all that kind of felt like natural, that's what I want to do. This is kind of makes sense to me and this is a good way to spend my time and my life that drove me to this world versus what I was doing before.

Kim (19:15):

Do you have any of those wins where a patient, you see that breakthrough and you're like, oh my God, I'm doing exactly what I've meant to be doing in life. They come back and you're like, this is someone who was struggling with this a year ago or six months ago or two years ago, and they had a moment in their life. It could be a small moment, but you feel like you've helped

Phil (19:31):

Them so much. No, that happens all the time. Literally. That's what I love about the work part of the therapy. And I do still do therapy. I run this practice, but I'm also very much actively a therapist. That happens frequently. And I hear from my team members too that those are the special moments where somebody comes in with no direction or real struggle or real challenge, and then could be a matter of weeks or months later that their lives have completely changed and they're so much happier and so grateful for it and they say it out loud. And those are the moments where you're kind of feel like there's some meaning to this and feel like there's some purpose that you're kind of creating a happier life for people. And that means a lot. Yeah, for sure.

Kim (20:11):

That's so cool. I'm a huge advocate of therapy. I always tell my husband, I'm like, you should have written a thank you note to the therapist I was seeing when we were dating. I feel like a lot of the necessary growing up I had was facilitated by good therapists, specifically two good therapists in my twenties and thirties. And even now, I still see a therapist, not as frequent, but I still see a therapist consistently. And I feel like it helps you no matter what. Yeah. No matter how much you feel you need it or don't need it. Yeah, I feel like there's always growth for all of us to have. And I definitely feel like as a parent, I feel like I'm such a better parent because I'm in therapy because I'm more equipped to use language that's more thought out. I feel like I'm a more thoughtful parent because of decisions I'm making.

(21:00):

I'm thinking about them more because when you're in therapy, you're looking at yourself more and you're like, am I getting what I want out of life? And for me, I made a big change to leave a full-time job, but to run my own business. But I want to run my own business in a very specific way. I don't want to work 70 hours a week and try to make seven figures. I mean, someone wants to give me seven figures, that's fine. But I want to build a business that's sustainable that allows me to have freedom with the kids in the summer and just things like that. But I think therapy allows you to identify the things that you want out of life and get closer to it. So anyway, I am a big advocate. All right. My last question for you is for someone listening who wants to start their own practice, whether they want to do three days a week for someone else or whether they want to work three days a week for themselves, sorry, in practice or build a practice where they have clinicians working for them, what advice would you have?

Phil (21:51):

What helped me the most honestly, was having a mentor, having a friend, make friends with someone and learn from them what they do. That doesn't mean find someone successful that you don't know at all and say, Hey, how'd you do this? Nobody is going to do that, right? Or really want to help you. Maybe they're well out of the kindness of their heart, but be nice to them and actually learn and want to be their friend and want to give something back and create a relationship where that will help you to grow. And like I said at the beginning, therapy and psychology, at least for me, and I think for a lot of people, it's all about relationships. And if you can't do that, maybe that's not the right thing for you. Because if you can't build a relationship with a friend and make that grow and thrive, then it's going to be harder for you to do that with a stranger, which is really what you're trying to do in the first place there with that mentorship thing. So that would be a good starting point. And then they'll tell you if they like you. And again, a huge part of therapy is making people like you. They have to you. So test it out there. And then if they're successful and you're close with them, then they'll walk you through it.

Kim (22:56):

And for people who, it's funny, I was just talking to a friend of mine who wants to start doing private practice, but probably on her own for people who are looking to find clients, I have seen from you, it is possible to be finding clients through online. Yeah. Things like that. People don't have to sort of pound the pavement as much as 20 years ago.

Phil (23:14):

No, my practice is, I think, largely digital. The people find us online. So no, a hundred percent you can spend money and get yourself marketed, get yourself high up on Google, get yourself on different platforms. OC is one and Psychology Today, there's a number of different ones where you can definitely get yourself out there. The thing is though, it's still similar to how it was 20 years ago, kind of builds on itself. If you're online and you're spending money and then the first 10 people come once and they had a bad experience, then that's not going to work out so well. But if you are good at it and people like you and they say something nice about you to either their friends or online, then other people will see that and then want to come back. And I think coming into it with some clinical experience, I had thousands of hours of therapy under my belt before I did this, so I kind of had a level of comfort going into it. So I would say if your friend is going to do that, hopefully they have some of that. And they're not just coming from research or a school or something. They've had some experience with private practice and then they can build on that.

Kim (24:18):

And what percent of you and the clinicians are virtual? Is it almost all virtual now?

Phil (24:22):

At this stage, it's almost all virtual. We did open up one office now, and we're in the process of possibly opening up a second one. But really we're enjoying the virtual way. And I think a lot of clients like the convenience of it, but as this covid pandemic seems to hopefully be winding down, there might be more of a demand for people to go in. And so yeah, I'm exploring opening up that second location as well.

Kim (24:48):

Phil, this was so f it was really fun for me to chat with you because I've been following along your path as a friend. And then as this podcast came up, I was like, what Phil's doing is really interesting. And not only are you a very kind person and I'm sure an amazing therapist, which I obviously haven't worked with you cause we're friends. So that would be a breach. Yes. But it's been so cool to see you grow from being a good and talented therapist, to building your own company and figuring it all out on your own. It's just been cool to watch you. So I was excited to interview you. And where can people find you?

Phil (25:20):

Wellness road psychology.com. And we have a Facebook page and an Instagram page, wellness road psychology.com.

Kim (25:30):

I love getting feedback from listeners about the podcast and I love sharing them with you because I feel like this conversation is very helpful for all of us. I had an episode called How I finally Face Down the Hustle Culture Rat Race, and I basically talked about my very complicated relationship with the grind. Mostly that I'm a part of it. And I'm not talking about the MTV show, the Grind. I'm talking about how hustle culture is really hard to escape even when you're trying super hard too. So I got this note. It is from an old friend Jordan. She said, I've spent a lot of time processing and thinking through things as I step back sideways, whatever from my career to work. I really appreciated this episode of your podcast. So keep them coming. I love that we're having this conversation loud and with our friends, our colleagues, our peers, our future friends, meaning strangers right now. But thank you and keep the feedback coming. I love playing it.

(26:25):

Karin Rozell is an author of two business books and creator of the Happy Little Practice Method for Women in Business. With 20 plus years of online education and business coaching experience, she specializes in creating a minimalist private practice that are simple to run in about 25 hours per week. She's on a mission to share the small is the new big philosophy and how Les can truly be more through her classes, coaching and books. Alright, Karen, I'm so excited to have you here because we are talking about how to start a private practice. I would love to jump in and say what are your top tips for people who want to start their own private practice?

Karin (26:59):

Well, I call it the happy little practice method for a reason that we got to start with what makes you happy? Because we don't leave another career in order to replicate the same kind of misery we might have had in the first career. So I always like to start with that happy really is a valid business strategy and that includes how much money do you need to be happy content? And I don't mean 20 million, I mean let's start with what's the smallest amount of money that you would be happy with? And I don't mean getting by, but I mean doing well, living the way that you want to live and how do you want to work what's important to you? You start to define what happy is for you because it may be different than a girlfriend's or a colleagues. And from there you can start to structure around your values. So once we have that set, then we can go and figure out, alright, how are you going to specialize? Because in happy little practice, we're not trying to be the biggest business in town, although some people can choose to scale later. But a private practice is about specializing. So that way you don't have to try to be all things to all people.

Kim (28:08):

Someone already identified what makes them happy, what is the amount of money they feel they need or would make them happy as they start to actually build the private practice, what are the first three things they should do?

Karin (28:20):

You need to figure out who you're going to go for, who are the people that you want to serve, that you want to spend a lot of time with, and what is a problem that they have that how to solve? So that will might end up what we call a niche or niche, but really it's like who are you going to go for? And you can go for by the type of person or the type of circumstance that they're in or a specific issue that they're going for going through. And then how are you going to solve that? So that comes together into a nice message and then you can then put together your service offerings. Okay, maybe I'll have one, two, or three tiers in happy little practice. We like to do one core offer instead of a whole bunch of little offers because it's enough to get one thing. And then I think the third most important thing is figuring out how you're going to reach these people.

Kim (29:13):

How do you find your patients? How do you find your clients? Talk to me about that.

Karin (29:17):

If you don't know how to answer, where to find your clients, you haven't figured out who your client is yet because that will tell you like, oh, I'm going to work with moms who work in tech, for example. And these women have their own online portals and communities and we can find them in groups. That's like part of the thing you like. When you play Monopoly, you cannot go and without collecting $200 because you have to make sure that you know who you're going for. And the way that we do that is once you know who that person is, you only need two strategies. You need a way to find them. Whether you write articles, you decide that you're going to leverage one of your writing strength or you're going to give a signature presentation a variety of different ways, or there's a variety of different ways for you to meet new people that are within your ideal clients. And then we just need a way for you to keep in touch with them. So if you do two of those things, you're good. Great.

Kim (30:16):

And then I love your ideas, write articles, give signature presentations. I feel like a lot of practices are word of mouth. So if you're trying to build on word of mouth, what are your recommendations for people to build upon that?

Karin (30:29):

Well, I think networking works really well for some people. I personally don't love it because it requires a lot of energy for this introvert. But for people who just get a lot of energy for being around others, that's a wonderful way to do that. And it can't, I don't mean I'll sometimes meet people. I mean really having a strategy around it. I'm going to join two networking groups and I'm going to talk to a new person once a day and I'm in and out of stepping aside 30 minutes or an hour every day to create new business by talking to new people. That can be a form of networking. But the thing about networking is this does take time because their relationships and their humans and they need to get to know you and you and trust you.

Kim (31:16):

I think what you were saying about people not liking to network I think is a very, it's a very common thing. A lot of people like hate networking. They envision drag break conference rooms, warm wine, sweaty cheese and things like that. And for introverts is especially painful cause that's not what you enjoy. There's so much happening online. What are some ways that people could effectively find patients or clients online without doing as much in person?

Karin (31:39):

I think what's beautiful, one of the beautiful side effects of the pandemic is everything that we did offline we can do online. So every networking group just about has an online chapter so you don't have to leave your house. And if you're more like me who prefers one-on-one networking that you can do at your own pace without leaving your house, but also you can get a lot of energy from that by just having meaningful conversations. So you find online chapters of networking groups, every one of them. Some of them are exclusively online. You don't, you're not forced to stay within your region or your own town. It can be like, who do? So many of us are split across the country. Our friends from college, our friends from where we've moved to different places. Those all can be kind of an unofficial sales force for you.

Kim (32:34):

Great. So what's next for someone who's building their private practice, they're finding the clients, they're starting to bring them in. What's the next step to building that to be sustainable? What are the next steps that someone needs to think about?

Karin (32:47):

Well, once you have a solid marketing strategy, you have this consistent way of meeting new people and bringing new people into your business. And a portion of those people become clients and the portion of them stay on your perhaps email list and social media and you keep in touch with them that way. And you start to build a full practice. Once you've got to a full practice where you're really kind of starting to max capacity, that's when you can start adding group programs or products or other kind of income streams that are leveraging the patterns, the habits that you starting to see in your client work. I always think a full practice comes first before a group program or any kind of volume offer because that gives you the time and place to get really good at what you do. But also notice like, oh, all these things keep happening to all my clients no matter what. Now I know what to put in my group program that it's going to be successful.

Kim (33:40):

And what does a group program look like for medical health wellness practitioners? What does that look like? What's the format of it? All of that?

Karin (33:47):

There are so many different ways. It can be quite literally, you create a course and you create it once and then you're not doing any live or supportive feature. It can be a course plus hey, twice a month you're answering questions and just being available or every week you're available. It can be more of a membership model where you're opening and closing the doors every quarter or a few times a year and you're available. I have a group membership and it used to be open all the time, but now I notice it works much better if I open the doors and close the doors even though I'd rather not do that because human beings a little bit of urgency or a reason to get off their buttons and do something. So there's memberships, there's courses. It could be something that you run live a few times a year, like an eight week course, or it can be quite possible that you sell books instead or some sort of home study course that quite literally is shipped to them or just done online.

Kim (34:51):

And you recommend getting to max capacity in one-on-one before considering group coaching?

Karin (34:55):

Yeah, I do. Whatever you need to pull off in group, you'll need to have learned by working.

Kim (35:03):

It's interesting, I'm obviously not a doctor or medical professional, but I am an expert in my field in video. And I've found that it's been very helpful from all of my one-on-one teaching video and on-camera media training. That is then where I find the pain points, the struggles to then use for group coaching. And I'm seeing where people in the one-on-ones are all asking the same questions. People in the groups are all asking the same questions. So it's helpful to get that information to then structure it. So I find it's interesting that there's those threads that maintain consistency through different areas of expertise, which is interesting. And then as someone is scaling their business, if they do want to scale it and start bringing on partners or other people, what do you recommend for that?

Karin (35:42):

Well, you can hire people not only for team obvious virtual assistant, but you can also hire other people who don't want to be entrepreneurial, who don't want the responsibility and the risk of doing everything yourself. And so a lot of people do as hire coaches to deliver, to train them in their methodology and to deliver that. In my practice, I don't particularly teach how to scale that. I really, I have figured out how can I stay small and not really have a team besides an assistant or a team of freelancers. So there's options. You don't have to do any of that. You can really stay in private practice and work privately and then start adding like, Hey, I'll write a book series where you don't necessarily have to do more work with more humans, but can still then bring income. And

Kim (36:32):

What are the common challenges or struggles you find with your clients?

Karin (36:36):

I think the number one thing is making decisions. And the second thing is their mindset. And by making decisions, I mean, is this the right thing to do? Should I do this, should I do not? And that's so intimately tied to our mindset. I always feel like if I can just get people to get out of their head and just start trying things and testing things, they figure things out much faster than instead of waiting for confidence, like, wait, okay, I'll, when I'm a hundred percent clear and a hundred percent confident, then I'll do the thing. But that never really happens. Or if it does, it's just for a minute. It just doesn't last. And I always tell my clients, don't make confidence your best friend because it's just such a bad friend. It only comes and goes. Sometimes my business could be doing well, but somebody breathes on me wrong one day and I'm like, oh no, your mind is probably one of the biggest leverage points. If you can learn to have a mindset practice away for every day, not just when you're having a hard time to reframe what you're thinking so that you can keep going.

Kim (37:43):

I agree with that so much because I train people to be confident on camera. But one of the biggest things and how to make better video, the biggest challenge is people just wanting to put themselves out there. Cause it's all the confidence and the self-consciousness. And I think one of the things that I recommend to people is look at the things you've done before. We all have accomplishments and we all have things that were hard that we still got through and we all have challenges. We overcome successes that we can celebrate. And it's not just waiting till you feel good, whether it's physically or mentally, it's just pushing yourself to do things despite not feeling that. And then that's where the confidence comes from. You look back, you're like, wow, look at this thing I did. Now I have a practice or now I launched a group coaching course I didn't think I could seven months ago. Now I do. And I think a lot of it is just looking back at yourself and saying, actually I'm my God, I'm I'm really doing great things. Giving yourself a pat on the back because you're right, confidence isn't. It's a very fairweather friend, but if you can build that up by doing positive self-talk or even just looking at your own resume and your own accomplishments and using that as examples of why you are great and worthy and all of those things,

Karin (38:50):

I also kind of try to remove myself out of the equation. My clients are like, I'm uncomfortable putting myself out there. I'm like, don't look at it that way. I'm not really about getting the attention, but I'll do it for my clients. I'm like, fine, I'll go on that podcast. I'll stand on the stage. I'll do that if it's what it takes to reach you and do the work that I'm here to do, rather than, hey, attention to me.

Kim (39:12):

Yeah, definitely. My biggest tip I give people is get out of that supermodel mode and get into teacher mode. Because yes, we all think everyone's watching us and judging us and looking at our hair and our lipstick color and our clothing. And the truth is, you have to come from the place of teaching. If you're here to serve and especially people in these practices, you're teaching, I'm a creative, but I'm helping people grow their business. I'm actually serving people. I am helping people now. And if I'm holding myself back because I'm feeling like, ugh, I don't look good, I don't feel good, well then I'm robbing people of the opportunity to grow their business. And same with health practitioners, especially if you're feeling so self-conscious, you're not putting yourself in a podcast, you're not putting yourself out there, then you're robbing those people of your help. You believe you can help people. That's why you're doing it. I think it is a little bit of that just shoving aside that supermodel mentality. Nobody's looking at us that much. That's the truth.

Karin (40:03):

Yeah. Otherwise I'm not doing anything.

Kim (40:05):

Yeah, exactly. If I have to wait to be a supermodel, I'll just be sleeping in my bed with my teddy bear for the rest of my life. So I love at the end of the show, sharing a real mom moment. This real mom moment is from me. It's kind of not embarrassing, but just weird. In the fall, I coached my daughter's soccer team. It was a rec league soccer team in Brooklyn, and we had the best time. I was worried it was going to be, there was going to be friction. Being your kid's coach is not always seamless. But it ended up really bringing my daughter and me together and it was such a great moment. But when it came time for the coach's first parents game, my husband and I decided to participate. Even though basically we haven't played soccer since we were 13.

(40:47):

The coaches are like 24 year old graduates of a recent college and they're all like college athletes. So we're talking about really fit people wearing athletic clothing, not just athleisure clothing, but real clothing. Anyway, we had this soccer game. Somehow me and my husband and all of these other parents, like true parents of like five year olds, eight year olds, get on the field, play these legitimate college athletes and somehow we won, which was totally crazy. But here is the story I'm sharing with you today actually. I ended up having a small tear in my a ACL because of that game. And we were really proud. My husband and I were like, we're going to be talking about this soccer win till we're 80. But turns out I ended up having a mini turn my knee. I had to go to physical therapy to handle it. So I'm not sure what the moral of the story is. I'm still glad that we were brave and we did the game. We played the game and we won. But maybe don't play a sport intensely when you haven't played it for 20 years. That's a good moral for that story.

Kim (41:52):

Thank you so much for listening. Make sure to drop a review and if you want to send in a real mom moment that we'll share on the air, check out moms exit interview.com. And if you're a professional or small business owner looking to grow your brand through amazing content with no silly dances and with no burnout, check out my website, kim rit bird.com and you can hit contact to chat with me. And thanks for listening. Like this is the most amazing community. You guys send in the best feedback. So share it with your friends. Let anyone know who you think would appreciate it. And this is Mom's Exit interview. I'm your host and executive producer, Kim rit. The show is produced by Henry Street Media. Jillian Grover edited this episode, and Eliza Friedlander is our editorial producer and publicist. I'll see you next time.

Kim RittbergMay 24, 2023Comment