Are you tired of succumbing to fears of failure, the dread of running out of money, and dealing with licensing boards and the IRS? Join me, Dr. Kate Walker, as I demystify these fears with practice owner and consultant Sarah Rivera LPC-Supervisor and owner of Luz Counseling in San Antonio Texas. She'll be giving us a detailed roadmap to establish a thriving private practice.
Sarah Rivera's experiences span the highs and lows of starting and growing a business. She brings her insightful perspective to our chat, discussing the importance of a growth mindset, the pitfalls of the DIY approach in business, and the value of outsourcing. We also delve into the ethical dilemmas related to pro-rating session costs and the critical need for a written process for discounted rates.
Finally, we examine how to maximize your business growth and efficiency. We discuss the concept of scaling, the importance of streamlining business operations with a strong team and written systems, and how to separate taxes from client payments. We'll also explore the different avenues to grow your business, including leveraging digital platforms and adopting a hands-on approach to business growth. So buckle up and gear up to take your business to a whole new level!
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
Are you tired of succumbing to fears of failure, the dread of running out of money, and dealing with licensing boards and the IRS? Join me, Dr. Kate Walker, as I demystify these fears with practice owner and consultant Sarah Rivera LPC-Supervisor and owner of Luz Counseling in San Antonio Texas. She'll be giving us a detailed roadmap to establish a thriving private practice.
Sarah Rivera's experiences span the highs and lows of starting and growing a business. She brings her insightful perspective to our chat, discussing the importance of a growth mindset, the pitfalls of the DIY approach in business, and the value of outsourcing. We also delve into the ethical dilemmas related to pro-rating session costs and the critical need for a written process for discounted rates.
Finally, we examine how to maximize your business growth and efficiency. We discuss the concept of scaling, the importance of streamlining business operations with a strong team and written systems, and how to separate taxes from client payments. We'll also explore the different avenues to grow your business, including leveraging digital platforms and adopting a hands-on approach to business growth. So buckle up and gear up to take your business to a whole new level!
Get your step by step guide to private practice. Because you are too important to lose to not knowing the rules, going broke, burning out, and giving up. #counselorsdontquit.
Remember what you do for one, you have to be willing to do for all. Hypothetically Right. So if we're giving a lowered rate to someone else because they're a single mom like we, have to have a process for that.
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Dr Kate Walker. I'm a marriage and family therapist practice owner and professor of counselor education, who took a passion for training the next generation of mental health providers and turned it into a multi-six figure business that designs the courses that teach mental health providers how to be clinical supervisors, teaching graduate students and seasoned counselors. I learned about the fears Fears about failing quitting toxic work environments where you're seeing 80 clients a week. Fears about starting a private practice running out of money, getting in trouble by the licensing board, the IRS, you name it. I created the Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses Community so mental health providers like you could have a step-by-step guide and learn actionable steps to achieve the security, freedom and satisfaction of a counseling career you'll love. Look, you had the dream to become a mental health professional. You got the degree. You took the exams, you put in the time. Whatever your business is a private practice. Maybe you want to sell courses, like I do. You're adding clinical supervision. You want to write a book or get paid to speak? Whatever it is, you are too important to your community to lose, to getting in trouble, giving up, going broke and burning out. Are you ready to break through those fears once and for all. I thought so let's get to work.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses, where it's all about working smarter, not harder. And here's your host, dr Kate Walker, who embraces her natural graves. Hey, badass, I know you don't have time to sit in on another boring, outdated webinar for your counseling continuing education, so I wanted to make sure you know about the best deal going in Texas Counselor continuing education Free webinars at Kate Walker Training. Best of all, every webinar is presented after 5 pm. It's completely free and every webinar meets the new Texas Rule mandating that 50% of CEs come from a designated provider. The free webinars are presented by real people, facilitated by yours truly, and there is always an opportunity for Q&A. Here's what we have coming up in the next four months. October 25th I'm presenting a webinar for the supervisor Curious, scared of becoming a clinical supervisor. Attend this webinar and help me get you over your fears and out into the field where you can multiply the difference you make in underserved Texas communities by becoming a clinical supervisor. November 30th, dr Lisa Wines will present Bridging the Gap from Grad School to LPC Associate. This is one of our most popular webinars and I invite professors to tune in with your entire classroom of counseling students. Also, in November, you can start applying for our Counseling Grant giveaway. Last year we gave away over $500 in grants and this year I'm matching that, so we'll hopefully be giving away $1,000 in practice grants to counselors and supervisors serving rural and underserved Texans.
Speaker 2:Need the recording because you can't make it? Don't worry, step it up. Members get the recording converted into an online course that they can take whenever they like. That's right on your schedule. You're the one working your butt off getting your house ready for the high holy days, school plays, fafsa applications, sats and football season all while trying to return all the calls and emails because, well, you're a business owner. So I'm going to make it easy for you.
Speaker 2:Just go to katewalkertrainingcom forward slash free webinar and you can sign up and start attending free training that fits into your life and your schedule. That's katewalkertrainingcom forward slash free webinar. You're too important to lose because you paid too much for courses with tempting titles, sat through boring live trainings and got suckered into live, disorganized webinars. It's time to take the next step in your counseling career Go to katewalkertrainingcom forward slash free webinar and sign up for our next free webinar. Now let's get to work, and Sarah Rivera is not only the owner of La Luz Counseling in San Antonio, texas, she is also the owner of a consulting company where she can help you with all of this stuff. And, sarah, I'm assuming that you will give us some contact information so folks can contact you and get all the things correct.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I'm hoping to lead you guys with a whole bunch of really good nuggets, with private practice and that whole world of just launching and growing and the stuff that I wish I would have known but had to learn the hard way.
Speaker 2:Awesome. All right, I'm going to turn it over to you, thanks.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. Thank you so much again, kate, for having me and really give me a lot of leverage. So I was like so I can talk on like anything I want and this would be okay. I trust you.
Speaker 1:But you know this private practice and launching into that world for just kind of a show of hands I know it's kind of odd, but I'm hoping to kind of click back and forth how many are in private practice now, okay, so I've got a hand full. Keep your hand up, okay, I see you. How many of you maybe want to have a private practice one day but are a little bit scared with how that should go? Even more hands, I think I was definitely there too. So what I'm glad that I'm finding out now is I want to give a little bit for those who are thinking about starting and a little bit for those that are already into private practice. And the way that I'd like to work is I prefer to get the questions as you have them, so don't feel like we have to necessarily wait towards the end. That could delay our process a little bit, and I am okay with that. So I don't want you to forget the question, type it in the chat or flag me down somehow, but once I get into the presentation I may not be able to see you. So feel free to get a hold of Kate somehow and she'll hopefully navigate me if we have any questions that way, okay. So, first and foremost, I'd love to kind of take your attention to my first Fraybee on the list, and I am going to be pulling directly from my website. It is called the counselor's mentor. On the counselor's mentor, you can see that right, front and center. It's private practice support for wherever you are at in your journey.
Speaker 1:The thing that I want to point your attention to is right in the middle, fraybee number one, getting your ultimate private practice checklist. So, on, this checklist is completely free. It'll be downloaded. It just takes a little minute, directly onto the screen once you put in your information. From here, you're going to have a step-by-step checklist that looks like this this, for me, is something that I have used personally and in my launch courses as well, and it gives you a step-by-step process in terms of what to do when you're thinking about opening up your private practice.
Speaker 1:Now, again, this is something that I wish I would have had, so I decided to make it for those that, so you don't have to waste time navigating the things that some of us have already figured out and not to say by any means that I haven't all figured out, but here is a great place to start. So you can see, over here we hit on things like the business model canvas and deciding on a business name. So it really is a line-by-line approach in the decision-making, because I know deep down inside we're all really excited to launch our website. But before we do things like that, it's really important that you have your business model in place. I know for me I skipped, I don't know all the way down here I was like I can't wait to get my headshots. But again, what's first and foremost and more important is making sure that I don't know you have malpractice liability insurance. So what I like most about this list is it kind of will say first this, then this. Like I know you're really excited to do all of the really fun things like buying office decor, but time out really quick and let's make sure that we're navigating different things like setting up a business account. So this is something that I would encourage, regardless of what stage you're at in your practice and, as I mentioned, everybody can kind of see the checklist right. Okay, good. So this is where I would encourage you to go, just to make sure that you have some of those things and you can check them off as you go. All right, let's go ahead and jump in.
Speaker 1:This presentation is actually one of my favorites, because this is something that I kind of compiled because I realized that these were the common mistakes that other people that I was talking to as they were launching into business ownership were making, and I was guilty as well. One of the things that you're going to come to find is that there's a lot of mental health professionals out there who have done things just before you and just behind you, and one of the misconceptions that I hear a lot is that we have to hold off on resources or maybe hoard certain resources, that we have a really saturated industry, and the truth is there's never going to be enough. There will never be enough mental health professionals in this world to be able to help the people that need it. Period. My prayer actually is that one day we will be out of a job, but the truth is it's not likely, not within our lifetime. So mental health in our profession is actually expanding at an enormous rate because we're trying to keep up with the demand of it all.
Speaker 1:So, with that and this idea behind a growth mindset and there's so many one of the things that I did super, super, super wrong and we're going to jump right in is I was so interested in booking my private practice that I found myself saying yes to everyone and wanting to help everyone. Well, that sounds like a really, really great idea. There are some not so great things behind this idea and the concept is that, in speaking to so many or speaking to the masses, is that the one person that you're looking for may not find any of your ability with you. So, for example, if you say I can treat depression and anxiety and bipolar and OCD and we all know that you have some knowledge and foundational and basic awareness of that topic to be able to treat clinically is that who you want? So, when you think about your special, unique, you know, unicorny client, what do they look like and what do they feel like? But unfortunately, what we do because sometimes we function from a scarcity mindset is we say we want to talk to everyone, we want everyone to come, we can help everyone, and that is not the way to go. So, rather than speaking to the masses, what I'm going to be doing is highlighting not just the problem in this mindset but the solutions and ways to deter it.
Speaker 1:So, if you look at the private practice checklist that I just showed you a second ago. Really near on top is going to be something that we call a BMC or a business model canvas, and I want you to think about just the breakdown of those three words individually. A canvas is generally something that somebody paints on, so you're painting an image or a picture, and that's what your business model will be based off of the image or the creation that you have in your mind of what you want your business to look like. Now for those of you, just show of hands who has a business model canvas, if you already have a private practice, you ready? Anybody? No, okay, well, I think I have a spare copy somewhere, so email me. The best way to email me is to find me on the counselor's mentor website. I personally reach out to every single one of the people who get come in contact with my email, so if you send me something, I promise to respond back. So the business model canvas it really has a breakdown of the value proposition that you have, the means and the ways that you want to build your infrastructure or the backstage of your business, and how you wanna showcase that out forward. Now, one of the things that people don't really realize within the business world is that we have an intellectual property, meaning that we don't have products, we can't take pictures of our services, like. There's a lot of things that we have to think so creatively about, and having your business model canvas will help you to be able to do that in a concrete and tangible way. So a BMC is not unique or specific to the mental health industry. So you can literally right now I bet some of you already are on Google and saying BMC, what is a business model canvas? And you'll actually have images that way.
Speaker 1:One really, really great website if you've never heard of it, is called scoreorg Show of hands there. Anybody ever heard of scoreorg Guys? I'm not seeing like any hands. If you don't know it, you've never seen it. I challenge you to take a look at that. It has a wealth of completely free information like free, no strings attached, free they won't even ask for your email address kind of free. And so score is built to support small businesses. So in score they actually have a segment on business model canvas creation or compilation. So I would encourage you to say once you get that form and you're like what the heck is this? There are people out there again who know how to help you. So I want you to take a look at the resources that are out there and really apply them to the front stage.
Speaker 1:Buildup of your private practice this is something that I did so wrong. I think I didn't build my BMC until I don't know like my second or third year. So if you're like in private practice already and you're like, oh my gosh, I have no idea what she's talking about, join the club Like we're gonna be okay, everybody's just gonna be okay, we're gonna deep breath it all and we're gonna be just fine. But the business model canvas will also help to sculpt you so that you're not another me to model. What do you think I mean by me to model? Just kind of think about it. Rhetorical question, I think, because there's a lot of us and I don't know if I could be everybody speak on this. But a me to model is someone that says, hey, the person of the road, I can work with children Me too. Well, I work. People who show up with depression Me too. Well. I can work with couples me too. So what is gonna be the selling point for your potential client when they're selecting you, if you're just like everyone else. So we have to eliminate this idea.
Speaker 1:Behind a me to concept, with mental health building and your private practice and the way to do that, you say, okay, great, this is all sounding, I'm following. How do I do that? Well, it's identifying your niche client or your ideal client avatar. This is something that, if you've been following Kate, she's actually spoken about already. Again, we don't have to reinvent the wheel here. There are people around you who have unique, individual podcasts, worksheets, handouts and books identifying. What does it be and see how do I identify your niche client, how not to be another me to model Like. All of this is already a thing that you don't have to come up with. So if you're looking at all of these solutions and you're thinking I'm so lost, it's okay. There are people like me, people like Kate, who are willing to offer you some additional guidance so that you can be successful, not just as a mental health professional, but as a business owner. Yeah, okay. So with a niche and an ideal client, what I'm hearing and I'm still even learning myself these are different things. That's why they're different bullet points.
Speaker 1:So having an ideal client would be kind of your unicorn client. So, for example, my ideal client avatar is a 15-year-old Hispanic male who has been in alternative school for three times in the past year. He has been raised by his single mother who is at her wit's end because she doesn't know how much more time she can take off of work because of his truancy making some poor decisions, and he is coming to counseling because of some behavioral issues and anger. You say how specific that is, that somebody might even say what's the name of that kid. You would think, okay, this is a real life person. So your ideal client will become so real to you that you may even give them a name and there's some exercises that speak to that so you can identify so clearly who that ideal client avatar is. So that when mom, raised by a single mom, is looking for a counselor for her son, she's gonna look at your website and say that's the one that is the counselor that can help my teenage son with his behavioral problems, versus going to somebody else's website. And they help with postpartum depression and men and women. See how that's gonna be real, different than let me to model or concept. Yeah, so again, rather than speaking to the masses, we don't want you to speak to the masses, we want you to speak to the one, and you can do that by highlighting all of these things.
Speaker 1:Okay, next up. Oh my gosh, this was so me Pinching pennies but losing dollars. I can remember a time when I thought that the best way to go about launching my business was by myself, to start my website design by myself, to start my logo design creation on Canva because that's really pretty, to do all of the things for free and hence save money. How many of you have ever been in that boat where you're like I'll just do it. I see a hand out there, maybe a couple of head nods, maybe a little ha ha ha, because you're there now, it's okay. No judgment, but the truth is that this DIY mentality is a serious struggle to people like us in our field.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I've come to find at being surrounded by mental health professionals is that we are a bunch of go-getters Like seriously, most of the time. Really try achievers. I bet that when you were in school. Maybe you are still in school, but I bet when you were in school, if you got a 98 on something, you were probably mad. Don't lie, you know that was you Right, because you were two points away from that hundred or from acing it for the record a 98, isn't it? But we are used to really functioning at these really high levels and rates. That's how we roll. We're used to doing well.
Speaker 1:So when we turn our attention to our business, what I come to find is that many people stick with that mentality Is, maybe if I study more or read more or inundate myself with information, I'll be really good at this task. But one of the things that I came to find is that, no matter how much I read on websites like SEO, I'm still like what I know that Kate was just talking not too long ago about, like blog development, right, and like heading one and heading two and like all the things meta description which, for the record, I'm still learning about, and I've been writing blogs for like five years. Like that's a thing, because in my mind, what I was doing at the startup of my business was I was saving money, but what I realized? That in saving money I was actually losing time, and in losing time, that is money. So, as a mental health professional, we can charge anywhere from, let's just say, 85, $75, upwards of $200 for a mental health counseling session, Right?
Speaker 1:So how much is your time really worth? How much is one hour of your time worth? Let's just say $120. That's how much you would charge a client for one hour of your time $120. So how much time did you just spend on that website? Three hours, two hours. So how much did that really cost? You say nothing. It didn't cost me anything because I'm saving this money. But in reality, if you'd just spent three hours on this task three hours that you could have been with another client or two or three you've actually just lost $360. On places like Upwork, you can find somebody to work on your website for $15, $20 an hour. So you could have, in essence, paid somebody out five or six hours to do exactly what they were trained to do, which is website design and creation. Save yourself a huge amount of dollars rather than pinching pennies. Lots questions, anybody?
Speaker 2:I gotta say something, Sarah. I was just in a presentation today. Facebook and Google is marketing to DIYers with things like Boost Post. Like, when you click Boost Post and you just do, oh it's only $10 or it's only $20, that's like Vegas, that's like penny slots. They are praying marketing to you. And if you do the same thing with Google ads, they're actually gonna put you in the logistics. You know the word that calls you a learner? Like, if you spend below a certain threshold, you won't get seen by anybody because Google is categorizing you basically as a low spender. So I just wanna throw that out there, because they figured the DIYers out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it is a world out there, right in a world that we're constantly chasing like for y'all. How many of this was new information to you? I'm gonna raise my hand. What Kate just said? No information to me, too. Right, because we don't know what they're talking about. They know what they're talking about, so we really have to trust somebody that is an expert in their field, just like we are experts in our field of mental health therapy. Other people have experts in their field with website design and creation, with SEO, with Google advertisements. So there's a world out there that attends what we do have to trust. We have to do our full investigation, but we do have to trust that somebody knows more than us and what we're talking about with this business developmental aspect.
Speaker 2:Someone's into the chat. That's one of my struggles finding someone to do my website. The worry I have is finding someone who is good and won't take advantage of my lack of knowledge and this is where Networking can go such a long way.
Speaker 1:So what Kate has built is a network and a supportive community of like-minded individuals. That the likelihood of you asking a question like this in a group or a setting where there's 50 people, a hundred people the likelihood is there's at least one or two people in there who say I have a guy, I know someone. This person did my website. Feel free to take a look. I Again, I'm a firm believer, just like Kate is, with an open hand Policy here. Like, whatever is here, you're more than welcome to take. Sometimes you have to pay for it, let's be real, but like, sometimes it's here. And so I do actually have another section on my website that has a list of referrals. So I've got suggested podcasts to listen to, you suggested books to read that I found really helpful, and Suggested outsourced partners. I call them outsourced partners because I've used them before and I found a lot of positive experiences as a client or consumer of their products. So, claudia, I know someone, right, sabrina, I know someone. So in the event that you do know someone, share that. Like I said, I respond to every single one of my emails and Most people. One way to figure out if they are legitimate or not. They'll have a portfolio, right. So professionals have a portfolio that usually have people to attest to the type of service they offer, pay attention to those reviews and also find Companies or platforms that have a positive reputation. So things like Upwork Like they've been around for a little while you have to do your due diligence, but even as a consumer on Upwork, you can see the reviews that others have left behind. So all of that. But, yes, feel free to email me and I will give you the referrals. If I know anybody. I will definitely do my best, okay.
Speaker 1:So what is a solution here? Right? Instead of pinching pennies and losing dollars, we have to take a look at what the potential return on investment is. How many of y'all have heard of something like ROI, roi, okay, great. So I don't want to spend too much time on that. I saw way more hands up to that question than I have in the past.
Speaker 1:But taking a look at how much you're gonna get as a result of this time, one other thing that I have yet to do is Budget for my business. When it comes to certain marketing things, guys, I'm telling you I'm still learning as we go, but one of the things that I really wish I would have done a lot sooner is Is allocating certain budgeting funds and money for things like a marketing plan, things like website design and creation. So if you say I don't even have any money yet, we'll start saving now, it's okay. You don't have a timeline here. There's no life. You have to do it by this date. I mean, I don't know many deadlines that we would make and the likelihood of you creating that deadline is pretty high. So you can always adjust the deadline.
Speaker 1:But taking a look at starting to save a little bit, because a little bit will go a long way. So, setting a budget for different aspects of your business and you say what aspects of my business Do I need to be budgeting for? This is where your business model canvas comes in. Do remember we were talking about the BMC a little bit earlier on. This will tell you the things that you are trying to save for. Because you say how much money do I need? Well, generally, we're gonna have two categories of items within our business. In one category we have expenses that are gonna be continuous. They're monthly, right, so they're gonna come every month rent your EHR system, your phone system, your email, maybe paying for your domain All of those are gonna come like clockwork every month, every year. Then we have a one-and-done type of thing that we need a budget for, for example, like your logo. My hope is that you're gonna put some thought and effort into your logo design, into your business name, right? So you're going to make sure that it's not trademarked by anyone else.
Speaker 1:I've got a terribly fun story about trademarking Terribly. It was really terrible, if I'm being honest, but when I had to go through a rebranding stage, I created a business name. Somebody else took my business name and was trying to get most up. Yeah, not fun. So what did I have to do? I had to hire a trademark attorney not fun. But again, if I had certain things in place Before hand, we would have been able to nip it in the bud a little bit sooner. We're good. I still have the business name that I wanted, but it was not fun. That was like a one-time deal, right. So he trademarked my company on a national level and so we're good to go.
Speaker 1:So you have to take a look at your budgeting design and see how much am I gonna need every month, every year, and how much is just kind of like a one-and-done type of thing. Yeah, we've already talked a little bit about your time and what that's worth. Mental health professionals notoriously Underestimate how much their time is worth like really sad. And when I say like seriously and grossly Underestimate, I'm talking like 50% to a hundred percent less than what I would say. Your clinical time and expertise is worse. Kate, would you agree that in your business experience and working with mental health professionals that we notoriously like Lower our rates and we don't feel confident in some of the rates that we set?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna answer that by telling you how much I'm gonna pay for a hair consultation tomorrow. I'm gonna pay two hundred dollars for just a hair consultation Because it's important to me. So that's how you're worth more than what you're charging everybody.
Speaker 1:Thank you for saying that. And if we thought about an entire list of things that we often freely pay for, from maybe I mean for the ladies and maybe even some gentlemen out there but like getting your eyebrows shaped or getting your hair touched up or your nails I don't have any nails, but if I did, I probably would pay money for it you know what I mean. Like, think about all of that and how we don't even blink to some of those things. But here we are talking about significant life change and putting our dollars so so, so low. My prayer to you with it is that there's a generational positive impact as a result of one person's change. How many of you are with that? Right that by helping one person, your hope is that it'll positively impact the family system, future generations and maybe generations beforehand, right? So we're talking about significant life change and here we are throwing 150 bucks out for a massage. Like I think we can make this happen.
Speaker 1:Of course, assess your market. Take a look at what the not even the others around you are doing. That's not what I'm saying. But we take a look at the market in terms of the demographic location that you're in, what type of expertise and services you're offering. That, the time frames of the type of services that you're offering. Are you working on evenings and weekends? Is it group counseling? Is it family therapy? All of that is gonna play in to setting your rate. So identify what is your time worth and keep that in perspective the next time a website developer says that's gonna be $140. And you say to do my entire landing page, yeah, deal, deal. Okay, all right, we are moving on A party of one. Okay, this is also what we were talking about. Just a second ago.
Speaker 2:You got a good question, Sarah, On the topic of rates. Do you find that your ideal client, like the example of a boy being raised by a single mother, can afford the rate?
Speaker 1:Depends on the rate, and here's one of the things that I like to challenge on is will this be an insured individual or an uninsured individual? Are they accessible to you based off of demographic location? Is there a type of grant or contract that you can create with others, a partnership? I'm in San Antonio, texas, and recently our Metropolitan gave out like millions, millions of dollars. I didn't get any of those millions, but millions of dollars of grant funds that you didn't have to pay back to these agencies. So we were talking about contracting with a partnered agencies to see how we can help one another. So there are some solutions out there.
Speaker 1:But, yes, we have to take into account the concept behind somebody who may not have financial access to this. But I'm not suggesting lower your rate. One thing that I might suggest is pro-rating your amount. Right? So we all have. They're called 90837. So 53 minutes or more, that's a full session. If you were to lower that session to 45 minutes, you can offset some of that cost by pro-rating that amount. Okay, for the sake of math, let's just say you charge $100 per session. Okay, that is for an hour of time. We'll say 90837, cpt code. Now, if you're only doing a 45 minute session, right, that's we're talking in quarters a 45 minute session. Then now you can charge them $75 for a 45 minute session, right? So we also got to think about the ethical implications behind that. Is that enough time for this individual? ["sweat or Weather"] ["Sweat or Weather"].
Speaker 2:It's Sweat or Weather, and while we may still have a few days in the 90s here in Texas, I'm gonna put my Uggs on anyway, even if I have to turn on the fan when I'm watching UT kick Alabama's butt on the big screen at the neighbors down the street. And what's better than Sweat or Weather? How about taking the next step in your counseling career and getting your clinical supervisor designation? We all know that counselors need quality continuing education courses full of great information that will help them build their career, protect their license, grow a practice and stay out of trouble. Oh, and bonus points if the course is not boring and outdated but the real barrier to finishing a course that could lead to your supervisor designation. You, my bad ass, are busy saving the world with excellent therapy, so for you to get the training to improve your practice and your skill set while still caring for people, your choices are compromise your work week life balance with overwhelming, boring, outdated online courses, or pay for a live training. But if you have to miss work to travel, then you just doubled the cost of that course.
Speaker 2:Let me make it easy for you. I host the only online 40 hour LPC LMFT supervisor training that can lead to the supervisor designation in Texas. And in the month of October I'm giving you the two hour 2023 rules review with the latest update as a bonus when you purchase that course from me. The rules review is not available to the general public for purchase, but you get it free when you purchase the 40 hour supervisor training in October. Want to see if you're eligible for your supervisor designation? It's easy. Just go to katewalkertrainingcom forward, slash 40STC. That's katewalkertrainingcom. Forward, slash the number 40. So a four and a zero STC. I'm going to say it one more time katewalkertrainingcom forward, slash 40STC.
Speaker 1:If the answer to that is no, they really a full one hour session, maybe once or twice a week. Then we have wonderful community agencies that can help individuals who are in that situation.
Speaker 2:There are other business models too. We're not the only business who has this issue and this dilemma. So there are ways. Also, if you wanted to provide pro bono services, like you're talking about with the pro rated rates, you can have certain hours dedicated to that. You can have certain days dedicated to that. If you're a supervisor, you can help your associates provide those services. You can get grad students who are in their internship to provide those services. There are lots of ways to impact your community. It just doesn't have to be your whole caseload at that rate. So don't throw away your ideal client because it's not jiving with your rate. There are ways you can still meet the needs of your community, but that's a whole other conversation, absolutely.
Speaker 1:But I think Katia is really hitting on the level of creativity that we actually can have in this profession, as long as it's done ethically, as long as it's done in writing and there's a process or procedure for what it is that you're about to share with one. Remember, what you do for one, you have to be willing to do for all. Hypothetically. So if we're giving a lowered rate to someone else because they're a single mom, we have to have a process for that. So it has to be something that's in writing, that was delivered to them, hard, concrete, that they signed off on, and if somebody else is in that same position, they're afforded that same opportunity. I mean, it's one thing if your caseload is full and you say I can't because I can't, but it's really, really important that you do have things in writing so that you don't unintentionally position yourself for a complaint. And here we are using our malpractice liability insurance. So make sure that you're not just doing this out of the kindness of your heart, like emotions will get us in trouble in business. Yeah, I said it, your emotions can get you in trouble in business. So sometimes we have to calm the emotions down and say hold on, I see you. I know you're feeling really sad because single mom is really struggling, but we have to have a process in place so that everybody is treated equally and furtherly and it's always something in writing, ok. So this whole idea we already kind of touched on it about DIYing your way through, we really have to dismantle that For most of us. Again, I'm not a good marketer. I am like I don't sell things well. I think if my life depended on it, I'd rather us be friends than me sell you something Like I don't like it. I'm not good at it and I don't want to act like I'm good at it and sometimes the things that I am good at, I really don't like doing. So we have to think about the things that you enjoy. For some of you, you say I love marketing, I love meeting new people and I love dropping off my stuff and making relational connections. Like that is awesome, keep doing you. For others, you can say I actually really really like blog writing because it's really enjoyable for me. Great, keep doing what you enjoy doing. But we also have to make sure that you're doing it well and that there is a return of investment. So if you say I love dropping off these marketing items to the people around me. Ok, and how many clients has that generated for you? You say I don't know.
Speaker 1:That falls into our KPIs, our key performance indicators. It's part of your metrics. You have to keep track of this stuff. So when somebody gives you a call, sets up a new appointment, it is imperative that you say may I ask how you sound out about me? It is an absolute must because that's going to build in to the numbers that you're tracking for your business.
Speaker 1:So if you keep on hearing Dr So-and-So I don't even know a Dr So-and-So, but cool and then three days later, oh yeah, I got your number from Dr So-and-So You've got to pause and say I need to find out who this Dr So-and-So is and who told him about me and maybe sent a little like I don't know. Go over there and offer more items and say can I speak to your people? Offer a free self-care training for your employees? What can you do to reinforce that relationship? But you won't know that until you ask your clients how are you hearing about me? So, ok, that's another just kind of like. I'm just like throwing a little bit of stuff in here, so, forgive me, I just get really excited and I want you to be successful in private practice. I really do. If that's in your heart, I want you to do it and I know you can do it. But there is a method to the madness. We can't just jump in and be like, let me wing it. Well, I guess that's kind of what I did, but it was so stressful and I don't want you to do that.
Speaker 1:So, coming back to some of the solutions is who can do what you don't really like to do? Who can do that? Well, for example, I know Canva is a lot of fun for us. It really is. It's really cool. That's actually how I did this presentation. But Canva is not good for unique logo design development. There are actually really creative people out there who that is their job. It's called brand development, so part of your brand may come a little bit later, but that logo, that design, needs to be unique to you, so there's no chance for anybody else on the face of this planet to have that same design.
Speaker 1:I want you all to really consider the expertise and the specialties of what a business compilation looks like, from color design and branding, logo design and branding, marketing in person, marketing within a network, marketing on your website, marketing with Google ads. All of those sometimes have very seasoned individuals who work for them Like that is their job and that's what they do, and a lot of them will do really, really well. What am I saying? I want you to get rid of the DIY. I know Most of you are like I can totally DIY and I bet you can, but how much time will it cost and does it look really really good? Does it look like the person next to you? Remember, we don't want to do another Me Too model. If I see another Lotus flower on a logo, I think I'm going to scream. Why do people choose Lotus flowers? Because they're pretty, I get it. I get it. We're all about growth. I get it. I get it. But guys, enough like a Lotus flower, right, because it's just another Me Too model. I make a mistake.
Speaker 1:My first brand colors for Sarah Almondadas counseling. My name isn't even Sarah Almondadas anymore. I got married. Yeah, fun fact, okay. So I named my practice Sarah Almondadas counseling and my colors for Sarah Almondadas counseling were purple. Why? Because that was my favorite color. I'm telling you this because I did it so wrong, wrong. Why did I do it like that Because I did it myself and I knew no better. Now you know better. I'm not saying you can't build your business off of your night, that's not worth anything. But if there's any chance of you potentially changing your name, I want you to think twice about it, you know, hence me.
Speaker 1:Another thing is this you're thinking about growth. We have to have things that are sustainable and scalable Conversation for a different day. But I would so much rather you begin systems that you can build on, and sometimes we need to be taught what systems to use. Yeah, okay, here is the website. I think this is still live, but this is a specific page that I said I have like books on there and like referrals and recommendations of people, and if it's not on there, I will do my best. But ask more than just me, right, ask your friends. Take a look at different websites and say that looks really cool. Like, may I ask who did that for you? Who did your logo design? Who did your website? Do you mind sharing? And guys, so many in the mental health fields are now having that open hand policy and they're saying, yeah, I'll tell you their name. Oh, yeah, they're great or don't? I know it looks good, but it was so expensive and not worth it. So trust the people around you, start asking questions and start trying to find some of those answers. Okay, this is kind of it in a nutshell, the three things that I did wrong. So we're going to do that one more time.
Speaker 1:Speaking to way too many people, remember, we're trying to hit on a certain market. Did you know that you can run a caseload, a full-time caseload, for about 40 clients a month, 40 clients a month? I would venture to say that you can forever have a lifetime caseload of around 60. Then you say you're seeing these people for the rest of their lives. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, once they see you, they see how you work, they see the outcome, they're living, breathing, walking advertisements for you.
Speaker 1:Have you ever heard of people saying I'm not taking on any new clients? And you're like how do they do that? Or I have a wait list and you're like I want to get to that point where I have a wait list. It's so much more doable than you realize. I no longer am taking on new clients, I don't have a wait list. We don't believe in wait lists in our practices. But I remember that point when I said I'm no longer taking on new clients because the clients that I had five years ago they kind of cycled back. It's the most interesting thing. I used to work extensively with children and teenagers. Now that I've been in practice for a little while, they're coming back to me as adults Five, six, seven years later. Hey, nisara, just wanting to work on some things Wonderful. They then kind of cycle through and out. You're not looking to replenish a caseload that you're like oh my gosh, I ran out of people.
Speaker 1:Those people will speak to other people about the work that you did. If you specialize in divorce, treating those impacted by divorce that didn't want it, they're going to hit a friend or two that can say this divorce has been so terrible, I don't know, it's so bad. That person's going to say I remember when I went to Diana Johnson and she helped me so much through my divorce and she'll say what can't give me her information? Yes, I can give you her information. Here you go and so they things will start telling others about their unique experience. That is your ideal client. Ideal clients talk to ideal clients. Did you know that? So if I have a teenager who was just acting a fool. I'm telling my girlfriend, who has a teenager, and say I don't even know what to do with my kid. She's like I know somebody. She helped my kid when. And so if you're honest and truthful about your ideal client avatar, ideal client avatars, talk to each other. It's very interesting how it all levels out.
Speaker 1:Remember this idea too. Behind pinching pennies but losing dollars, just remember how valuable your time is. You don't have a lot of time as a business owner. You will lose time. I don't know where the time goes. I've had to do multiple time trackers. I think I have a template for that too. A timesheet tracker is something that tracks your time. I know Crazy, right, okay, so it's broken down into 15 minute increments. So if you say I don't have time, I don't know where my time is going, remember we're trying to preserve your time as a business owner. Find out where your time is going. You break it down into 15 minute increments and boy did I realize. How long did I need to be drinking coffee for twice a day? You think I'm only drinking coffee twice a day at 15 minutes. That's 30 minutes Like 30 minutes you're drinking coffee Like. Is that really necessary? I say to myself, no, that's unnecessary. So you start seeing where you're losing out on that time your rule for myself early on, sarah, I got to share this.
Speaker 2:If it was taking me longer than 30 minutes to figure something out, you know some sort of HTML code or some kind of algorithm with Google or some kind of SEO mystery. If I was like getting into the weeds and I was Googling and I look at a clock and I'm like, oh, I'm 30 minutes in, I made myself stop because I was crossing a threshold to. I'm trying to become an expert and I'm never going to reach the point where I'm expert enough, so I'm going to pull back and that was where I would spend my money. So things like accounting right, or website design or SEO, like those, are three key areas that seemed.
Speaker 2:I don't even want to talk about Canva. I mean, that's just like that's crack. That is like heroin for me. I just, you know I have to set a timer, otherwise I will get sucked in. And I look at the clock and it's like two hours gone and where's the time gone right there? So set yourself a rule. Everybody you know. If it's something where you're finding that, okay, I'm going to have to Google four more websites and watch five more YouTube videos to understand what code makes it. Jump down to the bottom of the page. You probably need to spend some money.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And again, this isn't just Kate and I saying oh my gosh, it's just us two girls, like no. This is unfortunately like how our brains are wired and because we are used to achieving things so well, you're used to being very studious and applying yourself to learning new things. Right, right, I know that's how you are. So in this case, though, it could be really dangerous when we're hitting it to the business industry of things, because there's a lot of things that being a mental health professional will never prepare you for being a prior business owner. There are some things that'll generalize, but being in the mental health industry, you can see it doesn't generalize.
Speaker 2:Diana has a question, and so this is a pretty common marketing issue, right? How do I like? Fill in the blank, right? So Diana is asking how to promote a certain program or develop group programs. What do you think?
Speaker 1:Sarah, for me, in terms of promotion, you have to have an audience, right. So how did? How does Kate promote the things that she's doing? How does it get to you? Think about that. Is it on Facebook? Is it an email? Did you see something somewhere? What was it? Well, you were part of her audience, right. So somewhere along the way you became her audience and then you got plugged in. So you can't get plugged in with Kate if there's no word to say. I want to plug into this, right? So there's a channel there.
Speaker 1:Your business model canvas talks about channels. So Kate has created different channels so that you can stay connected to her. So when she has an event or something to promote, she accesses that channel. There has to be people on the channel. You have to build your audience, right, and we have to ask permission to do so. So, for example, we are, I think, almost at 300 clients served to date, right, but they're not all part of my newsletter. I would allow for them to be all part of the newsletter, but they have to opt in for the newsletter, right? So just because they like y'all, I cannot add you all to my newsletter for the counselor's mentor, right? You have to give me permission, I have to create a channel in order for you to get connected to that. So once you make a connection, then you can inform your audience of something that is of value. It's called a value proposition. That is also in your business model, canvas Great question.
Speaker 2:So actually, so I was in my own business, coaching, and this came up. Somebody wanted to. It wasn't a group, but they wanted to promote a course they were selling and it was the same thing. How do I put it out there so people will find it? And we started brainstorming a little bit and we figured out she had a waitlist and we were like what if we gave the people on her waitlist an opt in? And the people, when they opt in, they get a series of emails and one of those emails says hey, if you would like to join the course.
Speaker 2:But in the case of you, diana, it would be like the group hey, you know what, while you're waiting to be seen, you can always join this group. And even if this person didn't join the group, they might tell five friends who are your ideal audience. Or they might tell the president of the PTO at their school hey, this lady has a waitlist but she's got these groups and it's half the price of going to an individual therapy session. So, thinking about, like you can't think like a therapist when you're trying to get people to come to you? Right, you can't say I had used 15 different modalities.
Speaker 2:And, diana, I'm not saying you do this. You have to say are you having trouble getting out of bed? And then you write blogs about getting out of bed. And then you write blogs about getting out of bed during the holidays and during the wintertime and what else. When you don't get out of bed, well, maybe you're also not doing your dishes. So that will build this audience and then, when you're ready, you can give them hey, I'm starting this group. The next time it opens it is in six months. So you create the sense of urgency and it's not like you're selling a used car. I mean, you are an expert, you're offering a valuable, valuable service. You're just trying to get it in front of the right people who need you at the right time. And the way to do that is to do like what Sarah is saying. It's got to be audience first. Then, ok, here's this thing I've got for you. You're going to love it.
Speaker 1:And Kate. I think you just kind of answered and touched a little bit on Linda's question as well as giving an example of how you market to your unicorn client. So if that was Kate's unicorn client, we can all kind of use our counselor hat to say she's probably talking about somebody who's impacted by some form of depression. Right, they're not getting up and out, they are not motivated, they're sleeping too much, they're staying in bed too long, Like we can kind of deduct. Is there some depression going on or some depressive like symptom here? A significant life event grief, right? So that is really appealing to a certain kind of unicorn client. So once you can identify your unicorn client, you seem like your unicorn client. For the record, we are extraordinary at there are some suggestions that we can be one of the best marketers on the face of the planet.
Speaker 2:We wrote the books. I mean, that's what marketing is. It's like they're drawing on all the psychology, right, Serena? I skipped your question. It says in your experience talking to you, Sarah, in your experience, once you get a hang of running a business, is it better to scale up parentheses? Is it a might as well type of situation for you, Sarah? Does that usually mean you will spend more time with admin work versus sessions?
Speaker 1:So this is, I guess, one of those coaching questions that I would first have to ask. In your opinion, what does scaling mean? Does that mean scaling the amount of client service, scaling in terms of having multiple locations? Scaling in terms of income or revenue? What does scaling mean to you? For me, scaling was trying to reach more people, right? That, for me, involved having a team, because I can only do so much as one person. The first thing that I had to do to scale, however, was I didn't need help, right, because you can only scale so far by yourself. You can only work so many hours, especially within the private practice world.
Speaker 1:25 is about private practice. Full time. 30, question it. I prefer to croons. I don't like, I don't know. 18, but that's just me. Now I only see about seven to eight clients a week, and then, in terms of admin, I usually probably only do another maybe six or seven more from that. I'm cart time now, but it's because my business is running itself. That gives me time to do other things that I really enjoy.
Speaker 1:So it is definitely not a might as well type of situation, because it does have to be very well-intentioned and very well thought out to scale right. We don't just like, oh, that just happened by accident. Nothing good happens generally on accident, right? So you have to really think about what does scaling mean first? And in order to scale, you must streamline your systems. I call it the three S's. So you streamrate your systems in order to scale. I guarantee there won't be no scaling if you don't have streamlined systems, meaning somebody else. So if any one of you came to work for me which obviously you're not, because you're going to have your own business, but if you did, you should be able to follow my systems because they're written somewhere, they're ready to go for you, they're streamlined, right. So it's not like, well, you can try this way and then you can try that way and that no, like I'm telling you here it is, this is how we do it. So it has to be streamlined enough for a complete stranger to be able to jump into your business and know what's expected. That's how I knew it was time for me to scale.
Speaker 1:Great question. I am going to jump off of this because I think we're kind of having really good conversation and I only have a few more minutes, so please, any other questions? I feel stuck Actually. I'm looking at Daniela. I said okay, daniela, I'm going to read this out. I feel stuck. I just don't know much about accounting. I'm saying say my client comes and pays you for a session. When that money goes to my business account, how do I separate the taxes for that session? First question Okay, so as a business owner again, not an accountant, not accounting advice discrepancy we generally want to put in anywhere from 20 to 30 percent away for taxes.
Speaker 1:There is a accounting firm that is geared towards mental health and they called Join CURD, j-o-i-n-h-e-a-r-d. Join Herk and they have really great blogs. So I'm not saying sign up for their services, go to the blog portion and they have how do I pay quarterly taxes? How do I figure out quarterly taxes? I really love that they do this because they're an accounting firm. So sometimes going to a reputable company and looking at the resources available on their website, it'll tell you how much. But generally that 20 to 30. So if I just had a session, it was $100, 20 percent of $120, it's going to go to my bank account and I'm going to put it in my savings account because I don't want to touch it. It's not mine, it belongs to the IRS, it belongs to the government. Then I keep the $80 and that's in my business account. So it's completely separate.
Speaker 1:Do I need quick books apart from simple practice, or simple practice enough to keep track of my books? Simple practice is an online software system, not to be confused with an accounting system or bookkeeping system. Will it help you track your reports and your numbers? Yes, but it is not a bookkeeping system. So generally you need an online software keeping system, not to be confused with an electronic health record system, online record keeping, and then we have some type of accounting like quick books, or join her, like the one that I was telling you. There's quite a few out there. You could even use somebody local or someone that you trust you can hire out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question how do I identify my client's info from the bank account? Simple practice and quick books. I can only speak to simple practice, but it's generally a lump sum, so it's not broken down by client name. It is taken based off of how much you generated within that day. So if Kate was my first client and then Adeline was my second client and then Cheryl was my third client, it's not going to say their names, it's just going to say 300 bucks, then that gets 3 percent taken out. Yeah, 3 percent. I know it's a lot right.
Speaker 3:And like if I were to pay with my credit card for my therapy session, like doesn't the person who's receiving my money also getting my name, my account number, things like that? Like I just don't know how that works.
Speaker 1:You have a HIPAA compliance system and generally that's completed with something called a business associate agreement, a BAA. There's a lot of companies that are very well aware of HIPAA compliance and the need for maintenance of confidentiality and privacy and that's done through business associate agreements. So things like simple practice have that. So you sign it with them and they say got it. So they're bound to the same expectations of HIPAA and regulations of noticing private privacy practice policies, just the same way we are. So I need that with my bank too.
Speaker 2:Your bank is going to see the names. Your bank, they're just going to see the cash. Okay.
Speaker 2:Right, so that's yeah. And so anything like QuickBooks won't sign a BAA, but there are other accounting programs that will. So if you're using an accounting program that doesn't sign a BAA, that's when you need to de-identify the information, and you can Google de-identifying PHI, hipaa, and there's a whole page on how to or what they look for. But yeah, I mean, daniel, you're on the right track, trying to find better ways, especially when money's changing hand, generally nobody sees your client name. They see like the last four of the credit card I can't even access. Once I input my client's credit card, I can't see anything. All I can see is the last four. So, all right, we've got to wrap it up, sarah. Any parting words?
Speaker 1:of wisdom for everybody. Don't feel like you had to figure this out by yourself. When, in doubt, ask around, just ask, like what's the worst that happens. They don't respond back Like okay, then we move on. You know what I mean. But ask around to the people who are just right ahead of you and remember what this feeling feels like right now, because there will be somebody who's right behind you, who's going to need you at that point. Yeah, so remember, if everybody can just give a little, take a little, give a little, it'll be just a wonderful dynamic of fluidity and everybody being successful and supporting one another to completely eliminate the competitive mindset. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I'm glad you say that and I love the information. Everybody. If you're a Facebooker, you can go to Texas counselors creating bad-ass businesses and find Sarah and lots of other people who will answer your question. They'll answer it. I mean it's crazy, I know, but they'll literally just answer your questions. You can tag, you can do whatever they are kind, they are nice. Anybody gets snarky. We kick them out of the group. I'm not even kidding, so don't worry if your question sounds. There's just no such thing as a dumb question. Excellent, sarah. Thank you again so much for being one of those people who shares. I appreciate you so much. Everybody. Keep doing wonderful things. You're too important to lose to not know in this stuff, so ask. I'm Dr Kate Walker. Have a wonderful evening. Bye. ["the Bad Asses"].
Speaker 2:Hey, bad Asses, we can all agree that counselors want a path to a successful counseling career, but that means you have to find quality training. That's not even the real barrier. The real problem is a lot of information can be overwhelming and you, my Bad Ass, are busy. So you're probably asking yourself how can I improve my practice while still caring for people? How do I grow my skill set, become a supervisor without losing my work-life balance? How do I find quality training that won't cost too much time and money? Bottom line counselors who want a successful counseling career value the goal of growing their skill set and even becoming a supervisor, but at the same time struggle with finding time to attend quality courses. Counselors can't overcome this barrier because so many times, courses with tempting titles over promise and underperform. Let me ask you something what if there were courses that delivered exactly what they promised, that didn't take a lot of time and didn't break the bank? That's exactly the kind of course we design at Kate Walker Training. I specialize in helping you grow your skill set and career with quality courses on demand, and we have so many to choose from.
Speaker 2:If you're asking yourself, where do I go if I want to sustain my practice and grow my marketing presence? Well, check out the Step it Up membership. What do you do if you're ready to pay it forward and add streams of income? Well, check out the supervisor training, see if you're eligible. If you're looking for an experience that's more hands-on, keep an eye out for open enrollment for Badass Basics and our exclusive mastermind groups. I'm Dr Kate Walker. Thank you so much for listening to Texas Counselors creating Badass Businesses. Thank you to Ridgely Walker for her lovely voiceovers at our introduction and do me a favor when you get a second. Please like, share and subscribe and write us a review. That's really how we get picked up by other RSS feeds and we get this information out to the mental health badasses who need it. Thanks again and keep saving the world with excellent therapy.