80 Grow Your Private Practice: Proven Strategies from Dr. Kate Walker and Joseline Aguilar, LPC

Navigating the leap from structured agency work to the exhilarating world of private practice can feel like a tightrope walk over ethical quandaries and financial uncertainties. Jocelyn Aguilar joins me on a journey that traverses these high stakes, sharing her unique perspective as a pioneer in online counseling for Christian women confronting anxiety. Together, we confront the hard-hitting questions every mental health entrepreneur faces: How do you build a practice that balances the books without compromising on care? Can you truly marry income with integrity? Our conversation is a treasure trove of insights for those ready to find out.

What does it mean to keep your financial engines running while charting a course through the choppy waters of private practice? In a profession where time is your currency, we dissect the concept of passive income, cutting through the noise to bring you actionable strategies, like office space rentals, that complement your primary business. I open up about my experiences, from the incremental growth of early mornings to the calculated risks of side hustles, offering a compass to therapists who are steering their businesses towards sustainable shores. Let's decode the dilemmas of time management and income diversification.

Finally, the episode shifts gears, focusing on the roadmap for growth and strategic planning essential to any business venture. Whether it's the cautious calibration of financial milestones or the ethical considerations during practice expansion, we're revealing the nuts and bolts of what it takes to thrive. I extend a special thanks to Ridgely Walker for her contributions, and spotlight resources for those looking to rise to the role of supervisor. Tune in and join our community of Texas counselors dedicated to crafting not just businesses, but legacies within the mental health field.

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.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Okay, how do we transition from being gig workers to? Ah, now I'm comfortable. Now I have, you know, the money I need. Where do I put the gas on? Hit the accelerator, where do I hit right? So it comes down to this is the Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses Podcast with Dr Kate Walker, where I teach you, texans and non-Texans alike, the latest research-based information to hit your income goals, stay out of trouble and make a bigger impact in your community. Join me and let's fill the gaps in access to mental health care and create a counseling career you'll love. Let's get to work.

Speaker 2: 0:51

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 can't wait to finish this podcast and sit in her comfy chair with her dog and a book.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Who can't wait to finish this podcast and sit in her comfy chair with her dog and a book? Welcome to episode 80. My special guest today, jocelyn Aguilar, and I are going to talk about hitting the brakes on a side hustle, hitting the gas on your practice and how to know when to do which. It can get confusing, but you're going to have clarity by the end of this episode and listen all the way to the end, especially if you're interested in becoming a clinical supervisor. All right, let's get to work. Hey, I'm Dr Kate Walker and I have a guest today, jocelyn Aguilar, lopc in Houston, texas, my old stomping grounds actually not exactly where I was, I was north of there, but super cool to talk with her today and the way this started out was she made a comment that made so much sense to me when we're talking about side hustles and ethics and growth, and what does that look like and what do we do? What do we not do? So, jocelyn, tell us a little bit about you and your practice and your practice dreams.

Speaker 3: 2:09

Yeah, sure, so I have this practice called Create to Shine Counseling. So my main focus is providing online therapy with Christian women going through anxiety, and then the subspecialties are with parenting stress, working stress and relationship stress, which I know it all ties back inevitably. But that's kind of like my area. So I have that practice. I'm 100% online right now, and so I bought that question because I thought it was very interesting, because I know that many of my colleagues, including myself, we have the idea of needing health insurance and benefits and we understand the logistics of being in an agency work.

Speaker 3: 2:45

I came from agency work for many, many years and so that came from a conversation that I had with my colleagues of being a private practice owner versus being at an agency work where you have benefits, and so that topic came up of what if we have a side hustle, to kind of have the small benefits of an agency work where you have like a cushion in your income stream. And then I thought it was so interesting how you had that one training a week ago where you said the ethics of having a side hustle. So I thought that was amazing and we had a lot to talk about after reading that.

Speaker 1: 3:16

And, just as a synopsis, this is my soapbox when I talk about the ethics of a side hustle with a therapist. We are dollar per hour, and so if our clients don't show, then we may not make our budget for the month, and so clients start looking like dollar signs, we start to get stressed, anxiety goes up, cognition goes down, and so that's our ability to really think through a theory or think it all right, and so being able to keep your lights on is comforting, and with that comfort then you can do better therapy. So that was my premise. But your point was really important because it's valid, and when you do the research in the Google machine, most people say, no, pick one thing and focus on it. Right, that's deep work. That's what you hear a lot.

Speaker 1: 4:02

I was listening to a podcast just yesterday about that. You know, doing deep work, slow work, that's what you hear a lot. I was listening to a podcast just yesterday about that. You know, doing deep work, slow work. So it's a valid point, and so I've been thinking about that. Right, and so I don't know if it's because we're different and we need to have a freer headspace. You know, it's not like we're opening a shoe store or a mechanic shop. Nothing against those businesses, right? It's just that idea of being present in a session. So tell me, you know, as you guys were talking about it, kind of tell me what came up, yeah, so the idea also came with sort of a business coach that she's guiding me through this.

Speaker 3: 4:34

I just started a year ago and I'm doing halfway agency work, halfway this, and then in the last six months I've been focusing on my private practice. So my business coach actually said the opposite of what we're talking about. She said there is no backup plan, and I think that comes from the idea of you have to trust yourself and that you're going to figure it out. But I can't help. But initially when I heard it, actually in the same week, I heard you saying the ethics of and I heard somebody else saying that. So I wondered okay, so what does it mean to have a backup plan? And so my coach explained to me and she said it was more like you know, a backup plan can mean you having extra sources of income. It doesn't necessarily mean having an employer, and so it has a lot to talk about, because I was thinking just be hired by somebody else part-time. But then her point was just find another sources of income that don't require you to be an employee but that still have contributed income.

Speaker 3: 5:35

And so it has me wondering about you know, what are some ways at least me personally that I can set up, you know, steady stream of income that, at the same time, is not limiting to my practice. As an example, my working hours, that I want to work is during school hours because I have two kids and so ideally, if I want to grow my company, I want to have those hours available to make it there, and part of the concern that I had it was that okay if I had another stream of income and you know it's requiring me to work during those times that I'm trying to fill up in my practice. That seems kind of like, you know, slowing me down and counterintuitive to do that and then having a side hustle on the side, it seems like it would only be like a temporary resolution. And so that's the question like how do we find like something that can work long term, where you feel comfortable?

Speaker 1: 6:23

This is great. So it's bringing up two things for me and you're gonna have to remind me in case I forget. But the first one, and what struck me with your comment, was time management, and I'm raising my hand because I'm with you. I had three kids who were all school age when I was building my business and trying to work just during school hours. And then the other piece of it is this idea of, okay, what is a passive stream of income? So that's really important. So let's talk about time management first, because there is no doubt, if you're starting a business, you've got to put in probably whatever you're spending in session, double that outside of the business as you're strategically planning, working with your business coach, getting marketing strategies pivoting. You've got to do so many things. So that time management piece, it's non-negotiable, right, and I hope whoever's listening to this understands that as a business owner, you're seeing clients, but you do need to double that, not just for paperwork, this is for your business. When I think about and preach about outside streams of income, I'm thinking in terms of passive income. So the first thing that comes to my mind is a supportive partner, right? If you're lucky enough to have a supportive partner who says, look, I'll pay the bills while you're building this up. You know, there we go, done and done, don't have to have an employer, don't have to have any of those things, you just have this person who can give you the peace of mind. All right, we don't all have that. So the passive income for virtual you close your ears for a second because I'm going to talk about office you know, for me was just renting out the unused space, and that could have been a Saturday, it could have been a Sunday, it could have been those hours that therapists love, that 3 to 8 pm, because I didn't see kids, and I knew all the people out there who wanted to see kids would love to be in my office, right? So it's that sort of no-brainer kind of income that I can count on to $200 to $1,000 a month and I could say, okay, I don't have to worry about that. Those two pieces, the time management piece and the passive income piece.

Speaker 1: 8:38

We talk about this with supervisors too, right? So when you become a supervisor, lots of people think, well, I'll just get a ton of supervisees, right, it's a terrible business model unless you're experienced, right? So when you become a supervisor, lots of people think, well, I'll just get a ton of supervisees. Right. It's a terrible business model unless you're experienced right Starting out. There are so many things you can do with your S besides. Just take on 50 supervisees, and so we preach that start slow, then build. It comes down to this idea no, your business is your number one baby. Set your day up, set your week up so that you're working on it for that. Client times too, right. And then the passive income ideas. Let's brainstorm about that so you don't really have to think about that. Does that make sense? Does that kind of fall into what you guys were talking about?

Speaker 3: 9:24

Yeah, and it's adding more to that. So me and you are talking about passive income and initially my mind was thinking extra direct work with another, with somebody else, and I've thought about that.

Speaker 1: 9:36

So that's my bad too, because I'm like substitute teaching go be a barista, you know. Yeah, that still takes brain work.

Speaker 3: 9:43

So what do you think about having extra direct work versus having something else? You know, yeah, that still takes brain work. So what do you think about having extra direct work versus having something else? You know, I'm thinking about maybe having intake somewhere else or just some client direct work. How do you think that differs in terms of the big picture of, okay, you're already working and doing all these hours at admin hours there's marketing and all business related things and your own direct hours with your company. And then, keeping in mind that extra additional work that you're doing, would you think that adding like additional direct hours from a different company would be better, worse or worse than having some other type of passive? Because it's not harder? I think it seems like to me. I'm not sure.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Yeah, and we have to remember the mental load right. And so if I'm talking to a mom, we know you carry way more than just like the face-to-face time with your kids. Right, you've got mental load with that as well. So I'm going to stick to what I said earlier. I'm going to talk about the foundation of your time management and your ability to silo things, and this is no judgment. We're all different. This is just how we have to kind of know ourselves.

Speaker 1: 10:51

So for me, getting up at four in the morning and working for three hours before my kids got up, that was my business time.

Speaker 1: 10:59

That doesn't work for everybody, so I could literally put that away for the rest of the day. And then if I had my other job which you know I taught adjunct at universities it didn't take away from my counselor identity and I liked that. I can't say that if I had been a barista at Starbucks, I don't think I would have enjoyed that because it wasn't my counselor identity. So maybe you and I right now are actually coming up with a paradigm, because I don't know if adding sort of this act we'll call it an active side hustle as opposed to a passive one, right? I don't know if that's the solution, if you're not able to feel comfortable about the time you've set aside for your business, your family and you right, if those three pillars are not really in shape as for many of us they aren't then maybe adding an active side hustle is definitely not the answer. Does that sound like kind of what y'all been thinking?

Speaker 3: 11:58

Yeah, absolutely. And the other question came up as well of you know have well two things financial stability and benefits to the picture, because I have the option to add myself to my husband's. But it's a lot of extra money. It's probably like a grand a month just to add me and my kids. So that's a real struggle of do I hustle more or do I push more towards growing my company and hopefully be able to make that extra grand in a month to afford the benefits with my husband? Or is like, how do we supplement that? Need you know? So financial stability number one and benefits, like how do we do that? Because most people I mean they don't get benefits if you're part time.

Speaker 1: 12:44

I couldn't have done what I've done without my husband being in the military. I'll tell you, hands down, the comfort of knowing the benefits. Were there? Anxiety up, cognition down right, I mean, that brought that anxiety down and it freed me up to build my business. So, as you're saying that, it's almost proving our point here that if you don't have extra income to get benefits, you will be anxious. But if you're working a second job so you're not spending the time on your business, you don't have the client load, you will be anxious, right?

Speaker 1: 13:19

So it's anybody, and I'm going to call it the gig economy. You know, I've got kiddos who've driven for Grubhub and Uber, and so I know what a gig economy is. But that's kind of what entrepreneurs are. I think what I hear you saying is like okay, how do we transition from being gig workers to, ah, now I'm comfortable, now I have, you know, the money I need? Where do I put the gas on, hit the accelerator, where do I hit right? So it comes down to okay, I'm going to be mushy. Where's your heart? Where do you feel called to spend the most time? Do you enjoy all of that? Marketing, seo, client building, number running stuff? I mean, is that your love language? I love it. Okay, good, I thought I was putting you on the spot.

Speaker 3: 14:06

Okay, good, oh, I love it, but I understand that to everyone else that's watching they might not be the case. Yeah, so you know part of what I've been learning from my coaches you can't hire somebody to do it if you don't know how to do it yourself first. Because I know, Hmm.

Speaker 1: 14:20

I like her.

Speaker 3: 14:30

Can we give her props at the end end of this? Probably Good, yeah. So personally I enjoy all the works and I enjoy more of the managerial part of running a practice than I do direct work. I only need at least four direct clients to fill my cup. I don't need a full caseload to fill my cup, and so that's me.

Speaker 3: 14:41

You know everyone else is different. Most of the colleagues that I speak to they would hate to run a practice, but me, I love running it more. I haven't undergone in marketing and advertising. You love it. I really enjoy web editing. I can spend the whole day editing websites, video editing I enjoy it myself. But yes, you're right, and something that stood out to me from what you said was the main thing is reducing that anxiety, and I think what you're trying to say is also by focusing on what you love and that reduces the anxiety. And I think something important that you said was focus on making sure that your pillars are steady, that your pillars are strong, and those pillars are financial security, because that's going to bring anxiety, and then making sure that whatever you're doing that, you're liking it, and that's important, because what if having a side hustle doesn't do that?

Speaker 1: 15:27

And that's quite the opposite, right what if having a side hustle doesn't do that? And that's quite the opposite. Right, there's a book called the Big Pumpkin, mike Meklowitz, and that changed how I think about business, because he says basically what your business coach is like. You pick the thing that makes you money and you spend time on that. So when you're going through all of these things side hustles, specialties, renting out your office right You're going to be able at the end of the year to prioritize okay, what made me money with the least amount of effort, and for me that's like a commercial real estate, hello, right, but that's not what we're doing unless you're a landlord. Right Now we're getting into strategic planning, right. So it's trial and error. You're going to put some things out there that you love but that take too much time and don't bring any income, and you're going to cut those with the big pair of scissors. It just, heartlessly, cruelly, you're going to kill those things and you're going to focus on the things that bring the most income with the least amount of time and effort, right? So I think it's really important that we look at that pillar of time management.

Speaker 1: 16:34

So my first business coach the first thing he had me do was use a time tracker app and to see how I was spending my time on my business I'm making air quotes, right. I was embarrassed and you know, because we're professionals and we're thinking, oh, I know what I do and it's important and I needed to do that. I had to be on Facebook for two hours today. I think that pillar of time management will free up. Okay, what is a side hustle? What is a passive side hustle? What's a side hustle that's just dumb and not making me money and, secretly, it's a vanity project and I really shouldn't be doing this anyway because it's taking away from everything else social media is coming up making videos on social media.

Speaker 3: 17:18

That's so time consuming. It feels that need of.

Speaker 1: 17:20

I need to have a lot of followers, but I don't know how profitable that is one of the things and maybe you know, if you're listening to this episode, this, this will be the thing you go. Ah, I've got to go tell my friend about this. There's something called pretty links and you like to tinker with websites, so you might really love this. Pretty links allow you to track what's working. You know, in the podcast, if I say, hey, we're having a thing this month, go to katewalkertrainingcom, forward slash, whatever. Well, that forward slash, whatever, I can go at the end of the week and see how much the podcast is converting to clicks, then I can compare that to sales and see, okay, I just started running an ad, for example, in the TCA newsletter. I've been doing that for seven weeks. Well, it's a pretty link, so I'm able to take the number of clicks and then how many conversions I get that week and I can see everything. So if it's a 10% conversion, I'm like you know, but if it's a 20 or 30% conversion, okay, I'm spending my money because basically, that's a side hustle, right, it's an ad, it's money, and so that's what I love.

Speaker 1: 18:29

Groups like this, like Texas Counselors Creating Badass Businesses right, somebody is going to learn about that and they're going to stop doing TikTok, which is great, because it's about to be banned. They're going to have to convert and I know y'all hate my email. Sometime I'm looking at you who unsubscribed, I know, but that's how you build your list, social media. You could get on there tomorrow and they'd like oh, we've had to unplug your site because you, whatever, used the color orange and we don't do orange anymore, or something like that, right? So that's why having a business coach is wonderful too, because they're going to keep you from chasing those side hustles that are costing you instead of enriching you Absolutely, yeah, and it's so helpful to have somebody hold you accountable and keep you focused.

Speaker 3: 19:16

That's something that has helped me a lot. So you know what? Something that's coming to mind right now the immigration evaluations, certification, I think. What do you think of that as a side hustle? Because I think it's like about two grand or something just to get you know the training and it could potentially pay back maybe one or two evals, but who knows how long it would take to get those. So what do you think about that side hustle? Keep in mind that it's not really predictable to see how soon you're going to get that money back.

Speaker 1: 19:44

So I think we now have the message for this podcast, which is run the numbers right when you buy a supervisor course. For me, one of the things we're giving everyone now is supervision what to charge? Because you need to see how bringing on supervisees compares to whatever. Right, because it costs money to take the course you got. To see how you're going to make your money back. We call that an ROI. So if your strategic plan says, okay, I'm going to spend $2,000. It's going to take me 12 hours to get the training, then I need to market in this way in order to get this many whatevers at this cost. So before you ever take the course, you've got a 12-month business plan on how you're going to make that $2,000 back. Don't even think about profit yet. You just want to make that $2,000 back. Then at the end of the year, you get your scissors out because you're going to start pruning the things that did not make any money. So part of your strategic plan is because you're going to start pruning the things that did not make any money. So part of your strategic plan is are you going to give that 12 months? You're going to give it 18 months? You're going to give it two years to make the profit.

Speaker 1: 20:53

I remember back in the day I got the best business advice from a client who said you know, basically they had a business of I don't know what it was something like tanning beds or something like that and he said I just need $10,000 a month from each business. Once a business hits $10,000, then I open up another one. And I was like, oh, what a great idea. You have a criteria before you start your side hustle, right, because every single one of those businesses is a side hustle, right? So start with a number before you open the next side hustle. Now we've kind of digressed a little bit, because we're not really talking about the supportive side hustle, right, we're talking about ooh, I'm super comfortable with the income that I'm making on my practice. I've made my quote unquote $10,000. Now I'm ready to hit the gas on something else right?

Speaker 3: 21:44

Yeah, absolutely. And that totally reminds me of something that I learned from a coach as well, which was I don't think many of us, including myself and many of my friends and colleagues, don't realize that when you open up a private practice, it's how important it is to set yourself a limit on your income, meaning just because you make profit, it does not equal to you getting a bigger paycheck for yourself. That's like gold, because I was explained by somebody who went to practice that she sets herself a salary and that's it, and she runs I don't know how many practices around Houston and she says I could be making so much more, but I'm not going to because I want to put that back into the practice. So I'm like that's amazing, because it also protects yourself from our humanity trying to make more money and it protects us from greed. That's super important and ethical at the same time, because we're not just looking for the money, we just set ourselves a salary that we're comfortable with and move on.

Speaker 1: 22:40

Yes, it's all about numbers. Absolutely. I'm not a math major, but I do know. If you and your supportive partner sit down and say, okay, this is how much money we need from you, and I'm going to throw your benefits question in there this is how much money your business needs to bring into our household Benefits, your retirement plan, emergency fund, keeping the lights on everything then you work that business until you have done that. Now, if you don't have the supportive partner and you need the peace of mind, then you might look at another business to help you have that peace of mind so you can build your business.

Speaker 3: 23:20

Do you think it's advisable to be hired under somebody while you're building a private practice?

Speaker 1: 23:25

I'm going to go back to my numbers. Right, if you have the time management, but you notice you need the peace of mind, then absolutely, yes, right, because you're stressing too much, you're not able to really focus on the things you need to. And if an extra thousand dollars a week is going to help you out, do it. But you have to commit to yourself You're going to spend the time that you just freed up in your brain because now you're all relaxed because your lights are on. You have to commit to opening up time to spend on your business. And if that's stressing you out, then you got kind of a deeper question.

Speaker 1: 24:03

Maybe you're not really the entrepreneur you thought you were, because the thing about being an entrepreneur it's not secure all the time, right, I hate to say that and there's no shame in that Like if you're thinking, oh, wow, I really like that W2 job, I really like it when they take my taxes out, bless you Me too. So we're back to strategic planning, aren't we Right? It's okay to design a business that meets your needs. In fact, that was like in my readings this morning. I was like oh, we got to have our needs met.

Speaker 3: 24:34

That's okay. It's still great that you say that, because something that I was told over and over again was the phrase think like an employee or not an employee. And it's really hard because we're used to I mean as an associate and you know, as our background we're used to having a W-2, most of us it's not just knowing the knowledge of how to do A, b and C and all the technicalities of it, but it's also having a mind shift within yourself. That has to happen first of thinking. You know, being an entrepreneur it's having that risky part of it and being okay with that and it's okay if you're not.

Speaker 1: 25:08

it's really okay if you're not.

Speaker 3: 25:10

Just to summarize it, I think it goes back to the numbers, and it also goes back to making sure that your anxiety is down by focusing on doing what you love. I think those are my takeaways, so thank you so much for taking the time.

Speaker 1: 25:24

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for asking the questions. I love it when somebody you know, you tag me and you make me think and it's like oh, now we got a podcast episode. I love it, thank you.

Speaker 3: 25:34

Yes, I can think of many topics that we can talk about, but we can talk about it at a later time.

Speaker 1: 25:39

And the membership. Put it on the Facebook page. Send me an email. Hey, before you go, if you have any interest in becoming a clinical supervisor, do me a favor. Don't take a course until you know it has what you need to protect your license from supervisee mistakes. There's so much you've got to know before you take the course, and I have a great mini training for you. I mean, it's short, you can grab this and listen to it in about 20 minutes. It's called the three secrets to successful supervisor certification and you can grab the replay of that today. No problem, just go to katewalkertrainingcom forward slash, be a supervisor. That's katewalkertrainingcom forward slash, be a supervisor. It'll give you what you need to know.

Speaker 2: 26:40

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. You.