[00:00:00] Dr. Anahita Banoo: Welcome to the Therapist Business Growth Podcast, the podcast for therapists who want to grow and scale a group practice [00:00:10] that runs itself so you can make more money, work less, and actually live the life you’re dreaming of. I’m your host, Dr. Anahita, and I am so glad you’re here. Let’s dive in. [00:00:20] I remember being on kid duty in the evening, watching both my kids, and having a therapist call me at 7:00 PM.[00:00:30] 

[00:00:30] She had a client in the office, I was not there, calling me, telling me about this client and how much this, how much suicidal ideation this client was [00:00:40] having in that moment. And of course, I got on the phone with her, and I was trying to help her navigate this, having my son and my daughter also trying to get my [00:00:50] attention, um, needing me to be there for them.

[00:00:53] And I’m somebody who I want everybody to have the support that they need, and [00:01:00] obviously especially in that kind of situation where she was, um… she was a post-doc, she was a supervisee, um, and so needed that [00:01:10] support. Like, really needed that support in that moment, and I didn’t know how to navigate this moment between my kids and my supervisee and this [00:01:20] client who was having some significant suicidal ideation.

[00:01:23] All right? And it was in moments like that that I realized how much I was [00:01:30] holding and doing in this practice and how much it was taking over my life. Not just time-wise, but literally [00:01:40] having my two kids, like, trying to get my attention, needing my help with something, and needing to be on the phone with this therapist and realizing again, like, this is [00:01:50] not, this is not why I built this practice, to be answering phone calls at 7:00 PM and helping a supervisee navigate a situation that she de- she definitely needed the, the support with.

[00:01:58] I’m not saying that she [00:02:00] shouldn’t have been calling me, but I needed, I needed different, better systems in place to be able to protect my time more. Today we are going to talk about how to build a [00:02:10] team that handles all of the logistics of your practice, right? So I, on Mondays, love to, when podcast episodes drop, [00:02:20] I will reach out on Instagram in my stories and say, “What topics are you guys wanting to talk about this week?”

[00:02:27] So I’m looking right here, and one [00:02:30] of the questions, this is from Elise, was, um, “Can you talk about building a leadership team that can run the practice without you?” I love [00:02:40] this topic of conversation because it– I wasn’t there from the beginning of my practice. And, but by the time my practice was sellable, [00:02:50] because I could sell it, but by the time it was actually a sellable asset, my practice was able to run itself, and I was working about five hours a week in my practice.

[00:02:58] All right? [00:03:00] So today we are going to talk all about how do you build a team in your business that can handle all the logistics, right? It can handle needing [00:03:10] to refill the tea in your waiting room all the way up to it can handle when an insurance claim gets denied or when a client calls because they have the [00:03:20] wrong time for their session or a therapist is out sick, right?

[00:03:24] You don’t have to be the person answering every single situation So [00:03:30] who’s this episode for? This is for the group practice owners who you know that you are the bottleneck, you know that you are the default go-to person, that when anything comes up in your [00:03:40] practice, you are the person that everybody is coming to, everybody’s knocking on your door.

[00:03:44] And you are also have to be the, you have to be that person, right? Like, you have to actually answer the [00:03:50] phone like I did at 7:00 PM when my kids were, um, trying to get my attention and I had my supervisee calling me. Like, I had to answer that phone call, right? I couldn’t, I couldn’t just, like, [00:04:00] leave her on read, you know?

[00:04:02] Um, so it’s for you. And by the end, my hope is that you will know what roles are needed in your practice [00:04:10] and who, what roles you need to fill, but also who to put in those roles, right? And then we’re also gonna talk about, like, how do you actually hand off all of [00:04:20] these systems in your, in your practice without it falling apart, without things getting missed, and it being done to the, to the extent that you want it to be done, okay?

[00:04:28] So first, we’re gonna do a [00:04:30] little fun game. I guess it’s not really a game, but we’re gonna do a fun little quiz here, okay? And I want you to… We’re gonna kinda self-diagnose ourselves. The- that’s obvious, [00:04:40] right? Self-diagnose ourselves. But I want you to kinda play along, and I’m just gonna ask you these four questions, and I want you to give yourself a point for each of them that applies to you.

[00:04:49] All right? [00:04:50] So if you have a team that texts you when you are not in the office, when you are not technically on duty or at work, on your day [00:05:00] off, if you’re on vacation, things like that. If you have a team who’s texting you during that time, give yourself a point. All right. If you’re the only one who can approve a [00:05:10] schedule change or navigate a denied claim in your practice or can decide when and how many tissue boxes you need to be ordering, [00:05:20] if you are, if you’re that person and you’re the only person who can do those things, give yourself another point.

[00:05:27] If you have ever said it is faster [00:05:30] if I just do it myself. If you’re trying to offload something and then you say, “Never mind, I’ll just do it myself. It’s faster. It’s gonna be done so much better. I’m just gonna do it myself.” Okay? Give yourself another point. [00:05:40] And this last one, give yourself a point if nobody has had an update to their employment contract in the last two years.

[00:05:48] Give yourself another point. [00:05:50] So those are four questions, right? If you only have zero to one points, you’re in good shape. You’re in a good place right now. All right? If you have two to three, [00:06:00] you’re definitely the bottleneck. All right? If you gave yourself one point for each of those things that I just said, your practice is running you.

[00:06:07] You don’t have a practice that is [00:06:10] obviously self-sustaining, but you don’t, you don’t own, like, a true business at this point. You own a business that is running you, and you’re just serving it. Okay? Now, [00:06:20] I do wanna talk about this mindset shift, and this is something that has come up a lot in coaching with, um, my Freedom First Group Practice Accelerator people, is [00:06:30] this new role that we’re stepping into.

[00:06:31] And that, I think, is gonna be a theme throughout all of my, my episodes because it was so crucial for me to recognize this new person that I had to become in order to scale [00:06:40] this business to where I wanted it to be. You are going from therapist to CEO to visionary to entrepreneur to business owner, right?

[00:06:48] And I really love this [00:06:50] analogy. Your job is to build the machine, all right? By machine, what do I mean? I mean, the structures, the systems, the SOPs, the pipelines, um, [00:07:00] how th- how things are ultimately getting done in your practice. That is your job. Build it, not be it. All right? When you are the machine, when you [00:07:10] are the one doing all of these things, again, your business is just gonna run you All right?

[00:07:16] I went through this journey, okay? I built this practice. I [00:07:20] was at a place where I was the bottleneck in my business, and I had this mindset of, you know, like, “Nobody can do it as well as me. I have to be the one with my hands in all of the different pots.” But what was really keeping me [00:07:30] stuck was feeling like nobody else will care the way that I do, right?

[00:07:34] Or I can’t afford a clinical director. I can’t afford somebody. Honestly, I mean, when I think about clinical [00:07:40] director, I put off– I had– So if you don’t know the full story, um, I co-founded this business. Um, my friend June, who she will [00:07:50] definitely be on this, um, this podcast at some point, um, I co-founded with her.

[00:07:54] She, uh, when we were getting to the point of hiring additional therapists, I knew that I [00:08:00] wanted to, like, scale this business, right? And she came to me and she’s like, “I don’t wanna do any of the business stuff. I just wanna see clients.” And so she became a therapist under me. She started working [00:08:10] technically under me, but with the idea and the vision that, you know, as we scaled, as we grew, she would take more of a leadership role.

[00:08:17] But again, she didn’t own any equity in the business. She, [00:08:20] um, she was an employee, I guess. But like a– She was such a crucial role in this journey for me, which we’ll talk about at another point in time. But, um, I [00:08:30] was– There was a point in time where she kinda came to me and she’s like, “I want to step into that clinical director role.”

[00:08:36] And I, at that point, thought, “I can’t afford that. I, I [00:08:40] cannot afford that. I will lose so much money if I pay you in that way.” Um, and so I put it off. And by the time she did become a clinical director, [00:08:50] our income had not changed that drastically. It hadn’t, like, doubled or anything at that point. I think maybe it had increased by like 10K per month.

[00:08:58] But- [00:09:00] It was, which I know is a lot. I’m not minimizing that by any means, but, um, it’s not like that 10K was all profit, right? And so I could have [00:09:10] put her in that role far earlier, and it actually would’ve saved me not only a ton of time, but honestly, it probably would’ve helped our growth even more. All right.

[00:09:19] So I [00:09:20] understand that feeling of, um, I can’t afford this right now and feeling like you need to wait until you’re at a certain, a certain number. [00:09:30] Um, and of course, it’s not like you’re doing it, you know, at the very beginning when you only have a couple therapists, but you probably can do it sooner than you think.

[00:09:36] So there are a lot of these mindset blocks [00:09:40] that come up as we’re scaling businesses and as we’re stepping into this leadership role. We have to be willing to get uncomfortable. We have to be willing to put in the [00:09:50] work that’s not just the tangible sit at my computer, type away, create this SOP work. We have to be willing to check ourselves and check what’s happening in our brains [00:10:00] to understand how that’s impacting the business.

[00:10:02] So the way that I was able to push through those mindset blocks, honestly, one of… I– This was such a defining moment [00:10:10] for me and my business. I remember talking to our admin, and she was scheduling. Um, we also did assessments in my business, and she was scheduling somebody for an assessment. And after the phone call, she was [00:10:20] like, “That person just told me that they scheduled an assessment with our team even though we were more expensive, but because of the interaction she had with me.”

[00:10:28] Not me [00:10:30] specifically, the admin. The admin is telling me that, okay? So she, my admin said, “This person scheduled with us because of the interaction that she had with our admin.” And that was like [00:10:40] a holy shit moment for me. Wow, actually, other people can do some of the roles in my business better than I can.

[00:10:47] That was just such a truly defining [00:10:50] moment, and that’s when I really recognized, man, if I let the people in my business who, A, I’ve hired for certain roles and I hired them for a reason, if I let them [00:11:00] do their jobs and if I make sure that they have that training in order to do the job the way that I want it to be done, they might actually do it better, and they might actually care [00:11:10] slightly more.

[00:11:11] And that was when I really started being able to let go of this mind- these mindset blocks that, like, I was the person who could do everything the best in my business, and I had to [00:11:20] be the one who was in control. Because I started seeing that simply by having other people in other roles Our business was scaling faster than if I was the one [00:11:30] in that role.

[00:11:31] All right? So let’s talk about, let’s talk about our leadership dream team, right? Like, when we think about our business being [00:11:40] fully self-sustaining and it’s running itself, what does that actually look like? What are these roles? Okay. So I wanna be clear. I’m gonna share, like, five roles that you [00:11:50] really need in your business beyond the therapist, right?

[00:11:52] But I wanna be clear that these roles can overlap into the same person. So we’re gonna differentiate those two words here, role and person, because one [00:12:00] person can take on multiple of these roles. All right? So you– I’m not saying you need to go hire five different people to do these five different things.

[00:12:07] And actually, I prefer, and this is something I’ve worked on with some [00:12:10] people, um, in, in the coaching program, is collapsing roles. Because I’ve seen some people who come in, and they have so many different roles in their business, and I’m like, that [00:12:20] is… At the stage that they’re at, if you, if you have ten to fifteen therapists working for you, you don’t need five different, like, admin, office [00:12:30] manager, clinical director, team lead, like, all these different roles.

[00:12:33] You can collapse those roles into maybe two or three. All right? So let’s talk about these five different roles. I will share my [00:12:40] experience, um, with each of these roles and who did them, but they were basically done by three people. All right? So there were three people in my business who were, you know, this dream leadership team.

[00:12:49] [00:12:50] Um, and I’ll tell you exactly who they were for each of these roles. So the first one is, like, is the operator. It’s the practice, the office manager. All the titles can change. You [00:13:00] can you can name them whatever the hell you want, right? But I’m gonna tell you, like, what, what the roles they had were, right?

[00:13:06] So this role of the operator essentially was, I want you to think [00:13:10] about, like, your office admin. So they’re the people who are gonna run the day-to-day operations. All right? So if some situation comes up with a therapist, like they just finished a session, they ran [00:13:20] the card, but the card got declined. The operations manager, the office admin, they’re the ones who are gonna follow up with that so that your therapist doesn’t have to be the person doing that.

[00:13:28] All right? [00:13:30] So anytime therapists have questions, like when they’re in the office and they have questions about things, they can go to, go to this person. Go to the operator, the office, office admin, however you wanna talk about them, whatever [00:13:40] you wanna call them, right? Um, they can also do some of the more, um, systems operating, uh, roles in the practice, [00:13:50] right?

[00:13:50] So when we talk about creating SOPs, they can help with creating SOPs. If you’re in the process of hiring therapists and you’re posting job descriptions and you’re editing onboarding steps, you’re creating [00:14:00] their emails, you’re sending training steps to them, they can do that for you. All right? So I– If you’re in my coaching program, you know I talk about this, of like your twenty dollar tasks.[00:14:10] 

[00:14:10] What are your twenty dollar tasks that you can outsource to somebody else? Um, these are them Creating onboarding steps, getting your therapist their [00:14:20] new email, you can outsource that, all right? Same thing with, like, client administrative care. So again, I think about things like, um, you know, payments, collecting payments, making sure consent [00:14:30] forms are signed.

[00:14:31] Um, all of that, like, administrative work for your client’s benefit, this person can do, all right? They’re also, if you are an in-person practice, they’re your [00:14:40] onsite person, right? So if, again, if the tea needs to be filled, they can fill it. If we’re running low on tissues, they can order it, all right? This is gonna save you [00:14:50] The most time, truly.

[00:14:52] And for us, this was, I called, I just called her my, my admin staff, um, and she did, our admin staff did all of this. [00:15:00] All right? So that was admin staff. The next role that we’re gonna talk about, your clinical lead. All right? And this, again, this might be one of the last things that you let go of, and [00:15:10] that is totally fine, and that’s kind of where I think it should be.

[00:15:13] Um, but this is a person who is going to really own the standards you’re gonna set for your client [00:15:20] care. So things like creating, um, templates, like note templates, right? Or if you, for your, um, intake forms and your treatment [00:15:30] plans. This is the person who’s gonna create those, and they’re going to ensure that they’re being implemented, right?

[00:15:37] So in our practice, um, we were [00:15:40] a hybrid of insurance and private pay. For our insurance clients, we had to update, um, treatment plans every six months. And so the clinical lead, who was our clinical director, at first it was me, [00:15:50] then June became our clinical director. She would… She had a system. Every six months, we had a month that was, like, treatment plan updating time.

[00:15:59] I think it was, like, [00:16:00] March and whatever s- is six months from then. September? So she would email everybody at the beginning of the month and say, “Take this month. You need to update every single client’s treatment [00:16:10] plans during this month. We will be checking at the end of the month, okay?” S- she took that on.

[00:16:14] I did not. I released, I released that role to her, [00:16:20] okay? Um, same thing with, like, answering clinical questions from staff. So when we circle back to my original 7:00 PM conversation with my supervisee who was struggling with a suicidal [00:16:30] client, she could’ve been that go-to person. And so you really wanna see how, what are the clinical aspects and the clinical checks and balances in your practice, because this is the [00:16:40] foundation.

[00:16:40] I know that I talk so much about the actual business side, but the client care side of your practice, that’s the foundation of your business. And if you, if your clients are [00:16:50] getting the best care, that’s the best referral source, right? Like, that’s the best marketing because they get to talk about that with other people and [00:17:00] talk about why they had such a positive experience.

[00:17:01] That starts with your clinical lead, with your clinical director, which probably it might be you right now. That’s okay. Eventually, you’ll get to [00:17:10] a place where it’s not you anymore, and it is that cl- that clinical director. All right? So that’s our second role. Third is client care coordinator, the person [00:17:20] who is Um, really ensuring that your clients are well taken care of from a administrative perspective.

[00:17:27] Um, right? And this, this is something that I’m [00:17:30] probably gonna do its own episode on is, like, the inquiry process because I’m realizing that people don’t have a funnel. They don’t. They’re, like, kinda scrapping, um, all of these pieces together. If somebody reaches [00:17:40] out to getting them for their first appointment, that needs to be a very smooth process in your business.

[00:17:45] I just created an, an inquiry funnel SOP, I guess you could say, [00:17:50] um, for the people in my program because you need to have that system totally locked and solidified. All right? So this person is gonna handle new patients. Anytime somebody makes a [00:18:00] phone call to your business, they’re gonna answer that phone call.

[00:18:02] But then not just from there, how do we manage the rest of that time from that phone call to getting them into a consultation call to getting them onto [00:18:10] your, your therapist schedule? All right? Or if they didn’t answer, what happens next? This person is the person who’s gonna manage that. Now, I have seen some businesses that [00:18:20] separate this out from admin.

[00:18:21] They have an admin, and then they have literally what they call a client care coordinator. All right? I lump those into one. And again, you can call them whatever the hell you want. You can still [00:18:30] call them client care coordinator. You can call them office admin. But for me, those two roles came into one person, so that was our office administrator who, who did all the, the client care.[00:18:40] 

[00:18:40] All right? Now, our fourth role, this is the money person. And I’m gonna guess you might be sitting there being like, “I have no idea what [00:18:50] I’m doing with the money in my business. I don’t check my bank account. I only check it when I’m running payroll. I hope that we can make payroll. I don’t know where the money’s going.”

[00:18:57] I talk to a lot of… Unfortunately, I talk to [00:19:00] a lot of business owners who are going through that And you, I, there will be people out there who disagree with me on this, and that is totally fine. [00:19:10] I believe this should, at least for, I don’t know if I have a necessary timeframe in mind, but the entire time I ran my practice, I was the money [00:19:20] person.

[00:19:20] I never outsourced this. I had coaches who said that you should, who like, “Have your admin running payroll and have them have access to your bank accounts and things like that.” I don’t like that [00:19:30] because this is how, and we’re about to talk about the fifth role too, but this is how I was making decisions in my practice, was based off of our numbers.

[00:19:38] And so for [00:19:40] me, it was crucial that I was the person managing the money. All right? So looking at KPIs. All right? Looking at [00:19:50] when I’m running payroll, how much money landed into our bank account, how much is going to operation expenses? What are we even spending those oper- like, what is the money for operation expenses going towards?[00:20:00] 

[00:20:00] Right? Is that sustainable month over month? Okay? I had my own money management system that I used, um, that I teach everyone in my programs [00:20:10] because I think so many practice owners are ki- again, just like free balling it. And you have to have a system in place. Um, but I really [00:20:20] believe that you should be the money management person For a while in your business to know what’s happening with the money.

[00:20:27] All right? So that’s our fourth role, the money [00:20:30] person. Our fifth role, the visionary. I’m gonna bet you can guess who that should be, right? That should be you, of course. You get to set the [00:20:40] direction. You get to protect the team culture. You get to set the vibe, right? You get to coach your leaders. Like, that is such a cool role to be in, to get to [00:20:50] really pour into the roles that you’ve built in your practice and be that leader.

[00:20:56] You get to model what it looks like to be a true [00:21:00] leader in your business. How beautiful, right? So of course, the visionary should be you. So let’s just review those five roles. So there’s the operator, so, like, running the [00:21:10] day-to-day operations. That, I lu- I lump in with the client care coordinator. So those are two separate roles, but I lump them into the same person.

[00:21:17] So that, for us, was our office administrator. [00:21:20] Then we have, like, the clinical lead. Clinical director is what I called them. Um, this person, I didn’t really get into it, but for us, June, she did a lot of marketing as well for us. Um, and so you [00:21:30] can kind of expand that role or keep it pretty tight. Um, most people will probably start with instead of it being a clinical director, it’ll be a supervisor.

[00:21:37] But supervisors easily are the best people to grow [00:21:40] into that clinical director role, okay? So that’s our third role, but for me, it was our second person in the business. And then we have the money person and the visionary. And for me, [00:21:50] those two lumped into me. I think that, again, you should be the person managing the money.

[00:21:54] You should be the visionary. Duh. Right? Okay. Now, [00:22:00] let’s talk about, like, okay, so we have these roles. Now what? Like, how do we ensure that they’re doing their role in the way that aligns best with your practice? I’m gonna tell you right now, it all starts [00:22:10] with the interview. This is for therapists too, but especially for these roles, it all starts with the interview, and then from there, it goes into the training.

[00:22:17] How are you training that person? In that [00:22:20] interview, you need to be so clear with expectations Do not ever go into an interview without knowing exactly what [00:22:30] that role should be. And when I say exactly, I’m not saying the role can’t expand. I’m not saying you ha- if you missed a certain responsibility that the person has by the time of the [00:22:40] interview, then, you know, all bets are off, like it’s not gonna work or you can’t add something in later.

[00:22:44] But I want you to be so clear on what the role is and what it isn’t. And I’m gonna share a [00:22:50] story in a little bit, um, a- about my experience with this. But you need– You just need to be really clear in, in that interview to set those expec- expectations. All right? [00:23:00] And then training. And this is again, where I think a lot of people end up just kind of scrapping something together, doing it in the moment, um, and not having a true system in [00:23:10] place that is replicable so that every time you’re training somebody for that role, you know exactly how to train them.

[00:23:16] Eventually, you can have other people do the training [00:23:20] because it’s such a locked-in system for you. All right, so let’s really talk about how do we hand off these roles. All right? So I, I come from schools, a school [00:23:30] background, so maybe if you have that experience, you’ve heard this, of the, “I do, we do, you do” model.

[00:23:35] All right? So this is very much a gradual release. We’re not just throwing them into it. [00:23:40] But first and foremost, you do need to have everything documented. This is honestly where I see most group practice owners scrambling because they didn’t create an [00:23:50] SOP. They didn’t document what’s happening in your head, right?

[00:23:53] ‘Cause you’re the one doing it, so it doesn’t need to be written down. So it’s just all up here in your head, and you didn’t do anything with it. You didn’t [00:24:00] document it. You didn’t create a video tutorial. You didn’t create a checklist or an SOP. You need to do that. All right? So maybe you’re playing catch-up.

[00:24:07] That’s okay. But just take a day and write [00:24:10] down all of those things and make sure you have step-by-step guidance. Make sure it is fail-proof. This is why I love videos. I love video tutorials. That is literally fail-proof because you are doing the thing, and then [00:24:20] your person who’s gonna take that over can be watching the video while doing it.

[00:24:23] Fail-proof. No questions are gonna come your way. Okay? So once we’ve done that, then once they’re, they’re starting to work for [00:24:30] you, you’re gonna do it. They’re gonna watch you do it. They’re gonna see you do it, right? Then we do it together. All right? So, like, you’re sitting there, you’re talking them through it, [00:24:40] like you’re, you’re in it with them.

[00:24:42] Then you do. And that you do, I– it kinda has like two components to it. You do while I’m watching you. You do while I’m checking up on [00:24:50] you. You’re always gonna be checking up, but the frequency is gonna vary. So you do while I’m checking after you do it. Literally, you’ve completed the task. I’m gonna check it now.

[00:24:59] [00:25:00] Versus, and eventually you’re gonna get to you do, and I’m checking less frequently, but you will always be checking and hearing from them, all right? Then from [00:25:10] there, again, clarity, expectations, key. Because you need to define, I call it your decision rights, right? You need to decide [00:25:20] who can make the decision and what they need in order to make that decision.

[00:25:24] All right? So what can they decide alone versus what needs a heads-up versus [00:25:30] what needs you to actually give them yes or no. All right? So you have to decide that, and there– and that’s gonna take time, and that’s also gonna take experience and [00:25:40] seeing how that person is in that role and what decisions they’re already making to decide, okay, like yeah, you can actually…

[00:25:46] You can decide who moves forward to the interview process. I don’t need to be [00:25:50] part of that. I trust that you are gonna make right decisions of who we should be interviewing. So define those decision rights for each of the roles. What can they decide alone? [00:26:00] Um, what do they need to give you a heads-up about?

[00:26:01] And what actually needs you to help them make that decision? Then from there, tracking. Oh, my favorite. I love a good spreadsheet over [00:26:10] here, all right? So how are you gonna decide what’s working, what’s not working for your business, for that role, for them in that role? How will you decide, [00:26:20] right? You– If you are not tracking data, I think about like the most basic for referrals that come in, for inquiries.

[00:26:27] Your admin should be tracking that [00:26:30] When they track it, that’s how you know what’s happening with these inquiries. All right? Is this process actually working for us? Are we getting inquiries that are moving to a full [00:26:40] appointment to becoming a booked client? All right? You need to be tracking that data.

[00:26:44] You need your people to be tracking that data. All right? And then you’re gonna start [00:26:50] having a weekly leadership meeting, and this is where all of those like five-minute tasks and five-minute thoughts happening in your head that are coming [00:27:00] throughout the week that you’re doing, that you’re helping other people manage, they all get collapsed into one hour-long meeting.

[00:27:05] So it is going to completely replace the thousand random [00:27:10] interruptions that you get all in one place. All right? I will tell you, I was not great at this. Okay. This was hard for me at first. I liked to respond. I would tell people, “Just message [00:27:20] me whenever you have a question. I’ll respond right away.” And it was really hard for me to change from that to just saying like, “Just bring it to our meeting.”

[00:27:29] Again, I want [00:27:30] everybody to feel so well supported, and I thought in my brain that the only way that people felt well supported was if I was the one answering their question live time in the moment. All right? [00:27:40] But this is truly crucial because this is how you’re also teaching your people that you trust them, that they can go and they can do these things, and you will check in later, and you’ll have a conversation about it later, [00:27:50] but that you trust that what they’re…

[00:27:51] That they can make decisions. That this is how you’re empowering them. All right? A fun little, um, tip that I c- I kind of [00:28:00] implemented was like the hundred dollar rule. All right? Any decision that is under $100, so if it’s buying tissue boxes, right, buying supplies for the office, um, if it’s like [00:28:10] signing up for some marketing, um, strategy and it’s less than $100, great.

[00:28:14] Do it. You don’t have to come to me. My admin and my clinical director both had company cards. [00:28:20] They could make those decisions. All right? And so they could, um, if it was under $100, I didn’t… They did not need to check with me. They could do it because I trusted them to [00:28:30] make decisions that were actually gonna like help our business, right?

[00:28:32] They weren’t just doing it for no reason. All right? You get to pick your number. Maybe right now it’s $100. Maybe right now it’s 50. That’s fine. [00:28:40] Maybe eventually it’s a thousand. That sounds nice. You know? Um, you get to pick your number, but there should be something where it’s like other people can handle this for you.

[00:28:49] Okay? [00:28:50] So I know earlier I said I was gonna share this story about, um, you know, it all starts with the interview and it all starts with like laying out the expectations. Um, I had an admin who, she did not last very long [00:29:00] by her own accord, I’ll say this, but, um, it- we were willing to work with her. But I will say we did not do a good job of explaining the expectations in the interview.

[00:29:09] She thought this [00:29:10] admin position was like just a front desk, mindless desk job, right? And she was, she asked us when she started, “Can I do my homework while I’m, while I’m there?” And I was [00:29:20] like, “You’re probably not gonna have time to do your homework while you’re here.” And I just really reflect on that and I realized, man, I did not set those expectations in that interview.

[00:29:29] We [00:29:30] did not really explain like this isn’t just like answering a phone call here and there and like greeting somebody. There’s like a lot more to this role than that. That is my, my words of wisdom to [00:29:40] you that I want to impart with you that it does, it truly all starts in the interview. It all starts with, um, the expectations that you lay.

[00:29:47] Okay? But all of these things that I just shared [00:29:50] with you, all the roles and like the getting the peop- the right people in those roles, um, how we’re deciding what people are in charge of and their expectations, that’s what got me to my maternity [00:30:00] leave where all I did was run payroll, literally. That’s the only thing I did and I still paid myself five-figure months.

[00:30:07] I still, you know, the, the therapists were still [00:30:10] really well taken care of because our clinical director was in place. She was the go-to person. She was the go-to person for admin too. Um, I made sure that they had everything they need, every SOP, [00:30:20] every video, all of it was there. Okay? So they were really, really well taken care of and I was off and I was just snuggling my baby And you can get there too, [00:30:30] all right?

[00:30:30] If you’re not there yet and you’re feeling like that feels like miles away from me, listen, I was there too. All right? Every, every business owner was there at one point, and they just [00:30:40] had to put in the work and put in the systems, um, to get there. If you don’t want to put in– You know what? I’ll– Here’s what I’ll say.

[00:30:48] It’s always gonna take work, but if you don’t [00:30:50] want to start from scratch, if you don’t wanna have to go create your own SOPs, create your own practice policies, all those things, please DM me. I have them. This is literally what I give [00:31:00] you in, in both my Solo to Group Practice Accelerator and the Freedom First Group Practice Accelerator.

[00:31:04] I just hand them over. Every, every SOP template, um, onboarding step, [00:31:10] practice policy, like everything I use in my practice, I just hand right over to you. So if you’re like, “Hmm, this sounds overwhelming. I don’t wanna create these things from scratch,” just reach out and [00:31:20] we’ll see if this is a, a right next step for you.

[00:31:22] All right? I do wanna give you a takeaway. I do wanna give you your next action step to start working towards this. Um, and so I’m gonna give [00:31:30] you kind of four steps, right? So the first one, I want you to just take 30 minutes at the end of a week, right? Or maybe you’re doing it throughout the week. Either one is fine.

[00:31:39] You’re gonna write [00:31:40] down every single task that you’re doing, right? So maybe it’s better if you just do it throughout the week. Every time you do a task, write it down. What was that task? What did I do? All right? Then you’re gonna take that list [00:31:50] of tasks and you’re gonna go through and you’re gonna put them in those five buckets.

[00:31:53] Was this a, um, like operator, office admin type role? Was [00:32:00] it a clinical role? Was it client care? Was it money or was it visionary, right? So put it in one of those five buckets and then from there you’re going to see, first of all, [00:32:10] do you have those roles already? Do you already have an admin? Do you already have a clinical director?

[00:32:13] If so, you’re gonna start thinking about how can I offload that to them, right? And if not, [00:32:20] I want you to look at these buckets. Look at all of the office admin, look at all the clinical, look at all of the visionary. That’s never gonna change. That’s always gonna be you. So you don’t need to necessarily look at that.

[00:32:29] But [00:32:30] look at those buckets and say, “Which one do I hate doing the most? Which one is taking up the most time? Which one is like truly a bottleneck in my business where business can’t grow, [00:32:40] it can’t scale because I’m the one doing it?” And that is where you’re gonna start outsourcing. Okay? That’s where you’re gonna say, if you already have the role, great, you get to just kinda offload that [00:32:50] role to them.

[00:32:50] If you don’t, it might be time to hire. It might be time to start the process of finding a clinical director or an office admin to take those on. All right? [00:33:00] I hope this was helpful. I know it probably feels like a lot. Um, it’s not, with anything in business, it’s not a go do it tomorrow, and you have one day to do [00:33:10] it, right?

[00:33:10] These things take time. Okay? But that’s, again, that’s why I want you to just start with writing down every single task that you’re doing in a week and seeing, what can I outsource? What [00:33:20] doesn’t have to be me anymore? And then as you start doing this, I’m gonna push you, I’m gonna encourage you, take a day off.

[00:33:28] Take just a random day [00:33:30] off and don’t answer your phone, don’t do anything, don’t have any ties to the practice, and see what happens. See if your practice was [00:33:40] able to self-sustain. And if not, that’s the next system that you’re gonna get in, in place. Thank you so, so much for listening. Um, if any of this resonated, please, please, please leave [00:33:50] a review.

[00:33:50] It just helps me to know what c- what type of content you’re enjoying. Um, and as always, my DMs are open, so if you have questions about any of this, please, please, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Um, [00:34:00] over and out. Go enjoy that life that you built this practice for. And if you can’t, start with these steps.

[00:34:05] See you next time. That is a wrap on today’s episode. Thank you so much for spending [00:34:10] this time with me. If you connected with what we talked about today, the best thing you can do right now is hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Leave a review to let other therapists know how this was helpful, and share [00:34:20] this with a therapist friend who needs to hear it.

[00:34:22] Come find me on Instagram @dranahitabanoo. That’s where I hang out the most, and I genuinely love connecting with therapists there. If you have a question, [00:34:30] a win to share, or you just wanna say hi, my DMs are always open. And if you’re ready to actually take the next step in building your group practice, head to www.dranahitabanoo.com.[00:34:40] 

[00:34:40] There you can learn about my group practice accelerator programs or grab my free marketing quiz to get started filling caseloads. See you next week. Over and [00:34:50] out