[WHITNEY]:
Today, I want to begin by thanking you, as my listeners, for taking the time to listen to this podcast. You have so many options and podcasts in private practice and Christianity and faith that you could be listening to, but you take the time to listen to this episode. And so thank you for that. And even the past few weeks, especially over the month of November, when the enneagram series went out, a lot of you reached out to me and told me what that meant to you and how you learned so much from those episodes. A couple of you reached out to work with me. And that means the world to me. It is such an honor that you take the time to listen. But then when you reach out to me and tell me what it means to you, I found that fantastic. So thank you for all the positive feedback and reviews I’ve gotten the past few weeks. You guys are killer awesome.

Welcome to the Faith in Practice podcast. I’m your host, Whitney Owens, recording live from Savannah, Georgia. I’m a licensed professional counselor, group practice owner, and private practice consultant. Each week, through personal story or amazing interviews, I will help you learn how to start, grow, and scale your private practice from a faith-based perspective. I’m going to show you how to have an awesome, faith-based practice without being cheesy or fake. You too can have a successful practice, make lots of money, and be true to yourself.

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[WHITNEY]:
I wanted to jump on here today and talk about a mastermind group that I’m going to be running next week. So you are going to be listening to this podcast, if it goes live, you’d be listening to it just a few days in advance, but wanted to talk about the details of that group. And to also let you know that tomorrow, on Thursday 3rd, at one o’clock, I’m going to be hosting a live webinar just to answer all your questions. So as you listen to this podcast episode, if you’re interested and have questions, be kind of getting Thursday on your radar okay.

So I am running a mastermind group. And that’s going to be starting on December 8th. And it’s going to be focused on private practice owners that have solo practices that have a faith based background. This is specifically for you. If you have a faith based practice and your thinking through questions such as how do I incorporate faith into my business? How do I work with referral sources? Then this is a good thing for you to be considering, like how do I grow my caseload? So I’m going to walk you through all the tips and tricks that I’ve learned along the way, and provide you with some education, some resources to help you build your practice. So the reason I’m running this mastermind group is I had multiple people reach out and say, hey, I’m interested in some consulting because I really want to grow my business. But the individual consulting rates are a little higher than what my budget is for, especially after 2020. And I totally get that. And as a consultant, honestly, I hate creating things and then just trying to sell them. And maybe it’s not really what you’re looking for, like I want to create products that meet your needs, that are priced in a way that works for you, so that you can benefit from the growth in your practice. And so when I created this mastermind, I created it for those people who were reaching out saying, hey, I want to build my solo faith based practice. That’s exactly what this is for.

So what we’ll be doing is meeting every other week on Tuesdays at two o’clock eastern over Zoom for one hour. And during that hour, we’re going to cover a variety of topics related to growing and scaling your practice, okay, creating systems that your practice runs more smoothly. Some people that are joining this group are actually people who are wanting to prep for a group practice, but they don’t feel like they’re quite there yet, this would be for you, too. So during that one hour meeting, we’re going to talk about winds from the past week, things we’ve done that have been good for our practice, or maybe even just for yourself. And then I’ll provide some kind of teaching for about 15 to 20 minutes related to a private practice topic. Some of those topics will be how to write a service page that attracts your ideal client, how to do copyright on your website that speaks to a faith based practice, but doesn’t turn away other types of clients that are not faith based, or how to blog so that you can increase traffic to your website, how to utilize social media in a way that feels good for you and your practice, that doesn’t burn you out but does attract more people to your website? How do you create an email list that actually helps your practice and getting people on that email list? And then how do you create good referral relationships with organizations or doctor’s offices? And then specifically, how do you get good relationships with churches? How do you build that base? How do you create courses for churches? So these are the types of topics we’re going to cover in the group.

Now, some of these I already have prepped and ready to go. Other ones are going to be based on conversations I have with the people in the group. So every single group member will have a 45 minute individual consulting session with me. So we can talk about your practice, where you’re at, what your goals are, and then I’ll use all that information to make the lessons applicable to the students that are in the group, because I want you to find benefit from the group. For me to come in and just say yada, yada, yada, and give you something can be helpful. But if it’s exactly what you need in your practice at that moment, boy, that’s super helpful. So I want to be able to speak directly to the needs of those in the group.

Also included in the group, you will be invited to a private Facebook group of just those mastermind members, where I’ll be doing Facebook Lives, sharing information. And that way, you can also share questions that you have with other group members between groups. You will also get an accountability partner in the group who’s in a similar phase of their practice. And you’ll be able to meet as often as you want, I always encourage at least every other week on the weeks that we don’t meet, since you already have that time slot set aside in your business. Some other benefits would be access to Next Level Practice, which is an online membership community through Facebook and a Teachable platform with tons of courses about private practice ownership. You’d have access to all those classes as part of the mastermind group. You also have access to a discount in working with Sam through Practice of the Practice, if you need any kind of graphics, logos, things like that, she’s excellent. And then I do offer a discount on any additional consulting sessions that you want to have with me during the six months while you’re in the group.

So that group runs starting December 8th for six months, 12 weeks. And it really helps you get to the next level. Some of the reasons I hear people say that they don’t want to join a mastermind, one of the big reasons is the financial cost. So the cost of this group is $295 a month. And I try to put that in a price range that works for those group members that honestly I feel like is a great deal. $295 a month is basically two or three counseling sessions for the entire month. And I do think that if you do the things I’m asking you to do with your practice, you will definitely get more clients calling you by the end of the six months. Now that being said, I expect the people in the group to take it super seriously and to be involved in the group and to do the homework, like, to come to a group and get a bunch of techniques, but then not doing anything really doesn’t serve you very well. So I need you to actually do the things that I’m asking you to do and you will find success in your practice.

Another thing is the time commitment that a lot of individual practice owners, we’re all busy, honestly, group practice owners, individual practice owners, we’re all super busy, right, running our practices. And that being said, they don’t take the time to work on their practice, right? Especially when you’re in solo practice, you’re taking the calls, possibly doing your own billing, seeing your clients, it’s so hard to take time away to work on your business, right? But at the same time you want more clients. The only way you’re going to be able to do that is to take a step back and work on your business. I encourage people that do the mastermind group to take a couple of hours, even in my individual consulting, take a couple of hours every week to do the things that we’re talking about. That way you can really see results, right?

So I wanted to also talk to you a little bit about some reviews here and I give you these testimonies, honestly to just say that, that it works. I can sit here all day and try to convince you to do a group or to join something but when you actually hear someone else’s experience of what it’s been like, it can be super helpful. So first of all I wanted to read, this is from David Sturgess and he has been in two of my mastermind groups fantastic group practice owner based out of Atlanta, Georgia. This is his review that he gave: Whitney is such an experienced clinician and group practice business owner who’s a fellow believer in Christ. These were the three most important areas of my professional life and all in one, she does a wonderful job facilitating the group asking the right questions so that we as business owners learn what we need to know about ourselves and identify the barriers to our goals, create clear steps for overcoming these barriers, and able to move forward through accountability within the group. There are times we learned that we didn’t really want what we thought we wanted, and it was wise to either stay the course or change the course. Being in private practice can be very isolating, as well as therapists do not understand how to be efficient and effective business owners in order to meet as many people as possible. The ability to have this community of like minded people who are relatively in the same stage of business is invaluable in our growth as business owners. While my first mastermind with Whitney has ended, I have enrolled in a second group to ensure I continue to grow my practice, well, given in the uncertain times that we face.

Also, John Ayres was in one of the mastermind groups back in early 2020. And he said when I started the process towards building a group practice I was pretty lost in next steps. What I got from Whitney wasn’t just industry knowledge, but true coaching on action steps and guidance, mixed with truth, and grace. That’s the other thing I love about this mastermind, is not only do we do business, but we do faith, we talk about how our faith changes the way we think about business, the way we think about money and the way we move forward. And so when you get into a mastermind group of people in a similar phase of life, phase of practice, and with a faith background, it’s very encouraging. And one of the mastermind groups I lead, especially during COVID, we had one member just very vulnerable and what her experience was like in her practice, and shared some real fears that were going on and, and I really encouraged the group, I said, hey, there’s this thing that we need to happen for this member. And I won’t go into the details just to, I didn’t ask her in advance, I just want to make sure that I don’t share anything personal that she said, I want prayer for this one thing. And so we prayed for her. And we met back together and the very thing we prayed for happened. It was so cool. And so to have a group of people that you can throw a prayer request or talk about something together in a faith based way. It’s just a unique experience that you can have in a mastermind group that has a faith component to it.

I wanted to give you one more review here, and this is Michaela [unclear]. And she was a dear person that did consulting with me and started her practice from scratch, was seeing clients, it was incredible. So what she said is this, working with Whitney was a joy. I found her to be very direct, which I need, and affirming all at the same time. As a person who was in the very beginning stages of launching a practice, all the tools, suggestions and insights Whitney shared, were so valuable. I was so nervous and unsure of myself. But Whitney was able to walk me through all of it and made herself available to answer questions and point me towards resources that would get me right to the place that I needed to be. Thank you so much for your hard work, your professionalism, your compassion, your commitment to helping my new practice get off the ground and your passion for the work. Thank you, Michaela, and John and David. And I appreciate all those kind words, because that’s the reason I do what I do, is I want to see practice owners be successful in their practice, and really, to serve the community, to grow in their own spirituality, but to also just have the life they want, to have the life they want with their families, and personally, to just be able to do the things that they want to do. And our practice allows us to do that.

And so if you’re listening to this, and you’re thinking, okay, those reviews sound cool. And I do want to add some consulting, so that I can get my business up and going even more, maybe you aren’t getting the number of clients you want in your solo practice. Or maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed, and you need to scale back a little bit to be able to move forward and enjoy your life more. Those are all reasons to join the mastermind group. So like I said, on Thursday, December 3rd at one o’clock, I’m going to be doing, that’s eastern time, I’m going to be doing a live webinar to answer questions here about where you’re at in your practice and let you know if this sounds like a good fit for you. If you’re listening to this podcast, and you can’t make that Q&A, but you’re still interested in the group, send me an email, [email protected]. Even if it’s a little after December 8th, I’ll be letting people in that are appropriate, even up to a week or two after. And then if you’re listening and you’re thinking, dang, I’m late on this, like I’m listening to this after the date of the release but I really do want to do a mastermind group, reach out to me, send me an email, because I am always thinking about mastermind groups. And I honestly don’t have a very set schedule for when I release them, I just do them based on need. So if enough people reach out in a similar phase of practice, I get them together and we do a group.

So we’d love to hear from you. And I can create that group for you and whoever else is around at that moment and so we can get that going. So reach out to me, [email protected] and if you want to read more about the mastermind group or you’re ready to join then you can go to practiceofthepractice.com/faithmastermind to get that information.

So I want to thank you so much for those of you that have worked with me, for those reviews, and for you right now listening to the podcast. Thank you for listening and making this happen. As I thought about my goals for 2020, one of them was to do a podcast and I’ve worked super hard at it and it’s you listeners that make it what it is. So thank you, please share with those that you know so that we can grow the Faith in Practice community.

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[WHITNEY]:
Thank you for listening to the Faith in Practice podcast. If you love this podcast, please rate and review on iTunes or your favorite podcast player. If you liked this episode and want to know more, check out the Practice of the Practice website. Also, there you can learn more about me, options for working together, such as individual and group consulting, or just shoot me an email [email protected]. Would love to hear from you.

This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. This is given with the understanding that neither the host, the Practice of the Practice, or the guests are providing legal, mental health, or other professional information. If you need a professional, you should find one.