Group Practice Launch: Alison Pigeon interviews Alisha Sweyd | PoP 674

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A photo of Alisha Sweyd is captured. Alisha Sweyd is the director of Code 3 Counseling, a group practice in California where they specialize in providing counseling for first responders, military, and their families.. Alisha Sweyd is featured on Practice of the Practice, a therapist podcast.

Are you looking for companionship as a business owner in starting your group practice? Have you considered working alongside other business owners who are at your growth level with similar aspirations? Have you envisioned the future of your future group practice?

In this podcast episode, Alison Pidgeon interviews Alisha Sweyd about her experiences in launching a group practice.

Podcast Sponsor: Group Practice Launch WebinarA photo of the podcast sponsor, Group Practice Launch, is captured.

Ready to start a group practice, but don’t know where to start? Join our membership community Group Practice Launch! Whitney Owens and Alison Pidgeon, Business Consultants for Practice of the Practice and group practice owners will lead you step by step through the process. Over the course of 6 months you will learn and implement everything you need to do to set up a solid foundation for your group practice as well as hire your first assistant and clinician. Join a community of like-minded private practice owners who are all starting a group practice at the same time and are supporting each other along the way. Groups are only launched two times a year so don’t wait to sign up if you are ready to start a group practice!
Join the free live webinar taking place on March 2: How to Make Bank by Starting a Group Practice

Meet Alisa Sweyd, LMFT

A photo of Alisha Sweyd is captured. She is a counselor and the Co-founder and director of Code 3 Counseling. Alisha is featured on the Practice of the Practice, a therapist podcast.Alisha Sweyd is the Co-Founder and Director of Code 3 Counseling, a practice specializing in helping first responders and their families.

Alisha has lived in a first responder family since birth, being born while her father was stationed in the Army. Now, later in life, she is married to a police officer.

Alisha works with first responders and their families to better manage the chaotic influences of life. She especially enjoys working with first responder couples, helping them find joy and fulfillment in their relationship while serving others.

Visit the Code 3 Counseling Website and connect with them on Facebook and Instagram.

Connect with Alisha on Facebook and LinkedIn.

In This Podcast

  • Hiring an assistant “was the game-changer”
  • Be part of a Mastermind group
  • Envision your group practice
  • Alisha’s advice to new group practice owners

Hiring an assistant “was the game-changer”

Hiring my assistant was the game-changer. I don’t think I would have considered opening up a group practice if I didn’t have my assistant. If I didn’t have [my assistant] I would have thrown my hands in the air and [given] up. (Alisha Sweyd)

As a soon-to-be or new group practice owner, an assistant is vital.

They will help you with admin, scheduling clients, meeting new clinicians, and generally running the practice while you focus on helping it grow.

Be part of a Mastermind group

If you are on the path to opening your group practice, consider joining a Mastermind group like Group Practice Launch.

With endless resources, guidance, and under the expertise of seasoned clinicians alongside other new group practice owners, you have support and companionship.

Seeing everybody else grow … has given me a lot of motivation and drive to be able to know [that] I could do that too, and so I am going to keep going so that I can do that too. (Alisha Sweyd)

Envision your group practice

Think about what your successful group practice is going to look like with everyone involved, from clinicians to administrative staff to clients, and everything in between.

Remember that at this point, not everything is going to be on your shoulders.

As your practice grows, you will delegate, and the practice will start to run more on its own without you having to constantly supervise it.

Thinking about this got me excited because … one, it is not all on my shoulders, thank heavens it’s not all on my shoulders someday, and two, having other people’s perspectives come into all of that [to] share their knowledge and expertise [is exciting]. (Alisha Sweyd)

Many people that you will hire will bring their personalized skillsets and expertise into the practice. There is tremendous power in having multiple clinicians and professionals coming together as a team to serve the community under your practice’s banner.

Alisha’s advice to new group practice owners

Do it. If you are considering it, do it.

Do what you can, get help, find colleagues, and learn as you go. You do not need to know or have everything in place to start.

Start now with what you have and do what you can, and ask for help when you need it.

Useful Links mentioned in this episode:

Check out these additional resources:

Meet Joe Sanok

A photo of Joe Sanok is displayed. Joe, private practice consultant, offers helpful advice for group practice owners to grow their private practice. His therapist podcast, Practice of the Practice, offers this advice.

Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners that are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.

Thanks For Listening!

Feel free to leave a comment below or share this podcast on social media by clicking on one of the social media links below! Alternatively, leave a review on iTunes and subscribe!

Podcast Transcription

[JOE SANOK]
This is the Practice of the Practice podcast with Joe Sanok, session number 674.

I am so excited about this series that Alison and Whitney are doing. Session 672, why to start a group practice in 2022, 673 we’re going to be talking about how it’s easy to start a group practice, a step by step guide. In 674, Alison is going to be interviewing someone from Group Practice Launch, some real behind the scenes look. 675, same thing, except it’s Whitney. They’re going to be doing all sorts of interviews with people from Group Practice Launch to give some real life stories of people that have launched group practices. Then session 680, which is going to be on the 3rd of March, group practice story time where Alison and Whitney are going to talk all about different that have gone on in group practice.

I’m just really excited that the two of them are putting on this series because leveling up oftentimes means going beyond starting a practice where you only make money when you show up. Having a group practice is one of those great ways to add another stream of income. There’s lots of other ways; it can be doing a podcast, can be doing e-courses, offering other sorts of consulting. But a group practice really is that low hanging fruit for most people. So without any further ado here is that series with Alison and Whitney all about starting a group practice.
[ALISON PIDGEON]
Hi, Alicia. Welcome.
[ALISHA SWEYD]
Hi Alison. Thanks for having me. I’m really excited.
[ALISON]
Yes, it’s great. Great to talk with you today. Before we get started, can you introduce yourself and your practice?
[ALISHA]
Yes, of course. All right, so my name is Alicia Sweyd. I own a group practice in California called Code 3 Counseling. At Code 3 Counseling we specialize in first responders, military, and their families. I just hired my first two clinicians. Then we also have a podcast and a newsletter and we do some educational outreach for the first responders in military, in the community. So we’re a little bit busy but it’s going.
[ALISON]
That sounds amazing. So the reason that we wanted to talk with you today is because you have been going through our Group Practice Launch program in order to learn the step by step of how to start your group practice. So maybe we can start at the beginning; tell us where you came up with the idea of starting a group practice. What was that decision process like for you?
[ALISHA]
So I was actually in a mastermind group with Whitney Owens before I started Group Practice Launch. I was in her Faith in Practice mastermind group and I really loved working with Whitney. She called me out on a lot of things that I needed to do to reach my goals, which I really, really appreciate it. I did appreciate it. At the time it was a little like, Ugh, stab, but she always does it.
[ALISON]
That’s what a good business consultant does.
[ALISHA]
Oh yes. She always did it with such grace and like kindness and just, she wasn’t so gentle that I could ignore it. She was very, just assertive about it. Then when I finished with that mastermind group, she was talking to me about Group Practice Launch, because I had mentioned like, I think it would be cool to open a group practice, but in my head I was thinking five years down the road when I’m stable and totally fine and it’s not that big of a risk or big of a deal. Then she pointed out to me like why wait? She had this quote and I have it written down on my desk to remind myself when I’m wanting to pause, “The longer you wait is more money missed,” and I, oh, dang.
[ALISON]
She’s so right.
[ALISHA]
She is so right. With my life, just my livelihood, I have two young kids and I want to spend time with them since they’re young. I don’t want to be working 40 hours a week, but I also like had to make income to match just living on the coast in California, because it’s expensive to live out here. So it was either raise my rates, an astronomical amount or hire people. I decided I wanted to hire people. When I started Group Practice Launch, I had put out like a job advertisement just because somebody else told me, just get it done because I had been waiting for like months.

I’m one of those people who overanalyzes and wants to learn all the things before I make a decision. So they just told me, just do it and then learn from it. So I did, and then when I started Group Practice Launch, I realized like, oh, I had done it, not the best, which was why I wasn’t getting a lot of phone calls and then I changed it based on what I was learning in Group Practice Launch. That actually helped bring in some phone calls for applicants and stuff.
[ALISON]
Oh, awesome. I want to rewind a little bit to the part where you talked about thinking of starting a group practice, like when you were at this sort of ideal point in your life. I think so many people think that and it’s like never the ideal time. You just have to do it and if it’s something you really want to do, you just make it happen. So I’m glad that you decided to take the leap because I don’t think that mythical ideal time would’ve ever shown up.
[ALISHA]
It definitely wouldn’t have. And I think I would’ve, one of the things that was holding me back was, I have young kids. My husband’s job, the schedule is not consistent and he’s constantly getting called in for like overtime and stuff like that. So I was worried I’m not going to be able to be a good boss because I’m not going to be like at the office and just like readily available all the time for the new people starting and building. I was worried about that, like not being a reliable boss with having a family that I do want to prioritize and that I do want to spend time with and not have to always answer phone calls.
[ALISON]
So what did you learn about that?
[ALISHA]
That I get to be whatever boss I want to be and if I wanted to be a hundred percent available for my hires, for my clinicians, I would not be a hundred percent available for my family, no matter what season of life we were in. Whether the kids were young or in college, it didn’t matter. I thought about it and I was like, I wouldn’t want that to be the case ever. So then it was like, okay, well I’ll just start growing now and build my life and the business at the same time, but make sure that like not letting my role as a boss take away from my family, but then I can also build the business as a family too. That was exciting for me to think about like, oh, we could have time together hanging out outside of work; that we could just build those relationships and that would help like build the trust. Yes, it was, as somebody, I can’t remember who was, I think I was talking with my accountability partner from the Faith in Practice mastermind group and he mentioned something and then all of a sudden this whole picture of the future popped into my head all at once. And I was like, okay, I guess I’m ready.
[ALISON]
What did he say?
[ALISHA]
I don’t remember. I can’t remember what he said, but it was something about like life and work and not balancing, but balancing. I don’t remember. I can’t remember, but it was like, yes, just this picture of not having a bunch of boxes; my boss box, my therapist box, my family box, but just dumping them all together and seeing where I wanted all the pieces to fit together.
[ALISON]
Yes. I think that’s such a huge thing for business owners is because so much of your personal life and your personal development is tied up with your business and how your business is running. We talk a lot about designing your business to fit your life so that you can be home with your kids if you need to be, or you want to be or whatever. So I think too that speaks to setting up really good systems and delegating and all of that kind stuff, because you don’t have to be available a hundred percent of the time if you have really good systems in place because things, should I be running without you, really?
[ALISHA]
Oh yes. Hiring my assistant was the game changer. I don’t think I would’ve considered opening a private, a group practice if I didn’t have my assistant Vanessa. If I didn’t have Vanessa, I would just throw my hands in the air and give up. She has been —
[ALISON]
Where did you find her?
[ALISHA]
Actually through Whitney. She got me connected with Gilford and his virtual assistant practice out here in California. So I got connected with him and Vanessa through his oh my gosh, I’m trying to remember what it’s called. The productive —
[ALISON]
It’s called The Productive Therapist.
[ALISHA]
Yes, The Productive Therapist. So I have Vanessa through there and she’s just, one of the cool things about having an assistant is they’re also cheering you on and they know all the things. My accountability partner knows what’s going or is cheering me on like you and Whitney are cheering me on, but Vanessa literally sees it. She sees my schedule, she sees all the applicants. She talks to all of them before I do. Having her still encourage me and cheer me on has been the breath that I needed to be able to handle it all and not throw my hands in the air and give up.
[ALISON]
That’s great. Definitely having an assistant is one of those life-changing things. We could do anything.
[ALISHA]
I didn’t believe it. I really did not think it was that big of a deal and I thought training would be too much. Then it was in the mastermind group with Whitney that she did her calling me out and saying you’re hitting burnout because you don’t have help and you need help. I was, oh?
[ALISON]
That’s awesome. So obviously you were in Whitney’s mastermind group and then was joining Group Practice Launch, just sort of an easy decision because you already knew Whitney and you felt confident about what you were going to learn in the program and all of that stuff.
[ALISHA]
Yep. I had been in a couple of webinars with you through NLP. So I knew that you and Whitney would know your stuff and that all this stuff, because one of the problems for me that I know, I know I don’t know all the things, but I don’t know what I don’t know. So I don’t know what questions to ask and that’s where I get stuck; is, well, I can’t move forward because I don’t know if I have all the information or I don’t know what information I’m missing and I don’t know how to get it. So I knew and I trusted that you and Whitney would give all the information that I would need and then I could ask clarifying questions and that there wouldn’t be like a major component that was a surprise for me. Knowing that I could trust both of you with that was huge for me. It was absolutely true. That’s exactly what happened with Group Practice Launch. You shared all the information and then I was able to ask questions and also listen to other people, ask questions that I hadn’t thought about and getting all of the information so that I felt confident enough to keep moving forward.
[ALISON]
Awesome. That is definitely our hope that you would feel like, oh, I have the roadmap peer to know how to set up this group practice and how to hire and all of that stuff. So I’m glad that comes across. So what has been your experience of being in the group? So we’re about four months into it now. We’re four months into six months. So we’re closing in on the end. So what’s been your experience of being in the group so far?
[ALISHA]
It has been so much fun. I have really enjoyed seeing and hearing about everybody else’s growth processes as well and hearing when they have the same struggles as I do, like with little things about people applying and doing the same things, not following the instructions or directions and stuff like that. Hearing that I wasn’t the only one I was like, oh hallelujah, okay. It’s not just me. It’s not just the people I’m attracted to. It’s just generally across the United States. This is great. Seeing everybody else grow that has given me a lot of motivation and drive to be able to know, all right, I could do that too. So I’m going to keep going so that I can do that too.

I ended up interviewing quite a few people. I think we ended up interviewing like 15 people and I had three people who I loved. Two are joining now and one’s going to join later when things calm down for her a little bit more. So I have, my first one’s full, first week is next week. Then the second one is two weeks after that. All their marketing’s up. I’ve already got people lined up for them and a lot of it is because I just, I knew how to do it and I knew how to delegate what needed to be delegated because of what you all were teaching and how you all were sharing and the encouragement that I can do this. This isn’t as scary as I thought, especially for me, because I had never been a supervisor before. I’ve like ever in my life. I’ve never supervised anybody. I’ve been on teams where I had a higher “rank,” because I was a clinician and other people were case managers, but I was never in charge of them. So that really terrified me with hiring people. It was like, oh my gosh, I don’t even know how to be a boss. I don’t even know how to be supervisor let alone a boss.
[ALISON]
I think that’s really common. We talk about that in the group, like how do you be a boss? How do you step into that role? So you already talked about some of this, but my next question was going to be like what have you accomplished since you started Group Practice Launch? So it sounds like you’ve hired an assistant, you hired some clinicians. What were some of the other big things that you did to get the group practice started?
[ALISHA]
A big one was setting up my S-Corp to be for hiring people and then also looking into other things to provide like insurance and talking with brokers and life insurance and stuff like that; just to see what’s out there and to know what I would need to be at to be able to provide that for my staff. Because I would like to provide that stuff someday and I had never even looked into it. I never even started a roadmap of, right after hiring what’s that’s going to look like as it grows?
[ALISON]
I’m just going to pause you there for a second because I wanted to mention that because you are in California. You really have to set up an S-Corporation whereas in other parts of the country, you don’t, because California is very strict about how you set up businesses in general. Yes.
[ALISHA]
Yes, and doing the W2 model to —
[ALISON]
So just wanted to throw that there. Yes, and doing the W2 model. So California and New York state are both pretty and basically saying you really need to hire W2s in a private practice. So I’m assuming then that was just, okay, that’s what I’m going to do here because that’s what the state says I have to do.
[ALISHA]
Yes. The decision was made for me, but it was also really helpful to have the guidance of you and Whitney and Group Practice Launch to know what that looks like to implement it and what are the pieces to it? Because for me that was terrifying. I do not like the legal stuff. I do not like the numbers and coming up with a pay amount. That was the biggest hurdle for me get over in my own head. I think the hardest part was actually saying, yes, I want to hire somebody. That was a lot harder for me emotionally, but in my head just thinking and contemplating what the practice would look like growing, figuring out a dollar amount, understanding the W2 model versus the 1099 and all of that was very clear for me through Group Practice Launch, through the videos and through the webinars and all the stuff. So that was really helpful.
[ALISON]
Yes. And I would say that that’s been my experience as well. Those are probably like the two toughest sort of things to figure out; what am I going to pay my staff without growing broke basically?
[ALISHA]
Yep.
[ALISON]
Yes.
[JOE SANOK]
Do you remember when you started your private practice being scared that you may not make enough money? You probably wondered if you would even break even. Then you did. After that, you may have wondered if you could actually make a living doing this work. Then you did. Now that you have a thriving business, taking on more clients than you want, you’re wondering if starting a group practice will allow you to have the lifestyle you want while also not going broke. The answer is yes, it can. Join us for a free master class on how to make bank by starting a group practice. This webinar is being hosted by Practice of the Practice consultants, Alison Pidgeon and Whitney Owens, who have helped hundreds of practice owners start and grow their practices while also making a profit. This special webinar will be on Wednesday, March 2nd at 1:00 o’clock Eastern, noon central, 11:00 mountain, 10:00 Pacific. To register head an over to practiceofthepractice.com/bank. Again, that’s practiceofthepractice.com/bank.
[ALISON]
So what we’re some of the other things you put together to get the group practice going?
[ALISHA]
One of the big things that I think was really exciting for me and really motivating for me was figuring out what the practice would look like, having more people and how to have them participate in all parts of the practice, not just doing their. So like we have a podcast and we do trainings and stuff like that and I’ve done that the whole time I’ve had my private practice. I’ve all, well, no, the podcast took me a long time to get started. Whitney also kicked my butt on that one until we just do it. Thinking about having them participate in the news in the podcast and the blogging and marketing and trainings and things like that really got me excited because it was thinking about one it’s not all on my shoulders. Thank heavens it’s not all on my shoulders someday. Two having other people’s perspectives come into all of that and share their knowledge and their expertise. The three people that I loved and fell in love with hiring are all incredible individuals who have so much breadth of knowledge and experience to bring to all of that. That was really exciting for me to think about and thinking of how to delegate things to them also with the growth of the practice.
[ALISON]
It’s always interesting to see, especially when you feel really good about the people you’re hiring, how that changes the business and the whole dynamic and how people have ideas about, well, what if we did this? Or what if we offered this group. And I think it’s just like the power of like everybody being on the same page about just giving good clinical care and helping the community. It’s just cool to see what comes out of that.
[ALISHA]
Well, and everybody has their own passions about like, like I love couples and one of the people that I hired really enjoys working with trauma and teaching about trauma and just all of those things and how we can coordinate it together or just do things individually. My mind, just races with all of the options. That makes me excited rather than overwhelmed, which is very, very rare for me. I will add that. I normally do not get excited about all of the ideas. I normally freak out and go, Nope, nope. I’m not even going to touch one. I’m not going to go there. But with the idea of growing the practice as a family and as more than just therapy that really got me excited.
[ALISON]
And I think that’s when even though there might be a lot of work to do or it can feel overwhelming at the same time, if you feel passionate about it, you just sort of power through and you do it.
[ALISHA]
Oh yes. It’s a good motivator.
[ALISON]
Yes, for sure. For sure. So anything stick out to you in terms of what you learned in the group about building a group practice that maybe was like a surprise to you or something maybe you just hadn’t thought about before you started the program?
[ALISHA]
So the biggest thing for me was everything was a lot bigger in my head than it actually was, like all of it. I thought all of it was going to be really hard and really heavy and a lot of work and a lot of craziness but when I watched the videos on Teachable and listen to the webinars, it was like, oh, well it’s not that bad. It’s not that hard. That’s all you have to do. Oh, that’s it? Oh, I thought there was going to be a lot more. So that was, I think one of the more big takeaways for me was, in my head, I’m realizing how big and scary the business part of growing a practice was for me. It’s actually not that terrifying. I mean, it is nerve wracking because it’s different and it’s a risk but it’s not as big of a risk. I’m not going to lose my entire livelihood if this doesn’t work out the way that I had hoped. Keeping that mentality when I start to feel like, oh, this is going to be too much, oh, this is going to be too much, reminding myself, well, no, it wasn’t that bad when I did that, even though I thought it was going to be way worse than I think this is going to be. So I can calm down and it’ll be okay.
[ALISON]
That’s really interesting because I feel like so much of this process too, is just about addressing different mindsets that you have about things.
[ALISHA]
Oh yes.
[ALISON]
Because I think a lot of people too have, fill in the blank, but a lot of people have like this worst case scenario of like, oh no, if this doesn’t go right, I’m going to lose my house and all this terrible stuff’s going to happen. It’s like, no, probably not. Why wouldn’t it work? You know what I mean? Instead of the thinking why it won’t work, what about thinking about why it would work? Just like that simple change in your thinking.
[ALISHA]
Yes. And how much more can come from it than your risking. The idea of, like that picture that I had in my head of all the boxes dumping out together, and it became this beautiful picture in my head of what the future could be and I got really excited and thinking about when hiring people, having them be a part of the practice more than just therapy and doing lots of things. I think also one of the things I was freaked out about before was I’ve worked in places where people would go somewhere, use it for their own personal growth and then leave and take all the stuff with them, kind of a thing. I don’t know if I’m making sense in how I’m describing that, but I was afraid people would come use all of my resources and work that I had done to grow my practice and then go and make their own that would put mine out of business.

That was my biggest fear, was I’m going to help somebody put me out of business. There could potentially be something like that, but at the same time, really, it’s not that realistic. The opportunity to grow my practice with more than just the one person who’s going to try to steal my ideas and then put me out of business, like there’s going to be lots of people and there’s going to be lots of things. Like yesterday in the webinar, Whitney was talking about in her practice, there was employee who was a little bit rough and then the other employees gathered around Whitney and were very encouraging and supportive and thinking about, okay, even if there is just one or two or three, there’s going to be more that offsets it and makes it more beautiful and more exciting and more fun because private practice can get lonely sometimes.
[ALISON]
Yes. For sure. So if somebody was just in the beginning stages of thinking about group practice, what advice would you have for them?
[ALISHA]
Do it. Do it now. Don’t stop. Yes, pretty like —
[ALISON]
Just get it done.
[ALISHA]
Just do the things and then learn as you go. For me, that was the biggest mindset shift that I needed to make, was I can make choices and I can grow and do things without having all of the answers before I even start. I can learn some of the answers as I go and as long as you have a good system set up or a group of people around you to support you in that, like I have a really good lawyer. So when I need to do things, I know he’s going to respond really fast. He’s going to have my back and I know that and I trust that because he did it with my S-Corp, with my employee handbook, with all of the things that California expects me to do. He’s on top of it all and he makes it happen. He tells me about things that I don’t even know about. So I know he’s a good lawyer. My accountant is awesome. She’s on top of me, staying on top of my finances because I will try to ignore those when I don’t feel like it. Because I’m a four, if I don’t feel like it, I won’t do it. Then she’s over there, “No, you need to do it even if it doesn’t feel good.”
[ALISON]
Oh, she holds you accountable.
[ALISHA]
She holds me accountable. And my assistant, having her be so encouraging and be a part of the process. If I didn’t have my accountant, my lawyer and my assistant, I really don’t think I would’ve felt as confident moving forward. I think I would’ve been terrified even more so. Knowing like worst case scenario, if my finances go all hectic and crazy, my accountant’s got my back and I know that she’s good at what she does, she’s shown me that she’s good at what she does and she will help me figure it out. She will help me figure out the answers. The lawyers got my back on all the legal things and my assistants got my back on just being there for me and helping me and answering the phones. Oh my gosh, game changer. When she answered the phones and when she filtered out the applicants to people who were not a good fit, that was a game changer for me.

So having that system and people in place to help you as you grow was really big. Honestly I would not have done it if it weren’t for you and Whitney. I really wouldn’t have. I would’ve sat on my butt and I would’ve just imagined all the things and been scared and just, I still don’t know what I’m doing, so I’m just not going to do it. So having consultants like you and Whitney to encourage, but also provide all of the information that I don’t know and teach me how to do it and how to do it well, having that support system, that scaffolding was essential for me to feel confident enough to take the steps I needed to take.
[ALISON]
Thank you. I’m so glad that you brought that up because yes, Whitney and I are big proponent of you got to have other professionals in your corner. It takes a village. You can’t do this all by yourself, especially when you start hiring and forming a group practice. So I think that’s great advice.
[ALISHA]
Yes.
[ALISON]
So it’s been so great to see your progress in Group Practice Launch. I mean, you’ve already hired multiple people and we’re not even through the six months yet, so that’s amazing. Congratulations.
[ALISHA]
Oh my goodness. They’re like perfect fits. I am so excited. One of them, I had her over to teach her how to do the EHR and stuff. She was here for like three hours. We were just joking and laughing and talking and we did the EHR stuff for like 45 minutes. We had food and just got to know each other a little bit. That was, I mean just perfect fits.
[ALISON]
Cool. That’s awesome. Well, it’s been great working with you and watching you grow and I can’t wait to hear more. Two months from now who knows where you’ll be.
[ALISHA]
I know.
[ALISON]
By the end of the program, you’ll be like running this big group practice.
[ALISHA]
Oh, we’ll see.
[ALISON]
We’ll see. We’ll see. Can you tell our audience how they can check out your practice’s website?
[ALISHA]
My practice website is code3counseling.com. So it’s code3counseling.com. Then on our website, we have, you can sign up for the newsletter and our newsletter is geared towards first responders and military and their families. So it’s like psychoeducational support, just information to share with first responders on how to prioritize and take care of their mental health and family relationships. Then we have our podcast, which is same thing, just in podcast form. We have guest speakers on our podcast. The podcast is actually hosted by me and my dad, who’s retired law enforcement. So he brings in the perspective of responders and I bring in the mental health side. It’s been fun. That was probably a bigger growing process for me than group practice. I will say podcasting has not been my favorite thing. That one took me about a year to convince myself to do it.
[ALISON]
Oh, wow. That’s amazing. That sounds really cool.
[ALISHA]
Then on our website, we also have our clinicians and everybody’s on there.
[ALISON]
Nice. Very cool. Well, Alicia, I really appreciate your time. It’s been so great to hear about all the growth you’ve had in such a short amount of time and all that.
[ALISHA]
Oh, thank you.
[ALISON]
The ways that we’ve helped you.
[ALISHA]
Oh, it would not have happened if it weren’t for you and Whitney. It would not have happened ever. Like I would have come up with the same exact excuses or different ones 10 years down the road and just never done it. So thank you both so much like, Ugh. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[ALISON]
Yep. Thank you. All right. I’ll talk to you soon.
[ALISHA]
Sounds good.
[JOE]
Make sure you sign up for that webinar. That’s going to be again March 2nd, at 1:00 o’clock Eastern, how to make bank by starting a group practice. Again, that’s practiceofthepractice.com/bank. In fact, we think this webinar is so important that that’s our sponsor today. We don’t have another sponsor. We want you to go sign up for that over practiceofthepractice.com/bank.

Thank you so much for letting me into your ears and into your brain. Have an amazing day. I’ll talk to you soon.

Special thanks to the band Silence is Sexy for your intro music. We really like it. 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 publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.