I was born with an entrepreneurial spirit and started my first side-hustle at the age of 10. By the time I went to college, I had launched two successful ventures of babysitting and private soccer lessons, and failed at countless lemonade stands, friendship bracelet stands, and the biggest flop of all was my pet rock business. Turns out living on a cul-de-sac was bad for foot traffic…

Oddly enough, I didn’t anticipate that my adult career would have anything to do with business. I figured I would work at my agency job until retirement and that would be that.

Private practice was another side-hustle that more or less fell in my lap. I kept doing it even while I had my agency job because it was fun and I was good at it.

I had a tiny solo practice on the side that emerged almost as an afterthought after a mentor talked me into seeing a few therapy clients when his caseload was full. Unexpectedly, those few evening appointments became the highlight of my week. When I inevitably became burned out in agency life, private practice made the most intuitive sense. I purchased a business condo and turned it into a wellness co-working space to house my solo practice and surround myself with solid clinicians. That turned out to be one of the best moves I’ve made and paved the way for a lot of beautiful things that followed. Through leaning into full time private practice and being a landlord (or as I prefer- Land Queen) I learned more business skills, developed a solid reputation, and connected to a community of like-minded therapists. From there a lot of things unfolded organically.

I grew my solo practice into a cozy casual group practice with part-time contractors who were fantastic and easy to work with. In the meantime, because I can’t seem to sit still if my life depends on it, I launched a tech-startup therapist matching platform that, after a 3 year run, now Rests In Peace with my pet rock business. Those three years of building, participating in business accelerator programs, and pitching to potential funders taught me infinitely more business skills and skyrocketed my bravery because I survived going all in and publicly falling flat on my face.

I licked my wounds, and decided to apply my newfound business savvy to the one hustle that always came naturally and organically. My practice.

I doubled down on branding and marketing, created systems and processes to orient and manage new staff, and hired my first full-time employees. I figured out how to offer benefits, build up self-pay caseloads, supervise, and expand.

You might expect that this is the part of the story where everything turns sunshine and rainbows. Not quite yet… but hang in there. After hiring my first full-time employees and working through the growing pains and streamlining systems, there was one piece that I didn’t fully anticipate until it was pressing down on top of me. And that was the emotional weight of carrying peoples’ livelihoods on my shoulders.

I trusted my ability to constantly learn, iterate, and keep my heart in the right place. I didn’t fully get the implications of my oversights and mistakes until I felt the responsibility of other humans’ financial wellbeing in my hands. All of the sudden mistakes took on a whole new weight and impacted others as much as they impacted me. The stakes were much higher and I had to learn FAST. One of the problems was that much of the business advice I came across didn’t feel like it fit what I was trying to create. Something heart-centered, softer, and more feminine but still solid and profitable.

I wanted my clinicians to make good money, have good benefits, feel supported to create new services, and maintain flexible and manageable schedules with clients they adore. I wanted to love my job and my team and be able to take fabulous vacations. It turns out that’s pretty hard to do, and for too long I tried to figure it out mostly by following my gut.

It’s funny when you think about it… we are building businesses that rely on other people paying us for our expertise, yet we struggle to do the same to support our own growth.

This is the sunshine and rainbows part. I set my ego aside and decided to more seriously heed the advice of others. I worked with (and still do) a fabulous mentor, started meeting frequently with other private practice owners, and started attending trainings from people who had built successful group practices. I created new processes for tracking and reviewing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at all levels of the business and used those metrics to inform my quarterly projects. I DELEGATED as much as possible to free up space for me to spend more time in my zone of genius. All of this allowed me to release my urge to constantly hustle and sprint, and settle in to a schedule that felt good and sustainable while knowing that my business is also good and sustainable. In turn, my staff was busier, happier, and also felt more settled.

Now I don’t do anything in isolation. I contract with experts whenever I get the chance. I consult with peers regularly and have scheduled gatherings with other women business owners to talk tools of the trade. I meet with my business mentor monthly and my administrative team multiple times weekly. I sign up for trainings and am constantly learning about how to be a better leader / therapist / boss / entrepreneur.

Helping other entrepreneurs level up their businesses is one of my favorite things to do. It lights me up to jump into the thick of it with a colleague and find practical, efficient ways to make their practice run smoother and their thoughts flow easier. It brings me even more joy to help someone avoid one of the many pitfalls I’ve fallen into and fast-track their progress.

I’m here when you’re ready to get a fresh set of eyes on your business, a soft heart when you need an ugly cry, actionable advice on where to go next, and a cheerleader to celebrate your wins.