Meet Anastasia Canfield

[00:00:00] Anastasia: I do feel very empowered by knowledge, and so I think that will give me a lot more confidence in marketing in some of the places where we can have a little more of that impact, or build that buffer, or reach demographics that can support our model and build a foundation for us. I think that will feel a lot more accessible to do at that point.

[00:00:29] Linzy: Welcome to the Money Skills for Therapists podcast, where we answer this question. How can therapists and health practitioners go from money shame and confusion to feeling calm and confident about their finances and get money really working for them in both their private practice and their lives? I’m your host, Linzy Bonham, therapist turned money coach and creator of the course Money Skills for Therapists.

[00:00:50] Hello and welcome back to the podcast. Today we have a coaching episode with Anastasia Canfield. Anastasia owns a practice called Creative Remedies, which focuses on supporting neurodivergent, queer, BIPOC folks around issues of trauma and offers many, many multidisciplinary services, specifically focusing on music and art and expressive arts, in the work that they do.

[00:01:17] Anastasia comes today with a tension that so many of us live all the time, which is that struggle of serving these folks that they love to serve, who often do not have financial means to pay out of pocket for these kinds of services with being able to provide, in this case, a good wage and benefits for her team.

[00:01:40] This is a group practice, so it’s not just Anastasia who has to think about her financial needs, but also the needs of an entire team that she is paying and wants to make sure that she can keep up with cost of living increases and grow into offering more benefits. So serving marginalized folks largely, but also wanting to make sure that she’s taking great care of her team.

[00:02:01] And there’s an inherent tension there when it comes to money. So Anastasia and I dig in today to diversification, what she’s already done in terms of different ways that money is coming into the practice. We get into how she is using her time as the owner of the practice, and the most strategic ways to use her time, and talk about exploring places where impact can be made.

[00:02:22] This is a great episode for any group practice owners who are struggling with the same tension themselves between serving folks, and also paying their team well, but also these same things apply to solo practice owners, because it’s the same tension at the end of the day. How do we make sure that we’re able to serve folks well who we’d love to serve, while also making sure that our own needs are being met?

[00:02:42] Here is my coaching episode with Anastasia Canfield.

[00:02:48] So Anastasia, welcome to the podcast today.

[00:03:02] Anastasia: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

[00:03:04] Linzy: Yeah, I’m really happy to have you here. And, knowing a little bit about your question already, I know it’s one that folks in our space are troubled with a lot. So I’m excited to get into it today. Tell me about what you want to spend our time on together.

[00:03:17] Anastasia: Yeah. So there’s a few moving parts. I am a group practice owner, and my practice is about five and a half years old. I’ve been in a field longer than that, but we are a creative arts therapy practice. So we offer a number of different services, and unfortunately, some of them are not always reimbursable by commercial insurance.

[00:03:39] And there are certain limitations to Medicaid and things like that. So for the most part, some of our services are self pay only. And, like I mentioned, I’m a group practice owner, so I have staff and my dilemma is how to be accessible , as for all of our services, how to pay my staff fairly and well,and how to do that with, relying,in a lot of cases, on self pay.

[00:04:09] Linzy: hmm. Yeah. So this balance of helping your clients meet their needs, where they’re at financially, but also making sure your team is actually taken care of.

[00:04:17] Anastasia: Mm

[00:04:18] Linzy: Because there’s a tension there, in terms of money needs to come in to pay your team. Okay, so tell me what this is looking like so far.

[00:04:24] How have you set things up so far to try to meet this tension?

[00:04:29] Anastasia: Yeah, I’ve already diversified a lot of our income, and that’s worked decently well so far. I’m always looking for more ideas and stuff, but right now… I’ll start maybe with our, with the services that we offer, and explain a little bit about, the reimbursement for each of those and that, I think will give a little more context as to, some of the places where I need maybe a little more help or some pain points.

[00:04:54] So, I’m an LPC board certified music therapist and registered play therapist. So we offer mental health counseling, music therapy, play therapy. We also offer some other services like adaptive music lessons and traditional music lessons. We do some work out in the community, and then we also have an office space.

[00:05:13] That’s where I’m at right now. And we also offer some online offerings as well. So what we currently have going on is we’ve got our self pay, for music therapy specifically, I think is where some of the biggest issues are, because play therapy and mental health counseling, is reimbursable with commercial insurance in Colorado.

[00:05:35] However, music therapy is not.And there are some Medicaid waivers, so some very specific types of Medicaid that reimburse for music therapy. But for the most part, that service is self pay. Right now I have three music therapists working for me. And they’re reimbursed through the Medicaid waivers, self pay, and then our services that sort of round out some of the financial concerns are some community contracts that we have with some facilities.

[00:06:08] So, some senior living facilities, assisted care facilities, some adult daycare programs, and some respite care programs. And occasionally we have some, some nonprofits that ask us to come in and do a group or things like that. and then our music lessons. However, for our individual music therapy services, we don’t have a cap on our sliding scale.

[00:06:33] We do pay what you can. I also have some interns that offer some pro bono services. But as you can imagine, those things fill up pretty quickly. And then also, by the end of their internship, we have to do something with them. So we have to figure out the financial piece there. So, we have mitigated some, some financial constraints because of the community contracts.

[00:06:56] However, those are subject to their own budgets. , And sometimes they lose funding too, or in the case of one contract that we had, it was grant funded for a period of time, and then they no longer had the grant funding, and then our hours went down.

[00:07:13] So those things are helpful whenever we have them, but we’re subject to all sorts of variables that could remove that funding at any point in time without any notice., And my, staff, I also try to consider their caseload, , min and max I try to also consider their burnout, or potential for burnout and all of this as well because, of course, there could always be more hours that someone could take on.

[00:07:40] Linzy: Yes.

[00:07:41] Anastasia: But that is not necessarily sustainable either. So, there are more hours on paper that someone could take on.

[00:07:47] Right. Yes. Yes.

[00:07:50] Linzy: Okay. Yes. Okay. What I’m hearing so far is that you have done an excellent job diversifying, as much as possible,

[00:07:58] Anastasia: Thank you.

[00:07:59] Linzy: Within the kind of pitfalls that come with this type of diversification, like grants coming and going, and contracts ending, and all of that painful, basically non profit stuff, that the nonprofit sector has to deal with at all times, which I will say is extra exhausting, as, you know.

[00:08:15] Anastasia: I imagine so.

[00:08:17] Linzy: Well, I think you know. and that’s an extra stressor that comes for folks in that nonprofit space is that you can’t control whether money’s even going to be available. You could be providing an amazing service, but if a grant ends, a grant ends, right? And then there no longer is the money to pay for your folks to do the work that you’re doing.

[00:08:34] So with all of this, then, I’m curious, with the mix of things that is happening, all these great diverse streams of income that you’ve built, what is happening with your numbers? What are your numbers looking like in terms of money that’s left over at the end of the month? How much are you able to pay your team?

[00:08:49] Tell me about that.

[00:08:50] Anastasia: Right now we are growing. And so at this moment in time, we’re in a little bit of that sticky spot of… I brought on a new therapist at the beginning of the summer. We had a therapist who just started actually this week. So overall,our numbers have been trending upward.

[00:09:10] But anytime I think that there is a hire there is some instability for a little while. So, we are breaking even.But obviously that’s not sustainable. I do see that once we have a new therapist, with a full caseload… Our therapist who came out at the beginning of the summer is pretty full already. 

[00:09:29] She’s doing pretty well. I do see that once this new therapist is full, that we are going to continue trending upward. Now, another piece of this is we do accept Medicaid, and in the state of Colorado… I know some states are a little bit different than the state of Colorado where we are, we’re not able to bill for no shows or late cancellations.

[00:09:52] And so, that is a pain point that we’re facing because, that is one of the more accessible ways that we’re able to provide services, too, because it’s covered 100%. But then if people don’t show up, then we don’t get paid.

[00:10:06] Linzy: Yes. Okay.

[00:10:10] Anastasia: That has led to a little bit of our instability at this moment, too, because we just started taking Medicaid this year, which has had its ups and downs for sure.

[00:10:21] So I would say we’re breaking even as a general statement. But I do keep a pretty close look at our books. And, summer is always a tricky time, too. So right now, We have some therapists who, they themselves have not necessarily broken even, for their income versus expense. There is a little bit of buffer that has, not necessarily put us into a deficit, if that makes sense. 

[00:10:52] Linzy: That’s in a larger business, there are going to be times where you’re digging into your buffer and then other times when you’re building your buffer and that’s great that you had that there because it means that you’re not going into debt during those quieter months in the summer, which are almost inevitable.

[00:11:05] I hear from very few therapists who don’t experience some type of summer lull. So, you know, just want to reflect, yeah, how great that is that you have built that buffer. Because that does mean that you’re able to weather those without it becoming a crisis. Because I would say, to some extent, those ups and downs are inevitable, right?

[00:11:23] And so part of it is that we build the financial stability. So a down doesn’t mean a crisis. It just means, okay, this makes sense because we lose a little bit of money every July. But we know that in September things are going to look like this, right? And as you build your business history, and if you keep track of information, you’re going to start to understand exactly what those trends mean year over year.

[00:11:40] But yeah, just want to give you a high five, and recognize and love the use of the word buffer. Mwah. Perfect. So with this, then, I’m hearing a general upward trend, but kind of breaking even, what do you want to look different? What are you not happy about when it comes to your group practice finances?

[00:11:56] Anastasia: Yeah, I know this is the case pretty much everywhere, but the cost of living is going up so rapidly so that even if we’re breaking even in, you know, arguably in some ways we’re actually losing money because of the difficulty to sustain the same trajectory that our cost of living is.

[00:12:16] And, so, I worry that the rate that we grow is still not going to be enough to keep up.

[00:12:26] Linzy: So your team’s wages are not going to be able to grow with the cost of living increases.

[00:12:31] Anastasia: Exactly. Yes. Yes.

[00:12:33] Mm hmm.

[00:12:33] Linzy: And it’s true. If we’re not getting a raise of, I don’t know what the number is right now, but if it’s 5 percent a year, which is a raise most of us don’t get!

[00:12:39] Anastasia: Mm hmm.

[00:12:40] Linzy: Then we are earning less year over year.

[00:12:40] Anastasia: Mm hmm.

[00:12:41] Linzy: Yeah. And we’ve, we’ve definitely experienced a huge cost of living spike this year.

[00:12:47] So what I’m hearing then is your team needs to be paid more,

[00:12:52] Anastasia: Yeah.

[00:12:52] Linzy: Right? For you to be able to grow their wages year over year so that they’re not earning less.

[00:12:55] Anastasia: Mm hmm, mm hmm.

[00:12:57] Linzy: Okay, so that’s a piece that you know is not working. Is there anything else that you’d want to change?

[00:13:02] Anastasia: Pragmatically, that I think is the main thing. I know there’s a marketing piece here and stuff like that that I probably need a little more of my own education and things on. But I guess also continuing to diversify our resources and our income, and also in the event that there are changes to Medicaid, that’s also on my mind, since that is something that does fortunately reimburse 100 percent for music therapy. But if that were to change, since it is a very niche service, that is something that at any point in time, you know, with any sort of federal or state budgetary changes could be slashed.

[00:13:42] And I realized that. And so that’s something I would like to, I guess, get ahead of in the event that were to occur. And I hope that it doesn’t. And then we just have other options out there. But, yeah, I think, the wages for my team and also continuing to build out their benefits packages.

[00:14:01] That’s something I would also like to do. And the diversification, like getting creative in order to diversify our services.

[00:14:10] Linzy: Okay. So with your team then, in terms of their earnings and expenses, like I’m hearing you’re aware of when certain team members are not profitable for the business.

[00:14:21] Anastasia: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

[00:14:22] Linzy: numbers laid out for yourself. Do you know what a clinician’s caseload needs to look like to get them to a wage that is the wage that you want to be paying folks?

[00:14:33] Do you have a sense of what needs to happen to get you where you need to be with each employee? Yeah, so what does that need to look like? What does a caseload need to look like?

[00:14:42] Anastasia: Yeah. I’ve built it out a little bit differently depending on the roles of our staff. I have a lead music therapist who has a slightly different caseload expectation because she’s also doing some other things, she’s running our social media, doing some other outreach and advocacy things.

[00:14:58] She’s our main community based therapist as well. And so her caseload needs to sit at between 20 to 25 contact hours a week for there to be profit, that I feel comfortable with. And the summer has been tricky because a lot of individuals have taken vacations and stuff like that.

[00:15:21] And so that has kind of come up underneath that expectation. And unfortunately, we lost some of our community contracts due to some budgetary changes and things. So there’s that. I aim for one to three contract hours in the community a week because we charge a little bit more obviously for a group and then for travel time and things like that.

[00:15:43] So one to three of those groups a week within that 20 to 25 contact hours for her. Then, our onboarding therapists aim for 23 to 28 because they’re mostly going to be, just doing the work, just doing therapy. And then,, they get paid an hour of admin time for every four contact hours.

[00:16:09] That roughly leads to about 35 work hours a week. So there’s a little, little buffer there, too. If they want more clients, then there is a little room for that or other projects. So, and that is obviously if everyone shows up to their appointments and all the things happen.

[00:16:30] Linzy: So, I mean, this is excellent clarity that you have, in terms of what needs to happen. I think the next question that I would be thinking about, given that you know what it takes to kind of keep the lights on, run things, break even, is what could be changed about these numbers and the way that you’re filling folks caseloads to make it that little bit more profitable that we were talking about?

[00:16:52] To create that breathing room? Which I would argue breathing room to give them raises, cost of living increases, but also to create more breathing room for the business itself, to make sure you have enough buffers because the bigger we get, the more liability we have. It’s like the greater the risk, the greater the reward.

[00:17:10] And so I’m also thinking about the stability of your business itself when we’re thinking about the money that needs to be earned. What do you think looks different that would make. one of these positions more profitable? Where are tweaks that could be made in one of these positions?

[00:17:25] Anastasia: One of the things I’m currently working on is building out more community based contracts for some of the other therapists, because when we do have those, we have our rate and we don’t waiver on that. The individual clients,we’ll do our sliding scale, pay-what-you-can option.

[00:17:43] So a few more of those a month would be helpful. Also, maybe getting more music students because that’s another area where we don’t offer pay what you can. We have our rate, and that’s what we charge.I am also still seeing patients myself. and so that that helps.

[00:18:02] I would like to stay on the lower side of my patient load so that I can navigate some of these other things. I do pick up some extra hours from time to time if needed for the business. However, that’s short-term. I try not to, you know, lean too far into that.

[00:18:18] And so those are some things that come to mind right now. Some other things that we do that aren’t necessarily revenue generating at the moment, but have been successful is that I go and do mental health screens at various music festivals, art festivals, and talk to people about our services there.

[00:18:36] And so we tend to get some people signed up for consultations, actually, in those places. So we do get a boost , Whenever we have , those offerings,

[00:18:45] Linzy: Okay,

[00:18:47] Anastasia: In terms of other places, we do increase our rates marginally each year as well, about five to 10,for each of our therapists hourly rates each year. So that helps a bit going into the new year.

[00:19:00] What’s been on my mind and, actually would be helpful, I think, to talk about, is increasing our groups on site. We only have one group currently on site, and I know that groups are a place where we can sort of have virtually infinite ceiling, or lack of, lack of a ceiling, I guess.

[00:19:19] Um, and, I am nervous about making promises I can’t keep with having staff start a group that maybe is not well attended. And then I actually ended up losing money rather than making money there. So I guess, maybe there’s some mindset things for starting some group things.

[00:19:37] Linzy: Because what I’m hearing you’re already aware of, which is great, is it’s natural for group practice owners to have the tendency to just work more themselves, just pick up more client hours, because usually we’ve created a group because there’s already so much demand for your services, that it’s easy to just flex that muscle that you know.

[00:19:54] But you’re absolutely right that the more strategic avenue is for you to spend your time growing the offerings and doing the marketing. You’re mentioning when you go to music festivals, you always get a bunch of consults. So for, you know, however long that musical festival is, for X amount of hours of your time, you can be getting several new clients who stay with the practice for years, maybe.

[00:20:17] Right. And so that’s something to think about when we think about your time: what are the most valuable uses of your time to solve these problems, like in the machine, right? If we think about your practice as a machine, which is the metaphor that I like to use, you’ve done many, many things to create stability and health in this machine already, right?

[00:20:35] You’ve diversified, you’ve built in a fee increase. So there’s all sorts of things you’re already doing to make sure that there’s going to be money coming in. But what I’m hearing is two things. One is spending time to get really clear on what are some little tweaks you could make that would have the biggest impact, right?

[00:20:53] So like your music lessons, for instance, if you really promoted the music lessons, since those are out of pocket and you could get 15 more music lessons a week, what does that do to the overhead of the business? And after that therapist or employee is paid what’s left in the business, right?

[00:21:07] What is the overall profitability of that kind of service, and kind of turning the dials where they’re going to have the biggest impact. Cause there’s always a thousand things we can do. Right? And I can hear that your brain is very good at thinking about all these avenues. And there’s some value in all of them.

[00:21:22] But there’s always going to be certain avenues that are more strategic in terms of the use of your time. So I’m hearing: marketing. You know that marketing is an area where you could spend more time and do more growth. Because if you can get your marketing machine working, if you could get SEO working, or Facebook ads, or start to build a strong local brand presence beyond what you already have, go to more music festivals…

[00:21:43] That is going to have a much bigger impact for your group than you seeing more clients, right? That’s that scaled impact. You know, we’re talking about with the groups too: it’s not infinite, but certainly there’s a scaled opportunity with groups that we don’t have with one to one.

[00:22:00] So if you put your energy into really focusing on: I’m going to get three groups off the ground over the next year, right? And phase them out, but really put your marketing energy into advertising in the schools, you know, running Facebook ads, really experimenting with how to fill these things, that is going to have a much bigger ripple effect in your business than anything you can do with one on one.

[00:22:24] Either that your clinicians can do with one on one or that you individually can do one on one, right? But it takes more of your work to make it happen because it is getting into that marketing piece. What do you notice when I say this? Yeah.

[00:22:37] Anastasia: There are some nerves that come up. Some anxiety. Yeah, that’s an area that, I think I’m, I’m better at than I think I am. I have a lot of marketing ideas, but it never feels natural.

[00:22:50] Linzy: Yes, it’s not your zone of comfort.

[00:22:53] Anastasia: Mhm. Yes, exactly. And so it feels very… And I realize that in the world that we live in, this is necessary, but it feels very salesy. It feels very dehumanizing… I guess another piece, too, is also wondering, in the investment of… I’m okay with investing time, but investing money feels anxiety-provoking as well into ads and marketing and things like that. Whereas I know that’s a catch-22, because sometimes you have to spend money to make money.

[00:23:25] And, I think my anxiety around my own… I guess my own insecurities, my own disbelief and self doubt about my marketing strategies. I project onto, well, if I put money into this, I’m just going to lose it. I think that’s the association that I have.

[00:23:42] Linzy: Okay. Okay. So I’m hearing two, maybe three things there. The first one is, salesy is a bad word. Mm hmm. Can you tell me more about being salesy? You use the word dehumanizing, which is a strong word, I will say. Tell me what comes up when you think about sales.

[00:24:02] Anastasia: Yeah. there’s some associations, I think, to it not always being honest or forthcoming, and that there is an ulterior motive, and that it’s difficult to stay ethical.

[00:24:17] Anastasia: And I realize that, you know, scope of practice and code of ethics is kind of different, across the board. But there’s some general, sort of facets that, beneficence, non maleficence, justice, things like that, that I struggle to reconcile sometimes in the marketing process.

[00:24:35] Linzy: hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I’m curious for you, what is your ulterior motive?

[00:24:44] Anastasia: I’m getting people’s services and getting my staff paid.

[00:24:47] Linzy: Yes.

[00:24:48] Anastasia: I’m trying to live a life that I am not struggling.

[00:24:51] Linzy: Okay. Well, thank you for laying out your evil plan for all of us to hear. Because this is, you know, all you’re describing… of course, there are many examples of this, like duplicitous sales. You know, pyramid schemes. I don’t know. Of course, sales can have an ugly, terrible side. And of course, it can be a place where people abuse power.

[00:25:13] What I’m hearing is you have a practice that provides music therapy with a goal of trying to make it as accessible as possible for folks who cannot pay out of pocket. And in order to do that, you need people to also buy your services, which means that they’re also getting great service that they can afford to pay for. Right? Is there anything nefarious in that mission?

[00:25:37] Anastasia: No.

[00:25:38] Linzy: What do you think of when you think of that mission? Or would you put it differently? When you think about your mission, why you built this practice, what you’re here to do, and what you and your team do all the time, how would you describe that?

[00:25:50] What is that for you?

[00:25:53] Anastasia: Our catchphrase is that we are enhancing healing and learning through creativity. And I truly believe that the arts and creativity is where people thrive and that’s where they can be their most authentic selves. And that doesn’t necessarily have to be through the arts.

[00:26:10] I think creativity transcends a lot of different domains. And that is the realm through which we all are on the same page in that regard that creativity is where people can find their true selves. Stand authentically and live the life that they want to live through creativity.

[00:26:32] And at the same time, we want to be able to provide that, within reason, of course, as best we can, to anyone who wants to access that, or would be benefited by accessing that. Not just people who are within a certain demographic, or a certain age range, certain class or anything.

[00:26:56] I worked in inpatient psych and worked at a state hospital prior to starting my private practice. And so, I saw the benefit that my creative services offered to our folks there. And many of them were homeless. The overwhelming majority were on Medicaid, Medicare. 

[00:27:18] And so while that can’t be replicated in private practice, I wanted to try to close that gap as much as possible because as soon as they were discharged, they didn’t have access to those services anymore because of these barriers. So the mission there is, yeah, these creative services that are typically, out of range, for lack of a better term, for a lot of people, but also such a healing, opportunity and such a, an empowering place where people can be their authentic selves.

[00:27:47] Linzy: So what I’m hearing then is if you find people who can come and pay, they’re going to have these profound healing experiences, and also they’re going to make it more possible for your practice to provide these services to folks who don’t have the cash to pay for these services, right? So having those folks come and paying you, you’re doing them a great service, but also you’re able to do more service in your community. What do you notice thinking about that and thinking about the sales that will help to make that happen?

[00:28:19] Anastasia: It feels a lot of ways.

[00:28:23] Linzy: Sure.

[00:28:24] Anastasia: Nerve wracking, hopeful. There’s definitely, you know, I guess fear of the unknown, sort of, stepping into and kind of trusting the process, of feeling of apprehension.

[00:28:35] Linzy: Yes. Yes. Yeah. And I mean, you’re at a point in the business, there’s a phrase that’s coming to mind for me, which is, what got you here won’t get you there.

[00:28:46] Anastasia: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

[00:28:47] Linzy: You’ve been able to build a practice with success, without having to do Or really show up in the marketing space a lot, right? And you’ve been able to serve folks at a pay what you can model, which is wonderful.

[00:29:00] And in order to get you to the point where also your team can get paid better, and where also you can start to provide benefits, there’s new things that need to be brought on board, right? And there’s the two pieces, you know, that we’ve talked about here so far. There’s the looking at where those differences are going to be made.

[00:29:15] What are the little things in your practice that could go a long way? Music lessons probably being one of them. Groups probably being another. But then there’s also the piece of you stepping up and doing this marketing and using your time and talents to bring tons of people towards the practice, and fill up this great team that you’ve built.

[00:29:35] Anastasia: Yeah.

[00:29:36] Linzy: Yeah.

[00:29:37] So, I mean, thinking about your next steps, I will say that in my mind, there’s this part of me that’s like, I have a spreadsheet in Money Skills for Group Practice Owners that’s all about this, but it’s very complex and it takes a long time. So I wasn’t able to get into it with you today because it looks at all the different variables.

[00:29:51] So there’s equations here, right? There’s numbers that you can work at deeply understanding. And I know that’s part of the picture is taking time to understand your numbers. And starting to look, and play some scenarios of okay, what if we did this? What if we did this?

[00:30:04] I’m going to say that that’s part of your next steps, right? Is to get even more into your numbers, which it sounds like you’re already doing a great job of, right?

[00:30:11] What do you see as your steps after that? Once you identify what you need to do, where the impact will, will happen.

[00:30:20] Anastasia: I do feel very empowered by knowledge. And so I think that will give me a lot more confidence in marketing and some of the places where we can have a little more of that impact or build that buffer, or reach demographics that can support our model and build a foundation for us. I think that will feel a lot more accessible to do at that point. I think that will further round out my workflow as well, Because as we’re talking about this, I’m realizing that sometimes I don’t, well, oftentimes I would say, I’m sort of reactive in our financial stuff in general. And you know, whenever we lose a contract, like: oh, that’s whenever I start ramping up the marketing or trying to reach out to other places at that point.

[00:31:09] And it’s connecting some dots for me that I probably need to break out my schedule to be focusing on all of these things for generally a certain amount of time with some flexibility as as needed, but also building in the time to invest in the things that will have a higher, I guess, return on investment.

[00:31:31] And will further support us in the long run rather than just, kind of trying to mitigate things as they come up.

[00:31:39] Linzy: Yeah. And what I’m getting from you is you clearly have a strategic brain. you’re already doing so much of this, so now it’s this piece, it’s almost like the difference between tracking what’s happened and budgeting.

[00:31:49] Now it’s about getting a little ahead of yourself, right? Like looking into the future, just that little bit more.

[00:31:55] Planning a little bit more for things that probably are going to happen, like at some point, this contract over here is probably going to end. So what else can we start to, where else can we start to plant seeds now, right? To have something else lined up. Starting to look ahead with your numbers and do some of that proactive planning.

[00:32:10] We’re going to run a group in the fall and we’re going to run a group in the spring and I’m going to start planting seeds around all that now. it seems to me like you really would have the capacity to do that. So now it’s just getting that, as you say, into your workflow, making that part of your duties as the CEO and the CFO of your group practice.

[00:32:26] Anastasia: hmm. Yes, absolutely. And that was not even something that dawned on me until kind of sitting there and thinking about it.

[00:32:33] Linzy: Yeah. So coming to the end of our conversation, Anastasia, what are you taking away today?

[00:32:39] Anastasia: Excitement. I was excited coming in, too. I am on your mailing list, and I’ve watched a lot of your webinars and stuff. And actually some, a lot of the things I’m already doing are because of the things you’ve put out in the world. So thank you.

[00:32:52] I feel very, very grateful. I’m very excited for this.

[00:32:55] I feel a little vulnerable, a little raw. You know, in our society, it’s hard to talk about money in a very, forthcoming fashion. And so definitely feeling that, but also feeling empowered, and feeling like there is opportunity, rather than, this is not a common thought process, but I do kind of wonder, is there going to be an end to this practice one day? Is it going to get to the point where, yeah, cost of living, you know, things just cannot add up. And this has really quieted that voice.

[00:33:28] Linzy: yeah.

[00:33:28] And I think you’ve built an excellent foundation. You’ve got a great machine going, so now you get to tweak it, and improve it. And, set it up to do these extra things now that you want to do.

[00:33:41] Anastasia: Thank you. 

[00:33:41] Linzy: Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, Anastasia.

[00:33:44] The words that really come to mind for me from this coaching episode are clarity and strategy. Anastasia has already gained so much clarity in understanding what’s happening with her team’s numbers. And now there’s just more opportunity to get even more clarity on where impacts could be made, and then making those strategic choices in the business, making moves to make an impact and using her time strategically, too, to do that. It’s so easy as group practice owners to do what you’ve always done best, which is be a clinician,and to lean on that skillset of being a clinician whenever money is tight.

[00:34:28]  I see group practice owners do this all the time and it makes so much sense. But as the owner of a group practice, the best thing that you could usually do is actually activities that are going to help all of your team get new clients, right? Or serve those groups, or in her case, look for funding.

[00:34:46] And so it’s those bigger moves that we can make only as the CEO of the practice, as the leader, that are the ones that are easiest to avoid because they’re not comfortable and familiar. They’re not what we know best, but they’re also the most impactful places that you can spend your energy as the leader of a group practice.

[00:35:02] So very excited for Anastasia. I can see that she’s so close to being able to have that practice look how she wants it to look. And I’m really confident that she’s going to get there. And if you, like Anastasia, are a group practice owner who is looking to get more clarity on your group practice numbers, really get them working so you can see your vision really coming to life in terms of taking care of both your clients and your team and yourself. I’m going to put a link in the show notes for the Money Skills for Group Practice Owners waitlist.

[00:35:31] We run that course once or twice a year, and it is all about helping you become the empowered financial leader of your practice, helping you understand your numbers deeply, knowing where you can make an impact and giving you the support and the tools and the guidance to make the moves that are really going to make your business sustainable and allow you to thrive and really be successful.

[00:35:52] To see that vision that you’ve always had come to life. So the link for the Money Skills for Group Practice Owners waitlist is in the show notes. If you jump on that list, you’ll hear about it the next time we open the course.

[00:36:03] If you’re enjoying the podcast, please tell your friends or colleagues about it. It’s the best way for new folks to find us and listen. And you can also follow me on Instagram at Money Nuts and Bolts. We share our regular content on there all the time.Thank you so much for joining us today.