Meet Steph Davis and Laura Bull

Laura Bull [00:00:00] There has to be some kind of synchronicity. There has to be certainly a clearing and repair process going on. If there’s any kind of relational tension to go into the group and imagine one can suppress that and not have it affect the system is silliness when the business needs our attention, but we’re in tension. There’s sort of this clearing the desk. Nothing productive is going to happen until you and I get back into right relatedness. 

Linzy Bonham [00:00:28] Welcome to the Money Skills for Therapist the 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. 

Linzy Bonham [00:00:50] Hello and welcome back to the podcast. Today on the podcast I have Steph and Laura. Steph and Laura are the founders, and they’re the clinical directions of Shoreline Counseling in British Columbia, which is a group practice. They’re also the hosts of the “A Not So Private Practice” podcast, where they share about their experiences with their business partnership, which we’re gonna be chatting about today. They talk about friendship and business and all things private practice. And they also mention including their love of budgeting. And Steph and Laura are currently in Money Skills for Group Practice Owners. So I asked them to come onto the podcast, even though we’ve only been working together for a month, because they have a really impressive business partnership. And something that I mentioned in this episode and that I see over and over again. Well, two things. One is the idea that group practice is an easy way to make money. And so folks, if they’re busy and folx think, well, I guess I should just start a group practice because that’s a way to make more money. That’s not true, by the way. Group practice is actually pretty, complicated financially, to make it work. They’ll talk about that a little bit today. But number two is: I see folks forming partnerships with, you know, somebody that they work with, a friend, because they also think that that will be easier. And as Steph and Laura talk about today, business partnerships can be easier if you put in all the work to actually take care of that relationship. So today on the podcast, Steph and Laura are going to share about their own business partnership, how they have navigated conflicts, how they navigate conversations around money, and some of the challenges that still exist in their business partnership around money and how they are working on those. Here is my conversation with Steph and Laura. 

Linzy Bonham [00:02:36] So, Stef and Laura, welcome to the podcast. 

Laura Bull [00:02:39] Thank you. 

Steph Davis [00:02:40] Thanks. Thanks so much for having us. 

Linzy Bonham [00:02:41] Yeah, I’m really excited to have both of you on here. Something that I’m really excited about is you two have a business partnership, which I think is something that a lot of therapists, when they think about maybe expanding from solo practice into group practice or some sort of larger offering, often consider partnerships thinking that it’s kind of like it would be easier to start something with a friend. And you two have walked that path for a while now. Can you tell folks a little bit about the history of your business partnership to get us grounded and your history together? 

Steph Davis [00:03:15] Yeah, Laura, that’s a you question. Go ahead. 

Laura Bull [00:03:17] Yeah, sure. We probably have a bit of a unique beginning together because we, what’s not unique is we used to work in a different practice. I’m sure other folks have that experience, but that practice dissolved under the weight of some very serious allegations. And, Steph and I sort of became really bonded through the fire of that. Like, we became aware of a lot of the misconduct that was going on. And I became aware before she did, and she was actually the very first person I ever told. I was holding these really big secrets about someone who I had trusted for a long time, who had been, clinical supervisor to me for a long time and couldn’t quite reckon with how I had had what I thought was a meaningful clinical experience. I couldn’t reckon that with this information that was coming my way about what seemed like a totally contrary person. And so I held on to that information secretly for a while. And then, Steph, I think through a number of circumstances, I don’t know what it was. We hadn’t been friends for very long before, but we just kept having these little conversations. And something in my gut was just like, she’s the person. Like, If I’m going to tell anyone, she’s the person I’m going to tell. And it was a heavy weight. I knew that this information was going to come with lots of action. And so it wasn’t something I wanted to share lightly. It wasn’t something I really wanted to burden anyone with, to be honest. But I did tell Steph, and she and I did end up taking a lot of action, a lot of legal and movement action, to against some of these very serious things that we found out were going on. So we came together in this very dire season, certainly of my life, and she became this like very, very, very trustworthy person that, you know, she was going through her own emotional reactions, but she was doing a lot to support me as I was sort of unraveling everything that I had thought this ten year clinical career of mine had meant, what was still true, what wasn’t true. So that’s kind of we came together there and somewhere in the midst of us knowing we were fleeing, leaving this place, the last thing on my mind was starting a business. Literally the last, like probably even more, the last was being a leader, like leading other people. At that time, as I was reckoning with this leader who, just was not at all what I had thought they were. So this is sort of where Steph enters the story. 

Steph Davis [00:06:07] Yeah. I mean, yeah, it was a really awful time. And, you know, definitely more impactful emotionally for Laura than it was for me. So I had kind of the privilege of just sort of like holding a bit more of a container around, like, what does this mean for us? And there were a number of people in this practice that were affected by this. And, you know, to me, I was like, this might be a cool opportunity. Like, we have to leave here and leaving people behind that we’re in the dark about this, but would be affected by this, once it all came to light, didn’t feel right for us. And so, you know what initially started as like the pursuit of an office space for Laura and myself to maybe take on a student or two and to just kind of hide ourselves out and away from all of the unfolding drama. What started out as that, evolved into this idea that “Oh, we have to be a bit of a refuge”, like we have an opportunity here to support these other clinicians and this practice full of clients that we’re all going to be somehow impacted by this. And so that, you know, amidst all the conflicting, confusing emotion that was like what excited me, I was like, let’s do this thing. And Laura was like, oh, okay, I’m with you. 

Linzy Bonham [00:07:26] It kind of sounds like a I’m picturing like a couple things. I’m picturing like a phoenix rising situation. Right where it’s like this intense, what I’m heating from you, Laura, is like this intense loss and probably like betrayal and questioning of like what is real and identity, and with this relationship, with this person, who had done these things that you can’t reconcile with your experience of them. So there’s all of this pain, trauma, but then it’s also knowing that you need to get yourselves out of there. It’s like, well, we also need to take everybody else with us, which is a very therapist thing to do, by the way. 

Steph Davis [00:07:57] Yeah, totally. We were like foreseeing all the, you know, suffering. That was and that’s this thing unraveled. And it was, it was another layer of like in tolerability.

Linzy Bonham [00:08:08] Yeah, that’s really interesting because it’s you kind of stepped into leadership roles out of a crisis, really. It’s like there was a leadership. It sounds to me like there was a leadership void that was opened up by this person who, you know, had these allegations against them and was no longer going to be able to create this structure for these folks. So there was this void and it sounds like, Steph, what I’m hearing from you is like excitement to step into that void. That’s opportunity. And Laura, you were like, “okay, I guess I’ll come too”. Is that a fair summary?

Steph Davis [00:08:39] Yeah. Sort of. 

Linzy Bonham [00:08:40] Okay. Sort of, sort of, yeah. What would you say was different about it? Tell me Steph. 

Steph Davis [00:08:44] I think that, I mean there was more of a power struggle than a void, for sure. At the time, you know, this person was not letting go of this lightly, like it was quite an intense time. I mean, we literally snuck out in the dead of night. We, like, went in there, took our stuff, secretly, moved all our clients over. The whole thing was really secretive. And then once we got going, I think, ok Laura, you tell me if this is right. I don’t know if it’s true, but there is more and more balance that was that we were finding with each other in this process. Where as much as it was emotional and hard and traumatic, you know, and so deeply impactful for Laura in so many ways. As the momentum for the business got going, she was the one pioneering a lot of stuff, like finding the space, getting it sorted. And there was I don’t know if it’s true to say, but it felt like we sort of kind of collided on this, like energetic path towards this future that we’re building, which is when things really started to click and take off, you know. Does that feel true Laura? I don’t know. 

Laura Bull [00:09:44] Yeah, I know it does. But I’m trying to find language actually for it, as you say it, because I had profound self-doubt around my ability to be a leader at that time because I was like, my modeling for leadership turns out to be really poor. And so I was really scared of accidentally repeating some of the really poor leadership qualities that I had been under for so long. And yeah, like once the decision was made. I mean, Linzy, you’re getting to know this part of me. I have this thing sometimes where I get excited about a new idea, and then I just don’t stop. Like when you get voice memos from me at 1:00 am because I’m like, I’m really excited about something like. That turned on whatever part of me, it clicked on. And I was like, if we’re going to do this, then we’re going to do it. Like we’re going to do it full, big, excellent. And so those little bubbles of life force, I think, started to move around my system, and I felt really sheltered. Steph was like, this is going to be great, we’re going to do it. And I was like, okay, I don’t know if it’s going to be great, but I feel you walking ahead of me. I feel a little sheltered by you, walking ahead of me. And within that shelter, now I got to be part of this. I want to see what we can do to make this possible. 

Linzy Bonham [00:11:01] That’s actually a really good visual description of what I, you know, have been experienced of your dynamic. So we’ve been working together now for a month basically, you know, and you to have back pocket access. So we talk on WhatsApp by voice which is always like I find much more personal. You know, we get to know each other a lot faster. And that’s actually a really good description, Laura, because I have been trying to kind of articulate in my mind what is your dynamic? Because it isn’t just like a pure yin yang. It’s not that simple, the two of you. But yeah, I hear what you’re saying. It’s like Steph. Steph has that sturdiness and aheadness. And then in that, you can get really excited and thrive. 

Steph Davis [00:11:33] Yeah, I mean Linzy, well you’ve been on vacation over the course of the last week. I have been taken out by Laura’s intense desire to just push ahead. I’m like, I’ve been like thrown to the side. And she is now, like, officially leading the charge here. It’s up. It is reflective of what happens between us often. You know there is this constant back and forth around the vision and the logistics and the details and who’s taking the lead and who’s sheltering who. 

Linzy Bonham [00:12:04] That’s so interesting. It brings to mind, to me a metaphor that a friend of mine, years ago when I was learning how to drive standard. I learned how to drive standard in my mid-20s, and I had two friends, two male friends who taught me how to drive standard, because I basically bought a standard vehicle and I did not know how to drive it. So it’s like my roommate and one of my friends who was a paramedic, they taught me how to drive standard at like 25 years old. And I remember one of my friends making this analogy about him and, and a different friend of ours, like one of them was kind of like that first gear that kind of like, gets you going and has that initial push. But then the other one was gear five, now you’re rolling. And that’s kind of what I’m hearing, you kind of shift gears between the two of you in terms of getting things going, but then keeping it going. But then, you know, maybe you slow down a little. So, there is this beautiful interplay between the two of you, which is part of the reason I wanted to have you on the podcast, even though we’ve only been working together for a month. Because I think so many folks step into business partnerships because they think it’s going to make things easier, right? That it’s kind of the easy option. But what I often see is that business partnerships are not successful and they don’t work and they fall apart. And folks who loved each other end up actually not only not in being business partners, but not being friends anymore. Right? It can be a great way to kill a friendship. And what I see in your relationship is something so much more mature than so many business relationships. So, you know, this is a podcast about money. I want to dig into that side of your relationship now that we have a sense of where you’ve come from. For the two of you, what have been some of your biggest money challenges or financial challenges of navigating being in a business partnership together and building something together, and also being these two kind of different people? 

Steph Davis [00:13:43] Yeah, I can kind of segue in just from what you were saying. I mean, I work with a lot of therapists in a coaching capacity, and my takeaway is that being a partnership is easier in a lot of ways. And the amount of work that Laura and I do on our relationship and on our partnership is almost as much as we do on our business. Because as you say, it won’t work otherwise. And our relationship is actually the thing that’s most important to us. And so when we’re out of sync or when we’re not working, things are kind of just like a fray, you know? And so, I think we have these two ways that we navigate. Kind of like two codes essentially, that we use to like navigate our relationship. And when it comes to our conversations about money, the first one is the thing that we live by, which is essentially that we refuse to hold resentment towards each other. We’re just going to have those hard conversations all the time. Whenever there’s resentment, we are going to sit down and we’re going to do that work with each other, because our friendship depends on it and our business depends on it. Laura, you want to frame it a little differently? 

Laura Bull [00:14:55] Yeah. I mean, I lead a lot of groups. I got a lot of training from a lot of brilliant group therapists early in my career. And one of the things I sort of live by is that if I always co-lead, I rarely lead on my own. But if the two group leaders are in relational tension, the group will be in tension. It’s a systems approach, essentially. And so what I was taught from the get go is the leaders have to be, there has to be some kind of synchronicity. There has to be certainly a clearing and repair process going on if there’s any kind of relational tension, because to go into the group and imagine one can suppress that and not have it affect the system is silliness. And so Steph and I, we know that, when the business needs our attention but we’re in tension. There’s sort of this clearing the desk, just shove all the papers off the desk because nothing productive is going to happen until you and I get back into right relatedness. So I think we prioritize that mostly because we really like each other and because the thing that would be the most soul-crushing is if our friendship breaks down here. And we sort of joke that we’re more legally bound than we are to our spouses. That’s actually not a joke. That’s actually true. 

Steph Davis [00:16:12] Yeah, yeah. 

Laura Bull [00:16:13] It’d be harder to get out of our arrangement than the spousal arrangements. So there’s a lot of good reason to work on it, but also, like, she’s just so important to me. I don’t care as much about the business breaking down as this friendship breaking down. And I think the business benefits greatly from that.

Steph Davis [00:16:34] Yeah. We care so deeply about each other that we’re always working on that. First and foremost, you know. 

Laura Bull [00:16:41] So, money though. The hardest thing for sure is resentment, which Steph has already spoken to. And resentment shows up the most because we’re equal partners in terms of our corporation documentations, but we don’t do equal amounts of work. And so reckoning that over the years, I think you’d agree, Steph has been definitely the most challenging. And I have spent many nights over the last five years talking to my husband, being like, oh my God, I know it’s not fair. What if she resents me? And really I’m saying, like, what if our friendship ends then we never make it back? But that’s the thing that feels the most scary to me is what if we can’t work it out? What if this resentment grows? What if she walks away feeling bitter at me? And I would hate that. And so that really fuels these: what are we going to do? What are we going to do about the inequalities in our partnership? 

Steph Davis [00:17:35] Yeah, I mean, the most glaring example. So I had said, there are two codes that we live by. And the second one is that we promised each other that we would not allow the business to stop us from doing what we need to do in our lives. And that we would be, you know, on board to support each other with however our lives unfolded and wouldn’t let the business stand in the way. This is the best example of how this inequity has shown up over the years. Was it two years ago? Three years ago? Two years ago, Laura decided to have another baby and we were three years into the practice or two years into the practice, and we were in the midst of opening a second location. I generally carry more of the administrative burden of the practice to start with, and that just became tenfold when Laura went on maternity leave. And we’re renovating and opening a second office and trying to keep this office afloat. And it was it was a lot. And there were a lot of resentment conversations and a lot of money conversations around how we were going to make this equitable, financially so that we could reckon some of the resentment and repair what needed to be repaired. 

Linzy Bonham [00:18:47] And with that, did you figure it out? Have you figured out how to address that inequity or make it equitable, make it fair? Laura’s not just had a maternity leave, but also as a mother to three kiddos, right? So lots of family demands there. What have you figured out? 

Laura Bull [00:19:06] Okay. We didn’t figure it out. I think is the honest truth on my mat leave. We had lots of plans about how we could make it equitable and they didn’t come to fruition. Lots of plans about how we could pay Steph differently than me during that time. Then we had a great idea and we felt we couldn’t see it through because we couldn’t figure out how to make the money work at the time. And that was, I mean, it was terrible for us. I would have loved nothing more than for Steph to be paid and for it to be like, “okay, great, phew, we found a way to manage this”. And then she didn’t get paid for that time, not for the extra time she was doing. That was terrible between us. It has been a hard topic for years between us. As many times as we’ve circled back around and given space to air our different feelings about it. It’s more in the present that we have some irons in the fire around how we’re going to resolve this sort of unequal sweat equity in our past. We have some pretty good ideas about it now  I think. But, truth be told, it’s been a couple of years of that not really being resolved, it being a painful point in our business history. 

Steph Davis [00:20:25] Yeah, and I mean, I think that though it hasn’t been resolved, it also hasn’t been ignored, which is, I think, what makes part of our partnership so unique and special in that way is that we have talked this thing to death. We are both very aware of the impact that this has had on me, the impact that it’s having on Laura, this sort of like dark, kind of cloud that hangs around sometimes when this topic comes up and we’re trying to figure out how to make things equitable. And though we haven’t arrived at a solution, I think that the way that we address it, and the way that we hold space for it, and the way that we don’t avoid it or dismiss it makes it more tolerable. It doesn’t create this barrier in our relationship where we can’t move forward on anything because we’re so stuck in this place. It’s like our hope kind of has always been that there’ll be some sort of way that this will end up being more clear and coming to a resolution. And whenever we think we have an idea, we bat it around and recently it’s gotten a lot more traction. But I think that is a really unique part of what makes our relationship work so well and is so special is that we don’t shy away from those conversations, even if we can’t resolve them. We just tolerate how uncomfortable that is and table it and move on. 

Laura Bull [00:21:40] Yeah, I mean, I think I was hearing Doctor Becky. You know her? She’s a great parenting… 

Linzy Bonham [00:21:45] I do know her, not personally, to be clear, I do not know Doctor Becky personally. I listen to her content. Yes. 

Laura Bull [00:21:51] She was describing rapture as when two people are fully in their experiences and neither of them can put it aside to hear. Whereas repair is when someone can put their experience aside and say, okay, I really want to understand what was going on for you there, tell me more. And I think Steph and I do that well, even when we can’t resolve it practically, I think we have the benefit of our therapist skills, and with relative ease you’re able to say, just tell me how this is for you. Tell me how bad, tell me how painful, tell me how bitter, tell me how used you feel. And, with relative ease can sort of hold that without interrupting with, but this or explanations or all those tempting things to do when things get difficult. So I know that has been the good enough that’s carried us through until we could find practical solutions. 

Linzy Bonham [00:22:43] Yeah. Well, and listening to you, something that strikes me is you are both so brave, first of all. Having these hard conversations all the fucking time by the sounds of it, right? And that takes bravery because like, I know for myself as somebody who comes from a history of kind of people pleasing, fear of conflict. What you are doing can be really scary. It can be scary to voice things that you fear might hurt the relationship or create conflict. And what I’m hearing is these are skills that you’ve really used with each other. I don’t know if you’ve honed them with each other, if there’s been growth in this, or if these are skills that you both already had. But it sounds like they really are a foundational part of your relationship. And as you say, just talking about it, which makes you think about marriage. I remember hearing a friend say that her parents talked about how in marriage, sometimes you have a bad decade, right? And we don’t necessarily think about that when you’re young. You don’t think that a relationship can be that long and you can be like, oh, yeah, the 70s were kind of hard for us. That was kind of a bad time. But the 80s were great. But that’s what I’m hearing from you two. There is this kind of, still a bit of a cloud, we still haven’t figured this thing out, but there’s also this hope of like, but we are going to, or we are working on it and we are like keeping it on the table. It’s not being buried or avoided. 

Laura Bull [00:23:53] Yes. Yeah. 

Linzy Bonham [00:23:54] Which is so again, the word that comes to mind for me is mature. But what I’m also hearing is like, you two have so honed your emotional skills and your emotional intelligence around your business partnership, being leaders, how your relationship impacts your team. And now I know some of the work that you’re doing is figuring out this practical part, right? By like digging into the numbers in a different way to see how can you actually practically solve this problem. And, you know, it strikes me that in financial leadership, you need both, right?  You have the first thing in spades. And now as a team together, you’re working on the second thing, which is actually figuring out the numbers and how do we make the numbers work so there can be some compensation, reparation, recognition of the inequity that’s been there. 

Steph Davis [00:24:39] Totally. I mean, Laura, gosh, when we get that solved, what are we going to talk about?

Laura Bull [00:24:46] Maybe not work stuff. 

Steph Davis [00:24:48] Oh yeah, maybe not work stuff. That is the part of our relationship that’s probably fallen off the most. We get it in intense 20 or 30-minute to two-hour windows where we’re like, it’s only personal time right now, go! Than we go right back to it. Six weeks later, it’s like how did that things play out that we talked about for 20 minutes? 

Linzy Bonham [00:25:10] Yeah. You’ll open up more space to be friends. And then also I think too, to just expand and think about what are those next level things for the both of you. Right? Like how can the business be supporting and nurturing you in other ways? Now you’ll have different problems, but they’ll hopefully be funnier Problems. Then this kind of like past peace that is yet to be reconciled. 

Laura Bull [00:25:28] Yes. Totally.

Linzy Bonham [00:25:30] So for folks who are listening, who might be considering starting a business partnership, maybe they’re in a similar situation with you where they’re in like a group practice where it’s like this, ugh, I don’t want to be here. I want to run something better. And I have this friend who I want to run it with. Or maybe people who’ve already started into a business partnership because often these things kind of start accidentally, as we know, what would be your advice to people to have a functional partnership like you do?

Laura Bull [00:25:54] To begin with, I would say , you’re a therapist and you’re equipped with tons of helpful communication and listening skills, and they are direly needed in a business partnership. This is not a different kind of relationship. This is another human relationship. So use all the great skills that you already have, and it has served us well to make this commitment to each other, if there’s resentment that we will bring it up relatively quickly. I know I do a background process around my resentment first. I am usually triggered initially and have big reactions, and so I do a hold sorting to kind of get my adult voice online and sort out, okay, what young part of me might be reacting here. And what’s the fear? And can I soothe and meet that fear internally first and sort of get stabilized in my adult self, and then go to Steph and say, here’s the thing that I think has felt scary or icky or concerning to me. And so I would say, don’t put your therapeutic skills to the side thinking this is a different kind of relationship. It’s really important to do really excellent communication. And don’t ignore resentment. It is like the poison that will take the whole thing down if it doesn’t get addressed in a very timely way. 

Linzy Bonham [00:27:17] Absolutely. Yeah, and Steph? 

Steph Davis [00:27:19] Yeah, I mean I haven’t been in therapy as long as Laura has. I was a teacher prior to. So when we started this, I was a lot younger in my career and in my kind of development of all of these skills as she was. It was a steep learning curve for me at first. We were dealing with so much intensity and working on those skills myself was such an important part of this process for me in therapy and even in my other relationships and in different ways. Because it felt it was sort of just like, oh, you got to like shit or get off the pot here. You got to figure this out and speed up the learning process in terms of communication and the things that you’re learning about relationships. So that I could develop this kind of background process so I could get more clear on what was going on for me also. And then I’ve always had a harder time communicating where I’m at to Laura than she’s had to me. It’s just not as natural for me. And so it takes a lot of work on my end. And I can’t, I think early on in our relationship, I saw her skills as so much more advanced than mine that I relied a lot more on her to do that work. And now, I’ve come to learn over the years that that’s not equitable to our relationship. And so I spent a lot of time doing a lot of the work on my own so that I can show up in this relationship in the way that we’ve committed to. So that we can have this dynamic, that we have that, really when we are both in connection it just hums. It’s great. 

Linzy Bonham [00:28:51] Yeah. And I think there’s so much wisdom there. Steph in terms of how much of our own growth we have to do to really show up as leaders. Right. And to really show up as our best selves, like in these business relationships. And I know for a year or two, I saw a therapist who also had a business background, and he would charge me for executive coaching because like, so much of what was coming up was all of these kinds of things about my business. Your business brings it all to the surface, right? Like having to show up, having hard conversations, having to let people go, having people be mean to you, like all of these things. There’s just endless opportunity. And again, I think there’s so much maturity there, in just owning, okay, I gotta spend a lot of time in therapy to figure out how to how to show up the way that I want to show up. I think it’s easy to want to skip that work, and be like, no, no, this is business. It is uncomfortable

Steph Davis [00:29:42] For sure, it is uncomfortable. And yeah, oh, I just want to focus on the business. And the truth is that the way, I mean, we lead a team of 26 people. So we don’t have a choice but to be in sync with each other. And that just involves more work than, to your point, I think that people really probably are consciously aware of when they imagine going into a partnership. It is the same kind of work I do in my marriage. Right? 

Linzy Bonham [00:30:07] Exactly. And that’s why I say, earlier, Steph, you made a comment that business partnerships are easier and I think they’re easier when they work. Right? I saw a newspaper headline the other day from Jessica Grose, who writes for The New York Times. I read her column every week and she said, basically, good marriages are good. Bad marriages are, well, bad. Right? Like I was talking about this kind of trend, this idea that people aren’t getting married anymore. And it’s like people get married if they can find a great person and build a great relationship. But if you’re in a bad marriage, it’s worse than being on your own, right? And so what I’m hearing is you two have managed to put in the work to make it so that it’s an easier, better option through all the work that you’ve been doing. 

Laura Bull [00:30:42] Yeah, I think that’s probably very true, that it would be much harder if it was a bad relationship. 

Steph Davis [00:30:48] That’s right. I don’t know if I would have survived, you know? 

Laura Bull [00:30:52] Yeah. 

Linzy Bonham [00:30:55] So Steph and Laura, if folks want to hear more from you, which I suspect they do, because I know I do, whenever I talk to you. I’m so impressed by the two of you. Can you tell folks where to find you? Tell them about your podcast. 

Steph Davis [00:31:08] Yeah, we have a podcast. You can listen anywhere you listen to your podcast. It’s called “A not so private practice”. You can find us on social at “A not so private practice”. And, the group practice, we run Shoreline Counseling. You can find us at shorelinecounselling.ca or at Shoreline Counseling on Social. 

Linzy Bonham [00:31:25] Thank you so much Steph and Laura, for coming on the podcast today. 

Steph Davis [00:31:28] Awesome. Thanks for having us Linzy.

Linzy Bonham [00:31:43] I so appreciate Steph and Laura coming on the podcast today. I am consistently impressed by both of them. They’re just very thoughtful, insightful, emotionally intelligent women. And as you could hear during the conversation as they described and you can even hear it happening in real time, is like they are not afraid to have hard conversations. And, you know, as somebody who is personally a conflict adverse, I so admire and appreciate that. But also as business partners, it’s so invaluable to them to have those skills and to be able to navigate it. As we talked about today, they’re such a shining example of what happens when you bring your emotional intelligence and all those therapeutic skills, that we’re teaching other people all the time, those of us who are mental health therapists. When you bring those skills into your business partnership, this is what’s possible, right? Is you can actually have a healthy, sturdy relationship that allows both of you to thrive. You can use your complementary skill sets. But also, as they talked about today, there’s those practical pieces which now they’re working on and we’re working on together, and Money Skills for Group Practice Owners to figure out how to make the money work, to actually address the financial inequity between the two of them. And make sure that they actually resolve this issue not just by talking about it, but financially addressing it. So I’m so excited for them that they are bringing this solid foundation, these skills that they have, this love for each other, their love and respect for each other, so apparent and now they’re bringing that skill set into learning about the actual practicalities of how the money is working in their group practice. So that they can make the money flow in a way that supports both of them and recognizes the sweat equity that they’ve each put in, which is not an equal amount. So I’m so appreciative to Steph and Laura for coming on the podcast today. And as they mentioned, you can check out their podcast, A not so Private Practice podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can follow me on Instagram at Money Nuts and Bolts. And if you are a group practice owner and you want some resources on how to start making money working for you and your group practice, I have a free guide called How to Stop Feeling Overworked and Underpaid in Your Group Practice. This is a guide that’s all about empowering group practice owners to feel calm and in control of their finances. In the guide, you’re going to learn about your money story and how it’s showing up in the relationship you have with money, as an individual, as a clinician, and as a group practice owner. You’re going to learn the four keys to becoming the empowered financial leader of your group practice, and you’re going to learn about the CFO, those chief financial officer skills that you need to create a healthy, sustainable private practice that will support you, your team and your community for years to come. So the link for that guide is in the show notes. It’s How to Stop Feeling Overworked and Underpaid in your Group Practice. You can grab that guide, group practice owners and get started on the same path that Steph and Laura are walking. Thank you so much for listening today.