Interview with The Private Practice Startup

As a proud sponsor of The Private Practice Startup podcast, we wanted to take a moment to introduce the wonderful women behind the business that brings you the podcast! Practice Solutions first approached Kate and Katie about becoming a sponsor because we believed we shared similar beliefs in sharing knowledge and expertise to help therapists thrive in private practice. As you will find out below, we were right in our hunch. Katie sat down to answer all our questions about The Private Practice Startup, and we are excited to share them with you!

Who are Kate and Katie?

Kate and Katie are both Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists who built successful private practices from the ground up, never having taken insurance. Through their own experiences, they became very passionate about helping other therapists do the same.

They currently do this through their company The Private Practice Startup, which was launched in 2016. Prior to the establishment of their company, Kate and Katie have a long history of working together in the mental health provider community. Their working relationship started in 2006, before they were licensed, when they were both under supervision together. They both continued on to do the AAMFT approved Supervision of Supervision.

Kate served as President and Katie as Vice President of the Broward Association of Marriage and Family Therapy for several years. That’s where the two realized just how well they worked together. Before The Private Practice Startup was born, they started a company called K2 Visionaries, a statewide training company for therapists. This company provided the training that therapist’s need for licensure renewal, explained the supervision course, ethics, laws and rules of private practice. In doing this, Kate and Katie realized that they were very passionate about having a global reach and really helping therapists achieve the success that they were able to, which was the driving force behind the development of The Private Practice Startup.

What was your journey to private practice like?

Kate and Katie shared similar journeys into private practice. When they were starting their private practices there were very few online resources such as private practice building courses, experts, and mentors or coaches. A stark contrast to what is available to those starting private practice today! There were a few books, and Kate and Katie both followed Casey Truffo, LMFT, and author of Be a Wealthy Therapist on YouTube.

Due to the lack of resources, their journey into private practice was quite difficult. It was not a straight line. They were trying different things, employing a method they referred to as “chasing all the shiny objects,” in an attempt to figure out what worked, and of course, what didn’t. After several attempts at trial and error, they both decided to really commit to learning what it takes to grow a business. They both established their goals, identified their niche, and they learned about marketing. “We learned a lot, so it was definitely difficult. We talk about the fact that we’ve made all the mistakes, so therapists don’t have to”, said Katie. “That’s why we’re so passionate about what we do, especially with our coaching and e-course programs.” Katie went on to explain that The Private Practice Startup was designed to help fast track therapists. For Kate and Katie, it took a little less than two years to figure out what it takes to build a successful practice. Now, they are able to help therapists develop their private practice business in just 90 days. They saw the gap in availability of mentors and coaches for new therapists, and decided to use their experiences to develop a company that filled that gap.

What is The Private Practice Startup?

The Private Practice Startup is a company that helps therapists from startup to mastery. A global company with a high concentration in the US, they are deeply inspired by the therapists that they work with and have several product offerings that are designed to help those therapists build their businesses. Their free podcast, also titled The Private Practice Startup, has been running for over six years with over 300 episodes! On the podcast they interview many different experts and cover topics such as marketing, training new clinicians, legislation that impacts private practice, ethics, and more. From their website, you can access their attorney approved private practice paperwork that you can use in your own practice. They also offer e-course and coaching programs, including a free masterclass about every other month in conjunction with Brighter Vision.

As it is an integral part of everything that The Private Practice Startup does, Katie wanted to highlight their mission and vision:

“We love helping therapists brand themselves so they can work with clients they love and live the life they’ve always dreamed of.

That’s really important as we believe that therapists should undo a lot of the programming they’ve heard in school or from other people or their peers that therapists can’t make money. That is just not true. We want therapists to be profitable, lucrative, but also honor themselves and their boundaries, just like they teach their clients, and really live the life they dream because it’s totally possible.”

The team at Practice Solutions could not agree more with this sentiment!

What were your goals when you started The Private Practice Startup and how has that evolved?

The evolution of The Private Practice Startup really started with K2 Visionaries. Kate and Katie saw that the value they were providing on a statewide level could be expanded, and they could have a greater impact on therapists from around the globe. What started as a company that focused on training at a state level developed into something that was meant to inspire therapists to think bigger about the goals that they wanted to accomplish in their practice, and how to achieve those goals successfully.

What is the biggest challenge that you’ve encountered in Private Practice?

When asked about the biggest challenge, it all boiled down to one thing: not having a clear understanding of business and marketing. That was the initial hurdle that both Kate and Katie faced when starting their practices and was one of the catalysts for The Private Practice Startup. They accepted the challenge in stride and worked hard to learn everything they could about business and marketing, narrowing in on how it pertained to private practice.

Further expanding on the idea, Katie said “I really like that saying that no matter what business you are in, you are a marketer first and foremost, and if you’re not a marketer, then you usually don’t have a business.” Taking the time to understand business and marketing helped them by providing the tools to approach additional challenges with confidence. Once they were able to understand business, they were able to develop systems within their practice that could be duplicated and adapted as things changed.

Katie specifically addressed the unique challenge in business, which is confronting your own mindset and beliefs around topics such as money, leadership, and boundaries. As a business owner, “you get to be fully responsible for everything that is and isn’t working,” and confronting and overcoming the things that aren’t working is undeniably difficult! Katie also mentioned that these mindset challenges tended to present themselves at each stage of growth: taking the first leap from employee to business owner, or when the business really started to flourish and expand. Utilizing the knowledge that they learned about business and marketing made navigating these challenges easier.

What is the best piece of advice you have for therapists starting out their career?

“Get coaching and mentoring right away!” Katie strongly encouraged seeking out and working with people who have successfully done what you are looking to accomplish and admitted that she herself gets coaching right away when she endeavors into new business ventures. Katie cautioned that the journey to private practice can take a lot longer and feel a lot more frustrating if you don’t seek the experts. As mentioned previously, there is no shame in learning from someone else’s mistakes!

The importance of education is another viewpoint that Practice Solutions shares with The Private Practice Startup. Just as they developed their business to help provide expertise on private practice ownership, Practice Solutions has taken the same approach with insurance billing. Our mission is to empower providers to focus on patient care by removing the burden of billing and educating around best revenue cycle management processes.

Final Thoughts from Practice Solutions

A big thank you to Kate and Katie for sharing their story with us! If you would like to learn more about The Private Practice Startup or check out any of the resources mentioned, you can explore their website here.

If you would like to know more about Practice Solutions and how we can help you get rid of the burden of insurance billing so you can spend more time with your patients, submit a contact form through our website here.