Practice Colab
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[00:00:00] James Marland: Hello, welcome back to the Scaling Therapy Practice. This is your host, James Marland. This is the show where we empower mission driven leaders to launch life changing online courses. And as a solopreneur myself, uh, I love it when I get together with my friends. I love it together. When I get with other entrepreneurs who can give me accountability, give me, uh, encouragement.
[00:00:27] Sort of like keep me from creating my own stuff in a cave. So today we have the practice CoLab here today, Stephanie Corporal and Chrissy Penon, they are all about creating networks and connections among therapists and group practice owners. Hello and welcome to the Scaling Therapy Practice.
[00:00:45] Stephanie Korpal: Hi James. Thanks so much for having us. It's always so good to see you again.
[00:00:50] James Marland: I wanna start out, before we get into our topic of networking with intentionality, I just wanna ask like, where did this idea of the practice [00:01:00] CoLab come from? How did it get going? Um, and, and why, why is it important to you? So, yeah, just can you give us one of you, or both of you, probably both of you, just tell us what the practice collab is all about.
[00:01:12] Stephanie Korpal: Yeah, I'm usually tapped with the origin story, so I'm happy to continue that trend.
[00:01:17] Christy Pennison: Go
[00:01:17] Stephanie Korpal: Um, it, it really does come out of how Christy and I became friends and, um, once we realized what we did, and I'll get into that. powerful it was. We realized that it wasn't something we should keep to ourselves and we really should turn into something that other people can tap into.
[00:01:35] So Christy and I met in an accountability group together when we were both solo clinicians at the beginning of 2020. So we were in a Zoom about twice a month with other people. You know, during this time she went on vacation and missed a couple. Summertime came up, I got busy, I missed a couple. This is
[00:01:54] James Marland: Hmm.
[00:01:54] Stephanie Korpal: Covid, right?
[00:01:55] So clients are coming outta the woodworks, all of that. And we were both [00:02:00] getting ready to hire our first employee around the same time. And we were talking about it in this accountability group. And I just very randomly, James. Side chatted her on Zoom. You know how you can send those individual
[00:02:12] James Marland: Mm-hmm.
[00:02:13] Stephanie Korpal: Mm-hmm. And I asked this girl that I had been on Zoom with maybe 10 hours total
[00:02:19] Christy Pennison: Internet strangers.
[00:02:20] Stephanie Korpal: strangers with other people. It wasn't even one-on-one she wanted to meet me in Nashville. For a working weekend, so we could do the things we needed to do to put a foundation in place in our business to be able to hire.
[00:02:34] And I wanted to get away to do that because I knew if I was trying to do those things my home, I would probably let a couple of clients come on my calendar that Thursday and Friday. I'd do laundry. I, I would just get distracted and not have that focused work. You're, you're nodding your head like
[00:02:50] James Marland: Oh yeah. Focus time. Focus time. It's precious.
[00:02:53] Stephanie Korpal: Yes.
[00:02:54] James Marland: But we, we, and I think, well, I un underestimate what I can get done when I'm not focused. [00:03:00] And I, I, I have tricks now, like I time block
[00:03:04] Stephanie Korpal: Uhhuh,
[00:03:05] James Marland: I also use this, uh, potato no Pomono. The, the, the Tomato method. Pomo Pomo. Why did I call it a potato? I don't know.
[00:03:14] Stephanie Korpal: you got there. It's
[00:03:15] James Marland: The Pomo method.
[00:03:17] Yeah, it's, I have a little app on my, my screen that gives me focus time because I know without the focus time, it won't get done. And so it sounded like you, you, you were like. We gotta, we gotta, you know, knuckle down and focus. But why didn't you just do it by yourself? You know? Why didn't you just be like, you know what I could.
[00:03:36] Christy Pennison: this is the question we all ask ourselves. Why can't we just do this by your, by themselves? I mean, seriously, honestly, I just had a conversation today where I was talking with somebody who, she gave me a. Steps that I already knew that I needed to do, but I've realized I haven't done them. So I think, you know, for me and Steph, the reason, what kind of compelled me to join her on this [00:04:00] adventure to go meet her in Nashville, this internet stranger, I didn't know who.
[00:04:04] Actually we didn't know each other so much. James, whenever she pulled up in the Mustang that she had
[00:04:09] Stephanie Korpal: I love that you always include that detail.
[00:04:12] Christy Pennison: just think it was crazy 'cause she got like, I guess upgraded in the car. So it was
[00:04:15] James Marland: Oh, right. Yeah.
[00:04:16] Christy Pennison: it like really brought me back to my youth. Um, but she pulled up in this convertible Mustang and we were still messaging on Facebook Messenger, but I think what
[00:04:26] Stephanie Korpal: Because we didn't have each other's phone numbers, like that's,
[00:04:28] Christy Pennison: other's phone
[00:04:29] Stephanie Korpal: that's how much as strangers we were. We didn't have each other's phone numbers. We probably only knew each other's last names because of Zoom and how
[00:04:36] James Marland: Yep.
[00:04:36] Stephanie Korpal: in with your name.
[00:04:38] Christy Pennison: Yeah, that's it. But what we found was by doing this experience, you know, and I know stuff is probably getting to this part of the story, but is we actually showed up and we had so much focus time. 'cause not only did you have accountability, somebody sitting across from you in this Airbnb where, you know, there really wasn't much else you could do.
[00:04:57] I mean, sure you could have. [00:05:00] Netflix or something like that. But we came there with an intention to get stuff
[00:05:02] James Marland: Yeah.
[00:05:03] Christy Pennison: And you had accountability and then you had intentionality as well in that moment to, because, you know, we can get distracted or not work on that thing that we said we were gonna work on, but you have somebody sitting across that's like, didn't you say you were gonna do that? Um, and then somehow we, we worked, we really did work kind of like crazy people. I mean,
[00:05:22] Stephanie Korpal: We did.
[00:05:23] Christy Pennison: how to do it more health Lily these
[00:05:25] Stephanie Korpal: Yeah.
[00:05:25] Christy Pennison: but.
[00:05:27] Stephanie Korpal: And the other thing that I think is really important about working in a group is when you are an entrepreneur, when you are a business owner, or even just a really visionary, ambitious leader, you have an idea. And if you know you need to talk to somebody to problem solve a hurdle that's preventing the full implementation of the idea.
[00:05:45] But if you always have to stop what you're doing in the ideation phase, reach out to somebody to get on their calendar, which is usually. A
[00:05:55] James Marland: Yeah.
[00:05:55] Stephanie Korpal: later,
[00:05:56] James Marland: Oh, at least. Yep.
[00:05:57] Stephanie Korpal: momentum. And so if you are [00:06:00] doing that work with somebody else, you can be typing and beautifully coming up with this list that then turns into pair, you know, the whatever it is.
[00:06:09] And as soon as there's a small hurdle or a moderate hurdle, maybe even a large one, there's somebody right there and you can say, can I get five minutes? Of your attention. And if it's in a group sitting, you can have the whole hive mind and then you're not losing any inspirational or motivational momentum because time's not getting in the way.
[00:06:27] You have
[00:06:28] James Marland: Hmm.
[00:06:28] Stephanie Korpal: to dive in with you right then, and I think that's really, really valuable because we all know how easy it is once you stop to stay stopped for a while because so many other urgent and important things come up or you just lose focus.
[00:06:44] James Marland: well, I tell my, I tell my wife, my mind is like a train and it takes a while to get going. 'cause train, you know, it's lots of weight, lots of things going on. When it gets up to speed. It's, it's moving. Like it doesn't take much to keep it going. You just gotta keep it going. But when I [00:07:00] get interrupted,
[00:07:00] Stephanie Korpal: Yes.
[00:07:01] Christy Pennison: When it gets
[00:07:02] James Marland: I'm not just off the tracks.
[00:07:03] I am a wreck. I am a train wreck.
[00:07:06] Stephanie Korpal: Uhhuh.
[00:07:06] James Marland: And then it takes half a day, not literally half a day, but you know, 15, 20 minutes. Yeah. Or you never get back to it because it's such a wreck and you're like, I often find like when I don't have 90 minutes or something to focus, I will try to fit in little tasks. To do, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:07:24] That focus time where you can stay on the track and stay moving and get little bits of support, it's extremely valuable.
[00:07:32] Stephanie Korpal: Mm-hmm.
[00:07:33] James Marland: like in your meeting you had, I was picking out three things. You had accountability, intentionality, like you intended to do something, but there was also some sort of structure or goal or, or like
[00:07:45] Stephanie Korpal: before
[00:07:46] James Marland: moving towards something.
[00:07:47] Stephanie Korpal: Before we went down there, we both reflected on what projects we wanted to get done and kind of emailed each other about it. And that was also to make sure we were bringing. correct materials,
[00:07:58] James Marland: Mm-hmm.
[00:07:59] Stephanie Korpal: there anything you need to [00:08:00] print
[00:08:00] James Marland: Some
[00:08:00] Stephanie Korpal: is, yes. Um, and so that was really helpful and you know, we all know that speaking out or writing out goals is really helpful even when you're alone.
[00:08:10] So the power is, I think, at least two x when you're doing it out loud and somebody is like bearing witness to that. But yes, then we knew what each other was working on so we could even kind of. Uh,
[00:08:23] James Marland: Accountability again.
[00:08:24] Stephanie Korpal: Yeah. And
[00:08:25] James Marland: Yep.
[00:08:26] Stephanie Korpal: schedule to be doing similar things at the same time.
[00:08:28] Right. So if we were both, I think we both worked on job descriptions in the beginning of an
[00:08:33] James Marland: Mm-hmm.
[00:08:34] Stephanie Korpal: at the same time, and then moved on to marketing and developing those kind of marketing and advertising assets for our new hires. And so then we were also kind of in the same state of flow using the same parts of our brain, or headed toward the same aim
[00:08:49] James Marland: Yeah.
[00:08:50] Stephanie Korpal: own individual business, but side by side.
[00:08:52] James Marland: Yeah. How, how did you handle time off? How did you handle sick time? How did you handle,
[00:08:57] Stephanie Korpal: Yes.
[00:08:58] James Marland: know, office man, you know, [00:09:00] space management or call offs, all that stuff?
[00:09:02] Stephanie Korpal: exactly. How would you, how would you categorize this expense versus this expense,
[00:09:06] Christy Pennison: How
[00:09:07] Stephanie Korpal: things like that?
[00:09:08] Christy Pennison: You
[00:09:08] Stephanie Korpal: Uhhuh.
[00:09:09] James Marland: Mm-hmm.
[00:09:10] Christy Pennison: we walked away from that weekend with so many things done, so many problems solved, things marked off our to-do list, and we actually did it a a few times. Since that first original time, and then we realized, okay, if this is bringing this much transformation for us, we are onto something.
[00:09:30] And then how can we expand that to other people?
[00:09:33] Stephanie Korpal: for them, the date, the place, the structure, all of that,
[00:09:39] James Marland: Yeah,
[00:09:40] Stephanie Korpal: can truly enter without having to make those reservations, find the restaurant, decide the food, because
[00:09:46] James Marland: it's one less decision, like the decision fatigue. Listen, that's another,
[00:09:50] Stephanie Korpal: Mm-hmm.
[00:09:51] James Marland: that's another podcast topic.
[00:09:52] Stephanie Korpal: it
[00:09:53] James Marland: Yeah, that's another episode. But yeah, decision fatigue is, is crazy. And, [00:10:00] uh, I love, so. I love traveling, but I hate planning trips. Like my favorite trip, I've taken one cruise and I, it was my favorite thing to do.
[00:10:11] 'cause all I had to do was get there
[00:10:13] Stephanie Korpal: Yes.
[00:10:13] James Marland: then somebody else did everything else. Like they, they, they drove the boat. You wouldn't want me driving a boat, but they drove the boat, they made the food, they did the entertainment. We saw cool stuff. Yeah. So, so you're trying to do something
[00:10:29] Christy Pennison: How
[00:10:29] James Marland: what?
[00:10:29] Christy Pennison: James, what I'm doing next week?
[00:10:31] James Marland: Are you doing a cruise?
[00:10:32] Where you going? Sidebar? Where you going?
[00:10:35] Christy Pennison: Yeah, I just, just the Caribbean. But you know, I chose a cruise because the exact same
[00:10:40] James Marland: Yeah.
[00:10:41] Christy Pennison: you said. I'm in a point where like, I've made so many decisions
[00:10:43] James Marland: Oh.
[00:10:44] Christy Pennison: far this year that I'm like, if it's, if all I have to decide is you know where to go and can I get on the boat,
[00:10:51] James Marland: Yep,
[00:10:51] Christy Pennison: end, that
[00:10:52] James Marland: yep.
[00:10:53] Christy Pennison: fabulous to me.
[00:10:54] But anyway, sorry, that was a
[00:10:55] James Marland: Well, so yeah, I love it. Uh uh. [00:11:00] I'm distracted by cruises. I gotta get back. Train has to jump back on the track.
[00:11:04] Christy Pennison: My,
[00:11:04] James Marland: alright, let,
[00:11:05] Christy Pennison: day. James, go ahead.
[00:11:06] James Marland: this is, uh, this is, um, this, this is probably a good place to talk about networking with intentionality because what, what you're talking about is like networking and masterminding and coworking together.
[00:11:19] But you brought up, as we were talking in the pre-show, some sort of like an interesting thing that I hadn't really thought about is you wanna network intentionality as a group practice owner, not just as an individual therapist or individual contributor. And we, I just wanted to talk about why that's important.
[00:11:38] How do you do it and what do you actually do? So if you, can you set up that topic, because I found it, as I said, it was really interesting that you made the distinction, we all know we need to network. It's like. Business management growth 1 0 1, we got a network and build our network. But then you brought in this other piece as you're, you're wearing a different hat, so can you explain that a little more for me in the [00:12:00] audience?
[00:12:00] Stephanie Korpal: Yeah. So to exactly the point that you made, when we are solo therapists, there's networking for business growth, right? It's, it's finding new referral sources, whether that's other therapists or local chiropractors or whoever it is, and so much of that is driven by, I need business now in some communities there. Are a lot of networking for against the isolation. And that depends, I think, on the area you live. But as a business owner, there's networking for like many more multitudes of reasons, I think. And one of those is to cut across the isolation that is having employees, right? So many of us get into this because we wanna build a community and have a team, and then we realize we're the leader of the team.
[00:12:49] So we're not really in the community that we just built.
[00:12:53] James Marland: That's, that's really hard.
[00:12:54] Stephanie Korpal: Yes.
[00:12:55] James Marland: that is. That you learned that through pain, really? I don't know [00:13:00] how else you learn it.
[00:13:01] Stephanie Korpal: Yeah. Yes.
[00:13:01] Christy Pennison: pain.
[00:13:02] Stephanie Korpal: Yes. And, and,
[00:13:03] Christy Pennison: involved in this, uh,
[00:13:05] Stephanie Korpal: and, and that can be, you have a beautiful team that is cohesive and you really enjoy, but you were still an other.
[00:13:11] James Marland: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:11] Stephanie Korpal: are the leader of the organization. Um, so you still need to find your community for your emotional support. You need to find your community for all of the questions that don't make sense to ask anywhere else.
[00:13:25] And those are things like also don't make sense to Google. What retirement plan makes the most sense is a great example. You need to talk through it with a lot of people. What did you try? Who did you go with? And that's very different than getting insight from a financial planner or somebody in the financial world. It's very different than what your parents might have to offer. And it's truly talking about other pe, two other people that have either a similar group size or have been there before about, I went with a simple, I went with a 401k, this is the company I did. is a[00:14:00]
[00:14:00] James Marland: Is why I went with them and would never do it again.
[00:14:03] Christy Pennison: Exactly.
[00:14:05] Stephanie Korpal: Um. And I hear so many group practice owners that still have not found that community and everything is so hard for them. And when you do things in a community that you intentionally built, and by intentionally built, I mean you've sought out people you like and you've sought out people that have somewhat of a enough. Business as you are in a similar enough stage of business as you, it doesn't make the hard, easy, but it makes you stronger and much more well resourced to handle the hard. And that's really, really important if you are going to do this without burning out or quitting or, and, and having a chance to, to actually enjoy this thing that you put so much time and effort and [00:15:00] just. Love into.
[00:15:01] James Marland: You're describing. I, I can't remember who said it. I'm sure it's a famous quote. It's so, it's something like, if you wanna go fast, go alone. If you wanna go far, go together. That's kind of what you're describing.
[00:15:13] Stephanie Korpal: That's so amazing. Yes.
[00:15:15] James Marland: Yeah, it's, it's what you're describing as like, you, you can go, you can make a bunch of decisions all by yourself, but you're also gonna be making some mistakes.
[00:15:25] Uh, also, there's nobody pick you up if you fall and, uh, going together. You might, you, you might not make as fast decisions, but there, there's like accountability and support and encouragement and, and like, oh, try this. Don't try that. That type of stuff. That will support you in your decision.
[00:15:46] Stephanie Korpal: Yeah. And you know, go ahead Christie. Sorry.
[00:15:49] Christy Pennison: No, it's okay. I was just gonna use a quick example. I mean, I
[00:15:51] James Marland: Sure.
[00:15:52] Christy Pennison: last week that I brought to a group, and thankfully this is an established group
[00:15:57] Stephanie Korpal: Mm-hmm.
[00:15:58] Christy Pennison: know, oh, years [00:16:00] ago, maybe two, I think Steph actually invited me into the group.
[00:16:02] Stephanie Korpal: okay. It's been, this has been established for four years.
[00:16:06] Christy Pennison: Four
[00:16:06] Stephanie Korpal: Four.
[00:16:06] Christy Pennison: Okay. But these people know, and this is the other difference about networking as a group practice owner with intentionality, is because when you have those established relationships, they know about your business. They don't have to like ask tons of questions 'cause they have that context to help you. And I had to make a pretty quick decision and it was just interesting. They only gave me five minutes of feedback probably. But that five minutes was enough to remind myself to trust myself in this decision making that I needed to do. To give me, they already knew me personally, so they knew what the hard things was gonna be for me if I made this decision. And what a gift, you know, to have that network to draw on in my moment of, you know, it was, it was a hard decision. It was causing me a lot of discomfort, but they reflected back to me and almost gave me different perspectives to validate the direction that I was headed in. But that would've been hard for me to do that by [00:17:00] myself, you know, because I really needed that outside perspective to help me really. Solidify my decision that I was trying to make.
[00:17:08] James Marland: Yeah, that sounds like an amazing resource to have. You know, people that know you, who know your issues, your problems, your hangups, your, your business situation, what you've tried, what they've tried, and then to speak into that and cut through the noise to give you really good advice. That, that, I'm just thinking that probably doesn't happen in a one Zoom meeting or in an email or something.
[00:17:34] So let's, let's,
[00:17:36] Stephanie Korpal: and,
[00:17:36] James Marland: yeah. Well, this is gonna answer the how do you do this type question. So what were you gonna say? Mm-hmm.
[00:17:43] Stephanie Korpal: was gonna say that, that there's also, so as much as I do love one-on-one networking and firmly people to make sure that they are building close one-on-one relationships, because an intimate friendship in this space is so deeply valuable. Christie had a really [00:18:00] huge moment of clarity from this issue she was talking about because she said she brought the problem to the group and everyone's face was the same. almost everyone's reaction to what she should do next was the same. And I think when we are stuck as business owners, there's in like a unanimous reaction You might just go from person to person if it's one-on-one, but there was something, 'cause I had talked to her already about it one-on-one the night before, and then she presented it to the group and there was enough momentum behind the group's clarity that she was able to get. I think enough probably courage and clarity.
[00:18:42] Finally willing to settle in to make the decision she needed to. but I think without the group, she would've called somebody else one-on-one that day and somebody else one-on-one the
[00:18:51] James Marland: Uh,
[00:18:52] Stephanie Korpal: it
[00:18:53] James Marland: yeah.
[00:18:53] Stephanie Korpal: a lot longer. So there's something to those one-on-one networking relationships that become close. But there's [00:19:00] something about the group that is also really important and I think critical and valuable and essentially life changing.
[00:19:09] Christy Pennison: Yeah. Well, and to speak to the how that you asked James too. there's two different, two different ways you can go about this. You either go find a group that is very similar to what your needs are, so if you're in a certain, for us, it's typically the people that we find that even come to some of our groups are around a certain stage of group practice ownership.
[00:19:29] There are a few years in they're seeking that kind of collaboration and support. They really are having a hard time finding that time to work on the business versus always in the business. So the structure we provide really gives them that ability to do that. So if you are somebody out there that's like this networking, this group high of mind, and Oh Chris, you had that challenge and you had all that great feedback, you know, you have to either find it or you can also build it.
[00:19:55] And so to this point, I'm thinking about this specific group that we're referencing in this [00:20:00] conversation. Um, it's, it's group that we're actually, me and Steph are both a part of, so we're not facilitating, which is a little bit different. And in practice, collab, we do the facilitation, but we also have a groups that we are a part of.
[00:20:12] And this group was formed because one person decided to start building it. Um, I think it came off of, uh, another accountability group, but somebody, and, and that somebody is. The person over here, Steph, um, you know, kind of got it together and then said, here's the structure, and then the group, you know, came together in that way.
[00:20:33] And so I think when you think about how do I do this? I think about what is it the support that you need in your business as your role continues to evolve and develop. And either can you find it or do you have the capacity to actually build it? And that building it is just asking a few people that. You think, Hey, this would be great. I mean, again, the building, it is harder 'cause that's that decision fatigue, James, where you have to like, make the decision [00:21:00] of when this is gonna happen. What's the structure gonna be? Who am I gonna invite? Um, but either way, I think they can both be very powerful. Different avenues to really create a network around you that can support you in the work that you're doing.
[00:21:15] Because I love that mission statement that you said at the beginning of what this podcast is all about. And to do incredibly impactful work, have to have support. There's no other way around it. I mean, you can do it alone like we've been talking about, but. Just the, the emotional rollercoaster you'll sometimes go on in a given week for me that that grounding of peer support and peer collaboration has really helped me go a lot further in my business, a lot quicker.
[00:21:42] James Marland: So, so, um, you made me think of, um. It, it's really hard to be an entrepreneur with all the things, right? Like just the, the pressure, the like even just keeping the lights on or paying the bills or like HIPAA happens and all these, all [00:22:00] these things going on. So you, you said something like, if I can just make it to group, I'll be okay.
[00:22:06] Which made me think of my friend Emily, who has two kids and her husband works nights and so sometimes she's like virtually alone with. Two kids under two for like days. The, the guy, he's home, but he is sleeping, you know, and then he goes to work, he, he's a nurse and he, he works like 10 hour shifts. So anyways, we have been, my wife and I have been going over to their house and just having dinner with her and watching the kids so she can do a few household chores and feel normal.
[00:22:38] And she has said often, if I can just make it to Wednesday, James and NDA are gonna be here and everything's gonna be okay. I'm thinking a group like you're just talking about, gives you that hope. Because if you're like thinking I gotta make it six, you know, a month, six more weeks, a year, until this is done with any support, you're [00:23:00] gonna crumble like it, it's like, it's gonna like it scrape you like.
[00:23:04] Not enough butter over toast. Like you're, you're gonna be thin. And, um, you know that having a group that, that you can think about, like, if I, if I can make it to group, I'm gonna be okay, is a huge benefit to those new, new-ish practice owners who are starting to get things figured out. So that was my, that was my thought.
[00:23:26] Stephanie Korpal: Yeah.
[00:23:27] Christy Pennison: say even to the established ones, you know, it's, it was really interesting because sometimes we think, and this is how the experience is when you're on the journey, right? You sometimes think the people ahead of you have gotten it all figured out and they've made it right.
[00:23:39] James Marland: Yes, yes.
[00:23:40] Christy Pennison: you're like, if I can just get there, it's gonna be so calm and peaceful.
[00:23:44] But what me and Steph has found, and I don't know if you would agree with this stuff 'cause I don't wanna speak for you, but. Is it just gets more complex the further you get along the journey. It doesn't mean that there's some things that get easier, but there's more complexity to it. And so I think the more [00:24:00] complex the situation becomes, the more you need people that can be that sounding board that'll help you pull back the layers or dismantle the pieces and really help you figure out. Um, how you want to move forward with a decision or a choice or an issue. And, uh, so, but I liked your analogy about if I can just make it to group. 'cause literally sometimes I just wanna make it.
[00:24:23] James Marland: Oh yeah.
[00:24:24] Christy Pennison: make it to the group so that I can say and, and sometimes I just wanna make it to support other people. So you're the one other
[00:24:31] James Marland: Right.
[00:24:31] Christy Pennison: thing about groups is most of the time, knock on wood, nobody's in crisis all at the same time, or
[00:24:37] Stephanie Korpal: Right.
[00:24:37] Christy Pennison: same challenge all at the same time.
[00:24:39] And I know Steph likes to reference this a lot, but like sometimes I will have gone through a challenge and it never fails either. Steph will go through the challenge, the same exact one, similar, maybe a little bit different three months later. vice versa, you know?
[00:24:53] James Marland: Yeah.
[00:24:53] Stephanie Korpal: Yeah.
[00:24:54] Christy Pennison: there is some. Also, because this is such a niched group for at least us, the one that we provide [00:25:00] for group practice owners at a certain stage, then the truth is that, that y'all are gonna come through some of these challenges.
[00:25:06] Just it's a matter of when you know, so.
[00:25:10] James Marland: All right, uh, with our last couple minutes here, uh, what. Just answering briefly the question, what, you know, what do people need to do to find to intentionally network with other group practice owners?
[00:25:24] Stephanie Korpal: Yeah, so I think that the best way to do this is definitely to where you're doing it. So a lot of different communities might have Facebook groups for group practice owners, and there might already be established groups that you can be a part of, but you can just start interacting in those and try to do one-on-one coffee meetups.
[00:25:45] And as you find enough people, you click with, you can go ahead and start. Your own group, unless there's already, like I said, an established one. Another place that I really recommend people find people is in trainings, right? So
[00:25:57] James Marland: Mm.
[00:25:58] Stephanie Korpal: is, [00:26:00] um. Therapy flow, offering a webinar or you know, whoever it is, get in there and side chat people on Zoom.
[00:26:09] Either they say something and you're like, I really resonated with that. Or so many times you're in a training and they'll do small breakout groups. And so if you really kinda riff well with somebody in a small breakout room, get their contact information and set up a. 20 or 30 minute virtual coffee and just start get getting to know people.
[00:26:31] Most of the, you won't vibe with everyone and that's okay, but every once in a while you'll find somebody and maybe they have a group that they will invite you into, or they'll say, yes, I've been looking for a group, and you each can invite one other person, but you do have to take on some of that.
[00:26:48] Responsibility and you can just set like a three month timeframe that you say, I'm gonna cast a wide net and see what happens. Go to a conference and make sure you talk to five new people, [00:27:00] maybe 10 so you can reduce the number and still have a good group, but. We're therapists. We can talk to people. Most people are willing to talk back in return, you know, with joviality and encouragement and, um, wanting to include people.
[00:27:15] And so it's out there, but you just have to approach it as a little bit of a project for a while, and then you can take off from there.
[00:27:23] James Marland: Did you have anything to add?
[00:27:27] Christy Pennison: No, listen, Steph is the master of, uh, this, this topic
[00:27:31] James Marland: Is it a natural for her?
[00:27:33] Christy Pennison: I mean,
[00:27:34] James Marland: It's natural.
[00:27:34] Christy Pennison: it. We probably wouldn't be here talking if she had never side chatted me to begin with in this zoom. So all of these things that she's recommending. Um, it's stuff that she's tried really over the past several years, along this journey and has really developed a, a probably even more so than mine, a very impressive, know, network of individuals.
[00:27:56] And, and the beautiful thing about that is they're very often relationships. None [00:28:00] of these, you know, again, you're not trying to force somebody to show up when you're building these groups or you're trying to build these connections. You're just trying to say it's, it's really a give, give is like the way that I like to say it.
[00:28:10] It's a reciprocal relationship where you pull up to the table. And I think that is important to note too, is that you wanna create some environment where you do set the expectation of like, I'm here to support you,
[00:28:21] Stephanie Korpal: Yeah.
[00:28:21] Christy Pennison: but I also want this to be a supportive thing for me too. And I think when you find people that really operate from that give, give mentality, um, give to give really, then you really can create some beautiful
[00:28:34] James Marland: Hmm.
[00:28:36] Christy Pennison: in,
[00:28:36] James Marland: Yeah, having that value is really important there.
[00:28:39] Stephanie Korpal: yes.
[00:28:40] James Marland: reminds me, uh, my, one of my, my friend Nancy from Make Bad Art, she, I'm in a mastermind with her and she did the same thing, but what, what you were talking about, she's like, I'm just gonna get people together and we're gonna, we're gonna chat. And I'm like, oh, sure.
[00:28:54] I'd love, I, I need accountability. And I just sort of like. Fell into it because somebody just [00:29:00] asked me about it. That's, that's really cool. Well, um, let's, uh, I've really enjoyed our conversation and I think, uh, this, um, you know, creating with accountability with people who are like you and where you can develop that net networking is very important, especially when I feel like we're getting more and more siloed, uh, with like internet and like staying at home.
[00:29:22] For days at a time and stuff like that. So, uh, where if they wanna interact with you, uh, where can they find you? Where's your, you know, social media and webpage? Yeah. Let us know where we can find you.
[00:29:33] Stephanie Korpal: So our website is www.thepracticecollab.com, and right now we have three offerings. One is an in-person working weekend, very similar to our inaugural Nashville event. All those. Years ago. We also have a weekly mastermind group, and that is that accountability space. And it looks different depending on the week, but it's, it's time and space to tackle your own, [00:30:00] to-do list, to birth, new ideas, to problem solve over and around hurdles, and also to go in depth on some topics to help move the needle forward on your business. And then this fall in St. Louis, September. 17th through 19th, we're having our own collab lab, which is our take on a conference and what that structure is. It's a little bit different than a conference because instead of back to back talks, what we do is a talk and then immediately following, we do an implementation hour
[00:30:33] James Marland: Yep.
[00:30:33] Stephanie Korpal: topic. Um, and so it's about half of the speakers, but twice the time on the knowledge that you just received, and then the opportunity to immediately put it into practice in your business, kind of with the spin that works for your structure. But you're also doing that in a small group. So again, you can be getting that momentum about how. It should look with other experts sitting around you, friends that know your business. Um, and so we're [00:31:00] currently selling tickets for that and we're always happy to answer any other questions people have. We also, um, just started, we unfortunately won't be able to do it in May, but we have, um, bestie popups on the first Friday of every month.
[00:31:13] And that's just free. Come and join us. Get to know us, get to know the people we know. Come hang out. Celebrate a win. Talk about what's bothering you. Yes, yes. Um, so those are our current offerings and we just love group practice owners so much. It really is where our passion is. And so that's where we are filling our, filling a little bit of a void in space.
[00:31:40] James Marland: I love it. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show. Uh, Stephanie and Christie, I really enjoyed talking about networking and, and doing hard things together.
[00:31:52] Stephanie Korpal: Thanks for having us, James. It was great to chat and share really amazing conversation. So again, thank you for facilitating [00:32:00] it.
[00:32:00] James Marland: So all those things will be on the, the show notes for the practice CoLab. We'll have the website and, uh, some of their other links. Uh, listeners, your mission matters and if you wanna. Go far. Put your mission in motion with a group of people. You're, you're gonna love it a lot more. You're gonna get a lot further.
[00:32:20] So go put your mission in motion. We'll see you next time. And that is, that's the end of the show. I'm gonna hit stop, stop recording.
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