WP109 | Purpose & Profit: Why a 7-Figure Practice Matters and How to Build It with Nicole McCance
Tune in to this Wise Practice Podcast episode as Nicole reveals her journey to building a thriving group practice and the mindset shifts that made it possible. From achieving the “seven figures” milestone to balancing growth with trust, Nicole’s story is full of insights on avoiding costly mistakes, boosting client commitment, and empowering your team. This episode is packed with strategies for therapists ready to scale their practice without losing their unique touch—don’t miss it!
Nicole’s Journey to Seven Figures and a Legacy of Freedom
Nicole emphasizes how "seven figures" has become a common goal among therapists, often symbolizing financial freedom and success. For her, this number represents much more than wealth; it's about creating freedom and opportunities for her family. With one child needing specialized support for ADHD, as well as occupational and physical therapy, financial abundance enables Nicole to afford a private school that meets these needs. Additionally, she cherishes being able to travel with her children, which has fostered a shared love of exploring the world. Growing up in a trailer park, Nicole had to overcome significant barriers, climbing "a very tall mountain" to reach her goals. For her, achieving financial success is not only a personal milestone but also a stepping stone towards a lasting legacy and fulfilling a larger purpose. More abundance, she reflects, often makes this journey easier and serves as a testament to the impact of her work.
From Leads to Loyal Clients: Fixing the ‘Leaky Bucket’ in Therapy Practices
Nicole points out that many therapists focus on attracting more clients through marketing but often overlook the critical step of converting leads into actual clients. She suggests offering a free 20-minute consultation call as a way to boost conversion, recommending that as practices grow, this task should transition from the owner to other therapists. By pre-booking clients for multiple sessions, practices can secure a greater level of commitment from the outset.
Nicole emphasizes that without a strong focus on conversion, practices face "leaky bucket" issues—spending money on marketing without seeing proportional returns due to unconverted prospects. She highlights that the industry standard conversion rate is around 20%, but therapy practices can achieve much higher rates with the right approach. She finds that many practitioners assume new hires will naturally convert well, but conversion is a skill that requires specific training. Nicole provides a script to help new hires improve, although she notes they may never convert as effectively as the owner, given the owner’s unique experience and rapport-building skills.
Starting Strong: Building a Cohesive Group Practice with Your First ‘Mini Me’ Hire
Nicole observes that many therapists aspire to start a group practice but feel overwhelmed by the prospect of managing others. Drawing from her own experience, she advises making the first hire someone similar to oneself—a "mini me"—to provide clients with a consistent experience. She learned this after initially hiring someone with a very different style, which led to client dissatisfaction, as they expected her approach.
Nicole likens this to the consistency one expects at a chain restaurant, where every location offers a similar experience. To ease the transition into leadership, she suggests hiring interns or pre-licensed therapists, which can be less intimidating for both the new hire and the practice owner. This approach allows for a collaborative growth experience, where both the "baby boss" and "baby therapist" can learn together.
From Micromanagement to Trust: Navigating the Growing Pains of a Thriving Group Practice
Nicole shares that the rapid growth of her group practice felt overwhelming, likening it to the "growing pains" of a child shooting up in height. She sought guidance early on, hiring a coach and surrounding herself with like-minded professionals, which proved invaluable. Nicole emphasizes that one of her key initial successes was hiring a strong support team, including an operations manager, clinic manager, and multiple admin staff.
However, her biggest challenge was letting go of control. Coming from a background where she learned that people were often unreliable, trusting others with her reputation was a daunting step. This led to her becoming a "recovering micromanager," as she initially felt the need to check everything herself. Therapy and coaching ultimately helped her develop a balanced approach, where she could trust others while still protecting her practice’s standards. This journey of learning to trust was both the hardest and most healing part of building her group practice.
Show Sponsor The 5 Systems Every Practice Needs
In graduate school, most of us were trained to be amazing clinicians but not business owners. In this era of technological advancement, running a successful private practice demands more than just clinical expertise. The average private practice owner spends hours researching and experimenting with the best systems for their practice such as which EHR to use or email platform. We have much to consider when selecting tools for our business, beyond just efficiency.
The great news is we have done the work to find the best systems for you, saving you time and money. David Sturgess and Whitney Owens will be hosting a webinar on The 5 Systems Every Practice Owner needs. We will break down the components of each one addressing efficiency, ease of use, cost, confidentiality, and more. Make sure to join us on Thursday, December 5th at 1:00EST.
To register for this webinar, head to wisepracticeconsulting.com/events. And don’t worry, if you cannot join us live, all registered participants will receive the recording afterwards.
Nicole’s Resources
Nicole’s Psychology Today Template
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Links and Resources
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: Hi, I'm Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice owner and faith based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all. Want to grow your practice? Want to grow your faith? Want to enjoy your life outside of work? You've come to the right place. Each week on the Wise Practice Podcast, I will give you the action steps to have a successful faith based practice while also having a good time.
Now, let's get started
[00:00:29] jingle: where she grows your practice. She don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owens and the wise practice podcast, Whitney Owens and wise practice podcast.
[00:00:48] Whitney Owens: Hello friends. Thanks for hanging out with me on the last practice podcast. This is episode 109. I interviewed the amazing Nicole McCants. She has been on my podcast bucket list. Yes, I do have a podcast bucket list for months and so I was really thrilled that I was able to nail her down and we actually did like a code exchange, a podcast exchange.
I guess we call it that. So it was really nice. I interviewed her. She interviewed me. And so I'm happy to get to know her. She does this amazing work and helping you start and grow and scale a group practice. So you're in for a treat and talking about how to do that and some pretty simple steps that she lays out through the podcast.
And she also has a course, but we also talked about why that's important. I think that people throw around this idea that Seven figure practice. Well, why does that matter? Right. So we kind of go through why is that important and what are we kind of working towards here? So I am thrilled to be back at the mic doing podcasting.
I actually just took, I don't know. Almost a three month break of podcasting, even though you've been getting my episodes every week, I haven't been recording them every week and I took a break as we were leading into the summit. And so this is my 1st time being back in the saddle. Since the 2024 wife practice summit, we did that in Charlotte, North Carolina.
We all got together at the hotel downtown and had so much fun. Such a good time together. Like, I think so fondly of just being with community. The number one reason people said they came was to meet other faith based practice centers. And we met so many other amazing clinicians doing awesome work in the world that also love the Lord.
Like it is. Such a good and sweet thing when we can all be together like that. And we had really great content and a lot of fun. So for those of you that were there, thank you. Thanks for saying, Hey, thank you for spending time with our community and you have so much value. And as we're looking into 2025, I want you to be thinking already about the summit.
My idea of the Wise Practice Summit is that we are all getting together once a year in person. To experience community to grow our practices, the amazing ideas that come out of people from being together from listening to talks. It's incredible. People come back and do amazing things in their practice.
And they'll say this idea came to me at the last practice summit. I'm just so honored for that. It is really God's work within us and through us. Now, I understand it's expensive. You got it. Most of you got to get on an airplane, come across the country, stay at a hotel, pay for a ticket, get food. It is an undertaking.
So that is why I'm always saying thank you for doing it because I see the sacrifice that you made to be there. I also want to tell you, make it a priority. I want to say when I was looking at the feedback forms, it was like 60 percent of the people that came said it was the only conference they went to in 2024.
And so, Y'all are making it happen, and I want more of y'all to make it happen, and I want it to be easier. I think a great way to do that is to start saving now for coming to the summit. If you thought to yourself, man, I wish I could have made 2024, just the timing or the money or whatever it was, go ahead and start saving for 2025.
Put a couple hundred dollars aside every month and make it happen. Find a roommate, make it as cheap as you possibly can. We're going to be going to Greenville, South Carolina. We are staying at the Grand Bohemian there. It is a fantastic hotel right on the water, and it looks like a lodge. And I like to run, and there are some great running trails right below the lodge there.
And it's right in downtown Greenville, South Carolina, which is a beautiful town if you've never been there. It's an up and coming town in the southeast, and there's this beautiful bridge. That connects the hotel to downtown, and there's a lot of fun things to do downtown. So, all that to say is we're going to be doing that.
It's the, I think it's October 9th through the 11th of 2025. Hopefully I'm telling you the right dates. If you go to the WISe Practice Consulting website, you will see all the information there. If you want to go ahead and buy your ticket now, just because you know you need to go ahead and buy your ticket to secure it.
Go ahead and do that. Early bird is for a few more months. We probably have sold about 30 tickets so far and I have 120 available. So we've got some time. But go ahead and be planning for it because I want to be there with you and I want to see the great things that are gonna happen. So I will be talking about the summit throughout the year because I want us to be planning for it because things can sneak up on us and then it's too hard to get the money together.
It's too hard to get the time together. Be planning in advance. Anyway, it was a wonderful time this year and thank you to all you that were there. And I'm glad to be back here with you guys on the podcast. Excited to share with you about Nicole McCants. And so we're going to jump into this episode. And this is episode number 109 purpose and profit.
Why a seven figure practice matters and how to build it.
Thank you. And welcome back to the life practice podcast. I am excited today because I have Nicole McCants. Here with me, she is a retired psychologist to turn business coach for therapists, scaling to a group practice. She expanded her private practice to 55 therapists in multiple seven figures in three years with the toddler twins at home.
Nicole sold her clinic in the fourth year, retired as a psychologist in the fifth year. She now teaches therapists how to help more people make more money and have more freedom following her proven method. Nicole, thank you for coming on the show today. Yes, thanks for having me. Wonderful. Well, before we kind of get into all the meat of our episode today, we're going to talk about kind of growing a seven figure practice, but while we do that, but let's talk a little bit about you, where you're located.
Tell us more about your family and just kind of get to know you.
[00:06:45] Nicole McCance: Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I was in solo practice for 15 years. And honestly, I loved what I did. It was so clear to me that I was put on this earth to do this work and to really help people. But what happened was after 15 years of EMDR and watching couples fight and watching couples heal.
I, I wouldn't say I was burnt out, but I became frustrated with the ceiling. You see, I wanted a good life, but it took working nothing but evenings and weekends and seeing way too many clients to have the life that I wanted. And so I didn't really know how to reconcile that in my head. I didn't really know what else to do because I learned nothing about business in graduate school.
So I just said, okay, well, this is my life. And then one day, 2016, I become pregnant with twins. Like what a blessing. And it was in that moment that I said, well, first I was like, Oh my gosh, two high chairs, two cribs, two car seats. Like how? I live in Toronto. We need a bigger house. And so that was the first moment where I thought, wait a minute, maybe I could hire.
So guess what I did? Nothing. for two years. Why? Because I didn't know like the first step. I find if we don't know the first step, we take no steps. Now, fast forward, Jackson and Lucas are born, my precious chubby little babies, but they're still waiting for mama every night at 7 p. m. I pull up and one fateful night I remember seeing their little faces and being like, why am I doing this?
Isn't the motherhood that I thought I would have. It was that night that I turned to my husband and said, I'm hiring. I don't know what I'm doing, but babe, I'm going to create this to be self operating. I want to build it to be automated. And I did. Fast forward three years later, 55 therapists later. It's kind of all crazy, honestly, to say it out loud.
Yeah.
[00:08:35] Whitney Owens: Aw, thank you for sharing that story. I love that because that's, you know, your why. Your why is your babies.
[00:08:41] Nicole McCance: My babies. Yeah, very much. And I tied it to freedom because I didn't want to, we chatted a second ago before we hit record, I didn't want to buy myself a job, do you know what I mean? So I really wanted to have it run without me.
We can speak a little bit about what that actually means.
[00:08:59] Whitney Owens: Yeah, definitely. Now, do you have other children too? Just the twins. After that was, yeah. Okay.
[00:09:05] Nicole McCance: All right. Gosh. So there are, how old now? They're eight now. Yeah. And I got way more freedom.
[00:09:13] Whitney Owens: Yes. I have an eight year old as well. So I was listening to your story being like, she's my second.
So I was sitting listening and thinking, I don't remember what that was like. And actually that is also when I hired my first therapist. When she was born because same thing it was like, I'm with my kiddos. Yeah.
[00:09:28] Nicole McCance: Yeah, and it's funny I don't know if you notice this but a lot of people want to work with me to do the business coaching When they become parents, it's it's almost always they're like, you know what?
I don't know how I can do both Well and enjoy both please help.
[00:09:41] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Okay. This is so good. Okay, so We're gonna talk about the why and then we're gonna talk about how How do we do this? Love it. So, so many therapists. It's that language. I mean, you hear it. Seven figures. So people say, hey, I want cataract genus.
I want seven figures, seven figures. Why is this number so important?
[00:10:01] Nicole McCance: Hmm. For me, it was tied to freedom, but also other things. So my kids, one has ADHD and. I wouldn't be able to afford the private school that they go to, but now, and he also has some other challenges and he has OT and physio and just all of the things.
And for me too, it's, I, I just wanted to travel and have them see the world and now they're obsessed with traveling, which is really fun. It's, you know what it is, it's, for me, it was, I grew up in a trailer park. I had, you know, there was a very tall mountain for me to climb and I wasn't at the bottom, I was in the valley.
And so I just knew that I was here for a bigger purpose and I would leave a big stamp and a big legacy and sometimes more abundance makes it easier.
[00:10:51] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Yeah. So it's kind of almost a stepping stone or a sign of the good work that you've been doing. Yeah.
[00:10:55] Nicole McCance: Yeah.
[00:10:56] Whitney Owens: Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. And so you have loved it so much.
This is what you do. Right. What happened?
[00:11:04] Nicole McCance: Yeah. Yeah. So I guess I'll finish the rest of the story. Fast forward three years. It, somebody approached me. It was a psychiatrist and said, Hey, you have a revenue generating machine. Can I buy it? And I was like, Oh wow, this wasn't in my plan. Like, no. At first I said no, cause this was my baby.
But then fast forward another year, the fourth year, I was like, wait a minute. What if I can just walk away? Cause he's going to take great care. He gave everyone pensions benefits, just let more that I could give. So I did sell it. But what happened, Whitney, when I sold it. When you sell something, you can't do treatment anymore.
And I was like, okay, wait. So if I'm not a therapist anymore, because you sign a non compete, basically like a, you know, I won't go and build something else, or, and so that's when I thought, wait a minute, what if I take it to my peers, I'll become a business coach, I'll give them my marketing plans, my exact systemizing, it'll help my peers.
[00:12:00] Whitney Owens: And here we are. Oh, I love that. I love that. So let's talk about your method because we were talking about how you've been on my dream list because I've had so many people tell me they took your method and it helped their practice. So I'm excited to dive into it.
[00:12:13] Nicole McCance: Oh, thank you. Yeah. So there really are five steps.
I have a five step scaling method that really helped me grow rapidly in three years with the 55 therapists. One is systemized. Guys, please systemize first before you hire. You want to build the container before you fill it because otherwise what happens is everybody comes to you. So get it out of your head, put it in a Google doc, create the manuals, like systemize as much as possible.
That's where you get the freedom piece.
[00:12:41] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Tell me more about, where do people miss on that when they're starting? Oh gosh.
[00:12:48] Nicole McCance: I think that they expect a lot of their, like they kind of just assume well like, well okay, you know, you can just do this and not realize that people like really don't know your practice management system.
It's all new to them. So literally I want you to write down like, what do you say to a new client? And this is why I give people the templates. I just give them all my templates. Uh, so I'll say all five high level and then you can ask, Like, it would take forever to talk about each, but step one, systemize your operation.
Step two, then you hire your dream team. Step three, attract clients with digital marketing. Love that. It can work while you sleep. Step four, this is where you convert. Because here's the thing, you've, you've attracted the clients to your website, but they're not clients yet. Convert the clients with consult calls.
Step four, retain the clients with followups. If you have any questions about any of that, yeah,
[00:13:43] Whitney Owens: we could jump into all of it. You're right. There's so much deep content there, but I love the way you just simplified it. You know, it's not as complicated as therapists make it out to be. You follow the steps.
And you really do.
[00:13:56] Nicole McCance: You really do. Oh my gosh. I say that all the time. Exactly. And just have a mentor that can kind of, you know, hold you accountable. Yeah. Mm
[00:14:03] Whitney Owens: hmm. Yeah. And so when you look at those five steps, where do you think therapists get the most stuck on the backbone?
[00:14:09] Nicole McCance: I think that we're all. It. Oh.
I'm obsessed with the marketing piece because they think that I need more clients, more clients. But it is true. But these are just prospects. They're not clients yet. And they miss the conversion conversation, which is why I suggest offering a free 20 minute. consult call. And once you grow, it's not with you, it's with your therapist.
And then they're booked into actually pre book, pre book for a succession. So they're like literally fully committed. So that's, that's the piece that people forget and they're losing money. It's a leaky bucket because they're investing in their marketing and they're not converting and not tracking and they don't even know how much they're losing.
[00:14:52] Whitney Owens: Totally. You're preaching it. I, I do the exact, I say the exact same thing. I love this. Okay. And so what is a normal conversion rate for someone who reaches out for therapy?
[00:15:02] Nicole McCance: Industry standard is way lower than you think. Industry standard, guys, ready for it, 20%. So that means it's a, it's higher in our field, but the average industry standard, Across the board like think think all the things you could buy and sell like services ours are a lot higher I find many members say to me my and it's true I I'm sure you felt the same way Whitney that 90 percent of the people I talked to would book right?
so I actually give them a script like my exact script because Believe it or not, guys, like, I think you do it so well, but your new hires don't know how to do it. You, it's a skill. You really have to teach them how to convert. So the industry standard is quite low. And I find when you first hire people, it is actually quite low, but you can get them up.
But here's the thing. I don't think they'll ever, ever quite be as good as you. Because you're you and you're amazing, like you can train them. But the only reason I'm saying that is a lot of people will hire and like assume they're going to be mini versions of themselves, but it takes a whole lot of training to replicate yourself.
Yeah.
[00:16:08] Whitney Owens: Years. Right? Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. What, what kind of softwares do you recommend for people in tracking their conversion rates?
[00:16:19] Nicole McCance: I love JNAP. I'll give you a link. You probably heard about JNAP. I'm like bringing it to America in a really big way. It's really big already here in Canada. I'm in Canada.
My friends. I work with 70 percent Americans. Because it, so simple practice is great, therapy, you know, it's like the big monopolies in the states. It's the only thing that. I noticed is just the reporting is a little bit more detailed than Jane where you can pull. You could just pull it right from your practice management software.
That's why it helped me grow. It was easy. At any time I knew exactly my sales. I knew my retention rate of all my therapists. It's all in there in a dashboard.
[00:16:54] Whitney Owens: I do know some therapists that rave by Jane, so, so it also tracks though the ones that don't convert into clients as well? So I,
[00:17:02] Nicole McCance: let me just think, I have a spreadsheet that I give people because it's not that hard to be like, how many people booked, how many people actually became paid clients.
I'm just trying to think in Jane if it does that. It's a slightly more manual, just the way that it's set up. But I, regardless, I would like put a, I just give people a spreadsheet, like a Google sheet. And you want to know this on the weekly. And then this ties out into step five. Okay. The very last step.
Retain with follow ups. Okay. If they do not book on the consult, follow up with an email. Now, I'm not saying solicit, but just follow up. They're depressed. They need to be handheld. Most people do not. This is the secret sauce right there. Step five most people don't do. They don't follow up and then that person You know, we know what happens.
Somebody else follows up and they book with them.
[00:17:56] Whitney Owens: Totally. Totally. Yeah. This, this is so great. And I love how you kind of, you lay it out that it's not just here, here are the steps, but you're actually giving people all the stuff they need to complete the stuff. Exactly.
[00:18:07] Nicole McCance: And I think we were talking about earlier.
Here's why people want to work probably with you. I noticed it with me because they want more freedom, you know, or to do more of what they love. That's why I'm like. I know you're busy. You're probably not going to do this. Here it is. It's already done. Just use it. I know it works.
[00:18:24] Whitney Owens: Mm hmm. Definitely.
Definitely. It's nice to have some, a proven method that's right in front of you that you don't have to really question too much about because we have enough things that we're working on. Right. Exactly. All the things. Mm hmm. Yeah. And so talk a little bit about what's the ideal candidate or person to take the course?
[00:18:43] Nicole McCance: I love this question. So I decided I'm only going to work with psychotherapists, so any mental health therapist. I'm only going to work with them if they work in Canada and America because I'm expert in both, like in network, out of network, private pay, all the nuances, every single state. Like it's, I feel very proud, you know, even every single state is so complex because we teach them the legalities.
We have HR experts and lawyers That are American and Canadian, but I only help you scale to a group practice. I do that and I do it well and I only do that. So if you're that person that you're like, Ooh, I'm ready to hire, but I don't know what to do because I didn't learn anything about like this in graduate school, then you're my person.
I
[00:19:28] Whitney Owens: love that. Yeah. So how long does it take to do the course and start a group practice?
[00:19:33] Nicole McCance: It's six months. It is half a year with me where you get access to all the experts, all the things, me, all my people. Honestly, how long does it take to start a group practice? A lot less because you technically, the moment you hire, you're a group.
It's not you anymore. Right? And you're a leader. But they're just baby bosses. You know? And they don't know what they're doing like I did. So we kind of grow up together. And can I tell you, Whitney, it is so amazing. I don't know if you notice this. It's a six month course. That's all I do. I have one course.
It's, and it's like blown up the industry. It's been really amazing. When they enter day one, it's almost like their first week of school. Like they're a little bit afraid. Like, Oh God, I don't know if I'm going to be a boss. Am I going to like this? And at the end, they are transformed and they actually look different.
I want to start taking photos. The power that they know that they have, they truly embrace that they are, they have this immeasurable power that they tap into and this way bigger impact that they're now making on the world. It's so beautiful. I feel really lucky.
[00:20:38] Whitney Owens: Oh, yeah. And I mean, I can see you as we're talking, your passion in that, like, that's your why as well.
It's about you, but it's also about these therapists and giving them their lifestyle that they've been looking for.
[00:20:48] Nicole McCance: And then as a result that, and I'm sure you feel this too, then the ripple effect, like all right, all that now all the people get to get served through them, through me, like, what a beautiful thing we get to do.
[00:21:00] Whitney Owens: Totally. Totally. I think a lot of therapists want to start a group practice and they are scared out of their minds. For they don't know how they're going to manage people. And so when people come to you with those like fears and insecurities, how do you kind of help them figure out if group practice is for them?
[00:21:17] Nicole McCance: Yeah, I was like that. And so it's kind of nice, right? Because I like you, like I literally did it. I suggest the first hire actually be a mini me. So to be a version of you and that the reason was I made many mistakes that I share. Okay. I tried to hire someone that was opposite and I didn't retain those clients because they were expecting an experience of me.
Think of a restaurant. You go into a chain, you go to a different location, you expect the same experience. And that's a little easier because you really connect. But also what helped me because I was a baby boss, I wanted to hire baby therapists. So I actually hired a lot of interns, which you can't do in California, but I can here.
So I help people hire either interns or pre licensed. It feels a little less intimidating where it's like, okay, you're learning. I'm learning. Let's do this together.
[00:22:11] Whitney Owens: Oh, I love hiring interns and associates. Yes. My fav. They're so good.
[00:22:16] Nicole McCance: They're so hungry and they laugh. They actually stay under your wing.
They want all the training. Yeah. I love it.
[00:22:23] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Oh, I love it. I love it. I mean, it keeps saying boss, baby or baby. But that's, that's funny. I love that. But it does feel like that. And then you mature into who you become. And that's the other thing I just love about the work we get to do is the transformation that happens within us as a boss.
You know, this person we become in our confidence and growing into who we feel kind of called to be.
[00:22:46] Nicole McCance: Yes. And I think that's why the community is so important because being a boss is brand new and it can be lonely at the top. I know that sounds weird, but when I had a big organization. With the 55 people.
It was the buck stopped with me and I was like, who do I talk to about this? My poor husband, he, he just, you know what I mean? Like I kept going to him. So the community is pretty cool because you're with a bunch of other new leaders also transforming and it can be growing pains are hard. Like it's, it's a whole transformational healing process.
Like I'm a different person after building a group practice.
[00:23:22] Whitney Owens: Mm hmm. Yes, definitely. All right. So now I'm gonna ask a real personal question. I would like to know more about your experience with the practice that size. Like, were you happy? How did it run? Was it overwhelming? Like, what was that like for you?
[00:23:38] Nicole McCance: Yeah. Good question. So the thing is related to growing brains, it happened really fast. So think of a kid growing to six feet in two years, like that's painful. That's why we're supposed to, you know what I mean? Yep. Yeah. So I got a coach right away and that was really helpful being around other people.
Like that helped me a lot. I think. Yeah. I, uh, the one thing I did right is I hired, I had six admin, like I had operations manager under me, clinic manager, and a bunch of admin and different coordinators. But the hardest thing for me for sure was letting go of control. You see, up until now I was 100 percent responsible for my own success.
And coming from the childhood that I did, I learned at a young age that people aren't reliable. Unfortunately, it's kind of a sad core belief my little inner child had. And then I had to build this group practice and. Real by definition, rely on another human being, put my reputation in their hands. That was terrifying.
Like, I don't know if you mess this up, that impacts me. So as a result, to be honest, I'm, I'm a recovering micromanager. Like I, I think I, What I did with that fear is I would check everything, but over time, I definitely put myself in therapy and like coaching. And then over time, what a beautiful thing that I learned that you can trust people, but there's a bit of a formula.
Just don't blindly trust because, you know, this is your reputation. So that was like the most healing journey for me, but the hardest part. was trust, letting go.
[00:25:09] Whitney Owens: That's really beautiful. Talking about your, like we were just talking about this, like that healing journey that occurs as you leave your practice.
And if you had never started a group practice, you would have never had that experience.
[00:25:19] Nicole McCance: Isn't that amazing? I joke and say, if you want like the best therapy, start a group practice. In the best way, right? Because you have to be the best version of yourself to lead, to actually, because what is leading?
Leading kind of is, well, no, not kind of, it is influence and a little bit of persuasion, like to get, so you can't be of influence if you are stuck in all of your baggage. So you have to really step into your own, it's beautiful.
[00:25:49] Whitney Owens: Mm hmm. Definitely. So do you miss doing therapy?
[00:25:54] Nicole McCance: That's funny that you say that.
I was looking at my like old photos in my office before. Sometimes I miss the depth, but I will say what I love about coaching that I didn't get is that. In therapy was the tangibility of the progress, you know, in therapy, our clients don't always know that they're progressing in it. And we're in our head.
We're like, are you kidding me? You haven't had a panic attack in three months. So I love the coaching because I can see the transformation. It's very tangible. They, they have this big group practice. I got a bigger house. They're traveling more. They took a month off, you know, so, but sometimes I do miss like the deeper convos.
We get that with the mindset, but like, I'm not doing EMDR. And I love that stuff. EMDR is magical.
[00:26:40] Whitney Owens: Mm hmm. Yes. I mean, with all things we love and hate, you know, and the difficulties and the blessings of it all. But
[00:26:46] Nicole McCance: yeah. And you know, you're using your therapy skills all the time. Yeah. And you know what's really funny?
I felt like I was born to be a therapist, but that wasn't really true. I feel like maybe that was a time, but that like chapter had ended. But where I've really stepped into, and I think I'm Actually meant to do is this is to coach inspire and really help leaders change their lives. Yeah
[00:27:12] Whitney Owens: Totally. I can see that all over you.
Thank you. Yeah, definitely. Wonderful. All right. If someone is a advanced group practice owner and they're looking for scaling help, so maybe they already have 20 therapists or something like that working for them, do you have programs for them as well? Yes, so it's the same program.
[00:27:30] Nicole McCance: The program, so I have quite a few people, I think the largest is maybe 30, I've got people with 10, with 20, so I help them scale or I help them level up because they come and they're like, Oh my gosh, I need help with leadership.
How do I do check ins? I, or a lot of people come and say, I'm paying too much. I need help with my profit margin. What should I be tracking and the metrics? So because I give them everything, yeah, it's all the same thing. And there's like, yeah. And we have like separate experts and two separate coaching calls, yeah.
[00:28:02] Whitney Owens: Oh, okay. Cool. I love it. Okay. I was just like, we're hitting, we're hitting them all. All the group practice. I love it. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Do you have some really great freebies that you sent over? One is a masterclass going from solo to super team. Could you talk a little bit about that?
[00:28:17] Nicole McCance: Yeah. I have a free masterclass that if you're like, Oh gosh, I don't, I want to go more into the five steps.
It is twice a week. So come and join me live. There's a free bonus if you show up live.
[00:28:31] Whitney Owens: Ah, yeah. Awesome. Okay. And then you, you actually sent two freebies. So that's cool. A template for psychology today.
[00:28:38] Nicole McCance: Yeah. So psychology, who doesn't want like to improve their psychology today? If you've noticed like, Oh, I don't know, it's not working like it used to, I give you the script.
Just follow it. Like literally change the words. There's a lot you can change and tweak. It's going to make a big difference.
[00:28:50] Whitney Owens: Great. Great. So I'm going to throw all that in the show notes and then I'm going to guess you've got a Jane app. link maybe?
[00:28:57] Nicole McCance: I can absolutely. Can you send that to me? Three months to use Jane.
Yes. I will send you that link. Wonderful. And I have a podcast. I have a podcast, The Business Savvy Therapist. If you love podcasts, which you probably do because you're here, I would love to see you over there.
[00:29:11] Whitney Owens: Yes. And I've checked out the episodes. Some of my friends and other great consultants in this space.
In fact, you just recently interviewed Jeremy Sharpe. Yeah. He's lovely. He's another friend of mine. I know. Some good, some great people. Great people attract great people. Mm hmm. Wonderful. Is there anything that we did not touch on today that we wanted to make sure to mention?
[00:29:31] Nicole McCance: No, just, you know, if you're feeling lost and overwhelmed and confused, the, I would connect maybe with the masterclass where you can really just learn.
One thing I want to leave people with is we're so lucky in our industry because to start a group practice, it doesn't, there's not much startup costs. My husband like once started a cafe. He had to buy a fridge, coffee, it was, he was like 200 grand and he didn't even open the doors. We're so lucky that we can start a big or small group practice, make a huge impact with very little startup costs.
[00:30:06] Whitney Owens: I appreciate you saying that. Yeah. And, you know, I was talking to somebody the other day about coaching and they were like, oh, yeah, I'm getting coaching from someone that's not in the, our space. And I think what you just said is such an example of that. It's like, yeah, but our space is so unique and how money runs, like, it's a very service based, we don't have to buy all the things.
And so you've got to really run those numbers correctly because paying a therapist is very different than paying an employee at your cafe. Okay.
[00:30:32] Nicole McCance: Exactly. And we're so highly regulated that I love being a therapist because there's so much we can't do, we're not allowed to do, that marketing companies or other coaches don't know.
[00:30:41] Whitney Owens: Totally. Yeah. Well, Nicole, this has been so great. A lot of good content, so I really appreciate that and appreciate the work that you're doing in the world. We'll have everything in the show notes and for people to get in touch with you and to purchase your course.
[00:30:54] Nicole McCance: Amazing. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:30:57] Whitney Owens: Thank you.
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[00:31:15] Whitney Owens: Podcast. Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The wise practice podcast is part of the site craft podcast network, a collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives to learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network head on over to site craft network dot com.
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