(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, welcome to the Abundant Practice Podcast. I'm Allison from Abundance Practice Building. I have a nearly diagnosable obsession with helping therapists build sustainable, joy-filled private practices, just like I've done for tens of thousands of therapists across the world. I'm excited to help you too. If you want to fill your practice with ideal clients, we have loads of free resources and paid support.
Go to abundancepracticebuilding.com slash links. All right, on to the show. So I've talked about therapy notes on here for years. I could talk about the features and the benefits in my sleep, but there are a couple of things I want you to know about therapy notes that doesn't typically make it into an ad script. First is that they actually care if you like their platform. They don't only make themselves available on the phone to troubleshoot so you don't pull your hair out when you get stuck.
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In my conversations with the employees there at all levels, they all really believe in their product and they want you to love it too. Second, they are proudly independently owned. Why should you care about that? Because as soon as venture capital becomes involved, the focus shifts from making customers happy to making investors happy. Prices go way up, innovation plateaus, making more money with as little output as possible becomes the number one focus.
With over a hundred thousand therapists using their platform, they've been able to stay incredibly successful and they don't have to sacrifice your experience to stay there. You can try two months free at therapynotes .com with the coupon code abundant. Some of y'all aren't sending HIPAA compliant email and it's a problem. Even if you're paying for a business Google workspace account and have a signed BAA, your emails still aren't 100% compliant. That's where Powerbox comes in.
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We check the boxes we need to check and this is the easiest way to do that with email. Check out my friends at powerbox.com. That's P-A-U-B-O-X. Use code abundant to get $250 off your first year of Powerbox. That makes it less than $100 for your first year. Again, that's P-A-U-B-O-X .com. Use code abundant. Hey, Rachel. Hey, Allison. How are you? I'm good. How are you doing? Good. Good to see you again. It's been a minute. Yeah, absolutely. It's what it feels like.
I was like, oh, Rachel when I saw your name. It's so sweet that you like remember me. Of course. We worked together a lot for a while, but it's like you work with so many therapists, but at least you're a therapist. You don't forget people. You know, they get stuck, right? I'd be helpful. Where are you? Maybe why you haven't seen me for a while is I'm seven months pregnant. Congratulations. Yeah. This is my second child.
Last time we talked, I could not get the idea of starting a second business out of my head and tried that. Okay. I have a lot of maternity leave questions, but also want to kind of lay out the journey I've been on. Yeah. Started this online business, mostly through Instagram, trying to sell digital products, eBooks. I really neglected marketing for my therapy business. My therapy practice was in a great place, but then I just kind of neglected it.
At the end of the summer, I had a lot of kids graduate from my caseload and I found out I was pregnant. I felt sick and miserable and just like didn't bring in more clients. So in some ways it was nice to like have time to rest and not have to be seeing a lot of people when I felt horrible. But then I never really got my caseload back up to where I wanted it.
And honestly, like, it's not like I felt amazing through my second trimester, but I brought on a few new people, but basically like my finances aren't where I want them to be. I didn't save enough to really be able to pay myself during maternity leave, which is a bummer. And I feel some like shame about that of like, I really wanted to be like this amazing business owner who could do it all.
And my family is in a financial situation like that's not going to break us, but it would be nice to be getting paid. Like it'll be a little bit of a strain. So my other business is like not profitable. I really enjoy it and would like for it to be profitable, but it's not there yet.
So I think kind of what I'm wanting support with is thinking through, are there any ways I'm missing on like really reducing business expenses for my therapy practice, like during maternity leave and how to come back strong and be able to kind of get full quickly. Cause I feel like I haven't been in a place to like really go for that since I felt horrible. And then it's like, I'm about to go on maternity leave, so I can't like take on a ton of new clients. Yeah. So that's where I'm at.
Yeah. How long are you planning on taking for mat leave? I'm planning to take four months. Okay. So one thing you could do is you could message your, send a message to your EHR and ask if there's an option to pause. Okay. I will. I like did their little chat bot to ask about that. They're like, no, but you can drop down to the lower level. I'm with simple practice, but I'll email them. Yeah. Yeah. I would drop down to that lower level and you know, they've just pissed everybody off again.
So, um, I was like, great. $29 a month. And I'm like 49. Yeah. So they've just hiked up their prices without making it clear what people were getting in return. Yeah. Which, you know, they're allowed to raise their prices. I think their messaging could just be better. So they might be in a position where they're like, if it means you don't leave, sure. Who knows? It's worth an ask. It's worth it. Yeah. Okay, cool. That's a good idea. Can you sublease your office space?
Yeah. So I am planning to sublease my office space and it's been interesting because, you know, ideally I'd have someone who wants to use it five days a week, pay my full rent. But also when I return from maternity leave, I'm reducing my hours. I currently work four days a week, but I'm planning to work two and a half days a week. And so I want someone who would like to stay on through after my maternity leave. So I'm trying to find someone who's interested in two days or one day.
And the person that I found wants to start really part-time, but I feel really good about her. And I've met with some other people who I didn't feel as good about. So I did want to ask about pricing for a subleaser. I know it's probably different where folks are, but I'm wondering what's reasonable because my rent is $800 and I broke that down into five days and then was like, this is how much it would be. Per day, like it'd be like 160 for a day.
But the person who's subleasing plans to use it for like two hours a day. So she was like, could I get like kind of a reduced rate for that? And I was curious your thoughts on that. Yeah. Well, one thing is you're forgetting that there are people out there who have agency jobs who would love to work on the weekends. So I think while you and I don't want to work on the weekends, it's not that you're working two and a half days and they're only like two and a half days left.
There are four and a half days left that people could use. So I don't know how you feel about multiple subleasers, if maybe like she could take on one day and then somebody could take on the others.
It sounds like more to juggle to me, but I think I might hold out for a better fit because if it's somebody you want in there for the long term and maybe you tell them like you've got access four and a half days a week, just not this day in this day or this in this half day, even if they're only working during the week, they should still be paying at least half your rent. So I would look at it like days per week of that's what I've usually done. Not like hours.
Yeah. I mean, I totally understand where this person's coming from, like 160 per month when you're doing like two, four, six, eight sessions. It's a pretty big chunk. Yeah. And she might just need to find a place that rents hourly. Yeah. Because if she's paying less than that, it's really not benefiting you. Yeah, that's true.
I feel so, I feel bad because I feel like I'm a bad negotiator because when she said she's only interested in a couple hours at first, I was like, oh, like maybe my rent is kind of high for that. I like was like processing out loud. And so then she's like, oh, could I pay less? And I'm like, oh, wait, I can't really afford that. Yeah. I mean, in some cities, $20 per hour is really great. Like it's very reasonable. And you said 160, right? Yeah. It would be like one day a week.
Oh, so that would be like 20, over the month, it would be like $20 per hour. I mean, I think that's reasonable. And the other thing is I'm a play therapist, as is she. So she's looking for a fully stocked playroom, which I have. I don't know if that's hard to find, to just be able to rent a fully stocked playroom for a couple hours a week. I don't know.
Yeah. If you're offering that up, I would say if you could find somebody for the days you're not there for $500 a month, if your total is eight, because there's wear and tear, things are going to get broken, things are going to get lost. Yeah. I think it financially makes a lot of sense to find someone who wants to use a fully stocked playroom more days a week. And I feel like I've already kind of committed to this scale.
We don't have any sort of agreement, but I was like, I'm really interested, like move forward. Could she take that other half day? You're the opposite time of you. Could you arrange that with her so that then the other days could be sub-lease to someone else? Oh, yeah, maybe. Yeah. That's a good idea. And then Thursday through Sunday could potentially be someone else. Okay. That's an interesting idea. And the thing is I'm sub-leasing from someone else.
I'm in a suite, so I would kind of need to run past her of how would you feel about two people? And she's kind of mentioned like, oh, I'd really like to have someone sub-lease my space on the days I'm not here. So maybe she'd be open to like multiple people. But yeah, I think maybe that's one of the only ways I'll like reduce my expenses when I'm on the tour. Yeah. And maybe those people who didn't feel like a great fit for you that you talked to might be a good fit for her. Maybe.
Well, not one person because this one person is also a play therapist and wanted to bring in a lot of her own stuff. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's definitely something to think on. Yeah. Thanks for that. Yeah. I'm like trying to reduce the EHR costs and then I dropped like Canva Pro. I don't need that. But I don't have a ton of other expenses. It's just that my rent feels pretty high. I mean, it depends on where you live. But for me, it's fine.
Yeah. And I mean, you know, if you could drop it by half, it'd be pretty significant. Yeah. Yeah. Because I like in my savings, I just have enough to pay for all the expenses, including things like, like this summer, I'm having to renew my license and my registered play therapy credential and my website. Anyway, those things are like, I have to pay for those.
Yeah. Yeah. I also want to say you're feeling some shame because you're not, you haven't socked away enough to be able to pay yourself during this time, but you have enough in business savings to cover the expenses. And not everybody has that. And I guarantee you that if you weren't in a financial situation in your family where it wasn't that big a deal, you would have hustled sick and all and gotten what you needed to, to be able to pay yourself.
So ultimately you were doing the thing that made the most sense for you given your circumstances, which is to not push it when you're pregnant. Cause I don't want any of us to have to push it. Some of us have to, but I don't want any of us to have to. Right. And I guess I do have the privilege of not having to push myself. Yeah. Yeah. And I've definitely been talking in my personal therapy about like the shame around that and like, what does it mean to be successful as a business owner?
And what do I want my business to be like? And one thing that I've reflected on is at the start of my pregnancy, I like used a chunk of my savings. It was like $500 to do this. I don't know how to, what to call it, but it was like a career focused session with brain spotting and like human design all mixed in.
So I did a session like that with, she's a therapist who does it, just someone here local in St. Louis, because I was feeling a lot of just angst about my job and my family and like how to balance those things, like wanting to be with my daughter, but also wanting to work. So it was really helpful, but also I'm like that, should I have spent money on and there's kind of this part of me that's like, am I spending my money in the right ways in my business?
So I have kind of some like doubt in myself, I guess. So I just did an intensive on Tuesday as a client that was like very human design based. So I'm like, I'm like, it was worth it. But I'm not the one to tell you that you decide. And you know, I learned so much about myself. So anyway, but I don't mean to interrupt. Yeah. Well, just, I think that there are insights that you can have in any kind of self-exploration.
If you had spent that money on therapy, like not every therapy session is like, right. And if you had spent that money over a few therapy sessions, however much your therapy usually costs, you would probably be like, well, yeah, that was money well spent. I got some insights out of that. And some of the insights probably hit you later and whatever came up in the session probably slapped you in the face is like within 24 hours and all the ways.
So I think if it's self-development and it's actually developing yourself, then I think it's good because it helps ground you and center you and understand yourself better and provide better care to your clients. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it did contribute positively in all those ways. And I think maybe reframing things of like, I could get by with really kind of minimal income for the past seven months because of my family savings.
But then I'm like, but my partner is stressed about money, even though we'll be like fine enough. And I don't want him to be stressed. And so I almost feel like I need to like prove to him that my business is a good decision. And he's told me many times, like, I really believe in your therapy business. I know it's good. Like it's good for you and better for our family because you are less stressed.
Like you actually because I saw less clients, I actually had some energy to like take care of our toddler in the evenings. Whereas during my first pregnancy, I worked at an agency job and was basically comatose every evening after, you know, four or five p .m. So he was like super lonely during my first pregnancy. So I know he believes in it, but I still feel this need to like prove that I can be a financial provider in a similar way that he is.
But also I take care of our three -year-old one day a week. He doesn't do that. Yeah. And I'll be taking care of our baby two and a half days a week. So it's like, I don't know why I'm trying to compare apples and oranges. Yeah. And you've been creating life inside your body. Yeah. That takes a lot. It takes a lot of energy. It's not something he can do in the same way that like right now you can't contribute the same amount financially. Both of you have things you can't do and things you can.
And that can be great. Yeah. But I guess I'm just struggling to like accept that that's how it is. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. It was a choice. You could blow his income out of the water if you wanted to grind, right? If you wanted to just like work your ass off and spend time with your family and, you know, raise your rates to whatever would make that necessary to, you know, for the math, you could do that, but it's not the choice you've made. And that was intentional.
It's not the choice that you guys made for your future and for your life right now. That's true. And I think part of why I wanted to start my online business, my second business is because I realized I like seeing a smaller amount of people during the week. Like I, I like having a smaller caseload, which kind of segues into like returning from maternity leave because I'm like, I actually, I like want to be intentional about getting the amount of clients I want.
And I'm like, am I being realistic here that I'm, I would be working two and a half days a week and I, I'd like to have eight clients. I mean, that's totally doable. Like I think in terms of hours, even if I'm like pumping and stuff, I think it's possible. And I know you're going to say like, it's still possible, but one of the challenges is just like working with kids, the like 4pm slot is really popular. So I like work four days a week.
And right now, some days I only have one or two kids a day and they're in that like 4pm slot. So I'm like, yeah, how am I going to fill those daytime slots? Are you in with the homeschool community at all? Not really. I've tried a little bit. I have one homeschool kid, but they are not in any kind of co-op. And I also am like, I don't know if it's appropriate to be like, can I connect with your people? So my homeschool kid comes in the daytime, which is amazing. And I think she'll return.
I think that's the other thing. I think I have like four to maybe six kids who will return. Yeah. So you're in a great position because you also don't have to be full immediately. Okay. Yeah. If you could reach out to the co -ops, like maybe do some research at the latter end of your maternity leave, if you're just bored and scrolling on your phone, find out what the co-ops are and think about what you could teach them. It would be helpful. And offer to do like a workshop type thing?
Yeah. Okay. And like teach the kids a skill they need, like an emotion regulation workshop. Yeah. Something like that. Send them home with some papers that are fun and explain what you did and make sure it's letterhead and all that. Yeah. Okay. That's a cool idea. Yeah. I was listening to one of your podcasts with someone planning for maternity leave. And I think you said like two weeks before you return, also like send out emails to be like, Hey, I'll be back.
And so I'll be returning in August. And I tend to send all of my like school contact folks, like school counselors, a letter at the start of the year. Sometimes I include like a Starbucks gift card. Just being like, Hey, I'm like, thanks for having me on your referral list. Hope you have a great start to the year. Is there like a more effective way to do that, that you've heard of? I think if you have relationships with them, then that's good.
If it's a cold letter or cold email, then it's less effective, but it doesn't mean it's not effective. And you could say like, I'm back from maternity leave. I timed it like a teacher, you know, and you know, do the whole, like, I hope you have a great school year. If you have any kiddos that are struggling with X, Y, and Z, that would be a good fit. I have a couple spots available as I come back.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And some of them I do have a bit of a relationship with and they have referred to me, but I don't, I'm not like friends with any of them. And I don't like get coffee with them once a year. It's like, I, you know, met them once and then just kind of stay in contact via email or. Yeah. Okay. Are there other things I can do to set myself up for success when I get back? I think making sure that the parents are really informed about what your plan is.
I'm sure you've told them, of course, but being more explicit than you think you need to be just because, I mean, you know what it's like as a parent, like we've got a million things going on all the time. You know, the interesting thing about my caseload is that three of the people in my caseload I've seen for like one to two years. So I have a good relationship with their parents and I think all of them have mentioned they like want to come back.
So that feels good, but it is kind of some of the newer people that I'm like, will it kind of be like, Oh, just Rachel's gone. We'll just kind of fade out. And like, if they don't need it, that's fine. But I guess that makes sense to be pretty clear. So like informing them would be like, I'm going on maternity leave between April 1st and end of July. I'll email you two weeks before I return to check in and see if you want to.
I wouldn't even say to see if you want to, let's not plant that seed, but like I'll reach out two weeks before. Okay. So that we can get you in the time that works best for your family. Okay. Another aspect of all of this is that, I don't know if I'm delusional, but I'm like thinking I'll still have time to run my online business as well, which is like posting on Instagram daily, which you know, is a lot of work. And I'm like, is that going to be possible?
Because currently I'm seeing like six clients a week. So I have like tons of time to work on the online business. And so I'm like, is this going to work? I want to reframe the Instagram as a ton of work. Okay. The scrolling takes a ton of time when we get sucked into it. But the creating the content, I want you to like, maybe we, oh, we don't have time to, but like, I want you to consider like, what is the easiest version that's also impactful. And you've been creating content for a while too.
So like all my friends who are big content creators, like hundreds of thousands of followers, they rotate the same content, like 90% of the same content every 90 days. Yeah. And that's a good point. I have gotten a lot faster at it and have like a clearer vision of what I want to share and how to share it. Yeah. Yeah. That's a helpful reframe. Rotate stuff as well. Yeah. And you can schedule those using one of those online schedulers, or you can schedule right in Instagram.
Just doing what you can to look at it as easy and then let it be easy. Yeah. Gotcha. Awesome. Yeah. Well, I mean, time will tell if it's the online business. I'm giving myself to the end of 2025 to see if it's profitable and worth investing in this, you know, in this, the way I am now. So we'll see. But that helps me definitely have a idea of how to keep at it when I'm like, have two kids and I'm still seeing therapy clients. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Of course. It's so good to see you.
And please like keep us updated in the Facebook group about how things are going. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe I'll pop into the like office hours one of these times. Do miss that. Yes, absolutely. Oh, it's such a great, um, atmosphere. Yeah. And have fun with all this little good smelling baby snuggles. I know I'm excited. Thanks Alison. Absolutely. I'll see you later. Bye. Bye. If you're ready for a much easier practice, therapy notes is the way to go.
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