EP. 23: The Power of Support and Systems with Jennifer McGurk & Danielle Young

Show Notes

In this episode, join me and my guests, fellow Pursuing Private Practice team members - Jennifer McGurk and Danielle Young, as we chat about the importance of support and systems in business.

We discuss the need for a circle of support, including therapists, care teams, business besties, and friends who understand the challenges of running a business.

We explore the role of different types of support in maintaining personal and professional well-being, and how they can assist with tasks and support mental health.

Additionally, we dive into the key strategies and systems we utilize to ensure smooth operations in our businesses, including organization, project management, and delegation.

Tune in as we share our experiences and insights to help you build a successful and sustainable business.

 

JOIN THE CLINICIAN CREW

LET'S WORK TOGETHER  

SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION  

FOLLOW ME ON INSTA 

 

PURSUING PRIVATE PRACTICE

EXPAND LIKE A CEO EVENT

FOLLOW PPP ON INSTA

 

What is Tech Savvy Dietitian: Websites, Local SEO & Marketing for Dietitians in Private Practice?

Websites, local SEO, and marketing strategy for dietitians in private practice. Hosted by Courtney Vickery, web designer and dietitian, helping you build a site and online presence that actually gets you clients.

In each episode, we'll tackle the practical side of private practice: websites that actually convert, tech tools that don't give you headaches, and strategies to streamline your workflow. Whether you're drowning in admin tasks or just starting your practice, we're here to help you spend less time managing your business and more time doing what you love - helping your clients.

Join us as we chat with successful dietitians and practice management experts who've figured out how to make technology work for them, not against them. We'll share real solutions for real practices, focusing on what actually works in the world of weight-inclusive care.

From fixing your scheduling nightmares to making your website work harder for you, Tech Savvy Dietitian: Websites, Local SEO & Marketing for Dietitians in Private Practice brings you practical strategies you can implement right away. Because your time is better spent helping clients, not fighting with tech.

 Hi everybody and welcome back to the Dietician Turn Designer. I'm excited this week 'cause we have the P P P team on the podcast.

We're dancing.

hoo

see us, so

Shout out to Courtney Vickery for having us on. I'm so excited to see our three faces together.

Yeah. So do you wanna introduce yourself a little bit and then Danielle?

Sure. So my name is Jennifer McGirk. I am a dietician turned business coach . For those of you that don't know me, I had a private practice for many years, turned into a group private practice, have created lots of different scalable offers, and now am the c e o of pursuing private practice. And pursuing private practice is a company that helps dieticians and healthcare professionals run businesses.

And Courtney, our amazing designer, helps us every single month with so many things with design, website and branding. And Danielle Young, or Danielle, should we say your new married name? I.

I, I never know either. I haven't officially changed it. I changed it on Facebook. So , but nowhere else.

Is my executive assistant, so please introduce yourself, Danielle.

I'm so happy to be on this podcast. So I'm Jennifer's executive assistant for the past. I think it's like a year and a half. And so I help support Jennifer and P P P in all the ways, administrative, operations, marketing, all the support, and that's what we're gonna be chatting about today. So I'm so happy to be here.

Yes. And Danielle, you have a special connection to non-diet work, so I would

also love Yes.

For.

So I am not your typical personal trainer. I like to call myself a mindset and movement mentor. So I do have my own, uh, business helping women find the positive in fitness without a side of diet culture.

Awesome. And your branding has been looking great lately.

my gosh. Thank you, Courtney.

Clothes. It's the outfit is so

Oh my gosh, yes.

it matches everything. Also, I love

lessons.

And then I love the literation of the m

Oh my gosh. I'm obsessed with Alliterations

Same. It's obviously very apparent and my name of my business and everything else. So we're gonna talk about support. So where should we start? Because I'm like, there's so many places that we support each other. So maybe we can start with how Danielle supports you and your business, Jennifer, and what that looks like and why it's so important.

Yes. You cannot run a business without support. I have tried and been quote unquote successful, but burned out beyond in my early days of owning a business. And then once I had my children, can, there's just not enough time in the day for you to be the c e o of a company and do . Everything really well.

You can do everything, but something's gonna give, whether it's your mental health or the quality of your work or your life, maybe, but something's gonna give. So your sanity. That's perfect. Um, so support is key. So I have had so many team members over the course of my career in business. I hired part-time, full-time contractors, employees.

I have had a lot of different types of support, but I had a moment in 2021 where I realized, oh my gosh, like I have so many different people on my team that are working a few hours here and there. The missing picture, the mi, sorry. The missing puzzle piece of why I still feel burned out is I don't have someone for me full time.

I. And at the time I was in a mastermind with business owners that were at my level, and it was so eye-opening to see that almost every single person in my mastermind had some type of full-time assistant. And I basically said, oh my gosh, that's what I'm missing. So that was March, 2021, and I decided to hire a full-time executive assistant in April and went through the

Job process all the interviews and making an offer for Danielle, who was the perfect person for the position she accepted and she started in May. So over the course of the year and a half, oh my gosh, Danielle, you have been in every single part of my business, which has been so awesome and it has really allowed me to see what a full-time employee

Can do not only for my sanity, but just with Moving the business forward in a way that is so needed for my quality of life. Because I feel like at the beginning of growing my team, I was just really, really focused on everybody else. And while that's great and I still am focused on everybody else, but I also need to be focused on me and how I'm showing up as a C E O and creating those boundaries for myself.

And I think it's a perfect match. So I'll stop there and see if you have any questions, and I'm happy to go through so much more.

that's great. 'cause I was just thinking about it. My last job, basically I had that I had. Had someone who actually was a massage therapist in our department, but then kind of transitioned into being basically my executive assistant because there was no way I could run three departments, which is basically like three different businesses by myself and needed help.

And so we spent a lot of time just talking and brainstorming and supporting each other. So that's awesome that you found Danielle.

So I'm curious though, what is, I know we talk about Enneagram a lot, but between you two, can you say what yours is and our personality type, whichever you can use Myers-Brigg, whatever you wanna do, but kind of how they work together.

my gosh, yes.

Yes.

I am in Enneagram three. Danielle is torn between two. She's not exactly sure what she is. I'll

let you explain. I'm either a two or a seven. I feel like I see myself in both of those Enneagrams, so I really need to take the quiz again and see

I always try to help her. I'm like, well, are you stressed because two, go to this in stress and sevens go to this in stress,

I

or are you healthy

That's But yeah, it's so interesting because Courtney, you're a one, right?

Yeah, I, it's like, I like the Enneagram because everybody knows it mostly, but like I resonate more with the Myers-Brigg, like the I N F J. Uh, that was the first time I read one where I was like, oh, that actually does sound like me. I mean, 'cause I am a one, but I think people assume that that means I'm always organized, but it's, I always say it's a ca organized chaos.

Is what happens here. , like I think Jennifer mentioned yesterday, all the tabs I had open

the other day, or somebody did . I was like, how do you think with all those tabs? I'm like, that is literally how my brain just does things. It's just organized chaos.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. I, well, actually ones when you are, no, when you're stressed, you go to seven. That's interesting.

I

don't

know

tell, so I don't know enough to know. I know a little bit, but what sevens are like, the people that have like, I think of them as being more, are they the creative ones or,

I dunno. and lots of just ideas and

Oh, then

tons of energy.

Am I, I'm one that's stressed into a 7 24 7

I am not an Enneagram expert, so if anyone out there listening is an Enneagram expert, send it to Courtney

Yes. Help me understand

but

so before we got on, we were talking about how support is like a circle and how you both are supporting each other. So it's not just Daniel supporting Jennifer, but Jennifer supporting Daniel. So do you guys wanna touch on that a little bit and how that looks like?

Absolutely. Well, and to wrap up some of the personality stuff, I think this is a perfect segue into this. I have a personality that is, Big and bold and full of ideas, and I'm very much an influencer in the Clifton Strengths Personality Assessment. So I'm an E N T J on Myers Briggs. Danielle, I don't know if you know what you are,

but. But my j and p are basically 50 50, so I, you know, I'm not that organized either, but honestly, I feel like I have ideas and I see solutions all the time around me, but I don't have the, and I have execution skills. I will say that I can get things done, but I don't have the administrative Admin type of skills that are needed to run a business.

You cannot run a business without those skills. You either need to have them or you need to hire for them. And I feel like a lot of times my burnout in the past has come from being forced. Now again, I. Sometimes you can't not do the things that you need to do, so you just have to freaking do them. But a lot of times my burnout has been in doing things that I am not good at or that take me forever to do.

So I just get frustrated and frustrated and frustrated. So having someone like Daniela on my team who's very organized, great with the details, gets things done in Canva and Asana, that would take me hours to complete. So helpful because my brain doesn't have to use energy in the things that I'm not good at. So the circle of support is basically knowing who to hire on your team that is really great in the things that you're not great at, so you can contribute to the business in the areas that you really love to and are needed the most.

Danielle, do you wanna add anything?

Yeah. And that kind of, um, brings up Jennifer's always talking about your zone of genius and how I think it's really important for a team to have multiple different types of zones of genius and zones of excellence and all of that, um, to make the circle go round, you know, like have that balance and 'cause everybody contributes in a different way, um, and with their strengths in mind.

And I think that's what makes a pretty solid business.

I did the thing where I had a thought and it left me, see, I need an assistant to write down everything that I think, because if I don't, then it just goes poof.

Um, Well, we can talk about project management 'cause we have an entire board for that. Courtney, in our project management system. But yeah, so,

oh

my gosh. No, I love it. I love it. So basically, as you know, in May, 2022, not 2021, in May, 2022, when Danielle came on board, I, I mean, I was pretty organized at that point.

I had been through a really rocky year of growing the team. I went from, you know, a few people in . The pursuing private practice business. Very, very, very part-time to actually having a full-time employee having, you know, many different part-time employees and contractors working in the business. And it just exploded our projects and the work and everything like that.

So Danielle came into the business where I was organized, but I was still very chaotic. Right. Danielle, like, I don't even know if you remember, it was just a lot.

There was a lot. Yes,

Yeah, it was a lot going on. So basically the first couple months was just, let's just get you acclimated to this business. You can see how I work.

You're not going to be able to make Recommendations, or you're not gonna be able to make like judgment calls or anything like that until at least a few months go by because you have to see what this business is all about. And then as you go grow more accustomed to like me and everyone that's working here, and the projects that we're working on and our vision and our mission, you know, you're going to be the full-time executive assistant.

So, We started off Danielle with just observing and projects and helping me stay organized, and then eventually transitioning the role into being in charge of certain projects and then eventually transitioning the role even to more areas of the business like marketing and operations. And Danielle, you're like in charge of a lot of things, but you don't feel responsible for

you know, talk about that

Yeah. Yeah, so, and that's always something like I appreciate from you, Jennifer, is like, I give you this, like I trust you with this, but know that you're not responsible for X, Y, Z. So, Definitely, like it takes time to get to know the business and to get to know the c e o because you are like their right hand man.

So like you need to understand how they process things and how like when you're stressed, kind of what you need best in that moment and everything. So it takes time. But um, again, it comes back to like knowing how to best support you depending on what's going on.

Yeah. and we have had many learning lessons along the way. You know, our team has shifted. We have decreased team members. I really hope to increase team members in the future too. Like we've gone through team transitions, we've gone through multiple different systems that we've tried. We've tried different operations, and honestly, part of it is an experiment, but part of it is also too, realizing that

You can go so much faster and waste so much time, like waste so much less time with someone helping you every single day versus not having that support. So,

So when you guys first started, have you always used Asana?

Yes. So I have done, lemme actually go through Courtney, 'cause I feel like your listeners would love this. I have used multiple, multiple project management systems. My very first project management system was a one page Google doc.

Oh

Don't recommend . Don't do that. Where I wrote down everything that was not good.

I have used Trello, which I actually really did like Trello, but I feel like Trello was missing key features that I just could not figure out. Probably someone could have come in and taught me, but you know, I didn't, I didn't take the time back then I have used, um, what was the other one that I tried? I tried click up for a couple days.

I know you like, click up, you've,

Well, we can talk about that in a second.

oh really? Okay. I tried click up for a couple days, but then decided not to go forward with click up. And then we also tried Monday for our C R M specifically, but also wasn't a huge fan of that because we just found out that we could do everything for free in Gmail and Asana.

So we got rid of Monday. So I've always had Asana since maybe 2020. But I didn't really start using Asana as a project management system until that point where Danielle came on like 2022. We, we had experimented with it in 2021, but we really got going in 2022.

Are you still using the free version?

Yes, I, I'm finding that the free version is able to do everything that we need it to do, at least for now. So I'm sure we could unlock even more with the paid version. But right now, I mean, yeah, it's, it's working.

And you still get the unicorn when you click done, which is, like I said yesterday, my favorite part.

I know We love checking it off. ,

Yeah, check it off.

Awesome. So . is there anything specifically that you've learned in all your time with Asana that works best when you're working with people that are supporting you?

Do you wanna take that, Danielle, or do you want me to, I mean, I, we can outline the different projects that we have in Asana.

Yeah, I think it, it's really important, uh, when I first started, I, I don't know how long it took for us to decide that we would have our own board. I think it was a couple months, but

it

we decided to have our own project board named Jennifer and Danielle. And we put so many different tasks that we wanna get done that day, that week, we can move it around, we can tag each other and like, it has been so helpful to just stay on top of the things that we need to kind of tag team with.

And so I highly recommend having a board for, you know, the c e O and the executive assistant. And then of course we have different, um, boards for our project launches and our, um, marketing and our content. We have a whole content calendar on Asana now. So we have really, I feel like, have been using Asana in such a more robust way now, more so than when I first started.

Yeah.

it has been, I love Asana. I've never, I'd never even heard of it before. I started with pursuing private practice and now I'm like obsessed with it.

Yes. And I think the reason why it's important to have different projects in Asana is that you can organize things based on the goals, outcomes, all the different parts of the project. So what we like to do is have the list version for . Meetings and any type of tasks that need to get done that are reoccurring.

We like the list version too, at least for me to like plan out goals and things like that for the quarter so everyone can see our goals and KPIs and things like that. And then we use the. What's it called? The board version for projects, so we can see the different columns of things that we really want to be aware of, and then we can move the task from one column to another depending on where it's at.

We also use the column version for C R M, so we have a C R M and Asana, which is so helpful. It's not HIPAA compliant. So I will say the only . Drawback for clinicians using A C R M and Asana is that it's not HIPAA compliant. So I'm sure you can get away, quote unquote, get away with having some non-client identifying information in their like initials or something like that.

But that would probably just confuse the heck out of me. So I wouldn't use it for, um, clinical. But totally fine for business. And we also use Asana, the board version for our podcast management. So as you know, Courtney, 'cause you have a podcast, there are so many different parts of the podcast planning process and anything from, you know, planning out ideas for the show to inviting guests to whether or not they said yes or no.

Planning out the show notes, getting the podcast episode to the editor, receiving it back, all those things are part of the podcast project. So we have a board for that as well.

This reminds me of either deciding to buy, lease, you know, a car where a car will get you from point A to point b I. But there are what, 20 different brands of cars and like this one has this feature and does it in a little bit of a different way, and this car has this feature and does it in a little bit of a different way.

And this car is like this much money and this car is this much money. So it really just depends, I think on you. There are so many different project management systems that you can use. They all get you from point A to point B. It's just which one are you going to pick? What is gonna work for you?

That's exactly what I tell people. Like even with website stuff, when they're like, you know, is WordPress the best? I'm like, it depends on what you want and what you feel comfortable with. And do you wanna take care of it or do you wanna hire out for somebody to take care of it? So I always tell them like, just go and do a trial.

Or like if they have a sandbox where you can play around in the system, just play around with it, trial and error, and see what feels the best. It's not better or worse, it's just what makes sense for your brain.

Yeah.

Yes. We're we're always saying is, is that how your brain works? Is that good with your brain at all? You know, it all depends. So.

That's funny.

Yeah. So. yeah, Asana. Click up. You said Monday. Trello. I mean, you can, and then there's notion, which I personally don't like to use for task management because I get lost in there sometimes. . It's more of like my filing cabinet of all my information, and it's just, it's not the same as like Dropbox or Google Drive.

It's like a notebook. That's the best way I can describe it. It's a notebook of information. It's where I put. All of my, like if I take a course, I outline everything and put all the documentation in there because I like the visual of it. Um, versus like just sticking it in a Google Drive folder, it would get lost.

'cause , Google Drive always feels like chaos.

Yeah, you would think that Google Drive would have a better organizational system for all the files that it can store.

Canva. and Google

Oh my gosh,

have the same type of interface. To me, that just doesn't make sense with my brain.

Nope.

It's just a

Can we talk about communication and project management? Okay. One thing actually, Danielle, I don't even know if I've ever talked to you about this 'cause I haven't had this with you, but one thing that someone told me way back when was that it's really important that you remember people read your writing in the tone of their brain.

Ooh.

So it's important to actually communicate with tone, especially when you're writing. So you might say something along the lines of like, This is due by Friday. Exclamation mark. Exclamation mark, exclamation mark. You know, that's my problem. I'm so excited. I can't wait to see how it turns out. And then the next thing that I say, like, Hey comma, can you remember that this is due Friday, question mark.

It's really important. Period. Those two different tones are incredibly different. And you could make them very similar, changing the way that you actually write it. So communication is key. This is why I actually don't love virtual teams, because I just feel like communication is so much harder, virtually, and at the same time, just today's world, we need virtual teams and people are going to be virtual.

So it's important to remember . How are you going to communicate as a team? What are different levels of delegation? Can you actually meet so other people can hear the tone of your voice in certain projects? And I think that that is very important.

If you wrote that comment like the second one you said, I would have a panic attack,

I Me too.

I.

Why are there no exclamation points?

No emoji, nothing.

There are always exclamation points when I write. I have to delete the exclamation points from my writing. I'm almost 40 years old. It's time for me to stop using so.

No.

No, I love it. And I will say as a side, I remember when I first applied for the job and like I followed up about my application or whatever, and you emailed me, or maybe it was to schedule an interview or something. It was very early on communication. And I remember you had exclamation points in the email and I remember telling my friends, I was like, oh my God.

She writes like how I write, this is so great. I love this

but isn't that so funny how communication can change everything and especially in these project management systems, I think we have to remember to be very careful about that because we don't want to miscommunicate.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, well if I ever write anything short and don't do explanation points, it's only 'cause I'm tired.

Don't take it personally.

I know,

I'm like sitting here thinking like, have ever written anything? Not

nice. No, not, not nice like have ever written anything? Not overly excited.

I know.

I'm always excited about the projects.

I know. One thing that I think is really helpful too, and Danielle and I don't necessarily do this anymore, we had to do this more so when we had a bigger team, but levels of delegation, meaning that I'm going to give you something, a project, and I just want you to research and. Think about options and bring them back to me.

Or I want you to take this project research options, decide which is the best one, and begin to take it back to me, or I wanna give you this project. I do not care whatsoever about the outcome of it. I trust you to do all of the work. I don't even need to know. That's the highest level de of delegation. So I think that's also important too, because sometimes as business owners we, and let me just say this too.

We are responsible for everything that happens in the business. So when we hire someone and we expect them to come in and fix all of our problems, for us, that is magical thinking. That is not true. We have to fix the problems and we have to help our people. . Gain skills to help us fix the problem. So I hate when I hear business owners say, oh my gosh, I hired this person and they didn't help me at all.

And like it's all their fault. And it was the worst hire ever. And I just basically sit there and I'm like, well, what did you do to contribute to that worst hire ever? Because I have certainly been there. And I think it all changed for me once I actually took ownership of the fact that it was my leadership that was quote unquote broken and that I needed to make changes and.

That's part of being a business owner. Um, but I do think it's really important to make sure that like we know what, we know how to help our people, help us the best.

Well, I was gonna say you are, you do, you're talking about delegating at different levels and you do a good job of telling me like what I don't need to worry about, which I, like Danielle said, appreciate because I'm like, do I need to put the frequently asked questions in there, or am I supposed to just like put the boxes and then you're like, we're gonna do that.

And I'm like, yes. Okay, now I know what

to

Yes. Oh my gosh, yes. And for everyone listening that might realize, oh my gosh, I have no idea how to be a leader. This did not come to me until probably late 2022 , not 2021. When I had Danielle, you were probably working for like a couple months when I really realized, I said, oh my gosh, I am a completely different boss than what I was a year ago.

I have had this transformation where, It has just been through so many ups and downs and I mean, Courtney, you probably see that too. Like you and I didn't have as much of a close knit relationship that Danielle and I had 'cause Danielle's full-time. But you started one month before Danielle, so you probably saw that too,

, I mean, I feel like you're definitely more clear on like what you're wanting now,

yeah, like I don't see. everyday stuff.

I just see Asana, meetings.

Danielle is the right hand to me who is organizing. My executive functioning in order to run the business. So when my head has to be visionary and strategy and has to like live in the clouds a little bit to make sure that the company is aligning with all the different market freaking craziness that's out there right now, which things have definitely changed and I think we can talk about that too if you want, but Danielle is the person that like takes all of that and like puts it into an action.

Plan that's actually executable. So during the day, there might be things that come up and like random things that I have to do, and it's like boom. In the calendar, boom in the calendar, boom, in the calendar. So the organizational operational aspect of the business is really Danielle, and she's organizing it for me so I can kind of keep my brain flowing.

Mm-hmm.

That's the first bucket, . The second bucket is outlining the projects and using the creativity to make sure that things are flowing. So Danielle does the organization of the podcast, figuring out the admin side of the show notes, prepping the emails. That's a huge thing that we can also talk about too. We use a lot of I wanna say like shortcuts, but we use chat G B T sometimes just to get an outline down and then I'll talk things out and Danielle will literally take notes so I don't have to waste my time in Asana typing things out unless I actually have to. But basically Danielle is like the middle person between my brain and the projects that have to get done. And then three, I would say, Danielle, you really help. Like. Big picture thinking. 'cause sometimes I'm like, oh, let's launch this next week.

Somebody to tell me No

Well, Danielle's like, well, you said that we were gonna do this. So I don't think that that's

gonna happen

So, and especially with having, I mean, I don't wanna blame my children, but I think it's just different. My life is very different now than what it was pre-kids having kids and having three humans that rely on me because my partner.

Has almost no control over his schedule. I am the default parent, so, which I, which is fine and I love, and that works for our family, but when the kids get sick, I'm the one that has to take them when they need something. I'm the one that has to take them. I'm in charge of the medical appointments and a lot of the school stuff, so that is a full-time job.

I don't care what anyone says, like being a mom or a parent is a full-time job. So I already have that full-time job and now I have this career on top of it. So it's just kind of keeping track of the big picture thinking and kind of keeping us organized.

You're making me wanna hire an in-person assistant in my little office shed.

Yeah, well that, so that was the missing piece for me. But I didn't know that until I met other business owners who had full-time executive assistants in-person teams and . I didn't know what I didn't know, so, and it's my fault too. I was, I like, I'll take ownership of it. I was not the best leader of a virtual team because I just feel like I have so much going on with my kids and my life and this stuff.

Like I don't have the full-time capacity for career right now. I think I'll get it back maybe in five years or so, but I have three young kids. I have a husband with an inflexible job. I have. I have my parents, my in-laws. I have so many family and friends. It's just I have a lot going on in my life and I don't have the capacity to have virtual connections as deep as I can in person. And I would you, you know, one thing that Rachel said when I was in her mastermind that was very impactful, she said, if you start out with just a personal assistant, five hours a week, sometimes that is a great way to just practice delegation.

Mm-hmm.

If it's a personal assistant, it's easier things like, can you just go to C v Ss for me and pick up this, you know, medicine for my kid that needs it?

Or can you go to the grocery store and get these groceries and you know, little things like that that you could probably find a high school or college student that you could pay. And they would be so happy for that money. You know, maybe not an adult person that you could afford, but it's just really, really, really interesting how practicing that delegation can help bring those delegation strategy tips over to work.

Yeah, and I think we've talked about this before, but like I have somebody that comes over and every week they come over and do the laundry and put the laundry away and like pick up, which I honestly am now. I'm like wondering if they should just come more often. every other week they come twice a week, they come and do the laundry one day and then they come and like clean like mop and stuff the other day.

And I. Normally would never ask for help from anyone. Outside of , our agreement. And the other week, something happened and I needed help with the kids. So I called them and asked them if they could come sit with my, one of my kids , because I needed to go do something. And they were like, I'm so glad you called, because I always tell you to call me. And you, you're always afraid to, so , I'm proud of you for calling and asking for help. And I it was really hard.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's so hard. It's so hard. I'm proud of you too, Courtney. It's amazing. You know, um, and how awesome is it to be able to give people work

Yeah.

pay people for doing something that not only helps you, helps your family, and then like that circle of support helps your community. And that's the thing, like, don't get me wrong, I love Amazon and Target and I will shop at Amazon and Target, and that's just real life, real world.

But when I can put my money to small businesses and local businesses and . Especially minority owned businesses. I love that so much. Like I just think that that is so important for our world, our community, our local, you know, economy. And I feel like that's kind of what's missing right now in our country.

We have to focus on taking care of one another and really trying to support causes and people that we believe in.

In my opinion, that's an act of. Self-care in the real world. And that's the thing, like while, so, and this kind of comes back to the non-diet approach too, in my opinion, it's like we have to teach clients how to live in the real world while we try to change it. So people are going to want to diet.

And that is just kind of the fact of life in the society that we live in. So helping clients through the process of wanting to diet and quote unquote wanting to lose weight because they think that that's gonna solve everything. That is a very real world thing in the world that we live in. So we can support people while also trying to change the world.

That's kind of how I see it.

I like that. Support all around for everyone,

Yes.

And I just wanna,, touch on something that Jennifer actually said in a , her own podcast interview that's gonna be released in November is when it comes to support, when you are able to hire someone for those five hours or those 10 hours, and however, whatever capacity it is that gives you more time, space, and energy.

To focus on your business. And so it's kind of like a win-win win. You are being able to support someone who's being able to support you, right? It's the circle to help you be the best business owner, to be the best c e o that you can be to move your business forward. So I think that just comes back to the circle and how we all can support one another.

I love that you remembered when it's coming out because your brain knows all the details.

It's the way my brain works. I don't.

Yes.

I'm literally like, hold on, lemme look at my Google calendar. I literally don't know what today is.

I can't remember anything. I mean, I don't know. I don't, the, the thing is I think our brains can't handle it all. Like there's just not enough space in our brains in order to remember everything. And when I forced myself to remember everything, that's a period of time in the first couple years of business where I

Not necessarily the first couple years, 'cause I don't have kids at that point, but maybe year three to seven I just burn out and I burn out in a different way in 2020 just 'cause I had so much responsibility with the kids and everything like that. But you just, you, there's not enough energy that one human has order to make it through having to do everything and remember everything and be everything for everybody.

So,

I don't know if there's an answer to this, but this is making me think about, I was talking to another business owner before this call and we were just talking about how dieticians, especially we were talking about websites and how they kind of feel like they should just be able to do it on their own.

And we were talking about, you know, shouldn't be spending their time learning a whole nother profession, essentially.

do you want me to speak to this, Courtney? Because.

I do

Speak to it. Yes.

people need to hear that

Yes.

cannot do all these things

Permission. Give them permission.

You cannot do all these things. I mean, I so. I have tried to do my own website and I have wasted 100 plus hours. I have broken things and have had to hire people to fix my broken work and do the work that was needed in the first place, so I wasted even more money and more time. I have effed up so many things on the website.

Don't touch your website. But maybe, maybe that's just me and, and trust me, I know I had to scrape together money to hire my husband's cousin for I think like a hundred dollars in 2011 for my very first website. He helped me, and I definitely think that the technology savvy people can do it on their own, but.

It is so freeing when you hire someone to do something for you, and it turns out better than what you could have ever imagined, and it did not cost you so much time. That is money well spent, and I know you have to make money in order to have that money first, and I'm a big believer that you can get your first few clients with a Google Doc and connections and local referrals, but when it's time for you to expand your audience, a website designer is definitely needed.

Yes. And yeah, I mean, I tell people that all the time. Like, I mean, I had somebody call, you know, I have people call all the time that are starting their practices and it just kind of depends on what position they're in. But I'm like, you don't have to, I don't even encourage you to do the custom site yet unless like you just

Have the funds

for, and you just really feel a, you know, adamant that you do that. But that's why I offer the starter one. But even that, like, you don't have to start with that. You can start with a wig site, don't listen to everybody. Like, it's okay, like you gotta start somewhere. But at the same time, once you start, if you wanna grow this business at all, you cannot spend your time on this website.

Because I am tech savvy and I spent butt loads of hours on my own private practice website. It takes time.

Yeah

you know, as far as like investing in it, you know, If you're hiring a designer, most likely, and I can only speak for myself like we've invested in ourselves, like I've spent thousands of dollars on trainings and you know, everything I need to do to learn how to do it properly.

And you don't wanna have to spend all that time doing that. Just like your clients aren't gonna go to school to be a dietician,

like,

Oh, I love that.

yeah.

Yeah.

So that's my soapbox for websites

Yeah. Yes, and you don't have to, like, you don't have to spend thousands and thousands and thousands every single year unless you're at the point where maybe you're scaling your business and you have someone on retainer like you are on retainer for us, Courtney. But you can, you can invest in a web, in a really good website, in the, you know, middle of starting your practice and not necessarily have to pay someone thousands every single year, like it's a one-time purchase.

I dunno if you have an opinion on this, Courtney. I'd say a one-time purchase every three, four years. Typically.

Two to four, somewhere

in

to four. Yeah.

on like how cl, I mean for me personally, like it depends on how classic your site is.

Yeah.

if you have one that's very, like with the times of the modern design, whatever that is, and like in two years it just feels dated,

Yeah.

that's one thing. But also like.

Let's say I have a client that's on a maintenance or care plan with me, and they have the plan that has edits included time every month, and they're making small adjustments over time, then they're, unless they're doing a complete rebrand, their redesign is not gonna be as involved as if someone didn't touch their site for two years.

Yes,

So

absolutely. Yeah. Um, and that's another important thing to remember too, like you will change the copy on your website. The more experience you have, you will decide to change headers the way that you work with people. You might even change your business offer so that, so again, you're not gonna spend thousands every single year, but you are going to have, keep, you know, up with your website as things change.

Yeah.

And I tell clients, I say this almost every day, nothing is permanent.

Mm-hmm.

Your website's not permanent. The copy we put on it is not permanent. I mean, your branding, you know, it can adjust. It's not permanent.

Yeah.

So it's okay. You can change things. So if we wanted people to take away three things about support from this episode, 'cause you know I love to do like a list of three, what would they be?

I think definitely invest in support, whatever that means to you, um, in your life, in your business. It might not even be monetary, you know, um, but support is support and it's very important, however you best need it.

any others?

I would say expect Unexpected and that the circle of support is the only way that you get through those unexpected challenging times. Kids are gonna get sick, things are gonna go wrong,

you know? Relationships aren't going to work out. Chaos might happen, you know, things like that. And having people in your corner, not only to help you with the tasks, but also to help you with your mental health too.

So whether it's your therapist, your care team, whatever that means to you, your business, besties, . Your people, like your friends that just get it. Sometimes talking to my real, like to my real friends, talking to my real friends about business. They don't get it. But talking to my business friends, they just totally get it.

And there's a difference. Like you need real fr you need real in life friends for you know, your you, and then you also need business friends. So the circle of support is so important.

Yes, definitely. Well, where can everyone find you guys and what offers do you have coming up?

So with Danielle's help, we have changed some of our programs here at pursuing private practice. So right now we currently offer two things. We have business school for people getting set up and started in their business. That is a monthly membership that you can gain access to education, support, connection calls a amazing community.

There are so many different things in there to help you get set up and started in business and to also grow until you're fully booked. We have a lot of education and curriculum in there for marketing and. All of the systems and things like that that you need to grow. And then we have Expand, which is our business coaching program for people that are growing and scaling, hiring a team member, working on their leadership delegation, really owning their C E O life as well.

So it's not just a business coaching business support group. It is a really amazing resource for you as a C E O. And that program begins in November. You can find all the [e-mail] and we are at pursuing Private Do practice on Instagram. But Danielle, tell them about your Instagram too personally, if you want.

Okay. Totally. Um, so my Instagram is be iv, so it's a combination of positive and fitness. So be IV and on there you're gonna find inspiration and kind of shifting your mindset of what fitness actually can add to your life and not take away. Um, so I have a lot of fun on there. Making reels and supporting , uh, anyone who needs that inspiration and positivity on their Instagram feed.

And I offer a support group. It's a new offer, which I get a lot of my inspiration from pursuing private practice, changing my offers, . , So that's a new offer from my business. And again, grateful for all the support I get, , as an employee of pursuing private practice and also having that inspiration that you can start a business on the side too.

Yeah.

Awesome. So everybody go follow them and thank you guys so much for being on the show today.

Thank you, Courtney.

Thanks, Courtney.