Episode 40: Outsourcing Leads To Growth: The Productive Therapist [featuring Uriah Guilford]

Show Notes

Outsourcing is such an important part of small business growth and development. Think of it like this: "I'd rather work an extra hour each week so I don't have to mow my own lawn." Outsourcing for business is more or less the same concept.

In this episode, I talk with Uriah Guilford, creator and owner of The Productive Therapist, and an expert in outsourcing business tasks to make private practice life easier and more enjoyable.

When we're able to step away from the things we don't enjoy doing or don't want to do, it allows us to focus on the things we're passionate about and the things that actually bring in money.

It's really hard to scale, grow, or even have clarity over your vision when you're working in your business all of the time. Here are things you probably no longer want to do but you may feel like you have to:

• Answering calls
• Responding to emails
• Spending hours on the phone with insurance companies
• Social media posting and engagement
• Handling email marketing
• Web design, edits, updates

Once you're starting to get busier, being able to hire support staff can help your business take off, which allows you to step away from things you don't love doing or don't know how to do.

When we start thinking about outsourcing, these are the thoughts that usually come up:

• "I can't relinquish control over my day-to-day."
• "No one can do it as good as I can."
• "I don't have the money."
• "Who am I to hire help?"

More about Uriah:

Uriah Guilford, LMFT is a group practice owner and the mastermind behind Productive Therapist, a business that provides world-class virtual assistants to busy therapists in private practice. He is a technology enthusiast, productivity nerd, and a pretty rad drummer. He is a productivity coach for therapists and also the creator and host of the Productive Therapist podcast. Uriah is always searching for creative ways to provide counseling to youth and families as well as help therapists get more done so they can have more fun. 

Grab Free access to Uriah's 7-Day Email Transformation Challenge course here.

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A Thanks to Our Sponsor!

I would also like to thank The Receptionist for iPad for sponsoring this episode.

Are you tired of running to the lobby to see if your next appointment has arrived? Would you like a more discrete, stress-free way for your clients to check in?

Take a deep breath — The Receptionist for iPad empowers your practice to create a Zen-like check-in experience.

It's the highest-rated digital check-in software for therapy offices and behavioral health clinics, used by thousands of practitioners across the country.

The Receptionist for iPad is a simple, inexpensive way to allow your clients to discreetly check in, notify providers of a patient’s arrival, and ensure your front lobby is stress-free.

The software sends an immediate notification to the therapist when a client checks in, and can even ask if any patient information has changed since their last visit.

Sign up for a 14-day free trial of The Receptionist for iPad by going to thereceptionist.com/privatepractice, and when you do, you’ll also receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

Transcript

PATRICK CASALE: Are you tired of running to the lobby to see if your next appointment has arrived? Would you like a more discreet, stress-free way for your clients to check in? Take a deep breath. The Receptionist for iPad empowers your practice to create a Zen-like check-in experience.

This episode of the All Things Private Practice Podcast is sponsored by The Receptionist for iPad. It's the highest-rated digital check-in software for therapy offices and behavioral health clinics, used by thousands of practitioners across the country, including, Dr. Ajita Robinson, our guest on this podcast back in episode 29.

The Receptionist for iPad is a simple, inexpensive way to allow your clients to discreetly check-in, to notify providers of a patient's arrival, and to ensure your front lobby is stress-free. The software sends an immediate notification to the therapist when a client checks in and could even ask if any patient information has changed or needs to be updated since their last visit.

Sign up for a free 14-day trial of The Receptionist for iPad by going to thereceptionist.com/private practice. When you do, you'll also receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

Hey, everyone, this is Patrick with the All Things Private Practice Podcast joined today by a good friend and colleague, Uriah Guilford. Did I just say your name right, Uriah?

URIAH GUILFORD: You sure did. 

PATRICK CASALE: Okay, perfect. He is the owner of the Productive Therapist, and he has a group practice as well out in California. We are going to talk today about outsourcing and all things psychology and emotion behind it, and his philosophy of getting more done so you can have more fun. So, Uriah, I'm really happy to have you here. 

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah, thanks for having me on your show. Appreciate it. 

PATRICK CASALE: Yeah, for sure. And you know, I was just on Uriah's show about two weeks ago. So, this is kind of a cool experience. I met him in Asheville a couple of months ago, when he was passing through. Really cool guy, really, really invested in helping group practice owners make their lives easier. And I think we need that in our lives. So, can you just tell us a little bit about, you know, outsourcing and how that's come about as a passion for you?

URIAH GUILFORD: Definitely. Yeah, so it really is one of my favorite things to talk about, all things outsourcing and delegating, and that is what Productive Therapist does. And I was thinking it either is because I'm very, very smart or because I'm very lazy. And maybe-

PATRICK CASALE: Could it be both?

URIAH GUILFORD: It could be both, it could be a little bit of both, yeah, yeah. In a former life, I was definitely an underachiever sort of master procrastinator, and then, somehow I evolved into the version of myself that I am now, which is like a master delegator, and, you know, multi-business owner, all that kind of stuff. But I just love the idea of getting the support and building a team around you so that you can accomplish a bigger purpose, because you really can only do so much by yourself. And that's pretty much how all of us start out as therapists. We don't necessarily come shooting out of grad school with like, you know, we want to take over the world in a certain sort of way or help the world, but we don't necessarily have a grand plan about how we're going to do it. That's kind of like, you know, I'm going to hang my shingle, and I'm going to go out there and do some good work. 

But as you progress, as a therapist, generally speaking, you kind of get more ideas about who you are, what you want to do, who you want to serve. And I think for a lot of us, and certainly, people listening to your podcast, Patrick, people have sort of a growing vision for what they want to do and what they want to build. And I'm definitely, definitely all about helping therapists prevent burnout, and still accomplish their goals, and build a life they love. So, that's what it's all about to me.

PATRICK CASALE: That sounds pretty damn good to me. And you're so right, I'm just thinking about what you just said about shooting out of the cannon, so to speak, out of grad school, and maybe you leave your agency job, maybe go right into private practice, whatever the case may be. And, yeah, outsourcing isn't really on your mind, right? Because maybe you don't have your vision, but more importantly, for the most part, for most of the people out there, including myself, you didn't have the money, right? Like, to really reinvest into a support system in your business that could help your business grow. 

And I think a lot of the time people associate outsourcing with financial drain, and stress, and feeling like, "How can I pay for something like this?" And in reality, what I hear you saying, and what I believe as well is that outsourcing actually helps you bring in more revenue in the long term. It just may not be a short-term, immediate solution.

URIAH GUILFORD: So true, and also loss of control, right? Like, "Oh, that's going to be-

PATRICK CASALE: I struggled with that for sure. 

URIAH GUILFORD: …that's going to be very expensive and nobody's going to do it as good as I do. I'm going to lose control, and who am I to have an assistant?" For example, right? Like, "Who am I to, like, imagine that I'm so important that I need somebody else to come and do these things for me?" So yeah, there's a lot of psychology wrapped up in the challenge of beginning to delegate and outsource so that you can do bigger and greater things. 

PATRICK CASALE: Yep, you're spot on. And the control piece is huge, you know? And I know I've struggled with that in the past too, where I was like, "Okay, I'm growing, but I don't want to hand this over. Like, yeah, a biller would be really nice, but no I can do my own billing, I hate it, but I should still do it. I have this coaching business, but it's not really big enough, but a VA would be helpful to, like, help me with things I don't really know how to do, but I can't really afford to pay someone to do those things."

And I can tell you that the single most important reason for me sitting here with you, having a podcast, having everything else that I've created this year is because of my VA that I've hired, because she is just so damn important to my growth, to my ability to step away, to my ability to focus on the things that I truly am passionate about and she can focus on the things that she is truly passionate about. And that makes really good teamwork. And I couldn't have done that if I had maintained that thought process of like, "I can't do this for me, or I can't afford this, or, you know, I can't relinquish this control."

URIAH GUILFORD: How did you kind of bust through that, or was it a challenge at all?

PATRICK CASALE: It was definitely a challenge. I think I've realized, like, when I started as Casale Coaching before I rebranded to All Things Private Practice, I was running six-week courses, six people at a time. They were filling, which was kind of cool. And I was starting to develop a reputation. And you know, I'm not good with the graphic creation, or like web design, or any of that stuff. And I found myself like feeling really overwhelmed so often and being like, "I don't know what to do, right? Like, I don't know how to do this stuff, I feel a little embarrassed by it, I need to ask for help." All those narratives. 

And I ended up going on a VA Facebook group. I didn't even know you existed at the time. And I found like 50 of them who sent me resumes. I didn't know what I was looking for, so I didn't have like a good structure in mind to say, this is actually what I need from you. And I ended up hiring someone that lived in Ireland, because they lived in Ireland. That was the only reason. I did not know like what she could and could not do for me. She lived in a van and would text me very often, "The internet cafe that I was in kicked me out, because I hadn't purchased any coffee. I'm going to be driving 45 miles to go find the next one." And I'm just like, "Okay, this is not working for me." Like, lesson learned, right? Like, this was a mistake. But that is how I broke into, "Okay, I need to have some support here."

URIAH GUILFORD: That's something, yeah. The whole process, like, figuring out that you need help, and then, coming to terms with all the things that that means is definitely phase one. And then, phase two is like, well, but then who, and how, and what, you know? So, I have some resources for people on those things. But I can tell you my first VA story, if you want to hear it. 

PATRICK CASALE: Sure, absolutely. 

URIAH GUILFORD: I don't know how interesting it is, but it's kind of unique. Essentially, back in, I think, 2012, 2013, I found a business coach that I connected with and really liked. She happened to be a psychologist in private practice as well and started working with her. And I just noticed that in the process of scheduling my calls with her and getting various things done, she had an amazing virtual assistant named Gina. I was like, "Wow." So, I started talking to my coach about her assistant. Turns out my coaches' coach owned a VA business and Gina was the sister of the owner. 

Long story short, I actually started working with Gina when I was a solo practice, and I was getting busy. And I literally started working with her, I think, five hours a month. So, it was very, very small amount. In some months it was like three hours, because, you know, I maybe get eight referrals, 10 referrals, something like that. But she would handle all… she didn't do any calls or anything like that, I still handled those things, but she would set people up in simple practice, she would make sure that the forms got signed, and she would help me manage the referral log, all those kinds of things. So very, like, minimal amount of time. 

And I ended up working with Gina for five years, which if anybody's listening to this, and they've ever had an assistant or worked with anybody, like, that's a long time to work with the same person and the same virtual assistant. She was just so good. But you know what's crazy? Back then I paid $55 an hour for her services. 

PATRICK CASALE: Wow. 

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah, yeah. And-

PATRICK CASALE: That feels high to some degree compared to what I hear about today in some regard.

URIAH GUILFORD: That's actually higher than what we charge at Productive Therapist.

PATRICK CASALE: Yes. 

URIAH GUILFORD: But the interesting thing was that they use a time tracking system and every month I got a report of exactly what she did. She kept detailed notes by the minute. And they only tracked time to the minute, right? So, I was like 100% know that Gina was doing a really good job and there's no waste. So, it's worth what I'm paying. 

So then, through that process, I kind of became like a believer and sort of a mini evangelist, I tell my therapist friends and be like, "Hey, have you ever heard of a virtual assistant?" They'd be like, "No, what's that?" I'd be like, "Let me tell you." So, way before I even had the idea for Productive Therapist I was like, "Hey, I got to tell my friends." I think it made me feel important too if I'm being perfectly honest, like, "Hey, I have an assistant."

PATRICK CASALE: You know it made your ego feel a little bit better too, to be like, "I finally made it. Like, I've got an assistant-

URIAH GUILFORD: Totally. 

PATRICK CASALE: …I'm handing things off to somebody.

URIAH GUILFORD: I didn't realize it then, but it did feel good. Like, "Oh, I'm doing things, you know?" It's not completely ego, hopefully, check myself there. But that was kind of-

PATRICK CASALE: Just from knowing you very, like, in limited amount of time, I don't see a lot of ego there, I see a lot of humility. So, I do think it does feel good that you'd be like, "Okay, I started a business, it's successful, and now I'm able to kind of grow it and it feels scary." But I do think that also is worth patting yourself on the back for as well.

URIAH GUILFORD: Definitely, it's evidence that you're doing something important and you're going somewhere, which is what we all hope to do, whatever that looks like. You know, whatever success looks like to you doesn't have to be having a virtual assistant, but maybe that's part of your story, part of your journey, right?

PATRICK CASALE: Right, yeah, absolutely. So, you worked with Gina for five years. I have been working with Kelsey, my VA for almost two years. And you become really connected in a lot of ways because they're so involved in your life, in your business. Like, there's a lot of emotion in your business, too, when things are going well, when things are not going well, when you're trying something new. And they have a heart or are a big part of that. And, you know, Kelsey does my podcast editing, she does my web design, she does my social media marketing. I don't know what I would do if she texts me today and was like, "Hey, man, I'm quitting, so see you in two weeks." Or like, "Here's my two weeks." You know what I mean? Like, I would be screwed. 

And even right now, as we're sitting here, like my scheduler and admin for my group practice is sick. So, she's like, "I'm taking the day off." And I just see the calls piling up and I'm like, oh, am I so grateful to have someone who does this on a routine regular basis.

URIAH GUILFORD: Yes, so true. I was just talking to my team on our meeting today about how to solve the problem for group practices when their in-house person is on vacation or sick. So, we might be putting together sort of a service for that, you know, for the couple of weeks a year that group practices need backup. Because like, how do you do that? Basically, it's you, right? I mean, it falls on you.

PATRICK CASALE: It's what I was going to say. It just comes down to the owner, right? Because you're like, I'm not going to see our reputation get smeared through the mud or whatever, because we're not answering phone calls and being responsive. 

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah.

PATRICK CASALE: But I'm also doing 10 other things and I don't want to be doing that.

URIAH GUILFORD: Exactly, you hit the nail on the head. So, we might be going that direction.

PATRICK CASALE: You have so many cool resources for therapists and I really do believe that you buy into that, like, your actual [INDISCERNIBLE 00:12:32] and your mission of really trying to make things easier for people. And how did that come about for you besides just seeing the results of having a VA at the time? Like, how did this transform into a podcast, and the Productive Therapist, and everything else that's come along with it?

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah, to be honest with you, Patrick, like all of my, "successes" I don't need to put quotes around... all my successes, I mean, I just removed the air quotes, have been a genuine surprise, and like a sort of a development of just, you know, me growing, honestly, and kind of doing what was scary, and failing a whole lot, right? Failing a whole lot, and just continuing to chase what seems to be working. 

And then, also just finding out what I'm really good at, and at some point along the journey, I figured out, I really love business and marketing. Well, that's a surprise. Okay, I actually like building businesses. I like hiring people, and supporting them, and helping them be successful. Oh, my gosh, that's interesting. Okay, let's do that. 

And then back in 2017, I was in a mastermind group and had this idea. I was like, you know, I'm going to start a blog, because I've always been kind of a nerd. You know, like, I was doing comic books when I was a kid. And I don't know, I just nerd out about all kinds of random stuff. Like, I could tell you what my hobbies are currently, as a middle-aged man.

PATRICK CASALE: I do you see the Super Mario figurine or icon on your chair in the background, so…

URIAH GUILFORD: Absolutely, music, all kinds of things. So, I was like, you know, I'm just going to start a blog called Productive Therapist, and I'm going to talk about the software, because I'm really super into software. And I'm going to talk about the software and the productivity tips that I've been using for a long time. And then, I think, you know, I've got an assistant that works for my group practice, I think, I might actually start to contract them out to other therapists and do that kind of as a side thing. And my mastermind group was like, "Uriah, that's the thing. You need to do that, not this blog or whatever it was, you know?" Like, "Virtual assistants, you should do that." So then, it kind of developed from there. And I just sort of discovered, wow, I love collecting resources, I love helping other therapists succeed. I don't know, that just makes me really happy.

PATRICK CASALE: That's really cool. And that's a cool thing about mastermind groups too, is to get different perspectives. You know, when we are too close to something to see how it can be impactful in other ways, and that sounds like it created a lot of positivity, and growth, and creativity as well. And especially, when you're stepping into something that you're like, "I really enjoy this. I didn't know this about myself and I really enjoy this." And I think that's what we're all looking for as entrepreneurs. And we don't always find that, because we're like chasing the shiny object, or we don't really know who we are, and we maybe are sometimes too afraid to even try. So, that's very cool that this has all come from just putting the idea out there and it was going to be a simple blog just to be supportive. And now, I mean, you help group practices hire VA's through your business, right? That are going to help them make sure that their systems work, that they're getting calls responded to, and answered, all the things that come with having someone supporting the admin side of your practice.

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah, we're working on in sort of a new focus of being like your virtual team, you know, with a further emphasis on group practices, definitely. But yeah, we handle phones. That developed sort of organically where I needed that help, I was ready to be done, you know, responding to phone calls, and it just takes so much time, especially, as you grow, when you start to get more and more referrals when it gets to be 20 a month, 60 a month, 100 month.

I was talking to one of my coaching clients the other day who gets 350 referrals a month and has like a legitimate admin team. But even so, like, the struggle is real, you know? So yeah, we handle phones and scheduling all things related to that. And then, a bunch of general admin tasks, all the things on the back end that we all need help with, chasing down, you know, changes in credit card payments, unpaid balances. We don't do full-service insurance billing, but we'll do some billing and invoicing types of things. And then, we also do some marketing, mostly, social media. And we do some podcast editing, actually, which has been pretty cool.

PATRICK CASALE: Yeah, nice. So, I didn't know half of that, so that's really cool. Again, all of that stuff is set up to make your day a little bit easier. And I think that if we realize that outsourcing is about taking away the things that you don't enjoy doing, replacing them with things that you really do enjoy doing, that makes a significant difference, not only professionally, but more importantly, personally. And there is that fearfulness for a lot of people of, "I don't understand the return on investment, because it's not immediate and I don't really see the concrete number." Right? It's like, "I don't really know how this is going to benefit me."

But I always think about like, I hate mowing my lawn, and I'd rather like work an extra hour a week so that I can pay someone to mow my lawn. That is real for me. I will do that until the day I die. And I think we have to start thinking about this stuff like that, because I think so many of us as therapists just don't have business training, you know? And it's really hard to understanding reinvesting into the business, reinvesting into marketing, reinvesting into outsourcing, like, to make sure that you can grow, and you can create space, and energy, and not recreate the agency job that you tried so hard to get away from.

URIAH GUILFORD: That's true. I'm sure you see this with your consulting clients, folks who build a successful practice, and then, what they've really just put together for themselves is a very demanding, you know, dollars for our job, right? Which they get paid more per hour than they did at the agency, but sometimes their boss doesn't let them take vacation. You know what I mean? Wink, wink.

PATRICK CASALE: I did it. 

URIAH GUILFORD: And you know, it's not always the best setup. But you're 100% right that it's also a mindset shift, too, because we can be stuck in that mindset of we don't have what we need, we're not, you know, all kinds of other things, too, but certainly, sort of scarcity around money. We don't have what we need, we should just go ahead and keep doing all the things all the time. 

But if you spend a chunk of your time every day or every week doing things that you're genuinely not enjoying, and you're genuinely not that great at, that is not the best use of your time. Not only are you not making money doing your QuickBooks, right? But it's just you're going to procrastinate on it because it's not like, you don't wake up thinking like, "Oh, I can't wait to log into QuickBooks and reconcile my accounts today." No, that's never happened to me, you?

PATRICK CASALE: That's why you hire a bookkeeper who I'm actually meeting with mine in like two hours and I'm really looking forward to handing that over and being like, "Please take care of all of it right?" Because this is the first time I've ever thought, "Should I really need a bookkeeper." Like, I've got two very successful businesses. Spreadsheets and email folders, they don't work anymore, but think about this therapist or any entrepreneur who's listening, if you charge $100 an hour, let's just use that as a round number, and the only thing you can do, right, is dollar for hour of your time. And you hate insurance billing, you hate calling the insurance companies, you hate dealing with the insurance claims. It just makes you so angry. If you can outsource that, that allows you to free up that hour or two a week to see more therapy clients if that's what you want to be doing, to ensure that you're making more money, and also, relieving yourself or absolving yourself from that headache and frustration of doing something that you absolutely hate.

URIAH GUILFORD: That's it right there, yeah, because there's some tasks that are genuinely like 10 to $20 an hour. Like, anybody can do this, just about anybody who's reasonably competent, and has got a good head on their shoulders. And then, there's maybe 50 to $75 tasks, which might be web design, probably accounting, and QuickBooks, or I'm sorry, bookkeeping, rather, maybe insurance billing even. And then there's things that are $100 tasks and up and above that, although, probably, for most people listening to this podcast the best use of your time is either providing direct services or strategic planning for growth. That would be my best guess, right? Certainly not answering the phone or doing insurance billing, I could tell you that.

PATRICK CASALE: Yeah, it's none of those things, right? It's like, yeah, you want to answer the phone, you want to be the face of the business and the initial point of contact, but do you need to be? And if you can remove that, you know, I'm just thinking about how many phone calls my group practice gets now that we have a psychiatric provider. It's very overwhelming. And I think that if I had to answer all of those calls or respond to all of those emails and texts, I would never be able to focus on anything else. 

And doing those things do not bring me joy, they do not give me freedom and autonomy, which is why I got into being an entrepreneur in the first place. And they make me really irritable and worn down, and frustrated. And that's not how I want to go through every day of my life.

URIAH GUILFORD: And also, not to want to give off to the person that's trying to get the services too, right?

PATRICK CASALE: Exactly.

URIAH GUILFORD: I remember, actually, the first time I fully handed off the intake sort of coordinator role was not to Gina, my virtual assistant, actually, it was to somebody I'd hired to work in my office. And I remember being nervous about it, because I had done my own intakes, or, you know, consultation calls forever and ever, and genuinely thought, like, "I'm really good at this. I like talking to people, I sign up a high percentage of the people who call." But it got to be too much, like you said and I didn't really want to do it anymore. 

And so, I thought, for sure I set my expectation that like the numbers are going to go down, you know, there's no way that Keith could do as good as I've been doing as a trained therapist, look at me. But guess what? He took over and the numbers actually went up. So, he converted more of those callers to clients than I was able to. That doesn't always happen by any means. But I think it was because he was a friendly person, helpful and supportive, connecting them with the services they need, and also, not a therapist, so that person on the phone couldn't work with them. Whereas when I'm talking to them, I could be persuaded to, right, be like, "Well, you know, I could probably squeeze you in over here." So, he actually did better than me. And I was like, "Okay, that's it. Never do that again."

PATRICK CASALE: That's probably so relatable for a lot of people out there. And, you know, I think also, there's a piece of this where not only is it about relinquishing control and saying, you know, I think I can do this better, or whatever the case may be. But it's also good leadership to say I trust the staff that I hire. I am not going to micromanage them, because I'm going to have good systems in place to be able to support them. And I know you help people with that, too. And, you know, I think a lot of group practice owners struggle with onboarding, and hiring, and processes in general and systems. 

But Katie Lemieux's a good friend, and she preaches systems and I'm starting to buy into what she's selling, because you really need things to flow well, otherwise, your day just feels like chaos. 

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah, 100%. I haven't talked about this in a little while on my podcast. But I like to follow the three keys to productivity, which are… there's lots of frameworks, right? But I like this one. It's particularly simple, elimination, automation, and delegation. So, pretty straightforward, but anything that you can just absolutely take off your list or your calendar and just not do because it's not the most important thing, boom, you just saved yourself a bunch of time right there. 

And then, automation, anything that you can cause to happen automatically, oftentimes, with technology, right? It's just going to save you a bunch of time, and then, delegation, the obvious one, who else besides you can do X, Y, Z tasks. I mean, if you follow all those three things, continually ask yourself, do I need to do this? And then, ask yourself, can I automate this? Can I make this easier? And then lastly, like who instead of me can do this? You're going to get closer and closer to your ideal schedule and your ideal life.

PATRICK CASALE: That's great advice for anybody that's listening. So, I think that is just so perfectly put and what we're all striving for, you know? It isn't to be busy all hours of the day and never be able to take time off. Although, I know a lot of us struggle with stepping away. And if you can just relinquish some of that, if you can just hand some of it off, and you can make your life easier, right? Like you said, get more done so you can have more fun. Yeah, that's a great message. I really believe that. So, really wonderful stuff, man. 

And you're doing incredible things for the community at large and you're always putting, like, "Hey, I'm going to demo the software. I'll let everyone know what I think about it." I think that's really important. Not only is it your branding, but it's like people respect the fact that you're willing to give pretty honest advice and help them, you know, where there are processes or things that they don't necessarily enjoy doing.

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah, it's fun for me. I can't I can't stop myself.

PATRICK CASALE: Well, you know, if that's your hobby, and you enjoy that more power to you, right? Because that's what this is all about, so-

URIAH GUILFORD: For sure.

PATRICK CASALE: …at the end of the day, I hope everyone listening can just kind of, you know, if you can't financially afford it now, that's okay. I couldn't either when I first started and most people can't, but once you start making some money, think about where you're going to reinvest it into your business, because you have to treat your business like a business in order for it to be sustainable, and kind of run like a well-oiled machine in a lot of ways, and to preserve your energy and longevity in the career, which is not an easy one. And I think that's really important for everyone to kind of try to absorb and listen to a little bit and see if there are things that you can hand off, if there are things you can automate if there are people in your world that you trust to be able to do some of the tasks that you maybe do well but do not want to do.

URIAH GUILFORD: I just thought of a phrase that I'm going to have to popularize. 

PATRICK CASALE: I saw you writing while-

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah, yeah. Delegating is self-care, how about that, right?

PATRICK CASALE: I like that, I like that a lot. 

URIAH GUILFORD: Like, yeah, last Wednesday I didn't really hardly work at all. I was hiking and I took myself out to lunch to a Swedish restaurant. And I walked around downtown of a local area. And I like maybe worked two hours, but I made zero less income because my team was working at the time. I know that sounds like bragging. But I was like, "This feels like winning to me"

PATRICK CASALE: Brag on yourself, man. That is a testament to success, right? You've worked really hard. 

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah.

PATRICK CASALE: And isn't that the goal to like step away, and still be making income, and still be helping and providing services. And ultimately, at the end of the day, it's like, I've worked really hard to get to where I'm at. I don't want to grind every day. Like, I've done that. I've done that for years. And I don't think that's sustainable. I don't think it's possible to shoulder the load, so to speak, as you get busier and busier as one human being in either a solo practice or one human being starting a group practice. I think you need help in one capacity or another. 

So, I'm glad you took yourself out for lunch, I'm glad you were able to hike and you should be able to feel really proud about that the same way you did when you hired Gina five years or initially into your career. So, it's just one of those things that I think we should try really hard to embrace. And I appreciate you being one of the forces in the industry who's really kind of always promoting that concept and that idea.

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah, thanks for saying that. I have a couple of resources to share, if you don't mind. 

PATRICK CASALE: I don't mind at all. I think everyone would greatly benefit, including myself.

URIAH GUILFORD: Cool. Yeah, so one of the things we've realized is that not everybody, well, number one, we can't work with every therapist in the United States. And some folks are going to prefer to hire somebody other than a virtual assistant company, so we put together a couple of resources. One is free, it's called Hiring Your Assistant. It's a pretty simple course. It's not too long. And that teaches you kind of a lot of the things you need to know about how to recruit, hire, and onboard an assistant. And that works for virtual folks or people that are in your area. So, that's free resource. And I'll give you the link and you'll put that in the show notes. 

And then on top of that, if people want this kind of support, so let's say you're a group practice, and you hire an intake coordinator to work for you and you want to train them. So, we created a training and support program called Therapy Intake Pro, which is, you know, what we actually use in-house to train our folks. And it's really quite comprehensive. I'm very, very proud of it. And so, for a small amount of money per month for, you know, however long you need, that you can provide training for your intake person and have that done by some experts. So, those are a couple of resources. 

PATRICK CASALE: Tell us a little bit more. You're being very humble right now. What else do you have out there in the world that people can find?

URIAH GUILFORD: So, I have an accountability program called Focus Club that opens four times a year. And that's a lot of fun. And that's really just helping people make progress on their big goals. We're running a Dream Big Challenge this month. That's all about like imagining what your life could be if you could accomplish your goals. So, that's pretty fun. And I haven't told you this yet, but I'm writing a book this year.

PATRICK CASALE: Oh, nice. 

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah, yeah, and I'm announcing it on your podcast. How about that?

PATRICK CASALE: It's going to be an accountability measure right here.

URIAH GUILFORD: Oh, yeah, for sure. So, the book is called Productive Therapist, no surprise there, with a subtitle, 10 Tips to Be Wildly Successful and Ridiculously Happy. And one of the things I'm doing is I'm crowdsourcing the contents of this book. So, I'm collecting wisdom, and advice, and tips, and artwork, and songs, and all kinds of things from people all over the country to put together as a source of encouragement and inspiration for therapists. So, I want you to be in the book, and it's going to be fine, and I'm also going to be donating 100% of the profits to ending youth homelessness. It's one of my current big projects.

PATRICK CASALE: Wow. That's huge and that's such a beautiful gesture, too. I hope everyone can take advantage of all of these resources. And you also have a podcast. I mean, you're not even naming some of the things that you're doing. Like, you know, I'll brag on Uriah. You know, one of the really good ones in the industry. You know, I think we can come across people sometimes where you question motives, and I don't think you're one of those people at all. And I think that everyone that meets you feels that way. So, all of Uriah's information will be in the show notes so you can access his content, access his services, kind of check out what he's doing out in the therapy group practice and entrepreneurial world. And I've really enjoyed having you on here today and just getting to connect with you multiple times in the last couple months and becoming friends. It's really been a pleasure. 

URIAH GUILFORD: Yeah, likewise, thank you.

PATRICK CASALE: And for everyone listening at home, you can find more of me at allthingspractice.com, retreats, coaching courses, podcast episodes, and individual coaching. The podcast can be downloaded, liked, shared, and subscribe on all major podcast platforms. And you can find my Facebook group at All Things Private Practice. Thank you so much.