Brave and Well: Conversations helping mental health professionals build a sustainable, profitable & values-aligned business

We don’t often talk about the messy parts of being an entrepreneur. So in today’s episode, I’m taking y’all behind the scenes and sharing some recent changes & challenges in my personal and professional life.

Tune in to hear more about:

• How I’m juggling being a mom, wife, leader & full-time entrepreneur
• Learning to maximize my time
• Q4 reflections & looking ahead to 2023
• Planning my second maternity leave & my first sabbatical
• The challenges of letting other people run your business
• Hiring & all it requires
• The importance of celebrating milestones

I hope you’ll listen then get in touch to let me know your Q4 is going. And don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, then share this episode with a friend!

Links

• Follow Brave and Well on Instagram
• Sign up for the Brave and Well newsletter

I love running support groups. They’re a great way to center accessibility in your practice without burning yourself out.

So today on the podcast, I’m sharing how to start a support group. This episode is basically a mini-workshop where I guide you through:

• Choosing the topic of your group & what type of group you want to run
• Filling your group with your current clientele
• Deciding whether to host your group in-person or virtually
• Determining your pricing & payment methods
• Marketing your group to your ideal client
• Using support groups to establish your expertise

I hope you’ll listen then get in touch to let me know your experience with support groups.

And don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, then share this episode with a friend!

Links & resources

• Get my training — Run Groups Like A Boss: The Art of Planning & Marketing a Group in Private Practice
• Book a Business Consultation with me
• Follow Brave and Well on Instagram
• Sign up for the Brave and Well newsletter

So many of us become therapists because we want to help people. And we want to make money. But sometimes those seem in be in conflict?

In today’s episode, I share how I balance offering accessible care for clients with running a profitable business that supports me and my employees financially and energetically.

Tune in to hear me explore—

• How to set your rates to best serve your clients and yourself
• Why taking insurance is a form of accessibility
• How to offer a sliding scale without overextending yourself
• Why I love offering support groups & evergreen resources
• How I make money with speaking engagements & workshops
• The power & value of partnerships for your practice

I hope you’ll listen then get in touch to share your thoughts about accessible care and profitable businesses.

And don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, then share this episode with a friend!

Links & resources

• Follow Brave and Well on Instagram
• Sign up for the Brave and Well newsletter
• Get my workbook — Laying the Foundation for your Private Practice

Let’s get down to business! In today’s episode, I unpack how I’ve built three businesses that bring in over 7-figures in revenue. And I offer suggestions for how you can create passive income streams to support yourself financially without having to work all the time.

Tune in to hear me explore—

• What passive income is and why most clinical work isn’t passive
• How to find time to develop passive income when you’re busy with clients
• How I’ve created different passive income streams in my businesses
• Why you need to hire support & release control to make things happen

I hope you’ll listen then get in touch to let me know your questions about building passive income. I’d love to do a follow-up on this topic.

And don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Then please share this episode with a friend!

Links

• Follow Brave and Well on Instagram
• Sign up for the Brave and Well newsletter
• Get my workbook — Laying the Foundation for your Private Practice
• Maggie Gentry

Fall is always a busy season for therapists, but it often sneaks up on us! So in today’s episode I’m sharing three ways to get ready for the fall season.

Tune in to hear me explore—

• The seasonal ebb & flow of private practice
• How to figure out where you’ll make time for the different parts of your work
• 3 questions to help you reflect on your priorities for fall
• Where to find support & accountability for your season ahead

I hope you’ll listen then get in touch to let me know how you’re preparing for fall. And don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, then share this episode with a friend!

Links

• Sign up for the Brave and Well newsletter
• Follow Brave and Well on Instagram
• Get my workbook — Laying the Foundation for your Private Practice

Let’s welcome our first guest to the podcast! In this episode of Brave and Well, I’m joined by my friend and colleague Bernadette Chavez Piñon. Bernadette is an Austin-based counselor who supports individuals in their journey to have a healing connection within themselves so that they may have meaningful connections with others.

Tune in to hear us explore—

• Grounding practices for challenging times & simple ways to check in with ourselves
• How Bernadette holds space for herself and her clients
• Bernadette’s journey to private practice & how she aims to find flow in her business and life
• Disconnecting productivity & worthiness
• Supporting yourself & your practice by building relationships

Bernadette even opens and closes our conversation with a grounding meditation, so all of us can get more comfortable in our bodies and clear in our minds.

I hope you’ll listen then get in touch to let me know what you think. And don’t forget to visit Bernadette’s website to learn more about her work!

Links

• Visit Bernadette’s website to learn more about her work
• Sign up for the Brave and Well newsletter
• Follow Brave and Well on Instagram

What does it look like to build a successful therapy businesses? And how do we make space for our lives in the process? In this episode of Brave and Well podcast, I share my journey from full-time job to group practice to taking my first maternity leave.

Tune in to hear me explore—

• Everything I learned about self-care and boundaries during my “hustle period”
• Uncovering what I desired in my clinical career & in my life
• Learning to build a team and let go of control when I had my first child
• How being a mom has changed everything about my life and my work

In this episode, I get super honest about my struggles with perfectionism. And I get emotional about how my family has become the foundation for my work.

I hope you’ll listen then get in touch to let me know what you think. Until next time, don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and share this episode with a friend!

Links

• Sign up for the Brave and Well newsletter
• Follow Brave and Well on Instagram
• Learn more about Colors of Austin Counseling
• Get my workbook — Laying the Foundation for your Private Practice

How do you know you’re ready to go from solo practice to group practice? In this episode of Brave and Well podcast, I share my journey from solo practitioner to founder of Colors of Austin Counseling.

Tune in to hear me explore—

• How my commitment to access and representation led me into group practice
• What it was like to see clients full-time while growing the practice
• The worst decision I made in my first year of business
• How (& who) I hired to grow with ease

I get super about my business structure, operations, and finances in this episode. And I share heartfelt advice about when to start a group practice and when not to.

I hope you’ll listen then get in touch to let me know what you think. Until next time, don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and share this episode with a friend!

Links & Resources 

• Sign up for the Brave and Well newsletter
• Follow Brave and Well on Instagram
• Learn more about Colors of Austin Counseling
• Get my workbook — Laying the Foundation for your Private Practice

Hi, I’m Vanessa Newton & welcome to Brave & Well podcast! 👋 In this first episode of the show, I introduce myself and tell you about my journey from social work student to running a solo practice.

Tune in to hear me explore what it was like—

• Transitioning from a school setting to private practice
• Starting my private practice as a woman of color and therapist of color
• & Running multiple businesses while starting a family

Vulnerability and community are my superpowers, so I hope you’ll listen to the episode then get in touch to let me know what you think.

I’ll be back with new episodes every other Tuesday. Until next time, don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and share this episode with a friend!

Welcome to the Brave and Well Podcast! On this podcast, host Vanessa Newton LCSW-S teaches mental health professionals how to build sustainable, profitable and values aligned businesses.
Here you’ll hear about decolonizing the business side of private practice and supporting the entrepreneur in the therapist. We’ll also invite fellow therapists and healers to share their stories.
If you like what you hear, subscribe to the podcast, share it with a friend, and get on our mailing list at braveandwell.com/newsletter-signup!