The Bad Therapist Show

Can you hire a 1099 therapist just because it seems simpler and cheaper than putting someone on payroll? If you're growing a group practice, that assumption is worth questioning before you offer someone a contract.

In today's episode, I'm joined by Lauren Phillips, accountant and owner of Private Practice CPA, to unpack the difference between a 1099 contractor and a W-2 employee. We talk about what your schedules, rates, and intake process reveal about the working relationship, why a signed agreement isn't the whole story, and where supervision adds another layer.

Then we get into the money. Covering a clinician's pay is only part of what makes a hire financially viable. Lauren explains the other costs to plan for while I share why being able to fill your own caseload doesn't automatically mean you can fill someone else's.

Already wondering whether you've classified someone incorrectly? We also discuss a possible path to correcting it. You'll leave with clearer questions to bring to your accountant before your next hire or your next payroll decision.

1. The day-to-day details that matter more than a signed contractor agreement
2. What a W-2 clinician can cost beyond their pay, including state-specific requirements
3. The caseload, overhead, and cash reserves to consider before committing to a hire
4. Why pre-licensed clinicians and supervision need a closer look before using a 1099
5. What the IRS Voluntary Classification Settlement Program may offer practice owners who've misclassified clinicians
6. When getting help with the numbers can reveal that your practice isn't ready to hire yet

• Book a free discovery call with Private Practice CPA. As a Bad Therapist Show listener, you’ll receive free 2026 bookkeeping catch-up when you sign up before December 1st.

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

“If the math doesn't work, change the pay structure, not the classification.” - Lauren Phillips

At some point you stopped saying the big goal out loud. The results were slower than you needed, the gap between here and there started to hurt, and the dream became heavy to hold, so you traded it for smaller goals that felt safer. The relief was real, and so was the cost.

In today's episode, I'm talking about why the size of your goals is a business decision, what happens to your growth when you stop feeding the dream, and how to grow your private practice around a vision you actually keep.

The therapists I've watched move fastest were unapologetic about wanting wealth, freedom, and travel before the results showed up. What they never did was let the dream go quiet. I'll show you why it happens, the good therapist conditioning you're up against, and the habits that keep a big vision alive while the results are still coming.

Your dream isn't a nice-to-have. It's the fuel that gets you through the hard parts, and picking it back up is this week's work.

Topics covered on Growing Your Private Practice:

1. What happens when the dream goes quiet and playing it safe becomes the plan
2. Good therapist conditioning and the myth that wanting money, freedom, and travel is selfish
3. Why saying your dream out loud keeps you honest without locking you in
4. How to look for evidence that it's already working without pretending everything is fine
5. How to pair a crystallized vision with real action steps, so you stop wishing or grinding your way there
6. What an unapologetic dream does to your charisma, your marketing, and your sales

Connect with Felicia:

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

Related episodes:

• How to Make More Money as a Therapist: One Therapist's $35K Month [Ep 187]

Quote:

“If you don't have something that's really, really inspiring, you will not have the energy that you need to go through the really hard bits.” - Felicia

Think there’s a cap on your income as a solo therapist? Think again. If you're wondering how to make more money as a therapist without giving up the life you're building the practice for, I want you to meet Sandra Killebrew, my one-on-one coaching client who hit her first $35,000 while working together.

In today's episode, Sandra shares how she reshaped her solo private practice serving high-conflict couples. She raised her fees, changed her cancellation policy, and created half-hour gaps between sessions. She also stopped offering free consult calls, a decision that made sense for the demand she'd already built.

But Sandra's story starts before we ever worked together. After listening to this podcast, she made changes that meant fewer hours with clients and less scheduling chaos. We talk about why investing in your clinical skills can only take your business so far, and what happens when you start taking marketing and sales just as seriously.

If your practice is already established and you want more room to earn, rest, and travel, this conversation will help you think through what your solo practice actually needs.

Sandra Killebrew, LMFT, is a couples therapist who specializes in high-conflict couples. She owns the Center for Excellence in Marriage and Family Therapy.

1. Why clinical skill alone wasn't enough for Sandra's next income goal
2. How getting too clinical keeps you from being bold enough in your marketing
3. Higher fees, longer sessions, and the half-hour gaps that changed her workday
4. The website messaging and client demand behind her decision to stop free consult calls
5. Getting paid while you and a new client work out whether you're a fit
6. How Sandra assessed the financial risk of extended time off rather than relying on confidence alone
7. Six weeks off in India and a $35K month right after: the foundation that made the leap safe

• The Entrepreneurial Podcast EP 153: Your Cancellation Policy is Losing You Money with The Bad Therapist, Felicia Keller- Boyle

• Website: centerforexcellencemft.com
• Instagram: @sandra.killebrew.lmft

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

• The Anatomy of a $20K Month for Solo Therapists (It's Simpler Than You Think) [Ep 149]
• SEO Blogging for Therapists: How Long It Really Takes to Get More Traffic and Inquiries [Ep 153]

“Be an above-average therapist, and then move on. Develop your business skills. Develop your marketing skills. Be able to talk about what you do in a way that people understand.” - Sandra Killebrew

There's a moment when someone is finally ready to ask for help. They know the problem is bad enough, they've stopped telling themselves to wait, and they start looking for a therapist. That's peak motivation, and it doesn't last. If your therapist website doesn't quickly show that you understand what they're going through, it can fade before they reach your contact page.

In today's episode, I'm making the case that every specialty in your practice deserves its own page, and I'm walking you through the beats that make therapy website specialty pages convert. The therapist who books the client isn't the most credentialed one in town. It's the one who becomes the obvious choice on the page.

I'll show you how to describe the problem in the language of your client's actual day, why the steps you find obvious aren't obvious to someone in crisis, and where your call to action belongs.

You don't have to rebuild your whole site. Start with the one specialty you're most excited to talk about, and turn that page into the one that keeps a motivated visitor from leaving.

Topics covered on Therapist Website:

1. Why a specialty that lives only as a bullet on your homepage can cost you a client who was already ready to book
2. How to describe your ideal client's problem from the outside in, so they recognize their own life on the page
3. Why every specialty page needs its own introduction, even though you already have an About page
4. What has to be spelled out before a client will take the next step, and why it feels obvious to you but not to them
5. Where your call to action belongs on a service page, and why repeating it helps the client rather than turning you pushy
6. How to build a specialty page FAQ from Google's People Also Ask to support your SEO and AI search

Resources from this episode:

• Liberated Business, my signature group coaching program for therapists who want to build a multi-six-figure private practice

Connect with Felicia:

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

Related episodes:

• 4 Things Every Therapist Website Homepage Needs to Fill Your Private Practice [Ep 159]: what belongs on your homepage before a visitor clicks through to a specialty page
• How to Find Your Niche as a Therapist [Ep 183]: choosing the specialty you are most excited to build a page for

Quote:

“Vague language costs you clients. The therapists who are converting aren't the ones who are the most credentialed or the most experienced.” - Felicia

You finally get the marketing to work, then the inbox becomes a full-time job. More inquiries, higher fees, fewer people on your caseload, and your best hours disappearing into emails from people who were never going to book.

In this replay episode, I'm walking you through marketing for therapists for when you're done guessing: a defined strategy I understand well enough to turn up or ease off, and a fast way to sort who is genuinely right for your practice.

Here's the thing: you can delegate this, and you probably should. Someone else can screen for you, and it really spares your energy so you can focus on the work that only you can do. You don't have to see more clients, work long hours, or cross your boundaries. Tune in!

Topics covered on How to Double Your Practice Revenue Without Adding More Clients:

1. Why a good reputation, a long career, and a full caseload stop carrying you at the income ceiling
2. What a defined marketing strategy looks like in practice, and how to tell when to turn it up or ease off
3. Why a flood of inquiries from people who are not a fit is a delegation problem rather than a marketing failure
4. Qualifying on your own inquiry form, and the trade-off in every barrier you add
5. Why delegating the inbox actually good, and how to set it up so you still see what matters
6. What a defined marketing strategy actually looks like, and how you know which part to adjust when it slows down

Resources from this episode:

• Liberated Business, my signature group coaching program for therapists who want to build a multi-six-figure private practice

Connect with Felicia:

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

Related episodes:

• Marketing for Established Therapists: From Getting Found to Getting Known [Ep 173]: building visibility when reputation alone stops being enough
• The Private Practice Marketing Strategy I'd Use to Scale to Multi-6 Figures From Scratch [Ep 162]: the strategy behind consistent income instead of random good months

Quote:

“You need a marketing system that works when you need it, lets you relax when you want to, and brings you the right kind of clients." - Felicia

You've worked hard to build a group practice where clinicians feel supported. So when someone asks for a raise or says they can't take another client, bringing up the numbers can feel like becoming the boss you never wanted to be. Meanwhile, you may be carrying a full caseload yourself just to keep the business afloat.

In today's episode, I'm talking with Tory Krone, group practice owner and co-founder of Practice Vital, about data-driven decision making for therapists. We get into how your numbers can help you decide what you can afford to pay, whether it's time to hire, and where clients are dropping out of care.

We also talk about how to bring this information to your team without turning every conversation into a performance review. Tory shares what comparing newer and more experienced clinicians revealed about supervision, and why a packed-looking schedule doesn't always mean someone is at capacity.

If you've been carrying the financial stress on your own, this conversation will help you see what needs a closer look and which conversations are worth having before resentment builds.

1. How average session reimbursement and client retention can inform what you can afford to pay your clinicians
2. Early client churn and missed rebooking, and what those patterns can mean for your marketing spend and client care
3. How to assess capacity before hiring, including why a new specialty can change the decision
4. Why limited availability can make part-time caseload expectations harder to meet
5. What comparing newer and more experienced clinicians can reveal about the support your team needs
6. Which numbers to share with clinicians, and how to make data part of supervision before a performance problem develops

• Book a Practice Vital demo and get $30 off your first month with code badtherapist

• Practice Vital: www.practicevital.com

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

“Data is not the enemy of good leadership. It's what makes good leadership possible.” - Felicia

I've had two recent conversations with therapists at opposite stages of business. One had a full caseload and worried their website copy was too narrow. The other hadn't launched a website because they wanted the perfect niche first. Both were treating a niche like a permanent identity decision, caught in the same demand for certainty.

To find your niche as a therapist, I want you to treat it like a hypothesis: choose a good-enough direction, put it into the world, gather data, and refine it live. I’ll show you how a niche can support both sides of your marketing: helping relevant people find you and helping the right visitors recognize themselves in your message once they arrive.

If your therapist website isn’t bringing in inquiries, how do you know what needs to change? With too few visitors, you may not have enough evidence to judge whether it’s working. This episode explores how to assess demand in the states where you’re licensed, what keyword tools can tell you, and how client language and audience feedback can help you describe your services.

You can stop polishing a niche in private and start learning from what happens when you test it.

1. Why a niche can evolve, even when choosing one feels like a permanent identity decision
2. The two jobs of a niche: attracting relevant traffic and helping ideal clients take the next step
3. Why low website traffic can leave you with too little evidence to diagnose conversion
4. The difference between total and serviceable addressable markets, and where licensing geography fits
5. How dedicated keyword data and real audience language give you two different ways to test a niche
6. Why a general chatbot is not enough on its own, while AI tools connected to dedicated datasets can still support research

• Keysearch
• Ahrefs
• Semrush
• Liberated Business, my signature group coaching program for therapists who want to build a multi-six-figure private practice

• Get my freebie and join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

• How to Pick a Therapy Niche Without Overthinking It for Months [Ep 133]
• How to Pick a Therapy Niche That Makes You Happy [Ep 4]

“You don't need certainty. You just need a hypothesis that is good enough to start testing.” - Felicia

Money comes into your practice, the bills come out of one account, and whatever remains becomes your pay. There’s a better system for managing your wealth and putting your money to work. If you've ever felt stressed during tax season, wished you were making faster progress toward your financial goals, and want to give back without decreasing your own financial security, this episode is for you.

Today I’m celebrating my 40th birthday! And I’m looking back at ten years with money, from student debt and skipped weddings to giving each dollar a purpose. This is financial planning for therapists through the lens of my own business.

I’ll share why I give every dollar that comes into my business a specific job, how an accountant who understands our industry helps me make tax decisions without holding all the information myself, and what changed when I stopped letting a good month inflate the account I used for ordinary expenses. We’ll also talk about S corp filing, giving back, and high-yield cash cash savings.

1. How a Profit First structure separates money for taxes, expenses, pay, and future opportunities
2. How to never be behind on taxes again and why I think every therapist needs an accountant
3. When you should transition to S corp status
4. How a prudent reserve helped me fund a $15,000 business investment without draining monthly operations fund
5. A way to give back that does not require therapists to under-earn or overwork
6. Why I keep some cash in a high-yield account instead of checking or investments

• Wealthfront, the high-yield cash account I use to separate earmarked money into categories, with a 0.75% interest boost for both of us when you use my referral link
• Liberated Business, my signature group coaching program for therapists who want to build a multi-six-figure private practice

• Get my freebie and join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

“Over the course of your career, over the course of running your private practice, millions of dollars will actually flow through your hands.” - Felicia

How do you network without being awkward, salesy, or draining your energy?

In today's episode, I'm sharing a version of networking for therapists that feels less transactional and a lot more powerful: hosting your own networking event. When you create the event, everything changes. You have a clear reason to reach out to colleagues, you get to choose the kind of gathering that fits your energy, and you make it easier for other people to remember who you are and what you do. And believe it or not, this can be simple and easy.

We'll talk about why local referrals still matter while online marketing and algorithms keep changing, what makes networking feel so uncomfortable in the first place, and why a full practice is not a reason to disappear from your local community. I’ll also give you ideas for making an event fit your actual energy, whether you would rather host six people over dinner or invite a bigger group somewhere casual.

If networking has always felt salesy or exhausting, this episode will help you create a version that feels generous and realistic enough to keep doing.

• Why therapist networking can feel transactional before the first conversation even starts
• What it feels like to be the person who can make exactly the right referral
• How to approach another practitioner when you want to build a referral relationship
• Why hosting your own event can feel easier than asking strangers to meet one on one
• How to choose a gathering that fits your energy, capacity, and appetite for planning
• Why local relationships still matter when algorithms and online buyer behavior keep changing
• Why a full caseload is not a reason to stop building your referral community
• How group practice owners can help local providers get to know the clinicians in their team
• How to secure wins in your first events, even if they feel small

• Get my freebie and join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

• 5 Ways to Feel Less Lonely in Therapy Practice (Without Joining Another Facebook Group) [Ep 167]: a companion episode on building the professional relationships and support your practice needs

"And remember that hosting the room means that you're the first name multiple providers think of rather than one of many that they might not even remember." - Felicia

When Brittney Scott first came on The Bad Therapist Show, she was still in the early stages of producing her podcast, Mother Daughter Relationship Show, and figuring out what kind of marketing she could keep doing without forcing herself to become an Instagram person. A lot has changed since then.

In this episode, Brittney is back to talk about what happened when she gave her marketing enough time to work. We get into the reality of publishing when almost no one is listening, the mindset that helped her stay with it, and why she approaches problems in her business so differently now.

Brittney also shares how her podcast, website, email list, and social media started working together. We talk about what she needed to understand before she felt ready to hand parts of the process to someone else, and why understanding the craft and knowing what sounds like her made that handoff possible.

We also talk about a much bigger change in her business: creating a coaching offer alongside her therapy work. Brittney explains why that shift made sense for her life, what she had to do to make the coaching offer genuinely different from therapy, and her advice if you’re considering the same move.

If you have been wondering whether to keep going with your marketing, build a new offer, or finally delegate so you can get some of your time back, this conversation is for you.

Brittney Scott is a therapist and mother-daughter relationship coach. She helps mothers and daughters improve their relationships through a clearly defined coaching program, and she hosts the Mother Daughter Relationship Show. Brittney is also a two-time graduate of Liberated Business.

• What helped Brittney keep publishing before her podcast had an audience
• How giving herself permission to be a beginner changed the way she works
• Why podcasting and SEO felt like a better fit than relying on social media
• What happens when your marketing channels begin supporting one another
• How Brittney knew she was ready to hand off more of her podcast production
• Why learning a process first can make you much better at hiring for it
• How being a military spouse informed what Brittney needed from her business
• The work involved in making coaching genuinely different from therapy
• Why adding coaching is not the obvious next step for every therapist
• What customized business support gave Brittney that a rigid formula could not

• The Liberated Business Program: https://www.thebadtherapist.coach/liberatedbusiness
• Reference book: Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire by Dan Martell

Connect with Felicia:

• Get my freebie & join the email list: The Magic Sheets
• Instagram: @the_bad_therapist
• Website: www.thebadtherapist.coach

Connect with Brittney Scott:

• Website: www.brittneymscott.com
• Podcast: Mother Daughter Relationship Show
• Instagram: @theBrittneyScott
• Threads: @thebrittneyscott

Related episodes

• Finding Your Authentic Marketing Strategy as a Therapist with Brittney Scott [Ep 114]
• How to Get Off Insurance and Build a Cash Pay Practice Without the Income Dip [Ep 163]

“I think if you're not interested in marketing at all, you're not interested in having a business at all.” - Brittney Scott