Episode 62: On Starting A Business at A Young Age and Making Alliances with Other Business Owners in the Mental Health Profession with Natasha Ace of Private Practice Alliance
In this special interview episode, Fiona has a chat with one of her closest business friends, Natasha Ace, owner of Private Practice Alliance, where they talk about starting a business at 21, the importance of education and why making alliances make business owners stronger together.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Catching Up
Private Practice Alliance
Natasha's Upbringing
Starting a Business
Getting an MBA
On Teaching Marketing, Branding to The Mental Health Profession
Networking
Doing Business on Both Sides of the World
Tools and Platform Recommendation
Connect with Natasha
Conclusion
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Connect with Natasha Ace
Episode transcript:
A lot of times in business, people look at their competitors and they're like, how do I become better than them or how do I compete with them? And I actually genuinely believe that you can build alliances and grow together. We're perfect examples.
We're both sort of in similar space. I mean, we're both business coaches.
And if we looked at that on the surface, the same as psychologists would look at each other, then they're like, oh, my goodness. And there's a scarcity mentality. Are there enough clients? Will I be able to feed my family, my dog in my case? So the idea of the alliance is really just to be able to say, you know what, we can come together as a community and build something that's bigger than us and.
Hello and welcome back. It is 2021, the first small business interview episode of 2021. I don't know about you, but I am so glad that we are into a new year. So my name's Fiona Killackey and you're listening to Episode 62 of My Daily Business Coach podcast, if this is your first time listening, welcome, welcome, welcome.
If you've been listening for a while, thank you so much. I do have three different types of episodes that I run on this podcast - quick tips. Those are about five minutes or less. And they come out every single Tuesday morning, Australian time. And then I also run longer episodes every Thursday morning, Australian time. And I alternate those between a coaching episode with me going into depth in one particular area of business. And then every alternate Thursday I have an interview with a small business owner.
And so today's is an interview with an incredible small business owner. And I'm really excited to be having her on the podcast because she's not only in a fantastic business owner and she's had a wealth of experience running businesses, but she's also a very close business and personal friend of mine. And so it took some convincing to have her on the podcast. She has been on the podcast before.
If you've listened back to Episode 26, she interviewed me about my book, but today it is all about Natasha, and that is Natasha Ace, who is the founder of Private Practice Alliance. Now, Private Practice Alliance is based in Melbourne and it provides business coaching, a mastermind group, coaching online products courses. They have one of the most in depth Facebook groups for psychologists, counsellors, social workers, people in the mental health space. And that is what Natasha does. And she does it very, very well. And as you'll hear in this interview, she's got a wealth of experience to draw on.
Natasha was just 21 when she started her own consulting firm. And this is over in Philadelphia, in the US, where Natasha is from. And she consulted to a clinical psychologist. And together with that person, she was able to help them open nine different private practices, including a psychiatric clinic. Two years later, at the tender age of just 23, she started her own private practice, employing psychologists, practice managers, all the other people that you need to run a successful private practice.
She was able to create a lifestyle for herself then that allowed her to travel all over the world. And at 27, she made the move all the way to Australia, which is where we met. Natasha has literally worked with thousands of psychologists, both here in Australia, in the States and internationally. She runs an incredible Facebook group that has, I think, eight hundred plus psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, social workers, people that are on the front line of mental health. And in the last 12 months, being the go-to business coach for those people, she has been inundated with people needing help building their businesses, understanding how to move online, how to market themselves, how to create online courses and other things for people that potentially are not acutely in need of psychological care right now. And as her friend, I've watched on from the sidelines and seen just the huge level of compassion and empathy and guidance and knowledge and wisdom that she has bestowed on these people that's so desperately needed it. It's easy to think of the last 12 months and think of all the people that needed psychologists that were going to psychologists, but not to think of the psychologists themselves and how much their businesses were having to change going online for the first time, for many of them changing, you know, telehealth services, having to work from home, you know, with kids in the background, just like everybody else.
And Natasha was there really supporting them and being their absolute pillar of strength. I saw her day in, day out, you know, in Australia, look at things like the changes to Medicare and then translate that into the group for people. She just worked incredibly hard to make sure that the psychologists in Australia and around the world were really supported to be making the changes that they needed to make to help all of us seek out mental health support.
So as I said, I met Natasha when she had moved to Australia. I think she originally moved to Perth and then she moved over to Melbourne. And it was one of my first consulting clients. I worked for a psychology firm. She was also working there. We actually started at the same time as you'll hear in our conversation. We both didn't realise that the other person was starting. We both sort of thought it was, you know, we were earning that kind of consulting, marketing brand operations space. And so when we actually met, we were both kind of shocked that anyone else was in that role. And we initially laughing that we initially sort of I think we saw each other as a bit of a threat and a bit of like, oh, who is this person? Like, I thought I was the only person doing this kind of work. And in the end, we became such good friends. We were just able to move past any kind of ego that might have been there and she's one of my dearest friends and I absolutely loved watching her, learning from her just growing businesses side by side. We speak every single week, if not more. We do offsite strategy days, every kind of quarter. And she's just one of the most wonderful down to earth. Say it like it is kind of people. And I'm absolutely loving the fact that she said yes to being on today's podcast.
In this chat, Natasha gets quite vulnerable, which is very unusual for her to be doing publicly. But I absolutely love everything she has to say around education and around not always going the way that social norms says that you should go in terms of tertiary education. Also, the fact that you will come to the understanding of what is it is that you want to succeed in business on your own. And it doesn't always have to be from a textbook or with a university degree.
Another thing that we talk about and that Natasha is deeply passionate about is the idea of an alliance and of not always being in competition with people that are running a similar business to ourselves, but rather to be stronger together, to build an alliance and share understanding, share resources, share knowledge, share our challenges, share our fears and share our wins. And Natasha is somebody who really holds the space for so many people to be able to do that. Like I said, this wasn't an easy thing to get Natasha to come onto the podcast. I am so, so proud that she has. I'm really excited to be sharing this with you. And I hope you really enjoy it. If you would like to contact Natasha, and I hope you do after listening to this, you can do that via privatepracticealliance.com or you can find her over on Instagram at @private_practice_alliance. So here it is, my interview with the incredible Natasha Ace, amazing business, friend, amazing business owner and the founder of Private Practice Alliance.
All right, I am so excited that the very first interview for the New Year is with my best business friend. Really amazing, wonderful friend Natasha Ace, who is also in her own right, a fantastic business. And I know we're going to get so much out of talking to you today.
Welcome, Natasha.
That was like the most amazing intro ever. I feel like when I do anything, I need to have you intro me.
You can just put me in your pocket. I'll come everywhere. So let's talk about the last 12 months. Obviously, you know, all ins and outs of how I've dealt with that because we talk all the time. How have you felt over the last 12 months? We had bushfires. We had Covid. Now we're starting a new year. How has it been for you?
I think I feel in the last 12 months I've learnt that I'm probably a bit more empathetic than I really have given myself credit for. You know, we started the year with the bushfires here in Australia. And one of the things that we participated, you and I, 2020 started with the bushfire stuff. And so we started out our year committed that we're not going to do much marketing and really kind of raise money for those in need. And what it really showed us quite particularly was that we were going to spend our year doing that. And that's what we did. There was just this element of give, give, give.
There were so many people that have just had a really unfortunate 2020, and I'm ready for the holidays. I'm on holiday right now and I'm ready to, like, be rejuvenated and to start 2021 off. Yeah. In a more upbeat manner.
Yes. And I love that that's your answer because I feel like that's all you did, not all you did.
You did so much stuff. But I feel like you definitely were really showing up for people. And also I should mention, obviously, people might guess this from your accent, you are American. So you are also dealing with first hand, like all your family being in the states, the American election. I mean, so much stuff happening for you. So it was such a gigantic year. Congratulations for getting through it.
Oh, my gosh. Yes, thank you. But we're fortunate and I'm fortunate to be able to say to my loved ones made it through. And because there are so many people that that can't say the same, it's mind blowing, actually. 2020. I'm so glad it's behind us.
So am I. And so mental health, something you talked about is that you're an empathetic person and mental health has been a huge challenge in the last 12 months. And you're on the of Frontline. You're working with people that are responsible for helping us navigate our mental health. You work as a business coach for so many people in private practice, people wanting to start their own private practice, psychologists, therapists, all of that. How has that been challenging for you? And also, I guess because you've been in that space for so long and you work with hundreds of people like the myths around psychologists, that they got through 2020 fine because they've got it all figured out somehow.
Oh, yeah, definitely, I mean, like the weird thing about the beginning of this year and it was funny, I was watching something yesterday and they were kind of like recapping 20, 20, it was like January, February, March, March, March, March, smartwatch, march.
So true.
But yeah, I mean, like at the beginning as we saw the pandemic coming in and we were able to see the closures coming, the first thing we were thinking about for the practitioners were how we were going to small businesses is essentially going to be moving through this and surviving.
That was really that top thing. The reality of the cycle of private practice in any sort of even government sector is that there is still a financial ramifications. And so even though it's a giving profession, even though it's health related, we have to make it viable. And so there are families and faces behind each one of these businesses. And so there's a very fine balance of making it, these types of businesses viable, especially during times the pandemic.
So we were really learning how to readjust. A lot of referrals come in word of mouth, and there's really, really strict guidelines on how to market and what you're allowed to say.
So we were really trying to figure out ways to continue offering what we were offering without putting too much stress and collapsing those private practices. And then toward the end of the year, just overwhelmed.
There were too many referrals coming in, so many people struggling with mental health. Here in Melbourne, we were locked down for so many months. People their normal coping skills of hanging out with friends and getting out of the house and exercising all those coping skills were just gone. And so mental health really took a prevalent front seat to a lot of people's lives. And therefore, the clinicians that are in private practice and in the public sector, we're seeing a lot more depression, anxiety, psychosis, a lot of presenting issues that they normally wouldn't see in private practice. So they're burning out left and right, trying to kind of get back into the community. And so there's definitely a balance for them that they need to take into consideration. It's funny because I work with them and they're very empathetic. That's where I kind of been comparing my whole life to psychologist because they're very empathetic.
And I never felt like I was in control until this year. I was like, OK, I get this.
I understand now where you're taking on other people's feelings and emotions and using those to make your own business decisions.
I'm laughing because, I mean, I'm not laughing. That was very serious stuff that you. But I'm laughing because we were all working together first, which is how we met. And I think I cried about something. I'm a very open lady, unlike other duties.
And in fact, I got to the point where I get so awkward around. Here's one of my clients actually. I said, how do you deal with this?
You have clients that come in every single day and they're so vulnerable and they're so they're crying or there's so much emotions. What do you do? And someone's crying because oftentimes people cry when they work with me. But she said I just say to them, you know, no pressure whenever you're ready.
And so I've got two notes beside my computer at home that says no pressure. Fiona, whenever you're ready using these kinds of coping skills, I've learnt certainly how to manage emotion a little bit better.
Oh, my gosh. Is that just every time we talk about colds, I've got to. Yeah, that sounds like well, I was like, oh, no, no, no.
I mean, the note actually says no pressure. And then it says in parentheses person's name. So I'll say, like, if I'm talking to no pressure, Kirsten, whenever you're ready, it's like every little parentheses, that person's name to remind me of, like what I'm supposed to say.
I definitely think people might be listening to this and being like, oh, my gosh, Natasha must be really cold or something. You're not at all like. I think that's one of the most considerate and kind and compassionate people. So which is why I think we get along so well.
Oh, thanks. I think business, though, in and of itself brings out vulnerabilities and in positions that you and I are in, we are in situations where those vulnerabilities come out. There's so much talk out there about putting on a brave face and the toxicity of positive psychology and positive happiness where people are like, you know, just keep going in.
You got this. But the real reality is sometimes you don't have it and you need to be able to cry. You need to be able to be frustrated. You need to be able to break down. And we get to be in a position we're fortunate enough to be in a position where our clients can be vulnerable with us. They can say. I'm not able to make my bills, assignments, and I don't know what business decisions I've made that have led me here. I feel like I've done the right things or I'm too afraid to grow. And so I want to stay in this position and looking at what other people are doing in business. And there's all these facades that everyone's growing and everyone's growing these million dollar businesses and they're happy and successful. And their Instagram feed or all of their highlights of their business people are looking at that and saying, what's wrong with me? And there's a lot of that comparison that's happening.
And so we get to be in a position where they don't need to compare themselves to other businesses or their practices. And we get to see the real people, which I think is really amazing.
I totally agree. It's such a privileged position to be in what we both do. And so let's talk about what you do. So your company is called Private Practice Alliance, and people would have heard about it in the introduction just now and how we came to meet and how I think you're fantastic. But can you talk us through what private practice alliance is? Why an alliance and kind of what sort of things does it offer?
Yeah, so, I mean, I guess one of the things is that a lot of times in business, people look at their competitors and they're like, how do I become better than them or how do I compete with them? And I actually genuinely believe that you can build alliances and grow together. We're perfect examples.
We're both sort of in similar space. I mean, we're both business coaches.
And if we looked at that on the surface, the same as psychologists would look at each other, then they're like, oh, my goodness. And there's a scarcity mentality. Are there enough clients? Will I be able to feed my family, my dog, in my case? What's happening? So the idea of the alliance is really just to be able to say, you know what, we can come together as a community and build something that's bigger than us, but we need each other to do that. We don't need to look at each other and say, what's my competitor doing and how do we get better at them? It's more about what I can do this and I can't do this. And so I'm going to give you something that I can't do and you're going to give me something you can't do. And we're going to build an alliance together and grow our communities however we can and help people. So that's really the idea around the alliance. But really what we're trying to do is help practitioners who aren't necessarily business minded people be able to help their communities by getting their craft and their trade out there in the private sector and still make it financially viable for them to be in business.
So there's the clinical world in the business world need to speak to each other and they don't often speak well to one another. So it's translating how they can speak to one another. But it's mainly mental health clinicians or allied health professionals that we work with here.
Awesome, and so you mentioned that you do business coaching, but I know you have other programmes as well. So what are the kind of offers that if someone's listening to this and they're like, oh, I'm in private practice, I totally need to talk to her?
Is it just business coaching or other things that, you know, we've got some online courses which teach people how to build and grow their businesses and build passive income, which is a project that you and I work on together. We also have a Facebook group. And the beauty of the Facebook group is that people come in there and I have so many compliments saying I feel so comfortable asking questions in here or being vulnerable in here because the community is so great.
So they can ask questions in the Facebook group that they couldn't normally ask other people. It's not like you can walk down the street and be like, hey, how are you doing your business? Although I think you can, but not everyone feels comfortable doing that.
And then we've got a membership coming out in February where we've just digging in a little deeper with the free Facebook group and some of the topics that we talked about. And we're getting some more practical advice. And not just that we're encouraging people to take action.
I'm one of those people that I know we went to a planning day or meet and we both brought like notebooks and gold planning letters. And like all these letters, all the stickers look.
And I like to write down ideas, but I feel like a lot of times as solid partners or freelancers as I kind of like to call myself at the moment, we don't take enough time to action things. And so the membership is really to help people action things and not so big that, you know, you feel like you can take on the world, but it's the incremental minutia that's actually going to stabilise the business and help it grow. And so we're looking at that minutia and we're honouring the space for the minutia. People kind of think I have to do this big, gigantic gesture in order to be able to prove that I'm in business and it's sustainable. But it's really the everyday crap that makes a difference, too.
Yes, I totally agree. Oh, my gosh. And I think what you're doing is amazing. And I feel like execution is where it's at, especially this year. I just think, you know, we've talked about this privately as well. Like, more and more formal education isn't always the key. It's what are you going to do with the education that you've got?
And so I think your membership sounds fantastic. So what was because you are from the US, what was your upbringing like? I would love to have you share, like, your story of starting a business because you started very young when most of us were nowhere near starting a business. And was that because you grew up with parents who were like small business owners, or how did you kind of feel like I can start a business? I think you were like, what, 21 when you said, yeah, my first one.
So my parents are amazing. My mom's a teacher. My dad spent years and years working in a fancy labour. He's a labourer basically. And I think as the eldest child, this is where my free spirit came into play. I always told my dad I'm going to be a lawyer and he's like, you're going to be a very good lawyer because you can argue to the death of us. So I think what my dad was trying to say was that I needed to understand how things worked. I needed to understand how to pull it apart and put it back together again and not from a physical space where I took clocks apart or cars apart or something like that. But just work processes and we need to understand things. The reality is, I was a mediocre student, my sister absolutely brilliant. She excelled in biology and chemistry and went on to uni to study chemistry. Like who does that? My sister. And so I was never very academic and I could never really explain how I knew things I could see from point A to point B, and I couldn't explain the maths, which was really frustrating to me. And I tried uni a couple of times, but my brain just doesn't work in the same way that society tells us it should, which is go to uni, get a degree, start a business and do all those types of things. I was like, you know what? I'm the master of my own, my own future. And so I really took control of that and and started my own business with some great mentors. The first clinical psychologist I ever worked with, him and his wife sat me down and they were like, you need to work for yourself. You're phenomenal at being able to do X, Y and Z, and we're going to help you do this. And they did. They mentored me in terms of how I needed to go about doing this. They helped me get new referrals and things.
And so I think I've always had that community feel. My mom's side of the family is Italian. My dad's side of the family has seven kids and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren. So we've always had really big family type mentality. And so I think that's where the community feel comes.
And that's really kind of fundamental to my upbringing, is that family feeling and so growing businesses, it's always been that idea that you work with me, not for me.
And that's a huge shift as well as bossy and as demanding as I can be. I really like to to get people that agree with the values and the virtues that we bring to the table. And I think that's really important. And then, you know, you just try and fail.
You know, every once in a while you'll you'll hit gold and you just keep running with it. And, you know, those times that you fail, you're in a hopefully you're in an area or a network that can catch you when you fall. And that's really what's important to me with this alliance, is community, family, those types of values.
Because if you trust the people around you enough that you can be vulnerable to take a step and fail, you're not really failing because you can use that sounds so cliche.
You can use that to learn. And it's exactly what I did. I learnt on the job my whole entire career. I'm still learning. There are still so many things I don't know and I'm happy to be like I have no clue if you're find someone who knows that answer yes or no.
I always love that quote. I think it's like the more I know, the less I know, the more you uncover the like. Oh, OK. What about this part? What about this one thing that kind of I think sometimes you not necessarily play down, but that people don't know about you is that you're not only a business coach for private practice practitioners, but you also ran your own private practices for many, many years. And you were very successful to the point where they could just run and you would just off gallivanting around the world really having like this perfect laptop lifestyle before even social media was kind of thing. Yeah. And so now, like you mentioned, that you went to uni, it didn't really fit for you, but now you're on the middle. You decided to not only get through like a pandemic, giving so much and having this Facebook group with like hundreds and hundreds of private practitioners and keeping them updated all the time on so many things. But you also decided to do an MBA this year. So congratulations. Why did you decide to do an MBA? And also how have you found it? And I guess if someone's listening to this and they're like, oh, gosh, I want to up level or is worried they don't have the time, like, what advice might you give?
Oh, my gosh, this is a this is a really personal question, and it goes so deep. So I guess when I started my practice, so I started the consulting business when I was 21 and my private practice when I was 23 and no degree. And in the States it's become a psychologist. You need a PhD. So I'm working with people that are doctoral level clinicians and I've always felt education's important.
It doesn't matter how you get an education, education is important. And so some people have a really clear pathway. They're happy to go to university and excel or excel and get that piece of paper, and that's fine. And then there are other people like myself who can still be really good at what they do without having a piece of paper to their name. And so I had always known I promised myself when I was 20 that before I was 40, I would have a degree, I would have a piece of paper, because society tells us that that's that success. Like, you can't go into the corporate sector, you can't do this. You can't be mainstream without a piece of paper. And so fundamentally, growing up, my parents always telling me college was really important and seeing my sister excel in chemistry. There's all this elements of seeing that university is important and fundamentally believing that that education is important as well. And so I told myself by the time I was 40, I would have a degree, I would have something. But I always joked with my clinicians in my private practice that I say I should get an honorary doctorate because I feel comfortable in this space with clinicians. I just don't have to do the hard work for it.
And then as the years come by and I'm almost 40, I better get my arse into gear running out of time to fulfil a promise to myself whether I made when I was 20.
So I did pick up the MBA. My partner keeps saying, you're going to learn something from this MBA. And I'm like, I'm still waiting. But what it has done is it solidified what I've learnt. You know, I have a couple of times I've called you and I'm like, oh my God.
Like, I'm so smart. It's not bragging.
It's just the epiphany that in my gut I was right. You can learn stuff without going through the channels that society tells us we need to go through and we can still be successful and still come out with the same outcomes, even if we can't explain our maths. And so I think that's the the fundamental thing. If anything, it's been really validating that the last 17 years that I've been going against the grain and doing my own thing and doing it right. That's what I think the NBA is telling me. So people are like, is it worth it? Is it worth the money you're spending? And I'm like, hell yes, because it's reaffirming everything they seem to for me is that there are naysayers out there, people saying, oh, you shouldn't be in the space. You consult with clinicians because you're not a clinician. You can't talk about ethics because you're not a psychologist yourself. And I'm actually just tired of people judging.
I think that's probably the biggest thing. I'm tired of fighting against the grain to some extent to strangers and people who look at me and say, well, you know, a psychologist, I can't I can't pay attention to what you're saying.
And then I've got my mentors and my my posse on the side here, my girl going kind of coming to me and saying, don't let them get you down. I'm glad you're not a psychologist and you're working with me, which is really lovely. But there's this element of I just I want that piece of paper. So I'm aiming for a piece. So which is the path I don't want to HD and I don't need to get all of that.
I'm just happy with just the piece of paper.
But for someone who's almost 40 going back to university and knowing that I failed at it twice, I think that anyone who's thinking about it just follow your gut. There's no right or wrong. Do whatever makes you happy. And that's really what I'm doing. I'm going back because I told myself at 20 that I would have this before I was forty or by the time I was forty. And I'm honouring something I told myself that I would do. The reasons have changed over time, although some of them are still the same. But ultimately it feels so good and it feels so right. And as hard as it is, I'm loving every moment of it because I'm like ticking this box, ticking this box.
I sound so cocky. No.
Oh, amazing. And well done for sharing because I know that was maybe a bit hard to share such personal thing, but I totally love everything that you just said. And I think, yeah, it's just it's your own goals. And you had that 20 years ago and I felt the same with the book. I was like, I need to look out before I'm 40. That's my thing, though.
And you did that while having your. Raising a one year old and how old with Levi, I mean, like you did running your business and you were like going to write a book and I was like, OK. And then like three weeks later, you're like, oh, no, not at all.
But we are talking about very little about you. And one of the things that you're really passionate about, and you mentioned this before, it was to help clinicians with things like marketing and brand and passive income streams and getting that business to a point where it's not just I'm a psychologist, I can help people. It's I'm a psychologist. But I'm also running a really great business as well. And I come from a family of health professionals. And I know sometimes that can be resistance to this stuff like brand and shopping and seeing it as being a bit like fluffy or it's not real work like come on. And so how do you relay the importance of things like brand and marketing to people that have come through? Like you said, they've done a lot of them and they spent 10, 12 years at university outwardly getting recognition and all this other stuff. And they just don't understand the marketing brand and particular social media or things like that. How do you relate that to people who just haven't come from the background?
So this a little bit earlier in terms of the business world doesn't always speak with the clinical world. And so a lot of their resistance around marketing is the clinical components, like firstly their governing body saying that they're not allowed to promise outcomes. And one of the first things that in marketing, where I talk about the outcomes, what are the pain points and where are they going? It's about reframe. So you mentioned that that kind of fluffy stuff. But it's also true. They don't want to be salesmen. They don't want to be selling themselves like I know what I'm doing. I've gone to uni masters, doctorate, whatever. They have gone to uni. So I know my stuff. I know my clinical outcomes. I know the evidence based information that's going out there. And so we just we reframe it. We talk about the stages of change, which is essentially the buying cycle, which is what you talk about. People think about therapy for a really long time before they make a decision to commit or they make a decision to take action to commit. And so we talk about the stages of change rather than a buyer cycle. The other thing, too, is that they go out in real broad space. They talk about saying, I see everyone.
Well, you don't see everyone, you don't. And that's the same thing in the marketing space. We talk about finding your ideal client avatar, creating that avatar and only speaking to that avatar. So on the flip side of that, you think about your ideal client, who is the person that you want to work with now, who you can work with. I just know the language inside and out. And that's because I know my ideal client. I know my ideal avatar.
And so we talk about that with the clinicians. Who do you want to work with? Who do you really click with? And some people want to work with borderline. Some people want to work with drug and alcohol. Some people want to work with anxiety and depression. Some people want to use a modality. And with that we just talk about what is the symptomatology. So if we say, all right, if you want to work with someone who's having difficulties maintaining relationships, that's what's everyone, right? It's not just couples, it's not just borderlines. It's not just someone who's super depressed. But there's this element of if we generalise it by looking at the symptomatology we all struggle, maintaining relationships at some point in our lives.
And so I always use that one as an example, because it's one of the easiest things that the clinicians can kind of relate to know. It's like when you kind of look at that drug and alcohol as well, people look at addiction and they say, well, my addiction doesn't look like what beyond Blue says, my addiction looks like you picture this beyond blue ads. And there's like this sad woman. It's a black and white billboard. She's looking out a window. She's super sad and it's raining, right? Yeah. My depression doesn't look like that. I can still be high functioning and depressed. And so we want to talk about what's the symptomatology. I'm withdrawing from my friends. I'm spending more and more time on social media. I'm watching more TV, my favourite. I'm in bed with my phone, watching cat videos on YouTube, eating the Tella from a jar. Right.
That could be depression or that could be like any any female between the ages of zero and nine hundred ninety nine. Just enjoying a Sunday afternoon.
Yes. So there's this element of what's the symptomatology, what's normal for you, for you as the individual and then, and then talking about that in your marketing. And that's how we really that's how we change the business side and we make it clinical and we satisfy both sides, the business in the clinical world to really bring those two things together.
Oh, and you do it so well. Like, you just know your stuff, like you just said before, you just know the language, you know those people, you've been in that position, maybe not as a psychologist, but running a successful private practice and also seeing the challenges or the pitfalls that come with that as well. And as I mentioned, you've been a huge support in so many ways. You've been a huge support to me personally and professionally. We talk about business all the time. We have an offsite strategy sessions together. We I just value everything so much that you put into my life personally and professionally. Thank you. And you're also a huge support to the mental health industry and your Facebook group that you mentioned. It has I think it's like more than eight hundred clinicians and health professionals in it now, all eager to learn. And you do these regular Facebook lives with your experts and yourself, and you've got this membership coming up. What sort of network have you had to cultivate around your business and your mental health as a small business? Like where do you source help from?
Well, I think it's I mean, maybe I'm a little biased because I'm in the field. I think it's important to normalise mental health. You know, like I just mentioned, depression and anxiety doesn't look as the way it's been stigmatised. And so we all feel bouts of depression. We all feel bouts of anxiety. And so having a really good psychologist on speed dial essentially is really, really important. I love going to therapy. I think it's a healthy way to kind of just have a safe space. But I mean, obviously, I've got my people I mentioned my my girl going a little bit earlier. You are one of them. And we've cultivated that. I've got a mentor that I use. I've got friends that are clinicians, friends that are non clinicians. I've got my dog who lifting me cry more than anyone else in the world. And it's just people that are different than me and also the same. So I don't want just ask people around me. You and I often talk about things that we disagree on, and I love that element of being able to say, well, I don't know, this is how I do it. And I say, well, that's not how I do it. And then we can get into this conversation. And understand different points of views, and I think it's really important to have people that don't agree with everything you say and do around you, that's how you grow. And I think as humans, we need to continue growing and pushing our comfort zones, whatever that might look like. But, yeah, it's just cultivating the right people. And sometimes you find them in the most unexpected places. I walked up to my first day working with the psychologist in Melbourne and I walked into the room that he showed me was mine. And you were sitting in there and I was like, what is happening?
And I was like, who is this chick coming into my office like that?
And so like this this element of we had a chat more like we do similar things and we sussed it out and we realised that it aligns the things that we do online, even if they're we do them in different ways or we have different terminology about going about it. They align. That's the thing that I was reading a while ago. It was talking about two trees growing and they were growing side by side. And they don't need to be entangled but to still grow healthy online beside one another. I can't remember.
It was a long time ago, actually, a Khalil Gibran poem that is about that or it's about columns of a house or something similar. And a lot of people use it at weddings. So I don't know if you're trying to tell me something, Natasha, but will you marry me, please? But yes, I hear you on that. Like, you don't need to be enmeshed in every single part of each other's life to be a good support system for each other.
Yeah, that's it. And I think the element of being able to grow alongside someone else and at times the branches will cross. And that's what you and I do. I don't know how many times I'll send someone your way and I'll be like, yeah, they're building a practice, but they need something else or I'll send them to another business coach that does exactly what I do in terms of private practice. And I'll say this person probably could benefit from you. And I think this it's just being open minded and having conversations and leaning in, oh, my God, lean in. You never know what information somebody else is going to have that they can share with you and benefit from.
Oh, yes. And I just I can't say it enough. I really value our friendship and how we've been able to both build up businesses in different ways, in similar ways. And also, like you said, like sometimes we don't agree on things. And I think it's really important for friendships, particularly business friendships, to be open and transparent and to kind of accept that not everyone is going to do it exactly the same way that you do it. And that's not a dig on either of you. It's just, you know, whichever way works best for you.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
And so you have run your own business in the US, you run your business in Australia. And so I'm wondering, like, you've been doing this for a long time. Like how long? Like six years. Seventeen, seventeen years. Oh my gosh. Yes, yes. And so you totally know your stuff. And I think that's also what I just love about you. Like you've got so much experience and knowledge. What do you find hardest about business even now, like you're going through the MBA, you've got seventeen years behind you. You've done business on both sides of the world, like all the elements that you feel behind that or other elements that you like. Oh, just that thing just doesn't ever feel aligned with me.
Yeah, it's funny because I know we talk about like pushing our comfort zones and always understanding things, but I think the most difficult thing is evolving.
When I started my first consulting business, it was very word of mouth and one to one kind of coaching. And now years and years later, when I started the business here in Australia, their online courses and podcasts, I mean, oh my God, the amount of work that goes into a podcast, I just can't even like people like sort of podcast. I'm like, no way. Oh, my God, no, not even. But this is so much information that's coming. And it's like, how do you evolve and you evolve?
What do you do and when do you do it? And that can be incredibly overwhelming. And it doesn't matter how long you're in business, you still feel that overwhelm you still like is this the right decision? You still feel like your ten steps behind where you quote should be. And I love when people like I should be doing this. And I'm like, why me? Like, what do you mean why everyone says I should be doing it? Why that five year old talking to his mom when I'm with my mom, you know, and really getting to that core root of it. And so I, I think it's that doing that for myself kind of thing, or should I be offering membership? Should I just be doing my free Facebook group? Should I be offering online courses? Should I just be doing individual coaching? It's that evolution and what feels right for you. Sometimes it doesn't feel right sometimes. It's like, OK, I'll give it a go and see how that is and you waste time.
I did that earlier this year on Facebook. As you and I talked about this, I spent a fortune on Facebook ads.
I wasn't really sure I wanted to do Facebook and spent a fortune. I didn't get much of a return, you know, and it was like, OK, we just chalk that up to life lesson. I need to maybe do it differently next time. But of evolution, I think it's it's the hardest thing for any any human. We don't adapt well to change most of the time. And so life is ever changing or it's stagnant. So. Yeah, yeah.
And like 2020 brought all of that into effect. I felt like it was just such a oh my goodness. Like you said before when it said January, February. Much, much, much, much, much because I went forever. But also when I think back to that when it first tried it like the pandemic hit. And you saw this first hand because I was calling all the time, but like it was almost like panic state. Like I had all these clients suddenly being like, oh, my God, I don't know what to do. It was just and you had so many psychologists and you were trying to keep them up to date with how the medical changes happened and what's happening now and what is the government doing in these telehealth offices. And so I just felt like, yeah, that constant change was just such a huge thing this year. And I feel like you're totally right to want to be on holiday and I want to get on holiday do quickly, because I think we just really need to stress. And one of my friends recently was saying it's just I don't know what you call it, the parasympathetic nervous system or parts of the nervous system that have just been shot this year. And we're only really now, especially in Melbourne when we come out of lockdown, realising what an impact that has had.
My God, it's unbelievable. And I think for people to sort of kind of moving forward, which grew in last night and they were talking about Soldier On and I called drill or something and then being soldier on, that's stuck in my head at the moment. But that's exactly what we were doing. We're just soldiering on. We're going to keep going, keep going, keep going. And the reality is so far, the only reason you know that in the Facebook group, we were able to really push out a lot of that information is because we were already ahead of the game.
We telehealth has been around for 20 odd more years. Like telehealth is not new. It's just that the health profession has not been evolving in the way it should be. And so I've been promoting and pushing telehealth as a way of helping people continue on their therapeutic journey for over a decade now. And so I was able to see people were like, I don't know how to do telehealth. I'm like, here's my online course created ten years ago, like it was.
It's that element of being able to think ahead and put yourself in a position where you're forward thinking. And I think that innovation and understanding that. But the world isn't always ready for that. And so, you know, it'd be great to be like where the world is totally ready for Uber and Airbnb, but many of us are going to be very mediocre and the world's not going to be ready for the things that we know are coming. And so we just still need to be prepared for it.
And that's that's what you were able to see in that Facebook group. It was just forward thinking and being prepared and knowing that the world is going to go in that direction and kind of waiting for it to happen on its own.
Yes. And so you seem very calm and I know you and I know that you are pretty calm most of the time. I would say a pretty chill person. I know. Like, sometimes you might be like, oh, my God, Fiona, did you not listen to a lot of vocal? But do you have like I know you've mentioned before, you've got a little Post-it note to help you and people start crying, but do you have any kind of mantras or quotes or things that you come back to when you need to just relieve the stress outside of, you know, calling me?
Of course, yes. I actually do this with something. I remember being in a really stressful situation with the very first psychologist I worked with. And I don't remember the exact situation. I just remember the feeling of the situation. And I was talking to someone on the phone that I worked with at the time. She was in a different organisation. And I called her and I said, I don't know what we're going to do. And she said simply, This, too, shall pass. And I'm like, yeah, that's so true. And talking about it seventeen years later, I don't remember the exact situation that passed, but it certainly did pass. And I think that's one of the I do say this and I've got to go. I hate that thing. And I'm like, but it's so true. Like this too shall pass. This this feeling, this emotion. The situation is too shall pass. And who do I want to be on the other side of that is kind of the next thing I say to that. So if I freak out to the point where I'm like I give up when this passes, will I be happy with you with that decision to give up or will I have wished I fought harder? So it's not just the things too shall pass that on. In conjunction with that, the decision I make around this passing or around getting around the situation, who will be on the other side of it? So, yeah, very profound.
I have been in business for a long time. And obviously, like you said, you've even just that example that you just gave, like, you know, that things get better, get different, change, shift. Adapt is the one thing that you would do differently if you were just starting out now.
I do often ask myself this, and I have to say no, I feel like every decision I made led me to this moment right here and I'm so happy with who I am right now. I've stayed true to my morals. I've made mistakes, pissed people off. I've made people happy. I can't be everything to everyone. I'm not a taco. That's my favourite meme on Facebook. But again, this might sound really arrogant, but I'm so happy with every decision. I think, like I mean, I could have made the decisions. Absolutely. But at the end of the day, I feel that my decisions ethical. I feel like I'm moral. I feel like I try to have the least negative impact on people around me. But yeah, no, I. I think that, like Elizabeth Gilbert, I have participated in every step of the way what it's she say, like I've participated with every decision to lead me to here and now or something like that. I'm sorry if you're listening to this, I definitely take on board what you say, even if I just watch it at home.
I love that. And obviously you're right and you read a lot and we talk about different things like that. But on the tech side of stuff, what tools or platforms are you just obsessed with? I mean, I hear about these quite often from you, but I would love you to share. What do you do? You can't live with that when it comes to your business.
Can't live without… It’s actually really funny because I use Zendesk and recommend Zendesk, which is an email. It's like an all in one kind of system. But I was actually just as I was talking to you, saw an ad or I was waiting for the podcast to start. I saw an ad for the front desk, which I know or front. Which I know. Yes. Yeah. And so I was like, OK, maybe I need to look into this again, but also to Hassl, which I love because it's actually a Melbourne based business. It's a bit like a sauna and Monday and all of those project management tools. But one of the reasons I love it is because it is a project management tool in its own way, but it's more of a to do list and it's a communication tool. And I use it with all of my clients and I love Hassl. And I think the team at Hassle over in Brunswick actually are phenomenal. They've been amazing and they're growing. And I love to see how they start it up from nothing to what they're doing. So that's one thing. The second thing I use a lot is a device, a time tracking device called toggle Toggl. I don't know. I think it's the fact that none of them are using the E that I love. And so Toggl really tells me what I'm doing with my time, how I'm wasting it, or how I'm using my time wisely, which I really love as well as I do. Always recommend toggle time and motion. People need to know what they're doing at the time. As business owners, we waste time doing things that we think is productive. I need to be on social media because I'm, you know, trying to understand my ideal audience or, you know, I have a Facebook group, so I need to be in there and I need to be on Facebook. But the reality is we're just looking for distractions.
Toggl tells you that, yes, I love that. And we'll, of course, link to those in the show notes. And there's a really good book as well called 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam, who's kind of like a researcher at the time management. And it talks about that whole thing, like we all have 168 hours a week and it's actually a huge amount of it is being wasted and not that we should be like look like work, but just even taking the time. So you have time to like go hang out with her and have a lunch hour or something. It's like, well, where are you potentially just distracting yourself with other crap that you don't need?
Well, and I know we're ending, but I just that's a really important component to kind of think about, too. I mean, this year we I specifically have been picking up work just left and right because we're in lockdown. What else are we going to do? And so it's been work, work, work. If I've taken anything out of 2020, it's to really value your downtime. And so in terms of doing the projections, you know, we sit down every quarter so often to look at where our businesses are growing. Part of that needs to be if I'm meeting these targets that I'm meeting these goals, then I can relax.
You know, it's not if I'm meeting these targets and these goals, I can go bigger and better. We just need to be able to take the time to enjoy hanging out with friends, having coffee, shopping, you know, coming out to beautiful Airbnb that I'm staying at and relaxing, you know.
Yes, I totally hear on that front. Totally. So you have run this for a long time. You've given so many good tips and ideas today and you are always giving those to me. Thank you. What are you most proud of? Like from Private Practice Alliance, from any of the businesses that you've run? What are you most proud of? I know you mentioned some amazing things, but I guess maybe from private practice. What are you most proud of from that?
I think the community I was just reading something that said, if the community that you're seeking isn't around, create it and start it yourself.
And so and that the reality is it's not an alone thing. You can't build a community by yourself. But my Facebook community has been phenomenal. We've brought in experts outside of the industry to come in and talk about this thing and try and shift that into the clinical world for clinicians and providing a safe space that I can get messages on the regular people saying, you know, I'm a lurker, but I appreciate that there's so much information coming out, more even people participating and actively asking questions and sharing their wins. Oh, my God. Sharing their wins. One of the best things and I learnt this from you actually, I stole this from you, starting a meeting with understanding the challenges in the wings. And I focussed quite heavily on wins because we don't celebrate our wins enough. And so every win that a client has or every win than acquaintance has, every win that you and I have at the win for everyone.
That's what I'm most proud of every time someone shares a win.
Oh, I love that. I love that. And you have created such a great community. So people feel comfortable to do that. And I think that's awesome. So testament to you. So what is next for you? Where can people connect with you if they like? Yes. 2021 is my year. I'm going to put some effort into stuff and I'd love to work with this woman. How can I do that?
Well, I mean, I guess I do have a kind of that nation there that I really, really want to work with allied health professionals on the broad term, but mainly mental health clinicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, social workers, anything like that. But anyone is welcome as long as they're in allied health professional or an admin team member in allied health into the Facebook group, which is part of the alliance in the groups. And then you can connect with me on social media. It's just Instagram at @private_practice_alliance, I think, or something like that. Sorry, I know you're not supposed to use underscore or whatever. And then of course you can find me on my website at www.privatepracticealliance.com
Yes. And if you want to reach out to Natasha and yeah. Definitely go and check out the show notes. And also I love I was going to say you can always email me and get her email. But one of the things I love about you, Natasha, is that you're not an email person.
I got an email. Please don't email me.
I also try and avoid phone calls. There are a number of people, a few select few people. But I answered the call for one of my clients.
It's like you have to answer the phone, like people call and I'm like, I don't have to do anything. You can message me on Instagram within the hour. I'll be happy to give you my mobile number if you want to send me a text. But please email just we should be doing away with emails. I'm on a personal mission to get rid of emails, so. OK.
Oh, you're so funny. So people can't call you, email and they can't cry so much for this, but we'll of course link to everything the podcast. I know it has been such a pleasure to talk to you and I am so excited to see you soon in real life. And thank you for everything that you've helped me with this year. But all of these that we've been friends, thank you so much for having me.
I feel so honoured to be on your podcast amongst some of the most amazing people, honestly.
And I don't listen to podcast, but I listen to yours. So the people that you had on here, I just I'm a little old me.
And then you've got all these other brilliant humans. So thank you so much for having me.
One of the most brilliant people I know. So thank you. Bye bye.
So I hope you really enjoyed listening to that interview. I actually said to my editor, Scott, when I was sending this audio to him, we laugh so much and I'm sure it might be a bit annoying to people, but that's how we are. Natasha and I laugh so much. We are very serious when we need to be, but we are just in hoots of laughter when we do our offsite strategy days like the last one we did in early December 2019, or maybe it was November, we were just crying with laughter because just the simple fact we bought so much stationery, way too much stationery for anyone, and we were kind of like, if we have enough stationery, then everything will go right. We just always laughing. So I hope you enjoyed that. And it wasn't too funny to listen to us laugh, but I would love to know what you took away from my interview with Natasha today.
If you would like to, you can send me a DM. I'm over at Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach. Like I said before, you can also contact Natasha via privatepracticealliance.com or find her on Instagram. It's @private_practice_alliance. I'm sure she would love to hear from you, as would I. But two things that I took away from today's episode. The first is I absolutely love that Natasha was like, you know what? Even though that path, that well trodden expected path of me to go to high school, go to university, get a job was laid out, she totally chose something different. And in the end, she chose something that was much more aligned with her passion in the way that she wanted to work.
And now 15, 17 years on, when she's doing her MBA, she realises that MBA is basically validating all of the knowledge that she's already gained by working in the industry that she's worked in for so long and for helping so many people build their private practice businesses. So that was the first point. The second thing that I really, really love and respect about Natasha and that she's super genuine about it's not just like a hashtag thing for her. She really does want to build an alliance for the health industry and for other industries as well. She really sees business partnerships, business collaborations, business networks as a way to build an alliance so that we can all be stronger, like that whole thing about a rising tide lifts all boats. I really feel like Natasha thinks that way. And when she approaches things, she's very much a curious person. That's like, wow, what could this teach me or what can I get from this? Or How could I help that person? Because I've done this thing before and that is a huge emphasis of her Facebook group. Now, I just like that whole philosophy. Of course, that's also how I run my business. But I just feel that Natasha has been able to do that, particularly in an industry, a health industry psychologist, where it can often be closed off and people can see each other as very, very close competition. So I think it's fantastic. She's been able to break through that, break the mould and allow people the opportunity to collaborate and learn from their own community around them. So I'd love to know what you took away from that. I really hope you found it insightful and inspiring, as I always find my chats with Natasha.
As always, the show notes for this will be available and you can find them over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/62 as this is episode 62, you'll also be able to find over there a link through to how to start a podcast course. And that is for anybody who's looking to start a podcast and really wants to understand the systems and processes they'll need to have in place in order to not just start the podcast, but continue it without feeling overwhelmed by how much there is to do. And you can find that over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast. That is it for today's Small Business Interview episode.
Like I said at the start, there are three different episode types on this podcast. Make sure you go back and binge if you're just new to this. Well, maybe you've been listening but haven't listened to every single one. Go back and you'll find so much gold and insights about how to run a small business. Thanks again for listening and I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
