WP 20 | Creating Systems that Work with Kasey Compton
Running a successful business requires more than just a good idea or a product. Entrepreneurs and business owners must also master the art of managing systems and processes to ensure their operations run smoothly and efficiently. In a recent podcast episode, therapists and business consultants Kasey Compton and Whitney Owens share their insights on this critical topic, along with answering common questions on a range of business topics.
The Importance of Systems and Processes:
Compton and Owens emphasize the importance of having systems and processes in place to ensure a business runs smoothly. They discuss the various benefits of having well-defined systems and processes, including increased efficiency, reduced errors, and improved customer satisfaction. Compton shares some of her strategies for implementing systems and processes effectively, such as involving employees in the process and creating clear guidelines.
Hiring and Delegation:
During the Q&A segment, Owens and Compton answer questions about hiring and delegation. They discuss the importance of hiring the right people and delegating tasks effectively. “Don’t hire out of fear, and don’t hire out of desperation.” Compton emphasizes the need to hire individuals who share the company's values and culture, and who possess the necessary skills and experience. “At a foundational level, your values have to match.” Owens shares his approach to delegation, which involves identifying the right tasks to delegate, setting clear expectations, and providing the necessary support and resources.
Managing Finances:
Compton and Owens also provide valuable insights on managing finances. They discuss the importance of budgeting and cash flow management, and offer tips on how to avoid common financial mistakes. Compton emphasizes the need to have a clear understanding of a company's financials, and to use data and analytics to make informed decisions. Owens stresses the importance of having a financial plan in place, and the need to review and adjust it regularly.
Dealing with Difficult Employees:
Owens and Compton also address a question on how to deal with difficult employees. They discuss the importance of setting clear expectations and communicating effectively with employees. Compton suggests using positive reinforcement and coaching to help employees improve their performance, while Owens stresses the need to document any performance issues and follow the company's disciplinary procedures.
Doing more does not always get you more.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, systems and processes are critical to running a successful business. By implementing effective systems and processes, entrepreneurs and business owners can increase efficiency, reduce errors, and improve customer satisfaction. Additionally, hiring the right people, delegating tasks effectively, managing finances, and dealing with difficult employees are all essential components of running a successful business. By following the advice and insights provided by business experts like Kasey Compton and Whitney Owens, entrepreneurs and business owners can build strong and sustainable businesses that thrive in today's competitive market.
Resources and Links
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WP 20 | Creating Systems that Work with Kasey Compton
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: Owning a group practice is certainly not for the faint of heart. It is challenging. We wear all the hats. We own the practice, we do the operations, we do the staffing, the financing. It is a challenge, but the good news is Casey Compton and her crew know how to run a group practice, and they're here to help you do just that.
[00:00:27] Whitney Owens: If you're looking to connect with other group practice owners, learn how to better manage and run your business, I want you to meet me. In Kentucky at this conference in Louisville, May 24th through the 26th, you will experience group teachings as well as workshops to help you grow your group practice.
[00:00:46] Whitney Owens: So to get all the information you can head to my website and under the event section, you can click on Meet you in Kentucky, and you can learn more about the event. I personally will be there and will be speaking about using the Enneagram in your group practice for your hiring, as well as placing people in good leadership roles that go along with their personality type and their skillset.
[00:01:08] Whitney Owens: So again, head to whitney owens.com under the events section, you can get all the information from Meet You in Kentucky, May 24th through the 26th. Can't wait to see you there.
[00:01:48] Whitney Owens: Hello friends and welcome back to The Wise Practice Podcast. I am looking forward to my interview today with Casey Compton, and if for some reason you haven't heard of. Her, let me give you a little background. She's in a mission to help business owners find their entrepreneurial confidence. She owns three other businesses that have accumulated assets over 2 million and is growing by the day.
[00:02:29] Whitney Owens: Her superpowers include cutting through the clutter to identify strategic starting point, increasing efficiency through systems, and tapping into a person's highest potential. Casey, thanks for
[00:02:40] Kasey Compton: coming on the show today. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be. .
[00:02:45] Whitney Owens: Yeah. I seem to remember, I read on social media recently that you're starting a, is it a restaurant?
[00:02:50] Kasey Compton: Yeah, . Yeah. Yeah. I, I think that, um, isn't that like the worst odds in business that you could possibly start, like the worst business you could possibly start and Yes, I'm doing it .
[00:03:05] Whitney Owens: Mm. Well, I feel confident you'll make it successful. Usually when you touch something it goes
[00:03:09] Kasey Compton: well, so I'm gonna give it my best.
[00:03:13] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well, wonderful. Well, can you share a little bit about your practice and then also about your consulting? For anyone who
[00:03:19] Kasey Compton: hasn't met you? Yeah, sure. So I have a mental health, behavioral health specialty group. Um, we are coming from a place where the group in and of itself is not, isn't focused on one particular specialty, but all of our clinicians have individual areas of expertise.
[00:03:39] Kasey Compton: And I started back in 2015 and, uh, the group. Evolved and grown and made a lot of changes. Since then, I've made a lot of changes, uh, from a, from a business owner standpoint as well. Uh, we have approximately, i, I don't know, 60, 70 ish, um, employees right now. It, it fluctuates as I'm sure everyone knows. Um, Yeah, we have offices across the state of Kentucky.
[00:04:07] Kasey Compton: We just recently opened a new one in Louisville, Kentucky. And yeah, so that's our farthest from our main hub, um, about two and a half hours. And so that's, we're in the process of working at all the kinks on that one, so that's been really fun. Um, but overall, we, we are a practice that is, um, An employee-based practice, we have that model.
[00:04:32] Kasey Compton: Um, we try to do everything with that in mind with that, that team culture idea in mind. And, um, it's, it's fun. It's, there's never a dull moment ever . Um, definitely not. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that's, that's the group. Um, and tell me what else you told me to say next. The,
[00:04:53] Whitney Owens: the group and then you have a consulting business as well.
[00:04:55] Kasey Compton: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I forgot about that. Uh, . Um, yeah, so in 2017 I started doing practice, um, group practice consulting. And, um, since then that I've, it's been going strong. It's actually, uh, pretty much equal to what my group practice is doing in, in most ways. and it, I focus primarily on systems and processes, looking at practices, helping them create systems that, that allow the practice to run independently of the owner, which gives you back your work-life balance, your family, your sanity, you know, all of those things.
[00:05:35] Kasey Compton: So that, that's typically, um, what I focus on in the consulting side of what I.
[00:05:41] Whitney Owens: Yeah. That's wonderful. And, and just to speak to the fact that you're a great consultant. I've learned so much from you, even without like the individual work by reading your books. In fact, it was through you that I decided to go with W two s in my business, which was game changer and it's really so wonderful.
[00:05:58] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. And, um, the fix this next book was really great and I, I'm laughing cuz you know, I purchased it after I saw you in, uh, Kentucky and when we were flying. , I'm like reading it. I have flight anxiety, Uhhuh, , and the very beginning is about why am I on this death trap. And I was like, Casey gets
[00:06:21] Kasey Compton: me.
[00:06:21] Kasey Compton: Yeah. I hate this. Yeah, I, well, you know what, I used to fly a lot Whenever I turned, uh, I think I was like 19. I decided to fly off from Kentucky and move to Chicago cuz you know, I needed to like find myself and all that. And so back then it was when Southwest had those $37 one way flight. And so I would, almost every weekend I would either be flying from Louisville to Chicago or vice versa.
[00:06:51] Kasey Compton: And I flew constantly. I mean, every weekend basically I was flying and I hated it so bad. But I read so many books during that time of my life because it was the only thing that would distract me. And like audiobooks wasn't a thing then. And you know, I barely even, I don't even think I had an iPhone. I think I had like one of those Nextel flip phones that you.
[00:07:13] Kasey Compton: Great. Like you . Um, but, but yeah. I think, uh, a lot of people feel like that. But that's so funny that, that you, you were reading that .
[00:07:23] Whitney Owens: Yeah. While I was on an airplane. Just perfect. Yeah. Yeah. . Well, great. Well, I'm excited to talk about mistakes made by group practice owners. Cause I think there are some super common ones out there.
[00:07:33] Whitney Owens: And you definitely go through this in your book. So let's kind of dive into that topic. What are some of the mistakes that you. .
[00:07:40] Kasey Compton: Well, I wanna start with what, what I feel like is the foundational mistake. Pretty much all of us make when we get, when we start. And some of us figure it out soon, and some of us don't.
[00:07:52] Kasey Compton: Some of us figure it out when we're, when we're really struggling. And I actually write about this in the book, so you've, you're probably familiar with it. And it's just lifestyle congruence. . So a lot of people go out and start private practices where they're solo or maybe they go into it like I did out of the gate and say, Hey, I know I wanna have a group.
[00:08:14] Kasey Compton: Um, but they haven't really done the math and they don't know exactly what type of volume that practice needs to be pumping out in order to meet their personal financial goals. Mm-hmm. . And it's usually one of those things where, yeah, we're. , it's fine. Or, um, it's not fine, but they, most of the time people don't have that breakeven number.
[00:08:40] Kasey Compton: And when you don't have a breakeven number, your risk goes way, way, way up. Um, and you know, the, the nice part about lifestyle congruence is it's really easy to figure out . You know, you just have to do an inventory. Of your, of your personal financial needs, like how much money do you need to make? Divide that number out by how much your sessions, how much you're charging per session.
[00:09:07] Kasey Compton: Take off a percentage for operating expenses and taxes and, and figure it out. You know, it's, it's just calculations. Um, but I think once we know that number, we, we just can operate in a more intentional way. Mm-hmm.
[00:09:22] Whitney Owens: Definitely. I totally agree with you with that being a foundational piece of our practice, and I see, especially with faith-based practice owners, the struggle of, I mean, with all practice owners, but especially people who would associate themselves with a Christian practice, they feel this guilt.
[00:09:36] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Or we're making money, right. Or churches say, oh, well it's your mission. You should be doing this at a lower cost for our parishioners or whatever, and it's just a terrible dynamic.
[00:09:48] Kasey Compton: Yeah, well the pastor gets paid, right? , I mean, you know, people, people have to get paid in order to, to do the work. And it's one thing I talk about also, um, a lot actually, I talk about it in the book, but I talk about it all the time, is the difference between your goal as a business owner versus your purpose as a business owner.
[00:10:08] Kasey Compton: And so really understanding the difference there can help with some mindset struggles over money that, that people face. So the goal of your business is profitability. And we have to believe that. We have to know that the goal of the business is profitability. If what we're doing is not creating a profit, we are essentially running a nonprofit like we are working for free.
[00:10:34] Kasey Compton: Um, the, the reason that we're working toward that goal of profitability is so that we can achieve this purpose of, of, you know, Helping people, meeting people's needs, like the greater good concept. Um, it can't really work both ways. I've never seen it successful both ways, so sometimes I just have to remind myself of that.
[00:10:59] Kasey Compton: And that's been a really good litmus test in a lot of ways, in, in how I make decisions in running my group practice is that, look, if this is not profitable, we can't do it. Or if this is not profitable, something has to change. We're not going to do it just to do. . Mm-hmm. .
[00:11:15] Whitney Owens: Yeah. One of the stories in the book that really opened my eyes was when you sat down with your team and kind of said, what's the purpose of our business?
[00:11:23] Whitney Owens: And the idea of no one's saying profitability. And I was like, oh my gosh. Yes. Like I'm not even saying that and I'm the owner. Like, I have got to focus on this. And I've been really accounting my team now saying, profitability, profitability, this will allow you to be happy. Mm-hmm. for me to pay you well and to serve more clients
[00:11:42] Kasey Compton: and to expand.
[00:11:44] Kasey Compton: Right? Yeah. It's a hundred percent a leadership thing. So as the leader of the practice, you have to be able to cast that vision, that profitability is the goal. And you know, it's funny because if I were to take, I have pretty much a brand new team now. I mean, I still have some of the same people, but there are new people.
[00:12:03] Kasey Compton: But if I put them back around that table right now and did that same activity, I guarantee you every single person is going to say the goal is profitability, just because it's it. It's come down from me and, and to the next, and to the next and to the next. And so we all get it. We all talk about it regularly.
[00:12:21] Kasey Compton: We talk about it in our morning meetings. We talk about it, um, all the time. And it doesn't mean that we're money hungry, it just means that we have to have the money to pay the bills and, you know, make sure people get a
[00:12:35] Whitney Owens: pay. . Mm-hmm. , definitely. So what are some of the other mistakes that you see for group practice owners?
[00:12:42] Kasey Compton: Oh, let's, let's think. Um, so lifestyle congruence. Definitely. I kind of went ahead and answered, uh, that second one, the goal and the purpose. That's, that's a big one too. Um, okay. Here's one I'll tell on myself whenever I first started. Um, I didn't have a lot of money and I really, I didn't have any money. I had, I think I had 600 bucks.
[00:13:06] Kasey Compton: Yeah, I had nothing. I had just filed bankruptcy. I was really, really, really poor. I had a little kid. I mean, it was just a rough time. . Um, so when I started hearing the whole concept of outsource, outsource, outsource, I was like, I can't, I cannot, uh, because I had more time at that point than I had money. And so my only option was to bootstrap.
[00:13:32] Kasey Compton: Mm-hmm. . Um, I think one of the things that I do differently now, um, probably because I, I have a little more money than I have time. Or, or maybe I'm balanced, I'm not sure, but I look at time as a financial investment. So if something is going to take me 20 hours to do, it's actually better if I can pay someone 20 bucks an hour that will get it done rather than me investing my own time to do it.
[00:14:10] Kasey Compton: And so I think if you're talking about mistakes, it's. Practice owners don't always have a good concept of what their time is worth. And so let's say for example, if I am doing, if I'm a business consultant, and let's just say just for the sake of math, I'm charging $500 for an an hour, whether it's like a group that I'm doing or or whatever total is $500.
[00:14:41] Kasey Compton: Um, if I wake up that morning and my house is a disaster, which it almost always is, and I don't know about your listeners, but it stresses me out. Like I can't stand chaos in my house and I have four little kids running around, so, you know, um, but if I wake up and I'm totally distracted because of all the chaos in my house, and I'm thinking about that.
[00:15:08] Kasey Compton: Should I spend my, let's say it, it takes four hours to really deep, clean and make sure my house is clean. Should I spend that four hours cleaning my house or should I hire someone for 20 bucks an hour and pay them $80 to clean my house? Well, if you're just looking at the numbers, it's crazy to think I would do it because I could have generated $2,000 in those four hours.
[00:15:33] Kasey Compton: Whereas I could make an investment on someone to clean so I can invest $80 to make 2000. So it took a lot of time and a lot of practice for me to understand that paying someone to do things for me wasn't me being. It wasn't me having a big head or thinking I was better than everybody, or it wasn't me being lazy.
[00:15:59] Kasey Compton: It was me making an investment into my business, cuz that's essentially what it was. Um, you know, I'm from the south and whenever I started doing things like that, Um, like paying someone to help me, hiring an, a personal assistant, um, hiring someone to clean or, you know, whatever. Um, I got a lot of pushback from my family and my friends.
[00:16:24] Kasey Compton: Like, they just looked at me like I thought I was better than them. And so there was a whole mindset shift that had to occur. There were boundaries that had to be set, but I ultimately, I. We have to look at our time as an investment into our practice for the good or for the bad. So really thinking about what are you spending your time on and is it something you can invest in someone else to do for you so that you can focus on the bigger return?
[00:16:53] Kasey Compton: Mm-hmm. ,
[00:16:54] Whitney Owens: such good points. , I can empathize with you being from the south, and when we hired our first maid, my husband was like, what? I did not grow up with a maid. I'm like, yeah, well, honey, I work hard and we're getting a maid. .
[00:17:05] Kasey Compton: Yeah. Well, we have, uh, . I have a nanny now just because mm-hmm. , you know, like logistically speaking, I have, I have four kids in our, in our household that we're taking care of here and just, and they don't all go to the same school.
[00:17:20] Kasey Compton: They're at three different schools and our county is. Huge, like in, in just, it takes 45 minutes to get from one side of the county to the other. So having a nanny and just to run them, uh, picking them up from school and running and all of that, I can't do it without that. But you, you send me into church on Sunday.
[00:17:45] Kasey Compton: And if someone says anything, and I say, yeah, my nanny, they, I mean, their eyes are like, what do you, you have a nanny? You know? It's just not something that happens a lot here. And so, you know, you're dealing with not only a financial money mindset issue, but you're dealing with just a cultural, um, cultural judgment too.
[00:18:05] Kasey Compton: And so I've, I've learned. Get over that. I don't really care what, what people say anymore when it comes to that, but, uh, it's definitely something that has made a huge impact in my life and in my business because there is no way I could do all the things that I do without help. Mm-hmm. .
[00:18:26] Whitney Owens: Yes. Once at church, somebody asked my husband if he was babysitting and he was like, what?
[00:18:30] Whitney Owens: They're my kids . Oh, I'm not the babysitter. Gosh. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that totally, that idea in the south. Um, and I think you would agree with this be, even though the numbers speak enough for themselves, but. It's also the gift we give to someone like mm-hmm. I even clean houses when I was in graduate school and I'm so glad I did.
[00:18:48] Whitney Owens: Cause I needed that money. Yeah. Um, my nanny needed more money and so now she gets to drive my kids around too. And so it's, yeah. It's a gift
[00:18:55] Kasey Compton: for both sides. I like that a lot. Yeah. I like that point a lot. I ha actually had never thought about it like that. Um. Yeah. And, and I tell, um, people a lot too, how like, so I have a large, I have a large staff and I have a large team, but I have a lot of people who I delegate things to.
[00:19:20] Kasey Compton: I have. And I, I've designed it this way on purpose, but you know, I have a, a marketing coordinator, I have a marketing assistant, I have an executive assistant. I have the personal assistant. I have two client care coordinators, a C F O, and a billing, um, coordinator. So that's 5 67. Seven, yeah. Seven people. Um, And things happen throughout the day that I try to base it on, you know, their jobs and like what their skillset is.
[00:19:52] Kasey Compton: But I'm constantly delegating things off to other people or assigning responsibilities to other people. I very rarely will take a task and do it completely myself and. I see a lot of business owners who just keep accepting task from their business and, and they just keep putting them at the bottom of their to-do list.
[00:20:17] Kasey Compton: And their list is growing faster than their ability to actually finish any of the task. And that's a big, um, indicator of burnout. You know, you're, you're going to get burnout. You cannot sustain. It's important to be able to have support or a team in some capacity where you can, when you get, like for example, I got a letter from the RS saying, Hey, we sent you a, a refund, um, at some point, but it never got cashed.
[00:20:48] Kasey Compton: So call us. And I'm thinking, I never got a, I never got anything like that anyway, so I delegate that off to the executive assistant, Hey, I need you to handle this. Um, you know, Hey, I'm trying to like, Hey, my shoulder has a big nod in it. Uh, Leanne, like, I, I've got to get in to get a massage. Can you find me somebody that's open?
[00:21:10] Kasey Compton: And so she's on the phone. Hey, my dog needs to get Nere. Him like peeing on things. Now, can you call the vet and figure out when you can get him in? Like those things free up my my mind so that I can sit here and talk to you about these things so that, you know, we have a greater, um, impact on other people.
[00:21:28] Kasey Compton: No one wants to hear. I mean, no one wants to hear me talk about my dog being neutered. , but it has to get done. So some, I, it's just delegation, I think is, is another thing that I see people, they, they're a little bit control, freakish, you know?
[00:21:45] Whitney Owens: Yes. Yes. And, and, and even as you describe it, it's like you're creating that team atmosphere.
[00:21:51] Whitney Owens: So when you're asking people to help with these things, they feel good. They feel like they have a sense of purpose, and then they're more bought into the business. Mm-hmm. , right? And then we're all coming together and then they start on their own initiative doing amazing things. Yeah. Yeah. Even yesterday I walk into my admin's office to ask her to do something for me and she was on the phone with the water company and I was like, oh my gosh.
[00:22:15] Whitney Owens: And so she had all the bills out cuz I, I have three different bills. Yeah. It's a long story . And, and one of 'em was a lot higher than the others. And I was like, man, she is so amazing that she just did all that initiative on her own. And it's so, it's like one after a while they kind of know what to do.
[00:22:32] Whitney Owens: Yeah. And they love. And they want to
[00:22:34] Kasey Compton: be helping, right? That's what you want too. You don't wanna micromanage, like the whole point of delegation is so that they can start to take ownership over their own task and they will start to also build their own initiative to do things in your absence. Like, I walked into the office last week, I believe, and I had a phone in on, in my office, and I've never had a phone in my office.
[00:23:01] Kasey Compton: And I'm like looking at it and seeing if it's real or it's like it's a toy. And Kayla's office is right beside of the one I'm in. And so I'm yelling like Kayla, and she said, you don't need to yell anymore. You have a, we have a phone system where you can just pick up the phone and press my extension. And I was like, oh.
[00:23:22] Kasey Compton: And she said, yeah. And by the way, I changed our entire phone system. So now we don't have Grasshopper anymore. Now we have this other. . And I was like, why did you do that? And then she rattled off all these reasons and I was like, oh, good job, . You know? Mm-hmm. , uh, good call. So things like that. It, it takes practice and it takes patience and it takes the business owner operating in a lot of ways.
[00:23:45] Kasey Compton: More of like, A coach like coaching these people of how you want them to perform and then they start to do it and then it becomes more of like the validation and the, the rewards and all of that rather than the coaching as much.
[00:24:01] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. . Yes. I love that story. Yeah. Um, and I'm thinking about mistakes in hiring.
[00:24:08] Whitney Owens: I think a lot of group practice centers struggle with this, so I just wonder if you could kind of speak to some of those. .
[00:24:14] Kasey Compton: Yeah. That's the, those are the biggest you'll ever make. I can guarantee you . Um, yeah. So don't ever hire out of fear and don't ever hire out of desperation. Um, don't hire someone just because you, you have like a good connection with them.
[00:24:34] Kasey Compton: That's what I used to do. I was like, yeah, I could get along with this person that this would. Terrible. Were those were the worst employees I've ever had. Um, I think you have to have a good solid hiring strategy. Like you really have to have something on paper that says, these are the types of people that we want, these are our values that we have to make sure that we have questions that will, um, Allow us to have a better understanding of the, the person we're interviewing's values.
[00:25:06] Kasey Compton: I think at a foundational level, your values have to match. Um, and looking for people, I think you have to think about. You're not gonna get everything in an applicant. Um, so what are the must-haves? Like what are the non-negotiables that you have to have and then, and then build from there. And for us, I think, uh, integrity is huge.
[00:25:32] Kasey Compton: I mean, we have to hire people that have a lot of integrity and are very ethical. Even if I would take someone like that. Poor or or underdeveloped clinical skills any day because we have a model that we, we have created in our company to teach and grow. Now, if we did not have that model, if we just had like, um, independent contractor type model where.
[00:26:02] Kasey Compton: You know, they just kind of do their own thing and, and whatever. My hiring strategy would look a lot different. Of course, I still want someone with, with morals, but I'm, I'm going to hire more based on skillset and marketability and things like that. I'm not necessarily looking for the team player as much if I have that model.
[00:26:24] Kasey Compton: So I think like looking at your foundational business model and trying to cre create even an, um, an avatar for the person that you're trying to hire and following that when you are interviewing and not diverting from that based on anything that might sway you. Definitely not fear, definitely not desperation.
[00:26:49] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. , yes. All great points. And it's so hard not to hire out of desperation. Like that part
[00:26:56] Kasey Compton: is Oh, I know. Mm. Yeah. Because we all do it. I mean, we've all done it. It, it happens and it's, but it never ends well. Mm-hmm. .
[00:27:05] Whitney Owens: Yeah. Especially after you go through someone leaving in a bad situation and then you're desperate to hire someone to replace them.
[00:27:11] Whitney Owens: It's so, it's difficult. That fine line.
[00:27:14] Kasey Compton: Yeah. Well, and can I add one more thing to that? Yeah. I just thought of, um, so one of the things that we started doing a while back that was super helpful was assigning a value, a price to, um, employee acquisition. So how much does it cost us on average to hire a new therapist?
[00:27:38] Kasey Compton: Mm-hmm. , um, cause that will then affect. Your strategy to retain that therapist and, you know, it affects a lot of things. So we discovered that based on the time it takes to post the Indeed Ads, the budget that we have for Indeed, the amount of hires we can usually make off of that budget, the time it takes for onboarding.
[00:28:05] Kasey Compton: Um, all of that is, is somewhere between five and $7,000. . And so when you know like the investment that you are putting in, when you're hiring, so if I have an applicant that I'm like, mm, I'm not really sure now, now I have a number. Mm-hmm. what? I bet seven grand on this person. Because the way we've figured is that they need to work, they need to work.
[00:28:34] Kasey Compton: I can't remember now cuz the numbers have changed a little bit. But they, once they hit that, uh, 90 day point, they need to work an additional 90 days for us to break even. And so six, six months would I bet seven grand. If I wouldn't make that bet, I wouldn't hire them. So I would encourage everyone to do the math on that too and see how much it's, it's costing you all in all of your time, all of the conversations, all of the onboarding, all of the training, all of the supervision, all of everything.
[00:29:05] Kasey Compton: Um, until they are at an independent point. . Mm-hmm. ,
[00:29:10] Whitney Owens: thank you for putting that in that perspective. That definitely is opening my eyes. Um, yeah. And at least for me, the most recent hire that we went through, my clinical director was like, Whitney, you are too emotionally invested in hiring. And I was like, oh, oh, but I just love all these people.
[00:29:26] Whitney Owens: And then I like grab onto someone and get excited and then it doesn't work out. Mm-hmm. , blah, blah. And so it's also that emotional component that we can't put a price on that um, really distracts us from so many other.
[00:29:37] Kasey Compton: Oh yeah, a hundred percent. And in just recognizing if, if that is h, how you tend to fall when it comes to hiring, cuz I'm that way as well.
[00:29:48] Kasey Compton: Um, I just pulled myself out of that process. Mm-hmm. . So I don't, I don't, I have other people in there that, that hire now, um, sometimes they'll just come to me and say, Hey, are we good on this one? But usually they don't because I, I just, I don't make good bets when it comes to hiring. .
[00:30:08] Whitney Owens: Yeah. And actually we discussed that I would no longer be involved.
[00:30:11] Whitney Owens: Oh, good. at the very, very end to give the final approval. But yeah, definitely. Yeah. Any other mistakes coming to mind that we haven't talked about? I know there's lots,
[00:30:21] Kasey Compton: but, well, I mean, yeah, there's lots. I think just as a, a final one, This is actually what I, I've been focused on for the last year. I've been laying a little bit low in the consulting world in terms of like what's new, but I've been working on a, a new book.
[00:30:39] Kasey Compton: Um, yeah, . It's been a very tough book to write to be honest. It's not a business book, it's more of a self-help book. Um, but it came out of a story, a personal story of mine where I was overworking. Um, I found myself just working, working, working, working, working. And I kept chasing these shiny objects or chasing these dreams that I thought I had, and I kept giving myself these ultimatums almost like, Hey, if you don't do this, then your business is gonna fail.
[00:31:15] Kasey Compton: It was like I was scaring myself into working more and working harder and pushing and pushing and pushing, and, um, It, it, it's not sustainable. So I think one of the things that business owners do wrong is believing in, in that trap that that doing more is going to get you more, because that's actually not true at all.
[00:31:41] Kasey Compton: And so I think I would recommend like taking a good look at what you really want. Um, What is it that's driving you? What are, what's your ultimate big goal here? Um, and setting some boundaries for hours that you work or times that you work or, you know, just whatever makes sense in your, in your own life.
[00:32:08] Kasey Compton: But, uh, we have to stop telling ourselves that doing more is going. To get us more because it's not, it's really not. I think I could have achieved the same outcome, having a much better work-life balance. Um, maybe even, I maybe could have achieved more than I have now. I don't know. But, um, I just hate to see practice owners getting themselves into a burnout phase that is really hard to get out of.
[00:32:42] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. Well, thank you for speaking to that and sharing a little bit of your story. Cause I'm sure people would look at you and be like, oh, look at Casey. But the truth is like, we're all learning and we're all growing and what you're talking about is so important. And it's something I've been thinking about recently too.
[00:32:57] Whitney Owens: And actually, as you know, um, we're recording this the day after Ash Wednesday, and I'm, I'm try to do the Lent thing, you know, because this is a way that I can personally grow and so I'm, I'm cutting my work hours mm-hmm. For six weeks. and I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this and see how I feel and see what's accomplished and just trust, you know, with my faith, the process that God's gonna accomplish more.
[00:33:17] Whitney Owens: Yeah. When I step back and spend more time with my family and work
[00:33:20] Kasey Compton: less. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. That's great. Yeah, that's great. And I think the more that you have the community that you are creating with this podcast where other people are, Other people are in more in line with that statement than the other people out here, you know, saying hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle.
[00:33:43] Kasey Compton: You've gotta find those people that are gonna support that balance. And so I think if, if people are in, in communities where they hear a lot more hustle than they do balance, they might ought to consider shifting a little. .
[00:34:01] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. , definitely. Well, let's talk for a few minutes here at the end about meet you in Kentucky.
[00:34:07] Whitney Owens: If you can share with the audience more about what that is, and then I can talk for a few minutes about, um, what I'm gonna be doing. I'm really
[00:34:14] Kasey Compton: excited. Yeah. I'm excited about what you're doing too. So Meet you in Kentucky is a business building conference that I started back in 2017 on pure accident. It wasn't even like, I wasn't even trying to do it, it was just, it just happened.
[00:34:30] Kasey Compton: It started with like 11 people and the first year was so fun that I was like, okay, we gotta do this again. And so, um, we, we doubled the size and we've always kept it fairly small and contained because we really like that community. And we would take people out on houseboats and do the business building, but also do the Kentucky things too.
[00:34:51] Kasey Compton: Going to Keen Land and all that stuff. Um, taking them for some really good country. Cooking. That's always fun. But this year Meet you in Kentucky is in Louisville. And, um, Mike Mcit is our keynote speaker, which I'm really excited about. You know, he's an amazing speaker, but this year is, is even better because no one's ever heard him talk about this before.
[00:35:14] Kasey Compton: And so his topic is about hiring, recruiting, retaining the best employees you can to meet the needs of your business. And I was like, thank God, because we everyone needs that. Like, that's all of our problems. Like we all have that problem. So, um, super excited. But it is, uh, two packed full days of business building.
[00:35:36] Kasey Compton: We do, um, more like conference style, first day workshop style, second day. We do a lot of Kentucky stuff downtown. In Louisville. We have so much fun. We have a lot of Kentucky Cool, uh, swag. It is just, uh, I think the perfect blend. Listening like a conference and like getting stuff done too. Um, but we're super excited about it and like I said, it's been going on for several years now and it just keeps getting better and better.
[00:36:05] Kasey Compton: So I'm excited to see what this year's gonna bring.
[00:36:08] Whitney Owens: Yes, me too. I've actually never been to Louisville, so really? But guess what? I'm gonna get on an airplane and come. Oh
[00:36:15] Kasey Compton: yeah. You'll love it. It's great. It's, it's a great city. It really.
[00:36:20] Whitney Owens: Yeah. So that's gonna be a lot of fun. And you have a lot of really great speakers.
[00:36:23] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. . Um, so I encourage people to go check that out and we'll have links in the show notes. Um, and so when we were talking li little bit about hiring, I was thinking about how excited I am about my talk cause I'm gonna talk about the Enneagram mm-hmm. and how we use that personality tool in our hiring process.
[00:36:37] Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. and in putting people in leadership positions within our group practice. And, uh, I just light up when I talk about the Enneagram. Yeah. So I'm really
[00:36:43] Kasey Compton: looking forward to. I love it. And I already have the link you sent me, so I'm gonna retake mine and see if mine has changed, cuz I have a, I have a hunch it has, I don't know.
[00:36:53] Kasey Compton: We'll see. Um, but yeah, I'm super excited for you to come and speak and I can't wait, uh, to hear all about that.
[00:37:01] Whitney Owens: Wonderful. Well, thank you again for taking the time to come on the podcast and looking forward to seeing you in just a few months.
[00:37:07] Kasey Compton: Same. Same.
Podcast Produced and Show Notes Written By James Marland
