In this solo podcast episode, Kelly Alhooie challenges healthcare providers—particularly therapists—who claim they want more time with family and higher income but remain stuck in a limited practice model. She identifies a recurring pattern: clinicians cap their patient load at 6‑15 per week, believing this protects their desired lifestyle, yet the reality is that additional responsibilities (meetings, workshops, community outreach) consume another 15‑20 hours, leaving little true free time. Alhooie attributes this disconnect to fear—fear of hiring staff, learning sales and marketing, and adopting new technologies. She argues that without investing in systems, automation, AI, and delegating to virtual assistants (VAs) or coaches, providers will continue to lose revenue, estimating a $3,000 loss per missed booking due to poor objection handling. She shares personal anecdotes about the difficulty of hiring her first employee and the payoff of investing in support. The core message is a call to stop “BSing” oneself: embrace hiring, coaching, and strategic investments to build scalable, impact‑driven businesses that free up personal time and increase earnings. She offers her personal phone number for direct support and emphasizes accountability and confidence‑building as essential tools for entrepreneurs.
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So this is going to be a really just real podcast, uh, today, and I'm going to talk about what we all want, what we all say we want, and what we all are doing, and it's not leading us to what we want. Many of us say we want time, we want money. Most of us say we want time, not as much money, that we want time with our family, we want to be able to support our family. And I talked to so many of you guys, so many, so many women, so many, you know, mostly women, some males, okay? And what I see is the same pattern over and over and over again, and I'm going to say that pattern. The pattern is this: you might be seeing anywhere between 6 to 15 patients, and you just are trying to max out to 15 patients. Because that is what you feel like you have time for. And I say that because the reality is this is just step 1 in like the 10-step process to this, or maybe even there's like the 12-step process to this. Step 1 is just to get clients to prove that you have a business. It does not keep you in business. It does not mean you actually have a business that you can sell. It does not mean you have an asset yet because you're the one running it. It just means that you see clients on your own terms. And most providers will be like, well, Kelly, that's all I wanted. But that's not it. That's not all that you wanted because you just said you want time with your family, maybe your kids, maybe your husband, or maybe your spouse. Like you just said that you wanted time with them. There. So you can't get time with them if you are in a treatment room or behind a computer screen for 15 hours a week. It's not going to happen because besides you being in front of a computer screen or in a treatment room for 15 hours a week, that's just with clients, then you need to go to meetings, then you have to do workshops, then you have to go out and connect with the community, right? All of that takes up another 15 to 20 hours. And so the problem that I'm seeing, there's just such a disconnect between what you really say you want and like what you're telling yourself that like, this is the thing that, that I actually want. But the reality is, here's the truth, let's just be honest and throw it all out there, you're just scared. You're scared to hire. You're scared to gain new business skills. You're scared to— you're scared to gain new sales skills. You're scared to gain new marketing skills, which maybe marketing online is scary for you. You're scared and you don't know a different way, so you just limit yourself in your mindset saying, nope, I only want to do— go to 15 patients and I'm good. And I'm like, how could you be good when you say— what you're saying, what you want, is not actually what the business is doing? Yeah, if you got sick, you could call out, sure, but like, then there's a point where you don't have income, so that's also going to stress you the heck out, right? Do you guys get what I'm putting down? Like, I want us to all think bigger. I need all providers to think bigger. Most of us don't think bigger because we're like, oh, we just want to help the patient. We are going to help the patient, but you're going to help more people, more people if you allow your mind to expand rather than just thinking one-on-one in person. You have to be online and in— you have to be both, okay? And if you're online, you need to be doing retreats and, and activities and events, okay? You have to do everything. It's 2026. You gotta do everything. And how you're gonna be able to do everything is by systems, automations, AI. I hate to say the word AI, okay? But it's true. And if you're not willing to gain new business skills, you will be left behind. I promise you. I promise you. Because what's happening right now is all these other businesses are on every platform. Quick interruption for those that have questions on today's episode. Please text my personal number. It's 703-783-2388. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have to get you unstuck. Let's get back to the episode. Platform, they are posting 2 to 3 times a day and they will outcompete you. They don't have more employees than you. They will just outcompete you because their systems are so dialed in. They're not spending 5, 10 minutes, 20 minutes sending HCPs. They're not spending time doing their notes because all the systems are so locked in. And I, this podcast today, I wanted to bring like a reality check to what I'm seeing over and over and over again. And I'm like, is no one seeing this? Has no one woken up from this? The reality check is that— stop saying you want this. Well, I want you to keep saying that, but like, don't say it if you're not willing to then do the scary stuff. And if it's really scary for you, which I get— I was so scared to hire my first, uh, person. It was actually scarier to hire my first person than to leave a job. It really was. Because I was like, I don't know how I'm going to pay them. But then after I did it, I realized, oh my God, I should have done this way, way sooner. And that's what I need you guys to do, is not be afraid. And if you are, then that's when you hire someone. You hire a coach. Hey, can you coach me through this so I can get to the next level? You pay money, you invest. This is another lesson. Most of us are not investors because they never taught us investing, so I'm not blaming us. But we have to learn how to invest. You have to invest to then get a return on the outcome. That's it. And once you invest, then you're able to be like, wow, it opens up. It's like a new game. It's like a new layer that you never even knew was possible. Like, I was just on a call with someone and she just hired a VA, and she's like— I'm like, look, this is everything we have for you just laid out. She's like, I didn't even know what I was missing. She's like, I didn't even know I had to set expectations. I didn't even know I had to audit calls. I didn't even know I had to, um, you know, go over this stuff with her. I didn't know I had to go over objection handling with her. And it's like, yeah, because if she doesn't know that, what is— what it is costing her not to know that is a lot of money, because this person will go out and market all day long She'll get the clients, they call, the VA is answering the phone, VA doesn't know how to handle any objections. Guess what? None of those clients are booking. So the therapist now is thinking, why is this not working? I have to market, market, market, market. It's not the therapist's fault, and it's not the VA's fault either. It's really the, you know, the owner's fault that She doesn't know what she doesn't know. So it's costing her just one client calling, uh, calling and not booking is costing her $3K. Every client that calls and not books is costing her $3K. How crazy is that? So if you have like 4 not books in a day, guys, that's 3 and 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. That's $1,200 it's costing you not to know how to handle these objections. Or that's just like one thing, one scenario. There's so many other scenarios that come up. So like, when are you going to invest so that it stops costing you, you know, what it's costing you? But sometimes y'all don't even know what it's costing you because you're only putting on your blinders like this, saying, nope, I'm only going to do it this way. This is all I can handle. And you're built and you can handle so much more than you think. And it actually gets easier. It actually does get easier, I promise you. No one believes it, but it gets way easier when you actually have people helping you. Shocking, I know. Shocking. Okay, so like, stop playing games. Just stop. Stop playing games. And if you say that you want time with your kids, the solution is systems and hiring, period. That's it. Okay, like, and build. Like, wanna build. Like, wanna be great. Wanna be great. Wanna be amazing. Wanna, like, want it all. Like, want to actually be able to hang out with your family. Want a good life. You can— you say, yes, I want money. Great. Okay, the only way you get money is if you make massive impact. That's the only way. That means you have to see more clients to make massive impact. Different ways of doing it. I'm not saying one-on-one, but I'm just saying there's different ways. So this episode is Stop BSing Ourselves. That's what I'm going to call this episode, okay? And let's wake up. Let's, let's do the hard work. Let's do the scary thing. And if you're scared and you need someone, I'm here, okay, to move you and hold you accountable. Some of y'all need accountability because you're like, Kelly, I won't do it. Or some of y'all need confidence. You can borrow mine. Many people borrow my confidence, okay? Borrow mine until you— until I show you how to grow your own. And then that will allow you to be like, oh shoot, I can do this. That's key. So let's stop playing around, let's stop BSing, and let's start getting after it. Thanks so much for listening, and you guys can text me at any time. It truly is my number if you feel that you have questions or that you feel stuck. So text me at 703-783-2388. Text me at any time and I will respond, and yes, it is me. So hopefully we'll talk soon so we can get you unstuck.
