In this solo podcast episode, Kelly Alhooie addresses a recurring mismatch between what providers—primarily women in therapeutic or coaching practices—say they want (more family time, flexibility, sustainable income) and the business choices that keep them stuck. She outlines how many limit themselves to a small number of one‑on‑one client sessions, which consumes 15+ hours weekly and leaves little room for family, marketing, or community work. The core problem, she argues, is fear: fear of hiring staff, learning sales and marketing, and adopting new technology. Kelly stresses that scaling through systems, automation, and AI is essential to free up time and increase impact. She illustrates the hidden cost of inefficient processes (e.g., a missed booking can cost $3,000) and shares personal anecdotes about hiring a virtual assistant and the learning curve involved. The episode culminates in a motivational call to stop “BS‑ing” oneself, invest in coaches, virtual assistants, and business education, and embrace the uncomfortable steps needed to build a scalable, profitable practice that truly delivers the desired lifestyle.
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So this is gonna be a really just real podcast today. And I'm gonna 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 six 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 one and like the ten step process to this, or maybe even there's like the 12 step process to this. Step one 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, 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 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 gain new sales skills. You're Scared to gain new marketing skills, which may be 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, 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 activities and events. Okay. You have to do everything. It's 2026. You got to do everything. And how you're going to 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. They are posting two to three times a day and they will out compete you. They don't have more employees than you. They will just out compete you because their systems are so dialed in, they're not spending 5, 10 minutes, 20 minutes sending HTPs. They're not spending time doing their notes because all the systems are so locked in. And I, 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 person. It was actually scarier to hire my first person to leave a job. It really was. Because I was like, I don't know how I want 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 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, 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, 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 four not books in a day, guys, that's 3 and 36, 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 you all don't even know what it's costing you because you're only putting on your blinders like this. Say, 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, want to build? Like, want to be great? Want to be great? Want to 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 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.
