Treat Your Business

112 Behind the Scenes of Writing Thriving: Highlights from my new book

• Katie Bell • Season 1 • Episode 112

Share episode

I'd love to hear from you 'text the show'

In this milestone episode of the Treat Your Business podcast, I celebrate the official launch of my debut and number 1 Best Selling book, Thriving! Whether you’re tuning in for the first time or you’ve been following along for a while, this episode is a behind-the-scenes look at the journey to becoming an author.

Here’s what you can expect in this episode:

  • Why I Wrote Thriving: I share how my experience of building a thriving clinic from the ground up inspired me to write this book—a toolkit packed with lessons and strategies to help clinic owners succeed.
  • The Journey to Publication: From signing the book deal to writing on summer mornings at 4am, I reveal the challenges, inspiration, and the 11-week sprint to make this book a reality.
  • Key Takeaways from the Book:
    • The "Clinic Success Tree" analogy, which outlines the foundational steps to a thriving clinic.
    • Core values and how they shape your clinic’s decisions and success.
    • Practical tips like creating recurring revenue streams to transform cash flow.
  • Real-Life Stories: I highlight stories from clinic owners who’ve faced burnout, staff turnover, and financial challenges—and how they overcame them.

Why You’ll Love This Episode

This episode isn’t just about my book—it’s about helping YOU. Whether you’re just starting your clinic journey or you’re ready to scale to the next level, you’ll find insights and inspiration to take action.

Grab Your Copy of Thriving

Thriving is available now on

Treat Your Business podcast is proudly sponsored by MBST, the groundbreaking technology revolutionising recovery and rehabilitation. Offering a non-invasive, drug-free solution for musculoskeletal conditions and nerve injuries, MBST works at a cellular level to stimulate regeneration. Expand your services and deliver long-term patient improvements without increasing your workload.

Learn more at mbstmedical.co.uk. 

[00:00:00] Katie Bell: Hello, everybody. Welcome to this very special episode of the Treat Your Business Podcast. For anybody that is new to following us. This is going to feel like a bit of a random podcast today and random episode for anybody watching live on Instagram or Facebook or on YouTube. I am here to celebrate the official launch of my new book.

[00:00:25] Katie Bell: I can't really believe I'm saying that actually, that I am now an author, but my book yesterday, Thriving, Launched officially on Amazon, which is very exciting. You can access it in Kindle format. You can access it in paperback format. You can access it as an audio book. Very exciting. And so if you're listening to this for the very first time, This will make really no sense to you whatsoever, but I encourage you to to listen in to get the book because why would you not?

[00:00:55] Katie Bell: But also go back to some of the previous episodes where there is so much value and tips and masterclasses and great advice in there, first of all, which will then make everything else make more sense. But for everybody else Thank you for being here. Thank you for supporting me. And hopefully you got yourselves on the priority list.

[00:01:12] Katie Bell: So you got access to the book at 50 percent off yesterday. And you're going to be part of our book in action workshop where I'm going to be bringing the book to life and helping you implement the amazing things that we've talked about within the book. This book has been a labour of love. It's been a reflection of over a decade of lessons, challenges, and wins from building my own clinic and helping other clinic owners do the same.

[00:01:37] Katie Bell: And today's episode, I'm going to take you behind the scenes of writing the book a little bit, the ups and the downs and moments of inspiration. We'll talk about the challenges that I faced during the process, the biggest lessons I've learned while bringing this book to life and what I hope you'll your gain from reading the book because that's really why I've written it.

[00:01:58] Katie Bell: I want to be on your coffee table. I want to be on your bookshelf. I want to be, somebody that you grab this book and recommend it to a friend because he was also a clinic owner because there is so much in there that they can take from and implement within their clinic. And I'm going to share some of my favorite sections of the book.

[00:02:18] Katie Bell: So grab a coffee, settle in and let's dive in.

[00:02:21] Katie Bell: Welcome to the Treat Your Business podcast with Katie Bell. I'm Katie, and this is the place to learn the strategies, tactics, tools and mindset needed to build your clinical studio into a business that gives you the time, money, energy, and fulfillment you want and deserve. My team and I work every day with overwhelmed and exhausted clinic owners like you, to shift them from a business that is a huge time and energy drain and is not giving them the income they want to.

[00:02:49] Katie Bell: Confident clinic owners that are making money, saving money, and getting time back in their lives. So if this sounds like something you want, let's dive in. This podcast is sponsored by HMDG, the leading digital marketing agency for clinic owners in the UK.

[00:03:07] Katie Bell: So let's start with why I wrote this book. Well, when I opened my clinic at 28, I had a vision of I've, I wanted to help people move better. I wanted to help people feel better and I wanted them to live better. But as my business grew, I realised that, running a clinic isn't just about delivering great care.

[00:03:24] Katie Bell: It's not just about being a great physio. It's about building a really sustainable business that serves not only your clients, but your team and yourself. And I, had to learn this the hard way. In those early years, I made every mistake that you can imagine. I hired too quickly, I fired too slowly. I didn't have clear processes in place.

[00:03:46] Katie Bell: I was trying to do everything. I was a control freak. I was a people pleaser. You name it, I was it. And often found myself, no, not often. I was completely burnt out in the early years. And I was wondering, like. I now just feel like I'm employed again. I have a job again, working for myself.

[00:04:06] Katie Bell: And over the time I discovered what works and what didn't work and I threw myself into, literally threw myself into, understanding what it takes to run. Successful clinics. And it's very much like growing a tree. You've got to have those strong roots in place. And most clinic owners try and do without this for many years.

[00:04:29] Katie Bell: You need a solid trunk. Again, many clinic owners try and cut this bit out. And, That will then ultimately give you the thriving branches, team, operations, systems, sales, marketing. And so thriving is the result of this journey. And it's my way of giving back to clinic owners like you who might be feeling overwhelmed, no, who will be feeling overwhelmed, who will feel stuck, who will feel unsure of what steps they should take next.

[00:04:56] Katie Bell: And this book isn't just a guide. It's literally a toolkit. It's packed with lessons. It's packed with strategies, practical tips that I wish I'd had all those years ago. Writing Thriving was a journey in itself and it wasn't without its challenges because I started outlining the book during probably one of the busiest seasons in my business.

[00:05:19] Katie Bell: Because I think everything can be done in a minute and yesterday, I agreed and I signed the book deal in end of May. So it's not actually that long to say by January I have written and launched a book. But it, I knew also that I was going into a phenomenally busy period in KB. I was celebrating 10 years in the clinic, got lots of new staff coming on board.

[00:05:46] Katie Bell: My operations manager was on mat leave. I was back in the business more than I'd ever been. And Thrive was thriving. We'd got clinic growth live happening that year. There was a lot of stuff going on, but obviously because I'm me, I decided to sign a book deal and I was given 16 weeks to write.

[00:06:08] Katie Bell: And after eight weeks I spoke to my publisher. We decided when this needed to launch. We worked backwards from the dates, throwing Christmas in there, which is really freaking inconvenient from a publishing point of view. And they then reduced my timeline to 11 weeks. So I spent a lot of the summer getting up extremely early in the morning, sitting in the garden, with my hoodie on and writing.

[00:06:32] Katie Bell: You outline the book. I Knew what I wanted to put in there and it obviously could have been an encyclopedia, so it has to be just the right layer for you to want to delve more into things and want to discover more about those certain topics, but there is enough in there that means you can actually take that inspired action straight away.

[00:06:58] Katie Bell: So here we are, A day after launch date and, finding time to write was, impossible at times, but I knew this book needed to happen for you guys. One of the hardest parts was narrowing down the content. I've learned so much about running clinics from marketing to leadership to financial stuff, but I had to focus on what was going to make the biggest impact for you.

[00:07:21] Katie Bell: And that's how I landed on the concept of the clinic success tree because everything comes back to the, foundation, the roots and the trunk. Another challenge I faced was my own self doubt because I kept asking myself, Oh my God, is this going to be good enough? People are going to want to read this.

[00:07:39] Katie Bell: Like, who am I to write a book? Will people resonate with this? But every time I felt stuck I, had a call with you guys. Or I was in a. Q and a question with a Q and a session in Thrive always delivering a big strategy day. And I thought about the clinic owners that we work with, the ones who are juggling so much and just need some clarity and direction.

[00:08:02] Katie Bell: And that's what kept me going. So I had lots of incredible moments of inspiration. A lot of you who are listening to this. inspired lots of the book. And I want you to know that everything that I have written in that book is also what we implement within our clinic. And we implement in a lot of other people's clinics as well.

[00:08:23] Katie Bell: So this is tried and tested. This is not just a book that may work for you. It will. Writing this book wasn't just about share, it wasn't about just sharing lessons. It was about learning them again for myself. And this was really powerful because You can get so busy. In your own world of running two very successful businesses that sometimes you forget stuff and you're like, wait a minute, I'm teaching them this.

[00:08:49] Katie Bell: Why have I forgotten about this? So I want to be really honest with yourself that like, whether you're a multiple six figure clinic owner or whether you're just starting out, this book is going to resonate with Some of you, with all of you in different ways. And these are some of the things that I picked up was that perfection is the enemy of progress.

[00:09:07] Katie Bell: And I realized that if I waited for the perfect time to write this book, it was probably never going to happen. It certainly wasn't going to happen in 2024. Same goes for running your clinic. There's never a perfect time to start doing this, implementing, changing things, growing your team. You've just got to take the first step.

[00:09:24] Katie Bell: The power of reflection. Writing forced me to reflect on my own journey. It forced me to realize how far I've come. And sometimes as business owners, no, not sometimes, most of the time, we're so focused on the next thing that we forget to celebrate our progress. And then number three, it was all about the impact.

[00:09:44] Katie Bell: So at the end of the day, this book isn't about me. It's about you. It's helping our industry build businesses that serve them, their clients and their communities. And that is why. We and I exist. Let me share a little sneak peek into some of my favourite parts of the book. The chapter on, core values.

[00:10:06] Katie Bell: I deep dive into how to define your clinic's values and use them to shape your decisions. I share examples from my own clinic. And and within Thrive, and really get you to see that these are the key fundamentals that your clinic needs before we can move on to the other elements. The tree analogy runs throughout the book.

[00:10:26] Katie Bell: This is a really easy way for people to connect and understand why I'm teaching things in the order that I'm teaching them. And I go through each element of the tree, the roots, the trunk, the branches, and the fruits. I love the bit about subscription models. One of the most practical chapters is about creating reoccurring revenue streams.

[00:10:47] Katie Bell: I talk about how this models transform my clinic's cash flow, giving me more predictability in my business and the real life stories. And when we ran clinic growth live last year, this Was one of the most powerful parts of the day when we had four individuals that came on stage at various points in the day and they shared their struggles, their challenges, and then their wins and the things that they've done to transform their business from a startup to a multi six figure from a multi, from a low six figure to a high six figure business, And these people who I've brought into the book have faced challenges like staff turnover, they've faced challenges in, in terms of finance, they've had the burnout and they've come out stronger.

[00:11:36] Katie Bell: And I hope that these real life stories also inspire you and make you realize that you're no different to them. And if they can do it, you can do it too. So writing this book has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. It has been quite the learning curve for me and I'm so excited to be able to finally share it with you.

[00:11:58] Katie Bell: I hope that this book becomes a, like a resource for you to turn to time and time again and just give you that prompt or that moment that you can go back to things and think, what am I missing here? What have I forgotten or what have I overlooked? So whether you're just starting out in your clinic or looking to take it to the next level, then get the book, read the book.

[00:12:20] Katie Bell: It's not big, it's not long, it's there, it's designed specifically for you to be able to consume in your very busy life and your very busy clinics. So I hope that, The book is here on the screen. You can see what it looks like when you go onto Amazon to find it. It's available in audio version, paperback and Kindle version.

[00:12:42] Katie Bell: And please download it. Please consume it. Please share it with everybody and anybody. Because it's worth it. This will make a huge impact to our industry and one of my biggest passions is to up level our industry in terms of self confidence, self worth, self value, self belief. We need to be playing a much bigger game.

[00:13:02] Katie Bell: So until next time, keep thriving, enjoy the book over a cup of tea or even better over gin and tonic or glass of champagne and Tell me how you found it. Send me your feedback. Tag me in your social media posts reading your book. It would mean the world to me to know that those 11 weeks of writing in my garden at 4am were worth it.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Katie Bell

Host