Grow Your Clinic

Brigid Linden: Mastering Financial Metrics, Strengthening Client Relationships, and Balancing Parenthood

• Brigid Linden • Season 5 • Episode 282

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Ready to master your clinic's financials and internal processes? In our latest episode of Grow Your Clinic, clinic owner and Clinic Mastery consultant Brigid Linden joins us to share her journey from uncertainty to proficiency with essential metrics and dashboards. Brigid's story is a testament to the power of nurturing existing client relationships by focusing on key metrics like rebooking rates, cancellation rates, and patient visit averages. Learn how she overcame the initial challenges of financial management and how you can build your own confidence in managing clinic numbers.

Discover how to effectively discuss business metrics within your team and why involving business partners and leadership in regular financial conversations is crucial. We'll dive into the art of explaining the "why" behind tracking key metrics to practitioners who may be resistant, ensuring that everyone understands the intrinsic value these numbers bring to patient outcomes and team growth. By honing in on a few impactful metrics, Brigid shows us how to simplify the process and avoid the overwhelm of an entire dashboard.

Balancing parenthood and business ownership is no easy feat, but Brigid's insights on designing career progression pathways, consistent communication, and regular leadership meetings offer a roadmap to success. From navigating the baby toddler phase to embracing community support and creative prioritization, this episode is packed with strategies for managing work-life balance. Join us for a comprehensive guide on building a thriving clinic and maintaining motivation through the unique challenges of parenthood and business ownership.

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Speaker 1:

This is the Grow your Clinic podcast from Clinic Mastery. We help progressive health professionals to lead inspired teams, transform client experiences and build clinics for good. Now it's time to grow your clinic.

Ben Lynch:

Welcome to the Grow your Clinic podcast. My name is Ben Lynch. If you're a clinic owner and you struggle with focus or you procrastinate a lot, this episode is for you. I'm in conversation with my friend and my colleague here at Clinic Mastery Bridget Linden, affectionately known as BID. Bid is a clinic owner of Boost Health Collective in Melbourne with a team of 10. Bid has a background also in teaching, which makes it really well equipped and one of the experts on our team for knowing how to support, train and mentor a diverse range of team members to adapt styles and help them develop even quicker, rather than just trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

Ben Lynch:

Bid has an incredibly dynamic and creative way of approaching team member support and pathways and throughout conversation she shares some of the key elements to creating those pathways for development. Not only do they help the existing team, but they act as a wonderful way for you to recruit quality humans in the future. We also discuss juggling parenthood and growing a business. What are some of the things that have worked personally and some of the things that she advises the business owners that she works with, especially in Elevate, a program that we run for startup early stage businesses that might have a team of three to five practitioners and are looking to create something sustainable.

Ben Lynch:

All right, let's pick up the conversation with Ben. But I'm really keen to understand from you what are you seeing and hearing in the startup space for clinics, because you work with a lot of the early stage startup clinics program, elevate, perhaps what are some trends then I want to kind of like dive into some of the key pieces of advice, some key strategies that you believe people should be focusing on at that point in business. But let's start with like what are you, what are you hearing, what are you observing?

Brigid Linden:

yeah, I think it's a. There's a lack of uh, potentially a lack of knowledge around or confidence, I would say, around numbers, and I think that's a yeah, a real opportunity for us to support people with.

Ben Lynch:

We've all been there. I mean like we didn't do accounting or finance at university. It's confronting A hundred percent.

Brigid Linden:

Absolutely. So yeah, building people's confidence with numbers is probably number one. The other little trend I see is people focusing perhaps externally a little bit too much. I think we see that with practitioners as well. When they're looking at how to build their numbers, you know thinking, oh, I need to go meet with more GPs, we need to do more Google ads, rather than looking internally at hey, what can I control?

Ben Lynch:

So what are some of those things around the control side that you speak to or get them to focus on?

Brigid Linden:

I think nurturing statistics Well, actually that's a term I made up nurturing statistics on our dashboard. So by nurturing stats, I would refer to things like rebooking, pva cancellation rate, dna and if we can get those things right. To me, that's the real fundamentals. That's where we're going to have to move the needle the most, so I would yeah, that's one of the opportunities I see early is let's sort that stuff out first and then let's look at adding new clients.

Ben Lynch:

It's a really good point, isn't it? Because I've certainly seen that as well over time that everyone wants kind of new clients to maybe the big shiny thing. But how well are you nurturing, as you said I really love that word like nurturing the clients that are already in your care through a journey to get their ideal outcome? So tell me, like the confidence side of things, maybe, like what was your journey with numbers, understanding from your P&L in zero, as an example, through to some of these KPIs in business? What was your journey with numbers before you became such an expert in them as you are today?

Brigid Linden:

Yeah, I guess I didn't know what I didn't know when I first started. I've always been really comfortable with numbers and really confident. It's in my wheelhouse, so it did come naturally. And I do really love the data. I love to analyze data and to figure out where the low-hanging fruit is. And I do really love the data. I love to analyze data and to to figure out where the low-hanging fruit is and where I can have the impact. But you know, not knowing what I what I didn't know, I didn't have a dashboard. I didn't really know what to track and measure. So when I first got my dashboard all those many moons ago, that was a huge light bulb, moment of wow look at all these opportunities.

Ben Lynch:

Yeah and on the dashboard, because the first version, probably that you got, and even to today, some of the dashboards that we have are quite involved. There's quite a number of different things to look at. It can be a little especially if you don't have confidence of, like, where do I look and how do I interpret this? As you now support and nurture those startup or early stage clinics who don't have the confidence, what are some of the maybe the process, almost like a step-by-step how do you help them gain that competence and that confidence in understanding their numbers?

Brigid Linden:

Yeah, I think our numbers tell a story and we need to tell that story. We need to bring it to life. So one of the things that I really encourage people to do is find someone to talk it out with. This shouldn't just be a page of numbers, whether it's rolling break-even dashboard or P&L. We need to have conversation about it, and the initiatives that can come out of those conversations are incredible. It becomes not about numbers anymore, but about impact impacting team impact, the career of your team. How can we progress them and accelerate their career around client experience? How can we get better outcomes? So so much magic comes out of it when we get those numbers off the page and conversationalize if that's the word the numbers.

Ben Lynch:

It's a really good point. I found that useful. Just even talking out loud, if you don't have someone on your team I'm thinking some of those early stage businesses, they might only be just them. Team, I'm thinking some of those early stage businesses, they might only be just them so even just talk it aloud as if you had to present it to somebody else. Here's what's happened and here's why I think it's happened. I love that, that sort of the narrative behind the numbers, tell the story behind the numbers. I've found, personally, the talking element and the documenting element, like writing literally sort of get a document or if it's in the spreadsheet, you're just sort of off to the side taking notes on. It's really commentary around that. Yeah, are there any other sort of practices that you like to use? Or is it around specific people that they're talking to about those numbers? Because if we think, obviously, from team members through to bookkeeper, through to accountant, through to business advisor, maybe let's start with who who do you maybe encourage people to speak to about their numbers?

Brigid Linden:

Yeah, look, I think the obvious one is a business partner to about their numbers. Yeah, look, I think the obvious one is a business partner If you have a business partner. In partnerships, we'd often find that it's the job of one person to do the numbers, so it could be like, oh, that's their thing. But what I'd recommend is to have 15 minutes a week or a fortnight to just chew the fat about the numbers and have a look at that for opportunities For those people who don't have a business partner. Perhaps there's someone in leadership, a practice manager to talk through it or a clinical lead, and I think that's really important to have our leadership team part of the conversation, because that's where we're really getting alignment. So anyone who will listen, really alignment, so anyone who will listen really.

Brigid Linden:

Certainly in Elevate we always start our masterminds with a bit of an accountability piece where we want people to update us on the dashboard insights and through that we're really refining it to actually what's the one thing, or maybe two things, that you're really obsessed with? We don't want to go in conditional format the entire dashboard so that it's all traffic lighted right. Let's pick the two things that we're obsessing about at the moment and keep those top of mind. So I think that's a beautiful thing through Elevate, that if someone's attending Masterminds once a week, that's every week. We're keeping those numbers top of mind. What's your target, what's your actual? And then we talk it through. So, yeah, that's probably the other thing is we don't have to focus on all the things. Let's figure out what's going to have the most impact right now and obsess about it.

Ben Lynch:

If someone's wondering, there's a lot of maybe red on the dashboard if they've set up some formatting that's like a traffic light, or perhaps there's just a lot of different numbers that signify how different areas of the business are going. How do you help them kind of figure out what that focus is?

Ben Lynch:

What are some of the pieces of advice or questions that you would ask them to get to that clarity, because it does feel like you could focus on everything, but it's only so many hours in the day, so how do you go about creating that clarity for someone?

Brigid Linden:

Yeah, I'm going to circle back to the nurturing statistics. That's where my eye will always go and I'd encourage people to really just look there first, because what that talks about is how we're communicating. What are our systems like? How are we creating outcomes for our patients? So to me, that's the absolute first, and I would say rebooking rate let's get that under control first. And cancellation rate let's move to the PVA. Let's get that under control first. And cancellation rate let's move to the PVA.

Brigid Linden:

And if once we're getting some greens and yellows on the dashboard there, then let's look further. One week, four week forward booking is fabulous, but it's certainly not going to be the first thing that we focus on. Right, let's nail the basics first and then work towards more of that block booking and giving people certainty over their treatment plan and similarly to new patients. That's really often I notice that's where people will focus first. But if we've got you know, if we're attracting 20 new patients a week but they only come once or twice, that's a lot of work, that's a lot of time, money, energy invested in attraction when, to me, our energy should be on nurturing.

Ben Lynch:

It's a really good distinction. And if we just double click on this and go a little bit further because we come across plenty of whether it's clinic owners, less so, but certainly practitioners who are resistant to looking at numbers like this for whatever reason. They don't like it or they don't want to accept it how do you go about having the conversation where they feel like it's all too business orientated and not at all patient oriented, because you've used words like nurturing and certainly looked at the sustainability of if you're getting all these new clients but they just come in for one visit or two. So how do you bring the relevance and importance of those numbers to people on the client side, the client journey, how do you talk to?

Brigid Linden:

that I think this is definitely a reality that a lot of practice owners face, and I faced when we introduced numbers. And you know, sometimes, as business owners, we've done the research, we've done the work in setting this up, so excited to communicate it to our team and we've really unpacked the why for ourselves. But we jump straight into the what and how and we show them. This is the dashboard, this is how you're going to use it, this is how you fill it in and we've forgotten the why. So that would be my first consideration is really, we want to really unpack that why thoroughly.

Brigid Linden:

What's the value in having these numbers? And, yes, the numbers serve the business. The business needs to be profitable to be able to create create great opportunities for patients and team. That's one element. But dash, everything needs to be a win-win-win right. So win for the patients, win for the team, win for the practice. So I'd be focusing on you know, we want to improve this number so that we can make sure we're getting excellent client outcomes, clinical outcomes, client experience and if we can get you from here to here, it's going to accelerate your career. So really trying to get them to be intrinsically motivated by these numbers for their own professional advancement. And I guess the other thing there is. No, I've lost the other thing.

Ben Lynch:

That's a really good point around the intrinsic sort of motivation in my mind that brings up what we term desire statements. Is that part of your thinking there and maybe you could explain how do you unpack that and explain that to a clinic owner as, hey, maybe you want to adopt this type of approach. Can you talk through how you do that?

Brigid Linden:

Thank you, you've just triggered my memory there. That's where I was going. Yeah, look, this needs to link with practitioners' goals, otherwise, you know, there's not going to be that intrinsic motivation. So certainly we need to balance out what's sustainable for the practice with what is best for the patient and going to help the practitioner achieve their goal. And I haven't come across a situation with my team where we can't create that win-win, that there isn't that alignment. So generally, you know, if a patient, if we do desired statement with a practitioner, they'll have an income goal and usually it aligns with the number of patients we actually want them to help. So we could come in there all guns blazing saying I need you to see 50 patients, but let's have it come from them. Let's facilitate the conversation around how much they want to earn, how many patients they want to help, and work backwards from there I really like that distinction of what do you want to earn?

Ben Lynch:

it's relevant, it's important to them personally. And then we're saying well, you know, as the business owner, it's up to me to essentially show you how that's possible. Um, and that looks like a certain amount of appointments per day, per week, per month, per quarter. However, you want to break it down so that it's tangible, and I think that's probably a good point as well. I've seen you do this really well. You break down a big annual goal that feels so like distant and far away into smaller chunks. It's like oh, it's actually six appointments a day, as an example, to be on track with my goal, and it makes it more like Real.

Brigid Linden:

Tangible? Yeah, absolutely, and I think we can do this with maths right. If we know our practitioner wants to earn $100,000 and we can see that means 50 patients a week. We can work backwards there and say, okay, if your PBA is 10, how many new clients do you need? And all of a sudden this huge goal becomes super manageable. That OK, if I continue to help my patients on average 10 times and I can make a plan to hustle for five new patients a week. That's what I need to do. Let's work together to make the plan.

Ben Lynch:

How do you measure patient outcomes or patient feedback to ensure that they are getting those outcomes and that we're not just focusing on sort of business metrics? What do you do and what do you advise others to do?

Brigid Linden:

The Net Promoter Score survey, I think, is a winner. It's fabulous to be able to collect that data and that feedback from patients, and patients seem so willing to do that. I've tried so many surveys in the past where you just get crickets right, you send out this survey and you might get three people answer and they're usually your raving fans because they want to do anything to help you. Versus the NPS survey, it's just just so simple and so accessible to people, so that has been, yeah, a really lovely way to quantify our impact and a patient's experience.

Ben Lynch:

Can you just talk through that? Because what is the Net Promoter Score? What does it practically tangibly look like and when do you send that? Because it is unfamiliar to a lot of people in this space. Just talk us through the Net Promoter Score and how you use it.

Brigid Linden:

So Net Promoter Score or NPS is. It's used across the business sector in general and as soon as I learned about it I started to see it everywhere right, see it at Coles, see it at the Servo, and it's a very simple rating system zero to 10. And the question that people in the know, people who have done the research, have come up with one single question that will show you how, illustrate how a client views your business. And the question is how likely are you to refer a friend or family member? So zero to 10. Nine, 10 being a promoter, so they're very likely to go out into the community and say something positive about your business. We've got seven or eight who are passive, so likely to be pretty neutral, not say anything good or bad, and zero to six is a detractor, so somebody who may speak poorly of your business. So to have those numbers and to be able to give practitioners that affirmation is just fabulous.

Ben Lynch:

It's a great point as well. The affirmation, the feedback loop, is so important around. What are you doing? Well, and here's what clients are saying about you. So, mechanically, what does that look like in your clinic? As for when do patients get the net promoter score? Is it once off, is it continued, and then do you do anything after that, like once they reply, what happens from there? So maybe let's start with how frequent and then what happens off the back end.

Brigid Linden:

Yeah, I absolutely love our system around. This actually Brings me a lot of joy, clearly. So we yeah, we send it out at the first, fifth, tenth, fifteenth, twentieth visit I think. I think it's every five, which, yeah, no right or wrong here. We've got to just figure out what rhythm works best. But we wanted to get a snapshot at different stages of the journey the patient's journey, rather than just their initial vibe of the practice. Or, if we only did it on the 20th visit, we're only capturing a very specific type of patient's feedback. So we do it as a sustained process throughout their visit.

Brigid Linden:

Once we get the data, we will share the comments on Slack so that the whole team can celebrate those comments. So we do that once a month, and they also go onto a practitioner's dashboard, which is a lovely thing for them to look back on. You know, people who have been with us seven, eight years to be able to have a look at that. That much feedback from clients is really special. And then the other way we use it is to generate Google reviews. So we've tried a few ways to do this, and what we found super effective is to actually copy their comment and to send them an email to say we're so grateful for these beautiful words. It would mean the world to if you would be comfortable copying this into a Google review and sharing the link. So we make it super easy. We're not saying to people, you know, thank you for leaving that great review, that you know those beautiful comments, can you also write us a review? And they've got to start drafting it again. So you know a little bit of a roadblock we found. So, since it's very manual the way we do it, but to me it's worth it for the Google reviews.

Brigid Linden:

And of course, we need to be careful with our prorregulations and we're careful in the reviews that we select to ask. We choose the reviews that are focused on client experience rather than clinical outcomes, on client experience rather than clinical outcomes. But really interestingly, almost all of the reviews, the comments that are left by NPS, are client experience reflections. We do a beautiful activity with our team, probably once a year, where we'll cut up or we'll print them out. We'll cut them up Maybe this is the primary school teacher in me we give everybody an envelope of them randomly. It doesn't, you know, does anyone's reviews and we get them to sort them into two piles. So they're looking at the comment and they're putting it in the client experience pile if it relates to experience, and the clinical pile if it relates to clinical, and we have a middle pile for both and it's amazing visual representation of what is really meaningful and impactful to clients because the experience pile is always huge. So it's a great activity for anybody looking for a client experience focused activity for the team.

Ben Lynch:

Yeah, that's such a great system that you've got there. I agree, I think it's okay that it's manual. That personal touch again adds to the experience and I agree with you for those that are governed by ARPRA here in Australia to actually read the regulations on the ARPRA website. I am a part of a lot of forums as you are Bid where there's just a lot of like hearsay of of what is or what can and can't be done. I've just go straight to the source and actually what you find is opera actually really do clarify uh around the use of testimonials, uh and reviews. It's pretty. It I'd say it's pretty clear and they're also pretty forgiving as well.

Ben Lynch:

I recently read their annual review and you know it's like a hundred pages long. In there they talk about, you know, people that have been reported and incidences and and they go into an advertising and marketing section and I wrote a short LinkedIn post about this, which was it's more oops than ouch, which is so often, and it was so small. Like I'm talking a handful of clinics across Australia that needed to fix a few things and they got a friendly reminder or notice from APRA and if they didn't act on that then it got serious. So just for those that are like keyboard warriors that want to get on there like you can't do that, please just go and actually have a look and read the source. It's a wonderful system that you've got going there around the client experience.

Ben Lynch:

One subtle thing that you just spoke about, beard, was team members that have been with you for a long period of time and their ability to see what's stacked up. Tell me about nurturing. You've used that word a few times nurturing the team members through a career progression. What does that look like? Because you've done that really, really well.

Brigid Linden:

Yeah, look, something we're really proud of is our ability to give people clarity and certainty and autonomy over their career progression.

Brigid Linden:

So we do have a roadmap, and Shane Davis is encouraging me to use the word roadmap rather than pathway, because the pathway indicates one direction, whereas a roadmap.

Brigid Linden:

You know there are many ways to develop in your career, and so we do have this roadmap with with different stages of the career and of career progression, with lots of clarity around. What does it look like to you know? What responsibilities would you have at each stage of your career? What would your mentoring rhythm look like? What would your CEIs, your clinical excellence indicators, need to be at certain stages? And the way we came up with that was actually quite special. I think we came up with the different stages of the career progression and then at an alignment day, we said to the team this is what we've come up with, but all the columns are blank. We would love for you guys to go off and work in your modality groups and have a chat and you know it was on Butcher's Paper and they had to have a bit of a brainstorm for each of the different phases, what do you guys think would be appropriate at each different phase, and what they came up with was amazing.

Ben Lynch:

Sorry, I just bit of coffee there, went down the wrong hole and I was joking, sorry to put you.

Ben Lynch:

That's such a wonderful exercise because, as an observation, I see a lot of clinic owners feel this almost weight and pressure of like, oh I've got to go away and design these incredible pathways and roadmap options. It'll be incredibly detailed. I'm going to be prepared for any question and the mechanics of how it's going to work, and I love that you've kind of created a real skeleton and then said let's fill in the blanks together and really co-create, co-design, but within the sort of boundaries that we've set. And so you did that. You came up with what? Three to five options Like. What did you have? Yeah, I think there's six.

Brigid Linden:

So it's, you know, graduate physio, physio to associate physio to senior physio, to lead physio. Yeah, um, and the team just loved it, they've got ownership of it, they're excited about their ability to progress and, yeah, it really, it really, I'm not going to say surprised me, but it really affirmed the alignment that we have in our team and was such a great reflection of our culture and alignment within the team, right, that what they put down was what we would have put down and, yes, that that would have been that. There's some pre-framing there. The questions that the prompting questions that we asked would have helped with that, um, but I could understand for some business owners thinking, if I did that, my team, you know it wouldn't be aligned or you know I wouldn't get the outcome that I wanted. So it's a gamble, but it's the work that you do day to day in having those conversations to align you that result in the ability to create an experience like that for the team.

Ben Lynch:

So were there some things that you did prior, literally in the weeks or months prior maybe, if we go even longer, a couple years that you feel okay, we did these things in the lead up to it. That probably helped set a great foundation for that conversation to be productive, can you point?

Brigid Linden:

to any things that would have created that environment. Yeah, look, I'm not nothing specific, but I think it's the conversations that we have every day, and we have a lot of conversations. So leadership team meet every week and so we're always talking about this, so we speak with the same language. I think similarly as clinic mastery coaches, if, if a client goes between coaches, they, they get a similar voice. Yes, we have different expertise, but they're hearing from a similar voice with similar values and and alignment. And so, in investing the time with our leadership team and then each of the leadership team mentors others, so you know they're consistently having those kind of conversations. There's just that consistency in voice and values and approach that filters right through. And then you know, I see a graduate buddying, you know a first year out buddying a graduate and hear the way that they speak to the graduate and I'm like, wow, that sounds like I would speak to the graduate. So, yeah, consistency in communication to develop that alignment.

Ben Lynch:

That's a really good point and I think perhaps the subtlety there, as I pick it up, is like the time spent with our team, so that they're hearing those messages consistently, repetitively. They're hearing how it's phrased thoughtfully as well. You start to pick it up and it becomes part of the fabric of who you are. If you're continually talking about nurturing, you know, through a journey that applies to not only clients but team members as well, sort of becomes part of the fabric, which is really really quite cool to have that alignment, as you said you. So you call some people call it like a team training day, a culture day. You call it an alignment day, which is where you basically close down the clinic and it's just for team. Talk us through the rhythm of that. Is that an annual thing? Do you do it more regularly and how do you kind of look at what the focus of those days should be? Because it's a big commercial decision to switch off for half a day, four days so what's your rhythm?

Ben Lynch:

and then, how do you determine the?

Brigid Linden:

focus? Yeah, good question. Um, we've we've played around with different rhythms over over the years. We used to have it quarterly um, which worked because we planned quarterly um. Now we we do it.

Brigid Linden:

We do three a year in alignment with 120 day plans, and we really debated where an alignment day belongs within a 120 day plan. Does it belong in play month or does it belong in sustain month? And I can totally see the value of having it in play month. Right, because it's all about, you know, fun and connection and team. We decided to have it in the second month of our plan and so that's our rhythm. So we've got one this month.

Brigid Linden:

So I'm not going to nail the month, it was August, december and whenever. The other one is four months later, april. So we really love that rhythm, because the first month for us, activate. Activate is about pretty much our leadership team behind the scenes creating things. So we're creating the systems and the procedures and the scripts and the templates and we're getting things ready for whatever our focus is. And to us, that sustain month is about launching this with the team and the patient. So it's a really important training time for us to unveil what we've been working on and bring the team along with us. So our 120-day plan is a team effort, and so Alignment Day is the perfect place to do that, because we get time to unpack the why. Why are we focusing on this and then introduce the what and the how and get people excited about it and do some training in that space?

Ben Lynch:

Really nice. Coming back to that, why point that you mentioned earlier of really spending more time on that than jumping to the what and the how of this is the new system process policy. I feel like we're, as business owners, so eager to get the change implemented and actioned that we jump straight to. Here's what we're doing and here's how it's going to work. The why we could definitely go deeper and deeper and deeper. I think practically part of that that I've used is why does this matter? What is the relevance and importance of this thing to team patients? Maybe our network and the business is kind of almost four stakeholders at least and you could choose your own, but if you literally write a bunch of bullet points, I think, for each of those stakeholders and why this matters, why is it important and relevant to the patients that we do this? It really allows you to do some critical thinking and join and connect a bunch of dots. That I think is quite, quite useful. So I love that you know going deeper, deeper.

Ben Lynch:

On the why, you spoke to the mentoring framework, or the mentoring side of things as a key activity that you do. You know dashboards form part of that conversation. It's some version of accountability that they're doing their bit, they're playing their role. Talk to me about the mentoring framework that you have, maybe even starting at some of what are the key principles that you use in mentoring, because a lot of people you probably see this as well you go on to seek. You look at all the jobs that are being advertised, like everyone says you look at all the jobs that are being advertised.

Ben Lynch:

everyone says we offer great mentoring support. However, you and I have seen inside behind the curtain on a number of clinics and what actually gets delivered versus what is promised, and there's a lot to be reconciled. So talk me through there's no perfect version of this, but talk me through sort of your approach to mentoring, your approach to mentoring practitioners to be better in their career.

Brigid Linden:

Yeah, I love this question. So, yeah, I think we take an approach where we're really mentoring the whole person. And what I notice in some practices that I work with is and I totally understand why this happens right, the, the focus of the mentoring is very clinical and to me that's that's obvious, right, but that's a comfortable space, for almost all business owners are clinical themselves, so it's really easy to host a mentoring session focusing on tennis elbow. That's going to come supernaturally and we're going to focus on assessment and then we're going to focus on treatment and home care. But there's often one gaping hole in that and to me that is communication. So we infuse it. We don't do it separately. We wouldn't have.

Brigid Linden:

Okay, this mentoring session is for communication and this one is for clinical. They always need to come together because to have an impact clinically, you need to be a boss communicator, you need to have rapport and be able to educate and build trust in a way that you know patient can um benefit from. So if we're focusing on tennis elbow, um, we are also focusing on how we're communicating this, how we can explain that to a patient. What's going on? How are we going to explain the, the management plan for treat for tennis elbow. So we will literally spend time role-playing the delivery of a management plan. We'll video it, we've got video resources and we'll role-play that to make sure that it's really client-centred, our pace is right, our pausing is right and our delivery resonates with the patient. And then we'll think about okay, how do we communicate the next step at the end of the consult? What's next? How are we going to deliver that conversation?

Brigid Linden:

So without that element, the clinical mentoring is fabulous, but something is lacking, because you could be the best clinically but not get the best outcomes. So that's a big part of it, I think. And then, yeah, the other element is to mentor the whole person. So we're not just looking at this person through a professional lens. We know that how personal mastery is really important, right? What's happening in our, how we're showing up in our personal lives, is really going to impact how we're able to show up professionally, and we really want our team to be really well-rounded um, you know, balance is a little bit elusive but to be well and happy in all aspects of their lives. So we we check in on those sort of things and and we feel like we have quite a a space where people can be vulnerable and let us know what's happening in their lives so we can support them as a whole person.

Ben Lynch:

How do you approach that? Or perhaps now you're so well versed in it, how do you coach a clinic owner that hasn't done that, that hasn't done that, that maybe comes to us and said, well, previously my team had been like you know, my personal stuff's personal and I'm just here for work and I'm just going to do that or any other version of maybe that feels a little uncomfortable to explore what happens outside of work and how do I even start that conversation? Just what's your advice on people that are new to this? Are there certain um topics, questions, approaches that you find useful for those just starting out in going beyond just the clinical realm?

Brigid Linden:

yeah, I think rapport is really important. If we launch straight into I want to check in on how you're sleeping and how you're eating at the moment, that's going to be pretty weird, right like that's. Someone might get a bit defensive and feel like that's pretty intrusive. So I think we need to make sure that we've established rapport so that everything that we're we're asking our team members is coming from a real place of care. And to me that starts from the interview process. Right from the first minute we meet somebody, we are, you know, connecting as humans and you know I want to see the real human in an interview process and connect, and so that foundation starts there.

Brigid Linden:

And then, through the recruitment process, we're going to get to, you know, what we would call an offer meeting. Once we've offered someone a position, we'll get them in and we'll talk to them about the position, the, the offer. We're going to communicate the salary and, you know, the progression pathways and all the things face to face. We're not just going to shoot them that by email, because that is a massive opportunity to pre-frame at, yes, our expectations, but also what it's going to feel like to work with us. And so even into that conversation we're infusing.

Brigid Linden:

You know, at Boost we nurture the whole person and you know we're going to support you in your personal life and your professional life. Does that sound okay? Oh yeah, that sounds amazing. And so then in induction, you know there's little units about personal wellbeing, and we open up those discussions. What works really well for you when you're showing up at your best, what are you doing? And so it's not a random conversation that we just bring out of the blue on their ninth week of employment, and to me, that's why it works.

Ben Lynch:

It's a really great point, and that question I love is when you're at your best, what are you doing? You know for many people they'll be like well, I'm going to the gym three times a week. I feel good when I've got that habit, or it's when I am sleeping well, or it's when I've got a challenge. You know, intellectually or physically, that I'm pursuing running a marathon or new study, and so it's such a wonderful, open-ended question that someone can take anywhere. So, yeah, thank you for sharing that. It's really awesome, something that you've been a great advocate of. You've shared so many of your own personal insights around this is around motherhood and business as well. So much of our community, our mothers running a business, running a family as well. What have been some of the things that you've found really useful for helping especially those mums that are starting a family or expanding a family whilst also growing their business? Um, what have you found really useful in in helping them navigate the juggle?

Brigid Linden:

as you said, it's not really a balance in life, but a juggle yes, oh gosh, yes, this is um we could talk for hours it's real, yeah, the juggle is real and it, I think, um, you know there are seasons in life and we need to kind of roll with the seasons. Um, you know that baby toddler phase, that's hard. There's no, you know, no way around that. Just being a bit of a difficult phase in life and knowing that, hey, this, this season is going to change, um, so we need to be really fluid with that and adapt as we go. So our rhythm, of course, when we're, when we don't have kids, is a certain way, um, and if we're too attached to that rhythm and too kind of fixed with that thinking, okay, that's going to be the same once I've had the baby, I think that can cause a few, you know, a few wobbles, yes, and so I think being really fluid and really gentle and kind with ourselves and realistic about what we can achieve is is a bit of a game changer. My kids are I better not get this wrong my kids are 11 and 12 and 22 at the moment, and so I'm in a season where actually it's pretty, it's pretty great they're, they're independent, but they still like me, the 22 year olds back in, you know, liking me after a teenage years, and so we feel like we're in this season where things are just working at the moment and I'm able to invest the time that I like into the practice and into the business and the things that I love.

Brigid Linden:

But certainly there was a time where, you know, there wasn't enough me time when the kids were tiny. We opened the practice, as you know, ben, when I was pregnant with my second child and I was eight months pregnant, had one of the treatment rooms turned into a nursery because back in that day I was the receptionist. And then 16 months later, we had Lou, and so then we had two babies in that nursery and, you know, rocking one, holding one answering the phone. So it was a juggle. But I think this looks really different for different people. For me that worked. My kids are really good sleepers. I was able to get up and work from five to seven every morning and that was absolute golden time for me, because nobody could take that time away from me, because thankfully, they did sleep until seven. It was rare that they woke up. Yeah, it was definitely interesting times for a while there.

Ben Lynch:

It's a great point around like everyone's journey is different and everyone's approach is different in how they want to navigate it. But the point you made around maybe just that sort of self-talk around the expectations don't be so hard on yourself, maybe a little bit kind, because it is quite a change, quite a change and hopefully, for most, a really joyous change but still brings it stresses what I've actually found. No matter the differences in how people approach it, whether this is moms, dads I feel like it's a really incredible force function where you've all of a sudden got these added constraints, perhaps, if you view it that way, that force you to rapidly accelerate your prioritization and decision-making skills. Yes, because all of a sudden, perhaps you know if you're going to from you know no kids to having your first child, okay, things are completely different. Maybe if you're adding subsequent kids, you're like Shane Davis, maybe onto your eighth kid I'm sure he's on his way, that you know you've got some version of a, a routine that's happened, or your systems, your support networks etc. Set up um.

Ben Lynch:

But there's one thing I've seen like a through line, through. Everyone is like they have to get data and this is the thing. Like it is, it's a forcing function. You have to get data at all. This is the thing like it is. It's a forcing function. You have to get better at all. How am I going to cut and slice my day? Or is this really the top of my to-do list? Or can I let it slide for a little bit? Or that conversation? That's not such a big of a deal. I was making it up and so that's probably a thing that I've seen over time.

Brigid Linden:

I don't know if you've seen something similar or experienced it yourself like that yeah, I was actually having a conversation with a member similar to this yesterday in that time is very limited, so how can we be super impactful in the time that we do have? So, so, focusing on that deep work and, as you say, really prioritising when we do get the time, let's be super effective in that time and I think you, as you alluded to that, that sometimes happens really naturally, because we just have to be effective in everything that we do. So, yeah, I think that's really optimising the time that we have and being clear on what's a priority and what's a sustainable workload at the moment, knowing that things will change and, you know, let's do the important stuff now and the nice to have when it's appropriate.

Ben Lynch:

I like that seasonality approach. The thing that it also forces you to do, I think, is embrace new ways or different ways. You know broadly more efficient or smarter ways of operating where you might have taken a certain amount of time to do something. Perhaps you're then forced to go well, what's a more creative or dynamic way and that could be well. I'm going to delegate that or I'm going to recruit someone into that function or is there a piece of software or technology that could replace it?

Ben Lynch:

I remember when we started CM we were probably in the first six months or so and my wife, maddie, who's a nurse was, was working Maybe it was a 20, 30-minute walk away from where we were at home and I had Tommy. He was six months old, maddie was still breastfeeding Tommy, so I'd be taking him in twice a day by foot because we only had one car. And through that process I found, okay, well, I'm going to have to put him to sleep. You know, do the whole rigmarole and I was using voice to text. We didn't have things like you know, chat GBT today where it can, you know, really help you on that front. But I found, okay, well, I can't be by my computer typing, but I can kind of get fit, walking a lot, settle the baby and kind of answer emails or messages with a voice to text over the phone and so it's a forcing function to think a little bit more creative and dynamically about yeah.

Ben Lynch:

Well, how can I? How can I still get some of these important things done with? These new logistics around me.

Brigid Linden:

And Ben, I think what resonated there was that you were really focusing on what you can do rather than what you can't do. And that can be, you know, from a mindset perspective. Understandably, it can affect new mums to be thinking, oh, I used to be able to do this, I can't do this. And so if we're thinking about what we can do, we're going to become naturally more innovative and proactive.

Ben Lynch:

Right, it's such a good point because you opened with that around it's. It's almost like conscious or subconscious expectations, like if I expect my day's going to go a certain way and to time and to schedule and my week's going to do that and it doesn't, you end up kind of getting like some degree of frustration, resentment, stress, anxiety, whatever it may be. And so I think to your point about being kind and flexible is really good. So I like that distinction of okay, well, what can I do with 20 minutes while I'm doing the dishes? Yeah, um, you know, I can listen to that podcast or that audio book about marketing or systems, perhaps if I'm looking to integrate it or just enjoy the peace of maybe doing the dishes in quiet so I think it's all about just being adaptable is really what you're saying.

Ben Lynch:

I love that yeah.

Brigid Linden:

And being in touch with our desire statement at that time of our life is significant because, you know, it connects us to the why, and being a business owner as a mother is just the most incredible gift. Well, it has been the most incredible gift to me in that it's given me control over my time. So I'm the mum who can show up to I don't know I think people think I don't work because I can show up to the athletic carnival and then I'll be on canteen duty Next minute I'm dressing the kids at the school concert and perhaps they think I don't work. But I am absolutely working super hard but I'll work, you know, in the time slots that around my family and that really suit my lifestyle. So, from a desire statement perspective, if that is the vision that you have for your family to be anchored to, that can help to kind of, you know, drive that adaptability and press on in the more difficult times that this is possible.

Ben Lynch:

It's a really great point around being adaptable and flexible because it is quite a change in your life. I know it's not always easy for people, but being adaptable, hopefully, is a useful thing to navigating the season, as you put it, which is a really lovely way to think about it. Well, we covered a lot a lot of stuff in this episode. It's really great I look forward to that.

Ben Lynch:

Do you have any closing remarks? For those that maybe are struggling a bit, we certainly focus on installing changing clinics so that they can bring all these wonderful things to life that are on their vision, on their desire statement, but certainly understand, have gone through ourselves and see daily the hardships that are a reality for a lot of clinic owners for a variety of reasons. For those people out there there perhaps that are navigating a challenging season uh, what, what sort of uh notes do you have for them? You've gone through plenty as a business owner, so have I what? What do you have for them as they navigate this season?

Brigid Linden:

yeah, look, I would say, lean on your community, and hopefully that's the clinic mastery community, because it is spectacular, and people in the CM community. There's not that many things that could come our way that somebody hasn't been through. So it's this, this most beautiful resource and support network, that we don't have to do this by ourselves and we don't have to feel embarrassed or not willing to share these things, because a problem shared is a problem halved right. So lean on the community, share the problem and then you've got people around you working together to get it sorted for you with you.

Ben Lynch:

Lean into the community lovely advice. You don't have to do it sorted for you with you. Lean into the community Lovely advice. You don't have to do it alone, and business definitely can feel lonely at times, so I love that You've got people by your side supporting you, helping you navigate this season Well. Bib, thank you so much for sharing. You are welcome. It's been a pleasure. Ben, thank you for having me. We will catch you on another episode of the Grow your Clinic podcast. All the show notes over at clinicmasterycom and come over to our YouTube channel. Hit subscribe and see all the awesome content that we're sharing educational videos, podcasts about how you can grow your clinic for good, something that is sustainable and amplifies your impact. All right, we'll see you on another episode very soon.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for tuning in to the Grow your Clinic podcast. To find out more about past episodes or how we can help you, head to wwwclinicmasterycom forward slash podcast and please remember to rate and review us on your podcast player of choice. See you on the next episode.