Hey Reader,

Last year, my client Adrienne put one number in front of her team. $65,000

Sixty-five thousand dollars.

That was what missed appointments and cancelations had cost her therapy practice in a single year.

Nothing about the policy changed that day. They already had one.

What changed is that everyone could finally see what ignoring it cost, and within the week they were following the rule they had been quietly skipping for months.

I love that story for what it says about the real problem. Adrienne came to me convinced she needed more marketing to keep her therapists calendars full. But when we dug into her numbers - we quickly realized it wasn't a marketing issue.

She was getting more than enough inquires each month.

New client intake numbers were solid.

The leak in her business wasn't at the beginning of the client experience - it was in the retention of those clients.

And during summer months when people weren't showing up as scheduled or canceled last minute, it created a cash flow crunch that was multiplied by other operations and team challenges.

Adrienne has been building a group trauma therapy practice for five years, and the last eighteen months tested every part of it: Four people left. She lost her dad. One of her clinicians hit a personal crisis.

Any one of those could have taken the business down. It is still standing, and she knows her numbers better than she ever has, because the systems held when she could not.

That is the whole episode. Not a magic funnel, just the unglamorous structure that catches you when life decides to life.

​In this week's episode, Adrienne and I get into:​

• The three values she now hires and trains by, and the cycle they finally broke
• The single number that changed how her whole team behaved, the same day
• Why "I just need more marketing" is so often the wrong diagnosis
• The difference between turning a canoe and turning a cruise ship, and what it does to your timeline
• What kept her doors open through the hardest stretch she has had

If you're also going through the painful rites of passage of hiring and leading a team (and dealing with the fallout when someone leaves unexpectedly), this is a must listen episode!

Racheal