Mastering the Future of Allied Health: Unveiling the Power of Professional Quality Coaching in an Era of AI and Social Intelligence – with Cathy Love

Coaching, consulting and training are three services often needed by allied health professionals who want to build a successful and sustainable practice. But what is the difference between them, how can you make sure you get the right support at the right time and what trends will allied health professions face in the next few years? Those questions (and more) are the topic of this wide-ranging conversation with Cathy Love. 

Cathy is an Accredited Coach, Occupational Therapist, Author, Speaker, Podcaster, Optimist, and lover of pearls. She is the founding Director at Nacre Consulting, a company that provides practical business coaching programs dedicated to creating brilliance in others. Her clients include allied health business owners who manage businesses of all shapes and sizes. Cathy is also a Speaker, Podcaster and Author who is committed to being helpful and sharing what she knows far and wide. Cathy’s philosophy is that your business should enable your lifestyle and leave the world a better place.

In this conversation, Jo and Cathy explore:

• 3 questions you should thinking about when choosing to work with a coach,
• The surprising measures of success that have nothing to do with the profitability of your practice, 
• What the allied health field could look like in 2 years time and the trends that allied health professionals will need to address, and
• The surprising skills and knowledge you will need to improve and develop as an allied health professional. 

You can connect with Cathy via her website at https://www.nacre.com.au/, in the Private Practice Made Perfect Facebook group or you can listen to the Private Practice Made Perfect podcast.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Purple Co 
• Future Proofing Health Professionals Facebook Group 
• Profit First for Therapists by Julie Herres – The Entrepreneurial Clinician Podcast episode 23.

If you know you need more support, please visit my website at https://jomuirhead.com

Transcript

Jo:

Welcome back to the Entrepreneurial Clinician Podcast. I’m your host, Jo Muirhead. And I’m going to say that I’m excited about today’s conversation. I probably say that every episode, but I know some awesome people. And the awesome person that I have on this podcast today is Cathy Love, who is a fellow Australian. Now, why is that important? Number one, we will talk fast. So if you are used to listening to podcasts on double speed, you probably won’t wanna do that today. The second reason is we’ll use Australian language. Now, for those of you living in Europe, or the USA or New Zealand, we’re probably gonna use words. And you’re gonna go, what the heck was that? That’s okay. That’s what social media is for.

Just come ask me a question and we’ll sort you out and make sure that you can keep up with the conversation. So, I’ve asked Cathy to come on today, and she got less than 24 hours notice on the topic that I wanted to talk to her about. But the cool thing about Cathy and I is that we have really high, really, really high levels of trust with each other. And we have an incredible amount of respect for each other. So we’ve already decided that this could end up in hysterical laughter, or we could end up in tears. So come on a journey with us now, audience, and let’s find out where we go. So, Cathy, tell us a little bit about who you’re, how you turn up in the world, who you serve. Why would I ask you to be on this podcast?

Cathy:

<Laugh>. Hi, Jo. Thank you so much for the invite. It’s always such a pleasure to catch up with you. I think we should do it more often. We say this all the time. So first up, the podcast has already started in hysterical laughter. Yes. And I’m pretty sure that the listeners won’t get what happened before we really started, but I’m Cathy Love. I’m the director of Nacre Consulting. We’re a small but mighty business coaching company here in Australia. And we provide services to allied health business owners, helping them run amazing businesses that really serve them the time and money and joy that business can bring. It doesn’t have to be a burden, and you don’t have to do it on your own. And it doesn’t have to be a 60 hour week for everybody. So our wonderful clients are occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, exercise physiologists, music therapists, speechies, the whole gamut. And I think this could be a topic for another podcast, Jo, but there’s more and more allied health businesses that are diversifying their services. And popping up as well, which I think we think is absolutely amazing. 

Social workers also allied health assistants. That’s definitely another podcast. Our people are allied health business owners who want to do business better and easier.

Jo:

Oh, allied health business owners who wanna do business better and easier. Sign us all up here, Cathy. 

Cathy:

I should get tshirts made. 

Jo:

Yeah. <Laugh> my t-shirt currently says. But first coffee. ’cause It’s Friday morning.

Cathy:

I’ve done the coffee run.

Jo:

Okay. I love that you brought up music therapists because they’re coming into my world as well. Music therapists who are doing private practice, art therapists who are doing private practice, dance therapists who are doing other somatic practices. And I just find it fascinating because many, many years ago when I graduated, that stuff wasn’t heard of. It was almost voodoo.

Cathy:

Yeah, I know, I know. And some of those disciplines have got really strong, even a growing and fast growing evidence bank as well. And in some ways sometimes more evidence driven than some of the other disciplines. Anyway, so what are these burning questions you got, Jo?

Jo:

So the first one I wanna ask, because you’ve been coaching allied health business owners now for a little while. You’re like, you’re not new. You haven’t been doing this for six months. <Laugh>, how long have you been doing it?

Cathy:

For a Friday morning? That’s quite an ageing question. I did my coach training in about 2010. I have worked in this way for pretty much my whole professional career, which at times had me on the edge of clinical practice. And so that was that. And then I pretty much coached our son and daughter <laugh>. And oaching is a phenomenal tool for teenagers. And I think it’s interesting here that I would have to think very, very deeply about where my occupational therapy, DNA sits with and against my coaching. As in good tension, right? So yeah, I’ve been coaching humans for a very long time and I’ve been coaching little people and their families for probably 30 years. If I think about it, I’ve been coaching business owners since about 2012, I think that is 10, 11 years. Yeah. And I think where our conversation might go is just the scope of coaching and well, what it isn’t.

Jo:

Yes. Absolutely. And that was the conversation I wanted to have with you today. So we’ve got all of these for me, it feels like every day if I open up Facebook, there’s a new person professing to be the next best thing in private practice coaching.

Cathy:

And there’s a lot, isn’t there?

Jo:

Yeah. And, I must admit, I’m now of an age and maybe it’s maturity and wisdom where I kind of go, oh, honey, don’t, et’s just be careful about this. So I’m asking some really seasoned coaches that I know do this well, and have incredible reputations. What is it, what is coaching for private practice businesses? If I was a client, what should I be expecting?

Cathy:

The word coaching has had a lot of conversation for decades. A lot. A lot. And life coaches. I was talking with a life coach just the other week ’cause I’m looking to upgrade my coaching qualifications and I’ve got a couple of really exciting calls next week for which agency I’ll do that with. And so I was talking with my friend and she was saying there’s still this ongoing thing about what coaching is and that it’s not counselling, it’s not repair. It’s not a rehab kind of piece. But it’s delicate, if you like. And so coaching as I sort of understand it, is very much working from a strengths-based approach. And very much from a wellness point of view in terms of life coaching.

And I guess when we are thinking about coaching for allied health business owners, it does edge to consulting and it does edge to training. So we provide monthly training for our members on really niche allied health business topics. And our playground is, oh, playground at NDIS, I can’t use those words together, but don’t edit that out ’cause that’s just real. And so we know when we are training, but we also know when we are consulting. And I think the consulting and and the coaching thing is harder to define. So coaching can be a very vibrant strength space. Well, what are you stuck on? And what have you thought about? And tell me a bit about those options. And do you think one is gonna land better than the other? And how would that look?

And how are you gonna decide? Like I just asked one of our clients the other day, how would you decide about that? Like, I already had some frameworks in my head and possibly what I would do, and I will offer that if asked or I’ll say, do you want to know what I would think? But that guiding and structured conversation, what are you stuck on? What are your options? How do you think it’s gonna roll? Have you got a favourite one? What’s it really gonna mean? How are you gonna message that? Okay. And then what are you gonna do? You know, it’s a very well asked question. So Jo, you will have picked that, that is pretty much the GROW model of coaching. Which is a really, really solid, incredibly powerful, incredibly flexible coaching model as well.

But because of my occupational therapy, because of my coach training, I know when I step over into consulting. I reckon you’ve got two options. She holds up three fingers. Geez. I reckon you’ve got three options. I would be thinking about A, B, or C and then you might kind of talk through that. But I guess consulting, we think of consultants and we do some of this work, right? We’ll go into a business, we’ll look under the hood, we’ll do some really deep diagnostic work and then, we’ll, we don’t write reports. But well, no, we have, but here’s the report. Good luck. So that’s me. I’m curious, what do you think about those intersections?

Jo:

I’m glad you brought them all up, because I think there’s a perception in the marketplace that a person in private practice, whether they’re a solo person or they’re looking to grow. I hear it a lot. I’ll have my first conversation with people and they go, I just need somebody to tell me what to do. I just need a coach to tell me what to do. And I’m like, that’s not coaching <laugh>.

Cathy:

It’s not, but there’s a time and place for that.

Jo:

Yeah. So for me, I’m very good at telling people what to do. To me, that’s my consulting hat. My telling hat is my consulting hat or my mentoring hat dependence depending on if you come to me, you want specific answers to a specific problem with a specific way of specifically doing something, and I have those answers. I can consult with you on that. Is this gonna fit for your business? In my case, I work more often with the individuals. Is this the right thing for you now? Is this the right next step for you now? But then the coaching, so I tend to use coaching as a part of my toolkit. Similarly to you. So my coaching is very much, I’m asking questions. They’re expansive questions, they’re questions that help people think. I’m very good at helping people think, but I’m also very good at poking that bruise. You know, that part of you that you don’t wanna admit, but that’s the thing that’s keeping you stuck. And then there’s the training, which a lot of people are used to receiving from coaches, because for coaches who don’t wanna do clinical work anymore, they’re trying to find a way out of the one-on-one. So they go, oh, I need to train other clinicians on how to do other things, which is training. But what I don’t think is happening very well at the moment is that I think we’ve got allied health professionals coming in not realising that this is a burgeoning market. That there’s nowhere near as much regulation or stipulation or expectation on the professionals who are coaching, consulting, mentoring, training. And then they’re feeling disrespected and sometimes betrayed because they’re the service provider. The coach is selling them what the coach can deliver, not necessarily what the person is asking for or needs. 

And I guess there’s a bit of apprehension in me about even saying that out loud. ’cause I’m kind of calling out one of my big frustrations with people who work like us right now. But if you and I can’t talk about it, who the heck is gonna talk about it? Right?

Cathy:

<Laugh> Oh my gosh. This could be like three hours, Jo. I wanna come back to that. I don’t wanna stray. ’cause We can stray really easily, right? 

Jo:

We’re good at that. Yep.

Cathy:

Yeah. If we think about coaching and consulting and training I think developing financial knowledge and financial governance is a really good example of this. That’s all I can think of. So I hope it’s a good one. And so with the financial governance training is most likely required. The most financially comfortable, fluent business owners. There are still more or different ways or things to do, like how to work with spreadsheets, how to develop your cash flow forecasts, what a dynamic budget looks like, understanding your profit and loss, what on earth that balance sheet is like. There is a time and a place for training. And that’s what we have resources on how you, the awesome human who has to interact with all of those numbers, that’s where consulting and the coaching comes in, right? Yes. And so realise the magic of knowing how to boost a business owner’s confidence and capacity and capability and having training assets in place as well.

Jo:

Oh, I like it. So the other place that I can think of is in recruitment. So, again like with financial governance. So for people not familiar with that term, that means all the rules and regulations required of business owners to be financially viable in their business. So that’s your obligations to your tax people <laugh> to your industrial relations people. I’m trying to have an international audience mindset here. So for us, it’s the ATO, it’s the Department of Industrial Relations. It’s the Human Rights Commission. It’s all the workers’ compensation, your professional indemnity, professional liability, all of that sort of stuff. So when we get to recruitment, you can train on the things you need to have in place to have a really solid recruitment and onboarding system.

And the reason why I say Cathy can train on that is ’cause Cathy does that brilliantly. I don’t like training on those topics. So if you need help with that, go to Cathy. So we can train on how to recruit, what do you need to put in your ad? What do you need to put in your position description? How do you make an offer of employment? How do you want to onboard somebody? So there’s specific modules that have specific learning outcomes. But like you’ve said, the coaching dynamic turns up and it’s like, well, how do we make this make sense for your business? How do we implement this with you right now? Because how many times have you done training and you’ve walked away and you have not done anything with that new knowledge? Many times <laugh>. Many times.

Cathy:

Like, how many recipe books have you got on the kitchen shelf? Like, same thing, right?

Jo:

Yep.

Cathy: 

And I just bought three more. Because they had pretty covers.

Jo:

Yeah. They look good on the table. So when a person wants to engage with a coach, what are three things that you would like them to be asking of you? If you as the coach were sitting there going, oh, I wanna work with this person. What types of things is that potential client asking you about?

Cathy:

Hmm. Ooh, that was tricky. No. Well, let’s just wrangle the words a bit. Is it what they ask us about. And then there’s what would delight me if I heard? 

Jo:
Okay. Well, let’s go with delight. Let’s do the delightful one. 

Cathy: 

I think it’s important to do some due diligence, right? But not so much research that you’ve spoken to every coach in Australia, you’ve got all their prospectuses, you’ve got a spreadsheet of it all, and you just drown in analysis paralysis, because that happens as well. That happens as well. And that’s complicated ’cause that’s gonna show up everywhere in your business. And you’re gonna be just in a holding pattern for many, many years potentially. We see that happen. 

Actually I’m gonna flip it around a little. If I was looking for a mentor and around that due diligence, I’d wanna know about the results they get, like tangible results that they get. I’d wanna hear not always about the success stories, but also the experiences that our clients, our members have had. So I think about results and experiences. So we like to introduce people to some of our members that are with us at the moment or have worked with us. I think that’s important. I think it’s also about understanding the transformational value that they will get. Because I think that starts to open the door to doubt and fear ’cause they’re friends of mine from time to time, right? And so what is the transformational value? What is your relationship with success? Is that attractive or not so much at the moment? I think also asking about, well, I’m investing time and money here. Like, what does that look like on the ground? And does that relate back to the transformational value that they’ll get? I think the time is an interesting one. Because we can always find reasons for being too busy to do the hard, not hard. Sometimes it’s hard. I’ve done hard personal work, but sometimes we can always find reasons to not invest time in ourselves as business owners and not invest in ourselves as a conduit to business success. Because one of my all-time favourite quotes is along the lines of your level of success will never be more than your level of personal development. So you’ve gotta be personally ready for coaching and understand that it is an investment in you first and foremost.

And then the good stuff will flow to the team and then the good stuff will flow to clients. Like we are very clear about our ripple impact. And working hard to measure it. Then I think there’s also a piece around trust. Like they’ve gotta trust themselves to be able to travel with a co-pilot. And they’ve gotta trust us. And so that comes back to, have you got your stuff together? Like, who are you to be telling me how to run my business? And that comes back to proof and evidence, if you like, that what we do works. That we’ve got a robust model, which we do. That we’ve got resources that we’ve got an awesome, incredible team behind the scenes that make me and my coaches look good. Right. So, I think understanding the transformational value of being increasingly comfortable or willing to be comfortable with success and change. Also the risk associated with time and money. And then trust. 

Jo:

Yeah. That’s great. And they’re not usually the questions people come with. My biggest red flag, is if the first question a person says is, how much does it cost to work with you? And I’m like, I’m usually not the right person.

Cathy:

And then there’s this sort of thing, oh, well that’s a lot more than my clinical supervision. ||

Jo:

<Laugh>. So, okay. Jo’’s having hysterical laughter there because we’re about to set you on a journey where you could probably earn 10 times the amount you are currently earning. Like the other sorts of results you should be expecting, people <laugh>.

Cathy:

We’re comfortable talking in multiples of millions. Yes. Multiples of millions.

Jo:

Yes. But we’re also comfortable. So the other thing is, if I have somebody who comes along who just says, I need somebody to hold me accountable. And I’m like, well, what does that mean? And it usually means they want me to boss them around and make them do stuff that. No. If you need that level of direction, you’re not ready for the growth that you think that you want.

Cathy:

About that, I think accountability’s a great one.

Jo:

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying don’t have accountability, but tthe person who comes in going, I wanna meet with you. I wanna have access to you every day so you can tell me what to do every day. No.

Cathy:

Sometimes that accountability piece, I wonder if it’s the cousin to, I dunno what I don’t know. And I see in that place, I wanna be supported to the best next thing for me, for you to be guiding me to do in my business. And I want you to support me to implement and to show up as an implementer as well.

Jo:

Nice. I love that. The implementation piece. I don’t think we can talk about that enough. I think that the coaches that are very good at turning up to a session, listening, hearing you do your download, giving you two things to do at the end of the session, not booking a next session with you and not willing to walk with you. I think we need to be a little bit careful of that. ’cause I’m, I’m not sure that that’s going to get people the results that they want. Just calling me up and asking for one session of coaching to get you from, I don’t know what…

Cathy:

$500k to 2 million.

Jo:

So people usually I’ve got too many clients and I’m burning out, I’ve got too many clients I’m burning out. I haven’t slept for six months. I just want a coaching session with you to fix it.

Cathy:

Oh, my heart breaks hearing these stories.

Jo:

Oh my mine does too. But I’m not here to be your best friend. My job is to actually go, one session’s then gonna fix this.

Cathy:

It’s pretty amazing how hard allied health business owners work, don’t you? Like, unbelievable. We just salute them on a daily basis. But do you know when we make even more noise, we get really, really noisy when their work week is 60 then 50, then 45, then 40. Let’s just do the maths to 20 hours. Right? Like the delusion that you can manage a really big team and be financially successful and compliant and a destination business on 20 hours a week. 10. Pretty cool.

Jo:

Well I get excited by that because like you, I know that that’s possible. I get excited when my measurables end up being you’re sleeping. You’re now sleeping through the night. You’ve increased your own personal billable rate by 20-30%. You’ve gotten rid of some of those insurance companies that are paying you $37 an hour. You know, sleeping through ’cause If we haven’t got our sleep, nothing’s gonna work. <Laugh>.

Cathy:

Oh, completely. Completely. oh, we could talk about sleep. We’ll just do that next time. So I think that just speaks to the due diligence for people thinking about coaching to really think about the transformational value. And their relationship with change and success.

Jo:

And a lot of people will come and they’ll start something and you will have noticed this. They start and then it gets uncomfortable because change is happening and it’s just like, I’m too tired, I’m too burnt out. I’m too worn out. I can’t handle any more change. So they just go back to what they know is comfortable because they don’t have to think about it. Now, there is no criticism. There is no blame or shame with that. But Cathy and I want more for you than that. But we also get why you wanna stay where you are ’cause it’s exhausting being an allied health professional. If Covid taught us nothing, it taught us that the most burnt out people on the planet will still turn up to work and serve the people who are sick. That’s what we did.

Cathy:

That’s what we did. So with this in mind, this was a question you were gonna ask me, but I’m just gonna pitch it your way first.

Jo:

Thanks so much darling.

Cathy:

What do you think Allied health business is gonna look like? Let’s just go two years, right? Let’s just go two years. Like, just pretend we’re at the bar having a drink.

Jo:

So in two years time, I think and I don’t wanna be all doom and gloom, but you know, we’re allied health professionals. So we are fairly risk averse. I think we all <laugh> on top of our business hats. We’re going to have to become chief information officers. And we are really going to have to understand our responsibility with things like cybersecurity, reputational management, online, how that fits in with your HIPAA or your national privacy policy and your APA stuff here in Australia. And what that means if you run Facebook communities, ’cause there’s legal precedent in this country that’s just right for testing. If it’s happening in Australia, it’s gonna be happening everywhere.

Cathy:

If it’s happening in Australia, it’s already happened everywhere else.

Jo:

Yeah. Okay. <laugh>, it’s terrifying <laugh>. And because people don’t understand the risk and they think that their $300 a year, Aon policy is gonna protect them from it. It’s not, so as business owners, I think the next step we’ve gotta improve our financial literacy. We’ve always always gotta improve our financial literacy. We’re going to have to improve our relationship with all levels of cybersecurity, not just a safe email platform form. And this one is gonna probably get me some hate, but every allied health professional under the sun needs to improve their social and emotional intelligence because you are so used to working from a diagnostic ill health perspective to help people become well. And you then transform that or transplant that onto our team who are not unwell. But it’s easier for us if they are unwell or they do have a disability. ’cause we know what to do with that. So I think we all need to improve our social and emotional intelligence so that we can help healthy teams become healthier. Here ended my sermon <laugh>

Cathy:

The way I described that last part, Jo is therapising your team.

Cathy:

And that’s understandable because that’s a frame of reference that you have for how to facilitate change. But I would really question, Hmm. I’m gonna think about this today actually. No, I’m not gonna answer. I’m gonna think about it. If that’s okay. Sorry, podcast. I’ll need some time to brew on that one. I think I will springboard from that. And we are doing work at the moment with some consultants and bringing some stuff to our members next, oh, very soon, actually next year is managing multi-generational workforces. I think this is gonna be really, really interesting. And I don’t see it as a bad thing. I just think it’s phenomenal. But I think it’s gonna be helpful to understand the assets and amazing talents across the generations. But at the end of the day, unless you can lead yourself, you can’t lead anyone.

And leadership at times is n equals one. You are leading yourself against the edge, against the edges and with the aura of the person that’s in front of you. So the generational stuff is problematic ’cause of the pigeonhole. It stereotypes people. But to understand some of the context I think is cool. But to manage self against the edges of the person in front of you is really, really cool. So I think that’s a bit of a trend. I think AI is gonna be phenomenal. I’ve just been at a conference yesterday and may have had a bit of a late night show. <Laugh> and AI came up in lots of ways. And we have a dedicated team member that is looking at AI and trends and we are speaking about it and have a sizable project running week on week on week in terms of what is happening on that front. I think that kind of comes back to some of your cyber security as well. But the AI Jo, we could be replaced.

Jo:

Ooh. But <laugh> I really dunno if there’s many tasks that we can do that can replace us. But I dunno if you as an OT could be replaced. I just dunno.

Cathy:

Let’s just wait and see. Let’s just wait and see. With some of the plugins on chat GPT that we’ve been playing with, we’ve been blown away with some of the outcomes actually. But where it needs that human touch is to go over it and say Yes, yes, yes. No, not so much. Yes, yes. I’ll reword that bit. So there is that human touch there. Other trends, gosh – dare I add the NDIS, which is relevant for Australian business owners. We’re waiting, we’ve had the Royal commission here which was extraordinary.

Jo:

It was horrifying.

Cathy:

Well sadly, many of us were surprised. And here in Australia, we’ve had some pretty state stories told through the media as well that sent people reeling. And now we are waiting. Australian listeners, as you know, the NDIS review is due in weeks to come as well. So whether it’s trends or whether it’s context, I think allied health business owners cannot afford on any level to put their head in the sand. They need to be engaged. They need to be in your Facebook group. They need to be in our pitching in Private Practice Made Perfect. You can pitch yours. Because we are wanting to mobilise some energy to potentially respond and change some narratives around the NDIS as well. I think allied health assistance is gonna be really interesting. And they’re probably called other things in other countries. Jo, you would be the expert on that. But I think the way Allied health professional clinicians work is gonna be changing, shaping. I’m kind of always pretty optimistic. I quite like change. I’m quite comfortable with it. But it might really throw a bit of a curve ball across others as well. I think the cost of living is gonna be interesting. And workforce recruitment and I think retention. We’ve been nuts on retention for years now. But I think what the workforce wants and needs is gonna be really interesting, really interesting as well. And oh, ignorance is not a defence. So generational management. Cost of living, cost of business. We want surprises, but good ones, right? 

So yeah. Yeah. Engaged alert, but not alarmed

Jo:

<Laugh> And working with the right professionals at the right time to help mitigate some of those risks. So, for me, taxation compliance was always something that terrified me. So I’ve always spent good money learning about how to make sure that I was compliant. Right. ’cause I don’t want the ATO, the Australian Tax Office, running after me. Chances are they won’t, but I just don’t wanna live with that level of anxiety. Then our industrial relations laws in this country, like you can’t pretend that you don’t know. If you were the director of your company, you cannot say, I didn’t know <laugh>

Cathy:

Or, but my life partner does all the books.

Jo:

Yeah. So if there’s so many clinicians who build big caseloads, and then they go, oh, I could move out of this private practice or this employment place, do this on my own and get the whole $200 of my own.

Cathy:

So, says everyone at the start.

Jo:

Correct. And then they just keep seeing all those clients and then they get behind in their billing, they get behind in their notes, and then all of a sudden they’re subpoenaed.

Cathy:

And they don’t realise the obligations of a sole trader, which is relevant to here in Australia, that you’re gonna find pay of that in tax.

Jo:

Correct. And then you haven’t factored in the fact that you want some annual leave, some sick leaves, some holiday pay, so if you only motivation is I want that $200 for myself. There are some other resources. Profit First for Therapists. I’ll give Julie Herres’ book a plug. It’s a good one. She writes about that really well in that book. So not doom and gloom. I personally think, Cathy, that private practice has an incredible role to play in the landscape of health. Right?

Cathy:

Yeah. Like a really significant and to be celebrated contribution to the Australian social fabric and the Australian financial fabric as well. I’ve just spent the day at a conference and awards piece last night and I wanna shout out to all of the finalists, Australian Disability Services Conference and all of the winners. And you know what, Jo? There were so many phenomenal women walking across the stage,

Jo:

<Laugh>. Oh, I’m sorry. A little bit teary.

Cathy:

I know, right?

Jo:

Yeah. That’s brilliant. And, that not only raises the profile of women in business, it also raises the profile of people living with disability and giving them an incredible voice and teaching us all how to be incredible advocates for our clients. Because essentially we do that, whether we think we do or not. <Laugh>. An that’s an important part of my work. 

So Cathy, for people who wanna find out about you, you mentioned you’ve got a Facebook group called Private Practice Made Perfect. So for those of you who are already struggling with the word ‘perfect’, please know that it’s a bit tongue in cheek.

Cathy:

And that name will probably be changing. ’cause it is not our brand.

Jo:

No, it’s not. But I always just assumed it was a tongue in cheek thing. Like, I’m gonna pick out all the perfectionist health professionals, of which there are millions <laugh>.

Cathy:

It was real. We thought it was good at the time. And this is my comfort with change. Like, I will own the fact that that is not the best name for the group right now. Or, and the podcast Private Practice Made Perfect. That is so not the way we think now, but that’s a great illustration of business. We worked with a consultant. That’s what we got. It made good sense. It was searchable, it was relatable, but it’s not who we are now seven years later.

Jo:

Oh, what a beautiful example. And I also love how you’ve thrown in there that we’ve worked with consultants, we made sure that we’ve been doing the work. You know, you’ve thrown that in a few times, Cathy, because I know that it’s the fabric of how you get to where you are and how you serve the people. You’re always like, Cathy’s always learning. She is always learning. So we’ve got a podcast, we’ve got a Facebook group. What else have you got? How else can people find you?

Cathy:

Yeah, head over to the website, nacre.com au. And I guess I’ll preface this. I don’t wanna go hardcore pitch here, but what I would like Allied health business owners to think about is to check in with the help that they know they need, the business they want, and to reach out and get that help way before they think they need it.

Jo:

Please.

Cathy:

It is so much more exciting and impactful. And generally awesome is to start, as you mean, to proceed and to invest in coaching, consulting with whoever to just get those foundations, right. ’cause it is a different consulting coaching experience if you are reverse engineering a lot of infrastructure mindset, systemisation outcome measurement. I could go on!

Jo:

Culture.

Cathy:

Yes! So get the help you need before you need it. And I think that applies to supporting your mental health, supporting your physical wellness. We’re just putting it in the frame of business help as well. So nacre.com au. Book a power call free. 20 minutes. It’s not free coaching. <Laugh>.

Jo:

Nice. Thank you. Well done.

Cathy:

So we’ve broken a few hearts. Let it be said. It’s amazing what people want for free. <Laugh>. We all do that. We all do that. I asked, I asked one of our wonderful industry partners for some free help for one of our clients, and of course he stepped up.

Jo:

Oh, he did. Nice.

Cathy:

Of course he did.

Jo:

Yeah. That’s wonderful.

Cathy:

But those discovery calls. They’re not free coaching. Right. We can’t change the word in 20 minutes, but it is the start of the dating process. Are we a good match to work together? So there’s a range of questions that are thought provoking and interesting and curiousity based. And then it will go into a strategy session with me or our business manager to really have a look under the hood about where you’re at, what we think we could achieve together. ’cause I don’t know about you, but I’ve always invested in coaching and consulting. Like for 23 years. I’ve worked with all sorts of different people to help me get where I am both personally and professionally and business wise. And it’s about the right person at the right time for the right reason.

Jo:

I love it. That’s one of my favourite phrases. It’s the right person at the right time for the right reasons. And I’m always testing, am I the right person at the right time for the right reasons for you when you come to speak to me. And if I’m not, let me help you find that right person. Because I’m not always the right person. <Laugh>. So you go, if you know anything about recruitment and onboarding, I’m not your right person. <Laugh>, I’ve made that very clear right now. It’s not because I can’t do it, I don’t like it. It’s just like HR. It’s not something I enjoy. I just don’t enjoy it.

Cathy:

So you’re awesome and you are enough.

Jo:

Thank you. Oh, so we’re gonna leave that there, Cathy, the next time you and I get together in real life, in real personhood, what are we drinking?

Cathy:

Oh, I rabbit on a lot about it, but I pretty much don’t drink anymore at all. 

Jo:

So, so what coffee are we drinking?

Cathy:

I don’t know. Whatever. It’s the company and the conversation. The beverage is a bonus.

Jo:

The beverage is a bonus. We’re gonna leave that there, everybody. What a fantastic interview with the fabulous Cathy Love as always. I enjoyed this conversation. We’ve gone way over time, but I don’t think anybody’s going to mind.

Cathy:

They can turn us down if they want.

Jo:

Right. We’ll fast forward because you know, we didn’t talk fast. Until next episode, go be your awesome self.