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Episode 7: Making Career Decisions That Support You Future & Thinking About Next Steps
121 Plays1 year ago
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From Intern to Entrepreneur is the podcast for counseling graduate students (and other grad students in mental health fields) to start planning their journey to private practice while they're still in graduate school! Host, Cori White, started planning her journey while she was still in her graduate program and it paid off BIG to start planning EARLY.
In this episode of From Intern to Entrepreneur, Cori interviews Andrea Brognano - and she owns THREE businesses! She talks about her journey & how she made intentional decisions to create a fulfilling life. Oh, and she's a social media expert, how cool?!
More about Andrea:
Andrea Brognano is a Licensed Mental Health Clinician and the group practice owner of Therapy Connection, an online mental health group practice that was established in late 2019. Therapy Connection has expanded to multiple states and expanded services including in home services in NJ for children with disabilities. Andrea opened her second company, Achieve With Andrea (AWA), in the summer of 2021. AWA has several different programs including a membership to help therapists with their social media, hosting women’s retreats and workshops, creating useful journals for purchase, a course for female entrepreneurs, wellness workshops for businesses, AND a department for continuing education for therapists. As of June 2023, Andrea opened a 3rd company dedicated to mental health specific for people with developmental disabilities in New York. Andrea is passionate about mental health and how to help other entrepreneurs maintain mental wellness to be able to excel while holding a life-work balance.
Connect with her through her websites:
Click here for Andrea's facebook group
Click here for Andrea's therapy website
Click here for Andrea's Instagram
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction: Podcast for Aspiring Therapists
00:00:00
Speaker
This is from intern to entrepreneur, the podcast for counseling and therapy graduate students who want to start planning their journey to private practice while they're still in grad school. I'm your host Corey White. And within three years of graduating from my master's program, I had a six figure thriving private practice in large part because I started planning my path while I was still in grad school.
00:00:21
Speaker
This podcast is full of stories and information meant to give you ideas about how you can carve your own path to the therapy career that you want. Please note that when you're listening to this podcast, licensure laws and requirements vary from state to state. So check with your state board about what you can and can't do on your journey. And without further ado, enjoy this episode of From Intern to Entrepreneur.
00:00:45
Speaker
Hey, grad students. Welcome to another episode of From Intern to Entrepreneur.
Meet Andrea Bergnano: Diverse Entrepreneur
00:00:50
Speaker
Today, I'm interviewing my friend, Andrea Bergnano. I love Andrea. I met her about a year and a half ago.
00:00:57
Speaker
at a therapist retreat in the state of Utah of all places and I was instantly mesmerized by her like electricness. She just has such a cool vibe and presence and I wanted to be around her and hear from her and I'm so excited that she agreed to come on the podcast to chat with me today so that you can learn
00:01:19
Speaker
about the very cool things that she's doing. So she has three freaking businesses. She is a licensed mental health clinician, and she has a group practice called Therapy Connection, which is a multi-state practice. She has a second company called Achieve with Andrea, where she does like a million cool things related to coaching and consulting for therapists,
00:01:41
Speaker
One of them that I think is awesome is a membership site for therapists to help them with their social media. She also hosts women's retreats, workshops. She creates journals for purchase. She just does a million cool things with that. You have to check out her website to learn about all of the different things that she's doing. Actually, she's a social media expert. You should check her out on her social media. Then her most recent company is dedicated to helping people with developmental disabilities in the state of New York.
00:02:08
Speaker
In the interview, she talks about this attitude of being open. And as you're listening to this interview, I want you to really hear all of the different times that Andrea was being open and her openness led her to like a new creative opportunity or a new professional opportunity. So there were so many listen up moments in this interview. I think that you're going to love Andrea as much as I do. So grad students, meet Andrea.
Andrea's Journey: From Graduation to Private Practice
00:02:40
Speaker
Hi, Andrea. Thank you for being on the podcast. I'm so excited to chat with you. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for scheduling. Absolutely. Yeah. It's really cool to kind of like catch up with you because obviously we met about a year and a half ago now. Too long ago. Too long ago. I know. I know. And we look so close. Like we absolutely need to get together.
00:03:01
Speaker
I think it's going to be really cool for me to hear your story. I know a lot about where you are now, but I'm curious to hear where you got there or how you got there. Could you tell me a little bit about how you started your mental health journey and then how you got your journey to private practice? Yeah, sure.
00:03:22
Speaker
As you know, your listeners will find out. My hands are always in a million different things. So I've just been like that my entire life. So I graduated back in 2017 with my master's in clinical mental health. And at the time I was working at a nonprofit
00:03:41
Speaker
And I always say for anybody that's worked at nonprofit, you know that as you grow throughout the nonprofit, you sometimes grow into a role that like is no longer something that you love doing. So I was fortunate because I still have very strong connections to that nonprofit. I was there for eight years.
00:03:58
Speaker
But I grew into a role of leadership that I was overseeing, HR, community relations, doing grant writing, doing fundraising and admin stuff. So I was really like burning myself out because I was doing that and doing part-time mental health working for another private practice because I was like, I still want to do therapy. I want to do therapy.
00:04:20
Speaker
So in 2019, I started my online, you know, telehealth private practice because I was like, I can do this. I've always wanted to own a business. I want to do something more. 2019, as we know, was right before COVID. So the rest of the world joined me online and my business just started skyrocketing because mental health became very accessible for people.
00:04:44
Speaker
In April 2020, I left the nonprofit and I grew my private practice. Right now, to date, we have 12 clinicians, so we're in three different states, so we grew exponentially. We also offer in-home services to people with behavioral needs in New Jersey, so we're just continuing to grow. At the time when my business was growing,
00:05:07
Speaker
I was getting involved on social media and just for marketing purposes and people then were like, you're so good at social. Can you teach us? Can you teach us?
Social Media: A Catalyst for Growth
00:05:18
Speaker
I was like, oh, I'm going to start another business. So I started a business and a membership to teach other people how to use social media online for therapy.
00:05:27
Speaker
And I've just loved being able to use my clinical skillset for different areas of my life. And I think it's very funny just because I feel this trajectory of continuing to grow in so many ways because of the clinical piece. So it's been a fun.
00:05:43
Speaker
Fun journey. Yeah. So if I'm hearing you right, that would mean that you were at the nonprofit before you became a counselor. Is that accurate? Yeah. Okay. And so is that what sort of got you interested in being a therapist? So I was originally going to school undergrad. I was going to school originally for occupational therapy.
00:06:05
Speaker
my grades, I have no problem ever saying that's my grades told a different story of what I could do. So I failed. Um, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm graduating with this like general degree. I don't know what I want to do. And I always knew that I wanted to be in a helping profession. So I had a friend who was, um, doing mental health and she's like, I love this. And I'm like, you know what, even an OT, I wanted to do like the psych unit when I was an OT. I was like, let me try out
00:06:33
Speaker
mental health then. And I just loved it. I loved learning about things. You know, I love talking to people. I love talking with people, learning their stories. So it just made the most sense for me to kind of like pivot that way. What a great pivot too. Yeah, it was amazing. Right. And I love that you're like very transparent about like, Oh yeah, my grades were awful. And what a great thing that they were awful because ended up super successful in what you're doing now.
00:07:02
Speaker
Thank you. It was definitely very interesting because I had failed out of the program. It was a five-year combined master's program and I failed at year four. And I was like, oh my God, this is horrible. And I wound up actually on a mission trip with the professor that
00:07:28
Speaker
I failed his class and he's like, wow, like you would have been great at this profession. And I was like, oh my gosh, like everything in me is like irking my soul that you're even saying this right now. So I knew that I was still meant for something more, you know? But exactly, it led me to the path that I was meant to be on, you know? And I never take that for granted. And I wonder for you, do you think if you had gone
00:07:54
Speaker
initially into this profession, initially from a more traditional bachelor's right to a master's, would you be the therapist that you are and would you have started a business so quickly? I don't know. I've always been. I've worked since I'm 13 and I never held just one job since I'm 13 years old.
00:08:17
Speaker
I don't know if I would have had the mindset of knowing what to even do as a business owner when things don't go the way that I want them to, right? Like there was a piece of that, like, just listen, in business, it's not always smooth sailing. That's the highlights that everybody sees, but it's not always that, you know? I think that there was a piece to it that taught me how to be resilient in moments that are challenging for me even now. So I don't know.
00:08:45
Speaker
if I would have even started my own business. I don't know. Yeah. One of the themes that I'm learning from people as I talk to more people is that it's almost like the pivot or the hardship or the thing that didn't work out almost gives them
00:09:01
Speaker
the experience or the guts or the push should do the thing that they're doing now. And so I found that really interesting. There's a piece to it, right? Of like, I need to prove to myself and others that I've been able to and you know, I like most therapists have gone to therapy to be like, Oh, actually, I don't need to prove anything. So now I get to like, enjoy these pieces of it and no one's
00:09:23
Speaker
not to prove things, but I wonder if a piece of that, I mean a big part of it probably was like that I wanted to prove that I could, you know? Yeah. Absolutely. So cool. So I'm curious then too, you're in New Jersey, right? Yes. And when you started your virtual practice, were you licensed at that
Balancing Practice and Personal Life
00:09:41
Speaker
point? Yeah. Yeah. I was licensed in New York and New Jersey. Okay. So you got licensed very quickly. So it was, yes. So it was 2017 that I graduated. Yeah.
00:09:53
Speaker
I had probably, I got my license, I guess, 2019? Or no, I passed, I'm sorry. I graduated 2015. Oh, I'm older than I say I am. I got my license in 2017. But yeah, that's what it was. Yeah. Cause I'm like, wait, that doesn't make sense. Oh, I am older than I think that I am. So I graduated 2015. I got my license in 2017.
00:10:22
Speaker
2018 was when I started playing around and like looking at different courses and things like that and like understanding the online world. Because again, there was still even at that time, I was like,
00:10:35
Speaker
I'm not doing therapy. I want to do therapy. So I was working for a private practice. I was working for some online companies doing, doing telehealth. And I was also doing in-home stuff. Like I wasn't just working at the nonprofit. I was working three or four other part-time jobs to fill that void of, oh my goodness, I want to be doing therapy or I want to be, you know, doing more one-on-one work.
00:10:59
Speaker
because I've always just done so many different things at one time. So it's very funny, because even today, people are like, you are in so many different places. I'm like, this is a breeze in comparison to what I've been doing, like my whole life, you know? Well, you're making all of the choices now about the past. Exactly. It's not just your piecemealing things together to try to make an income, to try to satisfy whatever desires that you have to do that. So, okay, so it was about four years post-grad that you started to practice.
00:11:29
Speaker
which means that it's been going up so quick. It was about five years that it seems like maybe there was like some success to be had. And why virtual? Why did you choose virtual to start?
00:11:41
Speaker
So I tell everybody this, I am not a mom yet, but I know that I will be one day. I was very fortunate that I had a mom who commuted to the city. We originally were in Set Island. That's where I originally was. She commuted to the city every day. So her commutes were long, but she was still a very present parent in my life, my mom and my dad.
00:12:03
Speaker
I don't know truthfully if I have the mental capacity to be able to commute and then come home to my kiddos at night and have the energy that she did to bring me to dance, to bring me to this, to bring me to that. So I always say I'm not a mom yet, but I know that I will be one day and I wanted to be able to work from home so that I was there and had the flexibility of being there in my kids' lives. Another piece to that was
00:12:27
Speaker
And almost not necessarily secondary, but a piece to it was the accessibility. I teach mental health first aid for organizations and for the community. And one thing we always go over if you're in a crisis,
00:12:40
Speaker
You know, especially in New York, there's a number that you can call if you're in a crisis and you just want a mental health like professional. And I tested that number out one day. And again, I was in Staten Island and, you know, public transportation is not that great. You're in quote unquote New York City, but public transit is not good on Staten Island. I tested the number out just to see who are they going to send me to if I'm in need of mental health.
00:13:08
Speaker
And I gave them my insurance and what my needs were. And I was in Staten Island and they gave me a person that had availability soon. They were in the Bronx or something like that. I'm like, I have to take three buses, a train, a plane, and everything. So I knew that there was a piece to accessibility if I started a telehealth practice, that more people would be able to get it and get the support either before work, after work, not worrying about parking. So I was like, you know what? This just makes the most sense.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, definitely telehealth makes therapy so accessible and also specialists really accessible. But I want to rewind a second for like a listen up moment. You decided to be virtual because you were thinking about your future and you thought, well, I don't have kids now, but I do want them in the future. And so I'm going to make decisions now that will set me up.
00:14:03
Speaker
for success and I mean what is it 2023 so it's been like four years this setting up for success it wasn't like oh that's what I'm gonna do next month or next year it's like we're talking about it's gonna be five years that minimum at this point right right that you're setting yourself up for that and so that's a real listen-up moment I think
00:14:23
Speaker
for grad students to hear, you know, if you're interested in creating the life that you want to live, right now is the time to be thinking about the steps that you need to take to get there. A thousand percent and I think a big piece of that too is
00:14:39
Speaker
Listen, they don't teach us in grad school about all the pieces of business planning or life planning for ourselves. They teach us and push the mindset and narrative of like, go into community mental health and help out. And of course there's the time and place for that. And it's amazing to do all of that and do internship. But there's also a piece of if you want to be able to go into private practice, understanding what that is, what that can provide for you and how that makes you a better clinician. When I'm enjoying my job, I'm showing up so much better
00:15:08
Speaker
for my clients and it's not like, oh my gosh, I have to do this, this, and this to be able to do my job. It's, okay, I get to wake up in the morning and get my cup of coffee and be able to sit down and have a session because that's what I chose and that's what works for me. So I enjoy it so much more. So yeah, it's planning for your future and understanding five years from now, what do you want your life to look like? What do you want your schedule to look like? Love that, love that.
00:15:37
Speaker
Hey, grad students. Real quick, before we get back to this interview, if you are loving the idea of being a part of a community of like-minded graduate students who want to own their own private practice one day, then you need to head to Facebook and join my Facebook group from intern to entrepreneur. There's already a community set up of graduate students who one day want to own their own private practices and be entrepreneurs just like you.
00:16:03
Speaker
So head over to Facebook, join that group and stay in the loop and get connected with people who are doing things that you want to do. Back to the interview.
00:16:17
Speaker
You said then also how you got into doing some of this, so is it social media
Consulting and Community Building
00:16:23
Speaker
coaching? Like what would you call yourself? What would you call that? I say I do consulting and coaching. Yeah. So I do that. I do it one-on-one and I have a membership for it. Some people that want, yeah. And you're saying that that business sort of came out of people asking you
00:16:39
Speaker
for help with something that they saw you do really well. So that's another listen up moment is that when you're at the point where you're deciding how you might make additional income. What people are telling you that they think you're good at and ideas. But how did you like even know that was a thing that you could do?
00:17:00
Speaker
I think that it was, I have to say, I surround myself with the best other clinicians who are also doing more than one-to-one work. They're going outside of that model. So it was a discussion of people keep asking me for help and they're like, you need to monetize that. Your business advice is not free.
00:17:22
Speaker
oh it's not like i can do other things in this oh you're actually right i should be paid for my time that i'm giving help and you know i love helping people in general but there's again a piece of that is i'm gonna burn out if i keep doing that and keep giving my time you know um
00:17:39
Speaker
So i just started researching and understanding what is a membership even look like what are typical fees to do for consulting and i just within like a month or two i set up my business like right away because i was like you know what i'm gonna set this up because
00:17:58
Speaker
As I'm realizing, okay, I might be doing coaching and consulting, but this also can turn into other things that I know potentially I want to do. Retreats, continuing ed, all these other things. So I set myself up for a business that would allow me to encompass all that.
00:18:13
Speaker
So it's another example of you thinking ahead to the future as you're making the decisions that you're making now. Always, yep, always. Yeah, it's almost like you're setting yourself up, you're putting doors. It's like, I don't know which ones I'm gonna walk through, but I want the option to walk through them. 100%, 100%.
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah. And that's important too, right? Is any decision that we make today is going to impact us, you know, a while from now. So what is it that I need to do for myself now to be able to have that success or even success defined as like what is enjoyable about my life, you know? So what is my schedule? A successful schedule even for me. So yeah. And what has it been like for you to be a therapist on social media?
00:18:59
Speaker
I, so it's very interesting because a lot of therapists still don't want to be like on social media. And then I know I always say like, you don't have to like push yourself to do that. But I think a big, big piece of that too is if you're thinking ahead of like, I mean, I've never done a TED talk, but let's say that you one day you're like, I want to do a TED talk or I want to speak here. You need to have a presence. So I think for me, it's like I have this ability to reach a wider audience.
00:19:28
Speaker
give, it's never mental health advice or therapy, but it's little like reminders, right? So I have this ability to impact a much larger audience of reminders of what to do for self-care or breath work. And then from that, and seeing that I'm knowledgeable in those areas, I get opportunities to be able to speak somewhere at a conference or be asked to write an article on something. You know, it again just opens more doors for things. I think
00:19:56
Speaker
The biggest fear people have is, oh, my clients are going to see me and they're going to see what I'm doing on social. I'm like, don't post wild things. Like, you know, you don't need to post going out on a Friday night. If that's what you're doing, my clients don't know what I do the most. And I give this example recently on a podcast. They most that they knew is when I got engaged. That is something that I was so excited about and I shared it.
00:20:22
Speaker
And a client brought that up in a therapy session. They're like, I saw your social media, which listen, I have a bit of a larger following. I don't know who's following me. I have no idea. I don't check that. So sometimes it is my clients.
00:20:37
Speaker
And she was like, I saw that you got engaged over this weekend. And I said, I want to pause right there because I don't want anything that I'm sharing about my personal life to be detrimental for you and your growth. I've seen something like that. Is it hurting you? Is it bothering you? What did that do for you? And she was like, no, I just wanted to say congratulations. And then we moved on. It was not anything more than that.
00:21:05
Speaker
We just overthink when it comes to social media as a therapist, we overthink. We're allowed to be ourselves first, you know? I agree. And I think that the example that you're giving is like,
00:21:19
Speaker
in that, you cared more than your client cared. Yeah. 1,000% I did. Right. I've had a similar experience where I saw a client out when I was out with friends actually, I was at a bar. Okay. And so, and I was, I left that bar and I wasn't drunk. It was like, I was just hanging with a couple of friends. Left. I was probably there for an hour and 15 months at most.
00:21:42
Speaker
Left had a whole freak out like oh my god. We have to bring this up. I brought up this plant was like yes Yeah, I saw you and I was like yeah, you're an adult Yeah, exactly like oh you you're a person that is using the world the same way everybody else is using the world So so I think that's an important point and I think the other thing that you didn't directly say but I think you were indirectly saying is like it's our job as therapists and
00:22:07
Speaker
when we're doing anything to be gauging what the ethical responsibility we have is. And so it doesn't change because you're using social media. You still have to be thinking about it through the lens of, are you being an ethical therapist or not?
00:22:24
Speaker
And if you are, what's the problem? There is none. There is none. And it's very funny because I'll have, when I coach or consult with clinicians, they're like, I wouldn't even know what to post. In my membership, we talk about what to post for each day. And I'm like, but when you're struggling, allow yourself to be human. I always give the example of like,
00:22:48
Speaker
wake up in the morning and just be like, is it sunny by you or is it raining by you? How's your day going today? It does not always have to be this continuous preach of therapy and self-care and all that. Just allow yourself to be human because your clients want to be human too. So it's showcasing that and reminding them that that's okay is a big, big piece to it and not overthinking it. Yeah. And something that you had mentioned a little bit ago is essentially
00:23:14
Speaker
if you have a social media presence, you're also then making yourself more accessible to clients, but also to somebody else who might hire you to do something that is therapy adjacent.
00:23:27
Speaker
a thousand percent. I had businesses. So in, in my consulting business, um, I do workplace, um, wellness workshops with different businesses. So I'll go like once a month to certain businesses that just for their employees, again, accessibility, I now have this ability to just like teach certain like breath work or self care. Um, but that happens out of seeing me on social media and saying like, Oh, is this something that you could do for like a larger audience?
00:23:56
Speaker
Yeah, of course I can like what do you need? You know and and we built from that It's you just never know the opportunities that are going to come from allowing yourself to be you know Yeah, and and the fact that somebody found you in that way and then hired you to do something says that you're showing up Professionally, right social media platform because that person wasn't going to call you if you were on your third Social media posting about you know, I'm gonna Friday night exactly exactly
00:24:26
Speaker
They contacted you because they thought, oh my God, this is a professional. This person is valuable. And I want to engage that person with something that could be beneficial to me and my team. So.
00:24:37
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we had already talked about you and I, Andrea, for anybody listening, if you're interested more on social media ethics, I am going to have her come back and do a whole thing on social media ethics. So we can put a pause there. I'm curious too about your experience in then running a membership. You mentioned that you have a social media membership. And so what's your experience been with that?
00:25:04
Speaker
I, what I've noticed and come to realize is that the people that like join the membership are often there because they're, they're nervous and fearful of like what that will look like. And genuinely just also need ideas and sometimes overthink social media in general. So, um, my membership, I give prompts for every day for social media. I look up trending reels audio. So I give three sounds to use for during the week.
00:25:30
Speaker
And then I give hashtag holidays for every day. So like National Pizza Day, how does that relate to being a therapist, right? And learning and working that. It's been fun because it gives me that piece of ability to be able to teach people of like, you're allowed to tap into your creative side and be playful online and still be a therapist. I always say, I am Andrea first and that's always going to shine.
00:25:53
Speaker
in anything that i do and my clients know that right they come to me for a reason because i'm the type of therapist that they they need or want so i'm just teaching that in the membership too that you're allowed to be you because again you're going to enjoy your work more when you're allowing yourself to be truly who you are and showing up for your clients so
00:26:13
Speaker
It's been fun. We have with my members and my membership, we meet also once a week as a group so that I can give them ideas, go over their social media, critique things. So it's been fun to watch their growth too, honestly, and their comfortability within themselves to show up online.
00:26:31
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that's such a smart idea for a membership because it makes me think of, I've seen in the past for like teachers or for like yoga, uh, yoga teachers where it's like, okay, here's lesson plans and you know, it's a membership for that. And then every week or month or whatever, they're like, here's some ideas for lesson plans. And
00:26:48
Speaker
I thought that was like, oh, that's really cool. I wonder if there's a way you could translate that to therapy. And this is the way that you're doing that way. It sounds like you really have a creative side in that way. And so for people who don't have that creative side in that way, or don't want to, what a good option for them to be able to go, oh my God, Andrea is going to come up with these prompts. I'm going to find a way to make a mind and throw them up.
00:27:15
Speaker
or an admin that they're going to say, Hey, Andrea has this prompt, throw this on my social media.
00:27:20
Speaker
And the thing is too, like even when they're struggling, so I have a private Facebook group for them. So I put the prompts as a reminder in that private Facebook group so they can always comment and be like, I don't know how to use this for my niche. I'm like, here's what you do. You know, I, I, I love being able to, again, see their growth and their comfortability of being able to just show up online. Cause I think social media obviously gets a bad rap, right? Like we're like, Oh, it's so negative. It's so gross. It's so, but if there's more of us that are showing up and showing positive, we can,
00:27:48
Speaker
kind of eliminate some of that negativity, right? And be able to be this like blanket over that negative side of social media. So there's a power in it too, you know? Absolutely. And something, another theme I'm hearing for you is the importance of community. I've heard you- Oh yeah. Can you say a little bit about that?
00:28:08
Speaker
So it's very interesting, especially because having gone online, I'm like, I'm going to be solo and independent. I'm going to have a group practice, but it's online. So I'm not going to see my people, but I'm very much a people person. So community is so important to me. So finding a way to blend that into my life has also been important. I guess you said you and I met a year and a half ago. So almost like two years ago probably is when I had gone on the retreat before you and I had met.
00:28:35
Speaker
um with Meghan and with Meghan Gunnell and I didn't realize how impactful that retreat was going to be but some of the people from that retreat I now speak to once a day and they live nowhere close to me some of them do some of them don't and it's very important for me to know that there's
00:28:53
Speaker
this sense of people that are doing similar work to me because i can't lie myself close to them where we can motivate and push each other and i think there's a big piece that especially if you're working remotely who are the people that are gonna be in your corner that you can bounce ideas off of and be able to grow.
00:29:09
Speaker
and be able to get grounded every once in a while when your ideas are maybe a little too flighty or you're nervous and overwhelmed. It's really important for me. So building the membership around community was also important because there's this cohesiveness of everyone's scared or overwhelmed to be able to show up online. And I want to be that.
00:29:27
Speaker
safe space or protective factor to say, it's okay. Here's how we're going to get through that. It's super important. We recently in New Jersey, Lena, Sars Angelino and I, we started once a month a networking event for mental health professionals. I've been seeing the post about that and I've been curious to see how that's been going.
00:29:53
Speaker
And if people are showing up and what the events are like. Yeah, her and I have to definitely post a little bit more. It's so funny because we sometimes forget to take pictures because we're so heavily involved in the moment of just like connecting with each other, which is a beautiful thing. But a piece of it is like, Oh, gosh, we have to do better at marketing and take these pictures because we're not doing that. We have every month about 10 people show up. So it's relatively small right now. We know that that's
00:30:20
Speaker
Going to continue to grow summer was a really hard time to do it but to get 10 people in the summer showing up at each event I feel like it's pretty pretty nice because you you can tell that people are craving again craving community to be connected to learn so with that event each month.
00:30:39
Speaker
And we're hoping actually to start doing like a second one, South Jersey. So when we do, I'll let you know, because you're, yeah. What we do is every month we come up with a topic that we are going to talk about of things that have helped us in our practice or being able to grow. And in the future, we're going to have other people that want to come to the table and like highlight them and be able to speak on that. Just because there's so much
00:31:05
Speaker
happening in the mental health space of people doing such quality work and we want to showcase that and give people ideas of what else you could be doing with our license, with our minds. Yeah, so we meet once a month. We have lunch and we just talk about different things last month.
00:31:25
Speaker
Last month, what was it? I think last month was going beyond the one-to-one. This month is my favorite topic and it's about policies and procedures and processes because I love setting those up and helping people set it up. It's been nice to be able to talk about those things and encourage other people to grow.
00:31:44
Speaker
Yeah. And I love having these conversations because now you're giving me some ideas. So I'm actually in, uh, Southeastern Pennsylvania is where I am in Pennsylvania, Berks County, Lehigh Valley area. I actually am trying to organize a paddle boarding event for therapists and like, and I hadn't even really thought like, Oh yeah, you can, you can just invite other professionals in debt to, to talk about these things. And so, all right, if you're in North Jersey and you're listening to this,
00:32:10
Speaker
You want to be part of it. Middle sex county area ish. So what is it? Like middle sex mama's county. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So if you're in that area and is that kind of thing open to anybody? Okay. So anybody in the mental health field? So even with students too? Yes. A thousand percent. A thousand percent. We've had people
00:32:32
Speaker
that are like mental health professionals that are in nonprofit world, we've had people that work for hospitals, like really anybody in the mental health fields, because they think there's a piece to it, right of like community and collaboration, like we need to know about each other services so that we can figure out how we can, you know, help clients even to have other resources that they can need, you know. Yeah, yeah. And what a fun way to network and then learn at the same time. I have this this philosophy of like, I don't do anything unless it's going to give me two or three
00:33:02
Speaker
good outcomes. Yeah. So yeah, like the social aspect of just being around people, morning and also eating if you're doing lunch. Oh, heck yeah. Good food and good food. Good Italian food. Oh my God, that's perfect. So I think that this is another sort of like listen up moment in terms of
00:33:23
Speaker
if you're interested in doing some of the stuff that Andrea is talking about or that anybody on the podcast has been talking about, like find the people in your area that are doing cool things so that you start to build a community of people who are interested in building cool things.
Advice for Aspiring Therapists
00:33:41
Speaker
Because some people want to be mental health counselors, therapists, whatever, and they want to do their job and they want to go home. And that is totally cool. And that is a great life for some people.
00:33:51
Speaker
But then those other people like us, we're like, wait a minute, we want to do this. We need more. We want to do so much more. And so, yeah, surround yourself with the people that are doing that so that you get an idea of, you know, you get ideas really. So, okay. The question that I ask everybody is what is one piece of practical or mindset advice that you would give to a therapist interested in an entrepreneurial journey?
00:34:19
Speaker
Mindset advice. I would say be open because you really, you truly never know what's going to come from any conversation that you have with anyone. I even, you know, in my marketing and when I talk to people, yes, we're in the healthcare field and we're in the mental health field, but we don't just treat healthcare. We treat people.
00:34:45
Speaker
So I always I'm big on networking in general. So I'm a part of like the Chamber of Commerce and I always strongly encourage that for people get involved. I'm the only therapy practice that's at my local Chamber of Commerce. But I'm talking to people that might know a person or they themselves might need therapy because the people that come to me are
00:35:06
Speaker
They're people, they're not just from the doctor's offices, they're outside of there. So being open to conversations and understanding that you'll never know what's gonna come from something. And if you have that gut feeling of something needs to shift or change, just being open to the idea that that message was there for a reason for you and you might be pushed into doing something more, being open to it.
00:35:30
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like if you ever have a memoir, it should be called Be Open because everything that you said as part of your story came from you being open. I love that. Thank you. You know what? Because I do want to write a book one day, so you gave me a good idea for that. I like that. I'll write a letter to you on it. Don't worry. So anything else you would like our grad student listeners to know before we wrap this interview up today? I think, um,
00:35:58
Speaker
Just if you're sitting in fear or overwhelmed, definitely find the people that are going to help you to move through that. If it's listening to podcasts like Queries, if it's connecting with someone else, just surround yourself with people and resources that are going to help you know that you're on an okay path. And again, just be open.
00:36:18
Speaker
Yeah. And if anybody wants to join your membership, how might they find you? So I'm always hanging out on Instagram. So find me at AndreaBrognano. Um, or on my website is AchievedWithAndrea.com. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you, Andrea. This has been super fun. Hopefully the next time I give you, it can be face to face. Yes, we have to get lunch or drinks or something. We have to, we have to do it. We're going to make it happen in this. Thank you so much and have a wonderful rest of your day. Thank you.
00:36:51
Speaker
I hope that you loved this episode of From Intern to Entrepreneur. And if you want to learn more about what we talked about, check out the show notes. If you love this podcast and you want to support me and continuing to create content for entrepreneurs, then please share this with a friend, a grad student who you think might want their own private practice one day, and also like, subscribe, and review this podcast wherever you're listening to it.