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13 | Accountability Groups for Practitioners
Being in private practice can be isolating.
If you're a clinician in a private practice, you may feel like very few people understand what you do and the challenges that come along with the work.
It's easy to get distracted or to spend hours running around in circles trying to fix a small thing.
This is why I recommend joining an accountability group ASAPAn accountability group is simply a small group of people who meet regularly to check in and provide support for one another.
This doesn't have to take a long time. It's entirely free to form one yourself.
Just 10-15 minutes per person can be enough to make all the difference in your work.
In accountability groups, you're not talking about cases.
Instead, you're focusing on what you need to do to grow/build/run your practice more smoothly.
Joining an accountability group (sometimes called a mastermind group) and committing to showing up for yourself and for the others in your group once weekly is probably the single most helpful thing you can do if your intention is to build and grown your practice this year.
It sounds simple, but over time it makes all the difference to state your intentions out loud and to hear yourself saying what you worked on over the past week and what you'd like to work on in the upcoming week.
You'll get feedback and reflections from others in the group, and you'll hear what is and is not working for others as well.
Getting SupportIn this episode, I discuss how to form an accountability group, what you should talk about if you do join one, and how to make sure the time is well-spent.
If you're interested in even more support and accountability, check out my Monday Mentoring program. When you join, you'll attend our regular weekly meetings AND have the option to join an accountability group with other practitioners.
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Transcript
(00:03)
Hi, everybody, welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I'm a licensed nutritionist and clinical herbalist. And today I want to talk to you about accountability groups.
(00:13)
So I started my practice back up again after a little break in late 2013. And it was doing pretty well, It was a little bit easier to get started the second time than it was the first time. However, I joined an accountability group in March of this year. So about six months or so after starting my practice back up again. And since that time, things have made dramatic improvements. I am working with more clients. I'm feeling better about what I'm doing and able to serve people in a deeper way.
(00:49)
And I'm showing up more consistently for myself and for my clients. And I think that the accountability group has made all the difference for me. So I want to do two things in this podcast. Number one, I want to encourage you to join an accountability group if you're not already part of one.
(01:04)
And number two, I want to share some thoughts about how to make these groups work for you.
(01:10)
So, first of all, should you join a group? Yes. You should really think you should. What is an accountability group you might be asking yourself?
(01:18)
Well, an accountability group is a small group, usually about three to five people. Sometimes you can just have an accountability partner or sometimes you can have a slightly larger group. But I think three to five people is an optimal size. And these folks agree, commit to meeting regularly to focus on a specific topic or purpose.
(01:40)
You will sometimes hear these groups called Masterminds. I don't love that word. For whatever reason.
(01:45)
I like accountability group, but they're the same thing, more or less.
(01:50)
So who should be in your accountability group if you don't already have one? Who should you be looking for? There's a couple of different ways that you could structure these.
(01:59)
You should have at least one common connection among everyone in the group. So, for example, you could have an accountability group for people who are clinical herbalists in your area. You could have an accountability group for people who are in approximately the same stage of business or practice as you. So it could be for clinicians in their first year of practice or business owners in their first year of getting started or people sort of mid career who are looking to grow to the next level.
(02:29)
That would be a point of connection.
(02:31)
It could be around people who have the same goal.
(02:37)
You don't have to have all of these, so your accountability group doesn't necessarily have to be all practitioners who are just like you. I have an accountability group where no one else is in the direct health care field, but everyone in the group is in approximately the same stage of building their practice or their business, depending on what kind of work that they do. So I know some people have very successful groups with other nutritionists or other herbalists and so forth, but you want to have something in common where you're working on a shared level of understanding.
(03:12)
Now, what do you do if you're in an accountability group? What does this mean?
(03:16)
Well, what you want to do is have a regular consistent meeting. I recommend once a week, but you could go with every other week or even once a month if you really wanted to push it. I think once a week has made all the difference in our group. And you want to really commit you want a group of people who commit. It's not going to work very well. If half the people don't show up half the time. You need at least a core group of people who are going to be there almost every time.
(03:42)
Of course, the longer you stay in practice, the more you know. You may have to miss the occasional one for various reasons, but most of the time you want most of the people they are.
(03:55)
And what you want to do is set aside a specific amount of time for your group.
(04:00)
This can be as short as 10 minutes per person, so we have three people, a 30 minute group once a week is very, very reasonable. You could also go to 15 minutes a person and have an hour long meeting every week. And you want to be really conscious of the time. You want to actually have a timer and each person has a scheduled period of time.
(04:21)
This is really helpful in making sure that one person doesn't gobble up most of the time, which can happen sometimes even with the best of intentions. So having an actual timer that beeps at the right amount of time really keeps things moving and make sure that everyone gets hurt and their chance to talk.
(04:38)
Now, what are you going to actually talk about? That is the hardest part for some people. So what I recommend that you do is in the beginning, just start out and go over what you have accomplished in the last week or what you worked on, where you focused any stumbling blocks that you ran into, anything you hope to do that you didn't do, and anything that you actually did do things that went really well. So you could think of it as a highlight reel and then some things that you wanted to improve on or that didn't go so well.
(05:08)
And then the next part is to think about what are you going to do in the next week and if you need any specific help or suggestions from your group in order to do that. In any way, so if each person does that every week, it seems pretty simple, you're not as an accountability group, you're not tasked with cracking the whip and berating people who don't do what they said they're going to do.
(05:34)
But you are acting as a witness. You're acting as a container. They're acting as a person who's holding space and watching for patterns, watching for ways that you can support this person. In a lot of times when you've got the same people showing up every week and hearing the different things that you're going through and the struggles that you're having with your practice, those people are going to be much better able to identify any recurring patterns or concerns or struggles and help you over those than you are yourself.
(06:08)
It's an outside perspective. And I got to tell you, the people in my accountability group are very, very good at not necessarily in a mean way, but saying, hey, what is happening? I'm noticing that you're doing X, Y and Z again. And we've talked before about how that's not really serving you or.
(06:27)
You know, I think that maybe you're undermining yourself by doing this, or I think that's too low of a price for what you're doing.
(06:35)
So people can provide reflections and support in ways that you can't really see yourself is very, very powerful, especially the longer that you've met consistently with the same group of people there.
(06:49)
There's a real magic that develops when you've got. That sort of longer term relationship with people, so it's pretty simple, all you're doing is scheduling out half an hour, 45 minutes or an hour, once a week to meet with the same group of people and just let them know what you're doing and what you're hoping to do next week on your practice or on a project that you're working on or anything like that.
(07:13)
And I tell you what, if you do this for three months or six months or 12 months, I want you to let me know. I almost can guarantee you that this will make a huge difference in where you are after that time. Now, how should you find these people? That's the next question.
(07:30)
It could be a little bit hard. We do actually set up accountability groups for people in Monday mentoring.
(07:35)
So if you have any interest in joining Monday mentoring, hop on the waiting list will be opening it up in a couple of weeks.
(07:40)
And we'd love to have you join there and kind of wrap you into one of our current accountability groups or set you up with a new one with some new folks. If that's not an option for you, I recommend asking around post on social media. If you're on there, send an email out to classmates or former classmates. Ask the alumni office where you studied.
(08:04)
Ask somebody whose work you really admire, that you feel like it's about in the same area that you are or in the same place of practice, ask at your local small business association or if you have a coworking space, you can often post on a channel or a bulletin board or something there and just say, this is what I'm looking to do.
(08:24)
Saturdays at five are free for me or Tuesdays at seven p.m. I'm looking to meet for half an hour with two other people for an accountability group. I think you'll be surprised at how interested many people are to develop these types of relationships. And again, don't limit yourself to people who are doing exactly what you're doing.
(08:43)
Sometimes it's even more beneficial to have people who are similar in some ways, but coming from a totally different perspective. So I hope that was helpful. I hope that you will join an accountability group of some kind if you're not already in one, if you have any stories or suggestions or things that have worked really well for you, if you want to encourage others to join one, go ahead and post a comment. I'd love to hear from you. And I think it helps other people to know that I'm not the only one who's encouraging you to do this.
(09:12)
So please feel free to chime in if you've got a group that's really working for you or tips and suggestions. All right. I hope that was helpful. And thank you for listening.
Hi, everybody, welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I'm a licensed nutritionist and clinical herbalist. And today I want to talk to you about accountability groups.
(00:13)
So I started my practice back up again after a little break in late 2013. And it was doing pretty well, It was a little bit easier to get started the second time than it was the first time. However, I joined an accountability group in March of this year. So about six months or so after starting my practice back up again. And since that time, things have made dramatic improvements. I am working with more clients. I'm feeling better about what I'm doing and able to serve people in a deeper way.
(00:49)
And I'm showing up more consistently for myself and for my clients. And I think that the accountability group has made all the difference for me. So I want to do two things in this podcast. Number one, I want to encourage you to join an accountability group if you're not already part of one.
(01:04)
And number two, I want to share some thoughts about how to make these groups work for you.
(01:10)
So, first of all, should you join a group? Yes. You should really think you should. What is an accountability group you might be asking yourself?
(01:18)
Well, an accountability group is a small group, usually about three to five people. Sometimes you can just have an accountability partner or sometimes you can have a slightly larger group. But I think three to five people is an optimal size. And these folks agree, commit to meeting regularly to focus on a specific topic or purpose.
(01:40)
You will sometimes hear these groups called Masterminds. I don't love that word. For whatever reason.
(01:45)
I like accountability group, but they're the same thing, more or less.
(01:50)
So who should be in your accountability group if you don't already have one? Who should you be looking for? There's a couple of different ways that you could structure these.
(01:59)
You should have at least one common connection among everyone in the group. So, for example, you could have an accountability group for people who are clinical herbalists in your area. You could have an accountability group for people who are in approximately the same stage of business or practice as you. So it could be for clinicians in their first year of practice or business owners in their first year of getting started or people sort of mid career who are looking to grow to the next level.
(02:29)
That would be a point of connection.
(02:31)
It could be around people who have the same goal.
(02:37)
You don't have to have all of these, so your accountability group doesn't necessarily have to be all practitioners who are just like you. I have an accountability group where no one else is in the direct health care field, but everyone in the group is in approximately the same stage of building their practice or their business, depending on what kind of work that they do. So I know some people have very successful groups with other nutritionists or other herbalists and so forth, but you want to have something in common where you're working on a shared level of understanding.
(03:12)
Now, what do you do if you're in an accountability group? What does this mean?
(03:16)
Well, what you want to do is have a regular consistent meeting. I recommend once a week, but you could go with every other week or even once a month if you really wanted to push it. I think once a week has made all the difference in our group. And you want to really commit you want a group of people who commit. It's not going to work very well. If half the people don't show up half the time. You need at least a core group of people who are going to be there almost every time.
(03:42)
Of course, the longer you stay in practice, the more you know. You may have to miss the occasional one for various reasons, but most of the time you want most of the people they are.
(03:55)
And what you want to do is set aside a specific amount of time for your group.
(04:00)
This can be as short as 10 minutes per person, so we have three people, a 30 minute group once a week is very, very reasonable. You could also go to 15 minutes a person and have an hour long meeting every week. And you want to be really conscious of the time. You want to actually have a timer and each person has a scheduled period of time.
(04:21)
This is really helpful in making sure that one person doesn't gobble up most of the time, which can happen sometimes even with the best of intentions. So having an actual timer that beeps at the right amount of time really keeps things moving and make sure that everyone gets hurt and their chance to talk.
(04:38)
Now, what are you going to actually talk about? That is the hardest part for some people. So what I recommend that you do is in the beginning, just start out and go over what you have accomplished in the last week or what you worked on, where you focused any stumbling blocks that you ran into, anything you hope to do that you didn't do, and anything that you actually did do things that went really well. So you could think of it as a highlight reel and then some things that you wanted to improve on or that didn't go so well.
(05:08)
And then the next part is to think about what are you going to do in the next week and if you need any specific help or suggestions from your group in order to do that. In any way, so if each person does that every week, it seems pretty simple, you're not as an accountability group, you're not tasked with cracking the whip and berating people who don't do what they said they're going to do.
(05:34)
But you are acting as a witness. You're acting as a container. They're acting as a person who's holding space and watching for patterns, watching for ways that you can support this person. In a lot of times when you've got the same people showing up every week and hearing the different things that you're going through and the struggles that you're having with your practice, those people are going to be much better able to identify any recurring patterns or concerns or struggles and help you over those than you are yourself.
(06:08)
It's an outside perspective. And I got to tell you, the people in my accountability group are very, very good at not necessarily in a mean way, but saying, hey, what is happening? I'm noticing that you're doing X, Y and Z again. And we've talked before about how that's not really serving you or.
(06:27)
You know, I think that maybe you're undermining yourself by doing this, or I think that's too low of a price for what you're doing.
(06:35)
So people can provide reflections and support in ways that you can't really see yourself is very, very powerful, especially the longer that you've met consistently with the same group of people there.
(06:49)
There's a real magic that develops when you've got. That sort of longer term relationship with people, so it's pretty simple, all you're doing is scheduling out half an hour, 45 minutes or an hour, once a week to meet with the same group of people and just let them know what you're doing and what you're hoping to do next week on your practice or on a project that you're working on or anything like that.
(07:13)
And I tell you what, if you do this for three months or six months or 12 months, I want you to let me know. I almost can guarantee you that this will make a huge difference in where you are after that time. Now, how should you find these people? That's the next question.
(07:30)
It could be a little bit hard. We do actually set up accountability groups for people in Monday mentoring.
(07:35)
So if you have any interest in joining Monday mentoring, hop on the waiting list will be opening it up in a couple of weeks.
(07:40)
And we'd love to have you join there and kind of wrap you into one of our current accountability groups or set you up with a new one with some new folks. If that's not an option for you, I recommend asking around post on social media. If you're on there, send an email out to classmates or former classmates. Ask the alumni office where you studied.
(08:04)
Ask somebody whose work you really admire, that you feel like it's about in the same area that you are or in the same place of practice, ask at your local small business association or if you have a coworking space, you can often post on a channel or a bulletin board or something there and just say, this is what I'm looking to do.
(08:24)
Saturdays at five are free for me or Tuesdays at seven p.m. I'm looking to meet for half an hour with two other people for an accountability group. I think you'll be surprised at how interested many people are to develop these types of relationships. And again, don't limit yourself to people who are doing exactly what you're doing.
(08:43)
Sometimes it's even more beneficial to have people who are similar in some ways, but coming from a totally different perspective. So I hope that was helpful. I hope that you will join an accountability group of some kind if you're not already in one, if you have any stories or suggestions or things that have worked really well for you, if you want to encourage others to join one, go ahead and post a comment. I'd love to hear from you. And I think it helps other people to know that I'm not the only one who's encouraging you to do this.
(09:12)
So please feel free to chime in if you've got a group that's really working for you or tips and suggestions. All right. I hope that was helpful. And thank you for listening.
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