Podcast · Business

Empowered to Lead

by Lisa Catallo · English · Business

Listeners who tune in will feel confident and supported in their group practice journey, know how to build efficient systems and lead with clarity, do the work needed to create a thriving, values-aligned practice, become strong, ethical, and effective leaders who run their practice with ease and con

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 30 min
Latest: 13 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026 · 19 minNew

A Different Pace, A Different Perspective: Why Group Practice Owners Need to Retreat

Fresh back from Group Practice Network's annual retreat in Muskoka, Lisa shares why retreats have been part of her vision from the very beginning, the pivotal moments she's witnessed when owners step away from their everyday lives, and what shifts when you finally slow down long enough to see yourself and your business differently. What You’ll Hear: Why retreating with other therapists who own businesses means less explaining, deeper conversations, and people who seek to understand before jumping in to fix The retreat moment when someone outside Lisa's world named her burnout, and why an…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

S2 · E37 · 29 Sep 2026 · 30 min
Fire Fast: Why Letting Go Quickly Protects Your Clients, Your Team, and You
Continuing the hire slow conversation from the last two episodes, Lisa unpacks the other half of the saying, "fire fast," drawing on Priya Parker's The Art of Gathering to reframe exclusion as protection, and walks through what it actually looks like to notice a poor fit, have the conversation, and follow through with clarity and kindness. What You’ll Hear: Why "fire fast" isn't about being harsh, it's about protecting your clients, your team, and your own energy How Priya Parker's concept of general exclusion in The Art of Gathering applies directly to deciding who belongs in a group…
S2 · E36 · 22 Sep 2026 · 16 min
Hire Slow: The Checklist — A Step-by-Step Walkthrough for Screening, Interviewing, and Onboarding Well
Picking up where last week's episode left off, Lisa walks listeners through the free Hire Slow Checklist step by step, turning "hire slow" from a mindset into seven concrete moves any group practice owner can use for their next hire, whether that's a therapist, an intake coordinator, or a clinical director. What You’ll Hear: Why slowing down your hiring process isn't hesitation, insecurity, or overthinking, it's intentionality tied to the clients you serve and the team you're building How to get clear on your non-negotiables (licensing, availability, experience) before you ever post the job,…
S2 · E35 · 15 Sep 2026 · 19 min
Hire Slow: Why Intentional Beats Instinctive When You're Building Your Team
After a summer of guest interviews, Lisa is back solo to unpack a phrase she uses often: hire slow. She breaks down what it doesn't mean (hesitating, second-guessing, overthinking) and what it does (screening on purpose, knowing your ideal therapist, and building checkpoints that protect your team and your clients), using her own hiring wins and misses as the proof. What You’ll Hear: The difference between hiring slow and hiring hesitant, and how to tell which one you're actually doing Lisa's own hiring miss: giving a key and a contract to a renter before listening to her gut, and what it…
S2 · E34 · 8 Sep 2026 · 29 min
Leading with Faith, Not Performance: Building an Authentic Group Practice with Whitney Owens
Whitney Owens runs a 15-person, private-pay group practice in Savannah, Georgia (just closed on their second commercial building) and Wise Practice Consulting, a faith-based consulting business for practice owners. In this conversation she and Lisa dig into what it actually means to lead authentically, why she stopped letting her therapists dictate her decisions, and why bringing in an integrator through EOS/Traction changed everything about how she leads. What You’ll Hear: How Whitney markets a faith-based niche without it feeling weird or performative, and why it's no different than…
S2 · E33 · 1 Sep 2026 · 21 min
Building a Group Practice and a Non-Profit Side by Side with Aditi Jasra
What happens when the need in your community outgrows what a private practice can offer? Aditi Jasra, who leads a Tri-Cities group practice and co-founded the New Wellness North Foundation, shares why she built a nonprofit alongside her business, what the first year of that learning curve actually demands, and how knowing your why carries you through when grants get tight and the work gets hard. What You’ll Hear: Why Aditi launched a nonprofit alongside her group practice, and the specific gap it was built to fill How she leads as a compassionate team player while still holding clear…
S2 · E32 · 25 Aug 2026 · 34 min
Hire with Intention, Lead with Confidence: Building a Virtual Team You Can Trust with Haley Moore
Haley Moore built Therapy Uninterrupted as a virtual group practice from the ground up, and she has thought carefully about every single step of how she brings people on. In this episode, she walks through the full arc of her hiring and onboarding process and makes the case for why intentionality before the job posting goes up is the most important part of the whole thing. What You’ll Hear: Why confidence is the single quality Haley looks for above all else in a new hire, and how it shows up in every part of the process The 15-minute meet and greet she does before any formal interview, and…
S2 · E31 · 18 Aug 2026 · 30 min
Hire Slow, Lead Well: Building a Clinical Team You Can Trust with Heather Bach
If hiring has ever felt like a gamble, this episode will change how you think about it entirely. Heather Bach, founder of Bach Counselling Group, shares the rigorous, client-first hiring system she has refined over 25 years of running a group practice in North and West Vancouver. What You’ll Hear: Why hiring slow is one of the most protective things you can do for your clients, your team, and yourself The multi-stage screening process Heather uses before a single interview takes place, including reference questionnaires, case studies, and admin phone screens How a scored interview system…
S2 · E30 · 11 Aug 2026 · 43 min
Building a Group Practice in a Small Town: Grit, Community, and Finding Your People with Kaitlin Carroll Kane
What does it look like to launch a group practice from scratch in a small bilingual city of 30,000 people, while pregnant, with no local peer network and a regulated province making recruitment even harder? In this conversation, Lisa sits down with Kaitlin Carroll Kane, founder of New Tide Counseling and Consulting in Miramichi, New Brunswick, to talk about the realities of building in a rural market, why relationships are everything, and what has kept her going through the hard seasons. What You’ll Hear: The specific recruitment challenges of building in a regulated province with a small…
S2 · E29 · 4 Aug 2026 · 36 min
Recruiting, Retaining, and Expanding in a Small Town: What Group Practice Ownership Really Looks Like with Dana Corr
Dana Corr runs a thriving group practice in a Manitoba town of fewer than 700 people, and her journey has been full of honest lessons about hiring, expansion, boundaries, and what servant leadership actually looks like when you're the one carrying the business. If you're navigating growth in a smaller community or wondering whether your needs matter as much as everyone else's, this conversation is for you. What You’ll Hear: What recruiting and retaining therapists looks like when your talent pool is a small rural community, and how Dana built most of her team through practicum students The…
S2 · E28 · 28 Jul 2026 · 30 min
When Bigger Isn't the Goal: Leading from Your Values with Darbey Carlson of Fika Mental Health
Not every growth story ends with growing. Darbey Carlson of Fika Mental Health shares how her practice expanded to seventeen people almost entirely by accident, the moment she paused to ask how it all actually felt, and why choosing to slow down can be the most values-aligned decision a group practice owner makes. What You’ll Hear: How a practice can grow to 17 people almost by accident, and the moment that finally prompts a pause The 10 to 12 therapist shift, where the culture changes and how to catch up to it Detaching from hustle culture and the quiet belief that you are always supposed…
S2 · E27 · 21 Jul 2026 · 33 min
Staying Small on Purpose: Building a Practice That Actually Fits Your Life with Bianca Stefina
Not every group practice owner wants to scale to seven figures, and Bianca Stefina is here to say that is more than okay. In this honest, refreshing conversation, Bianca shares how she built Mindfully Me Psychotherapy Clinic in Ontario from a cold coffee pitch to a steady team of practitioners she genuinely trusts, all while navigating burnout, multiple roles, and the question of who she is outside of her work. What You’ll Hear: How Bianca filled her private practice caseload within six months by speaking passionately about what she actually believes in clinically Why she chose a mixed…
S2 · E26 · 14 Jul 2026 · 25 min
Staying Small on Purpose: Leading a Group Practice with Clarity and Confidence with Michelle Waters
What does it really mean to be a group practice owner when your practice is small, or when you intentionally choose not to grow? In this episode, Lisa sits down with Michelle Waters of Pacific Waters Counselling to talk honestly about the realities of owning a small group practice, navigating contractors coming and going, and making grounded leadership decisions that align with your energy, values, and ideal client. This conversation explores identity, imposter syndrome, burnout, and the quiet confidence that comes from knowing what you do and do not want as a leader. What You’ll Hear: What…
S2 · E25 · 7 Jul 2026 · 35 min
When Is It Time to Expand Your Group Practice? An Honest Conversation with Frances Hammel-Kampus
If you have ever wondered whether you are ready to grow, this conversation is for you. Frances of Moose Jaw Psychology shares how a solo practice she opened the month before the pandemic grew, almost accidentally, into a team of around sixteen clinicians, and the grounded, numbers-based thinking she used to decide when to take more space before she was ever fully ready. What You’ll Hear: Why you are rarely ready to expand when you expand, and why taking the space before you fill it can still be the right call How to use your actual numbers to know when you have genuinely outgrown your space…
S2 · E24 · 29 Jun 2026 · 43 min
She Collects Spaces: Expanding a Group Practice with Vision, Grit, and a Guardian Mindset with Rachel Frankford
What does it look like to expand your group practice three times without a blueprint, before you feel financially ready, and driven entirely by vision? In this conversation, Lisa sits down with Rachel Frankford, owner of New Pathways Therapy in Toronto, to talk about organic growth, the guardianship model of leadership, and what it really takes to keep saying yes when everything in you says it is too soon. What You’ll Hear: How Rachael went from hospital social worker to accidental group practice owner, and why she started a practice simply because the group she wanted to be in did not exist…
S2 · E23 · 16 Jun 2026 · 17 min
Permission to Pause: Why Authentic Leadership Doesn't Require You to Be Vulnerable
This solo episode is a permission slip for any leader who has been white-knuckling a promise that no longer serves them. Lisa unpacks the real difference between being authentic and being vulnerable with your team, and why honouring your own capacity is one of the most caring things you can do as a group practice owner. What You’ll Hear: Why pausing a commitment is an act of leadership, not a failure of it The question to ask about every promise you are still holding in your business The real difference between being authentic and being vulnerable with your team, and why they are not the…
S2 · E22 · 2 Jun 2026 · 28 min
Stop, Start, and Protect: A Mid-Year Reset for Group Practice Owners
Summer can feel like a season you either coast through or panic through. In this solo episode, Lisa offers a different invitation: to use the slower pace deliberately. Drawing on the burnout conversation from the previous episode and the image of a plant quietly wilting from giving without being watered, Lisa walks group practice owners through three grounding questions to help them arrive at the fall whole, energised, and ready to lead. What You’ll Hear: Why summer can actually feel more stressful than other seasons for group practice owners, and why that is worth naming The plant metaphor…
S2 · E21 · 26 May 2026 · 47 min
Burnout, Self-Awareness, and What It Really Takes to Keep Going with Katarina McCurdy
What does burnout actually feel like from the inside — and how do you know you're in it before it's too late? In this conversation, Lisa sits down with Katarina McCurdy, a therapist, clinical supervisor, workshop facilitator, and podcast host, to talk about the hidden emotional cost of keeping all the plates spinning, and what it really takes to slow down before your body does it for you. What You’ll Hear: How Katarina went from frontline trauma work to private practice, clinical supervision, and launching her own podcast, and what she learned about pacing herself along the way Why burnout…
S2 · E20 · 19 May 2026 · 23 min
Building Your GPO Community: The Connection Map
Last week we named the cost of leading alone. This week, we hand you the map. In this solo episode, Lisa walks group practice owners through the Connection Map — a tool for seeing who is actually in your circle, where the gaps are, and what kind of support you are missing without realizing it. You will learn the six roles every group practice owner needs in her circle, three questions to ask about each one, and how to read your finished map. If last week's episode named what was missing, this episode helps you do something about it. What You’ll Hear: Why "more people" is the wrong answer…
S2 · E19 · 12 May 2026 · 21 min
The Hidden Cost of Leading Alone - And What to Do About It
What does it actually cost a group practice owner to lead alone? Not the obvious cost — the loneliness everyone talks about — but the hidden one. The one that shows up as decisions that take longer than they should, doubts that grow louder than they need to, boundaries that quietly slide, and a sense of normal that has drifted further from actual normal than you realize. In this solo episode, Lisa names four hidden costs of leading alone and offers three to four concrete things you can do this week to counter each one. If you have ever stood in your kitchen at 9:47 PM telling yourself to…
S2 · E18 · 5 May 2026 · 34 min
The Delegation Mindset: Why Group Practice Owners Can't Grow What They Won't Release
You know you need to delegate. You've read the books, hired the help, and still find yourself answering emails at 9 p.m. and quietly taking tasks back. In this solo episode, Lisa picks up where the last one left off and walks through three layered frameworks that turn delegation from a tactic into a practice — so you can finally lead the business you built. What You’ll Hear: ✓ Why delegation is a mindset issue long before it's a systems issue, and the identity pull that keeps you holding on ✓ Mike Michalowicz's Queen Bee Role concept and how to name the one activity your practice's success…
S2 · E17 · 28 Apr 2026 · 32 min
Stop Waiting to Delegate: How to Build a Better Intake System and Lead with Confidence with Uriah Guilford
Uriah Guilford built a group practice by accident, a virtual assistant company out of necessity, and an AI-powered intake platform because a problem needed solving. In this conversation, he and Lisa talk honestly about why group practice owners wait too long to let go, what great delegation actually looks like, and how the right intake system changes everything. What You’ll Hear: - Why waiting too long to delegate is one of the costliest mistakes group practice owners make, and what it quietly does to your mental health - The accidental path that led Uriah from reluctant leader to building…
S2 · E16 · 21 Apr 2026 · 34 min
You Don't Have to Do It All: A Practical Guide to Delegation for Group Practice Owners
If you are still answering intake calls, reviewing invoices, and making scheduling decisions for your team, this episode is going to name something you already know but haven't acted on yet. We are talking about what it actually looks like to step out of the work that doesn't belong to you anymore, so you can lead the way your practice needs you to. What You’ll Hear: - Why being capable of something doesn't mean you should still be doing it - The three areas group practice owners most often resist delegating, and why - What the handover period actually looks like, and why the first few weeks…
S2 · E15 · 14 Apr 2026 · 28 min
Buying Back Your Time: Leadership, Delegation & Building Community with Krista Helman
In this episode, Lisa sits down with Krista Helman , founder and Executive Director of the Trauma and Grief Institute in Ottawa, to talk about the real behind-the-scenes work of growing a group practice — and what it looks like to lead with intention while carrying *a lot* of hats. Krista shares her journey from solo practice to running a 15-clinician practice, the misconception she had about how quickly she’d be able to step out of client work, and the mindset shift that helped her delegate and “buy back” her time. Together, they explore the importance of community as burnout prevention,…
S2 · E14 · 7 Apr 2026 · 40 min
Being Found: SEO, AI Search, and What Group Practice Owners Need to Know with Tedi Bezna
The way people search for a therapist has changed — and if your website hasn't kept up, you may be invisible to the very people you're best positioned to help. Teddy Bezna of Searchlight Digital breaks down what group practice owners need to understand about SEO and AI search right now. What You’ll Hear: - Why AI search tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are changing how potential clients find therapists, and how to make sure your practice shows up - The most common website mistake group practice owners make — and how to fix it without a full rebrand - How to structure your website when your team…
S2 · E13 · 31 Mar 2026 · 33 min
Coming Home to Yourself: How Congruence Changes the Way You Lead with Jennifer Nagel
What does it actually mean to take care of yourself as a leader, not just as a therapist? In this conversation, Lisa sits down with longtime friend and colleague Jennifer Nagel to talk about congruence, self-leadership, and the retreat they are co-creating together in Costa Rica. What You’ll Hear: Why congruence is more than honesty and what it looks like when your values, mind, body, and spirit are genuinely in alignment How group practice owners can get so focused on metrics and systems that they forget they are human beings first, and what the cost of that really is The skeleton and the…
S2 · E12 · 24 Mar 2026 · 29 min
You Don’t Have to Do It Alone: Building Confidence & Stability in Group Practice with Rebecca Rauscher
In this honest and grounding conversation, Lisa sits down with Vancouver group practice owner Rebecca Rauscher , founder of Boundless Heart Counseling Group , to talk about what it really takes to grow a sustainable practice. From people-pleasing and painful leadership moments to stabilizing finances and learning to treat clinicians as “clients,” Rebecca shares the turning points that helped her step into leadership with more clarity, confidence, and support. If you’re in the thick of building a group practice, this episode will remind you: you’re not failing — you’re learning. And you don’t…
S2 · E11 · 17 Mar 2026 · 27 min
Culture Clarity: A Three-Layer Checklist for Group Practice Owners
You can't lead a culture you haven't defined. This episode walks you through a practical three-layer checklist to help you get honest about whether your team culture is defined, communicated, and actually showing up in your practice day to day. What You’ll Hear: Why clarity is the root issue behind most team culture problems, and what it actually means to define your culture before you try to lead it How to identify your core values not just for your clinical work but for how your practice operates, and why they need to live somewhere other than your head The gap between having a culture…
S2 · E10 · 10 Mar 2026 · 35 min
Building a Team You Actually Enjoy Leading
Leading a group practice is only sustainable when you genuinely enjoy the people you're leading. This solo episode picks up where the conversation with Kathryn Atkinson left off and gets honest about what it actually takes to build a team culture that works for you, not just your therapists. What You’ll Hear: Why your voice and enjoyment in leading your team matters just as much as your therapists' experience of the practice The role alignment plays in hiring and why shared values beat clinical skill every time Common leadership mistakes group practice owners make, including hiring too fast,…
S2 · E9 · 3 Mar 2026 · 21 min
Collecting People, Not Locations: A Unique Approach to Group Practice with Kathryn Atkinson
In this episode of the Empowered to Lead podcast, host Lisa Catallo sits down with Kathryn Atkinson, a dynamic group practice owner from Vancouver Island. Kathryn shares her journey of building a thriving practice, emphasizing the importance of collecting the right people over expanding locations. She discusses her unique business model, leadership style, and the value of collaboration over competition. Kathryn also offers insights into overcoming common challenges faced by group practice owners, such as taking calculated risks and maintaining a clear vision. Tune in to learn how Kathryn…

About Empowered to Lead

Empowered to Lead is a English business podcast from Lisa Catallo. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Lisa Catallo
Language: English
Category: Business
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 30 min
Latest episode: 13 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1824923366

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