Revolutionizing the Way Mental Health Practice Owners Connect and Thrive | Kasey Compton of Meet You In Kentucky

Had all of these goals and all of these milestones that I wanted to hit and things that I wanted to achieve. And I did the whole hustle thing and I worked my tail off and started just like, checking things off the list. And once I got to that last thing that I just really, really wanted, which was to become an author, at first go around, I was just like, now what? Like, I don't feel any different. I've. I've scaled my practice, I've started a new business. I bought my beach house that I wanted. You know, I bought my dream house that I wanted. And now I don't know what I'm going to do. Like, there's nothing left on my list, and I still don't feel fulfilled. So this book came out of an experience with that. And I do think that a lot of people that are entrepreneurs are dealing with that, whether or not they realize it just yet, because as I was dealing with it myself, I didn't even know it.

Welcome to the mental Health Entrepreneur Podcast. We are here to inspire creative ideas and connections for entrepreneurs and advocates working to address our mental health crisis. As you listen, I hope you will experience new ideas and motivation to innovate in your business, your community, and in your life. Welcome. Welcome, everyone, to the mental Health Entrepreneur podcast. Today we will be talking about innovation in mental health with Casey Compton. Casey is first and foremost an entrepreneur, having started and run multiple businesses. She is a group practice owner, business coach, conference designer, and an author. Casey, welcome.

Thank you. I'm excited.

Did I forget anything in there? There's. You do so many things. I'm like, there's probably more things that we could add to that list by

the time this podcast airs, there might be something new. I. I don't know.

I love it. I love it. And there are so many places we could go. But I wanted to dive in today because one of the things that I've noticed that you've created that is an. An interesting, innovative thing is this idea of meet you in Kentucky. And so I'd love to talk a little bit about that. First of all, let's start with what is. What is meet you in Kentucky?

It is a conference where mostly healthcare practice owners across the United States and sometimes Canada meet us in Kentucky and really are focused on growing their practice. Or sometimes people are coming so that they can move out of their practice and do other things, such as kind of what you're talking about here on your podcast. Sometimes it's just that people want to get together and build a community within themselves to have support. But yeah, I mean, that's what we do. We, we try to throw a big party in a lot of ways just to bring everybody together. Also while they're here, we want to show them a little bit of what Kentucky has to offer.

Yeah. And so for people listening that may not know, having a conference slash retreat kind of experience for mental health group practice owners is not a very common thing. There's not a lot out there. And so I'd love to talk about. How did this idea start for you?

Yeah, you're right, there's not a lot. And I think that there are good reasons that there are not a lot of conferences or events like these out there. But it started for me really small.

Actually.

It was kind of like a last minute thing. I was running a mastermind group of about 10 to 12 people and it was a year long group and I just really wanted something at the end to kind of culminate the whole experience and give them an opportunity to come to Kentucky. And we try to think of like, okay, what are we going to call this? And you in Kentucky? Because that's, that's kind of what we're doing. So we brought about 10 people in and did it up good. You know, we, we tried our best for the first year and we really liked it. And what, I mean, the, the content was great, but people were developing these relationships that I knew were going to sustain them in the long term because this is a hard, you know, this is a hard industry. And so just watching that develop, I knew that we had to keep doing it. And we just went from that first year of 12 and then I think the next year we had like 25. And then the next year we did about 50. And then last year we were at about 125 or so, or maybe 50, 150, I can't remember. We, we've been scaling it every year, but we did it slowly on purpose just because we wanted to maintain that integrity of that small feeling of an event. And I'm hoping, I mean everyone has given us feedback that we have, but that's kind of how it all started. Yeah.

And why support group practice owners specifically?

Why not, you know?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it's interesting.

Yeah, Well, I think I was one and, and I needed that kind of support and it was, it was helpful for me. In fact, the first conference type thing that I ever went to as a group practice owner, those people that I met there, I'm, those are some of my closest friends today. I've got, you know, Tara. That's where I met Tara. Jessica Tapana, Katie Engler. Like all these people that I met at that very first one, I. I still am in contact with on a weekly basis. And it's. They've been invaluable to me going through all the ups and downs. But I think they, one, they need it. And two, I just see a lot of barriers that people in the mental health industry are facing as they become entrepreneurs on a broader scale. And it was just important for me to be able to kind of address that head on.

Yeah, well. And I think about the multiplier effect of that.

Right.

So you're supporting the people that have these practices in all different places across the country and Canada. And by supporting them, hopefully that is also supporting the wellness in the communities that they're serving. Because obviously if they are struggling or if they go out of business, that just creates an issue for all the people that they're serving.

A hundred percent.

Yeah. What are your hopes for meet you in Kentucky going forward? Is this a bigger year?

Gosh, this has just been a bigger year in general. There's been so much going on. We didn't have any intention of this being a bigger year, so we didn't have any specific plans on scaling. And to be honest with you, people are still buying tickets. So I'm not entirely positive if this will be a bigger year or not. But we are definitely selling more tickets and seeing more people that are brand new that have never come before. And that's always exciting. Usually the people that come once, they come every year. And this year we are doing something a little different that we haven't told anybody yet. We're going to do some. I don't know what they're going to be called, but some type of superlatives that we're going to have all vote for. We're going to have trophies and tiaras and, you know, all the stuff. But because these people that have been so loyal to this conference are doing massive things like, you know, they're. They've started brand new businesses, they've surpassed the 1 million mark. The 2 and the 3. And I just think that that deserves some recognition.

That's awesome. I love that. What have you learned kind of along the way? I love how you were talking about how it started kind of organically. Right. Just out of this mastermind group. It was small, then it kind of grew, then it kind of grew more and more. So I'm curious, as that has developed things that you would Say you've learned or even that you would do differently potentially.

Oh, well, you were there last year. Yeah, we learned a lot. Not last year, but the year before last. And I think part of that was really just my ability to communicate with my team about my expectations and my vision. What I had communicated not last year, but the year before. I don't think really I was doing it in a way that we really understood the people that were helping. And also we needed more people two years ago to kind of help facilitate it. So last year we learned those, that we took those things and put them into practice and realized like, we're going full on. Like, I bought them walkie talkie headset. So we got a ton of our therapists to come and help. We had just a lot more, like in the operational department, just a lot more of that going on. That's really important to me. I'm really big on just the experience. When people walk into a room, like, what does it feel like? What's the music sound like? And that is something that my team doesn't. That's not a natural thing for them. So they would never think to do those things. That's just not what their brain is wired to go to. And for me, when I come into an event, like, I want to hear some music. Like, I need to. We need to get the energy up. So last year we tried really hard and that was a big, big deal. It's like, let's keep that energy high. Let's get people excited, motivated. Let's get them tired. We want to wear their brains out. They're here for a few days and then also just like really listening to the needs of the people while incorporating a practice owner's team. And that was probably the biggest thing and that's the biggest difference for us this year. We've always been very team oriented, like where we have our work life tickets. But this year it is like full on team. So we want to come and feel like they, as the practice owner, don't have to take in all the information, remember it all, then go back and reteach it. And so that's been really important to just help these practice owners realize that they're not alone, that they can bring their team and their team can be accountable and responsible for information too.

Yeah, I would say for me, I've brought my team the last couple of years or at least parts of my team, and it has been invaluable for not just the learning and the content, but it's also, there's A lot of opportunities for team development and talking about ideas and working together. It kind of naturally brings up things and sort of raises the level of the team. I think sometimes hearing things from somebody other than me is also really valuable, even if it's the similar kind of thing.

Yeah, it's like, see, I told you so. I do that with mine as well.

I know, but it's great. It's. And I. I love the focus on relationships and supportive relationships because I think that's a big piece of what that experience offers. I think you all do that. Well. I'd love to kind of talk about your entrepreneur journey. Overall, you have created how many businesses?

Three, four, five, six businesses.

You're relatively young for having created six businesses. I know you just had a birthday. It's going to be a good decade. You're good, you're good. But what has the entrepreneur journey been like for you?

Oh, my gosh, it's been a lot of ups and downs, but it's been. It's. This is just gonna sound super cheesy, but it's honestly been priceless, even in the downs. It's helped change my perspective on things just in general. You know, family, on friendships, on how I show up for others, how I manage money, on how I view money, on how I plan for the future. I mean, literally every component of my life has been touched in some way by this entrepreneurial journey.

So let's dig into that a little bit. I'm curious, how has that changed some of your relationships?

Oh, owning businesses is not easy, I would say. I've never necessarily been a people pleaser, and I can very easily be like, yeah, I don't really care what other people think of me, because in a lot of ways I don't. But there's also something in there, as with, I think everybody that does care to some degree what people think. And when you're running businesses, you're having to constantly make decisions that, you know, as an employee of, of someone else's business, you don't have to make. And you're. You're constantly faced with. You're responsible for other people in different ways. And so the decisions that you make aren't always accepted and they're not always liked and people don't always understand. And I think for me, that triggered a lot of rejection early on, and it still does sometimes, but I'm able to process it differently and handle it differently. So I think that was a. That's a huge part of it is just being able to grow as an Individual enough so that you can carry on and run your businesses without taking everything personally, without letting the negativity impact your emotional state of mind. I would say the first five years in entrepreneurship was a lot of me, like, dealing with abandonment issues because it would get triggered by resignations, loyalty issues, friendships, like learning how to lead people but still have boundaries. So I think the first five years were really just me learning how to be a. A better person, like a more solid person. And then it feels like there was a point there where the business side became easier.

Yeah. I. I do think a lot of who we are as people is all reflected in our entrepreneur journey, and it changes us as well. It shapes us to do this work. Yeah. Hard to be a people pleaser in this line of work. And I think in the therapy world, so many therapists tend more toward that.

Right.

People pleasing more than the business side of things. So it can be challenging.

Yeah. I was scrolling through Facebook before this, and there was this really cute little. I think it was a ring. It was just this really dainty little ring. And it said, let them. I was like, I love that because so many times I've been in situations where, let's say an employee does something really bad. Okay. Like fraudulent embezzlement or whatever, you know, whatever. Really bad. And you either have to fire them or they quit before you can fire them. And then they go out and tell every single person what a bad person you are because you fired them. And you are sitting there thinking, dude, you just stole, like, thousands of dollars from me. But you can't say a word because you're. You would be breaking the law. Right. And so you've got. And this is. Not that necessarily has happened to me, but situations like that have happened to me where I've wanted to be like, hey, here's my side of the story. Like, do you want to know the other half? Because it's. It's not at all what they're portraying to you. And so. So many times I've had to, like, run that through my head of just let them do it. I think entrepreneurship really puts you in this position of. In this way you don't have a voice. And. And I think that affected me for a really long time because I didn't want people to think things of me that actually weren't true, but I didn't have any way to communicate it.

Yeah.

Without breaking the law, you know?

Yeah.

So I think that's really hard for people too. And even, like, therapists that have practices and I. I Know, have a. A membership community. And. And so I say kind of in the loop that way. But when our group practice owners will pose, like when it's their first bad Google review, and they're just devastated. This industry that we're in is just tough. And then you add in the fact that we're employers, it silences us in a lot of ways, and that's really hard.

Yeah, that is really true. I think we're always in that place of protecting, Protecting clients, protecting employees. And their protection requires us to not have a voice sometimes. Do you think that entrepreneurs are born or made

both? I do think they're both. I. I think everyone is born with abilities that lend themselves to this lifestyle. But, you know, at certain points, I think that we kind of decide whether that's the path we want. Like, for example, I think all of my children have entrepreneurial tendencies that if.

Where did they get those from?

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, they. If they grow up, they can make that choice based on what they've seen and experienced through me. I can already tell you that a third of them will not. And it. It's not anything to do with their ability. It's just their initiative or lack thereof could change, you know, So I think everyone has the ability. I think it's kind of like, in our nature. That's how we were made to be. Like, let's. Let's barter, let's sell, let's get well, let's get our needs met through some sort of negotiation. So I don't know. I think it's kind of both. And then I think about other people, too, who have, like, the odds stacked against them. So. My brother is 14 years older than me. He. I know he will not listen to this. I don't even think he knows how to listen to a podcast. So I can talk about him and he'll never know. But he. You know, he was one that I heard stories about for my mom growing up, how he was, like, got in trouble all the time. He was. My dad was really hard on him. He flunked out of everything in school, not because he didn't have the ability, but because he had ADHD and no one knew it back then.

Yeah.

But I think about him, and I was walking outside the other day because I opened a pottery studio here on the property, and he was doing some work for me to get that renovated and everything. And I saw this little, like, magnet sign on the back of his truck that says Kevin's Handyman. Service. And it's not like an official business. You know, I know there's no way he registered it with the state or, like, he could not do that. But we're. Me, him, my dad, like, we're all that way. It's just my brother was never supported in that way, never taught in that way. You know, if someone could run it for him and he just does the work, he'd be perfect. So I don't know. I think we all have it in us, but I think it really. Our environment brings it out more. So.

Yeah, I think there's maybe a tolerance for risk, too. That has to be there. I think some people are like, no, I mean, that would be cool. But when we have a cyber attack on one of our clearinghouses and billing stuff is all crazy and up in the air, I don't want to deal with that.

Yeah. Risk aversion is not for entrepreneurs.

Yeah, Good statement there. And I'd love to know, too, kind of on this entrepreneur piece, how do you come up with some of your ideas, your innovation? Like, where is your space that you do your most creative thinking? Or how does that happen for you?

It really happens in the most calm and peaceful moments. It. I never get, like, this big, bright idea while I'm sitting here stressing myself out over our revenue. You know, it's always when I'm doing something like taking a shower or painting some pottery or having a glass of wine or get a lot of ideas at concerts. Yeah, lots of ideas at concert. So it's always in. In the calm. And I think it's just purely science that allows that to happen when our brains are calm and relaxed.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a great lesson, too, for people starting out. I think some people feel like the hustle is the answer, and we've all done the hustle to probably get where we are on the entrepreneur journey. And some of the work is just letting the rest happen in our brain figure things out. So I love that. That is. I love the concert. I'm gonna have to think about that one.

Last time we went to a concert, I had the big, bright idea to. No. The time before last, I wanted to adopt all these children because they were doing some kind of event. And I'm like, I'll take all of them. Did not do that, but I still want to. And then the last concert, I met a girl that I ended up hiring for one of my businesses. I found a tile man that's going to tile my whole new, build new construction. Like, I'm just. I'm getting stuff done at concerts. Wow. I know.

It's not really a fun thing for you anymore. It's a work thing for you. You probably expense it. Right.

That's great. I'll get people that text me the next day, and they're like, are you still needing whatever? And I'm like, oh, my God, Kelsey. What? Who did I talk so into it that I don't even know? I love it.

I love it. So speaking of your journey, I just want to spend a minute talking about your book because you just launched. I believe it's your second book, and I think it's really fascinating. The book is called In Search of you, and I have had the fortune to read it, and it's all about, really, your journey of finding yourself even after starting a lot of your businesses.

Yeah, you know, I think my businesses distracted me for a while, and honestly, I believe that it was probably a necessary distraction. But, you know, I had all of these goals and all of these milestones that I wanted to hit and things that I wanted to achieve, and I did the whole hustle thing and I worked my tail off and started just, like, checking things off the list. And once I got to that last thing that I just really, really wanted, which was to become an author, at first go around, I was just like, now what? Like, I don't feel any different. I've. I've scaled my practice. I've started a new business. I bought my beach house that I wanted. You know, I bought my dream house that I wanted, and now I don't know what I'm gonna do. Like, there's nothing left on my list, and I still don't feel fulfilled. So this book came out of an experience with that. And. And I do think that a lot of people that are entrepreneurs are dealing with that, whether or not they realize it just yet. Because as I was dealing with it myself, I. I didn't even know it. I wasn't even aware that I was searching for fulfillment until I hit that point.

And this book, I love you. Structure it a bit so it can have, like, a self help component. You have parts of the book where you're sort of talking directly to the reader and helping them think about the next step in their search for themselves. How did that come to be, that you added that into the book?

Yeah, well, it was super important for me to write something and give some sort of instruction for people to find their own joy. But I also didn't feel right asking the reader to do things that I Didn't do myself. And so as I'm instructing the reader on, you know, these five steps, I always do it first. So the way that, like what you said, the book is like, I'll do it now. Your turn. And so when. When you're in the. The stories of my personal experiences, it's really what I'm wanting the reader to turn around and do for themselves at the end of that section.

That's great. Well, you are a great writer, and it's a great book. We'll have all of the links for meet you in Kentucky and the book for anyone that wants to learn more in the Show Notes. But my last question is, where do you see yourself going next? We joked at the beginning that by the time this airs, you could have something entirely new. So I'm curious, what's on your mind?

What's next? Well, honestly, I. I want to write another book. I'm just not a hundred percent positive on what it's going to be just yet. And I'm kind of one of these people. Like, I'm. I'm a slow to start kind of person when it comes to the idea. It, like, has to just sit in there and marinate for a while.

But one relate to that.

Yeah, it's game time, like, once I know it's on. But that's what I want to shift back to, you know, I'm also focused on building a home, so I'm just gonna let myself enjoy that for a little bit, and then I'll know when I know about the book, and that will be in the future.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Kasey. It's been a pleasure to have you. Hey, everyone, before we go, I wanted to mention a podcast that I am loving right now. It is the Back Porch Bestie. I love this podcast because it gets

pretty real pretty quickly.

There's a lot in there that KC and Kelsey share about their own personal growth, and they have such great guests on there that really share their own journeys as well. Listen to the trailer now. Then head to the show notes to find the show's link and subscribe. I think you'll like it too.

So, Kelsey, so, Casey, serious question. Did you ever think you would be here?

No, I didn't. And by here, do you mean, like,

literally right here in this moment, recording a podcast about a book that you are in?

No, absolutely not.

Like running this business in the way that you are. Building a house, having seven people in the house we're currently living in. Oh, in a New pottery business and doing consulting. Did you ever think that you would be here?

No.

I think that there's pieces of me that always have wanted to be here, but I didn't know. I kind of just stumbled across it back two years ago. Our conversation. It just unraveled a thread.

Yeah.

So you think you had the potential all along?

You just needed.

Yeah, I just needed somebody to believe in me.

Oh, well, I think I'm the opposite.

You know, like, always out looking for

more, looking for the next thing. Like doing this, doing that, and, you know, all of.

All of it.

And then I met you, and you slowed me down substantially.

Yeah, you're a cliff jumper, and I'm more of like a puddle jumper.

I don't even think you're a puddle jumper. I think you're like a puddle viewer. Let me see where the rocks are. Oh, there's a minnow. See it?

But it protects me. Yeah. What? I don't know myself.

What, are you gonna hurt yourself?

Maybe jumping off that cliff. I might break my neck.

You'd be like a little roly poly. Like, just curl up in a ball

and roll down the hill.

Pew.

Oh, God. So for real, how does it feel to be a little bit more like maybe a heel jumper now? Yeah.

I mean, I like it more because it makes me more confident and feel competent that when I do jump off the hill, that I land on both feet. And if I don't land on my feet, I figure it out. Right?

Yeah. And I think you've helped me because now when I am jumping off things,

I'm not just jumping off cliffs just

to say that I did it.

I'm jumping off because there's joy there.

Hi, I'm Casey, and right here beside me is Kelsey. We are licensed professional counselors, mothers, entrepreneurs. Oh, and besties. We know firsthand what it's like to wake up one day and think, how in the heck did I wind up here?

The through our own journeys of self discovery, we found that joy is something that has to be pursued through internal work. Now we are on a mission to help women from all walks of life understand themselves more so they can have real, lasting joy.

Join us every Thursday to hear fun and insightful interviews with experts who can point you toward self discovery and fulfillment.