Welcome therapists and group practice owners! I’m Nicole McCance, a psychologist turned business coach for therapists (I scaled my own practice to 55 therapists and multiple 7-figures before I sold it). I recently sat down with Antoinette, the owner of Maple Leaf Counseling in Southern California, for part two of my group practice success series, and she shared some incredible insight!
Antoinette is one of my favourite Clinic Growth Map™ members, and it genuinely makes me smile from ear to ear to hear that this summer, she’s taking her family to Southern Europe for five weeks, and her practice will keep running (and generating revenue) the entire time she’s away. When she started with me a year and a half ago, it was just her. Today she leads a team of 11.
So how did she build a group practice that runs without her? If you’re a solo therapist or group practice owner who feels chained to your caseload right now, her story is one you’ll want to read.
P.S. Not a huge fan of reading blogs? (I’m more of a podcast girl myself) You can listen to my full conversation with Antoinette by clicking here or by watching the video below!
From $19K Months to $70K Months (On The Road to a 7-Figure Practice!)
First, I want to share a little backstory.
Antoinette spent just over nine years in solo practice before something clicked. On December 28th, 2023, the idea of opening a group practice hit her like a freight train, and the very next day my page popped up on her feed for the first time (This is why I love being so present on social! You never know when someone is going to need to hear what you have to say).
A week and a half later she was in my program!
Now for the numbers, because I know that’s what you’re here for (I loveeee a good revenue story too!).
In January 2024, she was still solo and brought in $19,000 a month. That was her ceiling, and she felt it. To grow past a certain point, you have to do something different than what got you there.
So she started following my hiring method (after systemizing, of course!), and here’s what happened:
- January 2024: $19,000 a month, solo
- May 2024: $30,000 a month after bringing on two therapists
- October 2024: a $49,000 month, then stabilizing in the $40Ks
- Fall 2025: $60,000 months
- March 2026: a $70,000 month, with the year on track for roughly $900,000
She’s now a team of 11, and she did all of this while Southern California weathered the Eaton fires, which hit one of her two offices and her own family. Even through that, the growth held.
The Systems That Made Her Practice Growth Possible
When I asked Antoinette what made the biggest impact, it came down to two things.
- The systems
- The community
She’d tried to open a group practice years earlier and it fell apart, because she had no systems and no direction. This time she wasn’t building from scratch. She could take a contract, a hiring process, or a workflow and tweak it to fit Maple Leaf.
Here’s why that mattered so much to her:
- Time is money, and time is freedom with her kids, her husband, and herself
- She didn’t have to sit down and write and structure everything from nothing (that’s what the Content Hub is for!)
- She could bring questions to the coaching calls and get real answers, often from someone who understood the rules in a highly regulated state
She also found her people (yay!). One of her closest friends now came straight out of the program, and they talk business every single day.
What Changed When She Stopped Trading Time for Money
The money is only half of it, and this next part is the half I really want everyone to remember.
Antoinette used to work 9 to 6, Monday through Thursday. Today, her weeks look more like:
- Lighter caseload
- Wrapped up by 2 on Wednesdays and Thursdays
- Fridays through Sundays fully off
That reclaimed time goes to her three kids, swimming at the family club, or playing in the backyard. Twice a week a nanny comes, so she and her husband can finally have a day date (something that wasn’t realistic before).
And the five-week trip to Southern Europe this summer, where her husband is from, only happens because the business runs without them.
Her husband is a huge part of this. He runs the business side (she calls him her C suite: COO, CFO, and the contractor who literally built a wall in one office), which frees her to focus on the clinical work, the culture, and the people.
And this freedom is happening now, while the practice is still growing, not somewhere far down the road.
Building a Sellable Asset You Can Choose to Keep or Sell
A lot of therapists miss this when they’re deep in the day-to-day, but a group practice this size becomes a genuine asset, not just monthly income.
Antoinette is on her way to a million-dollar business, and that truly changes her options entirely. Because when you own an asset like that, you get to decide what to do with it:
- You can hold it and keep building, without any pressure to sell
- You can sell it down the road (offers come, and they often surprise you)
- You can leverage it, the way wealthy people borrow against assets to buy a property or fund the next chapter
Antoinette isn’t planning to sell right now, because she doesn’t yet know where this asset could take her family, or whether one of her kids might want to step into it one day. That’s the beauty of building something desirable: you hold all the choices.
Hot Tip: If the idea of a sellable practice is new to you, I sat down with investor, Daniel King from Fireside Strategic to talk about exactly what buyers are looking for and how to build a sellable group practice.
You Can Have the Money and the Freedom
What I love most is that Antoinette didn’t choose between growing her revenue and being present for her family. She built a practice that gives her both, plus an asset that gives her options on top.
Her advice for anyone on the fence is to follow your gut, expect some nerves, and stay coachable!
Follow me on Instagram and tune into my podcast for more strategies and real talk about scaling a 7-figure group practice that runs without you (without burning out).
Your Business Bestie,
Nicole
