2019 Year in Review (This was a big one, y’all!)

2019 Year in Review. This was a big one, Y'all!

I feel lots of feels writing this letter today-on my 31st birthday. I had a feeling my 30’s were going to be a great decade, but I had no idea how big my 30th year was going to be. Holy Schmoly! 2019 was a wild ride for me business-wise and personally. I feel so much gratitude and possibility going into 2020. It was, in a word, expansive. 

I officially launched the brick-and-mortar Practical Audacity Therapy Practice & Healing Collective in February of 2018. When my first hire, Casey Tanner, wrote me an email detailing all the reasons I should hire her immediately two months into starting my business and said that her word of the year was “audacity”and it was clearly destiny (Spoiler alert. It was), it became quickly apparent that this was going to be bigger operation than I had originally thought. 

Sooo…we’ve grown a little. 

Some Highlights:

The team got way more dreamy. I started off 2019 with a team of 3 full-time employees (3 therapists) and 1 contractor and ended 2019 to a team of 7 employees (6 full-time therapists, one part-time Office Manager/Admin Assistant), and 3 administrative contractors. Oh, and two business coaches. We will be bringing on one more full time therapist in January and (drumroll please) we are getting our first ever clinical intern who will be able to take lower sliding scale clients than our regular staff. Our team feels strong and just keeps getting stronger-we’ve laughed, we’ve danced, we’ve cried. I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such incredible and talented humans. 

In order to do this, we had to make the hard decision to shut down the Collective branch of Practical Audacity in order to simplify our business model and create more space for our new therapists. 

My work partnership (and friendship) with Casey Tanner has grown exponentially this year and I’m proud to say that Casey is now our Clinical Director (and keeper of company culture), which is very much Casey’s area of strength. 

I’ve been working towards being able to focus my time on doing the work that is in my areas of strength and delegating the rest, which is tough for my type-a, scrappy self but so very necessary. This means that I’ve been focusing on developing a dream team that allows Practical Audacity to make the biggest impact possible while also empowering my team to create a dreamy company culture that lets folks work in their area of strengths and feel super supported while doing so. I’ve also been focusing on creating a strong foundation for PA-a sustainable business model, systems and processes for long-term financial and business health (so we can continue to make that impact in 10 years). 

I got a lot of help. I haven’t done this thing alone. It’s been a team effort with Casey’s promotion, my new stellar Office Manager & Assistant Syd, and a bunch of contractors that help with things like insurance snafus, accounting, and marketing. I also joined a really incredible business mastermind of a lot of bada** women business owners. It’s been really transformative for myself and the business and I wouldn’t be here without their support. We also hired a Diversity and Inclusion Consultant to help us through some rough patches and a misstep on my part this year as we grew and keep us accountable/set us up for continued learning about anti-racism and inclusion. 

We served A LOT of people. And they got results. As of this moment, we have 178 active therapy clients and had a total of 2744 therapy sessions in 2019. WOW! My little heart grew two sizes when I saw that final number and I teared up more than a little at the following kind words from a former client (shared with permission). 

“Hands down, working with Rae was the best self-care decision I made when assessing my gender identity. Our sessions together were highly impactful, providing support, critical perspective, and insights which helped me reflect on what I needed to live authentically and course correct my life. In short, Rae helped me find, establish, and develop the best of me, and I am so thankful for it. To anyone looking for support through a major life change and especially to individuals exploring their own gender or sexual identity, do not hestitate to contact Rae and Practical Audaicity. They. Are. Wonderful. -Tessa

GenderFck. I am beginning my journey into the world of coaching and online community building. 

I started a Facebook group and community for transgender/non-binary/questioning individuals that has over 1200 active members and growing. 

I made a model. I’ve been developing a model of Gender Transition that uses strengths-based principles that focus on transition as a place of curiosity, discovery, and empowerment instead of suffering. I’ve have introduced it as a training at several professional events, including the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT). If you are interested in having me present at your organization or do a keynote for your corporate or professional event, reply to this email with some deets and we will get the ball rolling. 

Based on this model, I created GenderFck, a one-of-a-kind, research-based, 10-week online group coaching program that is designed to help folks tap into a sense of play, pleasure, and possibility while exploring their gender. It launched in October of this year with a cohort of 12. I’m currently accepting applications for the next cohort starting in March of 2020 and have 5 folks signed up already! If you’re interested, you can sign up here. 

I also created GenderFck: The Membership. This ongoing online membership community is open to alumni of the GenderFck group coaching program exclusively and is designed to continue the community forged in the program while providing support for implementation of the GenderFck model. 

See what the first cohort of members are saying about the program (used with permission):

Doing the work side by side with other trans folks as we all navigate our individual journeys has been eye-opening and comforting beyond what I could have imagined. Receiving support from the other folks in my cohort and being able to identify with their experiences and challenges has already been transformative. -Nora

The opportunity for self-compassion is to understand ableism, transphobia, heteropatriarchy, capitalism and other oppression. It is to name things like “internalized ableism” and “internalized transphobia”. It is to see my past and current self as someone who was/is hurting from these things. It is to allow myself to do the things I haven’t allowed myself to do because of these oppressions: to rest, to be outspoken, to just have fun. The opportunity for self-compassion is in community and realizing that others with my shared identities go through the same things. That we all deserve compassion. That I should extend the same understanding to myself as to others.The opportunity to feel the feels. It is to cry when I feel like I need to heal. It is in allowing feelings of anger. It is in taking time to sit with emotions instead of pushing on to the next task. The opportunity to combat learned helplessness is in talking to others who will understand and be empathetic. It is connecting with community, both on and offline, in groups like GenderFck and local queer spaces. It is in making time for rest and joy. It is in taking small steps in standing up for myself and asking for what I need, even just with the people I feel safest with. It is in taking the mask off, even just for a bit.

-Charlie

What does 2020 hold?

Expand and go deeper with GenderFck. I’ll be focusing on building and delivering GenderFck. I’m excited to go deeper with the content and the participants in the program as well as building awareness and a community around the model and program. ​

Getting laser focused on my strengths. In addition to GenderFck, I’ll be reducing my caseload of therapy clients in order to focus on running the business and operating in my areas of strength-strategy, operations, content creation, and speaking. 

Continuing to build our dream team. I’m continuing to build our administrative support team with folks who can help us get to the next level. We will also be looking to expand our clinical team this year. 

Go deeper with anti-racism and inclusion work. Casey and I are also going to be attending Crossroads Anti-Racism Training (CROAR) in the Spring and Summer to further our anti-racism and inclusion education and implementing our learnings throughout the year. I'm excited to dive deeper into this incredibly important topic. ​

Growth. Casey and I are going to France for a retreat with my Business Mastermind in May. Rachel Cargle is one of the featured speakers and I. Can’t. Wait. It’s definitely mixing business with pleasure (as it should be!) and am excited for this transformative experience.

I’m stunned looking back on this year at the progress we’ve made and am making it my mission in 2020 to be the leader a company of this size and impact deserves. I'm so grateful for my amazing team that makes all of this possible, both in business and personally. You know who you are and you rock. ​Cheers to 2020 being the most magical year yet! 

-​Rae