We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Briana DeNeal-Findley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Briana , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?
When I first started The Bee Network it was a small private practice that I operated part time. I would see about 8-10 clients a week in the evenings and weekends after my full time job. In 2019 I considered hiring my first team member. I talked about it a lot with a colleague about how it would go. The planning stages was very long for me because I was not yet sure if I was ready to take that leap of faith. I brought someone on but with very little structure. Then in September of that year my mom had passed and I stepped back from taking clients. Within 6 months of passing the pandemic had started and I knew I needed to hire if I wanted to keep my business a float. I started by hiring strictly friends and friend referrals. There are many lessons learned from that and I don”t necessarily recommend this be anyone main source of hiring. When I realized my processes were a little all over the place and after a few bad hires, I hired a teams and operations coach. From there I revamped my contracts for contractors and clients, hired an attorney, developed a org chart, revamped my hiring process and now have a team of 10 wonderful ladies in my practice. My practice can now fully function even without me
Briana , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Dr. Briana DeNeal-Findley is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Briana earned her Bachelors of Social Work in 2014 and her Masters of Social Work in 2015 from Salisbury University. She graduated with her Doctors of Public Administration from West Chester University in 2021.
Dr. DeNeal-Findley is the founder and CEO of The Bee Network, Inc. a fully virtual mental health practice for children and adults. Briana has spent her career working with children and adolescents in the child welfare system, group homes, school setting and outpatient mental health setting. She is also a children’s book author of Good Grief.
Dr. DeNeal-Findley has extensive training and experience in the areas Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Emotional Freedom Technique, Play Therapy and Parent Child Interaction Therapy. Briana is committed to providing comprehensive mental health care and teaching emotional wellness skills to children and family through her work.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
The best source of clients has always been through therapy directories and client referrals. My favorite directory to use is Psychologytoday.com
Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?
My business first focused only on mental health therapy for individuals, couples and groups. We now have expanded to children’s book and community programming.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thebeenetwork.org
- Instagram: thebeenetwork_
Image Credits
@kisanishoots @charliepwindsor