Timothy Zercher 0:00

Well, Tara, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you taking time.

Dr. Tara Chalakani 0:04

My pleasure. Thank you, Tim.

Timothy Zercher 0:06

Absolutely. Absolutely. So I want to jump right into some of our questions. You've spent decades now in behavioral health leadership specifically. What drew you into this field and what has kept you committed over time?

Dr. Tara Chalakani 0:18

Well, Tim, I love to share that none of it was intentional. And my path for sure and my career and even my leadership career has never been linear. But I attribute it to passion, truly loving what you do, believing in what you do, working hard and having it recognized. And honestly, some of it was being in the right place at the right time. Timing is everything, but I've been in healthcare specifically for 35 years and behavioral health care for over 20. So it's been a blessing. And I say accountants don't get to experience what I get to experience because I witness miracles. I see true stories of inspiration and resiliency every day. And there's nothing like that.

Timothy Zercher 1:07

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm sure that that helps keep you moving even in the long, boring meetings.

Dr. Tara Chalakani 1:12

For sure. For sure.

Timothy Zercher 1:14

So you've led large and very complex organizations through both growth periods and also like kind of full transformation. Where do you think leaders tend to struggle the most, especially when trying to scale and grow while maintaining quality?

Dr. Tara Chalakani 1:29

Well, I think that sticking to your mission is critical. You know, you really need to wake up every morning and know why you're here, what it is that you're supposed to be doing, and be very clear about that. Because if you are not clear, you cannot translate that to your teams. And everything trickles down. And I think that that's what gets us through the great times and the lean times is knowing why we exist and sticking to that mission.

Timothy Zercher 2:02

Absolutely. And I think that might be pretty similar to your answer for the next question. But obviously, you were known for balancing strong leadership and compassion. What have you learned about building cultures that are both high-performing and also human-centered and allow your people to be people?

Dr. Tara Chalakani 2:20

Yeah, I love that question because culture is very important to me. And I do believe the body rots from the head down. So I really take my position seriously, not in that I don't laugh or I'm not human, but seriously in that I take that responsibility very seriously, you know, because I feel like running an organization is like running a family. And if you want it to be healthy and functional and thriving, there's just some core characteristics that must be present. And I think being present, being a clear communicator, showing vulnerability, I think that a lot of CEOs and a lot of leaders get very hung up on their title and they lead with that instead of leading with their heart. And in nonprofit work specifically, I feel like we're very heart-centered. And I think that we have to be warm and compassionate with boundaries, just like a parent has to be. You never want to be your child's friend. And I think as a leader, there has to be boundaries, but you also have to let people know that they belong here, that they're important, they're valued, and communicate that and emulate that every day. And that is something that I value and try to lead with. I would hope to think that in our team of almost 500 employees, they know that they matter. They know that they're seen. I'm a very big fan of saying that no one's job here is more important than anyone else's, myself included. So just because I'm the CEO, it doesn't mean that the person answering the phone or driving a vehicle or providing direct care is less important than me. And I think that is something I do organically and naturally, and it has served me well and my work family, as I call them, very well.

Timothy Zercher 4:18

That makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. I think someone said a very similar principle to me one time. They said when you enter the room, you don't need to be the CEO, you need to be Tim. And I think I think that's exactly what you're talking about. You have to be genuine. You have to be yourself.

Dr. Tara Chalakani 4:31

Yes. Yes, for sure.

Timothy Zercher 4:33

What have you found is the hardest part about growing an organization? Because I know you've been through multiple growth stages at different organizations.

Dr. Tara Chalakani 4:41

Yes. Well, it's always money. You know, we have big ideas and great ideas, but we don't always have the capital to execute them. So I think that that is probably one of the biggest challenges in all businesses, but we're a nonprofit, so we have a different reality than maybe a for-profit that has a lot of capital or a lot of investors. We don't have that here. So I think that that typically is one of the greatest challenges. And that just trickles into everything. You want to scale, but you don't have the resources to do it. You want to promote and retain exceptional talent, but you might not have the resources to do it. And I think that that's an unfortunate side effect because that's probably the number one reason why we do lose talent is because we can't pay them what they deserve to be paid and they move on, even though they love us and love the culture.

Timothy Zercher 5:40

Absolutely. Yeah. Well, and I think even if money wasn't the problem, it's still sometimes hard to recruit in this space. It is just a hard space sometimes. So since we're a marketing agency that specializes in this space, we always have to ask some marketing type questions. First up, what works best for you right now, especially outside of word of mouth when it comes to client acquisition, growing individual programs?

Dr. Tara Chalakani 6:01

Mm-hmm. We do have a large social media presence and branding is very important to us. It's something that historically wasn't something we did well with, and now I feel that we do. So that is something that's helpful. And personally, I feel that I have a team of superstars, and I know that they are, and we're very good about getting out there. And when someone says to me, Oh my gosh, I see you everywhere, I'm like, okay, I'm doing something right. So we're very good about boasting, humbly bragging about what we do well. And that takes time to get people to embrace that, to get your staff to share, to get them to post. So I think that's something that we're doing well right now. And it's been working.

Timothy Zercher 6:49

Absolutely. It makes sense, right? I think if creating those brand advocates that work well for social, those have trickle effects in other areas like word of mouth, because if they're talking about it online, they're a lot more willing to also talk about it in person at the local barbecue or whatever is happening.

Dr. Tara Chalakani 7:04

Sure.

Timothy Zercher 7:04

Yeah.

Dr. Tara Chalakani 7:05

And you know, as nonprofits, we typically have not and don't have the budget that we would like for marketing. But one of the things that we've really drilled down on is that there's no deviations. Like if you're going to an event, you're not going to make a makeshift flyer on in Word. You know, that we're have our colors, we have our logos, everything is in Canva. Nothing deviates from the brand. And that I think also has helped us with our marketing as well.

Timothy Zercher 7:38

Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't think I don't think enough people understand how important that constant adherence to the brand is. But that makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense. Last question for this podcast at least is what is one marketing tactic that your team is either considering or just watching really carefully in the market in the marketplace right now?

Dr. Tara Chalakani 7:58

Well, we promote events. We are looking at how do we do that? Do we create a website specifically for the event, like our big annual golf outing? We're also being very careful with our mailing lists and newsletters, looking at bounce back rates and things of that nature, because we really want to provide value. We want people to open what we're sending them. So those are things that we're looking at and providing people like that, you know, we want them to look forward to what we're sending them and want to open it and feel that there's something in there that will be worth their time. So that is definitely something we're taking a hard look at.

Timothy Zercher 8:40

Makes complete sense. And I assume your your email list is also your newsletter is also one of the most important ways to engage with your referral partners too, which should be for all of the groups listening, and I'm sure for you, probably the largest source of new clients.

Dr. Tara Chalakani 8:54

For sure. And we don't want to overwhelm our fans, I'll call them, with a flooded email box, but we don't want to communicate too infrequently that we're off their radar. So it's always kind of finding that sweet spot and the secret formula that works for us.

Timothy Zercher 9:13

Yeah. A nice, complete sense. Nice, complete sense. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for sharing some of your expertise. We really appreciate it.

Dr. Tara Chalakani 9:20

Sure. Thank you, Tim.

Timothy Zercher 9:21

Bye bye.