Dec. 30, 2024

3 Strategies to Fill Your Schedule in 90 Days Without Social Media

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👉 Ready for the next step? Book a call: https://program.www.entremd.com/call

Are you tired of empty slots on your schedule?

I know how challenging it can be to grow your practice, especially when social media feels like the only answer—and let’s be honest, not everyone loves it.

In this episode, I’m sharing three powerful, timeless strategies to fill your schedule in 90 days or less without touching social media.

I’ve been in private practice for 14 years, and I’ve faced the same struggles you’re experiencing. From starting with no patients to creating a thriving, impactful business, I’ve learned what works (and what doesn’t). Now, I want to help you do the same.

We’ll talk about how to build a referral network that keeps new patients coming in, how to uncover hidden opportunities in your existing patient database, and how to ask happy patients for reviews and referrals that drive growth. These strategies are simple but trust me, they always work.

Tune in to hear how to implement each of these strategies in your practice and watch your schedule fill up in no time.

👉 Hit play now, and let’s get to work!

—

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Intro
00:41 Challenges in growing a practice
10:22 Building a referral base
18:06 Leveraging hidden patient visits
28:07 Empowering patients as advocates
29:22 Volume, consistency, and strategy for success
30:22 Outro

Additional Resources:

Learn more about my 12-month program.
Interested in 1-on-1 coaching? Apply here.
Grab a copy of the "The EntreMD Method" book.

When you are ready to work with us, here are three ways:

EntreMD Business School Accelerator - If you are looking to make a 180 turnaround in your business in 90 days, this is the program for you.
EntreMD Business School Grow - This is our year-long program with a track record of producing physician entrepreneurs who are building 6, 7 and 7+ figure businesses. They do this while building their dream lives!
EntreMD Business School Scale - This is our high-level mastermind for physicians who have crossed the seven figure milestone and want to build their businesses to be well oiled machines that can run without them.

To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...

00:00 - Building a Successful Medical Practice

05:30 - Building a Solid Referral Base

16:54 - Maximizing Patient Visits Through Strategy

26:34 - Unlocking Patient Referrals for Growth

30:26 - Building a Diverse Patient Base

WEBVTT

00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:07.070
I need you to hear this right, it's nothing so exciting and you're like wow, I can't wait to ask my patients to send me people.

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It's not exciting like that, but it works.

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It always has and it always will.

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So if you build this habit of asking them for referrals and asking them for reviews, it will change your practice forever.

00:00:22.091 --> 00:00:34.582
Hi docs, Welcome to the EntreMD podcast, where it's all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms.

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I'm your host, Dr Imna.

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I know that there are challenging times in healthcare.

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I know that we're being devalued in the healthcare space.

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I know that there are challenging times in healthcare.

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I know that we're being devalued in the healthcare space.

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I know that the insurance reimbursements are decreasing.

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I know that, yes, that you know the cost of delivering the services that we do has increased.

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I know that it's harder than it's been to find people.

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I know all of that.

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But if we come with that energy, we're not going to win right.

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So, in the midst of all of this, people are still winning and we're here to figure out what is the way, what is the yellow brick road, what is the pathway for us to win, even in the challenging times.

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We were never promised times that won't be tough.

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But what did they say?

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When times get tough, the tough get going.

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We are the people who are tough, okay, so I don't want you to be cynical.

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I also don't want you to be in fantasy land.

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Okay, I was in fantasy land when I started my private practice.

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I was like I will hang the shingle and they will come.

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I hung that shingle, they did not come.

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Okay, so there is work required.

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There are challenges.

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We can rise above them.

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But there is work involved and that's the work we're going to talk about.

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So I want you to approach this with an open mind.

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I want you to approach this like I'm in it to win it.

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I want you to approach this going like how can I, how can I win?

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Right?

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I don't want to be a naysayer anymore.

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I don't want to play the victim anymore.

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I don't want to just roll over and play dead, allow whatever happened, but how can I win?

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Right?

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Like that's the attitude.

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And then also, you recognize that there's work to be done and you're going to do the work.

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Right, you're going to do the work.

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If we approach it this way, this time that we have together is going to be so powerful.

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The team and I did a lot of work to make this a very simple.

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So you can walk away and go apply them, like starting today.

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So you can walk away and go apply them like starting today.

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You can start texting your team and say, okay, this is what we're doing, starting tomorrow, that's what we want you to have.

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So don't be confused by the simplicity of it.

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Okay, it's simple, but it's very profound.

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Okay Now, if we haven't met before, my name is Dr Una.

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I'm a pediatrician.

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I have been in private practice for the last 14 years and you know private practice has made a lot of things possible for me.

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I've been able to impact my community in a way that I didn't think I would be able to.

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I homeschool my four kids, which is something I really wanted to do, right, and you know process of building a team and all that.

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I bought my time back to be able to do that, so I homeschool them, if I can have a mommy moment for five seconds.

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You know my daughter just graduated from high school on Thursday or Friday, I don't remember what day it was, but she finished all her coursework for that and she's going to be 17 next year.

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You know she just went ahead and did all the things she wanted to do, which is so much fun.

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Like you know, that's what I've been able to do and the truth of the matter is I want that for every physician.

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I want you to be able to build a practice.

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Allows you to take care of patients the way you know they deserve to be cared for.

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Allow you to have a very huge impact to your community.

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Create financial freedom, create time freedom.

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Okay, now, is there work involved?

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Yes, is it possible?

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Yes, is it available?

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Yes, so the question I want to ask you and please indulge me, answer me in the chat.

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Who wants it?

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Who is like okay, I want to learn a different way of doing things, I want to learn the strategic way of doing things so I can have that right.

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Let me know in the chat who's like I want that, I want that, I want the impact, I want the financial freedom, I want the time freedom, and so we're going to walk through those things.

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So we're going to talk about some things and you're like, eh, I'm not sure I want to do that Now.

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Remember the dream.

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Okay, so remember the dream.

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The question becomes is the dream motivating enough for me to want to do that?

00:04:09.381 --> 00:04:13.449
Okay, all right, so so let's kind of get into this.

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Today we're going to look at how to fill your schedule in 90 days or less, so that that way you are in control of your revenue.

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Okay, we're not just like, oh, I don't know.

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You know, schedule's kind of light, schedule's kind of busy.

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We want to be in control.

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So I'm going to talk about that on Wednesday, but today, how to fill your schedule in 90 days or less.

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Who wants more patients on their schedule?

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Let's talk about this here, okay.

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Why is it important for us to have this?

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This is how we create our revenue, okay, so we want the patients on there so we can care for them and so we can get paid, right, that's why the practice is there.

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So I'm going to show you three things.

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They're going to be very simple.

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How many of you hope that I don't say anything about social media?

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Be honest, here's the deal.

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I'm going to talk about three things and today, today, I'm not going to say a single thing about social media.

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I'm not going to say a single thing about social media.

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So you cannot complain about anything.

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I tell you because I have given you what you want.

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Okay, you don't want to hear about social media?

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I'm not going to talk about it.

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We're going to talk about three things that can fill your schedule up in 90 days or less.

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So I'm going to tell you three things, and there are three things that work, and I'm not going to mention social media.

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Number one.

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Number one is to build a referral base.

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Okay, number one is to build a referral base.

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Okay, number one is to build a referral base.

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A referral base is one of the most magical things you can do for your private practice.

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Okay, I'm going to tell you how you can do it.

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How you can build all this, I'll tell you.

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But you got to buy the idea first.

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You got to build a referral base.

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You have to have a base of people.

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It could be three people, six people, nine people, 12 people, but the more you have, the more stable your practice will be right, the bigger it is.

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One is too dangerous a number in business.

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One referral source and you're like oh yeah, we're busy, we've been great, we have word of mouth, and then we have this one referral source.

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But anything can happen to that one referral source.

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Somebody else could buy the practice.

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The practice could go out of business.

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Another doctor may come in and decide that I no longer refer to this person.

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Like one is a dangerous number, okay.

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So you build a referral base.

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It will change your business.

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So I'm going to give you two examples.

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Now, when I started my private practice, I self-funded my practice, which means I had a job and I used the job to pay the bills of the practice, so the practice could pay for itself.

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And so one of the places I worked at.

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It was a pediatrician and she went from zero, like zero patients, to so fully booked that she needed another physician in six months.

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I want you to think about it One, two, three, four, five, six.

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I was like this is absolutely nuts.

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I've been around the block long enough to know that this is not the way things work, and so I started having conversations with her and observing, and I found out that she had three friends who were OBGYNs, and so the second she set up shop.

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Three of them were like we got you and they just sent all their babies there.

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Right Now, you may not have three referral sources who are your friends you went to college with, but you can create those relationships.

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What I'm trying to tell you is that three referral sources took her business from zero to fully booked, month-long wait times that she had to hire another physician within six months.

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Now that is something that is magical, beautiful, leads to a very stable business.

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She can bring on more people, bring on people to work less and all of that stuff.

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And it was just amazing, as she's been busy ever since right stuff.

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And it was just amazing, and she's been busy ever since right.

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That's the power of three referral sources, just three.

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Okay, now, when I was actively seeing patients, I had a physical therapist who came to my office younger, probably early thirties or something like that and she's like you know, this is who I am and I just started to practice over here and all of that stuff.

00:08:03.560 --> 00:08:22.579
I think she was even pregnant and I looked at her, I looked at her reviews and all of that stuff and I said you know what I could remember starting a private practice, not having any patients, not having people like really not like they were mad or anything, but really believe in what I was doing and all of that stuff.

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I still remember the first day we saw five patients.

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You couldn't tell me nothing, like we were the busiest practice in town as far as I was concerned.

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I remembered all those days right.

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So I was thinking I was like wow, she's going through that.

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So I looked at her and said you know what I'm going to get you busy.

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I wanted to understand the power that a referral source had.

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I was like I'm going to get you busy.

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I was like I'm going to get you busy and she probably looked at me like okay, fine, I was like good, so give me your cards, all of that stuff.

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I went to my front desk.

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I told them we have a wait time for physical therapy.

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Anyway, this is the person we send our patients to now, and it was a few months before when we'd send patients to her she would.

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Then her office would say okay, our next available is a month from now, when they could get our people in next day or the day after that.

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So we got her really busy.

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That's the power of one referral source saying, yes, just one referral source.

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So the question I have for you is are you committed enough to your success that you're willing to embrace the discomfort of building a referral base?

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Are you committed enough to your own success that you're willing to embrace the discomfort of building a referral base?

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Are you committed enough to your own success that you're like yeah, I know it's a little uncomfortable, but I'm going to do it.

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Because, my goodness, if I get one referral source, what would that do?

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Two, three, what would three referral sources do for me?

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Right, you know we tell the story a lot in.

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You know, like we had a doc in the Uncharted Business School who had worked with you know, trying to get a referral source on board because it was a big orthopedic surgery practice and she was a weight loss doctor and she went to them for 11 months.

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I want you to.

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That's a sink in there.

00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:06.953
Of course, she was working other angles, but this particular one for 11 months, right, so we should make a lot.

00:10:06.953 --> 00:10:09.148
Oh, dr Lula, your stories were so nice.

00:10:09.148 --> 00:10:11.107
You started telling me about this 11-month thing.

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That's a really long time, but this is the deal, right?

00:10:14.226 --> 00:10:22.722
When she eventually got in to see them, they were like, oh, my goodness, we've been looking for someone like you, da-di-da-di-da, yes, we'll send all our patients to.

00:10:22.722 --> 00:10:29.177
And she thought there were 19 doctors and nurse practitioners and stuff in the practice.

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It was 42 of them.

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I don't remember Some really ridiculous number.

00:10:34.995 --> 00:10:40.711
And she started to where she was getting five to seven new patients a day.

00:10:40.711 --> 00:10:42.214
It was 42.

00:10:42.214 --> 00:10:43.756
Yes, it was so ridiculous.

00:10:43.756 --> 00:10:44.878
I was like did I have that right?

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Was it 24?

00:10:45.558 --> 00:10:46.380
No, it's 42.

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Five to seven new patients every single day.

00:10:51.567 --> 00:10:57.025
So the question like, if you know, if you follow up somebody long enough, that's what would happen.

00:10:57.025 --> 00:10:58.409
Would you follow them long enough?

00:10:58.409 --> 00:11:05.490
I mean, the answer is yes, yes, yes, yes, every day, and twice on Sunday, right, and so, yes, referral sources.

00:11:05.490 --> 00:11:18.333
It takes a minute, right, but it works and it works really well and it works really long, okay, so, okay, dr Una, I hear you.

00:11:18.333 --> 00:11:19.897
All right, referral sources.

00:11:19.897 --> 00:11:20.519
What do I do?

00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:22.308
So I'm going to give you what do I have?

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Six.

00:11:22.690 --> 00:11:30.739
I'm going to give you six ways to make contact, because it's about relationship building, right, what are the different ways I can make contact with my referral sources?

00:11:31.139 --> 00:11:32.744
So one, it could be meet and greets.

00:11:32.744 --> 00:11:37.116
You go to the office, you stop by, you ask to see the doctor, you ask to see the office manager.

00:11:37.116 --> 00:11:41.787
Never ignore the front desk, because sometimes they're the people that are sending the people to the people anyway.

00:11:41.787 --> 00:11:44.370
But you go, start building relationships.

00:11:44.370 --> 00:11:47.876
You will hear a lot of no's, and it's okay.

00:11:47.876 --> 00:11:53.677
You're going to hear a lot of no's, but you're going to hear enough yeses to turn your business around.

00:11:53.677 --> 00:11:56.967
Okay, so we're not thrown off by no's, we're not.

00:11:56.967 --> 00:12:00.317
We don't get bent out of shape by no's, we just roll with it.

00:12:00.317 --> 00:12:04.289
Right, when we hear the no's, we just know okay, I'm closer to a yes.

00:12:04.289 --> 00:12:09.857
Okay, so your meet and greet would be one Okay, you can email them.

00:12:10.740 --> 00:12:13.956
Many websites, they have their email information and stuff like that.

00:12:13.956 --> 00:12:23.929
And when I say you, I hope you understand I mean you, your team, right, it's not just you, it's like your business, your practice, your company's doing this.

00:12:23.929 --> 00:12:26.764
Right, you can email and you're like this is who I am.

00:12:26.764 --> 00:12:27.767
Email introduction.

00:12:27.767 --> 00:12:33.626
You can have a template already done, so you're really doing the, just editing like a paragraph or whatever, and sending those off.

00:12:33.626 --> 00:12:35.071
Because what are you trying to do?

00:12:35.071 --> 00:12:45.931
I'm trying to do the work so I can get to the point where three people there are at least three people that are sending me people, because if three people know me, like me, trust me, they could get me busy.

00:12:45.931 --> 00:12:48.375
Okay, so you can email them.

00:12:48.375 --> 00:12:51.226
We've done this a lot in our practice.

00:12:51.488 --> 00:12:52.288
You can fax.

00:12:52.288 --> 00:13:01.335
You can have like a standard fax with why you like, why your practice, right, don't say expert medical care, don't say compassion, nobody cares about that.

00:13:01.335 --> 00:13:13.587
Like if the problem you know, like for your practice, that what you do, if the problem is people can't get in to see doctors like you, then you put like next day appointments right, like figure out what the pain of your referral source is and address that.

00:13:13.587 --> 00:13:14.910
But you can have faxes.

00:13:14.910 --> 00:13:26.195
So I'm PEDS, right, I can have the fax numbers of all the OBGYNs in the area and then, once a month or once every other month, I just fax and like this is who we are, we're here to take care of your babies.

00:13:26.254 --> 00:13:26.956
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:13:26.956 --> 00:13:27.956
Thank you for your referrals.

00:13:27.956 --> 00:13:29.357
That's something you can do.

00:13:29.357 --> 00:13:32.041
You can call them, get on the phone.

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Hey, this is Dr who.

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I know your practice is new, or I'm new here and all of that stuff.

00:13:37.624 --> 00:13:38.926
Just wanted to let you know what I do.

00:13:38.926 --> 00:13:40.849
I'd love for us to meet and all of that.

00:13:40.849 --> 00:13:41.951
You can do that.

00:13:41.951 --> 00:13:43.972
Nothing's going to go wrong.

00:13:43.972 --> 00:13:44.815
You can do that.

00:13:44.815 --> 00:13:47.057
You can attend events where they are.

00:13:47.057 --> 00:13:49.160
So, for instance, I'm a pediatrician.

00:13:49.465 --> 00:13:56.566
If an OBGYN with 10 OBGYN practice, with 10 OBGYNs, is doing an open house, where do you think I'm going to be?

00:13:56.566 --> 00:14:02.357
I'm going to be at the open house to meet with them, to connect with them to.

00:14:02.357 --> 00:14:07.315
You know, if you go to the hospital, you know there's a physician's lounge, go there.

00:14:07.315 --> 00:14:16.010
And if you're an introvert, where are my cousins who are introverts?

00:14:16.010 --> 00:14:16.673
Even if you're an introvert?

00:14:16.673 --> 00:14:16.995
This is a trick.

00:14:16.995 --> 00:14:17.356
You walk in there.

00:14:17.356 --> 00:14:17.940
Nobody knows you're nervous.

00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:18.481
Nobody knows you're scared.

00:14:18.481 --> 00:14:20.947
Dr Johnson's like hi there, nobody knows any of that.

00:14:20.947 --> 00:14:35.315
You walk in and you brace yourself, right, and you're like, okay, I have you know, like I'm going to be here for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever, and go introduce yourself to people, right?

00:14:35.315 --> 00:14:36.639
Well, we got to start, we're introverts and we can still win.

00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:37.482
We can still win in business, okay.

00:14:37.503 --> 00:14:40.455
And then this is like a granddaddy strategy connect with connectors.

00:14:40.455 --> 00:14:42.361
There are people you know them.

00:14:42.361 --> 00:14:43.885
There are people who know everybody.

00:14:43.885 --> 00:14:50.809
Oh, I know this doctor, that doctor, I went to school with that doctor, that person, that doctor is my friend's, cousin's, auntie's, uncle, like all that kind of stuff.

00:14:50.809 --> 00:14:56.293
You connect to those people because it's a shortcut, because you're connected to them.

00:14:56.293 --> 00:14:58.615
They can connect you to everybody else.

00:14:58.615 --> 00:15:09.643
Yeah, you don't have to be the person, right, dr Johnson's like, I know people like that, but it isn't me, it doesn't have to be you, but the deal is you can then connect with that person and that person could connect you with all the other people.

00:15:09.643 --> 00:15:15.571
So when you meet people like that, they're new best friends because they know everybody, especially if you're an introvert.

00:15:15.630 --> 00:15:16.715
Right, build a referral base.

00:15:16.715 --> 00:15:18.250
Now, this is the thing about the referral base.

00:15:18.250 --> 00:15:22.125
Okay, the money's in the follow-up Chances are.

00:15:22.125 --> 00:15:25.866
The first time you guys meet, nothing magical is going to happen.

00:15:25.866 --> 00:15:30.950
The money's in the follow-up, it's in the follow-up, it's in the follow-up, so we continue until that's what we do.

00:15:30.950 --> 00:15:37.133
We build the relationship, we keep the open loop, we keep the conversation going until okay, so the money's in the follow-up.

00:15:37.653 --> 00:15:41.355
And this means that there are three things that you must have down pat.

00:15:41.355 --> 00:15:46.418
One is you understand, with the referral base, I got to do the volume, I got to do the volume.

00:15:46.418 --> 00:15:47.538
There's no way around the volume.

00:15:47.538 --> 00:15:50.581
I got to do the volume, okay, I got to do the volume.

00:15:50.581 --> 00:15:54.562
I have to be consistent and I have to be strategic.

00:15:54.562 --> 00:16:03.346
Okay, I have to do the volume, so I do enough of it.

00:16:03.346 --> 00:16:03.985
I have to do it consistently.

00:16:03.985 --> 00:16:04.746
And then I have to be strategic Okay.

00:16:04.746 --> 00:16:06.388
This is usually where things get dropped.

00:16:06.388 --> 00:16:09.149
So this is where the strategy piece comes in right.

00:16:09.669 --> 00:16:13.211
The people who pay cash understand the people who pay cash.

00:16:13.211 --> 00:16:16.214
The people who take cash understand the people who take cash.

00:16:16.214 --> 00:16:35.577
So, direct specialty care you want to start looking for practices that are direct primary care, are concierge right, or they're paying cash for certain kinds of services because they get it.

00:16:35.577 --> 00:16:42.154
So it doesn't mean you don't talk to like Gen P's insurance based at all, but you're going to prioritize those ones, because they get it.

00:16:42.154 --> 00:16:44.385
You don't have to explain to them what direct primary care is.

00:16:44.385 --> 00:16:44.866
They get it.

00:16:44.866 --> 00:16:55.688
The other group you want to think about is the places where it's kind of hard for them to see a specialist, like you, and so people are waiting six months, nine months, 12 months to be seen.

00:16:55.688 --> 00:17:01.072
And so, even though your cash and they don't get it, they're like yeah, go there, she can see you next week or he can see you next week.

00:17:01.072 --> 00:17:03.767
You have to pay, but you can see him next week, right?

00:17:03.767 --> 00:17:06.132
So you look for that.

00:17:06.393 --> 00:17:09.199
And so all referral sources are not equal.

00:17:09.199 --> 00:17:11.653
There's strategy to it, right?

00:17:11.653 --> 00:17:16.116
So think volume, think consistency, think strategy.

00:17:16.116 --> 00:17:21.334
These are three things that you have to think about when you're working.

00:17:21.334 --> 00:17:22.876
Your referral sources, okay.

00:17:22.876 --> 00:17:23.838
Your referral base.

00:17:23.838 --> 00:17:30.154
Those are the three things Volume, consistency and strategy, okay, okay.

00:17:30.596 --> 00:17:33.047
So that's number one, and we are making good progress.

00:17:33.047 --> 00:17:34.309
I love this Number two.

00:17:34.309 --> 00:17:39.798
Number two is your hidden visits.

00:17:39.798 --> 00:17:42.650
Okay, your hidden visits, your hidden visits.

00:17:42.650 --> 00:17:46.589
We always have access to more resources than we're aware of.

00:17:46.589 --> 00:17:53.696
We just don't know, okay, and so today we're going to unlock some hidden visits that are just staring you in the face that you don't know about, right?

00:17:53.696 --> 00:18:02.825
Okay, so if you're an insurance-based private practice and you're paid per visit, right, you're paid per visit and you've been.

00:18:02.904 --> 00:18:30.503
Your practice has been around for longer than three years chances are like 97% chance, chances are that you have tons and tons and tons of people in your database who are overdue for appointments and they're not going to make those appointments till somebody in your office calls them and says hey, ms Smith, it seems you're overdue for your annual checkup.

00:18:30.503 --> 00:18:40.431
Dr Stephen can see you on Tuesday at 10 o'clock or Friday at3 pm, so we can catch you up which of those times work for you.

00:18:40.431 --> 00:18:45.368
If you would do just that, you can fill up your schedule.

00:18:45.368 --> 00:18:51.131
And the older your practice is, the more you can fill your schedule using this strategy.

00:18:51.131 --> 00:19:02.060
Right, there are so many people in your database right now that even if you did not acquire a new patient, you could probably fill up your schedule.

00:19:02.060 --> 00:19:31.049
Okay, now, if you're direct and I want to kind of apply this here a little bit if you're, you know, like cash-based, so direct primary care, specialty care, concierge and all of those things, it may not necessarily be, you know, you're not per visit in that kind of way but it may be that you have a ton of people who they just decided they weren't going to do that anymore, or their card declined one time and they kind of, you know, fell off and stuff like that.

00:19:31.049 --> 00:19:39.093
You have a ton of people you can follow up with and if you follow up with them, a percentage of them are going to come back.

00:19:39.093 --> 00:19:46.842
You can fill up your panel, you can fill up your schedule with the hidden visits and the hidden patients that exist in your database.

00:19:46.842 --> 00:19:49.186
Right now, your database is gold.

00:19:49.186 --> 00:19:51.192
You hear in the corporate world.

00:19:51.192 --> 00:19:53.724
You hear them talk about big data, big data, big data.

00:19:53.724 --> 00:19:58.064
Okay, your data may not be as big as theirs, but it's big enough to keep you profitable.

00:19:58.064 --> 00:19:59.567
Okay.

00:19:59.988 --> 00:20:07.732
Now, when we had, when the pandemic hit in 2020, if you remember, like back when people were like what's a coronavirus?

00:20:07.732 --> 00:20:13.152
Like that early, like when we were there and you know we would, sometimes we call patients.

00:20:13.152 --> 00:20:14.502
They're like how is it out there?

00:20:14.502 --> 00:20:15.846
I'm like what do you mean out there?

00:20:15.846 --> 00:20:26.262
Like, like we're some war-torn country, like what do you mean out there, right, we're some war-torn country.

00:20:26.262 --> 00:20:27.384
Like what do you mean out there, right?

00:20:27.384 --> 00:20:29.808
And people no longer wanted to come into the office and do all of those things.

00:20:29.808 --> 00:20:34.857
Hybrid practices were dropping like flies, right, and this was the strategy that we used in 2020.

00:20:34.857 --> 00:20:39.561
And 2020, we did better in 2020 than 2019.

00:20:39.561 --> 00:20:42.144
We had more patient visits.

00:20:42.144 --> 00:20:47.286
We brought in more revenue in 2020 than we did in 2019.

00:20:47.286 --> 00:20:50.907
Same with 2021, right, and what was the strategy?

00:20:50.907 --> 00:20:55.170
We just pulled out the entire database, and one after the other.

00:20:55.170 --> 00:20:56.871
We were just going Heather, we're just going.

00:20:57.411 --> 00:21:02.634
Now, the principles of your volume, your consistency, your strategy still apply here.

00:21:02.634 --> 00:21:07.656
So I'll tell you some funny things that we did, like, for instance, when we started.

00:21:07.656 --> 00:21:14.588
I mean, you're talking about a database of thousands of patients, and so we would look for the patients with the parents with three or more children.

00:21:14.588 --> 00:21:21.065
Right, because for every one you get, you get three or more visits as opposed to one visit.

00:21:21.065 --> 00:21:22.306
Again, what is that?

00:21:22.306 --> 00:21:43.587
It's just strategy, right, it's just strategy, but the idea is this you have so many patient visits, aka so many dollars, sitting in your database right now, right now, right now, there was a doc.

00:21:43.607 --> 00:21:56.290
This doc was in the Entrevue Business School and he said he was he decided to work this strategy and he had his team calling every day and I think they were making like 30 calls a day between three or four VAs or whatever.

00:21:56.290 --> 00:21:57.953
I was like dude, we need volume.

00:21:57.953 --> 00:21:59.806
Like we need volume on that.

00:21:59.806 --> 00:22:06.801
And I think they switched that.

00:22:06.801 --> 00:22:12.794
I went to 30, up to 30 calls a day per VA and he went from having holes in his schedule to being booked out for two weeks within a matter of weeks.

00:22:12.794 --> 00:22:24.446
So going from a schedule that was not full to a schedule that was so full that for his practice that was not full to a schedule that was so full that for his practice it would take two weeks for you to get in.

00:22:24.446 --> 00:22:24.827
How did he do that?

00:22:24.827 --> 00:22:25.910
By doing the recall.

00:22:26.250 --> 00:22:27.894
Okay, this is a simple thing.

00:22:27.894 --> 00:22:29.183
You pull up the report.

00:22:29.183 --> 00:22:35.086
You're going to have to coach your team on it because they'll also like roll their eyes, like what is this If it's not something you already do?

00:22:35.086 --> 00:22:42.584
But I am telling you, there are hundreds of visits, for some people, thousands of visits, sitting in that database.

00:22:42.584 --> 00:22:46.172
So, yes, the insurance, you know reimbursements are declined.

00:22:46.172 --> 00:22:48.443
Yes, there's R25, yes, all of that.

00:22:48.443 --> 00:22:51.511
And you got all this money sitting in your database.

00:22:52.401 --> 00:22:55.387
And, as a doctor, is good care right?

00:22:55.387 --> 00:22:57.673
Like we don't want people going on without their checkups.

00:22:57.673 --> 00:23:03.348
We don't want the person who's hypertensive we haven't seen in a year, like what medications are they taking, right?

00:23:03.348 --> 00:23:06.174
So this is what we want to do.

00:23:06.174 --> 00:23:10.069
Okay, we're talking about how to fill up your schedule in 90 days or less.

00:23:10.069 --> 00:23:15.930
So we've already talked about the referral base and now we're talking about the hidden visits.

00:23:15.930 --> 00:23:19.630
These are things that they're not funky, they're not cool.

00:23:19.630 --> 00:23:22.404
The hidden visits these are things that they're not funky, they're not cool.

00:23:22.404 --> 00:23:23.446
They're not all shiny and bright, but they work.

00:23:23.446 --> 00:23:24.008
They really work.

00:23:24.008 --> 00:23:24.849
They've always worked.

00:23:24.849 --> 00:23:26.093
They'll continue to work.

00:23:26.093 --> 00:23:28.284
These are timeless principles of business.

00:23:28.644 --> 00:23:31.750
Okay, okay, so we want to do that.

00:23:31.750 --> 00:23:33.280
We want to hit the recall.

00:23:33.280 --> 00:23:36.733
We want to find all the visits that are sitting in our database.

00:23:36.733 --> 00:23:39.443
Okay, we have the database for a reason.

00:23:39.443 --> 00:23:45.652
If you tell somebody who wants to sell something to your patients that you would give them your database, they know it's gold.

00:23:45.652 --> 00:23:50.108
So please know that your database is gold, your database is gold.

00:23:50.108 --> 00:23:51.491
Okay, all, right.

00:23:51.491 --> 00:23:54.143
Now same principles apply.

00:23:55.224 --> 00:23:59.594
We know to do this, we need to throw the volume behind it, right?

00:23:59.594 --> 00:24:08.266
So remember, I'm telling you the doctor they were making like four people were making 30 calls a day, and they switched that and four of them started making 30 calls each and everything changed.

00:24:08.266 --> 00:24:17.111
You need the volume, you need the consistency, so we don't hit the recaller when our schedule is light.

00:24:17.111 --> 00:24:17.992
We just hit it.

00:24:17.992 --> 00:24:19.346
That's what we do, okay.

00:24:19.346 --> 00:24:25.028
So you need the volume, you need the consistency and you need the strategy.

00:24:25.028 --> 00:24:28.621
Okay, the strategy, all kinds of strategies.

00:24:28.621 --> 00:24:28.961
With that.

00:24:28.961 --> 00:24:36.548
I give an example, you know, like for peas, like what we did, some people would do it based on highest payer to lowest payer.

00:24:36.548 --> 00:24:40.923
Like when the, because if it's a thousand people, 2000 people, you're not going to hit all of them at once.

00:24:40.923 --> 00:24:42.287
Right, and they would do that.

00:24:42.287 --> 00:24:43.810
So there's so many different things you can do.

00:24:43.810 --> 00:24:44.461
Okay.

00:24:44.803 --> 00:24:52.125
Now, when you think about building a referral base and going after the hidden visits in your practice, what do you think?

00:24:52.125 --> 00:24:58.507
On a scale of 1 to 10, how big do you think the impact will be on your schedule?

00:24:58.507 --> 00:25:02.628
If you do these two things, we can proactively fill up our schedules.

00:25:02.628 --> 00:25:05.086
We don't have to sing the same song.

00:25:05.086 --> 00:25:06.089
Other people are singing.

00:25:06.089 --> 00:25:08.288
All right, let's do number three.

00:25:08.288 --> 00:25:15.945
Number three again, one of my favorites, and the introverts are going to go like oh my goodness, dr Una, stop talking about this, but I'm an introvert, I'm with you.

00:25:15.945 --> 00:25:17.067
Okay, all right.

00:25:17.429 --> 00:25:20.374
So this is unlocking your second generation patients.

00:25:20.374 --> 00:25:30.753
How many of you have patients that love you and they've told you to your face you've changed my life, you've changed my world.

00:25:30.753 --> 00:25:31.696
Or they've left you a five-star review.

00:25:31.696 --> 00:25:35.303
Or they've told you I've been to five doctors and nobody could figure it out.

00:25:35.303 --> 00:25:37.846
But you figured it out, like how many of you've had that?

00:25:37.846 --> 00:25:39.346
How many of you've had that?

00:25:39.346 --> 00:25:50.240
Your patients that know, like and trust you are the source for more patients that will know, like and trust you.

00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:54.449
Right, like you're think of.

00:25:54.449 --> 00:26:00.189
Okay, I'm not saying your patients are these things, but I want to give you a word picture that you won't forget.

00:26:00.189 --> 00:26:07.422
Okay, now, when you think about your patients, you can either see your patients as fruit you eat a fruit.

00:26:07.422 --> 00:26:15.724
Once it's gone you can see your patient like a tree that produce fruit after fruit, after fruit after fruit, the patients who love you and trust you.

00:26:15.724 --> 00:26:22.531
They're like trees and they will give you many more patients if you ask.

00:26:23.180 --> 00:26:34.471
So when somebody tells you oh my goodness, you are the fourth doctor I've seen for this thing and you're the only person who could fix this, I want to give you the translation.

00:26:34.471 --> 00:26:39.105
Okay, I want to give you the profitable private practice Owner translation.

00:26:39.105 --> 00:26:45.855
And that translation is oh my goodness, doc, please ask me for a referral.

00:26:45.855 --> 00:26:55.932
Ask me for a referral, ask me for a review, ask me for whatever you need for me to put your name out there and let people know how amazing you are.

00:26:55.932 --> 00:27:00.029
That is literally what they're telling you.

00:27:00.029 --> 00:27:13.204
That's what they're telling you Because this is the deal If you have a thousand patients and a quarter of them decide to send you one patient, you acquire 250 new patients.

00:27:14.926 --> 00:27:16.989
Who would be mad about 250 new patients?

00:27:16.989 --> 00:27:19.011
Not me, right?

00:27:19.011 --> 00:27:25.125
But if you don't ask, the thing is, everybody is thinking about themselves.

00:27:25.125 --> 00:27:28.641
Well, 99% of people are thinking about themselves all the time.

00:27:28.641 --> 00:27:35.761
They're not thinking about you, they're not thinking about your business, they're not thinking about making your practice profitable, they're not thinking about making your practice sustainable.

00:27:35.761 --> 00:27:37.186
They're not thinking about any of that.

00:27:37.186 --> 00:27:38.250
They're thinking about themselves.

00:27:38.250 --> 00:27:48.278
And so the only way for you to get them to stop and go around and go, invite people and tell people about you and text people about your office and all of that stuff, you've got to ask them.

00:27:48.278 --> 00:27:54.692
But if you ask them, they know if everybody brought one person, think about what that would do.

00:27:54.692 --> 00:27:57.666
So I need you to hear this right Again.

00:27:57.666 --> 00:28:03.244
It's nothing so exciting and you're like wow, I can't wait to ask my patients to send me people.

00:28:03.244 --> 00:28:05.744
It's not exciting like that, but it works.

00:28:05.744 --> 00:28:09.413
It always has and it always will, right.

00:28:09.413 --> 00:28:19.789