Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi, my name’s Michelle Gellis. I am a board certified acupuncture physician, and I teach facial acupuncture classes internationally. Today I’m going to be talking about l e d light. and the benefits and some of the contraindications. So if you can go to the first slide.
So this is a little bit about me. I’m a formal former faculty member and clinic supervisor at the Maryland University of Integrative Health, and I’m currently on the doctoral FA faculty at Usan University, and I’ve been published several times in the Journal of Chinese. , my area of expertise is facial acupuncture, both for cosmetic but also for neuromuscular facial conditions.
And at the end of the presentation, I have some information about some of the classes that I teach. So what is l e d skin rejuvenation or l e d light therapy actually? So l e d light therapy is using light through light emitting diodes or LEDs to affect the skin and the body in. So these l e d lights and you can see a picture of a light device here.
These l e d lights can stimulate the cells in our body to do different things. They can produce collagen and this can help to rejuvenate the skin. And it can also. help with a lot of other things in addition to helping with skin concerns. So LEDs are different from lasers and I p l therapies that are other therapies that are used for the.
Because this does not use thermal energy. It doesn’t damage the skin in any way. There’s no downtime and there’s no trauma to the tissue, which is really nice for our patients. And this particular device, which. is a freestanding device. I like this type of device because you can move it around the table.
You don’t have to somehow prop it over your patient and you can get it as close or as far away as you would like, and it will function on any body part. So these panels, they of move, like open and closed to get to smaller parts and larger parts of the body. So what are some of the benefits, other benefits of l e d light therapy?
L e d light therapy has. Approved by the FDA for anti-aging, tightening and toning of the skin, helping the skin’s elasticity, improving pigment like dark spots, and any sort of molas, things of that nature. It helps our immune system because it targets the mitochondria of the. , which enhances our immune system.
It also helps with hair regrowth. You may have seen some of those caps and different types of devices. People, the red light devices that people put on their heads to help to regrow hair, and it also can help with inflammation and for things like joint pain, for concerns like arthritis. and the way, one of the ways that it helps with skin is it stimulates the fibroblasts to increase collagen production and it also increases the production of melatonin in the body.
So it’s great for. It stimulates the lymphatic system, so it helps with any sort of inflammation that may be going on. And also cell repair. So if you’re doing cosmetic acupuncture, You can include this with the cosmetic acupuncture treatment and it can help to with puffiness and also to reduce the incidence of bruising.
And because it does work with the mitochondria of the cell, it can help with the tissue. Injury tissue regrowth, if there’s been any sort of trauma. And again, it can also help with inflammation. So the device that I was just showing you is made it’s being sold by ocu. And they they have a website.
It’s called AccuLift skincare.com and Mossa OMS will also be carrying it. And it has four different types of light. It has a red light, which has a wavelength of 640 nanometers, and that is the most powerful penetrating is the red light, and that is for pretty much everything. It will take care of the skin cell, rejuvenation, oxygen content in the blood circulation, aches and pains, and promoting the collagen.
So you would use the red light definitely. If you were treating the skin. , the yellow light helps with oxygen in the skin, also circulation, red spots, red face. It’s great for rosacea and it helps to remove pigment in the skin. That’s unwanted, like dark spots, red spots. The green light is good for dark circles.
Also pigmentation issues, broken capillaries, sunspots, so it will target some of the red in the skin and if the person has over irritated skin. And then the blue light. Helps to kill bacteria and it’s wonderful to use, like if you’re doing any sort of microneedling, it helps to kill bacteria on the skin ahead of time.
Also, the lights can be combined, so you can have red and blue, yellow, and red. or you can turn all four colors on, and this will help with different types of concerns. So a little bit about infrared light. So this, the light that this device emits is a near infrared. So the T D P lamps that we have, they get hot that is far infrared, and these lamps they don’t get hot like a far infrared.
The light spectrum that we’re working with is mainly in here. However, when you combine the lights, you can get a little further into the near infrared. , which helps to go down a little deeper when you are trying to deal with aches and pains and muscle issues. So the red light. The near infrared red light again, it stimulates collagen, fibroblasts, and it does have some anti-inflammatory action.
And as I mentioned this has all been approved by the fda and we can use them in our treatment room for all these different things, including. Stimulating the mitochondria of the cell. And this is a link to one study and there have been many studies that have been done on. Red Light therapy.
The nice thing about red light therapy is there’s no risk of burning the skin, and you can treat a large area within a very short period of time. A typical treatment is between 20 and 30 minutes, and there’s nothing special you need to do afterwards. There’s no downtime. The person doesn’t have to stay out of the sun or put any special products on their skin.
It is safe for many different types of skin and , it’s completely pain free. It’s very comfortable. It’s actually very relaxing. It’s easy to use. The machines are easy to use. The Accu Lift device comes with step by step manual and also video training and. , it really does have a wide range of uses in the treatment room.
Back pain, hip pain, leg pain lots of different things that you can use it for in addition to just rejuvenating the skin. Here, here is a picture of me. You could see I’m wearing the same shirt right before the presentation. I thought I would just chill out under my red light and it’s very relaxing.
It has a timer on it. I don’t think I have a picture of the controls, but the controls are easy. You turn it on and then there is a timer. You can set it from zero to 30 minutes. And power I always turn it all the way. and then what color light you want to use. You just cycle through whether you wanna do red, blue, green, yellow, or a combination.
So there’s different seven different settings. Red, blue, green yellow and red. Red and blue, and then all four. And. It’s on wheels, so you can just move it right around your patient, which is nice. And when you’re done, you can just wipe it with a cavity, wipe something that is safe, and that way if your patient coughs or sneezes or anything it will remain clean.
and it stores up pretty small. You could just stick it right in the corner. And the other thing is, if you’re doing cosmetic acupuncture, you can put your needles in and then you just place this right over the needles. And you can see with these adjustment knobs, you can lay it, you can have it so it’s completely flat like this, and you can put it right up against.
The person I don’t know. I did not include the contraindications, but there are some contraindications. You would never wanna use the device on someone who had cancer, skin cancer, any kind of cancer, because it does stimulate cell growth. You don’t want to use it on. People who are pregnant any sort of open wounds, anything like that.
But this is all included in the training. This is really just an overview on the devices . That’s pretty much all I have to say today about red light therapy. These are some of the other classes that I offer. I haven’t even added the red light therapy class on here, but I teach cosmetic acupuncture certification.
I have a, an advanced certification, which is essentially all of these classes. I also just have a, like a basic five module certification. I teach facial cupping, facial guha, facial derma rolling, and skincare microneedling, both with a microneedle pen and derma rolling. I also have to meet, and these are all C E U N C A O.
California and Florida approved CEU classes. I also teach ethics and safety within facial acupuncture treating neuromuscular facial conditions self-care for acupuncturists and anatomy of expression. . So that’s my topic today and let me move this out of the way. Oops. If you are interested in learning more, definitely visit the AAC channel.
They have lots and lots of instructional video. And I wanna say thank you to the AAC for the opportunity today to spend some time with all of you.
There are holistic health practitioners, acupuncturists, and other holistic health practitioners who have virtual assistance, and it can be a great avenue to support you…
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
There are holistic health practitioners, acupuncturists, and other holistic health practitioners who have virtual assistance, and it can be a great avenue to support you without also having them be physically in your space or having overhead, that kind of overhead involved with having somebody physical in your space.
So this is Chen Yen your 6 & 7 figure practice makeover mentor@introvertedvisionary.com and your host, for our AAC show today, and we are gonna get into how to hire a virtual assistant for your practice to take things off your plate. We’ll talk about what what is the virtual assistant should you consider hiring one, and what are some of the The biggest let’s see here.
What are some of the common concerns that I hear about hiring one and then how to actually get it going? Like how do you hire your first VA smoothly to. I abbreviate as that virtual assistant smoothly va smoothly to, to be able to free up your time so that you can actually do more of what you enjoy doing most.
And so as far as the, should you, first of all what is a virtual assistant? So a virtual assistant as it relates to you as an acupuncturist or a holistic health practitioner. Is, and how they could be helpful for you is someone who can do anything from admin to marketing and even chart noting, did you know that virtual assistant can actually help with chart noting and yes, it’s even HIPAA compliant.
And so the. There are avenues of getting that kind of a support. And they’re virtual, so they’re not physically working in your office. And the benefits of that are that, it you’re able to have an, have someone support you. , even though you’re not necessarily seeing them every day or having them be in your physical space, and they can do a range of different types of things for you.
So you could hire a virtual assistant to just work a few hours for you a week on certain things. They also can answer phones in terms of Fred desk, receptionist possibilities too. So they don’t actually have to physically be there. And this could be good for you especially. Perhaps your, the volume of your practice isn’t that high yet in terms of patient, in terms of the, I’m talking about front desk, right?
Two possibilities. One is if the volume of patients isn’t as high yet, but you’re also not answering the phones all the time and then you’re missing calls and people are not getting attended to right away. So then they go and call somebody else and then end up booking with somebody else before, like when you call them back, they’re already like, oh, I’m already fine now.
. So it you are having some volume, but it’s not like a as high of a volume to the point where you would like to hire someone in your office to be taking calls. And then another possibility though, too related to having a virtual assistant to help you with phone calls is if you are, if your office is very busy, and you would like them to handle the overflow in your office for calls because calls do get missed because your front desk staff is already very busy and not able to really handle that load as well.
So that’s another possibility related to front desk help. virtually in terms of the chart noting side of things. It’s, it is interesting because when I first heard about it, I thought, really, is this gonna be HIPAA compliant? And that kind of thing. And yes you could, there are companies that do this where it is HIPAA compliant and and then you are able to have this taken off your plate.
Where, cuz have you ever felt like you are . You love to treat patients, but you hate the chart, noting part. , it’s such a drag that you end up putting it off and you let it pile up. Maybe at the end of the day, you feel like, okay, I, I just wanna keep seeing patients and have that kind of a flow during the day.
By the end of the day, you’re, it’s time for you to do chart noting and you feel like, Ugh, this is such a drag. And then you procrastinate it. and then you procrastinate it until it feels like even it’s even more of a drag. And then you, and when you go do it, it takes up so much time and energy. I know acupuncturists who do this and then have to stay late to do chart noting and then their family’s are you gonna come home earlier?
Cause you’re like, you’re staying home, you’re staying late at work chart noting and, starting to feel a little guilty about it, but also feeling like but I still have to get this done. Can, how many of you can relate. Like this right now, or comment blow to let me know. . Yeah. So this is something that can be happening.
And you could actually have a virtual assistant be taking chart notes for you during the visit itself, so that at the end of the visit it’s already well written in terms of the notes, and then you could summarize it or, you could tweak it and edit it and add certain things into it.
So it goes so much faster than you having to chart. Partly during the visit, also afterwards. So that is such an amazing thing. We had a client of ours we ended up connecting up cuz we have connections and and we connected her up with this one place and they’re doing chart noting for her and oh my gosh, she’s this is saving my life.
She can’t imagine now not having one. . And then the and in terms of ad virtual assistant being able to help with other kinds of admin things, it could also tie into marketing related kinds of things. So for example, have you ever felt like there are tech things that you don’t do very well, but it would be nice to be able to hand off to somebody else who’s good at doing it.
And, but it doesn’t really seem like it’ll make too much sense to hire someone to come in your office and help you with that on a regular basis. And and so you could hire that out. For example, if you would like to stay in touch with your patient base by email and then you would like to put together something to send to them, the text side of that, or even sometimes the writing side of that can be done by virtual assistant.
In terms of the talent range of the virtual systems, there’s a range, a huge range of talent range. There are those who are strictly, like very good with rote kinds of things like data entry and, those kinds of things. And. The way you do it over and over again. They’re really good at doing, but they don’t, they’re less of strategic thinking kind of people, or they might not be able to do things like marketing and that kind of thing very well.
But then there’s a ra there’s also people who are jack of all trades and they do a mix of those kinds of things that I just mentioned to you right now. And then there are also people who are very zeroed in on one particular kind of thing, whether it’s okay, so I will write up your.
Their, your newsletters for you, or I will do this thing for you, ev all the time. Very specific, more high level kinds of things. So there’s a whole range of talent and experience and and what you could hire a virtual assistant for. And so as such, cuz like one of the most common questions I get asked is like, how much does a virtual assistant cost?
And it’s, so as such it ranges quite a bit because of the level of talent and also where you might be hiring them from. So you could be hiring them from your own country or you could be hiring them from other countries, including. Like the Philippines or India, where places where there’s some really good talent.
However, the the cost of living in terms of the what people tend to make in your country is it might be significantly more than in their country. So they’re actually getting paid pretty well when they’re working for you, but then for you, it ends up being less than hiring somebody from your country.
So it ranges in terms of how much the more charges it range. So much because of the variations of those factors that I just shared with you, the level of talent, what exactly you’re doing for you and where you’re hiring them from. So now what about the. So if you have an interest in hiring someone what are some considerations, right?
It’s oh, I’ve never thought about this. What if I could? Cuz imagine if you could even just take a few hours off your plate even once a week, right? Like even if it was like, if you had three hours. Back in your life to do whatever you would like to do, whether it is seeing more patients and making more money for the practice also, or it isn’t, maybe it’s like you could actually go home earlier, , you could put your feet up and relax a little bit, take a breather for, what would that, what would that mean for you if you’re able to do that?
Just be able to have more time back in your life. Whether it’s a few hours a week, whether it’s 10 hours a week. Whether it’s 40 hours a week it’s like that, that somebody else could. Doing something for you and then you’re able to do more because of it too, right? Like you’re able to accomplish more, you’re able to grow more, you’re able to help more people because you have support instead of wearing so many different hats and trying to do everything yourself, and then feeling burnt out and feel, still feeling like you’re not doing anything.
Any, not anything, but you’re not doing like everything really. Because it’s really difficult to do that. So let’s talk a little bit about if you have an interest in hiring someone, what are some considerations? For one, it’s, I think the one, some of the most the biggest mistakes is, To just get excited about it and then be like, oh, let me go look this up and see who I can hire and then find someone and then hire them and yay they’re gonna take things off my plate.
And from experience. So I have. I’ve been hiring virtual assistants for, let’s see, I think it’s been at least 15 years. And when I first heard about one, this is back when the concept was more new for most people I thought, oh, that sounds like a good idea. And then I went and hired my first one and I didn’t think too much.
I didn’t realize you had to think about all, certain things. And so I just hired them and I thought, oh, this person’s gonna be able to help me, and I’m going to be able. To free up all my time more of my time. And I then I realized, oh, like they don’t read my mind, or, oh, they’re not really equipped to do this kind of a thing.
And so part of that was because I didn’t know a lot of things when I first started hiring virtual assistants. And one thing I wish I knew was that. to be really clear about what you’re really looking for and also understand what a virtual assistant can or cannot do for you. I had certain thing expectations and I didn’t realize that, that the person I hired wasn’t really a, like a fit for that kind of expectation that I had.
And so the first step is getting really clear. Who you’re looking for and what exactly they’ll do for you. And this is much, many times it’s much easier Seth than dad because it’s like you don’t know what you don’t know, right? . That’s something to get really clear on and also be clear about the distinction of what you could hire one for and what may not make as much sense and that kind of thing.
So that’s the first step. Then the second step is then where, as far as well, where to find somebody like that. And there’s a range of where you could look for, and so there’s. You could either be hiring someone directly or you could hire from a company. And if you hire from a company, though, many times there are it ends up being, if you’re looking at costs and that kind of thing, it’ll be higher costs just because, you’re, there’s another middleman they’re involved.
And then there are also like sometimes. Find more of a jack of all trades more if you are hiring someone more directly than go through a company in particular. So then it becomes who best to hire and then Have it really work well for you, right? And what’s your screening process?
That and I didn’t know ha half the things I should have asked back then, , now I know what to ask and evaluate with that. In fact, that’s something that we cover or clients come to us for when they’re wanting to hire, whether it’s a virtual assistant or a for their practice, or it is just an admin person with, for the.
Within their brick and mortar practice or an associate into their practice. Many times when you are hitting a point in your practice where you would love more support and would love to hire out, it’s not like you, you had learned these things in school about what to look for and what to pay attention to, how best to screen someone.
We had I just spoke to a practitioner yesterday and she’s I didn’t really think much of this back then. And then she hired and then, She realized after the fact, she’s oh, I wish I knew these things that now you can help me with. So in fact, she signed up to, to work with us in our four weeks to a new hire program that’s coming up, which is gonna help with both being able to get a new virtual assistant hired and smoothly the process for that and to shortcut that and also our connections too.
I can introduce you to, to the best kind of possible scenarios for you all in terms of where to look for someone and things like that, depending on what exactly you’re looking for, as well as the screening side of things. So this is all, this is for the virtual side of things and for brick and mortar side of things.
So I’m really excited about that coming up. In any case and also like templates from our our recruiting business set that I’ve had as another business and where companies paid us to find the right hires for them. So we had templates and frameworks for like whether it’s interview and what to ask.
Like people tend to tell you what they want, what you wanna hear, right? So things like that, to help you with navigating in such a way that, that you end up finding somebody good and you could suss things out well before you hire them. You could spot, spot for laziness or unmotivated kinds of things that through the process that normally doesn’t show up in the process unless you have certain screening things in place.
In any way, in any case, what I was gonna mention to you, So that’s the second step is where to find them, where’s the best place to find them? And then third step is then finding the right fit and screening for the right fit. And then the fourth step is how are you onboarding them so that they end up Doing really well for you.
So many times the most exciting day of hiring is the day you hire them, but then you know how it turns out can have an effect. It depends, like what you do when you onboard them has an effect on their success. So you could have somebody who’s amazing, but then you just throw them in and you expect them to do certain things and then they might actually feel overwhelmed or they might feel a little bit resentful, even though they’re not telling you that.
And then it may not actually work out as well. This goes for all hires. It’s not just virtual help. But and by the way I, one thing that you may not know about me, So now I’ve run two successful businesses and I’ve never met a single one of my hires in terms of people, my team who’s worked for me.
And for those of you who are feeling I ca you know, I can’t possibly fathom hiring somebody who I won’t be able to see in person and manage them and that kind of thing. It’s totally doable, and I’ll talk a little bit about that in a moment here, but, What I was saying, back to what I was saying about the onboarding side of things.
So what I’ve learned over the years is that sometimes you could have an amazing hire, but you could screw up the onboarding and then they might end up not doing as well as you would like, they may not be as productive as quickly as you’d like, as well. . And so part of it is do you have an a good onboarding plan in place?
And for example, we have frameworks for things like this, like a 90 day onboarding plan. And so that way you’re able to be able to Have them ramped up quickly and taking things off your plate and you’re feeling like, oh, this is so nice. I’ve got hours back in my day, or hours back in my week.
So that’s really amazing when that can happen. Let’s talk a little bit about, I was gonna talk about the most common concerns for hiring a virtual assistant. . One thing that I often hear is I don’t know if I could trust someone. And the truth is that whether you could trust someone or not, it’s a consideration for you, whether you hire them virtually or in person to work with you side by side.
And this is one of the biggest things that I see hold back a lot of acupuncturists and other holistic health practitioner practitioners to growth, which is this thing of I can do this so much better myself, or I can do this much faster myself, so I might as well just do it. Or this fear of trust kind of a thing, right?
And but making decisions based on a small percentage chance of someone not being able to be trusted is small. Think. and we can go about practicing and being distrusted people and stay small and then continue to have a smaller practice than you could really have. And also just what happens when you’re sick, like certain things don’t get done.
What happens when you go on vacation? Again, certain things don’t get done right and all the weight is like a lot of the weight is on your shoulders or all the weight’s on your shoulders. So the upside is really getting back weeks. Time, getting back time in your life, which could add up to weeks of time in your life back in, in a year, right?
So it’s much greater, the upside is much greater than the downside of the fear. So it’s just a matter of having a good certainly being intuitive and going with your intuition, that’s really important too, and having a good approach in place to, to find and. and then also get someone hired.
And then as far as another concern that I sometimes hear is that I’m not sure if I can afford one right now. And so many times this is a concern because of the fear of not being able to cover the expenses of a hire or feeling like you could take home more. if you just like yourself, if you just kept it all in your pocket and not hired anyone, right?
But the reality of it is that a good virtual assistant, or any hire for that matter can take things off your plate to allow you to actually make more money. It’ll free you up more with more energy and time so that you can make more money. Because how much money do you make an hour if you were seeing.
It’s usually a lot more than what a, a virtual assistant or any, anyone you hire would end up being right. But the unfortunate thing is that many acupuncturists and other holistic practitioners end up waiting too long and then get to that point of where they’re really burnt out, stressed, and then they feel like I really needed someone yesterday.
Instead of actually looking ahead and thinking, oh, you know what? I think it would be good to have support coming up here in the next year. So maybe let me start looking at this cuz I’m getting busier my practice or I’m wearing too many different hats, spread too thin. And so I’m going to start looking into this as a possibility and then learning about this, understanding this because remember how I mentioned to you that one of the biggest mistakes I see when hiring a virtual assistant is it’s not really Understanding the distinction and of what what to look for and then how best to really find the right person for you and suss that out.
And so it’s good to learn about this before you actually go about doing it. And same thing with overall hires. It doesn’t have to even be virtual assistant hire, but it could. , anyone you’re thinking about hiring within your practice in hi in your brick and mortar practice as well. So with that, if, for those of you who are interested in my more in-depth webinar free masterclass on this topic then feel, I’m gonna drop a link in the comment below, and so in the chapel, Section below.
So you could see, you could click on it and then watch the more about it. So I go into to answering more of your most common questions about this, how to hire a virtual good virtual assistant and take things off your plate. And then for those of you who would like free six and seven figure practice makeover chips, you can go to introverted visionary.com.
And feel free to ask us about the four weeks to a new. Program coming up as well. If that’s something that is like you’re looking for hiring you, maybe you have hired before you had a bad experience or you have hired before and you would just like to hire someone different now and you would to actually have a good process in place to save you time and energy from.
The process and also to be able to find the right fit. The, in ha have things working for you to find the right fit to. or you are hiring your first hire for you’re an admin person or associate, then feel free to, to reach out to us. So with that look forward to you having more support, feeling more supported, and and doing what you enjoy the most.
Which for many of you it’s mainly seeing patients or doing other things. So with that till next time.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Okay.
Hi and welcome. My name is Tsao-Lin Moy and I am a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist with a brick and mortar practice in Union Square in New York City. I would like to thank the Acupuncture Council for creating this opportunity to livestream information to you. And today I’m gonna be talking about super foods and this is how you can get better results for your patients.
By informing them about making these small changes and you’re gonna have, to their diet and some of their lifestyle. So we are going to go to the slides. . Okay, so super foods, and this is about getting better results for your patients and really it’s about being smarter about eating and doing it.
So they’re going to get these results. Now, every year people gain between seven to 10 pounds of weight between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that’s a lot because what happens is in the new year, We have everyone that makes resolutions that they wanna lose weight, they wanna get healthier. But after about six weeks, maybe two months, most people give up because it’s too difficult.
So if they’re not seeing the fast results, if they’re not getting encouragement, , they’re gonna stop. So here is an opportunity to give your patients these tools. Now, the US is one of the most unhealthy countries in the world with an almost the highest in healthcare cost. And as we know as practitioners that for the most part, many of our services are not covered on insurance, and patients have to pay out of pocket.
And it looks like the cost value is like, 4 trillion right, is spent on healthcare, but the quality of people’s lives is not getting better, and in fact, it gets worse. Oftentimes the solution from allopathic medicine is to end up being on multiple medications. And one of the. Main causes of death in the US is heart disease with a lot of the comorbidities of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, right?
And looking at the simple things that I’m gonna cover, that it’s gonna support your patients and yourself, they’re gonna be really easy to incorporate and help to cultivate a healthier lifestyle. . So the topics the topic is food is medicine, and I’m, we’re looking at super foods. I’m gonna talk a little bit about mushrooms.
Mushrooms have a lot of magical properties, including magic mushrooms, which I won’t talk about. Magic mushrooms just at the magic that they can produce with health. I’m gonna do an example. Different greens. I’m gonna cover also a little bit about sugar and just dairy. So this is going to be an overview.
It’s gonna stimulate you guys to do more research on your own and maybe take a look at, where you can make improvements so that the food that you have and that you’re consuming is gonna be the highest quality and nutrient dense. . So mushrooms. Mushrooms and their medicinal magic. Okay, so in this picture we’re looking at there’s Lions Main, there’s Cortis, there’s Turkey Tail, there’s Rei Chaga Maya Taki, and Shiitake mushrooms.
Mushrooms are actually from the Fungi Kingdom. Genetically we are closer to fungi than we are to other plants and so I’m not gonna go over the whole Fungi Kingdom. My suggestion is, if you haven’t already watched it, is to go and watch the movie. Fantastic fungi. There’s gonna be so much information about how mushrooms and mycelium interconnect us throughout the world and how much that we and the environment really relies on mushrooms.
There’s something called micro remediation. And this is where the mushrooms are able to clean out toxic waste. Really helping to be help our environment, right? And for us does the same thing. Mushrooms are extremely helpful and medicinal for with their properties. So most mushrooms, they have many healing properties.
One, we know they boost the immune system. They lower cholesterol, regulate blood sugar, improve memory have cancer fighting properties they contain. Proteins, minerals and are packed with antioxidants. Now the seven strains, which are highly beneficial, are often found in a mushroom powder supplement.
And I put together, I just said STAT seven. Paul Stat is a very well known mycologist and he has a company and. He has different packaging is where will contain the Cortis, the Turkey tail, REI, makihiki, and Lions Main. Now, Cortis is also known as Caterpillar fungus, right? And it’s good for energy, for memory.
The Turkey tale research is done used for. Cancer. Also REI we know is the Lingerer in Chinese medicine, which is also used for immune and also helping with cancer. Myat. Taki this mushroom is good for blood pressure, cholesterol also blood sugar. And again, the same with shiitake mushrooms, also very healthy.
You can cook with them. Lions. is one that’s known for memory and they look at neuro regenerative properties. So maybe looking towards how it can help with motor neuron regeneration brain with like dementia Parkinson’s many issues that we’re having right now with brain fog, right post or during with from viruses and pandemics.
And then we have chaga, I put a little asterisks with Chaga because you. All of these have healing properties, but there’s also a tendency for let’s say western people to think more is better. And the one thing with the Chaga, you have to be careful because in super large quantities it can cause problems with the kidneys.
So we’re always looking at moderation and. Best way is if you can cook with the mushrooms. So most mushrooms, they’re gonna work through the middle j the spleen, the stomach, the liver. They’re also good for the lung and the heart channel. They’re good for gut health and help to regulate blood sugar and cholesterol.
And in turn, heart. With mushrooms, you really have to break them down, like cook ’em because they contain something called chitin, which is protein. They’re also very high in fiber. So we don’t really want to eat raw mushrooms. I think the little button mushrooms are okay to eat raw in a salad, but for the most part, you really need to cook.
So here what I’ve highlighted is Mya Taki mushroom. So I’m just gonna go through the Maya Taki mushroom, also known as Hen of the Woods. Now, this mushroom is known to reduce cholesterol. , it helps to clean out the blood. It’s anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and also helps with type two related diseases, other kinds of problems that show up from type two diabetes.
And I put on the bottom of this the different references for the research that’s done. I actually have a friend who. He had done some research, he had diabetes, he had high cholesterol, hypertension, like all of those three that we see so prominently in here in the west because of our diet.
And he had read about the benefits of the myat Tai mushroom and decided he was going to just intake more my Taki mushroom. And he. He made. So about one third of his diet was coming from mushrooms and ended up losing like 60 pounds and then got off, was able to get off the cholesterol, the high blood pressure medication, and also reverse his diabetes, right?
So this is really huge. This is a huge thing. So if we can avoid or minimize the amount of medication, That we’re taking this is gonna be a good thing, right? Because as we know, medication actually can cause inflammation in the liver and also cause problem with the kidneys. So oftentimes the medicines that we take and the pharmaceuticals, they have a lot of side effects, right?
And so if we can, whatever we can do on our own that’s simple would be maybe start eating some mayak mushrooms. So are there certain foods that are better to eat along with mushrooms for enhanced nutrition? Absolutely. Onions, garlic, shallots, leaks, chives. They’re excellent accompaniments for cooking with mushrooms.
So in Chinese medicine, onions and garlic are used in soups, right? We know like a miso soup cuz they open up the sinuses and the lungs. They also belong to the album genus, and those properties are also filled with vitamins, minerals, plant compounds, and antioxidants. Great for supporting immune fun immune function.
right? And reducing. They also reduce cholesterol and blood sugar. And also garlic and onions are great for flavoring. So if just in case the theme is , reducing your cholesterol, your blood sugar blood pressure and improving The your gut health. So all of these things that if we can do this, will be just, even one food that you can add in to your diet, make some changes.
It’s gonna make a really big impact and. From what I notice is that you have to give your patients really simple things that they can do. If they’re given a really complicated eat this in the morning, this in the afternoon, you have to something, then they’re gonna give up. So really like an easy thing is, have them start eating mushrooms, right?
Just say, start eating mushrooms, not with butter. But really give them a couple of easy recipes. You can roast mushrooms, right? With just a little bit of olive oil and salt in the oven. And they’re very TAs. So one of the problems in the US is sugar. So this is a, the US is the biggest consumer of sugar on the globe, and according to sources, the country’s per capita, sugar consumption is about.
30 teaspoons a day, right? And that translates into more than 10 times what the lowest recommended in intake is, which is about three teaspoons. And this translates into as it converts from grams to pounds to ounces, about over a hundred pounds of sugar per year, per person, right? Of course some people eat less.
But if you start looking at how much sugar is in like drinks and different kinds of foods that we really don’t realize, like how much that we’re consuming, right? So why do we need to cut sugar out of our diet? In the US we’ve got a lot of diabetes, 10% at least, of the adult population, which is about 34 million, has diabetes.
And then we’ve got. 34, almost 35% have pre-diabetes. So we’re already we’re trending, right? This is trending sh insulin resistance and sugar. Problems regulating sugar affect the endocrine system. We see this with a lot of problems with fertility. , a lot of women or a lot of people overall, obesity is a big problem in the us.
So we start to see problems with metabolism. The standard American diet known as the SAD diet, is really high in like animal products. A lot of animal fats dairy meat processed. Sugars and a lot of sugars and so we start to see like we need to make changes, but then all, so it’s not just stopping eating those foods or curbing it is really, we need something to help to clear out the system.
Sugar plays a role as a stimulant and it increases inflammation, right? And it can actually cause problems with yeast. It will cause problems with imbalances in mood and reproductive hormones. With a fertility. Polycystic ovary syndrome is a really big problem and we see more and more women are being diagnosed with it and often they have insulin resistance and this is what interrupts their endocrine system and reproductive hormones.
So we really wanna look also can we make substitutions? So there are a few things you can do, of course, like cutting out sugar as much as possible is really you. Is gonna be the best thing that we can do to go on like a sugar fast. But oftentimes people are looking for a substitution.
So if we compare sugar to maple syrup, I know that there are a lot of recipes that say, oh, use maple syrup. So maple syrup. Comparably in calories and carbs. It has a lower glycemic index than sugar. And it also tends to be a little bit sweeter. So this is something that maybe you’d end up using less of if you use that as a substitution.
But I also looked at a comparison of something like how’s molasses, what is molasses in terms of compared to. Maple syrup, because sugar has empty calories, sugar it’s processed. It doesn’t really offer anything other than the sugars. So when we look at maple syrup, because it comes from a tree, it’s going to have other.
Properties from the tree plants like antioxidants but then looking at what does molasses contain because molasses is also sweet. It has a sweet it’s also very bitter. But it can be used as a sweetener and things like, Coffee if you want to, or even hot chocolate. Black strap molasses is like really high in iron.
So if you have people that tend towards anemia, this would be like maybe a spoonful of the black strap molasses. And looking at in this slide how it contain, Calcium, right? Iron very high in iron, molasses, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, b3, B five, b6. If you’re going to have a little bit of a sweetener itch, this could be like to really kinda look at, am I gonna have some healthy things that are gonna come with it.
So not just the sweet. And again we’re looking at maple syrup also has. , right? So if you, if we’re gonna choose something to suite, we’re gonna look at not just the fact that it’s gonna be low on the glycemic index, but really what else can it offer? . Now getting to greens. So all greens are full of antioxidants, right?
But they’re not all equal. And I actually came I was in actually a Asian. Food market. And I happened to pass by this, sea of green and I saw these little flowers and I, wow, these are really beautiful flowers. And it happened to be like the flowers from the Chinese broccoli tips.
And so I bought them and I was like, oh, it’s really interesting. I don’t always see the flowers. And they made me really curious about what are the benefits of Chinese broccoli. And what I found out is, Chinese broccoli is one of the most, most nutritious vegetables, and one of the highest calcium content has the highest calcium content of any food.
Rich in iron, vitamin A, c, and E high amounts of beta keratin, and that helps with. Eyes for as we age we get macular degeneration. And it’s also a rich source of fiber. Now, regular broccoli is also high in many nutrients, including fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, iron and potassium.
However, having bone health, we really wanna look at if we eat a little bit of the Chinese broccoli, That, comparing it to another green, that this may be a much healthier choice. Easy to do one green, just change it right. . Another also I looked at was the celery. What is celery?
Celery contains a lot of plant compound. A plant compound a, which is a role in traditional Chinese medicine is anti-inflammatory, right? We know that. Celery is very cooling. It’s a diuretic, right? Helps remove the toxins from the body. Studies actually show it has its antioxidant and has anti-aging properties.
Actually looking at it, it also has some neuro stem cell regeneration properties too in, in some of the research papers. The aspect you can drink celery juice, right? In Chinese medicine, drinking raw green juices is not so great cuz maybe too cold. The, in terms of nutrition it’s high in vitamin K and also modest source of B, the B vitamins.
You can chop it up and saute it. Just add it into maybe some other dishes that you have really think about just adding some more of the celery and in particular the Chinese celery is a little bit stronger in terms of flavor, so you can experiment with that. . Okay, so here we are with dairy.
The American diet has a lot of dairy and cheese, right? a lot of milk, a lot of milk products. And the thing is at least 68% of the world’s population has difficulty. Digesting dairy and milk. And so what happens is it is like a point of inflammation, even if we don’t, even if it’s not acute, right?
Oftentimes people feel like, oh I can drink milk. I don’t get a stomach ache. I’m fine. , if you have an intolerance, the symptoms actually will show up later on, right? Not everyone can tolerate dairy in their diet, and in fact Being intolerant to dairy is one of the most common food sensitivities among both children and adults.
And for the most part, we consume dairy when, with in our drinks ice cream, right? Lot of desserts, creamy, creamy foods. And so an intolerance of a food usually is gonna involve a delay, a delayed biological. So a lot of patients have i b s, they get abdominal pain, gas and bloating.
Of course you can, we recommend having foods that are are fermented or eating a probiotic to help with digest with digestion. But if somebody’s still eating dairy and it’s causing irritation they may think that it has nothing to do with it because it may not be acute. , but these symptoms, because there is a delayed biological reaction.
The important thing is like maybe to cut it out of the diet we see a lot of skin problems, eczema, psoriasis, right? Rashes, just itchy skin. We can blame it on the dry weather or we can blame it on something. . But if the patient is eating milk products, that more than likely that is contributing to the skin irritation.
We also see a lot of headaches and migraines. . And that can also be attributed to sensitivity to gluten. However dairy is really sneaky, right? Because we can put it in our coffee or tea or some in some other way. And we don’t really think of it as like the problem because it could be, we had it a couple days ago.
Dairy intolerance can cause a lot of weight gain swelling, a lot of inflammation. Also things like anxiety. , right? Any kind of food intolerance creates inflammation and then can actually affect our chemistry, fatigue, joint pain, even difficulty breathing, right? Because the inflammation is going to irritate also the lungs.
All right. I’d be very interested this is the end of the slide. If have any comments or questions what are you doing with your patients if there is something that you want to learn more about. I have started to do a lot more research into all the food that I eat.
Certain things when you’re making choices to really make those switches. And so the more you, the more you research the smarter you are and you can share with your patients. So I would like to again thank the American Acupuncture Council for the live stream. And I hope to see you in the future.
And I’m not sure who the next person is gonna be on for our presentations, but I hope everyone is gonna have a really happy holiday and a very healthy 2023.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi everyone. My name is Dr. Shellie Goldstein. It’s always a pleasure to be here with the American Acupuncture Council. Thank you so much for having me. Today’s topic is building business revenue with retail as a cosmetic facial acupuncturist for over 30 years. . But I realized in my practice that it was one thing to work and to see people with hands on, but also building a revenue through retail actually was a very, not only lucrative part of my practice, but it was also beneficial for the patients as well.
So here’s what I’ve learned over my past 30 years, and this is for people who both have a retail. Or would like to start one. So to begin with, think about this. Do you offer retail products in your practice? Yes or no? Are you already offering products? Would you like to, it’s a yes or no question, but it applies to everyone.
And then what percentage of your income is generated from these retail sales? Is it five to 10%, 15 to 30%, 35 to 50, or more than 50%? If you can up your retail sales to hit, say, the 50% mark, what does that mean? It means that you have to work half the amount of time to earn the same amount of money. . So working efficiently is always a great thing to do, particularly when it’s a win-win situation for everybody, both for you but also for your patients as well.
And when we talk about your patients, this is really important or has been important for me is really understanding who my patients were as a practitioner. For me personally, I tend to my primary. Patients were baby boomers in Generation X, but thinking about our practices today, whether it’s facial acupuncture, whether it’s any type of acupuncture, you tend to pull in or target a certain generation of people primarily.
So what and depending upon who you bring in, it’s gonna adjust or have to, it’s gonna affect what retail items you offer and a number of other things too. So do you treat mainly, Baby boomers. So as of now, these baby boomers are in the late, early sixties and seventies, generation X in the forties and the 50 year old range millennials now in their late twenties to early forties.
Huge generation of people that have a major influence in the retail world nation and international. Generation Z, they’re a little bit younger, they’re coming up. But again, all of these generations think differently. And when we think differently, what we’re talking about in terms of retail is what they look for and how they choose to spend their money.
So according to HubSpot when you look at the most important factors in terms of consumers and their purchasing decisions, it’s different. It’s different across the board. So looking at these, we have quality of the product, the price of the product, the features or the functionality, whether the brand has an active community around.
What type of reviews these products get, whether a percentage of the products that are the proceeds from the products will be donated to charity. A brand social media presence, Caesar across the board, the most common factors. But if you look within those parameters, then each of these generations thinks differently.
For example, that most people across the board are gonna look at the quality of the product relative to the price. If the price, if the quality of product is a very high quality, they may be willing to pay. But then there are the other things that are, that people think about. So for example look at the brand social media, present.
Social media. Guess what? The baby boomers really do not consider that as a primary. Topic or primary influencer in terms of whether they’re gonna purchase a pro product or not. They don’t really care about whether somewhat, but not as much as say, a ge, generation Z, whether it’s there’s a proceeds or donated to charity.
But what they are more interested is both in terms of baby boom. is the features of the product, the functionality of the product, how easy it is to use, what it does, and that type of thing. Whereas Generation X, they’re gonna look at what they’re, what’s the community around it? Are they donating to different charities?
So again, taking a look at each of the generations, what’s important to them, what’s going to make them stop and say, Hey, I want this product. So when you think about them also people in general, a lot of people say 68% say they prefer finding new products in the store as opposed to finding in the online.
So that’s good for us. 83% of the millennials say it’s important for the companies to buy it from, that they buy from, to align with their own beliefs and values. I think that’s pretty much across the board, both in terms of millennials and other generations as well. and 82% of millennials will purchase an item if they first see it, and they like it enough the first time.
But across the board, everyone wants that optimal gratification. Getting a lot of use out of the purchase makes me feel like I made a good decision. If you buy it and it sits on the shelf, they likely will not buy it again. But if they buy it, they like it, then they’re gonna come back for. . And what’s particularly interesting about this is the benefits for the patient.
When you think about a product, what you need to remember. And for those of you who have a strong retail product, I’m sure you see this as being true too. It has to be convenient for them. They have to be able to use it. And be able to use it easily. So if it’s a product, say a skincare product, then you have to refrigerate it each time.
I know me, I’m gonna forget. I’m gonna be putting on my things at night, putting on my creams or whatever. And then there’s this one that’s in the refrigerator. The chances of me remembering are not very the same with other things as well. If you’re using, say, a tool or a derma roller or something like that and you have to go find it, Chances are using it are not as high as, say, if it’s conveniently located.
Also, pricing. I know that, and I know for my patients that if it’s a higher price item, it has to come with a higher quality. It has to be relative. The price has to be relative to the quality of the product. And the re, the quality of the product is designated by the results. If it’s a topical ointment for say, pain, it has to work.
It has to slow down the pain or minimize the pain. If it’s for hydrating skin, it has to work. Your skin has to look better. So again, price. Convenience and the results. And when you have all three of these together and the patient actually uses the product and they get the results from the product, there’s a certain underlying sense of empowerment.
They feel like they are contributing to the healthcare of themselves. And we know from the perspective of a practitioner that when we can empower our patients and when our patients feel like they are contributing, it levels the playing field. It’s a win-win for every. , your treatments are better, the results are better.
They, and they are participating in their treatment plan. And so they feel at like they’re a part of it as opposed to you doing it for them. And we know that psychologically that’s always beneficial and it actually leads to better results and. For the practitioner what we know is that when patients are participating in their healthcare, when they are using their home care regime appropriately, your treatment results are better.
So when they, you can encourage them to participate. When they actually participate, your treatment plan, your treatment results are better. They like you, they trust you more. They will talk about you more. They will refer people to you, and at the end of the day, it enhances your income potential. So not only are you are retailing products, but the products are working for themselves and actually bringing in more patients for you.
When we are starting our retail practice or if we are enhancing our retail practice, there’s always business logistics. There are always things that you need to look out for. First one isn’t your inventory. How much does your product cost? Can you afford it? How much inventory can you afford to maintain if a product costs $10?
That amount of inventory is much different than a product that costs say, a hundred or even a thousand dollars. So that’s one of the logistics that you have to figure out. And then based on that, what is your return on investment? If you have a product that costs $10, And you charge 20, you’re gonna need to make, in order to make a hundred dollars, you have to sell 10 of them.
If you have a product that costs you a hundred dollars and you sell it for $200 it’s a larger investment, but the in the return on your investment is a lot higher too. So there’s a balance and every balance, every person. Balance is a little bit different and it’s based on your your product sales, what you think you can sell, and it’s also based on realistically what you can afford to invest in and have sitting on your shelves.
But then there are other things too. For example, what are your state regulations? Can you carry as an acupuncturist or whatever your license is? Can you, are you legally allowed to carry that? I know in the state of New York there are certain regulations about skincare products and the therapeutics of it, and then what’s appropriate and what’s legal within our scope of practice?
CBD is a big issue right now. A lot of states allow you as a licensed practitioner to carry products with cbd. Some do not. You need to know that because a lot of products right now have C B D oil in them. And then for those of us who in most states, you have to collect sales and local tax, who’s gonna do that?
And how are you gonna do that? So you need to get a business license, right? And then who’s gonna file the paperwork for it? It takes time, honestly. It takes some, if it’s, if you’re selling items that are only getting, making a couple of dollars a profit and you aren’t making that much, is it worth your time to actually do it?
I don’t know. It’s up to you. It’s a judgment call. And then also, if you are not a solo practitioner and you have staff, what did they think about it? Are they interested in it? Or because they’re gonna need to learn about the product. So are they interested in taking that extra step for you and for the business?
And again, so you’ve done your work. It’s okay. Ready to go. You’re gonna, who are you gonna target? Your brand. Your brand actually needs to, the products actually need to reflect your brand. So who are you? Who are you both in terms of the clientele that you bring in. Who are you in terms of the cost? What, how much do you think that you can charge for, and that your patients will be willing to pay for based on the effectiveness of the product?
Based on how easy it is to use. If you see a older generation of people and your product is a high tech product, they’re not gonna be able to use it that easily. That’s, and a consumer friendliness too. Do you have to keep the product in the refrigerator? Is it easy to reach? . And then what are the quality of ingredients?
Some, a lot of people these days want more natural ingredients that are organically sourced, that are chemical free or perfume free. That’s important. And then for some people too, what is the efficacy of that product? Based on scientific research, so that some of your products may need to have some scientific research behind it, if that’s important to you, if that’s important to your client, and then also your personal relationship to your product.
So I know that for me, in order to sell something, I need to have tried it. I need to know that I like it. I know that I need. to have it work for me, and then if it’s a product that I as a practitioner stand behind. And maybe work with a company at the manufacturers. I’m gonna need to disclose that.
I’m gonna need to disclose my relationship to that product from both the fiduciary responsibility, but also as a personal one as well. And then for me too, and for retail in general you need to really know if you can sell it and while your patients buy it, because there’s nothing more frustrat. Then investing in retail and just having it sit on your shelf.
If it has an expiration date, you have to throw it out. Or if it’s just sitting your shelf, you’re losing money because you’re not able to turn that. And part of this in terms of maximizing that return on investment is how you display it, how you store it, how you display it. Do you keep it behind your desk or in the closet, in which case you, as the practitioner or the staff are responsible for bringing that product out and saying here’s to your patient, here’s a product I recommend this, or is it in the waiting area?
Where the patients themselves actually are their own salespeople. They can look at it, they can play with it while they’re waiting for their appointment, and then if it’s an awaiting area, you probably need to make it look presentable, clean space, needs space, and really making the appearance of it appealing.
this is common sense, but sometimes we forget . In addition to the appearance of the product, and the display is really knowing everything about your product from the story of the product and a unique story. So for example a chemist, a mother is a chemist and she has a daughter, and the daughter is hyperallergic to so many different things.
And so in her quest, in her whatever topical things the mother puts on, so in her quest for fighting. The perfect product for her daughter. That’s hypoallergenic. She created this product line. Now that’s a good story. That’s a really good story because the personal experience with it is, I can use this too because I have sensitive skin and I use this product and it works for me.
That’s the benefit for the consumer because then the consumer goes, oh, I like this product. I can benefit for this. So there mean most products have a story behind it. What’s the story? How do you respond to that story? What’s your personal experience with that story and what’s the benefit to the consumer about it?
And then how does that compare to other products? So if it is a skincare product, then the, you would want to say the product is all natural, unique ingredient. I know that it works. I tried it and the story, so that would be one way of doing it. If it’s a say, a tool, then we’re gonna talk about guha tools later.
What’s the story behind it? Naturally? Stores, no, no heavy metals in it. So there are many different stories, and the stories count, believe it or not, the stories count a lot. And then how are you gonna promote this? You have your inventory, you have your story, you know the line, your staff knows the line.
You believe in the product, you know that it’s gonna help the patient. You know that it’s gonna be a win-win for all. So how are you gonna promote that product? Because again, you don’t, just on the shelf, sitting on the shelf is losing money. So do you just, do you have enough turnover? In your patient load to just keep it in the office.
Do you want to move it out of the office and say events? Do you have a website or a social media blog, an Instagram account where you can talk about your products, Facebook whatever you have. How are you gonna market it? Are you going to market it through them? And if you are marketing through a blog site, through a website, through social media, There’s that 80 20 rule, 80% educational, 20% promotional, which means that if you have a blog site, so every fourth or fifth blog post, you can talk about your retail product.
Otherwise, what happens, people get bored and they feel like you’re pushing a product on them. So mean, my kind of rule of thumb is let the product sell itself and you help.
and then you can sell. What I love about this part is you can sell a product individually, but you can also gift box ’em, and this is the perfect time. We’re coming into the holidays. The holidays is a really good time to come up with gift box bundles. But again, when you bundle these products, you have to know your patient.
You have to know your patient, and you also have to put it together, put the box together so that it makes sense. With skincare there’s so many different types of skincare products out there, wide range based on the practitioner preferences and consumer desires. So let’s, in this limited time, let’s hold onto that one.
We’ll come back in another presentation. But now let’s think about this. Let’s think about a bundle. Let’s think about our patients. What do our patients want? Do they wanna be educated? Do they wanna read about it first? In that case, you might add a BU book or something into our pamphlet or a booklet into your bundle.
There are some really good, very simple, no brainer products that you can retail that are low cost to you. Low cost to your patients and extraordinarily effective. And for the, these right now are guha, face cupping, derma rolling, and instrument assisted acupuncture tools. So look at this bundle. First of all, when you think about Guha tools, we know that guha tools are palace gemstones.
They’re organic materials, they have unique qualities. Each one of them have different vibrations, different colors, different meanings. So for example In facial acupuncture the gush eye tools of the gemstones that we use Amethyst. What I like about amethyst is it’s very calming, so it’s used, it opens up the crown and the third eye chakra, so it calms the mind.
When you calm the mine, you can calm the skin. So it’s really good for minimizing skin inflammation from a calming perspective, whereas something like. Is more opening of the heart chakra. So cooling versus calming. This is gonna be more cooling. Jade has a cooling reflection to it, so it’s gonna reduce inflammation and tissue irritation by cooling it as opposed to say, calming it.
So when you’re choosing between these different stones, you have to consider is my patient irritated because it’s. Or is my patient stressed, in which case you might choose, say an amethyst or a rose quartz. Rose quartz also is very calming. And so this product is going to calm tissue swelling, relieve stress, enhance circulation, and calm from an emotional perspective.
Whereas something like Jade or citrine is interesting because it’s more related to the solar praxis, your digestion. For the face, a lot of irritation on the face comes from, say the stomach meridian. The stomach meridian runs from the center of the eye, stomach one and two all the way down, straight down to the jawline, across the jawline and up.
So it’s the entire cheek area and lower face area. Breakouts, acne, rosacea, that type of thing are often related to heat in the stomach. So something like a siting would improve applied topically, would minimize facial redness and irritation by improving digestions through the stomach. And so each of the different gemstone personalities are slightly different.
and as well as their shapes. So when you are looking at a guas eye tool, if you wanna do some type of a sweeping motion, you’re going to use something like the teardrop or the dolphin, where it has a really long edge. The left hand side is a long edge or the rectangular square, whereas something like a pointed edge say the top of the waves are the fish.
Those are the wand, those are gonna have pointed edges, and those are really good for pressing into acupressure points as say, an assisted acupressure tool. Whereas something like the rounded paddle, the wand or the spoon, they’re really good for under eye area for very gentle lymphatic drainage and generally different puffiness and limb training.
So the shape of the tool is gonna make a difference as. And then in general, what are we using the for improving circulation, stimulating lymph drainage, harmonizing facial imbalances, improving wrinkles, softening or improving skin thickness. So again, this is the story, right? . This is why it’s different.
This is what’s good about this tool, this shape, this different gemstone. These are all important when you’re selling this particular item. And then when you bundle it, you wanna bundle it with something that makes sense. So maybe a face cut. Whereas the difference between, say, a Guha tool is more improving circulation, stimulating limb drainage, harmonizing and balancing.
And I think of face cups also as. Stronger and more in terms of strong lymph drain and strong, my fascial moving blood in cheek. The risk is that you need to be a little bit careful because if you’re, when you’re teaching your patients what to do you don’t wanna get a bruise on your face, so you need to explain it a little bit better.
In some ways, squash eye tools are a little bit easier to use, but fish cups are effective too. And then also using the appropriate oil to go with it. . And then the third type of product that you might bundle into a roll would be, say a derma roller. In this bundle you’re going, you might have the guha tool, the cup, and then say a derma roller.
So the, whereas the cups and the guha tools are more lymph drainage, myofascial drainage, moving blood and chewing where it’s an application and you can teach them how to do that. This is more for. Skin would be more like building collagen, that type of thing. And so you would educate your patient.
Here’s a derma roller. You write, roll this every other day and you can do your wash off daily. So the story, you need to have the story, the directions, and why you would be using each of these. And I say on this, be careful about serums at, with essential oil, CBD bonds, hydrosols for the same. Essential oils, they may be allergic to the perfume.
C, b, D are you, can you use that? Bombs and hydrosols bombs are too olian. So you don’t get that great slip and hydrosols aren’t enough, so you need a serum. That’s a good thing. So look at this. That’s swine bundle and I’ll, we’ll price these out for you. Another one might be, do they want education?
A book? Give them a book. True confession. This is a, this is, where I need to say, this is my book. I wrote this book, this is my tool. I made this tool. Disclaimer, there are many out there. This is just one, it’s a book and a tool. You read the book, you use the tool, you apply it, and you get the results.
So that, that’s another type of bundle. You can bundle these and make a lot of money. So a beauty box under a hundred dollars. It’s a tool, a tool, a derma roller, some serum, and it’s costs you, and these are, I’m just sourcing lasa, oms. There are many other places, but you would pay between 30 and 30, 37 and $39.
Package it nicely. You can sell it for a hundred eighty two ninety $5. Where is a beauty box? That’s say a. and the tool it would cost you $88. Package it, you can sell it for almost 200. Very simple, very clean, easy to do, easy to instruct, and you have the opportunity to make money. So whether you are doing single products are a bundle.
Again, it’s the holiday season. It’s a really good time to offer beauty boxes, holiday bundles have fun with. Get really creative. The more creative you are, the more excited your patients get. Make it easy, and it’s a wonderful way to earn income. And your patients will appreciate it. They’re gonna buy things anyway.
They’re gonna buy things for themselves. They’re gonna buy gifts for. If they trust you and they know that you have their best intention and they know you and what’s good for you and you, they can explain to you about the people they’re buying from. They know that they’re fulfilling all of those priorities.
They’re getting a good quality. It comes from a reliable source, there’ll be results. The price will be compatible with the results of the product. And so it really becomes a win-win for everybody. So it’s not a selfish thing about making money, it’s about empowering your patients. It’s about helping your patients.
They’re going to buy things anyway, and it helps you too. So why not? And that’s all I have to say for today. So thank you so much for listening to this lecture. If you have additional questions, you can reach out to me on my website, learn more about what I do. In terms of facial acupuncture and teaching facial acupuncture, or reach out with your questions to info hamptons acupuncture.com, or you can follow me at Instagram Goldstein.
So have a great day. Have a wonderful holiday, everybody. We’ll see you next year.
So I wanna give you a short primer on what you must do in order to make sure the documentation you are using meets the standard to make sure you get paid.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi everyone. This is Sam Collins, the coding and billing expert for acupuncture, your Advocate, and I’m part of the American Acupuncture Council, specifically the network. We’re always here to help. We’re always here to help make sure your practice is better, and that’s what the American Acupuncture Council is about.
We wanna make sure that your practice continues to thrive and prosper. 2023 is right here, and one of the questions I get as the coding and billing expert is, how do I document acupuncture? And this has been an ongoing issue for many acupuncturists because of course, unfortunately there is a lot of bad information that’s out there as to what you’re gonna require to do.
So I wanna give you a short primer on what you must do in order to make sure the documentation you are using meets the standard to make sure you get paid. And more importantly, making sure the patients has documentation of the services they received and the outcome. So without further ado, let’s get started.
Let’s go ahead and get to the slides. Let’s talk about documenting acupuncture for compliance, for accuracy, but ultimately payment. Let’s make sure you’re getting paid for what you do. And of course, prevent denials. Now, I’m not gonna be too worried about denials if we do the right types of things. So let’s talk about documentation generically.
Documentation is such that an acupuncture should maintain accurate and complete records. It’s what we do for our patients. Forget insurance or anything else. We have to reflect what was done to assure that what was done was compliant and protects us as well. We should ensure that they’re C correct also, to make sure we’re getting the proper payment for services and we can support that.
Good documentation practices also assures that your patients receive the appropriate care from you as well as it becomes the record for future. If they have to have go to another provider, they can make sure it’s there, realize it’s part of their permanent legal record that we’re required to keep. And I’m not saying it has to be fancy.
but it has to adequately meet the needs of what we do as acupuncturists or what you do. I’m just your advocate. So the few things that I’m gonna focus in on today is gonna be acupuncture, but I wanna highlight all the things. E and m services or exams should reflect the level of service that you’ve provided and it wouldn’t match the code.
or price that you build? Of course the acupuncture itself must reflect the time and the points, and this is what we’re gonna focus on. There’s often a lot of misunderstanding on what is required for documentation or acupuncture. We’re gonna clear that up. And then if you’re doing any therapies, let’s make sure that the therapies are identified specifically where they’re being applied by example.
You just don’t wanna check off, I did infrared heat, but tell me where you. for how many minutes? So we know what the intensity and time, so we know comparatively how we do it the next time. So we have to make sure that in a way that if someone were to read what we’ve done, They know what we’ve done. They wouldn’t have to guess by just checking I did acupuncture.
They would know where did we do it? What were the points? How much time did we spend? And these are the problems I run into as the coding and billing expert. I’m contacted by state boards, department of Defense, meaning the va. The wa Hoag, world Health Organization and almost every carrier out there, including malpractice carriers that deal with documentation issues.
So I wanna give you the definitive way of making sure this is correct. You’ll notice here, this is a denial if you’re not familiar from the company, UnitedHealthcare, and it quite frankly, is a very good pair of acupuncture. And you’ll notice it indicates. The information submitted does not contain sufficient detail to support the services.
So what is it that they’re missing? And you’ll notice they’re missing it on the initial set. And the follow-up sets. So notice it says the documentation submitted, does not indicate the time was personal, one-on-one contact with the patient, and the duration of the needle placement or retention. Therefore, it cannot be supported.
So we have to start to look at what is it that we need. So the American Acupuncture Council, we provide at our seminars, this list here of the acupuncture codes, their description, but more specifically also the details of what the requirements are. So let’s pull this up a little bit. As you’re familiar with, acupuncture has four codes.
Two of the codes are for manual acupuncture, meaning, and certain needles with no electricity. And then the other two are for electro acupuncture, meaning inserting needles with electricity. In both instances they work the same. So let’s make sure we understand what these codes mean. They say for 9 78, 10 it says acupuncture one or more needles.
So the first thing you’ll notice what we need to document. Is that we’re inserting needles, so you have to have, what points are you inserting? That’s number one. And then of course it says without electric stimulation. So it means nothing there other than just the manual insertion. But then it says initial 15 minutes of personal one-on-one contact.
So we’re gonna highlight just on the basis of this code, you’ll notice there are two things you must have. You must have the time. That you’re there with the patient, but also the points of insertion without both, it’s not billable. So be very clear in your documentation each time you do a set of acupuncture, how much time did you spend and what were the points of each set?
Because notice 9, 7, 8 1 1, the additional set gives you the same parameters, each additional 15 minutes of personal one-on-one contact along with reinsertion of needles. Now, I’ll be very honest, I’m not a big fan of that term reinsertion because it gives a connotation that you may be taking a needle and putting it back in.
And of course, that’s of course against clean needle technique. So we have to be clear that it is inserting a new. an additional needle. So again, points and time and notice. It’s the same for electro. Whether you’re doing electro or manual, we have to have points in time. The difference for electrodes indicate what needles were electrified.
That’s all we have to do. So think if there’s two things, you must have time. and points, but let’s be clear, what does this time indicate? This time, as you notice, each code says 15 minutes, and I wanna make sure everyone sees that the 15 minutes. That’s true. But for 15 minute codes in C P t, same applies for physical therapy services.
Whenever there’s a time code in this way, time doesn’t follow 15 minutes, but what’s called the eight minute rule. So the actuality is that do you have to actually spend 15 minutes for a single. You don’t, you could potentially spend as little as eight minutes. Now, frankly, I don’t think too many people are gonna spend as little as eight minutes, but nonetheless it could be.
So let’s talk about how this 15 minute session is defined. What is this 15 minutes? Is it the time that you’re inserting the needles or is it more than that? So you notice here it says this means that the physician acupuncturist is in the room with the patient and is actively performing a medically necessary.
that is a component of acupuncture. And so what does that include? Literally everything. As soon as you walk in the room with the patient, that’s an activity of acupuncture because you’re asking the patient, Hey, how are you feeling today? Because notice what this includes, the history, any day-to-day evaluation, tongue pulse, palpatory findings, range of motion, whatever you do, including cleansing the hands, choosing and cleaning the points.
Inserting, manipulating, adjusting, anything like that, but also including removal, the disposal of needles, as well as completion of chart notes. So what I want you to think of acupuncture begins when you walk in the room and say, hi, Mrs. Jones, how are you feeling today? That literally is the starting point of the first set.
Because it includes that pre-service, the intra service and post-service work, even the time as you’re finishing with the patient, giving them home recommendations and writing it down. So what I need you to do is to document that. What time did you enter the room? What time constituted the first set, if you will, or when you left or came back.
Just make sure it’s there. And frankly, you can do it one of two ways. If you want to indicate that I spent 12 minutes, 15 minutes, 18 minutes, that’s. If you would prefer to indicate I started at 10 and ended at 10 22, that’s fine as well. But you’ll notice as I mentioned, the eight minute part of it. Notice one unit or one set of acupuncture could be as little as eight minutes.
Now for the first set, that’s pretty easy. I don’t think anyone’s gonna spend less than eight, cuz it includes all those things. Now the additional set, though, is also eight minutes. But notice how this. It’s eight minutes plus 15 because the second set must have a minimum of eight, which means you must complete the total time of the first.
What I’m getting to is you can’t do eight minutes for the first eight minutes for the second. That’s not two sets. Eight plus eight is only 16 minutes, which means one set. So a second set doesn’t begin until you spend 23 minutes or more face to. notice for the third set does the same thing. It’s 38 minutes, which means two sets, two full-time, 15, 15, 30 plus eight.
So it’s always eight into the next. And remember, there must be additional insertion. So by example, if you have a patient, they come in, you spend maybe eight to 10 minutes interviewing palpating and inserting the needles, and those needles remain in the patient for 30 minutes. You then remove those needles, sit the patient up, discuss with them, even though the total time might have been 30 minutes because of the retention, there was only one insertion.
So remember, whatever is the minimum, if it’s the insertion or time, it’s gonna default to the lesser. So be very clear because you have to indicate the time of active care. It’s not just the time that the patient is resting on needles. So be very clear that rest time is. If you’re leaving the patient arrest on needles, often you’re not in the room anyway, so that time wouldn’t count.
So be clear in the notes, how much time was spent face-to-face, what were the point of each set. Now, along with that, what I wanna focus, oops, I move that. Excuse me. Let me move this up. Here we go to make sure you can see where this comes from. This is a document from the company Regents, which is part of the Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Network.
But the reason I included it is I wanted you to see how they indicated it as well. They note the acupuncture codes as we’ve talked about, but notice it indicates seven minutes or less of a single service is not billable. That’s true for any time service. If you do only seven minutes of. That doesn’t count either.
So make sure it’s at least eight minutes and notice the same protocol. Eight to 22 would be 1, 23 to 37 would be two, but that includes that you’re doing a second insertion and so on it goes. So that sounds good. That doesn’t seem too hard, but I know for many of you, you’ve come to me and say, Hey Sam, you’re the expert.
Can you give me an example? So here’s an example of an office, and this is one that actually was. and past. I wanna make sure you can see that this is what you need to do, or at least something similar. Notice how clearly it’s indicated here. Treatment set one, it says the face-to-face time. It then indicates what points were needle.
It then notices that there’s eim added to two of the points, which means is this enough to bill for one set? Absolutely face-to-face Time, 20 minutes with those insert. and electricity electrical set. Then notice though it does something unique. It says needle retention after insertion was 12 minutes.
That’s fine if the patient’s resting on needles indicated. Then when you come back in the room, then you’ll indicate again after the patient rested with needles. Maybe they were withdrawn and repositioned. Do. Keep in mind, you do not have to withdraw needles for an additional set. It could just be more time and insertion.
So notice second set says face-to-face. Time is 18 minutes. It then highlights the points and then talks about if there was e-stim. But notice how clear this. From this, I bet you could all perform the service. What I want you to think of is that you should document in a way that another Accu Acupuncture could read it and go, oh yeah, I’m familiar with that.
Now you could argue maybe Sam, it doesn’t take me 20 minutes to insert those. I agree. It doesn’t take 20 minutes just to insert, but all the things that go on before the insert. During, and then of course even after just resting on needles doesn’t count. So anything you’re doing, that’s the component of it.
I want that time to count. So be very clear in your notes. The time acupuncturists generally indicate they spend more time with their patients than most other providers, and I would agree as an acupuncture patient I can certainly say that. I just need to make sure you document it. So here’s one simple example to do it.
Notice points and time for each one. Let’s do another example of a soap note. Now, this is an example SOAP note for those of you that are part of the American Acupuncture Council Network. In our ACU code, we have a template of this that you can use, but let me show you how it works. What it does is it gives a breakdown of the treatment, so you’ll notice what it.
It gives a very simple, what were the sets? Notice set one, two, or three. If you have more, you would just add a line, but notice it indicates the points and then the face-to-face time. Now this one’s a little different. This one indicates five 20 to 5 45. Either ways acceptable. If you wanted to put 25 minutes, that’s fine.
Notice the retention time is separate. They just make sure retention time doesn’t count towards face-to-face. And then notice each set does it that way. So don’t make this overly complicated. Make your notes in such a way that someone can read it. You can show them the time you spent face-to-face the points, and then do that same thing for each set.
Just realize that in order to bill for three, as you can see here, there’s gotta be more than 38 minutes face-to-face and insertion. So let’s take a look. This is 25. Notice this one’s only 10. Now it’s 10. Still enough? It is because it has to be at least eight. But remember, for three sets we need 38 minutes.
So 25 for the first. 10 for the second that brings us up to 35 plus an additional 20. That’s 55, so that’s more than enough than it would be required for the time. In fact, if there were a fourth insertion in there, could that have been a fourth set? Maybe. What I wanna point out though is that you might look and go why did they spend 20 minutes on this one?
At the end, when you remove the needles, is there time you spend with the patient taking the needles? Discussing with them the treatment. Realize all of that is a component, so I need it to be clear in your notes. Give me the time you’re with the patient for acupuncture. Remember, exams are separate, but for acupuncture as well as the points of insertion.
And remember, could it be one point? It could be. Generally it’s multiple, but it could be. Then notice the other thing. Notice the infrared heat. Infrared heat, lumbar spine for 20. , not a problem. There again, very clearly. What I want you to think of is, could you read this note and perform it and think of that as the gold standard.
Another provider can read it and clearly identify this service and could perform it. Again, you might say you spend less time because I know acupuncturists could put needles in fast, but remember, it’s not the time you’re putting the needles in only, but all the things that lead up to during and after that are a component, so don’t over complic.
But do make sure it’s there. When someone looks at it, can they clearly see the time? Can they see the points of insertion? Of course, we all know that this year, 2022 is the year of the tiger. Next year is the year of the rabbit. But what I’m gonna say to you is, you know what? Acupuncture is always in the year of time.
You bill a time related service. You need to indicate. Now remember, it’s face-to-face time. If the patient is resting on needles, that doesn’t count towards face-to-face unless while they’re resting, maybe you’re stimulating. That could work, but not just the period of resting. I know the acupuncture side go to often what she does is she’ll spend 10, 15 minutes insertions.
She then leaves the room for a while. I’m sure she’s probably treating someone else the time she’s gone. She comes back in the room and generally at some points, once she comes back in the room, that time. and then again, the time she spends with me, even after the needles, taking them out, doing the notes and so forth.
So just make sure time is there. The thing I run into that’s difficult for me to defend is when I don’t see any of that in your notes. So be clear for acupuncture time. And points must be documented. If you do, you’ll resolve almost every issue I’ve run into when it comes to acupuncture documentation.
Let’s get ready. How many of you have an expert on staff or someone you can go to? I am the expert. Let’s get ready for 2023 updates, coding changes, fees, and all those things are gonna be occurring soon. Go to our site, go to our network. We’re there to help. We’re always gonna be a resource for you. The American Acupuncture Council is always your.
don’t be afraid to reach out. Be careful. Don’t use Dr. Google. Go to a trusted resource. Until next time, everyone wishing you the best.
We’re gonna be talking about creating a business plan, and the caveat here is in one hour or less really big takeaways that we’re gonna have today are the main steps you have to go through.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of To The Point. I am Dr. Nell with American Acupuncture Council, and I’m so happy to have you all here and talk about a really important topic that has been key to how I’ve developed my practice pretty much from start to scaling. So let’s go to the slides. A.
All right. We’re gonna be talking about creating a business plan, and the caveat here is in one hour or less really big takeaways that we’re gonna have today are the main steps you have to go through. A lot of times this feels overwhelming. I promise it will not be. Again, when I was growing my practice, I came out of school.
We don’t get a lot of business training. The schools prepare us so well clinically, and unfortunately we get into practice and have to be small business owners and don’t really know the steps to start that process from start to finish. And we get into this day to day where you’re like, all right, what are the things I absolutely have to do?
What ends up happening a lot of the time is we forget to plan and we take something like a business plan and say, oh, it, it’s too long. I’m not gonna be able to do it. But today you’re gonna walk away feeling comfortable, confident, and I’m gonna give you all the keys for success that I used in my own practice.
All right. So if this is so easy and you’re gonna come away in this short show, knowing these steps, why isn’t everybody doing it? What are the fears associated here? It’s about a lot of misconceptions when it comes to business plans in general. A big one is that, oh, they have to be in a certain format.
And if I don’t get the format exactly, rightly right, it’s just not gonna make sense. Nobody’s gonna wanna read it, it won’t provide any value for me or my business. That’s simply not true. There are several formats to business plans. They can range from being short to long more detailed. To less. There’s different formats if you’re looking for funding, if you’re not.
And that’s another common misconception, oh, I only need one if I’m looking for funding. A lot of acupuncturists straight out into practice aren’t seeking funding. Fortunately there are not a ton of startup costs compared to other industries when it comes to starting an acupuncture practice.
There are ways to start pretty small and scale. Really strategically, but there are still reasons to have business plans beyond seeking funding from I. . Another one is, oh, it can’t change, or it will take too much work for me to change it. Why put all this work in on the front end if I’m gonna have to change it later?
Or, I don’t have everything so fleshed out, so why put in all that time and energy? And we’ll get into how that can be really simple and streamlined for you. And then lastly that they’re not useful for acupuncturists specifically that, oh, if I. A tech startup company or if I’m someone who has a ton of inventory, like maybe that makes more sense to have a business plan, but I’m looking at being a sole proprietor to start.
Why do I even need one? And so we’re gonna go through these really key steps to make this process super easy for you and where you can see this is very relevant for you and for your. But first, let’s get into this, the traditional versus lean startup. There are different types of business plans. Like I said, they are not a one size fits all.
It’s not, oh, this has to be 18 pages long or it’s not worth doing. There’s a format called a lean startup business plan, which is actually very applicable for acupunc. Because we are often starting out lean not necessarily with a lot of inventory. Not with stock options not with a lot of these scaling opportunities that you would see in a lot of other business plans, but this lean startup business plan can be a really great fit for you and for your practice, particularly when you’re starting out.
So do you have an hour? We’re gonna go over this in less than an hour today, but you really only needed an hour to get this framework built because I’m going to give you step by step what you need to plug into this. Some people have this as a one pager, a guide, something they can reference back to.
I’ve had. Practitioners I work with who will start out with this framework as their one pager cover, and then they’ll develop a more traditional business plan and build out each of these sections really thoroughly. But this is just a basic framework that you can literally do in one hour or less, and it helps guide you.
It helps guide your business helps frame your decision making process. When you look at, oh, What are my goals for next year? What are my goals for next quarter, for next month? How did I do this month? You’re gonna be referring back to this plan and adjusting accordingly. So let’s get into it. What are these different sections in the Lean Startup plan?
First we’re looking at key partnerships. So what does that even mean? Keep partnerships. When you’re first starting out, you are looking at not only people you could collaborate with, but what vendors are you using, what distributors are you using? Who are you utilizing for your herbs, for your acupuncture supplies?
Are there opportunities for you to collaborate with those people? Looking at. In your area, if you’re going to be sharing a space with other providers or if there are other providers you want to be able to refer to, who are those key relationships, those key partnerships that you need to look out for?
Next, it’s key activities. This is what does your business do? In the day to day how do you gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace? What are things that make your practice a little bit different than other businesses in the area? With this section, you wanna think about, how are you Selling your services.
Are you’re obviously an acupuncturist, so you’re going to be going directly to a consumer. Are you going to be doing that with herbs as well? Are you going to be seeking referrals and when referrals come in, are you then looking to Do prepaid packages, if that’s allowed in your state.
What are the key activities that you’re doing in your business that are going to lead to that type of growth? And obviously acupuncture treatments fall into this. Herbs can fall into this nutrition advice can fall into this as well. And so thinking about what’s in your scope and how are you going to incorporate that in something that has to be in every business plan?
And this will look different depending on what kind of resources you do have. Some businesses are gonna have, Capital intellectual property. But really what are your key resources? Do you have money in the bank to help fund your business? Where are you at financially? Do you have intellectual property?
Do you have a low to go that’s trademarked? Things like that. And that would all go into key. And as you’re going through these sections, remember that you can bullet point this. It doesn’t have to start out in this really long, fleshed out framework. You can make some bullet points here and start there, and that’s how we get this under that hour.
Next is value proposition, which I absolutely love, and I want everyone to be so excited and so comfortable in talking about because your value proposition is just your compelling statement about what your practice brings to the marketplace. Think about the area that you’re in. Think about the needs that your community has and how are you.
To meet those needs. What are key issues that are happening in your community? Things that you can help solve, and then customer relationships. What does this look like just in the day to day of your business? Is it more automated? Are people. Online booking, is it very high touch? Are you doing house calls?
Are you going into people’s homes? Are you spending longer amounts of time with them? Are you having a higher volume practice than spending less time? But being able to meet needs more efficiently. What do those customer relationships look like? And when you do this section, you’re thinking about really patient experience from start to finish their first touch with you.
All the way through that first visit into how they’re interacting with you for follow-ups, all of that. And that makes us think, when we’re thinking about that customer experience, we of course need to have something about customer segments, right? So what exactly are customer segments? This is your target.
And you wanna be really specific with this because as you are building out a customer experience a patient experience, you wanna think about. Who is this really going to feel valuable to? Who is this gonna feel good to? Your branding for your business? All of that, it’s going to be very different.
What would attract I do a lot of men’s health. So a 55 year old man who’s experiencing andropause, that would look very different. That’s a very different. Segment of the market than a 20 year old female who is dealing with dysmenorrhea and extreme stress. Being at a college age and wanting to protect her health long term very different segments and a different value proposition and a different customer experience that could feel really meaningful for.
Next is channels. So how exactly are you interacting with your patients and perspective patients? Your target market? Are you doing Google ads? Are you on social media? Are you sending out blog posts? Are you doing a newsletter? Are you calling people to follow up and see how their treatment was?
All of these channels can be really meaningful. They also can be really targeted and more appropriate for certain audiences than others. And so you wanna make sure to put a little thought into that. Next is gonna be cost structure and with your cost structure. We think about, all right, what are we charging for acupuncture treatments or what is the increase that we’re gonna have on our herbs?
But there can be different folk eye depending on the type of practice you have. So with this cost structure, what you wanna think about is, are you focusing more on. Minimizing cost. Let’s say you’re doing a community acupuncture clinic and you know that your target market, that your demographic is going to fall into a lower income setting.
You’re gonna be more focused on cost saving. If you’re, in a higher income level and people are really focused on what is this experience going to be like for me, I want it to be high touch. Maybe you’re less concerned about saving costs, but more concerned about enhancing quality and the patient.
So looking at how are we gonna structure costs that it makes sense not only for your business but for the patient demographic that you’re looking to reach as well. Lastly, we’re gonna look at revenue streams. And this is actually one of my favorite pieces of this cuz it gets us thinking a lot of times his acupuncturist.
We called acupuncturists. So we think about the needle, we think about how much am I charging for a treatment, what’s my cash price, looking at what people are paying, with their copays out, out of network. All of those things. We factor in really primarily acupuncture.
However there are additional revenue streams that are available to us. You’re in insurance practice. Insurance isn’t going to cover cosmetic acupuncture or microneedling. Are you incorporating that? Are you incorporating herbal medicine into your practice? Nutritional consultation, Chiang Tai Chi.
There are so many aspects of our practice that we are able to offer to those who truly need it. And quite often we get hyper focused on the needling portion and that can be the only revenue stream It. A lot of you teach do consulting expert witness. There’s so many different revenue streams that are available to you as a practitioner who is so well qualified in this medicine.
So I just wanted you to be able to see quick summary. Lot of words on this. These are simply the ones that we went through and. You have got this. That’s the biggest thing. Did this in my last show. We talked a lot about confidence at the last speaking engagement I did and. I hope that this is something that you can take back to your practice, or if you’re a student, take back to school and know that you have such an easy, simple framework that will help you just like the way it helped me in my practice.
So thank you all so much for being here. Do not forget that next week you need to be tuning in for another episode of To The Point, and we will see you then.
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