Tag Archives: Practice Building

4 Ways to Use Video to Bring in New Acupuncture Patients

If you aren’t having video as part of what you’re doing, then the reach that you’ll get from things like social media will become less.

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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.

How can you have more of an online presence so new patients find you well? Did you know that there’s a study done by Digital Sherpa saying that over 80% of online visitors prefer video while only 20% of them will read something? And truly consume it well. So there’s also, in terms of social media, did you know that a lot of social media platforms are also moving more towards video?

For example, Instagram they had talked more recently, like their executives about how it will become more increasingly more of a video platform. And same thing with Facebook executives. They said that a long time ago about how Facebook will primarily be a video platform. And so what that means is that if you.

Sharing video. If you aren’t having video as part of what you’re doing, then the reach that you’ll get from things like social media will become less. And for the amount of time and energy you put in, it’s gonna bring in less bang for your efforts that you put in. And then overall, one thing that if people don’t really know much about how you could help, If you’re able to do if you’re able to educate them through video, people are able to build that relationship with you much faster.

So today we’re gonna talk about four ways that you could use video to, to bring in more new patients in your acupuncture practice. So this is Chen Yen, your six and seven figure practice makeover Mentor at introvertedvisionary.com and your host for our AAC live show today. So let’s talk about the four ways that you.

Used to bring in new patients by video. So the first way is to put it on your home page. So why? Because it’s such a great way to build that kind of connection and trust quickly. Did you know that most people come to website, they leave and they never come back? And did you also know that one of the most visited page.

is what? It’s a page where they find out who is this person, right? So being able to feel whether they connect with you and feel comfortable with you as their provider, as their acupuncturist it, it can speed up the process so much faster when you have a video on your website and it can also help people understand how you can help.

So I used to be very self-critical on video, and I also felt would often feel like, I wasn’t saying things eloquently enough, so I probably shouldn’t do the video, and then I would procrastinate and then just not do them. And then also sometimes I would feel like, oh, I don’t look good enough to be on video today.

So then I would just think, oh, I’ll just do another day and then would never really do it right. . What I noticed was that once I started being on video, Got more comfortable with it, then people ended up coming to us more readily and also were more aligned. When we started putting video on our website, we noticed that people who are coming to us are now they’re more enjoyable to work with.

than ever before, and definitely attribute that to video. And same with our acupuncturist clients who have put video on their website. Now does it have to be professional video or does it not have to be? I would say that certainly, of course, professional video is great, but we’ve had clients who have only posted pretty homemade kind of videos, but as long as the background was professional looking and then they were showing up in a professional way.

It actually still works really well because the most important thing is being able to connect and. Really be yourself. And and then I remember one of our acupuncturist clients who was really nervous about being on video. And I helped him with this what to say and gave him a framework for this.

And then he ended up feeling more confid confident about it. And then he ended up doing a video that he put on his website and more people ended up booking with him. And then now that he has associates, he also. Them do video too. So those of you who have associates you could have them do it of an intro video or you could interview them and as a way to help warm up your patient base to the, your new associate.

Because have you ever had people, if you have an associate, have you. ever had patients say, oh, I just wanna see you. So if you end up being able to introduce your associate to the practice, then make them feel more comfortable make your patients feel more comfortable or people feel more comfortable, then that can also smooth out that transition.

The other thing is that you don’t have to do videos of yourself even. Have you ever thought about this? You could ha post explainer kinds of videos on your website and what is, what does that mean? For example, there might be something about how acupuncture can help with sports injury or acupuncture, how acupuncture can help with digestive issues.

And there are different videos out there, for example, on YouTube that you may share on, can you. Embed their video on your website and certainly, give credit to, to where that came from. And so you don’t actually have to be the one doing the video yourself also. So another possibility is, so the second way to use video to bring in new patients as a practice is to share on social media.

So I already brought up some stats related to how. Video tends to get more views than if you were to post something written on, whether it’s Instagram or Facebook. And it’s because the algorithms are favoring video over the just regular written posts. And so you don’t need to do song and dance though either, right?

, there. , you don’t have to do that kind of stuff. You could do videos in a style that feels comfortable for you. So for some of you that might be more educational and and then it’ll help expand your reach beyond just written kinds of posts and organic social media. The other possibility related to expanding your reach via social media through video is that you can also do paid ads.

You could just create one video, for example, on Facebook. To attract new patients. One of our acupuncturist clients did this and her video was running for over a year and she was still attracting new patients with that one video that we just dialed in. And she just had a wonderful presence and it helped her with what to say and it was really awesome cuz just that one video, imagine just creating one thing and it brings in patience for you for over a year.

So that was really awesome. And the third way to use video. To bring in new patients into your acupuncture practice is to send videos to those who aren’t sure. If they wanna come in to your practice or not. So this could be either in the way of where people are on the fence or it ends up being a video where you share it and with your patient base, and then they share it with people they know or end up referring people to you so that when I say people are on fence, what I mean by that?

For example, have you ever had people call and then they aren’t sure about coming in. They’re like, oh but you don’t accept my insurance or x y. Reason for they can’t book an appointment yet and then just hang up the phone and that’s it, and you never hear from them again. What if instead you did what one practice does, which is they end up sending out videos tied into that person’s issue or condition and then say sure, let me sh send you something that can help you also with your, with your.

issue. And then so that video can start educating them more about how acupuncture can help with this. And or Chinese medicine can help with whatever that health condition is. And it could also be a video. So it could be a video that you just pull for them, or it could be a video that you create, which is more, even more ideal because then they will, they’ll get to experience you energetically and see if they resonate with you or not.

So that can be a great way to help. Inspire people who are on the. To actually book with you, and especially those of you who may charge higher fees or maybe an all cash practice or maybe some of you offer packages. It just really depends on your practice situation or you offer functional medicine and and you offer.

Packages. And so if, especially in those situations it will work really well because it helps warm up people who might be on the fencer who aren’t really sure. And to you and also your approach. The fourth way to use video to bring in more patients for your acupuncture practice is to email the videos to your patient base or, and, or.

Have you ever had people come in for one thing and then they don’t even realize you could help ’em with other things, so that can happen, right? They, even your patients who really appreciate you. I remember there, there’s a so I have, I see a naturopathic doctor who’s also an acupuncturist, and I fly to outta state to go see her, and she does some pretty high level stuff in terms of e.

Work not your traditional kind of naturopathic doctor. And her acupuncture treatments are incredible too. They’re I’ve never had acupuncture treatments like how lasered she, she really is when with very few needles in. And and so the, I fly to go see her and I’ve been, I was flying to see her for, it was at least a year at that point in time.

And I love her treatments and and I, she also helped me so much. But it was really amazing because I remember one day I asked her, Hey, do you can you help with X, Y, Z? I couldn’t remember what the issue is at this moment in time, right? But it was I asked her that and she’s oh yeah, of course I can.

And I thought to myself this, how funny, I’m a healthcare practitioner and I also really trusted in her helping me. But for some reason I never put the two and two together that she could help me with this thing. And so sometimes your patients don’t even realize that you can help ’em with these other types of issues.

They might come in for pain and then they have no idea you can help ’em with digestive issues or their Hoag hormone balancing. And so the only way for them to become more educated about it is if you share about that in the practice, which sometimes you may not have enough time. And then sometimes the, it may not be issues they’re dealing with, but maybe it’s an issue that their friends are dealing with and they would be totally happy to refer people to, but they don’t even know that what you, your services could really help their friend with some of their health issues.

So this is where. If you share videos to, with your patient base by emailing out to them, you could also have videos that are, for some of you, this makes sense for, you could put a TV in your waiting area, and then it plays different videos, educating patients more about acupuncture or Chinese medicine, or you could have them.

Periodically if you don’t want to have a TV or don’t have one and to put in there, then you could have a laptop that they watch. And it doesn’t have to be at every visit. But it could be while they’re waiting in the waiting area, then you mentioned to them, okay, I’d love for you to watch this while you’re waiting.

And then the also, would you, we talked a little bit about referrals. Would you love to increase referrals? And some people hear about the practice and even if they, like your patients rave about it to their friends and family, they may not come in right away. And sometimes it’s from having seen a video and then realizing, oh, okay, I get more about what this is and or they also see you if you’re in the video, then they’ll feel like, oh, okay, I actually feel like I, I resonate with this person.

So they’ll be more likely to come in as well. You could also. , if you’re sharing these videos with your patient base or your list, then you could share about upcoming things at the clinic that you’re excited about. You could also do, one of our acupuncturist clients did a clinic walkthrough and then talked about her vision for the practice and then what who she loves to, to treat and help, like what kinds of patients.

And that way people, that, that video can end up being easily shareable also. To people who could be coming in, friends and family who could be coming into referrals. So those are the four ways to, to use video to attract patients to the practice. And then it’s just a matter of, I and I get how sometimes, especially if you are starting or thinking about this it can be easy to feel like you’re either you get nervous or you don’t like to be on camera.

It could feel uncomfortable. And what ha what I’ve noticed is that no, getting, just doing it will help you start feeling more comfortable and then knowing what to say too in a way that not only educates, but also inspires new patients to come in. So having a framework for it can also really help.

What could you say? And that way you feel more comfortable and confident. We actually have a a script for if you would like to, , for example, create a video that introduces your practice and what to incorporate in it so that people would not only feel more comfortable with you and your practice, but also inspire them to come in to also book an appointment.

We have a template for that. So if you want to email me, or, sorry, if you wanna message me and request it, I’m happy to give it to you. And then, so for those of you who are, or, and I’ll also give you our website too. Our website’s introvertedvisionary.com. And if you’re not watching this on a social media platform right now, then you’re welcome to go there and then request the script.

And I’m happy to give it to you. And for those of you who are at a place where you’re at a plateau in your practice or you just know you’re capable of so much more you would love to grow with more ease and flow and bringing a consistent flow of. Then feel free to check out introverted visionary.com.

So til next time.

Can Advocacy Help Build Your Practice? Nell Smircina

I wanna thank AAC for having me here and letting me talk about advocacy and how it can help build your practice.

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Hello and welcome to another episode of To The Point. I’m Dr. Nell with the American Acupuncture Council, and I wanna thank AAC for having me here and letting me talk about advocacy and how it can help build your practice. So let’s go to the slides.

For those of you who know me you know that this is actually part of why I got involved with aac. So being trained as a practitioner building my own practice and really my goal was always how are there. Gonna be enough hours in the day so that we can focus on building this profession.

And so I designed my practice in such a way where I could also spend time being an advocate. And what I found through that process was that advocacy can actually help build your business. So some of the things we’re going to get into today, really surprising ways that you can be an advocate. We a lot of times all have certain views when we hear the word advocate or the word advocacy.

Might have certain assumptions around that and might think it has absolutely nothing to do with business building or practice building. And that it’s a very separate thing. But we’re also gonna talk about how you can leverage advocacy to bring more. Into your practice. And then, okay, what are next steps, right?

So are you involved as an advocate? Should you be involved? And what do those things look like? Like I was saying, this is a big reason that I did get involved with AAC because as a solar practitioner, there are certain things that you can do, but there was also this really great organization that was helping to advance the profession in really tangible.

And as one individual, we fit as part of a collective in the profession. So it’s an exciting time. We’re gonna talk about a few of those things today and how you can really get involved. But first let’s get into a little bit of what is advocacy and what are those surprising ways? , this is usually this picture or this previous picture is what people normally think about when they hear the word advocacy.

It’s that, oh, I have to be a public speaker. I have to be out in front of a large crowd, or talking to a lot of people, or. Doing some type of pr I have to be visiting legislators offices, and that can feel a really daunting and b, sometimes just unappealing to your general practitioner who wants to be able to sit there and talk with their patients.

And so really the goal is, all right, let’s understand what are some creative ways to be an advocate, because it doesn’t have to look like this. This is what it looks like for me because I enjoy going and speaking at schools, and I enjoy being a part of the national Association on their board and going out and talking to different legislatures.

But that doesn’t mean that’s what you have to do to really have an impact. So really simple ways that you can have an impact is realize that. You as a licensed acupuncturist, anytime you are talking to someone about this medicine, anytime you’re talking to somebody about acupuncture, traditional medicine, how it can help them the education that you have, you are advocating.

for this profession. And so that could be a one-on-one conversation, that could be a one-on-one conversation with a prospective patient with someone on the street. I always use the example of meeting people in coffee shops. I clearly go to a lot of coffee shops cuz that’s always my default on how people must meet people.

But let’s say you’re talking to somebody in a coffee shop about acupuncture and they’ve never heard of acupuncture. and they come and see you or they come and see one of your colleagues. That person can turn into a person who then goes and tells another person that they should come and benefit from this medicine.

So you are helping to grow efficacy. You are part of an effort. To expand awareness around care, to let people know the value that this profession provides. So it’s not always that you have to then go and talk to someone in Congress or at a state level. , although that is something that we’re gonna talk about as well, if that is something that you’re interested in.

So thinking of yourself as really this term of a professional model, professional modeling. We’re showing people who are coming into the profession, if we are more veteran practitioners, showing people the way, helping to advocate for. Effective business practices for being successful in practice so people know, oh, this is a safe profession to come into.

This is a great profession to come into. And so through those different avenues, whether it’s general public, your patients other practitioners coming into the field, you are helping to be an advocate, even if it is on a one-on-one level, and it’s not going directly to our legislature. , but let’s talk about this because this is sometimes the pushback that we get.

Let’s get past the public speaking and I don’t wanna do that. We can do that with our patients, we can do that, on a one-on-one. But, we’re also trying to build a practice, right? And we need to make a living. We need to be able to support the patients that we do have. We need to be able to bring in more patients than who we currently have.

So how can advocacy. Potentially build our practice. . A foundational concept of being an effective advocate is communication. So we’ve done a couple different Facebook shows around this topic, storytelling your elevator pitch, how are you articulating the value that we provide? One, using those skills in any of those avenues as an advocate, helping to hone those skills is going to make you more effective when it comes to building your practice.

But also, I have to tell you as I got more and more involved in larger skill advocacy work, so I was the president of my state association and now being on the board for asa, which is the National Trade Association, my patients really loved this. , I was a little nervous at first that, oh, I might not be in on this particular Friday because I’m gonna be going to this conference and speaking, or because I’m going to go and do a meeting with my representative.

I’m gonna have to block some time off and let patients know oh, you can see me Monday through Thursday next week because this is what I’m doing. Actually sharing that information with patients is critical in how it can help build your practice. I had more patients when I was practicing in LA who would refer people in and they would say, oh, my friend sees you, and he said, you’re the president of the state association.

That’s so cool. So patients get really excited. You’re knowledgeable about your craft, that you know the industry that you’re part of, that you’re part of a community, and you are, versed in how to leverage that community. Because resources that you have as a provider, that you have as an advocate then trickle down to your patients.

And when it comes to blending those two concepts of how do we get really good with our communication? . And then how do we articulate this information to patients that we are involved in our profession because we love it so much and we wanna see it succeed, and we want this medicine to reach as many people as possible.

When you blend those two things, then you get to the point where, You’re better at articulating that treatment plan and you have more credibility when you’re telling your patient that you are involved. So not only are we practicing the communication not only are we truly involved in our profession and know what’s going on but.

then we can fully articulate that to our patients. Have the credibility to be able to say, I know this medicine. I know other people in this medicine, and if you need an additional referral, I’ve got you. That gives patients a lot more confidence and a confident patient, a trusting patient. An enthusiastic patient.

Those are the patients who are going to help you build your practice. So then you’re not stuck in that one-on-one referral machine. You have people who are then out there advocating for you as a provider for your practice. So last question we wanna answer quickly is, Are you involved and should you be?

And what does that even look like? Like I said, for some of you, your involvement is going to be, I’m gonna get really effective at articulating the value of this medicine to people, and I’m gonna be an advocate on that level so that on a, in a one-on-one conversation, more people are gonna come into acupuncture.

You could take that a step further. You join your state association and there’s so many different levels of involvement there. You can simply be paying dues to help support the mission of the association. And I have to tell you, we’re like the only healthcare profession that makes this optional.

Every other healthcare profession, you get your license and you’re a member of an association and they have very powerful associations for that reason. They’re able to pass more legislation, they’re able to get the attention of representatives in a more effective way because of the strength of those associations.

We’re the only ones who just say, ah, if you wanna be involved. So to make it really easy for you all, you can simply be a dues paying member. What does that. It helps support the mission of the association. It helps advance the medicine, the people who are working on those boards, on those committees who are working so hard.

Those dues help that mission continue. But at the same time, you also get to be kept in the know. So maybe you’re like, I don’t have time to serve on a committee. I don’t have time to serve on a board. I wanna focus on my practice. At least you’re getting that information via email. Webinars that come up where there’s information available you can attend.

And you have the option to get more involved. You could be on a committee for your state association, you could be on the board. And then state associations in turn are members of a national association. So you could get involved with the national Association, through the state association as well, and work on things on a more federal level.

So there are conferences coming up for the asa as the National Association in. I will be there. AAC will be there supporting as always. One of my favorite things about this company is, man, do they show up for these associations and trade shows to make sure that the organizations are well supported.

And then you have. Organizations like the Society for Acupuncture Research, if you’re really into research, that could be a great organization to get involved with, to know what’s going on in an international level. They have a conference coming up too in May and. AAC will be there as well. So I’m hoping that as you’re going through this, you see it’s not just a one size fits all approach.

This is not something where you have to be out there doing public speaking. This can go anywhere from, I’m getting really good at communicating the value that this medicine has to provide to, Hey, I wanna be on the board of a national association. There are so many things in between that. So many ways to start honing your skills so you can help grow this profession, grow this medicine, and help improve the experience for your patients and your practice as well.

As always, if you have any additional questions for me please feel free to reach out. It’s nell@acupuncturecouncil.com. Loved seeing you all, and don’t forget to tune in next week for another episode of To the Point, tons of value to be offered for you guys. Have a great day.

5 Ways Speaking Can Help Grow Your Acupuncture Practice

So today let’s talk about five ways that speaking can help you with growing your practice.

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Billionaire Warren Buffet has said that this skill is something that can help raise your value by 50%, and is a skill that any person who is running your business should learn. So it can also help you grow your acupuncture practice and without having to always be constantly posting on social media or spending money on ads or seo.

So this is Chen Yen, your 6 and 7 figure Practice Makeover Mentor at introvertedvisionary.com and your host for the AAC live show. So today let’s talk about five ways that speaking can help you with growing your practice. So that way you have an avenue that helps support you bring in a consistent flow of patients you enjoy working with.

Now, the first way to use speaking as an avenue of growing your practice is to set yourself apart. So when you speak, people will get a better sense of what it’s like to be in your presence and especially when acupuncture is something that’s such a hands-on experience and people are wanting to know what kind of a practitioner this person is and what they’re like when they’re in front of you.

When you’re in front of them, then they can suss that out. So much better than any kind of a written post or marketing or ads or anything else like that. They might see online because they get to see you and experience you and see if they resonate with you. Also. By educating more people about how you can help them, it sets you apart from other acupuncturists who may not do that.

And so I would say that, and from all the different I’ve talked to thousands of practitioners at this point. acupuncturist and other holistic health practitioners, and of all the different approaches that I hear from them about what’s working, what’s not working in their practices, hands down, speaking still one of the fastest ways to, and most effective ways to grow a practice without having to always be Constantly feeling like you need to be doing all sorts of song and dance and think things for marketing

And when it’s also the, it feels it has one of the highest impact of all the different kinds of marketing approaches because one of the reasons why people may not be coming to you yet is because they don’t really know about you and they don’t really know the scope of what you can help them with.

Have you noticed that many times, even if people do understand that acupuncture can help? Many times they just associate acupuncture with pain, and that’s about it. So when you’re able to educate them about much more beyond what they likely know, acupuncture can help with, and you’re more likely to.

Be someone they’ll think of when they have a certain kind of issue or when their friends or other people they know have the issue, they’ll then they’ll think about you. So it totally sets you apart. That’s the first way speaking can help you with growing your practice faster. And the second oh, and also the other thing too is that it’s also a way for you to get known and recognized in your community as a go-to acupuncturist and amongst your peers.

When people just see you in a different limelight when you are speaking. For example, if you were a guest speaker at a particular organization, they don’t, it’s not if you were to advertise or post on social media. It’s Hey, I’m here. I’m here. It’s a different kind of a feeling because when you actually show up and speak, people automatically already see you as a go-to expert.

So it’s such a great way to, to get known and recognized in, in your community as a go-to acupuncturist. The second way speaking can help you with growing in your acupuncture practice is by helping grow you more personally and professionally and, business, having in your own business is one of the best personal development tools we could ever have on ourselves, for ourselves.

Have, do you agree? Have you noticed that? It will, having a business will put a mirror up to your triggers. , it will put a mirror up to your insecurities. It will put a mirror up to your inner strength as well. And speaking is a reflection of that. I. And also how clear you are about your vision and what what really aspires you to have this practice and be able to communicate how you can help people and communicate that effectively.

I know that for the longest time I used to hide. I used to hide behind mainly writing because I felt very inadequate when I would speak. In fact, when I was little and it came from this experience that I felt was traumatic when I was little. So my dad’s a PhD, research scientist, engineer, so very left brain, very analytical, and When you’re younger when I was about eight years old Sunday mornings, I used to dread when other I used to think, oh gosh, I’m so jealous of other kids, because when the Sunday paper would come, I imagined that other kids would get in.

They get all excited about reading the comics. And every Sunday my dad had me do a current event talk and I hated it so much. , I did so much that because I would always be in tears. My dad was very strict and he would critique me in the style that he felt was best. And it was very, left brain analytical just, and not my style.

Totally. And I would just cry and I would feel like when I grow up, I will never. Speak in front of an audience if I could help it. And over the years I would feel a lot, a big sense of dread come over me when in class we would be asked to present. I felt like I had to I felt like if it wasn’t perfect, then I would get criticized and I would feel really bad about myself.

And but then also, I would blank out. So even as I got older and I thought, okay, I could do this right and because one of the reasons why I decided to speak and educate is because I like to teach. As a little kid. I would grow up in my I would grow up, I would bb in my neighborhood, and the funnest thing for me was to.

The, these worksheets for my third grade teacher and then end up giving them to, to all the people I was, the kids I was playing with. And that was my sense of fun as a kid. And so the, because I’d love to teach, I ended up deciding, you know what? I would love to learn this. I would love to learn how to speak and help more people, reach more people at once.

But I used to blank out a lot. and I would literally say things that didn’t make any sense when they came out of my mouth and my face would turn red. I would feel so livid. I would want to hide under a rug. And, but and I felt judged like. , all the eyes were on me. And but if I am, if I was able to, the reason I bring this up is if I was able to go from that to now being invited to speak nationally and even internationally, then you can too, and it doesn’t.

Have to feel intimidating and each level of growth as you speak is you will grow your ability to be very concise and impactful and engaging and inspiring, and it is a skill that no one can take away from you and to the extent that you grow. this yourself personally. This way, it’s going to help you with growing in your business too, without you even realizing it until one day you look back and you realize that, that you start to attract people who you enjoy working with.

Have you ever felt like of all the people you work with currently, the people you absolutely love working with, you would love to work with more of those people. Have you ever felt that way before and. , when you are able to sharpen your saw with speaking you, you will naturally start to see that more and more people who are more in alignment with you will end up being attracted to you.

And it’s such a different feeling than just helping everyone and then having people who may not be as much in alignment. . And the third, and by the way, I also wanna say , at the beginning of this I mentioned that Warren Buffet and billionaire has said that speaking is one of the, like num, it taught a nu a one skill that can really increase your your value so much.

And, he also had, when he first started speak, , he actually ended up he did this Dale Carnegie course thing, but he actually ended up dropping out of it because he just wasn’t very like, . It wasn’t his second nature, a second nature kind of thing for him. It’s not like he was great at it and he got nervous and that kind of thing, and it took him the second round and it’s, you’re not alone with it.

And at the same time, the, those of us who feel like we have a voice and. And we want to share something really awesome and amazing like acupuncture, Chinese medicine with people. Then it, as we grow this way, we’re gonna just help more and more people. Third way speaking can help you with growing your practice is this.

, it’s to, you’ll be able to reach more people at once instead of feeling like you need to network or one-on-one or which can also be good. But then you could be, imagine reaching 20 people at once, or 50 people at once, or even a hundred people at once or more. And this could be virtual or it could be in person.

So for example, for myself, I feel. What it can feel less intimidating when you’ve got, a bunch of people listening to you virtually compared to in, in person, a huge dorms room in person, right? So you could find what feels comfortable for you and start there. And then as far as, what’s really cool about this is that you could, it’s one of the few things.

When you’re marketing your acupuncture practice, you could say something once and then repurpose it in different ways. So for example let’s just have a look at even social media. So if you were, if this is a platform that you have an interest in also supporting you with growing your. Did you know that most of the platforms are going more towards video?

For example, Instagram, their executives came out more recently and had said that we’re going towards video in the upcoming years. And what this means when they say that is that algorithms will favor if you favor you if you do video and. Similarly before Instagram had, their executives had years ago they had brought up, this is going to be primarily a video platform.

And so if you are not interested in doing video, for example on social media, that might be okay for now, but down the. , you’re, you will likely not get the kind of reach that you’re used to getting right now without doing some kind of video or unless you wanna be spending money on ads. And so if you were to do a video, the good part about it is that you could end up repurposing that.

So the video could be, Put on other platforms. For example, if you do a video on Instagram, you could put it on Facebook. You can also put it on YouTube so it, you can end up expanding your reach with just one video. You could also put it on your website. You could also. , email it to your patient base.

And so there’s so much that you could do with that one video, plus that video can be turned into something that’s written, for example, a blog article or you get published somewhere and in a paper or some kind of publication where people are reading about you and learning about you. So there are many ways where you could just take one video.

Do the work once and then everything else ends up getting distributed to, to share about your practice. To promote about your practice, so you don’t have to do that work many times. Now it, you can’t do it the other way around. You can’t go from writing to. You can’t do it writing to video, but then you would need to hire either somebody to say the things for you, , or do some kind of animation, which requires you hiring also or paying a additional money for that kind of thing.

So it’s harder to go from written to video, whereas it could go from written to video to written, and so many different aspects of where you create one asset and you can use it over and over again in different ways. . So now the fourth way to use speaking to, to grow your acupuncture practice is to.

Communicate more effectively to your potential and existing patients and clients? It’s interesting because we have clients who come to us because they would love to educate more people in the community and get known and recognized as a go-to acupuncture clinic. And then as they’re working with us to for example we help them get their.

A talk dialed in a signature talk that they feel really good about and that people wanna hear about. And then we help ’em dial that in. We also help them with getting booked and invited to speak. And then also be, be attracting patients from what they’re saying too. And in this process it’s always fascinating to me that sometimes people don’t even get to speak yet, and then they’re already really busy with patients.

We had an acupuncturist client of ours. This happened too recently actually. So we got started pretty early on in this process and he didn’t even get. Be speaking. He’s oh my gosh, my, my practice is so busy. It’s already doubled. And it, and it’s when you can communicate more effectively to your potential patients or clients in a such a way that it lands for people, then it, they’ll get it and they’ll actually come and see you or they’ll refer, and , according to Ted, Ted Talks the curator Chris Anderson.

So he said, as a leader or as an advocate, Public speaking is a key to unlocking empathy, stirring excitement, sharing knowledge and insights, and promoting a shared dream. And as an entrepreneur, as someone who owns your own practice, it’s one of the most. Important skills to, to have so that you could share your dream, your share your vision, share your excitement in an inspiring way to people so that more and more people are help.

More and more people are part of your also a part of your vision. And then love to also come and get treated by you too. And Being able to do this effectively, speaking effectively is one skillset that can help you achieve all of those results that we just talked about. And so it’s like he talks about how it’s like a superpower, to share your ideas and accomplish your dreams, and also offer your services.

So the fifth way speaking can help you with growing your acupuncture practice is to bring more patients in the door and even another stream of income. So we, when we know, when we think about this in terms of speaking for one, there’s one thing to just educate people and it’s another to. , educate and inspire new patients to come from it.

So it’s a very different skillset, which is why a lot of our clients come to us for help with this. And then as far as speaking can end up bringing patients in if you have a a way, a system that supports like what you’re saying, for one, that inspires new patients to come from it, and a system in place that supports them coming in.

Even after the talk itself. And also it. Bring in other streams of income. Why? Because you could offer other kinds of things. You could offer supplements, herbs, products, other services. You could also offer things like some of our clients are offering acupuncturist, clients are offering an automated online course.

Have you ever thought about that? Where do you ever say the same things over and over again and you end up feeling like. are a broken record sometimes and you don’t mind that, but then it still takes up a lot of energy and then it’s not like everything always, like your patients don’t always remember everything you share with them.

So what if you could put it together in such a way that helps them? And be able to understand in their own time and listen to it in their own time, they can benefit from it. And your, it’s it’s not just your patient base, it’s also beyond your patient base too. Imagine all the people who are too far to drive to see you.

They can actually benefit from what you’re teaching them, and it can help them with their health. How good would that really feel? . So then you could offer automated online courses and you could charge anywhere between, we have clients charging anywhere between, it could be, $50 to hundreds of dollars to even a thousand dollars or more.

It just really depends on what topic it’s about. And it could be for the lay public audience. It could also be for other providers. Have you ever thought about how all the things that you figured out over the. That it could really benefit other acupuncturists or practitioners, whether it’s clinical side of things, whether it’s workflow efficiency, whether it is with marketing your practice.

There’s certain things, maybe something very key that you figured out and you could make that available as an automated online course or and you can, it can also, PDFs or that kind of thing and sell it, right? And or you could offer group workshops virtually or group programs virtually.

And so there are many ways that you can end up bringing another stream of income beyond just seeing patients. And how do you get the word out about it? How will people know about you and sign up for your automated online course, for example? That’s where you can use speaking as an avenue to educate people about.

And also develop a connection with you. So they feel I would love to, to sign up for this automated online course and of yours. So that’s just one example. And so speaking can help you with Growing personally and professionally and help you become more confident and also communicating effectively your vision, your aspirations, and can help you bring in another stream of income plus more patients, consistent flow of patients into your practice.

. If you are at a place in your practice where you’re at a plateau and you would love to, to have it grow in such a way that feels like it’s more an ease and flow and or you would like to explore this as an avenue of growing your practice, cuz you just, you’re bubbling up inside where you feel like, oh, this is something that, that I’ve been wanting to do and I want to share acupuncture and Chinese medicine with more people and then, but you’re not really sure how to get going, how to get things going so that you get invited at places to speak and then also be able to attract new patients and another stream of income from it.

Then feel free to go to introvertedvisionary.com. So feel free to go to introvertedvisionary.com and till next time.

Getting Paid the Top Fees You Deserve – Lorne Brown

And I wanted to share with you today the idea around how to attract patients who are open and willing to pay your fees.

Click here to download the transcript.

I wanna thank the AAC for this opportunity to share with you my colleagues. My name’s Lorne Brown doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I have a practice in Vancouver, BC Canada. I’m also a cpa. I’m the founder of Healthy Seminar. And the author of missing the point on why acupuncturists fail and what they need to know to succeed.

And I wanted to share with you today the idea around how to attract patients who are open and willing to pay your fees. And I. I’m preparing this for you guys, and it’s not like a full on lecture. I got notes in front of me. So to be fully transparent I have these ideas and I always come from the idea, or I’ve heard the idea that those that cannot do will teach right.

and I like to do I think of myself as somebody who does and once in a while teaches. And so I’m not a professional teacher, but I think I’m okay enough that I can convey some important pearls for you to help you in your clinical and business practice. So the topic today is how to track patients willing to pay your fees.

And I do know that there are patients out there. There are people out there who are willing to pay your. And the question is how do we track those? Because it’s a drain energetically. When somebody comes to your practice and they are complaining about your rates, or complaining about how often they’re told to come in, and I know for myself, and I can share that I know this for you, that when a patient comes in and they’re excited to see you, and when they leave with real gratitude that they really appreci.

The treatment that you just provided. And they don’t balk at your fees. They don’t complain about your fees. It feels good. And wouldn’t it be nice to fill your practice with those patients? And so this is what I wanna share with you the concepts around that. What does it mean when a patient tells you that?

They would like to comfort your treatments, but they can’t afford your fees. I’m sure you’ve heard this before. I’ll tell you how I interpret it. I interpreted that they are saying that first of all, they’re being nice. They’re nice. They don’t wanna hurt my feelings. So the first part is I really want to come for treatment.

That’s probably a bit of a lie. They’re just being kind. I’m in Canada, so we like to be kind , and so that’s just them being nice. what they’re saying between the lines when they say, I would like to come for your treatments, but they can’t afford your fees, is you have not communicated to me that your treatments are valuable enough for me to make that hour in my day and pay that fee.

That’s really what they’re saying because when people want something and in their heart believe that you are the solution that you can help. , they show up and they pay for it. And so I take it as it was my responsibility most of the time that I haven’t communicated it properly to them that The value of what I’m offering or how it can benefit, how they can benefit from it.

So the message here is we have to create value for our patients. And just so you know, the value. Is not how many years you went to school. That doesn’t create value for your patients. That’s not gonna make them want to come or pay your fees. How much school debt you have, that’s not gonna make them want to pay your fees either.

It is about perceived value and so they have to perceive that what you’re offering is the solution to the problem. And you have to be able to communicate that and that perceived values what’s gonna have them want to come and see you at their clinic. And I’m gonna share with you. A couple of stories here as well, but I wanted to let you know that if you’re selling acupuncture, then you are a commodity, meaning you’re, there’s nothing unique or special about you.

You’re a commodity and you are competing based on price, and so you need to be the same price or lower price than the other acupuncture commodities in your area in order to track patients. So I don’t see myself as an acupuncturist. I’m not dogmatic about it. It is a medicine that I practice that I’m trained in.

I’m trained in clinical hypnotherapy as well and other modalities. It’s about being patient center focused versus doctor center focus focused. So although I do really love acupuncture and I’m passionate about it, that doesn’t mean my patients are what they want. Is a solution. They want resolution to their problem.

They want to feel good mentally and physically, and if you tell them to drink orange juice and stand in one foot and go in circles three times a day for a week, and you have research or anecdotal evidence that works, they will do that. So they’re not coming for acupuncture. They’re coming for what the acupuncture provides.

but they don’t necessarily care or need it to be the acupuncture as long as they have that transformation. So your patients are looking for a transformation and there’s a great marketing book by , Donald Miller, I think it’s his name’s, Donald Miller. And he really puts it in a nice way. He puts it in a really clear way where the patient is the hero and you, the doctor or the guy and the patient is looking for a transformation.

And I’ve said this in my book and in my lectures in the past that. We wanna be patient centered versus doctor centric. And when you’re patient-centric, you’re focusing on them, their transformation, you’re gonna help them have the transformation, you’re the support, the guide to help ’em have that transformation.

When you’re customer, when you’re company centric or doctor centric, you’re focusing on you and you’re talking all about your acupuncture and bragging about how great you are, and that’s not gonna be as exciting for your patients. Yes, they do need to know you are the right and best guide. There is something about who you are, but it’s really about how can you make me the patient, have a transformation.

And so if you’re a commodity, if you’re selling acupuncture, then you will have to compete on price. And you do want to find a way to Show them the value. And I can think in our profession, three things that come to mind from you right away. The example is showing a shift on the table. If that patient can have a shift, an experience on the table, then you are going to earn their trust and confidence.

and they will probably want to follow your treatment planning, come see you that once or twice a week for a series of treatments to get that full resolution. And examples of that I can think of on my Healthy Seminars platform that I’ve learned from is practitioners like David Jeweler. He has that palpation based acupuncture courses.

The reason that one is powerful is he teaches you how to do palpation on the table. And find aches or problems that the patient is having, and then choose an acupuncture point based on that, and then go ahead and press that sore spot again, and the patient on the table notices that tenderness is gone.

And so that is quite the shift on the table. Pony Chung. Also unhealthy seminars. He has a style where he puts the needle in. He uses a pointer plus to activate the needle just for a few seconds to show muscle movement. To demonstrate that he has properly located the point. Now this is twofold. One, from the practitioner’s perspective, it lets you know that you actually hit the right point, cuz we always have the right intention when we put in spleen.

We think we got the right sling. Six for that patient. Pony has shown through his research and cadaver work and how acupuncture ties into the peripheral nervous system that you can actually check. To see if you actually got the right point. Get instant feedback and that is impressive for the patient in my practice cuz my fees are higher than anybody else in my practice.

And I have a wait list of two to three months for my practice and people who pay top fees and nobody actually. Complains about it. And after they have their session with me, the first session they book six to 10 follow-ups immediately is the trend. And that’s because they have a shift mentally on the table, mentally, physically.

What I mean by this is I do a lot of conscious work and help people work through fear, shame, guilt, they have physical symptoms, but the emotional symptoms around that as well. And I use my acupuncture laser and my mind body approach through my clinical hypnotherapy training and the training I’ve gotten through Amid OV cause he has a whole series of this unhealthy, using those styled acupuncture in his palpation.

It’s similar to ef FT on the table. Patients in that hour have their tears often come from feeling highly anxious, fearful anger. And on the table, having a full on shift where they feel peace, relief, and often even joy, they’re feeling it physically, viscerally felt sense. And so that shift is where they get that trust and confidence.

So rather than me selling acupuncture, I’m selling my treatment for a major shift and people, and I call that energy psychology with Accu Laser and people come for that. The key that I wanna share with you is I had to invest in myself and and build up my confidence and my experience, and now I’m at a place where patients are coming to my practice and the word of mouth is growing so fast because of what people experience on the table and going.

And so for us as acupuncturists, I think of David Jeweler’s style of acupuncture, that palpation base where on the table patients notice a difference. It’s, you still will need a series of treatments, but it’s nice that they get a shift on the table and pony Chong. And Hamid Monka. So those are three practitioners to start with.

There’s many more that I have trained with and I highly recommend if you’re looking to not be a commodity and give that transformation, and if you can do it on the table, then you can make a big difference. The message I’m sharing here is you want to create value for your patients and to create value means you have to a, believe that you have the value and you have to usually invest in your.

and be able to communicate the value, and they have to perceive that as good value. Just because you took a great course and it costs you a lot of money, that’s not enough. You have to be able to communicate why they’re gonna benefit and they actually have to experience that benefit pretty quickly, usually on that first treatment.

And I’m gonna just give you an example about perceived value, how this works, and tie this back to that early statement where I said, patients say, I wish I could come see you, but I can’t afford you. so many years ago, we introduced low level laser therapy for fertility in my practice at Accu Balance, and we invested in good quality lasers.

Now, there’s a lot of people, as of today’s recording using laser therapy for fertility in a practice, and they’re using laser systems that are a couple hundred to a thousand dollars. My systems were 20,000 to 40,000, so I really invested to get results. and we changed our fee structure for patients when we did this.

So I’ll share with you back then. I’m gonna round up the numbers. Let’s say acupuncture was a was it was $95 a visit back then. It isn’t today. It’s more than that, but it was $95 a visit. And we had patients that joined our laser baby program. And the laser baby program fee was accu combined with laser for one 30, visit twice a week over three.

And many of the people we had seen, ha, who had initial consults with us who said, I can’t afford $95 a week for acupuncture, joined the laser baby program at two 60 a week. So they couldn’t afford 95 a week, but they could afford two 60 a week for three months. What’s going on here? The way we shared the laser fertility and the way we were able to communicate how it could be beneficial in sharing some of the research and some of the anecdotal stuff that’s out there from other people doing it in Japan and Denmark before we were doing it, reached them and they saw the value.

And this is my point where when they say they can’t afford your services, people will find a way to afford something if they see the value, if they can’t afford it. Usually what they’re saying is, I don’t see the. in it. And I knew this already before that because women who and men who said they couldn’t afford our fees would go and spend $20,000 on an IVs treatment much more than my treatment.

And so what is that telling me That they will be willing to spend that money cuz they have a perceived idea that IV. We’ll get them the baby quicker and better than say acupuncture. That’s their perceived perception. So this is why you have to be able to be of value and be able to communicate that value.

And I thought that was an interesting story, right about, just think about it, $95 a week couldn’t afford it, but one 30, twice a week they came and joined those programs. So I thought that was quite, quite interest.

I’m just pulling out my notes here guys, cause I wanna make sure I said everything for you guys and in my practice, just so you know, we have fees for acupuncture and laser and even how we communicate this in our clinic today. At the time of this recording it’s one 10 to have an acupuncture treatment and it’s one 20 to have just a laser acupuncture.

But if you want them together, it’s one 40. So rather than one 10 plus one 20 being two 30 in that same hour, we get acupuncture and laser and they pay one 40. You have to be able to communicate the value and the benefit. Everybody does like a deal. And so rather than coming just for acupuncture, just for laser, get the benefit of them together at a really good rate.

And Probably 60% of our practice is combined laser and acupuncture, and then the other 40% is pretty much just acupuncture. And this is that idea of that perceived value. But I’m sharing here that when they’re getting a deal, you have to do the math sometimes for them.

Acupuncture is one 10, laser is one 20, but rather than paying two, You can have both for one 40, and so you do have to do the math and communicate. If you don’t let them know they’re having a discount, for example, and it doesn’t show on their invoice, then they may not know that they actually got a deal.

So you do need to communicate. That’s the second point I’m really wanting to emphasize here is one is you have to have value and the patient has to perceive the value and they’re not gonna perceive it if you don’t believe it. . So we want integrity and genuinely you believe you have the value. And two is you have to be an excellent communicator to help them see the value and the benefit.

And going back to that book I mentioned by Donald Miller, I didn’t mention the title. He’s got three out there. They’re all similar, so check them out. But the, it’s being patient-centric care. They’re looking for the transformation. You are the guide. Now you need to be a good guide. , but it’s them. That’s the hero that is looking for the transformation.

And again, if you can do that shift on the table, pony Chong, David Jeweler, amid Monk, three excellent practitioners that that you can learn from, where you can learn to get a shift on the table. It will help you with patients finding that trust and confidence and having that transformation to want to continue.

I think that is what I wanted to share. I’m gonna just check my notes here. Going back to my treatment and the fees I pay, I wanna share with you that it’s taking me years and to get to this level of training where I’ve done clinical hypnotherapy, nlp, psych, k Maris, peer rapid transformational therapy.

I just joined Dawson Church’s program. Here’s a transparency idea. Just to let you know, he has this six or nine month online program. And I was looking for transformation. I’m always looking for spiritual evolution and like many of you, I want to heal my shame, my guilt, my imposter syndrome that I sometimes run that doesn’t feel good.

And I saw his program and how it could work, how you can work through shadow work. And that’s something I’m really interested these days. And his program was advertised for like 10,000 US dollars, early bird, 9,000, and. really wanted that transformation, so I wasn’t so stuck on the cost. And that amount of money would hurt.

By the way, that’s not an easy money to spend, but I joined that program. Now I’m getting twofold benefit. I’m getting my own spiritual evolution. I love to continue to do my personal growth, but I’m learning ways to communicate to patients, and I’m learning new tools that I can bring into the treatment room, and I’m pretty aware.

Within six to nine months, I’m gonna raise my fees again because I’ve gotten better at what I do. And as long as I can communicate that to my patients then I expect that they will fo will follow. Now, Dawson’s program isn’t cheap and there’s a lot of people that paid for that program like me, and so he’s got people that are really wanting that transformation and they’re willing to pay that price.

Although you may think your fees are. , the patient is focusing on the result. First, can you be the solution? Are you the person that’s going to help them have that transformation and have that solution? And if they believe that, then they will invest in you first. You need to invest in yourself. . And when you as a practitioner invest in yourself, then the public will be willing to invest in you for their healthcare needs, has been my experience.

So it’s not a, you’re gonna turn this around in 24 hours or in 48 hours? Every two years. I’d like to add a designation to. to me. So every two years I go into a intensive type of program that I like to learn. If you go to healthy seminars.com, you’ll see that we have these mentorship programs on pregnancy, on fertility, on consciousness.

And so these programs are what I partake in sometimes through healthy. I’m doing Dawson Churches programs not on my healthy seminar. So I do pay for these sometimes too, cuz I’m constantly investing in myself and when I see that it’s taking my game to another level and I. I can bring that to my treatment tables and I can communicate it, that’s key.

Where the benefit is, then I’m able to increase my fees as well. And it’s been my experience that when I increase my fees and I believe there’s value there and I know they’re gonna get results and they have that experience early in treatment. There’s not an issue when I raise my fees because I need more fees, but I don’t believe in the.

people fight me over it and it doesn’t work. So I have to take up a relationship and work on those issues around money and me feeling good enough first and really believe it because I believe in energy chi and if I don’t believe that I’m of value and I have and I’m uncomfortable charging the fees I’m charging, that does get put out to the ether.

And you’ll attract people to challenge you cuz you’ll track people to help you work your issues. Those limiting subconscious. . So first you invest in yourself and you take your game to another level. You have to be able to believe that you’re of value. What you do has to transfer to your patient on the table.

They have to have results, and you have to be able to communicate it. For example, when I treat patients, even though they’re coming regularly for certain conditions, I’m telling them why I’m using these points and lasers and herbs. I’m constantly remind. Engaging the placebo maybe? I don’t think of placebo as the negative that it’s inert.

I think of placebo as engaging the innate ability of the human being. The brain is the greatest pharmacy on the planet, and every time I’m explaining how acupuncture is helping them. Regulate inflammation in the immune system, regulate hormones, the hypothalamus, pituitary ovarian access all the things that we’re learning that acupuncture could do from the western medicine perspective.

And I explain the blood flow and what we’re doing, all that is engaging. The healing in the body as well, but it’s also reminding them why they’re coming and the value they’re getting versus just coming and getting needles put in that commodity. Why they don’t know what, why you’re putting a point in spleen six and large intestine four, that doesn’t make sense to them.

Why that may help a digestive issue, for example. They don’t know. And so explaining to them constantly be becoming a great educator, a communicator, a teacher in the treatment room is. . And so that’s of what I wanted to share with you guys. I’m just looking at my notes to see if I left anything out.

I think I have not . Just a few things I wanna mention. I have launched a Conscious Fertility podcast. If you’re looking about that mind body stuff and consciousness, you don’t have to be trying to conceive to enjoy it and to benefit from it. Check out the Conscious Fertility Podcast also on healthy seminars.

I do wanna remind you. That we have lots of on-demand courses where you continue education purposes and check out those mentorship programs that we have. They are super valuable in bringing more value to you that you can take to your practice. And again, contact me if you’re interested in a copy of my book.

Missing The Point. I do want to thank the American Acupuncture Council again for this opportunity to share with you some practice management tips to you, my friends and my colleagues. Thank you very much.

3 Things Your Missing for Consistent Revenue Growth

So we’re gonna talk about what you’re missing for consistent revenue growth in your practice today.

Click here to download the transcript.

Hello. Welcome to another episode of To The Point. I’m Dr. Nell. I wanna thank American Acupuncture Council for having me today, and let’s go right into the slide.

So we’re gonna talk about what you’re missing for consistent revenue growth in your practice today. What’s happened to a lot of us before, I’m speaking from experience, we get started in practice. Maybe things are going well, maybe we have this misconception that growth is just going to be linear, and that trend is going to continue the entire time.

But don’t often take a second to check in on what are the things that are working, what are the things that are not, is it time to scale? And so we’re gonna talk a little bit about the things that you might not be thinking about when it comes to revenue growth today. . Let’s see. So this is what I thought when I was first getting into practice that, oh, okay.

I’m starting out, I’m at the beginning, so obviously I’m not gonna be making a ton of money right away. Acupuncture is a relatively low startup cost considering what other industries look like. So a lot of us come right into practice, not taking out loans, not having a ton of capital, getting right into it.

And Pros and cons to that. But we think, oh, hey, we have a few patients. We’re already making money. This is great. And okay, maybe six months later it’s gonna be a little bit different, a little bit different. And what I’ve noticed when I’m working with other practitioners or students who are gonna be getting started in practice, Because we don’t have a ton of business training when it comes to our schooling.

And this is, not a ton of fault to the schools. They have to get us prepared for boards, right? But with 95% of acupuncturists being sole proprietors small business owners, we’re not really taught these things that we have to consider when it comes to growing our practice. And a lot of times it ends up.

Very reactive and we think, oh great, we’re not losing money this month. So wonderful. Like I said, that growth is not necessarily going to be exactly linear, but what we wanna see in our businesses is a constant trend of growth. So even if there are weeks that might fluctuate a little bit, months, that might fluctuate.

You work primarily with teachers and. People go away during the summer, they’re not working, they’re off their schedules. These are all things we need to factor into our equation when it comes to having that consistent revenue growth. So the first thing that we might not be thinking about when it comes to our consistent revenue growth is mindset.

Now, I think that term often gets overused at times, but we do need to address what’s the mindset of our industry and then how does that affect us in practice? How does it affect our patients? How do we let Our ethics, our values, our beliefs bleed into our practice. And so there can be a little bit of a scarcity mindset when it comes to this medicine, when it comes to our industry.

And so that’s okay. It’s just an important trend to note so that we can fix it on our end. Just having that awareness that this is something that we need to be considering as we are trying to champion growth in our businesses is important. That lack of business training that also could go into our mindset.

It could affect our confidence when it comes to the next steps. And what I see a lot of times, and I’ve been guilty of this too, is we jump right into executing right into strategy without even checking in. Is my mind, right? Is this really what I want to be doing? Do I have the right tools in place?

Does this make sense at this time? And so mindset is really key when it comes to having that consistent growth, because you don’t have to be in a perfectly positive mood every day. You don’t have to be a hundred percent every day. That’s complet. Unrealistic to think that we would be able to but we need to be more on than we’re not, and we need to be just really clear about the type of mindset that we need to have for that consistent growth.

So mindset is the first of these three things that might not be on our radar as we’re trying to jump right into executing on getting more patients in the door. The second thing is clarity. , what do we even mean by clarity? It’s another word that I think if any of us heard it, we might have a different definition as to what that means to us.

When I talk about clarity, when it comes to consistent revenue growth in your practice, the strategy that you’re going to have, how you’re gonna execute on that, how do we keep things consistently? Trending forward. I’m talking about your why your clarity around do you even want to scale your business?

Are you someone who’s very happy being a solo provider and you don’t want other providers in your space? That’s okay. There’s a financial reality that goes. With that, we might need to think about additional revenue streams when it comes to building. If it’s just going to be us, there is a set number of patients that we are gonna be able to see as an individual, and that obviously becomes exponential when you bring in another provider, when you bring in staff.

But that clarity around why we’re doing what we’re doing and what that vision for our practice truly looks like is incredibly important. When you’re talking about. Keeping patients coming in the door. If I know that I need to get to a certain number of patient visits before I can bring on another provider, if I know that’s something that I really want, that is going to allow the next steps in scaling my business to be all the more simple, because I’m very clear on what I want that to look like for my business.

We talked in a previous show about having a business. , and it can be very simple, very easy if you miss that one. It’s something you can do in one hour to make sure that you stay on track. And it really does fit into this clarity piece on how you’re going to continue to have consistent patients coming in the door, —-consistent growth for your business.

So very clear on why I am doing what I’m doing, what I want the future to look like. And we’re not just talking about practice, we’re talking about. Because your practice is going to have to fit into your life. And so those goals need to be really realistic within that. And then the last piece, now we can finally get to the strategy.

And this was the three things that you might not be considering for that growth. I think a lot of us. Think about strategy a lot, but a lot of times it’s jumping right into execution. Strategy has a lot of these different pieces to it. So you’ll see the puzzle piece theme that we went through today.

But it’s not just about your customer. It’s not just about how your business is now. It’s how you want your business to be. And are we working through that analysis? So looking. What are all these pieces? What has the past trend look like? What do I want the future to look like? Do you have additional products?

Is your service offering your only product? What’s your vision? And that should have been thought about in the mindset and clarity pieces, but now we get to actually have a framework and make some decisions around that. How do we. That, how do we work towards it with our marketing? Do we have a team? Is this team gonna play an integral part?

If you are planning to continue to scale and you have one provider and other than yourself and two office staff. . Okay. What comes next? Are you bringing on another office staff? Where’s the bottleneck in the capacity for your business? And a lot of times we might shy away from some of these conversations.

A lot of times it can be really difficult. That goes back to that mindset piece that we often don’t really dive into. We’re trained as clinicians. We’re trained as providers. A lot of people get into this medicine because they care about people, because they want to see people improve with their health, and not necessarily because they wanted to own a business, but that doesn’t mean.

There aren’t certain realities when it comes to growing our business or that, we need to make a living. And so to be able to do that and still stay true to that clarity, that vision that we had, we have to think about all these different puzzle pieces. How are we gonna develop different things and.

That gnarly budget. I remember being in school and having Marilyn Allen as my teacher in practice management, and it just felt like a fire hose. All of that information when it came to budgeting around each of these steps. So what happens sometimes is we get really fixated on one of these little puzzle pieces around strategy, and we completely forget that all of these things fit together and that you cannot even begin to develop a strategy.

First, having clarity on what you’re doing. And then prior to that, are you in the right state of mind? And how do you get there to make sure that you can consistently grow? So we have to keep our mind so that we can effectively help our patients. . So those are the three. I want you guys to just keep that in mind.

And what’s also really important about these three is that you do them at each level of growth. This is not something that, okay, I opened my practice doors for the first time and I’ve thought about mindset. I am clear on what I’m going to do and I have a strategy of what I want to accomplish. This is a constant check-in.

This is something that you can do monthly and make sure you’re on point. I like to set up little wellness checks for myself, mentally as well as physically to make sure that everything is on point when you’re growing your business. And so this is a constant check-in, just like checking in with your business plan.

Again, don’t miss that show that we did as well. And you’re gonna go through these things every time you decide to grow, not just checking in on a regular basis. Anytime you wanna bring on an additional team member, anytime you wanna bring in a new product or a new offering, or you wanna make changes to your fee schedule, these are three things that you wanna check in so that you can have that very consistent growth when it comes to your practice.

So we got through that nice and quick, I like to keep it efficient for you all. If you have any more questions, always feel free to reach out. We do these shows quite often, and don’t forget that next week there’ll be another episode of To the Point. Tune in and don’t miss it.

Are You Charging Too Much or Undercharging? Chen Yen

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Are You Undercharging or Are You Overcharging? So I decided to talk about this because some of you are telling me that you are either thinking about raising your fees because you feel like you are undercharging right now and you’re spending all this time with seeing, in terms of seeing patients and chart noting and then.

With time that you spend outside of that to either reflect on recommendations or for some of you who are also doing functional medicine work, then you’re also spending additional time outside of just the visit itself. So you have this inkling that you are undercharging and you would love to be charging more, but then you’re also afraid of raising your fees.

And then some of you are. In a place where you feel like I, I’m not sure what I should be charging because if I were to call different or look around at other acupuncturists who are charging feet, like other acupuncturists in my area and what they’re charging maybe I shouldn’t charge as high as.

People are the highest people are charging. And then I should just find somewhere in between, right? So this is Chen Yen, your 6 and 7 Figure Practice Makeover Mentor at Introverted Visionary, and your host for the AAC Facebook Live show today. Love to, to have this conversation with you about what what to actually consider when you’re thinking about charging so that you feel good and you’re in alignment with your, what you’re charging.

So I’d love for you to comment below right now, or this if you’re watching, so I know you’re seeing this right now and let me know what your thoughts are. Do you have an inkling that you might be undercharging or you. You have an inkling that you might be overcharging. So cuz some of you would like to raise your fees, but you don’t wanna be overcharging.

So there’s one thing, the first thing I’m gonna talk about today are three factors that determine what you can charge and get. And then I’ll also get into. What to do if you adjust your fees, especially if you do raise your fees. And that way you’re able to attract those patients who are willing to pay those fees.

So there are three factors that determine what you can charge and get, cuz we could be concerned about what other people are charging. But the truth is that there are people who are willing to pay a whole range of prices out there where you’re. Whether you have a brick and mortar practice, whether you have a virtual practice, there are people who are.

Feeling like they only wanna pave certain kinds of fees and you might perceive it to be low. And then there are some people who are willing to pay the fees that, that you perceive to be average. And then there are also people it right in your neighborhood, in your area, who are totally willing to pay what you perceive as high fees.

So then what are the factors that determine what you could charge and get? Number one is your confidence level in what you have to offer. So if you are not really confident, then even this is where. If you ever have considered raising your fees, or if you have raised your fees before and then you weren’t feeling really confident in it, you might have noticed that people you told about your fees would’ve been like, oh, that’s too much.

So part of it is about you really owning your sense of confidence around what you’re charging. And then the second factor that determines what you charge and get is whether, how are you communicating it in such a way that people get it, they appreciate the value of what you’re offering. So when they can see that value and they perceive it to be of that value, then they will pay for it at that fee.

And then the third key factor that determines what you could charge and get. , are you in front of people who really need what you have to offer or are you still having trouble with attracting patients and you’re not really in front of those people who really need what you have to offer?

And again, really appreci. What you can offer. So when those three factors are in place, then you could charge what you would like and get it. And so there are a couple of key tips about. From a practical perspective. And then I also want to share let’s first talk about what is something that sometimes tends to happen when fees are raised and what can you do about it if you end up encountering this situation?

And then we’ll go into strategy wise, something. To think about so that you could set things up well for fees and and being able to command those fees and actually get it without a dip in patience or income. Before I get into the what I was going to share about what do you do if you were to raise your fees and then you start feeling like, oh no, people aren’t booking, and what do I do about that?

One thing about it is that this is where you, if you feel concerned about this, that maybe people either aren’t booking newly, they’re not coming in or that people aren’t coming in for their treatments that you’ve recommended in their treatment plan. because you feel like it’s because they’re now feeling like they can’t afford it.

And so there’s often this can happen is where that there’s a timeframe between you choosing to raise your fees and then. When you might actually feel like you’re not seeing the people booking like you were before seeing this. And so what can happen in this timeframe is starting to get worried, wondering, should I have done this?

Maybe I should go back to what I used to charge and then be in this mode. Wondering if you made the right decision, right? How many of you have ever experienced that before? Go ahead and like this now or comment below . So this is, the reason for this is because you used to be sending radio signal waves at 89.5.

And that was like the old radio signal wave in terms of your certain level of confidence about what you’re about, people paying you those fees and also about the way you’re communicating that and the value of it. So the people used to track used were at like 89.5 radio signal, right? But now you’ve decided to be at 95.8 radio signal and they haven’t matched up to it yet.

So that this is why in, in that timeframe, if you do choose to raise your fees, it’s about you showing up at a higher level frequency to be able to track those people. That in terms of you. , you really owning your confidence at this level and then also being able to do the marketing that attracts people who are willing to pay that.

So that’s something that’s also. Helpful to get in place, which is do you have things in place that support patients, existing patients, getting it about why your fees are raised and then it, that it makes sense and then also depending on how much you raise it by, , can you also showcase your credibility and value at a higher, like in an upleveled way?

For example, some of our clients who have decided to raise their fees or even gone the route of going a more cash based practice and raised their cash fees more too. What they’ve noticed is that. . One thing that helps is getting things visually that, that support people feeling this is a good decision that I’m still coming here.

And certainly it’s the relationship and what you’ve done for your patient that can also affect this. But it is also in a patient’s mind’s eye of okay, I’m paying more now, but I still. , I find it to be very valuable because I can’t get it just by going to another acupuncturist like I, because I like this person, or I just really like my treatments.

So being able to communicate that both in a visual way and in a way you’re sharing it in such a way that it lands for people. The other thing is to. Do you have have you looked ahead at when you’re going to be raising your fees and then be putting things in place that support attracting new patients into the practice?

Do you have systems in place that support attracting PE patients at the like 90, 98 0.5 level or the new frequency? Not that 89. Point nine, kind of 89.8 and 89.9 kind of radio frequency, but at the new frequency level. So sometimes it, that could mean looking at other avenues of marketing that you haven’t yet before, especially if you have a desire to attract cash paying patients.

So those are some of the hot tips related. And then in terms of the undercharging and overcharging, really there is no such thing as that it’s really just about your own alignment with what you feel is the best. To be charging based on your practice philosophy, and then also making sure that you take care of your own needs so that you end up with being financially sustainable to continue to help more and more people.

And when you are looking at, if you’re looking at your whole experience of. Of sustainability in the practice, your expenses and everything and what you’re charging. If it’s not really matching up, then you may want to be Considering increasing your fees or sometimes you could also increase your fees because you might actually notice that the kinds of people you attract aren’t really valuing your services as much.

know, It was interesting, there’s an acupuncturist who brought this up to me that she said that she was charging a certain price and then it seemed like people just weren’t really she thought it was very affordable. She thought she was making it a price where it would be really affordable for people.

But then, on some level it was like so way affordable to the point where people just didn’t value it, right? So then once she started charging higher fees, it was actually easier to attract patients. And that, that might seem weird if you’re at a place where you’re like, no, I don’t know, it’s gotta be more affordable, right?

But again, remember what I mentioned about the three factors that determine what you can charge and get, and one of them being. Your confidence level, you really owning that this could really help people at this level. So instead of. Choosing to charge what you what to charge by doing quote unquote market research, , go a different rate, a route of charging.

So you can charge a from a whole range of what you would, you could charge in what you’d like and get it. It’s just a matter of finding alignment. And then also being able to have a way of attracting new patients who are at that radiofrequency wave that lines up with. This goes beyond just pricing.

It also goes when it also applies when you’re choosing to perhaps shift direction in your practice to attract a different kind of a person to work in your practice, someone you would love to work with more. And that, those are some hot tips there. And if you’re in a place where. You’re feeling like your practice is at a plateau or, and you just know you’re capable of so much more, or that you are, would love to raise your fees and be able to attract a consistent flow of patients and really have a practice that you’re proud of.

Then feel free to go to introverted visionary.com and look forward to seeing how we can help you further and till next time, so look forward to seeing you next.