Episode 13: The Next Moves To Creating A Functional Medicine Practice

Functional Medicine Business Institute Podcast

Do you know what moves it takes to build a practice? Have you told yourself that you don't have the right moves to be in business? Dr. Deb will share with you the possibilities available for you to get into business.

Do not miss these highlights:

03:32 A lot of people want to move up their plan and their strategies, but they don't have an alternate plan

05:16 You can create your business and your brand success…It's all about positioning yourself - Designing the right moves for your business is key

10:41 Starting your own Functional Medicine Practice doesn't have to be difficult or complicated - Start out small

11:27 How to let people know You're an Expert and make Connections

Transcription for Episode #13:

0:00
You're listening to the Functional Medicine Business Podcast featuring Dr. Deb, one of the most creative functional medicine business practitioners in her industry. She shares the wisdom and knowledge that she has gained over 25 years of functional medicine, a pioneer in functional medicine, scheduling, leadership and Practice Management. Dr. Deb has a wealth of knowledge and is eager to share to help functional medicine become more productive, and for the practitioners and patients to live better lives. Our podcast shares the good and the bad of our industry. Because Dr. Deb knows the pain you live every day building a functional medicine practice with practical tools on how to manage money, taxes and patient care. She will discuss it all with you.

0:54
How many of you play chess? Does anyone know? Who plays chess? Really, really well? Do you know someone that's so good at chess, you can see their wheels turning in their head before they make their next move. Well guess what? Most good chess players know your next move. 1,2,3, moves ahead of you. And a pro knows 6 to 10 of your moves. Yet a grandmaster knows your next 11 to 15 moves. By the way, the same thing you see in chess is the same thing in the game of life. Most people live like they have no clue what their next 10 moves are going to be. If they're lucky, they know the next 1,2,3 moves they're planning in their life. And if they know what their moves are going to be and how they're going to have them planned out. But their spouse asks them to move up one of their moves. For instance, one of your moves is that you want a brand new car in six months. But your wife comes in and says, "Hey, honey, can we get that brand new car next week, because you know, mine is really acting up and I'm really worried I'm not going to make it." We derail our plan and we move up the sale of our old vehicle for our new vehicle. We switch around the moves that we have planned out for ourselves at the drop of a hat. For instance, if you were planning on spending Saturday afternoon, planning out your finances, creating your strategy for building your brand new company but your buddy comes over and says hey, let's go shoot some hoops. Or your girlfriend comes by and says let's go take a walk. It's so beautiful outside today, you would drop what you're doing, and push off that planning to do something fun. A lot of people want to move up their plan and their strategies, but they don't have an alternate plan. I know many people want to start their own business. But if the rules don't fit, they make an excuse why they can't do that. For instance, if you're a nurse practitioner and in your particular state, you have to have a collaborating physician, and you want to create your own practice. But in your head, you tell yourself that you're not going to be able to find somebody to help you be that collaborating provider or they're going to cost too much money for you to hire them. Or they're not going to let you do what it is you want to do. You convince yourself that nothing is going to work. None of this is going to be falling into place. And yet again, your dream gets pushed off to the backburner.

4:36
These are the moves in business and in life that we do to ourselves every single day without ever really thinking about it without really understanding it. And many people fly by the seat of their pants and have no plan and no strategy created for life, for business for career. Nothing. They're just flying by, and something will come and fall into place. Something will rescue them. Something will create something for them.

5:16
You can create your business and your brand success. It's all about positioning yourself. Who do you want to be? How much do you want to earn? Designing the right moves for your business is key, it is the strategy to developing a business that has succession beyond you.

5:40
Now, here are some of the positions in business that you can choose to be. Do you want to be an entrepreneur? Somebody who starts everything from scratch, somebody that's responsible for everything? You make all the decisions? And it's your business? Do you want to be an investor of the business or a co founder? You want to give your money. And then you want to walk away and you want them to have a return? Or maybe you want to be a co founder? You want to do this alongside someone? Because doing it by yourself just seems too overwhelming? Do you want to be the CEO of a small clinic? Do you want your clinic to be volume or high ticket? Do you want to be an influencer in your expertise? Maybe you want to be the next doctor asks, Do you want to be the next Joe Rogan and medical podcasts? Do you want to be the next medical YouTuber. Or maybe you want to be onstage teaching practitioners or patients? Maybe you just want to be you. The amazing you who works solo doesn't report to anyone isn't responsible for anyone, but themselves. Maybe the thought of being responsible for everyone in a CEO role isn't for you. Maybe you don't want to be kept up at night, wondering how you're going to make payroll. Realizing that everything is on you, from teaching your front desk person to seeing the client to paying the bills, and you want to go home and sleep in bliss. Because you don't want to worry about any of those things. You want someone else to worry about those. But, you know, you could promote provide support for that person. You could give them some knowledge that they don't have that makes their job so much easier. And you can share that expertise that you have. And then you can walk away. Maybe that's your comfort zone.

8:03
Do you want to be the entrepreneur? Maybe you do. And maybe you don't. Maybe you want to be part of a company. And within a group to be a provider to be the best provider you can be for kids or women or men's health. But maybe you want some protection for all of that that you're building. But you don't want to manage people. Can you own a piece of the company and do what you love and have some control over it. But not be number one. You certainly can. Maybe you want to be an intrapreneur with the company. You want to think like an entrepreneur, you want a piece of owning the company. But that's it. You want a small risk, but control over what you do, who you see how you practice and have very little financial risk or financial investment. Maybe you want a job, one with great benefits, someone controlling your hours how many patients you see which patients you see how you practice. I would recommend also that in this position with a job. They control how much you earn. But eventually after 30 years of long term planning and 401k Investing, you have a half a million dollars saved up for retirement. Maybe you're going to design a practice where you earn a little bit from each provider where you keep 40-50% of what they bring into the clinic. They do the work. You market the clients but you don't have to see them There are many practices designed like this. They've designed franchises like this and sold them to become very lucrative businesses.

10:13
Many people get the knowledge, develop this skills in functional medicine, but then they don't activate it. They leave this skill in their head, but they never put it to use. They make excuses, like, I'll use it for my family, or I wanted to learn it for my kids. Honestly, if you've spent $20 to $40,000 to learn functional medicine, then why are you not using it to earn money? Starting your own functional medicine practice doesn't have to be difficult or complicated. You don't have to start out with everything you dream of offering. Start out small. Start out with one room. Start off with one employee, but start start offering telemedicine so you don't have to have the expense of a brick and mortar like rent. Or start out renting a room from your chiropractor or a fitness center or the health food store.

11:14
Wait, wait, wait, I know what you're going to tell me. But I don't have any clients. Well, do people know you do functional medicine? Put yourself out there. Make some social media posts, become the expert in one area and let people know you're an expert. Make connections with other businesses that compliment you. compounding pharmacies, health food stores, gyms, health salons, massage and acupuncture for examples. We have forgotten what great benefits there are in relationships, relationships, actually, people that we know will refer us clients. But they have to know that were in the game. They have to know what it is that we do. They have to know that we're looking for potential clients. You don't need to spend millions of dollars on TV or radio ads in order to get clients. You could simply ask for referrals from people you know, like and trust. Start today, creating your business. Start today by investing in you. Start today giving back to the world by sharing your knowledge to make someone else's life amazing.

12:47
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others. post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review. To catch all the latest for me. You can follow me on Facebook at FM bi, join our free group where we support one another and share our struggles. Thanks again and I'll see you next time