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

If your business isn't working the way you expected, it's not because you're bad at business. It's because no one ever taught you how it actually works. We were trained to master algorithms in medicine, but when it comes to revenue teams and growth, we were never taught anything. We weren't even told to figure it out. We just assumed somehow we'd know. Like it would magically make sense. But it doesn't. The era of the seven Figure Physician CEO is here. And it's not about working harder. It's about learning entrepreneurship as a system. The same way you mastered ACLs and pals, you can master the algorithm of building a profitable scalable business. That's why I recorded the Seven Figure Physician CEO audiobook. Whether you're building a medical or non medical business, and whether your goal is your first million, first 2 million, first 5 million, first 10 million. This is where the journey starts. There is no calvary coming to save us. We are the calvary.

So.

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I need you to hear this, right? It's nothing so exciting. And you're like, wow, I can't wait to ask my patients to send me people. It's not exciting like that, but it works. It always has and it always will. So if you build this habit of asking them for referrals and asking them for reviews, it will change your practice forever.

Hi, docs. Welcome to the Entre MD podcast, where it's all about helping amazing physicians. Just like you. Embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Una.

I know that there are challenging times in healthcare. I know that we're being devalued in the healthcare space. I know that the insurance reimbursements are decreasing. I know that, yes, that the cost of delivering the services that we do has increased. I know that it's harder than it's been to find people. I know all of that. But if we come with that energy, we're not going to win. So in the midst of all of this, people are still winning. And we're here to figure out what is the way. What is the yellow brick road? What is the pathway for us to win? Even in the challenging times. We were never promised times that won't be tough. But what do they say when times get tough, the tough get going. We are the people who are tough. Okay, so I don't want you to be cynical. I also don't want you to be in fantasy land. Okay? I was in fantasy land when I started my private practice. I was like, I will hang the shingle and they will come. I hung that shingle. They did not come. Okay? So there is work required. There are challenges. We can rise above them, but there is work involved, and that's the work we're going to talk about. So I want you to approach this with an open mind. I want you to approach this like, I'm in it to win it. I want you to approach this going like, how can I. How can I win? Right? I don't want to be a naysayer anymore. I don't want to play the victim anymore. I don't want to just roll over and play dead. Allow whatever happens. But how can I win? Right? Like, that's. That's the attitude. And then also, you recognize that there's work to be done, and you're going to do the work, right? You're going to do the work. If we approach you with this way, this time that we have together is going to be so powerful. The team and I did a lot of work to make this a very simple. So you can walk away and go apply them. Like, starting today, you can start texting your team and say, okay, this is what we're doing starting tomorrow. That's what we want you to have. So don't be confused by the simplicity of it. Okay? It's simple, but is very profound. Okay. Now, if we haven't met before, My name is Dr. Una. I'm a pediatrician. I have been in private practice for the last 14 years. And, you know, private practice has made a lot of things possible for me. I've been able to impact my community in a way that I didn't think I would be able to. I homeschool my four kids, which is something I really wanted to do, Right? And, you know, process of building a team and all that, I bought my time back to be able to do that. So I homeschool them. If I can have a mommy moment for five seconds. You know, my daughter just graduated from high school on Thursday or Friday. I don't remember what day it was, but she finished all her coursework for that, and she's going to be 17 next year. You know, she just went ahead and did all the things she wanted to do, which is so much fun. Like, you know, that's what I've been able to do. And the truth of the matter is, I want that for every physician, I want you to be able to build a practice allows you to take care of patients the way you know they deserve to be cared for. Allow you have a very huge impact to your community. Create financial freedom, create time freedom. Okay, now, is there work involved? Yes. Is it possible? Yes. Is it available? Yes. So the question I want to ask you, and please indulge me, answer me in the chat, who wants it? Who is like, okay, I want to learn a different way of doing things. I want to learn the strategic way of doing things so I can have that right? Let me know in the chat who's like, I want that. I want that. I want the impact. I want the financial freedom. I want the time freedom. And so we're going to walk through those things. So we're going to talk about some things. And you're like, I'm not sure I want to do that now. Remember the dream. Okay, so remember the dream. The question becomes, is the dream motivating enough for me to want to do that? Okay. All right, so. So let's kind of get into this. Today. We're going to look at how to fill your schedule in 90 days or less. So that. That way you are in control of your revenue. Okay? We're not just like, oh, I don't know. You know, schedule is kind of like, schedule is kind of busy. We want to. We want to be in control. So I'm going to talk about that on Wednesday, but today, how to fill your schedule in 90 days or less. Who wants more patients on their schedule? Let's talk about this here, okay? Why is it important for us to have this? This is hardwood. This is how we create our revenue. Okay? So we want. We want the patients on there so we can care for them and so we can get paid. Right? That's why the practice is. Is there. So I'm going to show you three things that are going to be very simple. How many of you hope that I don't say anything about social media? Be honest. Here's the deal. I'm going to talk about three things, and today, Today I'm not going to say a single thing about social media. I'm not going to say a single thing about social media. So you cannot complain about anything I tell you because I have given you what you want. Okay? You don't want to hear about social media. I'm not going to talk about it. We're going to talk about three things that can fill your schedule up in 90 days or less. So I'm going to tell you three things, and there are three things that work. And I'm not going to mention social media. Number one. Number one is to build a referral base. Okay, Number one is to build a referral base. A referral base is one of the most magical things you can do for your private practice. Okay, I'm going to tell you how you can do it, how you can build all this. I'll tell you, but you got to buy the idea first. You got to build a referral base. You have to have a base of people. It could be three people, six people, nine people, 12 people. But the more you have, the more, the more stable your practice will be, right? The bigger it is. One is too dangerous a number in business. One referral source, and you're like, oh yeah, we're busy, we've been great. We have word of mouth and then we have this one referral source. But anything can happen to that one referral source. Somebody else could buy the practice, the practice could go out of business. Another doctor may come in and decide, I no longer refer to this person. Like one is a dangerous number. Okay, so you build a referral base. It will change your business. I'm going to give you two examples. Now, when I started my private practice, I self funded my practice, so, which means I had a job and I used the job to pay the bills of the practice so the practice could pay for itself. And so one of the places I worked at it was a pediatrician. And she had, she went from zero, like zero patients to so fully book that she needed another physician in six months. I want you to think about it. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I was like, this is absolutely nuts. I've been around the block long enough to know that this is not the way things work. And so I started having conversations with her and observing and I found out that she had three friends who were OB GYNs. And so the second she set up shop, three of them were like, we got you and, and they just sent all their babies there. Right? Now you may not have three referral sources who are your friends you went to college with, but you can create those relationships. What I'm trying to tell you is that three referral sources took her business from zero to fully booked month long wait times that she had to hire another physician within six months. Now that is something that is magical, beautiful, leads to a very stable business. She can bring on more people, bring on people to work less and all of that stuff. And it was just amazing. And she's been Busy ever since, right? That's the power of three referral sources. Just three, okay? Now, when I was actively seeing patients, I had a physical therapist who came to my office younger, probably early 30s or something like that. And she's like, you know, this is who I am. And I just started a practice over here and. And all of that stuff. I think she was even pregnant. And I looked at her, I looked at the, you know, her reviews and all of that stuff, and I said, you know what? I could remember starting a private practice, not having any patients, not having people, like, really. Not like they were mattering, but really believe in what I was doing and all of that stuff. Have it. I still remember the first day we saw five patients. You couldn't tell me nothing. Like we were the busiest practice in town as far as I was concerned. I remembered all those days, right? So I was thinking, it's like, wow, she's going through that. So I looked at her, I said, you know what? I'm going to get you busy. I want you to understand the power that a referral source had. I was like, I'm going to get you busy. And she probably looked at me like, okay, fine. I was like, good, so give me your cards, all of that stuff. I went to my front desk, I told them, we have a wait time for physical therapy anyway, this is the person we send our patients to now. And it was a few months before when we send patients to her, she. She would. Then her office would say, okay, our next available is a month from now when they could get our people in next day or the day after that. So we got her really busy. That's the power of one referral source saying, yes, just one referral source. So the question I have for you is, are you committed enough to your success that you're willing to embrace the discomfort of building a referral base? Are you committed enough to your own success that you're like, yeah, I know it's a little uncomfortable, but I'm going to do it because, my goodness, if I get one referral source, what would that do? Two, three. What would three referral sources do for me? Right? You know, we tell the story a lot in, you know, like, we had a doc in the entrepreneurly business school who had worked with, you know, trying to get a referral source on board because it was a big orthopedic surgery practice and she was a weight loss doctor, and she went to them for 11 months. I want you to. That's a sinking. Of course she was working other Angles. But this particular one, for 11 months, right? To which, my God, doctor, that your stories were so nice to start telling me about this 11 month thing. That's a really long time. But this is the deal, right? When she eventually got in to see them, they were like, oh my goodness, we've been looking for someone like you. Daddy, Daddy, Dad. Yes, we'll send all our patients to you. They, she thought there were 19 doctors and nurse practitioners and stuff in the practice. It was 42 of them. I don't remember. Some, some really ridiculous number. And she started to where she was getting five to seven new patients a day. It was 42. Yes. It was so ridiculous. I was like, was it 24? No, it's 42. Five to seven new patients every single day. So the question, like, if, you know, if you follow up somebody long enough, that's what would happen. Would you follow them long enough? I mean, the answer is yes. Yes, yes, yes. Every day and twice on Sunday, right? And so, yes, referral sources, it takes a minute, right? But it works and it works really well and it works really long. Okay, so, okay, Dr. Una, I hear you. All right. Referral sources. What do I do? So I'm going to give you, what do I have? 6. I'm going to give you 6 ways to make contact because it's about relationship building, right? What are the different ways I can make contact with my referral sources? So one, it could be meet and greets. You go to the office, you stop by, you ask to see the doctor, you ask to see the office manager. Never ignore the front desk because sometimes they're the people that are sending the people to the people anyway. But you go start building relationships, you will hear a lot of no's. And it's okay, you're gonna hear a lot of no's, but you're gonna hear enough yeses to turn your business around. Okay? So we're not thrown off by no's. We're not, we don't get bent out of shape by no's. We just roll with it, right? When we hear the no's, we just know, okay, I'm closer to a yes. Okay, so your meet and greet would be one. Okay. You can email them. Many websites, they have their email information and stuff like that. And when I say you, I hope you understand. I mean you, your team, right? It's not just you. It's like your business, your, your practice, your company is doing this, right? You can email and you're like, this is who I am. Email introduction, you can have the template already done. So you're really doing the, just editing like a paragraph or whatever and sending those off because what are you trying to do? I'm trying to do the work so I can get to the point where three people, there at least three people that are sending me people. Because if three people know me, like me, trust me, they could get me busy. Okay, so you can email them. We've done this a lot in our practice. You can fax, you can have like a standard fax with why you, like why your practice, right? Don't say expert medical care. Don't say compassion. Nobody cares about that. Like if the problem, you know, like for your practice, that what you do, if the problem is people, people can get in to see doctors like you. Then you put like next day appointments, right? Like figure out what the pain of your referral source is and address that. But you can have faxes. So I'm peds, right? I can have the fax numbers of all the OB GYNs in the area. And then once a month or once every other month, I just fax and like, this is who we are. We're here to take care of your babies. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Thank you for your referrals. That's something you can do. You can call them, get on the phone, hey, this is doctor who. You know, I, I know your, your practice is new or I'm new here and all of that stuff. Just wanted to let you know what I do. I'd love for us to meet and all of that. You can do that. Nothing's, nothing's going to go wrong. You can do that. You can attend events where they are. So for instance, I'm a pediatrician. If an OB GYN with 10 OBGYN, OBYN practice with 10 OB GYNs is doing an open house, where do you think I'm going to be? I'm going to be at the open house to meet with them, to connect with them, to, you know, if you go to the hospital, you know, there's a physician's lounge. Go there and if you're an introvert, wear Metazans who are introverts. Even if you're an introvert, this is a trick. You walk in there, nobody knows you're nervous, Nobody knows You're scared. Dr. Johnson, like, hi there. Nobody knows any of that. You walk in and you brace yourself, right? And you're like, okay, I have, you know, like, I'm going to be here for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever, and go introduce yourself. To people, right? But we got to start. We're introverts and we can still win and we can still win in business. Okay? And then this is like a granddaddy strategy. Connect with connectors. There are people, you know them, There are people who know everybody. Oh, I know this doctor, that doctor. I went to school with that doctor. That person. That doctor is my friend's cousins, aunties, uncle, I did like all that kind of stuff. You connect to those people because it's a shortcut. Because you're connected to them, they can connect you to everybody else. Yeah. You don't have to be the person, right. Dr. Johnson's like, I know people like that, but it isn't me. You don't have to, it doesn't have to be you. But the deal is you can then connect with that person and that person could connect you with all the other people. So when you meet people like that, they're new best friends because they know everybody. Especially if you're an introvert. Right? Build a referral base. Now this is the thing about the referral base, okay? The money is in the follow up. Chances are the first time you guys meet, nothing magical is going to happen. The money's in the follow up is in the follow up is in the follow up. So we continue until. That's what we do. We build the relationship. We keep the open loop, we keep the conversation going until, okay, so the money is in the follow up. And this means that there are three things that you must have down path. One is, you understand with the referral base, I got to do the volume. I got to do the volume. There's no way around the volume. I got to do the volume. Okay.

I got to do the volume.

I have to be consistent and I have to be strategic. Okay. I have to do the volume. So I do enough of it. I have to do it consistently and then I have to be strategic. Okay. This is usually where things get dropped. So this is where the strategy piece comes in, right? The people who pay cash understand the people who pay cash. The people who take cash understand the people who take cash. So when you're thinking about who to talk to to build a referral base, if you are a cash based practice or a direct specialty care, you want to start looking for practices that are direct primary care are concierge, right. Or they're paying cash for certain kinds of services because they get it. So it doesn't mean you don't talk to like gen peeds insurance based at all. But you're Going to prioritize those ones because they get it. You don't have to explain to them what direct primary care is. They get it. The other group you want to think about is the places where it's kind of hard for them to see a specialist like you. And so people are waiting 6 months, 9 months, 12 months to be seen. And so even though you're cash and they don't get it, they're like, yeah, go there, she can see you next week or he can see you next week. You have to pay, but you can see him next week. Right? So you look for, you look for that. And so you're all referral sources are not equal. All. There's, there's strategy to it, right? So think volume, think consistency, think strategy. These are three things, three things that you, you have to think about when you're working. Your referral sources, okay? Your referral base. Those are the three things. Volume, consistency and strategy. Okay? Okay. So that's number one and we are making good progress. I love this. Number two. Number two is your hidden visits. Okay? Your hidden visits. Your hidden visits. We always have access to more resources than we're aware of. We just don't know. Okay? And so today we're going to unlock some hidden visits that are just staring you in the face that you don't know about.

Right?

Okay. So if you're an insurance based private practice and you're paid per visit, right? You're paid per visit and you've been, your practice has been around for longer than three years, chances are like 97% chance. Chances are that you have tons and tons and tons of people in your database who are overdue for appointments and they're not going to make those appointments till somebody in your office calls them and says, hey, Ms. Smith, it seems you're overdue for your annual checkup. Dr. Steven can see you at, on Tuesday at 10:00 clock or Friday at 3:00pm so we can catch you up. Which of those times work for you? If you would do just that, you can fill up your schedule. And the older your practice is, the more you can fill your schedule using this strategy. Right? There are so many, so many people in your database right now that even if you did not acquire a new patient, you could probably fill up your schedule. Okay? Now if you're direct, and I want to kind of apply this here a little bit, if you're, you know, like cash based, so direct, primary care, specialty care, concierge and all of those things, it may not necessarily be, you know, you're not per visit in that kind of way, but it may be that you have a ton of people who, they just decided they weren't going to do that anymore or their car declined one time and they kind of, you know, fell off and stuff like that. You have a ton of people you can follow up with, and if you follow up with them, a percentage of them are going to come back. You can fill up your panel, you can fill up your schedule with the hidden visits and the hidden patients that exist in your database right now. Your database is gold. You hear in, in the corporate world, you hear them talk about big data. Big data, Big data. Okay? Your data may not be as big as theirs, but it's big enough to keep you profitable. Okay? Now when we had, when the pandemic hit in 2020, if you remember, like back when people were like, what's a coronavirus? Like that early, like when we were there and you know, we would, sometimes we call patients, they're like, how is it out there? I'm like, what do you mean out there? Like, like here's some war torn country. Like, what do you mean out there? Right? And people, people no longer wanted to come into the office and do all of those things. Hybrid practice practices were dropping like flies, right? And this was the strategy that we used in 2020 and 2020. We did better in 2020 than 2019. We had more patient visits, we brought in more revenue in 2020 than we did in 20 in 2019. Same with 2021. Right. And what was the strategy? We just pulled out the entire database and one after the other, we were just, we're just going. Now, the principles of your volume, your consistency and strategy still apply here. So I'll tell you some fun things that we did. Like for instance, when we started, I mean, you're talking about a database of thousands of patients. And so we would look for the patients with the parents with three or more children, right? Because for everyone you get, you get three or more visits as opposed to one visit. Again, what is that is just strategy, right? It's just strategy. But the idea is this. You have so many patient visits, AKA so many dollars sitting in your, in your database right now. Right now. There was a doc, this doc is in the entrepreneur business school. And he said he was, he decided to work this strategy and he had his team calling every day and I think they were making like 30 calls a day between three or four VAs or whatever. And I was like, dude, we need volume. Like, we need volume on that. And I think they switched that. I went to 30, up to 30 calls a day per VA and he went from having holes in his schedule to be booked out to being booked out for two weeks within a matter of weeks. So going from a schedule that was not full to a schedule that was so full that for his practice, it would take two weeks for you to get in. How did he do that? By doing the recaller. Okay, this is a simple thing. You pull up the report. You're going to have to coach your team on it because they'll also, like, roll their eyes. Like, what is this if it's not something you already do? But I am telling you, there are hundreds of visits for some people, thousands of visits sitting in that database. So, yes, the assurance, you know, reimbursements are declared. Yes, it's hard to find. So, yes, all of that, and you got all this money sitting in your database. And as a doctor is good care, right? Like, we don't want people going on without their checkups. We don't want the person who's hypertensive, we haven't seen in a year. Like, what medications are they taking?

Right?

So this is what we want to do, okay? We're talking about how to fill up your schedule in 90 days or less. So we've already talked about the referral base, and now we're talking about the hidden visits. These are things that. They're not funky, they're not cool, they're not all shiny and bright, but they work. They really work. They've always worked. They'll continue to work. These are timeless principles of business. Okay? Okay. So we want to do that. We want to hit the recall. We want to find all the visits that are sitting in our database. Okay? We have the database for a reason. If you tell somebody who wants to sell something to your patients that you would give them your database, they know it's gold. So please know that your database is gold. Your database is gold. Okay? All right, now, same principles apply. We know to do this, we need to throw the volume behind this, right? So remember telling you the doctor, they were making, like four people are making 30 calls a day, and they switched that, and four of them started making 30 calls each, and everything changed. You need the volume, you need the consistency. So we don't hit the recaller when our. When our. When our schedule is light, we just hit it. That's what we do. Okay? So you need the volume, you need the consistency, and you need the strategy. Okay, the strategy. All kinds of strategies with that. I give you an example, you know, like for, for P's, like what we did, Some people would do it based on highest pair to lower lowest pair. Like when. Because if it's a thousand people, two thousand people, you're not going to get all of them at once. Right? And they would do that. So there's so many different things you can do. Okay, now, when you think about building a referral base and going after the hidden visits in your practice, what do you think on, on a scale of 1 to 10, how big do you think the impact will be on your schedule if you do these two things? We can proactively fill up our schedules. We don't have to sing the same song other people are singing. All right, let's do number three. Number three again, one of my favorites. And the introverts are going to go like, oh my goodness, Dr. Una, stop talking about this. But I'm an introvert. I'm with you. Okay. All right. So this is unlocking your second generation patients. How many of you have patients that love you and they've told you to your face, you've changed my life, you've changed my world, or they've left you a five star review, or you know, they've told you, I've been to five doctors and nobody could figure it out, but you figured it out. Like, how many of you have had that? How many of you have had that? Your patients that know like and trust you are the source for more patients that will know like and trust you. Right? Like you're think of. Okay, I'm not saying your patients are these things, but I want to give you a word picture that you won't forget. Okay? Now, when you think about your patients, you can either see your patients and fruit or you eat a fruit, once it's gone, you can see your patient like a tree that produce fruit after fruit after fruit after fruit. The patients who love you and trust you, they're like trees and they will give you many more patients if you ask. So when somebody tells you, oh my goodness, you are the fourth doctor I've seen for this thing and you're the only person who could fix this, I want to give you the translation, okay? I want to give you the profitable private practice owner translation. And that translation is, oh, my goodness, doc, please ask me for a referral. Ask me for a referral. Ask me for a review. Ask me for whatever you need for me to put your name out there and let people know how amazing you are. That is literally what they're telling you. That's what they're telling you. Because this is the deal. If you have a thousand patients and a quarter of them decide to send you one patient, you acquire 250 new patients. Who will be mad about 250 new patients? Not me. Right. But if you don't ask, the thing is, everybody is thinking about themselves. Well, 99% of people are thinking about themselves all the time. They're not thinking about you. They're not thinking about your business. They're not thinking about making your practice profitable. They're not thinking about making your practice sustainable. They're not thinking about any of that. They're thinking about themselves. And so the only way for you to get them to stop and go around and go invite people and tell people about you and text people about your office and all of that stuff, you got to ask them. But if you ask them, they know. If everybody brought one person, think about what that would do. So I need you to hear this. Right? Again, it's nothing so exciting. And you're like, wow, I can't wait to ask my patients to send me people. It's not exciting like that, but it works. It always has and it always will. Great. So if you build this habit of asking them for referrals and asking them for reviews, it will change your practice forever. I didn't know the power of reviews till I started making it a thing and going after it. And then I would ask people, new patients, when they come. How did you find out about us? Oh, you know, I was just looking for your pediatrician in the area, and I saw your reviews, and I came, and the first time I heard, I was like, okay. And then the second time and the third time and the fourth time, like, people pay attention to that stuff, right? So when people are like, you're amazing. Ask him for some. Okay, you can ask him for a referral, you can ask them for a view, but either of those two will create more patients. And please understand me, right? If people come into your office and they see that you're seeing a lot of patients, they will do you a favor by not referring people to you. They're just like, oh, my goodness, this doctor is so busy. So their friends will say, do you know a doctor that does xyz? They're like, yeah, but my doctor, she's fully booked. You know, like, so find another doctor. And I'm not making this up. I've had. I've had people. Like, I had a patient go like, oh, Dr. Une. You know, I had a friend, she really needs a pediatrician like you. But, you know, I know you're so busy and you're not accepting new patients, so I sent her wherever. Wherever I was. Like, what? What in the world made you think I'm not accepting new patients? That's the assumption that they have. You have to interrupt them by asking. The reason why we build multiple streams of patients is because there will be times when certain ones dry up, where there'll be some times that, you know, things work really well with one and sometimes when they don't. Right. The reason why we have so many things going on at the same time is no matter what happens, we still win. Right? We still win. And yeah, it's. So you may say, as a specialist is tougher than primary care, but you'll be surprised that it's not because there are other challenges. But the thing is that these three things work. These three things work. Okay? So again, for these three things is the volume of it. We got to do it. I've got to do it. Like, we have to have the right volume of it. If we're asking for referrals once a week, this is not going to work. If we're asking for reviews once in a while, this is not going to work. Right. So it's the volume of it is the consent, consistency of it, and it is the strategy of it. Right. It is these three things, and from one step to the other, you end up with a practice that allows you to live the life that you want.