#117 - Finish Strong: How High-Performing Healthcare Providers Use December to Win the New Year

Welcome to The Factor Podcast, where we talk about the stuff they didn't teach you in school, how to grow your practice, refine your clinical skills, and get better results for your patients. We're here to help you navigate the real-world challenges of being a healthcare provider, from delivering top-notch patient care to running a business that doesn't run you into the ground. Whether you're fresh out of school or scaling your practice, we're diving into effective cutting-edge treatments to get patients better faster. We'll also talk about business strategies and tactics to help you work smarter and not harder, and the mindset shifts required to thrive as a top performer in your field so you can build a career you love without burning out. If you're ready to learn what works and what doesn't from leading experts, industry innovators, and respected clinicians across a wide range of specialties, you're in the right place, my friend. Let's dive in. Hi guys, welcome back to The Factor Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about the things they don't teach you in chiropractic school or any other healthcare program for that matter. How to think strategically, build capacity, run a business like a CEO, and elevate your clinical impact without burning out in the process. I'm your host, Jessica Riddle, and today's episode is landing in December of 2025, that strange time of year where everyone collectively decides that the year is basically over and anything important should just wait until January. And I get it. You're tired. Your patients are tired. Admin slows down. Schedules get messy. The holidays take over. But here's the truth: January is too late to start planning for the new year. If you wait until January to plan, strategize, fix broken systems, clarify your goals, or build momentum, you're already behind. So this is the mindset shift I want to give you today. We're going to talk a lot about some high-impact things that you can do now, some actions that you can take, To go ahead and start that momentum into the new year. This isn't generic business advice. This is the strategic, forward-thinking, clinician-specific roadmap to ending the year intentionally and entering 2026 with clarity, momentum, and a clear competitive advantage. So grab a notebook because this episode is packed with the kind of insights that can change the way you operate in the next year. Let's dive in. I'm your host, Jessica Riddle, and today I want to talk about something we all feel to some extent around this time of year. See, this is that strange in-between season after Thanksgiving when everyone collectively decides that the year is basically over and all major decisions should be delayed until January. You know, that magical month where future you is somehow more motivated, more organized, and apparently a completely different person. And I want to start with a story because that's way more exciting than just rattling off statistics. Years ago, I had a friend who worked for a Fortune 100 company. I will leave that company's name to be imagined, but they were a Fortune 100 company, very successful. And every December, their competitors would go dormant. Executives went on vacation, departments slowed down. And planning was all pushed off to Q1. But this one company, they did something totally different. They called December the head start month. While everyone else slept, they quietly rebuilt systems, optimized processes. They reorganized some of their internal teams and streamlined workflows, and they entered January with momentum that no one else had. So my friend told me that their CEO's big motto was that January is when amateurs start planning, December is where leaders start winning. And that stuck with me, and it shapes how I coach, plan, and consult with clinicians and business owners today. So today's episode is for the clinicians, the practice owners, and the entrepreneurs who do not want next year to look just like another remix of this year. Because if you want different results, you need a bit of a different approach, right? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. But we know that we have to put something better in if we expect something better out. So to start with, let's talk about what we should do in this runway leading up to the New Year. What are some action steps that you can take as a business owner? Or maybe you're wanting to launch a business in 2026. Maybe you're in private practice as an associate or even as an independent contractor, but you're looking to expand and grow in the coming new year, which most businesses you do plan to grow. So one thing to keep in mind is that December will always be your competitive advantage. Most providers Treat December like downtime, right? Because it's a little bit slower. Patients tend to cancel more. Revenue slows down a bit. Administrative noise quiets down, and some clinicians just mentally check out amongst the hustle and bustle of the holidays, planning for vacations, family things. We all have personal lives. I get it. But this opportunity gives you this one month where you can make strategic decisions. Without drowning as much in the day-to-day noise. When the rest of the industry sleeps, you can be building the foundation for a radically different new year. So let me tell you something that most clinicians never hear, and a concept that you really need to absorb and digest a little bit and keep in mind when you are planning ahead. You don't grow because of your goals. You grow because you break your capacity ceiling. So I'm going to say that again. You don't grow because of your goals. You grow because you break your capacity ceiling. I want you to picture this. Imagine a clinic that is always busy, constantly overwhelmed, and never quite hitting the goals that they set every January. They keep trying to work harder, but nothing changes because they've hit an invisible operational ceiling. And we've all seen this. Anyone that's been in practice for a number of years knows what this looks like. You get to the point where you can't take on more new patients because you're maybe a solo practitioner and there's only so many hours in your schedule. You can't market consistently because how can you be giving the best patient care and filling your schedule, but then also doing what you need to do from a marketing standpoint? You can't improve or boost your revenue because again, you've kind of maxed out your capacity for what you can deliver from a service standpoint. You can't innovate and you get to the point where you're maxed out, not necessarily only in your hours, but in your capacity. But here's the truth. Whatever level that you're at, whatever results you're currently experiencing, your business is perfectly designed to deliver the results that it is currently producing. So if you've reached this invisible ceiling, if you've maxed out in your current capacity, That pain that you're feeling, that tension between where you are now and where you want to be, that is that signal that it's time to level up. It's time for a shift. It's time for something to change. And that if you want more efficiency, more revenue, more freedom, you have to expand your capacity, not just write down bigger, better, hairy, scary goals. The hairy, scary goals are important. Obviously have to have targets to shoot for, but you have to make sure that you set yourself up for success so that you have the capacity to reach those goals. Otherwise, you're constantly going to be disappointed and in a state of frustration. Most people tackle goals by sitting down at this time of year, maybe, and just creating more goals for the new year, spitballing ideas and thinking about how they want to grow. Or maybe sometimes your growth comes from percentages that you've put together that you think are typical for your industry, for your area, or even what your personal bias is about what you think you should be growing every single year from a revenue standpoint. But high performers do something completely different when they start this December debrief or kind of look at what they need to do differently in the new year. And I want to challenge you this year to take some time and create a stop-doing list. Because growth doesn't come from more tasks. Growth comes from removing friction with the tasks that you're already doing. So for example, putting together a meeting with your team, or even if you're a solopreneur, if you have a spouse that supports you or people that you have in your close inner circle, Advisors, friends, colleagues, maybe some of you are part of a master circle. Put together someone who can be a sounding board and help you work through some of these questions. One of the things that you want to ask first is, what worked this year? And I don't mean just what felt good, but what had a measurable return? Something that you can actually measure in some form or fashion. And if you don't have ways, To measure your success, then that's a whole different issue and something that we can definitely discuss in a future episode. But some things to think about when it comes to that measurable return: what delivered the best clinical outcomes? What were your best revenue-producing services? And what were your best, most high-performing or high-converting patient acquisition channels? Now, when it comes to patient acquisition channels, this can be paid or organic. You can always look at the statistics and the analytics in your social media accounts. Your social media accounts will give you some really great information and insight into what landed with your audience, what actually engaged and what didn't. But then again, if you are doing any kind of paid advertising, you should always make sure before you invest in any paid advertising how you can measure the outcome. If there's no way to measure the outcome and the success of paid advertising, do not do it. And that could be as simple as if you're running an ad somewhere, you include a tracking link, a QR code, a special phone number, a special word or phrase that people need to utilize when they call. So you always want to make sure that there is a way that you can measure every single penny that you invest in advertising and the results. The second question that you'll want to ask, which kind of makes sense, right? We asked about what worked. Now we're going to ask what didn't work. And that may be things that drained your time or energy or the time or energy of your staff. What tasks kept falling through the cracks and became consistently more difficult for you and your team to keep up with? Or what systems are broken? And if you do have a team that supports you, sit down and ask them these questions and tell them that it's a safe space, that they are welcome to bring any complaints to you that they've had, both on their end from an administrative side, but then also things that they may have heard from your patients or things that they may have experienced when they're trying to help new patients navigate your website or figure out how to schedule an appointment, things of that nature. Number three, you want to ask what must stop in 2025. And this can be kind of hard, but I really want you to challenge yourself and your team to think of specific things that need to stop happening in the new year. What must stop in 2026? So, for example, three clinical tasks that need to stop. And by stop. That may mean that that's something that you eliminate, something that you delegate, or something that you automate, right? So there are things that you might be able to automate in your marketing, your operations, some of your digital presence, some of your online components. What pieces can you automate? Are there automation tools that you could be utilizing or having your team utilize or leverage? To help take that time off of your labor hours. Are there things that need to be eliminated completely? This is a redundancy. This is something that's causing more friction than it is being helpful. This is something that we're paying a lot of money for that we're not using. I'm talking about even looking at things like different subscriptions you may have, different services that you're paying for that you're not utilizing to their fullest extent. What are those things? Identify them and eliminate them. And then of course, we talked about eliminating, delegating, and automating. So that delegation piece, are there things that you as the practice owner, you as the clinician are doing that you could potentially be delegating? Obviously, there are some things that only you can do in your practice. You are a necessary component. You are Someone that is irreplaceable. But are there aspects of your job, are even there aspects of your patient care that you could be delegating to one of your team members to assist with? Or do you expand your team to bring in assistance, such as a rehab technician, somebody to help you with exercise therapy, things of that nature that work well within your scope of practice for you to delegate and supervise? So, Identify things that need to stop in the new year, clinical tasks, business tasks, things that drain your energy or your creativity, or even look at some outdated habits or offers. Maybe you have like a new patient offer or special, or you have an advertising campaign that's been running and it's run its full life cycle, things like that that might need to be retired. And here's the twist and the thing to keep in mind while you're going through this exercise, because I know it can be a little bit painful. Your next level of success will come from what you stop doing, not what you add. Think about that. The things that you eliminate provide room for you to grow, but sometimes you can't grow if there are too many things on your plate to allow for that. For example, everyone knows Apple and everyone has seen the monumental success that company and that brand has had globally. Every single year, Apple will kill off products that no longer align with their future. Be like Apple. Be willing to make the cuts. Be willing to make the necessary shifts so that you can grow and expand to the next level. Okay, so this one is one of my favorite contrarian strategies. This is one that I'll be teaching soon coming up inside of a new offering that we have launching in the new year. But most people start their new year on January 1st, whether that's in their personal lives by coming up with their list of resolutions, which I have a whole separate episode I could do on resolutions and why I don't believe in them. But high performers start their new year on December 15th. And again, this isn't just in your business. This could be in your personal life. This could be if you're a student and you're just trying to make it through school right now. You have no idea what you're going to do after you graduate, but you're trying to be the best you can as a student to get through the program. So many people again start their new year on January 1st, but high performers start their new year on December 15th. This gives you a 2-week window where the world slows down. Everyone is distracted. Everyone is scattered. Everyone is focused on other things. But you take this time to speed up and set yourself up for success. So here's that magical 2-week period, that 2-week window from December 15th through December 31st, where you can refresh your systems, update your email sequences, clean up some of your scheduling workflows, fix broken technology, or maybe you do have different automations in place that you just need to revisit and make sure that they flow well. For your end user. You can take this time to prepare your first 6 weeks of content for the new year. Take a look at other things such as your bio on your website, your headshot, any of the information on your site that may need to be updated or refreshed. It's really great to take the time to update website content on a regular basis. So that search engines have something new to visit your site for, right? Because as they have to revisit your site, that also tells people that there's new information there. And now that most major AI tools do have search engines embedded and they will make recommendations, it's really, really important that you keep the website and the web presence that you have up to date. And I'm not talking about just your website. I'm talking about your LinkedIn bio and your headshot there. What your Facebook page looks like, what your Instagram account looks like, your Threads, your Twitter or X, wherever you have a presence online for your business, just go take a look at those, refresh them. You'd be amazed sometimes the things that you're like, oh, holy cow, my headshot's 20 years old. There is no reason, no reason nowadays that you cannot have a professional headshot on your website. There are a number of AI tools that you can use for that. You can literally snap a picture with your cell phone, a selfie of yourself, upload it to an AI site, and get 50 different professional headshots that look just like you with great hair, great makeup and lighting, in different outfits and different scenery. Trust me, like, look them up, make the investment. It's usually like $20, and it can make a huge difference In how you portray yourself and your digital presence to the world. Other things you can do is kind of start thinking ahead to what you're going to do for your visibility online in quarter one of 2026, and then even build a metrics dashboard. Figure out how you're going to easily be able to gauge the success of your efforts while everyone else is waiting for the new year. Everyone else is. Busy with the holidays, you're moving and you're creating momentum that will really propel you in the year ahead. And here's something too that I want you to think about and that I don't think enough attention is brought to, especially in the world of healthcare where oftentimes as practitioners, you're dealing with people that are in pain a lot. 90% of the time, people are coming to you when they're in— Pain. A painful state. They're needing help, they're needing healing, and then you're constantly pouring into them. Healthcare providers carry an emotional load and a cognitive load that most other business owners in other industries will never truly understand because you're constantly switching between the clinician brain, really kind of thinking through the diagnostic criteria and figuring out what's going on with that patient. You also have your entrepreneurial brain, which is trying to help grow your business. You have an educator brain that you have to turn on to some extent, even with your patients and one-on-one interactions, informing them about what's going on with their body and your plan of care. You have a management brain if you have a team of people that work for you. And then of course you have that problem-solving brain that never really turns off because you're having to be a problem solver. In every one of those scenarios, whether you're having to problem solve as a clinician, trying to figure out the diagnosis for that patient and make sure that you're giving the effective treatments, problem solving with your business in its growth phases, and everything in between. That switching between these different hats, so to speak, comes with an invisible tax, and it can destroy your momentum. That's why December is really perfect for setting a little bit of an energy-based schedule for yourself. So instead of planning your year by time, plan it by energy intensity. And you can set this up on your daily schedule, your weekly schedule, your monthly, and then even quarterly and yearly. And again, this is something that we dive into in depth in our business trainings, but Energy-based scheduling may look like creating blocks of time where you have high-energy work, and high-energy work is things that are very mentally taxing, things that really take a lot of cognitive load. So that is, of course, your patient visits and patient care, especially your new patient appointments, right? Because this is when you're interacting the first time. This is when you're going through your full examination and really diving more into that specific person and getting to know them better. So this is when you want to schedule those high-energy work periods where you're having those new patient visits, you're doing your problem solving, you're doing strategic planning for your business, or maybe even things that are more high level in future casting and being that visionary as an entrepreneur. Next, of course, the other block of time would be your mid-energy work. So these are things like administrative tasks. A lot of your note-taking, billing, maybe some of your patient communication if you're a solopreneur or if you are in charge of kind of helping your team construct that. These are tasks that still require cognitive load, but not quite at the same level. This also would be what I would consider your maintenance care patients, those that are coming in for just a quick tune-up, quote unquote. As well. The last block there is the low energy work block. So these are things where it's literally just task-oriented type work. This is not something that's high cognitive load. These are things where you might be building automations for things, working on SOPs or standard operating procedure documents for your practice, something where you're creating batches of content. Or even kind of brainstorming ideas for content. You have to keep in mind here, again, your schedule isn't broken if you're feeling exhausted and you're constantly switching between these types of tasks. You just need to create a better strategy for how you spend your energy and how you expend that throughout the day. So we've talked a lot about getting this jumpstart on January. And what we can do in December. So now let's look ahead and kind of figure out what your January jumpstart should look like, your 30-day runway into the year. So one thing that is helpful is to kind of sit down and again, identify 3 needle-moving actions. And these are big actions that need to happen in order to get you closer to your goal. These are not the goals themselves. These are not dreams, but these are actual actions that need to be taken. It can be a major decision that needs to be made. It can be a new project that you want to implement. It can be a new service offering that you want to launch in the new year. Maybe you're going to acquire a piece of equipment that will allow you to offer a different service that is something that you can bill for. Maybe you're signing up for a new certification. A new specialized training that will help you treat your patients in a different way. These are actions. So identify and challenge yourself to identify 3 needle-moving actions that need to be taken starting in January. So decide now, start in January. Another thing I want to challenge you on is to identify here before we start January, One revenue-generating project that is something small and strategic that needs to begin in January. This could be a workshop in your local community, a referral push of some sort, a small pilot program with maybe a new service offering, a presale of some sort, or even maybe launching an online course on your website that's geared towards attracting new patients, creating a new lead generation piece like a downloadable chart or guide or something tangible that people can give you their information in exchange for. Or this could be, hey, I want to launch a podcast in my local community where I talk about all things sports and rehab if I'm a rehab doc, or I talk about all things brain health if I'm a neuro doc, etc. So we're going to identify 3 needle-moving actions, 1 revenue-generating project that will start in January, and then finally identify a system or workflow update that you want to have happen in January. So these could be big systems, like how you do your patient notes and documentation. This could be a system for onboarding. New employees. This could even be something like refreshing your email templates and thinking through that welcome email sequence that patients get when they first come to your practice, or even a way to clean up your CRM and make sure that your contacts' information is up to date in your system. Remember, just one system improved can save hundreds of hours in the new year. So next I want to talk a little bit about the professional identity reset, because obviously you are a practitioner that owns a business or that operates in a business, but you are not your business. And so often entrepreneurs in any industry can get into a slump where you begin thinking that you are your business. If your business is successful, you feel successful. If your business is struggling, you feel like you're failing. So you want to make sure that your business will never outperform your identity. This is where I want you to ask yourself some questions, and this is something that you can do in kind of some kind of personal journaling. The first question is, who do I need to become in the new year? Who do I need to become? And you can even go as far as to write down the criteria Of how that person shows up in their daily work and their personal life? What did they say yes to? What do they say no to? And what that person, that version of yourself, will tolerate? These are important questions, and this can kind of help your mindset shift and move you from being a clinician to a clinician entrepreneur, from being a technician to being a leader, from being an operator to an owner. And then from being busy to being intentional on how you spend your time and your energy. So again, really identify the professional identity that you want to walk into the new year with, and then own it. Because the 2026 version of you doesn't wait for permission. You decide now who you want to be in the new year so that you can start living and operating in that way as soon as things get rolling and as soon as the ball drops. And one of the final things that I want to leave you with here is kind of that final reset, which I like to call the clear out, clean up, set forward. So here are the things that you want to make sure you have done by December 31st, and these are just things to really kind of help Do a little bit of winter cleaning, so to speak, in your office, but then also in your operational workflows and in your professional life. So here are some things to go ahead and try to prioritize getting done by December 31st. One of them is update your pricing. Look at what other people in your area are charging for comparable services. Now, I know many of you take insurance or Medicare, Medicaid. Some of you do not, and your cash-based practices, a lot of your pricing will be dependent upon that. So whether you're a cash practice and you're just looking at what the market has in your area, kind of where that bar has been set for similar services and similar providers, or you can make your own pricing, great. If you're a cash-based practice, you have full control of your pricing and you can update that accordingly. Make any adjustments or changes as needed. If you do take insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, obviously you're contractually obligated to charge the prices that you've been given, but make sure that you have your staff, if it's not you, your billing company, contact your insurers that you're in network with, and even those that you're out of network with where you still have patients that you see. And find out what those limiting charges are. Make sure that you're updating those regularly because insurance companies update those regularly. Medicare, Medicaid do make changes, and you wanna make sure that you're not leaving money on the table that you could be charging for as part of those contracts. Another thing you'll wanna do is go ahead and prep your finances for tax season. This is the last chance you're gonna have all year to purchase any large expenses for tax write-offs. So make sure that you chat with your CPA. Hopefully you've already done that well in advance of today when you hear this episode, but make sure that you make any large purchases before the clock strikes midnight on January 1st if you want to use those write-offs in this tax year. You can also use this time to clean up digital clutter. Get all those files off of your desktop. You know who you are, those of you that have a desktop screen that is so full of files you can't even see whatever background picture is there. Clean those up, organize them, delete, get rid of some things. Likewise, organize your patient files, organize some of the paperwork on your desk and in your office. Look at ways that you can refresh some of your patient onboarding. Clean out some of your old inventory if you are a practice that has retail items. If you have things that have been sitting on your shelf for a while, if you have supplements that are coming up for expiration within the next 6 months, Do some sales, clean those things out. Also, and this, there is a little bit of bias here because we're an education company, but I can't say how important it is. Go ahead and plan your CE for the next year. Whenever your license renewal period is, go ahead and take this time every year to look ahead yourself for the next calendar year for tax purposes, obviously, because you can write off those CE expenses. And schedule the CE courses that you want to attend. Look for things that are really going to enhance your patient care, that are gonna help you develop some new clinical skills and new service offerings that you can launch in the new year. And of course, go ahead and get a jumpstart. Plan your quarter 1 marketing dates. What are things you wanna do to market your business, to get the word out there, and to gain more exposure in the new year? These small wins can create major clarity, and it just feels really good to get those out of the way. So I want to leave you today with one last story. Jeff Bezos once said that Amazon's success wasn't built on innovation. It was built on relentless clarity about what mattered most. He said what most people get bored of— the basics. He said, Most people get bored of the basics. Winners master them so deeply they become unfair advantages. Your unfair advantage for the new year, for 2026, is clarity. Clarity about your capacity, clarity about your boundaries, your identity, where you're going, and clarity about what you refuse to carry into another year. December is not the end of your year. It's the runway for the next version Okay, guys, if this episode hit home for you, send it to a colleague, share it to your stories, or message me your biggest takeaway. You can send us a message on any of our social media channels. We are @FactorEducation on Instagram. We're also @FactorEducation on Threads. And we're also on LinkedIn. And then of course, you can visit our website at factorpodcast.com. That's F-A-K-T-R podcast.com, and leave us a comment. You can even send us a voice recording. We listen to each and every one of those, and we always appreciate any feedback or information. So all of the resources mentioned, including our upcoming Factor webinars and CE opportunities, are in the show notes. Finish strong, guys. Start bold and step into 2026 like you're already the next version of yourself. I'll see you next time. Hey guys, if you like what you heard today, I encourage you to visit our website at factor-store.com. That's spelled F-A-K-T-R-store.com to find out more information about all that we have to offer. We have a variety of online offerings as well as our hands-on Factor Rehab System course scheduled in cities around the globe. Be sure to also check out our event calendar and bookmark any of these upcoming live webinar dates coming up in the near future so you can join us live. And of course, the biggest compliment we can receive is for you to help us spread the word to your friends, colleagues, and classmates. You'll find all the important links as well as info about our sponsors in the show notes, so be sure to check those out.