The back surgeon prescribes a dose of BRAGGing for entrepreneurs in pain; Dr Winifred Bragg

Hello and welcome to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Today we're going to Virginia where we're gonna be talking to Dr. Winifred Bragg, who is the author of 4 bestselling books and has a YouTube channel, which is very vibrant, talking about how to have a terrific Tuesday and more. She's gonna explain to us how entrepreneurs can get noticed using the Bragg Method. Winifred, welcome to the show.

Jim, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here today.

I'm excited because I've looked at some of your YouTube content and your books. And for all of us entrepreneurs out there, getting noticed is a challenge. We're also going to talk about some of the ways we can stay healthy as entrepreneurs whilst we're getting noticed. So let's dive in. Tell us about the Bragg Factor and your methodology for getting entrepreneurs noticed.

Well, the Bragg Factor obviously is a corner, play on my name, Bragg, B-R-A-G-G. And I tell people that the reason brag is a 5-letter word and not a 4-letter word is because that last G stands for gratitude. That's the first thing I want people to understand. And the brag factor is really 5 steps. The first step is B, behave as if. Entrepreneurs need to look at who do you desire to be like? And can you find what you can do to model yourself like them? And that's why it's important sometime along the way, Jim, to maybe have an executive coach or a business coach to help you. Because what I've learned in life, speed matters. And a coach can give you some tidbits to help you go from where you are to where you want to be much faster. So the first step to brag factor is B, behave as if. The second is resist the urge to. You know, as entrepreneurs, sometimes things, you know, especially now when inflation and things that are going on, You get discouraged and you want to say, can I make it? So we have to resist the urge to quit and complain and say, I can't do it. The A stands for accept no limitations. Barriers will happen, and sometimes we have setbacks and disappointments, but we have to learn to accept no limitations. And then G stands for grow your gift. Jim, what I have found in coaching entrepreneurs and business people, that sometimes people have the best business idea, Mm-hmm. That comes from their skill, from their hobbies or their passions, more so than something they were trained for. I had a young woman who came to see me in a workshop, and her hobby was graphic arts. She was training into marketing, but she wasn't doing well in that. And so I talked to her about, well, let's dive in deep about your graphic arts. So she was able to put together a business plan, and now she has a business where she does websites and use that with marketing. But was able to use her graphic arts. So I tell entrepreneurs that if things aren't going well, sometimes look back at your own purposes and your own things that you like to do. Some of the fun things that you do, integrate that, and you may find out that you have a better business idea. You know, I'm trained as a physician, but I also coach people, executives, entrepreneurs, business people, and I coach them. Because I'm a speaker and a speaker is not what I went to school for. I went to school as a doctor, but what do I get trained in all day long? 25, 30 patients all day long, one-on-one coaching. So you see how that can transcend and something you like to do can also become a profession for you. And the last important thing is I tell entrepreneurs, Jim, live in a state of gratitude. And that's why Bragg has 5 letters and not 4.

I love that. And yet your own journey from being a qualified physician and a spinal sort of facilitator and occupational therapist and now giving coaching is amazing. I think that's an amazing story. And let's just talk a little bit then, if we can, about this idea of focus, because you've got Bragg, but I'm quite interested in how our physical self can impact our ability to even implement your BRAG methodology. How can you help people to relate?

Well, everything must start with us. And sometimes as entrepreneurs, we put ourselves at the back of the line and we need to put ourselves at the front as it relates to our health. And because there can't be a business without a healthy you, there can't be a good thriving mission without a healthy, clean mindset with you. And so I tell people it's very important to make sure you're getting the 7 to 8 hours of sleep. That makes a tremendous difference, getting adequate sleep. And also doing stretches. You know, I'm a spinal doctor. I teach people how to take care of their back pain without surgery as an interventional pain specialist. And one of the keys I tell people is don't sit more than an hour and a half without getting up and stretch. I learned that from my bookkeepers, my accountants, and all the patients that I saw that were salespeople. And they would come in, Jim, at the end of the month when they had to do those sales reports. Dr. Bragg, my back is killing me. And why? Because they had been sitting at the computer. With COVID what are we doing? We're sitting at the computer all day long. So you're causing yourself back pain. You're paying for my house and my car. And I'm telling you to get up, get up and stretch and walk around and don't sit past an hour and a half or 2 hours. But they keep paying for my car because they will not do that. And so that's a simple thing that entrepreneurs need to know. As you say, take care of yourself. If you are someone at the computer all day long and your back's hurting, the first thing, eliminate that long sitting and make sure that you're doing stretches. And that you have to have a good mindset with focus so that you don't develop the imposter syndrome of what you say that you can't do. And sleep and having a good morning routine. Morning routine is important. And maybe you're into meditation, maybe you're into tai chi, maybe you have exercise, maybe you listen to music. But I start my day off with, in the morning, to make sure that I do my stretches so that I don't have back pain. And make sure that I get adequacy. And then I want to start my day off with confidence. And that means that I don't look at the cell phone early in the morning because what is it filled with? Distractions, emails, people with different things that's going to distract you from your goals. So start your morning off with a good morning routine.

Yeah, I think that's absolutely fantastic. And the reason I think it's really important is because under your brag, 5 stages, which I think is brilliant. If you're not feeling physically well, it's very hard to perform, isn't it? What about if people are not well and they have a lot of pain? What's your approach to helping people to work through that then, Dr. Winifred? How do you help people to get to the right mindset when they're maybe grappling with pain on a day-to-day basis?

Well, one thing that you can do using the brag factor from that standpoint The brag factor can help to move you from an arena of pain to function because it all starts off with your mindset. What is your mindset? If you get up in the morning and you say, I'm not going to be able to make this sale today, or I'm going to have pain all day, and everything that you're thinking about, my back hurts, my back hurts, and that's what you feed in your mind all day, you will hurt. There's something in the brain, Jim, called the reticular activating system. which is a network in the brain that filters out things, much like a water filter on your kitchen sink. And so we wake up in the morning with like 90,000 thoughts. A lot of them are negative. So how do you move from an arena of saying you have opportunities rather than obstacles? The same thing with pain. If you keep saying, I'm going to hurt all day, and claim that, you will hurt all day. It's much like if you ever wanted a car, I remember once I wanted a green Honda. I wanted a green Honda, and everywhere I went, everybody but me had that green Honda because that was what my mind was on. And so you can do that. And so you want to fill your brain with positive thoughts. And that's going to take people in pain from getting from an arena of focusing on pain to focusing on their function, and it's going to help them to move through that. By simply trying to behave as if they're a person without pain. And a person without pain is going to be moving. You got to move. But you know, one thing I know that from back pain or you hurt your hamstring or whatever you hurt, it's stiff and it's painful and people don't want to move. And that's the same way we do as business people or entrepreneurs. When we have a setback or a failure or disappointment or a challenge, we're much like a person with back pain.

Mm-hmm.

We don't want to move. And so the first thing we have to do, Jim, is stretch. Stretch our mind just like we stretch our muscles and stretch our backs. And when we stretch, that helps us to move past these barriers. And it helps a person in pain, physical pain, to be able to move because they have to move the part that hurts and first stretch it. But that's the same thing an entrepreneur or a business person has to do. Stretch. And I tell people, you have 2 kinds of friends. You have friends who are going to stretch your idea and friends who are going to shrink your idea. When you have a good business plan or a good idea, sometimes you may share it with the wrong person. They're like, everything I tell him or her, they tell me I can't do it. What's the 3rd step in the brag factor? Accept no limitation. First of all, you need to press the delete button in that relationship. And delete them from your circle of people that you tell your ideas to, because they always shrink your ideas rather than stretching them.

I love that. And I love the way you've drawn the parallel between the kind of sense of incapacity within the business that you can have within your own body as well. That's fantastic advice there.

Right.

In terms of you yourself, you're an entrepreneur. I love that story that you were learning how to get patients, right? And that's how you then modeled how other clinicians were getting patients and you got better and better at it yourself. Is that right?

Well, what happened when I came to Tidewater, Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach, I came with a briefcase filled with payment coupons. Payment coupons are from your student loans, Jim. And I had about $100,000 worth of student loans. And so my goal was To have a thriving practice. So people said, well, you have to market, because I didn't grow up in Virginia. I grew up in Alabama. So here I was thrown into this place where I knew no one, and my brag-worthy goal, my number one goal, was to have a big practice. So I would go to these networking events and say, hi, I'm Dr. Bragg. Nice to meet you. The people say, so? And they start back talking to their friends. And I'm like, I'm getting nowhere fast. So I had to develop, how do I reach people so that they would want to engage me? And that's what I call and tell people, you have to learn in 30 seconds how to promote yourself. And that's when I say, brag on yourself quickly in 30 seconds. Make it conversational, make it memorable, make it quick so that people want to engage you further. And this is how I was able to do that. And build a practice where now I have over 20— have seen over 20,000 patients. And if I can do that using the brag factor and learning how to have a 30-second brag, any entrepreneur can do it. You gotta realize I was a doctor. I didn't have marketing skills. I didn't have PR skills, but now I teach people how to go into a room, work a room, and how to do an effective 30-second brag. When they're pitching their company, their products, their services, so that people want to engage you further.

Winifred, I have to ask you your 30-second brag then. Go on. We've put out the challenge. What would be the 30-second brag that you've got for your own practice?

Well, my practice is, I'm Dr. Winifred Bragg. I'm a physician, and I teach people how to treat their orthopedic and spinal problems without surgery. Only 5% of people with back pain need surgery. But in the United States, this happens over 600,000 times a year. When you want to know how you could get better without surgery, I'd be happy to see you. I'm Dr. Winifred Bragg.

That is so great. And I love that because you've got some facts in there. You don't have opinions. You've got objectivity in there and you're raising the issue, the problem that someone's facing and presenting a solution all within the 30 seconds. That's really, really impressive. You've managed to now go beyond those 20,000 patients. And as an entrepreneur, Winifred, tell us what you've been doing because you've really been leveraging social media, haven't you? Tell us about how you're building your personality online through social.

Well, I have several YouTube stations. One, my website is called thebragfactor.com. And I have a YouTube station called The Brag Factor. Every Tuesday, I give entrepreneurs, business people a tip for a terrific Tuesday because, you know, we start off with Monday with all of these problems. And so I feel by Tuesday, you need to know a tip that's going to help you stay focused, stay confident so that you can move forward. And I have a YouTube station on Tuesday. Now, for patients who see me from a pain standpoint as a doctor, On Friday, I have a YouTube channel that gives tips for a pain-free Friday, but that's dealing with physical pain. Tuesday is going to help you deal with your business and entrepreneurial pains by telling you how you can move forward and propel and build good habits so that you can be successful. And then I have Facebook pages that go with both my medical practice and with my consulting, coaching, speaking practice, The Brag Factor.

Well, you're a very, very busy lady, aren't you? Wow. That's an amazing number of networks. From a content production point of view, if I can, with your channel, YouTube, how are you attracting subscribers? Because we all know that creating the content is, you know, not easy, but it's not the hardest part. Getting the viewers is the hard part. So how are you overcoming that challenge?

Well, I have a little bit of an advantage because as a doctor in my practice, I'm seeing You know, patients every day, and so I introduce them to the thing. They want to know what I'm talking about, and say they do. And then you have to ask people that I have these YouTube stations. It's free information. I invite you to do to go there. I have cards that I give them, and I invite them to tell their friends, and that works very well for me. I think that sometimes we get a little shy. We don't want to brag, quote unquote. So we have to tell people that we have this information there. Ask them to do it. Your neighbors, your people from the civic organizations, your church members, and ask them just like you ask for business, would you subscribe to my channel and tell some friends to do it? And then ask them for good feedback, what they like and what they don't like. And you got to ask some people that, you know, are going to be honest with you so that they can tell you when they looked at one, what they didn't like about it and see if you can make changes. And you can also get, you know, digital ads and different things of that way to also attract some viewers.

Yeah, but you're right. The digital and organic reach, as you say, is much better. You're building a community rather than the broad-based advertising that reaches the anonymous people out there.

Right, right.

Now you've also, I think, have 4 books to your name. Just tell us a little bit, how are you getting to Write the books and are you self-publishing or do you have a publisher? What's your strategy for that?

I am self-publishing my books. And, and so I've done 4 books. My first book is on back pain. It became a bestseller when I did it on back pain. It's called Knockout Pain: Secrets to Maintain a Healthy Back. And I give people all kinds of practical tips of how they could treat back pain without surgery. And then recently I created a series because as I said, I'm a speaker and a coach. I needed materials to give to people. So I created a series called The Brag Factor. The first book focuses on what we don't like to talk about, goal setting. And yet we all, no matter what age we are, we don't like to sit down and put our goals to pen and pencil. And I have to tell you, it makes a big difference when you write down your goals, because then objectively you can look at them and see, are you moving from where you are to where you want to be? And what's holding you back? And there are really 4 main questions as it relates to your goals, Jim, that we get all overwhelmed about goals, but I have it down to 4 goals, 4 questions that if you ask yourself can help you move forward, whether it's a personal goal, professional, or spiritual, or what it is. What is it do you really want? What do you really want? But then you've got to ask yourself, why do you want it? Because it's that why that's gonna sustain us. Why do we want it? And then when do you want it? It has to have a timeframe. Otherwise, it's just something in the sky. And then most importantly, what's holding you back? Is it someone in your environment that's holding you back? That friend that's shrinking your ideas rather than stretching them as an entrepreneur? What's holding you back? Are you starting your day off wrong? Not doing any meditation, not keeping yourself healthy. Not staying focused. And then the last thing is how you're going to do it. A lot of times people want to start with, oh God, I can't do that because this is how I'm going to do it. No, stay focused on your why, because I find that if you stay focused on the why, that why will propel you to get to the how. And that's why it's important and writing it down. And then just briefly, I have a book for college students that teaches them how to do a 30-second brag so they could get internships and get jobs while they're in college and when they soon graduate. And then the third one in that series focuses on business people and professionals. I give templates on how you can create your 30-second brag for your company regarding your mission or you personally, how you want to introduce yourself to people. And it has assessments in it. To help you to know, is it your character? Do you have a character flaw? Is it something about your courage? Or are you not committed? Are you lacking confidence? It has assessments. That's how I've done in those books.

Dr. Winifred, I have to ask you one final question, which is you're already being of service to all these people getting your solutions for back pain and avoiding surgery. But why would a, you know, a surgeon who's plainly very busy dedicate themselves to teaching people how to communicate?

Because Jim, for me, I have learned in my journey and seen it with other people that I've coached, that communication is the key. It is the thing that can take you from where you are to where you want to be. When I look back on my life, the single most important skill that I learned is effective communication. Because even if you ask a question the right way, That's going to get you noticed in different environments. That when you can communicate confidently, you are going to have more confidence. And that's how you get better jobs. That's how you get better sales, more profits. And so my legacy now is to take the things that I've learned as a physician and a business person and to teach other entrepreneurs and business people how they can have it so that they can have a successful business. And it is communication that is the key. And that's why you need that effective 30-second brag so that people remember you.

Dr. Winifred Bragg, joining me all the way from Virginia. I am going to invoke your 5th, which is the gratitude. Thank you so much for sharing. And I love your answer to my final question. Thank you for joining me on the Unnoticed Entrepreneur Show.

Thank you, Jim, for having me.

It's been my pleasure, and I will put Dr. Winifred Bragg's details in the show notes. As always, if you've enjoyed the show, do share it with an entrepreneur. And if you have a chance to rate it on the player, that would also be wonderful. It all really helps us. We're very grateful to you, my fellow unnoticed entrepreneur, for listening to this, The Unnoticed Entrepreneur Show.