The Secret Lever To Success For Practice Owners

Hey everybody, Matt Gillogly with the Practice Profit System. And today what I'm gonna share with you is the secret lever to success for practice owners. Now, if you've listened or watched any of our videos or any of the podcasts over the month of July, you'll know that I spent a decent amount of time throughout the month of July talking about the 6 levers that you can control to to make your business, your practice profitable. And I really appreciate everybody's great comments about it. You know, those podcasts are by far some of the most downloaded podcasts that we've done. And so today, well, I did an interview on Friday afternoon with a friend of mine whose name is Donna White. Donna White does— she installs HR HRT programs for men and women in the practices. And she did, we did an interview about the 6 levers. And during that interview, I, quote unquote, shared the 7th lever. And I want to share that with you today. Now, this is, I want to put this into context, OK, because I think it's really, really important to do that on a regular basis. But let's just talk about the context of these levers. So if you haven't listened to the those podcasts or watched that video or seen any of this, the levers that I'm talking about is these are levers that you can pull and adjust in your business to make it grow on demand. Okay? Now, the levers are very much like the vital signs of a patient or the blood panel of a patient. So to put this again, to put this into context, imagine that you're working in the ER and let's say a patient comes in and they're comatose. They're, they were found on the side of the road. You know absolutely nothing about about them. You don't know any of their medical history. There's no family members. The EMTs bring them in, and they— this person is unconscious, non-responsive, and you are in charge of them. So what do you do, right? Well, there's a process and a protocol that you go through. Again, I've never worked in the ER. Closest I ever got was my first wife was an ER nurse. But we know what happens, right? You go in, you take— you're gonna check pulse, you're gonna look at Are their pupils dilated? Are, you know, we're gonna take blood pressure, we're gonna do a quick blood panel, we're gonna see what's going on, we're gonna get all this stuff back as quickly as we possibly can because that determines what the next steps are gonna be, okay? Well, these are the levers of helping somebody live when they come into the ER. It's the same thing if somebody comes in and let's say that they are responsive but they've got chest pains or whatever. You know, there's tests that you can run, there's all these things that you can do in order to check and see whether or not— What's going on with the patient and develop a plan of attack to fix the patient. This is what you do as doctors or as nurse practitioners or anybody in the medical field who has worked in these environments. This is what you do. You look at the vital signs. If you're working with a patient and you're just, let's say, in a family practice and this patient comes in and they want— and they get their blood panel done and they have high triglycerides or high cholesterol or low testosterone or whatever. You know what to do, right? The blood work doesn't lie. You know what to do because of your training and because of all of this. Well, that's what the 6 levers are, right? These 6 levers are the same levers in your business that once you understand what to look for, you can fix any business. It's why I've been able to work in 30 niches, 30 different industries on 5 continents and coach over 3,800 people successfully. Why? Because the levers to move your business, to make your business successful, are the same. I don't care if you're running a practice. I don't care if you're running a dry cleaner. I don't care what industry you're in. These levers are essentially the same. Okay. Now I'm not going to go through the 6 levers. I want you to go back and listen to the podcast if you hadn't had a chance to listen to those, but this is how, this is how simplistic this is. Well, there's a 7th lever. lever for doctors. Okay. And you could make the argument that these levers are for everybody, but really these are— there are— there's a 7th lever for doctors. And a reason why I'm calling this the 7th lever for doctors is because of the very basic concept that you as a doctor— and when I'm saying doctor, please understand, I understand that that means PAs, nurse practitioners, anybody in the medical field. Who wants to own a cash-based practice and have their own business. Okay, so this, this 7th lever— what is this 7th lever? Well, this 7th lever is, believe it or not, is you. Hold on a second, let me, let me explain this to you because I don't want you like clicking off right now and thinking, oh God, here we go. No, let's talk about what this really— what this 7th lever So you are a highly trained professional. As a medical professional, you are some of the most highly trained people in the entire world when it comes to their work. I know of very few groups of people that go through the amount of time, money, sacrifice, energy, social sacrifice, putting their future life on hold. I just started a new coaching client. He's 51 years old. He has a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old. Okay, he's just starting his first practice because he's been working for somebody else. And this is what I told him. And if, if you're listening to this, Robert, don't worry, I'm not going to share your last name. But this is what I told him. He is a highly trained pain med doc, very smart, you know, looking, looking at his, his pedigree, his background, he knows what he's doing, right? And what I told him is, I said, the biggest challenge you are going to have, Robert, is this right here. And not this when it comes to the medical side of things, but this when it comes to you learning how to grow your practice. You see, you spent no time learning business, and that's fine. That's— it's— well, it's a choice, right? It's fine that they didn't teach you that. in med school. But I'm here to tell you right now, if you have decided to open up your own practice or you have an existing practice and you spend— are spending more time learning the technical medical side of these things, you are spending your time in the wrong spot. You have to become proficient in business if you have your own practice. You don't have a choice. Yeah. There is zero choice for you. Once you make that decision to become— to own your own practice, you're doing it for a couple of reasons, right? You're doing it for the reasons specifically, probably because one, you, you're probably guising it in that you want to help people. And I get that. I want to help people too. It's why I've owned practices. It's why I own a practice today. I want to help people. I want people to feel better about themselves. When people— and I'm not even a doctor, right? I didn't even go to med school. I was a bartender in college. I was a golf pro, for God's sakes. But I want people to be happy. I want people to feel great. Okay, so when you decide that you're gonna have your own practice, you have to become proficient at business. It is a non-negotiable. You don't get to choose. You can't outsource it. You can't just hire an office manager who's gonna do it because you've got to learn the fundamentals of what it means to run a successful practice. It's like, I want you to think about it like this. I want you to imagine you have a patient in front of you that their A1C1 is 10. They have high cholesterol. They have high triglycerides. They are 120 pounds overweight. They don't have a choice. They have to lose the weight or they are going to be dead. It's that simple, right? Yeah, you can shove them full of pills, but are they really gonna get any better? Neuropathy's gonna kick in. They're gonna wind up having increased medical expenses. You are doing that patient a disservice if you don't have the frank conversation with them that, look, buddy, if you don't lose 100 pounds, you're gonna be dead by the time you're 65. And if you're not dead, you're gonna be stuck to a wheelchair because we've had to amputate one of your legs or both of your feet because we see it all the time, right? Well, that's the deal, by the way, with you and your business. See, that's why this is the 6th lever. It's you. You have to make a choice. And the choice is really simple in my book. If you want to, you're starting this practice because you want to help as many people as you possibly can, which, by the way, some of the people that you want to help the most are your spouse and your children. You're not doing this so that you can make $50,000 a year. Let's be honest. You're doing this because You might be saying to yourself, oh, I'm doing this because I can help so many people and I really, I want to give people options. Yeah, great. You also want to make some money, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, the sooner you readily admit this, that you want to make some money, the better you're going to be. Look, I like making money. I enjoy what it provides to me, okay? I've struggled. You know, you hear people say, I've had a with, and I've been without, and I'll take with. And I agree with it. There's nothing worse than struggling in business. There's nothing worse. And so what has to happen is you have to make a decision that you are going to learn how to run a business. And there's— there is— there are hundreds of thousands of books, some of them are right here on my, on my, you know, bookshelf. Yeah, next to the humidor, by the way. Um, so, but you can choose. You can go on Amazon, you can find these books, you can watch and listen to videos or podcasts like I provide. There's, there are, there is a plethora of people out there that can show you how to run a successful business. They don't have to, by the way. Have owned a practice. Now, why would I say that? That, that could be bad for your business. No, because I want to help you. Okay, here's what I have found out. Here's what I have found out. Well, when I first started and I wanted to become an entrepreneur, and I will never forget this, in fact, I'll tell this story right now. So, um, I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. And I remember having to write an essay to get into Ferris State University in the professional golf management program. At that time, there was only one school that had the professional golf management program, maybe 2. And I really wanted to go there. And so I wrote this handwritten essay of why I wanted to go to Ferris. And my dream at the time was I either wanted to own golf courses or I wanted to own a fleet of golf schools, or I wanted to be a leader and executive within, within the golf industry. OK. I wanted to be the absolute best. And I remember sitting there in that Ferris State and the admissions officer reading it and his eyebrows going up like this. And he's like, we normally don't see something like this. How do you plan on getting to that place? How do you plan on educating yourself? And I said, well, that's why I'm here. I'll do whatever it takes. I'll do whatever I have to do in order to learn the skills necessary. I knew at that time that I was not going to make a name for myself in the golf industry by my playing ability. While I'm a very good player, while I'm a 7 handicap right now, for those of you that don't play golf, I shoot in the low 80s. Because I, you know, because of that, but I knew that my future was in the business side of things. And so I took business classes, I learned, and then as I started my first business, Okay. I read books. That's all I could afford at the time is I read books. I started with Rich Dad Poor Dad, and then I read Multiple Streams of Income, and then I went to a seminar, and then I paid for coaching, and then I mentored under people and I apprenticed under people, and I learned what it took to run a successful entrepreneurial endeavor. I did the work. And so the 7th lever— now, before I really just clearly state it for you, you see, for me, the ingredient that comes before the 7th lever— well, I'll just call this the 7th lever because it'll be easier for you all to remember— is you've got to be all in. You have to be all in. Which means that if your business is struggling, it's not because you need to go get another machine. It's not because you need to go get another bit of training. I had a client, former client, he's a former client, and he was opening up his practice. He was taking forever. And I'm like, look, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, get this done, get this done, get this done, get this done. Talk to me in two weeks. Okay, and he comes back and I go, "So what'd you get done?" He goes, "Oh well, I went and got this great training about this procedure using oxygen therapy." And all I could think of was, "Did you do anything with as it relates to these other things to get open?" Oh no no no no no no no no! Because I know this is really going to be the thing, and I won't mention his name. I'll call him Earl. Like Earl. You're not gonna make it. You are not going to make it. You're focusing on the wrong thing. You think the success of your practice is dependent upon your medical ability. The success of your practice is about you willing to take the sacrifices and to learn the skillset to be a successful businessman. That's the 7th lever. You can't outsource this. No one else is going to focus on this and do as great a job as you are going to do. Does that mean that you have to run everything? No. I teach my clients how to take 4-day or 3-day weekends on a regular basis. I teach them how to take a week off every quarter, okay? And their businesses thrive. So here's my question for you today. Are you all in? Are you really all in? Are you really willing to do the work to, to learn from somebody who has done it before you, to really learn and understand how to have a successful, profitable practice that makes you money It pays you a quarter of a million dollars a year in personal income at a bare minimum and allows you to take a week off every single quarter. Are you willing to do the work? Now, I know you have the ability to do the work. You've been to med school. You've done the work. You didn't think you couldn't get through organic chemistry, or you didn't think you could get through biology, or you didn't think that you could get through residency, but yet you did. What did you do? You pushed yourself. You just said, I have to do this. And that's what it takes for you to be a successful practice owner. You have to do the work. You've gotta be this— you've gotta be the one that's gonna do the studying. You've gotta be the one that's gonna go in and learn how to do this. And whether it's from me or whether it's from a book, I hope it's me because I'd love to work with you. But you've got to do the work. I'm gonna leave you with this. I made a post last week on my page, and I put a post on there about this, a little bit about this topic. And what I did was I said, hey, I'm interested, and I want to host a free 2-day event about how to grow your practice. All you gotta do is come here to Charlotte, which is where I live. It's a hub for American Airlines. You can fly here from 85— direct from 85% of the country. And Southwest fly— flies here as well. And you want to know how many people said yeah? You want to know how many doctors said yeah, I'm interested? Zero. That's sad to me because they'd rather take their weekend and go learn more about oxygen therapy or hormone replacement therapy, something that they already know. than they would about how to truly run a successful practice. So are you all in? Because that's the 7th lever. That's the secret. That is the secret. You gotta be all in. Oh, and by the way, it's what takes for success in just about every single endeavor. If you were half-assing it while you're in med school, would you have graduated? No. No, you were all in. And I want you to be all in. I hope this lifts you up today. Hope this gives you a kick in the arse, as we'd like to say up in Chicago. Because it's your choice, it's not mine. I've already run my successful practices. We're investing in practices again, and they're going to be successful because we know what it takes. But I'd like to work with you. I'd like to show you the way. Your call, your choice. If you'd like to learn more, you can always check us out at srpmedicalmarketing.com. That's srpmedicalmarketing.com. Have a wonderful day. We'll talk to you soon. See y'all. Bye.