EP008: The First Hundred Patients with David Bennett

Welcome to the Perfect Practice Podcast where we share the most innovative strategies to help you build a successful functional medicine business, attract your ideal patients, serve your community, and get paid what you're worth. Each episode is packed with practical steps that you can take to immediately grow your influence and serve more people. Our mission is to share golden nuggets from successful practitioners, technology experts and innovators from around the world. Your host, Sachin Patel is a functional medicine success coach, international speaker and best selling author. He's calling in all his favors to bring this information to you so you can create your perfect practice.

Hi everyone, this is Satchin Patel and welcome to a exciting episode of Perfect Practice. Today I'm going to be discussing the first hundred patients. That's the topic of our conversation. Today. I've got a very special guest, one of my colleagues and somebody who I've worked with over the last year or so, Dr. David Bennett. David, thank you for being here today. I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to join us and to share what you've learned transitioning from chiropractic into a wellness and functional medicine based clinic. So welcome.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate you having me on.

Awesome. So staying true to the topic for today, what I'd like to do is start with your story. So starting out, you and I went to school together. We were part of the same graduating class at New York Chiropractic College. So we go way back and we've reconnected over the last couple of years or so as you've transitioned from and incorporated really functional medicine into your practice. So I'd like to take the listeners on a bit of a journey so they get an understanding of where you started, where you are now, some of the obstacles that you may have encountered, the mental, emotional relationship, fatherhood, whatever challenges you've encountered along the way, maybe you can incorporate some of those so that people who are listening can really get to understand that there's never a perfect path to this journey. But somebody who's totally dedicated and devoted to making it happen can make it happen. So let's start off with where you were just a few years ago and maybe the first time you heard about functional medicine, well, that probably would have.

Been back in about 2012. Know, just probably like a lot of people listening to this, you sit there and you've got a lot of knowledge, you've got, you've done nutrition for a long time from basically from coming out of school. And you're at a point where you want to Take it a little further. And then I don't even remember exactly how, but ran across Functional Medicine University, joined that program, got the certification in that back in 2014. And, and from there just. I had a lot of the training, just like a lot of people listening, have a lot of training, a lot of knowledge. But I was working in chiropractic practice, had just opened the second office, and, you know, trying to get out of the model of insurance reimbursement and get into somewhere where I could help more people and do that. And then you have all this knowledge, but you don't know what to do with it. You're not a marketer, you're not a computer guru, so you're sort of just sitting there saying, what am I going to do? Why aren't these people walking through my front door? And you're stuck. And that's where I was until about a year and a half ago.

Okay, So a big challenge that a lot of people face is marketing and messaging. And the thing with functional medicine is very obvious to the person that gets it and certainly the person who's taken the training. And you're just kind of pulling your hair out, wondering, why doesn't everyone else get it? But the missing link is people actually don't know what it is that you do. And not having any training, formal training, at least in our school, to be marketers and messengers and essentially practicing within the premise of delivering a commodity. Right? Because chiropractic is a commodity that you can kind of shop around. And of course, everybody person is different. The services, all those things are different. I get that. But from a consumer standpoint, the consumer at least has a working understanding of what the word chiropractic means. Most of the time it's wrong, but at least there's a working understanding, working definition. Whereas with functional medicine, people are just like, what the heck is that? So what did people say? Like, what did your patients say? Or what did your wife say? What did your other colleagues say when you started telling them about functional medicine? Because I'm sure you couldn't contain yourself.

When I told my wife I was going to go get the certification program, she was just sort of, okay, more education, that's great. I mean, she's grown up in a chiropractic family. Her grandfather, her father, There's a long history there. So the more education, all the better. But then her ultimate question was, what are you going to do with this when you're done? How are you going to use this? How are you going to implement this because since the practice had been established for a long time, the patient base was used to what was happening in the practice. A little bit of nutrition, a little bit of chiropractic, and there really wasn't a strong base to build off of there because it was an aging client base as well. So taking the coursework was all well and good, but when I tried to introduce it to the patient base in the first location near Philadelphia, very difficult introduction. So basically I looked at myself. I said, okay, the new office, we're building a whole new patient base. That's good. Just like, you know, coming out of school. So in the Philadelphia office, we're going to have to do the same thing. We're going to look at it as, there's no patient base for functional medicine. Let's get this ball rolling. But then you're sitting there saying to yourself, how am I doing this? What am I going to do? How do I do Facebook? How do I do Twitter? How do I do, you know, webcast, podcasts, webinars, even live workshops? What am I going to do? And that's where I was at. And that was the biggest challenge. You know, where to start, where to go, because, you know, in the past, you run advertising in the paper, you want a few little advertisements on Facebook, and the feedback was not good at all. So that's where we were at. My wife was behind me in the process. But you have to be ready to take that step. The training's there. Most of us have the training or we're getting the training. So you just need to take that final little leap of, where am I going with this?

I think it's important for practitioners to understand that it's important to build the front end of your business, not spend all your time building the back end. So what I mean by that is the back end is the clinical training. And it's great to have clinical training because that's where your confidence comes from. That's where people are relying on you and leaning on you. That's the service that you're selling. But if you keep building the back end without building the front end, which is how do people hear about you? How do people walk through the door? And then there's going to be a lopsided business, and it's getting people through the door, that's what generates revenue so that you can continue to fund your business and, you know, and really get it off the ground and also deliver on the promise that you're making to people. So what did you find initially was Your most effective marketing strategy, what did you find was ineffective and what have you kind of solidified as your consistent strategy moving forward?

Well, it's pretty much all one in the same. I don't have a problem going out and speaking to groups. You know, we were doing adult evening school at some of the local high schools is just basically a pro bono, community service type thing. There was no really, you know, come on in afterwards, it was like, here's my card, you know, have a good night, hope you learned something. So I jumped right into workshops, specifically the autoimmunity one. And again, that's where, you know, based on where I was at, I didn't have time with the two practices to say, you know, okay, let me write this PowerPoint, let me get these automations, let me get these emails out to people, reminders, text messaging and all that. Because you're sitting there and you're saying, okay, I'm seeing patients every day and how am I going to get all this done? And so I jumped right in onto the autoimmune workshops. And we did a couple early last spring. You know, they went well, but it wasn't a matter of an overwhelming, you know, tidal wave coming in. So I'm sitting here and I'm saying to myself, you know, why wasn't this going? And it had to do with not so much the people who I was talking to. It had to do with me and my presentation. Just like you're sitting in an audience, you have to be ready to do and ready to act. And that's just like whoever you're listening to this podcast, you're listening to this, you have to be ready to take the step. So what we did was we jumped it up. We did maybe four or five workshops at community centers last year, last spring, last fall, we did three or four more. This year, I think we have 24 on the books to do. So in the first quarter, we've reached last year's workshops and almost the same level of talking to people, or, excuse me, half the level of people talking, talking to people in a quarter versus a year. And that's been the most beneficial to me because I love the talk and I love to get the feedback from the people that I'm sitting and are sitting in the audience.

Awesome. And you're an attorney, which means your mind is going to be very logical. So I'm sure your presentations are very logical and people get them. So, you know, initially, a lot of practitioners, if you're listening to this, you might be nervous about going out there and speaking with people. Fortunately for David, he had a background in speaking. He's already doing that. And this kind of proves my point. I think the ability to be a public speaker can help you in so many different areas of your life. So you took the public speaking training, or, you know, experience that you had with the night classes, and then that immediately became applicable into your functional medicine practice. Correct. And so public speaking is such a powerful skill, and it's one that you develop over time. You get better and better. I mean, I just taught a training last night. David was on that training as well. He's part of my mentorship group, and my mind was blown. And we learned some amazing things about public speaking. And I've given over 300 talks. I'm sure David's given several hundred talks now, and we all learn something new. Everyone on that call learned something new. And it's just amazing that you can just continuously develop the skill and you never get bored of it. And the cool thing about public speaking is that it's a talent and a skill that puts food on your table. So the better you get at it, the more food you put on your table and the more revenue you drive into your business because you become a more effective communicator of this very powerful message. Functional medicine, because it's such a powerful message, deserves people who can powerfully present it. I commend you. And it's not an easy thing to step out of your comfort zone. So I, on behalf of all us functional medicine practitioners out there, I honor you for doing that.

Well, thank you. Just a little side note, when I was an attorney, I was always talking about somebody else and what they did or didn't do. But now the comfort zone had to change, because now it was about me. It was about my office, my livelihood, and my passion, really. So just like anybody, you have to take that step and get out of that comfort zone, because the comfort zone keeps changing as you keep going. You know, like you were talking about the webinars and podcasts. This wasn't my comfort zone. You know, I've tried a webinar in the past. Wasn't really, because I feed off an audience. Just like, you know, you get that energy from the audience. So doing the webinar was very difficult. And so I'm stepping out of my comfort zone right now doing this podcast.

Awesome. And you're right, the comfort zone does keep changing. So what was uncomfortable last month might seem easy once you've done it, and then the comfort zone changes. So you Just keep pushing the boundaries. The next elevation for you might be a summit. Right? Summit review. The next elevation from there might be a stage that you get to share with some awesome people. So there's this continuous progression and evolution of your public speaking that takes you on bigger and bigger stages. So it's, it's pretty cool to see that. With that being said, what were some of the challenges? You know, I'm sure it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows putting on workshops. What are some of the things that you learned along the way that you could pass along? You know, put yourself in the shoes of somebody who hasn't done this. What are some things that they should be mindful of?

Well, I think the number one thing you need to be mindful of is that your audience has to be ready. They have to be in the position to do what you're asking them to do, to accept the information, to digest the information, to act on the information. Because if the audience isn't ready, no matter what you put on as a presentation, it really, they're not there. They are not taking the information in and acting on it. So that's because I've run workshops where there's been high registration and very low turnout, you know, but that I remember the one from about a year ago. One person turned out for the presentation. They got a wonderful presentation and they were, they were, you know, it was directed to them. They were ready and off we went. But that's the one key takeaway. And the other one is the more you do them, the more fun they become. You know, I have next two weekends are scheduled, you know, looking forward to them. There's no apprehension anymore. It's like, okay, let's go, let's see how many people we can talk to. Because you never know where the message is going to land. Whether it's a neighbor, a friend, or the person coming back a year later to the same workshop because they remember the message and they're still in this, they still need more. They're not there, but now they're at that position.

Right. Can you talk about maybe your long game strategy? What do you do with people who registered and didn't show up or even the people who registered and came and didn't sign up for care. What's your follow up strategy with them?

That goes back to a lot of the material from your mentorship, the automations in the background, the back office material that, you know, unless I picked up the phone or receptionist picked up the phone or we sent an email, wasn't there. So what we do now is, and just it's very simple process, the automation is there. If the person registers for the workshop, they go into an automation that, you know, reminds them to come. And then the, the morning of the workshop or a few hours before they get a text message reminder saying, hey, remember your workshops at 11 o', clock, you know, and the address. So that has increased the number of people coming to the workshop who registered. But if they register and don't show up, they go into a separate automation which basically says, you know, sorry you couldn't make it. Here's an interesting article to read. Here's an opportunity, here's a link to go and schedule a discovery call. If you want a little more information, here's a link to. I don't remember exactly what it is. I think it's a part of our blog on our website. And then finally it puts them into an automation of 30 videos, just like you have. We did very similar, you know, the health coach did a couple. The woman who works for us doing yoga and meditation, she did one. And we're going to redo those this year because they were a first attempt at videos. You know, I realized that every time I did a video, it was the exact same background in the exact same office, same location that I was getting bored of when I looked at. So that's where the person who misses goes, the person who attends goes into a very similar automation and gets those same videos. And the person who schedules a consultation goes into an entirely separate automation where they get some background material. They don't necessarily immediately go into the 30 days and 30 ways videos for.

Help tips and so how many times did you have to set that up?

Well, thanks to you, not a lot. It's always, you're always playing with it and tweaking it. But I just heard it last night on that webinar. You know, you don't spend 10,000 hours doing something when somebody else has already done it and you can get that material. You know, I couldn't have sat down and done that from start to finish. I wouldn't even have known where to start. Wouldn't have known, you know, activecampaign. What is that? So, you know, without that guidance and without that, you know, format, I'd still be sitting, just like a lot of people are sitting, listening to this podcast saying, what am I gonna do? Like, how do I do this? What do I do? You gave the basic, the very detailed, I should say foundation to get that implemented.

Awesome. I appreciate you sharing and Mentioning that, I think a big thing for a lot of people to recognize is that once David set this up, the foundation's in place. So now that house has already kind of been built and he just decides what path people go down based on the actions that they take. And that 30 and 30, you've just got to set that up once and you've got this amazing, you know, content that goes out to people to build rapport with them, to get them to know you a little bit better. And how has the response been to that? Do you get emails coming in from people like telling you how thankful they are or questions coming in? Does it promote engagement with your audience members that go through it?

It does promote some engagement. A lot of times I'll get people who actually come to the workshop because we also offer it as a click through from our website. You can just register there or, you know, I'll put it on Facebook and they'll say, oh yeah, I remember you talking about gargling or I remember you talking about, you know, of all things, bowel movements. Bowel movement seems to be the big winner on the videos talks. But yeah, it does get engagement and it does, you know, open up an avenue of communications even for the people who aren't ready to stay in front of them. I mean, I've taken it, you know, a little further then the 30 days we go out 36 months, once a month thereafter and really all it is are articles from my blog on our webpage just taken and put into an email to those people just to stay in front of them, stay relevant. You know, at the end it always says, you know, if you'd like to talk to us, you know, you can give us a call or you know, here's an email if you have any questions. So it's staying relevant and staying in front of the person rather than disappearing.

Right. And you're keeping that door open. And what you'll find, I mean your practice is maturing, but what you'll find is that people who don't use your services now typically don't get better. It's not like they're going somewhere else and getting miraculously healed and their life is transformed. Usually what happens is their life gets unfortunately a little bit worse. And at that point, because you've been consistently staying in front of these individuals, you're going to be top, what we call top of mind awareness. And the beautiful thing is that once you've implemented this stuff, which you've got 36 months worth of content that goes out to Them, you're staying in front of that person or anyone that comes through your process. And the beautiful thing is this is part of your front end and it's part of your back end. So automation kind of seeps into both sides of your business. It helps you bring people in and nurture these people and educate them and teach them what you're about, but then it also helps them on the back end. So how have you used automation in your practice? For once somebody becomes a patient, can you talk to that a little bit?

Well, we always did electronic calendaring. The patient could go in and schedule their own appointments chiropractically and for functional medicine. So what I did was set up automations based on what I learned from setting up the original ones. That when a patient can go in and schedule, they'll go in and cancel themselves or move themselves around. So if they cancel, they go put. They get put into an automation that's for a canceled patient. It waits about six hours to give them a little chance to reschedule. And then it goes through that automation of every 24 hours. I think it's for four days saying, hey, here you go. Did you forget? Need to reschedule your appointment? And then at the end of the four days, if they haven't, it sends an email to me saying, you know, John Smith hasn't rescheduled, give him a call. And if they do reschedule, it automatically kicks them out of that automation. So it's out. Like, there's no thinking about it, there's no waiting. Okay, the receptionist has to call this. It's, it's automated until we get to a point where they haven't rescheduled. So we do that. New, new patients the same way. They're immediately new chiropractic, new functional medicine. They have their own automations and they go through those automations with, here's the information. Oh, by the way, here's the intake form. Please fill it out in advance. Here's the, you know, now we just went to an online form so they can fill it out electronically and it comes back with a signature. But it's taken a lot of the paperwork and the phone calls and the, oh, here, let me give you this intake paperwork. The chiropractic get their intake paperwork, they get their consents. So it's taken a lot of the front end out of the equation and people like it. It's tough to get five voicemails. It's easy to get one email and say, oh, okay, my appointment's here. Or the text Reminder the day before. Oh, remember, you have an appointment tomorrow, 9 o'.

Clock.

It's a wonderful way to deal with it.

Absolutely. And I always say that people with minds shouldn't be doing mindless work. So this takes the mindless work out of it. And that way people that you hire, you can leverage them to actually build or create something instead of reminding people to fill out their forms. Right. We do that kind of stuff. So it's awesome to see the way you've implemented automation into your practice. One of the things that I wanted to bring up and talk about too is something that I've been spending a lot of time focusing on and just kind of re categorizing and reorganizing my life. And that is what I learned from Joe Polish, which is the half versus elf. So for those of you that are unfamiliar with that, HAP stands for hard, annoying, lame and frustrating. And ELF stands for easy, lucrative and fun. And this could be people, it could be projects, it could be circumstances, situations, whatever they may be. But I wanted to ask you first, what did you find through this process was hard, annoying, lame and frustrating? And then we'll talk about what you found to be easy, lucrative and fun. So let's start with, with half.

Half was probably getting up to speed technology wise. And, you know, so, okay, now camera, microphone, you know, better phone to be able to make the videos, because you don't need a ton to make the videos for the 30 or 10 or whatever you're doing, you just need your phone. But just getting up to speed with that background, because I don't like to spend a ton of time doing that, that was probably the hardest thing. Yeah, just like, you know, it's like you get, all of a sudden you're opened UP and there's 20 new programs that will make your life easier. But you got to, even though you don't want to start from scratch, you still have to understand the program, Right.

You got to understand the moving parts of it, right?

Absolutely.

Like, it's like jumping into a new car. Right. You got to know where all the buttons are. So it, it's good to be able to implement these things. But everyone listening to this has to understand there is a learning curve to any software. The only way to eliminate the learning curve is to outsource some things. So maybe you can talk about what are some things that you were taking on initially yourself and then have outsourced to somebody else.

Well, initially I was taking on everything, you know, just, you know, you look at yourself in the Mirror and say, you know, I'm a solo practitioner. You're sitting here listening to this podcast. You're in this. You're there, but don't know what to do. So I was doing it all myself, which is not beneficial for your stress level, which is not beneficial for your overall family life. So, you know, with some guidance from the group and from yourself, different avenues were opened up that allowed me to, you know, let's go out and get a design team to do a logo and an introduction for the videos instead of just being, you know, blank screen. Then all of a sudden I'm there and let's, you know, okay, let's put some music behind it. Or, you know, then it was like, okay, am I going to be dealing with this? No, with the health coaching, you know, I can say, let's do this, but am I going to see them or talk to them every two weeks? So we brought a health coach on board, and then because I was finding more mindfulness and stress reduction needed, we brought a teacher of yoga and meditation and mindfulness on board. So now it's all part of our program. So you don't have to do any thinking, really, outside of. Okay, I shouldn't say it that way. You do have to do some thinking in the respects of you set this up. But then when the patient or client comes in, they're moving right along. It's not my. I'm not right on top of them every day.

Right.

The health coaches involved, the mindfulness and meditate. They're involved. And feedback and back and forth and, you know, private Facebook group and things like that to facilitate communication. So there's been a lot of areas that we've outsourced. I'll say. But, you know, because I could have never done them. Nobody in my office could have.

Right. What are you finding now is easy, lucrative, and fun for you? What are the things you enjoy doing?

I love doing the workshops.

Yeah.

I mean, they're. One of the calls that we're going to make this afternoon is we have another location. We're going to set up some more for the fall and get ahead of the curve, get the dates that we really want. So you just have to take the steps and make the move. Yeah.

Now, for somebody who's, you know, nervous about public speaking and being someone who's so comfortable about it, what. What is a couple of pearls that you could share with us to help people overcome that.

You know, just like the gentleman last night said, it's not about you, it's about the Audience, you know, where they're at, where they're coming from. So you have to understand that. And they are as nervous as you walking into a workshop. What am I going to hear? What is going to go on? Like, what's. Is there going to be a hard sell? Like, you know, because I've been through the presentations before, different things. Hard sell, soft sell, no sell, information. You just have to get up and do it. That's the best advice. And I know it's not the greatest advice. That's not what a lot of people want to hear, but you just have to go do it. Because you're just talking to people who are in the same situation who are searching for an answer to their problem. And you probably have the answer right.

And the last time I checked, nobody died from public speaking or being in the audience, you know, at an event. So I think the biggest story and lies that we tell ourselves are originating from within ourselves. It's an important skill to develop, and you only develop it by actually doing it. And getting out of your comfort zone helps you recognize that it's actually not that comfortable. And, you know, David, you're doing a great job, and you're probably getting more and more comfortable as you're doing this. And by the time we're done this, you're like, man, that wasn't so bad. Like, when's the next one?

That's right. I mean, I stepped out of the comfort zone with another healthcare practitioner a couple weeks ago. Did a Facebook live, basically on what the office does to their clients. Again, big step out. Watch the video afterwards. Was not all that thrilled. But it's out there. And that's it. That's what you have to do. You have to take the step.

Absolutely. So, you know, what do you wish you knew? Maybe you can give us three things in closing here that you wish you knew three years ago that you know now that you would like to pay forward and let other people know.

Probably the number one thing we go back to the public speaking. Get out there, get out there, get out there. More and more and more people want to hear the message. So just put yourself out there. The second is that there is a way to implement a functional medicine practice without starting from scratch. You know, you can't start it from scratch unless you're willing to hire a programmer and this and hire 15 people and build it up from the basis of knowledge. You know, I wish I would have had your mentorship, you know, in 2014 when I got the certification, because then we'd be years ahead of where we're at. And the third is, and I always go back to this with everything, you can be the best clinician in the world, but if that door isn't opening or that phone isn't ringing, you're not servicing your community. You're not helping your community. Because there's a lot of people who want the message who have. They don't even realize the message is out there. The question I get the most often is, what is functional medicine? We're going right down to the basics. What is this? So just put yourself out there.

Awesome. Great advice. And you're definitely leading with these actions. You're not just talking about them. I see you doing them on a weekly basis. So I'm personally of how you've evolved as a practitioner. I know that, you know, there's many things that you've done that have been outside your comfort zone, and you continue to push yourself. Always excited to see your involvement in the group and your contribution to the group. So I want to thank you and acknowledge you for that. And, you know, once again, thanks for sharing all this great information. And if you have any closing words that you'd like to share, the stage is yours.

I want to say thank you for having me on. Thank you for helping me get out of my comfort zone again. I seem to be, you know, breaking down little barriers about every two or three weeks anymore with where I'm comfortable and going. But without your knowledge and your guidance and the mentorship, I would still be sitting in my office probably listening to this podcast saying, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? How do I get the door to open? How do we get the phone to ring? So you just have to take that leap. You know, get over your fear, get over the phobias you have, and just take the leap and do it. Because without the mentorship, I would still be on the other end of this podcast.

And here you are. Awesome. Since you mentioned your website, and I'm very, very excited to share with everyone. So why don't you let everyone know what your website address is so that they can check out some of the things that you've built out. Sure.

It's www.empowered livinginst.com. and again, that was another aspect that came out of the program. You know, rebuilding that to more of a. An interactive experience versus just this, you know, static. Here I am. You know, here's our office hours and here's a link to schedule an appointment. So, again, thank you.

My pleasure. So you went from having a glorified business card to actually having an interactive website that continues to generate leads for you on a daily, if not more than that basis. Probably get multiple leads a day. And continues to nurture people for the.

Next three years and continues to evolve as well. It's not stagnant any longer.

Right. It's something that never is done. Right. Your website's never quite done.

Exactly.

It's important that people recognize that. So thank you so much again, David. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, your wisdom, and being vulnerable and kind of sharing some of the ups and downs that you went through and coming through the other end and continuing to climb the mountain. It's great to see how you've evolved as a practitioner and functional medicine speaker and also evolving your speaking skills and taking them to the next level. So thank you once again.

Thank you.