EP011: Top Concierge Functional Medicine Practice with Susan Wilder

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.

Hello. Hello and welcome to an exciting episode of Perfect Practice. Today with me, I have a very special guest, Dr. Susan Wilder. Susan is the CEO and founder of Lifescape Premier, which is a concierge medical practice, Arizona. And she's super, super awesome. I'm super excited to share her with you today. Her wealth of knowledge is quite amazing, and I met her at Genius Network, which means I know that she has an abundance mindset and I feel that as well. So it's not just who we see and where we see people, but it's the energy that they emit as well. So welcome to this episode. Susan.

So happy to be here. Thanks. Sure.

And thank you for taking time out of your busy day and sharing your experiences and, you know, the things that you've done in practice that have made you super successful. But also I'd like to cover some of the things that you feel were important learning junctures for you as well. So why don't we start off by getting to know you a little bit better and then we'll dive into your practice and how it operates.

Wow. I was in academic medicine for the first 14 years of my career, first through the Air Force, and then as the residency director at the Mayo Clinic here in Scottsdale. And I got to the point myself where I was burned out on multiple occasions, had fibromyalgia, had chronic fatigue, was just exhausted, had hormonal issues. I was a holy mess. And I was realizing all my patients were holy messes and, you know, thinking, why is it every, you know, woman I'm taking care of needs to go on antidepressants at some point in time? And why are all these kids popping up with attention deficit, including all three of my girls? And, you know, it's just sort of a whole culmination of things. And I was really frustrated with the practice of medicine. So as a residency director, I was seeing patients 80% of the time running a brand new residency program. Over seven years and seeing more and more patients in less time, while the complexity of all these patients was getting greater and greater. So to me, the whole thing was, I call it prescription for disaster. So I was going on my personal health journey and also my medical career journey, and with my husband, who's a jd, MBA and a brilliant entrepreneur in his own right, he and I met with a guy by the name of Len Berry, who's an emeritus professor of marketing at Texas A and M and guru of service and industry. And he was studying Mayo as a six month sabbatical service in medicine. And he and I just hit it off. We agreed on everything and we finally came to the conclusion that, hey, we needed to start our own patient centered practice and really see if we could do this right. The same time someone referred me to Dr. Kathy Fry, who's a local gynecologist and MDH homeopath here in the Valley, who ran some testing on me that completely changed my health and got me on the path of functional medicine. Now that's 15, 15 years ago. The rest is history.

That's awesome. Now, I see you've trained with some pretty impressive people like Deepak Chopra, Dr. Daniel Amen, Tony Robbins, Mark Hyman. So you've really got your hands dirty, so to speak, in this industry by really being in the trenches and learning from some of the most amazing people from multiple disciplines. Right, so Deepak Chopra, Daniel Amen, Tony Robbins. That's quite a list of people to learn from.

Well, you know, I mean, I've been going to functional medicine conferences over 15 years. So that was back when it was Mark Hyman and. Oh my gosh, I'm blanking on.

Probably Dr. Bland, I would assume Dr.

Bland, Jeffrey Bland, the most brilliant man I've ever met in my life, I think. And there would be like maybe 30 people in the room. You know, it was a really tiny, tiny thing when first started. And a lot of people, especially my, especially some of my former colleagues, really thought it was pretty flaky. But, you know, it was so life changing for me. And then I started, you know, and you know, Tony Robbins has a great psychology construct called his human needs psychology that he's developed over you know, working, you know, over working with millions and millions of people. And he says that everybody is driven by six core needs. And if you know what your top two needs are, then you can better motivate people. If you know what people's top two needs are, you can help them better. And you can also evaluate opportunities and things based on your needs. And one of my core needs is growth and one is significance, the need to make an impact. So I have to be constantly learning and, you know, surrounding myself with people who are far more brilliant than I. So that, you know, hoping that a little. In fact, I was wearing my Genius network T shirt the other day to work out and somebody said, you know, one of the trainers said, oh, does that mean you're a genius? And I said, no, I just like to be surrounded by him. Yeah. So, you know, when I get into something like meditation or whatever, I'm gonna go to who I think is the expert and really try to drill down and understand it.

Well, I definitely think that you're on a trajectory for continued growth, especially with that mindset and surrounding yourself with important people in the sense of people who can be really important in transforming the way you look at the world, your business, your practices. The fact that you're in Genius Network means you've got a huge vision for the years ahead. So why don't we talk a little bit more about your practice and what the big overarching mission is of it.

So Lifescape, we started initially 15 years ago trying to create a patient centered practice in an insurance centered payer system. And that was another prescription for disaster, unfortunately. And you know, trying to practice functional medicine in, you know, a hit and run volume based payment system just I found really impossible. And hats off to those providers out there that are really trying to do it, including my team of advanced care professionals who run our insurance based practice that we continue. Ten years ago we started, we added, I call it adding first class to the airline by adding a hybrid concierge model to the practice. And really it supports our overarching mission, which is being patient centered and letting you know, having options for all patients and different price points. And our overarching mission is to inspire and empower health transformation. You know, we are not in the business of, quote, managing chronic disease, end quote. I mean, to me, that is the biggest travesty of American medicine today. We are about actually changing and transforming people's health. And if we're doing our job right, we're taking problems off of problem lists and taking meds and supplements off the list. You know, I train naturopaths and allopathic docs, and we train psychologists, psychiatrists, you name it. And I tell the naturopaths, look, you know, we went down a sorry path as allopathic physicians by throwing prescriptions at every symptom. But you get on the same sorry path if all you're doing is throwing a whole barrage of IVs and supplements at every symptom, you know, our jobs really should be moving people towards optimal health without all the crutches.

Absolutely. And I would say that the single fastest way to advance medicine is to dissolve all egos and realize that, you know, we are all one. And, you know, when the patient wants what the doctor wants and the doctor wants what the patient wants, I think it's a really huge win win opportunity. I would imagine that starting out wasn't the easiest thing to do, especially since you were blazing this trail from many, many years ago. It's easier now than ever before, even though I hear a lot of practitioners complaining about it. But it must have been very challenging back in those days to really get the practice off the ground. So what would you say was, besides your core values and your authenticness and your real passion to help people, what were some of the things that you felt you did that allowed your practice to flourish?

Well, I think you hit the nail on the head with the first and foremost, most important thing, which is being value centered, and that is understanding the core values of your patients. But also our own core values, which were excellence and integrity and honesty. And patients wanted comprehensiveness and convenience and, you know, and also they want to get well. They don't want to just be medicated forever. They may struggle to change the lifestyle, things which we all do, but I think that the things that have given us, finally, great success. And I will tell you, I went for 10 years making next to nothing. It was a. We really struggled and started that concierge practice right before the recession hit, you know, and most of our patients were, you know, bank executives and realtors and construction, you know, etc. So we were ground zero for that. But we've survived and thrived because we've stayed true to our mission. We've stayed value centered. Everything we do, we bounce it against. Is this in the best interest of the patient? Is this, you know, concurrent with our values? And then we just really try to go above and beyond truly caring for patients. When I was this, I was the medical director for a year for an organization called Concierge Choice Physicians. And so I interviewed many, many physicians who were interested in making this transition to concierge medicine. And. And many of them were in it for. This would be a nice glide path to retirement, or I'd like to travel more, or I'm thinking I'll have more free time. And if it's about me, me, me, you May do okay for a year or two, but you're not going to survive. Our retention rate is over 95%. And for the last several years, Concierge medicine today has Lithium listed Lifescape in the top 25 concierge practices in the country. Because I think of our values focus, and we just work so hard to deliver value for our patients.

I think you again hit the nail on the head. It's super important that whoever is listening to this pay attention to what she just said, maybe even rewind the last two minutes of what Dr. Wilder said. Because when you're patient focused, customer focused, and you over deliver, service is the cheapest thing to over deliver on. That's one thing that we have to remember. We're in the service industry and it's so affordable for us to over deliver. From a financial perspective, sometimes it's just that One email takes 30 seconds to type, or it's that extra phone call that you give or text that you give or reminder or thank you card or birthday card. I mean, there's so many different ways that we can go above and beyond that don't cost a lot of money, especially because we're in a service industry. And one of the things that's really important for people to realize is that when it comes to service, the extra mile is just a couple of inches. It's really, really not that much. So maybe, Susan, you can talk about some of the things that you did that you felt you went above and beyond to put you in this prestigious kind of top 25 practice in the entire, I would imagine, world. I mean, most concierge practices are probably in the US so you're probably in the top 25 in the world. So what would you say are those things that you do to go above and beyond?

Honestly, I'm not sure how they, how they do that list because it surprises me every time. But. Well, I think we were pretty, you know, we were not the pioneers in the area. There were people that preceded us long before that. But, you know, I think we just really took to heart treating every patient as we would treat family, thinking about them beyond the visit. So when things, you know, I was out of functional medicine, less functional medicine conference I was at, I probably sent snippets of information I was learning to 18 different patients. As I was learning it, having, you know, this is the luxury of having one tenth the normal number of patients of a normal, you know, family medicine doctor out there. So I actually know who they are and I know their personalities and I know Their issues. And I know how to joke around with them. You know, a lot of them, you know, a lot of it is the secret sauce of relating to people. And, you know, like I used to teach residents, people get frustrated, physicians often get frustrated, or anybody trying to help health transition gets frustrated because people don't do what I told them to do. They don't comply. And the reason our mission is inspire health. It's not create health is because our job isn't the behavior change. Our job is the enlightenment, the education, the inspiration, the thousand different ways that we may try to get at motivating them to make a little change and then another little change, and over time, see a sea change of transformation. I just completed my first brilliant health breakthroughs retreat because I've really started to kind of hone down what's the secret sauce of those patients that have really made astounding health transformations. And so that's a book that I'm working on because it's been really fun to watch, and, you know, it's so rewarding. And the other piece of it is that we don't look at difficult patients as difficult patients unless they're completely, you know, if they're. We're very selective in our patients and, you know, patients are unkind and rude to our support staff and unrealistic expectations or what I call chronically unpleasables or demands, you know, demanding nothing but, you know, narcotics or whatever, we're not going to work with them. I will draw a very hard boundary protecting my family, my staff, you know.

But.

Difficult, you know, in many ways, I think it's the most difficult, challenging patients who need our love and TLC the most.

Right. I like that. Chronically unpleasable.

Yeah. Chronically unpleasable. Yeah. Well, you know, when you're first starting a functional medicine or a concierge practice or any kind of medical practice, you will, if you try to grow it passively, you will attract. First, you know, you will attract the chronically unpleasables, the holy messes, the personality disorders, which the big red flag is they've never gotten along with any physician they've ever been to and hate them, all the drug seekers, you know. So, you know, I've been very clear with my team that if you want to grow the practice of your dreams, a practice you love, then look to the patients you love and ask them to send more of people like them, you know, their friends. So I take care of these huge groups of friends who are totally fun, you know, they're Wild. And they've definitely sometimes got health challenges, usually surrounding alcohol. But, you know, I actively went after the type of patient I want to take care of rather than just passively taking what floats in the door.

Yes, I think that's super important. You know, we call that the first 50 concept. The really, the people that come into your office are going to determine your success. And, you know, a lot of times starting out, it can be very frustrating. If you're just happy to take anyone who's ready to pay you. That's usually not the best strategy to grow your practice because when you attract the wrong people, it really bogs you down and it paints. It basically paints a bad picture and leaves a bad taste in your mouth of what concierge or private care healthcare can be like. And so screening and filtering people and taking an active role in selection of patients I think is vital. And you just again, share that as a success strategy. And especially starting out, it's very important. And that's the time that practitioners are most vulnerable to accepting patients like this. As we mature, we're less likely to accept patients that aren't a good fit because we realize it never really works out in the end and ultimately reflects poorly on us. And, you know, if we look at the, you know, geometric growth of a practice and exponential growth of a practice, we want to make sure we're attracting the right people and fractals, those individuals that are our ideal clients. So thanks for sharing that. What would you say is your biggest learning opportunity or mistake? Some people might call it mistake, I call them learning opportunities. But what would you say is the biggest lesson that you've been taught through your practice?

Oh, so many to choose from. But I think my. I had a couple big learning opportunities. One was starting with a very high overhead operation. I mean, we built a beautiful healing facility, actually was featured in an international healthcare design tour. And, you know, we had one of the best medical office designers in the country who an expert in healing office design. So we went kind of overboard in that. And you know, as my dad used to say, real estate's a great investment, but it eats every day. That was a very hungry beast. It will pay off in the long run. The other mistake I made was I brought in several of the doctors, four brand new residents that I had trained under me at Mayo and paid them on a salary. That was a huge mistake because there wasn't one of them had the incentive to grow her practice, mainly because she was planning to leave within a year, you know, or, you know, in A short period of time. She just wanted to build it and bolt. But you know, I would, I now more believe in, in more incentive based pay because out of survival I really learned the hard way and had to eliminate a couple positions, etc. So I think it's also really critical to know your, know your limitations. You know, I know I am very clear on what, what is in my genius zone and what is in my zone of incompetence. And I need to make sure that I hire consultants, you know, or staff that fill in those areas where that are not my strong suit. And it's tough when you're building. I'm in that situation stage now where I really can't scale up until I invest in more of a COO role to help me with that. But I can't afford the COO until I grow a little bit more. So I'm in that little terrible catch 22 where I don't know.

Well, I think that's a good problem to have. And I'm sure as things continue to grow in scale for you that that right person will come in because it's not just about being able to afford them, but it's also about finding the right person. And you know, that brings me to another point, which is hiring. What advice can you offer or strategies or insights can you offer? If somebody is at that point and they're trying to grow their business and they're trying to bring in, bring in the right team members. Any advice that you can offer there?

Oh my gosh. You know, I, I can't say I have great confidence in my hiring. I have built a phenomenal team, but made a lot of mistakes along the way. And I am probably more of an impulse relationship person. And again, know your weaknesses. There are people out there that will help a process of vetting, vetting potential employees. And then I think networking groups are really important. And honestly, I didn't realize this till probably Tony Robbins a few years ago. A business mastery course that I took, which honestly I did not think I needed coaching. I did not understand what I didn't understand until a friend of mine just kind of dragged me to that course and that $7,000 investment, which I thought was just over the top, ridiculous, probably paid off $150,000 in one year. And it was the aha moment of oh, I actually need coaching now. It's very hard to do this alone. So even programs like EO or like your program or you know, or just local, you know, I have a little local networking mastermind that I call my empathic board of directors. So I have a group that helps me, I can bounce ideas off of and is, you know, a good constructive support and guiding team because it's. Otherwise it's pretty lonely to try to own a business and you know, build it.

Yeah, absolutely. It is a lonely, it can feel like a very lonely journey and it's, you know, it can be tough to bring on the right people. Knowing. I think knowing yourself first is probably the easiest way to know who you need to hire. Because typically a mistake I find practitioners make is they hire people that are just like them. And what that means is you get along with people who are just like you because there's never any conflict or confrontation. But usually conflict is what creates growth. And it doesn't mean fighting it out or duking it out, but differing opinions or differing perspectives. You know, having somebody on your team, once you've figured out who you are, let's say through the DISC behavior system or the Colby or even Love languages, you know, figuring that out can be quite helpful for yourself and then it gives you clarity on who you want to bring on. And then you can instead of hiring through emotion, which I think is also important, I think there has to be a heart centered connection that takes place between you and your team members. I think that's the common ground that you should have is the core, core values should be the same and you know, the all intention should come from the heart of that person. I think we can really feel that and feeling is knowing. But you know, when we start testing people, then we start realizing, you know, if they're going to be a compliment to the practice, if they're going to fill a void that the practice has or if they're going to be able to complement your Colby score or DISC score. So these are all things that I think can be quite vital. And sometimes we don't realize this until after we've hired a few people that didn't quite work out. And you wonder why. You're like, hey, I felt that this person had a good energy, but maybe their ability to take action or their communication style wasn't complementary to what yours is or what any practitioners can be. So with that being said, do you, besides the test that I mentioned, do you use any personality testing or behavior testing?

We've done all of it. I mean from Myers Briggs to Colby to Disc to. I don't think we've done Enneagram. I honestly, I always find them helpful and then I never really use it going forward. So it sits on my desk and I don't know, I think they can be a helpful piece of the process. I can't say the one great one that's made any great difference for me or my team. I think we always find it's interesting. It's kind of. Aha. I haven't sent my team to. We've done training with Ritz Carlton, we've done training with Disney and actually people were pretty disappointed in some of those types of things because I think my team felt they were better than what they were learning.

That's pretty awesome too.

Yeah.

Wow. That's fantastic. So how big is your team now?

We have 20 employees, so six other providers, so three, well, three physicians now, three nurse practitioners and a PA. One of my nurse practitioners is also my nurse injector. So I have aesthetics, I have nutritionist, I have. We have travel medicine and psychology on site. So we're really. And now we're actually adding a fitness. We do fitness training and adding. Or adding fitness testing and fitness training on site. So we have a pretty one stop shop operation.

Nice. And so if you could do it all over again, what would you tell yourself 15 years ago? What do you wish you knew 15 years ago when you started this whole journey?

I would have told myself my own mantra, which is simplificate. I tend to want to do everything all at once right this minute. And I would have been much smarter to start out small and even potentially solo and then grown from there. But, you know, I don't know that we could have created what we've created if I'd done it that way. You know, who knows?

Yeah, it's definitely difficult to say. Right. And I believe that, you know, like Dan Sullivan says is our past is essentially the raw materials to build a better future. So I'm certain that all of those what seem like trials and tribulations have given you the raw materials now to create this amazing center and serve as many people as your team is. So it's fantastic to see that and you've given us a lot of great insights. There's a lot of wisdom in what you've said today and I love how you're so humble in presenting it. So thank you for being you. And I can see why your patients get along with you and I'm sure your team members do as well. Are there any closing words that you want to share with practitioners that are listening? Anything that you can say to inspire them? We have a variety of people on the spectrum, so some people that are listening might have multi practitioner practices like yourself and myself. Some of them might be just starting out and really looking to get their feet wet. I believe that the majority of practitioners who are looking to get in the functional medicine space haven't even heard of functional medicine yet. So that tidal wave is still coming. But what would you say to somebody who is, let's say starting out or somebody who's in your position? What's the best advice you can leave us with?

Well, first and foremost, know what your core values are and the core values of those that you intend to serve. Keep it simple and as low overhead as you can. You know, having a huge operation is a big noose around your neck and surround yourself with people way smarter who have been through the trenches before and can help you maybe veer around some of these obstacles rather than smashing into them.

Sage advice. Thank you. And such simple advice. Right? But that simple advice, even for just like with our patients, is that sometimes the most challenging to follow. So, you know, thank you. The core values, the simplicity, the smart overhead and surrounding yourself with the right people. I definitely share those core values and that's probably why we got along so well. So thank you once again, Dr. Susan, for sharing this wonderful information with us. I would like to let people know where they can learn more about you and maybe check out your website if you'd love to share that. I'd be happy to share that in the show notes so that people can check out more about the work that you're doing and hopefully learn a few things as well.

Fantastic. That would be great.

So do you want to share that.

Website lifescapepremier.com okay, awesome.

So check out the website www.lifescapepremier.com. we'll be sure to put that in the show notes, but check it out. Great website, Nice and simple, nice and clean, easy to read, easy to follow. And you can learn more about Dr. Susan Wilder there and also her amazing team. Thank you once again, doc. Have a totally awesome day.

Thank you. You too. Sachin, you thank.