EP022: Crafting Your Signature Talk with Sachin Patel

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 and welcome to an exciting episode of Perfect Practice. As always, I try to bring to you the best information that I learn. Staying on top of my game, going to masterminds, going to all kinds of events, having various mentors in various categories of my own, personal development and business development. So today I bring to you special knowledge that I acquired from a strategy session with Pete Vargas and Pat Quinn. Now, I just came back from Mindshare and that's a whole different ball of wax because there's lots to talk about there. But for this episode specifically, I'm going to talk about crafting your signature talk and learning the tools and techniques and strategies that you need to do to lead with your heart and really end with your heart and as well, because you want to pour it all out there. Now, I was introduced to Pete Vargas specifically through Matthew Loop, who's one of my mentors. So when Matthew tells me to do something, I just go out and do it. And he knew that we were going to be meeting at Mindshare and we were both going to be there. So he did an email introduction. And through that, I developed quite a quick kinship with Pete Vargas. And Pat Quinn is his partner. So strategically, they've partnered together and they've gotten more people on more stages than anyone I've known in my entire life. So they've booked over 25,000 stages. And of course, with that, there's various different types of stages which I'll get to in just a moment. But some of them are free. Some of them are going to be paid, some are going to be where you can sell from the stage. So there's different stages that even you can speak from. And, you know, you can probably fall into all four of those categories as your speaking career evolves. Now. Now, if you've read my book Perfect Practice, then you know that I believe that your speaking skills are the most important skills that you could ever develop. They're the most profitable and the most rewarding, and also are going to put you in a position that allows you to get your message out to as many people as humanly possible. So I believe that speaking is absolutely critical. And this is an area that I've spent a lot of time, energy, money, and effort developing. And I encourage you to do the exact same thing. Now, if you're not used to public speaking, then I suggest that you work on it. And the only way to work on becoming a better public speaker is to do it more often. So get on more stages, get out of your comfort zone, and guess what? You're going to serve humanity in a very meaningful way that perhaps only you are capable of in that person's life. Right? You're not competing against me. You're not competing against even the person down the street from you or even Mark Hyman or Jeffrey Bland or anyone else that you can think of. You're basically trying to play a role in somebody's life that is close to you, that trusts you. And because they trust you, they've entrusted you with their health, their most valuable asset. So that's your obligation to your community, is to get your message out to as many people as humanly possible. So I'm going to give you some tactical ideas that I gained, I'm going to give you some strategic ideas that I gained, and I'm going to actually use the principles that I learned in this talk. Okay? And because I want to practice what I preach, and of course, if I want to deliver value to you, then I want you to certainly be engaged and see the process in action. So couple things. Now, this is going to apply to whether you're doing a webinar or whether you're doing a live presentation. And you can differentiate when which technique or strategy applies and use it to your advantage. So few tips that Pat gave us right off the bat was have a fake first slide. This is a way that you can test your pointer. So it's two slides that have very subtle differences. The audience would probably never know, but you would know exactly what to look for. So it could be a slight change in the text, or one slide could have your name on it. The other one might not have your name on it, or your company's name or logo, whatever the case may be. But having a first fake slide I thought was brilliant because you could test your pointer, or you could test your screen to make sure your clicker and things like that are working. The next thing you mentioned is to walk on at 1.5 times your normal speed. And so that makes sense because we want you to be energetic. We want you to be amped up. We want people to think, wow, this guy or gal is something else. So, 1.5 times your normal speed. And then instead of filming yourself, we. Which you certainly can do, he suggested to film your audience. And that way you can see when your audience is connecting with your message, if they lean in, they're probably more engaged. If they're writing stuff down, they're probably more engaged. If they're nodding their heads, they're probably engaged. And of course, you can see this, but you might not be able to see everything that's going on. And then you can also see if they're on their phone. One of the things that we learned is that audience behaviors are contagious. So if one person picks up their phone or if one person looks back at the clock, then guess what? Everyone's gonna start doing the same thing. And so this is some cool tips that I hadn't been using in all my years, at least consciously. I was never recording the audience, maybe from behind, but not from the front. And I didn't pay attention to how fast I was walking on. I imagine that I was probably walking on more than one and a half times my speed, but not consciously. And I never had a fake first slide, so I'd always have to test my slide deck to make sure it was working and make sure my clicker, my pointer, my keyboard was working by actually showing my second slide. So this is a great tip. I found that to be very helpful. So if you get nothing from this, you can stop listening here. And you probably learned something already. But let's keep going. So they use a framework that is, I thought, was very appropriate for functional medicine practitioners, especially if you're speaking from the stage. And so the framework is heart, head, hands, and then you leave them with heart. Now, the way you break down this content is your heart message is going to be basically a story, okay? And then your head message is going to be the content. Your hand message is going to be the call to action. And you're going to close with heart. You're going to close with a story. And there's a strategy behind this, which makes total sense to me. So I'll explain that to you when we get to that part. Now, in the first five minutes of introducing yourself, there is a transition that you want people to go through. You want to be using three magic words just like you. Okay? So you want the audience to know that you were just like them at some Point. Now, in the first five minutes, these. This is the journey that you want the client to go on with you. You want to know, or you want to let them know, rather that you at one point were ordinary. Okay? That you've been in their shoes, and then at another point you were extraordinary. Okay. And that you know things that they don't. So connect on their level, but then also let them know that there's things that you've learned on this journey that they probably don't know. And you're here to share some of that information with them today. And then you share your why. Why is what I'm doing right now, and why is what I'm going to be offering you at the end of this more important to me than money? You have to be able to clearly articulate that. So Pete was a speaker, but he booked a speaker on stage for a group of people, and it literally changed his life because his dad was in the audience and him and his dad were not very close. And that speaker basically lit a spark, if you will, and that lit a fire under his dad's butt to actually reconnect with him. And that changed Pete's life. So to him, he understands the power of a stage. So very, very important for you to get this messaging across. So, you know, the way I would do this in my business model, if I'm working on getting my message across to practitioners, well, why do I know what you know? How am I ordinary, just like you? Well, I've been in your shoes. I know what it's like to start a practice. In fact, I've started two practices. I know what it's like to, you know, not necessarily fully believe that people are going to buy into what you're offering. And then I realized that people wanted what I had to offer. I just wasn't articulating it appropriately. And I didn't have systems in place. I wanted success, but I didn't have systems in place. So every time I got busy, my procedures kind of fell apart. So it was sabotaging, self sabotaging. So I've learned a lot of systems and strategies. I've hired mentors along the way to learn things that I now want to bring back to you. You know, the reason I do this is because I don't want people to go through the same challenges that I went through. I literally miss my son's first year of life. And I would come home at 9 o' clock at night and my wife would be standing there, my son would already be in bed because She's a total stickler for time. So the first year of his life was just completely erased from my life. And I don't want anyone to go through that now. I'm grateful that I went through that because now I can prevent that from happening to you. I can help you win back, I can help you spend more time with your families, I can help you sleep at night and having done a good day's work, a great day's work, and I can help you wake up in the morning feeling recharged and vitalized and having a deep sense of purpose and approaching your day and your practice with a big smile on your face and ending it with a big smile on your face. So that's my why I realized that I don't want anyone to go through what I went through. And if I've already created these systems, I want to be able to share them and with you, to me, that's more important than money. I live a very simple life. I have an amazing wife that's super supportive. I've got one amazing, beautiful son. That's why I want to spend as much time with him as possible. Got one shot at this life and I want to help lots and lots of people. So in order for me to be able to do that, I need to be able to do that through you. Because I believe in functional medicine and lifestyle medicine and vitalism and I believe that that's the solution to our healthcare crisis. And, and we're on the precipice of being able to do that. But it's not gonna happen if everyone's trying to reinvent the wheel. We've got a system and a process that's worked, working for us, working for hundreds of the practitioners that I coach. And so now I wanna bring that to you. That's my big why. That's why I do what I do. Is it easy? Absolutely not. Is it fun and Rewarding and fulfilling? 100%. I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. So that's an example of how you can. I used this three part method and that was very short, it was just a few minutes. But I think you understand where I'm coming from. You realize that I was in your shoes at one point. You realize that I've gained knowledge, specialty knowledge, and I've put in a lot of work over the years, so I know things that you don't, which I can help you implement into your practice and take it to a whole new level. And you understand my why. So very important. That's where you connect at the heart with people. Now what you want to also do is you want to do episodic storytelling. So episodic storytelling is where you take people into a story. And so what I did for you is I've helped you visualize my wife waiting there with no baby in hand, upset, of course, not mad, but upset at the situation because she felt like a single mom, right? So you want to be as visual as you possibly can. And an example would be, you know, it's 2:00am and you know, I'm driving on a rural street in Kentucky and. And I'm wondering where the heck I am. I can't find my hotel and I've got to present at 6 o' clock in the morning. So think of, you know, that's just a story I made up. But think about that. You can really get yourself and put yourself in that position. And when you can put people into the story, they're much more likely to be engaged. Now the next thing is you want to do some road mapping. So you want to give them a roadmap and you also want to give them a timestamp so you can say something like, in the next 25 minutes, I'm going to tell you. So you've already kind of committed to that timeline. The organizers and audience members know that, okay, we've got 25 minutes. And then that way you're committing to that time as well and not over committing yourself. Sometimes we go too long. And if we commit to the 25 minutes, then people are really gonna connect with us. And as I mentioned earlier, all audience behavior is contagious. So you want to make sure your audience is engaged. You want to make sure that your audience is totally there and present. Okay? And interference is anything that interferes between you and the speaker. So that could be somebody's phone, it could be, you know, other audience behavior. It could be, you know, whatever distraction that might be. It could be noise coming from outside of the room. So make sure that your interference is as low as possible, you know, so, you know, one of the things that we talked about here is something called benchmarking, right? And tell them where you are in the presentation, you can help them label the presentation, and then it takes up less bandwidth for them to figure out. So if you're going to be talking about four ideas, okay, then benchmark those ideas and say, you know, now that I'm done talking about this, we're going to talk about this. It's easier for you to create a little filing cabinet for people in their notes because it takes up less bandwidth for them to try to figure out where you are in the presentation. So if in the beginning you said, in the next 25 minutes, we're going to be talking about the four fundamental things that you need to know about practice management, let's just say that we were doing that. Okay? And then every time you switch topics. So let's say the first one is hiring a coach. Let's say the second one is, is having systems and process. Let's say the next one is, is having done for you content. The next one is having a proven marketing strategy. Okay? So let's say those are the four things. We're gonna benchmark those and, you know, kind of start with them in the beginning and then clip them at the end so people know where they are in the presentation and they can start a new page or, you know, organize their notes accordingly. All right, now the head part of the content, which is the second part, and this is really the bulk of the content, this is gonna be where your presentation varies in length. So if you've got two hours, then you change the head part. Okay? If you've got one hour, you change the head part and you adjust there. Your intro doesn't need to change, your call to action doesn't need to change, and your closing story doesn't need to change. So this is where you get flexibility. Typically you want to have three sections in this area and you want to give three solutions. Now there's two types of solutions. There's short term solutions, things that people can do the next 24 hours, and there's long term solutions. And these are habits, patterns, and also systems. So you want to focus on providing some of each of those. The short term stuff is easy wins, and that might be, hey, fill out this checklist that might be come in for, call me for a strategy session, something to that effect. And the long term solution would be working with you, or in this case, working with me and providing you with the systems and the patterns and the strategies and all the information that you need to be successful. Okay? So you want to give people easy wins and you want to give them long term wins. And long term wins are what really move the needle. The short term wins are what get people inspired and motivate them. But it's the long term wins that win in the end. Okay? And so, you know, the goal is you need to engage with your audience. Okay, now we also discuss something called a linear path to learning. This is powerful stuff. So think about this from let's say, my perspective, right? Whether you haven't started your functional medicine practice, whether you're a few months into practice, okay? Or whether you've got a whole team of practitioners working for you, you're gonna learn information that's gonna help you today. So this is called a linear path to learning. I haven't excluded anyone in that audience. You know, if I specifically say that this is for practitioners that are doing seven figures or more, then you've eliminated 99% of the audience, and certainly in the functional medicine world, but if you say this is for people who are just starting out, this is for people who are a few months into practice, or for those practitioners that are doing seven figures or more. So you've essentially encapsulated the entire audience and you've put them into an appropriate category and they feel like, okay, okay, I'm going to listen because this guy, or gal, a guy in this case, can actually help me. Okay? Now this is where this part of it's very important and the breakdown of this is very important. But I'm not gonna get into this. This is something I do in my mentorship and I go deeper and it's a more one on one personal thing that you need to do. But, you know, the things that you're gonna offer people, the things that you're gonna talk about people, this is where you use testimonials. This is where you embed people into your story. They. This is where you come up with the appropriate case studies that exemplify the three things that you're gonna be sharing with them. Okay? And you wanna paint people into your story, and I'm gonna give you some suggestions on how to do that. Now, one of the things that Pat talked about quite elegantly is he talked about the call to action. Okay? You don't want people to first hear about your call to action when you're presenting the call to action. So if I'm trying to present my mentorship program to you, I don't want you to hear about my mentorship program at the very end. I want to embed stories of people who have gone through my mentorship program. And then you're wondering, okay, how do I get into this mentorship program? Because this is exactly me and this is what I need. So very important for you to understand. You need to paint people into, or you need to paint your offer into the stories that you share by sharing success stories of people who have benefited from the very process that you're talking about. So very important strategy there and this is where if you're doing a thyroid talk and you're saying these are the three most overlooked issues. A, thyroid is autoimmune in nature. B, the immune system is primarily in the digestive system, and C, you know, people who have, you know, mold in their environment, let's say, is a hidden danger for autoimmunity and thyroid related problems. Or people with more than one auto. With one autoimmune condition have several autoimmune conditions. So you would have case studies on each three of those things. Okay? So that's, you know, that's how you would paint that in. And if you can have a video testimonial that's short and sweet, or if you can have a written testimonial from somebody that went through this process as part of your case study, that would be ideal. Okay? Now you want to paint people again. You want to paint your audience into that story as well. Okay? And so when you share your case study, you embed your program into the case study. So here's Rachel. Rachel is someone that has gone through our mentorship program. Okay. And as a result of going through this mentorship program, when Rachel came to me, she asked me, satchin, how do I get new patients? So you see what I did there? I used my first name, not Dr. Patel, which I don't use anyways, but I use my first name because that builds rapport. And I painted a vision of that person in the audience being able to ask me that very same question and referring to me as a friend, if you will. So Rachel's asking me, Rachel asked me, satchin, how do I get new patients into my office? And then I can say, rachel, I'm glad you asked, because as part of our mentorship, we have an entire marketing campaign that we're going to share with you. So based on your existing assets, let's see what we can put together and determine the fastest path to creating brand recognition. And also in building up your message so that more people become familiar with it. What we also did with Rachel is we started an internal marketing campaign and working on existing clients to refer people just like them. And what we found historically is this is the fastest way to grow your business, is to actually generate referrals instead of focusing on marketing. And then, you know, you share a story about how that process ended up. And then you would share a testimonial from Rachel saying, wow, that was amazing. It was mind blowing. I saved myself so much time, energy, money, and effort. And now I can spend more time with my Family. I'm not marketing as much, but I'm getting more business than I could ever dream of. So that would be story number one. Okay? So you want to paint your audience member into the story. You want to paint yourself into the story and that relationship that you had with Rachel or the audience member, and you want to paint your program or whatever you're offering into the story. So this is. If you get this, this is, like, pretty epic stuff. This is amazing content I'm sharing with you right now, and I hope that's clicking for you now. One of the things that you want to make sure that you're doing is, like I did, is using your name. And I just want to come back to that. You know, if you saw your neighbor talking in on the street, you wouldn't call them by their title. You'd probably call them by their name. You want to develop that type of, you know, perceived relationship with your audience member, okay? So that very, very important. And here's the thing, like, what you want to do is when you're presenting, you know, the pillar that you're offering people, the strategy that you're offering people, you know, you're giving five seconds of strategy, okay? Five seconds of how this can work for them, and, you know, how you can work together, and five minutes of story, okay? That's how you get your message across very effectively. The key here is not to teach people anything, because you really can't. I can't teach somebody an effective marketing strategy even in two hours. It's gonna take more time and effort and energy than that. So I'm gonna share a story about how I can do that and how I can help you. And if you work with me, we can take it to a whole new level. Okay? So you wanna do this two more times and share two more stories, two more case studies, you know, two more, you know, two more stories of that person calling you by your first name and you sharing a solution and a case study testimonial for this individual, okay? You also want to close your stories, okay? So you want to have a firm ending to that story. And then you can say, and the next strategy is such and such. And when you close your first story, you want to leave them in a good place emotionally, okay? So you're not trying to give a tactical solution here necessarily. You're trying to give them an emotional feeling, okay? We want them to be in a state of emotion when we're doing this with them. So this is, you know, I found this format to be super, super Powerful. Okay, so the essentials of this is going to be you're going to start with your heart. So you're going to tell them why you're ordinary, why you're extraordinary. And then you're going to, as you do that, as you tell them why you're extraordinary, you're going to also tell them your big why. Why is this more important to you than money? Then we talked about the head. The head is getting them to understand the strategies and tactics and the solutions that you can offer people, but weaving those into a story, weaving your offer into that story as well, and weaving a solution and a testimonial as part of that story, and then having closure to that story, but leaving it on a positive emotional. Okay, so you're gonna do that a total of two times. And then you come to the call to action. The call to action is the steps that they need to take in order to learn more about what it is that you're offering. Now, if you're offering high ticket sales, then the key here is not to list every single thing that you have to offer. And I've done this in the past, and that overwhelms people, and they feel like, oh, my God, this is a lot more work. And how am I gonna get value out of this if I can't do all. All of these things? And what people don't realize is that you don't do everything. You do the right thing. And when you do the right thing, then a lot of other things fall into place. And because everyone's at a different point in their journey, it's hard for me to present information that's going to provide a solution for the beginner, the middle person, and the person who's at a high level, because it's a different dialogue and different language that you're going to have with these people. So in my mentorship program, I don't make anyone pay anything a single penny until I've spoken to them first. Because if I'm going to work with you for a year, I need to know that we're going to connect. You need to know that we're going to connect. You need to know that this is the right step for you, that you know you're committed to taking action, that you're committed to going all in. And this isn't a hobby, it's a calling, it's a responsibility. And you see it as such as, well. Now, the thing is, is that if somebody is the right fit, then what we have to offer is priceless. If Somebody's the wrong fit, then it's actually worthless. And it's a waste of your money. It's a waste of my energy, effort, and time. And I can't lean on you to refer other people because it wasn't the right fit. It doesn't mean that I'm a bad person. It doesn't mean that you're a bad person. Sometimes things just aren't the right fit or the right timing. So I like to get on a call with every single person. And so what I would do at this point is I would direct the audience to schedule a call with me. I've qualified them. You know, I've told them, listen, if this is a hobby for you, then let's not do this. Right. We work with people who are trying to win championships. And so, you know, people trying to win championships know they need the right team, and they know that they need a coach. And without those things, people don't win championships, even in solo sports. Do you think Tiger Wood is just putzing along on his own? No, he's got a coach. He's got a team of people that take care of him because his goal is to be at the top. Okay, so this is important for you to understand. So we qualify people before they set up a phone call with you. We don't want people wasting your time or their time. Right. I'm just as respectful of other people's time. And if you're wasting my time, you're wasting your time as well. And we can't get that hour back. So what I'm asking you to do is if you found this information valuable, if you found that this is something that can help you take your practice to the next level. And you know, you know that next year you want to win the championship. Not the world Championship, but the championship that's, you know, in your town. If you want to be the team hero or the town hero, this is your chance, and I'm going to help you do that. And if it's not for you, that's okay. We've got some resources that can help you and hope you got some value from today's presentation. Okay, so this is the tactical close, if you will. And I would say that let's set up a one hour conversation, let's have a dialogue. We call it a discovery call. Let's discover where your practice is at right now, and let's see if we can add tremendous amounts of value to it. If I can 10x your investment, I'll work with you. If I Can't, then I'll point you in the right direction. No strings attached, no hard feelings, okay? And if you want to do that, go to speakwithsachin.com and schedule a 60 minute deep dive. And I'm happy to connect with you. So that's the tactical close, right? That's the step by step, here's what you do, here's how I'm going to help you. And by the way, if you're listening to this, you're more than welcome to go ahead and do that. You can go to speakwithsachin.com and like I said, if I can 10x your investment, let's work together. If I can't, then I'll let you know. Right? That's the God honest truth. Because my mission is to change your practice in a positive way, an extremely positive way, so that you tell 10 people, okay? That's the goal. If you tell 10 people, then everyone wins. Especially with our affiliate program. Anyways, that's a whole different conversation. Now. One of the things that you do to close off the presentation is you leave them with a story. Okay? And so my story is over the last seven years, you know, you can only imagine that after that one night where I said this is unacceptable, when my wife was waiting there telling me she feels like a single mom. You know, basically I'm gone all 12 hours of the day. You know, it's unfair and it's unacceptable to her. I made a commitment and my commitment was that one day that I would be home before they were home. And what I meant by that was that, you know, when my son started school, I wanted to be home before him. I wanted to greet him when he came home every day. And so I made it my mission to learn systems, to learn processes, to learn strategies and, and to hire mentors, myself and teachers and take courses so that I could do that. And now I'm proud to say that I work primarily from home. I probably go into the office one day out of the month because I've created systems. I have a team of practitioners that love what they do. We've built up a multi seven figure practice and we love serving our community. We're one of the top clinics in the entire functional medicine space. And now I get to travel all over the world. I get to take my family with me, which is even more beautiful. I get to go on amazing vacations, I get to go to exotic locations, speaking to people who admire what I do, who value what I do, and who make the world a better place. I Mean, there's no better life than I could possibly ask for. And mark my words, my wife is at the office today, and today she will come home, and my son will come home, and I will greet them at the door with a big smile on my face because I know how much work and effort has gone into making that possible. So if your goal is to do just that and have freedom both geographically and financially, and to have amazing relationships like I have with my wife right now, if it's to travel the world to spread your message, we. Or even if it's to travel across town and spread your message to people who are eager to listen to you, and if it's also your goal to have a team of practitioners because your practice is so busy and budding and serving your community, then I'm happy and I'm honored and I'm excited to help you to be able to do that. So that's how I would end the talk. Okay, so I've now appealed to the tactical side. I've got the strategies. I've got the methodology. But now I'm closing that beginning story that I talked about, and I'm bringing the story full circle, and I'm hopefully connecting on an emotional level with some of you. You know, the things that I hear when I get on calls with practitioners is I don't get to see my family enough. I feel like my tires are spinning. I don't know what my next move or step is. I know I should be doing this, but I don't have all these other things in place. Where do I start? Okay. People who don't know their next step, guess what? Don't take any steps. They just stand still. And that's the most frustrating thing because you know that you have so much more locked up inside of you. And so this strategy, I think, is phenomenal. I think it's very easy and applicable to us functional medicine practitioners. I actually hired Pat and Quinn for myself and my wife to really go through our signature talk and do a deep dive on it and to really help people. Because if I learn this and I go deep into this, I can teach it to you. And then, of course, I'm gonna take this technology that I learned and I'm gonna bring it back to my mentorship. So guess what? My mentorship crew is gonna have this amazing capability of utilizing the slides and the decks and everything that I create around this strategy in a done for you type of format. So I hope this helps. I hope this gives you some insights. I hope it gives you some tremendous amounts of value and and if you're ready again, if you're ready to take things to the next level, if you're ready to win championships, then let's set up a time. Speakwithsachin.com I'll speak with you for 60 minutes. We'll do a deep dive into your practice. We'll connect heart to heart to make sure that we're the right fit for each other. We'll get very tactical and strategic to make sure that we can support your mission and your goals. And I'm super stoked and excited to be able to serve you and in this capacity. And you know, I hope to hear from you if again, if you feel like you're the right fit and you're ready to win and go all in love to you all. I hope this episode was helpful. If it was, please share it with your colleagues. I love your feedback. I find it very, very important. But I also appreciate you sharing this with as many people as you can. Once again, Satchin Patel, have an amazing rest of your day.