EP056: Practice Building Tips with Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith

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 and 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.

Welcome everyone to Perfect Practice. I'm really excited to be sharing this time and space with you today. We've got an amazing interview coming up with a dear friend of mine, somebody who is a council member in our mentorship group, somebody who is a great leader and role model for other practitioners who are out there trying to scale their message and also contribute back into the functional medicine community. So today I welcome a friend, a colleague and a co captain in helping make a world a better place. Dr. Rajka Vilanovic Galbraith. Welcome, Dr. Rajka.

Thank you, Sachin, for that wonderful introduction. I'm just super excited to be here to share the knowledge that I've gleaned over the last three and a half years as I've launched my functional medicine practice and really hope that it can help someone out there, whether they're just starting their practice or they're actually in the midst of it wondering, how do I scale up or how can I make this more efficient, et cetera.

Yeah. Or sometimes, you know, do I scale? Right. That's another question that we have to ask ourselves is what is it that we want? And I'm sure that there's been maybe several times, if not a million times, where you feel like throwing in the towel. I know sometimes I've felt that way. And this can be a very challenging mountain to scale, or it can be a very easy mountain to scale, and especially if you're piggybacking off of other people's triumphs and challenges that they've overcome. So I thank you for being vulnerable. I know that this is not always the easiest stuff to share, but it's a true sign of a leader who's ready to give back and understands the value of raising the whole profession. There's no sense in people reinventing the wheel if you've got something that's working. And so I really appreciate you being able to share today.

Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome.

So I know that we talked about possibly discussing several principles of success and things that you've kind of picked pearls and nuggets that you've picked up on your journey of this unflowering. Right. And it's this never ending, I call it the thousand petal lotus. So we're constantly evolving and we're constantly learning new things. But up till now, what would you say are some of the things that you would say practitioners need to keep in the forefront of their mind as they're building their practice?

Yeah. So this is one that people are not going to really realize until they're in it. And that's why I'm going to bring it up first and foremost is that you really need to work on yourself first. It's the same if you're in a relationship and you're trying to attract that ideal partner for you and you don't even think about this. And I'll give you examples as to when my business expands. Exploded every time I did this. And by working on yourself first, I mean be the kind of patient you want to attract, be the kind of colleague that you want to also affiliate with. And so it's not only diet, lifestyle, et cetera. So think about it. I wouldn't go to a hairdresser who had scraggly hair. You know, you're looking at. You want to go to someone who exemplifies what you're looking to achieve. But it's not only the principles we teach that way. But by that I also mean all the other mindset issues. And this is where I had no idea I could do some extra work. And I'll give you, there were three concrete examples. So three time periods where my business really escalated. And it was directly proportional to the work I did. And some of it was hard and some of it was easy to do. So last summer I attended Tony Robbins. Two weeks later, I came to the first Perfect Practice Live, or my first Perfect Practice Live. And then two weeks later, I went to Mindshare and business just increased exponentially. Because how I felt after all those was I was resonating at this very high energy level. And in fact, that's kind of my target. We'll talk about that. As I want to create high energy for high performing women. And so that was the first time. And then in April, same thing I presented at the second Perfect Practice Live that I attended came home and the business, that was one of the best months ever. And then just this past July, in June, I held a retreat. I actually had another Business mentor that was coaching me on things to do in the retreat, recruited patients into the practice from that retreat, came home, acknowledged that there was some more inner work I needed to do. I actually had a tapping session. And I'm going to share what came out of that because I think it's really important to share these things that you don't even know are hidden. And I did it because certain things were triggering me in my life. I said, this is not the person I want to be. And something came out of it. Between the retreat and the tapping session in July, let me think how many fold. I was at least five fold higher than any prior July. So July is such a slow month for all of this. And I was just in utter shock. And it was really, again, me resonating at that high level and by money mindset. I actually had coaching, in fact, by your lovely coaches there at LPI and had felt I had resolved it. And the trigger was I didn't think had anything to do with money. And I don't know. Do you mind if I share what I learned from that one session?

Oh, you better share.

Okay. So through it all, as we're tapping, you know, I was born to immigrant parents who came over in their late teens from Serbia. My grandfather, unfortunately, was a prisoner of war. He spent more than a decade away from his family. Finally, after being in the US for six years, could immigrate his wife and his daughter, my mom. So they always work two jobs and to get all three kids through college. And then they helped with med school. But I still took off the brunt of the lawn, so all we ever saw them was working hard. And my mom said to me, distinctively, because she manages the finances in the house, just when you think you're going to get ahead, something comes up and then you only have enough. And so that you only have enough, you only have enough is stuck in my mind. And then on top of the you only have enough is I felt really what came out of that session was I felt really guilty, like I didn't deserve to have abundance, because how dare I, when they never, ever had abundance, when it first came up, of course, is very tearful. And it was like, wow. And it was so freeing in that moment that not only did that kind of just. Just acknowledging it, put it, you know, nip that in the butt right away, but it also, I was suddenly like, happier. And I'm generally, I feel a pretty happy person. And it really stopped that reactionary process. And so I feel like as things come up we have days, all of us do, that can trigger us, is that I can acknowledge it, sit with it, and then let it go. And it's been. And that's when I really. That was the last rise and increase. And in fact, another thing to share is I did some energy work just a couple days of work days ago, and I didn't know if it really even worked, but I thought, okay, yeah, I'll just go with it. And today as I'm sitting with patients all morning, is three calls back to back and one person called multiple times. And they're all strong referrals. In fact, one came from you. But strong referrals for patients that are coming already pre nurtured that someone is, you know, another center, another doctor has referred them into me. And I'm like, that's just amazing. It's that law of attraction, right? So when you resonate at the high level, you're gonna bring that back to yourself.

I love that. And you know, this is something that is so important for practitioners to understand. And you know, I know that you and I resonate a lot on this message. And it's something that we lean on and it's something that we work towards because it's a never ending process. As long as you understand that it's a never ending process, then you're okay with where you're at. Because you know that tomorrow you're going to grow and the next day you're going to grow. And as you become the best version of yourself, you know, the right people, the right opportunities, the right circumstances start showing up. And it's almost like it's all happening at the same time. And all of that hard work or that. And it's really not even hard work, right? It's as Tony would say, it's a 2 millimeter shift. You're already doing these things, let's just step into them and do them with a little bit more intention. And when we do things with intentionality, then amazing things start happening because we're paying that extra. You know, just that little bit of extra attention makes all the difference in the world. And you know, it's great that you're so willing and vulnerable to share some of these things because many people listening to this do have that event or those experiences in their childhood that are significantly holding them back. And if I might share, for me, the thing that was holding me back in my money mindset, and the thing that made the biggest difference for me is realizing that money is a result. And it's a result of the positive impact you have in the world. It's actually a crime knowing what we know, doing what we do, not to help as many people as possible. So the less money we make, the more criminally prosecuted we should be for not spreading our wings and spreading our message and helping as many people as possible get healthy as possible. Now, money isn't the only way we get paid and maybe we can talk about that as well because it's an easy thing to measure, but it's not the only way we get paid. So there's other ways that we get rewarded. Right. So this 5x increase in your revenue, I'm sure there were other things that also happened that were extremely positive. There's certain things that happen that money can't buy. So maybe you can share some of those so that people can start paying attention to them. Because sometimes people think, okay, I'm doing all this good in the world, I'm developing myself, I'm reading the books and going to the conferences and maybe the revenue isn't growing, but if that's their only focus, they could be missing some of these other amazing things that are happening. So maybe you could talk about that a little bit too.

Yeah, so just making that difference. So you're right, it's not just about the money. And you know, a lot of these referrals were a long, nurturing relationship where I made it's the impact, it's as a result of the positive impact. So these were all referrals from one of the relationship. Two of the patients were people that I knew and treated 20 years ago. So that's a long standing relationship that I had happened to reconnect. So they saw my message out there and so it's really make that impact and know that it may not come back to you tomorrow. And then just that sense of, you know, when someone stands up and is walking out of your office and says thank you, thank you for giving me your life back. So just that, you know, that gratitude that you've given them and then that you feel in return. I always feel like sometimes I should pay my patients because I get so much more from them than what I feel I give to them. And in fact, one woman had said, oh, I remember when I was treating her, I kept thinking, what am I doing for her? I'm just quite coordinating everything. But that was powerful and meaningful for her and she needed that at that moment. And so yeah, those are probably the top two I'm trying to think. So it's just creating that positive impact is Sometimes not actualized as to how it's going to come back to you, but it's being consistent in what you're doing and sticking with it. And knowing that you could see someone years down the road from something you said at a party or that an impact you made on a relative or a friend and they finally said, said, oh, I need this in my life right now. And so they'll come to you when the time is right.

And the other thing too is there's things that happen in your personal life that, you know, when we put positive work out there, there's things that will spill into your personal life as well. And then the nice thing about karmic currency, I'm just realizing this now, as I'm saying this, is there's no tax on karmic currency, right? So you know what you get, you get to keep 100% of the positives. You're not giving like 30% of it back to the. So you want to be cashing in that karma currency. And so pay attention to the things that I would say people should pay attention to are things, small things like getting that parking spot, getting the invitation to do that presentation when there could have been a thousand other options. When you go and you want to buy something and it's actually in stock in your size and all the other sizes are not available. Those are the small things that I find if we start paying attention to those little miracles and those little magical moments, then it's like cashing in that karmic currency. So I want people listening to this to pay attention to some of those things, not just in their business, but also outside of their business and in their personal life. Sometimes it's that acknowledgement from your child that, hey, mom, you're doing a great job. Right. Or it could be the acknowledgment from the client as you're referring to. So I love that. Those are the moments I live for. Right? The moments that. That money can't buy. And, you know, when we do both, when we. When we have both and we live a very rich and fulfilled life in so many different ways now, I know that, you know, as a mother and as a wife and as a clinician. Right. And as a mentor and, you know, entrepreneur, you wear a lot of hats. So the question that comes up a lot is how do we have this work life balance? And maybe you can talk about that a little bit because, you know, I know that's something that we're all working on, including myself. But what are some of the things that you found to be very helpful or thought processes or frameworks that you found helpful.

Yeah, so that's the million dollar question. And I think that for all of us, it's going to do that. It's going to wax and wane and sometimes you're more imbalanced and more out of balance. I think that it's not a question of whether you can have it all, but at which time period. So sometimes it'll take more relevance. Off to share another story is my mom's with us now. And that added another element because she's not as mobile, so it requires someone making her breakfast, lunch and dinner. And we had this really meaningful connection and I've been bugging her to come visit and after four years of asking her, she comes at like the worst time that I could ever envision, but there's never a good time, so it's really the best time. Right. And so I had that and my son said, you know, your mom was saying how she really wishes you had more time to spend. And I kind of prefaced the visit with, look, the three days a week, I'm pretty full on and two days a week is a little less. And then I have three trips planned in that first couple months. So she tells me, tells us to my son, I said, oh boy, I better be mindful of this. And I start spending more time with her and not even a couple days later, my 11 year old saying, mama, can I talk to you in private here? I'm thinking it's some girl drama. So sure, of course. And I've taught my kids from a young age, so they always come to me and it's usually at bedtime, although it can be random where they're telling me the most important things of their lives. And I said, sure, what's going on? She's like, you love baba. That's the word for grandma more than you love me. You spend all your time with Baba and you don't spend any with me. And then the following night, my husband's calling me on the way home from work, what time are you going to be home? And I tell him, he's like, oh, I canceled that work event just to see you before you left on this trip, thinking, oh my goodness, I just can't win here. And he was actually pretty gracious with his time and he knew I needed to pack for the trip. So he just sat, he sat up in the bedroom while I packed and we chatted. It doesn't have to be anything but balance for Me, you bring up a good question. As I really thought about what kind of life do I have, want to have? And then I built my practice around it. And that came as a tip from listening to many in the about four or five years ago, they had that prosperous Practitioner summit. I listened to every interview twice. There were two summits of say, 18 interviews. And what resonated was build your life around the or build your practice around the life you want to have. So I always knew I was going to be two to three days clinical. And that was, that was where I was best. I always knew that. I like to have an organizational day. So Monday is my organizational day. I don't like going into the week, so hurry. So Sunday nights people fret about starting work. I never fret about starting work. And also if we're away and we haven't done meal prep, then I can use it as a meal prep day. So it can be really flexible that way. So these, that's what helps me. And then we've also tried to create efficiency in that we were very fortunate to have the same babysitter the last few years. And this comes on the tail coats of having a lot of disasters happen where so many things would happen between 5 and 9am I'd get to the office at night and be like, whew, I'm exhausted because I've just put out 10 fires and we've mitigated that by having one steady person. And she's so fabulous that she does some of the things that I don't care to do. I don't care to go to the post office. I really don't like going to Costco. She does her dry cleaning run, you name it. She's pretty much a jack of all trade. So just taking off your plate that you really what you don't have to do. So those are some of my tips is, you know, limiting the hours to what's going to maximize my ability to be good in every aspect of my life. Keeping an organizational day. And for me that's Monday. And I actually have Friday as a Mondays and Fridays. So it's where I'm creating content or maybe I'm mentoring practitioners, you name it, Catch up day and everything in between. So and you know, just it's good and then as well as just I. What I've started now is every month I look at is everything I'm doing in alignment with my vision and mission. And so I'm targeting fatigue. And so every talk I do is going to center around women's wellness and fatigue and everything that I do, except for the secondary thing is, of course, I love the mentorship with the practitioners. So those are my top two things and anything else I say no to. So I was given the chance to speak at a summit. I initially said no, and it was actually Jenny McCarthy's event. But then what came across was, they said no, she's changing her focus to raising healthy families. And guess who's going to attend that? It's going to be women that attend that. So it was targeting the parents to be healthier. And it wasn't just autism, which is an aspect that I'm very good at, But I didn't want to make that my main focus. So I initially said no and then said, and in fact, for autism1 this year, I said no. I just said, it's not the area. It's not where I want to be. And for me to create really great contact that's CME worthy, it's a lot of hours. It's easier to create a talk for the lay public, as you know so well.

I'm so proud of you. I'm so happy to hear that. Because, you know, the. Maybe even the old you. I know the old me would have jumped all over it, right? Because it's an opportunity to, you know, to be on stage and to share your message. And some of it, like, let's just be honest, it fulfills our ego, right? If we're being vulnerable here, but is it fulfilling our mission? And I love how you had that recognition, because it took me a while to have that recognition. And I study a lot of very successful companies, like Apple, for example, and Steve Jobs said this, and he says, success is not what you say yes to. It's actually based on what you say no to. Because by saying no to the autism one opportunity, you're allowing someone else whose heart is fully, fully in it, right, to have that stage who can, you know, of course, you provide a great clinical service to these patients, but your heart has to be in it, too. And that's an important message for people to recognize. And it's okay if your heart changes, right? You're allowed to have a change of heart. You're allowed to evolve and realize, hey, I can do better work if I'm communicating to this audience instead. And so it's really important for those of you listening to kind of recognize that. And I just want to acknowledge you for that, because saying yes is easy, right? It's the work that is involved after you say yes, putting the presentation Together and you're just like, you're like in the 11th hour of putting the presentation together, like, oh my God, why did I do this? Right? So whereas if it's a topic that you're super, super passionate about and it's the direction that you want to take your mission, and then the yes becomes easy, and then the work becomes, you know, I'm not going to say it's easy, but it becomes easier. Right? So congratulations. I'm super proud of you. I wanted to acknowledge you for that. So, you know, that kind of brings me to my next question, which is a question that comes up quite often is, you know, do I have to have a niche? Right. So as functional medicine and lifestyle medicine practitioners, that the challenge that we face is actually we can help everybody, right? That's actually one of the challenges that we face because let's face it, if you help people within the parameters of eating well, moving well, thinking well, pooping well, you know, speaking well all these things, then I mean, who do you exclude? Like, all of the work that we do can help everybody. But certainly you can't market to everybody. You can't communicate to everybody. And if you're doing that, you're communicating to nobody. So tell us a little bit more about that. What are your thoughts on picking a niche?

Mine are absolutely yes. But you're gonna fight it all the way until you realize it's hindering you. And I'll tell you why. So in the beginning I liked everything and I would promote this for a while and all of a sudden my friends thought I was the autoimmune expert. And then I promote this for a while and then they thought I was this expert. But once you pick a niche and it doesn't, the other caveat is that you don't. It doesn't mean you're going to exclude everyone. So today I saw an 89 year old gentleman with history of bladder cancer and they want to prevent regression. And then, you know, he took a hit after two rounds of anesthesia. So we're going to get him back to up to, you know, his full potential and give him quality of life and hopefully prevent recurrence. But so the others will come to you. So even though you've picked this niche, unless you exclusively say no, the others will come. So he's the father of one of my current female women patients. So picking a niche, they always say the niches are in the rich, rich or the riches are in the niches. Right. Russell Brunson says that and other people have Said that. But again, let's not focus on the money part, but let's focus on efficiency and marketing and how effortless it becomes when everything out of your mouth is surrounding your niche. And so if, and a lot of the secret to that is a lot of our niches are related to who we are. So our avatar is who we are as a person and then it relates to your story. So, you know, my story is a fatigue story, but that was a sign of all these other things. And Unaddressed went on to almost some serious consequences. So it's easy to speak to it. And then when we're marketing through education, we're relatable because we been there, we've suffered, we can feel what the person is feeling and then it aligns your marketing efforts. So when you're at a party and I say, don't ever stop marketing, you're at a party, you don't want to belabor it, but every word out of your mouth, think about it, you have that chance. I've made impact, and I'm sure you have. At a party, someone told me about the Raynaud's and I said, hey, can I share a couple quick tips? The person implemented gluten dairy free lifestyle. That was it. And her Raynaud's went away. So it's not always that simple. We all know that. But is share that and then the more you share it. And I was part of a network marketing group that really, towards the end, I thought, didn't align. But those women know me as the expert in functional medicine and I get all kinds of referrals from them. So it was, you know, so every effort you make is keep sharing that word out there. And one mistake that I made is, and even put it out on your personal pages. So, you know, you have 5,000 contacts, probably close to 2,000 is they're going to share it then because you already, those people already trust you. Why not tap into it? And I stopped. And here's why I stopped. And it was wrong. I had one friend's husband give me all kinds of grief about why am I sharing these business related items. And this guy was not in shape. And then of course, he jumped ship and got very physically fit and all that and was sharing the same thing. And like, who is he to tell me? So I've gotten back to it again. I'm not going to be putting all my promotions on my personal page, but just my knowledge and expertise. Expertise. And hey, I want to share something that improves someone's life. Maybe it'll help you as well. And it's when it's really authentic. So that's what a niche will do. Increase efficiency. Every word you say out of your mouth, it just makes it effortless. And then you can also then say no. Then you're right. You're really rich with time because you've said no to all these things that don't align with that niche.

I love that. Thank you. Now what would you say to somebody I know that you've, you know a, you go to the right seminars and you mix things up right. You go to personal growth seminars, you go to clinical development seminars, you go to practice growth seminars, you go to retreats. So you've got a good kind of mix up of where you spend your time and where you invest your time. What would you say to somebody about events? What would you say to somebody about coaching? What would you say about hiring a mentor? Like what are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, for the conferences, any conference that you attend. So let's take IFM's training for example. So they limit, they used to limit that you can only do three a year. I think that's pretty sensible. And I've told the new mentees, so I also mentor for them. And I told them, I said don't do six a year. You need time to implement this. So you want to space it out so that when you learn it you can actually go back and re review it, then apply it. And I know you do. This, I think I learned it from you is in the back of your journal. And all of us have these lovely journals and you know mine is branded for me. You put down that list of action items that you're going to take that week, that month and the next quarter and you take action. So with events, I'd say probably target where you're weakest. So if you're a new practitioner, you're probably focused on the clinical. But if your clinical is getting stronger, then you're going to add in the business. But the personal development you'll never lose on. So I always say, but you can also out. You can overconference yourself to death. If you don't apply it, then it becomes meaningless. All this knowledge that you haven't really mastered and don't apply. So I've kind of limited and I get a little mad. It's funny that all the conferences center around threes. I've had two time periods in the last two years where it's been back to back for every other week for six weeks. And that really can Be a bit draining. I'm like, I'm glad I'm done for a couple months, so master it before you go on. Now, as far as a mentor, so clinical mentor and business mentor, I've had them both. And I attribute a lot of my success to the first clinical mentor I had, who mentored me every case every day for three months. So can you imagine how good you're gonna get? And I love that he would say, now, I've given you this protocol, but don't do what I told you to do. Do what resonates and then figure it out. See if it works for you. And there are some protocols and tips and things he says said that really resonated. I still use to the day. And one of my favorites of his is target their pain point first. So even though, you know their autoimmune disease is the worst, if they're worried about weight loss or their PMS is so out of control that they're on the brink of a relationship loss, then you're going to target that first. So you get buy in and then go back in and fix that. Then give them what they need. So give them what they want first and then go back in and give them what they need. So that was his tip. So, so invaluable. And that's what has allowed me to then continue to grow. And then as far as business, man, I would have gotten that on board. So I was out for about a year and a half on my own in a city that I had no patient database. Brand new to the town in the Midwest as, you know, a little lukewarm there to healthy lifestyles.

Just a little.

Just a little. And so it's a harder sell. And I wish I would have had. I mean, I think about all that time that I lost. However, they say the mentor shows up when you need them. And so, yeah, don't hesitate. It was probably the best investment on money I've made. And I continue. So I had. Before I had you, I had a patient that I recovered that we just traded services. So that was a first mentor. And when she kind of maxed out with her knowledge, then I found you. And I actually have someone that's helping with the kind of the marketing piece. And so I've acknowledged where do I need the most help with. And I always. So if I'm doing that, I'm not going to then jump into five mentorships all at once, but I'm going to progressively kind of pick and choose the area that I need reinforcement and Again.

We got to learn to say no. Right, and avoid that shiny object syndrome, which us entrepreneurs are unfortunately very destined to fall for, is shiny object syndrome. Many of us are quick starts on the Colby A. So, you know, you put us in a room and we come up with all kinds of ideas and you put us in a different room and we're distracted by all the little objects in that room and come up with a whole different set of ideas. So what have been some of your effective strategies at avoiding that from happening?

Yeah, so the number one thing is at conferences and please don't strike me down for conference holders, but I don't, I typically don't buy at a conference and I'll tell you why. Because everyone, mostly a lot of conferences are the edgy market through education. You get an educational lecture and at the end of it there's opportunity to buy. Well, if you have 20 speakers, you could buy 20 different programs at a few thousand dollars each or more and you don't really know what resonates and then it doesn't allow you time to sit with it. Well, I've gone into conferences knowing what they sell. So I'll have a list of, hey, I'm going to be on the lookout for one or two things and it may buy, but I've already been pre educated at a prior conference or whatever, so I don't buy immediately. I know they all have offers. So unless it's that really one thing that's going to take you to the next level. But yeah, and that was, I think a business mentor said another wasn't mine. Maybe it was someone you interviewed that had said, yeah, at the end we tell our people not to the people they coach, we tell them not to buy anything at any conference they go to unless you had, unless that's really the next step. So there are a couple things. And you know, I actually for speaker training had had a little bit of coaching and then I sat with it and it wasn't until, you know, I heard Pete Farkas speak and it wasn't until I'd heard him speak. I sat with it for three months and when they did their online course, I knew that's who I wanted. He's the person that resonated with me. And so you want to, anyone you're going to train under, you want to make sure they resonate with you. So there's, there's a countless number of speaker trainers and he's the one that resonated with me and it's been very helpful throughout.

Yeah, Pete's great. Him and Pat Quinn are super awesome. And just kind of go back to what you said. It was Gerrick Anderson that said that. Not to buy at a conference, because, you know, we can make emotional decisions. And, you know, one thing I will say that has been coming up bubbling up for me a lot lately is this idea of, you know what? To me, success is growth. So as long as you're growing, I would consider that success. Right. And growth occurs based on a series of decisions. So the faster that we can get at decision making, the faster we can get, you know, move closer to, I mean, the faster we grow. Right. And so I think it's really important for us to get really in tune with what resonates with us and what sits well with us. And, you know, certainly people can make things sound good and they can make things look good, but when you're making a decision, it's important that they feel good. And I wanted to acknowledge you for recognizing that because, you know, we can make things really shiny, we can make them really pretty and we can write scripts that allow for people to make an emotional decision. But we want people to make a heart centered decision. Like their heart has to be in it, not just their head and their wallet. Their heart's got to be in it for them, for anyone to really get an outcome. Because if you buy a course because it was on sale or because it was this once in a lifetime deal, but you never do anything with it, like that's, you know, the worst kind of money you can spend. You always can give yourself freedom to purchase something if you know how to make it worth more than what you paid for it. Right? And so I know for you, Reika, that speaking is a big part of your personal journey. And, you know, you're already on stages and I know you want to get on even bigger stages. And one of the things that you said is that you want to be on Tony Robbins stage. And I can see you on that stage. Like, I literally see myself in the audience with you on the stage speaking, and I see the images of you on the two screens on the side, and I want to see that happen for you. And I see you taking the steps to make that happen. So I love that. And of course, to say yes to that means you probably have to say no to half a dozen or a dozen other things. And that's really important for those of you listening that it's. We've all made mistakes, right? I'm sure we could have a whole separate podcast and all the mistakes that we made. But we're here to show you, like, hey, you don't have to make the same mistakes as we did. You don't have to go through the same learning curves. Because when you're learning, I mean, you're growing after the learning. But we love to have everyone listening to this, just growing. Right. And learning off of our backs and our mistakes. So thank you for sharing that. I appreciate that.

You're welcome.

All right, so one of the things that you mentioned, you touched on this a little bit, and I want to dig a little bit deeper into it is marketing through education. So what are some of the ways that you educate your prospective clients or even. Even just your. I mean, not just your community, but your community. And here's the thing I want everyone to recognize is that you're never going to be able to help every single person in your community by seeing them one on one. There's way too many people. But you can help everybody in your community, theoretically, if you can propagate a message out there and get a lot of eyeballs on it. So tell us a little bit more about some of the strategies that you're using to educate your community.

Yeah, so periodically. And this is going to increase. You know, I've held the probably about quarterly, so I'm not as religious about it. Talks. And for a while it was like once every other week. And then I said, you know, I got to take a break. And that's what we also have to acknowledge. I had to take a break because my husband was traveling at these kids and I can't be gone, you know, I don't want to be gone from them. And so you. So being consistent, whatever it is. So I'm going to start up. And the mistake I would have made is I was targeting too many different things. So now that I know that I'm targeting, it's effortless to go back in and put out that same message over and over again. Last year we held the gut movie a screening of it and so you can go to fanforce.com and it's a brilliant way to market in your community and you become the expert. So they require that you buy 89 tickets or not that you buy that you sell 89 tickets. And then the movie screening is free for you. So you don't have any money. You definitely will probably invest in paying for ads to drive people to wasn't that much. And at the end I was like, I was determined. I think you and I had a conversation. I'm like, I Am determined to make this movie a go and we end up selling over 100 tickets. Unfortunately in Chicago there was a Snowstorms. Of the 100, about 50 showed up. But that's still a pretty good turnout right after a snowstorm. And when I did it towards the final hours, I said I am going to contact every connection I have and I'm going to ask. I'm going to have a big ask. So from the practitioners, I said hey, I need another physician on stage. I need a health coach. And I said I'll put you on stage with me and we can be in the speaker panel but I need you to buy 20 tickets. So I got a little ingenious. So that got some of the tickets sold. I went to all the vendors that know me and there were two different vendors about 20 tickets and they didn't really have an ask back from me which was or for the audience. And so it was great. And then another vendor donated a stool kit. How cool is that? So then I had a free stool kit to raffle off and we raffled off different things. So it was myself, it was actually Carlos from our mentorship group. I had my dietitian and then we had a health coach from the community and it made a nice panel. And then after the so we did an introduction, showed the movie and after the movie had a one hour Q& A. And that really branded us within the community and we gave them a different perspective from the different practitioners. So in person workshops, the gut movie screening I'll do. I speak to the pta. I've done a Eat the Rainbow for the school, the elementary age which was super fun. And you know, now that I'm targeting women, it's going to be retargeted for. And then two times this past year I've held retreat for women so I'd like to grow those more. So it's just another way. And that's a nice one because it's a little bit of a money earner. But then you get the message out for one to many instead of one to one. And the last piece I'll add is that I really look forward to launching groups. And so that's going to be my middle of the road. And I have a health coach I'll be talking to to see can she come on board and do the teachings because they don't really need me to be doing that. Here's what you should eat. Here's how to remove the toxins. Here's proper digestion. That's not my Level of work is I'm looking at biochemistry and the labs and I'm doing a deep dive into their history. So that's where I really should be best utilized.

I love that. I do love the fact that you've got these different layers and levels of exposure and you're, you know, you're working with the kids, you're working with the moms, you're doing stuff that is free with really no expectation in return, right? No, I mean, the expectation is you hope that people take the information and run with it and then you've got something where you can go a little bit deeper with the groups you've got the deepest that you can go, I think is the retreat. Right. Because you're spending days with somebody, not just an hour, every couple of months or every few weeks with them. So you've got these different levels of service and different depths that you can go with people. So I love that model because it really allows you to serve people on any end of the spectrum socioeconomically also from a health perspective as well. Certainly some people require to go deeper and you're making that available to them. So one thing I will say, I don't know how you do all of this. So you've got some sort of superpower that enables you to do this. So what is the secret to that? Is it the coffee you're drinking? Like, is it the vitamins you're taking? Is it something genetically about you that makes you unique? What would you say it is? What's your superpower?

I have two. Okay. One is I really have figured out my kind of genetics and that. And so I supplement to me. And so it took three decades to get there. And I eat according to me. And you may say, oh, the genetics don't count. But in my case they really did. And I wish I would have known them sooner. It would have stopped all this heartache. But so that I do, you know, I really practice what I preach and you know, I go up to bed by 9:30 and there's a rare night. And in fact, you know, when I'm thinking about a party, I'm like, everyone must think I'm a funny day. Like I don't really want to be up till midnight. That tires me out for the next day. But for the most part I'd say, yeah, it is that high. And that's, that's the secret I'm going to be sharing. So remember, it's high energy for high performing women, so you got to first regain it if you've Lost it. And the key to that is most people acclimate to a lower level of energy and they forget what it feels like to be good. And the second thing is I do little bits every day, so I'll share one pearl. Like people are like, how do you know so much? Well, seven years ago when I embarked on this adventure, I was when we relocated back from the United States to Boston. So we were living abroad for almost eight years. My husband unpacked us mostly and then he went back abroad. And so at any rate, I thought, you know, I really want to learn this field. So every morning for a half hour every day pretty much for the last seven years, Monday through Friday, I listen to something. So I'm not a very good audio learner, but in seven years I've trained myself how to learn verbally than more. But my ears always have more time. So and if you add in all the conferences, so half hour a day for five days in a row for seven years now, plus conference time, which is much more on weekends, if nothing was going on, I could listen to five hours of a summit or five hours of prerecorded conference. And so that's why it always looks like I'm a rock star. But it's just because I'm doing little bits every day that cumulatively has added up to a whole lot of learning and knowledge.

I love that. So as we kind of wrap things up here, there's a couple things that I did want to talk about and I'm certainly going to have to have you back on again because there's other things that I feel are much deeper conversations and rabbit holes that I love to go down with you. And there's so much value that we can unpack here. So if I gave you $100, what would you spend it on? Would you spend it on acquiring new leads or would you spend it on nurturing your existing clients?

Nurturing my existing clients. And as an early practitioner, I would have said new leads. But now I know the value in that. And I'll give you an example. Even today there's a woman who came through, I prescreened and she was already pre screened referral from a colleague. But there were some things and what was going on where she was really unsettled and almost became demanding. And I said, you know, I'm going to kill it with kindness. And just that one act flipped that around. And today we had this amazing session where she really understood and I in her, in which she was voicing her concern was just how many Supplements she had to take. And I only gave her three satchin three. It was really like, oh, I'm in trouble. And I actually drop shipped her the book Healing Arthritis by Susan Blum, because I thought she's wait until I have to do gut healing. She's really gonna fall off. You know, she'd really flip. And I spent the time and I made it relatable and I slowed it way down as to what I was saying and what we would be doing. And so I really worked on nurturing her. At the end of the appointment, she took two cards. She's like, I have two people that really need to see you. I'm going to send them to you. And so that, that's huge. And you always should think about how can I serve better and more. And then the last patient of the day who brought her father, she snapped a photo of me teaching him heart math. So you'll see that crop up in the social media because she thought it was pretty good. You know, he's 89 years old. I'm teaching him hard math and I do that in every first session. But yeah, yeah, nurture those. The current patients don't acquire the new leads. I mean it. Initially you have to acquire new leads, but once you have them, nurture them as much as you can.

It's so much easier for 10 people to refer one person to you than for you to go out and get 10 new people, right? And you know, a referral collapses time. Like it takes time to build trust and notoriety and preeminence with people that are using, are eventually going to use your services. And a referral can collapse that time for you. And you know, the other thing too, I know that we have to be careful. We can't pay people to refer others to us. The $100 is obviously an example or just kind of a rhetorical question or a theoretical question, but really the answer doesn't change, right? Because if you were to invest that time, energy, effort, appreciation, and focus on the people that already know, like and trust you, then there's people that already know like and trust them. So it collapses that time for them, for you, and also for the people to find you, right? Like, if, you know, if somebody's suffering for three years before they make a decision, because that's how long it takes them to start trusting you. Had they been referred to you, they would have trusted you, you know, way earlier in the process. So I love that. Thanks for sharing that. And then one more question. I want to try to squeeze as much as I can out of you here. So how do you determine who's the right fit and who isn't? I know you've got an application process and then you offer a discovery call. But you know what. What is it that you go with in terms? Is it how they answer? Is it how you feel? Is it their level of excitement? Like, what kind of guides you in terms of making a decision if somebody's the right fit for you or not?

Yeah, it's really. So I always tell them that we do these calls because I want them to be the exact right fit fit. And by that I mean that eventually, as they get to know me, that they feel like they are an extended part of my family. And because I'm a family practice doctor at heart, and that's one of the things I enjoyed. I don't want someone in here who doesn't trust me, is constantly that, you know, I'm constantly waiting to be attacked or whatever. And I've had that. I've been fortunate, I'll tell you, 22 years. And there have been very few people that have not been even worse, had been not a good fit that I. We parted ways and. But now it's so infrequent. So I, you know, are they ready to change? Are they willing to accept responsibility that any outcome is relies on their effort? Are they willing to address not only mind, body, spirit, but to look at stored trauma? I started adding that because I started getting a little bit of that. I'm like, well, maybe it's me and my store trauma. You know, why is that traffic? But because unfortunately, some of these chronic illnesses will rewire their brains. And then you got to go back in and figure it out, whether it's EMDR or DNRs or whatever. And so those are the things I look at. But the one statement that's helped, and I'll end with this, is that by saying, I want anyone who comes through my doors to feel like they're extended family because I want to treat them with that level of respect, and I want to get that level of respect back. And someone doesn't feel like this is a good fit, then they need to see somebody else.

I love that. Rekha, thank you so much. I appreciate you. And you're such a great role model for other practitioners who are on their journey and even myself, who is, you know, alongside this journey with you. We're always learning new things from each other. You're always sharing in our community and in our group, and you're so willing to pay it forward so that other people, you know, can move faster in the direction of their dream. So thank you once again. I appreciate you. And I promise we'll do this again and we'll dive a lot deeper into some of these things. You've given me a lot to think about. And I know you've given the practitioners listening to this a lot to think about. Any final words of inspiration to those listening?

Find a mentor. Don't go it alone. Be a lonely road.

Awesome. And where can people find you? Where can they learn more about the work that you're doing?

My work can be found on my website. It's just Dr. Ryka.com. so D R R A J K A.com for patients and practitioners both amazing.

Thank you. And have an amazing day.

All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks so much. Satch.