EP072: How to Pandemic-Proof Your Practice and Personal Life

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.

What is up my friends? Welcome to Perfect Practice. It's Satchin Patel. Hope you're having an awesome, awesome day today. I want to talk about five ways plus one bonus way to pandemic proof your practice and your personal life because the two, believe it or not, are very closely connected to one another. So I'm going to give you some tips that I found helpful. You know, I was talking to my wife yesterday and it's easy to connect the dots looking backwards, as Steve Jobs said, but it's almost impossible to realize the, you know, the things that are happening to you at certain points in your life are happening for a reason. And so I was connecting the dots and looking back at some of the decisions I've made and some of the inklings and divine interventions I've had over the years and even the advice I've given to others and to myself. And it's actually put me in a position where we're having some great traction in both our practice and in our coaching business because we were kind of leading and I thought that was very helpful. So I wanted to give back and contribute and not give back, but really pay it forward and to all of you so that you might have those same insights. And this is a time for you to really think about things very deeply. I interviewed Ujay Ramdas, one of the co founders of Intelligent Change, and we talked about how to think. How to think is very critical. So I'm going to give you some things to think about in this short presentation and podcast. So first and foremost, this is a time to ask yourself tough questions. So number one is to ask yourself tough questions. These are questions that are extremely difficult or questions that you may have been putting off and you haven't answered yet. And these are also, in some regards, conversations that you haven't had yet that you've needed to have for a long time. And it's time to have those conversations. A great exercise. I learned from my mentor, Joe. Polish is half versus Elf. So take a plain piece of paper, it could be a lined piece of paper, could be your favorite notebook, and draw a line down the middle of that page. On the left hand side, list all the things that are hard, annoying, lame, and frustrating. And on the right hand side, list all the things that are easy, lucrative, and fun. These are the things that move the needle for you. These are the things that get you excited about your day. These are the things that really light you up. Okay. And the things you look forward to. So half is hard, annoying, lame, and frustrating. Elf is easy, lucrative, and fun. Many people have never done this exercise, and what they realize is they spend most of their day doing things that are hard, annoying, lame, and frustrating. And here's the thing. If you don't like doing something, you will never be able to create the best outcome in that task. So very critical. If you don't like something, if you don't love something, you're not going to create the best outcome. So do the things you love, more of the things you love. It's not always going to be possible for you to do everything that you love, but you should be spending most of your time doing the things you love or moving in that direction. Okay. Believe it or not, the things you don't like doing, other people love doing them. So I have a hard time believing this, but some people love accounting. I don't like accounting and crunching numbers and stuff like that, but some people live for that. They can't go to bed unless they've crunched numbers that day. So find what those things are for you, identify those things. Have your staff and team members and even your spouse, if they're involved in your business or children, do this exercise so that, you know, are they doing things they love or are they doing things that they don't like? Because they're probably not going to produce the best work if that's what your business needs. And I argue that your business always needs the best work possible. The other thing that you want to do is design your dream day. This is a time to reinvent and reimagine what your life is like. So ask yourself some tough questions. Do I love my morning routine? Do I love doing the things that I'm doing every day? Or are these things bringing me joy? Are these things bringing me frustration in my life? You know, I've got a great exercise for dream day. Exercises and prompts that you can use to really map out your perfect day. And, and, you know, I think there's about 30 things in there, and I'm happy to send that to you. Just write down Dream day in the comments and I'll send that over to you. It's a Google Doc that I'd be happy to share, and it gives you 30 things to think about. You know, what time are you going to wake up? What's the first thought you have? What's the first thing you do? And start mapping that out and you'll realize that out of the 30 to 35 things that you list that make up your dream day, you can probably do 90% of them today or tomorrow and start living your dream day. Start becoming the best version of yourself. You're just typically just four or five steps away from that. If that's what's required of you, because that's your dream, then why not start living it as much as possible right now? I think that's a good, sound piece of advice. The number two thing that I want you to do is I want you to surround yourself with positive and uplifting people. This will benefit you in your personal life and your professional life. Surround yourself with people, especially right now, who are positive, people who are aspirational, people who believe that a more beautiful world is around the corner, instead of people who are living in fear and anger and desperation and negativity. You've got to remove yourself from those people. You know, Jim Rohn says you're the average of the five people you hang out with. And he also says if you hang around dogs, eventually you'll get fleas. So don't hang around dogs too much. Certainly if you have a pet, that's a different story, but you get the metaphor. So find people that uplift you, inspire you, that make you feel like a better world is around the corner. If the people in your life are negative, if the people on your social media stream are negative, get rid of those people. Now, I understand these are tough times, but. But that also calls for people to be even more positive. And that's very important. The next thing I want you to do for your professional and personal sanity is to reassess how your business is set up. So if you're a medical doctor, chiropractor, naturopath, this is a time to expand your vision, to expand your growth. And many of us have a bigger vision than we have a scope. So an example that I can give you is I have a naturopathic graduate, and his vision was so much bigger than what his scope would allow him to do. So we had to get creative and he got additional certifications from the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Institute. Well, not the institute, but fdn and love my friends over there, Jen and Reid, doing amazing work. And he was able to actually expand his scope so that he could help people anywhere in the world, so that he didn't have to abide by the laws of the naturopathic community. Because he was practicing. He still had the knowledge, he still had the training. And he still would say, like, I'm trained as a naturopath, but I'm practicing as an FDN graduate. And now he was able to help people in ways that he wouldn't have been able to if he was strictly a naturopathic practitioner. So little things like that are big things. Because if your vision is to cross state lines or cross country borders, I mean, these are imaginary constructs. You know, your knowledge doesn't stop at the border. Your dream doesn't stop at the border. Your vision doesn't stop at the border. Now, if you're strictly in a local practice, then that's a different story. I get that. But think about that. Is your vision and your dream for yourself bigger than your scope allows it to be? Sometimes I refer to these as golden handcuffs. And, you know, one of the things I did many years ago is I gave up my chiropractic license. So I don't call myself doctor anymore. I didn't give up the knowledge. I still have the knowledge. I still learn every single day. I. But now I'm not limited by that scope. And as a future FDM grad, I'm actually going through the process right now. I'm going to be able to expand and reach more people anywhere in the world and help them with my knowledge and help them, you know, with what's, you know, locked up inside of me. I can help them no matter where they are in the world. So my scope is now going to be as big as my vision. I can help people on Mars. When people move there. I don't have to worry about interplanetary consulting, so to speak. Now, number four is create diverse sources of income. So this is a time to make sure you're not invested in just one source of income, because that could be a problem for you. If you're only invested and your only source of income is coming from one place. That could potentially be a problem because you're not able to. You're literally not able to generate income that is going to allow you to protect yourself and your family. We don't know what's around the corner. We don't know what's next on this planet that we live on, and in this life that we're leading, we have no idea. So diversification is very important. Nature diversifies. So if you ever look at the roots of a tree, it's spreading in all directions, it's diversifying itself, protecting itself. So it could withstand the winds and withstand the weight, and it could create a strong root structure doing that. Sources of diversification in your functional medicine business could be things like supplementation, it could be digital courses, it could be telemedicine services. If you went. If you're only physical, you could add telemedicine. It could be group coaching and consulting that you offer. It could be real estate. And if you're into the stock market, which I'm really not, then you could invest in stocks. Now may or may not be a good time to do that. So, you know, try to see how you can diversify yourself so that you're, know, branching out and you're protecting yourself and your family from any future issues that might come up. And this is a good time to evaluate that. Another thing to think about is your legacy. So how can you take what's in your head, put it into a course, and create a legacy for yourself and your family? And number five, which is really important, is to nurture your existing clients, patients, and even your personal relationships. People are craving a few things right now. They're craving health, they're crazy, they're craving leadership, they're craving relationships. Right. They're craving just something to help them deal with the anxiety and the depression and the uncertainty that they have in their life right now. So how do we do that? We can do that through special offers that you make. You might provide some free training or. One of the things that I'm actually doing this weekend is going to be a tough love Zoom meetings. I'm going to meet with a bunch of people and it's going to be tough love. It's going to be wrong, it's going to be real, it's going to be fun. And I've warned people that it's going to be tough love. And the only people that are going to show up there are people that can handle it, people that want that. Okay. Because this is a time where we can either give people tough love or they can live a tough life. So I choose to give them tough love, and that's what they want. So we also did a Ask Me Anything community Q and A. So again, a zoom meeting that we've done just the Other day we did a webinar on the unsung hero of the immune system. We talked about gut, health and lifestyle and all those things. We didn't make an offer. Instead, we invited people to a masterclass if they were interested in working with us. And we had a whole bunch of people, pretty much 80% of the people that were on that call registered for the masterclass. That's coming up in this coming week. So we're just trying to deliver as much value as we possibly can. You, you can also do check ins. So check in with people, you know, shoot somebody a quick text, shoot people a quick email, you know, if it, if depending on the relationship, give somebody a quick call. People will appreciate that. I think they're more appreciative of that now than ever before. Another thing that you can do is mail stuff to people. There's no mail coming right now. There's like no junk mail. It's so beautiful that I'm not getting any junk mail, but it's kind of sad because we're not getting anything in the mail. Well, we are. We're ordering stuff and packages are coming and things like that, but most people aren't. Okay. If we weren't ordering those things, then we wouldn't be receiving anything in the mail except bills. So how nice would it be for somebody to get a card from you, a handwritten note from you, or even, you know, some sort of direct mail. It could be a small token of your appreciation. It could be a gift card. You know, we have $25 gift cards. And now that I'm thinking about it, that might be a good thing. You know, know kind of your own little personal stimulus that you send to your patients during these challenging times that they can redeem, you know, when your services start up, or maybe they can go to your store or online platform and order something at that discount. I promise you they'll really, really appreciate that. Okay, Now I want to give you one bonus. So this is number six. And this is probably one of the most important things I'll talk about. This is not a time to be quiet. This is a time to take a stance. This is a time to let people know what you stand for. It's a time for people to know what you stand against. And it's a time for people to know what you're not willing to put up with in this world anymore. So be bold. You know, the truth is often controversial. Okay? But here's the thing. The truth is the truth and it's eternal. So this is a good time for you to really lean into your values. You lean into your community. Be there for them. Show them the support that they need. Show them the guidance, the leadership that they're all craving right now because they're not getting it from anywhere else. Okay, they might not be employed right now or they might be at home. So there's no leadership. You know, certainly on tv, there's no leadership in the news, there's no leadership from the government. And if you're a practitioner, this is your time to show people that you're a leader, Share valuable information, do some more Facebook lives. Like, that's what I'm doing right now. I'm trying to add value into your life so that you can actually navigate the things that are coming up for us. So these are five plus one things that I want you to start thinking about. Ask yourself some tough questions. If you're looking for the Dream Day prompts, I'm happy to share that with you. Just type in Dream Day below and I will get that over to you. As soon as I get that message from you, I'll send it to you through communication that you require. So love to you. Have an amazing, amazing rest of your day and. And just get out there, help people. You know, let's pandemic proof your practice and let's pandemic proof your life. Love you. Talk to you soon. Bye for now.