EP40: 12 Ways for Holistic Practitioners to Care About their Practice, Patients and Themselves 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 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.

All right, what's up everyone? It's Satchin. Hope you're super, super awesome. I'm actually recording this podcast live and I'm recording this not only for practitioners, but I'm recording this for the general public. I feel like what I'm going to be discussing today is going to be super important and super relevant for any of you who are on a health journey or any of you who are helping others on their health journey. You know, we as practitioners in the holistic side of things, have a very important role to play, as do the non holistic and allopathic practitioners. And one of the biggest things that actually holds people back is the ability for them to invest in themselves. And so what I want to talk about today on this very special like Livestream podcast is really how to save people money and reframe their thinking around money. Because most of us are very reluctant to invest in ourselves. And I totally understand that sometimes we're not in a position to be able to do that. And I at one point was in that position. But what I can tell you is that a beautiful world awaits you when you start investing in yourself. You know, one of my favorite mentors, Jim Rohn, who I listened to at least once a day, one of his teachings said that if you want your life to change, you have to change. And if you want to make a living, then work on your job and work on things outside of you. But if you want to make a fortune, if you want to be healthy and live your best life, then you've got to work on yourself. And when you work on yourself, that's when everything else in your life starts getting better. And so what's beautiful about working on you and investing in you is that it's something that pays dividends. And it's something that pays dividends from the moment you start the journey. Unlike retirement funds, which a lot of people pour money into, you can't even spend that Money until you're retired, you don't even have access to that resource. But when you invest in yourself, you have access to that resource, that untapped potential in you almost immediately. So working with thousands of people and now kind of retiring out of clinical practice and working with practitioners, one of the biggest objections I've ever seen is, is people not willing to make an investment in themselves. And I want to address that. I want to address that elephant in the room head on, because I feel like it's the mindset shift that needs to take place in order for people to live out their best life. And the narrative that you're not worth it is one of the things that's not going to serve you in any area of your life. So why I like people working with us or working with a provider that's going to help them live their best self is, is that that's how we make the world a better place. Okay? We make the world a better place not by just simply eliminating your pain or discomfort, but we make the world a better place by you living out your highest level of yourself that's possible. And that's my objective every day, is to work on myself and fine tune who I am and work inwardly before I expect things to change outwardly. So with that being said, let's get into at least 12 different ways that we as functional medicine practitioners, lifestyle practitioners, holistic practitioners, whether we're nutritionists or naturopaths, or even massage therapists, acupuncturists, wherever you are in this realm, I think it's important that we discuss how we can help our patients get healthy in the most affordable way possible. So if this is a topic that is of interest to you, then please let me know because this is certainly of great interest to me. And I thank you all for joining me on this Saturday morning. So let's get into this. So here's the first thing that I want you to do if you're a practitioner is listen. Okay? When you listen more than you speak, then guess what? You will allow the patient to tell you exactly what's wrong with them. You know, sometimes the patient's gonna very subtly tell you a story, or they're gonna tell you about a situation that will allow you to pinpoint exactly where their challenges are starting. So sometimes their challenge isn't their food. Sometimes their challenge is they're super busy and they can't sit when they eat. So they're eating under a sympathetic dominant state. Sometimes their challenge is their spouse. Sometimes their challenge is their work. Okay. So really listen to what the patient is saying, and that's gonna save them a lot of money because you're gonna be able to really immediately find what the challenges are and work on addressing them head on. There's no supplement for a challenging relationship. Okay. Certainly we can numb people with lots of things, legal and illegal, but that isn't the goal. The goal is for them to live a fully conscious life. And in order for them to do that, they have to be fully present, and we have to be fully present with them to listen to what those challenges are. So sometimes it's a challenging situation at home, sometimes it's a challenging situation at work. Very few people are actually appreciated when they go to work, and that can be super challenging as well. And so we have to really find out what's going on. I had a patient a few years ago come and see me, and she had debilitating back pain. Now she was seeing me for her thyroid issues. We were working on lifestyle and nutrition and all the things that we know that actually get people better. And she got better. She saw great results. But her debilitating back pain never went away. And so one of the things I mentioned to her, although she didn't have a physically stressful job, her job was emotionally stressful. And. And I told her, I said, you need to quit your job. And as a result of quitting her job, within one week, her back pain completely resolved and never came back. And so we knew her manifestation of an emotional challenge. So we always want to fix that. Another thing for you guys to keep in mind is that when somebody is facing challenges, they're going to want you to hear that. They're going to want you to hear some of the struggles and some of the things that they're undergoing, because that's going to help them. That's going to allow them to get some of these things off of their chest, which I'm sure you guys realize is super, super important. So sometimes people just want to be heard. They want to be listened to, and that's priceless to them. And sometimes people are paying you to listen to them, not necessarily for you. For them to listen to you speak. Because very, very few times do patients actually get to voice themselves. So first things first. Listen. Because not all problems are biochemical. Not all problems can be solved by supplements. Not all problems are going to show up on lab testing. So that's way number one. Number two, in our practice, we do something called discovery calls. And these discovery calls are basically a way for a practitioner and A patient to connect in a meaningful way. What we do is we have patients fill out a quick survey and that quick survey asks them, you know, very direct questions to make sure that we're the right fit for them. Because, you know, time is money. And so we don't want to waste people's time either. And so we have 20 minute discovery calls and that's a way for you to meet and greet the practitioner. Figure out, a, can we help you? B, is this the right next step for you? Because sometimes we can help you, but it might not be the right step. And see, do we get along? Because we're going to be working together for several hours over the next few months and sometimes we're going to see our patients more than we even see some of our own best friends. So we want to make sure that when we hang out together, it's fun and it's enjoyable and it's pleasurable for everybody involved. And that relationship is super, super important. And many studies have shown the better relationship you have with your practitioner, the better the outcomes are. And so we want to engage in a friendly manner with our patients or prospective patients. There's no commitment, there's no offense or no commitment. We always want to make sure that we're the right fit because we're going to embark on a journey, we're not going to just take a step together, we're going to go on a journey together. And so these discovery calls really help people know that they're in the right place. They get to answer their questions in a non threatening way. Right. So we are very, very transparent with our patients in terms of costs, in terms of what type of mental, emotional, and of course, financial commitment is involved. And so we can then allow them to make intelligent decisions. We only work with intelligent people. Okay. So we want to allow these people to make intelligent decisions. And we don't like confronting people or leaving them in the blind and then blindsiding them with pricing. Right. Because that's usually very uncomfortable and I would not want that either. Imagine going to a car dealership and there's no prices on the cars and you have no idea how much it costs. And then you're like pigeonholed in making a decision. It can be super awkward. So we try to avoid that as best as we can. So we have transparent pricing on our website. When you get on a call with us, we can give you transparent pricing on what we expect your lab test to cost. And that saves people money. Because the last thing I want is somebody making an Initial appointment, paying a few hundred dollars to find out that they can't afford the program or it's not in their current budget, if you will, and we'll talk about that in just a minute. But we don't want that. Right? Because if people can't afford the program, then I know for a fact that they can't afford to waste a few hundred dollars finding out that they can't afford the program. So just keep that in mind. We also, in honor of our own time and of course, the client's time, we actually have them fill out a quick survey before they come in. And by filling out that quick survey and asking very direct questions, we even know if they should schedule the discovery call or not. And if they don't answer correctly in terms of are we the right next step for them, then we have free resources for our patients. We understand the healthcare crisis, and the healthcare crisis is so big right now that us working one on one with people is not going to actually solve the problem. We can see four or five, maybe 600 new patients a year, but that's just like a micro droplet of the actual problem. That's like one drop in a rainstorm. It's impossible for us to help everybody. So always our objective is to keep people out of our office. That's why we do talks like this. That's why we do a community workshop. Like, we have one today that I have to get to later because we want to keep people out of our office. And so by asking the right questions and, and then letting them know, hey, we have free resources for you or alternative resources for you. Start there. That saves people money, and it saves you money in your practice, because then the people that are coming in to see you, there's an roi. There's an ROI for the patient because they can invest in their care, and there's an ROI for the practitioner because, let's face it, we want to help people. That's what we live for, right? We live for that moment when people come in and tell us how amazing they're feeling. And despite having tried everything and despite having almost given up on themselves and now they feel amazing. That's what I live for, okay? It's not because you pay me. That's the least of my, you know, things that excite me. At this point in my life, what excites me is patients coming in, investing in themselves because they believe in themselves and they believe in us, and then, you know, displaying that belief in themselves by making the lifestyle changes, making the dietary changes, Making the environmental changes that are required and then seeing a result. Right. That's what we live for, not the opposite of that. And then, you know, it's also important to have a thorough intake. So in our practice, we have an intake form that's 46 pages. And, you know, people might roll their eyes at that. Why does it have to be so thorough? Well, you know, you're putting us in charge of one of your most important assets, if not your most important asset, which is your health. And we don't take that lightly. So imagine your taxes were one page or five pages. You know, that might not be enough information. Right. For your accountant, you know, so you need to provide us with as much information as possible. And the more you can, you know, express these things and think about these things, then the sooner these challenges come up. So we have a page on our forum about dental history. So we don't want to wait eight months into your program to find out that you've got, you know, three root canals and a lot of cavities and dental issues. We want to know that up front because we're going to try to put together a case for you and work with you over a period of time. So we try to smoke out all of these potential roadblocks right up front. And that's by doing a thorough intake. That saves you a ton of money. It saves us a ton of time working together. And again, as you know, time is money. Now, another thing that we do that saves people money is testing. So functional lab testing. By carefully listening to what's going on with the patient and then recommending the right testing, you can save people so much money because you're only going to recommend what they need. You're also going to be able to see through the testing what lifestyle changes this person needs to make and what dietary changes this person needs to make. And so you're not guessing with supplementation and by testing and then eventually retesting the patient when the timing is appropriate, you. You're saving that person money, most importantly. And you're also saving them the emotional uncertainty of are they moving in the right direction, are they getting better? And that's probably more important than money. But testing saves people money. One of the ways that we help our patients save money on testing because we feel it's essential for their outcomes, is we allow them to pay the lab directly so we don't upcharge the testing. And that allows you to get the best possible price. In fact, you pay what our own friends and family and our Practitioners pay for the testing. So we pass those savings onto you because we don't necessarily want the money from the test. We want to be able to get the information from the test and then make intelligent decisions on your behalf and walk you through what these results mean. We also want to minimize pill burden. This is a huge thing we see. Dr. Jarrett calls this supplement graveyards. We see so many supplement graveyards coming into our office. And these are garbage bags full of sometimes empty, sometimes full supplement products that people were prescribed. And so there's that old saying, there's an app for that, but sometimes there isn't a pill for the problems that are presenting and creating challenges for you. So by doing the right testing, you can get very specific with what's going to move the needle in terms of supplementation. But if somebody needs a supplement, they probably need to make a lifestyle change and a corresponding dietary change as well. So use whole foods as a tool, use herbs as a tool. Herbs and fungi, for example, have intelligence built into them. And that's a whole different topic, but just something to keep in mind. That's why something like Reishi mushroom can be so powerful. I call it functional medicine in a cup or functional medicine in a capsule, because by giving that one superfood, dramatic changes take place in multiple systems in the body because of the software upgrade that's taking place. Use also synergistic products. So a company that I love is Designs for Health because they synergistically combine their ingredients in meaningful dosages, which reduces the cost, but also gets a therapeutic effect for the patient. And in some cases, you know, we do this in our practice, allow for wholesale purchasing. So some companies that we work with allow for wholesale accounts for the lay public to be set up. So for example, we sell coffee in our office and, and you can buy it retail from our practice, or you can set up your own wholesale account and get it at the same price that we do. So wherever we can, we can save you money. Professional brands, you can't do that, Right? So you've got to go through the schooling that we've gone through to be able to sell those products or get those products at wholesale price. Certainly our goal is to minimize the need of supplementation, use whole foods and use lifestyle changes to be able to save you lots and lots of money in the long run. And then one of the things we also do, and I encourage practitioners to do, is host community workshops. So community workshops are a way for you to reach one to many. And then you can do things like I'M doing right now like a Facebook live so you can reach one to many more and then you can ask people to share. So I'm going to ask you right now if you would share this with in your network. You just never know who's going to see. Might be one person that needs to see this message and it completely changes their entire life or their business or, you know, their health or whatever it might be. So, you know, try to get in front of one to one and then one to many and then one through many more. And what that means is, you know, through you I can reach more people and through those people we can reach even more people so we can have geometric spreading of powerful messages. And then number 10 is to focus on lifestyle. Lifestyle is so huge and it's probably the main reason people come in and see us. And your lifestyle, you know, that includes your diet, that includes your environment, it includes your exposure to things, it includes your relationships, it includes how much time you spend in nature, physical activity. I mean, these are the things that you have full control over as a patient. And for many of these things, there's no pill, okay? So there's no pill for relationships, there's no pill for going outside in nature. Right. Vitamin D is not a replacement of the sun. It's like ridiculous if you think that, right? And if your doctor ever tells you that, then fire them because that's not the case. You'll never get better just taking vitamin D in a supplement form as you would actually getting outside. The benefits of getting outside in the sun, even if it's just your eyes and face that are being exposed to the sun, are super, super valuable. Okay? So anyone who tells you, oh, just take this and you'll be fine, is not saving you money, okay? They're making money off of you, but they're not saving you money because in the long run, you're not going to get better. And then lifestyle is free. It's super powerful. I mean, it's the only thing that really works. It's so things that you can do that through lifestyle that can save you even more money are things like intermittent fasting. You can do alternate day fasting, which means you eat every other day, okay? So cutting back on calories and calorie, controlled calorie restriction has been shown to increase lifespan and longevity, decrease the effects of our food on the immune system. Because every time you eat, whether it's healthy or not, you have an immune system response. It's like the border, right? So if a million people show up at the border, they could be all nice people and we could all let them through, but we still have to do the work. Right? Now imagine that a half of those people are not good people and the other half are good people. We still have to do the work, but the not good people are going to create problems. So whether we eat healthy or unhealthy, there is this stress that's placed on the digestive system and immune system to metabolize all this stuff. So you got to process all these things out of you. So fasting significantly reduces cost for patients, but it also accelerates results. Okay, so don't let. The breakfast industry is not going to tell you that. And certainly the food industry is not going to tell you to fast either. They're going to tell you to shovel as much food as you can down your gullet so that you can stay inflamed, so that you can stay immunocompromised, so you can stay in a state of dysfunction as much as possible. And just constantly eating. I mean, that's what they want you to do. The next thing that's super free and life saving and life changing is sleep. Okay? So sleep, guys and gals, if you're not sleeping, you're not healing. Sleep is the most parasympathetic thing that you can do in addition to deep breathing and meditation and things like that. But trust me, sleep is so important and so overlooked. And you know, I work with people who are multi, multimillionaires and I provide lifestyle advice to them. And the first thing that we work on is sleep. And they're like, they've been spending all this money on all this fancy testing, all these crazy things, and nobody's ever talked to them about their sleep in a meaningful way. So get to bed, it's free and it works almost better than anything else. Like, listen, when kids get sick, what happens? What do they do? Do they say, mom, can I take a pill and go play outside? No, they go to sleep, they listen to their bodies. And so most of us need more sleep. And there are pills to put you to bed, but there's a lot of confounding factors that contribute to a good night's sleep. And I would definitely put that high on my list of priorities. And of course, getting outdoors. So these things are free or save you money either way. So fasting, sleeping and getting outdoors, super, super powerful. If you're a practitioner, you need to be talking to your patients in a meaningful way about this. One of the things that I heard a practitioner say was that these pills only work if you're outside and you get 10 minutes of sunlight every day. So that forces their patients to get outside. And there's probably some truth to that. I bet you they work better if you're not taking that time for yourself. And then last and really not least, I mean I could talk about there's so many ways we can save patients money. But I'll leave it at this cause I actually have to run myself is get trackable devices for your patients or get them to purchase them. So I'm wearing an OURA ring and my OURA ring allows me to have full awareness of my body. So one of the things I posted actually earlier this morning on social media was my sleep score. Sleep score was 95 and my readiness was 100. So I can see what I'm doing is working. If it was in the 60s, then of course I have to start questioning, okay, what's been going on these last few days that's been disrupting my sleep and my deep healing capacity. So a ring like this, I can share a link. If you go to ouraring.com and you purchase a ring and you use the code living proof, you'll get an additional discount. I believe it's $50 off whatever ring you buy. And so a ring like this is like something that just keeps generating information for you and heightening your sense of awareness. And and it's a one time investment. So this is like 300 bucks. Super, super effective, super, super meaningful. And it's not like you know, a few supplements that I buy that after 30 days they're done and then I don't get in order for me to benefit from them again, I have to keep purchasing them over and over again. So an OURA ring is great because you know, for a couple hundred bucks I can have meaningful information coming into me daily and I just have to recharge it every few days and I can start to doctor myself through self awareness. I don't have to wait for a few months until my stool test needs to be redone or my organic acids test needs to be redone. That's not real time information. So trackable devices like an OURA ring allow our patients and allow us to keep better track of our patients lifestyles. The nice thing about OURA ring which I really like about it is that it's something that is stealth. So people don't even know that this is a ring that I'm wearing that's tracking this information. And it's also you're able to turn the Bluetooth off on it. So what happens is when I'm sleeping at night, I don't want an electronic device that's constantly emitting a signal on my body. So I put my phone in airplane mode and I also all the time keep my ring in airplane mode. And then when I charge it, it automatically turns. So those are the things, guys. Let me just review them really quickly and we'll wrap this episode up. So one, listen to your patients. Number two, you know, ask meaningful questions on, you know, online surveys before people can schedule discovery calls. Number three or number four is transparent pricing. Okay? So make sure that you're, you know, transparent with what you charge and what, what the cost would be or the investment would be for somebody to join your program and work through the whole process so that people feel good about the investment and they also know what they're investing in. Also, you want to have a thorough initial consultation and intake. Listen, listen, listen. And then do the right testing that moves the needle for people and make sure you retest them so you can see that you're getting results and what they're doing is actually working. Reduce pill burden by using food, by using synergistic products, by using herbs and, and plant based products because they're going to have intelligence built into them. And I mentioned Reishi mushroom, which is functional medicine in a cup or capsule. And then address mindset and beliefs because these are things that can hold people back. Host workshops in your community because you can educate more people. Do things like Facebook Lives to get your message out there and ask other people to share, which I hope you do. Focus on lifestyle with your clients because it's usually free for the most part, right? And it's super, super powerful. Get them to fast, get them to sleep, get them to get outdoors, and then make sure that you're allowing and encouraging your patients to purchase tracking tools and devices like, you know, an oura ring or like a heartmath device so they can have real time feedback to know that the changes that they're making are working and they don't have to wait until their repeat lab work comes back for them to start knowing that, hey, what I'm doing is moving my, my body and my health and essentially my life in the right direction. So I hope this helps. If this was meaningful to you and relevant to you, then please, by all means share this and it'll be in my next upcoming episode of Perfect Practice. Again, I thought that this was relevant to practitioners, but also relevant to prospective patients. Those of you seeking help with functional medicine or holistic practitioner, ask them some of these questions. These are ways that you can save a lot of money and get way better outcomes, which is ultimately how we save money, right? If somebody strings you along forever and you never actually get better, then that's costing you, right? It's costing you money, but it's also costing you whatever it costs you not to live your best life. And I know that for some of us, that's a staggering amount. So love to you all. Hope you have an amazing rest of your day. Make it count. And if you have any questions, feel free to post them below. Please share. Thank you. Bye.