can choosing a niche really help get you out of the gate?

For any new health care practitioner choosing a niche can feel really uncomfortable. And honestly, it is not the only way to launch a practice, but it is one way. And a really beneficial way at that!

Listen in while I chat with one of my friends here in Bellingham who launched a medical practice one year ago, chose a niche and built an entire supportive community around that special population.

This is such a beautiful way to support your patients or practice members as JoAnne prefers to call them AND support other like minded professionals also grow their practices.

Prepare to feel inspired!!!

today’s guest

JOANNE BATES D.C., ROOTED IN WELLNESS CHIROPRACTIC

Dr. JoAnne is the owner and founder of Rooted in Wellness Chiropractic in Bellingham, WA. She primarily serves the perinatal and pediatric population. Her passions lie in supporting and empowering women throughout their pregnancy journey and beyond. She received her Doctorate of Chiropractic degree from Life Chiropractic College West in the Bay Area and is continuing her education through the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA) to further her knowledge on all things chiropractic, pregnancy and pediatrics. Outside of the office, she loves getting out and exploring the beauty that is the PNW and playing with her Australian Shepherd, Mozzie.

you’ll learn

• Why and how she chose a niche, and how it affected starting her practice.
• Things she would do differently.
• How having a cash practice is working for her.
• How she talks about money and payment with her practice members.
• How the Bellingham Birth Collective was conceived. (See what I did there?)
• What is next with her marketing endeavors.

resources

• Jane Electronic Medical Records. Use this link to get your first month free!
• Follow AcuSprout on Instagram and Facebook

Mentioned in this episode:

Schedule your 15 minute bookkeepping consultation here!

I feel like just yesterday afternoon I left my practice like six

15, and just felt this overwhelming sense of joy and , knowing that

I am in the right place and yes, that I'm serving who I should be.

And that was really powerful . When you're serving who you want to be serving, you.

Feel good about it and, and you love it and you wanna go to work in the morning.

And you don't wanna leave in the evening.

Welcome to the AcuSprout podcast, where it's my mission to create

a supportive community for new practitioners with Chinese medicine.

While I give you the information and inspiration to help you grow towards

your vision of success in your first couple years of practice, this is

Stacy Whittcomb and I am your host a.

Hey sprouts.

Welcome back to the show today.

I'm happy to bring you another new practitioner interview.

Today I'm interviewing Dr.

Joanne Bates, who is a chiropractor actually.

She's located here in Bellingham, Washington with me and her business is

called rooted in wellness chiropractic.

Joanne did some things that I was really inspired by and.

Got pulled into because of kind of where she's at in business

and where I'm at as well.

But we also found this group of people that we were really vibed with and I wanna

bring her on so that she can tell you all about what she's done in her practice.

And also give you some inspiration for things that you

can do in your own practice.

So in this episode, we talk about choosing a niche because she did choose to, to

niche down in the very beginning and work with a very specific population.

So we talk about how that affected her practice overall.

And she is just now coming on her first year anniversary.

So it's a really great time to chat with her.

We also chat about things she would do differently in her practice

and she is also a cash practice.

So we talk about.

How that works for her and why she did that.

And then also we do a deep dive on how she talks about payment and

money with her practice members.

And lastly, we talk about the Bellingham birth collective,

which is her stroke of genius.

And this is what I'm talking about that I really think that.

Is quite the gem for new practitioners.

It's a really great idea.

And so I wanna share this with you.

This is the main gist of why I did this podcast.

So we're bringing that to you as well.

And then lastly, listen in and find out what she's gonna

do next with her marketing.

I think that you're really gonna benefit a lot from this podcast.

So listen in, as we chat with Dr.

Joanne Bates.

Welcome to the show, Dr.

Joanne Bates.

Hi, thanks for having

me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So why don't you tell the audience a little bit about yourself?

You're a little different than most of my guests, and I would

love to share that with them.

So go ahead and tell them a little bit about who you are.

Well, I am a chiropractor.

I primarily focus on prenatal and pediatrics and.

I've been in practice for about a year.

Yeah.

I opened my doors just a little over a year ago on May 10th.

Ah,

congratulations.

Congratulations.

. That's awesome.

Very good.

Yeah.

Now kinda flow by.

And so you chose a specialty then straight out of the gate mm-hmm yes.

And so what inspired you to do that?

Well, a lot of things, I don't know how deep you want me to go, but

I, I chose chiropractic because of an experience I had with my chiropractor.

Growing up, I started seeing a chiropractor when I was about 17 and I

went to undergrad knowing that I wanted to work with the human body to some capacity

and not really knowing what avenue to go.

and my chiropractor was like, well, why don't you just come,

come shadow me for some time.

And I was like, eh, I don't think that's really what I wanna do, but I did it

anyway, cuz she was very persistent and.

After, I think I was shadowing her for maybe a week or two over

like a Christmas or summer break when I was home from college.

And I got to see her work with a baby, a newborn that was

having a hard time latching.

So he was having a hard time gaining weight, really kind of.

Failing to thrive.

And I could see how that affected, not only the baby, but also the mom and

like her connection with her newborn.

And, and I saw my chiropractor work with him for.

Maybe three or four visits.

And just in that amount of time, like things completely shifted.

He was latching better.

He was eating more gaining weight, really thriving.

And then the biggest thing for me was just that connection, that mom, son,

newborn connection that I saw just completely transform in a week and a half.

So that was really incredible and kind of what inspired me to go to

chiropractic school in the first place.

And then really learning a lot more about that.

That side of chiropractic and really deepening my knowledge in that field.

And then fully knowing that I wanted to come back to Bellingham, cuz that's where

I'm from to practice and set up shop.

And we don't really have anyone in the area that really specializes

and focuses with that population.

So.

That's that's what led me here.

That was like the long way around, but that's

not long.

That's inspiring story.

It's awesome.

I love, I love hearing.

People's like the reasons they chose the medicine, mine is completely boring

and really uneventful and not inspiring.

So I love it when people like that's a really emotional thing to watch and.

I can see how it hit pretty hard and affected your decisions down the line.

So mm-hmm so you specialize in working with children, pregnant women, infants

Well, the funny thing is in Washington, we can't say we specialize.

Oh, because that's tricky with laws and things.

So I can't say I specialize in working with.

Pregnancy in pediatric, which is interesting, but I, that is my

focus and I have a significant amount of amount of education on

top of what we learned in school.

So

. I wanna step back on that for a second, because.

We as in, we chiropractors can't do that.

Cause I'm in Washington too.

I had no idea.

We were not, we were not allowed to choose a specialization.

Is that because that's only Ford's medical doctors or is, do you know why?

You know, I don't know why.

I think it's because it makes it like sets you aside from other Chi.

I don't know, to be completely honest.

Sure.

I just, I think it might be like a, well, that's not fair because that chiropractor.

so, and so like doesn't specialize in that.

And I personally, this is my personal opinion.

Don't really wanna go to someone who does it all.

Like a lot of chiropractors are out there saying I do geriatrics and

pediatrics and pregnancy and athletes.

And mm-hmm, all of these things, which.

Great to teach their own, but I would wanna see someone that really has

a deep knowledge and understanding of, of the population that I am so

This is one of the things that I talk to the new practitioners about often.

For many, many reasons.

I mean, I can go deep, do a deep dive on it too, but we had this conversation

almost, I don't know, at least eight months ago, almost a year ago, maybe.

I don't know.

Mm-hmm about specialization and Even though we're beginners, even

though we're new practitioners.

If we start with this population and we see it over and over and over again,

it does make us more On knowledgeable, obviously mm-hmm plus I know that

you've been doing a ton of extra training on this side too, since you graduated

mm-hmm . But it, I also one other benefit and I just kind of been pointing

this out to the, to the listeners.

Is that the way that technology works now, those algorithms, all of those bots, all

of those things, crawling websites and who searches you and what they're searching

and their search keywords and their.

Joanne set up perfectly.

Like she's gonna hit the top of every search in Bellingham

for this particular thing.

And so you can see how that'll just drive your population directly to you.

If you choose to, to take a niche or at least at least one or two, you know?

So

I think that's a big fear for people starting out.

Cause they're like if I pick a niche and like that's really

specific when in reality, like.

I'll take anyone that comes in my door because I'm like

a starving small business.

So yeah, that's been a struggle for me.

Definitely.

The last year is like really trying to have boundaries with, with the

people in my practice and like really focusing on serving that

population.

So it was a tough decision for you as well to really claim that niche

because of why exactly can you pinpoint what the feelings were behind?

Just a fear of like, they're not being enough like that

that's not gonna be enough of a population to fill your practice,

correct.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And like, why would I turn away?

Or why would I, maybe, if someone walked through my door that wasn't a good fit

for me in my office, like why would I refer them to someone else when.

I could serve them too.

And yes, still help keep my doors open.

So I love this because you've been doing it for a year.

You, I watched you really choose this.

Like I remember having a conversation with you in the very

beginning of like and folks, no, I definitely have never coached her.

We were just very networking together and having great

conversations as new practitioners.

And she was talking about this very specific thing, but I, I watched

this evolution of, of, of Dr.

Joanne's practice um, because she did this and her marketing.

It has been very specific with this, with this target group.

And so let me ask you this Joanne, when you get people in that don't

fit that niche, how does it feel when

you're treating them?

It doesn't, it doesn't like fill my cup mm-hmm so I think.

I over the last, maybe four or five months, people have

started to filter themselves out.

Like when I first opened my practice, I obviously was like anyone and

everyone that comes in my door, I will take care of happily.

And since really like filtering through now, people that are my

ideal practice member are the ones walking through my doors.

There's no one that's at this point that I'm like, eh, I might wanna refer you to

someone else, like every, at this point.

And I don't know if that's just like what I've put out in the universe.

Like, I don't think it's anything that I'm doing specifically that is

causing that, but the people that originally came in have slowly started

to filter themselves out, or I will.

At that point, refer them.

I do have a couple, like my very, very first patient that

has a special place in my heart.

He will, he will stay for as long as he likes, but I think for the most part.

People have, have sort of filtered themselves out.

I don't know if that answered your question

kind of, but I, I mean, it, it was a good answer for sure.

I, I experienced this when I started my massage practice 150,000 years ago.

And when I very first started and we didn't have a bunch of technology

then, and I think that's probably why this is happening so much more

quickly for you, but it took me about.

Two years.

Well, I got booked fairly quickly with the massage, but it took me

about two years to filter out the people that I, that just didn't fit.

And then.

It was very rare that somebody showed up on my table that wasn't

my per, like my, my target person.

And so I think it does happen faster.

Plus when you walk into your most gorgeous, amazing clinic, it does sing

true to I treat children and women.

mm-hmm I mean, there's like a little table for little kids to play on.

You have a changing table, you have all sorts of stuff for children in there.

So it becomes kind of obvious.

I think that's a good signal right there.

So yeah, it does.

I think, I think where I'm I was going with that is like you

said, it didn't fill your cup.

And so I think that that is like a What happens when you're treating people

that aren't exactly who you wanna be treating and mm-hmm , it doesn't land.

It doesn't necessarily land for them either.

I mean, they may get better.

Mm-hmm but there's always this underlying current of, Hmm.

Maybe not quite the right place.

So, yeah.

Yeah, definitely.

I feel like just yesterday afternoon I left my practice like six 15, and

just felt like this overwhelming sense of just like joy and like, knowing

that I am in the right place and yes, that I'm serving who I should be.

And that was really powerful just, yeah.

When you're serving who you want to be serving, like you.

Feel good about it and, and you love it and you wanna go to work in the morning.

Yeah.

And you don't wanna leave in the evening.

Like I'm super

happy for you.

That's that's so exciting.

We haven't chatted in a while.

To my audience.

I'm telling you this, we haven't chatted in a while, so it's really

cool to see this how excited she is.

Is there anything now that you're in a year, is there anything that

you would've done differently?

How so cuz yes,

but oh, then please share

whatever it is.

Well, I know this, this is more geared towards acupuncturists, so this could be

a little bit different for you all, but I.

When I started my practice, I went through a chiropractic, like

practice ready sort of group.

It was a program called jumpstart geared towards chiropractors and like

helping you set up your business.

And there was a lot of really, really, really, really great

things that they offered.

And I think without their support, I wouldn't have landed the incredible

location that I'm in, but there were some other things that.

I would have liked to undo just certain things that I paid for that

I think might have been kind of a waste of money, but I didn't know

any better because I was brand new.

So yeah.

And I feel

okay.

Sharing that, those things that you spent money on, that you feel

like you maybe shouldn't have.

I

mean, it's more geared towards chiropractors and it, it's

kind of hard to explain, but they.

We're setting up certain programs.

So I don't take insurance in my practice.

I am cash based and I provide people super bills.

Should they want to submit to insurance?

But this program was it's is it's it's hard to explain, but it's, it basically

sets you up so you legally can provide.

Discounts while still taking insurance.

Cause insurance is kind of a tricky beast in that you can't have a fee

schedule for insurance companies and then a fee schedule for your

cash based practice members, because then that's a dual fee schedule and

you're breaking all sorts of laws.

So this is a, basically a company that works with like compliance.

So it makes sure that you are compliant with your fee schedules

and all sorts of things.

And I was a little bit kind of bamboozled into thinking I needed it when I

didn't, because I don't take insurance.

So mm-hmm, , that's something that I wish I could undo.

And there were other, other things, like they set me up with a accountant that

does accounting for practices that see.

tens of thousands of dollars a month and I do not.

So I was getting charged the amount that, that accountant would

charge any client of theirs and.

, it was just egregious how much money I was paying for, for accounting

services when I didn't need to.

And they fully knew I didn't need to be paying that

much.

Right.

Right.

So there were just parts of this coaching package that were

not really what you needed and.

It's so hard in the beginning, cuz you don't know what you don't know exactly.

And you don't know what you need and you don't know what questions

to ask and that's exactly why I do this podcast because mm-hmm I wanna

dispel some of this for people.

So

yeah, looking back, it's not, it's not as hard as you think it is.

I have a really good friend of mine.

Who's who's.

Going down the road of opening her own therapy practice and in Washington state.

So I know a lot of the stuff around like getting your business license, setting

up a bank account, all that stuff.

And I've been coaching her through that because it's really not as hard as.

You think it is really

not, it's not hard, but when, when you're coming out, you don't know the order.

I mean, here's the thing mm-hmm, like I set up, I have a podcast of like the

first five things in the, or first 10 things you need to do to start a practice.

And it literally is that it's like, step one, let's get your license.

Step two.

Once you get your license, I'm a bank account.

Yeah.

You can go get your bank account.

And then once you do your bank account, then you can go do these things.

Like it puts it in order because I remember coming out and being

like, I know what I need to do.

I just don't know what freaking order.

And then it just took so much time and I just, just like everybody else, I

just wanted to be treating patients.

I didn't wanna be doing all this stupid crap that I had to do.

Mm-hmm so anyway, you guys there's there's are there's some podcasts on that.

There's two of them, if you, yeah, go back and look through the, I don't I'm sorry.

I don't know.

Off the top of my head, what numbers they are,

to add to that really fast.

Yeah.

Just it's important to have grace with yourself, if you do mess up, because

take me, for example, I got my license as soon as I got outta school, but I wasn't

practicing for at least another year.

So I was like, I want, I was so excited brand new outta school.

I'm gonna get my license and then just had it.

But found out when I went to open my practice and get liability

insurance that you, as soon as you have your license, you're supposed

to have liability insurance.

So I was just living life with my license, all excited, but not

covered by insurance whatsoever.

So.

I think it's important to just have some grace you're not

gonna get everything right.

And

well, and you don't.

Yeah, I think you're, I think that's really grand advice because the

challenges of course too People from different countries, listen

to this podcast and people in different states and that requirement

for insurance is state dependent.

Oh, right.

Uhhuh.

And so I wasn't even, I wasn't even practicing, so yeah.

I just had my license cuz I was excited.

Yeah.

Well I had my license in multiple states before I ever like

stuck a needle in somebody too.

Mm-hmm like I'm with you.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And.

be kind to yourselves that's for sure.

Mm-hmm so tell me a little bit about, so I love this fact

that you're cash based to me.

This is super interesting, and it was interesting as well

because, I'm also cash based.

And so watching you grow has been inspiring.

And exciting.

Also because it's a, it's a scary choice to make, I think especially in this

town, this is one of those places where people can get acupuncture, coverage

and chiropractic with their insurance.

So tell me why you chose that.

And I'm also curious a little bit about your onboarding process

with your patients to get them to accept your Your treatment plans?

Hmm.

Okay.

Well going cash base was a little bit of a no brainer for me.

Like, I, it wasn't really super scary only because I had conversations

with other practitioners over time, even when I was in school.

And most of them were saying just don't even bother going

insurance route once you're on.

An insurance plan.

It's really, really hard to get off.

And I knew that I wanted to be more of a solo practitioner.

I didn't wanna originally like start out the gate with a big bunch of employees.

So at this moment in time, I am a one woman show.

I do all of the things myself.

except for PD.

He's my little robot vacuum that cleans the office.

So I like the delineation of . I do everything.

The vacuum.

Yes.

PD does the vacuuming.

He's great.

But no, I lost my train of thought.

Yeah, it's I also, so billing insurance is just a lot of work behind the

scenes and insurance companies like to like to decide how much you're worth.

And so if it costs me $30 a visit, just to keep my doors open, just to

cover my overhead insurance companies might say, maybe you're worth 25.

and it's just a battle trying to even get them to pay.

And it's just not worth it because insurance companies aren't, especially

in the business of keeping people healthy, they just wanna get you

out of pain, get you out of whatever sickness or disease you have.

And that's where they cut off care.

So.

Part of it was that.

And part of it was just wanting to like shift the narrative

around healthcare in general.

Like we are a big society that really focuses on sick care.

We only seek help when we are not well.

So trying to shift that narrative into keeping healthy bodies and nervous systems

is a lot easier than getting out of.

Illness, I

think a very giant percentage of acupuncturists would

agree with you on that.

Mm-hmm I also like to try to help people shift their thinking especially

when they're investing their pocket money to their health, that in it's

an investment in your health, right.

Mm-hmm . What else would you, what's the number one priority

that you would wanna invest in?

Anyway?

I just really think, I, I agree with it too.

Mm-hmm, , it's sort of an educational route for people to start transitioning

into thinking more about taking care of themselves as opposed

to taking care of their illness.

Mm-hmm so what does working with you look like?

So.

so people, I let them kind of book their own first appointment.

On my online booking on Jane Love.

Jane, see guys,

shout out to Jane.

See Jane Jane works with chiropractors and PTs.

Yes.

You're welcome, Jane.

There you go.

. JoAnne: Yeah, so I use that, that software

appointments on their own end, which I've heard nothing but great things about

it's super easy, super user friendly, and all of my practice members love it.

That allows them to book their first appointment.

And then Jane will immediately email them paperwork.

Super easy takes time off of me and my end without having to answer the phones.

So my phone doesn't ring a whole lot.

In that sense and now I'm afraid it is going to ring.

As I said,

my office that's we can edit it out.

It's all.

So, okay.

So they booked their first appointment?

Yes.

And then I do a day one visit.

So I do full history intake exam.

and then kind of explain chiropractic care to them.

A lot of people that come to see me that have seen other chiropractors in the past

still don't have a full grasp on, on what it is that I do, cuz I'm more focused

on nervous system, health and care.

So I.

dive deep into that and explain to them how that works.

And

then I'm gonna jump in here for a second and say, yeah, but I've, I've

been through this eval and it's really honestly, it's, it's different than the

other chiropractors that I've been to.

And she does some work with heart rate variability, which

is fascinating guys, so cool.

She can measure heart rate variability.

Okay, go ahead.

Yes, that's

that's my favorite one.

Actually.

I love it.

It's amazing.

Okay.

Go ahead.

So, and then I.

have people come back for a second visit and that I call my report of findings.

So that's where I sit down and show people, their scans go over them

thoroughly with them, make sure they have any questions that I've answered

and then go through what care looks like.

I typically gear care plans towards the individual.

So.

what their scans look like, what their symptoms look like coming in,

how their exam went and what their goals are for care is a big one.

Like if someone is just trying to get out of pain, then that will change the

trajectory of how I set up care for them.

Versus someone who's like really, really interested in full

body, like nervous system care.

. And so we work through, I kind of have different care phases that we work through

and then ultimately transitioning people into wellness care so they can, they can

just continue down that road of staying healthy and having a solid nervous

system that can adapt to stress of life.

Huge.

Yeah.

Serve them huge.

So how do you work the money?

Do you have people pay for a big package?

How do you, how do you present that?

This is something that I find that, no matter what kind of practitioner

you are, if you're a solo entrepreneur collecting money, Is challenging

to a very large percent of people,

so how do you go about talking about what you charge and how they

will be charged in the future?

So I go over their care plan and what that looks like.

And again, it's like individualized, so each person will have kind

of a different setup with that.

And then that's their like corrective care phase.

And so in my office, because I'm.

cash base.

I can really tweak prices and things and really help make

it more affordable for people.

So I will create like a plan for them, like I was saying

with the total amount of care.

And then I offer a couple different payment options in my practice.

So if you choose, you can pay for the whole care plan in full.

And when people do that, I take 20% off because on the back end, it saves me a

lot of time because I'm not charging their card every single time they come through.

And it saves me money because each time you charge their card, the

payments system takes, I wanna say 3%.

Yeah.

3%.

and 10 cents mm-hmm of every charge.

So if they only take, if they take 3% of the total and only 10 cents one

time, then mm-hmm that saves me money.

Versus each time it adds up.

So that's an option or I offer monthly payment options.

So then I take 10% off of that.

And then I also offer just paying per visit, which a small portion of

people do because, because it's more.

it just makes more sense for them.

Mm-hmm I just like to encourage people to really give, give care a good shot,

a good 12 visits before they make up their mind that it is or isn't for them.

So what do you do if somebody pays for say a monthly they're paying monthly,

but then they don't show up to their appointment or something happens.

They miss an appointment during that

month.

It just gets tacked onto the end of care.

I don't know how it works in other states, but in Washington state,

you can't, charge people for care.

They don't receive.

So that's another stipulation I tell people up front, like if you

choose option a that's really great.

And if at some point you decide this office isn't for you, you move away.

Something happens.

So for example, I had a practice member of mine who had paid for her whole care plan

front, and then a couple weeks in, she had a family emergency and had to move home.

So that's a stipulation I put upfront and let people know if they choose

to pay for all of their care upfront.

And if something happens, I will reimburse them for any care that they don't receive.

and then on the opposite, if they choose the monthly care plan, because

we, I typically set up my care plan.

So I see you more frequently in the beginning, sometimes that can.

Cause people to accrue a balance on their account.

So they will be, they will have received more care than they have paid for

mm-hmm if they choose that option.

And so at that point, then if they decide to discontinue

care, then they owe the balance.

And so I talk about that when I explain my care plans to them.

So are you, do you invoice those people through Jane then?

Is that how you collect from them?

Some of them, yes.

Okay.

I'm just curious, cuz I have never had a balance on

anybody's account as a cash pay.

Like so I'll, so I'll do like a monthly, so just to make it simple,

like say for three months of care, there that costs like $600, but

the $600 isn't evenly spread out.

So it's not 200 each month.

Mm-hmm maybe they'll receive like $300 worth of care in the first month

because they're seeing me more often.

So they'll have $200 that credit on their account that

they paid for that first month.

But when we near the end of the month, they might have.

A balance on their account.

So basically they owe me money.

Okay.

At the end of that month.

But at the end of the three months, it'll even out, do you send them invoices

so they can see what you're doing?

Or do you just, just write it out?

And then if they ask for something, then you just are able

to print it out and show them.

I send them receipts for when they pay for their care.

And then some people need statements for submitting, for insurance.

Like some people use their HSA to pay for care.

And then in that case, they want, need a statement.

So then I, once they've received all of the care that they've paid for,

then I'll submit them a full statement that breaks down each individual,

visit how much that they paid for.

and how it all evens out.

So to my listeners, again, I know that was like really in depth and deep, but

when you, when you get to this point, or maybe you're already here, but if

you're just a student still, and you're listening to that, these are like really

things that you have to think through.

And so it's really awesome to find somebody who has done

it to bounce ideas off of.

So you might at some point need to come back to this podcast and, and re-listen

to that part, cuz I just learned a bunch because I've never done it that way.

but it's definitely, I, I, I like it.

I, I, I would consider trying it that way.

So thanks for the, the teaching moment.

Mm-hmm yeah.

So let's see here.

What have you done for marketing?

Oh, wait, let's get to the exciting part.

So the whole reason that I have Dr based on here is that I watched her

do this most incredible marketing.

Thing and it, I feel like it just blew, it just blew up and

it, it just, it just turned into something that was like, holy cow.

Wow.

That was so many connections.

So quickly such a huge network.

Just it, apparently there was such a need for it.

So Joanne created, what's called the Bellingham birth collective.

Tell the audience a little bit about that.

Wow, where should I begin?

So, well, where did you get the idea or tell us what it is first

and then where you got the idea.

So it's basically, well, the reason behind creating the group was that I didn't

have any connections into the birth.

World as far as like practitioner go, practitioners go.

So I was getting people in my practice being like, oh, who do

you recommend for prenatal massage?

Who do you recommend for acupuncture?

Who do you recommend for a good midwife?

And I didn't have any people.

And I am a big proponent of referring people to, at, to.

People who I know and trust because I'm not just gonna send you out the door

to anyone, cuz I don't know if you're gonna have a good experience with them.

So really forming those connections was the motivation behind creating the group.

So the Bellingham birth collective basically is a group of a bunch of

different practitioners that all work with pregnancy and pediatric to some degree.

And I.

Kind of floated the idea by Heather, a physical therapist who

I met and her and I, she kind of grabbed it and we like ran with it.

We had the first meeting in my office.

It was like, were you there for that?

No, I missed that one.

I was, I had patients that night, but I think that was in.

when was that?

Was that in January?

No, I think it was probably before that, like in November.

Okay.

Like right before the holidays.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There was like maybe five of us in my office.

Yeah.

And we just sat and chatted for a good two hours and it was just

really great to connect with other.

People that works work with other or work in the pregnancy pediatric realm.

And then we created a Facebook group.

And then from there we created an Instagram and it really just

like took off like wildfire.

I didn't realize there were so many people in the community that really craved that

connection with other practitioners.

We continued to have meetings.

We had to move them down into Heather's office, cuz my office just wasn't

big enough for everyone, which is a great, great problem to have.

And yeah.

And then from there we through our first annual birth fair and

that happened back in the end of April, which went really well.

So Just to go back Accu sprouts, she, the steps that she took, like inception

of an idea, like had an idea, like let's build this collective group of

practitioners who can contribute to this this group in different ways.

There are like I was in it and there's also another acupuncturist in it.

So there are like a couple of whatever, the same type of practitioners,

but we're all different people.

So it doesn't matter.

There are doulas, there are pediatric physical therapists.

There are like, it just turned into, I think what you guys did too was you

invited or wait, Heather invited me, but at the same time I was already.

Had walked down to your office to introduce myself to you.

So it was kinda like this, it was supposed to come together anyway,

but mm-hmm, it just sort of like S sprouted, like so and so invited.

So and so as an open group guys, mm-hmm so it was an totally open group for

anybody who was interested in belonging to this and cross referring and getting

to know each other and working together.

And it, it, she's not kidding.

It went from like five people to, I don't even know how many people are

on the Facebook page now, but how many people showed up to your last meeting?

The one right before the birth fair that we had a, a smaller, turnout

people, group of people that showed up.

Yeah.

Turnaround turnout.

But the one before I think the one you were at, we probably had like, 15 to 20.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then when, when the birth fair came around, we had a total of 18 people, 18

like show up 18 people, 18 vendors booth.

Yeah.

Really that's for a first gosh, that's so good.

And we had, we had a handful more that wanted in, but we just

didn't have the space for it.

Oh my gosh.

See, so.

. And then not only that, the marketing, because you have all of these different

types of practitioners, they're telling everybody on their Facebook and their

social media and all of their followers.

And, and so what has, do you feel like this impacted your business?

How do you feel like this impacted your business or has it yet?

Because you could just be planting seeds at this point with all of these people

at this point, that's what it is about.

It's more just planting seeds and like really.

connecting with people.

And a lot of people don't know, chiropractors can see babies and

chiropractors can help with a lot of the, a lot of the complaints

through pregnancy, low back pain, pubic bone pain, things like that.

so it was really just like connecting with and educating other people.

And for me, it's, it's more the long game.

Like I plan to be in this community for a long, long time.

And so really like really creating strong connections with the people that are

here and sharing that with the community because we have a really awesome,

incredible group of practitioners.

And I think there's part of the community.

May or may not be like missing out on, on different opportunities.

So just really deep connections and yeah.

Planting those seeds and watching them grow little sprouts plus

you're helping other people too.

That's what I love about it.

I love networking when it works like this, right?

Because you're helping, you've sent people to.

Who have you referred out to how about that?

I've referred a lot to Hailey.

Who's the other acupuncturist?

Mm-hmm a lot of the pelvic floor physical therapists that we have in the group.

I need, I need more prenatal massage people to refer to a lot of lactation

consultants, a lot of doulas midwives.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I just wanted to share that with the audience cuz I, I just, I saw it happen

and I was like, oh, that was so smart.

That was such a great move.

And it just when I met everybody and it, and you guys know, like, I talk about how

I'm introverted, but this was sort of a small group, which I do pretty well in.

And sometimes can even.

Work into a voice, a little bit of a leader voice in, in situations like that,

which I didn't, because it's not my group, but so many cool women in that group.

So many interesting things that they're doing so many ways to support

women and children, it was really.

Such a great group.

So mm-hmm yeah, I'm really excited to see, see how it evolves

over the next several years.

Like next year we'll have it in a bigger space and, and maybe we'll

offer like little mini talks.

So if someone wants to give a talk about prenatal nutrition, we have

an awesome dietician in the group.

So things like that and really create like a whole day event

for people in the community to.

learn and meet these resources and yeah.

Yeah.

There's so many things that you could do even just in the marketing.

You could pick one, one person out of the group and collaborate and,

and create an educational series.

Like there's just so many things you could do.

Mm-hmm so, yeah.

Congratulations on that.

Stroke of genius.

Yeah, it was an idea I stole from someone.

I know that's where I was ready to ask you.

Where did you get this idea?

So a friend of mine he is a prenatal and pediatric chiropractor up in Alaska

and he is part of UN ironically the Alaska birth collective . So that's

kind of where I adopted the name from.

Yeah.

And like the whole idea.

So they have a non-profit up there and they do, as far as I know they do.

Bi-annual they call them baby fairs.

So twice a year they have these and.

It's been going for several years.

So it's a lot bigger than, than what we have going now, but that's ultimately

what I would love to, to morph this group into maybe down the line, create some

sort of nonprofit with the group so we can provide these services and resources

to people in the community that don't have the resources to pay for them.

Mm-hmm and make it accessible for.

For a lot of people, cuz if I'm being honest, a lot of things like

chiropractic and having a doula and those things are a bit more of a luxury.

So being able to provide that to, to people that don't have the ability

to pay for, it would be my dream and, and really create like a pamphlet or

even a website for people to go to, to look up all the resources as well.

Cool.

That's exciting.

Good job.

What else have you done for marketing that you feel like has worked or is part

of your building process or so it's been, it's been a journey it is, isn't it?

Yes.

I started out.

doing.

I think I did some Google ads and maybe some Facebook ads.

Funny story.

I put a Facebook ad out and within a couple days I got a Facebook message

from this chiropractor in Maine.

So the other side of the country.

And he was like I, I think you might have to do something to this because

I'm getting targeted for your ad cause it was, was it Bellingham, Maine?

I don't think so.

I don't know.

I just didn't put the location on.

I don't know.

I messed up.

So it's again, a journey and I did have, did you say you welcome

yeah, he was a chiropractor.

I was like, yeah, you're welcome.

So yeah, I had to Google that up for a little bit and it was bringing in a lot

of people that were not my ideal patient.

Mm-hmm so.

After that I was like, yeah, I'm gonna just pull this.

It's not really worth, worth the money at my time.

If I'm seeing a lot of people, just a bunch of people, old white men.

Yeah.

No offense, no offense, old white men, but like my office is at the office for you.

And it just kind of turned into a little bit of a waste of time.

So I focused a lot more on my Instagram page, cuz I think a lot.

you have to think about who your ideal practice member is, or patient or

client or whoever you refer to them as, and think about where they are.

Are they at a yoga class?

Do they shop at the co-op?

Do they take their dog for a walk?

Like what, what are they doing?

And then like going to those places and meeting them or targeting them there.

So.

My ideal client probably spends time on Instagram and like,

does their research that way?

Like, they're gonna look for the hashtag of like a chiropractor or

something like Bellingham chiropractor.

So I use those hashtags for location and, and my specialties.

And.

I'll hashtag this, I'll hashtag this for you.

When I put it in the Instagram feed, when I release this episode

and then you'll get a lot of pings on your, on your hashtag.

I mean, I am by no means a wizard.

When it comes to Instagram, I feel like it's changing daily and I've listened to a

lot of podcasts talking about how to, how to best utilize that as a resource and.

It's always changing.

So sometimes hashtags are the way to go.

Sometimes they're not, it's just, it's just about putting what you want into it.

And I think that's just where I've been getting a lot of people into my practice

was through that Instagram marketing and the, the website, which is another

thing I need to work on a lot is really focusing on the SEO on my website

because that I'm learning is really important when someone's just on Google.

Yes.

So I've been deep diving on SEO.

Have you done a lot of SEO on your website?

Because, because you're a niche if you did a little bit of SEO, it would, it would

really pop, it would really drive your algorithm and people would find you super.

Yeah, that's the goal.

I'm walking a fine line between like, wanting to do everything myself, because

I don't have the money to pay someone else to do it for me, but also like

not having the time to do it myself.

So..

I've gone down a couple rabbit holes of looking for help, and it's been a little

bit out of my price range, so I'm like, well maybe I just need to sit down . And

learn, learn what it takes and really update my website because whenever, and

it's happened probably twice, but if someone comes into my office and they

say me, they found me from my website, I am very shocked because I don't think

I'm on the first, first page of Google.

but I had one person come in.

She's like, no, I went through every single chiropractic website in

Bellingham and I liked yours the best.

And I was like, well, I'm honored.

That's what it takes.

Huh.

I'm a little, so I'm a little bit similar.

Like when people came in and they were like, yeah, I found your website.

And I'm usually like, I don't know how that happened.

Yeah.

exactly.

I've had a lot of time to spend on that.

I mean, yeah.

Now it's amazing.

The next time.

Yeah.

So I do have, I, I may put out just a quick podcast on it, cuz I have

been researching it a lot and I sort of have an idea of how to, how to

make just things that you can do that you don't have to hire out for.

, is there anything else you wanna share with new practitioners?

You can do it.

I think that's like the biggest hurdle people, people suffer with is

like feeling like they, they don't have the ability to, to open their

own practice and like, it might feel easier to go work for someone else.

But if that's really your dream.

By all means you can do it.

You have the resources, I'm sure you have people you can talk to about

how they got to where they are at.

And I'm always willing to chat.

I'm not the expert again, by any means, but I could talk to people

about my struggles and things I would do differently, but I

think that's the biggest thing is like you, you can do this.

You can do it.

If I could do it, you can do it.

I love it.

That's that's always the, that's always the words of wisdom and

inspiration is just, just get out there and just do it just mm-hmm.

I have this, I have this quote, You don't have to get, wait, what is it?

you don't have to get it.

Perfect.

You just have to get it started.

Mm-hmm , you know, that's a good one.

Yeah.

And I think that that's because I tend to struggle with perfectionism.

And so I actually strive to put stuff out that is completely imperfect.

And just let it go, you know?

So yeah, something my mentor always always said to me, and I wish I could remember.

Who this quote is from.

I have it written on the front page of my journal, but she always says at the moment

of commitment, the universe conspires.

So it's really just about jumping off, jumping off the ledge and just starting.

Yeah, doesn't have to be perfect.

Yeah.

Great.

Well, I feel like this is a bit of a winding down point, so I just

wanna thank you again for coming on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Congratulations on your first year.

And I, I I've seen what you're doing and it's, you're just, you're just amazing.

It's just gonna keep booming and growing for you.

And it's a beautiful practice.

You guys.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thanks for coming on.

Yes.

Thanks for having me.

That's it.

That's the end of the show.

Thanks for tuning in.

I really appreciate you guys.

And if you appreciate this podcast, it would be amazing.

If you could head on over to apple podcasts and leave a great review.

And if you don't like what I'm doing, then that's okay.

No worries.