Ash welcomes Jessica Jones, CEO and founder of Build Your Cash Medical Practice. to discuss various strategies for building stronger relationships with clients and optimizing business operations. Jessica shares insights from her extensive background, including her experience in marketing and managing medical practices. The conversation addresses the importance of remembering personal details about clients, understanding staff strengths, and implementing effective incentive programs to boost staff engagement and retention.

Jessica also touches on the challenges of transitioning to cash-based services and navigating the complexities of financial management. They discuss the need for clarity, simplicity, and vigilance to avoid financial malpractice. They also talk about marketing strategies and the importance of patient experience, offering practical tips on how to allocate funds for marketing and the significance of personalized care.

To learn more and connect with Jessica, visit: https://buildyourcashmedicalpractice.com/

If you have specific questions about embezzlement or if you'd like to have another question answered on a future podcast, please reach out to the Edwards & Associates team. (https://www.EandAssociates.com)

Key Topics Discussed:

• Importance of client relationships
• Staff engagement and incentive programs
• Transitioning to cash-based services
• Financial management and risk prevention
• Marketing strategies and ROI
• Delegation and time management
• Adapting to external business factors

Welcome to Beyond by Wings, the business side of dentistry, brought to you by Edwards and Associates, PC. Join us as we discuss how to build your dental practice, optimize your income, and plan for your future. This podcast is distributed with the understanding that Edwards and Associates PC is not rendering legal, accounting, or professional advice. Listeners should consult with their business advisors before acting on any of the information that is shared. At Edwards and Associates, PC, our business is the business of dentistry. For help or more information, visit our website at enassociates.com. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Beyond Bitewings. In today's episode, we have a very special guest.

Her name is Jessica Jones and she is the CEO and founder of Build Your Cash Medical Practice. I remember when I first saw her one sheet note that she was interested in becoming a guest on our podcast. I just couldn't wait to have her on. I just felt like, you know what? She would be perfect to inform our listeners about what she has going and how I think she can be very helpful to our listeners as well as our clients. So without further ado, Jessica, how's it going?

Wonderful. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Oh, absolutely. So, you know, I I I have the sheet in front of me, so I know a little bit about you. But for our listeners out there, would you mind sharing a little bit about your background and how, what your company does and how you came about coming up with this idea?

Absolutely. So, I you know, to trying to keep it short, you know, many, many, many years ago in the early nineties, I was working for a national marketing company that, would help, you know, large advertisers, you know, negotiate their annual contracts with media companies.

Mhmm.

And I was there for a very long time, was their lead corporate trainer, headed many initiatives, started an international division for them, and thought I would retire there. And the company went into chapter 7 with

Oh, shoot.

Many companies did back in 2008.

That's right.

And so I was very lucky because everybody said, I don't know how to do this without you. So we need you. So I was immediately even though I was 7 months pregnant, I immediately had I was fine. Uh-huh. And because I'm located in Philadelphia, among the companies that wanted to work with me, were the pharmaceutical companies. And so they had me hired me to help fill clinical studies. And even though I was paid by the pharmaceutical companies, I was working directly with medical practices and this and the the study sites. And even though my role was just to bring leads into the practice, I was always taking it a step further because I was making sure that the leads actually converted into enrolled patients.

Mhmm. And

so that looks different for every practice. But to keep it short, doctors started referring me to doctors, and I became very well known for having the ability to help struggling practices grow. That's crazy. I was doing that. I grew many practices from struggling to not just on on the right track, but multiple locations. And in 2012, one of my clients said, hey. I'm starting something new. You've got the business side.

I've got the medical side. Why don't we partner? So I partnered with him. We built our own chain of 15 clinics and sold those clinics. And then after after we sold our clinics, I started 6 of my own clinics, 1 at a time, but I I grew my own set of practices. And in 2017, I kinda said, what am I doing? This is not ever what I set out to do. I was continuing to still consult everybody. I was keeping this other thing so that so that the practices were kind of just not my passion. So I sold the last one in 2017 and have been consulting ever since.

And now I have, you know, kind of a really 360 degree view as having owned, built, scaled, sold, started my own phone room for the for the chain of 15 clinics, you know, and and kind of every facet of this of the business I've I've seen. And now since 2017 working, I'm so lucky I work with so many different types of practices and kind of I feel like a unicorn. There's I don't I don't know of anybody else who has kind of my background and experience. And so I I have a really nice view of what's going on and how to help people overcome the challenges they're facing and help start scaling their practice.

Wow. Well said with a 360 degree view. You're right, as you were saying it and, you know, I was just thinking, wow. So her company is basically the biography of all the experiences that Jessica Jones has acquired over years in the medical world.

Yes.

And now And

I, you know, I I know I shared with you. First of all, I have, you know, I I work with dental practices. I know, you know, much

That's right.

In that industry. But also way back, I mean, in the, you know, mid to late nineties and early 2000, I was doing a lot of radio, for for dental practices.

Wow.

So that was kind of the thing then. And then still today, I work with a lot of practices and and a lot of people who support practices in different ways.

Oh, that's amazing. What was that like?

The radio for dental practices? Yeah. Well

Is it similar to what we're doing right now, the podcast? No.

No. No. So the so it's really interesting. There was this, kind of dental focused ad agency that kind of was contracting with dental practices, and their whole idea was that you would do remotes and bring radio stations into your practice to draw in new audience that way.

Oh, I see.

So that was like I said, it was the late nineties, early 2000 just to just to date myself. But, you know, experience is good. It's what what what you need. Right?

Yeah. Oh, no. Absolutely. That's, you know, that's how you can, share your knowledge with us.

Yes. But at the end of the day, I would say, it would absolutely not be a strategy I would, recommend today. You know, everything has moved lightning speed into new ways of needing to reach out to your audience.

You actually mentioned a very good point there. Very subtly though, I must mention, that it's true. With the time, you need to change or, you know, be flexible to changes and adapting to what you, your audience or your clients or your patients may be open to?

Absolutely. You know, I always tell people what got you where you are today isn't necessarily going to be what's going to get you where you want to be tomorrow. In fact, most likely, it's not. You've got to constantly be paying attention to the external environment. You know, a lot of business owners get so sucked into the minutiae of the everyday running of their practice that they fail to see what's happening around them. And what's happening around them is going to be the caveat to help them grow or to cause them to falter.

That's right.

So it's very important that you always take a step back and pay attention to what's going on in the external environment. And I'm talking about not just like your neighborhoods, your population, I'm talking about regulatory changes, all of these factors that impact your business, right? New technologies, new things that are being offered. You gotta take you gotta you you do need to make sure that you're not getting stuck in the day to day and failing to see what's gonna help you grow.

Right. But let me let me talk on their behalf for a second there.

Yeah, please.

But Jessica, I'm so busy catching up, because I'm always feeling so far behind. I'm always trying to catch up. When am I going to have the time to, you know, be on par with the current changes?

So so there's where I would there's where I would look at your staffing

Mhmm.

And see, you know, are you so busy because you're a perfectionist and you don't want to delegate because people won't be doing things the way you do them? Are you understaffed? Are you not utilizing your staff properly? You've got to be able to carve out at least an hour or 2 for yourself, if not more, every week to work on your business. Meaning not on patience, on your business, on your strategies, on your growth, on on the things you're gonna need to learn, to take you to the next level. Right?

Right.

And, you know, some some people I work with, they they take that time in the evening or on the weekends, but I do also advocate, you know, for some sense of balance because if you lose that and you lose the passion, that's no good for you or your business or your practice or your or any any part of your family. Mhmm. All of it.

Yeah. Well said.

I do I do think it's important that you do take the time. In fact, a lot of people say, oh, well, I can take my lunch break. Well, no. That's not good for you either because you do need to, you know, you you need to nourish yourself.

Mhmm. Yeah.

The energy and the strength and wellness to take care of your practice and your patients and your employees.

It's funny, you know, I feel like you're the second person I've heard this from, me being the first. I also advocate on telling my clients that you have to take a lunch break. And they're like, oh, no. I'll get this done during this, that. I'm like, oh, when are you eating? Oh, I'll eat when I when I get the time. I'm like, wait. This is not gonna work. You're going to burn out.

Yeah. And that's no good for anybody. In fact, you know, I was talking with a client recently, and I you know, she's so you know? And I I gave her this advice, and she said, you know, it's so it's it's kind of crazy because just you know, she she started working with me because she was so burned out. She got sick. And she's like, literally, last week, I was so sick.

Mhmm.

And that's when I remembered you, and I was like, I need to I need help.

Mhmm. Yeah.

You know? And we're and and, you know, I'm I'm a one on one consultant. So everything I do is very specific to each client. And sometimes that's what it's about, helping you figure out how do I have a life and grow this grow this practice

and

grow this business, not lose my family time and my marriage and everything else to the drive it takes to grow this business.

Yeah. And my sanity.

You can do that. Your sanity. You know, people say, oh, I can't hire anybody. I can't hire anybody. When you hire somebody, it shouldn't be looked at as costing you money. It should be looked at as saving you time so that it's gonna pay for the person, and it's going to ultimately make you money because it's gonna put something into your practice that will help grow the practice. Right?

Oh, that's an interesting perspective. I like that.

Yeah. Part part of that is, okay, I'm gonna hire this person. They're going to take this off my plate so that I, the owner, can focus on the big picture things that are going to make this company grow

That's right.

So that I can hire more people. Right? What's interesting about that, because now I'm talking about scaling up and and adding, it's not uncommon for me to talk to owners and say you've gotta scale back to grow. What I mean by that is just as I suggest hiring somebody to take things off your plate, that can be part of scaling back to grow, meaning you're adding a person, but you're scaling back on the things you're trying to do because so many owners are trying to do everything. That's right. They're posting to social media. They're doing they think they need to be doing TikTok videos and YouTube videos and Facebook videos and Instagram reels. And it's like, okay. Let's make a list of everything you're doing.

If you're not enjoying any of these tasks, we're gonna remove it. Right? Because Right. It's taking up so much of your time and energy and you don't like it, and it's probably if you don't like it, it's not doing your business any any good.

That's right. The output, the quality of it. Yeah. That might be questionable.

Yeah. Exactly. So, you know, that's a process too is really considering what am I doing that I need to do, and what am I doing that I think I have to do that might not be actually providing any benefit to my growth, my business, or my life?

Yeah.

Yeah. But the things that people do need to do when I say that, you know, content is very important. Google reviews are incredibly important. Paying attention to those reviews are very critical because you've got to thank the people who leave a good review, but you've also gotta respond to the bad reviews and let people know, I'm watching my business. I care about this review, and I care about this person.

Mhmm. That's right.

You know, and making things right. There's so much. I mean, you know, it is. There's a lot. And in today's world, we've got more and more things. And what that also means is that our patients are getting more and more messaging, and the brain is really good about filtering out things that it deems unnecessary. So your messaging has to kind of break through the noise.

While making sure you're within the confines of HEPA regulations.

HIPAA regulations. Absolutely. Yeah, of course.

Now, you know, when I'm looking at the name of your business, build your cash medical practice, it makes me question. When you say cash medical practice, what are we talking about? Are we talking about not using PPOs or are we talking about using your own funds to start the practice?

Oh, no. We're talking about so, you know, people say, oh, you don't work with insurance based practices. Of course, I do. But a lot of times I'm helping people add cash based services to increase the cash into their clinic

I see.

Or practice. So it can be adding services, that are cash based, not covered by insurance. Mhmm. It can be kind of converting over to try and, you know, remove some of the panels that you're credentialed with

Mhmm.

Right, that are low pay. And keeping that patient, like, trying to come up with the balance where the patients will stay because, ultimately, them paying you cash out of pocket is going to be about the same as their co pay had been, and you're gonna end up ahead because the co pay is so low that it's untenable.

I see.

Right? There's a lot of people who are paneled with with, companies that just they see that patient on the on the schedule, and they're like, ugh, god. It's like you know? So, you know, removing you know, we we do talk about removing some of those panels. Right?

Mhmm.

You know what I'm talking about.

Know what you're talking about. I'm just

resonate with you?

Yes. Oh, boy.

Quiet. I worry like, oh.

You know, in the dental world, I feel like that those services that a lot of that that I see these days are aesthetics, aesthetic services.

Absolutely.

You know, it's cosmetic. Yeah. Exactly. Botox, I see. And then some of them are getting into sleep therapy. Yeah.

And

then sleep apnea.

Mhmm. It's actually a big one, like custom fitted, you know, mouthpieces to to prevent snoring

That's right.

In this. Mhmm. I even have dentists that I'm working with who are adding even more aesthetic services to the point that, you know, I'm helping them get medical directions so that they can prescribe, you know, weight loss medications and things like that, which is it's not Okay.

That's amazing. I want you to talk more about this.

It's not it's not the norm, but I I do have at least 2 dentists that I'm working with who are adding, weight loss, as a service. And, you know, they've got this large client base that trust them. And they started branching out with aesthetics, and then they said, oh, woah. I see that this is something that I can offer that's and, you know, there's online courses where you can get certified. Now prescribing these medications is out of scope, but it's very simple to get, medical direction in place and, you know, affordable to get medical direction in place so that you can start offering GLP 1 medications. And it it is a process, but it's I make it sound simple, but it it is relatively simple. It's a step by step process that I We'll be

the right adviser on your side.

You know? Yes. You know, you've gotta do it the right way. So you get the medical direction in place. You make sure that you're compliant with all of your state regulations. The medical director is overseeing that portion of your patient care, And either the medical director is doing direct patient care with you or you're doing, you know, you're having an initial visit with your patient and then you're connecting them to telehealth for a good faith exam.

I was just now going to ask you that, that can this be done virtually?

Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

Okay.

I have practitioners who, started working with me about 18 months ago or more. I have more than one who started in their field of care and have now went full time into, weight loss and are venturing into new different revenue streams now that are not affiliated with their original practice. Wow. Which is not my goal. I mean, my goal is for you to serve your passion and build the business of of your that gets you where you want to be. Right. But this is they in doing this, they found, you know what? I really enjoy this. This is I I actually prefer what I'm doing.

I love this, and I now I wanna do more of this.

Yeah. You you offer them options.

Yeah. And the and in doing so, that in fact, the one person I'm thinking of really was an insurance based model who's originally started working with me just to start adding cash revenue streams. And now she's a 100% cash out of her old contract business and moving right along.

Okay. That's good. So let's talk a little bit about this. Now, if let's say somebody is considering this, right? Yeah. Considering utilizing your services.

Yeah.

And I'm thinking of, let's try to think of the most common kind. Single practice owning, you know, started off, let's say, about a year ago, 2 years ago, was hoping to reach a certain, you know, number in production or collections and they're not there yet. So they're like, okay, I need to look for other options, see if there are other revenue streams that I can utilize or maybe consider going out of PPO completely and they reach out to you. Right? And they ask you how long let's say you make your suggestions and then they ask you, how long do you think it's going to take for the implementation?

Yeah. Well, you know, that's I I I know this is gonna sound like a terrible response, but it's a true one. It really depends on you, your practice, your staff. I've gotta tell you, sometimes, you know, I will start working with you and I start listening to, let's say, some appointment setting calls, and I can tell you that it's your front desk staff is ruining your business.

Yes.

You know? They're, particularly in dentistry and, yeah, I hate to point out feels, but it's just the truth. Particularly, I find often in dentistry and and chiropractic and PT, it's not uncommon for the person to love their provider, but they hate calling to make an appointment so much that they find a different provider because of something just off putting in the front office staff.

Yeah.

You do need to look at your business and say, what is it that's preventing me from growth? Because I know I'm doing a great job and I love my patients and my patients love me. So let me look under the hood. What's causing the pinging in the engine? Right? Right. So it can be part it can be, you know, something off with the staff. I I mean, I can give you an example. It doesn't necessarily mean anything negative about it. It could just mean that the person's fulfilling the wrong role. Right?

Right. Right.

For example, I have, I have a practice that was doing weight loss. And when I started listening to the calls, it was very obvious to me that the person setting the appointments was very uncomfortable. And when I started asking, I was like, well, you know, is it this? Is it that? Because there's something wrong there. And he said, well, I think she doesn't believe in the medication because she's, like, the type of person who can't gain weight.

Mhmm.

So she doesn't see the value in paying for weight loss. I was like, okay. Well, isn't one of your other people on this medication? Yes. And it was as simple as switching the those conversations to this other receptionist that was on staff and totally changed the business. So it's kind of knowing who your staff is, knowing their strengths, and knowing if that might be what's the, you know, the challenge in your business, so to speak.

I see. Okay. So I am what I'm hearing is that the biggest challenge is setting the premise right With the right team members, right qualifications, right, you know, skill set for the roles that they'll fulfill. Once that's established, then it gets a little easier for you to maybe set an implementation time.

Yeah. And let me also say, you know, I'm also a huge advocate of having a team meeting once a week. It can be 15 minutes long, but, you know, you don't want everybody to come in and just kinda get used to the day to day and, like, there's you know, believe it or not, even in these active offices, you can go a whole day and not really connect with your staff on a level. So you wanna share your goals and where you're going and get your staff excited about what you're doing. I see a lot of times a practice owner getting excited about something, adding it to the practice, and then like, oh, what's going on here? The staff is like, okay. Now we're adding something new. There's nothing in it for me. It's just more work on my plate.

You know what I mean?

Right. Exactly.

And so it's really easy to do that. And and some practice owners will add a whirlwind of, revenue streams and just expect the staff to kind of carry it out. And so that's another thing that I see a lot of.

And

so with that, we just work on, okay. How do we implement this, get buy in from the staff, get the staff passionate about it? Because every single touch point in your in your practice, makes a difference in how successful everything is, all the revenue streams, all the patient satisfaction, etcetera.

Well, how do you get the staff excited about the new services that you're about to offer?

Yeah. Well, you know, first of all, you gotta you've gotta talk to them about it and and, you know, and have them ask questions and and understand it. You know, they might not buy into the service or the option or the opportunity that you're adding, but they do need to buy into how it's going to benefit the practice, and the health of the practice is ultimately the health of their position. Right?

That's true. Yeah.

You know, sometimes we talk about different incentives for staff and things of that nature. But I I would I would defer to you possibly on on those measures, but I do make a lot of recommendations in those regards where it's appropriate.

Right. And I agree. And it's a good thing that you mentioned that because sometimes that's needed. Yeah. Because, I've had plenty of talks with clients where I asked them, what do you want to do for your staff? And, you know, they want to give them the world because they were the staff once upon a time. And they always reflect back on those times. It's like, oh, I remember when I used to work for a DSO and they used to, you know, make me work so much. And I always promise myself if I open up a practice, I will always be there for myself.

And I get that. I appreciate that. But the numbers have to also make sense.

I often recommend, and I I I run this by you. I'll tell you what I recommend. I often recommend, you know, implementing, you know, even a profit share system within a 401 k or other measure like that, but the the staff has to stay for 5 years

Mhmm.

Or it or it's, you know, or it or they don't it doesn't stay, right, if they leave earlier than 5 years. So it it works on giving an incentive, but making it making

it stronger. Loyalty. Right.

Based on loyalty. I I would love to turn the tables on you a second. I have everybody reading Profit First right now. I'm not saying I have been doing it. I'm saying everybody's saying, oh, I just read Profit First, and I'm creating 20 bank accounts for my business.

Can can I say something right here in my head? Because this is something, this is something I hear quite often and I'll be honest. I'll be honest. Yes. That book had a lot of good points. But what you just mentioned, this part and it, and the thing is it may apply to certain businesses. Does not mean that this can be used across the board. This is not one of those templates that can be used by everyone. At least not during the startup phase.

So I always urge, please talk to your advisor about this. I don't understand the big benefit. I mean, conceptually I do from the book, but you're not there yet to have 8 bank accounts where you're going to keep separate accounts for separate purposes. Let's get there first and then we'll talk.

Thank God. Because I don't have your, background and expertise, but I always say you can accomplish something very similar using QuickBooks and creating

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

Different kind of categories of money. And Right. It's a lot less complex than having all of these accounts. I mean

Right.

You you don't too much complexity kills your capability.

I agree. Yeah.

And it's a lot to keep track of for people who don't have a financial background.

That is correct. And a lot of people will also tell you that sometimes, and I have to do this just because I see this. So one in every 6 down practices is susceptible to embezzlement, fraud. Yes. A lot of times when you keep a lot of complicated systems, it makes it very easier for people with ill intentions to actually get away with these embezzlements.

Yes.

So

I absolutely so I wasn't gonna go there, but I have seen I have seen that. I have seen it firsthand.

Mhmm.

And it's absolutely I mean, you have so much we're we're talking about how much an owner has to pay attention to and wrap their arms around on the day to day. We're talking about not having time to carve out sometimes an hour or 2 a week Mhmm. To focus on the business. How are you gonna focus on the money? You're not. You're going to let somebody else do it for you. Right? And however vetted they are, the unfortunately, there are people who are have ill intent or who see an opportunity

Mhmm.

And grab it. And more more complexity gives a greater ability to do that kind of thing.

Yes. Absolutely.

You know, I've seen businesses when I really start to look under the hood, like you see, like, an Amazon order that went through and there's like, a scooter in in there with the with the I'm like, well, how often is this happening, I wonder. Right? You know? Oh, there's a scooter on this bill that went to your employee's address.

Right. Right. Right. Yeah.

So let's not get dwell on that.

That's true. That's true.

That's that. I had to bring it up because it's right now it's, I mean, everybody is saying, oh, I just got this profit first on creating all these bank accounts. I'm like, woah, woah, woah, woah.

No. You're making it easy for yeah. And that's why I brought it up even though this episode is not about that. We have had episodes on that in the past, but

Oh, it's about growing your practice and and, you know, to grow your practice, you've gotta have a stable, financial, you should be getting monthly reports. You should, you've got to know where your money's coming in and where it's going out. Right. In order to grow it.

Right. And I know you're not trying to scare our listeners. You know, it is true. There's a lot to do as a business owner because you're an employer, not an employee. However, it is also important that you come up with a system. Make it easier on yourself, right? Carve out a specific amount of time per week. Doesn't even have to be every day. Per week, as she mentioned, you can call it CEO time, what have you.

And just, you know, knock out some of these things. And then please make sure to also implement some internal controls, like, you know, printing out the production report once a day before going home. Make sure everyone in your office sees that you take a printout of that and you take it with yourself home. Even if you're not looking at it. The point is you're setting a precedence that, oh, he looks at his numbers or she looks at his, at her numbers. So little things

like that. Yeah.

Goes along.

You know, I always say, you know, some of the things I say and, you know, I was very lucky. I went through this, leadership program at the University of North Carolina in my twenties, and it was things a lot of people never get. But if they do, they get it in their fifties sixties. Right? And, one of the great things I took away from that is you only have a 100 problems a day. Everybody has a 100 problems a day, and you can say, oh, no. I have a 1,000 or I have but, no, everyone has a 100 problems a day, and the and the idea behind it is it's what you focus on as a problem that's gonna define your successes and your short short you know, I hate to say failures, but and failures. You know, if you're, you know, if you're getting hitting a red light on the way to work and it extends your trip to the office by 5 minutes and you're letting that ruin your day, you're you're not focusing on big enough things. Right? So, that's, you know focus on the big things, and that's how you're going to grow your practice.

Focus focus on the things that are getting in the way so that you can get past them and and overcome those challenges. Mhmm. And focus on the things that you can change that are going to bring in additional revenue. Right? And that can be revenue streams, that can be adding to staff, that can be adding, you know, ways to put yourself out there to the market, whether it's boots on the ground or digital or social media posts or blogging or, you know, that kind of focus. But when you're making those things your focus, your practice should start to grow. Right?

Right.

Too many people aren't focusing on anything like that. They might be sitting there thinking about growing their practice, but they're not doing anything about it because they don't have the time.

Time is

They gotta make the time. You gotta make the time.

But that also brings me to the next point. If if you have so much to do and you're just one person, how do you make the time?

Well, you know, first things first. This isn't gonna surprise you. I'm a I'm a I'm a big believer in investing in having somebody coach you and support you Uh-huh. Whose job is to keep you moving forward. Right? That's you've gotta find somebody that you feel you can work with, you can listen to, and who can be a good sounding board for you, but who'll keep you moving forward. Right? Right. That's I'm working with clients. I'm I'm keeping we're meeting every week and we're I'm making sure they keep moving forward on ideas and not letting these ideas get lost in the minutia of the day.

Mhmm. We talked about also, you know, utilizing staff and delegating. This is another thing that I see as a big business owner issue is that they just hold on to things that they don't need to hold on to.

Mhmm.

Because this person's not gonna do it the way I would do it or

Exactly.

Or or if I give it to them, like, I'm worried it won't get done. Well, if you're worried it won't get done, then you've got to to delegate and you've gotta make it clear. Hey. This needs to get done. This is part of your job responsibility. Right? And also accept the idea that when you do delegate, it might not be the way you would do it, but that's okay. Good as long as it's good, some, you know and I'm I this is coming from somebody who would be deemed a perfectionist.

Mhmm.

Myself, you know, I've learned good is good enough. You can't have 15 medical clinics operating in 15 different states and have perfection and have everything done the way you would do it. You just can't. Yeah. To grow, you have to let go of things and trust that good is good enough.

Absolutely. That's just hard to accept sometimes.

Right? It is, but you've you genuinely it's something I've learned, and I'm I'm grateful for it that you you you cannot grow if you're trying to hold on to everything because you're just one person. You've gotta let responsibilities go to other people, and you have to trust them to do it. And you have to accept that it's not gonna be done to perfection or the way you would do it, and that's okay. You know? Oh my gosh. Social media. I can't tell you how many people insist on doing their own posting even though it takes them hours.

That's right.

I'm like, hire somebody to do it for you. Mhmm. There are so many capable people who can do this better than you, and it'll take them it'll take them an hour to do what it's taking you 6 hours to do. It's just like so it's like this is not what you do. This is not I mean, you went to

Uh-huh.

You have this degree.

Uh-huh.

You it's under your degree and let somebody else do the social media stuff for you. I promise you they'll do it better.

Oh, goodness. Yeah. I actually have a funny story on that. A client of mine, he was just like, oh, Ash, I don't wanna spend so much on marketing. You know what? I'll figure it out. I'll do it myself. I'm like, are you sure you can, do you know what you, what this is? And he's like, oh, don't worry about it. And then a week later, he calls me.

He's like, Ash, this is not working. Yeah. Who do you have as a referral? I'm like, wow, what happened? I thought you were gonna give it a go yourself. And he was like, yeah, I did. It's, let's just say it didn't work out. I'm like, no, I'm interested. What did you do? Walk me through it so I can tell my other clients not to do this. And he was like, well, 1st and foremost, I went and did a search on all the Instagrams and TikToks of my competitors.

I literally kept a notebook of all the videos they posted, how long they were, who was liking it, what kind of hashtags they were using, and then what kind of content they were providing. And then later, I put a camera in my bedroom and I tried mimicking some of those dances, some of those moves. And I'm like, can I have a copy of those videos?

I want the blooper reel. Is somebody is somebody sharing that with me? I I don't want the video. I want the blooper reel.

Right. I want

the things that got scrapped. Right.

Yeah. And he spent the whole week. He actually took a week off just for this

Oh, man.

To come to the conclusion that, no, I can't do this. I should hire someone.

You know what? That's good, though. Mistakes are mistakes are a gift. It's how we learn. That's true. Right? That's true. That's true. He made a mistake and he learned really quickly. Like, oh, no.

No. No. This is not for me. Yeah. Thank goodness.

Yeah. It's and I'm happy. I'm like, he was able to tell, oh, there's a lot that goes into it. It's not just recording yourself and putting it out there. There's a lot there. I'm like, yeah.

There's so much. I mean, I'm a marketer, and I've got to tell you, if you, if I had a practice today, would I do radio, television, print for myself? Absolutely. Would I do social media for myself? No. There's just, it's it's so it's so complex.

It is.

Right? To do it well.

That's right.

Would I write my own landing page and copy? Probably. But but I wouldn't actually put it together and and and put it out there.

No. I'm gonna do it.

Many great people. I mean, there's thousands of people, but there's there are, you know, a couple people who do it really well, and why not trust the people who that's all they do.

Right. Exactly. Exactly.

I see another another mistake people made. You know, you just mentioned something that's so huge. I can't tell you I would say 9 out of 10 practices I talk to say when can I cut back on my marketing spend? I'm like, what?

Ding ding ding. Yes.

Increase your marketing spend. If you are not marketing, you don't have a business, and once you know that you can market and reliably know that you can convert, if you get a 100 phone calls, if you can convert, you know, x percent to patients, and you know that that statistic holds firm, then it's very easy mathematical formula to know if I increase my marketing, I'm gonna increase the number of people I sign up as patients. Mhmm. Right?

That's right.

And you increase your patients, and then you add staff to handle those patients. And next thing you know, you're growing, and next thing you know, you have the ability to start a second location.

Right.

And I have it in an Excel chart that I go through, and I show, like, if you spend $1500 a month on marketing, this is where you're gonna end up at the end of the year. But if you just increase it, you know, by $500 a month until you see there is a point of diminishing return.

Right. Right. Of course.

So when you get to that point, you stop. It doesn't mean you don't it doesn't mean you don't spend more in marketing. It means you you've maxed out on that platform.

Mhmm.

And now additional funds can go to test other platforms and see if you can get the same statistics there. That is correct. I don't wanna I mean, it it would make you crazy, but when I sold my practices in 2017, I was spending $15,000 per week per location.

Mhmm.

And I knew that I was going to make, you know, at minimum, you know, usually a 2 and a half Mhmm. To an ROI on that spend. And I also, in fact, if things you know, if I if it were slow, I'd add $1,000 because I was confident that if I put that additional $1,000 in, I would hit the number I needed to hit. Mhmm. But to get there, I started, you know, I started and I and I grew and I you know, you you develop the formulas for how how much am I spending for every lead that comes in.

Mhmm.

How much am I spending for each one that converts to an appointment, and what's my average, you know, revenue for a person who comes in for an appointment, and it and it's just a mathematical formula at that point that you can rely on.

That's right.

It's exciting. And then you can say, oh my gosh. If I spend this much money, I can make this much money. Right?

That's right. That's absolutely right. And the other thing I think we need to also focus on is marketing's not it's not magic. It's not going to get you, you know, patience overnight. Right? You need to give it some time. Yeah. I see a

lot of It's a good point. I see a lot of people jumping from one team to another, and that's really bad because marketing, you know, we we call it optimizing. It takes time for a campaign to optimize. Right?

Mhmm. And

so if you're switching boom, boom, boom, you're not giving the campaign enough time to optimize, and you're not giving all of the, you know, all of the the background that goes into it time to learn your business and help you, you know, grow the success.

That's right. Absolutely.

And a person get to know you and work with a team and get gain that trust and capability. People jump around way too much. You're absolutely right.

Yeah. I don't know what it is. I feel like with certain clients, they're so used to instant gratification. They try to look for that.

Yeah.

In their working world as well.

I think, you know, it's funny people I speak to a lot of people who think, you know, in a month I'm going to be making x amount of money and it's like, no, you know, most businesses

Yes.

Profitability comes over time. You've got to grow your business, and and I do see people, you know, the worst thing I see in ownership is when somebody's underfunded and they don't have money set aside because they assumed, oh, well, I'm gonna be profitable at this point. You need to have you need to have money set aside to run your business.

Absolutely.

And also, you need to know that when the marketing comes in, the people need to be cared for properly and cultivated, and what's going to make you successful over the next person if everybody's doing the same thing with marketing.

Mhmm.

What's gonna make you successful over another person is the patient experience. We can't forget that, and I think sometimes practice owners do. Right?

Yeah.

It's like, no, you've got to cultivate the relationship and provide that experience that makes people say this was great. I'm coming back and I'm telling all my friends.

Mhmm.

Because, that intangible marketing is what happens for you, right, on all these neighborhood sites. Hey. Can anyone recommend a good dentist? Mhmm. Oh, it's

huge in the dental world.

Yes. And and you wanna be without a doubt the one that gets, you know, all the yeah. I second that person. I second that person.

Mhmm.

You want the people fighting to say no. No. No. This is why I'm I'm saying this person is better, and here's why. You gotta go there.

Yeah. Yeah.

People do that for you if you're providing that experience.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

Everybody's I mean, I can tell you right now, my my dentist, my son fell and chipped his tooth, and it went through his gum. I took one look at him and I was like, okay. He's definitely gonna need stitches. Mhmm. But, oh my gosh, I'm really worried about his tooth. My dentist was on her way driving to the beach and she turned around to come back. She was like, if it were my child, I would be worried like you.

Wow. That's amazing.

Yes. Now I'm not saying everybody's going to do that, but do you think I will ever go anywhere else, and do you think I fight for people to go to her when they ask me for a referral?

You just mentioned her on the podcast.

I did. Says a lot. Doctor Erica Klein.

There you go.

I'm out in Pennsylvania.

Oh my goodness. Yeah. So no. No. It is very powerful and effective. And you're right. The clients that I see growing tremendously well, it's the ones that are focusing on the relationship side.

Yes. The ones that ask, I mean, she never fails to ask me, how are the kids? Oh my gosh. How old are they? Have they graduated? Oh my gosh. I can't believe this. And you know?

Wow. It's like part coming to family. It's like, oh, they know my kids, my family.

But you think that's natural, but I I can't tell you how many times I I'm working with somebody who that's not part of the that's not part of the process, and so it's an important it's an important part of the the time together is every part of the staff needs to realize that every interaction is an opportunity to either make somebody love your practice or somebody to say, I'd go somewhere else.

Yeah. You know what I think? Yeah. I think because even on our episode just now, we talked about both sides. We talked about, you know, focusing on the KPIs, you know, amount of money you make per patient. And at the same time, we're also talking about the qualitative side of, you know, catering to your patients. I feel like, maybe some people, they mix it together or they just focus on 1 or the other. Where in reality, I feel like they both need to exist, but separately. You need to focus on the numbers that carved out time once a week.

And then the other times of the day, you do need to, you know, care for your patients. Look at them as human beings, not just as numbers, not just as, you know, okay, this person is worth $1200, during the year or that person's 1800 or I don't know.

Yeah. Yeah. You gotta you gotta get to know your patients. Even, you know, I have I have people who, like, just keep notes. Right?

Mhmm.

They keep notes and so they just kinda do a cheat sheet before they go in to see everybody. It works so well.

That does work really well.

It works so well. Just keep a little note and whatever your, you know, whatever your, you know, patient software is or whatever, you know, some people still have paper files, whatever you're using, keep a note keep little notes after each encounter so that you can say, oh, how'd that work out for you? Oh my gosh. Uh-huh. The value was huge.

Oh, goodness. Yeah. No. It is. It is huge. And that's something I also advocate and you just mentioned the same thing. It's like, yeah, all all these softwares, they have a, client profile page and there's a note section. Just type out some things like, oh, in the process of closing their house, you know, or blah blah blah.

He is expecting a kid. And then just bring that up.

Yes. 6 so 6 months go by and you remembered that they just closed on a house. Oh my gosh.

Right. Exactly.

I can't I can't believe you remember that. Thank you so much. Exactly. It's amazing. You care about me.

Exactly. You you

In this world of isolation and coldness and technology and no no interpersonal interactions, you actually remembered what I'm doing. Right.

Right. Yeah. It goes a long way. Oh my goodness. Well, it was a pleasure having you today on our episode, Jessica. Really, truly.

Oh, I'm so I'm honored and grateful to have been here. I really enjoyed speaking with you.

Same.

I loved, you know, people didn't hear it, but coming in, we we were laugh laughing at the start.

Yes. We were.

So, truly honored. I appreciate you having me. I hope I hope that this provides, like, some really good tips that people can take away and think about to incorporate into their practice.

I hope so too. And I'm fairly sure it will.

Yeah. There's gotta be some nugget in there that's that's helpful. I'm sure.

Right. I'm sure. We talked about a lot. I'm sure there at least

If nothing else, don't open 8 bank accounts after reading proper first.

Yes. Thank you for that. Thank you, Jessica. Thanks for listening today. Be sure to subscribe to Beyond by Wings on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, or reach out to us on our website. You can also shoot us an email at info at e and associates dot com.