Artwork for podcast In The Bunker
Selecting The Right Marketing Company
Episode 36th May 2022 • In The Bunker • Joshua Maddux
00:00:00 00:31:54

Share Episode

Shownotes

Yusuf “JP” Saleeby talks about the trials of selecting a marketing company and he answers the question "What was harder, going to Med School or starting a business?".

Our episode highlights:

  • Fail fast, fail early...
  • Spent time looking at the references that they gave and talked with the owner of the company.
  • Develop a set of core values (this will be your guiding light)

Bio: Dr. Yusuf “JP” Saleeby is a graduate from the Medical College of Georgia (Augusta, Georgia) and completed post-graduate training at East Carolina University School of Medicine in Greenville, North Carolina. He pursued a career in emergency medicine (EM) for almost two decades. During his career in medicine held posts in occupational medicine (DOD) and Urgent Care and Family Medicine. Currently, he practices Integrative & Functional Medicine at Carolina Holistic Medicine with sites in the Southeastern USA.

Links:

  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yusuf-jp-saleeby-md-b3826615/
  • Website: https://carolinaholisticmedicine.com
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarolinaHolisticMedicine


---------- In The Bunker Podcast Links ----------

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/in-the-bunker-podcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inthebunkerpodcast/

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/InTheBunkerPodcast/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyvc50KjJZCqDM37mug6W1Q

Website: https://www.inthebunkerpodcast.com

Listen Links: https://www.inthebunkerpodcast.com/listen

Become a Guest: https://www.inthebunkerpodcast.com/guest

Transcripts

Joshua Maddux:

I'm excited for today's episode.

Joshua Maddux:

We have use of, solidi also known as JP on the show with us today.

Joshua Maddux:

JP has been faced with the challenge of marketing in his business.

Joshua Maddux:

However, despite the.

Joshua Maddux:

He has really solved this issue through trial and error, he's

Joshua Maddux:

seen a 275% increase new clients.

Joshua Maddux:

And JP has an amazing list of past achievements and

Joshua Maddux:

recognition in the medical field.

Joshua Maddux:

And he'll dive into that a little bit further here in just a second.

Joshua Maddux:

He's helped lead shape and guide all different aspects of

Joshua Maddux:

medical and health over the past 30 plus years in that medical.

Joshua Maddux:

He's helped his patients improve their health in spite of that

Joshua Maddux:

ever-growing challenges of reaching more people and that marketing aspect.

Joshua Maddux:

There's so much to learn from him.

Joshua Maddux:

And I'm super excited to jump in and learn about all he's overcame

Joshua Maddux:

and where his business is today.

Joshua Maddux:

Glad to have you on the show today.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Thanks Joshua.

Joshua Maddux:

Awesome.

Joshua Maddux:

So let's dive in and walk through.

Joshua Maddux:

What is your sort of gives that 92nd background, who

Joshua Maddux:

are you how did you get here?

Joshua Maddux:

When, what do you do?

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Sure.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I'm classified as a functional medicine physician.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Currently.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

This is my second career in medicine.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

My first was about a 20 year career in more conventional

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

mainstream emergency meds.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

With that, job of dealing with urgent and emergent care both the acute injuries

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

we're great at that in the United States.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

A dislocated shoulder, gunshot wound, no better place in the

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

world to be taken care of.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

But on the other hand, we have chronic illness and things like

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

diabetes, obesity, hypertension, renal failure, and we don't do real well.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So then during those 20 years, I realized there was something better.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So I transitioned away from the mainstream.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Into a functional and integrative medicine, which I think serves that

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

population of chronic illness in a true preventive mode, not just

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

giving lip service to preventative medicine but really honestly doing it.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And in my clinical career, I also, it gave birth to a nonprofit organization,

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

a teaching academy where I can actually teach other advanced providers the same

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

skills that I'm, that I practice here.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So that's in a nutshell.

Joshua Maddux:

Awesome.

Joshua Maddux:

Yeah.

Joshua Maddux:

And the difference there you're talking about is that active versus reactive

Joshua Maddux:

or the proactive rather than reactive.

Joshua Maddux:

And like you said our medical industry is great at being reactive

Joshua Maddux:

to whatever is thrown at it, but the proactive aspect I definitely have seen

Joshua Maddux:

personally it's definitely something.

Joshua Maddux:

I think there's a big room for improvement.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Yeah.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Yeah.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

There's like I said, there's a lot of lip service in conventional medicine about

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

preventive medicine, but in actuality, it's not really practiced very well.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

There's a lot we can do for our patients with lifestyle management

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

modifications and keeping people off of chronic illness meds.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Most medications are a patch.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Relieving symptoms, but not, dealing with the root cause.

Joshua Maddux:

So I know we were talking before I hit record about one of

Joshua Maddux:

your business challenges has been or that marketing piece walk us through.

Joshua Maddux:

What were the needs there?

Joshua Maddux:

Why marketing and what did that look like for them?

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Sure.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So this was all new.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

In medical school they teach us anatomy and physiology, but they

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

don't teach us any business courses.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And my undergraduate was science-based as well.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So I was protected for the first career by large hospital systems

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

and they did all the marketing.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They did all the hiring.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

My, my overhead was basically my scrubs and my stethoscope and that's all.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

To deal with, I didn't have any HR or anything else in my

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

first 20 years of medicine.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So when I embarked on a solo practice, private practice and initially embraced

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

the insurance model, but that didn't work.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And after 18 months I decided.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

looked at the numbers and I say I'll be out of business in three

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

months if I keep going this route.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So I had to terminate all my managed care contracts and opt out of Medicare

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

and all that stuff just turned my back completely away from that model and

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

in doing so, it really cut into the number of patients being referred to

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

me, to my practice by that system.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We lost about 60% of our Medicare patients.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So I realized real quickly, I had a, it was a new practice.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

It started into the end of 2013 brand new practice.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Had a very low patient base and it wasn't as if it was a traditional

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

internal medicine practice of something like 10 or 20 years where they had

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

built up a clientele of, 3000 patients.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And then they.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

VIP MD.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And they basically whittled it down to 300 lucky ones.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We didn't have that.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We didn't have a patient.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So we had to build it from scratch.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And, it took me almost six different marketing companies

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

to finally have one that worked.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

The first three were really very traditional bill, large marketing

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

companies that did both print ads and billboards, and they did some.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Marketing, but their main focus was on print and that just didn't work for us.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

There, there was no return on investment.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

It was negative return on investment so quickly migrated from one to another.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Usually not lasting more than a year with these groups.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

The second to last one, Almost did me in almost put me out of business.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They were a local company it's pretty small and they promised the

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

world and they delivered nothing.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They were basically really super expensive and they came with

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

a couple of good references.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I spoke to other physician groups that were utilizing them and

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

they give them good reviews.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

But it seems the.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

The information they were trying to push on us was a lot of social.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Marketing these big campaigns, big, expensive campaigns and like

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Facebook and a few other social media.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And I was a little hesitant, but I said, these guys are the pros.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They know what they're doing, let's go for it.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it was a complete disaster.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They did have some staffing issues.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Their turnover was really high.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We lost our account.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Two, two different ones.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it just, it, we were pretty much a small player in their group of

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

companies that we're working with.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And so we got the put on the back burner and as a consequence Google

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

apparently went through an algorithm change and it devastated our website.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They fell asleep on the job.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They did not realize it.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They did not make the corrections or updates.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And so we lost so much real estate on the internet over a period of three

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

or four months before we caught it.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And had it turned.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We had to terminate them.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And we were scrambling because our number of new patient inquiries

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

had dropped significantly.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And I thought, oh my God, I might, this might do us in.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Landed a fellow who was referred to me from another business associate.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I knew.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And he built up our website, corrected all the problems with

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

the algorithms and the SEO, and got us back on track and his current.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We liked him a lot.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

He did a great job.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

He's very personable, but he got really too big, too fast and he couldn't

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

keep up with his other clients.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So again, we felt a little bit of our R input, the folks making inquiries

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

and all that was drifting off.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

There were some problems that weren't corrected with some of the links.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

There were some dead links.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So I went on the search, I interviewed two more local marketing,

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

digital marketing companies.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Cause this one that we were leaving was based out of Florida,

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

so he wasn't readily available.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So I wanted someone local and after interviewing two

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

different companies, I selected.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And this guy has done remarkable work for us are the return

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

on the investment is amazing.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

He is affordable and he knows what he's doing and he's on top of everything.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So that saved our business.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And within the first six months, I would have to say his work alone has

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

increased our volume of inquiries by 275%.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Our conversion rate is about 48% of 52, depending on which month you study, which

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

is unheard of in the industry, that's

Joshua Maddux:

just digitally.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

But there were a couple of other things we

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

implemented that we did at our end.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

But just the fact that SEO, we we did a, we did one more.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Google ads and it didn't pan out.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

It was, there was no return on that investment, so we've let go.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They added the paid for advertising and we've let go

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

of all this social media stuff.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

My, my wife is the office manager.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

She maintains a little contact with the social media and we'll answer

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

inquiries that come in through there.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

But most of it is just a digital marketing, 99%.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We do have one paid print ad that we run in a local medical focused magazine

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

that comes out every two months.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it's a quarter page ad, but it doesn't amount to much just gives us a presence,

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

but it's all basically I would have to say anyone that's doing functional

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

medicine who starting up a practice, I would do, think about doing 90, 90% just.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Marketing and the search has to go on for the right person to do the, do it for you.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And that can be the challenge.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

But in addition to the digital marketing, we implemented a very much.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Personal touch.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We didn't want to automate our websites.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

That, that became a cliche and a lot of people just don't like that.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Especially older patients, they like that human contact.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So we actually hired two staff members who work from home and all they do

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

is they make that initial contact.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They're our Walmart greeters, if you will.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And that has bolstered our conversion rate.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They are the ones that are responsible for us closing the deal

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

on new patient inquiries coming in.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They understand the practice.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They feel there's a personal touch.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We have a set of core values that are adhered to everyone, knows them.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They're posted all over the place.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And we're getting this this influx of patients that are looking for that.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They're looking for that human touch.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They're looking for compassionate people, and that's what we're portraying

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

our business as, and in this last two years with the COVID pandemic

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

where other businesses and including medical offices have suffered.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Ours has flourished.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

My accountant asked me last year when he was handing me my tax returns.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

How the hell did you do that?

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

You did better in 2020 than you did in 2019.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Whereas all of my other clients have.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And I said first of all, we're medical.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So that accounts for something, but also going from about

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

40 to now, 70% telemedicine.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And we had all platforms already set up.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We didn't have to reinvent the wheel.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We were doing telemedicine back in 2013.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So we had all of our platforms.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

All of our staff and providers were all solid with those.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it was nothing for us.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

From doing about 30 to 40% and now doing about 70.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And so I think the combination of both the marketing and also some strategies

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

we we embarked on in our practice really helped put us where we are today.

Joshua Maddux:

That's awesome.

Joshua Maddux:

I want to highlight one element that you said is that you

Joshua Maddux:

guys in a day and age where.

Joshua Maddux:

So many companies are focused on chat bots and these automated marketing tools.

Joshua Maddux:

You guys literally went the other direction.

Joshua Maddux:

You said we're gonna hire two full-time staff members that are going to be

Joshua Maddux:

physical people that answer the phone, make phone calls, do that initial,

Joshua Maddux:

like you said, Walmart, greeter style, contact where so many companies.

Joshua Maddux:

Are wanting to use a chat bot.

Joshua Maddux:

And I think that's something that, companies who are considering utilizing a

Joshua Maddux:

chat bot, if it's not done for the right reasons, it will turn customers away.

Joshua Maddux:

I know for my personal experience, I've been on websites where I'm like, all I

Joshua Maddux:

want to know is if you're open tomorrow and this chat bot just has no idea.

Joshua Maddux:

And it's would you like to schedule an appointment?

Joshua Maddux:

Tomorrow's hours and it's I'm sorry.

Joshua Maddux:

I didn't understand.

Joshua Maddux:

And it's just are you open tomorrow?

Joshua Maddux:

And it's so frustrating.

Joshua Maddux:

And then sadly, I closed the website and all under the next company and I go

Joshua Maddux:

find someone else who is, or has that information more readily available.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

That's, my modus operandi, my emo in running my business.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Whether it's this practice or I had a previous integrative practice in

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Savannah, Georgia years ago, it was always being 20 years ahead of everyone else.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

As a functional medicine physician, I'm practicing medicine.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

That's in the 21st century.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

A lot of our practice guidelines and mainstream medicine are

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

20th century guidelines.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Look at the disaster we're having.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Doctors are sitting on their hands.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They don't know what to do for their patients.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

As far as outpatient therapy, they're sending people home and after a

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

positive COVID-19 test and say, drink water, take aspirin or Tylenol.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And then come back.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

If you're having respiratory problems, we'll put you in the hospital.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

That's unacceptable.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So we're as a consequence of doing stuff, being proactive,

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And tr and offering treatments, viable treatments to our patients.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We're getting a flood of patients.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And this has actually happened in the last six weeks.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We've had such a flood I've had to actually hire.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Staff and hire two new, two more nurse practitioners to

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

help him with the patient load

Joshua Maddux:

I think so much of that is also that transition aspect of what

Joshua Maddux:

we talked about at the beginning is the aspect of preventative versus that

Joshua Maddux:

reactive and so much, the reactive of.

Joshua Maddux:

Go home.

Joshua Maddux:

And if you get sick, then come back rather than, okay.

Joshua Maddux:

What are two things I can do?

Joshua Maddux:

Maybe it's at home that are preventative.

Joshua Maddux:

So I don't end up back here.

Joshua Maddux:

I want to hone in on, on the marketing aspect a little bit you touched base

Joshua Maddux:

on, you guys have gone through a handful of companies and for all different

Joshua Maddux:

reasons, they made, they didn't work out for whatever reason, that might be.

Joshua Maddux:

But what is your advice for a business owner who is saying, Hey, I am facing a

Joshua Maddux:

marketing challenge and I'm looking to hire a company, or if you were able to

Joshua Maddux:

talk to your younger self and say, Hey, here's the advice of what I would do?

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

That's a real big challenge because, really,

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

unless you go in and have several sit down meetings, I was impressed with

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

what some places looked like when I would walk through their front door.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

It was really this really cool vibe, very modern architecture

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

looked like it was well-funded.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And so I thought I'm pretty comfortable with this.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

These guys must be doing well.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They've got big contracts.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They're name dropping.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

All these big companies in the area and they must be doing well.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And, they weren't a good fit for me.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

After a few months it was, brutally honest I was with myself.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I was like I, they say keep going.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

It takes three months.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

It takes six months.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And I had to be honest with myself and say, really let me sit

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

down and think this through and realize that it wasn't a good fit.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Fulfill anything they had promised, it seemed several of them had gone

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

to the same conferences and they would say the same thing over and

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

over again about how they wanted to structure our marketing plan.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it just, I was like these guys must all gone to the same conference.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

You're speaking the same kind of language.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I didn't hear anything really novel.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So what I did with the last.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Search was I, spent some time looking at the references they gave looking at

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

the websites, how they were structured.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And then I assume I got an honest representation of what they could do.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I just clicked with the business owners because these were small.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Marketing companies with a very small staff.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And so I got the chance to speak to the owners directly

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

and I felt very comfortable.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And I think that's the thing.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

If it's a big company and you can't get to the president or the CEO you

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

may want to move on and it's better to start out with someone small that can

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

actually do some very personalized.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

It's almost akin to looking at how we, as a small practice, small

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

private practice treat our patients versus a big hospital system.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

You may have a big hospital system with 300 physicians and, huge,

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

beautiful marble floors, modern looking buildings and you are not

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

going to get the same care you will.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

By a small office of really highly trained, skilled clinicians who have

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

the patient's best interest in mind.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And that's what I was looking for.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I put my model of as a healthcare provider and I said, let me find the

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

same model in the marketing company.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So I avoided these big companies with the big flashy presentations

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

or big, name-dropping.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And I went with a fellow who kind of instant.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Some, he like he is still confidence and he was confident.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

He knew he could help.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

He knew where the problem is, what he did an analysis for free a free analysis

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

and told me we spend an hour and a half on the phone on a actually was a zoom.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And he pointed out all the deficiencies in my website and all the broken links.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And I'm like, oh my God that's the problem.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And he said, that's easy fix.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I can fix it.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it was that confidence that he had and his honesty that made me select him.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it was a, it was the right choice.

Joshua Maddux:

Yeah.

Joshua Maddux:

I know the hospital analogy that you use with, the architecture in that I

Joshua Maddux:

look at sometimes in you walk into a lobby like that, and you're like, cool.

Joshua Maddux:

So you spend a million dollars or more on a, off a lobby renovation rather

Joshua Maddux:

than buying a new x-ray machine.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They're cutting back on essential staff

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

members like nurses and respiratory therapists and phlebotomist.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And yet they have this really posh foyer or entrance way.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And you think they're just crushing it and it's and it's a little deceptive.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

You have to be careful.

Joshua Maddux:

Yeah.

Joshua Maddux:

Yeah.

Joshua Maddux:

I like the aspect of being able to have a conversation with the team a

Joshua Maddux:

lot of agencies, like you said, will you get to talk to a salesperson and

Joshua Maddux:

you're not gonna talk to an account rep until you sign on the dotted line.

Joshua Maddux:

I know of an agency in California that they have an NDA before you

Joshua Maddux:

see the contract, which is just.

Joshua Maddux:

Scammy as all get up.

Joshua Maddux:

And it's one of those things that being able to have that connection,

Joshua Maddux:

this is hiring an agency is not just, it's not a one-time interaction.

Joshua Maddux:

It's something where you're going to have a relationship with this business.

Joshua Maddux:

For hopefully a long time, hopefully, the agency that you hire thinking,

Joshua Maddux:

you the team you're working with, hopefully you guys are working

Joshua Maddux:

together for the next, 10 plus years.

Joshua Maddux:

And you're able to see this 275% increase year over year for the next 10 years.

Joshua Maddux:

At that point 10 years from now, maybe you're their only client or

Joshua Maddux:

maybe they've grown, a little bit more or whatever that looks like.

Joshua Maddux:

But I think it's really focusing on.

Joshua Maddux:

Ensuring that agency understands your business, understands who you are.

Joshua Maddux:

We'll spend the time to, like you said, go through your website, find a few

Joshua Maddux:

things, explain the reasons to you and all that stuff and really make sure.

Joshua Maddux:

You as the potential customer, understand that they know who you are

Joshua Maddux:

and they know what your business is.

Joshua Maddux:

And all of that, I think that's really critical rather than just coming in.

Joshua Maddux:

Anyone can come in with flashy logos, and to your point, there are

Joshua Maddux:

a lot of conferences that a lot of big agencies will send their whole

Joshua Maddux:

sales team to They're all talking the same thing, because they all

Joshua Maddux:

learned it at the same place.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Yeah, that's what I figured it was happening.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We had a situation where we were getting these notifications through the postal

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

system that we had assigned for a package.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And so in medicine we think, oh, they're probably health records.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Somebody laboratory.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

There hospital discharge summary.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So we'd go to the post office and we'd have to send a staff member over there

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

and sign for these packages and we'd get them back to the office and open it up.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it was advertising.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

From one of the another practice, like a urological specialty practice

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

or allergy ear, nose and throat.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it was all from this one hospital system.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

That was eating up in our time and what we were doing, we were

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

filing it in file 13 and know this.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Okay great.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They want us to send referrals to them, but we don't really

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

we're not in that arena.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They wound up getting tossed in the trash.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We probably would have done that if they sent it by regular.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So my office manager had enough.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And so she writes them and says, Hey, you, and several of the other folks in

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

your hospital system do seem to be doing this new marketing strategy to try to

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

like, make us, definitely read your stuff.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

That's great.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We want, that's wonderful, but you're wasting our time because we have to

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

go sign for these at the post office.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And and we asked them to please stop doing.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So again, it was something where different marketing companies were

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

all preaching the same new thing.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Hey let's make sure.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Your flyer is being read.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So we'll send it by by mail where they have to sign for it to receive

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

it like registered it's insane.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Yeah.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

It's that kind of thing where I think when we were dealing with that one company

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

and they were really pushing this whole social media marketing campaign, that

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

didn't work, I'm like, oh, I was hearing that from five or six other agencies.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And so they must have all gone to that same conference or something.

Joshua Maddux:

And I will say social media is a great place.

Joshua Maddux:

As long as it connects with your market, and it depends on what platform, Facebook

Joshua Maddux:

versus Instagram, tick talk first, whatever it really depends on what your

Joshua Maddux:

platform is, what the demographic is and where your demographic hangs out.

Joshua Maddux:

If your demographic isn't on Instagram, then don't advertise on Instagram.

Joshua Maddux:

But at the same point, the one thing I would mention is.

Joshua Maddux:

If you guys do have, you have the Facebook page for the business, make

Joshua Maddux:

sure you guys are posting on there, major holidays, Hey, happy new year.

Joshua Maddux:

Hey, once a month posting on your social media accounts, at least on

Joshua Maddux:

a monthly basis, ensures that people don't hit it and go, oh, the last time

Joshua Maddux:

they posted on here was 14 months ago.

Joshua Maddux:

Maybe they closed with the pandemic way.

Joshua Maddux:

And now all of a sudden, they, maybe they may, they call the office and, some fluke,

Joshua Maddux:

the phones are down for 20 minutes or something and they go to your Facebook and

Joshua Maddux:

there's nothing on there for 14 months.

Joshua Maddux:

And they're like, okay.

Joshua Maddux:

Onto the next guy.

Joshua Maddux:

But if there was something on there from three weeks ago, they're like

Joshua Maddux:

they were there three weeks ago.

Joshua Maddux:

So that's not.

Joshua Maddux:

A year ago and maybe, at that point, that's when they give another chance

Joshua Maddux:

and also things like Google reviews and, that type of stuff as well.

Joshua Maddux:

People use that now as a metric to see, I know locally there was, stores where

Joshua Maddux:

I was like, I don't know if they're open or closed during the pandemic.

Joshua Maddux:

And I was checking their Facebook page and their Google reviews to try to

Joshua Maddux:

see if they were open today or not.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Some of the advice my current marketing fellows has given

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

us is, Google maps and Google is good.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So we do keep that abreast and current.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

As far as Facebook, our Facebook page is very active.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I post a medical story or something almost on a daily basis, sometimes two

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

or three times a day when I come across.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

That's an interesting abstract.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We'll go up there.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I think we keep a very active blog.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

My blogs are, they're archived and they're also I set them up to go live

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

at certain times during the month.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So there's always current information coming out on a

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

weekly basis and we decided not to pay someone to do that for us.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We do that ourselves.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I'm a big blogger.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So I maintain the Facebook and LinkedIn, I do it on LinkedIn to almost redundantly.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And so those areas, but but what we noticed was the folks that were calling

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

and making inquiries were not so much coming in from the social media platforms.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They were coming in from some of the associated

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

organizations that I'm a member.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So I'm a member of four or five different organizations and they have physician

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

search built into their website.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So somebody who's looking for like a doctor that takes care of

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

line patients or a doctor that to.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Care of patients with a sick building syndrome.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

These organizations have the ability for folks to search

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

for clinicians in their area.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So we found out that was happening, but then our, just our organic

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Google searches were bringing us a tremendous amount of of traffic.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

You can have that all funneled down, but if you don't have the needs in

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

your practice at the front door to handle it appropriate, you could lose.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

A good number of potential clients.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I spoke with a business owner who said that they had 400 inquiries a

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

month, but they only gained about 20 new patients at the time I was

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

doing about, 30 to 40 inquiries and capturing about 20 new patients.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So now of course our funnel got bigger, but now we have the means to address.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

The influx of new clients and keep them hungry for more, if you will.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Because they were really satisfied about who greeted them at the front.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And they got a feel of the humanity in our practice and our

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

compassion and dependability.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Those are all real big, important features.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I would also tell a prospective business owners that develop a set of core values.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I, so when I started my business, I was a member of Vistage.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Vistage is an organization that I think would was created in

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

the 1950s in the United States.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it's an international fraternity of CEOs basically once a month,

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

a group of CEOs gets together from different industries.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

No two can be the same.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

We had people, architects and lawyers and paving companies, asphalt paving company.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Some of them were multimillion dollar companies, and some

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

of them were pretty small.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

But we all have the same problems with marketing, staffing, HR, all these.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And we'd get a speaker to come in.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And then the rest of the day we would, basically identify problems and try

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

to work through it amongst ourselves.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And in other group, I was also a member of was tab, which is the alternative board.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Again, these are groups that are led by a facilitator and

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

they are, in my opinion, key.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

To keeping your business solvent and sustainable and growing and scaling up.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And I, to this day still have a tab advisor I meet with every other

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

month who guides me through and I have someone to bounce stuff off of.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

They actually helped save my practice.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

At one point a few years, And they've given great advice as to, to help with the

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

marketing and HR and staffing problems.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So I would encourage people out there listeners to who are small

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

business owners to explore that and look at those kinds of groups.

Joshua Maddux:

Yeah, those are really good.

Joshua Maddux:

I'm in tab.

Joshua Maddux:

And that's how we connected actually through the tab sort

Joshua Maddux:

of global community element.

Joshua Maddux:

And I will say having that accountability partner and for those who are listening,

Joshua Maddux:

who don't understand how tab works, not gonna spend a whole ton of time on

Joshua Maddux:

that, but basically it's a group of.

Joshua Maddux:

Other business owners, who you get as a sounding board on a monthly basis, you

Joshua Maddux:

have, a coach who you work with depending on how your tab group is set up on either

Joshua Maddux:

a monthly or every other month basis.

Joshua Maddux:

And to be able to have that accountability of, I've got five other business owners

Joshua Maddux:

that I know I'm meeting with in two weeks.

Joshua Maddux:

And I have a to-do item that I have to get done before that, or

Joshua Maddux:

I have to show up to my meeting.

Joshua Maddux:

I didn't do it.

Joshua Maddux:

And having that accountability.

Joshua Maddux:

And the other thing is the resources.

Joshua Maddux:

I needed a an attorney in a specific field and.

Joshua Maddux:

I brought that issue to my tab board and someone goes, oh, I've got a great one.

Joshua Maddux:

He's super affordable charges by the quarter hour.

Joshua Maddux:

Like no attorney charges by the quarter hour is normally like a two hour minimum.

Joshua Maddux:

And so it's really nice to have those resources at your

Joshua Maddux:

fingertips and it's really great.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I attribute a lot of the growth of my business to.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

To that.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Because when I opened up my shop, it was a solo practice outside of insurance model,

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

what we call DPC direct primary care.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And there was no playbook.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

There was no manual to follow.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I built it along the way.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And it was, there was a lot of bumps and bruises and scrapes.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I could write a book now and tell somebody who's starting off

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

what to do and what to avoid.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

But at the time there wasn't a playbook and I relied on tab and Vistige to help

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

me navigate those kinds of those rough waters so that I could build a business

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

that was sustainable and profitable.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Sustainable and profitable is definitely two primary elements.

Joshua Maddux:

So I have one last question before we wrap up.

Joshua Maddux:

But I've loved chatting and appreciate the time today.

Joshua Maddux:

But one last question.

Joshua Maddux:

So which was harder going to medical school or starting your own business.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

I think for physicians now, there are other specialty

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

groups of like in chiropractic medicine, they teach them how to run a business.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

There's a lot of business courses built into the curriculum, but in traditional

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

medical school for MDs or dos, there isn't an, and so while it was different

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

challenges medical school, the first two years, there's a lot of rope memory.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

So you gotta have good memory banks and be able to assimilate

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

a lot of information in a big.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And then clinical your last two years of medical school and residency

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

training, it was, a sleep deprivation.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

You were on call every third night and you were sleep deprived and you're trying to

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

assimilate all the things you're supposed to learn into that with sleep deprivation.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

And we all know that memory, is affected by sleep deprivation.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

The, to answer your question, I would have to say starting your

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

own business is really difficult.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

It was much more challenging.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Because there are so many more aspects of it.

Yusuf (JP) Saleeby, MD:

Then going through medical school.

Joshua Maddux:

The one thing I will say as a positive with medical school

Joshua Maddux:

is as you start a residency program, there's someone there to coach you and

Joshua Maddux:

to lead you through that where starting a business, there's not, and that's why

Joshua Maddux:

we both have found programs like tab that are essentially that for businesses.

Joshua Maddux:

So it's been an awesome.

Joshua Maddux:

I appreciate the time today.

Joshua Maddux:

Thanks for listening to this episode of, in the bunker.

Joshua Maddux:

As always we can be found on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

Joshua Maddux:

at, in the bunker podcast.

Joshua Maddux:

Be sure to share this episode and what you're going to apply from it.

Joshua Maddux:

And how that can affect your business, make sure to tag us in that post so

Joshua Maddux:

we can highlight your journey as well.

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube