Therapy Marketing Solutions Podcast

Hosted by

Heather Jensen
Frequency

Two times a month

First Episode Date

November 1, 2022
Transcripts

Listen to Therapy Marketing Solutions Podcasts

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As a mom with kids who have struggled with speech and one with Autism, ADHD, and anxiety taking kids to therapy has been a part of my life in one way or another for the past 18 years.

These opportunities have taught me a great deal about therapy-based clinics and endeared me to the hardworking professionals that own them.

Combining these experiences with a Bachelor's Degree in Web Design and Development, a certification as a StoryBrand Certified Guide, and many years helping small business owners build successful businesses has given me unique insights to help therapy-based clinics.

This ultimately fueled my passion to open Therapy Marketing Solutions, a marketing agency that helps clinic owners build thriving, vibrant practices.

Therapy Marketing Solutions Podcast Transcripts

Episode 7: Heather Jensen

[00:00:00] Hey, everyone, this is Heather, and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we're able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Welcome back, everyone. This is episode number seven of Therapy Marketing Solutions. Design is about more than just looking good. I am so excited to talk about this today and to really talk about design because a lot of business owners think about it and they're like, okay, yeah, I need I need something designed, I need it to look good. But there is more to design when you want. To. Really have a strategy and to to design does several different things. And we're going to talk about that today on this episode. So first off, let's get into it. So we are going to actually spend most of our time talking about websites today from the standpoint of designing a website. But these principles can be applied to any kind of design, whether you're designing a flier, you know, designing a logo, whatever design you are doing, these principles are applicable. So there's three aspects of good design that I want to talk about today. One is that the design needs to be appealing, right? It needs to look good. People need to think that it looks good. Two is function. The design needs to be functional. And three, this is not going to come to a surprise to any of you guys. It needs to have a story. There needs to be a story that goes with the design. So let's talk about a pill first. You know, most businesses, when they think of design, they just automatically think, okay, well, I need something designed. I need it to look good. That is just a very natural way of thinking about design for your business. When it looks when your design looks good, it does a couple of things, right?

[00:02:23] It makes your business look more professional, it legitimate. It makes your business look legitimate. Because if you don't have a good design, then people wonder, is this a hobby? Is this a side business? Like they just they feel it. And that's the big thing with appeal is when it's not appealing. People notice that is even. Good design. You know. Just looks good. People think it looks good. They don't really think a lot about it. Bad design. Bad design is noticeable. People notice bad design. They realize that something is off. There's just seems to be like this tension about it. So there are a couple of rules when when you want to when you're designing something, first off, you want to keep your colors and your fonts consistent. You want to make sure that you are using the same fonts on your website, on your social media. On your. In your logo, like be consistent in colors and. Fonts. When you are consistent, people recognize your brand. If you saw the Golden Arches, which obviously I'm referring to McDonald's in pink or Orange something, you'd be like, what is that, a different company? There's just it's just not right. So consistent in colors and fonts. And then you want to make sure that your colors and fonts are appropriate for your audience. What that means is that you probably don't want to use. Have you ever seen that font that looks like chalk? You probably don't want to use that if you're law office, right? That just wouldn't really set you up as a professional business. So you want to make sure that your colors and your fonts are appropriate for the the audience that you are catering to. So if you are catering to children, like if you're. A. Pediatric therapy, you're obviously have a lot more play with being. You can be playful with your colors and fonts a little bit more if you and that's not to say that you can't use bright colors if you're if your business is geared towards adults, that does not mean that. But we just just be thoughtful in your colors and your fonts and please do not use comic sans, comic sans or papyrus for fonts.

[00:04:50] That's all I'm going to say about that. They are not considered real fonts in the design world. There are several others, but I won't go into those. Those are the most popular that people tend to use. And then the last idea really with the appeal factor is that less is more. If you over design your flier or website, it becomes overwhelming. Don't you don't need to try to fill up every nook and cranny. Of. Of your website or your flier or whatever, you know, white space, as it's called, which is the negative space that is not being. Used. Is is good. It allows the design to breathe. And. It allows people to be able to really take in what you have on on your flier or on your website or whatever they're able to to digest it. Better. And to understand it. So Ellen Lupton, she's a designer and educator. She says design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking. And so that's where that space you need to let it breathe. Don't feel like every little thing needs to be We need to have something in this corner or whatever. There is a balance to that, obviously. But but I think more people tend to make the mistake of over designing versus under designing. Oc. So function. Function. What does that have to do with design? That isn't something that a lot of people really think about in design. Well, your design needs to be functional, especially when it comes to your website. When you are creating your website, you need to make sure that your design makes sense, that the layout of your website makes sense and and even to the point of your navigation menu to your different pages. Those need to be designed thoughtfully. So you don't want to get too crazy on your design that no one can find the other pages. You also want to make sure that it just makes sense again for your audience. Steve Jobs says design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Could you imagine if Apple made the most beautiful iPhone ever but it didn't function?

[00:07:21] And that's the same thing with your website or whatever you are designing. It needs to be functional, it needs to make sense and it needs to be easy to navigate. That's part of the design, especially with a website. You need to be able to navigate it well. So design is about marrying functionality with esthetics. Your website needs to be able to function. It needs to be easy to navigate and needs to look good. There is a strategy to good design. It's not just throwing a bunch of colors here and there and filling a bunch of boxes or whatever. But on the other side, it's interesting because good design actually looks very effortless. It goes back to that thing that that idea. That. People notice bad design a lot more than good design because good design is comforting. It's it feels right. And often we feel we notice the negative feelings before we ever. Notice the. The good feelings. So third story, again, as Story Brand certified guide, this should come know as no surprise to you that design needs to have a story. Lorinda Mamo, who's a designer, said every great design begins with an even better story. So one mistake that I see a lot of business owners make is they first hire a web designer and then they go and look for a copywriter. And in reality, it needs to be the other way around. If you create your design, then all of a sudden you're trying to squish content in the spaces that are available for it. When in reality, if you create your content with a strategy, then you're able to create a design around it. And I mean, you don't want to like, be able to like, Oh, I only have room for like a sentence or two in this one section when in reality you need more to really explain your services. So you want to be able to make sure that you have the space. And. The layout that makes sense for the words on your site. So. You know, if if a prospect who's coming to your site, if you really think about it, the determining factor in whether they pick you or another therapist is is what is said on your site.

[00:09:48] So if the if what you're saying, the content, the copy, the words resonate with them, then they're going to say, yes, this is the therapist for me. This is the person I want to work with. And so we really need to focus on content first and then to create an incredible design that tells a story around your content. Great design brings your message, your brand, and the elements all into an inviting story. If you. Really think about it, it's like if you had a present or a. Gift. The content is the present and the design is the wrapping and the bow around it. It's beautiful, it looks great. But other than to kind of decorate the box, it doesn't really. Have. A ton. Of. Of reason behind it. Really what we want to do is we want to open that box, we want to read the content and we want to find that. There's. Depth and layers to your website and to anything, really. So what are the three things? Again, we want to make sure that we that our design is appealing. If you're not sure if it's appealing, ask someone, ask your email clients. We want to make sure that it functions well. Again, you can ask them because if they are not familiar with it, they'll tell you. They're like, Well, I don't really get why this buttons are here or where it goes or what the purpose of that is. And then you really want to make sure that your design creates a story, that it invites them further in on the website. It's kind of like little breadcrumbs bringing you in further. So challenge for this week, just do it as Nike says. Just do it. Don't be afraid of it. I hope after talking about design that I have gotten more excited about it versus made you afraid of it. Get your hands dirty and don't be afraid to make mistakes. I mean, when I first started as a graphic web designer, not everything was beautiful. I'll just be right out blunt with you. Not everything was. Beautiful. So Paula Shear, who's a graphic designer and painter, says it's through mistakes that you actually can grow.

[00:12:09] You have to get bad in order to get good. And I 100% agree with that. I have like I said, I have design things that I'm like, what is wrong with that? And then redesigned it and I'm like, okay, I had to. I had it. Sometimes even in my design process, the first thing I make is ugly. And then from there I'm like, Well, that's not right. Something doesn't feel right. And then from there, all of a sudden these ideas come. And so it's almost like I have to purposely design something bad in order to design something great afterwards. I don't know if that's a part of my process or what. But it's exploring new ideas. And so, you know, working through that being don't be afraid, just jump in and do it and have fun with it and get creative with it. So just want to send that out there for the challenge of the week. Just do it to get your hands dirty. Thank you guys for coming to this episode. Listening. I'd love to see comments and thoughts on on this episode and design as well. And happy marketing you all Until next time. We're glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you're interested in learning more about marketing, check out my blogs at 3C. Digital Media networks or Therapy Marketing Solutions. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Happy marketing, y'all.

Episode 6: Rolf Lowe

Heather: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone, this is Heather, and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we are able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Welcome, everyone. This is episode number six of Therapy Marketing Solutions. We are talking about HIPPAA today and your marketing. It's really what you need to know to protect yourself and your clients. And today I have Rolf Low, who works for Waller Associates. He is a lawyer in the firm. And so great to have you today, Rolf. Welcome.

Rolf: [00:00:57] Well, hey, how are you? Nice to have. Thanks for having.

Heather: [00:00:59] Me. Yes. Thank you so much for being here. You know, kind of how I envisioned this episode or how it came to be is like many people within who work with HIPPAA and I work with a lot of clients who have HIPPAA, who HIPPAA is a concern. You know, I went down that rabbit hole and I started researching and reading and you can spin out days, really not hours, days, researching HIPPAA and trying to understand it. So I thought, what a better solution than to have a lawyer come and talk to us about HIPPAA and get a deeper understanding of what HIPPAA is, how you should be using it in your business to protect yourself, and then, of course, to protect your client's privacy. So first off, I'd love to hear a little bit about your firm, Locklear Associates, what you do, how long you've been in business, where you're located, things like that.

Rolf: [00:01:58] So we're we're a health care law firm, primarily focused on servicing providers and people that work in the industry handle a range of matters. A lot of federal and state regulatory guidance payer disputes things along that nature, business matters. And then obviously for the thing that I'm here to talk about is patient privacy and confidentiality. And that is a category that is not just concerned with HIPPAA, but there's also state laws and people's professional obligations under their respective profession. And then then there's things out there that are I'm not sure that a lot of people you work with. Right. But there are privacy statutes for substance abuse regulations, people who can't provide that kind of treatment. And as as we kind of get through this. Right. I don't think I think that the marks should be always be that you have always had a duty of confidentiality to the people that you are treating as patients. It goes back hundreds of years, your professional societies, your state boards all imposed those confidentiality requirements on it. HIPPA is a little bit of a nuance because it brings in this term covered entity. A lot of people wonder if they are a covered entity and it focuses more on the hook of the payment for services that's electronically transmitted to typically a payer that brings HIPPAA oversight and the federal government, Health and Human services into your practice.

Heather: [00:03:37] So, yeah, and you broke it down a little bit. Let's let's just start what is HIPPAA?

Rolf: [00:03:43] So it was a statute that was enacted back in the nineties. Congress was concerned that people's health information was freely transmitted through payor portals, through from providers to everything, so that there was this law that was enacted primarily to protect people's information, which it still does today. And from that, it had some developments in the last 10 to 15 years, I'd say focusing more on the security requirements, things along those lines for the digital age. And so it has really kind of taken off like any legislation. Well, it's developed more legs that you have to pay attention to as you go along. And its design is to basically allow the transmittal of patient information amongst practitioners, insurance companies, and this thing called clearinghouses, which is where a claim goes to get processed, kind of leave that there because it's the third, third component of this that not a lot of people know about. But if you're involved in any billing or transaction things, you'll understand what that is. And the clearinghouse is also carry out some functions for the federal government and some state governments as well. So in a sense it's really just kind of how we are supposed to treat people's information when we have the ability to disclose it with or without consent. What a patient's rights are, that's a big part of HIPPA is that the patient has a right to their information that's in their medical record and that you hold about them. And that is kind of always that we get back to state law, right? A lot of states view their medical record access acts and things like that. Is that that is the patient's information. So you kind of always got to remember that there's the federal government and the state government to always think about in any practice. So if you're practicing in Indiana, you know, you have to take consideration state statutes in Indiana and then figure out if HIPPAA does actually apply to your practice. Hmm.

Heather: [00:05:50] Yeah. And it sounds like what HIPPAA started out as, like you said, with technology changing is different than what it's become. It's kind of evolved throughout the years and changed to shape different services and and how you protect your clients and things like that. So I know that when we talked in the past, one of the big questions is what kind of clinic or practices need to adhere to HIPPAA?

Rolf: [00:06:20] So the kind of the catch, as I said earlier, is, you know, our firm takes a view and other people will as well. And maybe not I mean there's a lot of things about the law is it's reasonable interpretation of something that maybe hasn't been decided. But, you know, a cash based practice that's purely cash based, probably one could argue isn't covered by the HIPPA statutes, but it is the standard of care that's going to be applied, so to speak, in the best practice when it comes to everything state boards that regulate you. Other other enforcement agencies kind of see it as the way to operate. It has a lot of mechanisms in it, but the kind of the hook has always been is, is that you're submitting an electronic claim for reimbursement and the partners that are involved in that process. Right. So you have your practice, you you're billing for services that you provided to either an employer plan, a federal plan such as Medicare and Medicaid, and you're you're submitting that. And once you kind of get into the realm of having one or two, once you do submit an electronic claim, it covers everything, right? So even your cash based business will become covered by those standards. And then there is a there's a reasonable force that, regardless of how you're getting paid, is that this information is expected to be protected and you're supposed to have some security functions in place, a way of operating your business that meets these expectations.

Heather: [00:07:59] Yeah. One of the things that I know that we we were talking before that you said that I really liked, it's not just it's a standard of care and that state boards and things like that expect it. But also, you know, it's something that prospective clients or clinicians or sorry prospective clients expect they, they want to see that their information is, is secure and private. And so it does a lot to build trust and authority, even if you are a cash based business.

Rolf: [00:08:32] Correct. And right. And there's this general consensus about that's in the general public that anything about your health information is protected by hip. So I sit here as an individual and anything that has to do with my health is protected by HEPA. And I can claim some type of hip hop sea privacy right to that. Right. So you'll see this in situations where like recently with with the pandemic that took place in the last couple of years. Right. Somebody may be asked by a restaurant about their vaccine status and the individual will say, well, I don't have to tell you that because that's protected by HIPPAA. Right. That's not really how it works. It's the provider, the covered entity that has a duty to keep that information confidential, Your own information that you carry about you once it gets once you have it and it's out, isn't isn't protected by HIPPAA. If I get a copy of my medical records from my provider. And I lose it somewhere at a Starbucks or any coffee shop or even on the street, and somebody else gains access to that and does a public disclosure of it like my my hip of rights really weren't violated because I had possession of that information.

Rolf: [00:09:42] Not my doctor, not my physical therapist, not the hospital. It was in my possession. I let it out and somebody somebody gave that out, you know, or if somebody has some information that they take to a court hearing that they got after this happens quite a bit. Right. You know, maybe there's a divorce proceeding or something like that. And they know some information about the spouse or everything like that. They have that information. It's been access to them. The covered entity hasn't done anything other than released it, hopefully in a way that was consistent with the rules under HIPPAA. To somebody and now somebody else has access to it. As long as the covered entity is doing the things that they're supposed to be in the covered entity. Again, it's kind of those three areas we talked about the provider, the health insurance company and the clearinghouse. Then they don't really have anything to concern about. Doesn't mean that people will not continue to articulate that they think that their HIPPA rights have been violated.

Heather: [00:10:43] Yeah, yeah, I know that we learned a lot during the pandemic as people were rushing to figure out how to continue to see patients and clients. You know, there was some gray area where people were just like, Well, I think I can do this. I think I can do that. And, you know, like, like meeting via like zoom for HIPPAA came up very quickly in that process is what you how you could meet with patients and clients via video chat and what were the best ways. So we learned a lot during that time I think.

Rolf: [00:11:20] Yeah I mean there was there was, I will say, a little bit of a relaxation on what had been typically been the telemedicine rules for services being rendered. And the requirements for that, particularly in behavioral health, was one area and some other areas, Some other areas. I mean, there are certain services you could never provide over the telephone that people couldn't do. But so, you know, whether or not the patient was in a secure environment communicating with you all, a lot of those things were relaxed. But, you know, and that's a good thing, you know, generally speaking. And the thing that is always kind of needs to be understood with HIPPA is, you know, the patient controls the dialog, the patient controls the records, right? So you as a provider, there are possibilities for you. You know, you want to make sure that you're getting a consent possibly to communicate in a way that HIPPA might not accept as favorable. Right? So, you know, you are allowed as long as the patient understands the risks associated with it, to communicate and platforms or in a way in on a platform that may not be meet the security protocols of what's called the High Tech Act, which is the second part of HIPPA, right? There's HIPPA and there's the high tech Act. And the high tech act really is designed and has a lot of regulations that if you're going to get into them, you just kind of need to understand them. Maybe consult with somebody who's got some privacy experience and certainly some security experience. You know how you're supposed to hold that information? Transmit that information. What do you do when you have a when you have a leak of that information and things like that? So there's a lot of broad things that come under this statute. And it's it's not easy to cover just an hour with you or 45 minutes however we spend.

Heather: [00:13:08] Yeah, definitely. There's so much to know. So when do you when does hippies start and when does it end? Like, when do you need to ensure that HIPPAA is in place? And we kind of talked about this before, how things are changing, especially in recent news.

Rolf: [00:13:26] Yeah, right. So, so you're if you, if you find yourself deemed as a covered entity. Right. So then the the regulations are going to apply to you. Now, granted, there's a reasonableness in this statue, right? Because there's a lot of solo practitioners and things like that that may have operations, but all the expectations are there from you format for person shop, right? You know, you got like maybe three providers and an office person, let's say. So a large health system that covers many states. I think the concepts and everything is the same. So when people are coming to you to seek services from you, right, you're kind of opening the door for treating that information confidential. It's really no different than if somebody had called your office and you got kind of like always with these with these concepts that are new with this digital age, right? If somebody calls your office saying, Hey, you know what? I have this condition and I'm looking for a provider that can provide this type of treatment that I'm looking for. I mean, that phone call, whether or not they show up for their appointment, that you schedule out two weeks, you're going to keep that information confidential. You're taking a query in and talking to someone, Right? So you have a duty to keep things confidential going forward.

Rolf: [00:14:43] So the trigger is almost there. As soon as the person finds you, accesses you on your website or whatever it might be, once they kind of respond back, I'd say, Right, you're there. And then the hook will always be as well is if they are a truly an existing patient. Mm hmm. So if you're sending out a mass email, Right. I mean, how that works out, right? You can't. You can't. You've got to take into consideration that that marketing email, if you've gotten the proper consent to do the marketing to existing patients through your through your privacy practices that you have in place, that you can go ahead and do that and then you do that in a certain way. And then you've got to understand that the people that you're working with to to assist you in that are not handling as well protected health information under HIPPAA and they're out, you have an obligation to make sure that they're treating that information with the same expectations of you. And those people are typically called business associates. And you're supposed to have a business associate agreement in place with them.

Heather: [00:15:48] Yeah. So two things. One is a lot of businesses that I work with and and actually one of the marketing things that we put into place, aside from just creating a website, would be something like a lead generator where, you know, it's five ways to to help with anxiety or five things to do if with chronic back pain, whatever it is, it's something where someone gives you possibly their name and their email for a PDF or video or whatever. And from there you can email, continue emailing based on HIPPAA and talking about where does it start, where does it end. So, you know, I work with a lot of clients. Part of the marketing that we do is not just a website, but also creating what's called the lead generator, where on their website they have something like five, you know, five exercises you can do for chronic pain or five ways to beat or not beat or to cope with anxiety or stress, something like that where a client or a prospective client let me be clear on that, or someone visiting your website would enter in their name and their email. For that they receive like a PDF or a video or something, and then they're then therefore added to like an email campaign. So with what does that mean for HIPPAA?

Rolf: [00:17:26] So here's the thing. Let's go back to that phone call to the office. Right. So it's just, you know, we're just in. We're in a different time. You can always kind of apply some things that would have been the same way, right? So if someone's just punching around on your website and looking around. Right. Typically depend on who your website, who your provider is. Right. That you're collecting information, right? I mean, that website is collecting information about people. So once someone takes an active step to basically be interested in your product, to provide you with their information that they may be receiving services, that's where you want to have a little bit more of a heightened stance with respect to that and make sure people understand when they're when they're giving you their information, what they're kind of getting themselves into. But you have that standard. Usually there's a standard consent that they can view. When they come on like most websites usually, but some websites don't even have it. They'll go to them, right? Somebody created something and and that's their. So as you're taking that information and if they become a patient of the practice, you're going to basically treat it almost the same way you would if they receive services from you. Right. And they become a pain client, let's say. Right. As you take that information, When you're taking that information, you'd want to just make sure that they're consenting to give their information to you. It's a really a standard thing. And there's a lot of other like the crazy thing about this whole world we live in now with this global reach that we have, right? You got people that are coming in and accessing you from different countries all around the world who have all of these. I think it's like last time I counted or saw was like 173 countries that have some form of privacy law in place for people's information when they come to you.

Rolf: [00:19:20] Right. It's it's too much for somebody who's like you can't fathom trying to accommodate all those laws with your face fronting website for your business. Right. So, you know, kind of really the whole thing is, is that people just understand that they are that they've had it when they you know, you check that box, right. That they had a chance to review your privacy policy or whatever you have in place as they come through. Right. To give you that information. Right. I think that some I don't know that. There's kind of a different viewpoint, right? You're kind of just really, you know, it's as if someone's picking up a brochure or stopping by your office kind of thing. It's something like that or inquiring. But the safe side that we kind of consult with our clients is that anybody who's coming in to you and giving you your information, you should protect. Because the other thing that I'm going to tell you is that there are. Every state in the country has a Data Privacy Protection Act that is more far reaching than just for health care. Oftentimes, these privacy protection acts will tell you that if you're regulated by HIPPAA, that that will apply to you instead of this this state law. And they take all different kind of forms as far as what your notification obligations are. If you lose somebody's information. But really, a lot of it is just collecting someone's name and an email address, because that's the value to have is that the marketing tool is the email address. Right? It's almost it's more valuable than the name.

Heather: [00:20:56] Yeah, absolutely.

Rolf: [00:20:58] So, you know, as you take that in, you just want to make sure that people understand them. When they're giving you that information, they understand that they're submitting information over the Internet. All of these things are usually kind of there. There's a lot of boilerplate stuff. You can get some other things because the other next step is that once you establish a rapport and you have the patient in your office, right. And then you want to communicate with them and first things that are not marketing. Mm hmm. Typically when you get that, like I'll tell you from my own personal experience, I have some I have a couple of kids, Right. Their health care provider, their pediatrician's office. Right. Is like adamant that they won't email certain situations that we have to go to this portal. Right. Or all these things that take place. It frustrates me when I'm just trying to get something done and I know that they can fax me back or email me back that sports physical. I need to get turned in because my kid just gave it to me the night before and says, Dad, it's due tomorrow, but I either have to go in there in person to get it filled out and all these other things, and they have this strict protocol.

Rolf: [00:22:02] Well, HIPPAA does allow the patient to consent to like an unsecure correspondence. Right. Or to receive text messages. So once they kind of come into your practice, that's really one of the best things to do, is to try to have that consent put in place so that you can communicate them via just a regular SMS messaging or anything like that without the concern is there. Again, they need to understand everything needs to be in writing, that they understand that this information that they're going to transmit back and forth with you is out there on the, I guess, so-called the World Wide Web. Right. So. That that's taken place and it's not secure. And it could be. And the reality of it is right. Everybody understands, right? You can have the most secure system in the world. But if something happens like somebody can, information can be lost. And that leads into other things that when you have a problem, don't ignore it and figure out what you're supposed to do.

Heather: [00:22:58] Yeah, Yeah, I love that. So I think the big idea here is over communicating your privacy policy, ensuring that people understand the ways that you like, letting them opt in to the ways that they can be communicated with and making sure that they're they kind of navigate that side of things, that they're in control as the client, that they understand that if you're sending them a text that that might not be on a secure system and things like that, correct?

Rolf: [00:23:29] Right. I mean, there's there's some people who just want the people to be able to leave the information. I mean, this is all just relative in your risk peoples comfortable ness with risk, Right? Everybody is you know, we're lawyers, we're risk averse. Right. You've got to understand that's what we were training to do, right? That's kind of what our mindset is. But what we want to get to. Yes, right. That's the other thing, too. But, you know, sometimes people just say, well, I have the privacy policy post. They can see it. Right? And then there's times where it's like, okay, right, Maybe you have them just check that box. They acknowledge they had a chance to review it, but. Because that person has gone a step further and basically give an affirmation that I knew I could have reviewed it. I checked the box that I had the opportunity to. So that if they make a complaint or something down the road, for whatever reason it might be, you kind of have that that they actually took an affirmative, you know, and I guess it kind of gets back to that whole thing. I am not a bot, right, that you see on everywhere you go, right? I mean, that person is doing I mean, that's done in a in a sense of a control factor to keep the traffic for the website and everything going forward and all of that just to make you go the extra step. So you just can't kind of just bombard the website for information, but it's the same concept. You're taking that one extra step, which hopefully if something does arise, you can use that to your advantage if you need to.

Heather: [00:24:50] Yeah. So regarding marketing, what could they be doing to protect their their current clients, past clients, their business? Are there any things that they should know, like any steps that they should take to when they're working on their marketing to protect?

Rolf: [00:25:10] So one of the first things, right, that you where you can start is you're supposed to have what's called the notice of privacy practices available to for your patients. Right. That they've acknowledged and received. I think that's kind of really when the person becomes a patient, right? If you have a website. Right, typically you should have this notice of privacy practice available on your website. And within that notice of privacy practice, it should say, you know, you should have within it that you are going to you may use their information for marketing, right? So they understand that I'm giving you this information which has been deemed private by all these regulatory bodies and by me. This person has come to you. Right. And I understand that you may have some information, and I acknowledge that I might receive marketing from you. Right. And you see, that's the start. Right? But then once they kind of come into the fold of the practice, they should almost consent to receiving the marketing as well, because that's that's kind of the step in is, you know, you've created a formal, more formal relationship with the patient now. And a lot of things are not going to be just that somebody was surfing the web and found this of interest.

Heather: [00:26:17] Yeah, yeah, I love that. So even just on your intake form, if you want to say, hey, we send out, you know, marketing or informational tips, newsletters, things like that, would you like it and have them check that.

Rolf: [00:26:33] Box, correct. Right. I mean, it's almost as you know, I mean, it's one of those things where you make, you know, they should have the ability to opt out if they want to. Right. You know, most people are not I would say like this. I'd said like 95% of the people out there are not really sensitive about some of these things, you know? And it always kind of deals with the sensitivity of that protected health information. I mean, if you know, if it's just a. You know, depending on the type of practice that you're doing and what's going on. Right. And we all know that there are things that are more sensitive to people and that there are people that are more sensitive in general.

Heather: [00:27:14] About.

Rolf: [00:27:15] This. So you need to have that window for them to to not get marketed to. And then just understand, like, what is it that I do right? What kind of procedures do I do? What part of the body image creating all of these different types of things? I mean, if somebody is receiving psychotherapy as opposed to basically, you know, going to somewhere that is really more, I'd say, like a physical medicine type place. It's just, you know. Like physical therapy, right? I mean, that's more, you know, somebody suffered an injury, all these other things. Is there an embarrassment associated as much as there is or a stigma even I would call it, because, you know, we still have stigma around behavioral health services in this world for whatever reason. So those are the things you know, there's just a lot of things to consider. And it doesn't really matter if it's a more sensitive health issue or not. You kind of apply the same standards as far as that goes.

Heather: [00:28:16] Yeah, but.

Rolf: [00:28:17] I would say nine times out of ten people are going to not worry about it. And as I give you the example earlier, right, my kids communication with the doctor's office. Right. People want convenience, right? This is the thing. Right. And they want they don't want to they don't want to have all of these two factor authentication codes to go in to get their own, what they consider to be their own information. Now, the problem happens when something happens to it and they feel, oh, do I have the ability to sue somebody under HIPPAA? I mean, the one thing I will say right now is there is no specific private cause of action for a HIPPA violation. You can be fined by the federal government. The state attorney general's can come after you. Right. But it doesn't give an individual like some of the other federal statutes that are out there, a specific cause of action. There are certain states now, California being the leader in it that has kind of their privacy act, does give people the ability to go after somebody for a set amount of damages to start with, if there has been some if their information was handled inappropriately.

Heather: [00:29:24] Yeah, definitely. Well, I always like to leave my listeners with some kind of takeaway and and really, what would that takeaway be for them? How could what can they do to ensure that they are following HIPPAA?

Rolf: [00:29:40] So here's the here's the key thing, right? The key thing is just to be aware of it. To do some training on your own. There's plenty of resources out there. I mean, Health and Human Services has a very as almost too much information, I'd say. Right. But there are some older training videos that would still be relevant for your office staff and everything going on. And then just to make sure that anybody you're doing business with to assist you has an understanding as well, and that whenever you're marketing your services, however it might be, there's all of these regulatory things that come into play, right? I mean, we're talking about marketing and we haven't even gotten into the Anti-kickback statute that can apply to marketing services as well if you're billing for services, right? There's this whole other aspect of marketing that takes place because you can't get paid on a volume or value of a referral, right? I mean, so per click agreements, all of these things, that's a whole different thing you've got to consider. But when it comes to HIPPA, make sure you understand and have an idea. And then the thing is, is it's like if it's remember, I kind of start off, you have a duty to hold people's information in a. We're just in a whole different world now with all of these apps on people's phones and people are using devices that their family members could have access to their accessing it in public. So just to heighten awareness and the one thing I will always say, right, is if you if you have if a problem comes to your attention, it's like a lot of things. The worst thing you can do is just hope that it goes away. You know, you should figure out what's going on and you should have some policies, kind of some office policies in place that that give you an opportunity to show if you ever do have something taking place that you did do the things that were necessary and you treated this information in the correct way. You know, so and also, prevention goes a long way, as I say. Right.

Heather: [00:31:39] Right. Definitely. And I think the big idea also is to, like you said, err on the side of caution. And then if you have additional questions to really contact a lawyer, a hip. A lawyer.

Rolf: [00:31:52] Yeah. And here's the thing. I'll see right there. There's a lot of people who are there's a lot of people who come into health care business, right. From the from the tech world and other things like that, who won't don't always understand these things. And or you as you as somebody in a practice are being told that something's hip compliant. Right. This product and service and and that's that's almost a you're taking somebody at their word there are some products that are out there but these are mostly like electronic medical records and things like that that do get vetted by third party vendor by Health and Human Services and CMS for what they provide because there's a cash incentive for providers to move to electronic medical records. That's a whole different thing, right? So that's kind of give the analogy, right? It's like if I'm buying like in that situation, I'm buying the Cadillac from the Cadillac dealer that I know was made by General Motors and came off the assembly line. In this world that you're dealing with when you have people that are marketing hip products or HIPPA compliant products that haven't gone through this certification process that the federal government has in place, they're just telling you that it's built to the industry standard that HIPPA is is required to have.

Rolf: [00:33:06] Right. Security functions, things like that. What's taking place? Cloud based, server based, all these things, just these crazy things that are a lot to take into. Right. But that's the Cadillac that you're buying. That's two months old out of a wanted. And you're just trusting that it has all of those things, right? So you just want to make sure you ask the right questions, understand what's going on. And again, the whole thing is the other thing I'll say is I don't ignore patients or people that have a make a complaint or do anything or make a request for this or that. Right. Pay attention to that, because when they don't get what they want, they go somewhere else. And that's somewhere else is a regulatory body that all of a sudden ends up contacting you. And you're like, I could have probably taken care of this if I would have just paid attention to the person there. Right? You got to understand that with everything, right? 95% of the. I use that number, right. Everything's going to go smoothly. Right? And every once in a while you have these hiccups that have happened. Pay attention to the hiccups that do come into play.

Heather: [00:34:09] Mm hmm. Great. Well, thank you so much, Rolf. I know we could spend days probably digging into this more.

Rolf: [00:34:19] Things are probably been updated as we spoke, so.

Heather: [00:34:22] Right. There's something new release right now. But thank you very much for taking the time to be on here. So additional reading to really to help you resources to read more and to train your team would be like state regulations. Make sure you understand state regulations and then the associations for your particular field, you know, like make sure that you are very clear on all of that.

Rolf: [00:34:50] Those. They have guidance right now. And as I'll say right, the federal government, they do their best to try to keep things up to date. The Health and Human Services, well, it has a lot of resources. I mean, it's one place we always look because, you know, we don't have. As somebody who works in a privacy field or an attorney. Right. It's like you kind of got to make sure that you're looking at things as well. So a lot of a lot of updates come out along these lines. And sometimes, you know, you just just scratch your head and try to figure out what exactly they want you to do. But usually there's an answer you can find. And again, it's the attempt to try. It's the attempt to be compliant. Right. This is the thing I'm always going to say we're compliance attorneys, Right. If you if you've made an attempt to be compliant and tried, that's better than ignoring it completely. Yes.

Heather: [00:35:38] So what's so good? Definitely. If you know, if you have questions, you can obviously reach out to Ralf and his team at Wycliffe Associates. And again, I appreciate you being on here. So happy marketing you all and make sure that you're you have the information before you for HIPPA as you're working through your marketing process. Have a great day, guys. Thanks.

Rolf: [00:36:05] Thank you, Heather. Take care.

Heather: [00:36:07] Thank you. We're glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you're interested in learning more about marketing. Check out my blogs at 3C. Digital Media networks or Therapy Marketing Solutions dot com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Happy marketing, y'all.

Episode 5: Heather Jensen

Heather: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone, this is Heather, and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we are able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Welcome back, everyone. This is episode number five of Therapy Marketing Solutions. We are going to be talking about story and we're going to talk about how story can transform your marketing. You might be wondering, I don't get it. What does story have to do with marketing? And we did talk about this a little bit in episode number three three steps to create a high converting website. But I want to dig into this a little bit more today. Like I said, story and marketing might not seem like they go together, but when you use story in your marketing, you are creating a very powerful tool to engage with your ideal clients.

Heather: [00:01:19] So let's talk about stories first. Stories have been around for thousands of years. They are the way we pass down history, whether our personal family history or the history of the society. The way that people learned about the culture has always been through stories. You know, there was before there were books and the Internet and things like that. It was through oral stories, and that's how information was passed down. So stories are just kind of something that have gone along with humans since we've been able to communicate, really, if you think about it. And not only that, but we have grown up from our very first stages in infancy. Stories have been around. We've heard our parents tell stories in a conversation like that. Funny story of what happened last week at the supermarket or whatever, as well as they've read stories to us. I know that with my kiddos, my two youngest will not go to bed unless I read them a story they like will hold me hostage, which is fantastic because they're going to be great readers.

Heather: [00:02:37] And.

Heather: [00:02:38] You know, but every once in a while as a mom, you think, Oh, okay, not tonight, but I love that. I love it. Story has been around forever. It's one of the things that like when we in.

Heather: [00:02:53] School.

Heather: [00:02:54] From kindergarten on, you know, even before we can read, we are being read stories and then we are asked to understand the meaning, to infer meaning from these stories and to really comprehend them and to draw conclusions based.

Heather: [00:03:12] On them.

Heather: [00:03:13] I mean, that is a part of our very early education. So what does this mean? It means that stories and humans go well together. It is something we very much understand. So Donald Miller says story helps because it is a sense making mechanism. Essentially, story formulas put everything in order so the brain doesn't have to work to understand what's going on. And that's where we bring in marketing. When we use story formulas, we are able to make sense of of our business to our potential clients. We are able to help them to understand what we do, how we can help them, the best ways to work with.

Heather: [00:04:02] Us, so.

Heather: [00:04:03] On and so forth. And so and not only that, but we go deeper. Story is engaging. I don't know about you, but how many times have you heard someone just start to drone on about their business and you're just like, I checked out, you know, after 5 seconds. But when you are in a story, you guys I mean, I have been known to stay up late at night very, very late at night to finish a story because you're engrossed in it, you're engaged in it. You need to understand it. You need to draw, find out how it ends. And so story is very powerful in the sense that it gets our attention. So another quote from Donald Miller, and I'm going to be quoting Donald Miller a lot today. I am a story brand certified guide. That is part of what I do is that I help my clients create meaning out of their businesses, complex ideas. We diffuse them into very simple terms that include story that includes engaging with your your customers. So Donald Miller anyways, he says. If we this is kind of like why we need story in our messaging and in our copy and our content and everything that we do. It says if we pay a lot of money to design to a design agency without first clarifying our message, we might as well be holding a bullhorn up to a monkey. The only thing a potential customer will hear is noise. So when we bring in story. We can break through that noise. We break through those barriers. A lot of websites make the mistake of. I guess I should say a lot of business owners make the mistake of just talking about their business. But when you talk about your business in a way that involves helping someone, that is a very different idea. In fact, I have another quote that says it's by Candice Coppola, and it.

Heather: [00:06:16] Says.

Heather: [00:06:17] Marketing is the generous act of helping someone to discover the solution to their problem. So do you see how that's different? Marketing is about helping you discover the solution to your problem, not about talking about your business. And this might sound rude or harsh or whatever, but people only care about your.

Heather: [00:06:38] Business.

Heather: [00:06:39] In the sense of how it's going to help them and their life and the problem they're facing. So when we ensure that we are talking about the problems that they're facing instead of talking about just like been in business for 20 years.

Heather: [00:06:57] And you.

Heather: [00:06:58] Know, I have a PhD in this, I mean.

Heather: [00:07:01] There's.

Heather: [00:07:02] 5 seconds, right? You'd be tuning.

Heather: [00:07:05] Out.

Heather: [00:07:06] So when you make that shift in your mindset to talking about your business and the way that it helps.

Heather: [00:07:13] Them.

Heather: [00:07:13] And using story, all of a sudden you have people who are like, yes, they get it, they get me, they understand me, they're speaking to me.

Heather: [00:07:27] So.

Heather: [00:07:29] Alfred Hitchcock. So let me say this first before I jump into this quote.

Heather: [00:07:34] I.

Heather: [00:07:35] Does this mean that we need to tell every aspect of the story?

Heather: [00:07:40] Absolutely not.

Heather: [00:07:44] You know, I don't know about you, but there's been a couple of books where I've gone to read and they just drone on. And I'm like, You just spent 3.

Heather: [00:07:52] Minutes.

Heather: [00:07:53] Going into minute detail about. The setting. And I'm like, That's too.

Heather: [00:08:01] Much.

Heather: [00:08:01] So giving too much information can can even in a story, can make someone go numb, can make someone tune out. So it's about giving the right amount of of information. So Donna miller says Alfred Hitchcock defined a good story as life with the dull parts taken out. So do I need to know about the little wrinkle in the couch, in the on and on and on? No, that is too much. You're getting way too into the, you know. And then he goes on to say, Good branding is the same. Our companies are complex, for sure, but a good messaging filter will remove all the stuff that bothers our customers and will bear down on the aspects of our brand that will help them survive and thrive. So we want to make sure that we're talking about. What is important to them, what is going to feed them? What is going to connect them with your business? So what does this all mean? So we've understand that their story. That story is important to marketing. That story helps people make sense of of your business. But what does this mean? How do we bring it into our marketing? How do we incorporate it really is the question that needs to be asked. Well, if you've ever taken an English class about story or anything like that, you'll know that.

Heather: [00:09:45] There's.

Heather: [00:09:47] The hero's journey. My son wants to go to film school, and so he very much creates. He'll write a story and it will.

Speaker2: [00:09:59] Have.

Speaker1: [00:10:00] It will talk about the parts of the story, the hero's journey. And so there's there's several different parts. One is and I'm just going to go briefly go over these the character. There needs to be a.

Speaker2: [00:10:14] Character who.

Speaker1: [00:10:15] Is the main character, if you think of any movie. That you've ever watched. There is a main character. There is a protagonist, right? That main character is a problem. You know, if the if the movie is a good movie. Now we're talking about good movies because we've all seen bad movies, right?

Speaker2: [00:10:37] A good.

Speaker1: [00:10:37] Movie. The character doesn't have 27 problems they're trying to fix. He doesn't or she doesn't, you know, need to figure out how to organize her, her closet and to save the world and to on and on and on. So do you see how there's a difference between in a story between saving the world and organizing your closet? So you want to pick a problem that is very. A major problem, an underlying problem. So with your business, when talking about with clients or when speaking to them, you want to pick a main idea. What is something that you hear them? What is hear them complain about or talk about or, you know, the first thing that you hear often when talking with an ideal client or.

Speaker2: [00:11:34] Prospect.

Speaker1: [00:11:35] That is the problem is that that problem that you continuously keep hearing, that that is repeating, that is consistent. That is the one that you want to talk about in your business. It's not to say that you don't solve other problems, but four, to stay simplistic and clear, you need to kind of hone in on one problem. So there's a problem. There's also conflict. We have to have conflict in some way. What is stopping them from solving that problem? What do they need? You know, there's a problem, but there also has to be a solution. So what is it that.

Speaker2: [00:12:14] Is.

Speaker1: [00:12:15] Keeping them from solving their own problem? Because if they can solve their own problem, they wouldn't look outside themselves. They wouldn't be looking for a clinic or something else to help them. And then there's the guide. And guess where you come in. You guys are the guides. You guys are the ones with the master's degrees, the PhDs, the years and years of experience and education.

Speaker2: [00:12:39] And.

Speaker1: [00:12:39] You are guiding them through their problem to solve it, to help them. So and but the guide also has a plan. So if you're the Yoda of the story, you also have to have a plan, a way to help them solve it. And you need to communicate that plan to them because people love plans. It brings peace. It brings comfort. And then they need to understand success and failure. They need to understand what it's going to look like if you help them solve their problem. And they need to understand failure, what it's going to look like if they.

Speaker2: [00:13:11] Don't.

Speaker1: [00:13:11] If they choose not to work with you, if they choose to just continue on or to find some.

Speaker2: [00:13:17] Other solution.

Speaker1: [00:13:19] To try another solution to their problem. So these are the main aspects of story. These are the things that you should be talking about. These are the things that you should make it clear. If nothing else, your message, your marketing needs to involve three things. First off, the problem, the solution that your business brings in.

Speaker2: [00:13:40] And.

Speaker1: [00:13:42] And then the end result. And then that end result. What does success what does it look like? What does success look like? What does their.

Speaker2: [00:13:59] Short.

Speaker1: [00:14:00] Term and long term successes look like? What does that? So when you paint that picture for them, when you engage them in a story, they're going to say, Yes, please, where do I sign up? Or How do we get started? Whatever it is, they're going to be excited to work with you. So with that being said, I want to end with a quick challenge. So what of our challenges? Here's a couple easy things that you can do to ensure that story and that you're using story in your marketing.

Speaker2: [00:14:33] First off, I.

Speaker1: [00:14:34] Want you to find one defining problem that you solve for your.

Speaker2: [00:14:40] Clients.

Speaker1: [00:14:40] What is that one thing that they consistently talk about, complain of? If you're a speech language pathologist and you work with children, it could be that my child is frustrated because nobody understands my child, and that is hurting their confidence. It could be that if you own a counseling center, it could be that, you know, I don't feel happy and I'm not sure how to find some kind of peace and happiness in my life. I've tried everything. I've read, books I've done. Please help me to find that. So that's their.

Speaker2: [00:15:25] Problem.

Speaker1: [00:15:28] Now, obviously, there are other things that are leading to that problem, right? It could be that they they had past experiences.

Speaker2: [00:15:34] That have.

Speaker1: [00:15:35] Jilted their future success. It could be that they're in a current situation that is making them unhappy. Do you see that? But the main problem really still is happiness, right? It boils down to is they are not happy in their life right now that they are struggling and they need help. But once you get into therapy, then you sit down and then you work through all of those things that are leading to the unhappiness in their life. So one. Figure out the one defining problem that your clinic. Your practice solves for your clients. And then.

Speaker2: [00:16:15] Too.

Speaker1: [00:16:16] I want you to figure out the.

Speaker2: [00:16:18] Solution.

Speaker1: [00:16:19] How does your practice or clinic help them solve it? And then the third one is what? What is the result of that? Of helping them solve that problem? If you can figure out those three things and then make sure that you are talking about.

Speaker2: [00:16:34] It.

Speaker1: [00:16:34] Obviously not verbatim on every single thing, You don't want your website and your social media post to have the same exact thing everywhere. But if you're using the same message throughout everything. The difference is is using like verbatim word for word on every kind of every aspect of your marketing versus taking the ideas of of these three portions and then talking about them in consistent ways. So just being consistent in your messaging, if you could do those three things, people are going to be excited and they're going to get how you help them. They're going to get they're going to see like, okay, now all of a sudden it's not about, you know, X therapy clinic and and their 20 years in business and, you know, these are the services they offer. No. Instead it is about hey. X therapy clinic is going to help solve my problem with there with the services they offer. So that change in mental mindset is.

Speaker2: [00:17:48] Huge.

Speaker1: [00:17:49] And they're going to love you for it. They're going to be excited to work with you. They're going to be. Wanting more. So, guys, hopefully this helps you. We're going to continue down this path and we're going to talk about design and how important design is. We're going to talk about. So we're going to talk about so many more things in upcoming weeks. So make sure you tune in for more episodes. And happy marketing, guys. Until next time. Bye. We're glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you're interested in learning more about marketing, check out my blogs at 3C. Digital Media networks or Therapy Marketing Solutions. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Happy marketing, y'all.

Episode 4: Erin and Walter Rushing

Heather: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone, this is Heather, and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we are able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Welcome, everyone. This is podcast episode number four How Setting the Right Tone and feel can help your office seem more inviting and comfortable. We are going to be talking to Erin and Walter Rushing. They're the owners of Comprehensive Hearing Solutions in Louisiana. So welcome, Erin. Welcome, Walter.

Walter/Erin: [00:00:58] Hi. Hey, Heather. Thanks for having us.

Heather: [00:01:00] Thank you so much for being on the show. I'm I'm excited to talk about this today. One of the things that I was really impressed with you guys about, Walter and Aaron are clients of mine. We have worked together on some of their marketing, but one of the things that really stuck out to me is we were talking about their marketing was how they went about creating this very comfortable, inviting atmosphere in their office. I was so impressed with them. And so as I was thinking of things I wanted to share with you guys, with other clinic and office or businesses, I really wanted to bring them on to talk about what they were doing and how unique it was. So first off, tell me a little bit about your business.

Walter/Erin: [00:01:52] Want me to talk. All right. We are an audiology practice, so I'm an audiologist by training, and Walter does everything else. He's the office manager and whatnot. And so we primarily rehabilitate hearing loss in adults. That's our primary focus here at the office.

Heather: [00:02:15] Yeah. How long have you guys been in business?

Walter/Erin: [00:02:18] The business has been in operation for a little bit over six years. I've been an audiologist for longer than that. Closer to ten years. And he's been working with me for about three. So about half of that.

Heather: [00:02:30] And what? What? I know that you worked for another audiology clinic. What was it about opening up your own clinic? Why did you want to open up your own business?

Walter/Erin: [00:02:42] The place that I worked was very similar to this, so it was also a small, private audiology practice, and we moved back home, so to speak. So we moved a little bit more rural and about an hour away from there. So that was part of the motivation. But other avenues of audiology don't always afford the ability to spend time with patients and work with them to the level of detail that I was looking for. So working at an office or a large hospital system is a great job, but it wasn't exactly the way that I wanted to do things because there's not as much time to spend with patients to dive into the hearing rehabilitation part. So they perform a lot of diagnostic testing, which we also do. But like I said, just don't always have the time to really spend with patients or to build those long term relationships and to also achieve the goals that we want to achieve with hearing rehabilitation.

Heather: [00:03:41] Yeah. Yeah, I really love. That's one of the things that I really love about your business is how much time that you want to devote to each patient and how passionate you are about not only just giving them the diagnosis and then being like, okay, here are some hearing aids or something, but you really want to nurture that relationship and make sure that they feel comfortable and that they understand and that, you know, that they understand all the different options for them that are available as far as their hearing and improving their hearing or even making sure that they have that they're able to live their best life with their hearing.

Walter/Erin: [00:04:25] Yeah.

Heather: [00:04:26] So I love that about your business. And where are you guys located at?

Walter/Erin: [00:04:32] We are in Houma, Louisiana, which is very south. What else? Yeah, like maybe an hour and a half drive at the most away from the Gulf of Mexico. Yes. And so it's between Baton Rouge, Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana, but very south also. Yeah. And can you tell from our accents? No, not at all.

Heather: [00:04:56] I think they're charming. So let's talk about you. Open up this business five years ago and what is kind of the process as far as when you were looking for your office space or you were coming down to creating, like, colors and everything? Like what? What was some of that thought process in getting ready to open up or even since you've opened up?

Walter/Erin: [00:05:26] Yeah. So obviously things evolve over time, right? No, business should really. Be the same as the day you opened it. But even at the beginning, choosing a logo and the colors of the logo. I read a lot about like psychology behind colors and the types of emotions that are tied to colors and those sorts of things. So those that ended up being green and blue and then the color palette kind of grew from there. And so as far as colors are concerned, blue is our primary color. But and we took that into like when you walk into the practice, there are some like water type imagery, like some water pictures and things like that which are calming in general and those sorts of things. So that's yeah, I think that the answer to that question really overall was more about creating a space that patients can come in and not be distracted by, but also can come in and have a feeling of of comfort in the be comfortable to do the things that we need to do to move them in the directions that we need them to move. Yeah, to be able to hear better. And it's the complete sensory experience from all of this, all of the senses, maybe with the exception of hearing, because we're helping to kind of help them get that one back. No, but we play soft music in the background, like relaxing music, relaxing colors, even smells. So we even use like vanilla and lavender and things like that that are relaxing just. Just the people are nervous, right? You and they don't know what they're getting into and all that sort of stuff. So to try to put them at ease from the onset, whether like he's saying, whether it's visual smell, sounds, those sorts of things.

Heather: [00:07:24] Yeah. Yeah. And I love that. I mean, how many people think, well, I should make sure that the smell and I wouldn't have I would have probably been the last thing I would have thought of, honestly was let's make sure that it's the smell is right and that the that you have the the biting music and the colors. And even to the point where I think, Aaron, you mentioned that even the clothes that you you know, the color scheme that you wear at work falls in with that.

Speaker2: [00:07:54] Well, I don't wear scrubs, you know, so I wear like. Kind of casual, dressy, I guess, you know, like dress pants and things like that. And so everything tends to be navy blacks, grays, you know, like kind of that same hue. So, yeah, pay attention to what colors are where you have a uniform shirt now. But even before he did, he he did the same thing, like back on the same color palette. And I just I think that it says something when you walk into an environment and someone's thought enough about the small details, that it really sort of puts your mind at ease to say, okay, well, then some of the bigger things they've I don't need to worry about, you know, because if you thought enough to make sure the place is clean and it smells good and it's it's a great environment for me to want to go into it, It just it's the icing on the cake. You know, I believe you can have the best service delivery, but if people walk in and you have bugs crawling on the floor or there's dust on the chairs or the paint is is peeling on, you know, people aren't going to hang around and they're not going to want to do business with you. You know, they're going to go someplace else, you know, And just think about all of your favorite retail outlets that you like to go in the the experience. So even things that you don't even think are tied to experience, there's an experiential component of when you go into those retail stores, you know what I mean? In in those environments help draw you in just as much as the merchandise do. Yeah. And at the same time. Having all of that thought out there are things aren't distracting either, Right? So like, if I was dressed in bright colors and like, all that other stuff like that could be kind of distracting in the whole process and whatnot. So it's kind of a we want things to be calm and not distracting so we can focus on the things that we need to focus on.

Speaker1: [00:10:01] Yeah, and I really love, Walter that you said that you really wanted to create that experience. And what a stark contrast coming into your clinic versus maybe the hospital environment where there's the scrubs and and maybe the colors that are a little bit less inviting and things like that. It just has a hospital feel to it, Right? Right. So I love that you guys have been very thoughtful in creating an experience that goes along with the excellent service that you provide to your patients. I think that's amazing. I was reading as I was examining or kind of preparing for this, I. I was reading a quote. It's actually comes from like better decorating Bible. It's a blog, and it says, There is so much emphasis nowadays on the online aspect of marketing that many people let the more physical side of marketing fall by the wayside. The decor is one aspect aspect that is important when you are trying to attract the right target demographic. You want to make sure that the people that you are trying to draw in will enjoy being there. And I think that really speaks to what you guys are doing. You haven't just looked at the online marketing components, but now you're looking at every detail and every part of the experience of working with you guys. And it also goes back to that, that demographic we talked about. And I'm not going to get too far into the woods with this, but we've talked about creating when we work together, really identifying who your target demographic is as well as kind of what your brand you want to be the caregiver, you want to be the everyman, which means that every person feels comfortable there. And so creating that experience and making sure that your office is comfortable, comfortable and inviting really is an extension.

Speaker2: [00:12:02] Of.

Speaker1: [00:12:03] Of your brand.

Speaker2: [00:12:07] Yeah. So definitely. Yeah.

Speaker1: [00:12:10] Yeah. So I love that other ways that I saw that is that people, I mean, even just in the entertainment materials like the magazines that they have out, sometimes some offices will look at that and I thought, well that's kind of cool. I hadn't even thought, you know, obviously if you're in like a pediatric office, you probably want magazines and things like that or that are geared towards parents or if you have maybe like you guys work with adults and some of the population is older, maybe you have something where you know, you have your dream vacation or like, you know, or something from AARP or whatever, you know, on there. So especially because with you guys, you're wanting to see that or really. Encourage them and let them know that they can live their best life and be active even with hearing loss.

Speaker2: [00:13:10] Yeah. And even if it's just something as simple as. Re reassuring or sort. I'm looking for like driving home the point that they're in the right place, you know, when they're sitting down in the waiting room, waiting and they look at the material that's there to, to, to, to read, you know, is it's something that's making them feel like they're at home versus something that's like not a tabloid. Like on the like, you know, I mean, so it's yes, we're even selective about that stuff about like what's out and around the office and those sorts of things. Something we didn't talk about is like plants, too. We have a lot of plants around the office, which I like. And so and I can see them behind you as well. But a lot of patients really like that, and they'll stop and talk about the plants. And if there's somebody who does like that too. So just little, little things like that, you know. Yeah.

Speaker1: [00:14:09] Really all the little details that add up together to create a very, you know, to create an experience for them.

Speaker2: [00:14:18] Experience. And that's what it really it really is. You know, you have to view how your prospective patients or your your clientele will will the experience they're going to have in your office from the first moment they come in, you know, but even even things like temperature, you know, the temperature of your office and, you know, just do a Google search about the research that goes into this. And you know that some of these companies, high end luxury companies, pay for focus groups to have have done on what's the ideal temperature they should have in their stores, you know, to to further define when you walk into this place that you're in a luxury retailer, you know. Yeah.

Speaker1: [00:15:10] I love that because I've been to so many places where I am freezing and shivering and I'm like, how quickly can I get out?

Speaker2: [00:15:18] I'm yeah, right, right. If you want. It makes it different. Yeah, Yeah. That may be that may be intentional. They, you know, really wants you to spend a whole lot of time. That's the thing. It's all intentional or it can be, you know, or it should be that you may find that that moves the needle a little bit if you're going Look, I got to figure out how to cut down on some of this time on my schedule. These appointments are taken too long. Let's make it breathing in well or way too hot in here. I make a move. Move slow. You might want to make it hot. Won't people love it? The other thing is we like to think we're friendly. And so in a lot of patients will leave reviews or make comments to us about how they feel like they're with family and those sorts of things. So we also again expect that that comfort factor that to kind of come through to, you know, that in other words, the office, we want it to be comfortable and it's not sterile either. Like you were talking about a hospital system, you know, And so yeah, we try to balance all those things.

Speaker1: [00:16:30] Yeah, yeah. And especially with you guys being a family run business, that you bring that into that into your clinic as well, you know that we want you to feel like family. I know that we talked about that and so really welcoming them and you know, I know you guys even just spend the time. How are the grandkids? How is your wife? Things like that.

Speaker2: [00:16:53] Um.

Speaker1: [00:16:55] So I think that's amazing. And so what would you, what would kind of be the take away from all this? What could you guys talk like? What would you say to other practices or clinics who are considering how they could improve the experience of their patients or.

Speaker2: [00:17:18] One thing is you need to enter your office like a patient. So a lot of times people come in the back door, right? Like we come in the back door and put our bag down and put our keys down and do all this. You know, every so often you need to enter the office like a patient and have that experience. So I've heard that said before also.

Speaker1: [00:17:39] That's yeah, that's such a great idea. I love that.

Speaker2: [00:17:43] You know, like get out of your own bubble and own head space and experience what they experience. You know, what else would you say? And just think about the details. Yeah, I think that's a great point and. I think that the biggest takeaway for me is in in such a overstimulated in hyper drive world that we live in, there's a lot of competition in every space nowadays and it's only going to get worse. Make your experience that you're creating for your prospect, Make that part of your differentiation strategy. How how are you going to make yourself different? And when you start to incorporate those things into every aspect of the of the overall patient experience? That's when you start to make something that's great, when you can combine a great product and service offering product service mix, and then you on top of that, you've got a great customer experience. You keep customers and you keep them for life. And they tell other people about you. They send you referrals. You know, it's it's a win win situation. It can't hurt, you know?

Speaker1: [00:18:56] Yeah, well, I'm sold. I love it. Well, thank you so very much, Aaron and Walter, for being here. I really appreciate it. And I love all that you shared. I just yeah, so many great tidbits about creating that experience and the process. And I I'm really excited. I hope all of you listeners are excited and like they said, walk through your front door, you know, don't think about all the appointments or whatever you have to do at work. Walk through your front door and and kind of see the experience from your client or your patients perspective. And I think it will be eye opening. So I appreciate that and I love that idea. So thank you very much for being here again and we will talk soon. Thanks.

Speaker2: [00:19:45] Thanks for having us so much for having us. It's been great.

Speaker1: [00:19:48] We're glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you're interested in learning more about marketing. Check out my blogs at 3C. Digital Media networks or Therapy Marketing Solutions dot com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Happy marketing, y'all.

Episode 3: Heather Jensen

Heather: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone! This is Heather, and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we're able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Hello everyone. Welcome to episode three of Therapy Marketing Solutions. And because it's episode three, I thought, what better than to give you guys three steps to create a high converting website. So what is a high converting website and why do we need it? High converting website means that your website is doing the work for you. Your website is marketing. So in order to do that, your website needs to be doing a couple of things. Most businesses know that their website is home base. It is kind of where all of your marketing is led to. So if you are on Facebook or any kind of social media, if you are doing email marketing, if you are doing Google ads, all of them should be leading back to your website, right? SEO, all of them. So what does that mean? That means that your website is pretty darn important. If you notice in baseball, you know all of the plates. First, second, the bases are what? Their square, but home plate looks different.

Heather: [00:01:47] And that is the same with your website. Your website needs to be different. Especially for therapy businesses that have a local audience. You need to be focusing a little bit different than someone who may be doing tele therapy. So I want to help you guys out in creating a website that is going to bring in new leads, bring in new clients for your business. So website marketing, that's what I like to call this. Website marketing only succeeds when these three things are happening. Your message, your design and your SEO are all working together, and I'm going to go into detail to each one of these three things so that you understand exactly what they are. So first off, your message. What is your message? Some of you guys may understand, you know what that means. Some of you guys be like, I don't- I don't know. So when I first started working as a web designer and started working with clients. I was not... I would ask them, I would say, okay, websites, I'm ready to build. Can you guys just send over some content for your 'Home' page or your 'About' page or whatever page. And it would be like deer in headlights. Like what? We need content. I've got a couple of pictures. And a lot of websites, that's what they do. They think, okay, as long as the design looks okay, doesn't really matter what is said on the website.

Heather: [00:03:23] Well, that is a huge mistake. You're missing a big opportunity to really connect with ideal clients and to speak to them in a way that resonates with them. So that is what your message is. Your message should be consistent on in your social media, in your Google ads, in your SEO, in your emails, and guess what? On your website. You should be saying the same thing everywhere. It takes these. There was a study done back several years ago and it said it took like seven touchpoints to have someone remember who you are, who your business is. Well, within the last year since that study's been done, I would guess that it would probably take 10 to 12 touchpoints. A touchpoint means that in some way they hear the name of your business, whether that be word of mouth, like a friend saying, Oh my gosh, this therapy clinic is amazing. Or they see your Facebook post or like your Facebook advertising or they in some way find content, something about your business. So if that's the case, you need 10 to 12 different, you know, touchpoints, ways that you're they see your business. And for them to really warm up to your business and to remember that you even exist. So if you are in each one of those touch points saying something different, if you are saying something different on an Instagram versus what you're saying on your website versus what you're saying in your ads, what do you think that's going to do. That is going to confuse them. They're not really going to understand what your business is about.

Heather: [00:05:16] They're going to like, wait, so on their website they say that they. I'm trying to think of an example, but they say that they are, you know, a therapy business. But in their, on social media, they say that they do child therapy. Do you see where that can become confusing? So you need to make sure obviously your services are clear, but the way you talk about your business is very clear. Another thing is that you want to use story. Story has been around for thousands of years, guys. That is the way that we carried on history. That is the way that we let people know about events, anything, culture. It was through story before we started writing things down before. So humans understand story. We get it. There are stories all around us in the movies, books, our favorite TV show, there are stories everywhere, even on the radio. If the DJ is talking about something telling a story, you're going to be more apt to listening, right? Guess what? Their story and marketing too. And when you invite your customers into a story and make your offer clear, they're excited to do business or to work with your clinic. They're excited about it because they get it. They understand stories.

Heather: [00:06:51] Stories. I mean, you think about when you're back in school, how many times in English were you reading? You would read a like a little short story or five paragraphs, and then you had to tell them what it was about. We have been learning about story for our whole entire lives, and so we understand story. We get it. So Donald Miller, who is the CEO of StoryBrand, which I'm a StoryBrand certified Guide. Look it up if you if you don't know much about StoryBrand. He says nobody will listen to you if your message isn't clear, no matter how expensive your marketing material may be. So not only do we need to have this story, we need to make sure our message is clear that we're not confusing them with insider language or jargon. A big mistake a lot of companies, they think they want to be clever because that's going to be like the clickbait, that's going to be the thing that really and you can go with clever, but you need to make sure clever is still clear. So clarity always wins over clever. Nine, ten times out of ten, ten times out of ten clarity will win over clever. So step one, you have to have a clear message. And when you have that clear message, you use it in all of your marketing across the board. Especially your website. And I'm going to go into detail over a couple of different podcasts as to what a clear message looks like, because it might not be what you think, especially when it comes to your website and the way that you talk about your business.

Speaker1: [00:08:35] Step two is, Steve Jobs says "design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." So, let's imagine you've got these words, you've got this content for your website. But if your design is confusing or weird, for lack of a better word, people will know something is off about this website, or if your website just doesn't work. They will know, they will 100% know because they just feel like they might not be able to pinpoint exactly what it is, but for some reason people know. I don't remember who the quotes by, but there's a quote that says something along the lines of people just, that good design is is often not obvious. I'm paraphrasing. Good design is not obvious, but bad design is very obvious. I mean, I know you guys have all seen the websites that make you cringe and you're like, ooh. What? What happened there? Looks like a train wreck. So step number two is you need to have a great design. I say beautiful design, but even a great design is, and design is obviously like using your branding. So the colors and you want to make sure the colors work with your work with your clinic or your practice, that they are consistent, but then they also feel right.

Speaker1: [00:10:08] I always use this example, but obviously if you were a mortician, you would not want lime green for your colors. That would just not sit well. Right. And then so the design, the layout, and then the thing that sometimes people miss is the navigation. Your site needs to be easy to navigate. And really, we can extend that idea of story into your design as well, because when your website is designed well, it will pull them into a story. So really that message and that design go together and it's going to be thing that wows your customers. It's going to be the things that make you look professional. Bad design will make your clinic look like it's not a real clinic. It will make it look like you guys lack professionally. So, being professional needs to extend to your website too, not just the amazing work that you offer. And step three: Effective SEO. What is SEO? Let's start with that. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. What is that? Right. You're like, what? Search engine optimization? Well search engine optimization, search engines, let's start with that. Search engines are we've got Chrome, Google Chrome, we've got Safari, we've got Mozilla. We've got I mean, it's the things that you go on and you type in the search bar 'clinic near me' or 'therapy clinic near me' or 'SOP clinic near me'.

Speaker1: [00:11:53] Whatever it is, it's the things your customers go and type in, or your prospects anyways, will type in to look for your business. And this is where it comes into play that, especially for local businesses, that they need to, because local SEO is a little bit different than just regular SEO. So it used to be that SEO was about throwing a few keywords on a page and calling it good. So if you were in SLP clinic, you just make sure you have speech language pathology and speech therapy and, and maybe your city and you're good to go, right? Google's got smarter. Google bots understand and they want you to create an experience for your prospects. So like I said, SEO is what drives potential clients to your website. And so having the, having SEO is completely important because, and the three of these work together. Do you see how SEO drives someone to your website. Then they land on your website. They see that it's designed well, that the navigation works. That's like an instant thing. They'll just know. And and that, of course, creates authority for your business. And then that third thing is then they start to read and then they read and then they think, they get it, they get me. Oh, my gosh. This is the place I need to work with. So, I like to say it's like a three legged stool. If one of the legs is short, you're going to be a little off balance, right? Stoney DeGeyter says "if you're not meeting your visitors needs, it doesn't matter how optimized your site is".

Speaker1: [00:13:50] So optimize, like I said, search engine optimization means that you have, you create keywords, but then it's also so much more. It's about how you use your keywords. It's about the content that you make surrounding those keywords, which can be about your 'Home', 'About', all those pages. Blogs are an amazing way to drive SEO to really bring more traffic to your site. There's other things that you can do for SEO. So, if you have too little SEO potential prospects, they will never make it to your site. Unless you are the only clinic within a 50 mile radius, there's a pretty good chance that they will not find your site. If you have too much SEO, meaning that your content on your site sounds like it's geared for a robot, they will not stay on your site. So it's a perfect balance. SEO needs to marry with your your messaging and your design. All three of those things need to work together. So let me go over it again, step one clear message, step two beautiful design and step three an effective SEO. Those are the three things you need to create a high converting website. So I want to give some takeaways, some challenges I always want to like, here's one thing that you can do for your message.

Speaker1: [00:15:30] Create a clear call to action. And what I mean by that is the button on your website, 'book a call', 'schedule a consultation', whatever that is, 'contact us'. Whatever your call to action is, make sure that it's some kind of action word, but then also that you use it everywhere on your site. You need it in your navigation, you need it on your banner. You need it like in almost every like every other section, at least in your site. Make it really easy for them to push the button, because that's really the end goal of your site, is to engage with them, intrigue them, you know, to tell them something that really that resonates with them. And then what are they going to do? It's an easy, it's an easy win. They're going to click the button. They're going to be like, they get it, they get me, click button. So that's the first thing. A clear call to action. And then... All over your site, every page needs to have your call to action, and you need to only use one if you have several different call to actions and several different places, you're going to confuse them 100%. Step two, or homework assignment number two, challenge number two is ensure your site is easy to navigate. Make sure your buttons are working. Make sure your page links are working. So get on your site and push buttons.

Speaker1: [00:17:06] Go throughout your site, just keep pushing buttons. And then step three is just, obviously just very, these are all very little things you can do. There's so much more that you can do on each one of these, the clear message, the beautiful design, the SEO. But homework challenge number three to help with SEO is to set up Google search console and/or Google Analytics. Make sure you at least you have both of those. Make sure you know how many people are coming to your website every month, if nothing else. Okay guys, I hope this helps. Like I said, we are going to be going into more detail throughout the next several weeks as to like really digging into messaging, really digging into design, digging into the SEO to help you. I want to give you guys things that you can actually go and walk away and say, I'm going to go and do this. And if I do this one thing, it's going to help my marketing. It's going to just give my business that little boost. So until next time. It's been great talking with you and thank you so much for listening to Therapy Marketing Solutions. Bye. We're glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you're interested in learning more about marketing, check out my blogs at 3CDigitalMediaNetwork.com or TherapyMarketingSolutions.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Happy marketing, y'all.

Episode 2: with Rian Chatterton

Heather: [00:00:00] Hey, everyone, this is Heather, and you're listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing and we're going to meet therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don't have to figure this all out on your own because when we all work together, we are able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So let's get started. Welcome, everyone, to episode number two of Therapy Marketing Solutions. This is Heather Jensen. I am the host of Therapy Marketing Solutions, and I have with me today guest on my podcast, Rian Chatterton. And I'm actually going to let her introduce herself. So, Rian, tell me about who you are and the business you own.

Rian: [00:01:31] All right. Well, my name obviously is Rian Chatterton, and I own four businesses. I own Boise Speech and Hearing Clinic. I own Center for Orofacial Myology, Chatterton Myo Courses and Greenbelt Management, which is a property management company.

Heather: [00:01:51] Great. Thank you so much. So. Rian, how long have you been in business?

Rian: [00:01:58] I have been in business for nine years. I technically, I've actually been in business on my own as a sole proprietor for 16 years, but I bought Boise Speech and Hearing Clinic in 2013. So it's been nine years.

Heather: [00:02:18] Yeah so and Boise Speech and Hearing clinic has been around for a lot longer than that, correct?

Rian: [00:02:25] Correct. Since the early 1970s. So I'm the third owner of Boise Speech and Hearing Clinic. And then. In 2019, I had the idea to create the Center for Orofacial Myology, and that opened its doors on March 1st, 2021, so that it's been just over a year, which is great. And Chatterton Myo Courses just launched this year, so it's a new fresh business.

Heather: [00:02:52] And tell me a little bit about each one of your businesses. Obviously, Boise Speech and Hearing Clinic is speech language pathology clinic. What about your other businesses and some of the services that you offer?

Rian: [00:03:05] Yeah. So I really wanted to create businesses that specialized. And so Boise Speech and Hearing clinic is a clinic in which we provide speech language services, but trying to provide services that are not as well known. So or you have to be very specialized to treat such as fees or fiber optic, fiber optic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing or voice therapy, stuttering, AAC, autism. Some of these areas within the field that a lot of clinicians maybe don't have great training in or are maybe timid in treating. So that's what sets Boise Speech and Hearing Clinic apart. And then the Center for Orofacial Myology, Boise Speech and Hearing Clinic, has this deep history in the field of orofacial myo functional disorders. So as more dentists and specialists in our area started getting more education on what myo functional disorders are, I decided that it's time to bring together a collaborative model of professionals that we can come together and treat tongue tie and tongue posture to better increase health and overall posture of the body from birth on. And so we do have a very comprehensive collaborative team at the Center for Oroacial Myology to treat anything really related to myo functional disorders. Then Chatterton Myo Courses is all about educating and empowering other speech language pathologists to better identify and treat and feeling confident in their skills in the evaluation process and the treatment process for myofunctional disorders. And it really is a comprehensive program that was developed at our clinic that we've been using for over 30 years that continues to be modified just like medicine should. As we learn and we grow, we should be changing to be better. So that's what we want to provide with Chatterton Myo Courses are just these comprehensive three day trainings that people can come to walk away with something that they feel is implementable from day one.

Heather: [00:05:13] Yeah, yeah. One of the things that I love about your Chatterton Myo courses is that you're not just teaching them how to identify and then to treat it. You are giving them like step by step a program with it, which is so great. It's not just like, Hey, here's a bunch of knowledge now, good luck, go your way. It's step by step. Like this is what you should be looking for. This is how you treat your first client. This is, you know, we give you support along the way. Yeah. So I love that your program offers that. So one of the things you were talking about with the Center for Orofacial Myology is this collaborative approach. And that's really why I wanted you on this, is because one of the things I've really been impressed with with your business is this ability to network and to collaborate with others within your profession as well as within other professions, that you take just a variety of professionals together and you are able to share your knowledge. And those connections really create opportunities within your own business as well as theirs. I love that you offer that. And I love that you do it. So talk to me a little bit about some of the things that you are doing to network and to create this collaboration.

Rian: [00:06:35] Yeah, I think of networking when I first started wanting to build and expand and grow my business. Marketing and networking felt very overwhelming to me. And then, you know, I was talking to some other people and I read some really great books and it really is about one conversation at a time. And so if you can really find one person that is like minded, that wants to listen to your message, and then you can have that conversation. It's about building relationships. It's not just about getting contacts. So you can find different people in your community and have their number and their email address. But are you having continual communication with them and building that friendship and that trusted relationship? And that's what's really important. So we're doing a lot of different things. I think that one of the things that sets us apart mostly is how we do our communication with our providers. So when we receive a referral, we don't just send them a report, but we're sending them multiple follow ups. If we have questions, we will call. We'll follow up on with a phone call with specific questions so that they know that we really are interested in this case and we want to collaborate together. And so that's one thing that we do from the beginning. And then we have a couple other things going on. We just started I just started the All about Airway Group in the Boise area. And so I bring together a whole group of different professionals interested in just talking about airway health. We have everything from physicians assistants to orthodontist to registered dental hygienist to speech language pathologists. It's a really good dynamic group. But we come together quarterly and we just have case study reviews or a study group or presenters. And we're having these conversations because really in the medical field we're about getting results and giving the best treatment that we can for our patients. So when you can find somebody else that's also trying to do the other thing, they're really open to having that conversation with you.

Heather: [00:08:43] Yeah, and I love that you have identified that treating or0facial myofunctional disorders is not just about treating the tongue or treating the muscles in the mouth. That this collaborative approach really says, okay, as a dentist, you can be doing this and I will do this. And then we work together to really improve someone's life. By I love that you're doing reports and you're communicating. It not only is helping the client, but it also works with the dentist and shows them that, like you said, that you have this buy in, that you want to work together, that you want to have that connection to help the client for sure.

Rian: [00:09:27] And sometimes it's just the level of education as well. Maybe it's a general dentist that's never heard of a myofunctional disorder, but their client was referred to us or their patient was referred to us by their orthodontist. So then it's opening that conversation up to the dentist saying this is why the orthodontist would refer to us and what we can do to better treat this patient. And unfortunately, our health care system years ago changed. So it used to be before the Egyptians that the body was treated as a whole system and a doctor could treat the whole system. And then it became specialty areas and only certain doctors could treat only certain parts of the body. So the body was viewed as all of these different pieces. Instead of really looking at that whole health and whole body picture. And so we're trying to get back to that dynamic model of we can treat the whole body collaboratively together and not have to just have our specialty areas.

Heather: [00:10:25] That it really is like a holistic approach to medicine. Yes. Yeah, I love that. And really and specialties help. But then when you come together and bring your your knowledge together, that's where you're really sharing your wisdom. I love you have a quote that says, Networking is not about collecting contacts. Networking is about about planting relationships. And I just love that when you look at networking as creating a relationship versus, hey, what can you do for me? Or if I if I, you know, meet this person or come into contact with them, they might benefit my business. But when you look at it, it's really like, how can we help each other? How can we build one another? Not only our businesses but our, our, our specialties? How can we I mean, by educating one another. I love that approach really to to networking. It just it just makes it so much better and you're able to really reach your client's needs.

Rian: [00:11:32] Right? Yeah. And Zig. Zig Ziglar says. I don't know if you are a big fan of Zig Ziglar, but I am. He said You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want. And it's very true. We just have to know the needs and the concerns of other people so that we can help them in the way that they need the help as well. And then they can help us maybe give back in a way that we're looking for to.

Heather: [00:12:02] Yeah, yeah. And I really, truly believe that when you are freely giving that you're going to get back tenfold. Yes. So I love that. So I want to leave our audience with just maybe some takeaways or a challenge. What can they be doing to grow their network?

Rian: [00:12:24] I think the biggest thing is not giving in to fear. So I remember the first person that asked me to come and speak in their office and do a lunch and learn about myofunctional disorders. I was very nervous and hesitant to do it. And just remember that if you're comfortable, you're not growing, so you have to get outside your comfort zone. So one of the biggest things is making that call, like calling somebody and just saying, Hey, can we talk about a mutual client or patient reaching out and just dropping by and introducing yourself. Or if you know somebody that knows somebody asking for that contact information, I think it's just being a little bit bolder than what you are today and just knowing that even though you may be nervous or you may feel that fear that it really is in ournot in our comfort zone when we are uncomfortable that we will change and grow. So it's the first step and every step that you take will get easier. I mean, I went from doing one luncheon in which I super nervous to now this year I presented to a group of 30 dentists in the area about myofunctional disorders. I've done conferences. So it just takes one small step and just pushing yourself beyond that level of fear.

Heather: [00:13:53] Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Again, that goes back to when we're able to help others, we're able to help ourselves and when we're when we make that. And I think the fear comes so much from assuming that someone else doesn't want to hear from you, when in reality they might be in the same place, they might be looking for that connection, they might be looking for that person to network with. They might be looking for that referral source. You know, who should I be referring my clients to? So just doing that one little thing might be in your benefit and their benefit. Everyone can benefit really from it. So.

Rian: [00:14:33] Right. And in the end, the patient benefits. And that's what's most important.

Heather: [00:14:38] Yes, absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Rian, for being on our podcast. We appreciate it. And I love everything that you're doing, especially just your ability to reach out to others to better serve your clients. Thank you so much.

Rian: [00:14:56] Thanks, Heather.

Heather: [00:14:58] We're glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you're interested in learning more about marketing check out my blogs at 3C Digital Media Network or Therapy Marketing Solutions. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Happy marketing, y'all.

Episode 1: Heather Jensen

Heather Jensen: Hey everybody, this is Heather and you’re listening to the Therapy Marketing Solutions podcast, where we are going to take the mystery out of marketing, and meet with therapy clinic owners to discuss what is working for them in their marketing to help them grow thriving practices. You don’t have to figure it out on your own. Because when we all work together, we are able to build something amazing and in the end serve clients better. So, let’s get started.
Heather Jensen: [00:00:02] This is Therapy Marketing Solutions Podcast Episode One in the beginning. Hi, everyone. My name is Heather Jensen and this is Therapy Marketing Solutions. This is episode one! This is the beginning. This is the very beginning. I just want to take a few minutes to introduce myself, kind of talk about what we're going to be doing on this podcast, the goals of the podcast, and then get started. Let's launch this. So a little bit about myself. Like I said, my name is Heather and I am a mom of eight kids. That was not a mistake. Yes, eight kids, at least last I counted. Right. So I am a mom of eight kids. I've got kids ranging from age 20, 20 year old twins all the way down to seven, and five boys, three girls. They are my life and my love and they are amazing. My husband and I are so fortunate to be raising these amazing people. So with that being said, as a mom, I've spent a lot of time in different medical offices. I've spent a lot of time, you know, growing relationships with with different people in medical offices. Whether that be our family doctor or speech therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, I mean, you name it, we have been in that office. So I actually have five kiddos who have attended speech therapy. So speech therapy has been a big part of our family's life for the last about 18 years. And then as well as we've had like all people, we have challenges and health problems and things like that.
Heather Jensen: [00:02:05] So we definitely have spent time in medical offices with that experience. You know, I've sat in waiting rooms, I've become friends with with other parents, and and I definitely have become friends with my children's therapist and, you know, really learned about their businesses, their struggles there, whether that be that they have too many clients or not enough clients or they're fighting with insurance companies or whatever it is, you know, working long term to help a kiddo succeed, you get to know them quite a bit. You get to know their lives both personally and in their business. So, I also own a business. I have been, you know, have my degree in web design and development, worked many years with business owners to help them build websites. That's where I got my start was in websites, but from there I've expanded my services to include copywriting, SEO, lead generation, all kinds of things. And one of the things that I that became clear to me really early on my career in my career is I would ask a client, I would say, 'Hey, do you have the content? Can you send the content over for me for your website so I can build it?' And it'd be like deer in headlights. We're supposed to have content, you know, who knows what to put on a website? I didn't know what to put on a website when I first started. And so through that kind of brought me into this, this world of copyrighting and how to write content for websites that's really engaging. So I know, you know that these two don't seem really, you know, marketing and being a mom, but this all comes full circle in the end, just kind of like how life does, right? So, I started offering copywriting services and like I said, that grew into a full marketing agency.
Heather Jensen: [00:04:30] But like I said, life often is a full circle and our life experiences really help to shape our future lives. And, you know, I've always had a special place for therapy based businesses, for therapists themselves. I've seen how you guys have masters and PhDs and certificates continuing education. And like most businesses, clinics, at some point in time someone wants to go out and open a business. And that's the one area that there are no real courses for, you guys. Nobody talks about how to open a thriving therapy based business. And and that's where therapy Marketing Solutions really was born. It was born out of a need to help therapy business owners run their businesses. There's a lot to know about marketing. I definitely do not know as much as you guys do about therapy and the services you offer. And the same goes, you know, vise versa. You're trying to to take care of your clients and build out goals and help them progress. And and on the side, running this business, which is a full time job in and of itself, right. So I love what I do. I love working with business owners, I love helping them. I love answering questions, you know, just helping them to figure out what the best tools are, where to to really start marketing, where how to effectively market their business.
Heather Jensen: [00:06:22] All of those things are just are my passion. And so I am so fortunate that I get to work with you and you're that you're my ideal client. And the odd thing is, is that in a lot of ways I have been your ideal client for years, so. Anyways. So yeah. So I am launching a podcast through 3C Media Network. What a fortunate opportunity. I have been working with them a little bit. Have guest, I've been a guest on a couple of podcasts and really this desire to help therapy based businesses is why I am launching a podcast. Our businesses are our passion. Nobody goes into business who is not passionate about what they do. They just don't. And if they do, they don't stay in business because being a business owner is hard work. Our businesses are babies. When you leave the office every night and walk out the door, you're still thinking about your business. It's still somewhere in the back of your mind. How can I build a better, stronger, you know, successful business? It's always somewhere in your mind and something that we think about. So I'm fortunate, like I said, to have this unique opportunity to to work with you and to help you figure out how to market your business, how to talk about your business, how to, you know, talk about your unique and different offering. What sets you apart from from other businesses and things like that. So I really want to help therapy based businesses improve their businesses so that you guys can improve lives, because that's really what you do.
Heather Jensen: [00:08:15] So let's talk about what we're going to be doing on this podcast. So I want to be providing marketing tips, strategies and tried and true methods. Let's I want to talk about, you know, do you have a lead generator? Are you collecting emails? Are you getting is there traffic on your website? All the things marketing, let's talk about it. Let's have those conversations. Do I know everything? Absolutely not. But I also want to interview you guys, clinic owners. I want to talk about your practices, your clinics. I want to know what is working for you, what is not working for you, where your frustration is, how you became a business owner. Because I feel like if you guys can learn from other therapy based businesses, it's going to be beneficial for your business. If you see what's working for them, it's going to help to build your business. So anyway, so I am so excited to be here. We will be every two weeks we will have a new episode. So join us. And if you're interested in being on the podcast, let us know too. We'd love to sit down with you, talk about your business, how you got started, and then of course the things that you're doing that are working and not working in your marketing and helping your business to grow. So excited to be here and we'll talk again in a couple of weeks. Thanks, guys. Bye.
Heather Jensen: We are glad you could be here today. Thank you for listening. If you are interested in learning more about marketing, check out my blogs at 3cdigitalmedianetwork.com or therapymarketingsolutions.com.
You can also follow us on FB, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
Happy Marketing Y’all!

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