The EntreMD Podcast
Dr. Una is passionate about helping physicians embrace entrepreneurship so they can grow their wealth and win back the freedom to practice medicine on their own terms. Learn more at: https://entremd.com/. Dr. Una helps physicians build and grow their businesses to 7 figures and beyond. Each week, she will share key insights on how you can turn your medical experience into a profitable, passion-based business that gives you time, freedom, and a deep sense of purpose. Be sure to follow the podcast so you never miss a new episode!
The EntreMD Podcast
Host Profitable Events for Your Private Practice with These Proven Tips
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We live in an attention economy.
It doesn't matter how good your private practice is if no one knows about it!
That’s why you do not have the luxury of avoiding marketing if you want your private practice to succeed.
One of my favorite marketing strategies is hosting events. Events will get you more attention, attract new patients, facilitate referrals, and improve your reputation. And they’re super fun!
In this episode of EntreMD, I will share everything you need to know to host profitable events that will boost your private practice and make you more money.
Tune in!
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Key Takeaways:
- 00:00 Intro
- 02:12 Shoutout to Dr. Funke Afolabi-Brown
- 03:35 Why you should host events
- 07:55 A few warnings before hosting your first event
- 12:06 5 types of profitable events
- 22:16 What I want you to do
- 24:43 Outro
Additional Resources:
- Learn more about my 12-month program.
- Interested in 1-on-1 coaching? Apply here.
- Grab a copy of the "The EntreMD Method" book.
When you are ready to work with us, here are three ways:
- EntreMD Business School Accelerator - If you are looking to make a 180 turnaround in your business in 90 days, this is the program for you.
- EntreMD Business School Grow - This is our year-long program with a track record of producing physician entrepreneurs who are building 6, 7 and 7+ figure businesses. They do this while building their dream lives!
- EntreMD Business School Scale - This is our high-level mastermind for physicians who have crossed the seven figure milestone and want to build their businesses to be well oiled machines that can run without them.
To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...
There is something you can do in your private practice that really is low cost and it will actually be fun to do but will lead to more attention, more patients, more repeat patients, more referral sources, and that thing is events. But a lot of times when people think about events, they think that is something speakers will do, consultants will do, but as private practice owners, it's just like, yeah, that's not quite what we do. So I'm going to show you ways you can make money from events, ways it can help you accomplish the goals you want to see in your private practice, and I'm going to give you seven types of profitable events you can do in your private practice. Starting now Hi dogs, welcome to the EntreeMD podcast, where it's all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, dr Imna.
Speaker 1:I love events and this is so bizarre, and if you're an introvert, I want you to hear this. I am an introvert. You know I'm an introverted, introvert and I never thought events would be something I like, because at events they're people and I'm an introvert. I don't do people, or I didn't do people at the time, but I want to really challenge you to lean into this, to have an open mind, because even if you're an introvert, you might find you love this stuff right. I would never have known if I didn't lean all the way in that I absolutely love hosting events.
Speaker 1:Now, the reason why I decided to record this podcast episode is because, you know, in the Entremdi Business School, we really believe in innovation, and this is the reason why, you know, we have all kinds of businesses in the Entremdi Business School. So we have people who are insurance-based private practice. We have people who are DPC direct primary care. We have people who are DSC direct specialty care. We have people who are speakers, coaches, consultants, people who have products. All kinds of people in the school has done before A lot of times. Innovation is taking something that works in one industry and putting it in another, and so this whole concept of events is something that you know, the private practice doctors in the Entremet Business School have really embraced, and so I'm going to give a big shout out to Dr Funke Afolabi-Brown.
Speaker 1:If you don't follow her, find her on Instagram, facebook and LinkedIn and follow her. She's absolutely amazing. She's a sleep physician. She is the evangelist for all things, sleep Okay, and she started a private practice and she hosted an event which is huge and if you're listening at the time of this, recording her debriefs of the event, her pictures and all of those things, the social proof is not too far off, so you can take a look at it Absolutely amazing, but she did this event.
Speaker 1:She had a really good turnout and you know, she came into the group and she did a debrief, which is what we do. This is what you know, this is what I did. This was the win I had in my business. This is what I did to pull it off, and so it's. You know, of course, this makes for so much great learning, because everybody's learning from each other. But anyway, she does the debrief.
Speaker 1:And while we were talking on the call, I was like I love how we have normalized private practices, hosting events and hosting profitable events. Right, because her events was a profitable event and I'll talk about how you do that in a second because she had done it and there are many other physicians I'm talking 400 people registered for an open house type of events and it's just so magical and we do that. So I want to come talk to you about profitable events for your private practice, the profitable event blueprint for your private practice. Okay, how about that? Okay, so, first of all, and if you follow this and you kind of think it through, what are the things that could happen right when you host an event? So the first thing is you get attention, and we live in an attention economy.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter how good your business is, it doesn't matter how good your private practice is, if they're not eyeballs on it, if people don't know about it, if you don't give people a reason to talk about it, they just don't know about it. They don't know about it. And you have to understand. I still hear entrepreneurs say this a lot and they would say I really like what I do, I really want to help people, I don't care about the marketing. You do not have that luxury. It's like saying, yeah, I want to be a doctor, I don't care about biology. You do not have that luxury. It is a combo deal. Okay, you get to serve the people, but you also have to let the people know you know the people who you can serve. You have to let them know I'm here and I want to serve you. This is non-negotiable, like if you can come to terms with the fact that this is non-negotiable, business will be so much easier for you.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the first thing is a lot of attention. So your audience grows, the people who know about you grow, the people who can say yes to you because now they know you exist. That grows. So that's the first kind of profit, if you will, you get from an event. The second profit you get from an event is new patients. It's new patients because you know, maybe, that people have kind of heard about you, or there are people who heard about you for the first time at the event, during the event. They decide they know, like and trust you. This is the kind of place they want to be. Maybe they meet some of your other patients and they're like oh my goodness, this is amazing. We've even had events where we would have our system set up so we can go ahead and schedule your first appointment right there at the event, right, like, so you can get new patients from that. That's the second kind of profit. The third kind of profit and sometimes people miss this is you get repeat patients.
Speaker 1:Okay, now, there may be people who are in your practice. They come, they're not really connected or anything. They don't really see the value, and so they've come once. They may never come again. But if they come to an event of yours, though, they may understand how you guys are partnering to make sure that they're healthy or their kids are healthy, or whatever that is they may understand like, oh my goodness, this practice is amazing, it's innovative. They have such a great team and I get to be a part of it and so you get people to recommit to working with you, like they. They recommit to that and events are powerful for that. So you know, as an aside, you do want to have your current patients, depending on the kind of event and we're going to talk about a number of those, but depending on the kind of event, you want them to come back. You, you, you want them to come for the events, because if they come for the event, then they get to recommit, they get to decide okay, I'm all in on this. They get to decide to come back for their next appointment or whatever that is. Some of them may have even been planning to transfer and they came and they decided, no, I'm going to stay, okay, okay. So that's the third kind of profit.
Speaker 1:The fourth is you facilitate referrals, right. So think of it this way You're hosting an event, you tell your current patients you know I want you guys to come, and then you tell them to invite their friends. Right, this is an opportunity. They're not telling their friends come join this practice. They're not telling their friends to make any strong commitments other than come to an event. So you're facilitating your referrals, which is powerful, because it is so much easier to get somebody who was referred to say yes than it is to get somebody who's never met you to say yes. Right, like that's just the way it is. Like if I called up a friend and say what restaurant I'm in this, I'm in this city, what restaurant should I go to, and they say this restaurant, I'm going to that restaurant. Period, end of story. It's so much easier than if I just look them up on Google. Okay, all right. So that's number four.
Speaker 1:Number five is new referral sources. Okay, especially if you're strategic, and let me say so, for me. I'm a pediatrician and so which means you know, obgyns would be my referral sources. You know one category of referral sources for me. I can then reach out to OBGYNs and say I'm hosting this event, you know, and there's going to be a lot of women of childbearing age and you guys can come in, you know and you know, and then mingle and I'd love to meet you, I'd love to host you and all of these things. I want to thank you for all the referrals you sent me and things like that.
Speaker 1:Again, it's an event, it's in person. They get to experience you, they get to know, like and trust you. They're like okay, dr Una, she's just amazing, and all of those things. And then now you have more referrals pouring in, right, do you see? Like there's no reason not to do an event. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm going to give you five types of events you can host, because I just kind of want to get your juices flowing and, oh, my goodness, I want to start getting DMs from you, private messages from you, where you tell me, dr Una, I hosted my first event, my second, my third, my fourth, whatever, and this is what happened, okay. But I want to give you a few warnings here, okay, before I give you those types. Okay, few warnings. Number one is do not use the overhead of an event to kill the profit of the event, okay, and so what that means is like we are thinking I started just talking about it profitable from day one. Okay, and so look for funding for your events. You might like, dr Una, funding, like from the federal government.
Speaker 1:No, they get sponsors. There are vendors that come to your office all the time, all the time. So you just reach out to them and say, hey, I'm hosting this event. Would you want to come sponsor it? We would let you have a booth on that day or whatever. And I cannot tell you how many people in the Entremet Business School paid zero for an event because they got sponsors. These people are coming to your office every single day and these are people who you do business with. These are people who have benefited from your practice. These are people who want you to continue to be a client and all these things. So they're there, ask them.
Speaker 1:And I even had a doctor who did an event and sent out an email to all these vendors and says this is what I'm hosting, this is how much it is for I'm making up the levels. I don't know what she called them. I don't remember what she called the levels, but let's say, from the diamond level sponsor this is what it is. The gold level sponsor, the silver level sponsor, and she sold out. Like in less than an hour she sold out of her top spots and people were like, hey, can we still get that top spot in all of those things? So don't think you can't, like you can and you don't have to pay a dime for it. Okay. So that's number one. Don't let the overhead become this big thing where they're like, okay, why was this month not profitable? Because I spent $150,000 hosting this event. Please don't do that, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:The second warning I want to give you is you want to make sure it's a win-win? Okay. Now, when you know I talk a lot about profits? Okay, my latest book is called the Profitable Private Practice Playbook. When people ask, what Entremdi does, they're like we help doctors build profitable seven and multiple seven figure businesses so they have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on their terms.
Speaker 1:I talk about profitable a lot. Now, I don't talk about profitable a lot because profits come before people. I talk about it because, doctors, we're good on the people, we love people, we want to serve people, we want to help people. We will help people to our detriment, but this is the deal In nature when you have two people in a relationship and only one person is benefiting, the person who is benefiting is called a parasite. It's called a parasitic relationship. You don't want to build those kinds of relationships. You want to build symbiotic relationships where it's a win-win, and so you want to think about the win-win from the beginning.
Speaker 1:So how is this event going to be profitable for my practice? Is bringing attention, is bringing new clients, is helping us to new patients, helping us to retain the patients that we have, is giving us new referral sources. It is an opportunity for us to have people to bring their friends. So we have all these new referrals. You got to be clear and you got to follow through with it. So what that means is if, for instance, you want new patients, you're going to set up ways for people to schedule appointments with you or for you to get their information so the team can call them right back the next day and say, okay, we're ready to schedule your appointment. Or you're going to have people do Google reviews in real time, or you're going to have people stream from their phones in real time while they're there to say, hey, come check out this practice, right, if attention is your thing, but you're going to do the action that is going to create the results you want. Don't mess that up. This needs to be a win-win.
Speaker 1:I say this and you might go like okay, dr Yuno, why are you repeating this over and over again? And I will tell you why I'm repeating it. It is not unusual for people to do events, and when it's time for the call to action, when it's time for them to make the ask, they're just like oh, you know what? People are having such a great time. I don't want to bother them. We're just going to skip that. Do not skip it. That is the whole point of the okay, that is the whole point. And so you want to decide from the beginning. This is the ask I'm going to make, this is when I'm going to make the ask, these are things I'm going to put in place. I don't skip out on the ask because you want this to be a win-win situation. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:So now that we've gotten those warnings out of the way, now let's talk about let me give you some sample events. And after this, you're going to go the next 90 days, you're going to think about it. Maybe you're going to put up an event, right and you're going to tell me all about it and I'm going to be so excited, I'm going to celebrate you, I'm going to root for it, because we're normalizing events for private practices. So, event number one patient appreciation. Now let me say this okay, this is not a holy grail, this is not something that is written in a Harvard document somewhere that cannot be broken. No, so listen, you can make this stuff up. Okay, I'm just saying these ones to get your juices flowing. You can name any event, anything.
Speaker 1:The important thing is you bring people in, they have a great time, you help them get a win, whatever that win is community connection, importance, whatever that is and you're getting a win too. You can make it up, okay, so these are just guidelines, some I've done before, some I've noticed, some I wish I did, and things like that, and you can take it and take it to wherever you need to take it to, all right. Number one patient appreciation. Okay, I mean, like, you love your patients, you want to thank them. You've been in business for a few years, or maybe a year, or maybe six months, it doesn't matter. You want to tell them thank you. Like, these are the milestones we've crossed because of you, you've given us the honor of taking care of your children. For me that would be your children as a pediatrician, or taking care of you, and all of that. So we did this.
Speaker 1:I think this was our first or second year in practice, was the first time we did a patient appreciation and it was very simple. Had the team come in on a Saturday, we had got some finger food, we had our station set up for people to schedule appointments. We brought a bouncy house for the kids to play in. We set up a room for people to do video testimonials. So they had a ton of fun, right, they had a ton of fun, they were appreciated, they were loved on and all of those things. We got video testimonials, we got reviews in real time, we got people scheduling appointments, and so it was a win-win. It was fantastic. They absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1:Okay, didn't use a location for it, I did it right in the practice parking lot. Okay, didn't use a location for it, I did it right in the practice parking lot, did it on a Saturday. So the parking, you know it's. There were four medical suites in that, in that complex, and so we had all this. You know, we had all this space that we can use. It was unbelievably amazing, okay. So it was profitable, it was low cost, it was amazing. So that's something you can do, right? Patient appreciation who doesn't love their patients? Right, right, okay, so that's something you can do, right? Patient appreciation who doesn't love their patients? Right? Okay, so that's one.
Speaker 1:The second event that we had done was like a walk with a doc. It's as simple as it sounds, okay, we picked out a park. We paid for their little pavilion so we could use the pavilion we brought. You see, I don't even remember what we brought, because my office manager planned all of this out, but we got the waters, all of that. We mapped out a route and all of those things.
Speaker 1:And here I am, I show up in my outfit. I'm like, okay, we're going to walk. I think we did three miles for the grownups and a mile and a half maybe for some of the kids, and we just talked about how healthy it is to walk and all of those things. I love to walk. And so we just walked, we took pictures, we did selfies, I had one-on-one conversations with a lot of the patients. It was unbelievably amazing, right. So they brought their friends and remember I talked about you know it will make your people recommit. There are people who are just like you know. They're like, oh my goodness, you know I didn't know how amazing this was. I really love you guys. I'm going to tell my friends to come to the practice and all of this. It was so good.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you just walk, you pick a park and walk right. So low budget, if you will. Really high value, really high ROI. So that's number two. Number three Okay. Number three is my favorite.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's a grand opening. And you're like, dr Una, how is it your favorite? You can only do this once, are you kidding me? There's another thing called a grand reopening. Okay, so you can do this event as many times as you want. Grand opening, we did a remodel. Grand reopening, we put some new pictures. Grand reopening, it doesn't matter, just do it. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:So when we opened our second location, I had, you know, my team set that up as well. We got the mayor to come, we got the city to come, we had the big ribbon and the big scissors and all of those things and we did a grand opening. And again, lots of attention, lots of new patients, old patients, recommitting, opportunities for referrals and social proof. We posted it everywhere on social media. I mean it was just amazing. It was so amazing. Okay, so, grand opening, you can do, a grand reopening you can do. If you've never done a grand opening or practice is 10 years old, you could do a grand opening. I mean it's just an excuse to do an event, okay.
Speaker 1:Fourth idea. Fourth idea would be a meet and greet, right, like I see a lot of times where people do a meet and greet, one-on-one and you know, depending on the stage of your practice you may get. You know, like in the beginning, of course you know you may have the bandwidth to do it, but as your practice gets busier maybe you don't have the bandwidth to do it. So doing a group meet and greet is awesome. Like come meet the doctors, right. Come meet the doctors, and you have all the doctors come in, you have cute facts about them and all of that stuff. Set people up, get some drinks, get some food, like finger food and stuff like that and boom, event is ready. Every time you bring on a new doctor, a new nurse, practitioner, all that stuff, you can do another meet and greets right, like meet the new doc and all the other docs and you can do that. And so again, how many times can you do this all the time, like all the time?
Speaker 1:The fifth type of event is this is a category, this is like your authority events. And so, let's say, your doctor was voted top doc, or like in my county they have like best of Gwinnett, which we've had for many, many years in a row. Maybe your private practice makes the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing companies. Any of those things those are all authority pieces is growing companies? Any of those things, those are all authority pieces. It kind of you know, positions you, as this is where to be. This is an established business, this is a business that's successful and you're a part of it and things like that, and so any one of those is an excuse. If you wanted to do an event, do an event, right, and so you can pick any of those. Your doctor wrote a book, your doctor was featured in the news, whatever, right. So those are all authority pieces, right, and so you can do authority events and just celebrate that.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've been to an event this was a dermatology group and they were voted top doctor I think that's the phrase in Atlanta and they had a whole thing and they invited patients, they invited vendors, they invited referring docs. Some of those referring docs invited their friends. That's how I got to be there for that event and I had never heard of them. So, really great event, really classy events and, again, set up in such a way that it could be profitable. Okay, number six. Number six is really powerful and these are your networking profitable. Okay, number six. Number six is really powerful and these are your networking events.
Speaker 1:Okay, now, your networking events really is around gaining new referral sources that are centers of influence. So I explained what I mean by that. If you have a patient who refers their friend to you, that's like a one-to-one in a way right, your referral sources. But then again you have people who are leaders of tribes of your ideal patients and those are centers of influence. So, as a pediatrician, an OB-GYN will be a center of influence for me, because if I have one OB-GYN that says I'm going to send you patients, they don't send me one patient, they tend to send me a ton of patients, right, that's the center of influence. And so your networking events is kind of like pulling people like that together who can send you a ton of patients.
Speaker 1:So, for instance, if I was a dermatologist, I can host an event for and bring in the primary care doctors and just host an event to honor them, thank them for what they do, thank them for their referrals over the years, whether they send your referrals or not, and all of that and bring them in and just honor them and give them a good time, and all of that. I mean, if you have 30 doctors come and only 10% of them decide to send patients to you, that's three people who have thousands of patients that they can send you. Do you see what I'm saying? So it's really, really powerful. So your networking events, those are huge. And again, remember we talked about sponsors and all this this does not need to cost you money, but this is something I mean. I want you to think about it. So, as a pediatrician, if I have an OBGYN, if I do this and I have 35 OBGYNs come and only three of them send me babies, that is enough to keep me busy. That is enough to keep a steady flow of new patients. Do you see what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:So, for the work that it will take you to pull it off, and if you're a private practice owner, let me tell you something else about the doctors in the Entremet Business School. This is the theme I just had to show up. My team did everything right, so you don't have to do all of this, but you do need to have the strategy behind it. You need to know how this is going to be profitable and you have to need to be able to direct that in real time right. So you have a lot of help, but the return on investment of these is so huge, especially if you're like I need new patients, I have a new doctor, I need to fill their schedule all of that stuff Unbelievable. Okay, number seven. Number seven I'm going to call your special day events. So, for instance, as a pediatrician, there's graduations come May. A ton of our patients are graduating, their parents are graduating and all of those things, and so you can host an event just to celebrate them.
Speaker 1:We actually did this. We did this virtually. I think we were at the beginning of COVID or something like that. We did this virtually. I think we were at the beginning of COVID or something like that. We did this virtually. Where we had them, we did a simple Google form, had them put in their name what school they were graduating from, a photo and things like that. So we made some stuff for them on Zoom to show this person is graduating. Big shout out to them. I think we gave away a few prizes. Hello, that sets you apart and that is so amazing. So, anyway, graduation is one of those.
Speaker 1:If you're an OBGYN, maybe you want to have this big baby shower thing you do maybe once a month or once a quarter Back to school again. Pediatrician brain they're going back to school. You may want to host a thing for them Toy drives during Christmas. We see that a lot, right, and even though in that they're giving, they're not coming to get anything, but giving is such a rewarding activity, right Like you almost enjoy the giving more than the person receiving the gift. Those are really huge and you can host any of them. You can host any of them. So look at that.
Speaker 1:These are seven different kinds of events. I mean, in all of these you must find one kind and as you start practicing it you'll come up with your own flair, the things you like to do and the passion projects you've always had, right, and you can turn all of those events. Just understand that you want to make sure your events are win-win situations. You're winning, they're winning, everybody's winning. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:So what do I want you to do? I want you to plan an event I want you to do. I want you to plan an event I want you to decide. You know, I'm going to have an event two months from now, three months from now, four months from now. Please don't go beyond four months, but you just try to, even if you do the simple version first, right, and get your feet wet and all of those things, you can even do a virtual, but just do something right, like, start the process of doing this, right.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I want you to do it. I want you to send me a direct message and say Dr Una, thank you so much for that episode. Oh, my goodness, I hadn't even thought about this. This is the event I'm going to do. This is what I'm going to do it. I want to cheer you on. I want to shout you out and say, oh, my goodness, you are amazing. Okay, because we want to normalize this, because the return on investment, the ROI, is just unbelievably amazing. All right, so I want you to pick it. You can do this with your team. You can assign the stuff to your team. Your team will be so happy to pull off a lot of this. So you do only the stuff that you have to do. But this is a deal. Okay, I want you to think about a time where you decide I do two events a year, I do an event a quarter, and with every event your practice gets so much bigger.
Speaker 1:I want to give another shout out, and a big shout out, to Dr Sarolta. She is a dermatologist and she has these events that she does every year. She has hundreds of people. I think she's had 400, 350, like huge numbers of people come and she's able to make those profitable. They're phenomenal for her business.
Speaker 1:I just want you to think of the fact that you can use this as a vehicle to make your practice so much better, create so much attention. And remember the attention doesn't just work for new patients, it also works for team members who decide oh my goodness, I want to work with a doctor like you. I have so many docs in the Entremet Business School where they now have the pull effect, where it's not just them going out and saying I'm hiring somebody, but people coming and have researched all the XYZ kind of practices in the area and I want to work for your practice. Are you hiring Right? So the attention is great New patients, new referral sources, so much goodwill and all of that and all that can be yours if you embrace hosting profitable events in your private practice.
Speaker 1:So again, send me a direct message on Facebook, instagram, linkedin I am Naka Unachukwu in all of those places and just say, oh my goodness, that was amazing, rocked my world. I'm going to do it, can't wait to give you the debrief after I'm done with it and understand that I'm cheering you on as private practice owners, as physicians in business. We are going to win. This is a brand new time and we are going to win and I'm glad that you're part of the people who are winning. So share this episode with the doctors in your world. Tell them oh my goodness, do not pass, go, do not collect 200. Go, listen to this right now and I'll see you on the next episode of the Entree MBA Podcast.