Ep. 130: Leading Through Turbulent Times in Your Clinic
About this Episode
In this episode, Nick and Michael discuss the importance of leading through turbulent times in a clinic. They draw parallels between flying a plane through rough weather and navigating the ups and downs of running a clinic. They emphasize the need for clinic owners to have good data and indicators to make informed decisions and provide reassurance to their team. They also encourage clinic owners to use slow periods to make improvements and invest in their business.
Topics Covered
- The importance of good data and indicators for informed decision-making and team reassurance during turbulent times.
- Using slow periods in a clinic to make improvements and invest in the business.
- The role of strong leadership and effective communication in guiding the team through challenges.
- Adopting a positive and proactive mindset to navigate the ups and downs of running a clinic.
"You're going to go through some storms, and you're going to have to hold it together for your team. I think sometimes people forget, if you are the owner and active doctor inside your clinic, it's hard to remember that you have two patients. You have the patients that come through the door and you have the patients that's your team. Because if you're not paying attention to your team, they're going to start feeling it fall apart."
Michael Ray, Patient Care Marketing Pros
Patient Care Marketing Pros (00:00)
What's going on everybody? You're listening to another episode of Walk -Ins. Welcome with Nick and Michael. We are fired up to help you grow your clinic. We do this for a couple of ways. We want to help you get more patients. We want to help you get better care, repeat visits and scale. That's how we do it, man. It is how we do it. Start to look a little shinier in here, maybe a little duller. I don't know. How do you... For the audio only listeners, you're missing out because we're updating our podcast room. We are. We're making it fancy.
It's real fancied process right now. Yeah, it's not done, but we have lighting. We have a new background. We have. We're having a new sign put in, but we went from gray and boring to dark and pretty and sexy. We're going to call it, you know, the background. We went from like beginner phase, right? So like when we were in our other office, we had it set up, right? you're having fun with colors in the background. Actually, for this, the blue looks better at blue or that. I don't.
that. All right. Michael's Michael's playing with the LEDs because it's new and fun. And then we'll pick a color and we'll never touch it again. That's how it'll get. Anyway, in our previous studio, we had everything built out. I had some signage up. I had a picture of stuff and and we had the TV all kind of catacorned. Then we moved in here and it got super boring. Got boring because of the new space with lots of gray. Right. But it worked. That's right. And then now and then thanks to Hannah and Becca Bell. Yeah, absolutely.
So they - To be interiors. To be bravo interiors. There you go. They brought your vision to life. Yes. And then Hannah painted and then I hung lots of things. Yes. Too many, 10 panels. That was fun. Messed up one of them. That's okay. But then here we are. We have an, it looks good. We get lots of compliments on it. We look, we look better because we're standing out. I still have a shiny head because I'm bald, but.
They do want to put me that my team wants me to wear makeup or something. They're considering some translucent makeup that kind of dole out some shininess. Some people call that lipstick on a big. I call it professionalism, but we'll leave it there. Call it whatever you want. Anyway, so yeah, so Brandy Pocket for those who've never looked at our videos, come check this one out because it looks really good. The, the, if you're on Spotify, I noticed now the Spotify video just loads.
So when you're on there, like it's actually on your screen too, when you're listening. So come check us out that way because we do get a lot of subscribers. Number five, subscriber John Medden. Thank you again for being one of our YouTube viewers. Third call out last one. There you go. And hopefully you'll send a response to us. That's what happens when you reach out to us. We're going to blow it up. Yeah. That's how that happens. But anyway, all right. Well, yeah. So I just quick update there. We but this episode is not about the podcast. No, it's not. So you've heard me say this before, Michael, my terrible joke, but I'm going to say it anyway.
a vegan, a CrossFitter and a pilot walk into a bar. Yeah, for this. And you know, because they tell you they tell you all about it. You know that because they tell you immediately. Do we have one of those each in our office now? I don't know if we have a vegan. I've done CrossFit in the past for like a long time. And you're a pilot. I'm a pilot. And that's going to like I'm going to talk about that in the episode today. There's a reason I want to tell that joke. But no, anyway. Yeah. I didn't get the crickets, but I'm sure they're in there somewhere.
It's okay. Don't worry about it. Finish your thought. There it is. Anyway, that I don't think I have a thought after that. So let's just keep moving. All right. So let me lay this up in a story and then I'll try and wrap it all together. So, my wife and I and my oldest son went to Memphis for my sister's surprise 50th birthday. I know the story. So we flew to Memphis. I've got a small plane. It's a four seater plane.
big enough for us and some luggage, right? And it's 50 years old. It's a 50 year old plane. Not that like all the guts are new. It's got a new engine. It's got new avionics. It's got a new alternator. Just the paneling's new battery. You look at it, it's like stepping into a 1972 like Plymouth, I don't know, sled. A little bit. It's got the, it's even got the ashtrays. It does have ashtrays in it. I was just trying to picture being up there and smoking, but here's the point.
We had a bumpy trip over there, which was fine, right? We had a tailwind, we were cooking with gas, man. We were going very, very fast. It was bumpy, but not that bad because of the tailwind. Well, we had the same tailwind that took us there was the same headwind on the way back. So a couple things, and you've been with me on the plane when this has happened in the past. Couple things. One, we had a strong headwind, so we're going slow. Yeah, it was just frustrating when you watched that estimated time and it keeps going.
It just stays the same. You're like, we've been going for 20 minutes and it still says we're 50 minutes away. What's going on? Right. wait, because we're slow. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So on the way back, we're going, we're going slow. There's just no way. Nice way to say it. We went from Michael, we went from going 165 miles an hour there. Like 120 to 95. 95. That gives you some, that feels like you're standing still. If that gives you some context.
I think five miles will be back in the car. That's how fast we came coming. If my sister's driving, yeah, for sure. Anyway, that's how fast. So you take this headwind and then you take like all the thermals coming off the ground and then some cloud coverage where the cloud layers had dropped. At least it wasn't raining. It wasn't. Some it did. This is not the point. But what happened is the cloud layers dropped.
And it was a turbulent ride. And you've seen some of that, Michael, but when I say turbulent, I mean like it was, we were bouncing all over the place. To me, that would be fun. Well, it was not fun. I was fine. And this is the whole point of this conversation. Keep going with that thought. Well, I'd say to me, it'd be fun because like I've been skydiving and stuff like that. So like, I think it's like an adventure. My only part where I start worrying is when the engine makes a weird noise. Right.
or you look panicked. If you look panicked, then I get a little worried. Okay. Have you seen me panicked? No. Thank you for saying that. I appreciate that. Because we had a moment. There has been some moments where there's been panic. And your panic turned into decision making. Yes. That's what that was. That's what that is, is decision making. Yeah. We went from, we were going home to we're going down right now. I think, but yeah, anyway, I'm not going to get into that. There's other stories for that, but I promise you, if you're listening right now, I'm going somewhere.
Okay, so Heather hasn't done a cross country with me before, not to that level. Okay, Connor has a few times, but not with that turbulence. Okay, Heather's up front, Connor's in the back. And when I say we're dropping, we're dropping five and 10 feet at a time, like just where it just drops, the plane falls out of the sky. So your butt comes out of the chair. Exactly, a little bit, right? And then air traffic control says, hey, you need to drop under this cloud layer, which is fine. Totally get that.
My plane is equipped with very high end, good equipment. Okay. I'm making a note for that. All right. And the reason I say that, and the FAA, if you're listening, ATC asked me to go down and they asked if I was equipped for it. Okay. So she's going to say that. So I was equipped to get down underneath the layer. The plane did all the work and it got,
zero visibility. We went into instrument meteorological conditions, which I'm not allowed to fly in. That was a mistake, but I got out of it very, very quickly. Okay. I'm not allowed to knowingly do that. And I didn't knowingly do that. I thought I was going through a hole. And to me, you're just kind of passing through to get to the legal area. Correct. Correct. So visibility is gone. You're inside of a cloud, which is the coolest feeling by the way. It's unique. You shouldn't know that, but you do. Anyway.
Anyway, so we're going, we're going through this cloud. It's very turbulent in the tap. The cloud is, it's a big cloud layer. It's like 2 ,500 feet of cloud. Whoa. Okay. So you're just hanging out. It's in, we're in going down and, but you don't know you're going down. If you're not looking at instruments. Why never looked out the window. Heather's looking out the window. Heather's feeling turbulence when you're in a cloud.
going even slightly a hundred feet per minute, barely, right? Going down through a cloud. It feels like you're going 10 ,000 miles an hour and you think you're going to die. Yeah, cause you're like, you're waiting for the land to pop up. That's right. And you don't know when that's going to happen. And I know that. Okay. So here's the deal. Pilot and command, right? I'm cool. I'm fine. I'm glued to the instrument cluster. Listen, Heather starts tearing up. She's scared.
Connor starts getting nauseous in the back. He's scared, right? They're very, very nervous. And then I realized for just a second, I'm glued to the instruments. I have all the data I need to make good decisions. I've got my airspeed indicator, normal. I've got my horizon. It's totally normal based on the bank angle that I'm at, okay? I've got all of my instruments on my engine instruments. Everything is in the green and normal. There was a point.
where I was in 100 % trust of my instruments. Yeah. Of all the indications that were giving me. And I was in the thick of turbulence. People are freaking out in the airplane. I'm in conditions I'm not supposed to be in, but all of my instruments are indicating properly and I'm the pilot in command. Okay. Okay. I'm trusting the data of all of my training, all of the historical data, all of the things that I know to be true. Right.
with the instruments being fully in control. Okay. The people who don't have that training, the people who are experiencing this alongside with me, who haven't been in the plane as much, who haven't been through these conditions, who don't understand the data that's being presented to them. They don't have the same level of understanding that I have to be able to keep calm, level headed and to get through the cloud. Okay. We're post COVID.
You don't have 200 clients a day coming through the door. Right? I see the connection. Right. You have a team that may be freaking out on you a little bit. They don't understand going into the summer months. You've been through 20 summer months. They've been through one. You know, honestly, we could easily apply that. It's like when we bring on new team members and we say like, all right, just a fair warning.
Q1 is very rough. It's going through a cloud with turbulence and it's going down. Like, because like this is our physics run with the Q1 stuff. And for the people that are listening that don't have a marketing agency, which is majority of you guys, Q1 is a rough time for marketing agencies because that is, it's a new year. We don't want you anymore. it's a new year. Can we talk? And then it's like up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up,
Yeah. We just hired somebody to replace you. Yeah. We just sold by the way. Can you disconnect? You know, it's a, that is just the thing in the Q1 world. What happens in Q3? Let's see Q3. It starts at the end of summer, August, September, October, and in the fall even Q2 and Q3. Yeah. Let's go. Let's go. Hey, what do you got? Let's go. I got more money. Let's spend it. Yeah. And then, and then right, right. Right. When Thanksgiving, December 1st hits.
crickets. No changes. It's just stalled. Yeah, they're just like, we're not growing. We're not we're not shrinking. It's just everybody's distracted during that time. Yeah. And then they'll say, we'll talk to you in January. We'll talk to you in January. So let's take this to a clinic.
We'll just start in the holiday season. We'll go Q4, Q1, right? Yeah. You're probably seeing more patients than you've seen all year. Yeah. All right? Weather change. People are getting together family -wise. Everybody's getting sick off everybody. Things slow down, right? You get through Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. You get on the other side of it. People are making goals, but they've also slowed down a little bit. So they're getting sick. Their bodies are...
Yep. And they need that. Like everybody gets sick in freaking January and February. And then school starts back. School starts back. All the germs put together and then people start getting sick again. And then so. And you're busy. You're busy. And then here comes the bug that everybody's getting. Right. That phrase always pops up. So there's some bug going around right now. And then and then and then summer comes. Yes. And it slows down dramatically. Yeah. So for the urgent care is listening, we feel your pain.
The summer is extremely slow for you guys. So slow that we have clinics that change their hours, temporarily close certain locations and just kind of put, you know, move resources around. It's just the nature of it. The only exception to this rule, if you are in a vacation town that blows up. So like in Alabama, if your clinics are in Gulf Shores, which we have visited one personally, because we had a sick child while we were in Gulf Shores and it was a great experience.
But you're blowing up. But then they fall apart during the winter months. I'm going to say winter is dead as a door now. It just flips for them, right? It just flips. But yeah, it's coming. Or you know what? Somebody quits. That's a key player. You have a nurse practitioner that finds another job or your front desk. It's a lady, and she has a baby, and she's out on maternity leave for 13 weeks plus her vacation.
you know, whatever that is. Here's the point I'm trying to make, going back to the airplane, is I was equipped with training and data. The people around me were not equipped with training and data. They had to trust me. And they were responding that those tears didn't last long. Connor's nerves didn't last long. Because I was like, hey, I've been here before. Yeah. Hey, our instruments look fantastic. Let's go to the clinic real quick.
We have patient volume, it looks good. Our cost per acquisition on our patients looks really good. We're getting repeat visits because we're asking for them. You know, that looks really good. I can see what's going on. Don't look at the volume coming through the door. Look at the data. Hey, all of our billing and our coding is set up. We're doing good. We're getting reimbursements. We're getting paid. Our marketing is in line and they're ahead of the problems that are coming for summer.
And then one I forgot was employee turnovers low. Turnovers low. I love that. That's a great indicator, by the way. Employee turnover is low. We're getting positive feedback from our patients. So we may be going through a storm, we may be going through a cloud, we may be dropping, right? But all of the indicators that we measure inside of our clinic look good. Yeah, we're okay. Yep. And we're going to come out on the other side of this. Right? So.
How are you supposed to create that stability and that foundation for you and your team around you, who's all of a sudden going, why are we changing our hours over the summer? Or why are you pressuring me for all these pictures? You want to know how you provide that because you have good data in front of you that you're measuring regularly and consistently. You're keeping that information in front of your team. You're pitching where you're going, and what you're going through is just on the way to where you're going. Yeah. Right?
you're making changes based on the data and the feedback that you're getting. You're plugged into a system, a group of people that are giving you good data like air traffic control. You know what I'm saying? But you're plugged in to a group of people that are showing you what it could and should look like so that when you're going through the garbage, you have good indicators. Right? I'm making a, I don't think it's too cheesy. This is a real world application, right? But you're going to go through some storms.
and you're going to have to hold it together for your team. So one of the things there too, Sue, I think sometimes people forget. So if you are like an active, if you are the owner and active doctor inside your clinic, it's hard to remember that you have two patients. You have the patients that come through the door and you have the patients that's your team. Because if you're not paying attention to your team, they're going to start feeling falling apart. And reason why is because they look for that leadership out of you. At the end of the day, like they need guidance. They need
reassurance, they need that caring hand and listening ear too. Because some people, like you said, like, if it's their first rodeo for summer, they're like, is this okay? Are you about to close? Yeah, like, do I need to start updating my resume right now? Like that mindset? And so and we see it all the time. But so even like right here, it's like, you know, we have our little ups and downs here inside the agency. And if we just reacted to everything that happened, it would just
be rough on the team. Well, I mean, the way I react today, the way you react today, you've always been level headed, man. That's not even fair. But I came from a terrible place. Yes. The way I react today in year six versus and how I'll react 10 years from now. Right. But the way I react to things today versus the way I reacted year two and year three in the business. Totally different. Yep. Totally different. The world's not on fire. No.
Because well, there's a lot that's changed there. I've got indicators. I've got data. Yep. Right. I've done it before. You got mileage. And when, when people around here, like I had the sweetest team member Izzy leave me a little sticky note because I had a moment the other day where I was frustrated with the situation. I didn't blow my top or anything like that. I was not here to witness. But it was enough where I'm like, Hey, I'm tired of it. Y 'all like say something good or don't talk.
Right? Because there's been some stuff, right? I agree. Like, gosh, there are lots of moments that, you know, you can lean into the negatives so quickly and not you, but just in general and not let go. And then you quickly forget all the positive things that were like, it just, we have to have these hard reminders, like bring it. What are the wins this week? You know, why don't I have any like, yes, you do. Just think about it. So timing. Why am I bringing this up now, Michael? You are coming out of a busy season.
Urgent care clinics. You are about to wrap up spring and you're going to go into summer school is going to be letting out. It's May 1st at the time of this recording. Okay. Yeah. I think May 2nd, maybe I can't remember. May 2nd is today. It's May 2nd at the time of this recording. My kids are about to be out of school. I'm traveling all summer long. It's going to be crazy. Like I've got, I've never traveled this much in my life. I'm not complaining either. I'm looking forward to it, but,
That means like lots of people are vacationing. Things are changing in the households right now. There's going to be a lot less people visiting your urgent cares. And I want you to take a look at your indicators and I want to encourage you to project confidence and strength to your team. Not because you're faking it, but because you have good data in front of you that you can put in front of the team and say this. We're good y 'all. It's going to be fine. We're good.
You know, one of the things too, I think a lot of people miss out on is when there is a when you know slow time is coming, that's when you reinvest into your business. Not so much of like just throwing money at something hoping it fixes. No, like, hey, let's take a look at our office. What can we improve here while it's slow? Slaps on paint on those walls, you know, please. I mean, not hating on urgent cares, but there are lots like recently I've been going to a pain clinic for my lower back thing.
And I know they make money because my goodness, they are turning through people like crazy. All that being said, you go in, you can see the scuff marks in each exam room. They have duct tape on their chairs. Right. No, literally like black duct tape. I know it. Black duct tape. And I'm just saying - That's a sign of a busy clinic, y 'all. I'm just saying. Well, that, right. Because it's either a sign of a clinic that has cashflow issues or a sign of a clinic that's too busy to - You're right. And it's hard to pick which one.
Well, it depends. So I look at it this way. I was taught a long time ago in one of my classes that if you walk into a grocery store, he used to run grocery store distribution centers. His biggest clients like Kroger. Anyway, he said, if you walk into a retail spot, especially a grocery store or a Walmart or something like that, and you look up and there are bulbs that are out, like maintenance hasn't done its thing.
they have cashflow issues because they're skipping out on the $50, $100, $200 fixes that need to happen because they're just saying it'll be all right. So spend that to an urgent care. If you walk in, like it's either, if I walk into a medical clinic and the walls look scuffed up, the furniture needs replacing and there's low staff, they have a cashflow issue. If it's high staff and people are just buzzing, they're not twiddling thumbs.
and it's got scuffed up stuff. They just don't care because they need to hire. Well, or they just quick like we're making money. Nobody cares. This looks like that's not why they're here. So we care. But talking about it on a podcast right now. Yeah. Well, and I say at the end of the day, like you, there's a presentation to your, your clinic. And my goodness, when we went to the UCA, we ran, we ran to some clinics, clinic owners, has some gorgeous clinics.
Like really cool. I think you pediatric clinics are really got to figure it out. So y 'all go the extra mile with colors and just making the environment more friendly. So in all of them, you have a mascot is fantastic. Yeah, it's great. One of our friends, your kids urgent care has Doc McFrogans. Yeah. Yeah. Doc McFrogans. Yes. But anyway, all that being said, like, like these are things like take the opportunity when things are slow, make some improvements. Maybe you sit down and do like a staff style retreat type thing that kind of get people involved to.
and like understand each other a little bit better. These are just opportunities. Cause we know too, like here, like when we have our slow times, it's okay to breathe. I would also, I want to interject on this because even though we do social media, this is a great time when it slows down, like when there's some gap in your patient volume, that's where you go around and like just interview a team member. Tell me about what you do here. Hey, let me, let me, the doctor tell you why I think this person is awesome. And put that out on your social media, man. You had to find, make it personal. People are going to remember that they're going to come in when.
they need you. Or do like in the day of and you have like a day off for each of your team members. Outfit of the day and everybody has scrubs on. Yeah. Hey, look at me. I've got my blue scrubs on. Next person comes up. Hey, look at me. I've got my blue scrubs on. Exactly. But that would actually be funny. I think that'd be a good TikTok. But or like you just say here, you're going to run social media for a day and like show your point of view, that type of thing. Because I mean, you got to be creative. You got to have a little bit of fun. Sometimes people forget about the fun part. You know, they're just sitting there processing, processing, processing.
But that's just a reminder. It's okay to be slow, but be prepared. Well, more importantly than anything in the whole point of this episode was just simply to encourage you to lead through the turbulence. Lead through it, all right? Your team doesn't have the information that you have and they're looking at you for your leadership during this time. Yeah.
That was the whole point of it. I said all of this in 23 minutes and 54 seconds to say that one thing. Yeah. And so, and so to kind of wrap that up too, if you're flying the plane with Heather and Connor, if you told like you told him upfront, this is going to be a very rough ride. It's going to be a bumpy ride. It's going to be okay. And here's why. So when it starts happening, you're okay. Okay. You know, the prep, right? So when you're talking to your clinics and you're like, we're in May, we're about to hit summer hard. This is what's going to happen.
No reason to worry. We're used to this. And this is what we're going to do during that time. Okay. Man, that cuts back on the question. And let me tell you this, just going back to the plan, I told you Heather teared up a little bit and I was like, everything is okay. I just want you to know that. And I just kind of patted her leg. Cause I,
I understand. I'll put her in that situation. At least it wasn't. At least her headphones worked. Yeah, that's right. That's right. I was just along for the ride that one time. you're right. Your headphones didn't work, did they? I forgot about that. We have new avionics now. We're good. But I remember her saying, she goes, I don't know what's going on, but I trust you. Trust you. Right? Your team is going, hey, I don't know what's going on right now, but I trust you. Yep. So anyway.
All right. That's what I got. There you go. Well, thank you guys. Listen to their episode. Please go look on the video because we got a really cool background here. Also, I'm going to change colors. It's going to get just fine. This if you watch on YouTube because you're going to see like a progression of flashing of colors. There you go. We have to put an epilepsy disclaimer on here. It was all a mistake anyway. But thank you guys for coming on. We'll have more updates. Our podcast room soon and we'll catch you on the next one. Have a great week.
