Welcome to episode 34 of Baktari MD! While we do have our own podcast, Dr. Bakatri is also featured on many others as a guest! Here we have some of the BEST tips for taking your business to the next level! Check out the full episode below for all of the tips and trick you need are right here! Find out all of this and more in the full episode!
Jonathan Baktari MD is the CEO of eNational Testing, e7 Health, & US Drug Test Centers. Jonathan Baktari MD brings over 20 years of clinical, administrative, and entrepreneurial experience. He has been a triple board-certified physician specializing in internal medicine, pulmonary, and critical care medicine.
Jonathan Baktari MD is a preeminent, national business thought leader interviewed in The Washington Post, USA Today, Forbes, Barron’s, and many other national publications. He is also an opinion writer for The Hill and the Toronto Star.
He is the host of a highly-rated podcast Baktari MD as well as a guest on over 50 podcasts. Jonathan Baktari MD was formerly the Medical Director of The Valley Health Systems, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and Culinary Health Fund. He also served as clinical faculty for several medical schools, including the University of Nevada and Touro University.
Jonathan Baktari MD is also the author of the highly-rated course High Converting Call Class where he shares his secrets of increasing revenue through incoming phone calls.
This content was produced in association with our affiliated partners:
High Converting Call Class: https://www.highconvertingcallclass.com/
eNational Testing: https://www.enationaltesting.com/
USDTC : https://www.usdrugtestcenters.com/
e7 Health: https://www.e7health.com/
Do you have further questions about the content? Please leave your question in the comments below so I can make an episode about it. Also, I’d love to hear any suggestions you may have for future content.
Video Podcast: https://youtu.be/lhW68h-QdRU
Featured Guest Podcasts:
1. @bootstrapmd-physicianentre3685
2. @JamesLaughlinOfficial
3. @JasonSherman76
4. @risingtidestartups
5. @TomFinnovation
6. @championleadership
7. @AdlavaMarketing
8. @TheProvidersEdgeTV
9. @AdamMarkel1
10. @ElonaLopari
SUBMIT YOUR BUSINESS STORY HERE: https://jonathanbaktarimd.com/contact/
For more information, please visit: https://jonathanbaktarimd.com/
Sign up for my NEWSLETTER here: https://ns.jonathanbaktarimd.com/
#BAKTARIMD #BUSINESS #PODCAST #CEO
SOCIAL:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/baktarimd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baktarimd/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BaktariMD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/baktarimd/
Welcome to episode 34 of Baktari MD! While we do have our own podcast, Dr. Bakatri is also featured on many others as a guest! Here we have some of the BEST tips for taking your business to the next level! Check out the full episode below for all of the tips and trick you need are right here! Find out all of this and more in the full episode!
Jonathan Baktari MD is the CEO of eNational Testing, e7 Health, & US Drug Test Centers. Jonathan Baktari MD brings over 20 years of clinical, administrative, and entrepreneurial experience. He has been a triple board-certified physician specializing in internal medicine, pulmonary, and critical care medicine.
Jonathan Baktari MD is a preeminent, national business thought leader interviewed in The Washington Post, USA Today, Forbes, Barron’s, and many other national publications. He is also an opinion writer for The Hill and the Toronto Star.
He is the host of a highly-rated podcast Baktari MD as well as a guest on over 50 podcasts. Jonathan Baktari MD was formerly the Medical Director of The Valley Health Systems, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and Culinary Health Fund. He also served as clinical faculty for several medical schools, including the University of Nevada and Touro University.
Jonathan Baktari MD is also the author of the highly-rated course High Converting Call Class where he shares his secrets of increasing revenue through incoming phone calls.
This content was produced in association with our affiliated partners:
High Converting Call Class: https://www.highconvertingcallclass.com/
eNational Testing: https://www.enationaltesting.com/
USDTC : https://www.usdrugtestcenters.com/
e7 Health: https://www.e7health.com/
Do you have further questions about the content? Please leave your question in the comments below so I can make an episode about it. Also, I’d love to hear any suggestions you may have for future content.
Video Podcast: https://youtu.be/lhW68h-QdRU
Featured Guest Podcasts:
1. @bootstrapmd-physicianentre3685
2. @JamesLaughlinOfficial
3. @JasonSherman76
4. @risingtidestartups
5. @TomFinnovation
6. @championleadership
7. @AdlavaMarketing
8. @TheProvidersEdgeTV
9. @AdamMarkel1
10. @ElonaLopari
SUBMIT YOUR BUSINESS STORY HERE: https://jonathanbaktarimd.com/contact/
For more information, please visit: https://jonathanbaktarimd.com/
Sign up for my NEWSLETTER here: https://ns.jonathanbaktarimd.com/
#BAKTARIMD #BUSINESS #PODCAST #CEO
SOCIAL:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/baktarimd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baktarimd/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BaktariMD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/baktarimd/
00:00:18:19 - 00:00:41:15
Unknown
What was the impetus for you to join all of these different committees? Were you looking to increase your own salary? Were you just curious and just want to be more involved, or was it a stepping stone to make me something greater, like being a part of your own company and starting your own company? That's a great question. I don't think anyone's ever asking that question and playing it back.
00:00:41:15 - 00:01:15:15
Unknown
I think I was just frustrated because if you get through medical school, residency, fellowship and study for three boards and you kind of keep thinking that it's going to continue, and then you realize, that's it. And I think when someone's been on this constant path of growth and the next thing I just think I wasn't ready to say there's no more next thing, I didn't know what the next thing was, but I knew I had to explore
00:01:15:17 - 00:01:38:18
Unknown
my growth, you know, once once you're seeing 20 patients a day and you've got that routine down, you're like, okay, so I do this for the next 30 or 40 years and that's it. So it just seemed like the program of growth shouldn't stop. And I think I just initially did it because I knew nothing about administrative medicine, so I didn't know.
00:01:38:20 - 00:02:01:27
Unknown
And some of the jobs I took, I didn't like, I realized what I didn't like, some of the jobs I took, I really liked. And you weren't going to figure that out until you tried it. You know, I've been essentially employed as a hospital administrator and gotten paid by a hospital. I've been employed by, you know, an insurance company and gotten paid from an insurance company.
00:02:02:00 - 00:02:29:02
Unknown
I mean, the teaching was voluntary clinical staff, but I got to teach in a medical school and teach second year medical students and third and fourth year medical. And so all of that helped you understand where you wanted to go. I think it's easy to say you would wind up where you end up anyway without those experiences. I but I, I would might argue that those experiences help shape your future decisions, if that makes sense.
00:02:29:02 - 00:02:47:13
Unknown
I don't know if you're familiar with this thing called the Peter Principle, which is that, you know, people get promoted, that they're I don't the exact phrase, but people get promoted to their level of incompetence. Yeah. You know, like it just because you're a good engineer doesn't mean you would be good as the head of the engineering department.
00:02:47:16 - 00:03:06:22
Unknown
Right. And people say, well, he's a good engineer, so he would be a great head of the engineering department. You know, he's a good accountant, so he would be great at being the head of the accounting department. Now. You could be, but you need to acquire some skills. And I think this is the tradeoff where people say, well, you know, it was my idea.
00:03:06:22 - 00:03:32:13
Unknown
I put the money in, so obviously I'd be the best person to lead it. Now, that sounds depressing, but if you then say, okay, now how do I acquire those skills? Who do I need to? Are there mentors? People I can look to who can advise me, walk me through it, hold my hands, but if you don't if you if you view leadership as soft skills, you'll never look for that or ask for help.
00:03:32:13 - 00:03:52:25
Unknown
So tell me what. I know there's a lot of mistakes, but what's the number one mistake that CEOs typically make when running a business? Yeah, I think I think the number one mistake is they think if they have the right business, by definition, it will succeed and they, you know, get the right product get the right service.
00:03:52:25 - 00:04:17:09
Unknown
It's the right thing. But the actual execution, the hiring, that enrolling people into your vision, you know, all of that is something you need to learn. And you can either learn that easier way or the hard way. I think most of us who navigated it made a lot of mistakes and we figured it out, hopefully. But ideally, it would be best if you didn't figure it out by making mistakes.
00:04:17:09 - 00:04:36:02
Unknown
But just to get the heads up and know ahead of time that there are certain things you have to do to make your business successful, even if you have a great idea, even if you have a great product, you have to execute. So a lot of people think that, you know, their billion dollar idea is the make it or break it for them.
00:04:36:02 - 00:05:03:03
Unknown
Why is that not the case? Well, it without the execution, without having a great team, you know, mistakes can be made that can be fatal. I mean, you can or you can die by a thousand cuts. You know, if you if you keep if you don't have your systems in place, you what kind of what kind of systems? Well, I mean, first of all, you got to look what depends if you're a service or if you're a product.
00:05:03:03 - 00:05:26:02
Unknown
But first of all, you have to identify initially three, four or five people who are enrolled in your vision, who don't feel it's a job that they're going to, you know, like go to the moon with you kind of thing. And I mean, how do you find those people, though? Because, I mean, you know, there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there that they struggle to find those people, especially in this new the new way the world works digitally, you know?
00:05:26:05 - 00:05:52:17
Unknown
Right, Exactly. Well, thats all that that's a whole separate question about hiring and mentoring and enrolling people in your vision. But yeah, but those are all skill sets you need to acquire. But I think the biggest mistake you can make is just assume that your great idea will work without you identifying key leaders in your organization because you can't do everything you know, LeBron James singlehandedly cannot win the championship.
00:05:52:19 - 00:06:00:23
Unknown
He needs a whole team. He needs the team. And so I think that's most common. But we have more. But I think those are the some of the more common ones.
00:06:00:23 - 00:06:12:11
Unknown
We call ourselves e7 and the E stands for, of course, the technology. The seven is really seven books of business and travel medicine is now one of the seven.
00:06:12:13 - 00:06:50:29
Unknown
So, you know, let's just say that makes up 20% of our business. So the other 20%. So we went into every book of business that vaccines were involved. So for example, there's vaccines involved in employee health, there's vaccines involved in student health, There's vaccines involved in sexually transmitted diseases. So we're in that business because there's vaccines involved. So with vaccine, you know, the way I kind of look at it is imagine you have a refrigerator full of vaccines for a travel medicine clinic, but you don't use it for anything but travel medicine.
00:06:50:29 - 00:07:14:09
Unknown
And the analogy I give is if you wanted to open up a tire shop and you had an inventory of all the tires, you know, in the United States, I mean, every single tire you could imagine, but you only decided to only sell tires to Chevrolets. That wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. So if we're going to have a vaccine full of a refrigerator, full of vaccines, we're not just going to do travel.
00:07:14:09 - 00:07:34:14
Unknown
And that was the original idea. We're not going to do just travel medicine. We're going to do employee health, student health and do study COVID. We were going we're going to do it all. If vaccines are involved, not only are you going to do the vaccine, but we're going to go vertical. So we're going to give vaccines, we're going to STD testing we’re going to do STD treatment.
00:07:34:16 - 00:07:52:08
Unknown
So whatever vaccines were involved, just like travel medicines, not all vaccines. It's writing prescriptions as food, water safety, insect precautions, you know, talking about how to stay safe, what have you. So we provide all the services around the vaccines, right. In seven different books of business.
00:07:52:08 - 00:08:05:00
Unknown
I think it's a skill set that people think they can just have because, you know, they're smart, but there's literally skill sets that you need to acquire.
00:08:05:02 - 00:08:35:12
Unknown
You know how to hire people, how to fire people, how to mentor people, you know, how to deal with crisis in the organization. What do you do when your whole system goes down or when there is a, you know, major cracks in whatever you're doing? And I think people who start businesses, you know, don't view leadership skills as a specific set of technical skills they need to acquire, they think it’s soft skills.
00:08:35:19 - 00:08:55:07
Unknown
You know, like I'm good with people, so I'm going to be a good CEO. No, that's not the case. All right. I mean, it's like flying a 747. If you put me in a cockpit at 30,000 feet and say land this 747, I can't just say, well, I'm pretty smart guy. I'll figure it out. No, the plane's going to crash.
00:08:55:09 - 00:09:23:11
Unknown
I mean, no, no, no amount of your your MBA or your law degree or medical degree is not going to land that plane. You need to acquire very specific skills to land that 747. Right. And so same thing with leadership. You can't just get it because you're a nice guy and you know a lot. You have to say, okay, these are skillsets I need to acquire.
00:09:23:18 - 00:09:43:17
Unknown
So I need to find mentors. I need to seek out those skill sets so I can be successful. Because think about it, most people become CEOs of a startup just because it was just their idea. But they're not qualified to be a CEO or they just had some money to throw at it. But then, which is fine, it's okay to do that.
00:09:43:17 - 00:09:53:09
Unknown
But then go ahead. If you're going to run an organization with, you know, dozens and dozens of people go ahead and acquire those skills because they'll maximize your chance for success.
00:09:53:09 - 00:10:16:18
Unknown
Today we have a bullet proof system that helps us close up to 80% of those inbound calls. Our High Converting Call Class will teach you how to demonstrate your authority quickly without being pushy. We believe that many businesses out there can benefit from this, and we promise to help you achieve your revenue goals by converting more of your incoming calls into actual sales.
00:10:16:21 - 00:10:26:25
Unknown
For more information, please visit our website at HighConvertingCallClass.com. Stop waiting for the sales to come to you. Put your revenue into your hands.
00:10:26:25 - 00:10:45:21
Unknown
You don't want to be the smartest guy in every room. That's definitely not the way to go. If you if you want to acquire those skills, you know, you just have to understand that, you know, I give this analogy all the time. But, you know, if I if I met Michael Jordan, I wouldn't tell him how I shoot the ball because it doesn't matter.
00:10:45:22 - 00:11:06:19
Unknown
Right. I mean, I should right. I should just be asking him tell me more, tell me more. So again so if you're if you're around and Michael Jordan and I'm yeah that's kind of highfalutin but if you're around someone who knows more than you, I don't think that's the time to give your take on it because they've been doing it for 20 years.
00:11:06:21 - 00:11:30:19
Unknown
I don't know what your your take on it means if you're just getting into it. So yeah. I mean later on once you, you know, get some of those skills, you may have an opinion but early on just understand that if you've found these mentors or consultants, you know, just shut up and listen. And, you know, that doesn't mean every mentor is the right mentor that's made every consultant a consultant.
00:11:30:26 - 00:11:36:10
Unknown
But if you do feel like you've got the right person to just be quiet.
00:11:36:10 - 00:11:53:10
Unknown
Yeah. I think it was an opportunity to understand where the friction is naturally in traditional medicine and and realize, you know, what's really important in terms of quality and service, in terms of patient satisfaction.
00:11:53:10 - 00:12:15:27
Unknown
I mean, it's almost like comical if you really think about it. What other industry do you walk in and they give you a clipboard with 30 pages of stuff on it? Yeah, that's just like frustrating for the customer too, right? But but what other industry would get away with that? Yeah, I mean, if, if you were going to go get your haircut and they gave you a clipboard with 30 pages, you know.
00:12:15:29 - 00:12:38:18
Unknown
Yeah. Or what other industry gets away with, you know, when you call the office, you know, if you want to make an appointment, dial one. Yeah. If you want your medical records, dial two. And if you want- It’s very personal. And no matter what number you dial, they'll say and we'll get back to you in 24 hours. Yeah. So I think yeah, that could be done better.
00:12:38:21 - 00:13:04:19
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, it can be done better. There's something, there's something that screams out, you know, better patient experience and quality too. I mean, we're not touching on that, but how do you improve, make sure, you know, errors aren't made. You know, like in our a lot of our software development really doesn't translate into anything financial because, you know, we spend money on things that prevent human error.
00:13:04:20 - 00:13:36:01
Unknown
Sure. So if you're going to, you know, if a patient has an allergy to something, you know, the option to give them a vaccine that they're allergic to almost doesn't exist because the system won't allow it. Sure. And so to you, if you can automate some of that stuff and get the human error component out. Yeah. You know, generally there's not a lot of ROI on that kind of sure investment per se, of course, you know, but over time, you know, it has a direct impact.
00:13:36:02 - 00:13:54:16
Unknown
It's easier for your staff. Yeah. Less paper. Right. And, and safer for the patients. And so that's really Yeah. And the one thing I always say is it just turns out coincidentally. That great quality medicine is the best business.
00:13:54:16 - 00:14:16:27
Unknown
I like the word you use transferable skills. I just think some of my colleagues don't realize how transferable those skills are. And I like the way you put it, because many of the skills I use now and of course I learn more, but many of the ones I, I use now, I look back during my clinical days and I'm like, yeah, I was actually, you know, where the buck stops with me.
00:14:16:27 - 00:14:46:12
Unknown
You know, anything that happens to the patient I own, you know, these kind of things is what CEOs of companies do. You know, everything stops with me. I own everything. I'm responsible, you know. And so I actually think being in health care, especially being on the clinical side, prepares you a lot more than you realize. I just think a lot of people just cannot take the leap of faith and, you know, just say, okay, yeah, I'm going to I'm going to get off this train and try something else.
00:14:46:12 - 00:15:03:17
Unknown
Because once you're on that express train, you know, you just think there's no getting off. You know, I'm just going to be seeing patients forever and ever and ever. And there's no other way to do health care. But see patients and seeing patients, that's great. But you can also impact patients other ways. So
00:15:03:17 - 00:15:17:01
Unknown
And then the last thing that I think most senior level people now understand about people who work remote, while there is a good 5, 10, 15% that are now just kicking butt at home.
00:15:17:03 - 00:15:40:14
Unknown
Let's be honest, there's another 80% that are walking the dog, getting a second job, whatever it is. So you're I don't have this romantic vision of working at home. And yes, if you're a bookkeeper- I'm sorry to be laughing. But I mean, I'm not sorry. That's to me, that's that's hysterical. Just the idea that there's somebody who's listening to this right now and going, my God, is that what's that?
00:15:40:14 - 00:15:59:11
Unknown
What's really going on? My people that are paying money to their they're walking the dog. They're getting a second job. Yeah, it, it I mean, look. No, but that's the thing. They'll take the one or two outliers that are killing it at home who are because of the freedom that their productivity got through the roof. Yes. But then everyone wants to point out the outlier.
00:15:59:14 - 00:16:17:14
Unknown
You and I have had lunch with people who're working from home. And come on, they tell us like, it's been great, you know, you know, I spend more time with this and I picked up this hobby and I'm doing this and and I'm doing some consulting work on the side. I've had those lunches and I hear them telling those are anecdotes.
00:16:17:14 - 00:16:36:15
Unknown
But I think my anecdotes are supported by, you know, the leadership. You know, in a lot of these organizations tell me that I realize it. And even if the productivity is same, you saw the you know, the old conversations at the WaterCooler metaphorically, like, hey, how are we going to deal with this client? You know, I think I've dealt with them before.
00:16:36:15 - 00:16:55:26
Unknown
I think, you know, this is the way you should approach. You know, you take a how is that a win? I you know, I just think I know I'm such a contrarian, but how is that a win missing out on those conversations that can't be just by definition. I think I think we're wrapped up in the romance of this new age.
00:16:56:02 - 00:17:11:01
Unknown
You know, why didn't we think of this earlier thing? But I think it's probably in a decade from now, it'll be a remnant of of COVID and, you know, yes, there will be a handful of people, but I think it will slowly fade away.
00:17:11:01 - 00:17:46:15
Unknown
Jonathan, how do you spend your time? How have you kind of manage how do you manage your day to day with the work that you are doing? Can you give us a rundown in your day to day, so to speak? Yeah, Well, now that we've gotten to a level of maturity in terms of the senior staff, a lot of it is simply having interactions and meetings with my senior staff on different topics and understanding what direction they're going in and the feedback from them.
00:17:46:18 - 00:18:41:27
Unknown
So once you have a strong team in place, you're not actually in the weeds of the operations, the day to day operations, but you're more pulled back and talking about changes of direction, services, products, strategies, as opposed to, you know, literally being in the in the trenches and operationally, you know, how everything is going that day. So I would say if you do your job well after a while, you're not involved in day to day operations, but in conjunction and in meetings with your senior staff, you talk about a more higher level strategies and and higher level thinking about how you can grow the business as opposed to just, you know, what happened today.
00:18:41:29 - 00:19:01:19
Unknown
You know, what's going to happen next. Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 of next year. And if you're if you can be spending most of your day thinking about that rather than, you know, how many how many sales did we make today or, you know, what was the revenue from last week and you know what things we need to order.
00:19:01:19 - 00:19:13:12
Unknown
And so the less operations you can be involved in day to day and the more higher level, I think that gives you a higher rate of return for your time, for your company.