160 It’s Quiet — Here’s Why Panicking Is the Worst Thing You Can Do (and What to Do Instead)

You are a clinic owner and it feels a bit quiet right now. Then this episode is for you if you’ve caught yourself refreshing your diary, wondering whether you should run an offer, post more on social media, or questioning whether you’re doing something wrong. I want you to pause. Because quiet periods do not kill clinics. Panicked decisions do.

In this episode, I’m talking you off the ledge without sugarcoating it. I’m giving you clarity, perspective for this time of year, and practical actions so you can lead your clinic properly through this season.

Episode Summary 🎧
If your diary feels a bit gappy in December, you’re not failing and nothing has suddenly gone wrong. This happens every single year. We have seasons, school holidays, weather changes, travel, and people deprioritising appointments. The problem is what we do next.

When fear kicks in, logic disappears and that’s when clinic owners make expensive decisions like rushed discounts, messy offers, adding random services, and undermining team confidence. Quiet periods don’t create instability, they reveal what’s underneath, like weak systems, inconsistent marketing, poor retention, unclear numbers, or relying too heavily on new patients.

Key Takeaways ✅

• Quiet does not mean your clinic is failing, but panicked decisions can create long term problems.
• Busy periods can hide weak systems. Quiet periods expose what needs fixing.
• Stop making decisions from emotion and start with the data. Clarity kills panic.
• Do not rush into discounts, desperate offers, or adding new services. You do not need more ideas, you need better execution of the basics.
• Reactivation beats attraction. The fastest way to fill your clinic is often past patients who already know you.
• Retention fixes more diary issues than marketing ever will. The problem is usually conversion and continuity, not demand.
• Use quiet time as CEO time to review systems, improve scripts, train your team, and strengthen foundations.
• Christmas happens every year, so plan, forecast, and project for seasonal capacity changes instead of acting surprised by them.
• Calm leaders make strong decisions, and strong decisions compound over time.

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• Book a demo or get in touch for support via their website

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Katie Bell: You are a clinic owner and it feels a bit quiet right now. Then this episode is for you if you've caught yourself refreshing your diary, wondering whether you should run an offer post more on social media questioning whether you are doing something wrong. I want you to pause. Because quiet periods do not kill clinics.

[00:00:23] Panicked decisions do. Today I wanna talk to you a little bit off the ledge, I guess not by sugarcoating things, by giving you clarity, giving you some perspective at this time of year, and some very practical actions so you can lead your clinic properly through 

[00:00:40] this season.

[00:00:41] Speaker 3: Today's episode is sponsored by Jane, a clinic management software and EMR. The Jane team knows that when your workday is spent providing care to your patients or your clients, it can feel like there aren't enough hours in the day for the rest of your admin tasks. This can mean scheduling appointments become.

[00:01:00] The hours tasks turning what should be restful evenings into extra long work days. That's why Jane has designed user-friendly online bookings. You can give your patients freedom to book their appointments at their own convenience. Patients can also manage their appointments, fill out intake forms, and enable SMS and email reminders.

[00:01:18] From their secure online portal, which saves you from having to do it manually to see how Jane can help you reclaim your evenings and weekends. Head to the link in the show notes to book a personalized demo. Or if you're ready to get started, you can use the code Thrive one mo at the time of sign up for a one month grace period.

[00:01:35] Apply to your new account.

[00:01:39] Katie Bell: Welcome to the Treat Your Business podcast, the show for clinic owners who want real, honest advice and tried and tested ways of doing things. I'm Katie Bell, and this is the new era of bigger insights and bolder conversations to help you grow a clinic and a life you love. Let's dive in.

[00:01:57] Okay? Welcome 

[00:02:00] to this week's episode of The Treat Your Business Podcast. If you are in the Christmas mayhem I am praying for you because I cannot believe it is the 16th of December already, 17th of December already. And Christmas is less than 10 days away. This is just a wild concept for me. It feels like it's just arrived.

[00:02:19] And with that, we all feel a bit in a frenzy. It's all a bit overwhelming. A million things to be doing and including making sure you've done Fecking elf on the shelf every day of December. So let's start with this. Let's bring some perspective to our businesses. Quiet. Huh? Quiet. If only quiet does not mean your clinic is failing.

[00:02:47] At this time of year, I often hear clinic owners say, oh, I feel like it's gonna a bit quiet. It's a bit patchy. The diaries are a bit gappy. People are not converting we're not selling packages at this time of year. It's a bad time of year. People have got no money. They're all spending on Christmas presents.

[00:03:02] Nobody gets paid. They've had to spend all the money on Christmas before they get paid. Again. This does not mean that you are a bad business owner. If you are, you've got gaps and. It feels quiet in your clinic. It does not mean that something has suddenly gone wrong. This happens every single year.

[00:03:22] We have seasons, we have school holidays, we have weather changes. We have people traveling, deprioritizing appointments, telling themselves they'll sort it next month, and yet every year, clinic owners act surprised by it. What usually happens. Is this, you are really busy, so you assume busy is normal. Then it dips and your brain immediately goes to danger.

[00:03:47] And once fear kicks in, all of our logic then disappears. So you don't need reassurance that it's normal. You need leadership in how you respond to it. And I totally get it when it's quiet, when it feels gappy, when it feels bitty. We have these moments of. Utter panic. I've gotta pay the bills. I've got staff to pay.

[00:04:08] How am I gonna pay myself? Christmas is a big expense for you as well and your family, and it can feel a very stressful time of the year. So let's talk about why panic is so damaging. But it's a really normal human response, like your brain is wired for survival. It is not wired to thrive, okay?

[00:04:27] Which is why the majority of people have average incomes and live average lives. Because we are wired for survival. So panic is actually the most expensive response that you can have. Clinic owners panic because they do things like. Run Black Friday offers or Christmas offers that they just later regret because it just doesn't serve them whatsoever.

[00:04:55] They run rushed offers that end up attracting the wrong type of clients. They had random services because someone's once asked about it. They undermine their team's confidence 'cause they panic in their leadership style. First of all, what I see is that they start making decisions from emotion, rather from data.

[00:05:14] And once you do some of that, all of that, you don't just solve this kind of short-term dip, you then create long-term problems. And we feel like this. If we treat this temporary dip like a permanent problem, you then create a permanent mess. So busy periods hide weak systems. I'm gonna say that again. Busy periods hide weak systems, quiet periods, expose them.

[00:05:47] Quiet periods, expose weak leadership, quiet periods expose. Poor performing team, quiet periods expose a lack of marketing strategy. This can feel really uncomfortable, but actually it's incredibly useful. Most of the fear I see at this time of year doesn't actually come from the diary. It comes from what's underneath it.

[00:06:16] So it comes from that you are relying heavily on new patients to survive. It's that you are relying heavily on pay-as-you-go sessions, inconsistent follow-ups. No clear reactivation process. You don't really know your numbers, you aren't really managing your team, and so any quiet period then can feel really threatening because there's actually no stability underneath it all.

[00:06:48] And this is like building a house on really poor foundations. Every seasonal change feels like a storm. Every budget announcement feels like a storm. Every seasonal holiday feels like a storm. Quite periods don't actually cause the instability, but they actually reveal, they reveal a lot behind it. And this is not me just judging you. This is just information that I am giving you based on working with hundreds and hundreds of clinic owners and being a clinic owner myself. When things like this happen, the first place we always have to look at is ourselves.

[00:07:31] What is going on there? One of the biggest things I often see is when people are busy, for those of you who are not watching me on video, I'm using the quote marks out with my hands. For those of you, when you are really busy and you've got lots of clients booking in and it feels, you take your foot off the gas with marketing, so your marketing tap is on and off and on and off and on and off all the way through the year.

[00:07:53] And so we don't create any consistency. So I wanna be really clear here. When it is quiet, do not panic, discount. Do not run desperate last minute offers. 

[00:08:05] I was gonna say don't blame yourself or your team, but actually this is your responsibility. So you don't need to blame yourselves, but you need to take responsibility for it.

[00:08:17] You don't need to add any complexity. We don't need to add any, random services. And you don't suddenly need to decide everything needs changing. You definitely don't need more ideas right now. 100%. You just need better execution of the basics. I had a great session last week and it was the, a boardroom in the boardroom with KB and spoiler alert, I'm back in the new year like.

[00:08:46] Not a lot, but I am back and I'm back running some in the boardroom with KB sessions and they are gonna be small, intimate, online sessions where you are going to get me on a one-to-one basis in a group format up. But I'm gonna coach you one-to-one on your biggest perceived challenge in your business right now, whatever you think that is.

[00:09:04] And anyway one of our programs, our evolve program. I had just finished and the four ladies entered a competition. I got 'em to do some things and if they did it, they got a session with me and these four ladies did. And one of the fabulous ladies that came on was talking to me about her biggest challenge being marketing and particularly new patients coming through the door.

[00:09:27] And when we dug into that. There was so many different things that she offered. There was absolutely no way her marketing was going to land for anybody. She was trying to be everything to everybody, and therefore she was being nothing to nobody. And there was so many ideas and so many things going on that I felt completely overwhelmed by it.

[00:09:49] And therefore she definitely would feel overwhelmed and so would her clients. So my point I'm making here is. Simplify. Simplify needs to be your word of 2026. Most of you are running over complicated businesses. You just need to be better at executing on the basics. Calm clinics don't do more.

[00:10:11] They just do the right things consistently. So what do you do instead? Let's talk about what actually helps. Number one, get out of emotion. Get out of emotion, and into numbers. The first thing I always say when people go, oh, I feel like my diary's a bit gap. Its a bit quiet. What does that actually mean?

[00:10:32] Because. When you look at your dairy and it appears gappy quiet, what it, what does that mean in comparison to your what your capacity is? What's your break even figure? Where do, where are we sat on that scale? Are we like, fuck this? Oh shit, I just swore, sorry, I just swore again. Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry about that f that my mouth there.

[00:10:56] Is it that we are. Panicky, Pete, because we are not even going to break even this month. Or actually, is it that I've just got one or two gaps or is it across the board? In your team you are usually running at 95% capacity and you've dropped to 87% capacity, but actually your break even is 45, 50% capacity.

[00:11:19] We're still okay. We don't need to panic, but we need to think about projecting better for the following year. Before you feel anything, look at the data. What have the last 90 days actually looked like? How does it compare to the same time last year? Is it quieter? Is it just not at peak capacity? And this is where most panic dissolves here, because clarity actually kills panic.

[00:11:43] You cannot lead a clinic from assumptions. So many make assumptions. They ban the word about, I'm a bit quiet, I'm a bit gappy. What does that actually mean? So my first action point for you is look back at previous years. What does that look like? What is your capacity or your occupancy normally? And where are we at now?

[00:12:09] And then moving forwards from here on in guys. 'cause I hate to break this to you, but Christmas happens every single year. And I want to reassure you that. For a lot of people that I'm talking to in the industry, they are closing on Friday of shit this week. Oh my goodness. Christmas is next week.

[00:12:31] This week, and they are not reopening until the new year. That is a wild concept to me. We are open on Christmas Eve. We are open on New Year's Eve. We are opening any times between that, that we can, because, a, we have the team to be able to do that, but b, that is an enormous amount of downtime. Now if you plan for it, if you decide that's what you are gonna do as a clinic, then you need to project for it.

[00:12:52] That's what's gonna happen. You therefore have a lot less capacity to make that revenue. So you've gotta plan, forecast, project better. Number two, reactivation actually beats attraction every single time. The fastest way to fill a clinic is not by getting new patients. It's people who already know you.

[00:13:14] Quiet periods are the perfect time to call past patients. Oh, okay. So I don't feel like I can do that. I feel like I'm selling. Get out of your own way. What if you just. A sample of your clients who came to see you in September, October and November and have not rebooked with a hi. It's Joanne from Joanne, a physio and wellness clinic.

[00:13:38] I just wanted to personally check in with you as we approach Christmas to see how you are getting on a part of our service is that we always like to do a little check in a few months after I noticed that you've not had another appointment or you were here to see me about your shoulder.

[00:13:50] How is it, is there anything I can help you with and. You'll reactivate between 10 and 30% of your patients just by having those conversations. You don't need to be hard selling. You can just have a conversation. Check in with people who dropped off early. Has life got in the way? Are you, have you been super busy?

[00:14:10] Are you not prioritizing your own health? Follow up on people who you've discharged. Check in. How are they? Are you still good? Is there anything we can help you with? If not, I really hope that you have a fabulous Christmas and New Year, and I I'm always here in the new year. If you need me for any reason, reach out from a place of service, not selling.

[00:14:30] It's not about discounts, it's about leading. It's about owning. What you do, providing that exceptional experience, that real quality amongst how you do things. Keep it simple, keep it human really effective. Number three, tighten retention before you chase leads. So if your diary feels super quiet or just quiet, ask yourself, right?

[00:14:56] Are treatment plans being recommended Clearly every single time? Do we have a process? Even if you are a sole trader, do I have a process? If you are a big company, this there is non-negotiable. You need a process. Are follow ups being positioned confidently? Or have we got some team members that are struggling with this conversation and need some more support?

[00:15:18] Are you leading patients or are you leaving the decisions to them with a you could just come back in a few weeks and see how you're getting on, just, you ring me, I'll leave it with an open book appointment. What retention fixes, more diary issues than marketing ever. Ever. Will.

[00:15:36] The problem is rarely demand. It's usually conversion and it's usually continuity. So making, in fact, we did this on a recent strategy day in October. We looked at what if I was to make a 5% change, a 10% improvement in this, and we scaled that up over a year. It, we were talking about serious amounts of cash, like tens and tens of thousands of pounds by fixing your retention problem.

[00:16:02] Number four, use your quiet as CEO time. So this is the part most clinic owners miss, and when I catch them saying, so I have an admin day on a Thursday, I'm like what? What the fuck is an admin day, first of all? As a business owner, you absolutely do not need to have an admin day. You need to be paying somebody else to do your admin because that isn't actually gonna generate you a lot more revenue in your business.

[00:16:29] If your admin is business development, then call it a business development day. Quiet time is not. Failure, not failure. It's time when you can review your systems. You can improve your scripts. You can train the team. You can just check in with your team. You can be present in your clinic when you are not behind the treatment room door.

[00:16:49] You could refine your packages. You could strengthen the foundations. You could optimize one of your processes. You don't build a great clinic when it's actually busy. You protect its future when it's quiet. So lean into any space that you have right now to review what is working and what is not working.

[00:17:14] And here is the thing. You don't need to fix everything, but you need to look at what is. If I was to really throw all my attention at one thing in the next quarter of in the quarter of next year, the first quarter of next year, what is that one thing that is going to make me more profit or get me more time back?

[00:17:38] You need to work out what your constraint is, your biggest constraint. Is stopping you from moving forwards. Another great question that was brought to the boardroom was like, when do I get a va? And I was like it's not the case of when it's now that should have happened. If you are, I don't care actually what level you are.

[00:18:01] You are at some level. At some point in your business, you will all require a virtual assistant or a personal assistant, or a combination of both. And as you get busier and you value your time more, you are gonna increase how much you use of them and what they do for you. But if you are billing, answering calls, answering your emails, booking appointments, doing all of that shit, like your time is worth so much more.

[00:18:26] So if you're not making the money that you wanna make, stop doing all the small jobs. Because you only have a certain capacity, you only have a certain think about your battery, you only have a certain amount of energy left in that battery. And for me, your energy needs to go on building your business for a resilient sustainable future.

[00:18:50] It needs to go on high worth activities that will generate your business to make more profit and get you more time back. And it needs to be spent with your family and your friends doing the things that you love to do. 'cause that is what running a business is actually all about. So busy clinics survive on momentum.

[00:19:12] We've all had that moment. It's great. It's called traction. Oh, we're just, we're just rolling with it. It's great. We're busy. So we're just masking all the shit underneath that we've not actually dealt with. Strong clinics are therefore built in these quieter seasons. So the mindset shift that you re you need right now is that every successful clinic owner you admire.

[00:19:35] Or every business owner that you have admire has been through this multiple times. The difference isn't that they avoided quiet periods, it's that they didn't unravel when it arrived. They pivoted, they quickly took action. They doubled down on their own mindset on what is going on for them right now.

[00:19:57] And calm leaders therefore make strong decisions. They don't. Muck about making or slowing down decisions on a team that are not performing or that it's not working for them. Calm leaders make strong decisions. Strong decisions compound over a period of time this season, elf on the Shelf will pass, but the decisions you make now about your pricing, about your positioning, about your leadership, about your marketing, about your software, your systems, your processes, your team will last.

[00:20:32] So your job isn't to eliminate these quiet periods. Your job is to become the kind of leader who doesn't panic when 

[00:20:41] they happen.

[00:20:43] I really hope this episode 

[00:20:45] helped you to re-listen with your numbers in front of you to take one calm strategic action this week. 

[00:20:55] And. My ask of you is that you don't panic. You lean 

[00:21:04] into why this has been sent for you. What message is the universe trying to deliver to you that you are just ignoring by getting busier?

[00:21:15] And if you want more support, because what you've heard has now opened up a whole fucking can of worms of, I don't actually know the stuff I really need to know. Or again, your mindset is the biggest thing that is holding you back from really investing in you and yourself and your growth and your potential.

[00:21:37] Then reach out. Let's just have a conversation like I've just recommended. You have a conversation with your clients. This is the time of year that a lot of wobbles happen, and it's exactly the type of work that we do within our coaching programs. You're not behind. You are just in a season and seasons change.

[00:21:58] We are here to support you wherever you are at right now, but don't be your biggest barrier. I am gonna be back next week with something a little bit different. If you are into a little bit of a woo, a little bit of way, then I'm gonna be talking about some of the changes that I have been doing personally.

[00:22:21] How can I give, tell you this without giving you a kind of, maybe I'll just tell you some changes that I've been making personally to change the energy of my home. To impact all aspects of my life. And if you are anybody listening to this who's into energy work, who's into universe, law of attraction and getting out your own way, 'cause you are genuinely wanting to become a better version of yourself in 2026, then you need to listen in next week.

[00:22:51] Look forward to seeing you. 

[00:22:53] Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Treat Your Business podcast. Hit subscribe now and keep joining me for bigger insights, older conversations to help you build a clinic and a life you love.