The Business of Orthobiologics Podcast

Marketing Lessons From a Successful Orthopedic Practice | Conversations in Regen Episode 29

• Ariana De Mers

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Are you struggling with medical practice marketing and wondering how successful orthopedic practices consistently attract the right patients?
Visit my Website: https://pxllnk.co/AD/BOBsite : Discover the Business of Orthobiologics

This episode is created primarily for physicians, healthcare providers, and medical professionals interested in building thriving regenerative medicine practices. However, patients and anyone curious about the future of orthopedic care and practice growth are welcome to watch and learn.

In this episode of Conversations in Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Ariana DeMers—known as the Queen of Business Orthobiologics—welcomes Dr. John Broussard, co-owner of Alliance Regen & Rehab, for an insightful conversation about the real-world marketing lessons behind building a successful cash-based orthopedic practice.

Many physicians believe that excellent clinical skills alone are enough to grow a practice. Dr. Broussard shares why today's healthcare landscape demands a different approach and explains how medical practice marketing, community outreach, and authentic patient education have helped his practice grow without relying on insurance referrals.

Throughout the discussion, viewers will discover practical healthcare marketing strategies, including how to build a strong local presence, leverage Google Business Profile, create content that converts patients instead of simply collecting likes, and use online marketing for doctors to consistently attract high-intent patients. The conversation also explores how physicians can implement these strategies while building successful practices centered around orthobiologics and regenerative medicine.

Whether you're launching a new regenerative medicine clinic, transitioning toward a cash-based model, or simply looking for smarter ways to grow your practice, this episode delivers actionable insights that physicians can begin applying immediately.

Building a successful cash-based orthobiologic practice is not a single decision. It is a series of the right decisions made in the right order. The Business of Orthobiologics offers three distinct programs designed to meet physicians at different stages of readiness — whether you are just beginning to explore PRP, ready to build a full practice system, or committed to going all-in on a comprehensive transformation.

Learn More here: https://thebusinessoforthobiologics.com/programs-explanation 

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SPEAKER_02

Don't assume who's gonna say yes and who's gonna say no. Just treat everyone the same like they're ready to sign up today to do the treatment.

SPEAKER_01

You uh get to choose uh uh the patients that you want to serve. If you have patients that you don't want to serve, they're not for you. Content that converts is different than content that gets likes. So stop just getting likes. If you're spending more than that, please stop because it can't be done a cheaper. I am so excited to have everybody here today. This is one of my favorite topics, and this is the show where we go beyond clinical science and into the real questions physicians are asking. What does the future of musculoskeletal medicine actually look like? And how do I build a practice that thrives in the future? I'm Dr. Ariana Demurs, Orthopedic Sports Medicine surgeon and the founder of Business of Orthobiologics. And every two weeks I sit down with people who are quietly shaping the future of regenerative medicine practices. And today's guest is exactly one of those people. So for those of you who don't know me, I am uh orthopedic surgeon, sports medicine fellowship trained. And, you know, I get it. Why do I have these quiet conversations? Because I lived through burnout, the insurance treadmill, the volume, the feeling that the clinical practice and excellence wasn't translating into that practice. It was the hamster wheel. And it definitely wasn't the life I wanted. So orthobiologics changed that for me. And the business systems around it change it even more. And that's why I built the business of orthobiologics, and that's why I bring guests on today so I can shortcut that path that I had to figure out the hard way. I wanted to introduce you to Dr. John Bressard. He is partner and co-owner of the Alliance Reading and Rehab in St. Pete and Tampa, Florida. He's a board certified family medicine and sports medicine physician. And he and his brother co-own the Alliance Reading and Rehab. And they specialize in non-surgical orthopedics and serve as team physicians for the for Later Strikers. And he's a specialist in regenerative medicine and osteopathic manipulation. And of course, he does mission trips on his free time to Honduras and Mexico. So welcome, Dr. Brasard. I'm so glad that you're here. And I'm so excited for this fireside chat style conversation about some of the things that I'm impressed that you're bringing to the table right now.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, thank you, Dr. Demuris, for having me on. It's an honor to be on the business of biologics. Everyone knows that this exists, and to be on here is such an honor. So I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. So I'm just gonna kind of go into these six questions that we're gonna be in exploring. And, you know, part of this is fun for me because these are questions that I'm wondering. And if I'm wondering them, all of our colleagues are wondering them too. So you're running a cash-based regenerative practice. And your insurance, your patients are not coming from insurance referrals. So how are they finding you? And tell me about what role your digital presence plays in that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so you know, you you you touched on a real pain point that people or physicians, when they want to step out and do this, they're scared. They're gonna say, where am I gonna get my patients from? Because where do 90% of their patients come from currently? That is from the insurance. I know that because I always ask my patients, even when I was in an insurance model, how did you find me? Oh, looked up, you know, sports medicine and you showed up, you had good reviews, so I came. That's not happening anymore. So I have to find the patients. When we first started, we did a lot of community outreach. I mean, we were just showing our face everywhere and trying to add value to where our patients are.

SPEAKER_01

We also I'm gonna stop you for a second. You said something really important. You went to where your patients were. Tell me how you decided, where you went, and how you decided that.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I moved here from DC. No one knew who I was in this area. I didn't have a reputation yet. And so my brother and I looked at who is our avatar, where do they play and hang out and work out and do their stuff? And let's go meet them. Let's, you know, set up a table and do some free evals. Let's work, you know, we're at the golf courses working on people before and after, you know, they play and just trying to add value. And we're not trying to sell anything, we're not trying to get them as patients. We are just saying, hey, we're here, we're here to help you. And if anything ever pops up, you know, you've worked with us, you trust us. Hopefully, they'll call. And they do. And so we set up at CrossFit Gyms.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, what was the next step to because that you that thing that you said? I mean, we can all probably just go home today, right now, because that's so valuable. And I think we are not doing a great job of that. And so, number one, you physically went to where your patients were hanging out and engaged in their world and got to know them and got to know their pain points. From a digital perspective, what how did you do that online?

SPEAKER_02

So when we go to these outreach, we have them fill out a farm. And so that's their that's the cost for talking with us and getting the exam. Hey, we we just want your phone number, your name, your email. Hey, is it okay if we throw you on an email list? Yeah, sure. So now they're getting our emails. So we've got that running. And then we look at, okay, where are all these people living? And we're right smack in the middle of them. We're at downtown St. Petersburg, but you can look up these zip codes, you can run all the metrics and you know, pinpoint what zip codes do you want to target, population, average household income, do you want families? Do you want, you know, all these things? So you can go really, really tight and do marketing online with ads and just throw a lot at a tight window, a tight radius, or you can cast a wide net. I don't think either one is right or wrong. It's just preference. I'd say probably play with both, which we have, and see which one's working, and then feed that monster.

SPEAKER_01

Feed the monster. So for a hyper local strategy, you know, a lot of people talk about that, and and that's one of the ways that you've just talked about. How do you go about executing that? And what does that mean to be able to build that not only in-person local presence, but digital local presence? How did you manage your social media account differently to be able to build that no like trust online?

SPEAKER_02

Well, you have to be a likable person, right? Because patients are hiring us. And so you've got to have the presence, you have to smile, you have to talk to them like they are people and not just diagnoses and not like, hey, we have this product, we have this treatment, and we can help you come and get it. They don't want to hear that, they're getting bombarded with stuff all day long. So, what we do is we target their pain points and say, Hey, you're dealing with this, you've tried this, we can help in that, you know, in that capacity. Are you trying to avoid surgery? Let's see if there are other options. And so we just kind of play with different creatives on on the ad campaign and see which ones are are doing well, and like I said, you just feed that one and you get rid of the other ones.

SPEAKER_01

So you are running ads in a hyperloco market, and you're playing around with what resonates with your patient population. How often are you deciding what works, what wasn't? Is it daily, is it weekly, is it every two weeks, is it monthly?

SPEAKER_02

Tell me it takes a few weeks to see the trend, at least a few weeks. And usually at about a month, we know if it's a good ad and we can't we keep watching it. And if it's doing really well and the patients are coming in, they're converting, then maybe we want to increase the ad spin and get more. If we have room on the schedule, we've got if we have the budget for it, we can throw more at it and see if we can get it touching more people and bringing more in. But we typically, you know, look at them and evaluate them like once I'm off and see how's it doing. If it's not doing well, then we cut it and try something else.

SPEAKER_01

Now, are you working with a social media and ad business or are you running this yourself? Tell me a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02

So we're running them ourselves. Actually, my brother, my partner, is running them, and so we come up with different ideas. Okay, how do we want to, you know, what do we want to target now? Who do we want to get? Because I mean, you know, if we have a shoulder ad, you just kind of get tired of seeing shoulders all day long, every day, and then they start to trickle off, and then okay, this is not as hot anymore. Let's throw a knee ad out, target somebody who's complaining of knee stuff, and we look at different things. Sometimes it's stock photos, sometimes it's real people, sometimes it's little sharp videos, and it's just a little quick, you know, synopsis about hey, this is how we can help you. You've tried this and that. If you want more information, fill out this form. It sends us a notification, and then we quickly call that person or we set up a time to chat with them on the phone and see if they're a good fit to come in.

SPEAKER_01

So you have uh a fill out a form, and then do you call them yourself, or do you have somebody call them?

SPEAKER_02

No, our patient relations specialist calls them.

SPEAKER_01

Awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_02

We used to call them when we were first starting out.

SPEAKER_01

Started awesome, and then you got wise to that, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, we finally got staff.

SPEAKER_01

Now, do so tell me this. So, you know, you've been at it for a bit now, and this has been a very successful way to grow your list, grow your, you know, who you're caring for. Do you feel like you are basically able to, you know, pull the lever up or down, depending, oh we're not busy, like turn up the lever, oh, we're too busy, turn down the lever. Do you feel like you've gotten that dialed pretty pretty closely? Or is it kind of you know work in progress?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, it's now it's dialed in pretty good. But I would tell you, the only time we turn down the lever is when I'm out of town. And so I left the country for two weeks, so we turned the ads down a bit. So they weren't just calling and calling and couldn't get on the books. Uh, right before I came back, we turned it back on.

SPEAKER_01

So how what's your what's your lag time for turning up or down the lever?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, they're usually booking within the week or the next week. As long as there's room on the schedule, then we you know we turn it up if if they're doing well.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. And you know, do you have a certain percentage of your budget that you're you know putting aside for media spend?

SPEAKER_02

We don't have a percentage, no percentage. It's just a a total. What did we feel comfortable with? You know, that would what do we have that we can play with? And if it's going well and they're converting, like, hey, every patient who walks in, you know, is it maybe it cost us 50 bucks to get that patient at the door. But but we're acquisition. What's that?

SPEAKER_01

So that cost of acquisition for the patient.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and if that's if that's becoming worth it, then you know, we can turn it up. But if if they're coming in, only few are coming in, are are we getting the wrong patient, then maybe we'll turn it down or just totally dump it and start a new one.

SPEAKER_01

And so this is is this completely different from your social media, or is this in conjunction with social media?

SPEAKER_02

It's different, but it's in conjunction. So the goal is, and most of the time, they will see the ad, they'll get curious, and they'll probably go and look at our social media page, or they'll go to our webpage, see if we're legit, just like any of us do when we're shopping for something. You see an ad for something, or you you know, you're curious about something. I don't know about you, but I go to the Google page, I go to the website, I look at all this stuff, and I say, Do I want to invest my time going here and then possibly my money? And patients are mostly doing that too, because they'll say, Oh, yeah, I saw the ad come through. It's like you were listening to me, you knew exactly what I was feeling. I looked at your reviews, you looked great, and so here I am. What can you do for me?

SPEAKER_01

So you said something interesting. Uh, you're talking about, you know, the Google page, your Google My Business page. So if you had to choose Google My Business versus your social media account, what would you choose first?

SPEAKER_02

That's a hard one. We we try to put it everywhere.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so from a return on investment, do you see do you get referrals direct from Google My Business page?

SPEAKER_02

A few. A few people, a few people who are they know what they're looking for. That's the ones that find you on Google.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, those are the high intent people because they what they're looking for, and then you pop up with a really my business page, and they're like, Oh, these people are for me.

SPEAKER_02

Those are warm and hot leads. I love when they call and when they show up.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, high intent.

SPEAKER_02

You already know what you're looking for, you know. You're just checking me out with social media and the the ads, we're going to to them, and so letting people know, hey, we're here, we can help. And people don't just start googling on you know on Google Google page, like the best PRP or like whatever, you know, they don't know what they're looking for. Every day somebody comes in and they've never heard of PRP or they've never heard of proletherapy or anything.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Most of them have heard of peptides and stem cells because every influencer in the world is talking about it. So then there's like a lot of retraining. But anyway, that's a side note.

SPEAKER_01

On your social media, not ads, but just your social media account, how what kind of conversions do you get directly from your social media account? Or is that just like a social proof checkout and make sure you're you're legit?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think that's mostly what it is. You know, we try to be upfront and people, you know, because sometimes patients will see the ad and they'll realize, oh yeah, I've seen your stuff.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Or they'll see the ad and then they'll start seeing our stuff. So it I mean, what is it, like seven touch points that patients typically need before they you know make a move to do something to call you? And so we, you know, we try to hit them from all angles so they can see a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Sometimes it's clinical, sometimes it's us playing, and our dog is in it, and you know, just try to be humanistic.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So are you, you know, you're from a content perspective, do you film all your own stuff? Do you cut all your own stuff, or do you have somebody do that for you?

SPEAKER_02

We do, we do do it all ourselves.

SPEAKER_01

So it's a do-it-yourself, and it's been quite successful for you. How do you choose your content? Like, what the heck are you filming? Are you just filming it on an iPhone? Are you filming it on like a different piece of equipment?

SPEAKER_02

iPhone.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Do you have an iPhone? Do you see what these things can do?

SPEAKER_01

It's a small country, yes.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, iPhone, you know, you can get a little gimbal if you're worried about it moving, or you can put it on a tripod. We film anything from patient testimonials to just physical exam or me talking to a patient or doing an ultrasound exam, doing an injection, doing some physical therapy, all the different modalities that we do, and then we'll just piece them all together.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so you know, I run into a lot of physicians who are looking to get into the regenerative medicine space, and they all tell me, or like, oh man, I gotta get a new website, I gotta go do this. If you had to tell them one thing about what to prioritize, would you tell them to prioritize their website, or would you tell them to prioritize something else?

SPEAKER_02

Well, you definitely need to have a website, but I don't think you need to hire someone for five grand to build it. I mean, we built our own. I mean, it used to be a legit website. If I go to a website and it looks like it was made in 1980 and hasn't been updated, and it's like one page, I'm moving on. So it has to be engaging, they have to find out about you. But you definitely have to have social media presence. And so spend a couple days building the website. You can always touch it up later. And you know, it's not it's not difficult, especially with some of the platforms now. It's just plug and play.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right, exactly. I think it's really interesting that so many so many physicians think if they have a great website, they're somehow going to attract and like draw people in to come make an appointment with you.

SPEAKER_02

Nobody knows it's there.

SPEAKER_01

Right, I know, I know. Like we have to talk to people about it. So you're thank you. I did not plant that. You're exactly right. Yes, it is, it is, it does, you know, play a part in in making sure that you're a real human, that you're up to date, that you're you know, serving them in a way they want to be served, but it is not a magic patient attraction tool, right? You have to what you said at the beginning, go to where your patients are hanging out, either in real life or digitally online. So that being said, what platform are you advertising on right now?

SPEAKER_02

So we're doing mainly Facebook and Instagram.

SPEAKER_01

If you had to like determine like percent wise, you know, I know that there's a different demographic Facebook versus Instagram. Do the same content for both Facebook and Instagram?

SPEAKER_02

We will usually have the Facebook show up on Instagram. We're trying to get a little bit more creative with the Instagram because of the the dopamine, you know, addiction and the quick with Instagram. So we're trying to figure out how to lock those people's attention and get them to actually look at content except before going to the next reel or whatever.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's all about, you know, if you think about the the goal of the ad or even a post, if you're not advertising, even your post, anytime you're posting on social media, the goal of your post is to stop the scroll, to make somebody go, wait, what? And stop what they're doing, stop doom scrolling and like you know, whatever you like, turn uh your brain off and like but the goal of it is to stop the scroll. So you have to have engaging enough, interesting enough, cool enough, eye-catching content to be able to stop the scroll, right? On Instagram, you're right, that dopamine hit that the attention span I think is shrinking, right? If it doesn't catch you in the first one to three seconds, you're you're done, right? So that's that's really interesting. So what do you think the the top three pieces of content that have really moved the needle for you in the last six months?

SPEAKER_02

Pieces of content?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, where the the uh what ads really have done the best?

SPEAKER_02

Honestly People like to see the ultrasound. They most patients don't know what an ultrasound is unless you tell them or they see it, and they're like, Oh, I had one of these when I was pregnant, or if they had some kind of like cardiac or GI thing, and or they've been to a physical therapist and they know ultrasound as you know the modality. And so when you say ultrasound, they may think that, but when we show it to them, they're like, Oh, that's cool. You can do that in the office, and I don't have to get prior authorization and you know have a copay to do this and that, and then still get billed after the fact and then wait three weeks for my doctor to call me. We can just do that like right now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that point of care aspect I think is really important. And so I think what you're saying is that you're just showing a slice of life in your clinic and saying, hey, listen, this is what we can do in real time. Check this out. This is what we saw today for our patient John. Isn't this cool? And those have been the what other what other ads or ad kind of perspective has worked well in your in your hyperlocal marketing strategy?

SPEAKER_02

Right now, which I'm surprised that's doing so well, is we have just a general orthopedic joint pain type of ad that is you know with a diagnostic ultrasound. That's doing really well. It's like super broad, it's not touching a specific avatar, it's not saying, hey, you have shoulder pain here when you do this, and like no. It's just like, hey, your joint hurts, let's look at it.

SPEAKER_01

And so that the call to action or the offer is like, hey, if you have joint pain, we can diagnose it with an ultrasound today, and give you answers today and options of how to fix it, and then they fill out the thing or call. Oh, yeah, that's that's that's a pretty compelling thing because you know it's people who are uh are you know, the drive-thru McDonald's experience were like, wait, I don't have to wait, I can just know, and they're gonna fill out a web form right now. And and then how when they fill out a web form, how soon after that happens do they get a call?

SPEAKER_02

It's never fast enough. We get an alert, and you know, hopefully within the hour somebody calls, but we try by the end of the day, just because of a staff shortage. We run a pretty lean clinic. We started that way and we still run a lean clinic. That's why we do a lot of stuff ourselves. Yeah, we get it done, and you know, most people are they're totally fine. I mean, where else are they gonna go? Back to the same old thing, the orthopedic surgeon that never gave them any answers, no offense. But it's just x-rays and like, oh, there's nothing wrong, and they kick them out the door, or you want a cortisone injection? Like, no, they want real answers.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You know, if we get back to them the next day, like they're they're fine. Ideally, it's right away.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there is a lot of research that speed to lead does enhance, right? The faster that you can kind of address their issues because they're choosing right now because they want a solution right now. So I I didn't know if you had you know a human that called them. I I've heard of a couple of big name corporations that they have a live person that will call you back within five minutes of you filling out a web form until 10 o'clock at night, starting at 6 a.m. It is I won't tell I won't tell you what, you know, the the big name, but they've got that part, you know, direct to consumer marketing with a very responsive back-end system, I think is really important to be able to handle the those calls and those leads quickly. Because if you put out money and you spend money on ads and you don't have anybody answering the phone or or following up on that lead, that is money that's not well spent. So, you know, Alliance and Regen Rehab has two locations. How have you been able to build, you know, hyperlocal presence with multiple locations and still not dilute that message? What what kind of what kind of uh tactics have you used?

SPEAKER_02

Basically, re-in- I mean like redoing the thing that already worked. So getting in the community, hey, we're here. This is what we do, we have credibility because people have heard of us over the across the bridge in St. Pete's, and then when we came to Tampa, people have either heard of us or they're going to our webpage, they're seeing the ads, they're seeing what people are saying, like, oh, okay. And so we do the same thing. We just say, okay, what zip codes do we want to market to? Where do we want to put these ads out? And as long as it keeps working, we keep doing it. And as soon as it stops, we change it up. And the thing about this stuff, and I don't know about other markets, but here the market is crazy and it's so unpredictable. It really is. And so we're we're we're we're constantly moving with it and adapting.

SPEAKER_01

Give me an example of the most recent adaptation that you've had to make to kind of keep up with this unpredictable market. You know, it it does feel like people are swayed kind of on a whim, or you know, whatever's hot or interesting. So give me an example of like the thing that you're like, oh my gosh, is this really what we're doing? Okay. And had to adapt.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, some people so with our ads, we can't use you know, like inflammatory words, right? Like stem cells, and you know, they're they will flag it, they'll shut it down, plus we don't want to target on us. So our ads are pretty generic. Some people will just call and just kick the tires, right? So they're calling, like, all right, I saw your ad, and then our patient relations specialist talks to them and finds out what they're going through, tells them what the process looks like, and they start, oh, well, does my insurance cover it? Like, no, it's $67. That's that's like a copay. Who cares about your insurance? And so we have to educate them on like how this works, and then you know, they start asking about pricing, and we're transparent, we're not gonna hide it from them, and then so we have to deal with that stuff, and there'll be like ebbs and flows, and like, where are these people coming from? And so we have to like adjust it a little bit.

SPEAKER_01

You're like, oh, this ad got a lot of tire kickers and no, then you you you change that strategy and flag it like this is the tire kicker campaign, we don't use that one again. Are you doing any A-B testing? So are you running two different types of ads decide which one performs better? Is that a strategy that you use full-time?

SPEAKER_02

Most of the time, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. What other pieces of the puzzle do you think you know surprised you the most about human behavior? You know, because this is what we're doing, is we're trying to harness human behavior and be like, hey, listen, we we have a solution, we know you have a problem. Why don't you come see us and we can figure out how to help you? What is the thing that has really been surprising about human behavior based on your your ads and the ads that you're running?

SPEAKER_02

It's I'm always at least once a week, I am shocked at who will not convert because it's typical, it's typically price. Money usually comes into it because once I lay it all out for them, it's like, how can you say no? And who does convert? Sometimes people will come in. I'm like, there this is a terrible lead. I'm gonna do what I can to help this person and give them as much information as I can. I'll probably take it to insurance doc or or just sit on it at home. But they got their evaluation, right? And then I tell them what I they should do, and they're like, all right, when can we do it? I'm like, really? So like you like just don't assume who's gonna say yes and who's gonna say no. Just treat everyone the same, like they're ready to sign up today to do the treatment.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that is gold. Yeah, I after all the years of doing this, it is still surprising. You're like, you not pegged you as the person, and then egg is like, oh yeah, they're totally gonna go for that. Like, well, I'd like to use my insurance for that. You're like, huh.

SPEAKER_00

I know.

SPEAKER_01

So I do like your strategy, just you know, approach everybody as if you know that they're they're a great candidate, they're not great candidate, just lay it on the table. What you that they're there for your recommendations, and you know, based on their situation, what their best options are, and then you know, it's them to it's up to them to decline or or say yes. But it I would agree that is always a surprise. You're like, yeah, still haven't gotten that one right yet.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, like you know, like you say, you treat everyone the same, then your your demeanor will never change. And and when it does, patients know that they can sense it because patients come to us who have been to other places, they see our ad, they've been to other big name places, and they're like, Oh yeah, like it was super salesy, like I didn't feel right, something didn't feel right, and they came in, and I'm like, hey, I'm a physician, I'm an educator, I'm a teacher, and here I am teaching you and educating you on what's wrong with you and how we can fix it. I'll be here tomorrow, whether you're here or not. And if you want help, I'm here to help you. And if not, I'll point you in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01

Nice. Yeah, I think that's really important, and I think that there's uh what you said is that it's not salesy, and and it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be this high-pressure to sales tactic. We're just here to, you know, give them a consultation, tell them what we think the problem is, tell them what we think the potential solutions, what the best potential solution is, and move forward. And like the more transparency, and we all got into this to help people, and and we have really amazing products. Like regenerative medicine is a really great opportunity for patients, right? It's low risk, it's low invasiveness, high potential for really good outcomes. And you know, the only issue that some people have is you know that price issue that they truly just can't afford it. And you know, that's not it, it's not fair, but this is the the current reality that we are in. So here's one of the questions. You know, I see we see a lot of docs that are like, oh man, I want to do this. How do I start? So for a physician starting from zero, no following, no content strategy, no Google Business Profile, what are the first three moves? And maybe, you know, how did you do it when you came to town and nobody knew you? What are those first three moves that you do?

SPEAKER_02

Well, does this person have a space to operate out of?

SPEAKER_01

We're gonna say they do.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

All right, so there's the space tomorrow. What's their next step?

SPEAKER_02

You gotta be findable. So Google business profile, a website, but don't you know, don't overthink it to where it slows you down to not doing anything, and then go in the community, find out where your patients are and go meet them.

SPEAKER_01

That's it. I love that strategy. Google business profile, easy website, be findable. Yeah, go meet your patients, either in person or online, right? So if you're targeting, if your perfect patient is a little bit older, you know, target them on Facebook, check out what they're checking out, go hang out where they hang out, you know. If it's Candy Crush and there's a a forum about Candy Crush, like join the forum. If you're targeting CrossFit people and your perfect patient is a CrossFitter, probably go join the CrossFit gym, right? And it start to get into that community. If there's online CrossFit, you know, forums, that's a good plan to start immersing yourself into that community. I I love that. We're gonna go to rapid fire, right? One platform every regenerative physician should be on right now.

SPEAKER_02

LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, Google Business Profile or Instagram if you could only keep one. Google Business Best piece of advice you got about marketing that had nothing to do with medicine. Oh right, because our phys our physicians don't know about marketing because we didn't go to marketing school, right? So what is what is something that you're like, ah, that's gold? What is your thought process on marketing? Because a lot of people are like, Oh, I don't want to market, I don't know how to market, I gotta get a marketing guy. What what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know about I can't think of a best piece of advice that I got.

SPEAKER_01

They get a marketing guy and pay him a bunch of money to market for them.

SPEAKER_02

What no, they shouldn't do that.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

The the thing that I found the best for marketing, especially starting out, is going to your referral partners and shaking hands and meeting them. And that's easy to market to many. It's a lot easier to market to many than one. So I can send out a Facebook ad and get a few patients coming in. But if I have a physical therapist or functional medicine doctor who really understands me and likes me and is sending patients to me, I don't have to spend money on that. So developing those relationships, you know, marketing is not advertising. Go be likable and have people send you patients.

SPEAKER_01

Nice. I see, I like that. I like that piece of advice. That's awesome. So here's a little bit of the truth about this, right? Being a great doctor used to be enough, but it isn't anymore. And patients now expect outcomes, they expect an experience. And the economics of an insurance-based practice, volume-based practice, don't add up to the practice of the life that most of us pictured. It's pretty miserable. And almost none of us were taught business. I don't know about you, but I don't have my MBA. I got my MBA through the school of hard knocks, right? We weren't taught marketing, we weren't taught implementation skills that bridge the gap. And so, unfortunately or fortunately, that's not a personal failing, right? That that's a gap in this system. And these conversations exist to close that gap. And so there is, I want you to see that none of this is random, right? There's a pathway. It starts with awareness, just like when we're advertising and and and talking to our patients. You know, these are the conversations. This is our podcast. From there, you know, if you're ready or you think you're ready to open a cash-based business, take the assessment. If we're marketing to our patients, maybe an assessment-based, you know, quiz-based option for them to know where they stand, to engage them, is the next step. From there, you know, we do the business of Wortha Biologics Express. It's a fast start for foundations, practice launchpad live. We have a PRP now clinical implementation product. There's a community. And then, of course, TrueMD is where we have full practice transformation. And you don't have to figure out your whole journey today. We just want you to be aware that there is a better way than volume-based insurance-based care. So I'm just gonna invite you to take the next step and do a little bit of a readiness assessment. So I do want to just pause and ask everybody here on the on the presentation today. Does this sound like you? Do you say, I can see where medicine is going? And I do believe in regenerative care, but I genuinely don't know how to perfectly implement this in my practice, right? And if you nodded, that's a good thing. So the single most common thing I hear is this. You know, I I want, I believe in the medicine, but I don't know how to get there. And so this is a roadmap problem because the rest of this is a little bit about that roadmap. Then I'm gonna lay it out for you and just give you the full roadmap, right? Before we kind of move forward, I do want to make sure that we get all of those pieces of the puzzle that Dr. Brassard shared with us. So, number one is zip code is your strategy, right? That hyperlocal presence, getting to know where your patients are, both online and in reality, is really important. Getting to know where your patients are immediately before they need your service, like physical therapy. Number two, social media and Google serve very different purposes. If we had to choose one, Dr. Brasard would choose Google My Business Profile. We think that's a significantly higher return on investment, especially for those high-intent people who already know what you what they want and they're searching for you. So be findable. You do need both, but if you had to choose one, we'd go with Google Business Profile first because that's gonna change your results. Number three, content that converts is different than content that gets likes, right? So stop just getting likes, stop, you know, putting your dog's picture or a picture of your clinic or you know, a picture of some random, you know, old lady with knee arthritis and and capture you and be that person. Show what you really do, show you how you're really different. And then what he clearly showed is you don't need a big team or a big budget. I will share a benchmark is to spend no more than 10% of your gross revenue on advertising. So if you're spending more than that, please stop because it can be done cheaper. Please don't pay marketers who don't know who your avatar is, don't know what your message is, don't know what you do. Please stop paying them. And then the first three moves are simple, and Dr. Brazard definitely made sure we know that. Make sure you have a place. Google my business profile, a good enough website, and go find your patients. So before we go any further, I just want to make sure that we know that this is important. And while we do have activities and all of these options in social media and technology, I think what's clear is these technologies and these systems should amplify the physician and uh improve that humanness, that that connection between you and your patient. So this is not theoretical, right? These are my these are my real clients, you know, rev new revenue off the treadmill, better outcomes, happier patience, and a practice that fits their life, right? So here's that quiz for you all. So please scan the QR code. This is a focus three minimum assessment. It's gonna pinpoint your biggest bottlenecks to a full cash-based orthobiologic practice, and it can get your personalized path forward. Our ecosystem has a lot of things, right? We have the business of orthobiologics express courses, PRP now for clinical implementation, quickly on your own time. We just finished our practice launchpad live and it was an overwhelming massive success. We'll be getting ready to unveil the next dates. There's going to be not only a virtual, but there is going to be another practice launchpad live coming up. So please stay tuned for that. And then for full practice transformation with full support, both in marketing, ultrasound, and clinical foundations and implementation, the TrueMD program is for those committed to a complete transformation to regenerative medicine practice. So thanks so much for watching. This is the readiness assessment. If you're looking and you know you want to move forward, we can just book a strategy call. And if you want to look more at the programs and what they entail, that QR code is for you. I wanted to turn this over. We have a couple of minutes. If those of you have any questions, please don't hesitate to either pop them in the chat or you can just raise your hand and ask. Ask some questions. I I I've been this has been fascinating for me. Kareem, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Hey Dr. Murce, hey Dr. Bursard. I was just curious, Dr. Bursard, what you know, of all the ads or social media posts or anything along those lines, what would you say was like kind of the biggest bang for your buck? You know, maybe a turning point moment that kind of you feel like propelled things to maybe a different level. I I should say especially like early on, starting early on with a new new business, new practice. Like what kind of propelled things and got you maybe the most patience in the door early on?

SPEAKER_02

I think the Facebook ads and Instagram ads, when we started doing that, we got more volume because it wasn't just organic where you know somebody came in, like, oh my friend referred me, or you know, I was looking for whatever and I found you. Like, yeah, the ads really is really what turned it up.

SPEAKER_01

Great question.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

I also was you know wondering like what was that inflection point where you know, you're like, aha, I wish we would have done this one thing earlier.

SPEAKER_02

And you don't have to spend a lot of money, you really don't. Yeah, you find a few ads that work and you run with them and you let the patients start coming in, and as the patients come in and the conversions go up and the revenue goes up, hey, if you got room on your schedule and you got money to play with, throw some more money at the ads, hit more people, more views, you know, more patients coming in. But so you can always turn it up, turn it down, and play with it. But you can probably start with 500 bucks a month and just run some ads and see what happens.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And so you do, you know, in order to have a $500 a month, you know, ad spend, you probably do need to have that $5,000 a month revenue to support it from a benchmark perspective. Now, if you're early on, you can bump that up to 20%, which means you probably only need one PRP to be able to spend $500 on ads. If you're doing one PRP a month, you're probably able to start using Facebook ads. But clearly doing a hyperlocal approach, right? Because you want to serve the community that you're in. You don't want to look for the whole state because that costs more money for sure. Great question. All right. Let me see if we have any other chats. While we're waiting, Dr. Brasard, is there anything that you would like people to know about your practice? Like, you know, that anything, what's what is your if you will put in the chat your website so people can go check out? That would be amazing. I love your website. And then if you want to put your socials in there, I don't I don't think I have your socials, but I really appreciate you being here. This is this is so fun. So just pop that in the chat. Um, if there's any other questions, don't hesitate to raise your hand. I'm so glad that everybody's here and has joined us today. Any other questions? So glad to see everybody here. Balaji, hi Chris, hi, hi, John, good to see you. All right.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I would say about my practice, patience, as soon as they well, before they come in, they know we have fun. And as soon as they walk in the door, they really know we have fun. I mean, we have reggae music play in, it's very open floor plan, it's not, you know, these almond-colored walls and dark carpet and wood cabinets, you know, like the clinics that we used to see in. No, it's white and gray and very clean, lots of light. We actually have a dog or two running around. And so patients love that. They're in pain. And so when they come in and they have this lively atmosphere where everyone's laughing and having fun, they just feel welcome and they want to be there, they want to come back. So I would say make your practice a place to where you want to spend most of your time, which because it is, and have fun and don't dread it, and the patients will love it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would echo that. Please, please, please make the the clinic somewhere where you want to hang out, you know, exactly. I love hanging out at my practice. It is very, we don't play reggae music, we play spa music. For me, it's like my happy place, right? And it's very much welcoming and warm and hospitality and like, oh, we're so glad you're here. This is great, you know. All of the the positivity that's coming from our hearts and from our our you know employees is really important in the healing. You know, we have more more graduation ceremonies than we can shake a stick at. And we don't, you know, we don't really discriminate. We we celebrate all the wins. Whether you know you have a five-pound weight loss, whether you, you know, got your 50% improvement in eight weeks, whether you're 75% better at a year, whether you don't have to come back until one year from now for a recheck because you're doing so well, you've graduated. There's a lot of celebration and graduation as we return patients back to their healthy active lifestyle. So I would I would second that. And the third piece of that is you get to choose the patients that you want to serve. If you don't have patient, if you have patients that you don't want to serve, they're not for you. You don't have to say yes to them. And you don't have to say, hey, you know, these are all the things. You can be like, hey, it doesn't seem like we're gonna be a good fit. I don't know that I can help you with this problem, but I can point you in the right direction and come be kind and loving, but we don't have to serve them, they don't have to come into our inner circle. And that's the lovely part about a cash-based practice is you get to choose. You get to choose who you serve and who you do not serve. You get to choose how you serve them every day, how you get to show up in the world. And you know, just like we all know we didn't marry everyone we dated, thank goodness, right? We also they're interviewing us as much as we're interviewing them, and it has to be a good fit. So I would really, really encourage you, or especially early on when you're like, gosh, I really need the revenue, don't say yes to everybody. Because then you buy them and then you're like, dang it, why did I say yes to this person? They're miserable. Chris, when you say Google versus social media, are you talking about SEO or Google Ads? No, we're talking about Google My Business specifically. So your Google My Business profile is really important. Uh, Dr. Brasard, are you running Google Ads?

SPEAKER_02

No, uh, and Chris is spot on, and that's the reason we don't, is because we can't. We actually had Google reach out to us and gave us like a credit to like, oh, you got so much money to run Google Ads. We're like, all right, let's see what happens. Well, we'll make the ads for you. So they did it, and it was Google people at Google trying to make ads for us, and they couldn't get any of them passed. And it was all because it was circling back to our website and you know, scrolling and scouring and seeing PRP and all the stuff we do. And I'm like, we're not taking that off the website. Sorry, see ya.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. So we're not talking Google ads. I think Facebook ads and Google My Business profile is really important. So make sure that your Google My Business profile, number one, you own it. Number two, that you're updating in it and keeping it, and you can put posts up, you can do those things to keep it kind of updated and fresh for sure. Great question, Chris. And thanks for sharing your experience. Awesome. Yeah, so thanks so much, guys, for being here. If this resonated with you, definitely stay tuned. We have another amazing doctor coming to us in two weeks. So please, please, please be on the lookout for that announcement. And I just appreciate everybody's time. I appreciate our conversation. Thanks so much, Dr. Prasar, for your generosity and your insight and your spending your time with us. I really do appreciate it. You know, here's my one ask take this forward, take the next step, either do the readiness assessment, book a call, explore the programs, take a look. And so the physicians who build the future of this field are the ones who take the next step. If you don't move, you're gonna get left behind. The train is leaving the station. So please take your first step today. I'm Dr. Ariana Demers, and I will see you in two weeks for the next conversation in regenerative medicine. Thanks so much. Good night. Good to see you.

SPEAKER_02

You too.