HIPAA Safe Marketing That Actually Grows A Clinic

We talk with Carl White about how private practices can beat bigger competitors by leaning into what independence makes possible and by saying it clearly in their marketing. We also dig into HIPAA blind spots that show up in websites, agencies, and outreach so growth does not turn into unnecessary risk. 
• the case for helping private practices stay private and why ownership shapes patient care 
• competing with larger systems through clear positioning and nimble decision making 
• HIPAA exposure through website contact forms and marketing vendor access to PHI 
• why Business Associate Agreements matter and when secure forms can reduce exposure 
• a practical approach to growing elective procedures through education and fit, not pressure 
• using “should ask” questions to help patients make high dollar decisions with confidence 
• permission based email campaigns and how to structure the call to action around a consult 
• what HIPAA judgments really cost beyond fines, including trust and operational disruption 
• building authority through education and adding approachable social content without oversharing 
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Transcript

Welcome And The Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Greetings and welcome to iCare Leadership Live. This is the podcast for iCare leaders who want to level up their leadership, create better cultures, and improve the financial results of their clinics. Now, let's join the show. Welcome to iCare Leadership Live. My guest today is Carl White. Carl is the founder and chief consultant with a market advisory group, and you guys do marketing for private practices.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

That's correct. Yes, all day long.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

All day, every day?

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Well, that's important. And you know, it that that's important. And I looked at your website, and what it the first thing you see when you look at your website is helping private practices stay private.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Which I love because you know, I feel the same way. We want, I was actually on a run this morning thinking about how important that is. And how did I don't know, how did you how did you you that's a very definitive statement. So how did you get to the point where you wanted to say, hey, that's part of what I want to do?

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I think it took me just about four or five years to find the wording. You know, you launch, you launch a business, and uh if you're thinking about it, you're thinking, what, why am I doing this? What's the mission? And and in marketing, it's common to say, we want to do better marketing than everybody else, which to me, I don't know, it never just took me a while off and on, and then one day it just hit me. That's what they want. And care, you know, care is better when the provider of care owns the practice. Because no matter what decisions got to get made, business clinical, whatever, the people who are making those decisions have to turn right around and take care of a patient. And so I say, therefore, we can feel quite confident that the needs of the patient are weighing in, appropriately considered, no matter the decision. Is that right or wrong always? I don't know. But compared to other owners who either don't care about patient care, which I'm sure is not often, or just, you know, you're not steeped in it. So you don't know. You're making a decision about X, and you don't you're not aware of the ripple, you know, through to patient care. No, no doctor owner can say that because they in 15 minutes they got to go see a patient. So it's hard to I that's to me, that's that's the big deal.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Yeah. Well, we've all been a patient, right? We've all been there, and and we know what that's like to feel like a number.

Why Independent Ownership Improves Care

SPEAKER_00 2:40

We've all had those those stories. So my hat, my hat's off to you. Thank you. And and the way that you go about doing that is through marketing services.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yep. That's that's the main, you know, we do that with marketing. So how do you compete when you're competing with whoever your competition is, whether it's a bunch of other private practices, that's uncommon that it's only that. You know, it's common that there's larger, you know, resource-backed, whether it's private equity, it's hospital or health system based. You, as a private practice owner, have advantages because you're privately owned. It's just not always apparent what that is. And we want to help you, we want to help you stay private because for the reasons that I just said, it really is a cause. I really do believe that. And it's just fun to level the playing field because on a level playing field, private guy's gonna win, I think, more often than not.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, you know, they have more resources and and maybe more MBAs and more.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

But also more bureaucracy, harder to make decisions. I worked a lot, I worked for 20 years in large corporate America, large enough. And even though, you know, you could look from the outside looking in and going, they've got more money than God, they're gonna crush us, not so fast. It takes nine months to make a decision, and they are far removed from the daily realities, but you are not. And so it is true their budget dwarfs yours, or seems like it does. It's not always true, it's harder, takes more to explain that. Uh, doesn't mean they can move faster, doesn't mean they can be nimble, they've got all sorts of rules and internal stuff that they've got to follow. Uh let them do what they want to do because let them buy every billboard in town. You don't need any. That's what they're gonna do. And with some stupid six-word vague message, like we care for you. You're supposed to care for me. What didn't I already know? Nice spend. You don't have to do that as a privately owned practice. There's things you can do that they you can move faster, you can move more nimbly. You know how to speak to patients better because you're doing it all day long, not the marketing people in the fifth floor of the whatever office. You know what I mean? So don't undersell yourself. You you've got some advantages.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

This is yeah, this is going in some interesting directions that I didn't interesting. Yeah, I mean, this is brand positioning right here. You

Positioning Against Big Healthcare Brands

SPEAKER_00 5:03

know, we're talking about positioning yourself from you know, at the very core, most core level of what you do and how you connect with patients, and positioning yourself as having a competitive advantage because you understand your patients and and you can do things to care for them that you might not get from you know the big box um care chains.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Correct, correct. There's there's value in that, you just have to tease it out, bring it to the surface, and promote it over and over again forever. That's what it takes, just like they try to do. But here's one example they inevitably double book and like well, you don't have to, do you? Yeah, you don't have to give a standard nine minutes, no matter what type of you know, circumstance walks in the door. They kind of do, and it seeps through. And if you can say that in in sort of you know short and promotional friendly ways, not inauthentic, but you know what I mean. You can't take a paragraph to explain this. It's just something they cannot do that you can, and it matters, it can matter.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

I love that, man. Well, we could go down that whole rabbit hole, but you know, I we we did have kind of a a difference. Yeah, let's go. Yeah, I love that. I love that line of conversation. I just love brand positioning and I love the differentiation between independent and and corporate, and you know, we serve similar-minded types of physicians, so that's obviously of interest to me. But

HIPAA Risks Hidden In Marketing

SPEAKER_00 6:45

you know, our plan today here was to talk about uh marketing and talk about you know HIPAA as well as it relates to marketing, because then it kind of ties in. And I kind of I have kind of a nightmare story that I could tell about that, but we can save that for later if it needs to. But um, you know, let's say that I'm a physician or maybe I'm a practice administrator, and I'm trying to grow my practice. And you know, I talk to ophthalmology clinics most often, and a lot of times they're trying to grow their elective procedure account, right? So we want to do more, you know, premium lenses and LASIK and all that stuff. And how do we how do we promote that? Because we make more money on that, you know, and then and we're helping people. And and so when you talk, you mentioned to me that there's a HIPAA angle to this, I was like, okay, I kind of get that, but but uh where does HIPAA come into play, you know, if I'm if I'm thinking about growing my practice?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

So every practice owner, every practice administrator knows HIPAA, obviously. And you know that you can you you can only share protected health information with those who are authorized to get it, and then they have to say, and I'm only going to use it for the minimum amount necessary to do the job I'm telling you I'm going to do for you. Well, that extends to marketing, just like it does anything else. But what I've learned is that there just seems to be a blind spot. Nobody rejects it, but marketers, marketing agencies can be exposed to protected health information just like anybody else can. The easiest example is this. You have most likely a contact form on your website. Contact us page, contact us, give us your name and your phone number and your email, tell us what's the matter. Well, you know, even without the tell us what's the matter, if you've got enough contact information, you've got some protected health information. And anybody who can see it, me with our clients, the website guy who maintains the website, they have now been exposed to protected health information. And you can only do that in a HIPAA compliant way. And so whoever's whoever's exposed to it, you've got to get under your umbrella or get under an umbrella. None of my clients had a what's called a business associate agreement. So there's like a legal part to HIPAA. There's got to be this business associate agreement, which is a legal contract essentially in place. It can come from you to me, or vice versa. I had one created because none of my clients had it. And so we, you know, we give it to them, they sign it immediately, and then off you go. And that's, you know, this is something I highly recommend every listener who's a practice owner or an administrator, just when you're done listening to this, just ask yourself do we have a HIPAA compliant relationship with the people who are doing our marketing, whoever they may be? And if the answer is no or I'm not sure, I urge you to have a look at that and just decide what you want to do. You should become HIPAA compliant and just decide what you want to do. Nobody hires a marketing agency to become compliant. You hire to grow, but you must do so in a HIPAA compliant way. It's just another box you got to check because you're in healthcare. Same with us, it just has to be done. And then we can put that in place and then off we go. You know, we just do all the sorts of the same things.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

This is not an area I'm an expert, and that's that's why you're here. Uh, you know, does that like let's say I work with a website designer and I'm capturing the data that you describe name, email, and all that, and maybe even like, hey, what procedures are you interested in?

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah, what's the matter with you today? And you can clear graphs of detail of health, which is health history.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Your health history, yeah. So does the IT person or the or the web designer do they have to do like HIPAA training and stuff, or do they just need to understand that this is confidential information and that they're realize that they're liable?

SPEAKER_01 10:39

So they've got to sign this BAA business associate agreement, part of which is gonna say, and you know, you third-party vendor have done all the stuff you're supposed to do according to HIPAA, that says that that allows you to sign this document with authenticity. Because part of what it's asking is, are you up to snuff on HIPAA? Yeah, and that's up to you to do that. Uh the other way to do it, like just to just to keep going with the website, is you could use a way to capture information that the website people cannot see. So there's other ways to do it. There's standard old forms, they're very basic and simple, but they're very exposable. But there's other ways to do it. It could be a secure form that they can't see, or other ways. It's another option. And then you don't have as long as they're not exposed to the PHI, there's no need. Then they can't see anything, they can't see it. So there's no BA. You don't need them to be HIPAA compliant because you have made sure that they're not exposed to anything. It's another way to go.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Is that a is that a method that is a you know completely viable method for gathering, let's just call it leads or prospects for a healthcare clinic that does elective procedures? Is that something you would even recommend? Is have a box on the website that says, hey, are you interested in blephroplasty today?

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yeah. So

Elective Procedures Need Patient Education

SPEAKER_01 12:01

you're right. So okay, so let's now let's go to the second part, the original part of your question is how do I grow elective procedures?

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

I mean, when I think of it, I think of it as that procedure satisfies a need just like your core procedures do, right? So somebody comes to you because their their vision is blurry, the box of do I need this or not has already been checked. My vision's blurry. I need to get it, I need to get it addressed in what in one way or another. But the elective is optional. So what's the need that it satisfies? Who's it for? Just like any other product or service, who's it for? Why would they choose it from you? What are their alternatives? And you've got to, you know, sell them on it, not like salesy, but I'll give you an example. I wear a night guard and my dentist had been sort of telling me about, look, man, that tooth for probably five or six years. And I finally said yes when he showed him an image of my tooth, and it and he said, We can't wait any longer. Like you're there. And I said, Okay. And I couldn't argue with the image, but but he to me he made the need very clear. My other option was do nothing. And you know, a cracked tooth was not far down the road from me. So I find, at least when I when I put together the stories I hear of we've got the selective procedure and whatever it is, but nobody's nobody's choosing it, we're frustrated and everything else. I just come back to the same set of questions I just I just said here. And are you really going through that process? And you're asking somebody to pay out of pocket, which is not a you know, not a small number, probably. Um just like you, Dr. X, if you're gonna drop that kind of money on something that you hadn't thought of before the salesperson, so to speak, brought it up to you, you want some convincing, right? Why do I need this? Why do I need it now? Is this my only option? What happens if I don't? These are the it's just the thought process most people are gonna want to go through.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

And this is not, I mean, let's be honest here. It is not normal for a for a physician to be good at and understand how to take someone through the sales process. I mean, yeah, I'm an HR person, I have my own business. It is not normal for me to be able to do that. And if I'm a doctor, it's the same thing. How do you get a physician to get good at that?

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Well, you can't get rid of practice, I would say. But but what I do, because I was in sales for 10 years in a different industry, and and really what I there were two things that became clear to me pretty quickly that I chose not to say out loud because I don't think my sales managers would have liked it. The first one is I cannot control the yes or no answer. That's up to the patient. The second one is I'm not selling per se. I am explaining and I'm presenting options. So the widget that I was selling was one of a few options that they could have chosen, my widget or the competitor's widgets. And my job was I want to help you understand why my widget is a great choice. Is it the only choice? No, no, that's your call. But I want to help you understand why I think this really fits. And if I thought it was a bad fit, I would just stop. Because I'm like, you know what? I know this is a bad fit. Why try to get to this person to realize it's the same thing, which I think they're gonna do anyway. Let me just go find more people for who I think this widget's a great fit. And then they're gonna decide what they want to do. It's much more authentic, it's helping them make the decision they have to make anyway. And then, you know, it didn't take long to present the widget, it took more time, not so much for here's another thing why it can be frustrating. So I sit down, you know, in your chair or in your office, and you tell me something I need that I never thought of before. Yeah, you know, and it's gonna cost three or four thousand dollars. I probably have a bunch of questions, but because I didn't know that this was coming, I'm not even sure what my questions are. So, do you want to schedule that? I don't know, maybe. Uh, and it comes across as I think you did a bad job, but I think most of it is I don't know yet. I don't know. I haven't done my research, I haven't thought it through. I don't really know. So, one tactical thing you can do is start putting together lists of questions that patients commonly ask and don't wait for them to ask them. So there's the frequently asked questions, but that's those are questions people already know to ask. At a second group, which is called should ask questions. All the questions you should ask that every other patient asks, but you just haven't thought to ask them that because I just sprung this on you.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

You know, I love that. Yeah. The sales process of really it's it's the patient getting comfortable through an understanding of what this means to them and and all that that entails. So if that means, you know, I'd like to have a follow-up meeting with you. I'm gonna tell you about this today. You need I I recommend procedure X. Here's a whole bunch of questions. I'd like to schedule, I really think this is important for you. Can we have 15 minutes in a couple of weeks or whatever? All we're gonna do is talk, research it, come back, and just look, tell me if you want to do it or not. But I want to make sure you really understand what you're getting into.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Yeah. Um, and this is, I know in at least in ophthalmology, and this is probably the case in other um specialties, it certainly was in dermatology also, but it's often a whole job uh for a non-physician, non-provider to consult with the patient on what their options are and to sort of do some of this answering questions and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah, yeah. And you know, if you think about it, uh this procedure is presented to me. I come in and do the exam. Well, you need new glasses. Great. That is already commonly understood. In this case, I already have glasses. I don't have any questions. I know the whole thing. I'm gonna wear a new set of glasses. That's gonna make my vision work better. I'm gonna see better. That's been true for hundreds of years. Like I know this. What questions do you have? How fast can you go? Yeah, done. Because I already know everything. This new thing, well, we actually need to do this. Oh, I never heard of that. And so, Dr. X, the listener, just acknowledge that how quickly I said yes to glasses is going to be different than how quickly I say, which I know very well and intimately, is should not be the same as how quickly you want me to say yes to this new procedure that I never heard of, never thought of before. Cost of everything's different. It's a different learning curve.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Yeah, okay. So there's like an education thing.

Sponsor Break And Outreach Setup

SPEAKER_00 18:46

This show is sponsored by Seasoned Advice HR Services, where I help eye care businesses to make more money and save more money by hiring better, retaining better, and reducing your HR risk. If you would like an HR assessment or ongoing HR support, please reach out to me at seasoned-advice.com.

HIPAA Compliant Email Marketing Basics

SPEAKER_00 19:12

My mind is kind of going back to the uh to the HIPAA side of things because so you know, we talked about the intake, right? You might be taking in information from patients, and how you handle that is very important. But sometimes, and this is an area, I don't know, you can tell me how this works, but sometimes you want to send out information. That's the marketing stuff, right? Can you even do that? Can you can't and how like if I want to send an email or even, God forbid, call someone, hey, you're on a phone call list here, would you be interested in, you know, yeah, this or that? How do you is that a is that something that practices should be engaging in? And what do you have to do to be able to reach out in that way to patients?

SPEAKER_01 20:04

So if you've got the HIPAA compliant relationship set up, let's let's take a simple one, like uh, you know, an email campaign, for example. We're doing this with a couple of our clients right now. Uh, one in particular, they're a pediatrics practice. And you know, what do what does every family do? They schedule their kids' annual exam over the summer when school's out. And what happens? The schedule just gets it's a scheduling nightmare because way too many people want way too few time slots. So we've been sending out simple emails hey, get ahead of the game, schedule now. You know, check check the portal to see if it's been 12 months and schedule. There's so many more time slots available now. And it's chipping away at it. Uh, we've got HIPAA setup, HIPAA compliant email. It's all it's so in that sense, it's just like any other communication. There's nothing special to set up from a HIPAA standpoint at that point.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Okay. So you don't do you have to get do you have to get some special magic permission documents?

SPEAKER_01 21:03

You do need permission to email, which you know, and the best way to do that is on your new patient policies when they're signing up. Just, you know, we have permission, you give us permission to email you. I forget, you know, I'm not sure totally certain on the language, but for you know, for promotional purposes, and that's sort of a condition. And then you can do that. And and by the way, every sort of marketing email that goes out has to have a link to unsubscribe, which all all commercial third party, like constant contact for they all have that. So that's easy. That's just sort of a standard template. But yeah, you know, and any business, this isn't specific to healthcare, any business that says, you know, that wants to start sending you promo emails every once in a while is supposed to get your permission to do so. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Is there a different approach? Let's say that's a great example that you just gave. I mean, I can relate to that. I have a child, and I know exactly. What you're talking about. They, in fact, his pediatrician has said, hey, we're we have expanded hours. We can do late night, we can do weekend, and probably to deal with the same thing you're talking about of this influx. Um, but let's say you're not just communicating about like a medical appointment, let's say you're communicating about uh like elective you know stuff. You know, if I'm trying to grow that, would you know, how would that communication maybe look different than I don't know, do you you know, come in for your checkup kind of a thing?

Write Promotions For The Right Candidates

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Yeah, I mean, sure. So what I see, because I get some of these too as a patient, a variety of practices, and and they're all glossy and gorgeous about what it is, and maybe there's some sort of you know spring promotional special or whatever. And I stare at and I go and I read it more carefully because of what I do. And what I'm looking for is does this service even apply to me? Like, am I am I clinically appropriate? Am I am I a clinical candidate for this? And can't tell you because it's never in there. So, what I would urge every listener to do is phrase it how you like, but it's essentially if you're taking ophthalmology, if you have symptoms that look like this, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, we've got a new service that we'd like to talk to you about. Yeah, schedule a call, schedule a call for a consult, and you know, we'll take it from there. That's not what I would say. But and so the the the call to action is the consult, not the sign up for the service. They're not ready for that yet. Okay, like if they if I were sitting in your office and you're and you're evaluating me, just like we talked about a minute or two ago, and you say, Boy, you know, you're a candidate for this other service as well. You wouldn't just pop that on me. Hey, Carl, good to see you again. You want to get this new service? What do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 23:58

We got to get to the money part, Carl.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

We gotta right before that, just you know, 60 seconds on, you know, if if you look like this, you might be a candidate for that. Call us, I'm in for an eval, and we'll tell you.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

That makes total sense. And and that's the kind of thing that that's basic, but don't a non-marketing person wouldn't even think about. They're not thinking about that, they're just thinking, gosh, I've got this cool device here, and it can do all this procedure, it can do all these cool things. There's certainly people that want that. Let me just tell them the price and where to get it, and then hey, don't you want this?

SPEAKER_01 24:37

You know, maybe idiots not to sign up. Well, they're not idiots, they just don't know if it applies to them.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Yeah, yeah. Um, you know, so much of so much of of marketing and growing your practice is really just thinking about how you communicate from the perspective of the person that you're talking to, right? Like what mindset are they at, right? I mean, would you agree that that that that's just getting inside their head is is so key?

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yes, it totally is. I mean, in this sense, it's the indication. Every every procedure, every medication has a clinical indication. Well, it's the same thing. Are you, you know, are you indicated in the email? Are you indicated for this? You're not going to use that link, but it's the same thing. Does this apply to you or not? Yeah, basic. I mean, you can get very very uh promotional and you're looking feel fine, I guess. But if you skip over who you're talking to, and when it comes to healthcare and medical and and dental, you know, we have this this set of services. Do they even apply to you? And why? How would you tell?

SPEAKER_00 25:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

In simple, understandable language. And if this sounds like you, call us and we'll get you in and then we'll tell you.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Um it's not rocket science, but it's easy to miss. You're right. It's easy to miss. We're all in our day-to-day, all day, you know, and and it it can be just like I said before, patient comes in with blurry vision, you you forget. Well, the the whole clinical indication box was checked. They know it, and you know this is different on elective stuff.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

I'm wondering, you know, I see so many ads for uh pharmaceuticals, and that we all see all these ads. You must look at those with a with a very skip, you know, a very gotta tune them out.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

There's so many of them. But yeah, but you know, they go through. I mean, they do it in a very with music and whatever and the whole thing, but they get at does this apply to you? Does this look like you? Uh the side effects aside. But if this looks like you, this is for you. Call your doctor. There's the call. The call to action is not go to Walgreens and go get some. Yeah, call your doctor, right? That's the go in and see if this really, you know, your doctor will tell you.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

What is there an example that you have of, you know, we started talking about HIPAA a little bit and how this can how you have to be careful. And you

Real HIPAA Penalties And Reputation Fallout

SPEAKER_00 27:05

talked about how it's very common to not have business associate agreements. Is there like sort of a cautionary tale, maybe, or a where these things have gone wrong that that maybe you could give an example?

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Well, I'll tell you, I don't so if you go, if you Google uh HIPAA violation, seriously, HIPAA violation, trying to think what I would say, um judgments. Uh you'll you'll rapidly get to a a website page on the Department of Health and Human Services. I'm not sure that's the exact search, because I can tell you're you're trying to check it out, where they have a like an ongoing list of judgments. And there's two categories. Most of them are data was lost or stolen. Okay. But occasionally you'll find one, like I'm thinking of one, I can't remember the specifics, where it was a six-figure judgment penalty because they simply didn't have the business associate agreements in place. No data was lost or stolen, but auditors showed up and they were not HIPAA compliant. Because if you don't have that, it doesn't matter what else you have, you need that too. So go look at that and you will see. And you know, is it is there probably. I mean, think about the number of practices out there versus the number of judgments. You know, it's tiny. So roll the dice if you like, Dr. X, but why? Why would you want to do that? I just I don't want to do that, and it's not like it we we don't upcharge or because we have hip. No, that's that's the cost of doing business. I'm in healthcare, right? So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

But they're there and they're man oh man. I mean here's the thing. So here's all here's the thing about the judgments. So you see a money judgment. This practice had to pay this amount, that practice that here's what they don't tell you though. Uh it's a lot more painful than the money. You are most likely, if data is lost or stolen in your practice, you are probably gonna have to tell all your patients about that. Good luck holding on to them. Your reputation is hammered. Uh you are gonna have to drop most everything else you're doing to deal with this a further problem. And it's gonna be painful, it's just gonna be painful. So you you you'll pay the you you you'd love to pay that and have everything else just stay hidden and go away. It doesn't work that way, right? It cannot work that way. You do not want this, yeah. Even though it's say it's a one in a million chance uh that pain is gonna be severe. Why do you want to play with that?

SPEAKER_00 29:37

You know, I I've I have seen that uh from the inside, and it was it wasn't a fun, it wasn't a fun experience. No to have to to have to tell your patients that there was a breach, to have to engage with a lawyer, to we may have lost your data, maybe it.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

You know what the to me the the the the most angering part is your data may have been compromised. You don't even know if my specific data was compromised. Really? May have like you wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

That's not very in a comforting thing to hear.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

Yeah, I'd rather hear, but we saved yours or sorry, we know yours was.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Yeah, we yours we got everyone else we lost, but yours we know is okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

On top of on top of how poorly we protected your data because it got lost or stolen. Yeah, the way we hold on to your data, we can't even tell if you specifically got compromised with it.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

I'm looking elsewhere.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Oh man.

Social Content With Staff Without Violations

SPEAKER_00 30:38

You know, sometimes healthcare practices will enlist their employees to help them create social media marketing. Is that something that you are a fan of? Do you see that done well? What's your thoughts on all that?

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Because they're right there. I mean, a lot of social in particular, it's it's local. And you know, for us, for example, we do a fair amount of social, but we're not on site, and they are. Yeah, and so good videos, as long as you protect privacy and hip and everything else, videos of people, hey, what a great day. Uh, this person had a birthday, you know, all these great personality, personable, really personalized the they're awesome. With every every once in a while, the prospective client will say, you know, we do this. Is that okay? I'm like, more the merrier. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

So is it should would you say that that content? I hear you talking about the personal side, like talking about employees and stuff. Is it more important to do that stuff, or to say, hey, our doctors are the best doctors, they're so smart, they've had so much experience and that kind of thing, or is it is it maybe is that authenticity and that humanity kind of more where you want to go?

SPEAKER_01 31:53

So the auth, so to me, when the the thrust of of promoting like a medical practice for us is uh educational. So through good education, you will demonstrate your authority rather than you know celebrating how smart you are. Um, you're supposed to be smart. Um you know, if if you are on the bleeding edge because of research you do or awards you win, yeah, let's you know, let's let's celebrate those. But as the you know, why you should choose me because I have a lot of awards. Um does that mean your hand is steady, or I don't I don't what's the translation and and it never is. But so you should be authoritative in your field and personable, like you approachable, like a 3D person, you know. And so we do a lot with the educational side, and then anybody, any practices, you mind if we do this other stuff all day long because you put the two together, yeah, it's really powerful. A smart, a smart person I can trust who's approachable. Welcome to being a good doctor, you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

I love that, I love that. Well, I I could just talk to I could talk to you much longer, Carl. I I just I love marketing because it is all about, you know, we have these private practices that that they can do so many great things, and it's a great place to get care. And we just need to help them tell the world about it. And the same thing also applies, you know, to a workplace, you know, which is kind of more my domain. And we want to let people know what it's like to work here, you know. And so really it's just it's all about communicating to others about the value of private practice, independent practice, and I I appreciate the work that you're doing in that space.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Thank you. Yeah, for both of us, it's what do you say and how do you say it? Yeah, easy to say, but more to do. So but yes, totally agree.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

So,

How To Reach Carl And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 33:56

how can people if people want to learn more about Mark Advisory Group and they want to learn how to promote their clinic, how can they get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_01 34:05

So our website's the best, MarkAdvisorygroup.com. It's a lot, I know. Ironic.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

I'll put the link in the show.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

Yeah, thank you. Put the link there. Uh, you know, there's on on many pages is a link to schedule a call. That's the most direct way. I'll ask, you know, subscribe to practice care so you can have two podcasts, you know, Mike's and mine. Practice care. It's it's for the business side of private practice. You'll be a guest on in a couple of weeks. That's far from only market, it's not a marketing, it's it's the business side is vast. We try to tackle as much as we can. So subscribe to that. Good way to, you know, good way to get bite-sized advice on a whole bunch of topics. But we'd love to help you out. You know, if you are uh you want to stay private and you feel like your marketing is even a little bit eh, or you're wondering about it, schedule a call. We'll talk. We'll see if it's a fit. You're not paying money or signing up for anything. Love to see if we can help.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

Love it. Well, there you go. You just you nailed your messaging right there. You know, if you fit in this category, let's have a chat. Yeah, I'm gonna definitely rep rep reproduce that for my own purposes there. Um, but yeah, thanks so much, Carl, for joining me on the show. And um, I'm looking forward to appearing on on Practice Care as well.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Same, yeah, same. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Well, that brings this episode of iCare Leadership Live to a conclusion. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show on your podcast app and share it with someone who would value the content. I promise to bring you more guests and content to help make you a better eye care clinical leader. I also invite you to subscribe to my HR newsletter for iCare Leaders. You can find information about that at seasoned advice.com. Now go out there and lead with confidence.