Ep #73 - Stop Firefighting: The Business System Behind Every Scalable Clinic

You didn't open a hormone clinic to spend your days putting out fires.
     
This week Jody sits down with Meryl Simmons — a former audiologist turned Professional EOS® Implementer and business coach at ClarityCoach.io. Before she ever coached a clinic, Meryl spent over a decade on the commercial side of healthcare, including a stretch where her company grew from $70 million to $200 million in three years — and doubled headcount without any structure behind it. That chaos is exactly what she now helps practice owners avoid.

Jody and Meryl dig into the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) — the framework behind the book Traction — and what it actually looks like inside a hormone clinic or multi-location practice. They talk about the "room's not on fire, but something's not right" feeling that hits growing practices, how to tell if you've got the right people in the wrong seats, and why a simple 90-day planning tool might be the single biggest unlock for a practice that's stuck.

Topics covered:
      
• Why rapid growth without structure eventually breaks (Meryl's $70M-to-$200M story)
• The six components every business needs: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, Traction
• The People Analyzer: how to know if someone is a culture fit, a skills fit, both, or neither
• Quarterly Conversations: turning performance reviews into real, ongoing accountability
• What "Rocks" are, and how to choose 90-day goals that actually move revenue
• The specific signs it's time to bring in outside help — before you hit a real ceiling
      
Connect with Meryl:
Website: claritycoach.io
Email: meryl@claritycoach.io
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/merylsimmons/
Free 30-Minute Clarity Call: https://claritycoach.io/contact-me/

This podcast is powered by Accelerated Medical Practices, where we believe hormone and wellness care should be both life-changing and profitable.  If you own or run a clinic and are interested in being a guest on the show, please complete the form here and let's connect!  Or email Jody at Jody@AcceleratedMedicalPractices.com.

 🚀 Grow your clinic with proven systems at AcceleratedMedicalPractices.com

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to Beyond Hormones, the Business of Wellness, the podcast for hormone and functional medicine providers who want a thriving, predictably profitable practice, and maybe a little less stress along the way. Hi, I'm your host, Jody Lane, and I've worked with lots of clinics in marketing, sales, and business development, and I have seen what works and what doesn't. And here's what I believe hormone and wellness care should be available to everyone who wants it. And while providers know the medicine, many struggle with the business side of their cash practice. And that's where I come in. See, this podcast is here to share real strategies, real stories, things you can implement in your practice right away. So I am so glad you're here. Come on, let's go. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Beyond Hormones, the Business of Wellness podcast. I am Jodie Lane, your host, and I have to be honest, when I first met today's guest, uh we hit it off like that. Um, I'm I'm genuinely excited to sit down with her because she speaks my language. Her name is Merrill Simmons, and she is a professional EOS implementer and business growth coach who helps clinic owners and entrepreneurial teams stop firefighting and start actually running their business with intention. Now, if you have listened to any of my past podcasts or any of my videos on social media, you know that I am a big fan of the book Traction and the whole EOS methodology. Although I'm not an EOS coach like Meryl is, I am really excited for this conversation because she will be able to share with us exactly what this methodology is all about and how you can use it in your clinic. So I would like for you to please welcome Meryl to the Beyond Hormones podcast.

unknown 2:05

Hi.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Hi.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Thank you for having me and for that really warm and lovely introduction. I feel the same way.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Absolutely. Yeah. No, we what I always schedule a 15-minute like pre-guest interview for those of you who don't know that. And I think we spoke for like 40 minutes. Like we just didn't want to think. And so so thank you for coming back. And I've got a ton of questions that I want to ask you today, but I'm going to start with just, you know, talking about your background because it's fascinating. You didn't start as a coach, you started as a clinical training director, leading what, 14 national field reps?

SPEAKER_00 2:42

No, actually, but before that, I was an audiologist. So I am a trained clinician. Um, so um, so yeah, I mean, I spent, you know, uh 15 years or so on the clinical and executive side of healthcare. As you mentioned, Jody, I did lead a team of, you know, 14 national product trainers, right? I worked for a vendor on the commercial side of the hearing care industry, but I've been a practitioner. I've been, you know, a leader on a leadership team, and I've watched so many great clinicians build practices over the course of my career, uh, both on the practice and commercial side, and now what it is that I get to do now as a coach. So it's like a really fun Venn diagram for my um professional career so far.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

So what happened? Like, so you were a clinician, you you worked for this company, it grew exponentially in a very short period of time. You talked on your website about experiencing that chaos. What happened that made you take that leap over into the coaching side?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, if I may just briefly touch on that experience, because I think it's um I think it's been so profoundly impactful to how I help business owners and entrepreneurial teams now who have also or are experiencing that kind of like chaotic exponential growth, that like hockey stick growth. The vendor that I was with, you know, um, I was with them for 12 years. So we had lots of um, lots of organizational change. And I had a lot of change in my career. But, you know, in a three-year period, we grew from like 70 to 200 million in revenue. We doubled our headcount um in that first 12 months of that, you know, of that growth strategy or growth trajectory. And we did it without really any structure and systems behind it, right? And so on the outside and on paper, it was very exciting, you know, and it was like, you know, we were expanding in market share, right? So maybe you're a multi-site locate practice if you're listening and you know, you're thinking about opening multiple locations, like all of that growth is super exciting. And, you know, your revenue as a result has increased. Maybe you purchase an existing practice, right? So, you know, you're right away that revenue upticks, right? But you also have more people. You also maybe have some lack of definition around people's roles. So maybe you have some duplicated efforts and people don't really know how to show up in their best way possible, right? And so this experience that I had, while it was real chaos, it's really led me to help the businesses that I help today in such a in such a personal way, um, with compassion, but also the structure that they need to scale. So when you when you hit rapid growth and when you try to scale without structure, it is not sustainable. Um, you know, scale requires a system.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah, I actually can speak to that very personally. Before my hormone days, I had a marketing agency and we grew to $3 million very, very fast. No plan, no idea what we were doing, no structure. Had I read the book Traction back then, I might still be with that company, but we dissolved because as partners, we started fighting because we didn't, you know, have the same theory about where we should go. So I really understand that pain. And when I hear you talk about you know your experience, it sounds like what you do is for big companies, but it's not for big companies only. So, what does like the the the day in a life of you as a coach look like, you know, so that small businesses can understand what it is that you do?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah, I really appreciate that question. Um, you know, EOS is ideal for business sizes who have 10 to 300 employees, so even businesses with 10 employees, right? Um, and then, you know, usually around above 2 million in revenue, 2 to 50 in million in revenue. Um, I work with a lot of, you know, multi-location clinics who are at the 10 million or so range in their business. So, you know, and and that's like kind of the position that the the business is like, you've got momentum, you've got something real, but it's almost like if you can think about your business in like growth stages, like you're not a baby anymore, but you're like a ferocious tween and it's sad, right? And it's like you start to add more people, and you know, you're starting to look at not just growth, but hopefully you're also looking at your bottom line around profitability. Um, cultural things sometimes start to become challenges, right? What happens culturally in one office location to another? Do you have the right people? Are they in the right seats, right? And so the work that I do and what EOS helps businesses to do is I'm just gonna summarize it like this every business needs to be strong in their vision. They need to know where they're going and how they're gonna get there. You can't just wing it, right? And you need to share that with your whole team. It doesn't matter if it just lives in your head. So you've got to start to share it and make it simple. Every business needs the right people in the right seats, right? Every business needs to be strong in that thing, right? You can't have an awesome company if you don't have the right people in the right seats. Every business needs to look at a handful of data. Jody, I know you talk about this a lot, right? A handful of metrics that you should be your business should look at every week, actually. A few things that help you to make sure that you're on track and you're gonna make your numbers by the end of the quarter. Every business needs to know how to solve issues. When you're in business, it means you have a slew of issues to solve on a regular basis. Problem solving is kind of the name of the game if you're a business owner or if you're a manager or if you're just running an office, right? Whatever it is, um, whatever that role is. And then your debt, your processes to be documented. I know you work with teams a lot on making sure just a handful of things. How do you do your thing so that you could scale it? So that when you want to go on vacation and you want to take time off with your family, everyone knows the great way of doing things or when you're gonna make your hire, right? And then a meeting cadence. You've got to be able to start to drive a cadence in how you plan so that you can execute and you've got to break those things down into small bytes and you've got to have a rhythm that helps you to make sure that you're driving progress and traction in your business. And EOS helps businesses to be strong in all of those six things: vision, people, data, issues, process, and traction. And so that's what I help businesses to do. So whether you're, you know, one location with 15 people and you're starting to feel things that like maybe it doesn't feel like the room is on fire, but like it does feel like things aren't quite right and everything's sort of running at that like low-level chaos, if that makes sense, right? All the time though, right? Um, and like it just feels like you're having to like hold it together with that sheer force. So, you know, rather than hiring more people or buying more equipment or software or things like that, um, you've got to start to work and build that structure underneath it. And that's where iHelp businesses.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

So, out of those six areas, what do you think clinic owners specifically, which one do they struggle with the most before you walk through the door? Oh god, all of them.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Um I mean, it's such a hard question, you know, because you know, certainly knowing where you're going and how you're gonna get there is that I would say sometimes they know where they're going, but they don't always communicate it or have a way to simplify it. So that's a thing, but not maybe the burning thing. Um, but we need to do it, right, in order to build goals, right? Um, I think the people and the data piece are huge. And also the traction piece, running a cadence. There's a lot of inconsistencies around how we plan and execute when we take time to work on the business. I mean, the things that I do is I work with teams every single quarter to work on your business. And I actually work with a smaller business owner as well. So if you're less than 10 people, I have kind of like a um another program called Get Focused. And it's it's sort of like a light version for those teams that are not quite ready. They don't have a core team, um, but they need that structure. And for those people, I work with them every twice a month, working on their business, going through the scorecard, going through issues. So, I mean, getting the right people in the right seats, I think is is always a big one because you can't. Here's a lot of the things that I see to put it like real practical. Like take a three-practice clinic, for example, and um they've got some providers that are just maybe a little bit less lower in their performance, right? They're they're just like they're a little bit behind in the baseline, they're not meeting targets. And this practice is they're they're tracking some KPIs, right, for their for their providers, but there's a few handful that are just like low performers or they're inconsistent performers. And like, and so it's not due to a lack of tracking, but we haven't really defined what it is that is the bar and the expectation and how to be successful in that role. And what gets really tricky in the clinical world is here you have like trained professionals. So, you know, whether it be a nurse practitioner or a doctor or some sort of allied healthcare professional, they're trained and in their in their skill, right? And so it's like hard to be like, well, I want to tell you how to do your job better. Like there's like this weird thing that happens where we're like, we're afraid to kind of set the bar of what's expected here in this business, because your business is not the same as business down the street. And in order to identify if you have the right person in the right seat, I know you've talked about this before, right person is someone who aligns with your core values, right? So that's a culture fit. So if they're not a culture fit in your business, so maybe the patients love them, but they're really a hassle to work with. They never get their notes in on time, like, you know, they make it difficult for the person who does scheduling. Like that is not a good fit in your practice. And while they might be performing their KPIs, they're they are corrupting your inner zone of your culture, right? They are like a cancer to your culture. And practice owners and managers are afraid to do something. They say, well, how could I do this? This is my top, you know, my lead performer here. It's going to bring down the whole revenue for that whole location. Well, what's more expensive? Losing an entire team of people that you have to hire, because your your fastest way to, you know, not retaining good staff is by putting them in front of like making them work with someone who doesn't align with your culture. Right. So, so that's definitely having the right people. Or if they're not performing, maybe they're super loyal, they've been with you for the beginning, but they're just like really not adding to the revenue. They're not, they're they're not performing. So again, you have to define what does good look like, what do is expected, what are the skills that they might need to improve on. I'm not saying toss them out right away, but if you don't clearly define, like your job is from when the patient comes in the room to ensure that there's clear diagnosis, that there's a treatment plan in place. Like if your job is to prescribe a treatment plan for every patient you see and ensure patient satisfaction, then it's not a bad word to say, I have to sell them this treatment plan. Like that's your job, right? Like that's what we look like. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Right. Well, and what I love about what you're talking about is, you know, you may walk into a business at $10 million and you now have to go fix all of that. And the fixing part is very uncomfortable. But is you start with a with a business at its infancy and you understand the core values, you are able to articulate them, you understand the job expectations, you do the people analyzer, which I'm going to have you talk about because I love the people analyzer process because it's I went and I encourage our practices to do it once a year, not once and done, but once a year to make sure that people are still aligning with what the expectation was set. So if you can't set the expectation from the day of hire, then you really can't expect the employee to show up as you wanted them to, because they weren't told to do that. So can you tell us about what the people analyzer is so that the folks listening understand?

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Yeah. So let me just also back up and share that. So EOS isn't a business operating system. The entrepreneurial operating system, that's the book traction that Jody is talking about, is based on the entrepreneurial operating system. It's an operating system, which means it's how you run your business. So it's it's changing the way you run your business. And it's comprised of 20 simple tools and frameworks and disciplines that help you to strengthen those six key components that I mentioned just earlier: vision, people, data, et cetera. And so the people analyzer is a tool that one of the tools that helps strengthen the people component. And it's more specifically helping you to see do you have the right person? When we talk about right person, right seat, there's two types of people problems. There's a right person, wrong seat. It means they really align with their culture with your culture, but they're not performing, they don't GWC their seat. They don't get it, meaning they don't have the unique ability to do that thing that you need as you've defined that seat. They don't want it, or they don't have the capacity or the skill set to do it well. So that's what we talk about when we have like the right seats. So they could be right people, wrong seat, or they could be wrong people. So they don't align, exemplify your culture, and they're in the right seat, like the person I talked about before. The patients really like them, they're a high performer, but they're culturally not a good fit for your business. So the people analyzer tool helps us to assess the right people piece. So do they align with your core values? Do they exemplify your core values? And first of all, you have to define your core values, and that's part of the work that I do with teams, is helping them to get clear on what your core values are. And it's not good enough to have it be, you know, posters on the wall. You've got to walk the walk, you know, you've got to live your core values. And it starts with you. A lot of leadership is like parenting. If you don't set the example and repeat yourself multiple times, you can't expect your people to do it.

unknown 18:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Plain and simple. And which means you really have to be intentional because when we're moving fast, it's easy to get sloppy and it's easy to drift, which is why you need a coach and why you need someone to help you to work on your business. And so the way that we look at the people analyzer tool is once you've defined your core values, they shouldn't be aspirational. They should be actually who you are as a culture. You kind of like, it's like it's a chart, right? And so at the top, you write your core values along the first column, you start to list your people. And then you use a plus and minus grading system to evaluate do they show up that way, right? For each of the core values individually. And uh if it's if it's a plus, that means over 50% of the time they show up exemplifying that core value. And if it's a minus, it means less than 50% of the time they show up in that way. And you should never have more than like four or five core values because they've got to be easy to remember. You should have them memorized, everyone should know them, right? You've got to be like giving feedback with them. We hire, we fire, we give feedback and you know, and and promotions or whatnot based on, you know, core values. We we attract the right people. And so, and so you're you're looking at plus or minus. You can do a plus-minus if um they are like 50-50. And then, you know, you have to set the bar as a leadership team and say, well, you know, out of these four core values, these two will sort of settle if it's a plus minus sometimes. Like it's okay if not everyone has them all the time, right? But the goal is to have them most of the time. And and then you just see, do you have any minuses or plus minuses? Are those red flags? And it's not enough to just to notice it, but then you have to have the hard conversation, right? So other tools like EOS really does make strong leaders. When you follow this framework and you work with a coach and you're we're working on the business every quarters, you learn how to be a stronger leader and a stronger manager. And that is one of the hardest parts about running and operating a business is managing people. And so to be able to have an objective framework where you can give feedback, there's another tool in the EOS toolbox called a quarterly conversation. And it's just that, it's a conversation. And you and your direct report do the people analyzer tool every single quarter. You do it, you do it for them, they assess themselves, and then you share. And it's a great opportunity to be like, what's going on here? Like you didn't, you're not really showing up. Is there something happening? Talk to me, what's going on? Right. And it's a conversation, but it gives managers a tool to really be able to have these hard conversations that often feel emotional. And it's not emotional, it's business and it's an opportunity for everyone to talk about what it looks like to bring your best self to work because that's the culture you hopefully are building, right? Of what it looks like to bring your best self. So I went a bit on a tangent there, Jody. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

No, no, no. That was it was amazing. So, you know, I everyone knows I talk about this clinic that I worked for in Orlando and we grew it very successfully. And we did this to a T. One thing we added, which I'll share because it was very, very valuable, was each of our quarterly conversations, we actually had the employee rate the company on the yeah. So um, I mean I'm sorry, maybe you said that, but um, you know, so that way you're getting feedback so that your employees know that you're listening to them. That's right. We're saying we committed to this just as much as you did. And if we're not showing up as a company, then we want you to share that. And it worked beautifully. Absolutely beautifully.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Absolutely. Yeah, it's a two way street, right? Um, and I think what often happens is like we avoid the tough conversations. So we tolerate. Yeah, you know, you ask like, what's like one of the common things that businesses struggle with? I think it's just tolerating too much, you know. What in your business, whether it be lower performance, whether it be inconsistency in how you show up, you know, whether it be like, oh, we met our goals, oops, we didn't this time. It's like, what are you tolerating in your business? Over time, these kinds of things, I call them, I don't know if you've ever read this book. It's by Keith Cunningham. It's not part of the EOS library, but it's called The Road Less Stupid. And he talks about accumulating dumb tax. And it's like, how much dumb tax do we accumulate over time? And it's just like these things that we're tolerating that we're just not being intentional about because we're moving so fast. And the instinct is always to hire someone or to solve it with a piece of technology or to push harder. And that is not the answer. Like the answer is like when you have growth goals or you have team issues or operational problems or everything simultaneously, which is often what's happening, which is why I kind of laughed and I said, well, they all have everything, right? Because um, because like it it really is that's why EOS is so brilliant, because it is a system, like it tackles all of these areas of the business that these operational issues that every business struggles with. Um, and when you let those kind of, you know, when they go unchecked, that's when you have sort of either full-blown chaos or that kind of low level, like the room's not on fire, but like I'm not really sure how much I'm enjoying my job and my life right now.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah, no, totally. And what you said was so perfect because you know, we tolerate because, like you said, we don't want to have those uncomfortable conversations. We don't want to feel like we're hurting somebody, but yet all we're doing is kicking the can down the road because it's just going to get compound, get bigger, and it's going to get worse.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Absolutely. And I've seen such transformations with clients that I work with, um, specifically in the people component. I mean, they've seen transformations in their business with their revenue and everything as well, of course, those results. 82% of my clients have had their best year ever, year over year, based on the work that we do. So, like, that's great proof points. But, you know, just because we work together and we're we're implementing a system and they have a coach, now they have someone to help work with them on these things. But like, it doesn't mean that these problems go away. You just, you just have a system to allow you to sort of break through the ceiling when you're hitting the ceiling on those issues. And and you have a sounding board and a coach in me in being able to overcome this. And the thing that I see is like we get the leadership team, right? Um, but then it's again, like you said, it's just like it's being able to cascade it down. And they do it well when they're making new hires. So they're making new hires, they're like, oh, Merrill, you'll be so proud. We hired based on, you know, we did our whole interview process, included core values and all these things. And that's great. And they've got got brought on these great, great people. They've defined the seats, so it's like very clear of who they're attracting. Do they GW seat? But it's their existing employees, you know, who have been with them for day one, that they're still on the issues list. And it's like, this is great, but what are we doing about this, this here on the issues list? And you know, they they have to move, like I'm here to hold them accountable, I'm there to hold the mirror. And if I didn't, no one would, right? Um, so that's super important. But like, you know, these problems still live in the business. They have to ultimately, you know, take that leap. And, you know, most businesses become really clear in what's not working in this work that we get to do. Yeah, no, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

You know, you mentioned the issues list, um, which is one of the other things that EOS teaches. I want to talk about rocks because that was the area of EOS that hit me over the head like a giant rock, I guess. Like a rock, like a rock. Because, you know, from my perspective, what rocks are are businesses have all these things they need to do constantly. And so if we have 47 different things that we're working on all at once, that means there was 47 things not being completed. And so the ROCS concept solves that problem. Can you share how that problem gets solved using rocks? For all you longtime listeners, you know how much I love supported hormone clinics to become the best version that you can be. So if you don't mind, I want to stop and share for just a quick minute about a product of ours that I think can make a real impact for you. And it's called Practice Automation System. Now, here's something most clinic owners I've spoken to have never realized. They think their marketing doesn't work. When the truth is, most clinics are often wasting up to 75% of their marketing budget without even knowing it. Not because their marketing is bad, no. It's because of what happens after the lead comes into the clinic. Now, according to studies, 87% of people don't answer calls from unknown phone numbers anymore. Can you believe that? I know I didn't know the number was that high. So when your office calls back a lead and the lead doesn't pick up the phone and you don't follow back after that, the money you spend to get that lead is gone. Look, the practice automation system is what we built to fix this problem. The moment a lead comes in, the system texts them in five minutes. It sends nurturing emails for weeks if they're not ready. It helps them move through a sales pipeline your team can actually keep up with. We built the foundation for this inside an actual hormone clinic, the one I worked at, the one I helped to scale to over $4 million in revenue. So every campaign tactic, every text, and every email language and timing was tested on real hormone patients before it ever became a product. For most clinics, as few as four patients a year covers the cost of the entire system. To find out if practice automation system is right for your clinic, go to accelerated medical practices.com slash automation. That's accelerated medical practices.com slash automation. All right, guys, now let's get back to what we were talking about.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Yeah, great question. So, you know, like I said earlier, a lot of business is mostly problem solving, but it's also prioritizing, right? It's like you can't do everything all at once. Um, you also need to have your plan of where you're going so you can start to work backwards, right? And if you are just sort of like in the headspace of like, we did, you know, we had 30% growth last year, and maybe that was a little bit of luck and you know, whatever things like that doesn't that's not going to happen again unless you have a plan, right? So, so what is that one-year plan? So, first you need to set your intention for where you want to go in the next year. And then rocks are essentially your 90-day goals. They are the big things. So they're called rocks because if you envision, you know, a mason jar and you've got the pebbles and the sand and all the things that like take up and eat up your time, the emails, the phone calls, even your patient visits and interaction, the little meetings and conversations that you're having, you know, that take up your time. But they're not the big things that move the business forward. And in order to make sure that we're removing our obstacles, because I like to think about it this way too. Like, it's like, oh, well, I want to go here. Okay, great. So if you want to go from A to B, right? You want to go from 10 million to 13 million or you know, whatever it is, right? Okay, great. How are we gonna do this? Well, we're gonna do this by opening another satellite location. We're gonna do this by two new relationships with referral partners that we've started to make this year. We're gonna do this with now like monthly webinar events that are gonna help us to, you know, grow our patient pipeline, right? Like all these things that you know that you're gonna do, right? In order to help you, you have to kind of work backwards, like what's going to add the additional two million in revenue this year? Like it's not gonna just happen if you don't have a plan. So you start to kind of group these things into three to seven big picture initiatives. So if one of them, let's just say, is monthly webinars, let's just say that. Like, let's just say you're gonna take on this new sort of like marketing approach to you, and it could be a retention webinar too. So maybe it's for patient retention, whatever it is. It's some some sort of webinar initiative. But like you need to start building for that, right? You're not just gonna wing it every month. So if you want to do 12 webinars over the next calendar year, now we need to say, okay, well, in Q1, what do we need to do to start kicking off these webinars? Well, we're gonna set a calendar, we're gonna make sure that we have someone that's running the webinars, we're going to like have our content and we'll pull our list. Like, that's a rock for 90 days. Like those are like the bigger things that always take a little longer than we think they're gonna take over the 90 days, and you create milestones. So it's like phase one of launch webinars, right? And you start to create these milestones of you know, build your content calendar and set the Zoom schedule, you know, and they're usually a little bit more meaty than that, but but sometimes they're a little tasky, and and again, those are the milestones, but but you've got to now start kind of mapping it out. And so rocks are 90-day goals, and you need to get better at actually choosing the most important things. And I like to say if your rock doesn't impact revenue, profitability, patient or employee experience, it's not important. And so again, it's like whatever we're usually doing to get from A to B is usually a series of either something we need to build or something we need to fix. Like that's it's like removing an obstacle or building something that isn't built already. Like those are the things, right? Those are the rocks, those are the big things that are gonna move the needle. So we've got to get clear on what they are. The way that we do that is we define our one-year plan and then we start to work backwards into the 90 days. And then we have to narrow it down to three to seven. And if we we can't go more than that, less is more. Keep it stupid simple. And rocks need to be smart, they need to be specific, they need to be measurable, they need to be attainable, they need to be relevant to your one-year plan, and they need to be time stamped. So I always say, what is done look like? Otherwise, if you set this very vague goal of like, bring on, you know, or or referral partners, and you're like, what about referral partners? What do you want to do there? Or or hire X, you know, office administrator, practice care coordinator for this location. It's like, okay, so by the end of the day, are the end of the 90 days, you want to have them hired and onboard boarded, you want to have candidates recruited. Like, what do you think is actually possible in the next 90 days? Because again, everything always takes longer than we think it does. So, what does done look like? Right. So that's a rock. I hope I explained that.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

No, you did a great job. Uh I'll share what we used to do. So, you know, and we didn't have a $10 million practice, but what we would do is we had our staff meeting every Thursday and we had a list people could put of issues that they wanted to discuss. And in that meeting, we would decide either the issue was resolvable in the staff meeting, it was actually hurting the practice, which meant that somebody in the leadership team took it over right away, or it became a rock, or a possible rock. And then we would meet, we had our quarterly meetings, and we did our quarterly meetings with everybody, and then we put all the rocks on the board, and each person would pick one rock they wanted to work on. And depending upon what their goal role was in the practice, would determine how big their rock was. So someone who's constantly patient-facing can't take a very big rock, but by them selecting the rock they wanted to work on, it was usually personal. They liked it, it made them happy. And then we'd work with them throughout the quarter to make sure that they did exactly what you just described. And then at the next quarter evening, they had to stand up and share what happened with their rock. And it really, in a small company, that may not be possible in a larger company, but in a small practice like we had, it really engaged everybody and made them feel like entrepreneurs. And so, but it the bottom line is that why I think rocks are so amazing is because it really puts some light on the fact that you can't do everything at once. You can't.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

No, you have to get good at prioritizing. One of the things that Rocks helps us to do better and be better at is becoming a better predictor about our business. Uh, what is it that we think that we can get done? What is it that we think is the most important thing to focus on right now? If we're drowning, what are the three most important things that are going to help us from not drowning? The truth is, though, is that once you start to implement these simple tools and frameworks, is you start to feel less like you're drowning because you now have more control, you now have a systematic approach. And if you're if you are implementing fully, uh like my clients do, you have a weekly meeting that holds you accountable to where are you to date on your rocks and your scorecard. Right. And if you're in my get focused program for those businesses with less than 10 people who don't have a team, we're having those meetings every other week together. So, like, you know, like it's it's the accountability. Like, you know, like when we are not accountable, myself included, for the things that we need to do to work on our business, we drift. I mean, it's just that simple. And we need that accountability. I've never met a professional in anything else that doesn't have a coach. Business shouldn't be any different, right? If you want to be a business owner, you want to grow and scale your business, don't do that by yourself.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Like, yeah, no, absolutely. You don't have to and that drifting doesn't mean that you're being lazy. It could just be that you're focusing on the wrong thing. And sometimes just the sheer visibility of what is in front of you mixed with that accountability is the secret sauce.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

Absolutely. I have a client that I work with, and we've been working together for a while now. And she's in healthcare, uh, not a practice owner, but she's a consultant in healthcare. She's actually a solopreneur, and so that's to give you visibility to the smaller. Uh, it can go that small, right? And um, and her business is only like two years or three years old. So it's not like she's been doing this for a long time. And honestly, like every single time we get together, which is every other week essentially, she's like, oh God, Meryl, I don't know what I would do if I didn't have these sessions. Because she just would get stuck in the weeds of her business. And it allows her to pull her up, pull her out of it. She gets clear. We have a system and framework that she used. She has WarOcks, she has a scorecard, we're IDSing together. Um, and it's just changed the way that she does her business. It's made her so much more capable.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Yeah, too. Yeah, yeah, totally. So, you know, for someone listening that says, wow, this sounds like so much. What is one piece of advice that you would give a small practice owner to do, let's say, this week, to get some kind of that visibility or accountability, even if they're doing it on their own. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

Well, where are we? We're in, we're almost in June. So we're towards the end of Q2.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

But it's never too late. Start your year now on May 26th and move forward. Um, I would say, what are the three most important things that in the next 90 days that are going to help you to move the needle in your business? Whether it be something that's not working, like, first of all, just get clear. Get everything out of your head. Like, do a data dump, take a clarity break, take a pen to paper, do a data dump. What are the things that are not working today in your business? And just write them all down. Get them out of your head. Don't even start to try to prioritize them just yet. Just get it all out of your head. And also put in there, what are the things that you've been wanting to do that you think will help your business that isn't there yet that you need to do? Right. Again, write that down. And then go through that list, start to do like, is there anything in that list that you can kind of combine, right? That's like one idea is combined with the other. Is there anything that if you really had to look at it, you're like, uh, this is probably not a priority? Like, this isn't really gonna move the needle. It's not gonna impact revenue now, you know, all those things. It's not gonna impact my patient experience, you know, kill it, right? Just put a line through it. Um, or keep what is the most when you're like, oh God, if I don't fix this once and for all, it's just gonna keep popping up here. So just make yourself a short list and start to break down from those three things and and don't choose more than three, honestly. Um start to break it down step by step. If there were like weekly milestones that would help you to start to chip away at those things, write those down. So get clear on those goals and then set yourself a calendar block every week and make sure that you're doing the work that needs to get done to work on that business. Or if you've got someone on your team that you know you can delegate one of the milestones to, or multiple people that you can delegate a few milestones to, do that. Um, so you know that's that's definitely something kind of simple to do. The the tricky part is sticking with it, right? And that that uh that that framework and structure to keep with it, but it's definitely a great starting point of making that short list and choosing a few things, or if you've got people, right? Like if the what's not working is like a person and you can kind of just see them and they show up in your dreams, like write that down too, and like have the honest conversation and think why. Why not aren't they working? Are they just not a good culture fit? And if they're not, you can't reseat them somewhere else. You've just got to have the conversation. Um, but if they are, figure out why they're not as successful, right? And have that conversation to make sure that they can be their best.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

So the foundation of everything you just said, I hear, is carve time in your schedule to work on your business. And honestly, I think this is why having a business coach is so incredibly important because we all know we're entrepreneurs just like they are, that given the opportunity, you're gonna work in your business because in your business feels like you're moving the needle forward. And so having a business coach and knowing that every other week or whenever the weeding cadence is when you're working with the bigger clients, you're going to stop, you're going to talk about your business, you're going to figure out what those three things are, those milestones, you're going to talk through it. So that is so important. Now, let's talk about a business that is in line with that 2 million, 10 million that you talked about that EOS really serves. How does a business owner, like what are the signs that they begin to see or feel where they you know that it's the perfect time for an EOS business coach to step in and start helping?

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Yeah, I mean, it's the things that slow teams down, right? It's like, and this doesn't mean that, like, and as I talk about these things, these businesses like are often not a hot mess. I mean, I've encountered businesses that are quite dysfunctional, but it doesn't mean that your business has to be in trouble. Um, in fact, it's actually, you know, like like I always say, it's like there's no time to fix the roof than before the storm, right? Like do it when you've like, if you're at that 10 million and you want to get to 15 or 20 or whatever it is, like do it now. Don't wait for things to start to feel, oh, you know, like a nightmare. Like, so I would just say, um, when you have like maybe poor communication, right? Like things just overall, like communication is not um, is not clean. There's just like maybe not clarity around who does what in the business. You've got a lot of people sitting in multiple seats, you know, like Sally does the billing, she also does the scheduling, she also, you know, prepares like the rooms. And when we have a doctor, like a physician event, she's in charge of executing that event. You're like, geez, like how is Sally ever gonna do a great job at any of the things that she does, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:54

Like, or go to Sally leaves, you're in trouble.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

Exactly. You're up, you know what. So um, so making sure that you've got so the piece that can get confusing are like people are just like not really sure of what their role is. They do a little bit of everything, and it's just like, uh, that doesn't work. That doesn't scale, let's put it that way. Yeah, it might be working right now, but that doesn't scale. Um, I would say like slow or inconsistent execution. So, like, you know, maybe you have like inconsistent performance, or maybe like you had this big goal last quarter, but like you keep sort of like pushing the goalposts, like you're like, ah, we didn't get it again. And it's just like, well, why? Like, let's fix that, let's stop tolerating that. Um, low accountability, right? Like you're the one that makes all the decisions, you're the one when there's a problem at any of the location that you need to fix it. Like when you've got like owner dependency, that's a problem. So we need to make sure that there's accountability from top to bottom in your business. Um firefighting, right? Every day feels just like a firefighter. Like, I think. We all know what that means and what that feels like. We're constantly, you know, firefighting and reacting to things that are happening, whether it be revenue, whether it be actual patient things, whether it be our staff, like maybe we have like also staffing issues where like we're moving people around to multiple locations and like we're so reliant. Like that doesn't work that structure. Like maybe like having the same person on the phone at every location is like not a scalable solution, right? Like, so like things in your clinic that are slowing you down. And and I don't fix that thing with you, but I help you to determine what's broken so that we can actually attack it in a rock or you know, make sure that we can look at the process in that way. Um, other things like you just not you're just not solving problems, like the same problem keeps showing up. Like, or you have a meeting and like you've just talked about it and it feels like you've worked on the problem because you just wasted an hour talking about that problem that keeps showing up in your business. And let me just be clear, you did not work on that problem if you didn't take action. So um solving problems, and that's hard. A lot of people do that, and they they do that because they go from one problem to the other and they don't actually stop and say, well, what is the cause of this problem? They're not solving problems at the root cause. So if you've got things like that that are slowing you down, or you know you want to go fast, you need a system to go fast, you need a system to propel your people and enable them to really own their domain. So whether it be the things that are slowing you down or these big audacious goals that you have, either one, you need a system. EOS solves that, you need a coach, you can implement it on your own, absolutely, but you hit a ceiling. And I find that my that my clients, when they, you know, when we work together, they don't see, they can't see what they can't see on their own, right? So, like, you know, my role is is threefold. It's to be an educator on how to use the system from a very initial level to moving through the process three or so years later, if we're still working together, it starts to evolve with you and the tools kind of go through a series of evolution as you evolve. You kind of look at them more deeply. Um, the second one is a facilitator. I facilitate your quarterly planning and execution sessions every quarter. You have someone in the room that's like willing to open the door of the conversation that is sometimes not being had, or the elephant in the room, or to just help that dialogue be facilitated so that the team can get clear, right? Um, and then the third part is a coach, you know, holding the mirror up, checking your checking yourself, right? Like being able to like identify your blind spots so that you could do the work and fix them. Um, and just keep getting better, right? Like that's that's what we all aspire for.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

And I can say from personal experience that it's frustrating as I wasn't the owner, but I definitely ran the practice. Like what you started to do at the beginning, suddenly at some point in revenue over $2 million, those things don't work any longer. And it's it's very it can become very frustrating. It can also make you feel like maybe you're the problem. When honestly, after seeing this happen in multiple different businesses that I've worked with and ones I've I've been in myself, it's oftentimes just a perspective issue. And having someone like you come into the business and learn everything there is to learn and change that perspective can accelerate growth in a very, very fast way.

SPEAKER_00 47:45

Absolutely. And the thing that I see with like professional services in particular, and I work with a lot of professional services style types of business, not just in healthcare, but also law and whatnot, is when you're not when you're not doing anything differently, you become like you just continue to be the practitioner who sees the patients with payroll and all the other things, but you can't move it forward because you're not either willing to hire people to do those other things, right? Or you've got to get yourself out of that day to day because you're never gonna get up over that revenue or grow that scale and growth hump by just you know staying so in deep with the business that way.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

So if somebody is interested in working with you, how do they find you? Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

Thank you so much for asking. So um, first of all, feel free to email me. You can email me at Merrill at claritycoach.io. Um, so drop me a line directly. Um, or you can go to my website, which is claritycoach.io, and you can sign up for my newsletter. Um, I send a lot of coaching tips and educational tips um around how to use the EOS system, as well as stories that I have with, you know, various entrepreneurial companies and clients that I get the privilege of working with. Um, so those are two ways you can you can reach out or just follow along. You can follow me on LinkedIn as well. Um, but you know, like let's just have a conversation. Um, I'd love to offer your audience a 30-minute clarity call. So um for those of you who just want to have a conversation about your business and maybe get clear on some things that they're grappling with, um, I would love to be able to offer that as well.

SPEAKER_01 49:38

Awesome. Well, I will put all of that, your email, your website, your LinkedIn profile, and that offer in the show notes so that people who are like driving or working out while they're listening, yeah have to stop and write this stuff down. They could just see it in the show notes. And um, you know, uh if you're listening, take her up on it. That 30-minute clarity call, maybe everything you need just to kind of put your mind in the right position to really explode your growth. So I definitely would recommend. Now, before I let you go, because I mean, you and I could actually sit here and talk for the next two hours, but all day. But respect your time. But um at the end of every podcast, I do something that I completely stole from somebody else from my favorite podcast, which is Diary of a CEO, Stephen Bartlett, does this on his show. And so I'm doing this on my show, where the last guest has left a question for you, but they don't know who you are. So that guest has asked, what would you tell yourself 10 years ago for your future self?

SPEAKER_00 50:37

Where are we in 2026? Oh boy. Yeah, you know what? Um, I would tell myself to take bigger risks and not be afraid to fail. Um, you know, being an entrepreneur, becoming an entrepreneur has, you know, really just like it or not, forces you um to do those things. Or you cannot take risks, right? Maybe you're not taking the risks and you're stuck, right? And you're just kind of in that, you're you're just sort of in that container that you'll always stay in, right? So it's just like take bigger risks and don't be afraid to fail. Yeah. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

Great, great advice. Well, Myral, thank you so much for being with us today. I'm sure whoever's listening is getting tremendous value. And if they take you up on the clarity call, they'll get even more. So I really appreciate your time today.

SPEAKER_00 51:28

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It was like a little mini crash course of some random tools from EOS.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

Awesome. All right, well, I hope to see you again soon. And thanks again. Likewise. Thanks, Jody. Thank you for listening to Beyond Hormones, the business of wellness. I hope that you're walking away with fresh ideas and real strategies you can use to grow your practice with profit and purpose. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow the show so you never miss a conversation. And if something you heard today resonated with you, do me a favor, share this episode with a friend or a colleague. It's one of the best ways you can support the show, and it might be exactly what they need to hear right now. If you want even more tools and support, go ahead and head over to accelerated medical practices.com. Until next time, keep doing the work that matters. Your patients need you, and I am cheering you along every step of the way.