How to double your revenue & feel more confident as a clinic owner

Treat Your Business EP80

Many of you listening to this podcast tell me that you feel like you’re stuck on a hamster wheel of just exchanging your time for money. Seeing many patients that have been with you for years that keep coming back week in week out and what is wrong with that? It makes you feel very exhausted and burnt out and there is just no end to it.

And you feel like you’re constantly chasing your tail, you’ve never got enough time but you don’t know how to change things. I have a very special treat for you this week, and I am going to be interviewing Chris and Naomi, a very special couple who are a part of Thrive and are still being coached now, and within 30 days, can I just tell you, of them joining the Thrive program.

Wow. They were making some huge changes to their business, a business that was set on a pay as you go model, a business that meant Chris was just constantly exchanging his time for money and felt like there was just no way out. There was nothing, there was no different way to move forwards. And Chris and Naomi, I’m here today to share their story and for you to take massive inspiration from what they have done in a very short space of time.

But also for those of you who are listening, who feel scared, who don’t know how to move forwards, who feel like you can’t afford it, who feel like you are those people stuck on that hands to wheel. Just take some time to listen to this story and be hugely inspired.

[00:01:28] Katie Bell: Hi Naomi and Chris, welcome.

[00:01:31] Chris: Thank you. Hi.

[00:01:32] Katie Bell: Thank you for being here and thank you for giving up your time to share a little bit about your story from before you joined the Thrive Coaching Program and you’re still with us now, you’re still working with us now and what kind of life and business looks like a few months into working with us.

[00:01:49] Chris: Okay.

[00:01:50] Katie Bell: So can you start by telling us and everybody listening to this, what was life and business like for you? before you even decided that Thrive were the right people to work with?

[00:02:04] Chris: Yeah. I’ve been practicing quite a number of years, a few decades, and I, it’s fair to say that I got stuck in a rut.

[00:02:11] Chris: It’s just me as a solo practitioner, and I was doing the same thing day in, day out. So there was no growth. It was frustrating. I’d lost a love, to some extent, and was really looking for how we could get out of this and find something which would change things around. Desperate to make it different.

[00:02:33] Chris: And so that’s when we stumbled across you.

[00:02:36] Naomi: We knew that the business model wasn’t working. It just wasn’t, it wasn’t financially worthwhile for Chris working all the hours he was working to get what he was looking for. getting out of the business and also feeling frustrated and disillusioned and

[00:02:56] Naomi: just a bit helpless really about where the change was going to come from. It was, we were at a pretty challenging point, weren’t we?

[00:03:09] Chris: Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. It’s yeah, we were stuck, really stuck.

[00:03:13] Katie Bell: And I remember Chris our, one of our original conversations was very much about because you’d been practicing for a long time, you’d got clients that were still with you that perhaps weren’t really serving the business anymore.

[00:03:25] Katie Bell: They certainly weren’t serving you in terms of your energy and you felt like a bit burnt out and a bit exhausted by it all.

[00:03:32] Chris: Oh, yeah, that’s, yeah, that’s totally fair to say. And yeah, I just, it, everything just needed refreshing. So the business model and some of the clients and the way that I would treat clients as well.

[00:03:44] Chris: I just needed to come at it at a completely different place than I had been before. Yeah. And how, if you don’t mind me asking, how is that impacting your life? Because it, it doesn’t it? When we have things going on in our business, it does impact our personal life. What was going on for you both then?

[00:04:00] Katie Bell: Yeah.

[00:04:01] Chris: In other ways we were open to, possibilities and new possibilities, in our, Personal lives and paying attention there. But it was just clear that this was an area which just wasn’t shifting. Yeah, I suppose I did my best to try and keep work and home separate.

[00:04:20] Chris: We’ve got three, three teenagers and but it was having an impact for sure. One key area is financially. So not being able to do the things we wanted to do, particularly Yeah. Yeah. And that sort of rolls off into other areas of life as well.

[00:04:34] Katie Bell: What was the turning point?

[00:04:37] Katie Bell: What was the moment that you decided that you needed to get help?

[00:04:41] Chris: I think we stumbled across your podcast and there was something in what you said which resonated. It was different. It was, I think, all the things that we wanted to hear. I say we because, I’m the practitioner. The name is Just doing so much of the work in the background around the accounts and other aspects of the marketing background, bringing some of that into it as well.

[00:05:07] Chris: So I think it was the what you were offering the way that you were offering it, the inclusion of mindset as well as business strategies. So all of that was just absolutely what we wanted.

[00:05:19] Naomi: We got a possibility, I think, that things could be a different way. We’d been so resigned after such a long time and had thought that if, that we were going to have to look at other areas to make things work and, we’ve got another business.

[00:05:38] Naomi: that I’m more involved with on the side and that has been more we’ve been quite dependent on that during the last few years. And we haven’t had it that the model of the practice as it was could provide what it needed to provide to to balance things out a little bit more.

[00:05:57] Naomi: And yeah, we got a glimpse in the podcast that it was possible. And I think we’d got to the point where we realized we were on the pay as you go model, we’d realized that wasn’t going to work and we needed to do packages. And in the first instance, I think when we heard what you were talking about, it’s okay, we need to look at getting some help with packages and we hadn’t realized that there was all the other stuff that we could be getting help with as well.

[00:06:20] Katie Bell: Hey, you know what you don’t know.

[00:06:22] Chris: So

[00:06:24] Katie Bell: we got on a call together, didn’t we, Naomi and Chris? And we spent an hour together just working through this, what the challenges were, how that was showing up for you, and what you really wanted to shift, what you wanted to achieve in the next 12 months.

[00:06:37] Katie Bell: You decided to just throw yourselves in, quite literally throw yourselves into the program. What has been the biggest change for you? If you can mention one, what’s been the biggest change for you so far?

[00:06:50] Chris: Yeah, I’ve been doing pay as you go as a treatment, as a model for, yeah, since pretty much since I qualified.

[00:06:55] Chris: That’s, as I was saying, a few decades. It did mean grabbing it with with two hands or just going for it. So embracing the package packages and implementing that in a wholehearted and effective way with your coaching along with. Some of the patients who I felt, some of the clients who weren’t really progressing very well with me and what I was doing.

[00:07:19] Chris: So actually passing some of those people on recognizing it actually wasn’t serving either of us, myself or them to carry on the way that we’ve been doing. And to bring in the packages has just been, it’s just been so liberating. There’s so much more. So much more at stake, both for me and for the client themselves.

[00:07:39] Chris: There’s much more buy in. So the whole energy has just gone right up. That first month of introducing it, we doubled my income which was just extraordinary.

[00:07:48] Katie Bell: And I remember you sending me an email or we talked about it on one of the Q and A’s and. I think it was you, Naomi, said, we have doubled our income and Chris has had one whole week off.

[00:07:58] Naomi: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. We’d had a week off during that month. And just so the financial thing has been amazing. Chris is seeing the patients now that he wants to see and is You know, gets the kind of, the fulfillment there again, which it hadn’t been. But I remember saying to you on one of those very early calls, I want my husband back.

[00:08:22] Naomi: It’s I want to sing a song.

[00:08:24] Naomi: But it’s, it is very different now. The whole energy is very different. It doesn’t feel like we’re just on that hamster wheel anymore. And we’ve got a plan. We know where we’re going and it, it feels like it’s all possible and it’s all very doable. So it’s I know your question was what one thing’s changed, but it’s not one thing at all, because it is literally everything.

[00:08:49] Naomi: It is.

[00:08:51] Chris: I think also what it feels to me like is that working in this way actually opens up far more possibilities. I’m sure there are more things to come once, once we expand a bit more and take on other practitioners to work with me. So if the old model just felt like there was no, there was nothing beyond just pay as you go, there was no other business.

[00:09:13] Chris: Possibilities where now I think it’s something to do with interacting directly with clients and offering your offering and asking them to buy into it and for the vast majority of people they do, then something shifts, something shifted in me anyway, to knowing that can be expanded in other ways and that, I’m excited about the future now.

[00:09:35] Katie Bell: Me too. I’m so excited about the future. What parts of the Thrive coaching program have helped you get those results in relatively a very quick time scale?

[00:09:48] Chris: It’s the accountability. It’s the coaching. It’s the quality of what’s on offer. And I have to say, the fact that you’ve been through it yourself, Katie, you’ve walked the talk, you’re a physio, you’ve been there.

[00:09:59] Chris: That’s a big thing for me, because I have had coaching from other people previously who haven’t been practitioners and haven’t been through it. Yeah, we got what we got from that, but there was something extra here. that for me personally, I’m really benefiting from. Have you got any other things that you want to add to that?

[00:10:15] Naomi: Yeah. The mindset stuff’s fantastic. The fact that’s always there in the background is brilliant, but also the group dynamics brilliant and it is, it has been fantastic working with other people on a similar path and everybody gets so invested in one

[00:10:35] Chris: another’s

[00:10:36] Naomi: journeys. Yeah, I mean it really does feel like you’re in this completely safe, supported environment.

[00:10:42] Naomi: There are so many other people you can learn from. It really feels like you are in a very

[00:10:53] Naomi: it’s just a very safe space to be able to move forward and grow in the way that you want to do that. All yeah, I can’t think of another way of expressing it really. It just feels like a really held space.

[00:11:08] Katie Bell: Is that, is there anything about the coaching program that has surprised you that you weren’t expecting?

[00:11:14] Katie Bell: Because we all come in, don’t we, to programs like this and we have an expectation of what we think is going to happen. Has there been anything that’s been a pleasant surprise?

[00:11:23] Chris: I think the way that it took off so quickly, actually, for us and yes, we were receptive, but we knew that what was being offered was the bee’s knees and actually absolutely what was needed.

[00:11:36] Chris: Yeah that’s been a surprise that we’ve just. Got on with it so quickly and made it work. That’s, delightful.

[00:11:42] Naomi: Yeah, we’ve had results from day one. And the, the other thing is we we knew it would be an adventure, but it’s, it has been such good fun.

[00:11:51] Naomi: Yes, it’s hard work and there’s, there is a lot of yeah there’s a lot of kind of processing to, to get to where you want to be. But it is great fun. It’s, we’re enjoying the journey. Yeah.

[00:12:03] Chris: And I think it’s also the immersion factor where, there’s so many opportunities, particularly with the weekly calls with you, et cetera that the language and the understanding just starts to, going in and sinking in on a deeper level.

[00:12:16] Chris: And so we just know that if we’re not doing this particular thing now, we know what’s coming next. And yeah, we just roll with it really.

[00:12:25] Katie Bell: I just, I love spending time with you both because you’re so inspirational and you guys are great because you just basically say, tell me what we need to do and then we’ll just go and make it happen.

[00:12:34] Katie Bell: And so we’re not taken away from the incredible work that you put in because we are just there to facilitate that and direct you and give you that focus and accountability. And it does, you’ve got to implement, you’ve got to do the stuff, which You have both done from day one and seen the amazing results.

[00:12:50] Katie Bell: What would you say to somebody who was listening to this? Chris, perhaps from your perspective, who was very much on a hamster wheel, felt pretty burnt out, pretty drained by some of your clients and just the pay as you go system and feeling like there was, there’s no break away from it.

[00:13:06] Katie Bell: If they were resonating with that story and thinking they really want some help but are scared to make that jump, what would be your one piece of advice, Chris?

[00:13:14] Chris: It’s just obvious. Just go for it. It’s, if it’s calling in any way at all, then it, for me it’s worked. And I think that world would, Probably be the same for other, many other people in my position as well.

[00:13:27] Chris: And yeah, it’s over 30 years I’ve been practicing and I admit I was a bit set in my ways, but I knew I was struggling and I knew that it wasn’t fulfilling me. And I think just believe. What’s on offer and go for it.

[00:13:42] Katie Bell: Naomi, what’s one, one piece of advice that you would offer somebody who maybe has a husband that they’ve, that they need to get back?

[00:13:50] Katie Bell: Or is, you’re watching this happen and you’re feeling pulled and, having to do so much behind the scenes in the business. What would be your piece of advice to somebody?

[00:13:59] Naomi: Yeah, it’s just choose. You can watch from the sidelines, can’t you? And think, oh, I don’t know if that, whether that would work for us or whatever, but I just.

[00:14:07] Naomi: Get on a call and choose. There is There’s just not anything to lose, I don’t think. It’s, life’s too short. It’s not worth hanging around. It’s, we’re at the point now where, we have said a few times, why didn’t we know about this years ago? And we didn’t, and that’s fine.

[00:14:30] Naomi: And we’ll we’ll get on with it now, but it’s just don’t leave it any longer than you need to. If if you’re hearing this now, you’re hearing it for a reason, and just act on that.

[00:14:40] Katie Bell: Thank you both so much for taking your very valuable time to come on and share your story and inspire other people to maybe just take that next step that does feel really scary, but know that everything and anything is possible.

[00:14:54] Chris: Absolutely, thank you Katie, and for all me. All the support and all the ongoing coaching, makes a massive difference. Yeah, we’re still in, we’re going to stay in here. We’re

[00:15:04] Katie Bell: incredibly grateful. You are so welcome. You are a joy to work with. Thank you, both of you. Thank you.

[00:15:10] Katie Bell: I don’t know about you but I feel a whole lot more inspired by listening to Naomi and Chris and they do too because just part of the journey is reflecting on how far you’ve come in, in, in relatively such a short space of time. Naomi said it herself. She said, just get on a call. And I would really love to invite you to book a business and marketing audit call, which is what exactly what Chris and Naomi did right back at the beginning of their journey.

[00:15:37] Katie Bell: And we get together on a call for 60 minutes and we talk about what is going on for you in your business right now. What are the challenges? What are the obstacles, the things that are driving you crazy, the things that you want to change. And we talk about where you want to be in six months and 12 months time.

[00:15:55] Katie Bell: And then we reverse engineer and we come up with a really clear action plan for the next 30 days that are going to move you closer towards those goals. And one of the great things that you get on the call is we filter out all the things that you think you should be doing that aren’t actually going to move the needle in your business.

[00:16:11] Katie Bell: So I would love to invite you to join me for a call over the next few weeks, that you have got nothing to lose in full transparency. If we feel like we’re a great mutual fit, and if I feel like we can really help transform your business, we will talk about how our programs work. But if I don’t think we’re a great fit or for whatever reason I think there is other help that you need first, I will tell you about that as well.

[00:16:35] Katie Bell: So you can find the link in the show notes to grab your call and I look forward to continuing this conversation.