Daniel Gibbs: 6 Steps Coming Off the Tools, Reducing Clinical Reliance, and more
GYC Podcast E269
[Transcript]
00:00 Intro
This is the Grow Your Clinic podcast from Clinic Mastery. We help progressive health professionals to lead inspired teams, transform client experiences and build Clinics for Good. Now it's time to Grow Your Clinic.
00:13 Ben Lynch
Welcome to the Grow Your Clinic podcast. My name is Ben Lynch. In this episode, we speak with Daniel Gibbs. I'm my co-founder and partner here at Clinic Mastery. Dan's genius or brilliance is being able to create systems that scale businesses. It's what led to Posture Podiatry, the clinic that Daniel owned, to win a Telstra Business Award for excellence. It's also helped Clinic Mastery win a Telstra Business Award for championing healthcare because of the systems and structure that we have in place to support the community. One of the key elements to Dan's journey was being able to transition from full-time clinician or consultant through to becoming a business owner, the challenges of the identity crisis, how to actually support team members through that progression, and especially the clients that you've built a lot of rapport with. In this episode, we cover the six-step process that really was Dan's plan and blueprint for successfully and sustainably coming off of the tools. It's not for everyone. What's important in this episode is to run it through your filter. We're all about meaningful growth. There's no cookie-cutter version of a clinic that represents absolute success. This is about you defining your own path. Hopefully, this episode gives you some really practical guidance as to how to reduce some of the reliance points of your clinic on you or any other team members. Pick up the conversation around the meaning that Daniel had to transition from coming off the tools into a full-time business owner and the birth of his first child. Dan, in preparing for your first child, Emmaline, you needed to make some big changes in the clinic. You needed to come off the tools, reduce the reliance clinically on you as well as some business operations. Take us back to that period of time in coming off the tools, and transitioning from clinician to business owner.
02:26 Daniel Gibbs
Yeah, it was one of those things that sort of hit me between the eyes when the obstetrician said to us, look, you're about to have your first child. You should probably take some time to enjoy the moment. How much time should I take? And he suggested, look, a few weeks would be fine. And I'm thinking, three weeks. Okay, hang on a minute. Three weeks. Let me think about this. I earn 80% of the income for the clinic by myself. I have a business that's quite reliant on me. When clients want to see me, I always say yes. And I'm seeing clients sometimes up until midnight because it's the only time to get them in. I was all things to my team, all things to marketing the business, all things to helping our patients. And now you're saying I need to take three weeks off to be all things to my family as well. And I think my response to that suggestion really sort of flipped a switch inside me, which went, hang on, what is all this for? It really is all for family. You know, why are we spending, why do you spend 100 hours a week just so you don't have to do a 38 hour week? Oh, of course. So that you can enjoy these precious moments in this family. Now, that set me on course to go, okay, what do I need to, I've got six months. What do I need to do to help the business to be less reliant on me for that three-week period? And I laugh kind of in hindsight because I think actually, look, I did need six months to prepare because things were so reliant and it was quite a journey. But maybe I made it out to be more of a big deal than it actually was. Looking back on it now. What do you mean by that? I mean, it was just three weeks, right? Now what we talk about is if you can't take six weeks off in your business, if you can't take six weeks off in your business, then do you really have a business or do you just have a job? Do you have a business that's actually supporting your ability to have some renewal time? If you need to constantly draw from a well to be able to support your team, support your clients, support everything around you, do you have moments to be able to dig that well deeper or to be able to draw from that source? And so balance, I mean, to be good in business, you need to be all in, right? There has to be moments when you're all in. But I really feel like what this did, I took the three weeks off. Enjoy the time with them, baby. The team were amazing. And they said, look, we've got this, enjoy your time. When we came back, they were motivated. It was like I wasn't needed anymore. And it was a demonstration at the time of, oh yeah, okay, they've got this. Okay, now what's my role in the business here? What do I do? I went back to my role as it was, but that started the thought process of going, okay, what does a business look like that doesn't need me so much? And is that something that I want? Is that something that would help progress me towards another goal? Is that something that allows me to build purpose into what we do in the business? Am I doing the right things in the business for the business to continue to sustainably grow?
05:53 Ben Lynch
I remember you having some Post-it notes stuck around your office. Tell us about the Post-it notes.
06:00 Daniel Gibbs
Well, one of the first things I did after that was, okay, well, what do I actually do here? You know, what do I do? Well, I do this, put that on a Post-it note. I do this, put that on a Post-it note. Do this, put that on a Post-it note. And it's quite amazing how quickly Post-it notes start to build up when you put one thing that you do as a business owner on each Post-it note. And when you see them sort of all around your computer screen, all around your desk, around you, it then gives you a chance to organize, okay, well, this belongs with this over here. This belongs with this over here. And gradually, you know, this sort of physical tangible, I mean, there are other ways you can do this using mind mapping software or taking notes or drawing in a book or whatever it might be. But for me, it was Post-it notes. If I grouped these tasks over there and I grouped these related tasks over there, and I grouped these related tasks over here, I can decide, well, am I the best person to do those things? Is there someone else who could do that? What's the most important thing that only I can do right now? And that became a way of discovering what my job position, my job description is, my position description is as a business owner to go, all right, we need to redefine what I do. With what this then did was it set me on a path to go, okay, I think that in order to move forward, I need to come off the tools. And I was inspired by a business mentor at the time. He said, yes, this sounds like what you need to do. Now I had already hatched a plan to do this by one day a week over five years. So I would reduce my consulting by one day each week. So Friday for the first year, then the next year, I would take Monday off. And then the next year, and just gradually over five years, reduced my consulting time. My business mentor at the time, that's why it's important to have a business mentor, said, I think you can do that a bit quicker than that. In fact, I reckon you should do this in six months, because that's going to be a lot easier to handle. And I was like, six months? What? To go from everything to nothing in six months? Mind you, this was after I'd had the experience with my daughters, like a year later going, okay, yeah, discovering what's possible in the business. So I negotiated. I said, all right, I want to do it over 12 months, because I feel like that's going to be a stretch to do it in six months. Or to go from five years to six months.
08:30 Ben Lynch
That's pretty paradigm-shifting.
08:34 Daniel Gibbs
Correct. And naturally, my biggest worry was, okay, if I stop consulting clients, what will my clients think? What will my team think? What will my role be in the business? What about the income, the financial side of things? You know, I'm quite a key person in the business right now. So if I lose that, you know, and had to come to the realization, and as I went through this process of going, actually, the only way the business could grow was if I came off the tools, because over that 12 months, and I should have done it in six months, for all, and I'll tell you why in a minute. But over those 12 months, not only did I replace the income in the business by making some good decisions in terms of bringing people on and those sorts of things, but the business grew by 20% as well, because I got out of the way. And it was kind of like jumping off a cliff and growing wings on the way down, you know, you just got to sort of do this and eventually it came to pass. But the reason, and I mentioned I'd say this, the reason why I should have done it in six months was because the first six months was just getting the head around it, you know, going, okay, this is what we're going to do. This is why explaining to my team, explaining to the clients and those sorts of things. The next six months was a bit of a challenge because by, I think, May of that year, I was booked up till Christmas. And so I already had full books for my reduced consulting periods up until, and so all I did for the second six months of the year was disappoint people by them either not being able to get in, by me not being able to treat them properly, because if they needed subsequent appointments, I couldn't fit them in and making it drag on a little too long. So I almost felt jealous of those people who maybe had a life event or a significant thing about to happen, be it a child or something like that. They could blame that on coming off the tools and just making it happen. But in hindsight, cutting the cord and just going, this is my end date and that's it, would have been ideal. And yeah, so I've learned a lot going through the process and I'd like to.
10:36 Ben Lynch
And now supporting a number of people to go through the process as well. Just to pause on a point, or laser-in on a point around how you felt about that transition from consulting clients to becoming more of a full-time business owner. So often, like we get into healthcare because we love helping people, we love treating and caring for people and everyone has their own experience. Talk us through your experience of, as you said, I had to transition clients to other therapists. Meant that you couldn't care for them and maybe you felt like you were letting some of those patients down. Can you recall going through that process emotionally? What were you feeling? How did you come to terms with that?
11:28 Daniel Gibbs
It's what we started to do as a practitioner. My hands were my craft and how you connect with a patient is what gets you up in the morning. The difference that you can make in that treatment room, it's something that you enjoy doing. It's something that probably was the hardest thing was wrestling with that. What was it going to be if I wasn't to do that? And in going through the process, realizing that actually my ability to help train or inspire other practitioners to be able to treat the clients and deliver an amazing service and great health outcomes, that became my new purpose. And as much as I was spending time with clients, now if I had replaced that by spending that with my team and helping to inspire them to be better practitioners and those sorts of things, that became the switch. That became the new driver. And then naturally moving forward to what we do with Clinic Mastery now, we're inspiring business owners and helping them to be able to inspire their team to be able to help their clients. It's that natural progression again to being able to put myself in a position to make an impact on a greater number of people. And that was sort of the driving force behind it.
12:47 Ben Lynch
I love the distinction there of supporting team, having been one of those team members at the clinic. And knowing your genius now working so intimately as colleagues, as partners, is your ability to distill systems and kind of bottle what is care. So often health professionals will say, we care about the people we work with. I have no doubt about that. But how do we do it consistently? And how do we teach others to be able to do the small things, the meaningful things time and time again? And I love that distinction that you made for those listening was around, you could essentially bottle, systemize, document. These are the standards of care. These are the ways that we take care of the people that come to the clinic and then teach that to the other practitioners and therapists and still feel like you're making an incredible impact on a daily and a weekly basis.
13:49 Daniel Gibbs
Yeah. We refer to this as the transfer of trust. So for a client to be seeing me and trusting me and my recommendations, there had to have been rapport built. And the client is used to that type of treatment, a type of service, a way of speaking, a way of interaction that has been built over time. And one of the things that you can do very quickly is transfer the trust that that client has in you to another practitioner on your team by helping that practitioner to talk like you, treat like you and structure an appointment in a similar way to how you would do. And so an easy way to do that was just to have that practitioner shadowing the consultation and create that connection in the treatment room. Another way to do it was to actually write down what I say and write down how a treatment is structured and how we structure an appointment and what's actually done and what approach do we take to certain conditions and those sorts of things. And then using that as a way to train a mentor, other team members to be able to do a similar thing. Now, the point of doing that was to help the client to be okay with seeing another practitioner instead of me and to be able to transfer that trust quickly so that they feel that continuity of care. And in that way, I was able to still stay connected with the practitioner too. But that's a way of systemizing delivery of care, how we talk, how we treat just by doing that.
15:20 Ben Lynch
And there's a six-part process that you've got to help people successfully and sustainably come off the tools, which we'll get to in just a moment. But there's two elements here. The first is the financial certainty or uncertainty. You mentioned it in your own story there of like, one, I don't think I can do that in this sort of time period because the income is so reliant on me. As you reflect on your experience of getting that financial certainty to be able to take the next step and move towards reducing the clinical reliance and therefore the income reliance on you. How did you get that certainty?
16:03 Daniel Gibbs
Yeah, it came through a number of things. I think perhaps to answer the question, I'll start with the uncertainty. The uncertainty was, I enjoy what I do. I really enjoy being a practitioner and learning and realizing that just because that's what I enjoy doesn't mean that's what the business needs. The second thing was my clients, from what I could tell at the time, enjoyed seeing me. And my personality type, self-awareness here, is I just don't want to let people down. So there was a real element of I'm really sort of running away from having to let people down here. And that was something I wrestled with. So enjoying the treatment, letting people down. And the third one then was the financial. Okay, so can we afford this? And eventually coming to the conclusion, well, actually, can I afford not to do this? Because if I don't move out the way, then I've seen it so many times with other clinics. Sustainability is important. And you can sustain things at a certain level for a period of time, but there comes a point of time where the only option could be this has to end. And sometimes that end is not very pretty. But I just want to make this point here that coming off the tools, when we use this as a topic, it can spark a number of different emotions in people who are listening because of those various things. Oh, I enjoy consulting. Oh, this is what I study to do. What are you telling me that I shouldn't be a practitioner in my craft? The business that I've created here. And that's not the case. The reason we talk about coming off the tools, it's a roadmap to business freedom. If you have a business that enables you to consult because you want to or because you enjoy it or because it's something that fulfills you, that's great. That's what we want. We don't want a business that needs you to consult because it's going to die if you don't. And we don't want that reliance on you consulting. This could be a process for some where you go, actually, I need to go through the process of coming off the tools so that I can come back on my own terms. I need to go through the process of finding that business freedom so that I can do what needs to be done in the business, supporting my team, growing, thinking about that other location, thinking about what's next, the purpose of the business and where we're going with this. Or I need to come off the tools so that I can be more present with my family. I can do this. I can change what happens. So it's not for everyone because everyone's going to have different reasons for doing this. But I do believe there needs to be a moment in your business growth at a very early stage, I believe, in business growth where the business needs to grow to a point where it's no longer reliant on the owner. And this is one of those elements of making the business less reliant, especially when the service you provide is something that you do as a human and with your hands or with your voice or whatever tool you have to be able to treat your clients. So just keep that in mind as we talk about coming off the tools. It's a process of business freedom.
19:24 Ben Lynch
It's a great distinction because we love what we do. We care about the people we work with. And there's an element there of being able to help more clients requires you to support your team members. And there's only so many hours in the day or in a week. So I love that distinction, Dan, that even if it's for a period of time, it's about creating meaningful progress in your growth. I love that nuance. So there are six steps that you had defined in being able to come off the tools for yourself. And in kind of having that, which was your plan, it then served as, hey, here's a checklist, a blueprint for other clinics that we have worked with for many years to also follow. Can you start off with an overview of what those six steps are? And then we'll dive into each one with the nuance and particulars that you've documented.
20:19 Daniel Gibbs
So six steps to coming off the tools to finding that business freedom starts with number one, setting up your new job description and knowing what it means to be a business owner. Step two, picking the date, nominating a final date for when you're going to consult and commit to that date. Then step three, we need to prepare the diary, the appointment book for that date. So you might be gradually reducing your availability over time. Step four is about preparing your team. This is a critical part of the process because your team needs to be on board with you going on this journey. Step five is preparing your clients and transferring the trust that they have in you to other practitioners on your team. And then step six, when you've come off the tools, remain present, remain present in the business, remain present to your team. And that's an important way of continuing the momentum that you've carried.
21:15 Ben Lynch
I love that structure. If we start with step one, you've already spoken a little bit about the process you used of the post-it notes around to understand what you do and what you perhaps need to do. Talk us through how to do step one particularly well.
21:32 Daniel Gibbs
Contrary to what popular belief might be, the most important person in any business is not the customer, not the team, it's the owner. Because without the owner, the business wouldn't exist. And so to identify that the owner is important and your role as an owner is important is really key. The role of an owner is to better take care of the team. And this starts the cycle of business because the owner takes care of the team. The team takes care of the clients, the clients take care of the business, the business takes care of the owner. So if you are all in on your clients and to the detriment of your team, then there's a step missing in that cycle. And it's going to be a bit of a, it's not going to roll so well.
22:17 Ben Lynch
So it's a great point, Dan, because with that, we're so used to thinking about the clients, and rightly so. How's their experience? What am I doing for that? That we build the team and we're still so focused on the clients and what's going there that we forget, oh, actually need to take care of the team to take care of the clients. That's a wonderful distinction.
22:35 Daniel Gibbs
Yeah. I mean, some people might've gone, what? Hang on. I'm switching off. This guy sucks. Possibly stay here. Because think about this. In my experience, we used to have team meetings and every now and then, probably more often than not, a team meeting would be filled with a client. Because hey, our number one focus is our clients. And the only time I can see the client is during our scheduled team meeting. And I don't really have much that I can actually say during the team meeting. I haven't really prepared much because I haven't had time. So I'm going to see a client in that moment and everyone will understand because our client is number one. It was only when we did a review with our team and I asked the question in a form before this review, you know, what's one thing you would change? And they said, we'd like it if team meetings actually went ahead and weren't cancelled at late notice. And that was another thing that hit me between the eyes going, oh, the team actually like these team meetings in a moment to connect. And maybe I shouldn't be putting clients in that slot. And, you know, there's other things that we could be doing here. So look, it can be confronting to list all the things that you need to be doing to be a business owner. If you might realize that actually consulting is something that is a distraction from all these other things that need to be done. And if you're doing all those things, it just so happens that you're doing them at family time in the evenings or on the weekends or around the consulting or business time that you've got allocated. And that's why life feels like it's such a mess at the moment. Then there's a natural way of creating that time. And that's reducing the time that you're spending with your clients.
24:16 Ben Lynch
And speaking of time, we move to step two, which is around date, the time and date of when you're committing to reducing substantially or totally that consulting. Tell us about how you go about this step.
24:31 Daniel Gibbs
Yeah, the key is nominating a final date for consulting and absolutely committing to that date. This is the last day of me consulting. Now, some people might have a date in mind that corresponds with a life event, like taking extended leave, getting married, preparing for addition to the family, travel, or whatever it might be. Others might like to nominate a calendar date. So end of the year, middle of the year coincide with a holiday or something like that as well. The point is, you absolutely need to commit to that date because over the course of this journey of coming off the tools, you're going to be pulled in so many directions and tempted to continue consulting for a number of reasons beyond that. And for me, it just worked to have that commitment. And it doesn't matter if that date is three weeks away, if it's three months away, if it's six months away or a year from now. The commitment and the process to get to that date, the next four steps here, is the same. It's just about going, right, that's our date. And how do you know if that date is right? Well, for me, I thought five years was correct until someone said, no, actually, you should do it in six months. And I guess if you're listening here and you're going, how do I know what that is? I just say the shorter the better. If you make the decision, just give yourself a short amount of time to do this. Some might take that literally and go, oh, tomorrow I'm going to rule out my diary and that's it. Look, you're just going to deal with it. That's fine. You're just going to deal with a few other problems, like preparing the team and preparing the clients, which is some of the upcoming steps, but enough time that gives you a runway to be able to achieve these steps, to be able to get a great outcome. And that could be anywhere from three to six months.
26:17 Ben Lynch
Dan, in your own experience or of the experiences you've supported and observed in other clinic owners, is that pick the date for total done? That's it. Or do you also look at another milestone that might be a 50% reduction from whatever we're at today or a 25% reduction? How do you go about thinking about that?
26:42 Daniel Gibbs
It's a good point because that is step three. It's preparing your diary. So once you've committed to a date, step two, step three is preparing a diary. So what you need to do is rule out your diary so that you cannot see anyone after that date. That's it. No more appointments available. Then in the lead up to that time, you need to reduce your availability so you can schedule a gradual reduction of your consulting sessions by removing half days or full days between now and that final consulting date. And then use that time that you're not consulting that you otherwise would be to develop the systems for your business to survive once you're not consulting on the other side of things. And so this will make your appointment availability more scarce as well, which helps to manage the transition for some of your clients to seeing other practitioners in your clinic. If all of a sudden it's now going to take a while before someone can actually get to see you, then that's one reason for them to be able to see someone else. Another thing to do in preparing a diary is no more new clients. So your focus now is on managing the transition for your clients to see other practitioners in your clinic instead of you. And the easiest clients to transition are those that haven't seen you yet. So just make a decision. You're not going to accept any new clients because as your availability to your current clients becomes more scarce, it's going to be quite full anyway. Some people might have a waiting list. We like to call it a priority list. If you've got a waiting list of clients to see you, don't add any more clients to that list. It's now closed. So what that means is, okay, someone really wants to see you, but the diary is tight. You're not accepting any new patients. I will let you know if an appointment becomes available. So I'll put you on a wait list for that time. No, we've got to close off the wait list because we can. And to do that, you can contact each client on the waiting list and book them in with a different practitioner or manager transition for them to offer one final appointment before an introduction to a new practitioner. But yeah, don't add to the wait list. That's closed now. And then that sort of leads to the fifth point in this step here, which is being okay with some blank spaces in the diary. That's going to be one of the most confronting and one of the hardest mindset challenges because as a business owner, you can do everything you can to maintain a full appointment book. That's what you've been doing for however long. And with gaps in the diary, you're going to be tempted to put people in those sessions because you can or you can make it work. But you've got to commit to keeping gaps in the diary and welcome those because it's a way of preparing your appointment book for you not being around anymore.
29:35 Ben Lynch
It's a great point. Step two and step three there, pick the date and then prepare the diary. For some therapists and professions, some disciplines, this is going to be easier than others. I think of the psychologist that's been working with a client for a long period of time and has an incredible sort of deep connection. The transition may be harder than the physiotherapist who's helped an acute injury of a client and anything in between. So as always with these steps, run it through your own filter and see how can this apply to me. So we've done step one, which is a new job description. Step two, pick a date and commit to it. I love that. That's the scary getting out of the comfort zone, the old no zone. Step three, we're preparing the diary and step four now preparing the team. How do you go about doing this to get them on board with it?
30:37 Daniel Gibbs
Yep. So for me, what worked was meeting with each of the team member, each team member individually first, just to explain it and to settle any unknowns or feelings of being unsettled. Oh, what does this mean for me? For the most part, the team will actually see this as a positive because there's going to be an opportunity for them to see more clients. There's also an opportunity for you to be more present with them in a mentoring capacity and for that professional development too. Right point. And so it's not a difficult thing to explain that this is what we're doing for our team because it's a net positive for them. Once you've spoken with each of the team members, then obviously a great opportunity to hold an all-in team meeting and explain to the whole team, bringing it together, the reasons why, and to just formalize a strategy for the appointment book. So everyone's on board with blank spaces, no new patients, and the waiting list and everything that goes through it. Again, it should be an energizing and invigorating moment for the team because there's progression and they're going to have more of your attention and more responsibilities as well. This is really good.
31:51 Ben Lynch
Dan, as part of that, do you find sharing the new or renewed elements of the position description that you'd be taking on as you go from consulting to more of a business owner? This is what I'm going to be doing because part of the fear for a lot of clinic owners is my team are going to perceive I'm out of touch or I'm not doing anything on the beach, you know, sipping pina coladas is this real guilt factor that comes in right at this point. How do you navigate that?
32:34 Daniel Gibbs
Why do you get to not do that? And why do you get to make this progression? Look, I think that's why it's important to meet with them individually first, to give a chance to actually talk through any of those concerns before you come together as a team as a whole. It's also important to have that conviction internally yourself. This is something you need to do. To what you said there about sharing what the position description looks like after consulting with clients, it probably looks a lot like what your position description looks like now, just with a few things taken out. When you explain that I'll be able to do these things a whole lot better, for all the worry that I had about my team, I didn't need to because for the most part, they were just super on board with it. They saw this as a good progression. And for all the guilt that I felt for feeling like I used to come to work for team meetings, I used to come to the clinic and just basically go through my to-do list. Okay, this is what I've been doing, this is what I've been working on. This is to try and prove to my team that I'm not doing anything wrong. To try and prove to my team that I was actually working when I was not at the clinic. One day, my practice manager sat me down and said, look, Daniel, when you come in and you say all the things that you're doing, I'm not sure if you realize, but the team feel like you're saying that because you need to do all these things because they're not doing well enough. And I was like, what? That's not what I meant. I know, I know that's not what you mean. And that's okay. It's just, you know, we all think that you're the busiest person in the world anyway. You don't need to prove it. Really, what we want to know is that you know what we're doing and that that's okay. And I was so grateful for that conversation because it changed everything for me. It made me realize that a way for me to get away from the guilt of my team feeling like I wasn't connected was not to prove all the work that I was actually doing, but rather to acknowledge the work they were doing. Because the more that I commented or acknowledged on what was happening in their day, the more they thought I was working. The more connected they thought I was. So for example, one of the practitioners had four new patients in the day, back to back. Now I know that that's tricky. It's hard work, you know, there's an emotional load, you know, to be doing that. Four new patients, one after the other in the day. Now, normally I would look at the diary, see that go, okay, cool, excellent. You know, that's done. But to then go that extra step and say, send them a message or a phone call and say, hey, notice you had four new patients in a row today. How'd you go? Feel all right? You know, anything we could do, that sort of thing. That was the sort of connection that made them go, oh, wow, he really is connected. And he's working because he knows what's going on for me. Similarly, you know, when someone has to leave at short notice because their child is sick and they have to go be with their child or whatever it might be. Just that follow up, that call to say, hey, I noticed that happened. It's everything okay. You know, that sort of thing. It's connection. That was the main thing that needed to happen on the other side of that to challenge the guilt element.
36:05 Ben Lynch
It's a great thing to address because the guilt element comes up 100% of the time. I think in the conversations we've had with clinic owners, understandably, because we care and we want to display that and also for people to know that we're not slacking off. We're still chipping away, working at the business side of things. Step five, which is preparing your clients. How do you go about doing that? What are some of the key elements in preparing clients for this transition?
36:38 Daniel Gibbs
Well, firstly, there's preparing the clients by introducing them to your team and helping to manage those transitions between practitioners. You can help yourself do that with good clinical notes, with good handovers, with investing in having other practitioners in on the consult with you. Because that clinical observation, if you can have them present, it just makes transitions so much easier. If your team is aligned with your outcome and your clients then see that there's something going on, you can help your clients be aligned with your outcome as well. And this is where transfer of trust becomes really important. You want your practitioners to be speaking like you, treating like you, and approaching things in a similar way to how you do, because naturally, that's what they're familiar with and that's where trust is going to be earned quite quickly. That rapport is going to be there very quickly. So prepare your clients. Step five, tell your clients that you won't be directly consulting one-on-one with them anymore. Come to a decision to step back from my consulting role in the business. The main reason is I'm putting you in the capable hands of so-and-so. Thanks for your understanding. I'm not going anywhere. I'm here. I'm present and we'll check in. We'll still be connected. That sort of conversation is what we would have with our clients. Now, it's not going to be only you having those conversations with your clients, but your reception team. If you have a reception team, an admin team, they're going to be having these conversations with clients as well, especially if they want to book in with you and they can't get an appointment to see you. So when a client calls to book an appointment, your reception team needs to know what to say. And so a phone script is important. Have it front and center on the computer. What would you say? Something like, I'm sorry, Daniel's books are closed, but he's working very closely with so-and-so practitioner. And I'd recommend that you book that appointment and Daniel will pop in and check on you while you're there. And something as simple as that can be enough. It might need to be more detailed, but there's an example.
39:10 Ben Lynch
And then the fact of that into the training of reception or admin or virtual admin as well, but there's a bit of preparation or role play before they get that phone call.
39:22 Daniel Gibbs
I know you love a good role play. It does make for some good fun.
39:28 Ben Lynch
I think it's really worthwhile. Often we hand over a script and it's not to be robotic, but rather instructional, informative, succinct to get the message across. And so often it's like, all right, read this script. If I haven't practiced it or even had curly questions, you know, in response to delivering that script, then they can get a little caught off guard. So I highly recommend practicing it.
40:00 Daniel Gibbs
So we spoke about preparing or telling your clients and training your reception team but there's also meeting with referrers as well. So if you've closed your book to new patients and you get a lot of new patients from professional referrers, then you're going to need to meet with those professional referrers and explain to them what you're doing, how you intend to use your time in training and mentoring your team and delivering the highest level of service to any referral that comes to the clinic that you can still be involved in the progress of specific clients. You can be present during the consultation. You can even report back on their progress personally as well, but asking them if it's okay for them to refer to the clinic rather than to you personally. And, you know, this might start opening a little can of worms with some other conversations, you know, with these referrers who might be thinking of doing something similar or, oh, let me know how you go because I'm thinking of doing something. And there's another element of rapport that can be done. Another element of rapport that can be built during that moment too.
41:00 Ben Lynch
The other element, Dan, there is, well, I really only refer to the clinic because of you. I don't refer to any of the other practitioners that are there. Either I don't have the relationship or I do, but I don't trust them with these types of clients that I'm referring through. And that in terms of a can of worms, but a productive conversation for you to talk through, you know, talk me through some of those concerns, what's happened and how could we remedy it? So, yeah, great, great conversation.
41:33 Daniel Gibbs
And it even opens up the door to potentially a meetup, you know, an opportunity to meet some of the other practitioners or, hey, how about we go out for coffee and I'll bring one of my key practitioners with me and we can, again, transfer that trust that you have with me and that other practitioner that's there.
41:53 Ben Lynch
What are the distinctions, Dan, when you say I want people to treat like me as a clinic owner, just to add some nuance to it because I know this is what you mean is we don't want people to be robots or cookie cutters in the way that they go about doing things, but there's also a certain brand reputation and brand is really, how do you do things as a collective group? What's the standard of care that you're providing and prescribing? I think what you're saying there is look for some consistency across the board. And so often that standard is set by the owner or the leadership team. So you're looking to really capture that.
42:35 Daniel Gibbs
Yeah, it's true. I wouldn't say that my way of doing things is the best or the only way of doing things. It's not the platform that I'm coming from. And I wouldn't want to sound arrogant to feel, to put across that impression that I need my practitioners to treat like me because I do it the best. It's more about rapport building and transfer of trust. Now there is an element of scripting. When it comes to scripting, we all use scripts. It's just a lot of them aren't written down or formalized. So if any practitioner is listening to this or watching this and they're thinking, oh, we don't have scripts, it wouldn't work in our clinic. Just think about how you do an initial consultation. Do you have a natural set of questions that you already ask? Or if you're about to introduce what you're going to do as a treatment modality, surely over time you've developed a way of introducing this treatment modality. Or if you're going to explain to someone an element of their condition and help educate that person in a way that makes sense to them, you've honed that explanation over years. So you can deliver it almost without thinking. And it's going to be relatively consistent between whoever you see. So they are scripts. Your spiel that you've developed over time through your experience is your script. That's what you're using. And all we're doing is teaching an early career practitioner that script, which has been honed over many years of experience. And you're helping them to talk like an experienced practitioner from a very early point. And because they know that script now, they know your spiel, how it's delivered, they can then layer on their own personality. And it keeps their brain open for thinking of opportunities to find out differential diagnosis or something that is perhaps not normal and helps them to be better practitioners as well.
44:44 Ben Lynch
I want to say that when we go along and watch the movies or you're streaming something on Netflix, every one of those people that we're watching is talking a script. They are speaking a script. They're able to layer their personality over the top that it doesn't feel like that. It doesn't have to feel robotic or sterile. So I agree. I love it. I think it helps definitely put the years of experience into someone. Especially those young ones. So we come to step six. Be present.
45:18 Daniel Gibbs
We had a very special moment in our clinic. It was December the 23rd. It was Tuesday. It was 10 years ago now. And I got a card and the cake. We surprised sort of team meeting at the end of my shift for that day, which was my last day consulting. And I've still got the card because it's special for me. It's a card that was basically signed by everyone on the team saying, well done. Congratulations. We're looking forward to you not consulting anymore. Effectively, it was permission to be no longer consulting. And it meant a lot because that signified my role changing. My new position description was now in effect. And my presence in the clinic was still there. It was just in a different capacity. So coming off the tools doesn't mean that you're no longer at your clinic, at least for a period of time. You've got to take responsibility for everything that happens in your clinic as the owner. And you've got to look for solutions to problems in the form of new systems. So during this time, being present for your team, as you promised you would, is super important. Having that professional development, the team meeting structure, all of those things you would normally do. But also checking in with your clients as well. Phoning the clients, making sure that they're doing okay. Popping in for a quick hello whenever they're in the consultation room. And just being present around the clinic, making sure that things are going well. It's almost like you've come off the tools as a practitioner with your clients, and now you're on the tools as a business manager. And you've taken on a new role and you're managing the business. So that's your new role. And that will be sustainable until you put someone else in that position. And you come off the tools as a business manager. And again, this is just another step towards reducing the reliance on you. But just remember, you're still responsible for everything that happens in your clinic. So it's important to be present.
47:25 Ben Lynch
I remember distinctly one of our members in a conversation. She said, you know, my team have come up to me recently and said, just how present I've been and how much better that has been for them, individually and collectively. She said, you know what's interesting? I'm actually not physically present anymore. In fact, I've reduced how much time I'm physically present at the clinic compared to 12 months ago. But I am more present for my team right now. To your point earlier about knowing what's going on in their lives. She started to take a real interest and had the time, space, the mental capacity, because there wasn't so much consulting that was happening with clients. I think that was a real revelation for me in that conversation of the ability to be present.
48:18 Daniel Gibbs
Thinking of the whole process overall, is it worth it? Absolutely, it is. Because if you think about the process of coming up with the tools, it was a hard thing to do. It doesn't have to be as hard. Some other people might find it a lot easier to go, no, this is my date and that's it, I'm done. Let me tell you, there may be times when you need to jump back on the tools for occasions and then come back off. And there may be times you need to fill in. There may be times that that way. But at least you're free to do so on the other side of this. But for most people, and let's talk specifically on a financial level here, who are thinking about this going, oh my goodness, I could never do this because financially, I rely on my business and my business relies on me. To that, I'd say you really need to build a business that's not reliant on you. And one of those processes is not being the main consulting practitioner in the business. And in doing so, you allow the business to grow beyond you. And by getting out of the way, you actually enable it to be more successful. And as I said, over that 12-month period, not only did we replace the income that I was producing in the business, but the business grew by 20% because we're able to bring on the right people, we're able to put the focus into the growth of the business because I had the capacity to do so. And if I didn't do it, I wouldn't believe it. But it happened. And I believe it can happen. And we've seen it happen multiple times over and over again with other people if they've done the same thing. So ultimately, with good communication, you're going to be committed to the process. If your team is helping to support the transition, you can be confident that this will work. You'll give it the best chance possible that it will go smoothly.
50:17 Ben Lynch
It's a great structure. You've gone through it, Dan, you've supported now probably hundreds of clinic owners to go through it as well. Everyone has their own journey and story to share. I think one thing that we are big on here at Clinic Mastery is meaningful growth, purposeful growth. And that's different for everyone. This is a process ideally, for you to be able to create the time and space, whether that's for yourself, your family, your community, whatever it may be. But we do have a great structure here. If you're interested in learning more about this structure and getting the support and guidance, feel welcome to reach out. Send us an email, daniel@clinicmastery.com or ben@clinicmastery.com. We'd love to hear your story or support you through a pretty meaningful progression in your business owner journey. Dan, thank you so much for sharing. And giving us the structure and the insight. I look forward to continuing this further with you in a couple of episodes time where we can unpack even more. So listeners and viewers, stay tuned for upcoming episodes as we go further into the stories and also structures to help you grow your Clinic for Good. Dan, thanks so much for joining us today.
51:35 Daniel Gibbs
Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Looking forward to talking more about what happened next.
51:42 Ben Lynch
All right, folks, take care. Goodbye.
51:45
Thanks for tuning into the Grow Your Clinic podcast. To find out more about past episodes or how we can help you, head to www.clinicmastery.com forward slash podcast. And please remember to rate and review us on your podcast player of choice. See you on the next episode.
