The RDtoCEO Podcast
Dive into The RDtoCEO Podcast, hosted by Registered Dietitian and CEO, Eva Haldis, where she shares her journey in entrepreneurship, with discussions on the basics on building a private practice and becoming a confident CEO. The RDtoCEO Podcast is your go-to resource for mastering the art of transitioning from a dietitian to a successful CEO.
The RDtoCEO Podcast
The Summer Slow Down: Tips to Stay Confident in Your Dietitian Practice When It's Slow
Navigating slow periods in private practice can be daunting, especially as summer winds down. Join me on this episode of the RDtoCEO Podcast as I discuss tried-and-true strategies to keep your practice thriving, even during the slower months. From how to use data to keep yourself grounded, to ramping up outreach efforts and optimizing client retention, we'll cover it all.
As we move through the episode, I'll guide you through valuable insights on understanding and anticipating seasonal trends, particularly in a post-COVID landscape. Data tracking isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the lifeline for making informed decisions during uncertain times. By analyzing patterns from my own practice, we'll discuss how to better prepare for and navigate the peaks and valleys throughout the year.
Lastly, we end with a listeners question all about the intimidating world of insurance credentialing and whether you should hire someone to credential for you versus doing it yourself!
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Episode Mentioned: The 411 on Credentialing with Insurance - Listen to the episode here.
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*Please note that while we strive to provide valuable insights, our podcast is not a replacement for personalized legal or financial counsel. We strongly advise consulting with qualified professionals for specific advice tailored to your individual circumstances.*
Welcome to the RD to CEO podcast. I'm your host, eva Haldis, registered dietitian, who one day found herself a whole CEO of a business. Join me as we navigate the world of entrepreneurship so you can go from being an RD who sees clients in private practice to a confident CEO growing the practice of your dreams. Hi everyone, Welcome back to another episode of the RD to CO podcast. We have a really good episode today, all about navigating slow periods of your private practice, and I think it's a good time for that, given that it is August and generally tends to be a pretty slow time, I find, in the summer at least, especially as we get closer to the start of school, the school year starting, I find things do slow down a bit. But we're going to talk a little bit about how do we handle that challenge of the slower periods and what are some strategies that we can use to help us get through it and to keep our practices sustainable and growing and thriving even when things are slower. I know this is something that I still struggle with. You know, five years in of like, when things slow down there's that automatic, maybe a little bit of panic. I definitely panic less now than I used to, but I think this is something that's going to be really. It's definitely something that I think a lot of us go through and experience, and I think, no matter how long you've been in practice, there's going to be times where you're just like, oh no, is this all going to end tomorrow? And I think that's very normal. Unfortunately, the catastrophizing around it, but hopefully, after listening to today's episode, you'll feel a little less alone in it and maybe have some better ways to handle it if that happens again for you. And yeah, so that's going to be the topic of today. We'll also, at the end, if you stick around, we're going to have a listener question for the Q&A advice segment that we will be adding on at the end of every episode. So if you would like a question of yours answered or have some advice you are looking for, you can send me a message on Instagram at rd2ceo or at evahaldus, underscore rd, both of which I will link in the show notes, and I'm also going to be rolling out soon on my website a link to see if you want to be a guest on the podcast, and I'm going to do that in two ways. So on the website there'll be an option to you know, you'll see a link on the menu bar of be a guest on the podcast.
Speaker 1:And I want to also do one of two things. Of course, I would love to have other business owners who are doing amazing work in their private practice and businesses talk about things that they are experts in or have experience in, but the other thing I'd like to offer is to do some live business coaching calls with dietitians. So if this is something that you're looking like, hey, I could really use a coaching session with someone to talk through a dilemma or issue I'm having, but maybe you don't have the finances to invest in something like that. It would be a complimentary coaching session. So if that's something that sounds exciting or interesting to you, go ahead and go to the website and take a look, and there'll be a form there that you can fill out if you are interested in being a guest, whether it's once again on a topic or potentially doing a complimentary but recorded coaching session. So I'm really excited to do some of those as well. I think that is all the small updates, logistical updates that I have, some personal updates or updates around my practice.
Speaker 1:Like I mentioned, it is August, so the summer is winding down. I've talked about this super extensively, obviously, about being a mom and how that really has shaped a lot of my business and how it's grown and the frequency of which it's grown, and this September, my son will be starting an extra day at preschool. So this past fall so last September of 2023, he started preschool for the first time and we started him with Monday, wednesday, fridays from like nine to one, and then, about two or three months in, we switched it from nine to three, and then Thursdays he goes to my mom's, but Tuesdays have been sort of our we call it mommy day, so it's the day that I'm home with him and we hang out, and on Tuesday he on Tuesdays. In September of this year he'll be starting to go to preschool, so he'll be at preschool Monday, tuesday, wednesday and Friday, and my mom's on Thursday, which there's two parts that I carry around. That which is like I'm very excited to have the time added onto my schedule to do work and take care of other things that often feel like I'm drowning in all the things, so that'll be really fun. But also, yeah, it's a little bittersweet, as I'm like, as it's coming to the end of like this is sort of our special time together, and since he was born I've always had at least like a day with him pretty much always, and so this will be the first time we don't in September. So it's part of him growing up. But I'm excited to have a little bit more time, to feel like I can be more present at work and then, when I'm with him afterwards, can be more present there. So I think it'll be ultimately a great thing for both of us. But that is going to be an interesting transition for me and what else I am also in the process of.
Speaker 1:I feel like this summer has been a summer of transition for my business. One of our clinicians is out on maternity leave, and so then I onboarded two dietitians at the same time, which I've never done two at the same time. Our admin is starting her dietetic internship in like two weeks, so I was interviewing for a new admin that's also going to be shifting from more of like an administrative assistant to kind of like an office manager. Right now the title is office administrator, because I just can't decide what to title it. But yeah, I think I'm just making some shifts in the practice and how I'm doing things and it. It's exciting and I want to have a little bit more of a streamlined growth in my practice. But it's just been a weird time this summer.
Speaker 1:I will say I feel like the summer has just felt off in a weird way. I don't know if it's just because of all the transitions. I mean, I think I've also taken on some newer, more passion projects, like this podcast, doing a little bit more business coaching. But I think also, just with, like some weeks, my son's in camp, sometimes he's not our vacation, other little things like he's sick today, so he was home today, so my husband's in with him most of the time, but nonetheless it's just been a lot of that going on. And so I find that with all the transitions and the new team members and people coming and kind of going with leaves and all these things, I'm excited to have some consistency in the fall around.
Speaker 1:Just you know, the next sort of stage for my business. And I think this is actually a really great segue into today's episode because with the summer being a little slower, I will say we've been like steady, and I don't want to say we've been necessarily slow, but I would say like steady and not as like intense and I'm actually going to go through our numbers in this episode as well but this is the time to take advantage of having a slower period. Right For me, it's been being able to hang out with my son more and not stress so much, and going on vacation and not being stressed about things and, you know, really embracing that and also allowing for the transitions to take place and not feeling really overly panicked about any of the oh my gosh, I have clinicians that have no clients or having to fill up caseloads. I just didn't feel that this summer and it's been nice, but I feel like, because there's not when things aren't really stressful, sometimes it feels like, is anything even happening, which is obviously, yes, things are happening and growing and everyone's doing great, but, yeah, it's an interesting time. But the slower periods is when really a lot of this kind of contemplation and figuring out what's next can really happen. And so, before I get too into connecting this to today's topic, I just want to share that little update about, yeah, where things are with me and my business and my practice and my personal life of being a mom and my stay-at-home mom-ness is really going to kind of go away. I think after I feel like when September starts, I really feel like I can't say anymore that I'm a stay-at-home mom. I think I'm finally going to make the shift to being actually having an employment job and being a parent outside of that, whereas I feel like I've been a stay-at-home mom with a side hustle of a practice for ever since I became a mom.
Speaker 1:Anyway, as a little teaser too, I just recorded a podcast with my business coach, hannah Turnbull, for her podcast Way Inclusive Innovators, where we talk all about that. So once that episode is out, I'll be sure to share it, maybe on my newsletter. So if you are not on my mailing list, go ahead and get yourself added to it. I do not send emails very often, probably once a quarter. I always say maybe more, maybe now that I'll have Tuesdays to myself I'll be able to do more. So go ahead on my website, wwwrdtoseocom, and you can get added on there and then I can share with you when I'm going to be on that podcast. And if you aren't listening to the Weight Inclusive Innovatives podcast, they have a ton of episodes they've been posting, I think, for two years. I was just listening to their most recent episode where they said that it's been two years and they are taking a little bit of a sabbatical, but they have a ton of great episodes. So I would like very highly recommend and often do share links in our show notes for this podcast episodes that they've done and referenced those so highly recommend. All right, I think that is all the updates I want to give at this point.
Speaker 1:Let's get into the episode talking all about how do we navigate the slower periods. Having slower periods in private practice can be very frustrating for a business owner in private practice and I think with your first starting out too, and don't really have a full sense of trends and how things happen for your practice, it's going to feel like, oh my God, am I never going to get another referral? What's going on? And that's one of the benefits I think of just having a practice for a couple of years is being able to see okay, this has been pretty much consistent now this way, and having a sense of what's normal for me.
Speaker 1:My practice started a year before COVID, so in 2019. And I feel like so did a lot of people with their practice starting after COVID just because of the ease of having a virtual practice. So I think post-COVID things initially were just, I mean, I think there was no consistency Like in 2020, obviously everybody was just everything was happening. And so I think that first summer, I mean really I think for March on, everybody was really really busy because, understandably, I think a lot of folks were in some crisis, right, it was like a really challenging time. And then I want to say, like the year after, and definitely like 2022, when people started to like go back to life, as we say, things really slowed down and I'll talk about our slowest month ever during that time. But I will say I feel like since then for me at least, and that's also going to coincide with my being in practice for another you know that was my first three years and then after that, having really can see some consistency in things and also being able to track that data and really know what I'm looking at and have that information has just been so helpful.
Speaker 1:So, before I get into this topic anymore, one of the best things you can do to help yourself navigate the slower trends is to keep data and get information, because I say this to my team all the time too, too, and clients as well, when we're doing some kind of understanding around what's going on. The best way to become passionate to ourselves is when we also have some information and some data collection. I always say so what that means in this context is, if you're not tracking how many inquiries you're getting, or like where your inquiries are coming from, or any kind of way that you can have information and numbers to say, okay, how many people actually came into my practice this month, how many people actually reached out, how many actually booked as new clients, Without having that information, it's easy to then be like it feels slower, is it? And you might be able to sort of create a story for yourself without actually knowing what's factual and what's actually happening. So having actual information has just been so helpful for me because I can just use it as that. I can use it as information and then I can decide what I wanna do with that information.
Speaker 1:So if I'm feeling panicked, like oh no, things feel slow, maybe I haven't noticed a lot of emails coming through, that might mean that people are calling us and I just don't know, because I don't get those phone calls on my phone right away, right Like our admin at Kohl takes care of those. So if I didn't have a system to keep track of our inquiries and I was just like it feels slow, I could really easily spiral into a panic. But because we do have a system for keeping track of things, I'm able to go on and look here's what's the actual numbers. I can compare it to maybe last month, I can compare it to the year prior, and that's just so helpful to helping us really be able to assess what's actually happening. So what that will then do is it's going to also give you some idea of like the trends in your area and in your practice, and it'll give you some also information on like if there's growth and if maybe things that you're working on with marketing are working to improve that those numbers. So, as we talk about like, how do I get this information? Okay, we're going to talk about maybe keeping track of all the inquiries we're getting, but you'll see when you start doing that and if you're already doing that, you'll see there are trends, and then there tends to be a trend when it comes to private practices and when things are busy for dietitians and when things are slower.
Speaker 1:I will say, just speaking from my practice in particular, we tend to the beginning of the year in January, because we work with eating disorders and we're not weight loss dietitians. I think that might be different for weight loss dietitians around the New Year's, because what does New Year's always bring? New Year's resolutions. So for us, I feel like we do slow down. It's also the post, the holiday. People are just sort of getting back into work and life and all those things. So I feel like generally January, february, is just kind of mellow, slower and for some reason well, I know, I think I know why the reason is I actually had a coaching client this morning that I'm working with say the same thing about her practice is that March is our busiest month, consistently for the last two or three years, I would say. And for me I think the reason is, yes, it's sort of like that post-holiday time period of January and February. People are still sort of like coming off from doing all that and getting back into like the normal routine of things. They might have been seeking out a diet or doing some kind of program with New Year's resolutions and if they have a history of an eating disorder or disordered eating, if, like in January, they're engaging in that by March they're probably in the place where they're like okay, this is actually making me feel worse and now I really want some support or they're feeling like ready after like the hype of the new year's resolutions have kind of died down.
Speaker 1:The other thing I think and once again in particular for our work, is it's sort of like when things are getting a little bit closer to spring, we start getting this like feeling of like spring is coming. I'm on the east coast and I think people start to worry. A little bit closer to spring, we start getting this feeling of spring is coming. I'm on the East Coast and I think people start to worry a little bit about the summertime and how they're going to feel in their bodies and body image. Stuff comes up, and I think that's also when a lot of people start to think about those things. March is also when spring break happens, so once again, things might be slowing down as far as schooling, college students, and so as people get closer to those things, they tend to be like okay, now let me get some more support.
Speaker 1:I find that in working with eating disorders in particular, it seems the summer times and like the holidays tend to be really busy for treatment centers, which makes sense if it's like especially younger people, like teens or early young adults maybe, who are in college, are going to try to do those things when they're off from school and then so that they can go back into their, like, normal schooling period. And so that tends to be then when we, I would say, see an influx is like around those periods, maybe we slow down in those times but then we pick up back up, you know, when the students are looking for more support, outpatient. So I think, as far as like seasonality goes, for the beginning of the year that's sort of our trend, and then in the summertime, like I was mentioning earlier, tends to slow down or just kind of steady out for us generally. And then by the fall I do see a pickup again of inquiries and then as we get closer to Thanksgiving we slow down a little bit more and then it repeats. And this has been really the cycle for the last at least two years.
Speaker 1:I haven't started really tracking our data for inquiries until mid-2022. So I only really have that information to go off of. But I will say before that my inquiries weren't really super consistent and I didn't necessarily have any kind of strategy at like what I was looking for what I was doing before then, but now, having had this information, I can still see that our numbers are, in total, going up, but the trends remain sort of the same, even though we're seeing a larger volume over the more recent years, which is exciting. So, as I was kind of talking about, there's seasonal trends that impact them and then there's like the client behavior that's going to impact why that's happening. Right, like as I was talking about, like with the holidays and then also with school time or with, you know, new Year's resolutions or with summertime coming, like the way that our clients are thinking about things is going to tend to change.
Speaker 1:I will say summertime big time for cancellations. I mean, probably the most cancellations happen during the summertime, which I feel like as a human being in the world, I probably do that kind of stuff too. Right, like I'm like, oh, I'm going to plan this, and then I'm like you know what? I'm good, I'm going to go outside and go do something fun. Or like I'm going away this week for vacation or my son's off this week.
Speaker 1:It's just a really inconsistent time for people and, once again, if they're home from school, they might be like back home with their parents and doing much better, and then they're going to go back to college and maybe they're having a harder time again with their eating disorder. So it really I think, as far as the clients that we see, there's going to be different aspects of like when they feel more motivated to get support, when they're wanting more support, and how these behavior shifts tend to be pretty all over the place, and I think this really kind of goes into like a very I think it's also a common like time for things. Right, there's like industry periods of growth and times when things are slower. I was talking to a cousin who's a real estate agent and he was saying that they're obviously very busy in the summertime and then from Thanksgiving towards the end of Christmas they're like so slow, and I think it just makes sense at least here it's just a busy time for people and everyone's sort of just focusing on that stuff versus maybe these other things that they're looking for in their life. And for us I think it's very similar.
Speaker 1:While Thanksgiving and the holidays and all that stuff brings a lot of challenges for our clients, I do also feel like there's a lot happening and it's just hard for people to keep appointments, or they just have a lot of different things scheduled, or holiday parties or things, or they're going back home from school, or it's winter break, holiday parties or things, or they're going back home from school or it's winter break, and so all of that tends to impact the things, impact each other, right, and so we just want to look at why are these things sort of happening? On a more neutral playing field, now, I will say, if you're not seeing trends and it's sort of like up and then slowing down, slowing down, slowing down, slowing down, you're not really seeing the growth that can also just be an indicator that we need to do a little bit more marketing, right, or maybe like the marketing trends. I find that this is really important for folks who maybe started right around 2020. The work and the marketing was very different around the COVID era than it is now, and I think what maybe worked then isn't going to be different now. And what people? You know the increase in the influx of people needing support has sort of I don't say dwindled like I think there's still people out there that need support, but I don't think it's as consistently high as everyone as it was during that period, which I think is just like, once again, that was like a really traumatic time for a lot of folks and it was just a lot happening and people were home, you know. So it was like easier probably for people to take that time for themselves to make appointments, and I think with the introduction of telehealth it's made things much easier for people. But not everybody's working from home anymore or people sometimes don't have that availability anymore during the day, and then maybe the evening times I mean those are always the ones that fill up the quickest, right Because of after work and after school, and so you know, the things that maybe worked to fill your caseloads two, three years ago are going to be the same now.
Speaker 1:So we want to look at that too and see if we're not getting trends that are consistent of periods of higher times and periods of lower times and if it's just consistently getting lower. That gives us some information. I want to say it's going to be neutral information. It doesn't mean that you're failing in private practice, it's just neutral information around, like okay, now what I need to do, right? Or let's say you started a private practice from working from a different practice and so, like a lot of the clients came with you and so you were busy, and then some of them have just started discharging slowly as they do, and now the frequency of new clients isn't enough to keep up with your caseload. Once again, this is just information that we can use then to say, okay, we got to do some more marketing or figure out some strategies to help me sustain this as I go through this slow period, strategies to help me sustain this as I go through this slow period. So a lot of this just to say there's a lot of very common themes for a lot of people in this space and it is not an indicator of, once again, if you suck at business owning. It is just really common themes and the best thing we can do is not panic and have a system in place on what to do when this happens, because it's going to happen, right.
Speaker 1:So what do I do? Okay, for the most part I don't panic. Sometimes I do. I will say I feel like the last year, so like the last seven, eight months, because I maybe have seen the same trends from last year and I have a better sense now what to do when things are slow. I feel better about it than I have maybe in the past, and also it probably helps that we were pretty consistently busy for most of the months this year so far, so that helped. And now that things have slowed down a little bit this summer, I'm like, oh no, I got to do something, I got to do something. I got to do something. So I don't sit here on my high horse podcast, mike talking about this, as if I don't also panic sometimes, because I do. I mean, I'm a human, we all are.
Speaker 1:This part is hard, especially if you're a group practice owner and you feel the pressure of feeling other people's caseload. You know, being a business owner, I mean, you're responsible for your own paycheck often and so, yeah, it can feel stressful if you're not getting new clients coming through the door. So I want to talk a little bit now about some strategies of what we can do to help you, and you know, I would say maybe like I don't want to say prevent, but sort of like, what do we do to help it feel not so intense when it does slow down? And then other things that you can do to help yourself through it when it does slow down, if things do slow down, and I think the best thing to do, and when I say like slower periods, I mean that's probably going to mean not as many new clients coming and maybe people canceling or discharging and so your schedules are just not as busy. But I think it's much easier to keep clients than it is to find new clients. And so looking at your retention might be really a good place to start and seeing how are you retaining your clients and what is sort of common in the niche or the work that you do In eating disorders.
Speaker 1:I will say we try to really work with our clients long-term, some clients we really work with for a long time. I have clients that I've worked with since 2020. And that's also really common in the e-sorter world, and there's a couple of clients that I don't see as long and our team doesn't see as long that we see for a couple of sessions. I find that things that are more like medical nutrition therapy tend to be a little bit more on the short-term side. So you want to look at like your specific industry and like your kind of niche that you work in and what's common to see, I would assume and imagine if you're working in more of like a mentee role a week for you know, for the first month, and then you kind of go to bi-weekly and then you do a check-in. But like, are you consistently doing those check-ins? Are those longer periods apart causing that retention to not be as consistent? I really do think that the longer it goes between sessions, the harder it is to retain clients.
Speaker 1:One thing I think about myself a lot of times, like I sometimes think of like our clients journeys, and I think about it like, okay, if I was a client, how would this, how would this feel for me and I've been, I've done that before too Like I have had you know whether it's like I was working with a therapist to do EMDR. I one I don't think the therapist is a great fit either, but one of the things was I didn't think it was a great fit, but also I was spacing out the appointments like five, six weeks apart, and so then by the time I was getting to the appointment, I was like, oh yeah, what am I going to talk about? Like there's been so much time in between. I'm kind of like fine, and so, yeah, like I think, as the time between goes, you kind of just like you lose some of that like motivation to keep going, whereas when we see people consistently or when I see my own personal therapist really consistently, I'm much more like oh yeah, let me like keep talking about this thing and keep working on this thing. And I think the same goes for our work as dietitians and especially in the work that my team and I do around eating disorders. The consistency really really helps Sometimes.
Speaker 1:That's a challenge if it really depends on people's insurance. If you accept insurance, how many insurance visits are covered, how you want to sort of space things out. When I first started accepting insurance, one of the insurance companies that we see a lot of people from only cover six sessions. They actually recently by the way if you're listening, you're in Pennsylvania, independence Blue Cross, I think it was last October and didn't really tell anybody they extended coverage to unlimited if there is an E-N-S-R diagnosis. So that was a very recent thing. But for a long time we didn't. We only had six sessions total per their contract year and so for a long time what we would do with clients, we would space things out from the start and I was finding that it was a little bit harder to retain those clients long term afterwards, like they weren't as willing to pay out of pocket afterwards, even if we were offering a sliding scale or reduced rate. And I think a big part of that was we were spending so much time not seeing them in between sessions that it's hard to keep up the momentum. And so actually seeing people pretty consistently and keeping the momentum going and keeping that relationship building can really help long-term.
Speaker 1:So we've really shifted to what is going to be the best for the specific client and not thinking about it from like a purely like. Okay, you only get six visits, how are we going to space them out of like what's actually going to be the most effective and helpful for this client? And I actually think seeing them weekly to start and then spacing out. If they're like I'm only going to use my six visits, I would still encourage a weekly session, probably for the first two or three, and then space things out afterwards. Because, yeah, a lot, once again, a lot happens. The first session is very introductory and you're kind of going through things and then it's really those follow-ups where the work is happening, and so if you're like seeing somebody for the first time and then not again for two to three weeks, like it's hard to even keep up with what's going on.
Speaker 1:So I think that's a really helpful thing to think about is like how do we sort of keep our clients engaged in the work and excited and that also might look like getting feedback from clients how are things going? How do you find this helpful? What could be more supportive and what other things can be helpful for them to help them stay in that momentum once again and wanting to come back and see you as a clinician. Counseling skills, motivational interviewing a lot of things like that are going to make a big difference as well. You know, I think people don't want to be talked at, they want to be. They want a place that they can go and they can listen and be heard and also, of course, learn something if they're there to get some education from you. But we really want to make sure that we're also meeting clients where they're at and that they're feeling like they're getting the support that they're looking for and really what they would like, and not having our own agendas with it. That also really helps with client retention.
Speaker 1:So if you're feeling like you're struggling with the retention piece, this could be probably a whole other episode that I could talk about. But I will say, just like with those things, it's much easier to keep your clients coming back than maybe it is to find new clients, at least in the short term. I think that's like the quickest short-term thing we can do. So that's number one. Number two I will say when things become slow, it's an opportunity. I think it's an opportunity to take a look at things. It's an opportunity to say, okay, what do I need to do now to get us back to picking things up? For me, the slow periods are always when I was like all right, I need to up my marketing, I need to reach out to some new providers, I need to work on our SEO.
Speaker 1:Something I've been shifting and thinking about a lot this summer, to start in the fall, is really outreach with medical offices. Right now is the time to start doing that because, especially when it comes to referral sources, it's not immediate. So that's why I'm talking about with client retention. That's the easier, more immediate thing to do is just to try to keep the clients you have and keep them coming back. But long-term, of course, getting new referral sources are going to be the thing that continues to grow your practice, but they're not as instant. As you have a meeting with somebody and they're like, you're wonderful, I'm going to refer to you, they might think that when they leave, and then they maybe have a week until they see a client that they're going to see, that they're going to refer to you, and then they tell the client about it and the client goes, okay, I'll think about it, and then maybe they don't reach out for another month and you're kind of like what just happened. I had all these coffee dates with therapists or I went to this doctor's office and nothing's happening. But then there's like a slow build. It's a slow build, people start to get to know you and it's really staying on top of those things and staying.
Speaker 1:I did an episode about marketing strategies without using social media, where I talk a lot about this, and so I'll make sure to link that in the show notes. But this is the time that we want to say, instead of panicking, we really want to just take action and use that time to take action, and I think that makes sense and that also might be the thing that contributes to the trends in my practice. Right, we pick things up, things pick up. I slow down on my marketing, things slow down. I pick up on my marketing and then, as we do more marketing, we get more clients, and so it's just the cycle of that. But I will say, because of the way that the practice has grown right, the more I've done, that I can see the numbers have gone from our busiest month of the year being 17 to now our slowest month of the year being 17.
Speaker 1:That's like new people that we have reached out to us. We have reached out to us, so it grows exponentially, but it can grow slowly and you're not going to see it right away. And so just be patient with that because, especially like for me, I do a lot of networking with therapists. I'll sometimes meet people and then they'll never refer to me, but then we'll get referrals from therapists that I've never even heard of or that I don't know, and there's always a chance that they were like oh, I just met with this dietitian, she has a practice and they're wonderful, here's their information. And so it might not have come directly from that person, but them knowing you has helped. Maybe them give your information to somebody else. So don't count it out if, like you've networked with somebody and then they've never referred to you because it doesn't mean that you didn't make an impression and that your name wasn't out there and and that your name wasn't out there.
Speaker 1:And I think with marketing too, and not to get too into the marketing, but obviously that's one of the action items I would say when things are slow for you to do is to stay top of mind for people. So if there are people that you have good relationships with maybe haven't referred to in a while, doing a follow-up somehow, checking in on them, sending them an email and being like oh, I have this new resource, let me see if it's helpful for you. So there's ways to sort of stay top of mind also to the marketing and referral sources that you already have and sort of just remind people that you exist or you have openings. You can always email people and be like hey, just want to let you know, I have some openings in my schedule. They tend to fill up pretty quickly in the fall, so I wanted to just let you know in case you have any clients of yours that might be interested in setting up an appointment, you can always send an email like that to somebody that you have like a good relationship with. All those kinds of things can really just help garner more inquiries and then give it some time for it to really build back up.
Speaker 1:So I really like to take the approach of like when things slow down, I'm like how can I be proactive instead of thinking of it as like, oh no, what are we going to do? Things are slowing down, I'm panicking and this is all going to burn to the ground. None of that has to happen. We can just say like, okay, what do I do now with this information that I have, knowing that it'll probably pick up again in the fall and probably, if I'm actually actively marketing, we will pick up in the fall. And yeah, looking at it that way and also like be creative, right, like, maybe the marketing things that you've done so far really haven't shown to be effective.
Speaker 1:This is where really tracking this information is going to be so key, because we also want to track where clients are coming from and where they're getting your information from, because that's going to also tell us is the marketing effort you're putting in working out? You're putting in working out so if you are going to all these doctor's offices and dropping out business cards, but you haven't got a single referral from a doctor's office in the last year. Maybe that's not the most effective strategy for you, right? Maybe we need to think of something else to do to get your name to the doctors and doctor's offices, right? So having the information and tracking that information is also going to be just really helpful to come back to, and I keep saying that, but I promise you it's like the most important thing.
Speaker 1:The other thing that we want to think about too, as far as you know, when things slow down with one-on-one clients and this is really what I'm talking about as one-on-one clients are there other ways that you can add income streams to your business? I feel like it really is going to depend on the work, once again, the work you do, and I say that all the time, but it really does, because every niche has different needs and different things that people are looking for. But if you have something that people are often like you're sending people anyway, right? Or like ways that people are engaging with work that you've done, or like little handouts that you've already created that you give to clients, like you could put that on your website, you could sell that for 99 cents, like you know, for us it could be like a handout that we have on, like snacks to help with recovery, right, like I've purchased handouts like that before just to have, and especially when, like it's nice to have something that I can just give my clients. That's already been done for me. Like people would buy thaticians would buy that, and I think other clients would buy that. So you can certainly offer something like that on your website to make some extra money.
Speaker 1:It can be hard to like put that on your website and like want to. You know, get a good, decent amount of money from it. That's not going to be a very consistent form of income or income stream, but there are certainly things like that that you could do, like an ebook. This is where sometimes people have things like other offerings, group support, reduced rate options that they can maybe sell to you but you pay less of a fee things like that that you can offer people so that you have some additional source of income. And, honestly, too, slower periods are a time to think about what are some things that I would really enjoy doing, and if one-on-one is the only thing you might want to do, that's when we want to just go into the marketing and get more clients coming through the door.
Speaker 1:But this is also a time that you could think about. Would I ever want to give a talk? Could I reach out and do a talk for a dietetic organization? Those kinds of things pay dietitians to come and do that, right. So there's a lot of different opportunities that you can have. As far as how to make additional income, that's not really my niche and like not really something that I've done in private practice, but there's a lot of really great resources out there and dietitians out there who do work and coaching to help dietitians sell more things like that. So that's certainly a time that you could work on. Something like that is if things are actually slower in your business, and so, yeah, certainly ways that you can kind of diversify some of those income streams are going to be really helpful too.
Speaker 1:The other thing you can do is you know outside of, like individual networking or other things, is offering some kind of workshop or something to get more clients to know who you are and maybe offering them in a place that, like your ideal client might look for you. For I say that in my marketing episode, but that's really what I think about when I think about marketing is like, where is our ideal client going to find us? Like, where would they seek us out through? That is once again, through, maybe Google. For us it's probably through their therapist and maybe through their doctor. But for you say you do sports nutrition, could you go do a workshop at a gym or at a college campus and talk to the students there and offer some of that information, support and get your name out there a little bit more. Those are some things that you could do during those slower periods. If you're doing a talk for, like, a bigger business, that could also line up a paid opportunity or even getting some other connections in for your business. So that's something that you can certainly do is to just get a little bit more with the finding clients and being able to engage with them. You know, offering your current client something like a support group or other options that maybe could be additional things that you already offer and they're already existing clients of yours that they might be open to doing. So it really, as always, depends, right, and I think with nutrition right, like if you're a dietitian that listening, you know like nothing is one size fits all and it really always depends, and I think business can be very similar to that. So look at, kind of like, what your clients are needing and how can you offer to them and maybe get people you know through your door again.
Speaker 1:And the other thing is this is where sometimes some financial planning can be really helpful, especially if you know things are going to slow down during a certain period. If you're in solo practice and even if you're in group practice, it's something just to think about because there are going to be slower periods For us. There are also periods where insurance things tend to come up and so having a savings in place or things like that can also just be helpful. If you have listened to my podcast before, I've mentioned this all the time the Profit First for Therapists book. It uses the profit first method but it's specifically for therapists, but in private practice, and that's why I really like it. But having the profit first method is actually really nice because a part of using profit first is that there is a portion of money that you're allocating towards profit and at the end of each quarter you're allocating that profit to yourself as the owner, and that's really nice because that can also be like that kind of cushion that you know at the end of each quarter you're going to get, and that can be a helpful way to sort of maybe save up for those slower periods and anticipate those things, so that you have a more long-term plan and you're not just sort of like reacting to it every time. Right For me, I am still sort of in this reactive phase where I'm going from you know things are busy and then they slow down and then I pick up my marketing versus, you know, having a more consistent marketing plan in place.
Speaker 1:One of the ways that we're going to hopefully do that this fall is by faxing doctor's offices updates more consistently and more often, and that's like a very consistent marketing option for us, right? We don't do that right now. Our other marketing that we really do that's like a consistent thing with clients is collaborating care with therapists, which is a great marketing source, by the way, because if a therapist enjoys working with you or if a doctor enjoys working with you, they're going to want to send you more clients. So there's ways to sort of think about this from like a long-term planning thing to like be proactive and not have to just panic when it inevitably comes around that things are going to slow down. For my team, what I say is, like summertime slows down and use this time If they want to do some marketing like for our team, we can do blog posts or actually do some networking. But also I'm like things are going to pick up in the fall and in the spring when we're busy and everybody's like all over the place.
Speaker 1:Enjoy the slowness of it all right now, and I know that can feel like a privileged place to come from because it's going to impact your money if, like, you're making more money one season and not in the other. But, once again, that's like a thing that people need to plan for when you work in private practice, and so if it is a solo practice for you or if the income is derived from the slowness, or lack thereof, of your practice, you want to plan for that in your finances as well, and I really share that with my team as well, just to anticipate it and to take the breaks when they have it and enjoy the cancellations and give yourself a second to breathe, because next week you're probably going to be just as busy and not have as many cancellations, because that's typically how it goes. So, yeah, I think in just all the things I'm saying is we want to get to know our trends and understand our consistency of new clients that come through, and knowing that information is what's going to help you create a plan to sort of how to react to it when it does happen. And I think there are certainly things we can do in the short term, like I said, with client retention and I think you know I briefly mentioned of just like the easier way to market when you're already collaborating care with another provider is to be like oh, like, by the way, I accept other clients, like do you work with a lot of these types of clients too? You know, if they're interested in working with us, you can always have them reach out. You're already having a relationship developed with a clinician that's referring to you and you're collaborating care with them, like why not also just network your services a little bit? So there's like things you can do in the interim that are more like I would say like short-term and maybe a quicker return, whereas the things that are like the more long-term, you want to have plans for that. You want to have a system in place for that of like keeping track of all the data so that you know when are my consistently busy and slow months, and also knowing are my marketing efforts paying off, where I'm putting them into.
Speaker 1:So what I want you guys to do, as you're listening to this episode and I'm going to finish out here with, actually, I'm going to pull up my tracking spreadsheet that I've kept since mid-2022, and I'm going to give you sort of just the numbers of just this is just people that I've sort of reached out to the practice each month. Typically, I would say, our conversion is like, probably, like I would say like 80 to 85% where, like most of the time, when people reach out and schedule a discovery call or they reach out, they're going to book as a client. That's also information that we track to make sure that, like, are the discovery calls turning into actual clients. So I'm going to just share the numbers and why this is like, important to keep track of, if I haven't already said that a million times today. So, starting in 2022, I started really tracking this actually in June of 2022. And in June of 2022, my practice had four new inquiries and Amanda, who's been on my team since 2022, we often laugh about this, but that July we had one new inquiry. So July of 2022 was the slowest month since I started my practice, probably, but then in August of 2022, we had nine people reach out. In September we had seven, and then in October, which was our highest month in 2022, we had 17 new inquiries. This is when I started tracking this information and this is when I started to be proactive with marketing and, as I said before, back to school, things are picking up. October 17. And then in November we had 15. And in December we had 16. So it kind of leveled off at that point towards the end of the year. So that was 2022.
Speaker 1:And then let's see 2023. So that January we had 14. And then February we had 11. March, our busiest month always 30. And I remember it was Amanda McKenzie, so I had two clinicians at the time and we were like amazed, we're like, oh my God, there's so many people, because that was the highest we'd ever had.
Speaker 1:And then things sort of leveled off. In April we had 20, 19 in May 23, in June, 20, in July 27, in August 16, in September 19, in October 22, in November, in September 19, in October 22, in November and 21 in December. So that is the numbers for 2023. And those are all just new clients that have reached out to us and said do I want to work with you, yes or no? I'm actually looking at the conversion totals and I would say, actually we tend to convert. So it looks like we're doing about 61% of our clients that we do discovery calls for at least in 2023, converted to new clients. So we have about a 60% conversion rate.
Speaker 1:2023 was also when I brought on a new clinician that summer and our admin, nicole, so she started helping me with this stuff. So you'll see, from, let's see, like the end of 20 to mid 2022 to the end was about a range from one in July to as high as 17 in October 2023, as the lowest month was February, 11 people 14 January. So, like I said, the trends are normal for us slower times in those two months and then things pick up and then kind of meddle out in the summer and then sort of pick back up in the fall and into the winter and then that brings us to 2024. So remember when I said our busiest month in 2022 was 17? That is actually the slowest month's numbers this year so far. So this last month, july, was 17 new inquiries. So that was our slowest month, where once it was our busiest. So that just shows you how consistency, keeping the marketing going really can pay off.
Speaker 1:So this year so far in 2024, in January we had 24 new inquiries. In February we had 20. So if you remember from last year 14 and 11, I think it was 24 and 20. March once again we were at 30. Once again, march is always our busiest. April, we had 25. May, we had 30. And then things started to slow down in June 18, july 17. And then, as of today, which is August 9th, we've had four so far. So it's been kind of slow so far. On the August and I'm anticipating August is going to be our slowest month so far, just from how things are going.
Speaker 1:So the numbers have shifted right and so I will say our conversion rate so far this year 65%, so we're getting a little bit better. In 2023, our conversion rate 61%. 2022, 63%. So we've been pretty consistently at 60, about 60 to 65% as far as people that will book into actual clients of ours that reach out. So from looking at the numbers that we shared, you want to think about it of like that's how many clients we're getting, and so my goal is to like, continue to grow those numbers and make sure that they're, you know, actively growing so that we can continue to fill clinicians as our group grows. And the thing that's nice about having the group practice is, as clinicians stay on, they tend to retain their clients longer, and so that's like with every new clinician they're building up that sort of like initial caseload and then they're sort of maintaining a good amount of their clients and then we're sort of just topping them off at the end with new people. So that is sort of how, using my tracking sheet, you can see sort of the trends that I've had and the shifts that have been made. And that's really what I hope for you to get out of this and understanding of why it helps to have this data All right.
Speaker 1:So I think I've talked enough about what to do during slow periods. I hope this was helpful, as always, and I'm curious for you what helps you during these slower periods of time and what do you do to help yourself through it? Now that we've gotten the episode out of the way, we're going to shift into our advice Q&A segment to round out the episode. Thanks for listening to this part, and now let's get into our listener question of the week. Today's listener question comes from a message I received on Instagram. Thank you to this listener for sending this question over. It's a really good one and, I think, one that a lot of dietitians wonder about. So the listener said Hi, eva, I'd love some advice on getting credentialed with insurance.
Speaker 1:For some backstory, I recently started my private practice on the side while working full-time and I'm considering getting credentialed with insurance, but feel overwhelmed by the idea. What are your thoughts on hiring a credentialing company versus doing it yourself? I'm scared to make a mistake. Thanks in advance for your input. Once again, thank you to this listener for sending over this question. And what a great question and what a very dietitian-y question to ask. And I only say that in like the best way, because I've said this before on the podcast and I identify as such myself.
Speaker 1:But dietitians we tend to be, as we know, the stereotype type A perfectionist, and I do think that perfectionist part comes in a lot in our profession. And, yeah, there's always this big fear that we're going to do something wrong or make a mistake. So I just want to say I hear you and I see you and been there, and I think I felt the same way when I was first credentialing with insurance, where I was like I don't know anything about insurance and I don't want to and so I love this question and yeah, thank you again for sending it over I will say with my own experience I mean, this is like I said when I started deciding to take insurance, I was like I don't know anything about insurance and I had a newborn and I was like I'm not going to be able to learn how to do this right now. And I believe I don't even remember, honestly, how I figured this all out, but I think what I did was I hired a biller and they sort of walked me through what I needed to do. I'm pretty sure they told me like, get a CQH. And, by the way, before I get into this and forget, I do have an episode about this called the 411 on credential with insurance, which I'll link in the show notes of this episode that this will be in, I believe, the insurance company or the billing company that I hired on right away I think they told me what I need to do with the basic stuff, which was helpful because I certainly didn't know anything about. They told me get an account with Avality and Navinet, which we were still using then, and so they did give me some like basic stuff that I needed to do. I think they told me about, you know, make sure my CQH was done correctly, and all that stuff. They didn't actually fill out the forms for me, but I think they did tell me, like which ones I needed to do, which was really helpful once again, because I didn't know what I was doing.
Speaker 1:And then I was in with like two panels, I think at that point, and then I wanted to add in a third, and I remember this company that I was working with for billing also did do credentialing, and I asked them, like can you just do it for me? Like I just don't, I don't know how to do it and I don't want to have the like energy to like figure it all out. And honestly, just it just took them forever to get the process started. They just kept like delaying and delaying it. So eventually I was like you know what, I'm just going to do it myself, because it was just taking too long, quite frankly. So I ended up just doing it myself. But I've heard that experience with other dietitians too, of just like wanting a company to help them with something and it ends up not being really great no-transcript easier ultimately to figure out myself.
Speaker 1:Now for me, because I've done the credentialing application process so many times with hiring dietitians like I've done it six times now Now it just is straightforward and makes sense to me. But of course, when you just do something for the first time and really the only time unless you expand to group practice and are credentialing your clinicians, of course it's going to be sort of confusing and you don't really know what this means and it's fair to want to hire out for that and I certainly see the appeal of that. There's a lot of things to consider. It's like cost. Do you have like the cost upfront or the investment upfront to take to do something like that? Will it save you time and energy?
Speaker 1:You know that sometimes, like you mentioned, you work full time and have this private practice. It's a lot to take on some of these things. Especially when you work full time, you might not have the time to like call insurance companies during the day to like ask questions about I don't know how do I get credentialed with you or whatever it might be. So it might just feel easier to have a company do that stuff for you, which is totally valid and understandable. I think that's also one of the big appeals of these newer, bigger companies like Fay and Berry and Nourish, because I think they do a lot of the credentialing for dietitians too, and so it just takes away a lot of this pressure. But I will say once again, I recognize that because I've done it now a couple of times it's much easier and I remember when I first started five years ago doing this it was all very confusing.
Speaker 1:There are so many good resources out there at this point, like I said, I have an episode about it. There's other dietitians that have other episodes or other resources on their websites about getting credentials insurance that the basic steps are somewhere right Like. You can probably find that information somewhere and it's just a matter of like figuring out which companies you want to get credentialed with and going on their website, honestly Googling. You know Highmark Credentialing Pennsylvania. It'll probably direct you to the appropriate link. Some of the questions can be confusing. I mean, this is really where you want to like reach out to like any kind of resources or networks you have of like other dietitians. You may know the Insurance Credentialing Facebook group is such a great resource and place where people ask questions constantly and you can search in there and see if anyone's ever asked this before. So I think there's a lot of ways to get the information now on your own and saving money by just doing it yourself.
Speaker 1:But I think the most important, more important, actually reason to do it yourself, which I don't think I've really said which one I think is better, but I actually think it might be better to do it yourself, because what ends up happening when I was working in the hospitals, before I went out on my own, I worked sort of in the inpatient side of the hospital and then also in the outpatient side, and I actually remember the office manager asked me to sign stuff and be like hey, I need a copy of your Pennsylvania license, I need stuff. I didn't know what they were doing or asking me for. In retrospect now I know is that they were creating my CQH for me, which is sort of like the central hub of where insurance companies pull your information and credentialing you with insurance so that they could bill through the hospital, and I didn't know like any of that was happening right and I was getting credentialed and really didn't even know, because I didn't know what was going on. And then, when I was trying to credential my own, I had to sort of like figure out, like my MPI number, how to get access to it and all that stuff, like they had created all that stuff for me and I didn't even realize. So I'll have to say, you know, when somebody else does it for you, it might be nice to like sort of I don't know what, I don't know how to do this, I'd rather just have somebody else do it for me. By the way, been there through a lot of parts of my private practice, but eventually, like, you're going to want to know how to do certain things, or like where your information is or what information is there.
Speaker 1:And I think going through that can be really helpful and beneficial because, like, say, you hire this company and maybe they're doing their billing for you and then say something happens and you have to do it yourself and you're like, oh no, how do I do that? Like where do I begin? What do I need to do? That's one of the really hard parts of being a business owner too is like actually actually on top of, or like understand some of these things or make decisions from like a very businessy standpoint. But when I think about it from a more long-term perspective, I do think it can be just so much more beneficial to have a hand in it.
Speaker 1:So, whether that means you're hiring somebody but you're like doing it with them, so maybe you're not spending as much, or like maybe they're giving you advice on, like, what steps to take, like maybe they're giving you advice on, like what steps to take, I mean I would probably just do that as truly as like spend that money consulting with a dietitian who has gone through the process and they can help you walk you through it. You know. Spend, whether it's like one to $200 doing that and then credential them yourself, versus like paying a company a couple hundred dollars to do it and then sort of not knowing what you're doing. Just my two cents on it, obviously. But I will say I feel like there's so many companies too that are like credentialing and billing and all these other things, but I have never really seen like one consistent company like in the dietitian world that's like this is the go-to for this thing. There's definitely like a couple, but there is a newer one that's just being started recently from a dietitian who has been in private practice, which I'm really interested in seeing what comes of that. But anyways, in conclusion, I would say, you know, if it's you know, something that you have the resources or the investment into and it's worth the investment, like say you don't have a lot of time, or like looking back for me when I was, you know, a new mom with a little newborn at home, I just didn't have the capacity like having a biller who I did eventually sort of pay, but they sort of walked me through what I would need to do, but I did do it myself. Having some support was really helpful, especially not knowing. But there are so many resources out there now too, like I said, I have an episode about this there's other dietitians too, whether it's free resources or cheap resources on how to get credentialed insurance the Insurance and Credentialing Facebook group is a really great one. And ultimately, I think, knowing what's going on in your own practice, of going through the process especially if you ever plan on becoming a group practice it's really helpful to kind of go through the process yourself. Plus, once again, for group practice owners when I hire somebody, I'm trying to get them credentialed as soon as possible. So knowing how to do it and having a system in place for that has been really really helpful to get the process started as soon as possible. So I say, you know, face the scary unknown of filling out all these forms and and use the resources that are out there to do it yourself and also probably save some money while you're at it. Once again, I have an episode all about this process, so I'll definitely make sure to link that and check that out too, if that might be helpful to make it feel not so daunting. But ultimately, if you go through a credentialing company, like all the power to you. I mean, I feel like if you can, if you find a good one or somebody who does it really well and quickly and efficiently, go for it, because I think that can also be super helpful too. So I think that's all I have to say on that.
Speaker 1:If you have a question that you'd like answered on the podcast during this advice slash ask away segment, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can send me a message over on Instagram or send me a message on the website, wwwrdtoseocom on the contact page. I've gotten a couple of questions so far, which is really exciting. Most have been through DM message, which is totally great, but also would love to hear your voices and a voice note, like we had for the first episode that we did this in August in the last episode. So if you have a question, would love to hear from you. I'm hoping to do this through August, so I believe there's like two more weeks of August, maybe three, and if I get more questions after that, maybe I'll incorporate it at least once a month. So feel free to reach me if you're interested in getting a question answered.
Speaker 1:I hope this was a helpful episode, both with the listener question and, of course, the episode itself. If you the podcast, would love if you could rate the podcast and give us a couple stars, whether it's on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps with getting this podcast out to more people, so would love your support in that way and, of course, hearing any feedback that you might have. Thanks for listening to the episode and I will talk to you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to the RD to CEO podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes for any resources mentioned or find more at wwwrdtoceocom. Never miss an episode by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. See you next time.
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