[INTERVIEW]
Ronda Nelson: Well, hello, welcome back to the podcast. I have kind of a funny story to tell you — I’m gonna tell on myself. So I recorded this podcast, I don’t know, a week ago I think, and I was so excited. I got two podcasts recorded back to back, because I like to batch them out a little bit, and I like to work about a month or so ahead. So I do these podcasts and I’m like, I’m so proud of myself. I’m checking things off my list like crazy. And as a doer person, that makes me super happy. So I’m like, super happy.
And so my staff, you know, they come in and they download the episode out of the software that we use, and everything’s fine. Or so I think. And then they tell me that there was no sound. And I was so mad. Because I thought, I do not have time to redo this again. And by the time I review my notes and get my attitude right and get my headspace right — like, I gotta show up for you, right? And I was just so mad. I didn’t even respond when they told me the audio didn’t record for one full podcast, and it only started halfway in on the other one. I was mad. I was just so mad. So I just ignored the whole thing. You know how you do — you get irritated about something.
So, you know, God is funny and not funny all at the same time sometimes. So today I’m sitting down, I’m going to do it. I’m just going to do it even though I’m mad. It’s not that I don’t want to be with you guys. It’s just that I’m irritated with the technology because I just don’t have time. So I start the recording, and my podcast editor — he listens to the audio after I’m done recording, of course. And I just said, okay. I have got to get my attitude right. I’ve got to get my headspace right before I do this podcast today, because otherwise I’m going to show up and be really grumpy with you. And we’ve got a great topic to talk about. So I say, okay, I take a couple of big breaths. I’m like, okay, I’m good. Let’s go. And I look at my notes — which I have not looked at now for a week because I’d already recorded it once — and the very first thing on my notes says: Before I do anything, I need to get my head right. Oh my gosh. So there you go. I think I got my head right. I just needed to confess my sin, I think — because it wasn’t really a sin. I just needed to confess, because I was kind of grumpy about this whole thing. Golly.
Okay, so we’re going to say that the tech is going to work great today. Because I do have a great topic for you. We’re going to talk about what I would have done differently had I started knowing what I know now. I mean, hindsight’s always 20/20, right? And if I had known then what I know now — and I have to say, full disclosure, our world today is so different than it was 20-plus years ago. Back when I started, it was just word of mouth. We barely had cell phones. Social media wasn’t social media. You couldn’t run ads. We were still kind of brick and mortar, boots on the ground. There was a great book at the time called Guerrilla Marketing, and I remember reading that book thinking, oh my gosh, this is amazing — it was the first book that ever really wrote about marketing. It’s way outdated now, but that was kind of back in the wild, wild west.
So I’m kind of filtering what I’m going to tell you based on what I know now. But also, if I was me at my age and I was starting over — like at 35, 38, 40, because that’s when I started my practice — this is what I would have done differently.
The first thing I would have done is I would have changed my mindset. Which is so apropos for today, given the fact that I was really grumpy about 15 minutes ago. But I’m not now because I’m hanging out with you, so I’m fine. When I was thinking about this and writing out these notes, I thought, alright, what would I want to tell my younger self? What would I say?
First of all, I would tell myself — and for some of you this is gonna feel kind of weird or sound a little funny — but I would start off by telling myself that I’m building a business. I’m not just seeing patients. That’s what I would have done. Because as a practitioner, as a kind-hearted soul like we are, we wanna give away the farm. We wanna give away all the things. “I’m gonna help people. I’m gonna give you a discount. I’ll treat you for free.” It never works. Tell me one time when that’s worked. I’ll wait. You can email me and tell me a time that has worked out for you — where the patient has really, truly given it their 100% all when you’ve done all the free work. I’ll wait. I will wait. It never happens. Ever.
And so I wish that I would have gone in with that mindset: I’m building a business. I’m not just seeing patients. Because that shift all by itself would have changed the way that I made decisions. I would not have hired the way I did — I would have hired from inside a framework as a business owner, rather than just going, “Yeah, you’re nice, you’ll be fine.” And it never works out. I made some of the worst hiring decisions. And I fired people really badly. I did it one time via text message from a truck stop. Like — bad. I wish I could have done that over again.
The second mindset I would have wanted to change would have been to not wait till it’s perfect. Done is better than perfect. I wasted so much time in the beginning trying to make everything just so — making sure the protocols were right, my office was right, all the things. I wish I would have just hit the go button sooner. I kind of moused around thinking, “Well, it has to be just right and everything has to be just so.” No. No, no, no. It doesn’t. I mean, this many years later, it really doesn’t — because I have a lot of things that aren’t right and I’m still doing fine. Thank you very much.
Third mindset: understand that I really can’t help everyone, and therefore I don’t need to try so hard. Because it’s okay for me to have a boundary that says, “I don’t think I’m your person. I don’t think I’m the best one to help you. I think we need to find someone else.” In the early days, I was so desperate for patients. And desperate — that’s another one I could add to my list. Being desperate never, ever, ever fixes anything for anyone. But I was. I just wanted to help. I wanted to help. I wasn’t leading like a business owner. I was leading like, “I just want to help everybody.” And there were a lot of people I got in those early years that I had no business seeing — either I was way out over my ski tips, or they just weren’t a good personality fit, and it ends up blowing up in your face. It never ever works. So I wish I would have been better about knowing that I can’t help everyone, and it’s okay to say no.
Mindset number four: my price reflects my value, not my insecurity. Let me say that again. I wish that I had understood that my price reflects my value, not my insecurity. I really want you to hear me on that. That’s a big one. Like, let that one kind of sit like vomit in your mouth for a minute. Really. Your price should reflect your value, not your insecurity.
I cannot tell you how many hundreds of practitioners over the years — maybe thousands, I don’t even know, so many — have said to me, “Well, you know, I’m not quite ready, and I just need to learn a few more things and then I’ll start.” Or, “Well, you know, I’m not as good as so-and-so, so I can’t price that high — I’m just gonna go low ball.” I’m gonna call bull on that. Your price reflects the value that you give, not your insecurity. And when we come to this place of leading a business as a practitioner, I’m like, I’m all in my feels. And I’m thinking, “Well, if I just take this one more training, or get this one more certification…” It’s all ego. It’s 100% ego. Listen — if you know more than they do, that automatically makes you the smartest person in the room. And I can guarantee you, you know more than they do. So let your price reflect your value, not your insecurity. I wish I had understood it back then.
Lastly: speed matters. I wrote that down because I wish I had taken action faster. I was dinking around trying to make everything perfect and worrying about what everybody thought. I was focused on all the wrong things. I don’t have to make it perfect. And I don’t have to do it so fast that I’m not doing a good job. But every day that I spend fiddle-farting around, not doing what I need to be doing to grow my business, that’s one day less that I’m making enough money, one day less that I’m serving the people I want to serve, and my soul is not happy. So in that case — get up, get moving, get going, girl. Don’t sit back and wait until your whole world is kumbaya. We do not do that. That’s not how it rolls.
So I would have built the practice my way. I would have built it on my terms. First, I would have been very clear — much more clear — about who I was serving. Now, for those of you old-timers that have been around for a while, you know that we used to hang out with Michael Dobbins — and you youngins aren’t gonna know who this is, but I’ve got plenty of old people like me hanging around. We hung out with Janet Lang and Michael Dobbins and all those great people that we all looked up to so much. And Janet Lang is literally the reason I am doing what I do. She’s the reason I have this podcast. I owe so much gratitude to her. But I also know that I fell into my niche early on — female hormones, women, mothers — and I just kind of clopped right into it. I’m so thankful that happened, because I don’t know what would have happened if I’d been wishy-washy about helping everybody. Because you can’t. You have to decide who you’re going to help.
Now with all the AI, it makes it so much faster to get your systems done, to create an offer, to connect with the right people, to figure out your marketing strategy. I didn’t have any of that when I started out. So that’s definitely what I would do. If you’re not leveraging AI today, you’re gonna fall behind. You have to figure that out. In Clinical Business Academy, we talk about it all the time — how to use it to create an offer, how to use it to get really good email copy, not crappy copy but good email copy. There’s one of the CBA members who just created her first book. And it’s amazing. I haven’t read it, but the title and the table of contents — I’m like, girl, you and Claude just hit on a winner. I’ve never seen a book like it. And it was all because of AI. So I would definitely lean into that a lot more in the beginning.
I would have also gotten out and met more people. Now, I was in a fairly small town in Northern California and had been there for a long time, so I knew a lot of people. But there were still other relationships I could have formed. Like the guy who owned the local health food store — I kind of knew who he was and he kind of knew who I was, but I should have been in there all the time. Teaching and speaking and hosting free events and meeting people. I didn’t do that because I was so worried about it being perfect. What if I didn’t know enough? And so that slowed me down. I wish I would have done that.
Another thing I would do — and this matters now more than it did then, but now today I would focus hard on getting more testimonials. You need people talking about you. That’s all. You’ve got to get people talking about you. And all it really takes is sending them your Google My Business link. And if you don’t have a brick and mortar and don’t have a GMB listing, send them your Facebook link and just say, “Hey, would you share your experience? It would mean the world to me. I would really appreciate it. It helps me get the word out so I can help more people.” And everybody, if they’re happy with you, is going to love to do that. That would be a non-negotiable for me now, because it’s such a strong trust signal with Google.
Once I had all of that in place — I know my niche, I’m built for speed, I’ve got AI, I’m getting testimonials, I know who I’m talking to, I’ve got my marketing plan — then I would create an offer. And I would create an offer that is something someone can say yes to really easily. I just talked to a practitioner a couple weeks ago, and he said, “No one’s signing up. No one wants to work with me.” And I said, “It’s not because you’re not great at what you do, but what might the reason be? Tell me about your offer.” And he said, “Well, I have this really great comprehensive wellness package and it’s $3,500.” I said, “Okay. How many yeses have you had on that?” And he said, “None. And I don’t understand why.” He couldn’t see the forest for the trees because he was right in the middle of it.
Well, from the outside looking in — I’m like, I wouldn’t pay $3,500 for that. No dang way. I don’t even know you. You could be a wackadoo. And so we talked through it. I said, look, you can’t just decide you’re going to go out there and offer a $3,500 something or other. And then about what? What is it for? He said, “Well, it’s just wellness.” I said, “But what’s the problem you’re solving?” He said, “Well, I’m helping them see what their health is.” I said, “I don’t wake up in the morning and go down to the auto repair shop just to see how my car’s working. I only go when I have a problem. And I’m curious about what’s going on because I have a problem — but I’m not looking under the hood when everything feels fine. It might not be fine, but I don’t know it’s not fine because I don’t have a problem.” We have to find the problem and then create the offer.
I think sometimes practitioners get ahead of themselves and think about the offer first. You have to have some of these building block components in place before you build the offer, and then it has to be something that someone actually wants. Not a $3,500 wellness evaluation — because they don’t want it. They don’t care, they don’t want it, they’re not interested.
So here’s what I would avoid. I already kind of told you, but I definitely would not wait until everything’s perfect. That’s probably one of the biggest mistakes I made early on. I wouldn’t try to learn just one more thing. Back in the day, I didn’t know anything. You graduate with two degrees and you think you know everything, and then real life happens and you’re like, boy, I don’t know anything. What I did realize is that all I needed around me were people who knew more than me, because I could ask them.
There was one woman who we kind of traveled around with back with Janet Lang, around 2006 or 2007 or so. I met with her about once a month, maybe once every three weeks. I would save up all my female hormone panel tests from Diagnostechs, and I would go over them with her one at a time. She would teach me. We’d go over another one that looked a little different — she would teach me. We’d go over another one — she would teach me. Just a standing one-hour consultation, once every three weeks or so. I paid her and she taught me, because she shortcutted it for me. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t understand how to use the supplements or how to make changes in the follicular and luteal phase, what happens with the FSH and LH and all that.
And years later — this was the sweetest thing — she told me, “You know, back when you would call me, I was on the phone learning it myself, and I was only about three steps ahead of you.” So we kind of learned it together. And it was fine because she helped me. I would ask questions and she’d say, “I don’t know, I’m gonna find out.” I wish that more practitioners knew the value of being together in a community. Having a study buddy. A once-a-month where you bring your cases and just flush them out together. You learn so much faster that way than just staying in your head. So if I had to do it over, I would have done that collaboration work sooner.
And I wouldn’t have given my services away. I did that plenty — people at church, friends. I just wouldn’t have done it. My confidence is so much better now, but yeah. I just wouldn’t have done it.
The other thing I wouldn’t do — and I think it’s true for everybody — is don’t compare yourself. Don’t compare yourself. I just said in a pod call in CBA the other day, “Somebody wishes they were where you are. Someone wishes they had a practice like you have.” But you’re looking out going, “I’m not making as much money as that person,” or “I’m not doing it like that,” or “I wish I had that.” Yeah, no. Somebody wishes they had what you have. So be grateful for what you have. And then keep growing. Keep doing your thing. Keep moving the ball down the field. Get your list of things and stay on top of it and keep moving it down the field.
That’s one thing — I am an achiever. It’s my number one strength. I’m like a dog on a bone. If I don’t have a bone to chew, something to chase, something to do, I’m not happy. I need something to do. I’m wired that way. So that part was never an issue for me. The problem was I didn’t build enough of a community around me from the beginning. I did a lot of it by myself, and I could have, would have, learned a lot faster.
So big picture: don’t try and do it on your own. Get testimonials and reviews. Network with people. Find people that are like you, that you can really love being with, that you can hang out with, that you feel comfortable with, and grow together. And don’t start with your offer — you have to know who you serve first. Otherwise, what are you going to offer someone? Like the guy I was talking to with the $3,500 offer. I said, “Well, who is this for?” And he said, “Well, anyone.” I said, “Well, that’s why.” Because what problem are you solving?
Now, if I had a woman who had really bad PMS and she’s out of work, her husband’s ready to divorce her, her kids don’t like her — family’s falling apart because mom is falling apart — I could probably charge $1,500, $1,800 to get somebody out of that trouble. Because I can do that really easily. That part’s not hard. But she’s got pain and I have a solution. You can’t just come at someone with, “Well, here’s what I do.” You have to tie it to a pain. And even more so now — people are so much more motivated by the desire for transformation, and they’re motivated by pain. If we’re not in pain, it’s like pain or pleasure, right? Those are the two key motivators. We either move because we’re moving away from something painful, or we’re moving toward something we enjoy. So we wanna create a little bit of pain for them. I think I would have done a better job of that in the beginning.
Anyway, that’s all I got for you today. Those are my musings. And my attitude’s fine, thank you very much — if you were worried. Can you tell? I am fine. But boy, I was kind of grumpy a little bit ago. I hope this podcast turns out. If you’re listening to it, you’ll know it’s fine. It all is perfectly fine.
[CLOSING]
Ronda Nelson: So that’s it, friends. I love hanging out with you. I tell you this all the time. Listen, if you’d like to join me inside Clinical Business Academy, I would love to have you. It is a business coaching program for wellness practitioners that’s unlike anything else out there, because I am here to help you make your practice your way. I’m not gonna put you in a box. I’m not gonna make you do it a certain way. We’re not gonna say, “It’s a marvelous Monday at ABC Chiropractic, how can I help you?” We’re not doing any of that baloney. It’s your practice, your way. And I’m here to help you get there. If you’d love to chat with me, I would be more than happy to do that. We can schedule a practice strategy call. All you have to do is go to rondanelson.com/cba — CBA stands for Clinical Business Academy. I hope to talk to you soon. See you next week.
[END]