Ep #273: 5 Ways to Increase Your Visibility So You Can Attract All the Clients You Want

Hi docs, welcome to The EntreMD Podcast, where it’s all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I’m your host, Dr. Una.

Well hello, hello, my friend. Welcome back to another episode of The EntreMD Podcast. I am super pumped to be in your ears. And today we’re going to be talking about five ways to increase your visibility, so you can attract all the clients you want. Okay? Now, this is something that is so important and is so misunderstood, so I’m glad we get to talk about it today, okay.

Now, I want you to, before we even get into this I want you to think about the human race. It’s very critical that we understand this. There are what, almost a billion people on the planet? And there are many countries that are very densely populated, right?

But when you look at countries where the birth rate has started declining, those are countries that are worried, right? Because they’re like, the rate at which we’re doing this, our population is going to start decreasing. Like a country like the United States is worried about that, even though there are 330 million people in the US. They’re still like, “Man, our birth rate is such that we’re going to start declining.” Okay?

Now, if countries are smart enough to think of it that way and to realize that we want these births, then I want you to think about companies as well. I want you to think about your company, your business, your brand, okay? Think about it this way, no matter how many clients you have, if you are not putting yourself in front of new people so that they can find you and potentially work with you, your business will begin to decline, okay?

So no matter how, we’re talking about whole countries being worried about their birth rate. I want you to think about, then what would that mean for an itty bitty company, compared to a country that is, right? And so whether your business is established, whether you’re just starting, it doesn’t matter, you don’t outgrow visibility. You don’t outgrow the work that is required to increase your visibility.

The biggest problem every business has, including the business that’s doing $10 million in revenue, is obscurity. The people who would know about your service and love it and choose to work with you and pay you very well for it just have no idea you exist, okay? So if you’re starting off, congratulations, you can get this on the right foot.

If you are established and you fell into the trap of like, oh, we’re good, everything’s good. I have a solid referral base, I don’t need any of that stuff, I want to invite you to get off of that thought pattern and come into this place where you recognize that, you know, visibility, this is just part of my business. This is part of what I do. Okay?

All right, so let’s talk about five ways you can do this, okay? And why is this important? This is the lifeline of your business, this is what you’ve done before has brought your business to where it is now. What you do now is what will take your business to where it’s going to be in five years.

If you don’t do it now, you’re going to have nothing in five years, okay? So this is something that we do. And the whole idea behind visibility is to put yourself in front of people who have no idea about you, okay? That’s the idea, for unknowns to find you, for people who are oblivious to become part of your audience, okay?

If you’re at a place where you’re putting on events and you’re like, “I can’t fill the events.” You’re posting on social media, there’s no engagement. You’re doing all of these things and you’re not seeing the results.

Maybe you have a podcast and the listenership is not growing. You have a YouTube channel and people are not biting. You have an email list, people are opening it but you’re not having new clients. The problem may be that it’s just the same people over and over and over again. You just don’t have new people you’re talking to.

So how do you find these new people? Okay, I will warn you, chances are that all five of these things are things that you’re going to be like, “Dr. Una, no thank you, I don’t want to do those.” Okay? And if you feel that, that’s okay. Okay? It is something that feels uncomfortable, but has a really large ROI. And you might go like, “I’m an introvert, I don’t do things like that.” I am an introvert and we can do things like that, okay? So this is going to be a lot of fun, all right?

So five things, the first thing is speaking at events hosted by others, okay? And again, this is in front of people who are your ideal audience, right? And so for me, if I use myself as an example, my business helps physician entrepreneurs build six, seven, and multiple seven-figure businesses, right? And so my ideal audience would be a physician who is already an entrepreneur, is ready to start their business and wants to grow, okay?

They’re not looking for this thing, they’re just doing it out of curiosity, but they want to grow their businesses. Those are my people, okay? People who have private practices who want to take it to the next level, those are my people, right? So it’s not just any event, but it is an event hosted by someone else, okay? And that event is geared towards people that will be considered your ideal audience.

So the reason why I’m specifying by someone else is because if you’re doing your own events, you’re going to attract the people you already know for the most part, right? So this is you speaking on other people’s stages, okay? Other people’s stages.

And if you’re like, well, I’m not really good at speaking and all those kinds of things. Well, again, this is something that can be learned. This is something you’ve probably done quite a bit of already, you just need to learn how to do it in a different way. And we’ll talk about what the opportunities are to do that.

But speaking on other people’s stages. Not your stage, someone else’s stage, okay? Every time you do that, you’re putting yourself in front of people who would love what you do, who would be happy to work with you, but who before that, had no idea that you exist, okay? The greatest of the greats, you’ll see them doing this, speaking on other people’s stages because that is one of the fastest ways to grow your audience, to grow your business, okay? So that’s number one.

Number two is doing guest interviews. And guest interviews could be, it could be you on somebody else’s YouTube channel. It could be you on somebody else’s podcast channel, right? And again, this is somebody else’s platform. So not your podcast, somebody else’s platform, somebody else’s podcast or YouTube channel, and in front of an audience that can be your ideal audience, okay?

And so let me use, you know, I’m your guinea pig today. So let me use EntreMD as an example. If I am talking on this podcast, I am talking to people who already know about the podcast, who are listening to the podcast. And I’m giving a lot of value here and there is a whole nurture thing going on here, which is great, okay?

But if I’m a guest on somebody else’s podcast, okay, so let me say I go on a podcast that is by a physician life coach and she is talking to other physicians who need life coaching, and she does life coaching. But in the process these are people who discovered, “Man, I want to start a business. I think that would be good. I’ve wanted to and now that I’ve come back to this place where I’m dreaming again, I’ve gotten rid of my limiting beliefs, I really want to do that.” Right, that’s my person.

Okay, so imagine me being a guest on that person’s podcast. We’re not competing because we don’t do the same thing. We serve the same people, but we serve them in different capacities, right? So I go, I’m a guest on there. So said person who was like, “I want to start a business” listens. Like oh my goodness, unbelievable, okay? Unbelievable. Comes over to The EntreMD Podcast and is like, “Oh my goodness, this is gold. This is like 275 episodes of gold.” Right?

And then is bingeing on that, decides to join the EntreMD Business School. Do you see? I increase my visibility by going on that person’s podcast. Do you see that? Okay. So guest interviews is a wonderful way. So you’re thinking about somebody else’s platform in front of an audience that you would serve. And you serve them in a way that’s different from the way the host of that podcast or YouTube channel serves that person, okay?

So say you are somebody who you help people lose weight and reverse chronic disease with a plant-based diet, right? Let’s say you did that and your ideal audience, you’re talking to women. Okay, so I want you to think about the different kinds of people you can be talking to.

So maybe there’s a podcast for professional women, right? And so they’re professional women, they’re busy, they don’t have time to figure out this whole diet thing. But they are working long hours and not sleeping well so they are gaining weight. Maybe someone was just diagnosed with diabetes.

Now, the person who’s talking to the professional women may be talking to them about how to advance in their career, and you pitch them and say, “Hey, they’re advancing their career, but we need to take care of their health as well.” Right? And they would love to have you on there.

Both of you serve that audience, you serve them in different ways. And that person may say, “Oh my goodness, her interview was so amazing. I want to find her podcast, I want to find her YouTube channel.” And they come over to your own audience.

Do you see how your audience grew? Do you see how you increased your visibility? Okay, so think about that. And some of the most successful people, we’re talking people who are running multiple eight-figure companies, they are doing podcast guest interviews every single week. It’s just part of what they do to continue growing there visibility.

Understanding that the fact that you built a company that is making $40 million does not mean that you outgrow visibility. You don’t outgrow visibility, okay? All right. So that’s number two.

Number three is joint venture IG or Facebook or LinkedIn lives, okay? So you’re doing a Facebook Live, for instance, but not on your platform, I think you get the theme now. This is all on other people’s platforms because this is in front of audiences that have already been gathered that have no idea about you, okay?

So let’s say, again, back to EntreMD, okay? I could go be a guest in a Facebook group that’s full of physicians, right? Where I can go there with the host of the group and teach on some business concepts. I can go with somebody who helps people start private practices, that’s their niche. And I help them market their private practices. So maybe that person helps with credentialing and all of that stuff, I help with marketing. I can go on there and I can do a joint Facebook Live with a person.

There could be another person who is selling physicians on the fact that you can start your own business, right? And I can go there and I’m talking about how to build your brand, how to market your practice, all of those kinds of things. I can do that on there.

It could be there’s people who do certification for coaches, okay? Certification for coaches, and I’m like, okay, now that you’re done being certified, let me show you how to hit your first $100,000 in revenue. And I could do a Facebook Live there, right?

Do you see how these are all people, we serve the same audience in different capacities? But when I go in front of those audiences, I’m growing my own audience, I’m increasing my visibility, right? So this is not a Facebook Live, IG Live, or LinkedIn Live on your platform. This is on somebody else’s platform, okay?

The fourth way would be networking, okay? Networking, this will entail you going to places where your ideal audience would be. Sometimes you can even say where people who would refer you to your ideal audience, where they would be. And then just go introduce yourself to people.

Okay, so introvert here. When I hear networking events, when I used to hear a networking event I would probably break out in hives because I’m like, I don’t want to do that, right? But I want you to think about it, you go where they are, and networking, the beginning of it is so easy.

Just go up, nobody knows you’re nervous, nobody knows you’re an introvert if you don’t tell them, right? You walk up to somebody, big smile, “Hi, my name is Dr. Una.” Right? What does the person do? The person smiles back and says this is my name. Oh my goodness, is this your first time at this conference? The person is like, oh, no, this is my third time. Wow, what makes you keep coming back? Right?

Like people like to talk about themselves. So you just keep asking questions and it keeps going. But you also make sure that at some point in the conversation you tell them about what you do. And not in a slimy, sleazy, work with me now kind of way. But that’s part of what you do, you tell people what you do.

The more people who know what you do, the more people will be able to refer to you, the more people will be able to work with you, right? So networking, go out there where people who you do not know are and begin to build relationships that way. Okay, so that’s number four.

Number five is one that we tend to skip a lot, and that is leveraging your personal contacts, okay? Leveraging your personal contacts. Because guess what? When you decide you’re going to start a business, you may not have all the clients you want, but you do have a lot of people in your world who know a lot of people, right? If you check the contacts on your phone you probably have, depending on who you are, 500, 800, 2000, 4000 people, 4000 contacts on your phone, right?

And guess what they know? Some of them are people you could work with. And some of them are people who know people you could work with. And so telling the people in your world what you are now doing. Now, granted, you may have some people that probably shouldn’t know, okay? But those are people who will antagonize what you’re doing and things like that, but most people are not that.

Most times we just don’t tell them because we don’t want them to know and we’re just nervous about it and all those kinds of things. Tell them. Hey, just wanted to let you know I started blah, blah, blah. If you know anybody who would need my service just send them my way. Right? And that’s you leveraging their contacts, right?

You already know them, but that’s you leveraging their contacts, right? Hey, I did this training on this, this, this, you know? So for instance, let me say for me, I may know a ton of doctors who are in private practice, right? And I’m EntreMD and I might say, “Hey, I just did this really cool podcast episode on how to make your payroll an investment rather than an expense.”

Which by the way, I do have that podcast episode, right? And I’m like, “Can you send it to five doctors in your world who are in private practice? Private practices are really struggling now and this will be such a benefit.” Right? And so guess what? If I send that to 20 doctors and only 10 of them do it, and they send it to five people, that’s 50 people I didn’t know that now know about me, right?

And so I want you to think about it. I’m going to make up some numbers here, if I was speaking on somebody else’s platform, someone else’s event every other month, if I was being a guest on somebody’s podcast every week, or the equivalent of every week, so four times a month. If I was doing a joint venture IG, LinkedIn, Facebook Live once a week. If I was going to networking events once a month, and I was talking to my personal contacts once a month, and I was doing this on a schedule, what do you think would happen to my visibility? Through the roof.

And there’s nothing here that is complicated, it’s simple. It may not be easy, but it’s simple, right? But the thing is, if you did that and just built that into what you do on a schedule, what will happen is your audience will keep growing and growing. And in the beginning it will look like addition, but what will happen is if you keep at it it’ll get to that point where it is multiplication, where it begins to snowball, and you have this really large audience, okay?

Are there more things you can do? Yes. I mean, like in the EntreMD Business School when we talk about this there are seven things plus add-ons. There are a lot of other things you can do, but there’s no point you knowing all the things to do. You have five, let’s start with doing them.

And it starts with reflection. How often do I speak at events? In the last 12 months how many events have I spoken on? In the last 12 months how many podcasts have you been a guest on? How many times have I done a joint venture IG, Facebook, LinkedIn live? When was the last time I went to a networking event? How many have I been to in the last 12 months?

The people in my world who know me, many of whom love me, do they even know what I do? Do they even know how to support me, right? Am I taking advantage of the relationship I have with them? That sounds bad when I say it that way, like taking advantage. But it’s not taking advantage, it’s like leveraging, right? I know them, they know people, they can connect me. They’re the bridge, can they connect me to the people they know?

Ask yourself these questions. And that’s something I want you to do because literally this right here, engaging this is a significant part of taking your business to your first million or your next million, right? Because this is a numbers game. Who knows you? How obscure are you? The less obscure you are, the more you have the opportunity to help people, the more you have the opportunity to earn, okay?

And so I want you to take the time to ask yourself these questions. You know, have a sit down with yourself, okay, and have a come to Jesus moment with yourself. Like am I doing this? Am I willing to do this? Am I willing to pay the price to take my business where I want it to be? Am I ready to build a much larger audience? Am I ready to do that? This is the way to do it. Okay? All right.

Now, if you’re thinking about this and you’re like, “I hear you, I start doing these things. I just don’t have the motivation to keep it up. I don’t have the accountability to keep it up, I really need someone to hold me accountable because I really don’t want to do these things. Like I want to, but I can’t bring myself to.” Right? Or I want to know the framework for speaking, the blueprint for speaking, how to show up and rock a podcast guest interview, how to network like a star and all these things.

I want to have access, like where do I find all the people whose platforms I can be on and all of that. And if you’re that person and you’re committed, because if you’re not committed, that’s okay. But if you’re that person and you’re committed, okay, there is a place for you, okay?

This is bread and butter what we do in the EntreMD Business School. And I cannot begin to tell you the kinds of doors that open when you put yourself out there. Because yes, it will give you the opportunity to serve, it will give you the opportunity to earn, but it will also open opportunities that you could not have imagined were possible.

For instance, we had a doctor in the school who started embracing speaking as a way to grow her business. This is the way she was thinking about it, right? But we also talk about how to monetize your speaking, like how to get paid for that, right? And so she started applying those principles and looked into it and she was like, “Oh my goodness, I just made $63,000 from my speaking fees.”

And that is not her business. That is a vehicle to grow her business. So she’s making $63,000 out of something that is a marketing tool for her actual business, right? And so she didn’t see that coming, but here we are, right?

So there’s so many amazing things that happen and it’s all tied to being visible. When you show up, you become a magnet for opportunity, okay? So, go do this, go apply it. Please share this episode with any physician entrepreneur who you actually like and you’re like, “Huh, I want to see your business do well, listen to this episode.” Okay? Share it with them.

If you’ve been thinking about the EntreMD Business School, come join us, entremd.com/business, we would love to have you in there. Okay? But as always, I’m rooting for you. I’m 1,000% committed to your success. Cannot wait to see what you do with this. So go be visible and I’ll see you on the next episode of The EntreMD Podcast.

Hey, if you love listening to The EntreMD Podcast I want to invite you to join EntreMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entremd.com/ondemand and I’d love to have you join us. See you on the inside.