Transcript:
Episode 30 – Dr Brandon Seigel – 16-04-2019.mp3
[00:00:00] Episode 30 of exceeding expectations welcome to the show where we give you ideas on ways that you can over deliver to your customers resulting in great experiences for them. Which then in turn results in you getting more referrals and better testimonials and also just enjoying the whole work experience far more. This week’s guest is Dr. Brandon Siegel who is a specialist in wellness and healthcare. We touch upon many different areas such as functional medicine how health and wellness how it differs in many different countries around the world. Dr. Siegel is based in the United States but we also talk about how it differs in countries such as the UK and Australia and Canada and Mexico and so on. He’s got over 20 years experience in health and wellness and also as a as an entrepreneur and he wrote a book called The Private Practice Survival Guide. Hope you enjoy this week’s episode. We have Dr. Brandon C..
[00:01:15] This week’s edition of exceeded expectations. Brandon SIEGEL How are you doing. Brandon I’m great. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you Tony.
[00:01:24] Now you’re saying in Madison Wisconsin where abouts and the state says that so we’re raised we’re a couple hours from Chicago Illinois. We’re just in the middle of the country a little bit north. We get all that snow comes piling on our plate usually so when you hear of that polar vortex or what not usually my home is affected by that but I actually have not always lived here. My wife went to college here and has wanted to live here and we wanted to raise a family here. But I actually have offices I’m originally from sunny California have offices in Los Angeles. I also have an office in Austin Texas and I get to see all of the United States but I even get to work a little bit internationally as well in Canada a little bit in the UK. So it’s definitely fun to be worldly will say.
[00:02:15] And what is it that sets you around all those different destinations.
[00:02:18] So usually I’m either speaking giving courses or consulting to different organizations specifically around. I think the role that health wellness and education plays and how to build business models that exceed expectations in today’s environment. So with the health care crisis a lot of the times I’m coming in and helping troubleshoot and streamline the operating basis for an organization while finding ways to evaluate the clinical outcomes what’s going on and how do we deliver the best level of care with a heavy influence on you know preventative health is health and wellness and a passion for you.
[00:03:01] What was it got you into that in the first place.
[00:03:03] Yes so. Well it’s very interesting.
[00:03:06] So the first thing first I think I should share is that I come I’m married into a family of occupational physical speech therapists but really all my mother in law my wife and my brother Ma all occupational therapists so they help people function in daily life and really restore you know all their meaning all their function as a person activities of daily living. I always call them they’re like human mechanics in the sense that they really help restore function for people. And so I think that marrying into that I think has really promoted me to a whole new level of health and wellness and education. But I think as a child I was raised by by parents that were very active. I think also just in California we were exposed to certain things and I think also seeing a lot of family members get sick over my lifetime I’ve been able to really become passionate that you know we spend all this time taking care of our house and our our air conditioning and all these other things that we get manuals for it’s so funny when you think of it you buy a car you get this huge manual you buy your house you get all the manuals but the body we don’t and we just expect it to function until one day it doesn’t. And I think I’ve realized in today’s environment we have so many factors that are influencing us that if we don’t take care of our bodies our quality of life is going to go extinct essentially. And so I definitely my passion over the years has grown and having a family of my own I think that I definitely practice what I preach is the way I’ll set it seems when it comes to health most people are very reactive instead of proactive way.
[00:04:53] What do you think is the reason for that.
[00:04:55] So I think we’re at this changing of time right now and I think that we assume we’re healthy until we’re not. And so the other pieces I think we as a society go numb to the signs of sickness. You know recently I had a really close family friend of mine grew up. Her mom got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and within 10 days she passed. And so my first question is what are all the signs that were going on that we’re just not in tuned with our body. And so I think one of the things I try to share with the world is we have to focus on the little things sometimes we’re in such a grind. Day to Day between work family financial requirements everything that we forget the most important thing and that’s our self. And I’m sure you understand that at the end of the day if tomorrow your body shuts down the quality life and what you can be as a vehicle for change in this world stops. And so I think that we are we have to wake up and I think sometimes the sicker we get the more numb we are to the signs of sickness. And what’s interesting is the healthier that I’ve gotten over the years the more aware that I am the littlest thing of my body. I can feel off even like you know I think we have to retrain ourselves to understand the way that our body communicates to ourselves. What does a headache represent. What does a viral infection represent. What does you know other than things like that are reactive in the sense that I run and I fall down and I hurt my knee. What are the things internally that are going on based on how we fuel our body and so kind of comparing it to the car as if we put crap in our body excuse my language. Eventually it’s gonna catch up with us. And so that the greater that we focus on the fuel that we’re fuelling our body and the maintenance of our body. I think the more proactive we will be if we don’t pay attention to it. The concern is that you’re one day going to wake up like my friend’s mom and find out that basically it’s so advanced you missed all the signs and you have ten days to live which is probably one of the most terrifying things in my opinion.
[00:07:14] I mean before we started recording we were we started discussing about functional medicine. So I did this for the people who listen in cities who have no idea what that means students that go into it gives some information about that.
[00:07:25] Absolutely. I think it’s a really growing field throughout the world but definitely in the States.
[00:07:30] I think we’re finding back in the day it was you kind of had all these separation of specialists you had internal medicine you had pediatricians you had obviously neurologists and we still have all of those but there’s been this growing demand for a physician an M.D. that specializes in preventative health but also I think holistic remedies in addition to traditional medicine and so functional medicine is is really focussed on addressing the underlying cause of disease.
[00:08:06] You know they use a system oriented approach but the goal is to find that therapeutic partnership.
[00:08:12] The goal is defined and really dig to the root of the problem. Sometimes we just focus on how do we make the problem better versus what’s causing the problem. And I think functional medicine has really come in to do all the battery of tests that normally you may see from going to five different doctors but they’ll do it under one umbrella and they’re not just looking to say hey we’re going to mass this problem you clearly are having kidney pain here’s some medication go with it. They are looking to also remedy the cause of it. And I think it’s really important in today’s environment that we find alternative solutions because a lot of the times the medication can relieve the pain relieve the stressors but it doesn’t always get to the root of the problem. And so sometimes building up the gut and building up some of these these organs and things that we don’t think about functional medicine can come in and give us some some really important resources and ways to take care of our body and also prevent future injury illness etc..
[00:09:17] Well I mentioned as well that by doing something proactive like going to see a functional medicine practitioner in the long run you’re actually probably going to save money. I imagine people don’t go because they believe that that’s going to be really expensive and it’s going to cost me so much money. But in the long run maybe not.
[00:09:36] Yeah. And I think that sometimes there’s also this persona on functional medicine that you know it’s in the States we call it like hippy dippy it’s not real medicine. But these are M.D. these are medical doctors. They are doing blood testing they can prescribe medication they’re just they’re digging a little bit deeper they’re looking into your genetic pool they’re looking into the systems biology they’re understanding also and taking into account the environmental factors and the lifestyle factors. So when you go to an M.D. usually back in the day it was you know what’s wrong what’s wrong you know what’s your pain point. Here you go this is what you need to do and go functional medicine is not just. They’re also trying to change the way your lifestyle is. When I went to my first functional medicine doctor you know they really spent a lot of time on think simple things like exercise and I remember my doctors. The worst question you can ask me is like hey what’s your exercise routine. Because I always felt guilty I still feel a little guilty but I remember a functional Doctor really from a viewpoint standpoint sat down with me said look Brandon you know even if it’s running the stairs between lunch and your next break they really try to break it down in a way to show improvement and to have improvement so it’s not hey I don’t need you going out and running a marathon every day. I want you to get out of your chair and get a sit stand desk and I want you to stand every twenty five minutes to get your blood going. I want you to do the stairs instead of taking the elevator. I want you to go out and take a walk for your 10 minute break. Don’t just sit on the Internet in front of a computer and I think that these are important coupled with the entire medical genetic biology side that they cover because they’re trying to transform more than just what medication and vitamins and those kind of resources and supplements offer they’re trying to also change the way you function on a day to day basis in lifestyle. You know one of the words that occupational therapist coined from the University of Southern California’s lifestyle redesign and I think that’s something that we as a society have to look at is what role does lifestyle redesign play in US advancing our health and our wellness and the way that we function I know you assigned before that you work with many different types of healthcare professionals and and so how is it Jan that you are helping and what is it you’re doing.
[00:12:04] So usually it’s someone who is an entrepreneur with a purpose but they have a training and service that they offer related to their physician. They’re a chiropractor. They’re an occupational physical speech therapist maybe their psychologist a special education attorney. Basically they’re building a business model off a service that they specialize in. That’s usually driven on passion purpose and helping people. The problem is they build this practice all based on this rose coloured glasses of helping people but they often get themself in a hole a ditch and it’s related to just poor business planning. And so normally someone will either hear me speak or they’ll read my book or you know maybe they get referred from a friend but usually the pain points sound something like this.
[00:12:55] Hey Brandon I got into this. I never thought I was going to be an entrepreneur. I never thought I was going to go this this business route. I didn’t really study business and I’ve done a good job thus far but my operations are all over the place. I don’t know how to run my payroll. I don’t even know what’s up or down or the metrics that I should look at. You know how do I evaluate my customer retention rate. How do I evaluate my customer acquisition rate. How do I measure clinical outcomes to make sure that I’m advanced in what we’re delivering.
[00:13:25] And so I come in and I actually look and evaluate their entire operating basis from a business standpoint from a value standpoint from a clinical standpoint in terms of their clinical outcomes with their clients et cetera. And usually depending on their needs I will coach them I will manage practices at times I will help launch start-ups for different practices and sometimes it’s even scalability I have one location I’m growing to another. Brandon can you help make sure I have everything in order. There’s like 150 different variables to keep in mind business licences NPI numbers etc. And so those are some of the things that I really focus on including like really helping establish an increased cash flow for a practice.
[00:14:14] And it all comes down to this. I’m not Pat I am passionate about helping people that are driven and and really focussed on delivering exceptional service. I’m not just looking to be another cog in the wheel in this world and so I specialize in aligning with practices that are quality over quantity and within that quality we find the right scalable so that people can profit and make what they deserve to make. But at the end of the day the quality of services is at the highest level and they really are committed to the passion and purpose that got them into this field.
[00:14:51] So when you say that you tried to help them deliver exceptional service how could you. So what sort of things would it be that they’d be doing it would be different. So others just sort of meeting expectations rather than exceeding.
[00:15:03] So couple things I think. Obviously there’s a difference in different service offerings what type of practitioner they are but a lot of the times I find that you know in today’s environment and that in the healthcare world or government funded services we take a lot of shortcuts and the shortcuts could use that you ultimately are getting care by assistants and aides and pays and all these different pieces but you’re just hitting numbers where you don’t even the social emotional component of patient care gets lost. The overall experience of when someone walks through the door and the value of how you approach them that’s the first piece I look at is what’s the user experience. And it’s interesting we look at our world and we see when we go to Disneyland. If you’ve ever been to Disneyland they’re all about the customer experience. They’re leaders in the customer experience. They actually teach and train organizations on the Disney Way. Imagine if healthcare had that viewpoint. Imagine if when you went in at your worst time in life people were there to make sure that you feel heard that you feel seen that you feel they’re transparent with you that they’re giving you data that you can digest and it’s not over your head and that they’re going the extra mile to reach and build a support system for you. And so how much would that be worth to you. To me that’s worth a lot. When you’re going through your hardest time you need more support than ever. And so in addition to evaluating the business model and how the how the business runs so to speak from a functional capacity standpoint we want to focus on what is that experience. How do we go that extra mile. What what are the variables and key performance indicators that are going to leave someone wanting more meaning like oh my gosh I can go nowhere else but here this is my place. You know Dr. Siegel is my guy. This is who takes care of me etc.. And I do this with all my clients and my coaching and so to a fault. But I do it because I have it ingrained in my head that I always want to exchange in abundance. So I’m not guy that literally no matter how busy I am you will get a response from me within 24 hours usually of email if not within 20 minutes. I sometimes will answer emails at 3:00 in the morning. I will sometimes answer phone calls when I know someone’s in distress. You know these are ways that I think when you’re in a people oriented purpose you have to have boundaries. But at the same point I really try to exchange in a way where no one can doubt my intention.
[00:17:44] Do you have any stories to illustrate. Some of the things that you just talked about.
[00:17:48] I have a client that has a physician practice and this is going to be on on my side of supporting them just so that everyone gets a story and this physician practice has gone through some major terrible staffing issues where people have left them in a lurch and I have literally gotten a call. Most people you know at 9:00 at night 6:00 in the morning they’re turned off and I’m answering phones making calls and even offered to cancel appointments and fly in an aeroplane to help support the training of their entire workforce as we go through this transition. So on a personal side that’s one aspect on a on a practice side. I actually have a pediatric occupational and speech therapy practice in Chatham New Jersey that I support and they work with children that are challenged in their milestones developmentally. They also really specialize in children that are suffering in school with attention deficit challenges high you know ADHD ADHD learning challenges not able to thrive et cetera. You know a lot of clinics out there that are working with this public in all transparency they’re given 20 30 minute services and you’re just a cog in the wheel using you know assistants and aides to deliver the therapeutic intervention. And with this practice we have created a therapeutic process where from the minute they walk through the door they get greeted by name by family. We have exercises and activities for the parents and the family. We actually reach out to their entire network of providers when permitted through hip compliance to really unite and be the glue for everyone around that child from the grandparents the parents the babysitters the teachers the physicians that are also working on it and really creating a collaborative unit of approach to transform the way that care is delivered for the child and the family where we will even go and do onsite evaluations and assessments. We will do telehealth. We will provide phone calls at all different times we work. We start at six thirty in the morning and go to 9:00 at night just to support families.
[00:20:06] And so I think that’s probably in a way that I align with a practice to elevate what’s traditional and what’s exceptional in today’s environment how would you say I mean you mentioned before that you speak not only in in the States but also in other countries.
[00:20:24] How does health care. How different is it in the States to other countries.
[00:20:29] It’s so different that the similarity is this everyone’s unhappy and that’s what’s amazing is every room I go to and I ask are you happy with the current state of health care. And I think every single person will raise their hand and say no. At least 60 percent will say like I’ll say it this way at least 100 percent will say that they think it could be improved and better and probably 60 to 70 percent will say that they literally hate our current health care infrastructure whether it’s in Canada whether it’s in the UK whether it’s in the United States whether it’s in Israel all different areas that Mexico. What’s funny is I think in some cases people in Mexico are happier than all the other areas and that’s what’s so unique. But I think part of it is that in Mexico there’s a higher rate of cash pay you got to bring in you know depending on what you’re trying to get. So I think expectations are different throughout the world but altogether people are frustrated with the way it is. And I think that one of the issues is we all are trying to solve the problem differently. So I think we we couple quality and affordability in the same equation. And I’m sure you’ve heard this like you get what you pay for. And so in the U.K. you have centralized health care is the way I would call it or from an affordability standpoint most people would probably say they’re satisfied.
[00:22:01] Am I correct. Yeah you can say yes for the most part.
[00:22:05] You know you always want more. But when I ask about how long it takes to get a special service that you need a specialty offering if you’re in acute need the level of service that you’re getting for that affordability I would say 70 percent of the people say they’re not there they’re less than a six out of 10 satisfied.
[00:22:26] Would you agree. Yeah probably. Okay.
[00:22:29] So in the States the issue is nothing’s affordable. Nothing’s transparent. You walk into a hospital and you don’t know if your insurance is really going to cover it or not.
[00:22:41] It’s very overwhelming you all of a sudden find out that this bill is going to be forty thousand dollars bill do your insurance which is overinflated billing that’s not real to the doctor and your quality of service is pretty mediocre at best. And then if I told you that that doctor who just built so I have this client that is a cancer surgeon she does surgeries and she told me her most complex surgery is a four hour surgery. And it’s very complex and she gets paid 900 dollars for that four hour this is a world class surgeon making nine hundred dollars for four hours of surgery but then your bill shows it as like 40000 at the end of the day. So I think the problem in the States is our expectation and where we place blame is all different. I think that they’re part of it is the payer source the insurance and the way things are part of it is because we pay so much into a health care system. We expect greater value then we’re getting. And so whenever I even present the idea of would if we had a free market what if you got to pick and choose where you spent your money and what you spent it on. Wouldn’t that empower people to deliver greater value for what you’re getting. And it’s hard because people want. So there is a heavy desire in the States for socialized medicine which I can see as a value on a base level of human kind and care and having affordability.
[00:24:19] But I think that there also needs to be a free market coupled with that and what you just said before about says someone signs up at a hospital and they’re not even sure whether they’re going to be able to afford or whether their health care covers what it means what it is they may need. That’s going to introduce additional stress which just is going to make the whole thing even 100 percent.
[00:24:39] It’s it’s interesting. So my wife when we had our first child we had emergency C-section. We they actually coded all the billing claims wrong to the insurance and we got a bill for I think it was like twenty six thousand dollars because of the anaesthesiologist the stress that it took to get that right. And the fear that I would be on the hook for twenty six thousand dollars is crazy. And at the end of the day when it really came down to it I’d almost rather someone just say this is your. It’s a thirty five hundred dollar piece. It’s out of pocket we’re going to put a payment plan. This is how we’re gonna do it because no one can afford 20 30 40 thousand dollars it just can’t. Like I mean unless maybe the top 1 percent. But in all transparency how many people are going into a surgery centre saying I’m going to spend forty thousand dollars and I don’t know a doctor that’s making forty thousand dollars on a on a surgery in that sense. So someone’s getting that money and a lot of it is so inflated just so that they can get their 900 dollars service because of the way the system is. And so I think it comes back to we need transparency. We need the starting point is what is the value of the service.
[00:25:47] And no one knows that in the current health care system change in sentiment you before you mentioned about your book the private practice Survival Guide. So what what was it that made you write that book ten years ago.
[00:26:00] I joined my mother in law’s private practice and I literally saw all these business people kind of shift and support her but also take advantage of her naivete in business where she lost a lot of money. And what I found was that getting back to basics with her I literally closed down different companies and everything and people thought I was crazy. They’re like you’re killing a business you close this you close that you and I said if you really dive deep and you do a surgical viewpoint of her business model she was delivering mediocre care and she was losing money while doing it. What makes sense sometimes you gotta start from scratch again. So I actually clean the slate and I built an infrastructure based on quality over quantity which was the opposite of the recipe before it was quantity over quality. And when I started speaking around the country I found that this mistake that my mother in law had gone through which her purpose was just about helping as many people was as she wanted. So I want to make it clear that the quantity over quality was not based on her wanting to make all this money it was actually based on her trying to help so many different people. She just didn’t know how to do it in an effective way while monetizing it effectively.
[00:27:23] So I rebuilt it found a ton of people going through the same piece and I realized that I needed an instructional Start-Up guide that was motivational that had 10 modules of learning for anyone to go through to evaluate their current infrastructure as a private practice from human resources and compliance hiring staff training staff scaling contracting building payor mix marketing evaluating the top metrics that a private practice needs to look at. And so I built this book just based on a need that I saw and based on courses that I was delivering over and over and over again and I ended up having people even outside of health wellness and education tell me it’s actually just a great entrepreneurial guide because it gives you a lot of information about things that you would often miss when starting a business. So it literally at the end it’s got a whole appendix on everything you need to do and everything you need to look at from insurances and corporations and LLC is and the difference between independent contractors and employees.
[00:28:33] You know if you’re going overseas what that looks like. So there’s a lot of great resources but it definitely is an easy read.
[00:28:40] It’s a fun breeze read there’s lots of stories in it but it was based on the fact that I was hoping it could be a vehicle to help people just like I helped my mother Ma how long ago was it that you published the book just came out February 5th of 20 19 and we’ve sold over 600 copies in literally a month I think. Yeah it’s been going on like 45 days since I think it officially hit stores. There’s even an auto audio book on audible and I have a course connected that’s coming out as well. That’s basically the book on steroids and it’s me giving you literally 10 modules of training all related to private practice and the factors that are influencing entrepreneurism being successful in a service delivery based business model and so who would you say the course is aimed. I think the course is aimed at anyone that either is having trouble in their own business and they deliver either health service and education service or preventative health or even like fitness instructors chiropractors doctors anyone of that level that is delivering a special service and trying to become a successful business owner or someone that has a dream of being a business owner. And maybe they’re currently practicing for in someone else’s practice but they just want to start preparing themselves to one day open a practice. I would say this course is great and you can watch it over and over again.
[00:30:10] There is so much information and normally I’ll give this course in 10 hours and people tell me that they need 30 40 hours to digest it. Just because I really try to cover so much information mainly because it gets back to I want to exchange in abundance and so I don’t want to just give you 10 hours of repeat on marketing.
[00:30:34] I want to give you every little thing to unlock the way that your brain thinks about private practice and entrepreneurship and you mentioned also that your guidance his thoughts a podcast with the same name is a private practice survival guide so what do you think you’ll be covering in a podcast what kind of guest will you be having. Guest So how would you.
[00:30:54] Well yeah. So really the idea behind this podcast was what if I could launch 30 minute episodes with three tips a little bit of motivation and strategies that people are facing on a daily basis just a little bit of inspiration and three new ways to transform the way that their private practice operated. So that’s the cornerstone of it. And then I will have special episodes that I drop in with interviews but it really the core of it is 30 minutes of me like having your me as your advisor. And so even people are gonna be able to give topics that they want me to cover. And so it’s almost like a free audio coaching model where I’m gonna be delivering strategies in all different areas of private practice and entrepreneurship and really just help change the way that people are functioning in today’s world through entrepreneurship and private practice.
[00:31:46] What would you say MBA associated. All sort of the podcast is exceeding expectations what are your thoughts on that.
[00:31:53] So first and foremost I actually give this metaphor in my talks.
[00:31:59] I actually tell the story I ask a question about how many people flew to get to this you know experience and I ask them to raise their hand I say Okay everyone flew here great. And I say how many of you would say that you had a great experience on the aeroplane and probably 80 percent would say would raise their hand and they would say yeah. No Brandon I had a really great experience. I said Well tell me what what was so great about it. I want to know and no joke every time it’s the same answer. It’s we arrived on time. And to me that’s so funny because that means the bar is so low you you literally if it if I came by and greeted you and just said Hi thanks for being on the plane it would automatically exceed expectations. We as a society have such a low bar in terms of customer experience today whether you go to a restaurant whether you go to a healthcare provider whether you go to pick up something at at the store the expectation lowers every day that if we exceed expectations are built in scalability to our business to how we do things is bar none life changing. The easiest thing can be the biggest game changer for your business. So in addition to I think exceeding expectations on purpose and just trying to do right by others like I always say we are such a self oriented society right now that those that can just put a little bit of intention outside of themselves are going to stand out. And so I think it’s I think you’re changing the world by exceeding expectations. And I say that because we need to do more for others. We need to do more for everyone around us. And so I think we can help society flourish by exceeding expectations. I think we can help business models flourish by exceeding expectations. And I think it’s simply so easy to do. And so even when I interviewed someone I exceed expectations do you know why I exceed expectations. I literally am just transparent. I’m real. I just say hey here’s the deal. This is what I’m looking at. There’s the problem. These are my concerns right now. Let’s talk about this. Does this work for you. And every time people leave literally saying oh my gosh you are amazing. Not only did you were you transparent with me you gave me really key strategies and your intention was so pure and I think if your intention is pure then you should exceed expectations because not everyone’s intention is pure. If you go on my website. Glass Door dot com as an example and you type in wellness works management partners you’re going to see 13 reviews. Those are reviews for employees and clients of mine that specifically talk about how brand and exceeds expectations. And none of what I’ve done is hard. It’s a matter of trying to exchange an abundance. And ultimately my goal is to do right by all that come across in my and my journey in this lifetime.
[00:35:28] If some people want to find out more about to find where would they go so why would it be the best.
[00:35:32] So first of all a guide you to Brandon Siegel dot.com B are a and d o n s e I GTL dot com Brandon Siegel dot com the other you can always check out my consulting and management company and wellness works management partners dot com or wellness works and peaked com for short but brain and Siegel dot com will tell you more about my book my podcast where I’m featured all those different things any articles coming out on me any workshops that I’m giving and it’s just it’s such a privilege to be on this and talk with you and really to share in a vision of exceeding expectations because we need more people out there doing this I really appreciate all the great information you’ve given on to people and I really enjoyed his insights I thank you very much thank you.
[00:36:23] Have a great day.
[00:36:30] Episode 31 next Tuesday is with Brian Williams an international speaker author and consultant and he’s spoken in many different countries around the world he’s originally from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands but has been living in the States for quite a while now for 12 years. So that’s next week with Brian Williams. Hope you enjoyed the show. Please do live. Leave us a review and see you next week.
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