The Direct Care Way
Learn why and how to start an insurance-free, hassle-free Direct Specialty Care practice that lets you provide care your way for your patients without middlemen.
The Direct Care Way
Social Media Dealing with the Bad
Social media, the good and the bad. How to manage the negative things on your social media and why it should't deter you from showing up and helping others find you.
Using social media as a tool to amplify your reach, not as a consumable product.
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Dr. T 00:00
Owners of a direct care practice are more likely to experience higher job satisfaction than the insurance based practice. And it's no wonder why direct care is independent of insurance. Patients pay the doctor directly for their expertise, the doctor gets full autonomy in how they care for patients and how they get paid. They have chosen this path with a love of medicine. This is the direct care way.
Dr. T 00:24
By listening to this podcast, you may even start to believe that you too can have a successful direct care practice. Come listen with an open mind as I share my personal journey and how I pivoted from an insurance based practice to direct care right in the middle of the pandemic. And the valuable lessons along the way. This podcast may be the very thing you need to revitalize your medical practice. I'm your host, owner of a direct care podiatry practice, Dr. Tea Nguyen.
Dr. T 00:51
Happy Tuesday, I got a new episode for you. And this one is going to be really important for you to understand if you're living on social media, or you want to expand your reach through social media, it's kind of like a social media one on one. But I'm going to elaborate a little bit more about the good stuff on social media and the negative stuff on social media. Now, if you own a practice, then you already know that owning a business, it's not a linear journey, it's not always a success from one destination to the next. Everything in between becomes unpredictable. You can't always avoid challenges. You can't always avoid failures. And with social media, you know, you put yourself out there, you're vulnerable, you're honest, you do it with integrity, but you can't always control how people respond to what you have to say. And so we're going to talk a little bit about how to deal with trolls, people who antagonize what you have to say and what you stand for, and help that propel your business in a positive way.
Dr. T 01:50
What's really nice about social media is that it is a an economical way to put your business out there so that your ideal clients can find you. I've talked with other direct specialty care practice doctors who practice in rural town. So if you're in a rural town, this may not really apply to you, most of us, however, in bigger cities, and anywhere people are using Google or have an iPhone, this will be totally relevant to you. Because if you're starting your practice bootstrapping it, you want to find economical ways that work, you don't want to just keep throwing money at a company who promises you the moon and all of the things with very little return on investment. And I share this story because I was one who I'm very introverted, I don't particularly like to be out there socializing, mingling and small talk. And you know, I kind of carried my business in the same manner where I thought, Well, maybe if I just hire somebody to take care of that grunt work for me in building relationships, and putting my message out there that people will just show up at my door.
Dr. T 02:50
And what I learned is, that was a very expensive mistake, it was costly to put your brand in somebody else's hand and think that they will treat it the way you want it treat it oh, I've invested in marketing companies who were upwards in the cost of $5,000 a month or so or plus or minus, because I've gone through a couple thinking that if I just existed on the internet, that people would find me and want to come to me. But the reality is, however you design your marketing plan, whether it's door to door, knocking on your ideal referral list asking for business, or you're on social media, there's a way to do it effectively, which is to build the audience to build a relationship with the people you're talking to. So when you show up on social media, you're not just telling people this is my business.
Dr. T 03:37
This is the problem I saw come find me call me here, what you're actually doing, whether it be through Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, whatever platforms is now out there, you are creating a relationship with the people who want to follow you who like your stuff, who like your attitude, your tone, your personality. And so you want to engage in conversations that they're having in their mind with the problems that they want solved. And that's how you start building your social media presence. And that requires you to physically do the work, it's very difficult to create that relationship by outsourcing it to a company. And there's going to be a bunch of companies out there that will try to sell it to you that by purchasing their company is going to make it easier for you to get patients. That's not exactly how direct care is going to work. And I think that doesn't really apply also in private practice, either. So let's say you're on social media, and you're doing all of the things that you have a variety of content that is valuable to your audience, to the people who want to follow you. And periodically you have somebody who might be trolling your stuff, maybe they're antagonizing everything you have to say they're disagreeing, and they're showing up really negatively and they're in your environment, not helping you.
Dr. T 04:51
How do you deal with trolls? How do you deal with those types of people? Or in one particular instance I recently had, how do I deal with a person who It's on my posts that they agree or disagree, followed by the words darling honey, sweetie, hon, you know, these endearing words that was not earned by the person calling you that. So the situation was I wrote a post on LinkedIn. And the first comment came up said, I agree with your statement darlene.dot.so, I had to think about where this person was coming from. I don't know them personally, it was just a LinkedIn Association who commented on a post, I made an agreement to what I had to make.
Dr. T 05:30
And so I responded with thanks for your posts. But do you always call other surgeons? Darling? Curious, is this a cultural thing, something along those lines, you can backtrack it if it's still in the list, I didn't expect anything of it. I moved on as I normally would. Because you know, once in a while, you get people who are kind of loopy. And I don't think much of it, I kind of think they're bots sometimes. But anyway, the response the following day was really interesting. In the alerts you get on LinkedIn, you it actually shows the most recent posts, followed by you know, the stuff in between. So the most recent post somebody had posted, maybe you should delete this comment. And I was curious, I was like, Oh, I wonder what this was about. I looked into it. And it was somebody else who responded to that person's comment. And in that person's comment, responding to me asking, do you normally call surgeons darling, it was really choice words that he chose to use on a professional platform. And needless to say, he ended up deleting his entire posts in the follow up, and I'm sharing this because you just never really know how people are going to respond. Number one, and number two, it's never okay to call a doctor, a surgeon, sweetie darling on any of those in terms of endearment if you never earned those credentials, or those privileges.
Dr. T 06:44
So yeah, I called the person out in a pretty diplomatic manner. You know, I can't imagine this person calling another man, darling, sweetie, or honey. So you know, I had fun with this post. And I'm sharing this because if you're in a position where you find something that you don't like, you have a couple of options that will first of all, you should know that you can't control how people respond, right? You can argue that they're wrong, and all of that all day long. At the end of the day, they're in control of their keyboard, and you are in control of yours.
07:09
So how do you respond when you see something you don't like, disagree with or is bothersome. One thing to do that's super easy, which is social media basics One on One is you can ignore it, we are flooded with information day in and day out, that doesn't mean that they all deserve your attention. So number one, ignore could I have ignored the situation I could have, but kind of wanted to make a point to my own because half of my social media stuff is entertaining, I'm there to engage, create an audience to have real conversations. And unfortunately, for women in medicine, we have to deal with these types of comments on the daily. And you know, it's it's time for us to put a stop to it and call people out and say that's not okay. We don't accept that to be a term of endearment if you never earned it. So that's another approach you can take, you can choose to respond, but just know, you know, that might reflect one way or another on your brand. But for me, I like to show up exactly who I am online and offline. So if somebody were to come up to me and call me, sweetie, and I didn't like it, I would just say you can call me at my name is T or Dr. T, right?
Dr. T 08:12
You can do the same empower yourself to have the language and to have the understanding that you have boundaries. And not everybody needs to have access to you not in real life, and not in on social media. So that's the other option. And then the third option I would not recommend is having prolonged conversations on your social media posts like back and forth conversation, which has happened on my posts, amongst other doctors who are like fighting amongst themselves, and it can get really heated really quickly. And what I would recommend in that scenario is either stop the commenting section, which you can do on your social media, delete your post so that this doesn't continue to alert you and annoy you. And then or just deleting everybody you know, I've deleted and blocked people in the past. And it just cleans up my mental space and my social media as well. Because there's a reason that I exist on social media, I am there for people who need me, I'm not there to fight with people who don't want to have anything to do with me or my mission. And what's really nice about this process, you know, in you deciding what you want to do with people who post things that you don't like or disagree with is that you can choose, you can choose to let them stay in your space, or you can choose to block them. It makes a lot of sense to block messages that are not consistent with your values or your mission.
Dr. T 09:29
So take the liberty to start blocking people or unfollow people or even reported if it's highly inappropriate or maybe illegal even right, you can do those things on social media. The idea is to curate a space that makes others feel safe. You don't always want to be polarizing as some others might suggest. Yes, you can have polarizing opinions but understand what you're doing with your social media. Number one, it should be for business associations and for growth. You shouldn't really be there to consume because that can be really draining that has a negative impact on your mental health. If you're using social media to consume, to scroll after picture after picture or you know, post after post, you don't want to be there for that, as a business owner, your time is incredibly important. So every minute you're spending on somebody who's not considered your ideal client or in your audience, you're wasting money, you're wasting time with them, because they will never convert to be your ideal client.
Dr. T 10:26
So why are you wasting time on them, plus, some people just don't have a life. And they can spend all day antagonizing other people as their form of entertainment. And you know, those people are not really intended to be in your circle. What's really nice is that people who think that they have the right to be in your space, don't realize that you have the right to block them as well. So that entitlement just diminishes once you set up your boundaries and say, This is not appropriate for my space, when you they're going to delete it, block you or the comments to continue so that this doesn't live in the environment I'm trying to create. So if you encounter trolls, or negative comments, or stuff that just doesn't align with your mission, those are your options. And what's really nice is that people will tend to self select out of your environment. So if people start to unfollow you, maybe they even try to report you for absolutely no reason, just because they think that they're having some kind of a power grasp over you. Don't let it bother you let them do what they need to do. And they will self select themselves out of your audience out of your environment, eventually, people are going to realize that you are not a good fit for them. And so let them unfollow you let them unsubscribe, let them figure that stuff out. And in social media, there will be other people checking each other, if somebody is completely out of line, you don't have to be the one to point it out. Especially because as a business owner, you're there for one particular reason, which is to grow your space, let people know how you can help them.
Dr. T 11:54
And for those other people, let the fight take out on its own, let the garbage take itself out, you know, so let them be where they want to be. And you need to be where you need to be. If you want to have a business that works for you. Rather than you working for it, you really have to tame your emotions. On social media, you have to recognize that there's just going to be a percentage of people who have no purpose in your life, and you can block them or delete them make that an active choice in the environment you create online, essentially, you don't have to attend every argument, you're invited to sort of keep your peace, protect your peace, set up your boundaries, know that this just exist online, and that it's okay, it's just part of what the environment is in just like in business, you're going to have a lot of successes, and then you're going to have a couple of failures. And that's just all part of the game. If you never want to encounter failure, then you'll never really achieve success. They go hand in hand. These are stepping stones and learning blocks. Same thing with social media.
Dr. T 12:53
If you want to be on social media and really get people who need you to know about you, then you're going to have to accept that there's just people out there who will try to belittle you to antagonize you or make this really strange comments. And you can just ignore them. Move along with your life with your mission, go back to why you're there. Go back to thinking about the people who are looking for you, but have no idea who you are, and continue to show up as that version of yourself. You're allowed to feel annoyed and upset every once in a while because of some crazy thing that happened online. But at the end of the day, you have total control in how you respond to that. And if it really bothers you that much. Take a break and reflect on why does it bother you so much? Is it because you're following them? They're following you maybe can you just block each other, if not exist in each other's world, you have your mission, stick to it, stick to your values, create a positive environment and certainly practice what you preach, don't show up on other people's posts, antagonizing them, because you disagree with them.
Dr. T 13:54
Just let it go try to curate your social media environment as it positive space where you can help people and stick to that business strategy so that you're not wasting time wasting money and energy on stuff that you don't really have control over. What's been really great for me on social media is that for every one annoying little thing like that, that happens, somebody else backs me up, they'll reach out to me in a private message saying I can't believe so and so did that. And you know, I usually respond like, yeah, that was silly. I don't take anything to heart at this point. It just doesn't make any sense to do so. And then I actually got another consultation through a private message from somebody who lost their job because the hospital has shut down. And they're wondering if they should start their own private practice or seek employment. So I'm here for those people, for people who follow me and know what value I have to offer. That's what I'm there for. I want to be there and show up as my full self confidence self that has something valuable to offer and those people do reach out and they do end up paying you for your service if you show up in the same manner.
Dr. T 14:56
So I hope that this episode gave you some insight on what it's like to me on social media how to deal with trolls and negative comments, but also the benefits of being on social media, despite all of the negative things that comes along with social media, yes, it can be a bad thing if you use social media as a consumer, but it can also be a very powerful thing. If you use it as a tool to amplify your message and your business people will find you, you will make lots of money, and you'll be well on your way to a successful direct care practice.
Dr. T 15:27
Oh, you know what this has been published on Tuesday, I have a special announcement. I am doing a free webinar on how to start and sustain your direct specialty care practice. Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 1 at 12:30pm Pacific Standard Time, go find me on my instagram or my Facebook where you'll get the link to register to the webinar, you can also go to teadpm.com. The link will be down below in the show notes. If you're interested in participating in my webinar, I'll give you the introduction to what my launch to 12 week course is about why you need to know this information before you start your direct care practice or why you need this information. If you already have a direct care practice, there is some refinement that you can do to increase your value. And be on your way to having a practice that you love that gives you freedom in time and money back. So check out the links below and I look forward to seeing you on the other side. Take care.
Dr. T 16:23
Thank you so much for being here with me. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, please like, share and subscribe so more people like you can have access to another way of practicing medicine, that direct care way. Let's connect find my info in the show notes and send me your questions. That might be the topic for future episodes.
Dr. T 16:43
And lastly, if you remember nothing else, remember this be the energy you want to attract. See you next time.