Katy Hines: I am in Baltimore, Maryland.

Ajay Prasad: Oh okay. So, you are in the Eastern time zone.

Katy Hines: Yes, Eastern time zone.

Ajay Prasad: Good. Good. How are you doing today?

Katy Hines: I am doing wonderful. I’m really excited to be here. This is my first time doing something like this. So, thank you for having me.

Ajay Prasad: Sure, sure and you are most welcome. We’ll give it our best shot to make it more useful also for you and all of our listeners.

Katy Hines: Excellent.

Ajay Prasad: Okay, wonderful. So, Katy, could you tell something about yourself and your business so that even me, and certainly our visitors, they have some kind of context that they can relate to what’s going on. So, tell me something about you and your business please very quickly.

Katy Hines: Sure. So, I’m a surgical physician assistant. I have been in the healthcare industry for over a decade. I’m in a role called director of advanced practice. So, I am responsible for several hundred nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Ajay Prasad: Oh okay.

Katy Hines:Yes and it’s a wonderful thing. But as you can imagine, many of us experience mental exhaustion in our profession.

Ajay Prasad: Exactly, especially last year during this time.

Katy Hines: Yes, that’s exactly right. That really underscored and brought to light just how hard we work as healthcare professionals and just how important it is to keep tabs on our mental state. So, let me tell you what I’m thinking. So, I am in the very early stages of building a business. And I want my business to focus on mental exhaustion in healthcare providers who have to be at their peak performance every single day. As we all know, mental exhaustion can lead to many physical consequences, mental and physical consequences. Two that immediately come to my mind that I would like to tailor my business to is weight gain and loss of productivity or decreased productivity. In other words, if I am so mentally fatigued, I’m not gonna be eating right and I’m not gonna be performing as well as I need to perform because I can’t physically and mentally do it. And so, we have got to troubleshoot and solve this problem for healthcare providers soon, as soon as we possibly can, and that’s what I’d like to start my business and get into.

Ajay Prasad: Okay. That makes sense. So, what stage you are in? You are just starting. So, tell me are you going to be doing it full time or are you already doing it? Have you found the company? Tell me where you are right now.

Katy Hines: So, I’m a novice. I’m at the very beginning stages. I still work full time at the hospital, and I don’t have any intentions of giving that up anytime soon. So, I am trying to build this business from the bottom up on my off time, so nights and weekends. And I’ve got three little kids at home, which makes it all the more interesting. Oh I’m sorry. Go ahead.

Ajay Prasad: No. I was just going to say that’s a very typical entrepreneur.

Katy Hines: Yes.

Ajay Prasad: That’s part for entrepreneurs what you are doing. So, I totally understand. So, yeah, just go ahead.

Katy Hines: Yeah. So, I feel pretty confident in the fact that I have found my topic, if you will. Some people call it a niche, a market segment that I really wanna focus on. So, here’s where I need your insights and your wisdom. I’ve identified my niche. Now, how do I get out to my ideal client? How do I get out there with my messaging, my position statement, gathering those clients, finding those clients? What are my next steps?

Ajay Prasad: Yeah. So, you know the first thing that you need to do is you have to establish a credibility. So, people who already know you, it’s no problem. They already know you and maybe that’s where you want to start. If I am looking for your services, and I need to even if I find you, I need to be convinced that she is the right person for me. So, that’s the first thing I would do is you have to establish your credibility so that people will feel comfortable doing it. Generally speaking, which means that I’m assuming you have some sort of training out there. Or if you don’t have a training then you have done it with some people who can vouch for you. So, that’s the starting point is just make sure that everyone when someone is introduced to do, they don’t have any doubt what you do.

Right now, in your day job, when you go there, no one doubts what you are able to do. So, that would be my first thing I would say. So, that’s the first thing first. And by the way, I don’t mean branding and all those things. I’m just saying that I am Katy and here’s the reason why you should be coming to me. Almost think of it as a legal argument. So, you are saying I understand this is your problem, and I can help you, and this is why you should be asking me for my help. So, that argument needs to be prepared. That almost becomes your foundation. In the marketing lingo, they will say unique value proposition or whatever. But again, the first thing first is what’s the foundation? Once you build the foundation, then you start to talk about the next steps. Did I answer your question even?

Katy Hines: Yeah, you definitely did. The way I’m kind of viewing that credibility, and I think that’s a great way to look at it, is you have to build your foundation before you can do anything else. And being a healthcare provider myself with many responsibilities, I have experienced mental exhaustion. I have experienced the weight gain and the loss of productivity that comes from it, and I have found a system to get myself back well. And I want to share that with the world. I want to get it out there and expand my system my way that worked for me and could this possibly help others? So, I love thinking about it as a foundation. So, what are my next steps after I’ve built my credibility? What comes next?

Ajay Prasad: So, the first thing I would say is actually what you told me, jot it down so that you think of it if there was a one-page flyer, what would you do? Again, the people who know you is a different thing. But someone who does not know, if you said just trust me. I’ve been through it, and I have figured out a solution. Again, you have a lot of people asking questions. Why should I trust you? What’s your experience? So, my first thing would be just jot it down and kind of elaborate why you are the right person in there.

And then the second thing after that I would say because you are in that industry, you know people, I would say you would want some clients, some “your patients” to come to you so that they can vouch for you. You have gone through it. So if you have in your current organization, if you have four or five people and you talk to them, and just offer it. In the beginning a lot of these services, I can assume started by offering everything free. So, I would say get the first five clients from the network that you have and help them. What that will do is it will force you to organize your offering about your processes, and also just trust me you will start to find some of the hiccups that comes with that. When you are talking to someone and they say oh, this doesn’t make sense or whatever. So, this is what I have always said that pivoting is the most important piece. So, when you’re talking about a new product, which in you case it is a new product, right?

Katy Hines: Right.

Ajay Prasad: Until you have really tried it, someone has really tried it, you don’t know. We always build the product thinking that it is a perfect product. But then just trust me even Microsoft, they launch a product, and the first thing they are doing is they are revising because a customer comes in and says hey, I am having this problem or that problem. So, for that, I would just say think of it as this is a product. And suppose you had to teach someone else to become you. So, you are trying to replicate yourself. How would you teach? So, that will force you to literally do a step by step in terms of how do you do your sessions and how do you help people.

And once you have done that, then I would say just try it on some of your friends. Don’t worry about whether they pay or not in the beginning because you want some validations. And it will also help you. Once you have validation from others, you will also feel more comfortable talking about it. So, that would be my thing. First, kind of finalize your product. There has to be a basic process. I know that that in this space, you have to have some customization based on every individual situation and the personalities. But having said that, see if you can come up with some process and then try that with I would say five volunteers and see how it goes.

Katy Hines: Okay. Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. And just like you said, there’s some customization but having a system that you follow ever time with every client. So, let me ask you this, Ajay. I’ve a lot in this health coaching space. I’ve heard about a lot of providers who say I’ve been doing one on ones. That’s all well and good, but you know? I need to scale my business. And so, I’m gonna automate a portion of it on a learning management platform. I’m gonna automate certain aspects of their signature program let’s say. And then I’ll take them in group coaching, or I’ll do one on one for a couple extra bucks. What are your thoughts on using learning management systems to automate programs such as this?

Ajay Prasad: So, once you have tried it, like I said on a few people, and you know that this works, first things first is you have to do one on one so that now you have firmed up the basic program. Then, of course you can do that automated, and you can make it a hybrid system where someone talks to you and then you say okay, why don’t you see this video. And then, after that you talk. So, essentially, that’s the best way to scale if you can create a platform. The thing is that the platform needs to be fairly good. It’s almost like okay, why don’t you see this video. Then, maybe there are certain questions that now after the video they answer. And then, have a meeting with you. At some point, you will be able to recommend them next steps just based on the answers of the questions.

So, yes, gradually build it. I have always said that the best platform is built from the input of your customers. And I have built several platforms for me itself, and that’s exactly how it was built is like you start with a basic, which is part platform and part is very manual. Then, you say okay, this piece is given. So, let’s automate it. So, yes, ultimately you want to automate it. That’s the best way to scale, but do it gradually. My thing always is that unless you are able to take care of the people who come to you, what’s the point? So, yes, I am very much for automation but again with caution and making sure that this is effective.

Katy Hines: Right. Tell me a little bit about I hear a lot about building my email list. What does that mean? How do we build an email list? How do we get people into our world that we can even introduce this to?

Ajay Prasad: So, first thing, in order to build an email list, you have to give them a reason to join. So, for example, if you had some literature, if you had an e-book, which is in the PDF form, it’s very simple, which gives them some basic help about your product, the benefit, that someone can get some real benefit from the e-book for example. So, what you have to do is first you have to create something of value that people would want. And then, in order to get that, you say okay, why don’t you join my email list? You say, hey, join my email list, my blog thing, and then we will send you a blog every two weeks, every one week, every one month, totally based on your ability because you have like full time job, three kids right now. So, if it is every week you can do that that’s great. But the first thing first is you need to give them something worth of value to do it.

Once you have a product, again you have some colleagues, you say, hey, do you mind just go and download it and let me know what you think about it. Or even if you put it up there, before you do that, the product, you can say hey, what do you think about this report that I have created? And if it is of value, then you start there. You can literally have your colleagues there go and sign up and start to forward it to other people. So, generally speaking, it’s recommendation. And once you have this kind of foundation ready, like a good product, people are there and they reading, and they are engaging, then you can go and do some fairly inexpensive adverting actually on Facebook for example because the social media Facebook or Instagram, they let you target very specific people. So, there you can literally say I just want to have nurse practitioners see the ad. And so, they will do that and you still pay based on the number of people who click. So, that way they can come in because you are advertising that report or whatever the steps are, tips, the product that I talked about.

There you can advertise. They can come in and they will click, and they will come to page that you have created on the web. And they will just fill out the form, which is just give their name and email address and download the report. Now, you have added another person. And when they are doing that, then you just ask them is it okay for me to send you information, updates, regularly. If they say no, you should not add them. Let them read it. They can always come back. They can give it to someone, but when they say yes, then they get added to your email list. And again, you are sending the information.

But I will tell you Katy, the biggest challenge always is to not only make the first good impression by having a product that they get from you, which is good, but also in order for them to be engaged with you, the ongoing content has to be very good. I’ve always said that when someone comes into the business, I’m assuming that you have a product that your customer wants. If you don’t have something that your customer wants, then no marketing can do anything about it. So, yeah, have a product and then an ongoing email.

So, before your start your campaign, I would say just chalk out a plan. This is going to be my, I call it bait. It sounds very crude, but essentially that’s what it is. It’s a bait that tips or reports, something that you are giving them for free so that they can download it. Then, have a content plan for like the next 10 weeks, whatever I am going to send them, if it is weekly. And that way, you have that to continue to use. Send the first one. You will see how many people opened it, what interaction there is always what we call in marketing call to action where someone reads, and maybe they can click here to get something else for free or even sign up for your program, anything like that. But have a plan ready and measure it very closely.

Up front, I can tell you that these things always take time. Since you are now a budding entrepreneur, and I’m not telling you discourage you, but this is how the reality is that whatever timeframe that you have in mind is going to be longer than that to be successful. And then whatever investment that you are thinking, most likely you will end up putting more than that. So, this email yes, it can be done. It is a very effective tool, but it will take time. You cannot just build a huge email list instantaneously. Whoever claims that is basically lying.

Katy Hines: Yeah, right. Yeah. I know we’re coming up on time. I have one last question for you before we wrap up here today. Obviously, we all think that we have a value proposition if we’re creating a product or service. Are there a couple ways you would recommend that I can actually test that in the market?

Ajay Prasad: Yeah. So, the easiest thing to test the market, once you have a value proposition, and you have laid it out, the testing becomes very easy if someone will pay for it. I’m assuming that you already have the product. You have tested with someone, and you say okay, now I am ready. The best thing to do is you can do a paid advertising with Google or Facebook. So, for just a few hundred dollars, you will know. You can see okay, how many people opened it up. They came and they saw my ad, how many clicked on it, how many contacted me, how many became my client. So, you will have that. So, that is the easiest spot. Once you have the foundation ready for everything, the easiest way to do it is just do some paid advertising. Both Google and Facebook, and Facebook more so by the way, let’s you really target the people by geography, by zip code, by profession, age group, whatever that you want. So, that is the best way to test it.

Katy Hines: All right, great. Thank you.

Ajay Prasad: Okay. So, good. It was really good talking to you and good luck for your venture. I always has a soft spot for entrepreneurs and especially someone like you with juggling three kids, full time job, and entrepreneur which like I always said to me it seems like par for the course. You have heard that. You know what I’m talking about.

Katy Hines: Yes, I sure do.

Ajay Prasad: Yeah, okay.

Katy Hines: Well, let me tell you one thing like your audience. If anyone is interested, healthcare is in desperate need of healthcare providers and the physician assistant job is the No. 1 job per US News and World Reports right now. It’s the No. 1 best job, best healthcare job, and is one of the fastest growing on the market. And so, I want to help people get into the physician assistant profession and learn more about it. And I have actually built a course to that extent. If any high school, or college students, or folks looking for a career change into physician assistant are interested katyhines@thinktibits.com, katyhines.thinkific.com. That’s where they can go to learn more about physician assistant and how to get started.

Ajay Prasad: Perfect.

Speaker:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Founder’s Corner podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and SAM cloud. If you are interested in being a guest, be sure to visit our main page at www.gmrwebteam.com/thefounderscorner