Dr. Tea Nguyen (00:53.912)

What if your next best referral is hidden in plain sight? That it's not another doctor, but other service businesses. These are the hidden networking opportunities you might be missing out on. Other service-based businesses, they are your allies. They are similar in nature to what you do as a private practice owner. They know how important it is to network and to connect with their community. And they are also the ones who are willing to support you. Now this can be either a passive activity or a proactive networking event. So in this episode, I'm going to give you lots of ideas as to where to look for the next ally in building your business. By the end of this episode, you'll walk away with a list of surprising businesses you can partner with to build trust, visibility, and those referrals. So why do service-based businesses matter?

They already have established trust with your potential patients. They see people regularly, probably more often than you do as a doctor. And being hyperlocal means that they are deeply connected within the community. And so these relationships are often overlooked because doctors tend to just think about what's in the network, right? We think about referring medical to medical.

So I'm gonna help you think outside the box a little bit and think about the person, the entity, the service industry, who might be a natural ally with you in your specialty. These are the people who care about the same pathologies or where you cross paths and have a common denominator, which is the person who's looking for help. So let me just give you a rundown list of different specialties and examples in which service industries might intersect. So for me as a podiatrist, I think about the person who cares about feet. And these are the people who are going to be my best advocates, which include, and it's not limited to, nail salons, people who do pedicures, or physical therapists. It could be any sport that requires them to use their feet. It could be shoe stores, it could be running groups, gyms, retirement homes, because people are afraid to lose their

Dr. Tea Nguyen (03:17.846)

independence. could be a prosthetist, an orthotist, those who provide adaptive shoewear or limbs for those who had undergone a traumatic surgery like an amputation. And it could also be other people who manage pain beyond the orthopedics, beyond the nurse practitioners and physicians assistants. They are incredibly valuable. But if we're thinking outside the box, we're talking about alternative health options like the acupuncturist.

the chiropractors, the massage therapists. For me, these have been an absolute business saver because they are the ones telling my prospective patients how my business actually works and why it's worth going to. You might be a specialist and you're wondering where your future referrals might come from. So let me give you some examples. If you're a dermatologist, you are going to be linking with the estheticians in med spas, makeup artists and even tattoo artists. These are really great allies and they're service businesses who rely on word of mouth too. If you're an orthopedist or a sports medicine doctor, we're gonna have the same wavelength. We're thinking about physical therapists, athletic trainers, martial arts, dance studios, and so on. If you're a cardiologist, you're thinking about people who care about the heart. So it could be a fitness instructor, it could be the pharmacist who is dispensing those heart medications, we're talking blood pressure medications, statins and so on. 

And it could be a pharmacist from a chain, it could be an independent compounding pharmacy. Backstory, before I went into podiatry school, I was a pharmacy tech and my favorite experience was in a compound pharmacy. There's just a beautiful art to how they compound certain medications. And so pharmacists have a special place in my heart.

But anyway, cardiologists, maybe you're also thinking about CPR instructors, those who are involved in the care of the things related to heart health and heart health awareness. If you're an ENT doctor, you could be thinking about voice coaches, people who are able to spot vocal strain issues. Maybe it's a music school or an allergy testing center who connects patients who have a chronic sinus or throat issue with you. If you're an op...

Dr. Tea Nguyen (05:37.582)

Your partners include optometrists, of course those are also doctors. But outside of the doctor realm, it could be other eyewear boutiques. It could possibly be driving schools because vision is very important to driving. It could be senior centers where the vision, just like the feet, declines over age and we need them both, right? We need them to function independently. Gastroenterologists, we're talking about nutritionists, dieticians.

I'm married to a general surgeon and he does bariatric surgery so I hear about it all the time. He's connected to dietitians and therapists and so on. So those are really great partners. They are great allies in knowing what you do and how you can help their clients and patients. Cooks, wellness chefs for you, yoga studios, they often are integrating health with what they eat and how food is fuel and so on and other wellness circles too.

If you're a psychiatrist or a psychologist, other life coaches are amazing meditation studios because it's all about mental wellness and stress relief. There could also be employee assistant programs out there that refer workers who are working under stress and strain and they need additional tools. If you're a gynecologist, your partners could be doulas, midwives. It could also be maternity boutiques.

or lingerie boutiques where you are the voice for women who have concern and discomfort around postpartum recovery or just general women well-being. You could also be pelvic floor physical therapists because their patients' needs overlap with broader guidance support. And there are so many other examples to share with you, but the idea here for you is to widen the net, so to speak, to get a bigger catch.

of a variety because you can't rely on just the one source. What has happened when we were taking insurance and we relied on the one or the few sources of those who bill insurance is that if that doctor retired, then you have to generate a new pipeline. But if you're well within your community, you're well integrated, you know businesses and they support you and vice versa, then you don't have to rely on just one source, especially if that source goes out of commission.

Dr. Tea Nguyen (07:57.046)

It's kind of like an investment. When you want your money to grow, you don't want to put all of your eggs in one basket. You don't want to put all of your effort on social media. You need to have a multi-pronged approach to grow your practice, to grow it organically, for it to work for you while you sleep. You also want to think about where people hang out, whether it's formally or informally. We're talking about big gatherings. Maybe you're a church member.

Maybe you go to your kids' activities a lot. This is where groups of people gather and that could be a potential connection for you down the road. Now, it's not going to be a cold pitch where you show up and you say, I need patients, send them to me. This is about creating relationships, to create trust, to build that organic connection so that you become a familiar name in all circles.

So here's how you would actually approach these surprising opportunities. Realize that the goal here is to get a lot of people to hear about you. This is basically a popularity contest. And even as an introvert, I know how valuable it is to get lots of people to know who you are. Now, you don't have to be boisterous. You don't have to be loud on a megaphone. You don't have to be on the go all the time.

but you do need to have meaningful connections that don't feel slimy, sleazy, or salesy. You're simply there showing up so that people can put a face to the name. They're gonna hear a lot about you, and when they see you in the flesh, it's gonna make it more meaningful, more memorable for them. You wanna know what I do to connect with my community? I'm gonna give you my secret as to how I'm building my community.

where I'm tapping into and how I find them. My very first thing I do is I go straight to Instagram. I'm there a lot, almost chronically so, but I'm there because I want to see who else is there. So a couple things I look at, I look for other businesses that are in alignment and I check them out. I say, okay, what are they doing? What matters to them? Who are they trying to reach? And I think about my business in the same manner.

Dr. Tea Nguyen (10:16.268)

I'm thinking, okay, if I can't do certain things, who would I refer to? And I would typically go to Instagram. Maybe it's my age group, my demographic, I don't know, but I know that there are a lot of buyers online. So that's where I hang out. So I connect with them, even if it's a cold connection, because it's not creepy to click the button to say connect or follow, but I watch what they do and I kind of see and learn about them indirectly without it being too pushy. So I'm basically stalking them.

And I know other people are stalking me too and I think that's okay. I think that's just the way we do business around here. So I check out their online presence and then I do a cold connection. I'll message them or I'll interact with their post and say, hey, that's really cool. And I'll even private message them and say, hey, wanna grab lunch sometime? Super simple, not sleazy. And it gives them the freedom to answer it at another time when they're available.

I'm of the generation where I'm not a phone call kind of person. I love text. I love email. Cold calls, oftentimes I'm like, cool, but it's my second form of communication because I want to do a warmup. I want to know who's calling. I want to screen my calls. I want to know, is this going to be another spam or what? And I think you're going to find a lot of people might be like that too. So I personally think social media is a great way to connect with your community.

Now, if you're not on social media, what are the alternatives? Well, then we go old school. We go to the business, knock on their door or become a patron of their service, pay them money for the exchange of the service and spark up a talk, small talk even. You can say something like, hey, how's your business going? I really love what you do. And I love leading with a compliment because it gets them to get out of their robotic mode of just doing the work and it gets them to connect with you.

and it makes them feel like what they're doing matters. And I think that's really important to share with people that yeah, what you do does matter. So if you're not a pro at small talk, neither am I, but I'll say something like, hey, how's business going for you? Or how long have you been in business? And I'll start asking them, are you on social media? What things are working for you? It totally depends on who I'm talking to, of course, right? I'm not trying to waste their time if they're not ready to engage or anything like that. But if they're a service business, they might want a small talk.

Dr. Tea Nguyen (12:41.774)

They know how important it is to network and make those connections too. So that's how I would start. And it's super simple. See, I didn't complicate any of this. All I said was to meet somebody or to be their customer and say, hey, how's business going for you? What's working? What's not working? Now, when I say the rest is up to you, I really want you to lead with value, with you not actually wanting anything in return at that moment. All you're doing is appreciating them. You're complimenting them.

and you're making them feel good and then you walk away. And that is the least sleazy thing you can do is to just be really nice and not expect anything else in return. And maybe you can insert something as to, hey, I'm a business owner of blank. If there's anybody you think I can help and I like to help people who dot dot dot. And I would just kind of leave it at that. And if they want to engage in that conversation, allow them to and say, yeah, I take care of

people who have this problem. And then of course they're going to ask, well, do you take insurance? And you can answer that. I usually say I don't take insurance. So if you know somebody who is having a hard time with their insurance options, here's my card. Super clean, super simple, not at all slimy. Now, do you need to do this every single time you interact with a small business? I would say no. I would say absolutely not. You can, some people do. I do not. I do it when I feel that it's the right thing to do.

Or I just drop off a card and say, by the way, I'm a podiatrist down the street. I'm new here. Just wanted to put a face to a name. Just wanted to make a small connection. And that's it. It's really important to keep this simple because simple is sustainable. If you wanted to take this to the next level, you can start engaging and asking, do you know of any local networking opportunities that are coming up? I would love to attend. Or what I have done in the past is I'll email a business and say, hey, thanks for connecting.

We wanna catch lunch sometime and talk about our businesses, see how we can help each other grow. And I was just at a recent quote unquote networking activity where a business owner invited me and a few others to her house where we would just grab a bite and talk business. And it was super casual, nobody felt slimy. We all said the same thing that we dislike networking and yet here we are.

Dr. Tea Nguyen (15:08.91)

Networking in a totally informal way so we don't have to make a big deal out of the word networking. It can just be hey I'm just meeting up with somebody letting them know how I can help wanting to understand their business That's all it is and so I want to encourage you to think outside the box and find opportunities where you can Lightly connect with somebody and maybe connect with them regularly until you form a trusting relationship and consider the next step it's kind of like dating right you want to

see the person a couple of times, you wanna learn about them a little bit, maybe internet stalk them a little, also do some detective work as to what kind of business they have, what kind of person they are, how involved in the community they are, that kind of stuff. And then at some point you go, hey, you wanna grab lunch? Or hey, you wanna gather with a couple of other business owners and see what we can do to be accountable with each other in growing our businesses? That kind of stuff.

We are currently living in a world where the art of human interaction seems to be fading. So you showing up in person as authentically as you can as yourself, as somebody who is engaged and interested in other people, that's going to be irreplaceable. That cannot be replaced with AI whatsoever. So I want to encourage you to go out there, touch some grass and meet some people and have fun as you start to form new relationships that could be your next best referral hidden in plain sight. That's all I have for today. I'll catch you next week. Take care.