Heading into Q4, most clinic owners feel the pressure to discount and scramble. In this highly tactical episode of Grow Smarter, Andrew Hong and Ildi Arlette reveal the proven blueprint for generating sustainable revenue during the holiday season through effective patient engagement.
Ildi, a consultant with 24 years of experience working with over 450 clinics, breaks down the massive cost of the "DIY" mindset and introduces her 3-step formula for successfully launching any new product or service with strong patient engagement in mind. You'll learn how to focus your efforts for maximum ROI, why your best-sellers are your best Q4 offers, and how to host high-value patient events (even if you're an introvert).
Ildi explains that her mission is to help clinic owners who don't have business degrees and feel isolated trying to figure it all out alone. She focuses on internal marketing, helping clinics leverage their existing patient base and improve patient engagement within the practice. She addresses the common fear clinic owners have about email marketing feeling "gross" and teaches them the "flip" technique to make communication patient-centric, boosting patient engagement and trust.
The biggest mistake is clinic owners trying to become business experts themselves, "drowning" in the effort instead of seeking help. This DIY approach is the most expensive, riskiest, longest way to achieve results.
Many entrepreneurs get addicted to learning but never take action. Ildi emphasizes: "Only action is rewarded". Identifying the barriers to action (like fear of feeling "salesy") is crucial for improving patient engagement strategies.
Launching a new product often fails because clinics rely too heavily on Product Knowledge Training, which only provides a "mini boost". Ildi reveals her sustainable formula for integrating any new offer with better patient engagement:
Success isn't about natural talent; it's about mindset and the conscious practice of core business skills. Ildi outlines the four criteria of the clients who successfully adopt her systems:
Successful founders block dedicated "CEO Time" and reward themselves afterward to build a positive reinforcement loop.
The key to a profitable Q4 is simplicity and focusing on your existing customer base through effective patient engagement.
You don't need a huge budget or an extroverted personality to host a profitable event focused on patient engagement.
Ildi Arlette is the go-to business consultant and certified coach for medical aesthetics clinics, spas, and wellness clinic leaders across Canada and the US. With 24 years of experience working with over 450 clinics, she's known for her clear, proven, and practical strategies that help clinic owners run profitable businesses.
Ildi and Tobe Agency provide the non-judgmental frameworks and systems that help founders focus on profitable patient engagement. We teach you how to see business development as a strategic process, not an overwhelming chore.
Andrew Hong: Welcome to Grow Smarter brought to you by Tobe Marketing Media. As a founder, you know the pressure of making every marketing dollar count. My mission at Tobe Agency is to help healthcare and wellness entrepreneurs have more confidence, waste less, and grow smarter in their marketing and media investments. Welcome back to the show, everyone. We are heading into quarter four, and for ambitious clinic owners, this is the most critical time of the year. It's the period when patient traffic spikes, driven by year-end health benefits and that natural desire to look and feel good before the holidays. But this opportunity comes with a massive challenge. Too often, clinics rely on deep, profit-eroding discounts or make avoidable promotional mistakes. The result? Busy calendars, but a disappointing hit to cash flow. Today, we're cutting through that guesswork. We're going to talk about growing smarter by using quarter four to strengthen your offers, boost end of year revenue, and set up a strong start for the new year. Our guest has a definitive practical blueprint for making your promotions truly profitable, not just busy.
And we're honored to introduce Ildi today, the go-to business consultant and certified coach for medical aesthetic and wellness clinic leaders across Canada and the US. With an incredible 24 years of experience working with over 450 clinics, from solo practitioners to multi-location teams, Ildi is known for providing clear, proven, and practical strategies that simplify operations and strengthen leadership. Crucially, Ildi is a former clinic owner who led a team of 22, so she understands the daily demands and pressure of running a profitable practice. She works with clients ready to stop second-guessing and making it up as they go and start running an in-demand business with clear systems—and we're going to talk a lot about systems today. Today, she's here to share her blueprint for quarter four: how to get that revenue boost you need using what you already have.
So welcome to the show, Ildi. We met through a mutual client. I say this a lot, and when I meet consultants, you're always wondering, is this person going to be an ally or someone that's going to conflict with me with the work that I need to do, right? I'm sure you asked that same question about me when you first met me too. Quickly as we met, I think it was in Houston where we met for the first time together. Even in the calls that we had prior to that, I was like, okay, this person is an ally. She knows what she's talking about. And in fact, I realized as I got to know you better that you are actually someone who, if you were in a practice before I started with marketing, might actually make my job easier as a marketing agency. So I want you just to maybe introduce yourself. Tell me a little bit about yourself, talk about your days as a practice owner and the transition into a consultant, and let us know what is the mission of Results Continuum, your consulting company that has worked with so many clinics over the years.
Ildi Arlette: Awesome. It's great to be here. I'm excited to be here. The mission of Results Continuum, Inc.—we call that RCI for short—is... people can go onto our site and have a look. I'll tell you what the real thing we do here is. I think you mentioned it in your intro. We're working with clinic owners who do not have a business degree and no one's shown them how to run the business. That's it. No one showed you. It's not your fault. Stop Googling. We're here. I'm here now. And really, Andrew, it is such a high regard and respect for that clinic owner and clinic manager, whoever it is, that they are probably feeling very isolated and alone in their work or in their leadership. Leadership is not really even a word that they identify with, but this turns out to be a lonely, isolating job. So we are here to help and say, you do not need to figure this out alone. My job is to help you run a business in a way that's profitable, meaning you have some money to put in the bank without actually feeling like you hate the business and want to burn it down on a weekly or monthly basis. But that just doesn't read well on a website, but that is the truth.
And that leads to how we provide our services. We're incredibly high touch. I work with about 60 clinics a year, and the 450-plus I've worked with on the website means that I've stayed with those clients for five or more years. I've really worked with thousands of clinics, and what that has allowed is for me to see on scale what's working and what's not. So that's what we do, and the whole range of how to run the business, all of it. Everything from hiring, or are you even ready to hire, to staffing issues, coaching skills, what we'll get into today, which is, what is it that my patients even want? Consults that convert. So really taking the time you're spending in your business and making sure that if you're spending time and money getting the patients in, let's get them converted to a treatment or someone of interest.
The one area we don't do, which is what makes you and I partners so well, is we don't do the external marketing. We do internal marketing. So internal marketing, I get asked, what does that even mean? We're really good at taking the awesome websites you build and the funnels that you build and meeting them where they arrive in the office. So your front office staff, your receptionist, honestly, even if it's a virtual assistant an hour or two a week, we're there to support that team member and your other practitioners in the clinic so you can get the most out of that marketing dollar. That is the one thing. I will say the one part of marketing we do that we've gotten really good at is the patient voice. So email marketing would be a really good example. When people hear that, as you and I know, a clinic owner starts to break out in a sweat when we say, are you emailing or texting or communicating with your patients? We somehow have the fantasy like they're going to come to us. We're waiting for them to knock on the door. I don't want to send them an email that's bothering them, burdening them. My personal favorite is every client I've ever had says, I don't like getting those types of emails, so I don't want to be a sender of it. And I'm like, you don't need to send the gross emails. But when you see the difference in numbers and all of the impact of what that email can do for your practice, you tend to change your mind. The problem is the clinic owners are right. It does feel really gross to send out an email that's all about us, the clinic, our treatments, and here's what we're selling. You're right. That's why it actually shouldn't be about you. It should be about the patient. So we're really good at that technique called the flip. And it works. That's the short of the long—it works. The patient gets an email they want, that they see themselves in, and they say, "Wow, that's exactly where I am right now. That's exactly what I need help with. I would love to have that." Then that marketing and flow just simply works.
Andrew Hong: Yeah, you mentioned there's a lot of challenges, I think, that you probably have come across in your 25-plus year career doing this. It's that saying, the more you see things, the more they stay the same. And in a lot of cases in my world, I live that life. I can almost bucket the types of problems or challenges that a lot of these practice owners sort of fit into with my own experience. And you mentioned a bunch of challenges there that cross over to marketing, some that don't. But inevitably when we talk about growth, growth is not just about marketing. Growth is about the operations related to it. It's about training the staff on these new systems or processes. If you have new products, you've got to train your staff, your providers, your injectors on all that stuff. So growth is a very four, five, six-dimensional sort of thing that is not just simply one or two-dimensional. I would love for you to share from your perspective the common, biggest problems that you see from the seat that you sit in, more from an internal marketing perspective, like you just mentioned, whether it's internal operations, which I know you touch on a little bit. If you were to narrow it down to two or three of the biggest buckets of problems that you see, what would you say those things are?
Ildi Arlette: I'll say them politely today without being enraged because I get pretty reactive really to the fact that I see an enormous amount of unnecessary suffering for those of us who are trying to run a business. That is because of the first mistake I see, which is trying, in addition to their specialty, trying to become a business expert and literally drowning, drowning in the effort of trying to learn how to do business. Maybe we even take that back to its root, which is the DIYers. I get it. I look at something online—it was just our Thanksgiving here—so I look at that pumpkin pie and that harvest table and I'm like, "I could probably do that." Because I'm a person of action and I'm pretty driven, I'm exactly like my clients, like you. I'm like, "Yeah, well, I could do that." Or you see a website, you get excited, you're like, "My team can do that." And so we've really unnecessarily dedicated ourselves to becoming business experts. And that is the most expensive, riskiest, longest way around that you could take to try and figure it out yourself.
So mistake one, I think is the DIY. What people don't talk about—and people just don't believe me—when they see these successful clinics, first of all, they're not the most polished ones you see on Instagram or TikTok. But what they don't see is when is the time to raise your hand and ask for help? If they want to know something about marketing, great, Google it, Instagram it, get the free thing. But now I would ask you to go back into your Instagram and look at the 43,000 carousels and things that you saved to come back to later and then come on over, DM me and go, "You're right, I haven't gone back to any of them." So the intent is there and the instinct is there, and I'd love to tell people your instinct is right. However, after consuming so much content, you've got to realize—this is the other mistake—is that I think we're getting addicted to learning. Learning and knowing something and doing it and putting it into place are two very different things.
Can we blame anyone? The amount of information is incredible. Apparently, I see the research now that I get a dopamine hit when I see a really good idea arriving to me on my phone. I'm like, "Wow, that is so cool. Our clients would love that. Let's do that." So the challenge is just interesting to say, what did I do with that information? We have a saying here at RCI that says "Only action is rewarded." And then when I explore with my clients, let's set the business aside for a minute. What is getting in the way of taking the action? Then the really good and important work happens, which is to say, "I'm not sending out emails because I feel like genuinely it's going to bother my patient. I don't want to feel like a gross salesy person. I also don't want to feel like these other dancing clinics on the internet." Not that there's anything wrong with the dancing, but there's a time and place.
Andrew Hong: Yeah, that TikTok thing is so fascinating. I generally tell them you're a professional, you're dealing with people's health. It's cool to be whimsical and show your personality, but ultimately you need to present a professional front. You're sticking things into people and prescribing—it's a little different from a small business doing HVAC or plumbing trying to go viral versus a medical professional.
Ildi Arlette: Yeah, I'm actually funner and funnier than I look. If people give a chance to get to know me, they're like, "One of the best parts is she's really fun." And I am. The thing is, there's a time and a place. And I think most of my clients look back and go, "Wow, I can't believe all the moving parts hat and cane dance we had to do to get people's interest." So I'm saying, use that sparingly. What we do here is close the gap between what you learned that you saw and excited you out of the genuine interest of your patients and what you acted on about that. Once you figure out what those barriers are and what is holding you back from taking the action...
I'll give you a perfect example. People will say, "I really want to get my team on board to get this new product or new treatment off the ground in our clinic." And they kind of do product knowledge training, which I have really strong opinions about why product knowledge training is way overdone in all clinics. And it's a giant, giant, mostly waste of time. Meaning I'd like you to reduce it to be like 20% of what you do versus the 80%. Because after 24 years, Andrew, of actually seeing, okay, product knowledge training, you invited a rep in to show you how this new technique or treatment or product is going to help... I've watched this for 24 years now and I see a pattern. Product knowledge training on its own is there because you think the staff will become knowledgeable and motivated to sell the product. Great. So that would mean that anytime you bring in a rep who caters lunch, does the whole thing, comes in and does it, that your sales will increase. And you know what? They do.
So if here's a graph and here's the baseline, then what happens is you put product knowledge training here and you get this tiny little bump. But the problem is I'm interested in that continuing to grow, not like this [flatlines]. I'm fine with slow growth, right? My clients stay with me five years plus. So I'm fine with the slow growth. But what you see is what we call the arc of motivation. Every single experience in life, everything, especially in this busy world, has an arc of motivation, which means the thing is most desirable and interesting on the way up and at the top, and then it's over.
Andrew Hong: So that's what happens when my pipe dreams fizzle out? It's on the downward arc of motivation.
Ildi Arlette: Literally, Andrew, an idea you're excited about three weeks ago where you're like, "Yes, I'm going to devote my life to this idea," you couldn't even name it now. You'd have to scroll through your phone. It's really interesting.
Andrew Hong: Yeah. So how many arcs do I have running right now? They're all crisscrossing over each other, like most of us entrepreneurs do.
Ildi Arlette: I know. Well, now imagine that you own a clinic, and whether you have one team member or 10, you're in charge of keeping them, quote, motivated. That is like a full-time job to keep things interesting. So the barrier is, first of all, I don't know what to do with my staff to get that treatment or product launched successfully. And by launched, I mean to get some traction, get some patients wanting it and wanting it continuously. So what happens is they bring in a product, they do product knowledge training, and you get this tiny little result. The reality is if you have five staff, not all of them are going to love it and want to implement that product knowledge. But guess what? Your patients are not buying according to 90% of that product knowledge training. What's missing in product knowledge training, and what it is meant to focus on, is the technical parts of it. Well, people aren't buying according to the technical parts of what you do. They're buying based on how it makes them feel or what they want around a problem that they're hoping you can help them solve. So product knowledge on its own provides, let's call it, a mini boost.
Andrew Hong: Say that again?
Ildi Arlette: It's a mini boost. Product knowledge alone gives you a mini boost. If you do product knowledge plus an event or an offer, like an introductory offer... And I know people are like, "Yeah, don't discount your services, know your worth," et cetera. Well, guess what? Nobody can be paid their worth. We're cherished, precious human beings. So it is okay, despite what Instagram told you to be high and mighty, it is okay to say, "Here's our new massage therapist, Andrew, and an introductory offer with a slight discount to have a relationship form there and give it a try" has literally always paid off. You could make it for a week, you could make it for a month, you could make it the first time you go to see Andrew for six months. Like it works, okay?
So product knowledge alone: little mini boost. Product knowledge plus an offer or an event: that gets a modest boost. But if you do product knowledge, and we have here an event or offer, and in between you do something called training on core skills... Core skills are: How does your front desk talk about it over the phone when people call? It is how to overcome objections when someone says, "I don't really know if I need it. I don't know if I have time to commit to that eight-week treatment plan. I don't know, it's just too much. That's way more than I wanted to spend." How do the human beings in your clinic address those valid concerns? Our wonderful product reps don't teach us. They spend a tiny bit on that and say, "Hey, if your patient has an objection to the price, here's what to say or do." I have nothing against the reps, but I literally work with rep teams to do better in our entire fields to say we need to give people core skills, including how do you sell without feeling like you're selling? Because people have gross money mindset issues.
So that tiny bit in the middle—product knowledge, plus some focus on core skills, plus an event or offer—that revenue line is good to excellent, and it is sustainable. The handy thing and reason why spend time on those core skills, ask for help on those core skills, is because once you train them once or twice, it's set. That same skillset applies to every single thing in the clinic. It's helping those people in your clinic who are teachable and coachable learn how to connect the product through an event or offer with the patient.
What I see on mass, Andrew, like 98% of all the fields, especially in medical aesthetics, I also see it in acupuncture, so on: Go online, learn, learn, learn, get the rep in, learn, learn, learn, but then only action is rewarded. So it's caused a really negative cycle in our field where people are like, "Wow, that sounds like a great treatment or product and it seems to be working in other clinics, but we can't get it to work here."
The one footnote that also no one talks about in that formula of how to integrate a new product or treatment into your clinic? You've got to have realistic expectations as the clinic owner. Not everyone on your team is going to be the champion of that new product or service. In other words, it's normal out of a team of five to have one who's like, "Yeah, I'm never recommending that," one who's on the fence, and three who are like, "Yeah, I'm willing to give it a try." So you did not fail because the two people on your team who are, forgive the term, underperformers, they're not as engaged. I'm just here to tell you that that's normal and you're not failing as a clinic leader.
Andrew Hong: Totally. And I would actually say that we as entrepreneurs have unrealistic expectations of how motivated we want our staff to be. You cannot expect—you're going to live and die for your business, you're going to sleep on the floor, pull your savings and pull debt—you cannot expect your front desk staff or your injector to have that same passion for your business. It's quite literally a recipe for disaster for your own mindset because you're just going to feel alone and disappointed and that the world doesn't understand you, and this victim mentality starts to come in. I'm sure you've seen it before. But having you kind of lay out this really simple system, if you would... Tell me about the people who are successful at adopting this system. What is their mindset going into it? What is their action? What do they do while they're actually in it? Because so many people sign up for coaching and just expect to do nothing and get something out of it, which is not what you're signing up for if it's going to be successful. Tell me about the person who's actually successful who works with you through this knowledge, core skills, and then marrying it up with an event.
Ildi Arlette: Yeah, I think the best way to do that is to look at the four questions of the criteria that I like to measure when I decide to take on a person as a client:
I'm just going to go back to your other question. The other mistake I see people making, Andrew, is not understanding that the success stories you and I can share from our clients—especially on Instagram—you're not seeing the whole picture. For example, right now a lot of people in Q4 are seeing clinics host events. Come on by, there's catered food, flowers, maybe beverages, and they're feeling pressure. So they ask the "should" question: "Should I be doing an event? I see all these other people doing an event." I'm just telling you, I've been here for 24 years looking behind the curtain to tell you what the revenue was. Was it even worth them doing it? Seeing the numbers... the clinic staff you see on Instagram, they all have the same scrubs, matching coffee cups, matching pens. They're all amazing and you think, "Dang, that team's really got it together." No, they don't. Literally, no, they don't. The question isn't, "Wow, how do I get my team to look that way?" You assume harmony. Well, every workplace has harmony, disharmony. Statistically, you know what the challenges are in that team. I truly have less than 1%, even in working with them for years, who say, "Yep, it's all smooth and it doesn't need attention. We all just somehow get along and we're besties and go for drinks." When you see that, ask better questions: "I wonder what the challenges on that team are." Because let me tell you, even if you have three superstars, you have challenges with those superstars. So a different mindset.
So I loved your question: What is their personality? What is their mindset? Well, it is a more relaxed energy. What I tend to hear after two, three weeks is, "I'm so much more relaxed. I'm not as panicked like I'm missing out." The mistakes people make are: they think they need to be the business expert; they hire people but don't allow them to do the job because they haven't practiced the skill of working with someone who can deliver; they misunderstand marketing altogether and end up in a desperate energy doing a ton of trial and error. So much wasted energy and money and time. If somebody likes that learning process, fine. But I had a client who had what she called a disastrous relationship with someone supposed to help with their web and social media. Disastrous. They quickly found someone else because they still need a website. Guess what? We're having the same issues. So we just said, let's slow the roll. This relationship is a space for someone skilled to ask the questions. I said, "Tell me what happened in this last relationship. What went wrong? What do you wish would have happened? What did you learn?" And when she said the insights, I said, "What steps have you taken to make sure those three insights are implemented?" She's honest. She says, "I haven't, but you're right." So we just paused to make a list: Number one, ask for a timeline. When will the first draft be ready? What's the estimation for going live? Help us pre-plan ideas to make a big deal out of this web launch. We don't go through that cycle. I want to reassure people you're not supposed to know how to do that cycle by yourself. You're supposed to raise your hand.
What I tell my client to help bring a more calm, relaxed energy—I still need you to work hard, but working hard calmly helps—is that the majority of my clients over a 20 or 25-year clinic, whether solo or larger group, they have an average of eight websites in 20 to 25 years. For real.
Andrew Hong: That's insane. I never knew that. Now that I know that... I just took on a client who had to consolidate four websites to one website. It was crazy. Three different developers, two different hosting companies...
Ildi Arlette: I get it because I too, if I wanted something to succeed... I get it, Andrew, I too am desperate for this or that. True story: I was making Thanksgiving dinner. Everything done, cooking... two hours before guests arrived, I'm thinking, "I'm having fun, I want it to be great." Then somehow I veered off into, "I've always wanted to make an apple and sausage style stuffing..."
Andrew Hong: I have my moments there too, but I think my wife and daughter think I'm nuts.
Ildi Arlette: The minute that someone's website is done, the minute they even engage the person in the contract, that arc of motivation is already on the way down. I just want people to know it's normal. So your client—I love that story—my expertise is knowing what that poor human being went through trying to take those four things and now get you to put it all together. My job is not to judge that person for the four sites and all the time, money, energy wasted. My question is, what did that cost you? Not just financially. What else? What's been the impact? What are you hoping this one thing will do? Can you even articulate that?
Andrew Hong: Yeah, I always say, there are no silver bullets in marketing, especially today. It is a process, a pipeline that needs to be built. One question I have for you... We talked about the extremely motivated DIYer who takes too much action. But the other part are folks with a huge gap between intention and time. They want things done, "I want my website to sound a certain way, but I need to be involved." Great, we love engagement, but then they don't show up, don't do the review. Their motivation drops because "I'm busy, got patients..." For those folks who buy courses and do nothing, do you work with them to close those gaps or are they hopeless?
Ildi Arlette: We do close the gap. The first group I call the over-functioners. The dream, Andrew, for every clinic owner is a question: "Can't I just hire this out? I'm really good at [specialty]. I did not sign up to be this business person." The big question is, "Can't I just hire this out?" Short answer, glass half empty: No, you can't. You still have to do some of it yourself. Or, glass half full: Yes, you can... and you still need to do some of it yourself. Good news, it's my business, so I am willing to do some.
That's where you and I have had this conversation. It is the fault of the entire digital industry. You explain it's a partnership... I think it needs to be contractually written, not just "the client will review all drafts and give feedback." Regardless if your kids have baseball, hockey, piano... It should actually have an exact time commitment: "We need X hours of your time per week in phase one, then Y minutes per week ongoing, scheduled Z." There's been a misunderstanding. My clients know exactly how much time they need to give. They might have a call for an hour, but I help them set up a system where they're blocking time in their calendar to do the work. We don't care if the work gets done or not because there's such a positive correlation to productivity and calendar management. We cannot fit this in at 3:55 after seeing your last patient.
They're a real human being. So we call it CEO time. For many, their CEO time is on Saturday or Sunday. Let's be realistic. The first question isn't, "What's your priority task?" The first question is, "When you're finished this CEO time—not the tasks, the time—how will you reward yourself?" Andrew, people are so bad at this. It's okay, we're here to help.
Andrew Hong: Yeah, I couldn't answer that either, to be honest.
Ildi Arlette: You're so bad at it! Because nobody taught us. It's not your fault. Nobody taught us this model to go, "Wait a minute, I thought I was supposed to suffer through my work." Please, if we're competing for admiration for suffering, I vote me and my family. In my family, suffering was glorified. Hardship, struggling through—that's my ancestry. It didn't matter what you accomplished; gosh, if you suffered and overcame hardship... I think I made a lot of my own hardship. It wasn't until a coach said, "Wow, Ildi, you're really taking the long way around." I'm like, "Yeah, because I'm waiting for them to show up with my award for figuring it out myself." Looking at my clock, it's been eight years and I can't figure it out. I don't have the result I want.
We actually had to make a sheet to help people access the part of their brain that says, "Here's what I find rewarding." Examples: "When I'm finished this CEO time, I'm getting up and doing the loop of my neighborhood." "I'm going to set a timer and scroll on my phone looking up new recipes, watching kittens for 20 minutes." For others, cleaning up just this corner of their desk. Downloading music. Going online to shop. How will you reward yourself? It needs to be a laughably small action.
Think about it, Andrew. Before we started this podcast, if I asked you, what will you do right after this recording to reward yourself?
Andrew Hong: It probably has something to do with golf. I have a golf course next to my house, probably just hit a few balls at the driving range. That's the first thought that came to my mind.
Ildi Arlette: Click. You could do it 20 minutes or an hour. Exactly. But you're going to find 16 reasons not to do that and reward yourself, but push through. What we know is that when you give yourself that reward, you have a different entrance into the task. The other thing is CEO time needs to be in a spot conducive to you. Want to know the number one thing our clients say?
Andrew Hong: A walk? Some TV shows?
Ildi Arlette: You're close with a walk. Number one answer: a coffee shop. People put earbuds on, have music, their favorite beverage. They feel like, "Yeah, set yourself up." Second biggest: a library, a quiet spot. My client went to her library, hasn't been in 11 years. Picked up a drink, went to a quiet room, had her time. Afterward, her reward was just browsing the shelves—design books. Another said at Starbucks, they have a bookstore attached. He said, "I'm illegally flipping through magazines—golf, skateboarding." What we find is a real behavioral correlation. Even if you did this once per quarter... Every clinic owner should learn once how some people do quarterly planning that sets them up better so they can sleep at night and enjoy life more.
Andrew Hong: Yeah, great segue into what I wanted to talk about. We're in quarter four. If you haven't started planning, you're probably late. Black Friday's coming up. You talked about avoidable Q4 promo mistakes. You're not looking at unit economics, impact on cash flow, brand perception, training people to wait for discounts... What do you see as the single biggest profit-eroding mistake practices make during the holiday season? What should they do instead?
Ildi Arlette: Great question. One thing: you could be 30 days or two weeks out from Q4 planning and still put a plan in place, execute it, and win. Yes, you started 10 feet before the finish line, so you get a reward accordingly. But if someone's listening, honest to goodness, you still have time. I promise. Unless there are calendar police watching... I did a Q3 plan. End of June, planned for July-Sept. Best thing about a plan is being ready when things don't go according to plan. I had a staff member make a $33,000 mistake. We needed to part ways. Impacted my business hugely. Not according to plan. It happens. This is life. My beautiful plan needed to shift. Took time to emotionally recover, hire another person... Didn't get around to my Q3 plan until end of July/beginning of August, and it still worked out fine. Did I get everything done? Absolutely not. Didn't get a few key things done. But I learned to build capacity and trust myself.
Promotions, offers, menu, pricing—that's easy to figure out. Deceptively easy. It's this other part that's hard. So A, there is still time. The biggest mistake I see is people getting overly creative and trying to do a Q4 makeover. What to do instead? How to make more money in Q4? Number one answer: Use what you have. This is not the time to get creative, rearrange furniture, put up wallpaper. Not the time. My clients are exceptionally creative. Some are bored. "This acupuncture package, boring. I'm bored with it, so my patients must be bored."
Andrew Hong: Yeah, the problem is sometimes they make offers way too complicated to message. If it's a BOGO, it's a BOGO. Everyone knows that. But if you buy two, get one of these plus this plus this... you cannot message that.
Ildi Arlette: Yeah, you can't. Let's explain why. The bigger cognitive load you give a patient, the more you make me think and do math in my head... How many apples did they eat? I cannot. The more we make that patient think, decide, compare, calculate, the more sunk we are. So use what you have. What sells best are best sellers. Everyone asks me, "Ildi, you make huge revenue for clinics—$5k or $500k through one event. How?" Because we take their best sellers. We know they sell best. The number one question about Q4 offers: Best sellers sell best, so sell your best sellers. If you want to dress it up, put a jingle bell on it. You do not need to get creative.
Andrew Hong: Don't reinvent the wheel. If they bought it before, they'll buy it now.
Ildi Arlette: Absolutely. And I promise you they're not bored with it. If you feel like, "Actually, I have a small patient base who comes regularly, so you're wrong," number one, I have questions for proof. But dude, if it's your best seller... why are you asking me? Your best seller got that way because people still want it. Call it your bread and butter.
Andrew Hong: Yeah, if it's Botox, maybe offer a 10-pack special. Get revenue upfront. If it's a bestseller, they'll want to re-up. They're conditioned in Q4 to spend more.
Ildi Arlette: Exactly. My evidence? You're calling it a best seller. If it's your sunk seller, like, "This isn't selling," then A, I agree, B, let's look at it. The creativity outlet? Either get creative with gifts with purchase (adding value) or get creative with an add-on. Add-ons, by far, this year and next will be moneymakers. I had a med spa and an acupuncture clinic do this. One has 3,000 patients, the other 300-500. Both did add-ons. I love add-ons because they allow choice and agency for the patient using what the clinic already has. A couple footnotes: don't sell your underperforming products. Not the time to try and sell the device you bought that isn't moving. Don't add garbage to your best sellers. Think about modest add-ons.
Andrew Hong: Yeah, add-ons expose them to another product line, gives awareness, opportunity to continue the sale.
Ildi Arlette: Right. How can I increase the surface area of what my existing patients see this time of year? Trust the principle: best sellers sell best. People get over-competitive, overdo events because of social media. Your core patients who take advantage of these offers are your core patients. Most revenue from that event—80% minimum to 90% maximum—came from patients who already knew you. Maybe 1% brand new. Put your efforts toward your existing patients.
Andrew Hong: Yep. In marketing, the acquisition cost for an upsell is zero. Highest ROI from existing customers, why email is highest ROI channel. Didn't cost anything organically, market over and over. As long as it's valuable, you won't burn out the list. Mindful of time... you mentioned keeping it simple, focusing on best sellers, use add-ons... I love events. I teach marketing to NPs starting out with no funds. I tell them, use your network, build community offline. Events are great for local businesses. How could a smaller or solo practice execute a successful event without breaking the bank or taking huge risk?
Ildi Arlette: Love this question. Some of my favorite success stories are solo/smaller clinics. Plus, they hate events. "Not really an event person." Great. First, you don't need to do one. It's like Black Friday. Whether you do one or not, it doesn't matter. You won't look back and say, "If we'd done a Black Friday promo, it would have saved us." Doesn't happen. My proof? No magic pill. But there's Black Friday in July. Still time. Get creative, get in proximity with people with ideas.
My absolute favorite story: Solo practitioner, assistant 4 hours/week. Attended my Q4 masterclass three years running. Last year, attended on vacation, took five pages of notes. Why? Notes don't count, it's what she does. Took her 3-4 years to implement. That's okay. Sometimes you need to hear it over and over. She stepped forward for our 30-Day Revenue Booster. Said, "I can't do events like big clinics by myself." I asked, "If you hosted, what would it look like? What scares you?" She said, "Everybody arriving at once. Overwhelmed." Introverted. I said, "If they didn't arrive at once, how would they?" Ideas flowed. "I'd love 15 people. Fits my space. Manageable. Love 5 people arriving at half-hour intervals (Noon, 12:30, 1:00)." Why important? "Want to greet every guest personally. Give them the promo sheet [we teach how to write]. Tell them, 'Here's what we have today.'"
Events aren't parties, though they feel like it. They are buying events. Opportunity to thank them for loyalty. "Thank you for being my client." Once every two years or twice a month, doesn't matter. Is it nice to offer savings/added value once a year? Absolutely fine. People who say never discount, it cheapens it? Wrong. I'll show you millions in revenue.
Andrew Hong: Strategic. Never discount the new patient. But existing customer for loyalty? "Hey thanks." Makes sense.
Ildi Arlette: It's a buying event. She also wanted the sidewalk sale table / garage sale table. Every clinic has products they thought would sell but aren't. Worth having a small area, small sign: "Save 50%." Nothing less than 40. Just for the heck of it, because product's expiring. Why 50%? 50% markup. Sell item you bought for $25 for $25. People like it. Strategic. Buying energy. PS, I love a garage sale. Feel like a winner.
Andrew Hong: Yeah, "Can't believe I got it for this much!" It's a game.
Ildi Arlette: What she did: I said, "Why can't you have a 15-person event? RSVP for three different times. Greet them. Say 'Help yourself to refreshments, I'd love to catch up. Excuse me while I greet Marcus.'" Guess what? She did it. Had her highest revenue month ever (17 years in business). Did it in January, when everyone cries about no sales. Just over $30k for her, works part-time solo. Now, 8 of those 15 said, "Are you having one again this year?" New problem. Good news: she decides. Now those people are ready to buy digitally. She built capacity. Knows a piano won't fall from the sky. Said, "I might try the three-day model where people stop by."
Fully transparent: She had two young people help that day. Her 4-hour admin person greeted, picked up cups. A friend helped too. Events need 3x the planning time, sometimes 2x the money, and helping hands. Staff aren't enough. My acupuncture clinic did add-ons. Add-on event for a week. Only for patients already booked. Boosted revenue with existing patients, inventory, services. 87% of people already coming in went for a modest add-on ($25-$50). Lowest lift thing she ever had to do. Didn't need to be social. Built capacity to run it again for a month when she didn't have booked patients. Worked again.
Andrew Hong: Takeaway: Cater the event to who you are. Introvert? Staggered arrivals brilliant. No magic pills. Got to think creatively for activations. You mentioned doesn't matter if week before Black Friday, just expect less results. Great framing. Feeling out there, a lot of practice owners probably winging Q4. Officially into Q4 now. If feeling like winging it, don't want to again, what should you do?
Ildi Arlette: If you can self-coach, do that. Find what's working, what you want. Otherwise, work with someone like us, or someone like you who knows us. "How can I explore doing this differently?" You get fast-tracked. This time of year, we offer 30-Day Revenue Booster. Once per year. Limited spots (16). Once gone, gone. People want short-term help now? Lots of time in Q4. Show notes will have details. Price? $199 USD. If you object to $199... then criterion #2 (practiced at investing resources) answer is no. Work with me 30 days. Start with call assessing priority to bring in revenue. One task before takes 5-15 mins (questionnaire). Leave call calm, clear on next steps using what you already have. Not inventing something new. Makes it doable. More doable, more likely action. Coach you along way in real time via platform (message, voice note). End month with wrap-up call. Celebrate small wins, lessons. Walk away having safely experimented, ways to build on it next year. Not magic marketing pill. Trying something, getting insights that work. Vast majority succeed, gives confidence. "Why didn't anybody tell me this?" It's up to you to find people you energetically fit with. Find someone you trust. Need to work with a coach who says "You work with me," not 18 modules or my team. Needs to be 1-to-1. Then look to other resources. If people want to accelerate, take the spots.
Andrew Hong: Yeah, I'll put info in show notes. $199 bucks, focused time with Ildi. Love defined start/end projects, clear goal. If you won't invest $200 to grow revenue, think about being in business. Think of these as revenue generators, not cost centers. Supposed to generate >$200. Adopt that mindset.
Ildi Arlette: And it will. Don't think we've ever had anyone who hasn't. Pretty low risk.
Andrew Hong: Great way to start low risk. See what you're about. Does what you say match what you do? Nature of our industry. I'll talk to community about 30-day boost. Two sprints left this year. Also, you shared a Q4 Readiness Checklist. Great, simple, helps plan end-of-year. Real quick, talk about checklist, what it does, why access it?
Ildi Arlette: Glad you asked. Results Continuum known for business tools. Not mindset shift, mindset tool. Operational tool. Our tools are epic. After learning, click/print something off. Love checklists. Checklist is categories of things to think about in Q4. For high-achievers: not intended to check each one off. Like standing grocery list. Categories... don't need avocados every week. But fact someone put "Navy beans" on list... haven't made bean salad... bang! Just what I've learned in 25 years of things I'd say in August to consider Sept-Dec. Not intended to do all, intended to think about all. Example: Event. Decide to do one? Great, follow items. Decide not to? Fine. Skip events, maybe do something for Black Friday. Prompts to help you think. Down to: team dinner in Dec/Jan? People forget. We thought of it. Look at list. Not saying you're not good if you don't do these. Tool to help you remember to remember.
Andrew Hong: Absolutely. Appreciate you sharing. To wrap up: running practice side, mindset/entrepreneur side. Framework: Know yourself is core. Can make bad decisions because you do the things. Don't know yourself? Waste money, biggest waste is emotional energy, jadedness from bad decisions. Wanted you on because you balance mindset, tactics, frameworks practically. Seen that without focus on fundamentals, easy distraction. Healthcare wellness entrepreneurs: very distracted. Most are. Need someone like Ildi. Programs, frameworks, experience. Seen most situations. Remember: none of your problems are special. We all have same problems.
Ildi Arlette: True. Joke with clients: "You don't get award for first time in this category." Pride ourselves on community (small, no Facebook group). Meet certain places. When ready for help, come ask. Appreciate reinforcing: principles in business easier to learn than you think. Trick is applying them to who/where you are. Don't need perfect handed-in paper. Just show up with people like us willing to discuss where you are, where you want to go. Frameworks/systems help people focus, cut noise. Reality: implement funnels, in-clinic systems. But irresponsible to teach if you're not there yet or doesn't fit/sound like you.
Andrew Hong: Our job as consultants to pick right customer. Turned away couple last week: "Not quite there yet," "Risky for you." Honest because bad client bad for our business (time, energy, financial risk). Want partners on show with that philosophy. Not every client fit. Can't help everybody.
Ildi Arlette: True. Consultants want to help. Put together great programs. Personally, 24 years in weeds with clinic owners daily. Love it. Built for it. Tried other ways. Important discussion: even for you and I, people think we know what we're doing. Yeah, we do... from massive trial and error. Because of clients, see on scale what works/doesn't. Found way to accelerate from point A to B on thousands of others' lessons. Hope this gives encouragement, confidence, permission to take breath. You are not too late. Right on time. Find starting point. Starting point is simply showing up.
Andrew Hong: Thanks for that, Ildi. Thanks for joining. We'll have you back soon for tactics. Connect with Ildi at resultscontinuum.com, Instagram @Ildi_Arlette. Great content there. Will share free resources in show notes. Thanks so much for joining us, Ildi. See you next episode.
Ildi Arlette: My pleasure.