093_From Nurse to Business Owner: Jillian Martin’s Path to Valen Medical

Speaker A: Attention healthcare leaders. Are you tired of dealing with recurring problems, rising costs and inconsistent results across your departments? If so, it might be time to introduce Lean Six Sigma into your organization. The proven framework trusted by top performing healthcare organizations to improve patient outcomes, boost staff engagement and eliminate waste. Here at the quality coaching company, we've developed a Lean Six Sigma for healthcare program that's designed specifically for organizations that need results, not the red tape. Our, uh, blended learning approach combines online modules with hands on project coaching so your teams can learn, apply and achieve measurable improvements, all while maintaining their daily responsibilities. Whether you're ready to launch a system wide improvement initiative or start small with a single pilot project, we'll guide your team step by step through the proven frameworks and helping you drive better outcomes faster. So if you're ready to streamline workflows, improve patient safety and build a culture of healthcare excellence, click the link in the description or visit www.theqcc.com to learn more and schedule a quick strategy call today. Because better healthcare starts with better processes and better processes start here. Ah. Hey. Welcome back to the Excellence in Healthcare podcast. Today's episode is part of our Small Business Spotlight series where we sit down with healthcare entrepreneurs who are building real businesses and talk honestly about the journey behind the growth. I'm, um, your host, Jarvis Gray, healthcare business strategist and founder of the health biz accelerator community. Joining me today is Jillian Martin, founder of Valen Medical, a hormone clinic based in Cape Cod that specializes in bioidentical hormone management and medical weight loss. Jillian, I am so glad to have you here today. Welcome to the show.

Speaker B: Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker A: Ah, all right. But, uh, Jillian, I love to start kind of at the very top. I would love to kind of jump into your story. So before Vaila Medical existed, what was your path into health care and what led you into this work?

Speaker B: Sure. So I started in health care. You know, I've been around health care my whole life. Like, my mom was a nurse growing up, so I've always just been around, around a healthcare setting. In 2004, I had my son and I was working, you know, whatever job I could at the time. And, you know, my mom owned her own business and she's like, listen, my business is slammed. I need you to come work for me. I'm like, no, I don't think so. I don't want to go to nursing school. I had no interest in doing that. She's like, I'll pay for you to go. I'm like, nope, still not interested. And she's like, well, how are you going to support your son? I'm like, oh, like, I guess I gotta go. So I went to nursing school and literally during that time I was also being trained by my mother. And uh, what she did at the time was nursing home regulation and reimbursement. So that was her specialty. So immediately upon graduation I kind of went into that. So I spent 20 plus years in this space of post acute care regulation and reimbursement. So helping organizations across the whole country optimize the money coming in, the money going out and making sure they're following the myriad of regulations that, you know, are required on that journey. I felt, you know, I can't tell people how to do their job if I've never done their job right. So I, I made sure I had a lot of other part time jobs over that 20 years to make sure that I could walk the walk as well as talk the talk. So, so I've, uh, you know, done a lot in that space and it required a lot of travel. And then probably in about 2018, I was like, you know, I need, I kind of need to shift how this is because I don't want to travel forever and I want to do something that's more meaningful to me. So I became a nurse practitioner. Um, funny enough, I became a nurse practitioner after having listened to a Joe Rogan podcast.

Speaker A: Interesting.

Speaker B: Yeah, he had a, he had a doctor on there who talked about, um, traumatic brain injury and like the endocrine and hormone disruption that happens with that. So that's really what sparked my path to get where I am today. You know, after graduating NP school, I worked several jobs, hospital, private clinic, that kind of thing, all with the plan to eventually open my own clinic. Um, in the last year, you know, my husband and I were like, okay, I think this is it, I think now is the time. So we've collaborated to do all of the behind the scenes starting last January. And we took our first patient, uh, the first week in May.

Speaker A: Okay, fantastic. And uh, let me ask, so what, what originally drew you into the hormone, uh, health and metabolic care segment of healthcare? What, what got you down that path?

Speaker B: Yeah, so there were a few things. You know, number one is my brother was a bomb technician in the Navy. Um, and he, and he had a lot of traumatic brain injury from that. Um, and when there's any type of brain injury, even a minor concussion, your hormone cascade gets impacted, you know, and I thought there, there must be a way to help people that have that problem. Besides just, you know, seizure medications or psychiatric medications, what are the better ways to restore their quality of life? And then my daughter was born in 2009 with a congenital brain defect. Not a traumatic brain injury, but also, like, at that time, I'm like, how can I optimize her life? So from the personal stance, you know, I started diving into supplements and brain health and nutrition and exercise and. And it all just kept leading me back. Well, all of that is great, but if your hormones are not optimized, it's only a piece of the puzzle. So, you know, I. That's when I started focusing on hormones. I took a, uh, course HRT University by, uh, Nico Misla, who is also a business owner. And that really helped me narrow down that focus and say, this is definitely my niche, and this is what I plan to do forever.

Speaker A: Okay, fantastic. And I'm. I'm curious just with the experience, uh, that you've had now over the last few years of running your business, um, has there been a moment that you may have experienced, or maybe even your patients have experienced, where you were just like, there has to be a better way. I think I can do this better. Have you had one of those moments yet?

Speaker B: You know, from the moment I opened, I've had a lot of those moments where, you know, not just from the clinical perspective, but from the business perspective, trying to streamline things. Like, maybe I could have worded that a little differently so the patient understood it. You know, one of the challenges I. I face a lot is most people come to me because I'm the last resort. You know, they've been to their primary, They've been to their gynecologist, they've been to a urologist, and everyone's like, your labs are fine. You're totally normal. Right. And there's a difference between normal and optimal. Right. So I. I look at that area of like, okay, yes, everything's in the green, but. But you're not optimized, especially if you're symptomatic. But I do a pretty comprehensive lab review, and I feel that can be a little overwhelming for people at time, especially if they don't have any medical background. So I'm working on making that more palatable without feeling. Without the patients feeling like I'm not giving them the full information.

Speaker A: Okay. And we'll love if you could break it down for our audience in a little more detail. I had the. The benefit of checking out your website and learning about your services, but what services and offerings do you all Share with your, uh, your clients and your patients.

Speaker B: Yeah. So our main focus is hormone optimization. You know, we have other things on there because they tend to go hand in hand. But it usually starts with a, uh, 10 minute q and A call to say, tell me what's going on so I can make sure that I could help you or that, you know, I, I'm the correct path for you to choose. Then we do a comprehensive lab assessment. Whether you're a man or a woman, the labs are mostly the same. You know, they differ a little bit. Um, after the labs have resulted, then we set up a one hour consultation appointment to go over the lab results. Um, I do a deep dive into their symptoms first to make sure that what I'm seeing from the lab picture matches. And then I give them an outline of like, you know, it's a choose your own adventure. Once I give you the information, because it's their health journey, I'm just the guide to get them where they want to go. So do you want to try to optimize your lifestyle modifications? Do you want to do supplements? Do you want to go the full route of like, let's replace the hormones that you're deficient in and then, you know, take it from there? So most. I have not encountered anyone that doesn't need hormone optimization, but again, I think it's because by the time they get to me, they've. They've been through every other step prior to that.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Well, and, uh, on weight loss or peptides, you know, weight loss happens a lot. When people have neglected hormone replacement for a long time, they get that, you know, stubborn belly fat in the middle that won't go away, or they're like, I was fine. I haven't changed anything that I eat. But since I hit menopause, I've gained 30 pounds. Right. Like, so sometimes those go together.

Speaker A: Okay, well, I'll share with you. Just on the personal side, um, this past fall, my son was playing football. I've connected with, you know, some of the parents who, you know, their kids were on the team as well. And one, um, of the dads was doing a hormone treatment with a local wellness clinic here in Atlanta, where I live. Yeah, Long story short, I ended up going to the clinic. Just, you know, he talked it up so much, I was like, oh, this is interesting. I never thought about this.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So I'm currently on a medical weight loss program with tirzepatide, if I'm saying.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: And after that, and I'm down about 35 pounds already.

Speaker B: I love that.

Speaker A: Looking at some hormone treatments. So all that to say, I mean, for me personally, this was a brand new world that just opened up a few months ago. And then coming across your profile, I was like, oh, this would be really interesting just to have the conversation. But, um, to your point, I think it's, it's not open knowledge about our hormones. And I, I just turned 45 and, you know, just figuring out I'm, uh, not the 20 year old that I, I still believe I am in my, in my brain anymore.

Speaker B: Well, and it's really interesting because when we look at normal lab reference ranges, right, A normal testosterone for a man is like between 250 and 800. That is a 30% decrease from where normal was two decades ago. So overall, everybody is declining. And I actually, I have a lot of young men in my practice between 20 and 25 that have the testosterone of, uh, like a 70 year old man. Yeah. Oh, it's interesting. And you know, we have various ways to try to help them, but, you know, they come to me and they're like, I just, I feel awful. I feel, I'm 20 years old, I should feel amazing. I'm like, I agree with you. You should feel amazing. And, um, then we try to deep dive that and try to help them get to the bottom of that.

Speaker A: Hey, healthcare leaders, I hope that you're enjoying the show. Just popping in quickly to let you know that I'm on LinkedIn. So if we're not connected yet, then feel free to hit me up using the link in the show notes or by doing a quick search on LinkedIn for Jarvis T. Gray. After we connect, shoot me a dm, um, and let me know what you think about the show. All right, let's jump back into this episode. Fantastic. Well, let me, let me, um, I want to maybe touch on this again with your background and just the audience. So we, we really crafted this podcast to give healthcare leaders and healthcare business owners just more insight as they're continuing to go down their path and their business journeys. For you, I'm curious to ask what felt exciting for you when starting, uh, Valen Medical, or excuse me, Valen or Valen. I want to Valen. Okay. Forgive me, um, but yeah, what was exciting about the process of starting your business and then kind of the flip side, what may have felt intimidating as you were getting going?

Speaker B: I think it's probably easier to start with the intimidating part. Um, I am a terrible salesperson. Like, it makes me feel like icky to be a salesperson. I, you Know, my. I worked in retail sales for, like, a decade before I went to nursing school, you know, and I've always been of the mindset like, you either want it or you don't. Like, I. I, uh, don't want to convince you to do something or buy something or take something that doesn't feel good for you or match where you are in your life. So being that, like, overly aggressive marketer or salesperson, you know, I always knew that if I ever opened my own business, I had to find a different way forward, because that's just not me. Um, so that has been challenging because, you know, you encounter other networking groups or other business owners or entrepreneurs, and they're like, you got to sell yourself. What's your elevator pitch? You got to do A, B, C, D, and E. And none of that resonates with me. So I've. Not only was that, uh, uncomfortable for me, it's still something I'm trying to navigate while still making sure my business is successful. Successful.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, now I kind of got a sense of some of that. And we'll talk about some of your. Your assessment results. But, yes. Um, I. I just want to confirm what you're already saying. For what we do, especially kind of in this healthcare setting and healthcare and wellness world we live in, you don't have to do any of that, but it is a value proposition that we have to create. Yes, but I tell all my clients, if you find yourself selling, you've done something wrong. So.

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, and that makes sense. And that fits more with how I feel. Right. Um, you know, and then the exciting part about opening, there were so many factors. One is, like, I love to work. I mean, I still have a lot of jobs. Even having opened my clinic. Um, I'm just good at working. So transitioning that to something that's mine feels really exciting. Um, and then I get to do it with my husband, who's my favorite person on the planet. So we get to grow and build together and do this together, and I feel like I'm just very lucky to have that opportunity.

Speaker A: I love hearing that. Um, I'm curious. Have your, uh, children. You mentioned, a son and a daughter. Um, have they plugged into the business or kind of bitten off the entrepreneurship gene any.

Speaker B: So my son is at the Naval Academy. Um, so, yep. So he's. He's a little busy, but he's definitely supportive. He asked me about the business. We talk about it. You know, he helped me, uh, with all of his fancy math skills, like work on my pricing you know, so he helped a lot when I was first opening. My daughter is 16. That's a much different story. Uh, where, like, I listen to podcasts day in and day out about hormones or about peptides, or about tracking your macros or exercising. And every morning she's like, can we please not listen to any podcasts about macros today? So I think she's supportive, but she's also a 16 year old girl, so.

Speaker A: Right. No, it's fantastic. And the reason I asked that, um, so my son right now is 12, my daughter is 8, and I've been in my business for eight years now. And when I, I think part of the entrepreneurship impact that I'm going through on my journey is rubbing off on them, uh, my wife still works full time with, you know, within her job. But, um, just to your, your point about, you know, you and your husband building something, just know that there's, there's a legacy impact that I'm sure will start to sink in.

Speaker B: Yeah, and I, I believe that's true. You know, if for nothing else, they're both seeing how to get a business up and going from the ground when you have passion and when you have work ethic and when you have teamwork with people that you get along with. So if nothing else, they can see that there is a way to do it that's not like a toxic work environment.

Speaker A: Nice. Very nice. Um, Jillian, let me shift gears a little bit. Let's start talking a little bit of business. Um, and just for our audience background, um, before you came on, you had an opportunity to fill out our health this scorecard. It's a process that I use with all my clients, but I've just started doing it for these podcasts as well. Just to kind of give me a heads up. It lets me organize my thoughts appropriately. Um, some of the notes that I took away from your scorecard. So, um, targeting, you know, 25 to 50 active patients per month right now. Um, 50, uh, 5 to $15,000 a month in revenue with a goal of getting to about 30,000 or more. Ideally, um, small team. You mentioned yourself, your husband. I'm curious, is it just the two of you or do you have other team members?

Speaker B: Just the two of us. Yeah.

Speaker A: All right.

Speaker B: And I haven't even started paying him.

Speaker A: All right, that's an important note. That's very important.

Speaker B: Uh, it's very important. For sure.

Speaker A: Absolutely. So I want to maybe first really just acknowledge again, you're an actual business. Um, I've had a range of guests that are either starting, launching, pivoting, especially given the environment that we're in right now. Um, but you are a real operation. You're serving real clients. You are generating revenue. And, um, it, you know, yourself and your husband, you all are busy. Um, so I guess maybe my, my first question in that mindset is just, what, what does a strong month look like for Valen right now?

Speaker B: So a strong month, uh, from both growth and revenue, looks like two to three new patients a week and at least one of those patients becoming a recurring hormone patient. Right? Because I, I can have a lot of people that will pay for labs or come in for a request for, like, weight loss. And even my patients who are strictly weight loss, I don't count them as recurring monthly because at any point they could choose to stop or they've reached their goal and that's the end of their journey, which is amazing. I want that for them. So I don't count those patients in my monthly recurring. When I have someone on hormones, which is a monthly recurring fee, that's, you know, I have both metrics, like total patients and then recurring patients. So three, um, two to three new a week with one of those becoming a recurring is a, is a good week.

Speaker A: Okay, good stuff. And then where does patient volume feel most inconsistent right now?

Speaker B: So for this example, for this week, I've had five new patients, which is amazing. I love that. Um, it's definitely really not so busy that I can't. I could probably handle double that without feeling, like, a little pressure. Um, but then next week I might have zero. Right. At the end of the month, it will all balance out, like, money wise. But I would rather it be consistent week to week rather than super busy, not busy, super busy, not busy.

Speaker A: All right? And what feels hardest to sustain week over week? Um, are you, do you find yourself. Are you doing more activities to get patients? And then when you're onboarding that tapers down to things, you know, is there anything specific that's just hard to sustain consistently?

Speaker B: What I think the hardest thing to sustain, and it's probably an operational, uh, challenge, is, you know, my patient panel right now is 76 patients.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: The ones that are on recurring, um, are. They're not a set and forget because I still touch base with them regularly. I think the hardest part are my weight loss patients, because in theory, I should be touching base with them like every three and a half weeks if they plan to continue their weight loss journey. To say, do you want to keep your dose? Do you want to change your dose? Are we all done? How do you feel? Um, so making. Getting that done timely enough where I could order the next medication for them. That seems to be the pain point with, um, flow of patients.

Speaker A: All right now. And I, I'm, again, I'm glad to hear that. Uh, we'll definitely talk about it. I, I've jotted down a couple of notes that I think will help inspire that a little bit more. Um, I want to talk about your vision. So just again, going back to your scorecard, you, you highlighted, ideally, getting about a hundred patients on your recurring monthly membership program would be a nice platform to, to kind of balance for your business.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: And this is one things I love that you noted. So just being a trusted voice in the hormone space.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Um, what I took from that, Jillian, is that you're not setting yourself up to try to be the biggest, you know, the baddest in healthcare is really what I hear is I want to be the most trusted and I want to be consistent on what I'm doing.

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker A: All right. And you know, of course, when you start to do the math. So if you had the hundred, uh, patients paying about 300amonth, I think is what I took from your website. That's right there at about your $30,000 a month goal.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: Minus expenses, of course, paying your husband a salary. Um, so, um, again, that membership model, I think, is a really unique one. Um, uh, again, it's not about kind of high volume churn and burn, which a lot of community programs can focus on. I hear somebody saying, I want stability, consistency. I want to be a real mark in this community. Um, so let me ask, so what, what makes a patient a great fit for your business?

Speaker B: So I think the easiest patients to help them see true success have already been on some type of healthcare journey already. Right. They either they either already exercise or they have spent time in the past tracking their food, or they follow up regularly with their doctor whether they have health problems or not. Um, you know, they understand the importance of sleep. So the patients that are already coming to me saying, I exercise, I eat right, I sleep, I go to my doctor, there's still a missing piece. I have the most success with those patients because they, they're really dialed in with how their own body feels. So when we start them on hormones, they're like, yes, that's exactly what was missing. Um, the people that are coming to me, you know, I, I have one patient who, she's older, she probably needs hormones, but she's very hesitant, scared. People are still scared for Hormones. Um, she wanted to try weight loss, but she didn't want to track her food. She didn't want to cut out food. She didn't want to have her dose too high because she didn't want to feel sick. Um, you know, her protein sources were like deli meat and sausage, you know, so having conversations to, like, gently guide her towards, okay, well, how much protein are you having and can you change that source? Those are much harder, um, patients to have and to help them feel like they're successful. Cause it's not my success, it's their success. I want them to feel better.

Speaker A: All right, Now I have to ask, so have you created a patient avatar for your business?

Speaker B: I don't even know what that is.

Speaker A: Okay, well, believe it or not, you just described exactly what it is, funny enough. So I would. So this is one, you know, a key takeaway. Just right here at this point in the conversation is, um, let's create a patient avatar for your business. But it is literally doing what you just did. And I, I'm going to kind of freestyle with the avatar example here, but, hey, you know, my ideal patient for Valen Medical is a 42 year old woman, um, who's had a history of a medical journey over the last 10, 20 years. She's getting older, her body is doing X, y and Z things. And we've identified an opportunity to introduce her to, uh, hormone therapy. Yeah, and this is why she would accept getting hormone therapy with us. This is why she wouldn't. Right. You can start to really get into the mind of your ideal customer, your ideal patient. But to have kind of this profile already defined for the target patients that you truly want to work with. And you could do it by the different services because, uh, I saw you provide services, obviously for men and for women for weight loss, for, you know, the pep. So you can describe, hey, you know, this would be the perfect male weight loss client.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: So, hey, my perfect client is a 45 year old young, um, man, you know, 45 young man that used to play football, uh, back in the day. And now he's at a point where he realized he doesn't need the boat, so he need. Right, yes, that was my story when I walked into the clinic that I'm working with. Um, but the patient avatar is an actual business strategy just to help you and your husband, um, start to wrap your heads around the target customers and patients that you really want to work with. Um, question here. So what are you currently doing to keep your, your patients engaged month after month?

Speaker B: So the weight loss patients are kind of naturally built in for a month to month if they plan to continue their weight loss. You know, one of the strategies for 2026 is trying to get them set up for their follow up appointment right when they leave their appointment, rather than waiting to try to find a touch later. Um, as far as the other patients, month to month, I don't typically follow up with all of them or have a touch point regularly month to month, um, unless they have questions. But we have a business text line where they can say, you know, hey, I'm having surgery in two weeks, can I still take my testosterone? Right. Like so that is an option. And we always get back to people by the end of the business day. You know, we don't let anything like that linger. So we don't have a touch point with every patient every month. You know, some of that long term focus is uh, maybe a monthly newsletter that will go out to every patient that is in the periphery of like an outline to get that started. We just haven't navigated that way yet.

Speaker A: Okay, perfect. And what, what outcomes would you say your patients appreciate the most that they get from working with you?

Speaker B: I. Well, I think outcomes might be a little bit different than what they appreciate overall is that we are real people. Right. Like I've had a lot of people come to me from some of those bigger, like online companies that do hormones or weight loss and they feel like their relationship is with um, uh, an Internet website or a text line. You know, they're getting me or they're getting my husband when they call or text. Like it's, they're getting a real person in real time. So I, I've heard many, many people say, you know, I was with such and such a clinic for years and I never once talked to a person. Right. Like, so I think that they appreciate that a lot. Um, outcomes, I think some of the patients a little early to say what do their long term outcomes look like. Right. Because some of the people are still in this. Let's optimize your titration journey. So, um, that's. We're kind of in the thick of that right now.

Speaker A: Okay. So the reason I asked those two questions. So around monthly engagement, around you know, what your patients appreciate from you, um, I'll share my personal story again and then I'll kind of connect it into the strategy which is, um, again I'm kind of going through my own journey with the clinic that's about five minutes away from my house here. When I explored them of course I went online and I found cheaper versions of stuff and. But to your point, I was like, you know, but I don't see these people. I don't know, you know, they're just, you know, they're, they're robots on the Internet at this point. Yeah, I love just being able to go down to the clinic that I'm working with now. Um, when I just went right before New Year's and you know, did my weigh ins and everything and the celebration that they put on and you know, you're ahead of time and you know, right before I left, they looked me in my eye, Jarvis, these are your goals. And they set expectations. Right. That engagement was really important. So what I would offer, you know, for you and your husband, um, consider very similar. So what Just thinking about what I've learned about your business through the research, um, starting maybe online communities and I'm making it up, but like Every Tuesday at 6 they can jump online on a zoom call and there's a community vibe that you're creating so they can support each other. They're obviously getting coaching and expert, um, feedback from yourself, from your husband. Um, and then creating specific goals, milestones, if you know the weight loss journey person. So for me, I wanted to lose about 55 pounds. Um, and they, they talked me down. I was like, I need to lose 95. And they were like, no, Jarvis. And we, we worked on some goals together and now we have milestones. So I know week by week and they check in with me. Right. Just things to kind of keep them on the hook. But I'm giving you a big picture strategy, uh, weekly to monthly engagement and then the celebrations, I think for the type of business model you have, you know, hormones, weight loss, I mean those are celebratory things. When people start feeling regulated and quote, unquote normal again.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: Have amazing leaders that guided them through the journey, celebrate them.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: That's really big.

Speaker B: So my husband and I are both heavily into fitness and nutrition. Um, you know, that tends to be. Actually most of my networking or like referrals come from the various gyms that I go to. Right. That's where. So my ideal client is kind of coming to me from that space already.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: My husband does have social media. I do not. Um, but he hosts a, you know, a tracking challenge. So it's not a weight loss challenge. We're just going to focus on weighing and tracking. So some of our clients join in that, um, not all of them because some get a little uncomfortable with having to weigh and measure their food. But so that is one way that they're engaging. You know, as far as coaching, like, I do spend time coaching in the appointments. Um, but ultimately, my goal is to build a referral network.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: Or, you know, that to be, you know, all the gyms that I go to, they have nutritionists or they have trainers or coaches. So my goal is to, like, have a whole board that says, hey, you live in this town. Here's the gym you can check out, or here's an online coach, or, you know, so that is. The goal is like, I don't necessarily want to divert my time from hormone optimization, but I want to give people the resources outside of me where they can succeed. So that is part of my 2026 goal, for sure.

Speaker A: That's fantastic. And that actually kind of rolls right into the next, uh, I guess, level of strategies that I wanted to share, because you did note kind um, of the. I'll call it marketing, but without the social media impact, so to speak. And again, this. This is, you know, what I want to share with you, but obviously for our entire podcast audience to understand is that, you know, if you go on social media or everything says you have to be on social media nowadays, you do not. That said, you do have to be very intentional about how you want to market and connect with your target audience of customers, of clients, of patients. Um, so I just want to say, when I saw your note about social media, I was like, girl, you're fine. Don't worry about it.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Um, but we do have to be intentional. That's. That's the. That's the backup plan, right?

Speaker B: Yeah. Yep.

Speaker A: Um, before I kind of dive in to some of my strategies, uh, again, just teach me a little bit more. So, um, would like to ask what feels misaligned about social media for you?

Speaker B: So I had social media back in the MySpace days, which is, you know, kind of tells you how old I am. Right.

Speaker A: I'm right there with. I can appreciate that.

Speaker B: So super cool. I'm m. Like, I can put music on here. This is so cool. Right?

Speaker A: And then designed the backgrounds.

Speaker B: Then it navigated to, uh, Facebook, and. And initially I had Instagram because it had super cool filters for taking pictures. Right. Then it morphed into this thing where it was like, everyone is either living their best life or their worst life, but neither one was true. Right.

Speaker A: That's fair.

Speaker B: And I just. It was just such a time suck. And I. Time is the one commodity I do not have more of. Right. Like, I need extra time in My day to get the things done that I want to do, including spending time with my family, you know, so it just didn't resonate with me. And, you know, I want to say back in 2014, I just stopped all social media. Ah. You know, including, like, LinkedIn. I had a LinkedIn. I'm like, you know what? Not doing that either. I got rid of that as well. So I think trying to set the example for my children. Right. That you don't need, especially as a growing teenage brain, you don't need social media. Um, it just never resonated with me. And taking the time to, like, try to be like, okay, what are the current trends? I mean, if I went on social media today, I don't even know. I don't even know how to work it. I don't even know how it works. Yeah, right. My husband has Facebook, um, because he does various things, and then he has a business Facebook page built but not published. You know, he's like, if you want to give me the content, I'll do it. I'm like, okay, maybe, but I don't want. I don't want to go down that rabbit hole. Um, so we'll keep it in the background and talk about it, but it's not going to be something that I give a lot of my time to.

Speaker A: Okay, so let me ask, where. Where do your ideal patients already spend their time?

Speaker B: You mean virtually or in real life?

Speaker A: Well, online or in real life?

Speaker B: Either one, if I had to guess. I don't know. Actually, I'm not sure. You know, there's a huge age demographic. Right. My youngest patient is 15, and my oldest is 75. Right. So I. I have a really wide age demographic. I think the perimenopause patients are on Facebook solidly. Um, the younger people, I think are on TikTok, though I'm not sure. Um, or YouTube shorts, I think is also in that line. Um, and then in real life, like, the people. The majority of my people spend their time at the gym. Believe, like, believe it or not, like, that is. Most of my patients are heavily into

Speaker A: fitness, so, um, perfect. So I do want to. So I guess my strategy is me putting on my coaching hat. Jillian, you're my client, and this is what we're about to do. Um, building out a real referral strategy, as you already mentioned, is exactly the starting point. You know, this being, you know, the beginning of the new year. This is what we're working on. Day one.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: I will say going back to that avatar still would be essential on how you start your referral process, believe it or not. Um, the way that I would like to break that down is again, once we've created this avatar of our ideal patients, one of the components of that avatar is going to be understanding where do they hang out, online and in person.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: And you just noted, hey, a lot of my people are at the gym. Perfect. So our avatar loves being at the gym. Um, and online, maybe they are on Facebook or, you know, Instagram or TikTok, whatever. Right. So we, we just want to know. So then we can create the right mix of strategies because we do need online and in person strategies, but for a referral process. Now, the third element of that is also understanding what are the products and services that my ideal patients use before they do business with me, while they're working with me and after they work with me? Because those three components are kind of the three phases of referral strategies we want to create.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So naturally, just the quick list of ideas I've already kind of thrown together. Physicians, functional medicine groups, wellness practitioners, gyms, PT clinics, wellness centers. I mean, those are without a doubt, I think the gimme's right out the, right out the gate. Um, but then, you know, are there products? Right. So I'm per. I love using a Fitbit.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Believe it or not, Fit Fitbit or other types of products like this could be sponsors or referrals for your business model as well. So don't, don't overlook, you know, the product opportunities if there are certain. Um, so my, the clinic that I'm working with, they obviously put me on a very high protein, you know, not a diet, but just eating, you know, habits.

Speaker B: Protein. Yeah.

Speaker A: And I found a good product and I've already shared it with them. They're reaching out to this product to say, hey, you know, is there a chance to, to partner? You know, they can offer it through their cl. So there's a lot of different ways to build money off of the partnerships and the referrals. Um, but just understanding your, your patients, your clients and then what they want. Um, you mentioned newsletters and emails is kind of on the docket to kind of publish and produce. Um, I would absolutely support that. The rationale behind that, Jillian, is that newsletters, email newsletters, however you do it, virtual or a physical, they help build the authority. So I would say that's probably the positioning you want to also consider, especially because, um. Well, and I'm making the assumption, everything I read on your website makes it sound like you're kind of having a Local impact around Cape Cod. Is that the vision or is the vision to expand out to be national or what? What are you thinking?

Speaker B: You don't know that I want to be national. Um, certainly within Massachusetts. Right. Because I'm licensed in the whole state. You know, my license doesn't meet just my zip code. Uh, you know, and I live, I'm in New England, so I taught a lot of other states. Like it's a very. It's not unreasonable for me to get licensed in New England states and touch those communities. Um, from like, ah, where do I see value is I want my community, whether that's my gym community, my nutrition community, um, my actual geographic community, to know that I'm a good resource and I'm the go to person. Um, even if they have a question. Right. Even if they're not becoming a client. I want to be like, oh, um, I'm not sure. But talk to Jillian because if she can't help you, maybe she can send you to somebody that does. Um, I'm not sure that I would be happy on the national stage with that. I'm not opposed to it, but I don't want to feel spread thin and not able to get my local patients the same level of care that I give them now.

Speaker A: All right? So, uh, again, I love hearing that. So there's nothing wrong. And I would define local as maybe strategy, at least for the remainder of this year. Hey, let's focus on our local strategy. Being Massachusetts. I am Massachusetts number one provider of hormone therapy and treatment. Like that's a big statement, especially for a two person operation.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: And maybe the three to five year strategy is that we're going to be regional. Regional being defined as New England. That, that is still an amazing statement and accomplishment for small business owners. Um, but yeah. So all that to say again, newsletters and those types of authority building, you know, documents are amazing. I'd also say let's consider doing, um, event marketing. So what I mean by event marketing is hosting educational workshops. Right? Let's go teach the state of Massachusetts about hormones and why. Why every grown man over the age of 40 should be considering hormone therapy or whatever, right?

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: To do workshops.

Speaker B: Um, especially workshop last night, actually.

Speaker A: Boom. There we go.

Speaker B: Yeah. I have a friend who owns an aesthetic business and she's, uh, on hormones and she's got a great space for it and she marketed it to her people. So I, she, I gave her the words, she did the marketing. I had about 15 people and I, my focus was on education. Right. I brought business Cards and flyers. But my, my role there was not to sell the business, but to give the knowledge. Right? And if you know, here's how you have the conversation with your own doctor, here's how you navigate that. If they say no, here's how to know, even if your labs are normal, why it might not be optimal for you. You know, I said they might not listen to you, you might not make headway with your own provider, but know that there are other resources out there. So you know, my plan is to do one of those at Least Quarterly in 2026. Um, I have to find one for the next session. I just haven't found a location for that. But that is 100% on my radar.

Speaker A: Perfect. No, I love hearing that. And that is, that is such a hard thing because we know people get really nervous about standing in front of folks and doing workshops or giving speeches, that kind of stuff. But for small businesses, outside of paid marketing, paid advertising workshops, um, event marketing is the category. It's the best growth mechanism. Um, let me so to provide you with kind of my coaching thoughts around it.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: What I would. Instead of planning on a quarterly workshop schedule like you just mentioned, I would actually say, Jillian, let's figure out what your next 10 workshops are going to be. Okay. And I don't care if you do them in 10 days, 10 weeks, or 10 months, but let's go ahead and get the calendar booked out for 10 workshops. The closer together they are, the more impactful they'll be. Because unfortunately, when people leave your workshops now, they're flooded in with other forms of advertisement and distractions.

Speaker B: That's true. Yeah.

Speaker A: So you don't want to wait too long in between events. But go ahead and think through 10. Let's commit to those dates. And, and then I would also say don't overlook, um, because you're in Massachusetts. Um, I'm trying to remember is it's Harvard in Massachusetts, for example.

Speaker B: Yes, it is. Yeah.

Speaker A: So if you can get some of your workshops at very well established places like a Harvard or like Massachusetts. Um, Mass General. Right. Um, because of your healthcare background, to do a workshop on the facility at Mass General. There's power in aligning yourself with big names like that.

Speaker B: For sure. Yeah. That makes sense.

Speaker A: Yes, ma'. Am. Um, no, but those, those are my quick thoughts around visibility without social media.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: Don't need it. Social media can support what you're doing, but it's not a requirement. Um, the last key note that I have here is around systems and SOPs.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: So um, I think you note here is that you understand they're beneficial. You just haven't had a lot of time to build them out. And from my experience with my clients, a lot of my clients, they don't, they don't skip that process because they want to skip it. They really skip it more times than not because they're prioritizing patients and patient care first. And then they, you know, I'll come back to it. I'll get back to it. Um, and then you get more patients and you get more busy and the cycle continues. Um, the. I guess my first thought, or my first question is, is there any part about building an SOP that just f Feels, um, convoluted or scary or intimidating? Let me, let me ask that question first.

Speaker B: Nope. I've spent 20 years in operations. I know, I know how to do it. Um, again, a commodity of time is what I don't have. Like, my husband technically is in charge of operations, but he doesn't have the operations background that I do. Right. So for something that would take him maybe a full day to write out, I could get done in like an hour. Right. Like, I'm very comfortable with SOPs. It's literally just the time. Right. And he can't see the patients. Only I can see the patients. Yeah.

Speaker A: All right.

Speaker B: So, you know, we work hard to carve out administrative time to try to tackle some of these things. The challenge that we've encountered is that, um, like pharmacy challenges, lab challenges, take over the majority of that administrative time because we're trying to put out those fires.

Speaker A: Okay. All right. Makes sense. So my, my thinking behind that, again, the, the strategies that I will give you on the front end is start with the top five. And so top five strategies for most healthcare wellness business. You know, I, uh, think it'll apply to you, of course, adapt it appropriately. But first is going to be. Excuse me. Uh, your new patient intake process.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Then your, uh, membership onboarding process. Right. So if you got, you know, your, your one, uh, hundred new members right now, today, if you got your new members. No, you're good. Um, if you got your new members right now, today, is. Are you very comfortable with that membership onboarding process and just how it works? I would say we kind of talked about it. Right. Having that follow up or that engagement cadence. So having an SOP for that vetted out.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: Internal communications. And then last, and probably most important for growth is referral handling. So those will be five pro, um, five processes, five sops that I'd say just Right out the gate. And m. Don't let me forget, but I actually have a document that I could share with you.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: It's the 29, um, absolute sops every small business should have.

Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure that's helpful. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker A: But, you know, but I don't want to overwhelm you. I'm, you know, that's the big picture. 29. But at a minimum, if you get these five.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And I'd say prioritize them over this first quarter of the year and what that could look like. It could be as simple as saying, you know what, for my intake process, step one, just a sticky note. Right. That would be the starting point. Uh, I guess. Let me stop there. Any. Any thoughts on that? Just prioritizing patient intake, onboarding, follow ups, communication.

Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it m. Makes absolute sense. Right. Because let's say I get super busy or super big and I do have to hire someone. Right. How long would it take me or my husband to be like, okay, this is how you do it instead of it just having. Having it already done. I, um, think some of the challenge we've encountered is that through the process, we're trying to learn how to streamline some of the things on our own, you know, because we found workarounds or we found things that just don't work, or this is a better way to do it. So, you know, we haven't put anything in writing because that's a process that we're still kind of whittling down to what actually makes sense.

Speaker A: Yeah. All right. No, well, even. Even if the process, I would say if it's 80% good right now, is worth at least getting it out of your head, getting out of your husband's head and just putting it on paper, a Google file or document, you know, or like I said, worst case scenario, sticky notes.

Speaker B: Yeah. My husband does everything on sticky notes. So they're. They're everywhere.

Speaker A: I love. I love him already. If you can see, like right below my video monitor here, I have seven sticky notes hanging in front of me right now.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I bought him for Christmas. Like custom sticky notes.

Speaker A: Oh. Oh, right. I like that. No, um, Jillian, seriously, those were, you know, based on what you shared about your business, if I, If I, you know, kind of broke that down into the 90 day focus. So that's, again, how I like to coach with my clients, is let's come up with a plan from now for the next 90 days. Right. I don't. I'm not worried about the five year plans and even the 12 months that can get convoluted as things shift for 90 days. I'd say let's get that patient or customer avatar created with that. Let's identify 1 to 2 just primary referral channels for your business. Uh, let's create at least one clear membership pathway. If it's for hormones or if it's for weight loss. Let's walk that journey and kind of help our customers, our patients see what that looks like and build in the monthly, the weekly engagement, you know, items for that pathway. Let's pick one of those paths. And I love where you already are, the fact that you've already started with doing a workshop. Let's go ahead and pick, you know, a path if workshops are going to be it. Let's lay it out for the next 10 workshops that you're looking to do over the course of the year. And that again, that's the minimum. You could do a hundred. The more you do, the more clients you get. So that's right, that's true. That's the pool. So, um, and then again, start from a SOP point of view. Those five areas that we mentioned, those would be probably some of our top 90 day goals. Um, you know, if I was kind of giving it to you. But let me, let me again, stop there and just get your thoughts on everything we've just talked about.

Speaker B: I mean, I think that makes perfect sense. You know, I, I've spent a lot of years in business operations, so I understand the path to success, but um, implementing it can be a little bit more challenging as a small business owner. Right. I don't have a robust staff that I can just delegate things to. Right. So I'm either doing it or my husband is doing it. And his to do list is massive at this point. Um, but you know, streamlining some of those processes, you know, and I think what resonates with me is I think at the heart of it, I'm more of an educator than a salesperson. Right. So having those workshops and communicating in a way that feels comfortable for me, I know, will get me the business that I want. But I also need to make sure that I have those SOPs in place so that if I get a large influx. Right. It's much easier for sure. So 100%, it all makes sense. Um, you know, and I do, I have notepads all around me that have all this written down. So being the first week ish of January, my husband and I are, have a meeting today from 12 to 1:30 to start working on some of these long term plans. So these make it to the list for sure.

Speaker A: All right. Well, no, I very much love hearing that you already taking your steps together. Everything we talked about, of course, those are the types of support services that we offer through the healthcare community that I lead on my end. So if there's ever a point in the future to really talk about supporting you guys on that, happy to open that conversation up in the future. Um, before I let you go today, Jillian, I love if you could share with our audience the best way that they can either connect with you or follow more information and just follow the journey that you guys are going on.

Speaker B: Absolutely. So the website is valenmedical.com V A L E N medical dot com. Uh, we have admin. Valenmedical.com is the email. We answer emails. You know, most of the time, most of the day I'm the early morning person. My husband is the night person. So we kind of have both of it covered. We're working On a private YouTube channel, you know, for some specific patient teaching. But you know, we might open that up with, you know, more content at some point. Uh, when that becomes available, it will be on the website and then, you know, monthly newsletter, uh, I will say coming soon. How about that? It's coming soon. And then that will be available as well.

Speaker A: All right, fantastic. And you know, when you think about, um, what success is going to look like by the end of this year for yourself or your husband, what does that look like? What are you most excited about for the next 12 months?

Speaker B: So success for me, I think, uh, will include being able to leave one of my other jobs. Right. So I can dedicate time to this, which is what I'm most excited about. Um, it's not at the point yet where, financial wise, I can leave any of those other positions, but we're getting closer to that every week, which is super exciting. I'm presenting at a conference in September, which is super exciting for me as well. So that's going to be like a, a big step in the direction of becoming the name in the space that, you know, gets me where I want to go. Um, and then just continuing to grow locally and be that voice, that trusted voice in the space is, is really where I want the year to go.

Speaker A: Fantastic. Well, Jillian, I just want to say thank you first just for giving the time to join me in this conversation. It has been amazing learning about the, uh, the journey and the business that yourself, your husband are building. Um, I hope we can achieve all those goals, getting you to solely focus on the great things that you're doing and the. The impact. Again, from my own personal story with the group that I'm working with here in Georgia, Um, yeah, I'm like, I wish I'd done this sooner, but, you know, as a patient, we have to go through a journey to get there.

Speaker B: Of course.

Speaker A: But having leaders like you inspire that path, um, is everything we need. So thank you so much for our audience. We want to thank you for plugging in to the Excellence in Healthcare podcast. Um, look forward to you all. Continue to following Jillian and learning from her story. Until next time, this is Jarvis and Jillian and we're signing off. Hey, thanks again for joining the conversation. I hope that at least one major aha, uh, moment brightened your day. If it did, here's what I'd love for you to do next. To make sure you don't miss on any of our upcoming shows, go ahead and hit the subscribe button right there on your podcast player if you haven't already. Also, please leave a rating and a review for the show while you're there. Your reviews add tremendous amount of social proof for the show, and it helps to build the momentum needed to spread the message of excellence in healthcare worldwide. So thank you again for the engagement and support, and I'll see you in the next episode here on, um, the Excellence in Healthcare podcast.