[00:00:00] If you're looking to grow your business as a registered dietitian, you've come to the right place. If you're not sure what to do or what steps to take next so that you can create flexibility and freedom in your life, then you're going to learn a lot from tuning into our podcast here at DietitianBoss.
[00:00:17] I'm Libby Rothschild, the founder of DietitianBoss, a [00:00:20] fellow registered dietitian and business owner. And in our podcast, I share some The highs and the lows. And I talk all about how to grow your business, get it started. And I interview our clients to date. We've had over 200 interviews from clients who share their journey on our podcast, dietitian boss.
[00:00:37] Abigail Keeso is Practice [00:00:40] Better's chief growth officer and co founder of That Clean Life. While working at a pediatric hospital as a registered nurse, Abigail started healthy eating challenges and curating meal plans for fellow nurses during long shifts. This quickly caught fire, turning into a passion project that eventually became That Clean Life, a nutrition planning tool [00:01:00] designated specifically for health and wellness professionals.
[00:01:03] That Clean Life was acquired by Practice Better last year. Abigail is in Toronto, Canada, and you can find out about her more on LinkedIn and through her sub stack all found in today's show notes at dietitianboss. com. Welcome to today's episode, Abigail. So happy to have [00:01:20] you here today, Abigail. And this topic is really important in terms of maximizing time, which I know most dietitians want to do with scheduling and billing so that you can maximize your time.
[00:01:29] Patient time. So can you talk a little bit more, Abigail, about what is scheduling and billing in case if any of the listeners aren't familiar with why this is so important? Yeah. So [00:01:40] really high level scheduling is how your patients book with you and those interactions and billing is how you get paid and how you bill your clients.
[00:01:50] So both billing and scheduling are Pretty big pain points for practitioners. And I think often in school, we come out of school and we learn how to be a [00:02:00] healthcare professional, but we aren't taught how to navigate the complexities of things like scheduling and billing and what tools to use. And we even see a lot of practitioners actually hiring other people to do their billing and, or like, you know, a virtual assistant to manage scheduling for them, which costs more.
[00:02:17] So. I'm really excited to kind of dive into [00:02:20] this topic because I think there are a lot of things practitioners can do to save themselves time with scheduling and save themselves money while billing. Awesome. Yeah. Great way to re listen with this episode. And I would agree that those are huge pain points for dieticians, so much so that it holds them back from [00:02:40] starting a practice and it can be a really scary With making choices and figuring out how to do the billing.
[00:02:47] Should I hire out? When do I hire out all of that? So I'm excited that we're going to hop in today. So, in terms of dietetics professionals, we're going to get to scheduling and billing in a moment. But I 1st, want to talk about the pain point of time management. So why do you [00:03:00] think a dietetics professional needs to manage their time?
[00:03:02] And can you give a tips or experiences in terms of your experience? Yeah, so time management is so important, especially in private practice, because not only are you expected to be a healthcare professional and take care of your clients, but you also have to, like, ensure that [00:03:20] you have a steady flow of clients coming into your business.
[00:03:23] Otherwise, you're not going to have any business. So time management is super important because you have to make sure you're working. Smarter, not harder and working in a way that allows you to have time to take really great care of your clients, but also market and ensure that you have more clients. So [00:03:40] having the right tools to streamline scheduling can really like free up that time so that you can see more patients later do your charting and do your billing and all of that stuff.
[00:03:50] And also setting up your scheduling is important. To send reminders. So you don't have to do that manually because sending reminders and follow ups that can take a ton [00:04:00] of time. So that's really important. Then another thing to consider with scheduling is especially if you're a practitioner working across time zones, looking into like those different time zones and using a scheduling tool that kind of.
[00:04:12] Hopes with those time zones so that you're not over scheduling yourself and having people show up at the wrong times, because that's going to cost [00:04:20] you money as well. Yeah. So if you're manually scheduling, meaning that you are not using automation, or you're not using online schedule, like, what's integrated with practice better, for example, it's going to be a lot more laborious.
[00:04:31] Right? And we do work with additions and I know people in our community do manual scheduling, not only for. Sales calls if you're doing them, but also [00:04:40] for client sessions. And that is just not sustainable long term, right? It's just not, and it's very exhausting. Yeah, it can take up a lot of your time. And like I mentioned, you can end up losing money if you're missing, you know, those follow up appointments.
[00:04:54] If you have people showing up at the wrong times, it can create a mess. And like. It's pretty stressful for you as a [00:05:00] practitioner. So I'm here to tell you all that there's a better way to do it to save yourself that headache. Sure. And in terms of time management, do you have any other tips or experiences, whether for a new clinician or somebody who's further along that have, that you've seen have helped the community or that have helped you personally?
[00:05:17] Cause you've achieved so much. I always like to [00:05:20] talk about time management. Oh, yeah. That's a good question. I personally love to do lists. I use Trello for organizing my days and I think that helps you kind of like time box tasks. So, for instance, a dietician in private practice, you might want to schedule your day that you see clients in the morning, just in the mornings or just in the afternoon and you leave [00:05:40] another chunk of time dedicated to your admin work and to your marketing work.
[00:05:44] So really carving out chunks of time in your day where you. Focused on specific tasks can be super helpful. And then that's, that kind of comes back to the scheduling piece because you want to set up your calendar and create openings in your calendar at a time that works for [00:06:00] you. I will say I've talked to a lot of practitioners who kind of open up their full calendar all the time and their clients are kind of scheduling whenever and they'll have.
[00:06:08] A client here and a client like at the start of the day and a client at the end of the day, and it just doesn't leave any blocks for focus. So I guess my, my top tip there would be to just schedule [00:06:20] your day in a way that works for you and allows you to work efficiently. If you do your best deep work in the morning, then see clients in the afternoon or vice versa.
[00:06:29] Yeah. That's all very practical and logical, but it takes some practice to figure out when is the best time to have openings. There might be child care issues. There might some [00:06:40] of us might be moving. There might be seasons and situations where it's not always going to be the same so that can be challenging.
[00:06:48] Be flexible and adapt what is the best peak time to take clients? Or if some of us are juggling a job or even a full time job, we've got a lot going on. It can feel stressful. Right? You're either too open as [00:07:00] you as you mentioned, or I work with some clients that only have such limited availability. And I'm thinking like, well, you might need to rework how that workflow because that might not be practical for your goals.
[00:07:11] Yeah, that's a good call out because if you kind of limit your availability too much, you'll have clients coming to book and they won't be able to find a time. [00:07:20] So that is really important to keep enough time open for your clients. So it doesn't deter them from booking with you. And we can talk about time blocking and to do lists.
[00:07:28] All day in addition to project management tools, like Trello, we use a sauna and this one, I mean, I love that topic, those topics, but I think a lot of it has to do with motivation. So what keeps you, Abigail motivated to stick [00:07:40] with this, you know, to do lists and keeping structured with your blocks of time, what would you say helps you with that?
[00:07:47] Yeah. I, it's honestly just in my blood. I feel like as entrepreneurs, it's, that's, that's what makes you successful as an entrepreneur. Like your ability to just get up every day and like, do the work, even when it's, [00:08:00] it's not fun, even when it's like, not the, you know, the most exciting task is to continue to do those things and just wake up and chip away at it every day.
[00:08:09] You have to have stamina, like being an entrepreneur and running a private practice is not. So you really have to have the stamina to keep going every [00:08:20] day, day after day, and just show up. There's a quote I love by Albert Einstein, and I might be butchering it, but it's something along the lines of, it's not that I'm so smart.
[00:08:29] It's just that I stay with problems longer. So I think that's like, yeah, I really love that one. I think it's, that's like the most important thing is just staying with the problem [00:08:40] long enough to be successful. And with that. There's like kind of a caveat there is like working on the most important things, like, as an entrepreneur, whether you're in tech or private practice, you have to prioritize.
[00:08:56] You have to be able to see the most [00:09:00] important things that you need to be working on. Like, what's going to move the needle? What's going to help you achieve your most important goal? And to be able to identify that and prioritize that. And work on that. I think that is super important because if you're not working on the right things, it doesn't matter.
[00:09:15] You're just wasting time. Yeah. And absolutely. And that's a really [00:09:20] hard skill to learn, right? Because most of us are not working on the right things. We don't feel like it. We think we are, but we're not. So what helped you get better at prioritizing? Was there a tool or a framework? I think for me, it's just constant check ins, like even I've been doing this for 10 years now, and even some days I like catch myself midday and I'm like, [00:09:40] what am I doing?
[00:09:41] Like, this is not work that I should be doing. Like either I can like delegate this or I should be working on something else. So it is, it's kind of like a constant self check in. And a constant just questioning yourself. Am I working on the most important thing? If yes, you keep going. If no, you need to pivot and [00:10:00] figure out like what it is you need to be working on or how you can delegate this task to somebody else to free up that time to help you move on to those, you know, more important tasks.
[00:10:10] Yeah, that's, thank you for sharing that. So I'm hearing that you question yourself, you try to stop what you're doing and be really self aware about does this make sense? Cause I speak from, from my [00:10:20] experience, I find myself. Self wanting to do more of the things that I enjoy and not always the things that need to get done at that moment.
[00:10:26] And I think a lot of entrepreneurs do struggle with that. And then there's 2 type of entrepreneurs, the ones who just do what they want, or the ones that stop and check in with themselves and they, they correct. We always have to self correct. Right? That's just that's just how it is the life of [00:10:40] an entrepreneur.
[00:10:41] Yeah, and I'm the exact same way. I'm so guilty of this. Like, I'll have my to do list, and I'll look at it, and I'll just start picking off, like, the easiest paths, and, like, keep shumping those harder ones down the line, and then all of a sudden, it's the end of the week, and I still haven't gotten to it. So, just kind of, like, recognizing that behavior in [00:11:00] yourself and being self aware.
[00:11:01] So that you can kind of identify that earlier on in your weeks and be like, I need to work on this now. It's important. Yeah. And thanks for sharing that. Because I think that's so human, right? It's so human to just put off what's most important and then realize that we need to do that 1st, but we, we just aren't always able to do that.
[00:11:18] Right? There's always that [00:11:20] forgiveness with ourselves that we're going to make some mistakes and that's okay. As long as we can recognize them. What was that up again? I was going to say it is helpful to have somebody kind of like, you know, a thought partner or a support group that you can be a part of, a part of that can hold you accountable because, you know, if you have somebody that you're, [00:11:40] that, you know, will tell you the truth and be like, what are you doing?
[00:11:42] So for me, that's my co founder, like he'll often kind of like, take a look at what I'm working on. And he's like, I don't think that's the most important thing. So having somebody like that in your life or a support group is really helpful. Yeah, I think so too, but I personally do really well with coaches and even peers.
[00:11:58] I regularly meet. So support groups can [00:12:00] look different for many people, but that really helps me. I don't have a co founder or partner, but I find ways to make sure that I'm checking in with myself. And speaking out loud about some of the ways that I might not be prioritizing appropriately. I also use the framework of priority matrix.
[00:12:15] So it's a visual where there's 4 quadrants. So, every [00:12:20] day I make, I write out what's urgent, what's important, what I should do later and what I should delegate and then that helps me know what you're talking about Abigail in terms of shifting. Like, I might see something in the urgent column. And I know it's urgent, but I'm still pushing it away and it helps me be more self aware of what I really need to do.
[00:12:37] So what I'm saying is what we're talking about takes time. So, if you're [00:12:40] listening and you're feeling like, I don't know, what's a priority. I want you to know you're not alone that it just takes a little bit of practice to get better at prioritizing. I like mental models, like. Priority matrix to really help you get clear and write it down.
[00:12:51] Abigail likes, you know, checking in with herself mid day. So if you're listening, I want you to think about what helps you with learning how to better prioritize, but ultimately [00:13:00] that's going to help you with your time management and reaching your goals. So thank you for sharing that. Segways. Well, when we talk about time management in general, can you answer or help us share, why does dietetic professional need to maximize patient time and how can minimizing that time with scheduling and billing help?
[00:13:16] Yeah. So with, I'm going to kind of relate this back to [00:13:20] building that clean life, and you'll see where I'm going with this in a second when we were building that clean life, we really focused on building a great product at the every day. We woke up just to build a good product, and this, I think, has contributed to our success.
[00:13:35] And that is why the same thing applies to maximizing time with your [00:13:40] patients. That's how you provide a great product. Product or a great service to your client and I find so many dieticians and nutritionists are kind of looking for like the magic pill to growing their practice and getting more clients.
[00:13:52] But like the really, the answer that nobody wants to hear, but the truth is that it's all about [00:14:00] providing a great experience for your clients. So the more time you have freed up, To invest that in your clients and your client experience and keeping them engaged and keeping them on track, the more successful they're going to be and the more successful your business is going to be.
[00:14:16] And that'll turn into referrals too, because your happy [00:14:20] clients are going to tell their friends about you and their friends will tell their friends. And that's how you get kind of that word of mouth motion going. So all of that to say, freeing up time, To from scheduling and billing to spend more time with your clients and provide that amazing experience will really pay off in the long run.
[00:14:38] Yes, I [00:14:40] definitely agree with that. Can you break down when you say client experience? I'm not sure everybody really understands what that means. Would you be able to break that down a little bit more? Yeah, so I'm talking about like from start to finish when I say client experience, their very first interaction with you, whether that's a discovery call and how that feels to them, how [00:15:00] you make them feel, what you provide, the value you provide going on to your intake process, the forms they get, how organized it is, how easy it is for them to fill out your client experience also includes like how easy it is to schedule, how How easy it is to pay you all of those things, like not [00:15:20] just your interactions, like face to face with your client, but those little things in between, that's also your client experience.
[00:15:26] And all of it matters because I don't know, like I had an experience the other day where I was trying to buy something for my kids and like, I couldn't get it at the store. And I bought it from another store that was local. [00:15:40] And I had to, I ordered it online. It was going to go pick up and they called me and they were like, we don't have this, we actually sold it to you and we don't have it.
[00:15:48] That was just such a bad experience because I didn't want to go there. I didn't want to give them any more money. And it's the same with your clients. Like, even if it's just a little thing, like paying their bills, like that can leave a bad taste in their [00:16:00] mouth. It's just frustrating for them. It. Cost them time in their day, which they don't appreciate.
[00:16:05] So all of those little things that contribute to your overall client experience are so important to have set up properly. Yep. So that goes back to the scheduling, the billing, the automation, the AI, making things smooth. And I would argue also, in addition to what you're saying, it's getting feedback. [00:16:20] So we send surveys to our clients.
[00:16:22] We use a net promoter score. So asking a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with our services? We tally that up. We can't force everybody to fill it out, but we do get like, we try to encourage folks to give us feedback. And so we have a numeric value. And then we also have written feedback in terms of what we can do to improve.[00:16:40]
[00:16:40] So I would encourage, I always tell our clients and encourage the listeners to think about how you can ask for objective and subjective feedback from people who are going through your experience, because that's really important. You might not know what the problem is until you get some feedback from people.
[00:16:55] Yeah, that's a super great call out to use feedback to improve your client [00:17:00] experience. And I will say with that also, that helps you identify the clients that are super happy and loved working with you. And you can reach out to those people for testimonials too, that you can then use on social media, as social proof on your website, which helps you attract more clients.
[00:17:16] Yeah, and that gets into marketing, which I love. So I think [00:17:20] everybody should know their top five to 10 percent of their clients, like who are their best clients and what are those traits and how can you continue to market to more people like that so that you can really create an experience where you're going to have more people that are interested and they're willing to do the work and they're creating a better experience on both ends, because a lot of our [00:17:40] clients struggle with not knowing exactly who to market to and who's the best client.
[00:17:43] And so if you always want to be thinking about. Who do you interact with best and how can you produce more of that? That's my opinion on getting really clear with evaluating and getting feedback. Do you have any other tips about [00:18:00] minimizing admin time? While we're on the subject. Yeah, again, I think it goes back to choosing the right each are for you and kind of the tasks you need to do in your business.
[00:18:10] I really love practice better because it's a new chair, but it has a practice management functionalities like those courses and programs that [00:18:20] can help you be more efficient with your time and help generate recurring revenue. So you really want to look for an HR and choose an EHR that has all these things that help you save time, like scheduling.
[00:18:30] Billing all your patient records, the charting, because at the end of the day, this like will really increase your efficiency. Even things like sending [00:18:40] invoices, processing payments, updating all your patient's record in one place. And for a lot of dieticians who are using insurance billing, having that built into an EHR is super important too.
[00:18:52] And then, I don't know if you mentioned the programs as well, so not just for packages and single sessions and insurance, but also to sell [00:19:00] programs, whether it be memberships or courses, things like that group programs. So that's also all in 1 right? And then using as well. So this is. That's a really great solution to optimize your workflow.
[00:19:13] We see a lot of practitioners taking the things that they're teaching over and over again, like whether that's like [00:19:20] a meal planning lesson or even like a getting started type of session that they run through with every single client, taking that and packaging them into like a program or a course that you can just send to your client and they can kind of work through it at their own time will also help you.
[00:19:35] Free up a ton of time for you. And you can also charge for these types of [00:19:40] programs too, to help you generate more revenue. Yeah, absolutely. Exciting stuff. So ultimately really understanding that billing and scheduling are a pain point for dieticians. And knowing that an EMR like practice better is a great solution to help you optimize your workflow and managing your time is essential no matter what, [00:20:00] because they're focusing on what is a priority at the moment.
[00:20:03] And that that's a skill that can you can craft with time. That feels like a summary of today. Is there anything else you want to add or just let let folks know where they can find and connect with you online. Yeah, I think that covers it all. All the tips that I wanted to share for today. So thank you.
[00:20:17] Best place to find me is LinkedIn. I'm [00:20:20] Abigail Keeso on LinkedIn. That's where I'm most active. And for Practice Better, you can find us at practicebetter.io. Awesome. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to connect with you today, Abigail. Thank you. Looking for support to grow your dietician business or even get started?
[00:20:35] I invite you to join the library. Our monthly affordable membership that shows you [00:20:40] exactly what to do every step of the way so that you can create the business of your dreams. Not sure if it's the right time. The membership gives you an option to go at your own pace. We have modules, a road map to show you exactly what to do and monthly live calls as well as new content that we released.
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