Conferences
Another Practice-Changing Conference: ACCELERATE! 2023 Results!
I hope you were one of the over two hundred Pediatric Private Practice Owners and staff who attended our revitalizing ACCELERATE! 2023 conference in New Orleans on April 29th and 30th. Conference tickets sold out so another 50 owners and staff joined in virtually.
We kicked off the festivities with networking on steroids! From the meet-and-greet the night before the conference to the “closing bell,” energy crackled in the air as old friends greeted each other effusively and strong new bonds were formed. Our pre-conference meet-and-greets are turning into a reunion of past attendees who’ve become friends, joined by newcomers eager to soak up all the knowledge and camaraderie they can.
Day One: Lessons for Private Practice Success
There’s no way to fully convey the fabulous wealth of these two days, but I have to try. We started with a quick look at the hurdles private practices must overcome to succeed these days. There’s the market downturn, increasing inflation and diminishing reimbursements. But we revealed the answers to overcoming these challenges: the power of decision plus being a genius!
We covered the 24 characteristics of being a genius (which we received courtesy of Genius Inc.) Though many of us have some of these characteristics, anyone can develop all of them on their own with a little work and focus. The payoff is an expansion of your view, creative thinking and growing your practice despite the roadblocks.
Emily Watkins, SLP and owner of Pediatric Therapy Partners, then took the stage to explain how she 50X’d her practice in only three years. No, that is not a typo! She really did! You’ll see that an owner’s entrepreneurial spirit can really blossom when organization and efficiency are put into a practice and they’re not putting out fires 24/7 or running to Costco for copy paper. Free to really CEO, Emily went on to develop clear core values which has been a key principle of her success and expansion. She also created one of our famous Lemonade webinars on this topic.
The Laws of Private Practice Expansion
Next, our attendees met Matt Hanses, CEO and Founder of Uplift Marketing. Matt began by letting attendees know he understood exactly how tough and challenging managing a Pediatric Private Practice can be, particularly hiring and retention. He then covered the concept of recruitment marketing, the exact steps involved and provided a “Hiring Self-Assessment Checklist” attendees can use to evaluate and remedy their own hiring processes.
Next, Matt presented the basics of successful practice marketing. Really, it comes down to educating your community on the benefits of your services and how to do it effectively. This education takes place on a number of channels—to physicians, to new patients and also to existing patients. Your community also needs to get to know you and your results through broad PR activities.
As it all sank in, really, it got pretty simple. Our attendees could not soak it up fast enough!
Advanced Recruitment, Retention and Marketing Tips for Private Practices
If you could read your staff’s minds, it would be easier to know which ones to hire, how to keep them happy, why they chose you over other practices and much more, right? We set up a panel comprising top staff of some of our most successful clients who were willing to answer these questions for us.
Just to give you a snippet of what they told our attendees, the quality of a practice’s organization and its culture were what influenced them to work at their respective practices. Check this out: the practice cultures they wanted to be part of made them feel valued and acknowledged! We all love that, don’t we? It’s refreshing to see how these fabulous owners attracted and retained fantastic staff. As I always say, “Great people deserve great people!” There’s nothing worse than a great owner who has the worst staff and vice versa.
Finally, to wrap up day one with a big bang, Matt Hanses of Uplift Marketing came back and taught us how to become the go-to practices in our zones. It has everything to do with PR and marketing.
Matt defined key PR and marketing terms practice owners needed to know and showed them, with examples, how to use marketing to make massive growth a reality. This was a major value-add for our clients and I could see the lights going on for one attendee after another, all across the room.
Day Two: Real-Life Lessons that Lead to Private Practice Success
After a wonderful “Yoga for Every Body” session (both days!) led by Jessica Hatfield, OT, CEO, owner and registered Yoga instructor, we met again in the conference hall on day two to hear valuable truths discovered right in the trenches—direct from some knowledgeable and dedicated instructors.
At last, it came time for our keynote speaker: Diane Crecelius, PT and CEO of ABC Pediatric Therapy Network. Diane has been with us from the very beginning, helping us establish Peds-A-Palooza™ and make it successful. She’s also been a long-time Survival Strategies client, learning and applying what she learned to build a booming practice. And when I say “booming practice,” I am talking about five locations with over 3,000 visits per week. Plus, she recently merged and opened up an additional five clinics. Attendees were so happy to hear Diane share the key lessons that helped her hire and retain the right staff to support her in that expansion.
Next, Diane led her trademark “Owner in the Hot Seat!” segment where Pediatric Private Practice Owners from small, medium and large practices shared their unique experiences growing their practices. There was something for everyone in the audience!
Then we headed off to the breakout sessions where the Owners enjoyed a much-needed finance seminar on payroll makeovers by Bryce Baillie, CFO of Pediatric Therapy Services in Oregon. Staff attended their own breakout sessions that were led by Survival Strategies trainers and consultants and tailor-made to meet their most important needs. We know how important it is to give staff as much training as possible during these events.
Spectacular Venue, Dazzling City, and So Much More
These conferences are dedicated to enlightening and teaching but boy, there’s so much more that happens! The hotel was spectacular and there’s no place on earth like New Orleans. The music, food and cultural experiences were second to none. Some of our attendees went to Jazz Fest when conference hours were done—there were many world-renowned musicians on those stages. Some visited the open-air clubs of Bourbon Street; others explored the tantalizing flavors available at hundreds of restaurants blending Creole, Cajun, French, African, and Caribbean cuisines. There really wasn’t enough time to sample their delectable and savory offerings!
Join Us for Our October 2023 PALOOZAversary!
We know some of our clients thought this conference was too short! We’ll remedy that complaint in the fall, when we host our three-day PALOOZAversary in Charlotte, North Carolina. That’s coming up from October 6 through 8, 2023, request tickets here.
You asked and we listened! We will be introducing “Peds in a Pod” breakouts at our upcoming PALOOZAversary. These will be designed for networking, collaboration and problem-solving with practices that are the same size as yours because we recognize different-sized practices have different-sized challenges.
The energy we generate together at these conferences is fully capable of overcoming every obstacle our industry or environment can throw in the path of our dauntless practice owners! Come recharge those batteries and learn the simplicity of stable expansion and success.
See you in Charlotte for our PALOOZAversary on October 6th through 8th!
