Bill Esteb 9:17
Well, one of the things we’re noticing with websites, not so much of our customers, but many, many, many people are squandering incredible opportunities with their websites, because the attitude that they’ve reached in they’ve reached out to their website is I need a website, get a website, check. And so they treat it like an entity a thing. And, in fact, what it really is, is a digital bridge to not only your customers, but your prospective customers. And one of the things that I think that many are guilty of is not being as revealing and transparent. On their website as they could be, in fact, one of the most difficult things we do for our customers
is we write their biography. Hmm.
Dr. Sol are not that great writers and then asking being asked to write about themselves so they can publish it on their website is. That’s that’s a difficulty of 9.5. I mean, it just can’t be done. So otherwise, it turns out to be, you know, having the personality of a press release or curriculum vitae. So one of the things that we innovated in in our business was we would interview the doctor. And we have a set of pretty cool questions that we ask doctors that help provoke them to lower their guard be more transparent, and really connect as individuals because, you know, it goes back to the old thing that you’ve probably heard is that, you know, people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. And part of that is showing up as a real person. And that’s counterintuitive to the mentality and the club that doctoring is part of. And so one of the things we do is we try to try to get folks to be real. And because the website needs to create an emotional bond with the prospective visitor, and you can’t do that by showing off pictures of equipment or sterile reception rooms with nobody sitting in the chairs, and you know, the whole thing like the neutron bomb look. And so one of the things we do is we work very hard with the concept of conversion, you know, we Yeah, look, for the longest time, we thought that what clients were coming to us for was to get good rankings on Google. And we had a huge slap in the face. Oh, gosh, this is must have been five years ago by now. We’re done. said, Hey, I’d like to cancel my service with you. And part of the debriefing process that we go through is well, what is their Google ranking? And you know, what’s going on here that they’ve been adding, you know, new patients as subscribers to the website, etc. And this guy had done all ticked all the boxes, use page one top page one for his, you know, key ranking words. And so I had the courage to call them up. I said, you know, what, what’s going on here? Because we thought that the Holy Grail was top of page one
Unknown Speaker 12:32
said, you know,
Bill Esteb 12:34
appreciate the top of page one, but I’m not getting your patience. And that just that one phone call, opened the floodgates to a to dig deeper into what generally falls under the umbrella of conversion. What causes someone to say yes, what causes someone to pick up the phone, what causes somebody to use that appointment for into begin care, and we have put a lot of energy on our team into uncovering and ferreting out what are some of those, those issues even down to the sentiment expressed in the meta tags and the the the text on the homepage. I mean it’s, it’s, it’s kind of developed a science for us.
Jeremy Weisz 13:26
So showing the human side some vulnerability. Yeah. What if what’s an example you see from you’ve seen from it could be from the past year, five years, 10 years of a really compelling example that sticks out in your head of someone doing a really good job and you don’t have to name the person’s name but maybe the story.
Bill Esteb 13:45
Yeah, um
this is the website, the chiropractor that kingdom comes to mind is a chiropractor, who I believe was in Denver, and he he was kind of known as kind of a crack up kind of a wild sense of humor. He always had a joke, everyday new Joke of the Day kind of thing. And so people really kind of, you know, you either you either like that in, in your healthcare provider or you don’t I mean, it’s a very strong bifurcation point. But he had the courage to, in one of, you know, when they did the photo shoot with him, of, of really just really doing cut up, you know, funny faces and, you know, weird stuff like that, and allowed us to put that on his website. And that’s not for everybody
Jeremy Weisz 14:37
that resonates with some people that’s out there.
Bill Esteb 14:40
Yeah. But that’s the whole point. You want to attract your tribe, and the only way to do that is to be revealing as to what you stand for. And I think a lot of people, particularly in the professional arts, have this mindset that if they can show up as vague as possible, and not, you know, round off all the corners. And be as neutral as possible that they will attract more people. And actually it works the reverse. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz 15:07
I totally experienced that firsthand bill. In my practice early on, I would be more buttoned up. And I remember it was a patient was like, Dr. Wise, you just need to relax a little bit. And I was like, and my personality is typically relaxed in fun loving and joking, you know? And so I’m like, You’re totally right. Thank you, you know, I was trying, or in a game, you kind of grow into that, you know, your skin a little bit. Right. So I totally, I mean, what you’re saying is, yeah, hopefully people realize that sooner rather than later.
Bill Esteb 15:42
Well, I, for the longest time thought that there was a particular classroom that every professional goes to, and that’s where they get the rod stuck up there.
Steph, you know, and to be a non person. So it’s a balance,
Jeremy Weisz 16:00
like you want to, you want to be professional, but you also need to be human and vulnerable and all that stuff. So yeah, and I probably need to err more on the, you know, the human side and people gain the, you know, glean the professional side.
Bill Esteb 16:15
So I think so. But again, that’s personal taste, there are plenty of patients who want that button down, you know, emotionally distant professional. And there are a whole bunch of folks similarly, who, who would like to roll with you, as a real person. And, and have a high regard for your skill set and your experience and wisdom. But but but fully appreciate the fact that you show up as a human being. Yeah,
Jeremy Weisz 16:45
yeah. So I want to talk about what you do at patient media, perfect patients, but I figured if you can give people just a brief overview highlight and you could start wherever I mean, I have in my Notes 1987 Dr. Parrish was a big turning point. And maybe some of the things that happened in the 1987 is a big turning point. 1999 is a big turning point. There’s a bunch of maybe turning points. Could you give a abrief just highlight of the evolution of your your businesses, and then we can dig a little bit deeper?
Bill Esteb 17:27
Well, I had the good fortune of working in various media outlets. I worked initially, when I was going to Cairo to college. I got an internship at a radio station, and that was in 73, I believe, and found that radio far more interesting than the book learning in college. So after about a year and a half, I got out of there and did radio full time for a year or so and then moved to Colorado and then couldn’t get in you can’t really move from a 1000 watt day timer in Olympia Washington to a 50,000 watt co a and there’s a pecking order it takes a career to transpose those size of markets. So I did remember back in the day that the really cool radio commercials came in these little five inch radio in reel to reel boxes. And they had these nice labels on them from an app from advertising agencies. And I thought, well, maybe I could talk my way into an advertising agency, which I did. And I remember my salary was $400 a month. I netted $316 and 50 cents, and my rent was 150 man making sure I survived but I did and God did that long enough to get a portfolio together to work for a larger edit and see one thing led to another. So I’ve always kind of been in the media and in one-way shape or form and
started working for a film production company.
In Colorado Springs, and then worked for a digital audio recording studio. And at some point, you know, working for this film production company, we, these two chiropractors moved in next door to our offices and they wanted to, they wanted to harness this newfangled thing called the VCR for patient education. And the idea being that you could, you could, you know, introduce chiropractic principles consistently, and avoid repetitious explanations. And so they they hired our company to do that. And so to find out about what chiropractic was about, because I had probably what most people consider to be kind of a normal cultural notion of chiropractors, we’re kind of on the dodgy side and, and, and all and in back in the 70s. I think that that was probably true. But so I went to the seminar that these two guys put on these two papers put on and three days and I was totally blown away by the principles that they were sharing it because I’d never heard them before I’d never heard that you know the Master System the nervous system controls everything and interference the Master System will cause your body not to function right and and everything they said resonated with me and made sense with the experience I’d had in my own body. So came back to the cover springs that I think we need to help these guys create their videos. And so one thing led to another and we worked with Peter graves to, to he was the host for the first for the first video, and he had come off of Mission Impossible, was considered highly trustworthy because of that, for some reason, I’m not sure why he left. He left our studio recording to our week filming the video and went over to shoot Winds of War in the United Kingdom. And so we kind of had him at a war he’s reinventing his career actually. And did that for a while and One thing led to another and kind of got burned out on film production to be frank with you. And after five or six years of that, and, and I was thankfully fired by my, by my boss, who he and I have been really great friends since and I just really thank him for giving me the courage. Well, I didn’t have the courage, he kicked me out of the nest so I could go do something that made sense and because film production company wasn’t, that’s, that’s a great skill to have. But that’s not what I needed to be doing. And
Jeremy Weisz 21:32
you thought bill at the time, like you, you would already kind of felt like I want to be doing something else. And then that was kind of impetus to do something else.
Bill Esteb 21:42
I think most of us want to do something that’s meaningful. And what I discovered was that I that chiropractors at that particular size in the mid 80s were the brochure rack was you know, hairy hemorrhoid and you know, just nasty stuff, you know, that was just so non savvy when it comes to communication. And you know, from this ad agency background and working with art directors and all this stuff I had I had an idea and the profession needed something in the 80s. And one thing led to another and so my background kind of led me into creating patient education materials for chiropractors and now
Jeremy Weisz 22:27
backtalk systems.
Bill Esteb 22:29
That’s right, we I hooked up with two other chiropractors and we formed a company called backtalk systems. And the reason why we called backtalk systems was was because Michael Parrish, one of the other three principal other principals was hosting a daily live calling TV show about chiropractic. And he, we met because he hired me to help improve the quality of his, of his little TV show. And he was on one of the new UHF stations or whatever and was just really killing it with with generating new patients. And so we call it backtalk systems. And we created our own set of videos. And then we created a report of findings documents and all kinds of brochures, the whole thing. And we did that for 10 years.
Jeremy Weisz 23:27
What was a very popular product because you had posted I mean, your poster as you would, you know, report of finding, you know, a lot of different products educate. Yeah. Do you remember what was because you have this, like I said, in the beginning of the interview, this amazing knack for creating this complex, simplifying this complex explanation into a great analogies like I remember, there’s tires and like just, yeah, what are some of the ones that stick out to you during that time period that were popular? Well
Bill Esteb 24:00
With the probably the most popular products, were still video back then. People
you know, by the 90s people knew how to hook up their VCRs. And, and then of course, because in the early days they didn’t, you know, so we had include instructions and how to set up your VCR. But, you know, we did DVDs and I would that was, you know, show this video on the first visit, show this video on right before you explain their x rays and what you’re going to be doing to help them and show this video, you know, two weeks in two months in or whatever, when patients are feeling better. So that was probably the big hit was that the second thing that we kind of instituted through backtalk system was what we call the magazine, which was a combination of a magazine and a Gazette because the newspaper in Colorado Springs was called the Gazette telegraph. So we combine magazine and Gazette into something called a magazine. We just met made up word. And that became the report of findings folder that patients would get all of their documentation from the examination and report of findings and that that was something that we invented back then.
Unknown Speaker 25:16
Oh, yeah, I could picture it. Yeah, I’ve used it
Unknown Speaker 25:19
simply for that.
Jeremy Weisz 25:22
Then what was next? There was the next Turning Point seemed was 99.
Is that the next?
Bill Esteb 25:30
Well, actually, I think I think it would be it would be instructional to go to 92, which was when I considered going to chiropractic college.
Bill Esteb 25:41
because it was a little frustrating to create these tools and to see them not used fully or exploited to their fullest potential, and I thought, well, you know, maybe I need to become a chiropractor. And I really took it seriously. And so I call up a mentor of mine. here in Colorado and said, asked if I could come by and because he had an idea, I wanted to bounce it off of them. And he said, Sure, come on over. So I said, Hey, and he’s a chiropractor, by the way. And I said, Hey, I’m thinking about becoming a chiropractor. And I was wondering what which of the schools that you would recommend that I go to? And his bright, cheery smile turned into a dour sour frown, so we don’t become a chiropractor. So what do you mean, I thought you I thought it would be delighted that I was joining the team, right? No, no, he says, If you become a capper, you’re going to have a practice. Yeah, I think I think that would be a lot of fun to be able to apply these ideas, and have patience and help people that’d be great. Is it No, no, no, no, no. He says, If you become a chiropractor, you will have one technique that you will think was superior to all the others. I said, Yeah. I’d like to find out what school to go to to find out how to learn how to do all of this stuff and he says, he’s bill, you just don’t get it. He said. He said, If you become a chiropractor, you will have a practice. He says, if you can stay outside of chiropractic, chiropractic, one foot in chiropractic, one foot in the real world, he says you could have a huge practice. So he convinced me to take on the huge practice and 39 years later, that’s it. It sometimes it feels like that sometimes it doesn’t. But I’m glad that that I have been able to kind of serve maybe as a translator, you have real world and the chiropractic world.
Jeremy Weisz 27:41
Yeah, hundred percent. Um, so you decide, okay, I’m forging ahead. I’m not going to chiropractic school. Yeah.
Bill Esteb 27:52
So we made a rash of products at backtalk. And I won’t go into the details, but at One point I just didn’t feel like I went from three business partners to two business partners. And I reached a point where I felt like to quote scripture that I was unequally yoked with a business partner. And it was time for me to, I was healthy enough to go off on my own. And so one of the smartest things we had done was create a buy sell agreement, which I would highly recommend to anyone who has a business partner, even if you’ve known each other since birth, but you need a way to have what some people call a scripted train wreck. That is, you know, how, how do we end this? If I want out how do we end this if I die? How do I how do we end this if I’m incapacitated and what have you. So we’ve figured that all out and I push the button and it was a cutthroat buy sell which meant that whatever price I offered him, he could buy me out for the Same thing. That’s how, that’s how it went down. And so I walked out of that closing of the sale of that business on April 20 1999, about four miles north of where the shots were ringing out at Columbine High School. So that’s, that’s kind of my imprint of that whole scripted train wreck. But that’s, that’s when I started over and I didn’t have customers, I didn’t have a products on a shelf in a warehouse. didn’t have anything I literally had the freedom to start over. And so it was, as Charles Dickens would say, the best of times and the worst of times. So that was probably the biggest turning point in my professional career war in 99. What do you do next?
Well, um, you know, I knew the blank slate is good, but it’s also tough. It’s like well
Jeremy Weisz 29:59
But Exactly, yeah,
Bill Esteb 30:02
yeah. And I had fully intended to start over if in fact, he wanted the old business, it would have been more convenient if I’d had the old business, but as it turned out was probably the right thing in the big scope of things. But I had already begun the work to think about, well, what what do you name this new company? And that’s where I made a huge mistake. And, you know, what products would we have and all the rest of it? And so, I mean, I worked as I told one person, I said, I was working half time, 12 hours a day.
Unknown Speaker 30:40
Exactly.
Bill Esteb 30:42
On the new business to come up with, you know, our videos and our brochures and, and, you know, just the next generation and I could now learn from what I’d done before. Okay, I’m not gonna I’m not gonna call it subluxation degeneration. I’m going to call it spinal decay. And, you know, there was just some things that I was was able to leave behind by starting over and so it really shakes up the cobwebs and blows up the carbon and I highly recommend that to just do it anyway, reinvent yourself from time to time and, and and look at the world through fresh eyes.
Jeremy Weisz 31:16
Is that time we’re deep? was it called patient media or was there
Bill Esteb 31:20
it was called patient me as soon as I started started over Yeah, called a patient and the objective was that I would be creating this type of patient education material for many disciplines. dentistry along with nature paths and other you know, vitalist type of healthcare. It didn’t turn out that way in that I just covered that. dentistry doesn’t. You can get free brochures from Procter and Gamble or palmolive or Colgate or what have you. And so, the notion of selling brochures to dentists seemed to be a kind of a headwind Same with posters and some of the other tools that I’ve done uncovered. So, the whole because dentistry has Expendables, and there are vendors that provide those things as kind of a service. I found that that didn’t end didn’t pursue that but, but really dug in deep in Chiropractic and tried to try to reinvent things and had some success.
But ran out of money.
Unknown Speaker 32:28
So with patient media,
Unknown Speaker 32:31
what are the most popular
Unknown Speaker 32:34
offerings now?
Bill Esteb 32:36
I would say that all of the materials that we
create surrounding the report of findings
we’re just finding that that that seems to be the sweet spot of where people are willing to. chiropractors will spend money on things that they think hold the promise of producing new patients. And things that can help a patient understand what chiropractic is, and follow the care program. And that’s that’s pretty much what we’re doing now. Is those two, two categories. Yeah. And then you shifted the dentist when you said you ran out of money for the dentist portion. I ran out of money a patient media. Okay, I had gotten a check at the closing that I thought would get me through the new product creation for
Unknown Speaker 33:40
30 months. And
Bill Esteb 33:47
it lasted nine months. Hmm, slight miscalculation.
Unknown Speaker 33:53
Wow. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz 33:55
So then what do you do? I mean, obviously, it’s still alive and thriving now. So tell
Unknown Speaker 33:59
ya, we He got through it.
Bill Esteb 34:03
But it wasn’t pretty. And
Unknown Speaker 34:08
probably the
Bill Esteb 34:10
the most important thing from that.
And I think this probably is worth sharing with other business owners is that what I discovered that I was so stressed that I had that I’d read enough success literature to know that one of the ways to deal with stress is to increase your physical ability to accommodate stress. And that meant vigorous physical activity. And so I began, I began jogging, and I’m at 7000 feet. So the first time I went out jogging, I ran 900 feet, and
Jeremy Weisz 34:53
like, I need an oxygen tank.
Bill Esteb 34:54
That’s right. And I walked and then I ran and walked and I ran and You know, made it back and you know, the endorphins kicked in. And I could give a rip about the fact that I couldn’t pay my bills, you know, for an hour or two. But you know, you wake up in the middle of the night, wondering how you’re going to make payroll and you can’t tell your employees that you’re you don’t know how to make payroll because you need them more than ever to be able to help you get through this crunch. And so you really feel isolated and alone. And, but religiously, I’d go out every day and go running. And it got to the point where, I don’t know two months or so into this little exercise. I was running, I don’t know, five miles a day and coming back, not winded, I could carry on the conversation and I was in pretty good shape, you know, pulse down in the 50s. And you know, it was it was very healthy, but I still had a lot of stress
and
on one particular run, I ran the same trip, I’m out in rural area. So I’m running on these country roads. And I made the same loop every time. And I remember on one run, I heard a voice saying, you know, Bill, based upon how well insured you are, you’d actually be worth more to your family dead than alive. And you had a kind of a ring of truth to it, you know, that would certainly solve all the financial issues based on no insurance at all. And so I kind of played with that for a couple of runs and developed an idea about how I would go about doing that. So that it would look like an accident, so that it would involve as few people as possible and all the rest of it and came up with a plan that that I think thought could be pretty effective. Of course, I didn’t do it.
Unknown Speaker 37:05
But
Bill Esteb 37:07
at the same time, I heard another voice on one of the runs. And this voice speaks in very short declarative sentences. And I said, you know, Bill, you’ve made patient media about you. That was that that was all I was like, out of the blue
and
Run along. What do you mean I’m making it about me and I started I just it’s really stayed with me. And so I started becoming more mindful of my language and I would catch myself saying so how do you like my new videos or how do you like my new posters or Hey, have you met my staff? And I started hearing mee mee mee mee mee a lot.
Unknown Speaker 37:58
And I’m kind of embarrassed now to even
Unknown Speaker 38:01
relay this but
Bill Esteb 38:04
I remember where I was, I remember them all because where the light was the sun the hair. I remember I say,
I’m going to make patient media about chiropractors, not about me, it’s about being in service
Unknown Speaker 38:20
and
Bill Esteb 38:22
I felt like a weight lifted for some reason but and I can’t say what day that was. But I suppose if you checked the phone records, you could figure it out because suddenly the phone started ringing and I got a call from a very important consultant in chiropractic Hey, will you come speak to my group and show those videos and you know, I think I think our our, our, our clients need these videos and it is like the light, the floodgates have opened up. And I finally realized them that I wasn’t In the patient education business, I was in the chiropractor, success business. And so that’s the lens that I look through. And, you know, all of that startup debt is gone. You know, we’re, we’re in great shape, we’re moving forward. And, and it’s been a real blessing. But But you know, it was it was a couple of dark, pretty dark months there for a while.
Jeremy Weisz 39:25
Bill, first of all, thanks for sharing that. That’s an intense, intense story. So I’m, you know, truly appreciate it that night, especially if anyone’s listening to this, when there’s a crisis going on. I you know, I think everyone can appreciate distress of any business owner and what they’re going through. So, you know, that’s, thank you for sharing that. And I love what you said about, you know, floodgates started opening up when you were in service, and maybe that’s what all of us should think about in in any crisis or right now is when we start to get stressed out, well, how can we be in service to others? in general? You know, and take the focus off ourselves.
Bill Esteb 40:06
Well, yeah, you know, one of the things that, again, it goes back to self talk. One of the things that I encounter frequently with chiropractors who are going through a rough patch, is that the self talk to themselves is I need more new patients. It becomes a mantra, I need more new patients, more new patients solves all problems, right? Oh, it’ll solve hangnails. It’ll solve cleaning your toilets. It’ll do everything for you. And it’s true that enough business will cover up a multitude of sins, no question about it. But what happens when you say to yourself, I need more new patients or I need more customers or whatever it is, what happens is that the universe acquiesces and gives you a need for more new patients. And so I recognize that in myself and so one of the things I see started doing as a mantra was,
who else can I help? I mean, I would say that to myself
2050 times a day, and how else can I help would be another way that I would say it.
And because I work at home, the other mantra that I would frequently repeat to myself is what’s the most important thing I can do right now? Because it’s so tempting to get ahead of ourselves, you know, two weeks, two months, two years out, what’s the most important thing in the next five minutes that I should be doing? And those those those mantras, those self talk declarations are actually questions. Were very, very helpful in keeping me on track and being having a service mentality.
Jeremy Weisz 41:50
Yeah, yeah. And so people get you know, I want to talk also about perfect patients and what you do there but you know, from the patient media side You know, the reports, posters, video, audio, all sorts of things from front desk related things. And anything else on the patient media front that we should mention before talking a little bit about perfect patients?
Bill Esteb 42:18
Oh, sure. I mean, the only thing I think probably is that one of the things that I’ve done that I love doing is doing one hour telephone consultations. I make the distinction between consulting and coaching. I have a coach, everyone needs a coach. A coach is about accountability about maximizing and optimizing your performance and, you know, kind of urging you on from the sidelines and helping you think in new ways, which I distinguish between that and consulting, which is what I typically do, which is about short term problem solving, getting a new point of view when you’re trying to you get you’re at a crossroads, and you need some Some some help with making a decision. Because I don’t I don’t want to give someone I can plan, but I will help them reach the conclusion that that is beneficial for them. And I’ve been doing that now for Gosh, I know 10 years or so. And the fee is nominal and just enough so that people pay attention and might actually act on what we talk about. If people don’t
Jeremy Weisz 43:23
pay, they don’t pay attention. Yeah,
Bill Esteb 43:25
that’s been my experience. Yeah. I mean, I would do it away. I do it for free if I could. But it would be doing the customer or the totally group a disservice. Yeah, totally agree.
Jeremy Weisz 43:35
Yeah. So there is you know, there there is a tab on the patient media site, if you go to headspace, which is appropriate. And then there’s a drop down chiropractic consulting. And there’s It looks like you have the distinction there between coaching and consulting there. That’s right. And I imagine people can email I don’t know if you want to, to say the best email or just send them directly to that website.
Bill Esteb 43:59
Thank you. They need to read probably read how the gig works because they set the agenda and there’s some other ground rules. It’s not not a big deal, but they just basically, you know, set up a time that works convenient for both of us. And off we go.
Jeremy Weisz 44:13
Yeah, to get on the phone with you for that amount of time for that is a absolute steal. So I would contact him before he comes to his senses and raising his prices, actually,
Bill Esteb 44:25
so you should I should raise prices. Is that what you’re saying? I mean,
Jeremy Weisz 44:29
I’m not gonna say because, okay, I’ll book a call with you. So you can raise it after I’ve, I’m grandfathered in. But um, yeah, so check that out. I’m coaching in consult. I love the distinction there. And so perfect patience. Yeah. Perfect patience. When is that born?
Bill Esteb 44:48
That came.
Well, if you go back to the beginning, it came. It started in 1997. I was speaking in Hobart, Tasmania. To the Australian chiropractic Association, and I was doing a one day seminar and one of the things that they asked me to do was to do the after dinner talk. Everyone’s eating rubber chicken and someone there to talk to Jabra for a little bit. And so I did that. And in the audience, of course, I didn’t know this. But you know, you’re in this ballroom darkened with all these, you know, 20 rounds of people sitting out there and fella by name of Steve Anson was sitting there at one of the rounds with his spouse was a chiropractor, and heard me speak and I did a 1520 minute talk on it was picked up on gerrymanders of four arguments against the four arguments for the elimination of television. I was doing my rant about being anti media, and he shared similar ideas as it turned out to be He resonated with what my talk was, of course, I didn’t know that and, and all but time passed. And he was in the process of creating a website for his spouse for her practice. And he says, we’ll go ahead. And so he got it got all the stuff together and, and hey, I need content for this website and who does kind of how do I get my hands on content? And he remembered that Converse that that talk? Well, let’s step has context. So he calls me out of the blue in I want to say may of 2000 for any
Unknown Speaker 46:41
early internet days at that point,
Bill Esteb 46:42
it was but but at that stage, I was delighted because all the other patient education resources in the analog world had already kind of partnered up with someone in the digital realm. And so I was kind of the last one without a doubt partner and he said, Hey, I want to do this website, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we talked, I mean, this guy, thick Australian accent and which, you know, we Americans love and but we talked for an hour on the telephone, and this is a landline and so that was an expensive call back in that day, and but we just really hit it off on the phone and, and so I said, Hey, I’m going to be speaking in Auckland, New Zealand in September, and that’s not exactly halfway between Colorado and Perth, Australia, which is where he, he lives. And he is maybe you know, you can fly over and we can we can talk. And so he took me up on that. And for two or three days while I was recovering from jet lag, we sat in my hotel room and talked and talked and talked and we’d read the same books had the same value system. We you know, I wanted to make sure that I That a chiropractic website wasn’t just brochure were that it needs to be interactive and on and on and on. And you know, we just really really hit it off. And so that’s kind of the the formation of what became known as, as perfect patience.
Jeremy Weisz 48:18
So no people it’s a hard domain to get it feels like you must have you know, perfect patience. That’s a great website, man.
Bill Esteb 48:25
Thank you. Yeah. And and someone already had perfect patient, which they’ve since sold to us. But yeah, that was a that was a good, a good name.
Jeremy Weisz 48:38
So people can go there and they can essentially get their own website. And it looks I mean, if you look on their site, there’s beautiful looking websites. And more importantly, obviously, like you mentioned the beginning. It helps with conversion, because you can see at the top, you know, they have all the elements to actually schedule an A appointment so not only does it look good, but I’m sure the it’s been optimized for conversion as well. On this, this is specifically for chiropractors to perfect patients and
Bill Esteb 49:14
yeah and other allied health care that’s in the vitalistic realm on nature paths acupuncturists massage yeah that sort of thing.
Jeremy Weisz 49:24
Yeah, yeah. And so people can easily get their website up and running with content all the other any you know, through your journey and perfect patients. features that you added because of your discovery. I’m sure it’s evolved perfect patience and the sights and what you what you produce ripple has evolved. In the present state, what have you found to be you’ve added in because you’ve listened to you the audience that they have found it valuable? Well, no
Unknown Speaker 50:02
You know, if I know it’s gonna produce a good answer both a guy
Bill Esteb 50:06
Well, he goes back to the the, the Henry Ford quote, you know that if I ask people what they wanted, they want a faster horse. And there’s a Steve Jobs quote that goes along the same line as well. So one of the things that we decided from the very beginning and which was somewhat controversial, particularly amongst our team, was that we decided that we would refuse to match other website companies feature for feature that there is this belief that more is more. And what we discovered was that like most things, there’s kind of an 8020 thing going on. And what we wanted to do was we wanted if if the feature did not help get a patient or keep a patient, it wasn’t part of the platform. That’s simple. So people, pummelos for real, you need this or you need that, or, you know, this guy down the street, they’re offering this one on, you know, and, and we just decided that no, that that’s, that’s a shiny object very attractive. But we’re not going there because it’s not going to produce the response. It’s just, it’s just one more child, you have to feed and update and keep alive and it’s not doing anything for your practice. So, from time to time, we’ve had some some come to Jesus conversations with our clients about this very issue that when we talk him down off the ledge, they get it and for the most part, totally agree.
Jeremy Weisz 51:41
Yeah, we’re the same with the podcast clients is like we have what’s called an ROI filter, okay, if it’s going to produce ROI, we’ll consider it. If it’s not, don’t do it. And the same thing goes with your websites. Listen, if it’s not serving the mission of your website, which is converting And, you know, essentially conversion getting someone to call book an appointment, then we shouldn’t include it don’t clutter it up with things that you know are going to clutter it up. So I totally agree in resonates. You also have on their services you offer different services, not just the website,
Bill Esteb 52:19
right? Well, because we recognize that there’s five elements to successful digital marketing, you know, the website, obviously is the hub most important of all, you have to have traffic to that website. That’s SEO. You want to make sure that you have a reputation that reviews are more important than ever today. You’re going to need to be involved in social media to a certain degree, we’re not real keen on social media because again, it doesn’t really produce new patients. It tends to cultivate your current community, but it it Our research shows that it doesn’t really produce new patients directly and then of course, email. So those five things if you get if you get all five Have those firing? You’re up to something.
Jeremy Weisz 53:04
And so that they can do get email marketing within the service. That’s right.
Unknown Speaker 53:09
Yeah. Yeah, that’s cool. And content. Yeah. Yeah, we, we do
Bill Esteb 53:18
two blog posts a month and we do a patient newsletter to patients once a month. Love it. Yeah.
Jeremy Weisz 53:26
So check out perfect patients calm and then the dental side of things.
Bill Esteb 53:31
Yes, mom, same thing. Same thing, but smell marketing out.
Yeah. And so that is specific to dental, dental professional. That’s right. We have a couple of dentists that are that are in that but for the most part, it’s it’s it’s typical dentists.
Jeremy Weisz 53:51
Well, first of all I wanted I have one last question. And, but before I ask it, just thank you. Thanks for your time. Thanks for sharing your journey. with me and everyone else, and it’s been, you know, really eye opening and helpful, especially during what we’re going through whatever people are going through right now whenever they’re listening, but right now, you know, constantly needing to adapt in any type of crisis mode. So, appreciate your perspective and advice on that. So the last question is more just in general about when you look back, you know, I always ask this inspired insider and you talked about, like a really low moment for you as you’re going on those runs and how you push through that. So I appreciate you sharing that. On the flip side, what’s been especially proud moment
Unknown Speaker 54:47
for you
Unknown Speaker 54:49
on this journey.
Bill Esteb 54:55
You know, I’m not sure that I would call it pride
Because the fall comes after that, but
what was particularly inspiring for me happened
a year ago, almost a little over a year ago now. I have really had a really good friend, chiropractor in Yakima, Washington, James mill iron, and he and I and his wife Gina, we met when we were both involved in speaking on a seminar in Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia. It’s a wonderful place. It’s just as great as it sounds. And we were doing a seminar there and we got to know each other and we became fast friends, this was b 1988. So he he was kind of a sounding board for me in terms of chiropractic, and
he was a special person who
Unknown Speaker 56:03
passed away
Bill Esteb 56:06
last year ago September, and you’re them. Yeah. And and I was one of seven individuals who was invited to share a few words, which I’d never done before at a at a life’s life’s, you know, celebration meeting which isn’t the point. But what was the point was that because of James’s service because of his heart because of his love for people and service to patients.
Unknown Speaker 56:43
For his life ceremony, they
Bill Esteb 56:46
they had to rent the convention center in Yakima, Washington, for the 500 people in that community that showed up to say thank you and goodbye. That has stayed with me ever since. And, gosh, if I could ever wield that sort of influence and to share that much love with that many people I mean that would that’d be a full life. And that’s that’s what I that’s what I keep my eye on now.
Jeremy Weisz 57:19
Hmm what was what was the lesson you learned from him?
Bill Esteb 57:24
live life to the full because life is a gift. He would say life is a gift. I mean, that would just that was his his deal. And his dinner table always had a guest. There was he just grabbed life to the full and he was, he was he was a renaissance man. He was a poet. He was a horseman. He was a sailor. He was a chiropractor. He was he was a wine official. ganado he was, he was he, he just was gentle. And
he was a chiropractor’s chiropractor. Hmm.
Jeremy Weisz 58:12
Bill, I want to be the first one to thank you everyone should check out patient media calm, they should check out perfect patients calm and also smile, marketing, calm any other places we should point people to online if you are a dentist or a chiropractor and you actually want some, like, almost almost done for you stuff to actually, you know, convert in and help your practice, check out those sites, any other any other places, but we should point people
Bill Esteb 58:41
well, you know, I would love to have a conversation with anyone who’s made it through this hour. And I’m extremely available and we’d love to get your emails and questions and we’ll talk you know, it’s, I’m here to serve.
Jeremy Weisz 58:57
Should we just point to the contact on the website or Have a you
Bill Esteb 59:01
know or just build a patient media.com I mean that’s or bill a perfect patient calm or bill at smile marketing.com Same deal.
Jeremy Weisz 59:08
So, Bill, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you.
