Following Your Passion

Episode 937: Following Your Passion, with Drs. Brandon and Heather Credeur

Following your passion, a podcast with Drs. Brandon and Heather Credeur. Learn how to experience powerful growth once you’re following your passion.

If you start focusing and following your passion, there’s no doubt you will achieve greater growth than where you are now. Tune-in to this podcast and listen to some solid advice from our guest expert for today, Drs. Brandon and Heather Credeur.

Drs. Brandon and Heather Credeur are two of the most successful Functional Medicine practitioners and entrepreneurs in history. Their passion, entrepreneurial acumen, and good ole fashion southern work ethic allowed them to build one the largest, if not the largest, single office cash practice in the history of Functional Medicine.

More importantly, their business success allowed them to be able to help tens of thousands of chronically ill patients return to health and escape a broken and destructive healthcare system. The Credeurs are steadfast proponents of functional medicine and getting to the root cause of disease. They are fierce advocates for this model of healthcare in their day-to-day actions and efforts, and they have been healthcare warriors at the regulatory, legislative and legal levels.

Through their coaching, consulting, and mentorship their expertise and wisdom have also been used to train hundreds of FM providers in what they call The FM Success Formula. Drs. Brandon and Heather Credeur believe that Functional Medicine should be Fun, Successful, and most of all Impactful.

What you will learn from this episode about following your passion:

• How Brandon and Heather discovered their focus on Functional Medicine, and why Heather’s own experience with health issues served as motivation to follow this passion
• What early difficulties they faced after starting their practice, and how they had to discover a working business model and learn to run a business
• How following your passion will open you to new opportunities that are essential for your growth
• How they realized they didn’t know business leadership skills they needed, and how they sought mentorship and training to fill in those gaps
• How Brandon and Heather decided to pivot away from a traditional practice/Functional Medicine hybrid and focus on their passion, and how doing so created powerful growth
• How they turned their focus to three interconnected niches in Functional Medicine: patients with type II diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and cognitive decline
• How Brandon and Heather transitioned to coaching and coaching other doctors in the practice of Functional Medicine through their FM Shift platform
• How their coaching business hit the ground running and has since grown and expanded beyond their expectations
• How the FM Shift business scope has changed over time, and what the business and training platform looks like today
• How Brandon was confronted with a tough reality that made a huge impact and helped him course correct and get out of his own way to becoming an expert
• What important mentoring lesson Heather learned that taught her to reframe her mindset and create new opportunities
• What are the steps to take to start your journey on following your passion

Resources:

• Website: https://thefmshift.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fmshift/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/heather-credeur-dc-1a868b7/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-credeur-4536471a2/
• Listen to this podcast on what following your passion is all about

Additional Resources:

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Listen to a similar podcast about following your passion with our guest, Joe Battista

 

 

Following Your Passion: Full Episode Transcript

 

Get ready to find your recipe for success about following your passion from America’s top business owners here at Onward Nation with your host, Stephen Woessner.

 

Good morning. I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation, where I interview today’s top business owners so we can learn their recipe for success, how they built and how they scaled their business. In fact, my team at Predictive ROI, what we have been very, very busy in 2020 with our goal of trying to double down.

 

You may recall that in 2019, our goal as we stepped into the new year was to double down. Check that off the list. And we decided to keep that as our goal for 2020. And so part of that is a commitment to be even better Onward Nation, and be even more helpful to you by further building out our resources section on PredictiveROI.com.

 

So you can now go and download free practical and tactical guides for everything from how to create your ideal client avatar, how to land your dream clients, and even our new business to business podcasting, for profit secrets, e-book, and a whole bunch of other success strategies that we have compiled from the brilliant insights shared by our very generous guest.

 

So just go to PredictiveROI.com/Resources, and whatever your request, we will send it right to your inbox. 

 

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Following Your Passion: Drs Brandon and Heather Credeur’s Introduction

 

Before we welcome today’s very special guests, Doctors Brandon and Heather Credeur. Let me share some additional context about why, when Brandon and Heather said yes, to join me for this conversation in front of you Onward Nation. I was super excited for this opportunity to talk with both of them and learn more about their path and journey, because they have done, in my opinion, what most business owners dream and aspire to do.

 

And that is so they’re both functional medicine doctors. They have built a very successful practice. And then what happened was as the practice, you continued to grow in scale. They needed to learn new things. They needed to learn about staffing challenges and marketing challenges. And it is just the litany of things that we all have to deal with as we build and scale.

 

But then other functional medicine doctors or other doctors in other disciplines took note, saw what was going on, and said, hey, could you do that for me? Like, could you help me become a functional medicine doctor? Build a practice like how you guys have built a practice. Could you help me do that? And so, you know, initially it started as sure.

 

Oh okay. Can help you do that. And then it started to grow and then grow even further and then turn into events and mastermind groups and all of this litany of new revenue streams, all built on this solid foundation of point of view being super niched and also this expertise, the thought leadership of planting their flag and then building a position of authority around that.

 

So we’re going to talk about that, their path and journey as not only business owners, but also being able to plant this flag firmly in the dirt and say, this is what we do, this is who we do it for. And then building a position of authority around that flag. So without further ado, Brandon and Heather, welcome to Onward Nation.

 

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Following Your Passion: The Starting Path

 

I’m really excited to be joining you on this podcast. Hey, Stephen. Hey Onward Nation, thanks for having us. Really appreciated, excited and honored to be here. I really appreciate both of you saying yes. So thank you very much for that. Before we dive into the litany of questions that are just buzzing around that I want to be able to ask you on behalf of Onward Nation business owners before we do that, actually take us behind the curtain and tell us more about your path, your journey, some foundation or context here that we’ll build on in the rest of a conversation.

 

So take us behind the curtain first. I think our path really started meeting in graduate school as we were becoming doctors and, sort of developing, being lucky enough to figure out what our passions really were and health care space, you know, we were functional medicine doctors before functional medicine was even a term.

 

And it just resonated with us not only from a business model, but how we wanted to live and build our life. And Heather and I shared those values, intimately between ourselves and knew that’s where we were headed. And, and that sort of just sort of blossomed into what we wanted to deliver to the healthcare marketplace, etc..

 

And that’s really kind of how we started. You know, it was very clear. It became very clear to us that we needed to do this for the world. and, and I think more than that, it was, you know, the contrast of what we wanted to do against the current broken and destructive health care model as we see it was something that really struck a nerve with us.

 

It was almost something that created a negative emotion, if you will. It created a in it, through gasoline on the fire. We, you know, as we learned all about, what we could do from a health care perspective for chronically ill people. And we saw what was actually being done to the masses and what was not being provided for the masses and the outcome of that.

 

It really just further anchored us into what we really wanted to do to help our communities. Okay. So, Heather, anything else to add to that? Well, I think for me, on a personal level, I dealt with some health issues myself personally. And so that’s what made me go into this direction in the first place.

 

But I will also say that, you know, for us doing functional medicine in our own way, we’re chiropractors by degree. And in the chiropractic profession, nobody really did this type of work. at least they didn’t build their whole businesses around what we were passionate about. And this was completely opposite of what traditional medicine was about. So we had to really navigate, create, figure it out, like, how do we put this into the mainstream so that we can reach as many people as we can?

 

And I’ll dovetail off of that. I mean, when we got out in practice, I remember we graduated and I can’t remember the date. It was August 16th, and we literally packed up a U-Haul from Dallas, Texas and moved to Denver with basically first month’s rent being paid, one and a half cars and, you know, we we didn’t have a, you know, what the PBN and, or a window to throw it out of.

 

And we just had a lot of passion. We had a lot of belief in ourselves. And I think also what was interesting is we were both very, very skilled clinicians. Like we worked really hard to gain the tools that we needed to help people with chronic illnesses. but we were a little naive to think that that would carry the day.

 

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Following Your Passion: Starting The Practice and Career

 

So when we started our practice and started our career, it was difficult in the beginning. I remember, you know, at one point we lived in a very small apartment that was built in the 1920s. And, I remember coming back, I worked as an independent contractor in a natural grocery store on the top of it, and coming home one day, Heather looked at me, saying, hey, something to the effect that the rent is due.

 

And by the look on her face, the money was not in the account. Yeah. Those are those fun, candid conversations early on in the business. and I’m sure many business owners just nodded their heads because many of us have experienced the same things and the emotionality of it. And it’s not fun but it often serves as a part of the story.

 

It’s not fun at the moment. Now you can look back on it. It’s still not fun, but it adds a lot of context to the story. And so when you started your practice, am I, am I tracking with you correctly that you started as you started the functional medicine practice right away? Or was it a chiropractic practice that then morphed into functional medicine?

 

Well, when we first started our practice, we were kind of doing chiropractic and also some functional medicine, and we didn’t really know the business model or how to make it work. And, you know, anybody that’s in a is a health care professional in school. They do not teach you how to run a business. It’s like your shingle.

 

And then if you’re really good clinically then you’re just going to be successful. Which, you know, we didn’t really find that to be true at all. So we had to really get into it. We were first in a chiropractic space, and then we had to just go with our gut and kind of leap into this functional medicine space and figure it out.

 

There was a point in time where we could not no longer deny where our passion was. And why we had to listen to the message. And, as Heather mentioned, we kind of had a hybrid type practice between the more traditional services that a chiropractor offers and the more, in my opinion, the more advanced services that we do in functional medicine.

 

And, you know, it was a while. I mean, it was a couple years of struggling with the idea that we weren’t fully invested in the thing that we were most passionate about, and we were smart enough to know that we didn’t know the things we needed to know, that became very clear very quickly. And we were looking for mentors and coaches and consultants and people who could kind of show us the path.

 

And because we were sort of and I don’t mean this from an ego perspective, sort of pioneers. We were sort of the first ones, as Heather mentioned, to build our business around that. There were no people out there teaching this, so we had to cobble together on our own and that’s that, you know, looking back, even though that was difficult and sometimes a little bit lonely, it was probably the best thing for us because of, you know, if you look at where we are today.

 

But I remember, you know, struggling with this for, for many years, as I mentioned, and woke up one morning and I’m sure most of the listeners have had this experience and maybe even multiple times in their life where an idea you woke up with this idea that was so crystal clear that that sort of created an emotion in you, a feeling within you that you knew you had to do it.

 

And I think for most people who had those experiences, they ignore it, they wait, and it eventually goes away. But for whatever reason, I woke up with this idea, this, this new model, this business model, complete with headlines and marketing and a business plan and the whole nine yards. And, you know, Heather and I really embraced it.

 

And I went to the coffee shop for a couple of days in a row. So don’t expect me back at any given time. And, I basically built out the entire business model. And, in six weeks, I think we catapulted our practice. Like, you know, we would never imagine. And we never looked back since. Okay. So let’s go into that, a little bit more because when you said, ego, I don’t think it’s ego at all.

 

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Following Your Passion: Hiring a Business Coach

 

I think what you’re sharing here, puts really the guts of that decision in, in crystal focus. And what I mean by that is right here. The parallel with Onward Nation business owners is that we’ve all probably had the feeling of I’m too broad, I sound like everybody else. I mean, I’m swimming in a sea of other chiropractors and it doesn’t align with my passion.

 

How can I niche down? We know that we need to get more focused on our passion and being helpful in what drives us. And all of that. However, Geez, I’m going to be. Aren’t I going to be giving up so much opportunity if I do that by going more narrow? What I love about what the two of you have the guts to do, because really, it takes so much courage, is that there were no proven business models.

 

There wasn’t, you know, Mr. or Miss Mentor that you could pick up the phone and call. You guys had to hack it out of the wilderness on your own, and at the same time potentially give up another opportunity that was currently paying the bills in order to niche down. Am I tracking you? Yeah, I think it’s exactly right.

 

And it was scary. And we had other, you know, successful business people that we were in communication with and they were like, oh, don’t do that. You know, you really shouldn’t do that. That’s, you know, that’s really outside of, you know, chiropractic. But for us, it was our passion and it was in our scope of practice. But one of the things that I think helped us become really successful is that we knew that we didn’t know how to really run a business.

 

Like, I had no idea what a balance sheet was, what a profit loss statement was. So we hired a business coach that wasn’t in our industry. So we hired like a true business coach that taught us, you know, how to set goals, how to really refine our dreams, how to read those panels and balance sheets and, you know, all of that stuff so that we could actually make business decisions off of educated decisions and not just kind of flying by the seat of your pants.

 

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Following Your Passion: When The Marketing Started to Pay Off

 

Okay. So why having expertise outside of your industry, why do you think that adds so much value to what you’re doing? Well, because I think in the industry everybody does what everybody does. And so we were trying to do what nobody had ever done before. And so we wanted a fresh approach, somebody that could look in on what we were doing with no bias, without having done anything in the healthcare field that really uses this as a business opportunity and creates a true viable business model.

 

Okay. So give our audience some, some context in the timeline here. So you know how many years between when you know, as Brandon described, went to the coffee shop a couple days, really built out this new business model. How many years was it? A couple of years. Three years of running the practice that was, you know, more chiropractic was some function about like how long had the practice been in operation before making this big pivot?

 

Yeah, it was about two years, you know, or thereabouts is where we kind of reached our limit. Okay. And so and now you’ve been running the functional medicine practice for I think it’s like ten plus years right. Almost 20. Oh my gosh. Wow, was I off. Holy bananas. Okay. It’s been 20 years since Onward Nation.

 

And so a 20 year tenure obviously doesn’t happen by accident. So at what age? And or maybe it was months in, but how many years in after the pivot, would you say that you started gaining traction? Maybe it was immediately, maybe it took a few years about how long was that? Honestly, it was immediately.

 

It was quite a ride. And I think one of the reasons was we tapped into something that was needed. We were the front end of something that really would ultimately gain traction industry wide. And so we became, you know, one of one. And, we kind of had our way with the market, if you will, from a messaging perspective, we really didn’t have any competition.

 

And it seemed like and I think this is accurate, it was that we were doubling our sales and our impact every month, month in and month out to the extent that, as time went on, we were still rapidly growing, during the Great Recession. I mean, it didn’t even it didn’t we didn’t even feel it almost didn’t know it was going on.

 

But I will say that once the marketing was really working, because Brandon’s really good at copywriting, and he went with his gut with all the stuff that he, you know, figured out with the messaging. But that worked. But there was a lot of refining, figuring out the processes, figuring out the systems. figuring out every single step of the patient’s experience as they worked their way through the process.

 

So that has been built and continues to be built and refined over the years. And, you know, now we work with patients that have type two diabetes, autoimmune diseases and cognitive decline. So really the only three niches are that each of those processes have their own nuances and their own messaging and their own, it’s almost like their own business model within our model.

 

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Following Your Passion: Stabilizing The Business Model

 

I think Heather brings up a good point because, I mean, we all know that in business, if you’re lucky enough to hit something at the right time, you can generate revenue. You can make a difference, you can do good things. But if you’re not studious of what you’re doing, it could all fall apart. And Heather’s really good to me.

 

She’s really the architect of what created the stability of our business model, because she’s really good at laying in systems and understanding systems and seeing where things are not where they should be and where things are breaking down. So over the years, despite our financial success, we were still hard at work and I created a ton of stability for us when the competition would eventually keep up.

 

We still, you know, we’re kind of the rulers of that market, for lack of a better way of describing it. Well, you just shared another huge golden nugget here for our listeners, and that was while a number of different things. But what I really key in on was when you mentioned the three niches and, and so these three niches there, well, from a layman’s perspective, unique and different in and of themselves, but in a and I’m in my guesses of probably not the case, but there’s the functional medicine and your expertise within that is the connective tissue between all three of those.

 

And so it isn’t like you’re doing three completely different things. Obviously treating three different sets in three niches. But it’s the functional medicine expertise that wraps and connects to all three of these, if I’m understanding correctly. Yes. Or my office. And, you know, obviously it allowed us to sort of narrow in our language and our message to those markets like we markets, we got a chance to really learn who they were, what their pain was, what problems they needed solved, what their life experience was like.

 

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Following Your Passion: Building a Good Rapport

 

We got a really good opportunity to understand how to build good rapport with that market, and even to the point of researching the market, and using the same language that they use when they talk about their condition. I think that was very powerful as well. Right? Because then you’re not sounding like everyone else who is trying to attract that same prospective patient, you’re speaking their language, their lingo, like you said, building rapport right away.

 

So it’s distinctive. It’s unique when somebody reads that, it’s like, wow, Brandon and Heather, they really get me. They understand where I’m at, how I’m feeling and so forth. Why would I go anywhere else? Right. Yeah, I mean, I think the time of the general practitioner is long gone, you know, in the healthcare space. And I think a lot of that, similar sentiment can be said about a lot of industries. I think more than ever now the consumer is looking for someone, a specialist, if you will.

 

Not that we would call ourselves a specialist, but someone that does specifically what they need to have done. Right? Right. Well, okay. So you have built a successful functional medicine practice over the last couple of decades. Obviously that is impressive in and of itself. And then how did the FMS shift grow out of that?

 

Or maybe alongside it would be a better way to describe it. Like at what point did you know the eyebrows of other docs start getting raised and they start thinking, you know, when the two of you started this, there wasn’t anybody who could teach and coach and mentor and, and provide mastermind groups. So, how did that start happening where people started saying, hey, could you do that for me?

 

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Following Your Passion: Create a Teaching Platform for Those Interested with Your Process

 

Well, we were originally part of a mastermind and we always kind of shared what we were doing, you know, how’s everybody doing? What are they doing that is successful? And so when we shared our initial success with diabetes, some people just asked, like, what are you doing? So we just shared that. And then the next meeting came by and, you know, we stood up and said how we’re doing and what’s been going on great in our life, and we shared more of our success.

 

And then a couple of our colleagues were like, you have to teach us. And Brandon and I were like, I don’t know if it’s solid yet for us to teach you. And of course, we didn’t have, like, the systems all written down because I was still refining and creating all the systems. But we said, all right, we’re going to use this opportunity to write down all of the systems and create a teaching platform.

 

So we started with a really small group like 4 or 5 colleagues so that we could kind of beta test it. We had to make sure that it wasn’t just something that we were doing or it wasn’t just only Brandon and Heather could do it or personality driven. How do we create the system so that anybody can do it?

 

And the cool thing is that we pressure tested this and we put two people in our town as competition, and we all did really great.

 

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Following Your Passion: How to Build and Scale

 

That is awesome. Yeah. Okay. So 4 to 5 colleagues I love the pressure testing. That is really cool. So how long would you say that you were in beta with the 4 to 5 colleagues? And then the pressure testing before you really knew you had something? Yeah, I think maybe about a year. I think it was, you know, after maybe the first 3 to 4 months of these colleagues launching, that part of their business and seeing their success, their early success, we really had a feel like, hey, we have something here.

 

This is not just personality driven. This, like other people, can do it as well. Wow. Okay, so now take us back to the 12 months of beta testing. You’re feeling pretty good about, you know, the results that the four, two, five, 4 to 5 colleagues, you know, the beta testers received. So then what were some of the next decisions that the two of you had to make?

 

As far as now, where do we take this? How do we build and scale? Was it something that you wanted to grow very quickly where you take a more conservative approach? Take us into some of those early on building and scaling decisions? Yeah. I mean, when it became clear that this is something that others could do as well, I mean, it was so nice because we, we, we could easily see that we could help our colleagues, grow their practice, but more importantly, our mission.

 

Heather NIH’s mission has always been to change the face of health care. And, you know, when you’re working in practice, you see very quickly that your time, energy and resources are fairly limited relative to that bigger goal. And so it was very clear to us this would be a way for us to continue to change the lives of so many other patients that we would never directly contact, and further that mission of changing the face of health care.

 

So we just took a step really, to create a formal business, formal coaching, consulting business. And I remember, our first event, we did what was called a Discovery Day at the time, and we invited and did some basic marketing, to the profession. And, I can still see the room of our first event in Las Vegas.

 

And, I think we maybe had 20, 25 doctors in the room, and we did our presentation, and the program was not cheap. and it’s not and it is not cheap based on, you know, what, we knew we could deliver from a business perspective for these folks. It was essentially a $200,000 coaching program. And so we were bold and, man, I don’t remember exactly, but we converted, and got maybe more than half 60, 65, 70% of the room as clients at that time.

 

And we were off and running. I mean, you know, we took the 4 or 5 beta testers and put another ten. I can’t remember exactly what it was, maybe ten, 12, 15 new clients on immediately. Okay. Let me give that back to you and make sure I’m tracking with you correctly. So after the initial beta testers, 4 to 5, my guess is you went back through and refined the systems even further and so forth and then realized, hey, I think we’ve got something here for having a formal coaching and consulting business.

 

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Following Your Passion: Running a Successful Program

 

Then you decided to have your first event in Las Vegas. 25 doctors attend. And then from that, you’re able to, to have another 10 or 12 join the initial 4 or 5. So now you’ve got about 15, 16. I think I heard you say, though, that the package was a couple hundred thousand dollars, am I tracking with you?

 

Yes, that’s right, it was paid. They did a down payment that paid over five years for a five year program so that it was doable for the doctors that could do it, but for us, it created some residual income. Sure. So it was $40,000 a year for five years? Yes. Okay. Got it. Wow. But I mean, that is super impressive.

 

Right out of the gate. I mean, it’s impressive for anybody to do that today. But like, early on in the business, and obviously you had built a track record and had results. But to have a successful event in Vegas as your first time event and then be able to actually do 60 to 70% conversion into then the paid program that is outstanding goes.

 

It was a lot of fun, I tell you. I mean, our practice was booming and at the time it was just Heather and I not only doing, you know, quote unquote sales of the practice and running the practice and Heather managing the practices. But we were seeing and delivering care to all the patients. And then we had this sort of consulting program blow up right in our face in a good way.

 

So, I mean, I remember like long, long days, lots of hours treating patients, running the practice. And then once that was done in the early evening, then it was, you know, on to the computer to support the doctors and getting on the phone. And it took a while. It was laborious. It sounds like it.

 

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Following Your Passion: Scaling the Coaching-Consulting Business

 

Okay. So now let’s fast forward to today. If your first event was in Vegas, 25 attendees give Onward Nation business owners a sense of how you’ve built and scaled the FMS shift. Like giving them a view of what the business looks like today. It’s changed a lot. you know, and I think it’s changed because the market’s changed that there’s more competition out there in the space.

 

We’re not the only ones in space. So, we do live events where we do training. We’re creating a lot of online training so people can get access to our materials. You know, we’re kind of at an interesting place right now in our life where we are looking to get out of the brick and mortar practice, more or less.

 

And we’re getting ready to launch our own individual platforms that’ll be direct to consumers in the healthcare space. So we’re looking for ways to scale the coaching consulting business without it being so labor intensive. Awesome. Okay. So, Heather, what are some of the ways you envision, maybe the two of you being able to do what Brandon just said, because that would obviously be great, for that to come to fruition.

 

And my guess is you’ve already done a ton of work to make that happen. But what are some of the ways that you envision making that vision a reality? Well, first we are launching a podcast that I think is going to be able to reach more people and give people a lot of information, that if they haven’t met us yet.

 

But then we’re creating, we’re using all of our materials and creating several different online courses so that people can get access to the information without, you know, having to be in front of us to do that. And, we also have a VIP consulting company or a coaching group that, you know, not everybody is a part of that, but the people that really want to be handheld.

 

But we’re keeping that pretty small. So we’ll have several different online courses that can be accessed with our, you know, time. And it’s pretty unique because we train and teach our clients in all areas of business. So administrative, how to train your staff what they should and should not do, from soup to nuts. We teach marketing, we teach sales, and we also teach the doctor’s clinicals.

 

So, you know, how do you treat the patient? Not only knowing the information of how to, you know, the didactic work or the book learning stuff, but how do you apply it in the real world? So it really lends itself well to creating a curriculum and services that doctors can tap into. So you, they don’t just have to purchase like the big program.

 

They can take what they think they need for their practice. You know, in each vertical that we train it. Yeah. Okay. Huge golden nugget again here guys for Onward Nation business owners. And that is you just conceptually described and then added some concrete steps to it to or I guess rungs of the value ladder. And that’s something that we talk about often here is that it isn’t just having a $200,000 offering.

 

Should you have that as your, as your, you know, core offering or the ultimate offering, the comprehensive offering, the platinum thing, whatever term you want to call it, should you have that? Sure. But then Brandon just described all of the other ways that somebody can step into a relationship with the FM shift that isn’t $200,000, but at some point, maybe they will be there, right, Brandon?

 

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Following Your Passion: Stay Relevant

 

That’s right. I mean, yeah, that’s the idea of making, you know, we’ve been doing this for almost 20 years and we’ve created a certain level of success. And I think most people get to a point in their career where they’re like, okay, how can I give back more like you’re we’re continuing to expand, but we know that there are people that are coming up behind us that need this information, as well as trying to figure out ways to make it a little easier for them to access what we’ve learned over the years.

 

How much? My guess is it’s a lot, but I don’t want to make an assumption here. How much of the fact that you ran and have run that the two of you have built from the ground up a functional medicine practice, and now also the FM shift that walks alongside it? But how much of that experience as practitioners and operators and business people, how much of that played into your credibility of now running a very successful coaching and consulting practice?

 

Well, I think it plays a huge part because in our industry, a lot of the coaches and consultants haven’t been in practice for like ten, 20, some of them even 30 years. So I feel like they’re really out of touch with what’s happening now. And how has the market changed since they were in it? So that’s been one of the reasons why I’m still in practice right now is because, you know, practice has changed from this first time that we launched, you know, into diabetes.

 

I mean, there’s been several iterations of this type of program and creating new niches. And what are the diseases that are really going to impact, you know, our country in the next ten years. It was different than it was ten years ago. And so to stay relevant, to stay active and oh my gosh, the marketing has changed drastically from what we used to do like those, lead generation mailers all day, every day, hundreds of them.

 

And now we don’t do that anymore. It’s Facebook. When Facebook and Instagram and all the social media wasn’t anywhere in sight ten years ago. So absolutely, it’s been a key to success because you cannot stay relevant if you’re not in it. Well, also, when you’re selling a high ticket item like we’ve discussed, we would actually show people, you know, a lot of people will talk about the success that they would have.

 

But our presentation, when we would speak in front of a group, you know, within our slides would be screenshots of our panels, our bank account. And so they knew that the return on investment that we were asking, you know, based on what we were asking for, for our compensation, it was like, you know, spend 3000 a month, for example, and at a minimum, you’re making $50,000.

 

But more importantly, you’re helping your community in a way that you never have, maybe even dreamed of. I can’t even tell you how much I love that. And and the reason being is because I can’t stand hyperbole if I have to look at one more Facebook funnel ad about, you know, download this swipe file and be a seven figure business owner tomorrow, I think I’m going to just, you know, pull any remaining stubs of hair out of my head.

 

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Following Your Passion: The Most Influential Lesson from a Mentor

 

But because I love the credibility that you just described, both of you, is of the fact that you’re still in practice and that you’re willing to really pull back the curtain and show somebody this is how we’re doing it today, in our practice today. And so they understand that they’re working with somebody who’s doing it today. I love it guys.

 

Well done. Thank you. Thank you. Oh my gosh. So I know that we’re quickly coming to the end of our time together. But before we do that, I just want to kind of turn the table here on mentorship, and I say turn the table because both of you have been excellent mentors for Onward Nation business owners during this conversation, and I’m grateful for that.

 

Been super, super generous with your expertise, which I, and sharing your expertise, which I love. So let me turn the table and ask you to think about the most influential lesson. So what was the most influential lesson that you learned from one of your mentors? And then how is that lesson still paying dividends today? Like how are you still benefiting from that education, that experience that that has made you, the business owners that you are today, the one that stands out for me?

 

There have been a lot of people that stepped up to help me, but the one that always stands out to me with any, any type of question around this area, you know, when we first started, you know, we first started getting traction in the functional medicine space. We talked about how the marketing was taking off, and I was able to be in front of so many, qualified prospective patients.

 

And, my clinical skills were through the roof. Very confident there. But a lot of people walk out the door not getting the care that they need. And obviously that negatively affected our business to a certain degree. And I was a bit bullheaded. I was a bit unwilling to look at my own inadequacies, when, when a patient would leave and say everything under the sun, it was never me, you know, the finger was always pointed outside of me.

 

And I remember, being connected to a mentor, you know, a contemporary colleague as well, but also a mentor. And we were on this teleconference. That’s how far back this was. It was a teleconference, not a video conference with a bunch of colleagues in the healthcare space. And, you know, I had a chance to ask a question.

 

And my question was basically me moaning about I knew all the scripts, I knew what to say. I said everything perfectly. And then I shared my stats with him. And he basically, you know, he mentored me in the following way. He basically told me straight out, if those are your stats, you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.

 

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Following Your Passion: Communicating and Connecting with People

 

Wow. And for whatever reason, it landed on me at the right time. It sank in and it made an impact. And it forced me at that time to look at myself and understand that it was me, that it was not all these external circumstances, but it was me. It was my inadequacies that didn’t have the right training, didn’t have the right tools, didn’t have the right mindset, didn’t vibrate.

 

Right. I mean, you name it, I was doing it wrong. And, that sort of set me on a course to become really good at communicating with people, connecting with them, building rapport, getting out of their way, so to speak, getting out of my own way. And that sort of set me on a path to becoming more or less an expert at communications in the healthcare space.

 

And, that really helped me a lot. And ultimately that helped me, help my clients. Right? Because now I’m able to impart those lessons and those strategies and tools to my clients and get them out of their own way. it’s such a great lesson, and I and I want to get Heather’s, lesson here in just a second, but what I’ll what I’ll say about that is, isn’t that what a great mentor does a great mentor knows when to give you a hug and also knows when to give you a push, right.

 

That’s right, that’s right. And he gave me a push at that time. Oh my gosh. They don’t land the same way. Oh yeah. Oh that was some home every day after failing and failing and failing. And she would be like how are you today. Because she knows we were having kids at the time.

 

A lot of the time she was home with the kids. And I would have to say, you know, we didn’t do good. I, you know, I had six opportunities and I didn’t I didn’t convert any new patients. And, we go back and forth and I blame everybody else. And she tried to give me advice, and I wanted to.

 

So, Heather, what was your most influential lesson from a mentor? You know, one of the things that comes to mind is I have, a mentor, and he’s still a mentor. and it was a recent thing for me also, and I’ve known this for a while, but to really put yourself in it, you know, when you’re in a group and actually do the exercise, he told us to, you know, some obstacle that you have encountered in your life, like, tell it to somebody, not your spouse, but tell it to somebody that is objective and just tell it from the victim perspective.

 

Like kind of what Brandon was saying, you know, all of his every it was everybody else’s fault or this happened to me. And I don’t know why this happened to me, and this is why my life sucks and blah, blah, blah. But then after you get that out, then you change it and you retell this story like it was the best thing that’s ever happened to you in your whole life, and you reframe it so that you now have all of these other opportunities that came out of that particular thing.

 

And I think that that is just really powerful. If you truly put yourself in that victim place and then you come at it from a completely different place of empowerment, man, it really changes your perspective. It is powerful. I am totally going to start doing that. Okay. Anything that you like is you really think you’re in a victim state, just like be a complete baby and gripe about it and be the total victim and then reframe it.

 

And it is like life changing this. Well, this has been one of those changing conversations and now I am grateful, to both of you, that you said yes and were willing to come on to the show. And as I mentioned a few minutes ago, it is so generous to be able to come on to the show, but then being generous and sharing your expertise is just absolutely awesome.

 

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Following Your Passion: Connecting with Drs. Brandon and Heather Creduer

 

So before we go, before we close out and say goodbye, please tell Onward Nation business owners the best way to connect with you. Well, I think the best way is, we can go to our website at TheFMShift.com if you ever have any questions. For me, in the area of business, I would be more than happy to help them.

 

I’m not afraid to give out my personal email. You can email me at Dr.. As a doctor followed by my first name Brandon at the firm as in functional medicine shift.com. So [email protected]. And Heather is the best way to reach you. And let me answer that for her because she is swamped in the practice and we keep her locked away.

 

We don’t allow access to her email or her phone. get distracted. This is all Onward Nation’s going to get a chance to talk with Heather. Is that what you’re saying? This is it. But this is it. Okay, if you have a question for Heather, email me and I will be your personal concierge and make sure I connect you with her.

 

Oh my gosh. Well, Onward Nation, no matter how many notes you took or how often you go back and relisten to the words of wisdom that Brandon and Heather shared, the key is you need to take this blueprint, this roadmap that they just gave you about building a successful business and then building a coaching and consulting business that walks alongside the original business.

 

Take that blueprint, take it and apply it by taking action on it. In Brandon and Heather, we all have the same 86,400 seconds today. And again, I’m grateful that you said yes to come on to the show to be our mentor in our guide to help us move our businesses onward to that next level. Thank you so much, my friends.

 

Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Stephen, it’s our honor for, thank you for giving us a platform and for all that you do. This episode is complete. So head over to OnwardNation.com for show notes and more food to fuel your ambition. Continue to find your recipe for success here at Onward Nation.

 

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