Your Ideal Customers
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[00:00:00] If you have your own business, you have to constantly think about who your ideal customer is. I spent a lot of my time thinking about who I want to work with and I think that you should too. My name is Wong. I'm an occupational therapist and certified hand therapist. And over 10 years ago I started my therapy clinic in Miami, Florida.
And then about five years ago I started hand therapy seekers, which is my educational online program where I help other therapists develop their clinical and business skills. So I am constantly. As you can imagine, I am constantly thinking about who I want to work with. So I'm going to share with you from a clinical standpoint, from a clinic standpoint.
So in my clinic, I always have to think about like, who do I want to serve? Who do I want coming and calling? Who do I want my therapist to be working with? And I'm going to do this video because I am like, I was thinking about who I want to help. Um, and I'm going to be making some videos for my clinic. [00:01:00] So if you don't know, look up my clinic and you can go and watch those videos too, to see like what I'm doing from a marketing standpoint, when I'm talking specifically to my ideal customer.
And here's what I wanted to share that other therapists. Other therapists are not your ideal customer. Other therapists are not your ideal customer. The thing is, that I think is so funny, and I've made this mistake too, um, and this is why I'm sharing it, because while I can share my mistakes, like, hey, if it can save you a little bit of time, a little bit of money, then by all means, this video has done its job, okay?
So we as therapists are just surrounded by other therapists and we pay attention to other therapists and those other therapists have opinions, right? So when I first started in my business, you know, other therapists had so many opinions about what I should do, what I shouldn't do or what they wouldn't do.
And, and it's like not, it's [00:02:00] neither here nor there because none of them people are starting their own business. None of them people are starting their own clinic. And so but I, I would find myself thinking about them like, Oh, you know, cause therapists, therapists are the most broken people. Therapists are the most broken people.
There are the ones with. a shit ton of pain. They're the ones have, you know, um, back pain, shoulder pain, thumb pain, nerve tension, nerve compressions, and none of them folks do anything to get rid of it. The problem is the reason why we keep thinking that there are Our ideal customer is because we're surrounded by them all the time.
And so we have a tendency to think, Oh, um, we think of them over thinking of our actual real patients that will be willing to come to [00:03:00] garner our services, who are willing to pay. for our services. And so that is going to be a start of do not do, do not think of the therapist. Do not think of your coworker who has pain, who won't come to you for, um, for help.
Do not think of the guy who has thumb pain and is so convinced that he has arthritis, that nothing that you'd say or can prove to him will will, will change his mind because in his mind's eye he has arthritis and it's he has arthritis because, because he's a therapist, right? I bring those stories because I have had them.
So your ideal customers are not other therapists. Really hone in on this, right? Hone in on this. And I wrote, I wrote it down so I could stay on track with you. Think about your best patients. [00:04:00] Who's your best patient? Who is your best patient, right? From a personality.
Now, you know, I'm really big into personalities, um, and if you haven't seen some of my other videos on personality, I think it's a really huge part of business. And I'm not saying that you, you would not help somebody who has a different personality, but But based on your personality, other personalities can be easier for you to work with versus your personality versus certain ones that are just a lot more difficult, right?
Um, and so from a personality standpoint, who, who in the past Have you worked with that? You were like, if I could have 100 of these people, I wouldn't care how long I worked [00:05:00] from a, um, problem perspective, meaning diagnosis perspective. If you had a hundred of these diagnosis, it wouldn't matter. You could work on this all day, every day.
Right? So for example, I'm a hand therapist, I'm a CHD, and I really don't love working with flexor tendons. Well, I work with flexor tendons all day, every day. Cause I know that. If I'm doing and I get, I do a really good job, I get results, but flexor tendons are really boring unless they have a problem. I am problem driven problem solution oriented.
So the bigger your problem, the harder your problem. I'm it's like a moth to a flame. Give it to me. I want it. I'm ridiculous. I know. But, um, Yeah, think about who is your best patient from a personality perspective [00:06:00] to a problem. I am, I think I'm funny. I laugh at my own jokes. I think my staff even made fun of me and roasted me the other day about how, uh, when I interviewed people that I, you know, I'm like, I'm nice.
I'm like, I laugh and they're like, yeah, cause you tell jokes and you laugh at your own jokes. But from a personality standpoint, I, I love working with people who come in with an attitude because I, I do feel I can change it around. Right? Like I do feel like they're just frustrated, there's something they're frustrated with.
And, and I have an ability to figure it out and, and turn it around. Um, and my, my staff are always amazed when that happens. Like this just happened two weeks ago when the. The patient was, I mean, she came in with a fire under her ass. She was so pissed. Not only did it take her an hour and a half to come to the clinic because she lived in BFE, this was an insurance based patient.
She was workers comp. They sent [00:07:00] her so far away from where she lived and where she worked and blah, blah, blah. And, um, and she was stuck in traffic and she was so nasty. She was like, and I am super picky and I'm this and this. Listen, by the end of it, she could not wait to come back, booked her sessions.
Long story short, she never came back by the end. She was like, how do I find someone like you in my part of town? Um, because I have that ability to turn around. You have to know your personality. You might not like those kinds of people, right? Who's your best patient and talk to them. What's your best. Uh, problem.
You know, what do you love solving, right? And talk to them. I love working with people with nerve related types of issues, probably because I can understand it really well. [00:08:00] I understand their frustration. I, um, I sympathize. I empathize that because I too have like instability and I'm nervy. So I, I have an ability to explain in a way that they feel heard and understood.
And that feeds my ego, truth be told. So I understand that. I love that. Right. Uh, my therapist, all my therapists I've always hired, I have always been, um, striving to become a certified hand therapist. I have a lot of years of experience. I've worked in big hospitals, even in my clinic, I have some of the worst post surgical cases.
So, Like it's fun, but do I have to have that like no, but they love it So I create content like I talk about those types of problems Because when they come in my therapists have the ability to treat them as well And so we get a really good mix of post surgical and [00:09:00] non surgical cases, which is my ideal as well Like I like to You know, I don't want to be with us, you know, working with stiff, small fingers, like a hundred of them because that will break my soul and it will break my fingers.
Um, but I think what your best patient, who is that? Write it down. What is it that you liked about them? What about it? The problem that you like, you know, how did you solve it? What made you so good at it? Write that shit down and tell everyone about it, right? Tell everyone about how well you can solve that problem.
What do you do? How do you think about it? Um, and even share some of it, right? Um, my second thing is think about your best paying patient.
Who's your best paying [00:10:00] patient? Are they complex? Versus simple. Are they surgical versus non surgical? It's kind of similar, but think about who your best paying patient is, right? I have some people who, um, they buy a package and they're like, they can't wait to buy another package. They, they want to come in all the time.
Why would I deny them the help? Why would I deny them these magic hands? Think about your ideal customer. Think about who you want to work with. And that's who you should be crafting your message around. Um, and I think that you, you want to avoid thinking about, and this is the reason why I say you want to avoid it and you have to be very intentional about it and you have to be very thoughtful about it because our brain likes to think.
To work [00:11:00] around the negative, right? Cause it's just easier that way. We constantly think about the one person we couldn't help. We think about that one person that was so nasty to us. Like, why were they so nasty to us? And why, you know, if I was like, this. I would change them around. It's like dating that bad person, like dating, having that bad boyfriend, but yet you keep going after it because you, your ego can't help it.
But think like I could do something, I could change them. And really, honestly, you can't. You can't change someone who doesn't want to be changed. So think about who is, um, who is, you know, who is not that person as well. Right. Think about who is not that person as well. Um, avoid thinking about the, you know, other therapists, avoid thinking that, um, that somehow you can change them even if they didn't want to, cause you're going to prove yourself to them.
Right. And I'll tell you, I have a, uh, [00:12:00] someone who came in. Actually came in, I had, um, given out free sessions for my shockwave. And, um, he came in, he was like, I tried this, this, and this, and this. And I was like, ah, it's like, so. You've tried all these different things and none of them have worked. What makes you think what I'm going to do is going to work?
Right. And he was like, Oh, well that's what I'm here for to see. And I was like, actually you don't need that thing. I was like, shockwave isn't, The thing that's going to help you. I mean, I'll do it for free. Like I, cause I promised you, um, but that's not, what's going to help you. I think that that based on everything you're telling me that you have a whole entirely different problem that you don't even realize, right.
I am not going to convince you of that. I am not going to change your mind. If you don't want to do something. Um, and sure enough, he didn't, he made an appointment, but I [00:13:00] knew in my, in my gut, I knew he wouldn't come back. Now he might come back later once he was like so fed up that nobody could help him.
But sometimes our ego, um, holds onto that ideal person and he's not my ideal customer, right? He's not my ideal client. Do I, do I love working with complex? I do. Um, You know, from a personality standpoint, listen, my personality, I get along with just about everybody, right? So, but you know what makes him not the best?
I'll give you a moment. You know what makes him not the best? The people who are not the best customers are the ones that don't want your help. If you have people who are closed minded and don't want your help, never want your help. Um, they're not your best patient. They're not your best customer, right?
And they can just. Continue to watch the free shit that [00:14:00] you put out there. I mean, cause it's free, I mean. You know, I still send out my emails, I still create the videos, watch it. You know, at some point maybe, you're gonna be so frustrated that, you know, uh. But, the people who are so close, like, they only give you that one chance.
Like, they're like, they come in and they think that their 20 year old problem will be solved in 5 minutes. That's unrealistic. That is not my ideal customer. If I was working with a business person, right, this is why I have my shit set up the way I have it is because yeah, some business, you know, some business people will come in and they just want to vent.
I am not here for venting, right? You will not pay my prices because you want to vent. Right? Um, and then think that somehow I was able to solve your problem because of the venting, right? Be, you [00:15:00] know, I want to work with people who are like realistic, who want to want to have their problems solved, right?
Some people want to sit there and vent, but they don't want to have their problem solved. I don't want to work with those people. I'm very results oriented. I'm very problems. you know, oriented. Um, and I think that's why most people like to work with me, you know, or they, that's, they choose to work with me.
I don't make anyone work with me. They choose to work with me. So think about your ideal customer who you want to work with, but who also values and wants to work with you, write that shit down, make it into a list, use that list, create some content around it, do your marketing around it and attract those people into your business.
Um, cause so. The worst thing is working with people who don't want to work with you. The worst thing to do is work with people who don't want to work with you. Right? So yeah, your ideal customers. Write it down. Create some [00:16:00] content. Create some marketing around it. And attract those customers to your business.
Watch your business grow. Watch it make money. Watch yourself make money. And then watch some of these other videos that can help you with your business. And your clinical skills if you like. All my links are below.
