Episode 3: How to grow your client base with (almost) no budget

00:00:00:04 - 00:00:23:13
Natalie Mullin
You've done it. If opened your practice, you have your EHR. The website is live. Your intake forms are ready and your calendar is wide open. And it's staying that way, which means no client. Now you spent years studying, learning how to help clients live better lives, but no one trained you. On the marketing side, you have the clinical skills, but no idea how to find the clients to share them with.

00:00:23:15 - 00:00:49:17
Natalie Mullin
So where do you start? Maybe it's the people that you already know and they trust you. But what happens when that wallet once dry? Well, what comes next? Today on Practice Growth Unfiltered, we're talking to a dietitian and virtual clinic owner who started with a handful of patients that followed her from her old day job. Step by step, she grew that into a full caseload and scaled from a solo practice to a group practice with over a thousand clients.

00:00:49:19 - 00:01:01:16
Natalie Mullin
I'm your host, Natalie Mullin, and welcome to Practice Growth Unfiltered. Sit back, take note, and listen up because this is a good one.

00:01:01:18 - 00:01:15:19
Natalie Mullin
Hi everyone. Today I'm speaking with Julie Mai. Julie is a registered dietitian entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of July Health, a Toronto based virtual clinic focused on hormone and mental health care. Welcome, Julie. Yes.

00:01:15:19 - 00:01:17:03
Julie Mai
Thank you for having me.

00:01:17:05 - 00:01:35:15
Natalie Mullin
I am so excited to get into this conversation now. You have a lot of accolades and you're doing amazing things, but I want you to take us back to the beginning. Okay. You were a new grad dietitian in a hospital during Covid. That must have been a shock. I don't even want to go back to those times, truly.

00:01:35:21 - 00:01:45:03
Natalie Mullin
But what made you in that moment or during that phase of time? What or phase of life, I should say, made you decide to start your own private practice?

00:01:45:05 - 00:02:09:06
Julie Mai
Yeah, it's a long story. So I, I went the traditional path, you know, did the four year undergrad and dietetics applied to dietetic internships to become a registered dietitian. And it happened that it was 2020 when I did my dietetic internship, so nobody knew what was going on at that time. I used to have to wear one mass for the entire day because there was a PPE shortage.

00:02:09:07 - 00:02:30:11
Julie Mai
I had to bring a Tupperware container and put my mask in there when I wanted to eat. And I learned a lot that year. And then the year after. So 2021, I became a registered dietitian, passed the Canadian exam, and I was trying to pick up as many jobs as I could to get experience. It's quite rare that you would get a full time, permanent job anyways as a new grad.

00:02:30:11 - 00:02:53:20
Julie Mai
So I picked up a long term care contract. I had a you contract that I was working in endocrinology. So over the next kind of 24 months, learning how to be a dietitian. And during that time, I was noticing, I mean, we all know this, but 2020 was really hard for health care workers. And so there was a big wave of nurses and medical professionals leaving the field because they were so burnt out.

00:02:53:20 - 00:03:03:04
Julie Mai
And that was just what broke the camel's back. And in that moment, I knew that there was something I could do about it. So I went on a side quest. I don't know if you want to hear the side quest now or.

00:03:03:06 - 00:03:06:01
Natalie Mullin
The story, let me hear them.

00:03:06:03 - 00:03:36:11
Julie Mai
So I, like personally, my partner, my fiance, he works in medical devices and pharmaceuticals. And I had always known that that industry loves to hire medical professionals, especially frontline nurses, because they have so much clinical expertise and they tend to get hired as clinical specialists in industry. So I knew those jobs were there, and it just seemed like such a loss that we were losing, you know, all these talented nurses with all of this experience and they're just completely leaving healthcare altogether.

00:03:36:11 - 00:04:11:11
Julie Mai
So in 2022 or 3, I started, putting together a newsletter and making TikTok content to help burnt out healthcare workers find remote work. And I personally made that jump as well, and started working at a virtual endocrinology practice and kind of left my long term care contract and over kind of a short amount of time, like six months, I built up a newsletter of 20,000 subscribers purely from organic TikTok, and it was all healthcare workers who were trying to find another path to get out of bedside, but ideally staying in the field.

00:04:11:12 - 00:04:32:04
Julie Mai
So I started a, remote job board to help burnt out healthcare workers find these jobs in pharma and medtech. And long story short, I built it up over two years and ended up exiting that business to a private buyer. And then during that time, as you can imagine, you know, I got a full time job. I'm also trying to build this business and make content.

00:04:32:09 - 00:04:50:09
Julie Mai
My body was under a lot of stress, and I was, as many women do, dealing with a lot of hormonal symptoms. So a little TMI, but I went like a year without getting a period. It had always been a regular, so I knew something wasn't right. I was getting hormonal acne and then decided in my mid 20s, you know, I should probably get this checked out.

00:04:50:09 - 00:05:18:04
Julie Mai
So I don't have a family doctor as many Canadians don't. I went to a walk in clinic where they graciously did order some blood work, but it was not the correct blood work to investigate this kind of thing. And I knew because I was working in endocrinology. So I had very generic blood work ordered. And then when everything came back normal, I was told, you know, you can go on birth control to try to regulate that period or come back when you want to get pregnant if you're concerned about your fertility.

00:05:18:06 - 00:05:36:21
Julie Mai
So I try to go to another doctor. They looked at the normal blood work from the last doctor and basically said, you know, everything looks normal, but if you have an A regular period, you have PCOS, which is now called PMOs, polyandrous metabolic ovary syndrome. But I just had that diagnosis slapped onto my file. I was like, what does this mean though?

00:05:36:21 - 00:05:58:02
Julie Mai
What can I do? And I was left with no answers. And then finally I went to my coworker in this job where we were literally treating PCOS. I go to my coworker, I'm like, hey, could you just order a proper PMS workup for me? And I got, bloodwork ordered and an ultrasound. The ultrasound comes back and they're like, you have over 26 on your ovaries.

00:05:58:02 - 00:06:16:11
Julie Mai
Your one over is double the size of the other. So you definitely have this condition. But here's what it's looking like for you. Here are your options. There wasn't very much and doctors very well meaning they don't have a lot of tools in their toolbox. So to help with these conditions, we don't even have research on the condition, let alone a treatment for it.

00:06:16:11 - 00:06:22:22
Julie Mai
So in that moment, I realized we got to solve this problem. And so I started July Health in 2024 to do that.

00:06:23:00 - 00:06:48:10
Natalie Mullin
Wow. That is such an interesting story. And and it's crazy how like your personal experience, something like you just have to take control of your own health, right? Like, otherwise if you're leaving in the doctor's hands in this situation, like you were left stranded essentially, like, here's the label and like, good luck to you, you know? But I love that you, I guess, I guess, that entrepreneurial spirit or that that that I want to solve something.

00:06:48:11 - 00:06:56:09
Natalie Mullin
Right. Then you're like, I have to solve it for my own self. So can you tell me a little bit more about July Health and just the work that you're focused on doing there?

00:06:56:11 - 00:07:20:18
Julie Mai
Absolutely. Yeah. So for the last three years, I've been wearing the startup founder hat and not the dietitian hat, which is a shift. And what we've built is, we're we're in the category of digital health, but also clinical research. Long story short, my mission is to fill the gap in accessing this type of care now. But I am also extremely passionate about finding a cure for this in the future.

00:07:20:19 - 00:07:42:18
Julie Mai
And the only way that we can find a cure and develop proper therapeutics is if we get the right research data, which does not exist. Women were not included in clinical trials until 1993, and only now are we starting to even learn what the female body entails and physiology. So we run both a clinical research arm and a telehealth arm where we're delivering care.

00:07:42:21 - 00:08:10:00
Julie Mai
And it started out very simple. So 2024, I was still working my full time endocrinology job, and then I decided to start a side solo practice to as a dietitian, helping people with PCOS manage their condition. So in the evenings, I was doing a few virtual calls here and there throughout 2024, and then built that up and left my job in the beginning of 2025 to go all in.

00:08:10:00 - 00:08:21:13
Julie Mai
And then within the span of like six months, all of a sudden we became a team of 14 and everything is spiraling. And we're in a completely different place this year than we were last. But yeah, that was the journey.

00:08:21:15 - 00:08:33:22
Natalie Mullin
Wow. And we're going to get into this topic a little bit more, but just at a at a first glance, what has the remote telehealth option meant to your patients into your clients?

00:08:34:00 - 00:08:54:09
Julie Mai
Yeah, I think the, the one few good thing that came out of the pandemic was adoption of virtual care. I think it was like starting to happen before Covid, but now it's become so normalized and if anything, preferred because now people don't have to, you know, deal with the commute and the traffic of getting to an office or a clinic.

00:08:54:11 - 00:09:08:14
Julie Mai
So virtual care has made a huge difference. And now that industry is booming. Telehealth is now very normal practice, and I can't wait for, I think, in the near future for public health to start adopting this now, like our public health care system, it would, I think, alleviate a lot of access issues.

00:09:08:14 - 00:09:29:12
Natalie Mullin
So absolutely, I think access is so important. And when I think about women, which is the population that you serve, not everyone, but a lot of women are mothers and they also their caregivers, whether for elderly parents, whether for children, whether for other people in the family. So even that responsibility of taking the time off to get to the care provider, right, is can be challenging, right?

00:09:29:12 - 00:09:46:12
Natalie Mullin
I know for myself, I'm a mom and I'm going to doctor, but I have my kids with me. That never goes well, you know, so the idea to be able to do something remote and with telehealth is really empowering for me. Again, being able to access the care that I need in a way that makes sense for the life that I live.

00:09:46:16 - 00:10:04:07
Natalie Mullin
But before we go too much into that, I want to go back and I want to think about, you know, stage one is, is building your building with clients. But when you start, you don't have any clients. So how, you know, you probably didn't have a marketing budget or any kind of marketing plan. So how did your very first clients find you?

00:10:04:09 - 00:10:52:17
Julie Mai
Yeah, to get super cool, I, got a sprout membership or subscription with practice better. So like the very smallest EMR subscription, just so we could have the option place. And then for me, because I was already working in an outpatient clinic and building relationships and rapport with, with patients in that practice. I had already, I guess, built a little bit of like a word of mouth reputation where, I wasn't necessarily telling them that, like, I have this other practice, but people were starting to find me, and then because I was working in outpatient and some people were using their insurance benefits to submit claims for the service, I incidentally got

00:10:52:17 - 00:11:14:06
Julie Mai
listed in insurance directories. So if you were to Google my name, like all of a sudden my name came up on Canada Life. It came up on Sun Life. So just SEO people are navigating their insurance portal, and they were finding me and seeing that my services were covered by their insurance. So that was how kind of the first ten clients were coming in.

00:11:14:06 - 00:11:38:13
Julie Mai
And then also as when I was leaving my my previous job, I was telling them, you know, I'm this will be our last session. Here's where I'm going to be next. You know, I can hand over care for you to somebody else on this team or, you know, this is what I'm going to be doing next. And as a result of, I guess, just providing good care, I was able to kind of get a handful of people who organically swamp me out.

00:11:38:13 - 00:11:42:11
Julie Mai
And that's what kind of got me my first 10 to 20 clients.

00:11:42:12 - 00:11:58:21
Natalie Mullin
I love that, and it's so powerful, the word of mouth and just, you know, if if you work with someone and they have a good experience, they're going to tell somebody else, right. And so again, just referrals building those relationships and you never know when they might come to you. Maybe they don't come to you but they recommend you still to somebody else.

00:11:58:21 - 00:12:12:19
Natalie Mullin
So it's so important to still have those kind of connections with people. But now you're building you have those first 10 to 20 clients. When did you realize, like, okay, word of mouth is not going to really be enough? I want to be intentional about my marketing. And what did that look like?

00:12:12:21 - 00:12:31:19
Julie Mai
Yeah. You kind of have to think about patient flow as an engine, and the engine is going to need multiple channels to run it. And for me, that word of mouth was only one channel. But you need multiple channels to sustain a business, and you also need to build it in a way where the engine will run itself.

00:12:31:19 - 00:12:59:15
Julie Mai
And not that you are having to like it. Sometimes it feels like pulling teeth trying to get more, more clients. And if you're going to do that one by one, it's very unsustainable. You know, you only have so much hour, many hours in the day. So for me, one word of mouth, I knew how to ceiling. I was then focused on what other like passive engines can I build right now and put effort into right now that I know will continue to flow clients in the future without me, like directly inputting in there?

00:12:59:15 - 00:13:19:00
Julie Mai
So, I signed up for a few subscriptions to directories. There's a few more popular ones that I'm noticing more coming up now as well. I started with health profs, which is a pretty well known one. I believe they also do Psychology Today under the same company. So, you know, you pay 30 something dollars a month, you get a listing on there.

00:13:19:02 - 00:13:54:05
Julie Mai
But they do have very good SEO, and SEO just means that if somebody Googles for a dietitian in their location, you want your name to come up first. And mine did come up first because I was, one had had the listing and benefited from their CEO reputation. But then also copywriting is kind of an art. So being able to write a bio, the hardest part about trying to get some of those initial clients is that you need to almost build trust before you even get the chance to speak to them, which is very hard to do, but unfortunately, like your headshot matters, your bio matters.

00:13:54:05 - 00:14:10:11
Julie Mai
And then are you writing your bio in a way that feels like the you're speaking to the specific type of client you're trying to serve? So for me, it was people struggling with PMOs who felt dismissed and were told, come back when you want to get pregnant. I was very specific in that type of copy and it worked.

00:14:10:16 - 00:14:29:23
Julie Mai
And so a lot of people were booking with me. I would get like at least ten new people coming in the door every month. And, you know, only one person pays off that subscription for like the year. So that's kind of what happened next. And then, and then to get to that next level, I had to do more like social media stuff so I can chat about that after.

00:14:29:23 - 00:14:47:00
Natalie Mullin
But yeah. And and it's a good place to pause for a second because I think sometimes you have to see that you're making the investment and there will be a ROI. So, you know, sometimes then a few quick practitioners like they don't want to set up their EMR or they don't want to pay for a directory, or they don't want to pay for a website yet.

00:14:47:01 - 00:15:08:12
Natalie Mullin
And they're thinking of all the costs upfront. Which don't get me wrong, I totally understand. But if you get one patient coming through and you're you're charging the appropriate rate, right? You can make back a lot of these costs quickly. So it's like you have to just think what is going to give my patients the best experience now and actually get them in to work with me, and then it will pay off in the long run.

00:15:08:13 - 00:15:13:10
Natalie Mullin
So you have to be willing to invest in yourself and to invest in your business.

00:15:13:12 - 00:15:40:19
Julie Mai
Yes, working for yourself is a risk. And so if you're already going to make as big of a risk as, you know, leaving stability, you should also take a little bit of a risk on yourself and get some skin in the game and invest a bit of money. It doesn't mean you're investing millions of dollars, but, it honestly took me like 100 bucks of an initial investment to get a logo, get that initial EMR subscription, and then that directory that was under $100.

00:15:40:20 - 00:15:55:08
Julie Mai
And then the next investment I made was just to get nicer branding and headshots on a website, which not everybody needs in the beginning. But it's it makes it easier for you to stand out. If if all people really have a view is your online presence.

00:15:55:10 - 00:16:12:21
Natalie Mullin
Yeah. And I love that you you said that the website actually came in phase two for you. So you actually started with the HR. I find that so interesting because I talked to a lot of practitioners who they spend a lot of their time building out this website, perfecting it. And I always say, the thing you need is to be able to meet with your patient or client.

00:16:12:23 - 00:16:29:05
Natalie Mullin
So how are you? How are you meeting with that? How are you connecting with them? What is the booking process going to look like? Because if somebody wants to work with you today, you know, and your website's not ready, there should still be a way that they can work with you today. So as long as you've got that figured out, everything else can come on the back end.

00:16:29:09 - 00:16:37:02
Natalie Mullin
Now, I'm curious if there was anything you tried for marketing that didn't work?

00:16:37:04 - 00:17:06:10
Julie Mai
Definitely. In the beginning you have the luxury of throwing spaghetti at the wall a little bit to see what works. And you should be doing that in the early stages. So I think when I had such early success with health profs, I thought like, I should try to go on every directory and, and learned pretty quickly that, you should only, I guess, kind of stay focused on what's working and double down on that, rather than maybe spray and pray a little bit.

00:17:06:10 - 00:17:34:13
Julie Mai
So I after probably six months, I scaled back on several of my subscription and only focused on health profs because I knew that one was the most reliable. And then, I was doing some Google ads. Paid ads is like a whole other can of worms, though it's definitely not what I would recommend you start first. I think you should always be trying to exhaust your organic channels before you pay for ads, because it's really easy way to burn capital if you're not doing it correctly.

00:17:34:13 - 00:17:50:12
Julie Mai
And like lots of folks claim that they are, you know, at agencies and can help you with paid ads and whatever. But it's very hard to find someone who will actually convert for you. And that is like the hardest lesson a lot of people face when they throw money into paid ads, thinking that's going to build their business alone.

00:17:50:14 - 00:18:09:02
Natalie Mullin
Yeah, no, that makes sense. So, you know, you already decide you decided where you're going to put your time. You decide where you're going to put your money. So then let's talk about the shift. Walk me through the growth in stages. So stage one you had like the 10 to 20 clients. You built that through word of mouth.

00:18:09:04 - 00:18:19:07
Natalie Mullin
Stage two I believe you're saying is kind of you started using the directories and you had inbound traffic coming in. Was there anything else you would add into to stage two?

00:18:19:09 - 00:18:23:08
Julie Mai
Yeah. I mean, the next stage would have been social media. If you want me to get into that.

00:18:23:09 - 00:18:24:06
Natalie Mullin
Yes, please.

00:18:24:11 - 00:18:43:15
Julie Mai
Yeah. I think so like I mentioned, I was the practice was a side hustle in 2024, and I told myself that if I can get three consistent months of 3KA month, and I know that that is enough for me to survive and, and I could leave my job. So that happened for me at the end of 2024.

00:18:43:17 - 00:19:06:18
Julie Mai
And it was the word of mouth, the directories. And honestly, that was it to get to that stage of 3KA month after that. Definitely. You got to do more. You need more channels than just those. So, it was only 20, 25 that I finally invested in a website, actually was probably later in 2025 that I got a website.

00:19:06:18 - 00:19:26:02
Julie Mai
So definitely not my first investment. And then I started making content on social media, which I didn't do at all in year one. But, I think you as an individual, need to also think about where your skills are. And for me, I knew it was TikTok one because I guess I'm like a Z and chronically online.

00:19:26:02 - 00:19:51:01
Julie Mai
But then I had already proven that with my previous business with the job board, I knew that I could build an online audience, so I focused on that. But I went about it a little bit differently. I think when you are thinking about a marketing or a content strategy in general, it's very common for us dietitians to provide lots of educational content, like perhaps you're showing recipes, nutrition, education, myth busting.

00:19:51:03 - 00:20:13:22
Julie Mai
That is a very common playbook to go. But if you think about it, your ideal client is getting inundated with this type of content. Right now, everyone is claiming that they're going to be an expert and they're sharing all sorts of information online. You have the burden of proving to them, why should they listen to you? And we need to realize, unfortunately, that credentials alone are not enough anymore.

00:20:14:00 - 00:20:34:23
Julie Mai
Specifically speaking to Women's Health, we've had such a long history of women getting dismissed, and we know that, you know, my ideal customer profile, my Ice has already been dismissed by folks with probably the same licenses. So just saying that you have the credentials doesn't necessarily garner trust anymore. They need to feel like you intimately understand what they're going through.

00:20:35:03 - 00:21:06:22
Julie Mai
And for me, I had the lived experience. So I leaned into that and I actually barely posted about educational information. I still don't I focused on the storytelling because how often do you really see, like the behind the scenes of your physician? Your physician is very white coat professional. I decided to go a different path, and I was sharing what it was like living with PCOS, and I was sharing also my mission and trying to fill the healthcare gap and the research gap in women's health.

00:21:06:22 - 00:21:25:17
Julie Mai
And so I was doing a lot of what is called building in public. So as a founder, I was sharing the behind the scenes of building the business rather than just, you know, focusing on the wins or like wearing a corporate front. I wanted to be very YouTube vlog about it, because that is the only way that I felt like I could connect with people before they even spoke to me.

00:21:25:19 - 00:21:47:02
Julie Mai
And so I did that for most of 2025 and the growth trajectory. I hope this is inspiring for someone out there. But, February 2025, it was just me. I was doing still 3KA month. Over the next two months, I was just starting to make Instagram content. I wasn't even on TikTok yet, which is where I do best.

00:21:47:06 - 00:22:19:11
Julie Mai
In May, I realized that I was in a chicken or an egg problem where I can't continue to take on more clients and make more revenue while still growing the business. And I had a decision to make and decided I was going to start contracting a couple, practitioners just to see what would happen. And I was very clear upfront when I was hiring them that this is a task like, I don't know what the uptake is going to be like, but if you're willing to dedicate, you know, 4 to 8 hours a week of online availability just to take on clients if they come, you know, here's the mission, here's what I want to

00:22:19:11 - 00:22:41:18
Julie Mai
do. Practitioners are very impact driven, like they came into this field for a reason. And so a lot of them were willing to come onto this mission. So I contracted a social worker and a registered dietitian in May or June of that year. Got on TikTok in September. Throughout the summer it was like steady but slow. We were doing probably five to 7KA month.

00:22:41:20 - 00:23:10:20
Julie Mai
In September, I got a TikTok account and within two weeks we got our first viral video. Two weeks later we got another one and we went from 5KA month to 18KA month by September October. Strictly through organic TikTok. So much so that I hired for new practitioners. Within the next few months of that, I hired a multi licensed dietitian in September, and then I hired two other dietitians, and another social worker by November December.

00:23:10:22 - 00:23:21:02
Julie Mai
And then we launched nurse practitioner services so we could order blood work and prescribe. And that was strictly through organic social media by the end of that year. And then we ended the year at like 23KA month.

00:23:21:04 - 00:23:37:03
Natalie Mullin
Wow. You know, what I take from this is, is the belief you had in yourself and the belief you had in your mission because you built out the team and you're hiring people. You said before the clients even came, but you're like, this is what I'm trying to do. And you knew that people were out there because you were one of them.

00:23:37:04 - 00:23:54:22
Natalie Mullin
So you knew there was people out there that had this issue who, if I can get to them, I believe in my mission. I believe in the work I'm doing. So it's like you're thinking ahead. But what I like is that you were prepared because you got the, the, the contractors done, and they started out and you were doing the 5 to 7 K.

00:23:55:00 - 00:24:16:21
Natalie Mullin
But then now when when you had this massive surge of, of new clients, you were already ready, you already had the HR in place. You already had the team surely knew how to build out your SOPs and figure out how to work as a team and stuff like that, because if you hadn't done that and you had stayed, just you, and then all of a sudden you have all these people who want to work with you and you're like, oh, wait, oh, I don't actually have a team.

00:24:17:02 - 00:24:34:14
Natalie Mullin
I've got to put everything together first. So I love that, you know, your belief in yourself allowed you to get prepared in the right season so that you were ready for the surge that has come and is still coming now. I love this story. Now can you walk me through? Okay, we have all of these followers on TikTok.

00:24:34:15 - 00:24:39:03
Natalie Mullin
We have all these views. But how did you translate that into booked clients?

00:24:39:05 - 00:25:08:12
Julie Mai
Yeah, it's not easy to do. And I think it comes down to your copywriting, your actual content strategy, and then also how you are positioning yourself. And these are not easy things to do. I think in hindsight, it was a little bit reckless that I hired two new people without having the demand. But I will say tactically, I hired and contracted them with a delayed start date so that it gave me 1 to 2 months in order to fill their calendars before they even started.

00:25:08:14 - 00:25:27:18
Julie Mai
And so that's what I would recommend for anyone listening. So I gave myself some time and I and again, I did the same as I started to see demand in the fall. I think as dietitians, we should always expect there to be some seasonality anyways, because most people have insurance that ends every calendar year. So you should anticipate that, you know, the fall in the winter will be your busiest seasons.

00:25:27:18 - 00:25:55:23
Julie Mai
Then you got the New Year's resolutions, and then things will get a little bit quiet, and then everyone's like, oh crap, the weather's getting nicer, I need a beach body. And then they start thinking about their health again. So it is important that we're not playing ping pong as a business owner and doing some forecasting. But, I think on the content side, the art of getting a conversion is very difficult because they say that a customer needs to see your brand or your ads at least seven times before they take action.

00:25:56:01 - 00:26:18:13
Julie Mai
So I had certain content pillars in our social media content. So we were mainly on Instagram and TikTok and I was, I think people need to realize that your customer is going to be in different journeys. There will be some people who are very ready to book right away, but most of them are going to be more pre, which we learn in dietitian school about the stages of readiness.

00:26:18:14 - 00:26:40:12
Julie Mai
So I was doing some what we call top of funnel content where we're just sharing more general content, thinking about what would our ICP be searching for. And they would probably be searching for other people's experience with PCOS. Usually people will Google a provider, go on Reddit, think, listen to peer experience before they go and book with a provider.

00:26:40:13 - 00:27:09:07
Julie Mai
It used to be that if a doctor recommended someone, you would just listen. That is not the case anymore. People have infinite information at their fingertips. So I was thinking about sharing more of that lived experience in my own journey as the top of funnel, so that people would connect with me and trust me. And now that they trust me and hopefully feel like, you know, a July team member would understand them, then, I would sprinkle in their content about exactly what it is that we do.

00:27:09:09 - 00:27:24:14
Julie Mai
And it's a balance because I've heard other salespeople talk about how you need to sell the the results and not the features or not the product. But I still think that you do have to talk about the product, aka your service is still because people want to get a clear picture of exactly what the journey is going to look like.

00:27:24:15 - 00:27:40:17
Julie Mai
If they book with you, they don't. And it's important that you set that expectation anyways. If you're just going to be like, you know, we're going to help you lose 100 pounds by the end of this year, but they have no idea how you're going to do or what the level of involvement is, and they're going to be really disappointed when they realize that they're going to have to meet you like this often and put in this amount of work.

00:27:40:17 - 00:27:56:09
Julie Mai
So I was doing a mix of, here's our mission, here's the areas that we're working on and the symptoms that we want to improve for you. But also here is tactically what it looks like and what you're going to have to do to get there. And we were very focused on when you book, you're going to go into our link and bio.

00:27:56:10 - 00:28:10:04
Julie Mai
You're going to book a free call first to meet your provider. They're going to put a plan in place for you, and then you're ideally going to have to meet with us, you know, every 2 to 4 weeks. Here's what you're going to receive at the end of each appointment. And here's what we do and here's what we can't do.

00:28:10:06 - 00:28:19:13
Julie Mai
And so they are so clear before they book what to expect. And then you get better quality clients that way as well. People don't drop off. So we have amazing retention as a result of that content strategy.

00:28:19:15 - 00:28:38:18
Natalie Mullin
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I think just, you know, like, let's make sure we're all on the same page. And that way if it's not for you, people can just self-select to remove themselves from the process before getting involved with your team and taking up time there, too. Now, were you working with like a copywriter, or are you just naturally good with words and messaging?

00:28:38:19 - 00:28:41:11
Natalie Mullin
Like, did you have any assistance with that?

00:28:41:12 - 00:29:01:04
Julie Mai
Yeah, that was also another, I guess, just like unique advantage I had. I guess I really enjoy copywriting just in general. I took a course at UBC for copywriting just out of my own interest. I've always enjoyed kind of reading marketing books, and so I personally enjoyed doing that. But I know a lot of dietitians like we didn't go to school for copywriting or marketing.

00:29:01:04 - 00:29:20:10
Julie Mai
So, I think the biggest tip would be probably look for inspiration of who you know, has good copy and and use as an example to inform yours. Like not copy them. But you can generally see the strategy of how people. Right. A lot of companies have like strong hooks or they use more informal language and they have good call to actions.

00:29:20:10 - 00:29:22:23
Julie Mai
You can kind of study that from other companies.

00:29:23:01 - 00:29:39:12
Natalie Mullin
Okay. Yeah. I think that's such a good idea. Like find find what's working for somebody else that that inspires you, that resonates with you and then see how can I be inspired by this but make it my own and then run with that? Now you have an influencer account with how many followers you have on Tik Tok right now.

00:29:39:13 - 00:29:40:18
Julie Mai
120,000.

00:29:40:19 - 00:30:00:10
Natalie Mullin
Okay, so it's a big number. So for practitioners who don't have 120,000, what what lesson would you give to them. And because like I want people to take away two things. One, you did not start at 120,000 and you didn't even start with a viral account like you are already building your practice a whole year before you even got Tik Tok.

00:30:00:14 - 00:30:17:20
Natalie Mullin
But I you know, I speak to a lot of practitioners and they just look at people's accounts like, no, that person has so many followers, I can't do it. And they kind of give up. Is there any kind of lesson that we can that you can share with those practitioners who are far? Maybe they only have five followers, maybe they don't even have an account.

00:30:17:22 - 00:30:37:17
Julie Mai
Yeah. So I think in general you don't have to be on social media, but I would also maybe a hot take. But if you're not on social media, it's almost like why? It's like you're trying to drive a horse and buggy when you could be driving a car. I unfortunately, this is the world we live in, and I do think social media is important.

00:30:37:19 - 00:31:01:06
Julie Mai
And I think the follower account doesn't matter because you could have, like, lots of influencers have like a million followers and terrible engagement. So it matters more the quality and then also the relationship and trust and like kind of parasocial relationship that you're able to build online. And and then you hear that analogy of like, you know, 500 followers doesn't feel like a lot.

00:31:01:06 - 00:31:19:12
Julie Mai
But imagine if you were in like a real room, a 500 people, like, that's a lot of people. So the follower count doesn't matter at all and definitely do not play the comparison game, but also don't tap out of the game before you even start. Like if you're overwhelmed about that and you don't start like, how many times do I wish that I was a YouTube blogging like ten years ago?

00:31:19:13 - 00:31:26:18
Julie Mai
So like ten years ago was the best time to start. But the next best time to start is now. Don't wait until you're older, I guess.

00:31:26:20 - 00:31:42:19
Natalie Mullin
Absolutely. You just you just got to take action. And not that point about the practitioners in the room. I've never heard that before, but that makes so much sense. Like 500 people online seems like nothing. But in a room of 500 people, you're you know, I remember being at a wedding with 350 people this the other day at my cousin's wedding and was like, oh, there's so many people here.

00:31:43:00 - 00:32:01:16
Natalie Mullin
So even even the 300ft felt like a lot, right? So absolutely, if you had 300 of your patients in the room, you would be like, this is this is a lot for me, right? So absolutely, those numbers don't matter. And I think also, you know, just as you said, sharing your own story. You you're your own expert, right?

00:32:01:17 - 00:32:21:08
Natalie Mullin
You nobody knows Julie and I better than you. So if you can share your personal experience, if any practitioner can share their experience, what they went through or their mission or their why, nobody can convince anybody better than you of your story, of the impact that you want to have and of the work that you're doing. Right. And I think that's an important part of it too, is to share.

00:32:21:12 - 00:32:43:14
Natalie Mullin
These are the results. These are the real results, the real transformations. Where and again, if you are, even if you're only using yourself, that's still powerful, because in a world where there's so many things that are AI generated and you don't know what's real and what's not, those stories and those trust building, examples are really going to help people lean into and want to know more and want to stick around for the journey.

00:32:43:16 - 00:32:58:04
Julie Mai
Yeah, you only have to see 40 people a month to be making six to 7KA month, which is what I was making in the hospital. 50 people a month is nothing. If you got 500 followers, that's great. You could definitely convert 10% of them into your clients.

00:32:58:06 - 00:33:16:16
Natalie Mullin
Yeah, and I love that you think about the math of it too. So that's really helpful. Now, when you were just starting out, going back there for a second and you were building out your calendar. How did you find time of the day? Because a lot of practitioners are like, well, I'm busy from like 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., 9 to 5, seeing patients the whole time.

00:33:16:18 - 00:33:26:05
Natalie Mullin
So how do they get time to work on the marketing side? Did you create calendar blogs? Were you doing it after hours? Like what was your process?

00:33:26:07 - 00:33:44:14
Julie Mai
I think when you were so passionate about something, you don't even schedule it in because you want to spend all of your free time doing it anyways. I am just so passionate about content and writing and and for lack of a better word, getting attention. To this matter that I honestly did not even do the time blocking or whatever.

00:33:44:14 - 00:33:58:19
Julie Mai
I did not get burnt out from doing this type of work, and that was the only way that I was able to sustain, you know, three years of chaos. Like I've barely paid myself a salary for three years, and I'm living in the middle of downtown Toronto with very expensive rent. And it doesn't even matter because I live and breathe this work.

00:33:58:19 - 00:34:22:00
Julie Mai
And you think, I think you just have to enjoy this, and starting a business or running a business is not for everybody, because usually you will burn yourself out before you reach success, unfortunately. And so you have to find, I guess, a needle in a haystack, or find some moment within that work that you really enjoy that doesn't feel like work for you, and then it doesn't feel like you have to schedule that in or prioritize it.

00:34:22:02 - 00:34:36:20
Natalie Mullin
No, that makes sense. Now, what would you say to, you know, a new grad who's like, you know what, I want to go into private practice and I want to get my first clients. Are there any tips that you would give them to start out today?

00:34:36:22 - 00:35:00:00
Julie Mai
Yeah, I'm going to sound really boomer for a bit, but I do think if you're a new grad dietitian, it's still important that you get some clinical experience. So I think if genuinely you want to have a private practice and pursue that route, I would still suggest doing what I was doing, where I started out with a clinical job and then also was building the practice at the same time.

00:35:00:02 - 00:35:27:16
Julie Mai
I just think, like I had great education and placements, but I still think there was no better trainer for me than actually working as a clinical dietitian. So, I think you just become a better, you know, counselor and provider if you are in the game a little bit longer. So I think in year one, don't perhaps rush so much into getting into private practice and even like a part time contract.

00:35:27:16 - 00:35:45:21
Julie Mai
So you get some of that experience. It also makes your life a lot easier, because I didn't have to worry about my first 10 or 20 clients because I had them in my other job, but then at the same time, still take the risk and follow your dreams. And so perhaps while you're doing your part time job, you then start building whether it's a social media audience or trying to get those clients.

00:35:45:21 - 00:36:08:18
Julie Mai
At first, in my opinion, it's easier to build an audience first and then, I guess, monetize or start the business later rather than starting the business and now trying to get them to come. So if anything, trying to build an audience, whatever that looks like for you, whether it's like starting a community online, starting a Facebook group or starting a social media page, it would be significantly easier to get your first clients through.

00:36:08:20 - 00:36:11:04
Julie Mai
Have an existing base.

00:36:11:06 - 00:36:19:05
Natalie Mullin
Yeah, no, that makes sense. And is there any, like, technology that you think petitioners should be using to help them when they're starting out their practices?

00:36:19:07 - 00:36:37:06
Julie Mai
Yeah, I mean, you are going to need like compliant software if you're going to be taking in patients and you're going to need somewhere to house your charting. So you need an EMR regardless. And that should be what you do from the very beginning, because you shouldn't be, you know, getting them to book on a calendly if this is like for medical purposes.

00:36:37:06 - 00:36:56:19
Julie Mai
So you from the very beginning, the EMR subscription is probably the very first thing you need to be doing aside from, you know, getting getting your like liability insurance and the all the other things in place. And then in terms of tech stack, I had a Google Business subscription, so I was able to get a custom domain.

00:36:56:23 - 00:37:17:11
Julie Mai
So I bought July like years ago, which makes you look a little bit more credible than having a Gmail. Google also has if you use the higher tiers, they do have compliance, in there. So you feel a little bit more secure using Google Drive. And then I was using I was just thinking about what else could make my life a little bit easier.

00:37:17:13 - 00:37:40:12
Julie Mai
So personally, I was invested in, that clean life to make recipes and meal planning and all of that a lot easier. I got a full script account, which is free, and, you know, usually dietitians were recommending supplements anyways, so I might as well do it on full script. And then I was using notion, like the free version to plan all of my content.

00:37:40:14 - 00:37:59:03
Natalie Mullin
Yeah, no, I love that. And thank you so much for sharing those names, because sometimes, you know, we're on the call or somebody might be listening to the pocket saying like, but what did she use? And they just want, you know, some suggestions. So I think that's really helpful. All of those names that you mentioned. So Julie, I want to thank you because this conversation has been so rich, you really did not hold back.

00:37:59:03 - 00:38:16:12
Natalie Mullin
And I appreciate that. There is no gatekeeping. You were just sharing your authentic experience. And I think this is really a practical and tactical conversation someone can walk away with and have a plan for what the next step is and what the next few steps can look like as they're building out their own practice in a way that's in alignment for them.

00:38:16:13 - 00:38:41:21
Natalie Mullin
I'm going to change the theme a little bit here, and we have a recurring segment on the podcast where we internalize, so we take a moment to reflect and think about what something we can do for ourselves. As a practitioner. You're always giving, right? You're giving to your patients, your clients, your team, your investors, everybody, the public. So I want you to think about what is something that you can do for yourself this week.

00:38:41:23 - 00:38:43:04
Julie Mai
For me personally.

00:38:43:09 - 00:38:49:21
Natalie Mullin
Do you want a spot? I see it's even hard for you to think about you. But yes. What can you do for Julie, am I?

00:38:49:23 - 00:38:55:02
Julie Mai
Yeah, I feel like my my brain is all business all of the time because it's just something I'm so passionate about.

00:38:55:02 - 00:39:21:17
Julie Mai
But, I don't believe in work life balance. I think this is just my life, but I do think in my life, I, I'm a very bottoms up thinker. I, I think this is what happens when you're neurodivergent. And if you are very, I guess playing catch up and getting caught in the day to day, then sometimes you lose track of, like, why you're even doing this in the first place.

00:39:21:17 - 00:39:45:18
Julie Mai
And I, recently was thinking this week that I want to sit down and kind of look at, like, what my overall, I guess, goals for my life are. And a part of it is, you know, having more, more time with my family, I and I'm getting married next year and I'm starting to think about, like, motherhood and that kind of stuff.

00:39:45:18 - 00:40:08:06
Julie Mai
And so I have realized most of this year, moving so quickly that I'm not really zooming out and thinking about, am I even, like, aligned with kind of my life goals. So I think the biggest thing I can do for myself is also, I guess making sure I'm still on the path that I want to be on and not getting, like, dragged like a, like a sailboat in water.

00:40:08:08 - 00:40:21:22
Natalie Mullin
No, absolutely. And wow, that was a very deep answer that you came up with on the spot. And, and what I would like, what I'm going to invite you to do is to hold on to that for a moment. And even for myself, as you know, I think about what is something I can do for myself this week.

00:40:21:22 - 00:40:41:16
Natalie Mullin
It's definitely going to be to practice more calm. I have young children and sometimes the calm is not there and I notice I'm getting a little bit frustrated, you know, especially around that 8:00 pm time. But I was like, how can I invite more common to my life? Even in moments that I can't control? I can still control how I react.

00:40:41:18 - 00:41:19:16
Natalie Mullin
So I want us to kind of both hold on to those things, and we're just going to take a pause to kind of just reflect on ourselves and our intention.

00:41:19:18 - 00:41:42:04
Natalie Mullin
Thank you for participating in that moment of reflection. And you know what I think about the whole conversation? If I was really to think about what's the takeaway here, I think it really is believing in yourself, believing in your mission, believing in your why. Because that will actually guide you and give you the next steps. And it will also give you not just the momentum, but the energy and the passion to keep going even when things are difficult.

00:41:42:06 - 00:42:03:09
Natalie Mullin
And from that, from that belief in yourself, from putting yourself forward, you'll have the confidence to share your story, to share your why, to share your experiences. And that's what's actually going to attract your clients. And those are the people who are going to build trust with you. And that that leads to bookings and that leads to, you know, the business growing and all of the things.

00:42:03:09 - 00:42:16:20
Natalie Mullin
But really it starts with that belief in yourself and then taking the action, taking those steps to follow through. Julie, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing all of those lessons with us. Thank you so much.

00:42:16:21 - 00:42:17:23
Julie Mai
So many good things.

00:42:18:00 - 00:42:29:21
Natalie Mullin
Thank you to everyone who is listening. This podcast is brought to you by Practice Better, and if you found this conversation helpful, please let us know in the comments, subscribe, Leap review and let us know what aspects of practice growth you want to hear from next.

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