Episode Transcript

Dr. Jeff Langmaid:Welcome to Interviews by The SMART Chiropractor. This show is where Dr. Jason Deitch and myself, Jeff Langmaid give you a front row seat to our conversations with the current influencers, future leaders in fantastic people involved in our profession. Hey Smart Chiropractors. Welcome to The SMART Chiropractor Show. In today’s Featured Guest segment, I’m Dr. Jeff Langmaid here with my co-host, Dr. Jason Deitch. And today we have an opportunity to sit down with somebody that I’ve messaged on Instagram many, many moons ago, the chiropractic guru. Dr. Rebecca, thank you for taking some time and chatting with us today.

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Thank you for having me.

Dr. Jeff Langmaid:Our pleasure. And I want to kick it off right there. You are a big time power user on the Instagram platform. What got you started? When did you start with it? How did that begin for you?

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Yes, that’s a loaded question. But it all started about three years ago when I actually moved to Texas. I’m originally from Ottawa, Canada, and so moving here was a big, big adventure, a big step in my career, but also in my life. And it all kind of started in STEM because I didn’t know anybody here and I knew I was going to be starting my professional career here in Texas. So naturally, being from Ottawa, I originally thought I was going to be practicing there, so I thought it would be an easy transition. Our family owns a restaurant. Also where I’m from so pretty well known in the community and I thought, okay, perfect, we’re set. Like, I’ll open up a practice. I’ll be good to go. Well, that wasn’t the plan. Everything kind of shifted and pivoted. So I moved to Fort Worth, Texas, and I was like, Well, no one knows Dr. Rebecca out here. How am I going to get my name out there and get people to know me and what I do and how I can help? So I started The Chiropractic Guru from scratch zero followers. I did have a personal page, but I decided I wanted to just dove right in and just see what I can do with it.

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:And that’s what I did. So in 2018, towards the end of 2018, I started the page and honestly at the beginning it was just to share the profession, share the knowledge that I had. I was fresh out of school and very excited and just really determined to promote value and education and the chiropractic profession and how it can help everybody. So I was just there, didn’t know what I was doing, posting here and there. And I really honestly everything changed when I took it seriously and I sat down and said, You know what, I really need to eventually I’m going to be practicing and I really need to get my name out there and get people to know me. So I took it serious and just decided to go from there, learning along the way different tactics, different strategies, how to grow, how to create engagement on my platform. And it kind of all just stemmed from there. And now I’m at over 20,000 followers, so it’s been awesome.

Dr. Jason Deitch:That is awesome and remarkable that you started from scratch. Dr. Rebecca I’d love if you wouldn’t mind just sort of sharing with other cars about your journey. I’m assuming you didn’t have 20,000 followers the first week. The first month, you know. So how chiropractors understand, what should they expect? I mean, this is a long game. You’ve been you said you started in 2018. We’re in 2022. What what should somebody expect as far as a process and a journey and what is taking it seriously mean? Exactly. So they can know, oh, I’m dabbling versus I’m focused on getting results.

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Right. I think everything changed when I decided to use my platform to grow my practice and grow my business. So that’s when I kind of treated it like a business, like I put it into my schedule, like as if it was part of my day and a part of the tasks that I had to do. So I basically it took me about three years to grow to 20,000 followers. So it took me quite a long time to figure it out. But once I did figure it out, I was able just to keep going from there and going from there, and so much so I created a blueprint that now I teach other doctors how to do the same. What’s great about it is that for me it was all trial and error, so it took me three years to do it. But the doctors that I teach, the whole goal is to teach them all the tips and strategies and errors that I did and had to go through for that time span to be much shorter so that they can use their platform to grow. But yeah, it’s just being consistent, showing up for your audience, treating it like a job and treating it like it’s a part of your business because it is. It’s a marketing tool. And just realizing that today, in today’s age, Instagram is definitely something that needs to be or social media in general needs to be a part of your marketing plan because believe it or not, everybody is going to Instagram or TikTok or whatnot to find their health care professionals, their makeup artists, their you name it. Everyone is on there to find something. So being on there is so crucial and so important.

Dr. Jeff Langmaid:I could not agree more. One of the things that comes to mind for me following your your page for a while is you really, you know, encapsulate a lot of what Jason and I talk about, which is Teach and Invite consistently. You’re great with consistently consistency. You lead with education. What’s your take on that balance between calls to action and promotion versus education? How do you think about that today and as as we get into 2022? Because things always evolve that balance between education and promotion.

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Yeah. So I like to think of my Instagram page as a page where people can come get to know me and get to know what I do. I know that a lot of people struggle with selling on social media, and I don’t necessarily create my content to where you feel like you’re being sold to. It’s more so sharing the journey, sharing experiences, sharing how you can help and add value to the audience, and through that you sell naturally. So I think that we are all being sold everywhere else we go. You, you, you turn on the TV, your radio, the Internet in general. We’re being sold left and right. And I think that for social media, it’s the last place that people want to be sold to as well. So just determining different techniques that you’re not necessarily selling, but you are getting people to I like to call it the know like and trust factor. So people to get to know you like you and trust you and then in turn really interested in what you have to do, what you have to say and and your offers and services and things like that. So I don’t necessarily use like hard sales on my platform in general.

Dr. Jason Deitch:And that’s probably why you have so many followers, obviously. So on the other side of the pendulum for all of that, I’m sure a lot of chiropractors are wondering, is it worth my time? You know, should I be blocking out time every day like you’re suggesting? What can you tell chiropractors in terms of expectations regarding outcomes? Do you receive patients exclusively from Instagram and then referrals and people that learn through there? Do you do other marketing? Is this really your major form of attracting new patients? And are you able to generate revenue beyond just chiropractic services by having your following? How should chiropractors think about what kind of outcomes they can expect over what kind of time periods?

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Yeah, that’s a great question. I think just really sitting down and figuring out what you have to enjoy it. I wouldn’t say that doing it and forcing yourself to do it would necessarily help you and be beneficial. You have to enjoy it. You have to want to put in the work in the effort. I will say this you have to be in it for the long run. It’s not an overnight thing. It takes time to build and to grow. But honestly, I think it’s the best decision I’ve ever made because I don’t pay for marketing Google ads. Instagram is my main referral source, so for me it’s everything. So I put everything into it and I receive everything in return. So it just depends on what you’re looking for, what you want in return. But putting in the work and taking the time and blocking out your schedule and doing that stuff, it really you will really reap the benefits. So really focusing on that I think is very beneficial, especially these days. And I always tell doctors, why wouldn’t you be on social media? It’s completely free. And so you’re you’re creating lifelong patients from the platform in an organic way for free. So I think the return on investment is. It’s great.

Dr. Jeff Langmaid:We could not agree more. I definitely agree with you. How much? If you look at your Instagram account and you were to say, you know, there’s the public facing your post and your stories and obviously then there’s the back side, which is the direct messages, etc.. If you just had to rough estimate, are you spending a lot of time, you know, in direct messaging, you know, either proactively or just addressing questions? Is most of your time spent on the content side, on the publicly facing how how does that balance out? I know it can probably vary, but, you know, if you just had to say week to week, what does that look like for you?

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Yeah, I would say that. Of course, I get the messages. I don’t say I spend too much time in the DMS. A lot of I think a lot of people would assume that I would I mean questions here and there for sure. But I think that a lot of people assume that I’m in the DMS. Probably a lot a lot of my sales don’t happen through DMS, so I’m not there a lot. And then a lot of the questions that I get are through just comments and things like that. So not a whole lot of time on DMS where I do see a lot of traffic is the link in my bios and getting people to schedule straight from there. But yeah, I spend way more time focusing on content and really valuing that and making sure that I’m getting my message across. I always like to think about it when you do have a plan in mind, a marketing plan that I’m always trying to speak to my ideal patient that I want to see, who is that person that I want to serve and who am I talking to? So when I create content, it’s that’s my focus. I’m creating it around them and trying to solve their problems and their pain points. So I would say content for sure, and I think that’s time well spent for anyone trying to grow their platform is on the content because if you’re not posting anything, you’re not on your stories, you’re not interacting and creating engagement. Then you may be an expert in chiropractic, but no one knows because you’re not sharing anything.

Dr. Jason Deitch:Yeah, you are singing from our song sheet. We feel the exact same way about all of these things. Rebecca, what can you tell us about your team and your resources and do you do this by yourself or obviously you’re not on a selfie picture, so you have somebody talented, at least on your team. What does it take for a chiropractor to be able to do this?

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Yeah, honestly, just yourself. I’m a pretty much a one man show. I do have my husband and a photographer that helps me, but pretty much a one man show. You don’t need much as long as you have a good phone that has a camera and video that can take videos, that’s all you need. Honestly, to this day, I still use my phone to record. I may take my professional pictures here and there that help out a lot just to those posts I use mainly to more personal posts that I share into my life and things like that. But the content that I share for patients, for potential patients is on my phone. So you don’t need much. You don’t need to spend much. You can do it right now, right where you are, and be successful.

Dr. Jeff Langmaid:That is great, great information. And I think a lot of docs get that paralysis because I don’t have the right insert whatever here. And it’s great to hear from somebody who has been exceptionally successful on the platform. It’s just not true, you know, smashing smashing those belief patterns. Let me ask you a question about stories versus feed. Are you doing more post more stories? Do you do you make a post and then reference it in a story? How do you think about utilizing the different pieces within Instagram’s architecture?

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Yeah, I use my feed as sharing valuable information. So anything that I want to address for, for example, for me, I do a lot of the mobility stretches, exercises. So those types of things I usually use my feed for. When it comes to stories, I like to think about it as I always tell my clients. It’s like your own little Netflix series, so it’s one of those tools and I love that about Instagram that you can jump on and really show people behind the scenes of your office, behind the scenes of your life. Like get people in who, who Rebecca is. Like, I want people to and we go back to the know like and trust factor and I think stories does a really good job with that you there’s the story really portrays who you are and what you’re about your personality, your heart, your motives, all of that. So I think that it really paints a great picture and kind of shows little ins and outs of your life and you can use it as a way to show people what your office looks like.

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Because I’ve noticed that when I show like my treatments that I do or what my office looks like, it’s a familiar. Your space for people who haven’t been in your office yet to be like, Wow, I know what it looks like. I know her face. I’ve seen her talk. So when they come into my office, they’re pretty much and I’ve heard this time and time again, I feel like I know you. I feel like coming to see you was super easy because I’ve been following you and I know you, and it was comfortable and it was really easy. I know we’ve all had those situations where we may have been to a doctor’s office or any professional and not felt that comfortable. And so I think Instagram does a great job in the stories, do a great job at really like making people feel comfortable before they step into your office and showing them who you are and having fun with it, too. I think it’s a great tool just to kind of have fun and be yourself.

Dr. Jason Deitch:Yeah, well, you’re the one doing the great job and to that point, you can’t just sign up an account and it isn’t up to them doing it, it is up to you doing it. And that’s what I’d love to learn more about, which is how do you come up with what what you should talk about? You know, the intuitive, perhaps counterintuitive sense is chiropractors think that they always got to be selling chiropractic and they’ll never get a second chance to say something later about chiropractic that they should have said. Now, immediately, I look at your feed and you’re recommending some of your favorite products and sometimes you’re stretching in others. You know, there’s just pictures of you saying, have a great day. How do you how do you sort of choose what you’re going to talk about and really find that balance of not overselling things? How do you pick your topics? Do you do it in advance? Is it year by year, month by month, week by week? How do you think about putting together what you’re going to talk about?

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Yeah, I think that’s a great question. I think the first step is really figuring out who you’re trying to talk to because if you don’t know who you’re talking to, it’s going to be very hard to create content and come up with ideas. So figuring out your ideal patient and what I tell my clients is sometimes they’re students or they’re they’re still, of course, still in school or they’re new grads and they haven’t really had much experience. And they and they usually tell me like, what does that even mean? What is my ideal client? What is my ideal patient? I don’t know. So there’s two ways you can do that to really figure out who you’re trying to talk to. The first way is, let’s say you’ve been treating patients. I basically tell my clients to think of that patient that you love seeing in your office. You just absolutely love treating. You know, they light up your day when they come in. That’s probably going to be someone that you want in your office over and over and over again. And the second way, if you don’t have any experience in chiropractic as far as treating goes, you can create a patient avatar. So make someone up, someone that you would love to treat.

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:And we do that often actually, and it works really, really well. But once you have that person in mind, now you’re set up to where you know what content to create for that person. We want to find the person that we’re trying to talk to and then create content to speak to them and to help them and improve their quality of life. So the way I do that and coming back to how do I know what to post, I create and sit down and plan out what’s called your three content pillars. So 3 to 5 content pillars is what I go by. I stick to three and I actually have an exercise, a freebie on my on my Instagram that you can go to right away and really start figuring that out. So three things that you’re super passionate about and a way to balance chiropractic and other things is to pick three topics that you’re passionate about. Doesn’t have to all three don’t have to be about chiropractic in your profession. It could be women empowerment, motivation, inspiration. The other one can be chiropractic related stuff. So you want to talk about for me, for example, it’s mobility and exercise.

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Like I try to have people go to my page, look at my video and say, okay, I’m going to try these right away. It’s very actionable. They can do it right away from home and relieve some of the pain and tension that they have. So it can be really broad. It could be very specific if you want it to. And then the third thing could be basically your personal life. So you want to share more about your family, you know, your wedding, anything personal you can share about. So knowing those three content pillars and rotating between them, you can devote two or three posts to one of them however you want to split it up. I usually go chiropractic motivation and then personal. Chiropractic motivation personal. So it’s not so overwhelming to the audience and it’s all about chiropractic. It doesn’t necessarily have to be all about chiropractic. So that’s my style. But I know a lot of people, for example, realtors, they don’t have much personal stuff in there. They’re just posting about homes and anything to do with realty. So it really depends on how you want to portray your content and push it out there. That’s what I would say.

Dr. Jeff Langmaid:That’s great. Great advice, great tips and a great strategic approach. I love it. How do you protect your mindset? You know, getting up every day, being publicly facing isn’t easy in the best of circumstances, you know, and being out there, the bigger your audience grows, you know, you can there’s always the haters. There’s always the who’s paying attention. As you build and grow and develop your own following. Do you have any mindset tips for docs at favorite books? Do you meditate every day? What what sort of keeps you motivated to have that consistency, which we always say consistency is the number one predictor of success when marketing and in many things in life, however, so many of us in so many ways, you know, struggle with it day in and day out, especially docs. When we talk about building and growing their practice, how do you think about mindset and perhaps what’s a practice or two that you’ve found to be super helpful to reach your level of success?

Dr. Rebecca Hopkins:Yeah, I think it can be very overwhelming, especially social media. It can feel like it’s consuming most of your day, but you have to protect your mind and your mindset. It’s it’s what allows you to show up as you and be authentic and real and just enjoy it. When it comes to a point where you’re exhausted and you don’t enjoy it anymore, it’s not really benefiting you. So different practices that I do. I just go to what I love to do and that’s exercising and I love reading. I’ve really been into trying to read one book a month, so just setting aside time to do that and to just like I’ve been guilty of. Being on it too much and my husband have to say hello. Can you come back to Earth? So because it’s a part of my business, it’s hard to separate that from your personal. So I would say go back to things you love doing, whether that’s exercise, reading, a book, meditation, really anything like going shopping, therapy, anything like that. But I think one thing that’s really helped me and I’ve learned this from someone else is to treat it like it’s a part of your business. So, for example, anything that you want to do with social media, put a time cap on it, lock it into your schedule and devote, let’s say, 2 hours to do all the things you want to do for your social media platform. And then basically blocking that out and anything over 2 hours don’t do just stick to two.

Dr. Jeff Langmaid:Yeah, you’ve got to set those boundaries. Rebecca, you have been fantastic. I love the strategies, the tips. I’m going to encourage everybody out there. Instagram The Chiropractic Guru. Be sure to check out her Instagram blueprint as well. Thank you so much for coming on. We will drop those links down below. We appreciate you coming on and sharing and keep up the incredible work docs. Make sure at the bare minimum you want to head over and follow her and see what she’s up to. And I’d encourage you to pick up that Instagram blueprint. Thank you for listening to interviews by The SMART Chiropractor. Join us again next week for another episode and leave us a review when you have a moment. This episode has been brought to you by The SMART Chiropractor. The SMART Chiropractor can deliver more new patients, better retention and more consistent reactivation to your practice without spending any money on paid advertising. Learn more and get started today at The SMART Chiropractor.