EP134: How Dr. Betty Murray Runs a Seven-Figure Nutrition-Based Practice

Perfect Practice

In this episode, Sachin interviews Dr. Betty Murray

Key Takeaways:

[1:02] Sachin introduces Dr. Betty Murray, the CEO and Founder of Living Well Dallas, a functional medicine center. Betty is a nutritionist and researcher who has helped hundreds of people to feel their absolute best, so she has had great success and prosperity.

[2:08] Sachin and Betty will focus on Betty’s methods for success and prosperity to help you succeed and prosper in your practice and life. Sachin welcomes Betty to Perfect Practice.

[2:52] Betty started her practice 20 years ago. In 2004, she did not find many clients for functional medicine. She bootstrapped her business with her part-time job. She didn’t have enough runway to make a lot of mistakes. She had to be more resourceful with her resources.

[4:58] In Betty’s clinic today, there are internal medicine, psychiatry, hormone replacement, clinical nutritionists, life coaches, counselors, and diagnostics. At first, her clinic was fee-for-service, and nobody was using coaching because they didn’t know its value.

[6:40] Betty had to let go of her belief that if she educated someone, they would find value in her program, and instead, create the value proposition and give it to them so they would find value. If the market is not buying your strategy, your strategy is wrong and you need to rearrange it.

[8:44] Always add value for your client first. When you give value to your customers, patients, and clients, you get rewarded. When you’re driving toward a value, and you’re giving people what they need and helping them understand what they need, people will value that.

[9:47] When you’re starting, the narrower you get with what you’re doing, whom you’re serving, and what problem you’re solving, the easier it is to stand out in that market. Don’t go bigger, faster, better and think it’s going to be more money. It’s complex. Betty has to spend more on marketing than others because she has more avatars. She has to spend more time on staff.

[13:45] Sachin says to keep it simple. Betty adds that if you have this burning desire to have a multi-disciplinary team, recognize that you’d better be a good business person or hire a good business person, which requires a runway of cash flow. It’s not a low-paying job.

[14:57] Most of us in healthcare never had business training. Betty had a business degree before she came into healthcare. It’s still a concept until you get it into action. Being a 30,000-hour expert comes from experience, not from a book or an education.

[17:09] The Mosaic of Autoimmunity, by Dr. Yehuda Schoenfeld, is a textbook Betty has been studying. It’s probably the best textbook to explain the underpinnings of autoimmunity. Regardless of who our avatar is, all of us are going to be in the immune system.

[18:07] 10X is Easier than 2X: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less, by Dan Sullivan is the business-building book Betty recommends. It is easier and more effective to leapfrog from where you are to where you want to go than it is to make small changes.

[18:52] Betty recommends two personal/financial development books: Disruptor: How to Challenge the Status Quo and Unlock Innovation, by Alex Gonzalez, about innovation. The second book is Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life, by Bill Perkins. It’s about not amassing money but using it to do good as you go.

[24:11] Betty tells how she grew her money mindset. As a child, she was determined to work and she falsified her birth certificate to get a job underage. She sees the world as abundant and if she lives in that abundance and does the right things, she will be rewarded for it. She doesn’t hesitate to spend money. He husband is cautious so she asked him to handle the finances.

[25:55] Sachin also has a story about going after what he wanted at a young age. He learned to cut hair by watching a barber and then opened a barber shop in his garage. Bety’s and Sachin’s experiences helped mold them into who they are as adults.

[28:57] Walter Isaacson wrote about Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and others who have changed the world. None of them had an easy life. Those things that are more difficult for us make us tenacious. Opening a practice outside the traditional medical establishment is also an adversity. Don’t keep a Plan B that’s easy to go back to. Keep marching forward, iterating, and changing.

[31:33] Whenever Betty is told she can’t do something or the world will beat her, that is when it’s “game on” for her. That guarantees she would act. Recognize that your challenges are also helpful.

[32:34] Justin notes that success is in doing things differently. Sally Hogshead said that different is better than better. Betty built a large, busy center. At first, she didn’t want to be the brand but learned that your brand is you. You have to be part of the brand. One year, Betty spoke 220 times. She showed up everywhere as the owner so people would know about the center.

[34:17] When people leave a practice it’s not from what happened but how it was handled. Every part of the customer experience must be planned and managed to make it extraordinary. If there’s a problem, own it, fix it, and apologize. Betty’s team out-executes everybody.

[35:37] When you want to stand out, look at the non-clinical stuff and double down on it all, from the emails to how the phone is answered. Those things will make up for a world of pain and will make you look better. Most practices shirk that, and people get mad about it.

[36:42] Betty tells about her hiring process. She starts with a matrix of requirements. Betty has a team member do the initial interviews to figure out if the applicant is a culture fit. Betty doesn’t want “yes people” but they have to be on board for her strategy. Betty has a “Volkswagen test.”

[38:34] If they pass the culture fit and the skill set, they come in to interview 12 to 14 of the practitioners. Finally, Betty interviews them. If she likes them, they come in for a working day. They get paid for the day and do a final interview with Betty. Betty is slow to hire; and quick to fire. Because of the extensive interview process, Betty doesn’t often have to fire.

[39:31] Betty tells about her first hire. It was an administrative assistant. Betty’s role was to bring people through the door. She didn’t want to spend billable hours doing unbillable work.

[42:09] Betty’s last piece of advice: If you’re a practitioner, you do not need any more certifications or training to do what you do. You need to do what you are trained to do.

[44:04] Sachin warns against continual certifications. It’s a form of procrastination and it leads to imposter syndrome. The way you build the muscles is by doing the reps. If you get into a situation where you don’t know the answer, you have the resources to find it quickly.

[45:17] Betty got her Ph.D. not because she needed it for her business but because she wanted to dig into the research and get better at that, to prove this type of medicine works.

[46:12] Sachin thanks Dr. Betty Murray for everything that she shared today. Betty mentions her practice Livingwelldallas.com, her website, Bettymurray.com, and her podcast Menopause Mastery. Sachin thanks her for sharing her wisdom.

Mentioned in this episode

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Books by Sachin Patel:

Perfect Practice: How to Build a Successful Functional Medical Business, Attract Your Ideal Patients, Serve Your Community, and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The Motivation Molecule: The Biological Secrets To Eliminate Procrastination, Skyrocket Productivity, and Get Sh!t Done