Episode 84 of the Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast: Scaling a Hybrid Community Acupuncture Practice $500k with Michelle Hamilton, founder of Community Acupuncture School.

This week I’m talking with Michelle Hamilton, acupuncturist and founder of the online program, Community Acupuncture School.

This is Michelle’s second interview here on the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast, so I’m excited to have her back to pick her brain about community acupuncture.

Free PDA Class! Community Acupuncture 101 with Michelle Hamilton, D.Ac.

  • Date: Wednesday, Oct. 9th
  • Time: 9:00 am Pacific / 12:00 pm Eastern Time
  • Free Registration: Click here to sign up.

Michelle will be teaching about how to get started setting up a community acupuncture clinic, what you need to have in place, what equipment she recommends, how to market a community acupuncture clinic, and more.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • Michelle’s journey of building a very successful hybrid community practice that generates half a million dollars annually in revenue, where she sees 100 patients a week
  • What motivated her to shift into the community clinic model
  • How providing a menu for patients helps with patient education and referrals
  • The benefits of subscription-based models of treatment
  • What you need to have in place to make the subscription model successful
  • And much more.

Show Notes:

🎙️ Listen to Episode #84: Scaling a Hybrid Community Acupuncture Clinic to $500k with Michelle Hamilton

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Transcript:

[MICHELLE GRASEK] (00:05):

Welcome to the Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Grasek, and I’m here to help you get visible in your community, take marketing action with confidence and get more patients in your practice and more money in your pocket every week. We both know you’re a talented, passionate acupuncturist and that acupuncture has the power to change lives. So let’s dive right into this episode and talk about how you can reach more patients.

(00:33):

Hello, welcome back. This week I’m talking with Michelle Hamilton, acupuncturist and founder of the online program Community Acupuncture School. This is Michelle’s second interview here on the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast so I’m excited to have her back to pick her brain again about all things community acupuncture. And Michelle and I are co-hosting a free PDA credit class called Community Acupuncture 101 on Wednesday, October 9th at 12:00 PM Eastern Time. She’ll be teaching about how to get started setting up a community acupuncture clinic, what you need to have in place, what equipment she recommends, how to market a community acupuncture clinic, and much more. So I really hope you can join us for that. The link will be in the show notes so you can register for free and get your free PDA credit.

(01:16):

In today’s episode, Michelle and I talk about her journey of building a very successful hybrid community practice that generates half a million dollars annually in revenue where she sees about a hundred patients a week. We talk about what motivated her to shift into the community clinic model and we talk about some details like why providing a menu for your patients really helps with patient education and increasing referrals, as well as streamlines your community clinic process. We talk about the benefits of offering a subscription option for your patients and what you need to have in place to make the subscription model successful and not stressful and much more.

(02:03):

Before we get into today’s episode, I do have a request for you. I’m looking for some feedback. I am thrilled to share that this fall I’ll be teaching Acupuncture Marketing School live on Zoom for the first time ever. You might be familiar with this, but Acupuncture Marketing School in the past has only been available as a self-paced video-based class and offering it through Zoom means that you can get all of your questions answered and get real time feedback about your marketing as we move from one chapter to the next. Class will begin in the fourth week of October, and the size will be limited to 20 students, so will be a nice small group. And this first run will be a beta test to help determine what format and delivery will work best. So that’s why I need your feedback. If you are interested in joining me, I would love to know when should we meet, what days of the week and what times of day work best for you and how often should this be done over six weeks or 12 weeks? Please click the link in the show notes to go to the survey where you can answer those two questions. It is a very brief survey. It shouldn’t take more than two minutes to fill out. I am so grateful for your feedback and your help in making these decisions because I really want this class to work for you and I can’t wait to work with you in real time over Zoom. I think this class is going to be really special.

[MICHELLE G.] (03:24):

Alright, thank you again and let’s get into this episode with Michelle Hamilton. Hi Michelle, how are you?

[MICHELLE HAMILTON] (03:33):

Hi Michelle, how are you? It would be great to just do this every morning.

[MICHELLE G.] (03:40):

Yes, oh my gosh.

[MICHELLE H.] (03:41):

Start every day. Hi Michelle, how are you?

[MICHELLE G.] (03:45):

Maybe I’ll start that. I’ll just look in the mirror.

[MICHELLE H.] (03:49):

Super creepy vibes.

[MICHELLE G.] (03:51):

I love it. Well, thank you so much for being here. We are co-hosting a class that you are teaching in a week called Community Acupuncture School 101 and I am so excited to introduce you to anyone in the audience who didn’t listen into your first episode, because This is your second time here on the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast. And you have this incredible program called Community Acupuncture School, where you teach people how to set up, run and market a community acupuncture clinic or hybrid clinic, because a lot of people are interested in that. So we have so much to talk about today. I’m really looking forward to it.

[MICHELLE H.] (04:35):

Yeah, thanks for having me back, Michelle. It’s always a pleasure.

[MICHELLE G.] (04:39):

So maybe you could start, for our new listeners, just talking about how you ended up opening Community Acupuncture and then building it to half a million dollars in revenue a year, is that right?

[MICHELLE H.] (04:53):

Yeah.

[MICHELLE G.] (04:53):

Yeah, we want to hear about that.

[MICHELLE H.] (04:55):

Who would’ve thought. That’s not the plan going in. What a wonderful surprise. So I started, I never had a dream of opening a community clinic. I was not trained to treat community style. I was trained like many of you listening, to treat one-on-one, the initial intake is an hour and a half long, and our follow-ups are an hour long. You’re in a room, you see maybe one to three patients an hour if you’re really cranking. And that’s what I did for eight years. So I started with one room and then I rented two rooms and then I rented three rooms and I was like, “Oh, wow, I’m really killing it.” That took me about eight years to get to that point. And this is part of the human condition, but I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t feeling fulfilled treating that way, and I was trying to figure out why. And there was a lot of different things going on in my life at the same time, for one, I was going through a divorce, so that was on the personal front, and we’ll get into that more on how that played in, but also I was finding with my patients, I was seeing a lot, I was established in the community, so I was seeing a lot of just wellness patients that were coming for their routine once every two to four weeks. There wasn’t really anything acutely wrong with them. They weren’t really getting worse, they weren’t really getting better. It was just a maintenance mode.

(06:30):

I love those patients, I’m still seeing some of those patients now. There wasn’t room in my schedule for people that really needed care and I was booked out sometimes two to four weeks and people couldn’t get in and I felt frustrated and conflicted as a provider running into people who could really use my services and they either couldn’t get in or they couldn’t afford to get acupuncture. That was the other thing, is people would come in and most of us know, most ailments usually need eight to 12 visits to turn it around and a lot of the general population can’t afford eight 12 visits. They can maybe come once and try it out and they’re all excited to see what acupuncture is all about and they save up their money and they spend the $250 for the initial visit and you treat them once and you tell them, “I need to see you 12 times,” and you never see them again..

(07:30):

And I think there’s a lot of different things going on there. You could say, well, they do have the money, they just don’t value the treatment, or maybe they don’t think it’s going to work. I always say, I just don’t think they think it’s like a $4,000 problem and they’re not willing to spend the money on that. If they were going to lose their arm, if they didn’t get the treatment, they would come up with $4,000, but if it’s just tendonitis they’re like, “Well, I’m not a professional tennis player. It bothers me when I carry my groceries in. It’s not worth $4,000.” So there’s, “Ah, forget it.” But I always thought, well, if there was a cheaper alternative, maybe it is a $500 problem tendonitis. Maybe it is a $500 issue that I can’t carry my groceries in, and I would spend $500 to get that fixed. So things like that started coming up where I was like, I want a cheaper alternative for these easier, I hate to say easier, but less complicated issues to address that I knew that I could help the community with that. There was a lot of just roadblocks there for people to get treatment. On the personal side, I was going through a divorce and I was experiencing a complete shift in my finances as most people do. You literally lose like half your stuff.

(08:44):

I was in a financial situation where I realized, and I was very humbled, a single mom of two kids, I’m like, I wouldn’t be able to afford to see myself. I’m in bad shape right now. I’m not sleeping, I am not eating. This is the most stressful time of my life. I have stomach ulcers, like, what is going on? I have all the symptoms that we used to read about in these books. I’m that person now and I can’t afford to see myself. So I felt ethically conflicted by that because I understand now that a lot of times when we’re going through a lot of the most stressful periods in our lives are also the periods we don’t have the most financial resources. So I wanted to meet that need. A lot of different things going on there and yeah, I mean, there’s not a lot of training out there for community acupuncture, so a lot of what I did was just trial and error and that’s why I created a course to meet that need.

(09:50):

After I created the clinic and it was a success a lot of people just started coming to me, like, “How do you do that? How do you da, da, da?” And eventually I was like, I’m just going to put this all in a digital course and it’s just accessible and saves you a lot of time, saves you a lot of stress and a lot of mistakes really, because I’ve made a lot of mistakes too. But how I started is I just opened a clinic out on the patio of my preexisting clinic and just for two hours a week I opened up a lunch hour, which seemed really manageable. And I always say, just start where you are. Start what you can imagine. I can imagine giving up two hours a week and doing acupuncture on the patio. That seems reasonable to me. I can’t imagine going out and renting a whole new space and doing community acupuncture 40 hours a week. That doesn’t seem, that’s outside of what I can imagine at this moment. So just little baby steps. I opened up that little patio space and just tried it out and it just was wildly successful immediately. I just created a Facebook event. You want to talk about marketing? Like, what happened to those Facebook events? I feel like they’re not a thing anymore. I wish they were.

[MICHELLE G.] (11:09):

They’re there, but I don’t know that they have the same reach, because now everybody and their mama has a Facebook event for everything.

[MICHELLE H.] (11:17):

Is that what happens?

[MICHELLE G.] (11:18):

So there’s more competition. There’s more competition than ever.

[MICHELLE H.] (11:21):

There was just like a window of time when those were like gold. You could be like, I’m going to create a Facebook event and it’s like, pow. It was free. You could target people. It was amazing. Okay, so I did a Facebook event and so I started pulling all these people in that weren’t part of my existing client or patient base and it just grew word of mouth. And I did cash only, I did sliding scale and no appointments, just walk-ins. And it was outside. It was outside and it’s warm here, but it’s not that warm. It’s not like I’m not in the Caribbean here. It was like 72 degrees. It would rain, it was covered, but people would still come. That led me to believe like, okay, maybe we’re onto something here. And then I could imagine opening maybe a small space and opening at 10-hours a week and trying that out.

(12:13):

So then I did that, still keeping my private practice going because I wasn’t ready to just jump ship. I did that for a year and that was successful. And then I merged the two and now I have a hybrid clinic called the Zenden, where I do have a two private rooms and I have a community space and we I do both. I do community acupuncture, I do private acupuncture, I do cosmetic like microneedling. I have other providers that come in here. I have a massage therapist. We also do like community events. We do sound baths. I’ll do like moon circles. It’s nice to have a community space because I’ll have other people come in and do like reiki events and I don’t know, it’s great to be able to provide community, because I feel like that’s a big piece of medicine that is missing and isn’t talked about a lot. And I love to be able to provide a space that provides that. They’ve done a lot of studies on longevity and they’ve found that community is actually an essential part of that and if you can create a space that offers that in a healthy healing way, I think you’re really providing something that we need right now.

[MICHELLE G.] (13:31):

I think I’ve seen the studies that you’re referring to for sure. So how many acupuncturists do you have working in your clinic and what’s that arrangement like?

[MICHELLE H.] (13:43):

Well, that’s a funny question. Right now it’s just me. At one point I’ve had three other acupuncturists working here and two massage therapists. And I’ve gone through a bit of a change lately where I’ve had too much going on honestly. I’m growing my online coaching and I’m building out like a mastermind and the podcast and I’m doing a lot of writing and speaking. And then I was running a clinic with a lot of providers and managing them. And I was treating patients

[MICHELLE G.] (14:29):

So much

[MICHELLE H.] (14:30):

And I am a single mom. And it got to the point where it was like, these are three full-time jobs, these are four full-time jobs. And something had to give and I had to pick which direction I wanted to go. And it’s funny because I set the attention, I want less people here. I’m glad I got to experience what I thought was success. And then they just fell off, like a family member died, somebody moved and they all just left. I’m glad I got to experience it. I don’t know if I’ll have, if that’s the direction I want to go anymore. It would have to be a really special provider and it would probably be somebody that’s going to just take over the clinic for me and I’m going to leave completely. I think I’m more interested in helping other people build their own.

[MICHELLE G.] (15:24):

Do you mind sharing how many patients you’re treating a week?

[MICHELLE H.] (15:28):

Yeah, no, I see close to like a hundred patients a week right now.

[MICHELLE G.] (15:32):

Wow.

[MICHELLE H.] (15:32):

Between private patients and community patients. It’s a lot. It’s a lot of skin.

[MICHELLE G.] (15:42):

Yeah, that is a lot of skin

[MICHELLE H.] (15:43):

A lot of skin. It’s a lot of talking

[MICHELLE G.] (15:46):

So I have been through your class, Community Acupuncture School and one of the things that I really loved was that you share the handouts that you give to patients to really streamline the process so that you can see so many people. So I love your menu where it’s like I’m experiencing headache or I have insomnia and you have like cute little names for everything. But you are just, if you want to describe some of the things that you have set up that you teach inside community acupuncture school to make things streamlined, I think that’s what a lot of people are missing in their community practice to help it be really smooth and easy so they could see more people.

[MICHELLE H.] (16:30):

Yeah. I think, and this is like a little bit of a marketing piece, it’s like, I think it’s important to remember that you are selling the result. And I was taught this a lot, like even on your website, don’t talk about, this is how I pick my acupuncture points or this was the training that, like patients don’t care.

[MICHELLE G.] (16:53):

It’s not really that important to them.

[MICHELLE H.] (16:54):

They’re like, “My back hurt. Can you make it feel better?” That’s what they want to know. So that’s why your website should say like, do you want to live pain free? So I feel like that’s why I created a menu because they walk in the door, they get a menu and it’s, these are the things that acupuncture can treat. And yeah, I made cute little names and I made it fun to read. I wrote the whole menu when I was on like a four-hour flight up in the sky and I had a lot of fun with it. There’s things like headache healer or low back love, things like that where people can go down the menu and two things are happening. They’re looking for something that can help them that they didn’t know acupuncture could help them with and in a non-confrontational way. I mean, people are curious about acupuncture, but they’re afraid to ask questions, but they don’t know like for the first time?

[MICHELLE G.] (17:51):

Yeah.

[MICHELLE H.] (17:51):

And the second thing that’s happening is you’re educating them on how you can help their friends and family and neighbors. Because it happens every time. They’ll look at it, or I’m sure you’ve had this happen when you’re treating someone and you can tell they’re having a good experience and they’ll say, my husband has dah, dah, dah. Can you help with that? So when people experience something good, they immediately think about people that they love and how it can benefit them. So there’s that happening. Or it’s also educating them for later. It’s putting it in like their back pocket, they’re reading the list and they’re learning, oh, acupuncture can help with insomnia, whatever. They go about their day, three months later, their neighbor has insomnia and they’re like, “You know what, have you tried acupuncture?” So it’s a great educational tool. Does it like dumb it down a little bit? Yeah, it does. Acupuncture’s really complicated. There’s like 12 different causes of insomnia and that’s why I don’t like put, like, these aren’t the points. It’s more of a menu that directs the patient. It also allows you to direct the intake really quickly.

[MICHELLE G.] (19:04):

I mean, the thing I love about the menu is when we think about a menu at our clinic, because I know a lot of people who have something they call a menu, but it’s like general acupuncture, cosmetic acupuncture, microneedling, cupping. And so that’s fine, but it doesn’t speak to the patient’s symptoms. And the menu that you are creating is really offering them some, like they can choose something based on their symptom. So as you said, they’re identifying themselves immediately. And then you also mentioned this, that it allows you as the provider to say, okay, if you’re choosing the insomnia option, in my brain I have what are all the 12 causes of insomnia and now I can do a really quick rundown because in community acupuncture you don’t have that much time. Like you have to move on to other people. And that intense intake with the person looking over your shoulder saying, and, and, and. It just isn’t practical in a community setting. So I love that menu idea, but I think it’s pretty unique. But I think when people implement it, they find it helpful.

[MICHELLE H.] (20:12):

Yeah. And the other part that you touched on briefly that I think is really important, and I just experienced this the other day and always pay attention when you go to get other services, things that are irritating or confusing is that the patient doesn’t know what they need. And I see this on people’s websites like cupping or [inaudible] or gua sha. Don’t let them book that they don’t know what they need. I just went to the salon and I was trying to book highlights for my daughter because it’s homecoming dance and I don’t even know what these things are called a by-large[?]. I don’t know. And then like a partial.

[MICHELLE G.] (20:47):

I don’t know either

[MICHELLE H.] (20:48):

A full foil, a hairline, foil, all of this stuff. And I’m like, I don’t know what any of this is. They’re like, well, you booked the wrong thing. I’m like, yeah, because I don’t know what any of this is. Do you either need to put a picture or like tell me what the end result you’re putting the technique? Up there, I don’t know what that result is. What is the end result? Yes. So I think that’s why the menu is really successful. The other thing that I teach in the course that I think is really unique and has been really beneficial is about my membership program. I offer a membership program for my community clinic that has been really successful. And it’s great for my wellness patients. These are the people that come in four times a month and they’re committed to acupuncture for their wellness care. They notice they get sick less. They feel better, they sleep better, their hormones are more balanced. Stress levels are more manageable. Or maybe they just like to come, it’s part of their meditation practice.

(21:51):

It’s a wonderful thing to provide because people really get to experience what it’s like to get acupuncture on a regular basis and be able to afford it on a regular basis, and to see their body get acupuncture treatments that are in tune with the season and follow the season and get advice from me throughout that too. Like have access to me and say, we’re moving into winter. That’s what this means, and these are the foods that maybe you should be eating more. So it’s like a subscription to the provider that they’re getting and people love it. And as the provider it’s fantastic because you’re getting reoccurring revenue and you’re building a client base and it’s a great marketing too. These people are like your bread and butter. Like they are your cheerleaders. They’re your evergreens. They’re your family. They will talk about you to everybody. So it’s been amazing to offer that and it’s been an amazing tool for my practice. So I talk about that, how to set that up, how to price that. So that’s another thing that I think is really valuable about the course.

[MICHELLE G.] (23:07):

The number one question I think people ask in relation to memberships or subscriptions is if someone, let’s say their membership is to have two treatments a month and that’s the tier that they’re at, it’s really hard for acupuncturists to let people not use their membership and take their money. And so the question is, let’s say someone pays for their two treatments in their membership, but they only come once this month, or they were away and they couldn’t come at all, do I still take their money? Or what’s the mindset shift that maybe we all need to do, because this is so common. How do we shift into saying, “Yep, you signed up for this. You know that it’s either use it or lose it.” That is very clear in the contract, like, just take it, just take their money and they’ll be back next week or next month.

[MICHELLE H.] (24:01):

It’s a tough one. It’s a tough one for sure. And I’ve run into that. It’s been challenging. But I’ve been doing memberships for five years now and I’ve definitely, I’ve hit all those walls. I’ve hit the person that’s upset. And the way that I’ve managed it is extremely clear communication where it’s almost aggressive. Because that’s the only way that you can alleviate this. So a very clear contract that the initial, every item we’re like, I can’t roll this over. I understand there’s a three-month minimum. I understand that I will be auto paid. I understand I have to cancel in 30 days. It is like I understand, I understand, I understand and I’m signing. They’re also verbally told this by the front desk and then when they sign up, they get emailed a receipt where they are also reconfirmed.

(25:01):

So they’re told three different times, if there is an issue, we really just resend the contract that they signed the same way you would at anywhere else, if you went to a gym, if you tried to get out of the lease of your apartment. I mean there’s a reason that these contracts exist and they’re getting an affordable rate because we do have an agreement. If you don’t want to be in the agreement, then don’t be in it and do a drop in fee. It’s really that simple. And for the most part, people understand that there’s always some person that I feel like they see that this is a really small business and there is opportunity there to really just bust my butt about it, because it’s like, oh, I can go straight to the top and talk to somebody about it because I’m right here.

[MICHELLE G.] (26:03):

Right, “I’d like to speak to the manager,” and you’re like, “You’re looking at them.”

[MICHELLE H.] (26:07):

Whereas like Gold’s Gym or something, you’d be like, I am talking to corporate. I’d be like, good luck. They’ve got all these attorneys, whatever. And for that, sometimes you just reach a point you’re like, I don’t even want you here. You’re not the type of person that I really want to serve, so here’s your money. Goodbye. It’s worth it to me.

[MICHELLE G.] (26:28):

Right, you just release them.

[MICHELLE H.] (26:29):

Yeah, like I don’t want your energy here. And for the most part, people understand that they are getting something really valuable. They value it, they value me and we have a good exchange. It’s the people that are just wanting a deal. And so I think that’s where pricing really comes into play. Pricing it right. And that’s something that I’ve had to learn. Like I’ve raised my prices every year and it seems like every time I raise it, I’m attracting higher vibe patients.

[MICHELLE G.] (27:01):

And I think that the people who give you a hard time, that’s what we fixate on when we’re considering making a big shift like this. But we just imagine that 90% of the people we bump into are going to be the unusual difficult ones that we’re imagining they’re all going to be trolls and that’s scary. But the truth is it’s 1% or less.

[MICHELLE H.] (27:25):

Totally, yeah.

[MICHELLE G.] (27:25):

Mostly people who are the patients, I would imagine when you send out your email saying, I’m raising my rates and they’re like, “It’s about time.”

[MICHELLE H.] (27:36):

Yeah.

[MICHELLE G.] (27:37):

Like people who are very supportive and they enjoy you as an individual and they want to see you succeed. Remind me, in Community Acupuncture School, the online class, do you share the document, your membership contract as an example?

[MICHELLE H.] (27:52):

Yeah.

[MICHELLE G.] (27:52):

Okay. So I think that helps people a lot.

[MICHELLE H.] (27:55):

Super helpful

[MICHELLE G.] (27:56):

For so many people that I speak to, one barrier for making a big change is what are legal ramifications, and even how do I begin? Because it’s like, you know that if you get a legal document from someone else, like, you’re going to have to tweak it. You want to have your own lawyer review it. But just to have a template freeze people up so much, it’s so liberating. And they’re like, okay, suddenly this feels doable. And then they can move forward. So that’s awesome that that’s in there.

[MICHELLE H.] (28:25):

Yeah. I’m happy to provide that. I mean it’s essentially like everything it took me to open my doors in like a little box? If someone would’ve dropped this on my doorstep, I would’ve been like, “Oh my God, thank you so much.” All my like intake forms, consent to treat forms, just all that stuff that you have to figure out, everything’s figureoutable. But it is nice to have someone else figure it out for you..

[MICHELLE G.] (28:53):

Yes. And so the class, which I don’t think we shared the date, the class that you are teaching is October 9th and it’s at noon eastern. So what are some of the things that you are going to share in the class, because it’s only probably 45 minutes and then there’s Q&A time, so certainly you can’t hear everything.

[MICHELLE H.] (29:15):

Yeah, I’m really going to have to reel it in. It’s going to be a shorty. So I’m just going to talk about how to get started if you wanted to open even like a little hybrid clinic. So a lot of my students, they’ll just open like a little clinic in their waiting room. I’m in my waiting room right now. You could put like three or four recliners out there. What type of recliners to get, how to treat, how to schedule people, different payment strategies, what equipment to get, how to market, how to talk about community acupuncture, what they’re getting and what the treatment’s going to be like, and then different trainings that helped me, that set me up for success. Things like that. That’s a lot in 45 minutes. But that’s my intention. I would love, if you’re interested to come on out, it’s free. You’re going to get a one CEU. We all need that. And then we’ll do a Q&A after. It’s 9:00 AM Pacific Time for all the West coast peeps. Anything else you want to add did I miss?

[MICHELLE G.] (30:20):

No, I’m really looking forward to it. It seems like you’re going to be able to skim all of those sections, but then if people want to join you inside Community Acupuncture School, they can do that. So if people are interested, it’s such a nice taste of your teaching style, similar to this conversation I think. It always helps people understand they want to move forward. So it’s going to be a fun class.

[MICHELLE H.] (30:44):

Yeah, and then the doors for our Community Acupuncture course, the big dog, where you get the box with all the documents, everything we talked about, the discount on that and the doors on that open October 7th to the 16th where you get $200 off the course. So that’s going to happen in the middle of all of this. And put the promo code in the notes for this show. And we’ll also provide it at the webinar if you’re going to be at the webinar as well. I would love for you guys to join us at either. Come check it out.

[MICHELLE G.] (31:23):

Yeah, we’ll definitely put all the links in the show notes for this episode so people can join us and get their free PDA credit. And you just launched a podcast as well and I had a really fun privilege of listening to the first episode, which was super. If you want to share a little bit about the podcast, I think people will really enjoy it because there’s not a ton of acupuncture centered podcast out there and you take a unique approach.

[MICHELLE H.] (31:51):

I sure do. So the name of my podcast is called Put A Needle In It. It’s about practice management, personal development, and what it’s like to practice in ancient medicine in a modern world. Talk about a little bit of everything really, community acupuncture. I’m really into personal development because I feel like our practices are really mirrors of our own personal development and personal growth.

[MICHELLE G.] (32:17):

I love that.

[MICHELLE H.] (32:18):

So I love to talk about what’s working for me, ways that I’m growing, ways that I’m challenging myself. Also, I talk about my personal life quite a bit too. My first episode ended up being me talking about my experience entering my first bodybuilding competition and how that relates to my acupuncture practice and more.

[MICHELLE G.] (32:40):

It was excellent. I really enjoyed it. It was one of those rare podcast episodes where I was genuinely thinking, how is this going to end? What’s going to happen next? So yeah, I really, I think people will enjoy it.

[MICHELLE H.] (32:55):

It’s unexpected. And Michelle, I need to update you because I did another show. And you’ll never guess, I’m going to have to go off camera and tell you what happened there, because it’s going to blow your mind. I’m going to do another episode about that. This might just be a podcast about my bodybuilding career. I don’t know what’s going on.

[MICHELLE G.] (33:15):

But you related it back to being a business owner and lessons that you learned. And they were, it was all relevant and really thoughtful stuff. So it was cool to see a snapshot of the bodybuilding world, which I will never enter and have that related to entrepreneurship.

[MICHELLE H.] (33:30):

That’s what I was saying, Michelle, but look at me now,. But I’m diving into all sorts of topics. I just did record another episode yesterday with a relationship and intimacy coach and we were talking about what it’s like to be a healer and a caregiver and a provider all day and how we go home at the end of the day and connect with our partners. That’s challenging for me. I’m sure it’s challenging for all of you. And different practices that we can do throughout the day to protect our energy and preserve our relationships. Things like that I’m like, ooh, that’s interesting. So I hope it’s a benefit. And if you like it, shoot me a note and let me know you like it. If you don’t like it, tell me why. Also shoot me a note. I would love to improve it.

[MICHELLE G.] (34:21):

I thought you were going to say, if you don’t like it, then don’t tell me

[MICHELLE H.] (34:24):

Then don’t. Yeah, no, I love feedback back.

[MICHELLE G.] (34:27):

That’s not the kind of person you are.

[MICHELLE H.] (34:28):

No, I’m like, tell me what sucks. Let’s improve it.

[MICHELLE G.] (34:32):

Love it. Well, thank you so much for being here today. I’m really looking forward to the class on the 9th and I’ll make sure I put all the links in the show notes so that people can join us and get their free PDA credit. And will you just tell us your website really quick so people can visit?

[MICHELLE H.] (34:48):

Drmichellehamilton.com. All my goodies are on there.

[MICHELLE G.] (34:53):

Awesome.

[MICHELLE H.] (34:53):

Drmichellehamilton.com. Thank you so much for having me, Michelle. It’s always fun to chat with you.

[MICHELLE G.] (34:59):

Absolutely. My pleasure. I love everything that you share. I think you have great perspectives.

[MICHELLE H.] (35:03):

Thanks. Chat soon.

[MICHELLE G.] (35:10):

Thank you so much for being here. As always, if you’d like to join us for Community Acupuncture 101, the free PDA credit class, you can sign up through the link in the show notes. And again, class will be hosted on Wednesday, October 9th, 9:00 AM Pacific Time, 12:00 PM Eastern. Time, and we cannot wait to see you there.