Portrait of acupuncturist and content creator, Lindsey Thompson, and the text The Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast Episode 52: How to Use Reels for More Patients.

Welcome back!

Today I’m talking to acupuncturist Lindsey Thompson about making Instagram reels an effective and manageable marketing approach for your practice.

I’ve been following Lindsey and her content creation online for a LONG time. At least 5 or 6 years.

She runs multiple businesses, including a very successful private practice and an online nutrition program teaching patients how to integrate TCM dietary therapy into their lives.

And today I’m releasing a brand-new PDA course, taught by Lindsey, called Introduction to Reels for Acupuncturists.

What I really like about Lindsey’s approach to Instagram reels is that she subscribes to the idea of “done is better than perfect.” I think we can all use more of that in our marketing!

This class focuses on how to teach your audience what they need to know, using very brief Reels, so they decide to make an appointment with you.

In this reels class for beginners, you’ll learn how to…

  • Create quick, easy reels from start to finish
  • Know what to say or share that interests your ideal patients
  • Connect with your audience in an authentic way
  • Move followers along the pathway to becoming paying patients

>> The class is on sale this week for 25% off! The discount code is already applied on the checkout page. Click here to sign up!

And it’s worth 3.5 NCCAOM PDA credits. 💃

I think you’re really going to like Lindsey’s simple and effective approach to reels for beginners.

If you have any questions, you’re always welcome to email me at michelle@michellegrasek.com.

Without further ado, I’m happy to introduce Lindsey Thompson.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • Why reels don’t have to be complicated to generate patients
  • Why posting reels regularly is important
  • A few really good, really quick reels ideas you can duplicate this week!
  • A discussion of success as the intersection of “a calm nervous system and meeting financial goals”
  • And more!

🎙️Listen to Episode #52: How to Use Reels for More Patients with Lindsey Thompson

Show Notes:

Subscribe to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, or Spotify

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Transcript:

[MICHELLE GRASEK] (00:04)

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.

(00:28)

Welcome back. Today I am talking to acupuncturist Lindsey Thompson, all about Instagram reels and making them an effective and manageable marketing approach for your practice. I’ve been following Lindsey and her content creation online for a long time, at least five or six years. She runs multiple businesses, including a very successful practice in Washington State and an online nutrition program teaching patients how to integrate TCM dietary therapy into their lives. Today I’m releasing a brand-new PDA course taught by Lindsey called Introduction to Reels for Acupuncturists and I’m excited to share this class with you. What I really like about Lindsey’s approach to Instagram reels is that she subscribes to the idea of done is better than perfect and I think we can all use more of that in our marketing. This class focuses on how to teach your audience what they need to know using very brief reels so they decide to make an appointment with you.

(01:32)

Lindsey shares her phone screen so you can see exactly what she’s doing, how to create a reel from start to finish, what to talk about in your reels, how she edits her reels with free software and many examples of super simple reels you can start putting together right away. The class is on sale for one week for 25% off, and it’s worth three and a half NCCA1 MPDA credits. I think you’re going to really like her simple and effective approach to reels for beginners. The link for the class is in the show notes and the discount code for 25% off is [REELS25], but it’s already applied on the checkout page. Easy. If you have any questions, you’re always welcome to email me at michelle@michellegrasek.com.

[MICHELLE] (02:17)

Without further ado, I’m happy to introduce Lindsey Thompson. Hello, welcome.

[LINDSEY THOMPSON] (02:24)

Hello.

[MICHELLE] (02:24)

How are you?

[LINDSEY] (02:26)

I’m good, thank you. I am really excited to talk to you about Instagram reels today because, and I think you know this already, I find Instagram really overwhelming since reels have been launched. I know, this is like sacrilege, I’m going to say it anyway. I preferred Instagram when it was just pictures and no videos. I know that’s such an unpopular opinion, but as a content creator yeah, that’s how I feel.

[LINDSEY THOMPSON] (02:59)

I thought I felt that way until I just embraced it and now, I actually love it.

[MICHELLE] (03:05)

Yeah, that’s the other thing. Okay, well that’s so good to know. Okay, we can talk about that. I go through these cycles where I will create reels and it does feel fun and interesting, but I really run out of steam. And I have talked to so many of my marketing clients about this and when I get a new marketing client and we’re discussing like let’s make you a marketing plan for the upcoming month, first I talk with them about what is your interest in committing to social media? Because I know from talking to a lot of people and from my own experience, that sometimes the idea of that consistent content creation, even with guidance is really overwhelming. But we also, even and then if they tell me, ah I’m really not into social media, I know it can be useful, I still always have that chat with them that I’m like, well, we do want to keep in mind that it is free exposure locally to your brand, free ways to educate people and let them get to know you. So it’s one of those things where I know how great it is. I know the reels connect you so well with your audience, but yeah, being organized enough to do them consistently and feeling like that, that spark of motivation. Yeah, sometimes I struggle with that the same way that my marketing clients do. It’s good to be able to relate to your people because then when you figure out, okay, we’re all struggling with this, how can I make it better, you have something to share with them, that works.

[LINDSEY] (04:43)

Exactly.

[MICHELLE] (04:44)

I’m so glad we’re talking about this because I know that reals are working really well for you and you created a wonderful online course that will be on my website when this launches, this episode, basically introducing reels for acupuncturists.

[LINDSEY] (05:01)

Yes. I really want acupuncturists to embrace reels and not be scared of them. And I went through that mental shift because I did, I did really prefer the old Instagram when it was just pretty photos and it was easier to schedule on your schedule. You could just like pick a day, a month and plan out all your pretty photos. It is harder to map out reels, especially when you’re busy, but it can be so fun and it’s such a, it’s so much more creative. It’s a really, you can really bring your creative to play. And I think a lot of us are creative folks so if we can tap into that, it may actually suddenly become a really joyful thing that’s part of your practice.

[MICHELLE] (05:53)

Which is so nice. We definitely need more approaches to marketing and even just the perspective that it could feel joyful. Like, oh, this could be fun and interesting. What can we create today? I do really love that angle on marketing. So do you feel like the reels help people connect better with you as their potential acupuncturist? Because I know that you share your face, relatively often, not always, but often. And do you feel like seeing you on video is really part of that magic for getting people to become your patients?

[LINDSEY] (06:31)

It is. So when I started my practice, this was before Instagram was even a thing, and I had a booth at the local farmer’s market and that was the best marketing I ever did because people could walk up and talk to me, get a sense of who I was, connect with my energy and decide whether or not this is someone they wanted to entrust with stabbing with needles, that I would get so many new patients from every single week when I did the farmer’s market reels are, the same return on investment as the farmer’s market.

[MICHELLE] (07:10)

Yeah, they’re the modern-day farmer’s market.

[LINDSEY] (07:12)

They are. I have not needed a farmer’s market booth since reels took off.

[MICHELLE] (07:18)

I love that.

[LINDSEY] (07:18)

Yeah, and it’s because, and you don’t have to be in front, you don’t have to have your face in front of the camera every time, but it is, it would be worth it once a week to have your face in front of the camera, I think, because then people do get to feel connected to you. They do get to hear your voice, see what your content is, and hear directly from you what you like treating in your practice or what you do treat or what you offer. It’s just, there’s something about seeing someone’s face and hearing their voice that automatically builds a stronger relationship with them no matter what you’re talking about.

[MICHELLE] (08:00)

Yeah, and marketing is really about building up that trust and like increment by increment until your audience decides like, okay, I feel totally safe making a financial investment with this person, sharing my personal health information and my journey with this person. So I think at the core of it, that’s really what we’re trying to do with all of our marketing, is build trust, let people get to know us and our practice enough that they trust us with their care.

[LINDSEY] (08:35)

Exactly. The strategy for content is so similar to just what you would be writing about in the captions for still photos from the olden times of Instagram.

[MICHELLE] (08:49)

The olden times. Back in the day of Instagram.

[LINDSEY] (08:54)

That’s the thing I don’t like about social media, is how fast it changes.

[MICHELLE] (08:59)

Yes. I mean that’s, it is certainly an intimidating part of it, but then I think that’s why more and more people are producing like short and sweet classes where you just learn one specific skill for a social media platform and then, you know I like those classes like the one you put together because they don’t have to be expensive. You learn something with a like a specific purpose, like not just here’s how to create reels, but here’s how to use them, like here’s what to say to bring people in and then having the, just acceptance that in the future Instagram is going to change again. If it’s in a couple of years, then that’s okay, then you decide how do you want to approach this and you buy another class that represents, or you don’t have to buy a class. There’s lots of ways to learn things on the internet, but I think that having that very pointed education is super helpful for reducing overwhelm. Like don’t worry about all the other features. Just do this one thing and do it well and lean into it and then you’ll get patience.

[LINDSEY] (10:11)

Exactly. Then I talk about this in the class, there are a lot of ways to avoid getting stuck without any ideas because It’s really easy to just jot down things you want to talk about. And it’s similar to your acupuncture marketing school, the big gen, the big overreach of what is marketing and who are you talking to. But it’s going back to your content buckets, like what are the consistent things you want to be talking about to get the types of patients that you want to work with? And when you go back to your content buckets, and if you don’t know what that is, take the acupuncture market because that will save your bacon or your tofu and it will —

[MICHELLE] (10:58)

Whatever your preference.

[LINDSEY] (10:59)

Yes, exactly. Then you just come back to that. Also, I talk about different social media content creators to follow who teach content creation. So they’re, they’ll usually say, “Hey, here’s a trending audio. Hop on this right now.” You can just, at the start of your day, if you’re really just stuck, hop on, like look at a couple of those accounts, see what their trending audio is and see if it sparks some inspiration. Or what if their post about the trending audio, because they’ll do something that’s like with text over a simple video of them dancing or a text over them, like doing a hand motion to the beat of the music that can give you some quick inspiration. And sometimes once you get used to doing reels, like those things can quick, can inspire you to make a reel in under five minutes.

[MICHELLE] (12:02)

Amazing.

[LINDSEY] (12:02)

Because sometimes they’re so simple, you’re like, oh, I don’t really have to explain a big deal. I just have to be like, whoa, I’m stressed. Let’s get acupuncture today. If it’s some trending audio, that’s all you have to post and then your call-to-action, the caption is call the clinic, here’s my phone number. I mean, that can be that, sometimes it’s that simple.

[MICHELLE] (12:25)

I love that. I mean, that makes me really happy.

[LINDSEY] (12:28)

Yeah, it can truly be that simple. When I’m tired and I am not in a creative spirit, that’s the post I do. Or I’ll, or if you are trying to help people with lifestyle strategies, like calming their nervous system for stress relief. The other day I was exhausted and I didn’t want to get my face in front of the camera and I just made some herbs and I watched the steam coming off of it and I was like, ooh, that’s meditative. So I filmed the steam coming off of my herbs, and then I did a voiceover post of remember to take a pause. Sometimes mindfulness could be as simple as watching the steam from your cup of tea. And that was it.

[MICHELLE] (13:16)

I love it.

[MICHELLE] (13:16)

And I had, and so many people loved that post.

[MICHELLE] (13:20)

Yeah. Okay, so you’re getting me excited about reels. It’s been a little while since I’ve felt this enthusiasm, but this is what I’m talking about, it like waxes and wanes. So I’m glad that it’s back high five. Virtual high five over there in Washington. I follow, I think she’s a musician and she’s so quirky. I wish I could remember her name. She’s delightful. But she makes these reels where she wants you to breathe with her. So she just puts this text over her face that’s like, stop scrolling, breathe with me and then she just does like, breathe in, breathe out like four times and then she’s like you’re beautiful, have a great day, and that’s it. But I can guarantee she gets such amazing engagement because first she says, stop scrolling. And then she’s not really asking you to do very much, like, just breathe with me and it feels so good. The people who are right for you are the ones who are going to sit there and breathe with you and then be like, this was nice. Then some people will keep scrolling and that’s okay. They’re either not your patients or they’re not your patients this week, maybe next week if they see it instead and it’s a better time for them or they really need it. But yeah, that’s actually one reel that I enjoy seeing come up on my feed so much. I’m like, ooh, I’m going to breathe with you.

[LINDSEY] (14:44)

Excellent, and that’s something to keep in mind. It can truly be that simple.

[MICHELLE] (14:52)

How many reels do you recommend publishing a week? Like what would the golden number be?

[LINDSEY] (15:00)

Well, the golden number that people say is three reels a week. I think you can get away with two if it’s really overwhelming and you’re alternating with like carousel static posts?

[MICHELLE] (15:14)

I’m a big fan of those.

[LINDSEY] (15:16)

Yeah, because the carousels are getting decent engagement. But if you embrace the reels, three reels a week can be really easy because again, they do not have to be, and actually everything shifted away from long form. So people would rather have a seven second reel than a 30 or 60 or 90 second reel.

[MICHELLE] (15:40)

Yes, which is definitely a relief as creators to be able to produce something short and sweet and actually have the algorithm be interested in it. So I think we should totally capitalize on that while it’s happening.

[LINDSEY] (15:56)

Yes. And if people have been on Instagram for a long time and have previous content, I would encourage people to go back into their previous captions from still photos and be like, oh, this caption’s great. Can I make a reel for this caption?

[MICHELLE] (16:17)

Ooh, I love that. That is a great idea.

[LINDSEY] (16:19)

Because the longer educational captions take more time to make and I bet I guarantee if everybody here just went back and looked at their previous well performing captions or just educational captions they loved, they could probably be like, what can I say about this in five seconds? And it’s usually, just think of one or two sentences and then say details in the caption.

[MICHELLE] (16:45)

Ooh, perfect. I mean, that’s basically repurposing content. So you’ve already created something that got good engagement from your audience and you are just putting it together in a different format that Instagram prefers.

[LINDSEY] (16:58)

Exactly.

[MICHELLE] (17:00)

Perfect. I’m a fan of that.

[LINDSEY] (17:02)

Have you ever done an educational post about like, ice in your water?

[MICHELLE] (17:06)

I think we all have.

[LINDSEY] (17:12)

Pros or cons to ice in your water. It’s all cons.

[MICHELLE] (17:15)

Yes.

[LINDSEY] (17:17)

Details in the caption. There you go. There’s your reel right there.

[MICHELLE] (17:20)

Perfect. Oh my gosh, everyone should steal that. I think I did something similar with green smoothies. Or like ice and frozen fruit in your smoothie. It’s all cons.

[LINDSEY] (17:31)

I did, I actually did do a reel on, have you ever tried a warm smoothie?

[MICHELLE] (17:38)

Ooh, I love that

[LINDSEY] (17:38)

Details in the captions. And then I like talk about, I’m like, okay, I know people love smoothies, so here’s my compromise.

[MICHELLE] (17:46)

Yes. That is actually my personal compromise is when I feel like I really want a smoothie, I will make it with, this is weird, I’ll make it with green tea instead of water so it’s like legit a warm smoothie. Now if you’re thinking about warm, shredded spinach and you’re, it’s, you do what you have to, but at least it’s not cold.

[LINDSEY] (18:10)

Yes, exactly, exactly.

[MICHELLE] (18:13)

Okay, well, this is really exciting. I’m so curious, do you ever produce the dancing reels?

[LINDSEY] (18:20)

Yes.

[MICHELLE] (18:21)

You do? Oh, you’re a better person than I am. I’ve never made one and my receptionist could not convince me to make one. She would always be like, she would do the same thing that you’re recommending, which I think is so smart, following these Instagram business people who are like, this is a trending caption or a trending sound, like you should use it in the next two weeks while you can. She would be like, and then we just choreograph this little dance and I’m like, no choreography.

[LINDSEY] (18:54)

I never do choreography. I just am goofy. Like I’m a goofy dancer

[MICHELLE] (18:59)

Ooh, that I am game for.

[LINDSEY] (19:00)

Yeah. So I don’t do any actual, I don’t try to do any of the trending dances because honestly, that’s just going to take too much of my time to research and choreograph. So I just —

[MICHELLE] (19:10)

Do patient charts.

[LINDSEY] (19:11)

Yeah, so I just do silly dances. So like, I did one back before the algorithm changed and I was, I just did a goofy dance. I wish people could see me. And then I was like, because I was celebrating a win of having a patient come in constipated and then they had to leave and poop from the table. Like they had to go to the bathroom and have a bowel movement and relieve them. Like, I had to pull the needle early so they could relieve themselves and I was like, point of view, when you make your patient poop, celebrate the win. I was like, I was dancing on the screen and I had the little like words go across the screen, which I teach you how to do that in the real class because that drove me nuts. It took me an embarrassing length of time to figure out how to do, I had to watch so many YouTube videos on how to make those texts happen and how to time them, so I show you both

[MICHELLE] (20:18)

Isn’t it amazing once you figure it out how fast it is

[LINDSEY] (20:21)

It is, and it’s so easy and I just, I’m glad you struggled with it too. I think a lot of people in the beginning, I think a lot of people struggle with it in the beginning, or people who currently have not embraced reels at all would also find this daunting, but it’s actually quite easy and I show you through like watching my screen and watching what I’m doing so that you can significantly reduce the time and the learning curve. But it took me to figure out how to do that simple action of on the reel.

[MICHELLE] (20:53)

That’s amazing. And that’s exactly what I mean by, when people take a class or watch a video online about something specific, just double down and commit to reels for example, or TikTok and just learn to do the one thing and do it well and then you really are so much more efficient and it becomes less of a barrier to entry. Because I know in the beginning of learning reels that I just, I felt like it was taking me 30 minutes to make every reel and I’m like, oh my gosh, I have like, work to do around my office. But you get so much faster once you commit to learning it and just having someone teach you is amazing. It’s intensely helpful.

[LINDSEY] (21:36)

Yes. If you do get really creative and want to make one that has a lot more transitions and like videos of other things happening, like, it still can take 30 minutes from editing to researching the audio, to writing the caption, but that doesn’t have to be every real, that’s like a couple times a month sort of thing when it’s.

[MICHELLE] (22:01)

It’s a special occasion reel.

[LINDSEY] (22:03)

Exactly, when you feel inspired and you’re just, you’re getting those creative juices flowing that it doesn’t, it really doesn’t have to take that long. I wanted to think, go back to content creation and scheduling, because I’ll be honest, I have never gotten to the point in my reels production where I take a day a month and just pre-plan them and film them and have them in my drafts folder so they’re ready to be published when I want to. That’s the goal, but I just keep having things come up. So what I’ve started doing now is I come into my office like 15 to 20 minutes early and I just look at what’s going on the reels and then I get inspired and I just make a quick one.

[MICHELLE] (23:00)

Perfect.

[LINDSEY] (23:01)

Unless I’m at home and it’s my admin day and I’m more inspired to do something that takes a lot more time. So I highly recommend that. It’s a great strategy when you, when things get busy and you don’t have time, you’re like, okay, Monday, Wednesday, Friday I’m going to post a short reel and I’m going to make the commitment to myself, but I’m not going to overcomplicate it.

[MICHELLE] (23:27)

Right. I feel like I should probably write that down and like paste it above my desk. I commit to not overcomplicating things in 2023.

[LINDSEY] (23:38)

I think we all, I think I need to do that too. I think we should all put that right above our computer.

[MICHELLE] (23:46)

I was just thinking, if you could see my to-do list already and then adding that one more thing to it and be like, ah, yeah, the irony. No, I think that’s wonderful though and it’s really nice to know that you can consistently produce reels that are on complicated and that you’re only setting aside 15 minutes for a day. Because I know that, and we talk about systems a lot as well, and I’m working on sort of shoring up all the systems in my office and I love that yummy feeling of like having a checklist, having a system for something, but there’s always space in my day that could be used more efficiently. I’m a big fan of, if I have the opportunity to take a break when I am in clinic, I will totally take a moment and eat a snack and read part of a book on my candle for like five minutes as like a reset. I know some practitioners who will meditate or they’ll just like stop and drink a glass of water. You know when you’ve got like a bunch of patients and you just need to hit pause, so I’m a big fan of that. Like I don’t want to structure that out of my day, but there’s other sort of like nonsense stuff that I think takes up space in our day that we could totally just say, okay, I am actually going to finish my charts on time for the first half of the day and then commit 15 minutes to making a quick reel.

[LINDSEY] (25:19)

Exactly.

[MICHELLE] (25:20)

That sounds doable. That sounds good to me.

[LINDSEY] (25:22)

Yeah, and I just thought of really great quick and easy reel that everyone can use. Find a good trending audio and just go acupuncture treats, whatever you want to say it treats, acupuncture treats frozen shoulder, details in the caption. Acupuncture treats period pain, details in the caption.

[MICHELLE] (25:49)

Do you, how do you feel about, this is one of my personal favorite reels because it’s so easy and I think I’ve published this on my clinic account multiple times, just doing a quick walkthrough of the office on fast motion and doing like an office tour. Sometimes like if the weather is beautiful, I will start in the parking lot and walk through so people can see. because I’m in a big office building, like which entrance to use and then be like, oh, my office is right here if you take a left and then walk people through the reception area and a couple treatment rooms and then just, done.

[LINDSEY] (26:22)

That’s it. That is, people love that because they also want to see where they’re coming to and, or they’re considering, do I want to go to this clinic? I’m a little scared. I don’t know if I want to, like acupuncture is scary. I like Michelle, but where am I going? Is it going to be this like ally, like scary place or is it this warm, inviting, soothing clinic? So the walkthrough ones are really good. You can do them multiple, I mean, don’t just do one and done, do them like at least once a month.

[MICHELLE] (26:58)

Oh, I love that.

[LINDSEY] (26:59)

So you can do all this stuff by yourself or you can plan getting, plan a day of video with a friend or someone who’s good at holding the phone study. Or maybe you can trade with a local media, local social media content person who’s job is to just film you. I’m actually going to do that in the next two months to get more fresh video footage of me doing acupuncture. I love that because it’s hard to get good shots by yourself. I mean, you can with a stand and a remote, but it’s —

[MICHELLE] (27:35)

Usually my approach.

[LINDSEY] (27:36)

Yeah, but it’s a lot easier if you want like closeups of you actually doing needling or doing guacha, it’s a lot easier if there’s someone there who really knows what they’re doing, to hold the camera and take those photos or take those videos. And then, so usually you can find someone that you might be able to strike a trade with or it’s worth, you have some money for marketing to pay for those videos and you can get so many videos and you can just repurpose them over and over and over again. And don’t think of the video as like start to finish. You can edit out snippets and in the class I show you free apps to do editing in and how to change around clips and stuff so you can quickly make a really interesting video of like, let’s say you walk through the clinic, you do a quick tour that takes two seconds or just walking in the front door and seeing your reception area and then you’re in the treatment room doing some needling and then one second is you pouring herbs or something like that too. You can do so many different variations of that and use the same video clips over and over and over again.

[MICHELLE] (28:48)

I love that.

[LINDSEY] (28:49)

So I did one, I had an associate working with me and at the beginning of their time at the clinic I did, I paid for a day where, or a couple hours where someone just filmed them working and I was able to use those video clips. I was able to re-edit them and put them in different, make completely different reels from them for eight months.

[MICHELLE] (29:18)

Wow, oh my gosh.

[LINDSEY] (29:19)

With one video shoot.

[MICHELLE] (29:20)

I’m a huge fan of the trades with like local photographers and videographers. I really think that is the way to go. And then that person has the wonderful experience of being a patient at your office and they come in contact with so many people in their job so they can be a really great referral source. Then it does take a lot of pressure off because not everybody feels like really natural or confident like taking photos, and as you said, it’s very hard to get great photos that you are in like of yourself. So yeah, I think a trade is a really nice way to just have a big folder full of that content that you can use.

[LINDSEY] (30:02)

Exactly. And if you really can’t, if you’re really not in the place, you can get a stand, for your phone and you can like, you just have to take more time setting up the shot and then you hit record with a little remote and then you’ll get into place and you’ll do your needling or your guacha and then you’ll get out of the frame and turn it off and you’ll just have to edit the turning on and turning off time. So you can do it yourself, it just is harder but it’s not a barrier.

[MICHELLE] (30:37)

Oh right, especially as long as the stand has a ring light so that you have really good light. I think it’s pretty quick to edit like the beginning and the end snippets of those videos, the part where you’re like turning it on and turning it off. Because I had one of those remote camera buttons for a long time and yeah, I feel like that made all sorts of magical things possible and the button was maybe $12 on Amazon. It’s a good investment.

[LINDSEY] (31:08)

The ring light I bought for my clinic I think was only $30 and it came with the remote already.

[MICHELLE] (31:17)

Oh, wonderful.

[LINDSEY] (31:17)

Yeah, you definitely need a ring light and a stand if you’re going to do your own reels, especially like, I mean that’s how I filmed the one where I was dancing and celebrating that I got my patient to poop.. So that’s, I do those a lot. I do a lot of my own filming, but I’m at a point where I just want to pay for someone to do the actual filming of me inserting the needles and me doing the guacha and me doing the coping. Because it does save time, and I could do it myself, but I don’t want to at this point.

[MICHELLE] (31:52)

I was going to say, I mean that’s the dream. You get, you hopefully get to a point in your practice where you can delegate and it’s feasible financially and freeze up your time to think of other creative things, you can think about more reels.

[LINDSEY] (32:06)

Yeah, and if you can repurpose that video for eight months to a year, it’s totally worth it, because then you can self-film, all the other things. Like you can definitely film the office tour by yourself.

[MICHELLE] (32:19)

Right.

[LINDSEY] (32:20)

You can definitely film dancing in front of the phone for like five seconds by yourself. So there’s so much that you can then be cycling through that you can be filming on your own.

[MICHELLE] (32:35)

So I have one more question for you, what is your definition of success?

[LINDSEY] (32:41)

Oh, my goodness, I’m wrestling with that. For me it is a combination of being able to have a calm nervous system, probably 75% to 80% of the time because it’s unrealistic to be calm a hundred percent of the time. And I really want to have a good income. It’s finding that balance of like, what is the workload for me that allows me to have that calm nervous system and have my self-care, but also gets me the income that I want? I’m constantly reassessing like, is that income the right goal? Does it push me out of my self-care or do I just have to reconfigure my schedule and the income is accessible and my self-care is still accessible? So I’m always in that flux, but for me, feeling calm is, that’s my litmus test for how I’m doing basically. Like do I feel comfortable in my body and can I meet my financial needs? Where’s the sweet spot for that?

[MICHELLE] (34:01)

That’s wonderful. I have a feeling that a lot of people listening, myself included probably also have those goals. Do you know what I mean, but maybe, I don’t know if I’ve ever articulated it that way for myself that what I’m searching for is a balance between the calm nervous system and the income goal. I also appreciate that you said that is always changing because we are going to change and it’s okay for our goals to change and reevaluate any time.

[LINDSEY] (34:36)

Yeah, and maybe you’ve learned this, maybe you’ve experienced this in your many years, but I think as we try out new things in business, at first, they’re hard and then that jacks up our stress response, but then later after we’re used to it and if it’s a good fit for us, if it’s a good fit for us and we figure it out and we have our systems in place, then it’s no longer stressful. So we can kind of, we can feel like things that used to stress me out five years ago, like are nothing now. And then there’s other things that I’m like, oh, that will always stress me out. So it’s, that’s not, it’s not worth it to do that anymore. I’ve learned that through many trials and errors. So there’s, I think that’s why for me, I’m continually leaning into that, I’m like, are my goals realistic? What can make it realistic for the calm nervous system and the income I want? Is the income I want realistic? Does it have to be realistic? Like I’m a parent, so at some point there’s a certain threshold that has to be realistic. So then I’m like, well, how do I achieve that? What systems do I need? What experiment do I need to have in my business to see if I can meet that income threshold and still have that calmness and the ability to have self-care? Well, it’s a work in progress, like we are

[MICHELLE] (36:06)

Always.

[LINDSEY] (36:07)

Always. Every year I reassess it. I love that question.

[MICHELLE] (36:12)

Well, thank you so much for being here with me today and sharing your Instagram wisdom. I know that you are moving pretty soon, so I was going to ask where can we follow you online? I don’t know if your Instagram handle’s going to be changing, but we can always update it in the show notes. But yeah, where can people follow you and be inspired by your work? Then I will certainly put the link to the course in the show notes as well.

[LINDSEY] (36:40)

Okay, so I have two business handles. You can follow me @Vital_Chi_Nutrition, so it’s Vital_Chi_Nutrition and you can follow me at Thompson Family Acu, which will soon become, well I will soon be moving to Blue Heron Wellness. I’m not sure what the handle will be. So I’ll have you update that. So very shortly I’ll be at Blue Heron Wellness in Port Angeles, Washington. It’ll be fun because I’m going to be doing a lot of stuff to get patients in my Blue Heron practice, so that’s a good spot to follow me once it’s live.

[MICHELLE] (37:24)

Perfect. Well, thank you again.

[LINDSEY] (37:27)

Thank you.