How to Build a Functional Medicine Micro Practice with Matt Dippl

The first thing that you need to do to execute on an efficient micro practice model is to become clear on your skill set, passion and direction first. How do you do that? Well, I already suggested that a couple of times, please go through the storytelling course. This free course  will give you some very precise steps on how you can actually analyse yourself in a very efficient way.

It's really about your very own hero's journey: What were the problems that you had in your own life? What health problems Did you solve yourself? Which topic in the whole functional medicine sphere are you passionate about? Is it gut health? Is detoxification? Is it a woman's health? Is it men's health? Is it thyroid health?

There are so many different niche areas inside of functional medicine. So my suggestion to you is get a very clear direction first, in which niche you want to actually start out to offer your first services.

Second point, decide to serve and test one tiny little niche first. Before you can make a big decision in which niche you want to position yourself I would suggest to you try out a few different things. After you've analysed where your skill set and your strengths lie it will become pretty obvious where you can get results for people quickly and predictably.

So pick a niche that you feel comfortable in, that you can solve problems in and where you have the skill set to get results. And if you don't like that niche, if you just make a small test (I will show that to you in the next point) you can just change your niche again as well, that's possible too.

How do you test a niche? You have to create a minimal viable offer, and you have to test it out. So what does this mean? For example, if I use the Hashimoto case, I'm actually a Hashimoto's patient and I used functional medicine to get Hashimoto's into remission myself. A minimal viable offer could be "Do you need help to get clarity on how to interpret your lab results as a Hashimoto's patient?" This could be a minimal viable offer you could test out.

How do you test offers like this out? You could approach an admin of a huge Facebook group around the topic of Hashimoto's and you could offer a free webinar around this topic. And then you ask the admin if you could post the registration to that free webinar of yours. And once that flies, you can test out if people actually are interested in that topic. And you see that through the signups you get, and people writing messages to you asking questions. And when you have an offer that converts, then things will get very interesting.

And once that minimal, viable offer is validated, and it gains momentum, start to give value. What do you do there? You give value through for example free 30 minute consultations and you can use these consultations to go deeper into what problems they have. Why? Because great businesses are always built around solving problems. And when you solve problems for people, you give value.

When you solve problems for people for free, you actually gain a friend, you will gain a supporter, and potentially down the track, you will even gain a client who wants to work with you. So the more value you demonstrate, the more likely it is that you will get a patient or client.

Once you validated your minimum viable offer, it's time to build your micro practice through mini assets. What are mini assets? Mini assets are for example a free webinar, or you write a short report on how to optimise thyroid function, or what tests you need to get, or what essential supplements you need to start out on if you want to bring your thyroid more into balance.

So mini assets are small documents that you can use to get results faster for clients. Or they could be short videos like this very video, it's a mini asset. I have a slide deck I can use later on in presentations. I have a video here that I can right now embed on my blog, or I can upload it onto YouTube too. I could share it on LinkedIn, or I could share it on Facebook.

So these are all mini assets and the more mini assets you produce around one specific problem, the more momentum you will generate to actually build up your micro practice and to get more people who are interested in your work.

And then, only after you went through all of these points here, create only one training or one coaching programme over like 6 to 12 weeks or 4 weeks first. Don't have many different offers. Use your webinars, or your free trainings, or your free calls to build connections with patients.

And then if you see they're a great fit, you want to work with them and they might want to work with you, then you can offer them your training or coaching programme. This is how you strategically do that.

Please don't build a big website and don't build a big programme, or write a big book on a topic that you have not tested out first and that the marketplace really wants and needs.

A successful micro practice is always based on a good problem solution fit: a patient has a problem and you offer a very clear solution to that very problem. And when you have that... you are in business!

Only then it's time to scale it, to potentially partner with other practitioners who are in a different niche than you are, or with a doctor who can refer to you. And this is actually how you build a micro practice strategically. I hope this video was useful to you.

When you become part of a supportive community of peers who are building their practice strategically you can exchange experience, know how and insight knowledge. In case you'd like to be part of a group of game changers then please check out the fxmed Accelerate Community HERE.