About this episode
Dr. Mitch Babcock // #FitnessAthleteFriday // www.ptonice.com In today's episode of the PT on ICE Daily Show, Fitness Athlete lead faculty Mitch Babcock discusses how to approach setting up at a competitive event, including looking the part, preparing to capture leads, and knowing what is possible in the context of a short session with a potential patient. Take a listen to the episode or read the episode transcription below. If you're looking to learn from our Clinical Management of the Fitness Athlete division, check out our live physical therapy courses or our online physical therapy courses. Check out our entire list of continuing education courses for physical therapy including our physical therapy certifications by checking out our website. Don't forget about all of our FREE eBooks, prebuilt workshops, free CEUs, and other physical therapy continuing education on our Resources tab. EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION 00:00 - MITCH BABCOCK All right, here we are. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the PT on ICE Daily Show. I'm your host on Fitness Athlete Friday. I'm Mitch Babcock, lead faculty in the online Essential Foundations Level 1, Level 2 courses and our live Fitness Athlete course on the road where we do all things barbell in your hands all weekend long. I'm pleased to be joining you guys this beautiful Friday before Halloween here, October 27th. And my apologies for nine minutes behind the clock as our CrossFit hour this morning was jamming and ran a little bit long. Today's topic is something that we derived off the ICE Students page. So shout out to all of you that are active on the ICE Students Facebook page. We always appreciate the engagement, the questions, the comments, the thought. It spurs topics like these. You don't even know what kind of good info may come from a question that you pose on the ICE Students Facebook page. So thanks for being a part of that to everyone. 01:18 - THE ART OF THE 10 MINUTE EXPOSURE The topic today is the art of the 10 minute exposure. We're talking about, hey, someone posted a question of, I have an opportunity to set up at a local CrossFit gym or a CrossFit competition that's going on. And I want to know what should I do? Should I treat for free? What should I be doing? How long should I be doing it? And so we want to talk around that concept today of like, let's say you have 10 minutes with a free prospective client and you're trying to win them over in that fitness athlete space. What are some things that you need to be doing and doing well? And so that's going to be our topic of discussion today. And just before I dive into that, I do want to let you know that next weekend November 4th and 5th. Both Zach and myself are gonna be out on the road. Zach's gonna be in Hoover, Alabama, and I'm gonna be in San Antonio, Texas. Team, we are running out of dates to catch the live course at the end of 2023, so if you were hoping to wrap up that cert, or you wanted to hit that course and get dialed in on all your barbell dosage, treatment, refinement, everything, there's like a total of three weekends left at the end of the year. Anna Marie Island just sold out, so that one's off the map now in Florida. Shout out to everyone that's gonna be in Florida. We got Colorado Springs, we got Hoover, Alabama, and we got San Antonio, Texas. So if you want to catch us next weekend, we've got two dates. Check the PT Online's website and we will see you there at those courses. Okay, let's paint the picture. You are a newly minted business owner of your own. You've started your own practice, maybe in a CrossFit gym or near one. And you're looking to do this fitness athlete thing on the out of network side of things. And you want to anchor your ship tight to a CrossFit community in your town, which is smart. And you have an opportunity now to go to a CrossFit competition, market yourself, get your name out there, your business exposure, all of that. What should you focus on? I wanna start with looking the part. 05:07 - PHYSICALLY LOOKING THE PART Aesthetically, physically, from a business perspective, from a clothing perspective, all of the above. That if you're gonna go into this environment, that you need to pull up on the right horse. I don't want you showing up to a biker rally on a scooter and thinking like, I don't know why I didn't blend in with this culture, this community, right? Humans still operate on that first impression basis. That is still a key component. Those first three seconds that someone looks at you, sees you, makes all these internal assessments on what your business is like, what kind of information they can gather from you, what kind of expert you are. We have to respect that first impression and we have to bring our best foot forward. So let's start with your setup. your nice pop-up table, right? Whatever that is, they're cheap on Amazon, you can get a nice brand new table for 100 bucks, it's black top, looks good. Go on Vistaprint or Banner Buzz or one of these websites that will print out a nice custom fit tablecloth that will stretch over an eight foot pop-up table that has your business logo branded across the front of it. So you've got your treatment table and you've got a nice table up front that's going to hold all your brochures or anything else that you have on it. Marketing materials wise, that's a very nice printed stretch fit cover. You're going to invest a couple hundred dollars into having those things ready at any event you go to and market. 5k races, CrossFit events, whatever, right? Tent or not, really doesn't matter. Indoor comp, outdoor comp, you may wanna invest in a little pop-up tent, but let's just assume you're set up inside and you don't need to worry about that. You've got your treatment table, you've got a table up front. You need to personally look the part as well. And I don't just mean the clothes you wear, and yes, I do mean the clothes you wear, but I also mean physically. You need to physically look the part. If you're going in here and working with fitness-forward athletes, you should look the part like you train from a fitness-forward approach yourself. If you're not there yet, and you're trying to inject yourself into that community, anticipate a hard ramp up, right? You need to look like you work out, you train, you've exercised, you do CrossFit, you have some calluses on your hands, that you can speak to the expertise that these athletes are expecting you to have. That is just a cold truth that no one really wants to admit and talk about. If you can't tell the person in front of you how many burpees you do in seven minutes, you're probably not ready to set up at a CrossFit comp yet. Your personal expertise probably has some developmental work to be done on the back end prior to you setting up and going out there and being like, yeah, I can solve all your problems for you. I know exactly what you're going through. So get yourself dialed in from a physical perspective. Two, get your wardrobe updated, right? Do not roll into a CrossFit comp rocking that same polo that worked in the in-network setting and the khaki pants that you wore Monday through Friday. We're not in that setting anymore, right? So invest a few hundred bucks into a nice clinic wardrobe that looks good. Some nice athletic pants, joggers, whatever. Black always goes well. And get yourself a nice top and take it to your local screen printing place and have your business logo screened on the top of it. everyone's wearing the cotton freaking t-shirts with their low company logo on it but not everybody's wearing that that next level nice t-shirt whether that's lulu or whatever you go and you buy your stuff from you get that nice t-shirt you get your company logo on it it just stands out it just looks a little bit better a little bit more professional and a leg up on the competition you're going to business suspense that stuff anyways you might as well get a shirt you like you feel good you look good in and go get your company branded on the front of it So step one, looking the part. Both your setup, your table, your banner, your clothing, right? And physically looking like you train and you exercise and you know what you're talking about when it comes to this stuff. Two, Treat for free. Everyone's talking about should I charge people at these comps. I say that you're there to gain exposure. You're there to convert people back to your clinic. You want them to come to your operation. So you need to funnel everything through that filter. Everything needs to be geared around how do I get in front of people, show them I know what I'm talking about, and then get them to schedule an eval and come see me at my clinic. It's not about a transactional thing here. It's about giving things to the consumer in that environment where you're in front of hundreds of them, over delivering for free, and then converting on that at the end of the sale. 09:49 - CONVERTING LEADS And that's a key part. You need some way to capture leads and convert leads. The best way to do this is having some sort of QR code available. Everybody's scanning QR codes these days. Having a flyer printed out on a little plastic flyer holder that when they walk up and it says right there, free 10 minute session with Dr. So-and-so. Scan here. Boom, that's easy. Boom, pull out my phone, scan it. It takes them to something, a lead generation on your website. That could be sign up for my newsletter, name, email, phone number, city, whatever. That could be put in your contact information. We're going to reach out after today and kind of be in touch with you. Whatever that is, whatever lead funnel that you want people to go to, that's where that QR code directs them to on your website. So they scan the QR code. Boom. That holds their place in line. And then you're calling the next person up 10 minutes at a time. Hey, I got 10 minutes. What's going on here? In that 10 minutes, your goal is to address the areas that most need addressing, to over deliver the best you can, and then to convert that individual after the sale. Give, give, give, and then ask. Give, give, give in that 10 minutes. Here's what I think is going on. This is common. These get blown up. This gets overworked. This is out of position. This is stiff. We need to mobilize this. Here's some things that I like to do. Let's get some needles in that area. Let's do some cupping. And at the end of it, say, hey, I would love to earn your business. If you would, please take my card. I'd love to have you call and set up an appointment. I can actually get you scheduled right now. This looks like something that needs some work. Would you like to schedule right now while I got a few minutes? Don't be afraid of the ask. You're giving free content, you're giving free knowledge, you're giving free experience, and you're giving your time and service to that individual. Do not be afraid for the ask at the end of it, right? Can I earn your business? I'd love the opportunity to work with you, get you in the clinic. My e-mail rate is this. Can I get you scheduled for next week? Convert those leads. We stink at this as a profession and something we definitely have a lot of work to do on getting better when that conversion, that sales conversion process kicks in, right? 10:43 - TRIAGE & TREAT And then the last thing I have, if we're looking the part, if we are converting our leads is to know what works and deliver on that. Team, if they're at a CrossFit comp, they don't need pain science information right now. Okay? I'm not saying there's not a time and a place for that. What they need is something to help them recover. Their back is likely blown up. It feels like there's a hundred gallons of blood shoved right in their erectors right now. They want their back to loosen up and feel better. Their legs are probably imploded. They want their legs to feel better. Their shoulders are probably imploded. They want them to feel better. Right? Understand what these comps and these things are going to ask people to do. Lots of pull-ups, lots of squats, lots of deadlifts. Know what works for those things so that you're efficient in your clinical approach in those 10 minutes you have with someone. We're not trying to solve all their pain and all their problems in 10 minutes. We want to show them that we have tools that can help them. And if you give me more time, if you give me an eval, if you give me a couple sessions, I can get to the root of your problem. So you're having things at the disposal, ready to go for shoulder, like high-volume pull-ups, what am I gonna do to address the lats and the biceps? High-volume squats, what am I gonna do to address the legs and the quads? High-volume deadlifts, what am I gonna do to address the low back? Are you gonna bring needles and stim and hook people up and get them stimming? Cool, maybe get two treatment tables so you can get one person started on that and you get the other person on the table right after that. Are you gonna do some cupping on there, try to increase some blood flow? Great, get it set up, get it rocking, take a bunch of pictures. Another good thing to ask someone for is to have them take a picture and post about your company on social media. Remember, they're getting this for free. They're willing to do something in exchange. Scan your QR code? Sure. Post a picture? Sure, I can do that. Tag my business? I would really appreciate the exposure. We're just getting started. I love working in this community. I love working out in CrossFit. I'd love to be able to help athletes like you down the road. If you could post about my business, that would help me a ton. Thank you so much. They're thankful for your time, your service, and your free delivery of something to them, and they're willing to exchange that in terms of something else for your business. So there's some things for you guys to think about. The art of the 10-minute exposure. You've got 10 minutes in front of somebody. Treat them for free. Have some way of funneling and converting those leads. And don't forget to ask for the sale. Can I get your schedule? Can I get your book? Can I get your e-mail? Look the part. clothing, wardrobe, physically, and then your environment that you're set up, your tables, and your banners, and your marketing materials. And don't forget to ask for something on the tail end. Let's take a picture. Let's post about it on social media. Convert those leads, team. Get those people that you're there, you're giving your time for, for free. Convert those people into prospective clients that are on your books for the next week's following. I hope this was helpful. I hope you took something from it. that you know what works and that you're going to deliver on what works in that 10 minutes for that patient. Team, thank you so much. Shout out to anyone that's going to be at our courses to the end of the year. We're looking forward to wrapping up 2023 with a bang. Next weekend, we're in Hoover, Alabama and San Antonio, Texas. And still some spots for you to join us if you want to. And have a happy Halloween. I know we're rolling into it this weekend. Our gym has a Halloween WOD planned for tomorrow. So a costume WOD for tomorrow and then Halloween on Tuesday. So let me be the first to wish you a happy Halloween weekend, team. Thanks so much. Go kill it in clinic today. Have a great one, everybody. OUTRO Hey, thanks for tuning in to the PT on Ice daily show. If you enjoyed this content, head on over to iTunes and leave us a review and be sure to check us out on Facebook and Instagram at the Institute of Clinical Excellence. If you're interested in getting plugged into more ice content on a weekly basis while earning CEUs from home, check out our virtual ice online mentorship program at ptonice.com. 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