This Personal Content Strategy Will Attract Patients to Practitioners [Episode 172]

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I audit a lot of Instagram accounts every week. Chiropractors. Acupuncturists. Massage therapists. Physical therapists. MFR practitioners. You name it. And almost every single time, I find the same thing missing.
It’s not educational content. Most practitioners have plenty of that. It’s not testimonials. Most practitioners have at least a few of those too. The thing that’s usually missing is personal content.
And before you immediately think, “Absolutely not, Molly. I am a private person,” stay with me for a second. Because personal and private are not the same thing.
The Missing Piece in Most Content Strategies
If you’ve been around for a while, you’ve probably heard me talk about my Content Ecosystem framework.
It’s my way of simplifying all the advice around content pillars, nurture content, reach content, and conversion content into something that actually makes sense in my brain.
I teach the full framework inside Holistic Marketing Hub and Content Sprint, but in this episode, I focus on one specific content type that I almost guarantee is missing from your page.
Personal or lifestyle content. Not because I want you sharing every detail of your life. But because this is often the content that helps patients feel connected to you before they ever walk through your door.
Personal Content Is Not the Same as Private Content
This is probably the biggest misconception I hear. When I suggest sharing personal content, people immediately assume I mean sharing deeply personal stories, family drama, relationship struggles, or things you’d rather keep to yourself.
That’s not what I’m talking about. Loving your dog isn’t private. Enjoying knitting isn’t private. Being obsessed with the beach isn’t private.
Those are simply things that help people get to know you. And that matters because people don’t choose practitioners based solely on credentials. They choose people they feel comfortable with.
Why Educational Content Alone Usually Isn’t Enough
A lot of practitioners stay inside what I call the safety bubble. Educate. Educate. Educate. And then educate some more.
The assumption is that if people see enough educational content, they’ll eventually book an appointment. But that’s not what I see happening.
I actively manage Instagram accounts for dozens of health professionals, and I’ve watched this play out over and over again. The practitioners who are willing to incorporate personal content consistently tend to see better results than those who only share educational posts.
Because in a sea of AI-generated content, stock photos, and generic wellness advice, people are looking for something that feels human. They’re looking for you.
This Is How You Stand Out
Let’s say someone searches for a chiropractor or acupuncturist near them. They find a few options. They visit your website. Then they click over to Instagram.
One account is full of generic graphics, stock photos, and random holiday posts. The other account gives them a glimpse into the actual human behind the practice.
Which one feels more trustworthy? Which one feels more approachable? Which one feels like someone you’d actually want to spend time with?
Most people choose the second option. Not because the practitioner is necessarily more qualified. But because they feel more familiar.
The Relationship Matters More Than We Think
One of the examples I share in this episode comes from the therapy world. Research consistently shows that the relationship between therapist and client is one of the strongest predictors of successful outcomes.
While I don’t know if identical research exists for every holistic health profession, I would be shocked if the same principle didn’t apply.
People want to feel connected to the person helping them. They want to trust you. They want to feel like they know you. Personal content helps build that trust long before someone schedules an appointment.
Three Personal Content Ideas You Can Use Right Away
One thing I wanted this episode to do was give you practical examples instead of vague advice.
The first idea is a carousel called:
Five Mostly Free Micro Habits I Wish All My Patients Would Adopt So They Feel More Alive by [Month].
These can be simple habits like:
- getting sunlight first thing in the morning
- taking a daily walk
- breathing before stressful meetings
- putting your phone away during certain parts of the day
The goal is not perfection. The goal is helping people through your own perspective and experiences.
The second idea is a simple Reel introducing yourself through quick fun facts. I shared an example on my own Instagram that includes things I love, random personality traits, and a few things that make me me. You can see that example here.
The third idea is a post that combines your identity with your expertise.
For example:
“I’m a 40-year-old mom of two and chiropractor, and here are the only wellness gadgets worth spending money on (IMO 😉).”
What I love about this prompt is that it immediately helps people understand both who you are and what you know.
You’re Not Trying to Become an Influencer
Another pushback I hear all the time is: “But Molly, I’m not trying to be an influencer.”
I know. And that’s not what I’m suggesting. What I am suggesting is that you stop hiding behind generic content.
Because there are people online with far less training, experience, and expertise than you who are attracting attention simply because they’re willing to show up as themselves.
You don’t need to dance. You don’t need to overshare. You don’t need to become a lifestyle creator. You just need to give people enough of a glimpse into who you are that they can picture themselves working with you.
If You’re Missing This, You’re Probably Missing This Too
This episode actually builds on another piece of my Content Ecosystem framework.
If you’re struggling with engagement, go back and listen to Episode 160: Zero Comments on Instagram? Try This. That’s where I talk about conversation starter posts, which are another content type I frequently find missing from practitioners’ Instagram strategies.
And if you want the full breakdown of how all these content types fit together, check out Episode 90: Creating a Content Ecosystem for Instagram.
Or if you’re ready for hands-on support implementing this inside your own practice, take a look at my group coaching program, Content Sprint.
Wrapping It Up
If your Instagram content feels a little flat lately, there’s a good chance the problem isn’t your educational content. It’s that people don’t know enough about you.
Personal content helps patients connect with the human behind the credentials.
And in a world filled with AI-generated content and generic wellness advice, that human connection is often the thing that makes someone choose you.
Connect with Molly
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The Holistic Marketing Simplified Podcast is brought to you by Holistic Marketing Hub, our hybrid program that supports you with personalized coaching, caption templates, and virtual classrooms. In this program, we teach health and wellness professionals how to fish, but also bait their hook!
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Episode Transcript
I audit a ton of Instagram accounts every week. Chiropractors, chiropractorists. That's a new word I've made up, in case you're wondering. Look it up. Look it up in the dictionary. Chi- chiropractors, acupuncturists. Um, I've been getting more, like, massage therapists, MFR therapists, PTs. And almost always, there are different types of content that I find missing.
If you're in my programs or if you've been here for a long time, you know I teach what I call a content ecosystem. Now, you've probably heard before that you need to have, quote, "content pillars," or that some of your content needs to focus on reaching more people, some needs to nurture, and some needs to focus on conversions, and that is all correct in a, in a sense.
I- it just never computed in my brain. I don't know. My b- my brain could never... Like, when I would think about, "Okay, I need nurture content," I'd be like, "Okay, what does that mean?" So that's why I teach what I call a content ecosystem. Now, I don't go into the content ecosystem in full in this episode. I have before.
I have to be honest, I think it's really too much for one podcast episode. I do teach it in full inside Holistic Marketing Hub and inside my group program as well. And then I also teach inside my programs how to batch create two weeks worth of content using my content ecosystem, so plug and play. But on today's episode, I'm just gonna focus on one type of content that I almost guarantee you is missing from your content strategy.
You know what? I'm not gonna tell you what it is. You're gonna have to listen. All right, let's do it
Hey, welcome to Holistic Marketing Simplified. This podcast boils down to the fact that we wholeheartedly believe that more humans need to know about holistic health solutions, and you didn't go to school to learn how to be a full-time content creator and show up on Instagram and do all of this marketing stuff all day, every day.
So let's come hang out while we chat all things easing your marketing, and my goal is that you shift your mindset around your marketing from a, quote, "should" to a, "I get to." More dream patients and clients? Yes, please.
Hi, I'm Dr. Amy Forrester, and I'm a chiropractor in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and I listen to the Holistic Marketing Simplified podcast.
Okay, let's dive into this type of content that I would, like, bet... I don't know what I would bet, but it's probably missing from your practice's content strategy from your page if I were to go audit it right now. And I've done an episode like this before with another piece of my content ecosystem. That is back on episode 160.
It's called Zero Comments on Instagram? Try This. That's where I talk about conversation starters. That's one type of post that I also betcha is missing from your Instagram. So like I said, rather than just have one episode all about my content ecosystem, it's just a lot to share in one episode, I've broken it out into, like, some separate episodes.
So yeah, go back after this one. Listen to episode 160, Zero Comments on Instagram? Try This. Or you can always just DM me on Instagram 160, and it'll send you the link right to the episode, 'cause I guarantee you that type of content is also missing from your page as well. So the type of content that we're gonna talk about today is what I call personal or lifestyle type content.
Okay, so before you freak out and turn off because you're like, "I'm a very private person, Molly. I am not sharing my personal..." Like, listen, there's a difference in... Sorry, y'all don't sound like that, but people tell-- I am not a private person, so, like, but I really can empathize, right? So I think there's a big difference, or not think, there is a big difference in private content and personal content, okay?
If you love your dog or you love knitting, that is not private. You know what I mean? Like, private would be like, "I just had a big fight with my husband," and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, I'm not telling you to share stuff like that, okay? The reason that we want to share this personal and lifestyle type content, and I'm gonna give you three prompts, um, that you can easily go implement, um, in the next couple weeks, is because a few reasons.
A, you probably hear a lot of people talking about personal brands, and I like to think of your practice or clinic page as, as almost like your personal brand, but in, like, a business page form, okay? Even if you have multiple practitioners, I don't wanna hear like, "Oh, well, I have five practitioners," or, "I have five providers," like, "This won't work for me."
Yes, you can still showcase each specific person's unique kind of like lifestyle, personal content, like I said, and I'll give you examples of that. Those are the types of pages, without question, I could not find you example to the contrary, that actually get people booking patients on their schedule from Instagram.
Hands down If you are staying in your safety bubble of educate, educate, I'm just gonna educate the crap out of people and they'll eventually book an appointment, I hate to break it to you, that does not work, friends. Remember that I am actively running almost 30 chiropractors' Instagram accounts. We do have some clients who never fill out the personal lifestyle prompt.
And guess what? We don't, so we don't... Obviously, I'm not them, like I can't make it up. Our clients who do get better results. So I like have actual like proof of this working, okay? In a sea of mass AI-generated crap, this is how you stand out. You've already heard me preach millions of times about what's working now with hooks when it-- like, in your educational content.
We're not talking about educational content today. But it's hooks that kind of l- go through that, um, specific lens of your lived experience. Like, things like instead of saying, "Five tips for better sleep," on your educational content hooks, what's better to say is something like, "What I wish I knew when I struggled with insomnia, and what I now tell my patients."
Do you see the difference there? So even that kind of has that personal brand, like flair vibes. So in this, like I said, mass sea of AI-generated content, this is how you stand out. This is how, let's say someone's Googling, you know, acupuncturist near me, chiropractor near me, you know, three different chiropractors or ac-acupuncture come up.
They click on your website, they go to your Instagram, and the other two people that come up, they just have a bunch of stock photos, a happy donut day graphic. Like, I'm not picking that office. I'm picking the one where I kind of get a little view into their, their personality because you're literally gonna have your hands on me.
And you know, um, I don't know the stats or if there even is research that's been done on this when it comes to, um, y'all's modalities, but when it comes to therapists, like counselors, you know, uh, LCSWs, you know, any type of like psychotherapy, there's actually research showing that the number one indicator of positive clinical outcomes is the relationship with the therapist.
If I'm misquoting that, someone be happy to correct me, but it's-- that's the gist of it, right? I would be so willing to bet that it is very similar for everything that y'all do, too. And there's going to be people that are repelled by, like, you're not this enough or you're not that enough, and that's great.
Do you really want them in your office anyway? I don't think you do. That's where this more, like, personal lifestyle type content comes in. Now, one of the biggest pushbacks I get is people are like, "Well, I'm not trying to be an influencer," and I hear you. But listen, there are people out there who are far, far, far less qualified than you giving health advice, so you know, you're-- like it or not, you kinda gotta, I'm not telling you gotta get up there and, like, do a dance or whatever, but you have to, you know, like I said, you gotta, kinda gotta play the game.
I think when you hear these prompts, you will kind of see what I'm talking about of, um, how to incorporate this in your content. Okay, so let's get to the prompts right now Prompt one is super simple, and I would do this as a carousel post. I would, if you can get photos of each of the things in the prompt, that would be, like, the best, but you could just do, like, a really casual selfie or something like that.
And then like I said, I would do this as a carousel. Our favorite thing to do is to bring those selfies into Canva. We'll throw, like, a black square over it, click on the black square, and turn the transparency or opacity way down. So you still see the photo, but that way the text over the photo pops. I would say that contrast is probably one of the number one things I see from a design standpoint, um, in a lot of y'all's pages that, um, you're just kind of slightly missing the mark.
Because if someone can't, like, if the text is really hard to read, there's not enough contrast, then your content will not perform well. So just make sure that the text pops. So here is the prompt, and here's what the hook on the first slide of your carousel is gonna be. Um, you could do this as a reel too.
You could do it as a talking head reel if you wanted or a B-roll reel and then put the tips in the caption. Um, I just like it as a carousel. So the prompt is 'Five mostly free,' and then I put mostly free in parentheses. 'Five mostly free micro habits I wish all my patients would adopt.' And then underneath it in smaller text as a subheader I put so that they can start feeling more alive by August.
So pick, whenever you're listening to this, pick, you know, like, 30 days-ish from whenever you're gonna post this. So one more time, five mostly th- free five mostly free micro habits I wish all my patients would adopt so they feel more alive by whatever month. And again, I put mostly free in, in parentheses.
Um, if they're not mostly free, like, obviously just take that out. Like, if every micro habit you're giving them is, you know, something they have to pay for, then obviously, you know, just tweak, tweak that hook accordingly. Most of our clients have done something like protein before coffee or, um, you know, remembering to freaking breathe or, like, take, take a deep breath before you get on a work call or, you know, going for a walk every day or sunlight in your eyes first thing.
Like, little things like that have been some, um, think, uh, one-- this was one of mine. I think this is such a good idea. Not take-- This is gross, too, but I do it, or I used to, but I've not anymore. Taking your phone to the bathroom or, or checking your phone at red lights, right? Like, isn't that a fun little micro habit to, like, not do anymore?
Okay, so that's prompt number one. The second one is not really a prompt per se. It's just a, like, a reel that I have done a couple different times. Um, if you're new here, I love Instagram's Edits app. The reason I love Instagram's free Edits app for editing reels is because it stores all of your reels you've ever created, and you can just go back and, like, duplicate it and change the text.
Like, if you wanna use the same video or if you wanna use the same hook but just, like, slightly tweak it, it saves all your reels that you've ever done. Now, unfortunately, it's not cloud-based storage. It's device-specific storage, so, um, I really need a new iPhone, and the thing that's been keeping me from going to get a new one is I'll lose all my Edits drafts, which makes me so sad.
So if you're using Edits for your clinic and, like, your CA has it on her Edits app on her phone, you won't see it on your Edits app. So it's device specific. So anyway, so I have this reel that I've done a couple different times I just go into the edits app and refind it and like change some of the stuff on there.
It's just like a seven-second clip of me like jumping on the beach, 'cause I love the beach, and it says, "Hello, you," you know, however many followers you have at the time. So for me, I did-- And you don't have to do it this way. You could just be like, you could even do your city and state, be like, "Hello, Raleigh moms," or whatever your target market is.
"Hello, Raleigh locals." For me, I did like, "Hello, you 10,000 beautiful souls." And then it just has like little text bubbles all around the video of things I like. I didn't, you don't have to explain that those are things you like. It's pretty self-explanatory. So I just have like Great British Baking Show.
Another thing I put on there was like squirrel, 'cause I'm like I'm just, you know, ADHD. Um, another thing I put on mine was like beach, just beach, like Ken, 'cause I love the beach. So you can get funny and cute with this. I put like I think my Enneagram on there. Whatever. We will link the example of one of those that I did in the show notes, so you can see what I'm talking about.
But then a couple months later, all I did, like I said, is I went into my edits app. I found the one I did. I updated the number to the number of followers I had now versus like when I had posted it before, changed a couple of the fun facts, and just posted the same exact thing again. So that is number two.
So number one is the five micro habits carousel. Number two is just like a five-to-second b-roll reel of you with like little, you know, words or fun facts all around the screen. And then number three is a prompt, your prompt. Again, you could do this as a carousel, and it would sound something like this: "I'm a 40-year-old mom of two and chiropractor, and here are the only wellness gadgets worth spending money on."
And I put only in all caps, and then I put in my opinion in like I-IMO in parentheses with a winky face. "I'm a 40-year-old mom of two and chiropractor, and here are the only," all caps, "wellness gadgets worth spending money on," and then parentheses I put an IMO with a winky face. But obviously tailor that to your personality.
You're not trying to be an affiliate or an influencer or anything, but it is literally proven that like your audience, once they get used to trusting you and buying from you, they will buy. It is like statistically proven that they will buy other things from you, AKA book you for care, right? So this is really low stakes.
You can even put like on slide two or in the caption like an asterisk that's like, "I'm not an affiliate. I just like sharing things that I genuinely love." Uh, maybe it's a red light that you really like or, uh, you know, like a sunscreen that you... It doesn't have to be a gadget. It can be, you don't have to say gadget.
I just said wellness gadgets in this, but you could do like non-toxic products or, you know, books, like whatever. You could, you could do any of those things. So, so the first part is identifying who you are. "I'm a 40-year-old mom of two." And then the second part, you would say your modality and chiropractor, "And here are the only wellness gadgets worth spending money on IMO," winky face.
So those are the three prompts Like I said, I will link an example of that reel in the show notes. And please, when you go make these posts, will you tag me and let me know that you do? And if you don't believe me, y'all, like go to major brands, like even product-based businesses are posting this type of content.
And they're posting like, "This is Larry who works in the warehouse." Like, people need human interest pieces. That emotionality is what makes Instagram so special. So yeah, do not, do not skip out on this. And do you see now how this is not, if you're a private person, how this all works? This is not you posting private private content, okay?
Um, okay, I hope this was helpful. If you have not yet left me a podcast review, I would be so, so, so honored to see yours pop up. I appreciate your time. Have a great day. Thank you for listening to Holistic Marketing Simplified. And hey, you know how every podcaster at the very end of their episode asks you to rate and review their podcast?
Well, that's because it's super important. These podcasts take a lot of time and heart and effort to produce to bring you free information. So in order for me to be able to continue doing that, we need more people to find out about the show. So if you could, please just take like two minutes out of your very busy day to leave me a rating and share this on your Instagram stories and tag @mollyacahill.
That's C-A-H-I-L-L. I would greatly, greatly appreciate your support. I know your time is valuable, and I can't wait to see you in the next episode.
