Here’s What Will Actually Grow Your Practice in 2026 [Episode 150]

Hello and welcome to the first episode of 2026. Hey, dad, I'm so happy we're here. We're well. I am happy we're here, but you're here. So for today's episode, I thought it would be fun to ask a lot of my friends and colleagues and affiliate partners. Who all kind of focus on like different areas of helping practitioners just like you.

I thought it would be fun to ask them if they could pick one needle mover for your practice in 2026, what would that be? So this episode is a little compilation of all of that. Everyone who gave me a tidbit, their information is listed in the show notes, and I hope you enjoy.

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 hanging out while we chat. All things ease in 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. This is Dr. Carla Freeman, and I'm a chiropractor and a holistic marketing hub student in Phoenix, Arizona, and I love listening to the Holistic Marketing Simplified podcast.

Hi, it's Molly. I'm gonna go first. Here is the one thing, the one needle mover I would focus on if you want to grow your practice in 2026, and that would be to just double down on what's already working. Lemme tell you what I mean by that. I know it can be really easy to get shining object syndrome and try to make things really complicated, especially in the new year, and there's all this pressure to be like New Year, new me, and do all of these crazy things.

But what if you just looked at your data and doubled down on what was already working? Now, I'm not talking about this from like a running your clinic standpoint with all of your, your numbers, because that's not my area of expertise. What I am talking about is from a marketing standpoint. So here is the exercise that I'm gonna have you do.

So if you're driving or whatever, just go ahead and listen to this, but maybe bookmark it to come back to, and if you're one of my hub students or my content sprint students, you know that this is what we walk through in detail in the first week that we work together. I want you to go to your electronic health record system and I want you to pull your last 10 new patients or clients.

Obviously weed out the ones who, uh, you know, maybe weren't a right fit and I want you to write down wherever, 'cause we're gonna ultimately put this into an AI project, but, you know, wherever you wanna get it down. What was the chief complaint of these new patients? What can't they do 'cause of this? Like how is it showing up in their life emotionally?

Maybe it's back pain and they cannot get on the floor and play board games with their kids. Maybe they have really bad anxiety and they're unable to travel in a way that they want to. Maybe they have migraines and it's keeping them from volunteering at their kids' school because they're afraid they're gonna have to cancel last minute because of having a migraine day.

Feel free to like spend a good amount of time on this exercise. I think it's gonna be really helpful. In addition to that, I want you to answer what else have they tried, maybe other therapies, modalities, medications. And then lastly, what are you going to do differently to help them write all of this down?

And then next I want you to go to your Google reviews and pull 10 Google reviews that are really reflective. Again, you wake up, you open your schedule, and you're like, Ugh, this is the perfect schedule for me today. Patients, you know, the perfect schedule of like certain patients or clients pull Google reviews that are reflective of that and you're gonna also put that into the same AI project, just literally copy and paste.

And now you are going to have this really rich AI project that's set up in a way. To make sure you can write really strong specific hooks for social media, because I'm gonna say that is like the biggest currency in 2026, is being able to stop someone scroll. And in order to do that, we know that the hook needs to be specific.

It needs to show your authority as a practitioner and social proof that you're actually doing the thing you say you're doing. And that incorporates some, you know, piece of storytelling. And so all of these questions that we just answered along with the Google reviews are really going to help to make all of those hooks.

Your Instagram content, even help you with your website. It will even help how you talk to patients in your office day to day. So the second part of doubling down on what's already working is of those 10 last new patients or clients, I want you to look at who referred them if they were all internal referrals, great.

Maybe that means you need to focus on an internal referral campaign. Send those people a handwritten thank you note. Maybe give them a $5 coffee gift card if that's allowed in your state. Just make sure that you are thanking the people who are referring you patients. If it was another business in town who referred you, do the same.

Make sure you're actually messaging them, calling them, sending them a letter, whatever it is to thank them. Go to their Instagram page, share their posts to your stories, support them in that way. So this is what I mean by instead of reinventing the wheel, doubling down on what's already working. 'cause when you use the language that your ideal patients or clients are already using and you use like through your Google reviews and you input all those chiefs complaints, you know that's exactly what your patients are already coming in for.

So you don't have to scratch your head and guess. So that is how we double down on what's already working and it's what I would focus on in 2026.

Hello. Hello, this is Dr. Danielle with the Expanded Collective, and if I could tell you to focus on one thing that will move the needle in 2026. I would tell you to become the local authority in your town.

Now, I'm gonna cheat a little bit. I know Molly said one thing, but the becoming the local authority technically has you doing a few things. Okay? First, I want you to focus on ranking in the mat pack as high as possible on Google. How do you do this? There are small tweaks that we can make to our website in terms of the keywords that we use, in terms of the site structure.

We can optimize our Google business profile. This is all stuff that we teach inside of our program. Okay. It's not that complicated. I know SEO is not sexy. It is not fun to talk about, but you guys, it makes such a big difference and it is free. Second, we need to listen to Molly. We need to treat Instagram like a networking platform.

We need to treat it like a funnel. It is a landing page. Instagram is not just something pretty that we come and we post our Christmas pictures on. Okay? Instagram is a tool. That we can strategically use to bring people from unaware to aware to patients in our practice. Okay, so we need to be thinking about Instagram more strategically, and we need to be using it to reach out to potential referral partners because when we can build relationships by serving people first, by providing value to them, which we can do online as well as in person, we can create an army of referral partners that again, send us our ideal clients for free.

And then we also need to make sure that we set up automations in our practice so that we don't have to constantly manage lead follow up because you guys, if it's on us or if it's on our teams, something is, is gonna fall through the cracks. So I would say become the local authority. Focus on Google, Instagram referral partnerships, and automate that shit so you don't have to stress about it.

And if you could focus on those things going into 2026. There is no way in my mind that your practice is not gonna grow by 15 to 30 new patients per month. Predictably, if you wanna learn more about it, you can come join us in the local authority engine where you can plug a marketing director into your practice to generate those leads for free, and who eventually can run your ads once you have the entire system set up and working for you.

Hi, my name is Dr. Lauren Brunswick, and I would absolutely say that if you are gonna focus on one thing in 2026 to be a needle mover, it is to stop telling yourself that you are bad at math or you are not good with numbers. Getting into the details of your clinic numbers and knowing it's putting a stake in the ground.

We often put so much emotion around these numbers, and so not only do are we unsure of how to figure them out, and we tell ourself all these lies of like, I'm not good with math and all of this, but then we are afraid to look at the number for what it is. But what you focus on is what will improve. Like where I recommend all clinics start is understanding your cost per visit and what it costs for your clinic to stay open.

Like what does it cost, including your overhead, your employees, like what does it cost for you to be there to serve patients? Then look at your average collections per visit. Now you can do this a lot of different ways, and again, don't, don't get yourself too in a frenzy about like, am I calculating this right?

We're just trying to get to a simple equation to make sure. You are charging more to your patients, then it's costing you to serve them. So if you do, I, we, in our clinic, we include supplements, we include all services beyond just the main one. And that's how we get to, you know, it's called OVA Office visit average.

And basically, once you have those two numbers, you wanna take that OVA office visit average, and you want to subtract your cost per visit. Now, ideally, your OVA should be higher than your cost per visit, and I like about a 20% margin minimum here. That number you get on the other end, OVA minus cost per visit, that's your profit margin.

And we want to be working with nice, healthy profit margins because ultimately what you do with those profits is what is going to be a determiner of to turning you into a rich doctor. Or just a consistently struggling healthcare provider. The number of providers I talk to who they have no idea what their profit margins are, where the money goes, they find themselves five, 10 years in practice and they're making more than ever, but they're just not seeing it at home.

That's a number one reason why I created the uncharted CEO. It is a 90 day program that we really dig into your numbers and your cash flow so you can start making smart investments and working towards becoming that rich doc. Remember that money is an energetic thing. So saying I'm not good with math.

Math is a number, money is numbers. So you are basically saying, I'm not good with money when you're saying I'm not good with math. So one needle mover, cut that shit out.

Hi, I'm Samantha Mabe of Lemon and the Sea, where I design custom websites for holistic health providers. If I could pick one thing to be a needle mover for your practice in 2026, it would be making sure your website SEO is set up for success despite what people have been trying to tell you.

SEO is not dead, and it is actually the foundation that helps you show up on Google and in AI searches. You want to make sure that you are using keywords in your copy, in your SEO descriptions and titles and in your image alt text that reflect what it is that you do, who you work with, and where you're located.

That way you can make sure that no matter where somebody is looking for the help that you offer, you are going to be one of the top people to show up. If you wanna go a little bit further, writing blog posts is the best way to continue to improve your SEO show up on Google and to be one of the top recommended people in AI searches because they reference actual websites when you're asking a question.

Or when they're recommending somebody that is looking for what you do. If you need a little bit of help getting this done, I am offering three coworking sessions in Q1 where you can join. Have dedicated time to work on your website, SEO design and user experience, and ask me questions and get feedback live so that you know exactly what you should be focusing on to move the needle forward.

In the new year, you can check that out at lemon and the sea.com/coworking.

Hello there, I'm Sarah Cook. I have been working as a health and wellness copywriter for more than a decade now, and if I had to pick one thing to be a needle mover for your practice in 2026. It would be to master the use of AI for content creation without losing yourself or your voice.

Because what we're seeing now is that AI can crank out content fast. It absolutely can save you time and money. In fact, I realized about a year ago when I was charging $2,500 a day for my copywriting services that chat GPT could do about 80% of my job. But I also realized that there is that 20% that is the difference between putting out embarrassingly, kind of telltale chat GPT content versus putting out content that really works to magnetize in those types of clients who are an easy yes for you.

So as more and more AI content floods the system, there are going to be select practitioners who stand out. So back to that needle mover question, the practitioners who are going to stand out in 2026. And beyond, by the way, are those who learn to use this technology along with their stories, their experience, their methodologies, and all of those pieces that nobody else can copy.

So if you are trying to get a handle on your content and your marketing. If you are curious about AI, but also want to keep your content authentic, I teach a system to do that using chat GPT. And the first place we start is with your setup. So to get my setup for organized and customized workspace for content creation, I have a free tutorial to get you started.

You can find that at my website. It's wellness writer.com, and it's called Chat Made Simple because content creation is easier. With chat, GPT and chat GBT works a lot better with the right setup.

Hi, I'm Heather Hammel, also known as the MFR Coach. I help my old fashion release therapists build fully booked and profitable practices with calm, intentional systems that support long-term growth.

If I could pick one needle mover for 2026, it would be this. Master the skill of selling your service. Not a slick script, not a perfect elevator pitch. I am talking about the ability to communicate the real value of your work in a way that feels true to you and easy for your clients to understand. Too many business owners focus on features, how long the session is, or how many modules a program contains in 2026.

The real needle mover will be your ability to connect those features to the results that your clients want. Both the tangible changes they can measure and the intangible shifts that change their life. When you can speak clearly about the problem you solve and explain it in a way your clients can recognize inside their own experience, their trust increases.

That is what creates a natural yes, not pressure, not discounts, but clarity. Selling is not about becoming someone else. It's about being able to articulate the transformation that you deliver in a way that your clients can finally hear. When you master this, your marketing becomes easier, your consultations become clearer, your business becomes more predictable and more profitable.

If you wanna help with this, I have a free training called Sell MFR to anyone in any situation. It teaches you the first steps to making your sales conversations simple and grounded. You can register@themfrcoach.com slash webinar. If you wanna learn more about how to sell your work with confidence, come and listen to the MFR Coaches podcast.

I teach you these skills every week in a simple and practical way that you can apply right away.

Hi there. My name is Michelle Grassic. I am an acupuncturist and a marketing strategist and the host of the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast. And if I could pick one thing to really move the needle for your practice in 2026, I would focus on optimizing your Google Business profile because it is an incredible free tool built by Google.

Directly connected to your search engine optimization, that can drastically improve your visibility in your community. So whether you make regular updates every week or if you can just manage to do an update on your profile once a month. I have seen this making such a big difference for my marketing clients and my marketing students.

Helping them rank higher in a Google search. And also just helping Google to understand what type of patients to send you. So the more that you engage with and update and optimize your Google business profile, the better Google will understand your business. So it can show your profile more often when it thinks your business is the answer to a question that someone has typed into Google.

So I do have a workshop where I walk you through exactly how to optimize your Google business profile to help Google understand your business, to understand your target market, and to really get Google to prioritize your profile and show it more often, and hire up in a search results page. And you can check out the workshop@michellegrassic.com slash Google.

This is Nikki Kata from the Wealthy Practitioner, and if I could pick just one needle moving thing for your business in 2026, it would be this. It's that you need to get super clear on the one seat that you are meant to be in inside of your business, and you need to keep your butt there. Most chiropractors and business owners aren't stuck because of strategy.

They're stuck because they lack clarity on what their actual role is, and they're trying to do everything. When you're unclear, you default into every single job, doctors, CE, o, ca, marketer, fixer of all the things. And when you sit in every seat, nothing ever moves. The real shift happens when you get radically clear on your lane, the seat that actually drives growth, the seat that drives revenue and release everything else to another team member or a system.

Because the million dollar version of you, she's not stuck in chaos. She's super clear. She's decisive, and she leads from the one role that moves the business forward. So if you ask me what the one needle mover is for you, just keep clear on your seat, claim it, stay in it. And that is why clarity is what creates momentum.

If I had to give you just one needle mover for your clinic in 2026, it's not a tactic. It's not Instagram or SEO or like a fancy funnel. It's commitment. And I know that's not sexy, probably not what you wanted to hear, but after working with clinicians for eight years, like every top performing clinic has one thing in common.

They go all in, they pick a path, and they stay on it long enough for it to compound. The clinics who struggle, it's almost never because the strategy's wrong. It's because they can't commit long enough to let it work. And I say this with compassion. Most practitioners you want to commit, but the second guessing, like it gets real.

You know, you try a workshop or ask for reviews, or you start a follow-up system. And when it feels slow or boring or not, like instantly explosive. You wonder, maybe you chose the wrong thing, or you compare yourself to what the clinic down the street is doing, and then you pivot. But every time you pivot, your momentum resets.

And the thing is, nothing works when you're halfway in. Every strategy has a boring middle. Every system has a messy phase where it doesn't feel quite right, and most people jump ship right then, right before the results would've kicked in. So take a second and look, honestly, at this past year, where have you been?

One foot in? Where have you been dabbling or waiting for proof before committing? And what would shift if you decided to go all in? Because here's what commitment actually gives you. Follow through. Real consistent follow through becomes the natural behavior when you fully commit. It's what makes it easy to stick with your niche instead of wavering to email your patients every month for a year to refine your ads instead of just turning them off right away and keep doing the same routines even when they get boring.

This is where commitment turns normal unsexy tasks into compounding growth, which my friends is very sexy, and it's not in the first month, it's in the months you would normally quit. Commitment. It only happens when you trust your plan, and I think that's the real reason I see most practitioners struggle.

Not because you're inconsistent, but because you're not confident. The plan is the right one. So every setback feels like a sign to pivot. This is exactly why the custom growth playbooks have become my favorite thing to create. They remove the second guessing entirely. This is where I do a deep analysis of your clinic, your goals, your numbers, your market conditions, and turn it into a clear 90 day step-by-step plan you can trust.

Because when you stop asking, is this right? You can finally go all in, and that is what changes your year. So if 2026 is the year you're done dabbling and truly wanna commit to the strategy that will move the needle for your clinic, Molly will drop the link. I would love to create a custom

growth playbook

for you.

All right, so that wraps it up. What do y'all think? I listen to everyone's tips and I think they're all so, so, so good. So please check out everybody who opted to guest, uh, host for me today, and I would love to hear from you on Instagram. If you wanna send me a dm, let me know which tip you think you're going to implement first.

Um, did anything surprise you And make sure, like I said, you please go and support everybody who participated today. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your January in 2026. 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 at Molly a Cahill, 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.