15% Growth in 9 Months | The Dr. Timothy Johnson Case Study | Wins of the Week

Audio Transcription

Jason on today’s show, we are interviewing the ophthalmologist from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Dr. Timothy Johnson, who’s the co-founder of Southern eye consult. And uh, he shared with us about how he’s been able to grow his practice by 15% by implementing, uh, the dream 100. The group interview, the search engine optimization, the HTTPS encryption if he no brainer ads, the Google reviews all the search engine content. Um, why do you feel like all the listeners should listen to today’s show? Well, one, Tim is the man, but he is without a doubt one of the best cases I’ve seen come to the business coaching program of a diligent doer and somebody who implements. And that 15%, which is one of the craziest things you said was it’s been consistent each month he’s grown, has been a result of him implementing each and every one of those systems. If you feel stuck and your business is just unable to, to grow for some reason you don’t know what to do, or maybe you now are learning what to do, but you just don’t know if the system actually works. This interview with Dr. Timothy Johnson from Tuscaloosa, Alabama is for you.

hello. Oh, Dr. Timothy Johnson. How are you sir?

I’m doing great. How are you?

Well, I appreciate you agreeing to do a hostile impromptu 6:26 AM interview your time though is at seven 26 or is it six 26,

six 26 God’s time.

Hmm, no, I, I have, uh, two uh, questions for you. You, you, uh, we have so many listeners, um, but a half million listeners a month who listened to the show and, uh, many of which I would say are normal. In fact, I would say most are normal. I don’t think most people have been self employed in large parts since the age of 16. And so there is a little healthy skepticism that exists, I think, um, you know, you’re an ophthalmologist. Can you kind of explain your educational background?

Yeah. So to get an ophthalmology, you do four years of college, four years of medical school and then an internship and then three years of residency. And it’s, some people do a fellowship too, but that’s the minimum.

So when you meet a guy who dresses like Adam Sandler who has a 20,000 square foot building, who um, is teaching people how to grow companies, can you explain the healthy dose of skepticism, cynicism, sarcasm, whatever, that you have experienced when you, when I first met or first interacted?

Yeah, I had a lot of skepticism at first because it seemed, it seemed to make sense, which to me, when, I don’t know, it’s, everything seemed to sound good when things sound, when things sound good, I don’t like it.

Okay.

The month, the month, the month thing, uh, made me feel a lot better. And then, uh, so I was doing it for a few months, um, and went to a conference and then it really clicked. I think going to the conference made it really click that. Um,

can you talk to me about the kind of growth that you’ve experienced in terms of just numbers, numeric growth. You’re a numbers guy. You’re obviously, you’re not an idiot when you’re in the world of, uh, medical, uh, you have to deal with insurance companies. You have to be accurate. The world of vague generalities doesn’t work in that world. Can you got to explain maybe some of the growth that you’ve experienced?

Yeah, we’ve experienced a lot of growth over the last year, this year versus last year. I’d say, I don’t know, somewhere like 15%.

So 15% growth in like, has it been a year or six months or nine months or

about nine months maybe like every month over the last year seems to be the same. Yeah.

And we’re in an economy where, and correct me if I’m wrong, but the, according to Forbes, you know, nine out of 10 small businesses fail, startups fail. Uh, the average business did actually succeed or that makes, it only grows at about a 3% rate according to the GDP. And I believe that a lot of ophthalmologists are ophthalmologists are experiencing, um, uh, a shrinking a declining market or, or staying the same, or are you, would you agree that most ophthalmologists are either not growing or are growing very little?

Yeah, I think the market in general when you’re relying on government or our, uh, insurance and things like that getting tougher. And so it’s, it’s a tough world out there.

So talk to me. So talk to me about the areas that you have been the most skeptical about or the areas where you’ve been like, gosh, just, I don’t know if that’s true. Cause I think there’s somebody out there who was wanting to ask these questions, but they don’t, you know, we only have 160 business coaching clients, so the vast majority, uh, can’t talk to us. You know what I mean? What, what were some of the skeptic points where you’re like, I don’t know if that’s how that works.

I would say the big three are the Google reviews, the, the group interview. And for me, uh, the website content. I know some people also are skeptical about the uh, the dream 100 bet that that made sense to me beforehand but the other three didn’t.

Well let’s get into uh, the dream 100. Can you kind of explain to the listeners out there what the dream 100 is and maybe where you were initially skeptical about it and how it works.

So I have a clinic, Southern eye consultants, which is a purely referral base. We pretty much don’t do primary eye care. We do get referrals from other doctors. So optometrists like dr Z would see you and then say you have a cataract and send it to us. So we don’t generate our own revenue. We, well we do, you know what I’m saying? We get, we get referrals from other, it’s a business to business type business and so it’s, it made a lot of sense to me to need to go out to them and keep my face there. I didn’t, I wasn’t doing it as well as I should have. And then you said something that made a lot of sense. He said, go there every week because of, cause if you show them that you are reliable in going there every week, you’ll show them that you’re reliable in taking care of their patients. And that I was like, Whoa, that makes a lot of sense. That’s there it is. This homeless man is not as crazy as he looks.

Ah. Now this is interesting. Uh, is, is diligence. The consistent application of effort is what changes things. But what the world wants is a new idea.

You know, we want a new idea. People go to seminars and going, Oh, I got all these new ideas. I’m talking about implementation. Um, I think you’ve learned that about me at this point, but implement, I don’t even care about, I don’t care about education. Uh, theoretical education, general education. I care about implementation. And when you do the dream a hundred, this is, these are the four or five steps you’re going to go through. Step one, they say, why are you here? Why are you showing up at my office? I’m an optometrist. Why are you showing up? Then step two is it’s like I’m annoyed that you continue to show up. It’s kind of it, it’s step one. It’s either you’re annoyed or they’re just kind of shocked. Step two there they become kind of curious as to why would you keep showing up. Step three it’s like this guy keeps showing up step forward. Like I kinda like as I got back to this guy keeps showing up and then step five they’re like, Oh I’ve acquired a taste for this beer. And even though I didn’t like the taste of beer the first eight times I had it, I’ve acquired a taste and now I want another beer. Can you kind of explain that cycle cause you’ve gone through that cycle and I think there’s a lot of people out there who don’t believe it will ever work.

Yeah, I think it’s just you’re going to get a certain amount of referral sources. Just off the bat, let’s say, I don’t know your top 15% and then like I’ve had, I’ve been working on this business for five years I think, and I’ve still, this year I got, I was able to convince one or two to start sending to me and then I still got to the end. I’m still working on just five years. Just every time I, I’ll, I’ll host a dinner and just invite them and just take time going to break them.

It’s kind of like my relationship with a John Maxwell. I don’t know how many times John Maxwell’s team shut me down, but eventually they said yes. Now I’ve, I’ve heard, uh, that we’re supposed to have a Dave Ramsey on our show here soon and Dave has been shutting me down for a, for quite awhile. And uh, we had a, the founder of a Ritz Carlton on the show horse to Schultz and that dude shut me down a lot. I remember Michael Levine, he, that guy shut me down more than anybody. I mean the PR consultant for Michael Jackson and Prince,

you never know why they’re saying that. And so if you believe that you provide a better product, you almost owe it to them to get them to use you. Does that make sense?

Yeah. And I, I think there’s somebody out there is going, okay. The dream a hundred. Okay. I’m finally getting that. Okay. Okay. But Google reviews, Google reviews. Really? I’m an up, I’m an ophthalmologist. Okay. Listen, I’m a doctor. I’m a lawyer. I’m a dentist. I’m a home builder. Uh, people don’t read Google reviews. Come on, man. No one reads Google reviews. It’s all word of mouth. I’m a doctor. Can you please, uh, help somebody work for the cobwebs of getting Google reviews?

I don’t get it. It doesn’t make any sense to me. It seems like the craziest thing. Nowhere else, but it’s something I’ll have patients come, I don’t know. I text you once a week. I saw I, it’ll show up and say, Oh yeah, I, uh, I just Googled you. So do you want to do my surgery? I’m like, okay. Like I’m going to do a good job. You’re lucky you found me. But yeah, it’s something you can explain this better than I can. Social validation people need a, it’s hard to navigate the world until you need shortcuts. And that seems to be the shortcut that we’re, that we’re using.

Yeah. I have found this, this is, this is really weird, but, um, I remember, I, I bet I’m convinced that you and I wouldn’t be talking right now unless this happened. I, um, was deejaying the heck out of my events. I started to no longer be terrible and I was 22 and I got a call from the Tulsa chamber of commerce. This is in 2002, and they said, we would like to make you, uh, would like to talk to you. Uh, we’d like to put you in the, um, nomination for the Metro chamber of commerce, uh, entrepreneur of the year, not, not for the state of Oklahoma at this point. This is just for the Tulsa, the city of Tulsa. And they’re going, um, do you want to fill out the packet? And I’m like, thinking, okay, do I have to pay for this? So, you know what I mean? Those fake awards, Tim, when you have to, you know, the fake award, like do you want to be, you know, you know what I’m talking about? These awards.

Oh, like best doctor, best doctor of, of New York. Like yeah, those are all, yeah.

Yeah. And so I was thinking, well geez, I don’t know whether I want, this is probably a, well I met with the chamber and I realized that it wasn’t a scam. It, they made me fill out this packet where I had to put Tim, my actual gross revenue. The goal, uh, they actually wanted to interview my actual former customers.

I like the blue ribbon thing that uh,

Oh, this would be, this was the young entrepreneur of the year award, um, for the Tulsa chamber

process. They sort of dissected here.

Yeah. And so you go through all this and then at some point, uh, they said, well, Hey, you know, you made the top 10 or whatever. Now we need to get more [inaudible], more customers, testimonials we can call. We need to interview your employees, you know, is this big old thing. And then I’m starting to get annoyed at this point. I’m like, this is stupid. Why do I need to prove to you that I’m good at my job? I’m already making money. I don’t need to prove to you. This is stupid. This is stupid. I don’t need to prove to you that I am good at my job. Screw you guys. I remember saying that to myself. Screw you guys. I’m not doing that. Well, I kept filling out the paperwork. My wife said, just fill out the paperwork. I’m like, this is stupid. I don’t like paperwork.

That’s why I’m an entrepreneur. I’m not a doctor. When I thought the paperwork, fill it out, all of a sudden they called me and said, Hey, we want you to know you. You’ve won. So I got to put a suit on. I’m in the Tulsa world. Started getting that validation. Big companies like Boeing, Boeing, you know that people make airplanes. Um, Southwest airlines, quick trip, Bama companies, bank of America, sort of booking me to be their entertainer of choice and I’m going to crimp. But that was the kind of validation I needed back in the day. And now it’s like Google reviews and replaced all that. Cause you didn’t, you graduated pretty high, pretty near the top of your class. Or at least you’re at the anchor guy, right? I mean didn’t you do well in school?

I wasn’t the anchor guy or what’s the name of the guy who graduated from West point at the bottom?

I think he’s called the anchor. Oh, it was the Naval Academy. The Naval. The goat.

You’re right, the Naval Academy.

Yeah, it’s the anchor. I know that John McCain was second to the goat. Senator John McCain was second or second to the, the the anchor. He was number two from the bottom. Now. Yeah,

West point’s the Westland’s called the goat.

But doesn’t that kinda just irritate you a little bit that you have to go out there and get reviews? Doesn’t that bother you? I mean you already have a great GPA. You went to school for how long again? How long did you go to school?

Oh no, cause I cheated. My wife is,

Oh,

it’s just another, it’s just another a hope that I gotta squeeze my what? No, no, no. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me. I, I’m kind of a pragmatist, like whatever works, but I could see how it would annoy you. Okay. I could see how it, I can see why people don’t do it, if that makes sense.

Now, what about the [inaudible]

say

sorry to cut you off there. Cut out for a minute.

Oh no, no. It just, it seems like it’s like, it seems arbitrary. I find the, but I don’t know. You know the statistics, 95% of people use a, my secretary uses the thing and I get mad at her every time.

Yeah. It’s like one to 2% of the population. [inaudible] take this out. A Google is the number one search engine and YouTube is the number two and YouTube has more combined searches than Bing and Yahoo combined. Now let’s do the same way. Review driven. Now let’s talk about the group interview. Somebody out there is going, I don’t want to do the group interview. It seems stupid to me that I am going to interview all the candidates at the same time. Well, let’s talk about the process. Step one, you post on indeed Craigslist, wherever you always post every week, always. Now hiring post step one, step two, you interview all the candidates at the same time and you do not read the resumes. Step three after you interview all the candidates at the same time. Then after you find the candidate that you like, then you read the resumes only after they’ve shadowed you. Can you explain maybe why you initially thought that was a crazy process and maybe how that’s helping you out now

I’ve never heard of it before. It seems crazy. Yup. Why wouldn’t you read the resumes and then what to say? What? What aren’t they going to be? They’re not going to be themselves in the group interview and so it didn’t make any sense to me. And then plus the other thing that didn’t make any sense. If we’re not hiring right now, why would we be hiring? Why would I waste an hour interviewing people if I’m not hiring? That didn’t make any sense. That’s still doesn’t make any sense to me, but it works

well. Let me explain to you. Let me explain.

Learns, whatever I just learned. Whatever you say, I just do it.

Well, let me explain why it doesn’t work. I’ll just keep doing it. Let me explain why it works for about there is, um, the new England Patriots are a team that I’m obsessed with. I talk about them all the time. You obviously like Nick Saban who was a bill Belichick a disciple, but um, the other last year, Cordell Patterson was great. He’s great. He was great, did a very great job. Yay Cordell Patterson. However, he says this year, you know, I, I need to get paid. I gotta get paid. I can’t guys, I know that as a player, I say that the number one goal I have as a players to win a super bowl. But you and I know, apparently that’s not the main goal for some guys. So, but that’s bill Belichick’s goal. So Bella, check. Then

what did leptos Latrell Sprewell he said he got to feed my family

right after he was making over $10 million a year. So then they get gunner O Shefsky, an undrafted kid from Bemidji state, a division two football program who was a defensive back in college now has taken the spot of Cordell Patterson at wide receiver.

Yeah. I just Googled that. The Michi state. I didn’t even know there was a place division

two baby. Yeah. And then, and then took about this. So while, while the Cowboys and every other team in the NFL are begging their players to come back and players are holding the team a hostage, you know, the ownership hostage because they have to pay them or they won’t come back. They’re holding out after they’ve clearly signed a contract that they’ve agreed to. Like, I’m holding out for the big bucks. You can’t hold out after you’re signing a contract unless you’re in a hole. But the point is, so people say, I signed a contract. I know I agreed to it, but I want to change it. Okay. All right. There I have a problem. But bill Belichick’s like, yeah, it’s cool. It’s cool. By the way, man, I say whole. I mean amazing whole person. You must be an amazing whole person. Just perfect in every way.

What an a-hole. So anyway, so then another receiver says, you know, I’ve got to get paid to, you know Chris Hogan. He’s like, I got to get paid. You know, now to Chris Hogan’s credit, his contract was over TJ to Patterson’s credit, his contract was over, but then they got Jacoby Meyers, Jacoby Meyers, another undrafted kid. They just signed him. So the Patriots have replaced to starting NFL national football league players with undrafted people. If that’s not, if that’s not an in your face to the people who want the bigger contract, they’re going, Hey, we’re going to win without you buddy. And they do it every year. But what if bill Bellacheck Oh, you watch a little bit of football there, Tim. What would happen if bill Belichick stopped scouting new new talent? Even though people have said verbally, I’m committed coach, I’ll be here next year, coach. What would happen?

It is going to be held hostage by the current talent.

There it is. And that’s what happens. And that’s why we can never stop. And I don’t, I mean I, I’m not ripping the program of NC state Wolfpack football, but I don’t know that that NC state is the number five football team, number one football team in America, right? It’s NC state in the top five. They like it. Are they usually a top 30, top 20? Are they normally top 25 you watch college football more than I do. They normally top 25

not, not usually.

So the NC state has a guy, and by the way, Jacoby Meyers in college played quarterback and they switched him to receive or towards the end of his career. But if you stopped that group interview, you’re going to be held hostage now search engine articles. Can you talk to me about, um, your overall wrestling with or grappling with how Google works?

Uh, I didn’t get it. And then, you know, what really flipped the switch for me with listening to those articles? Use those, uh, business coaching interviews you sent me.

Oh, with Bruce Bruce Clay.

Bruce Clay. And then the other guy,

uh, we go, we have Bruce Clay. He represents, um, the company that is called Bruce clay.com. It’s a great company and if you type in thrive time show Bruce Clay, you can hear my interviews with him. He writes, search engine for dummies every year. Um, for the listeners out there who aren’t familiar with that show, go check that out. That’s Bruce Clay.

Like it was like two one and a half hour pie. It was really, it was mine. It was mind expanding.

He works with like the home Depot, target, eBay, Toyota, Netflix, huge companies, the weather channel. And then the other guys, Gary Grant and his company’s called [inaudible], S E O inc as C O inc and a his, his clients. He works with Oxi fresh. Um, the, the carpet cleaning franchise that I’ve worked with over the years, uh, inc he’s works with specific companies here. Um, he works with 20th century Fox, SC Johnson, um, wedding wire, uh, Paul Mitchell. Um, he works with, um, who is the kind of a dirtier version of Victoria’s secret. Who’s the dirtier one? Oh, I thought that was interesting. Frederick’s of Hollywood. Yeah, he works with them. Don’t Google it. Don’t check that out folks. But he works with them. That’s the more racy of the two. Whoa. Shunda

but he was saying like they had nothing and then he, he worked with them and then they were like number one and he said that they, that that alone like flip the switch for, I was like, well that’s a, that’s a way to convey. That makes sense.

So for anybody out there listening, uh, dr Tim who is a doctor, dentist, lawyer, whatever, some professional, some business owner out there and they’re saying, I don’t know if the group interview works. I don’t know if Google reviews work. I don’t know if the group interview works. I don’t know if I need to actually put the HTTPS encryption on my site. I don’t know whether I need to team up with a charity. I don’t know if the conference works. I don’t know what, what would you say to them?

Just try it. It know it’s only a 1700 bucks a month. And if you don’t like it, you can go back to keep doing what you’re doing.

Now, is that a dog in the background or are you just excited to answer that question?

My dog, Colby. He’s a beast. He’s like 140 pounds. He’s, yeah, he’s 11.

What kind of, what kind of dog is he?

He is, and he’s a, what is, he is an English golden retriever. So he’s a little bigger and boxier than normal. Golden. Yeah. It’s like a big, he’s a big white dog.

I have a question for you. This show’s not very political. I just went, Oh, that’s a dirty dog. That’s a dirty dog. What? Possess what, what, how does that, how does that dirty dog typically vote? Is that dirty dog typically vote Republican or Democrat because that is a dirty dog.

He’s a, uh, he vote libertarian.

Nice. Live and let live kind of guy. Okay. So if you’re out there, by no means are we saying passively, aggressively or aggressively do only dirty dogs vote libertarian. But as, as on behalf of all the dirty dogs out there who do vote libertarian, uh, welcome to my team, team libertarian. We just deemed dirty dog. That’s all right. You got the, we got the, with the elephant, right? Yeah. And then you got the donkey elephants for the Republicans. The donkeys

for the, for the, uh, the libertarian.

We did what, what kind of dog? What kind of dog is he?

Hang out and leave you alone. He’s a

English golden retriever. You say English. Golden retriever.

Yeah. If you Google, uh, hang on one second.

I’m Googling right now. I’ll tell you that. I don’t know. Wow. Oh, Ooh. He’s beautiful dirty.

Suddenly they look a little different. So if you look at, go to Google images. Yeah. And then, yeah, the first picture, that’s what, that’s kind of what it looks like. They look a little different. They’re basically golden, but they’re like boxier and creamier, I guess.

Do you or do you wash him or is he really a dirty dog?

Uh, it’s like a, it’s like a, it’s like fighting, fighting the ocean. It’s just good. Keeps coming up.

Huh?

And it’s like that Nordic King is fought the ocean. You can’t find it. He stays dirty. He’s filming.

Hey, well, I appreciate you for joining us this morning and, uh, if you need anything, man, I’m just a text away and I hope you have a great day with your kiddos.

Cool. Thanks a lot.

Take care, man. And now, without any furthered too.