4 kids, 3 jobs, a commute, and Lyme disease are not enough to stop this M.D. from creating her incredible resource and smashing pre-sales with a list size of zero.
Tune in to here Kristin's story.
PREFER TO READ? HERE’S THE TRANSCRIPT OF MY INTERVIEW WITH KRISTIN REIHMAN
Sylvie: Welcome everybody, it's Sylvie McCracken of sylviemccracken.com. Today I have one of my incredible clients, Kristin Reihman, who is a doc that specializes in Lyme. Welcome Kristin, thanks for being here today.
Kristin: Thanks Sylvie for asking me, I'm so happy to join.
Sylvie: Yeah, so, super excited to bring on Kristin, who is going to share a couple things that happened to her during our time together. But first of all, I just wanted to ask you Kristin, what made you, you know, decide you wanted to write a book, what made you decide that you wanted to do something different than your one-on-one practice?
Kristin: So um, I actually have 3 little practices, or have had 3 little practices, and about March, I learned that the hospital job I have, which was basically supervising the care that residents in Family Medicine give their patients in their clinic, I learned that that was going away. They wanted me to shift back to clinical time, and I really didn't want to do that. I wanted to remain in an educational role at the hospital, so I could maintain my private practice. So, I was sort of at a crossroads when I learned about your course, and was actually, had been, thinking about writing a book and thinking about doing some proofs and some different kind of consultation styles that would allow me to have a larger impact for a while. So when I was on Facebook one morning, and got the advertisement for the free webinar on passive income from e-books, I was like, “um, that sounds exactly like what I'm looking for”, to replace my income but also to have a wider impact without just cranking away and seeing a million more patients, which is frankly not sustainable for me because I've had Lyme, and part of my maintenance of my own rockstar status is to not overdo it.
Sylvie: Yeah.
Kristin: So um, I guess the other thing that kind of had been going on was for the last 6 months to a year, I'd been meeting with new patients who would say things like, “Oh my gosh, that was so helpful. Is there a book that you've written that I could go to, or do you have a website with all this on it?” And I'd be like, no, I hope you took the notes because that was the book.
Sylvie: Right, you have to come see me for 10 more hours and I can tell it to you over and over again.
Kristin: Right, people saying “Okay where's your TED talk?” and I'm like, did you hit the record button? Cause that was the TED talk. So, it was kind of like this perfect convergence of knowing something had to change, really practically being really having to change so I could find a way to replace some income, but also knowing that I couldn't keep doing it the way I was doing it. So when I got that, and I'm, you know I'm kind of an old lady when it comes to technology. I'm never on Facebook, I was literally on Facebook for 5 seconds and I have no idea how your post ended up on my page because I don't really understand Facebook, or how it works, but I was like, oh, that's synchronicity, I'm clearly going to listen to that free webinar.
Sylvie: Well it sounds like it was a convergence of signs all happening at once.
Kristin: It was a perfect storm. And during the webinar, I was just like, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, sign me up. How long do I have to wait for this conversation? Sign me up.
Sylvie: Right, yeah, that's amazing. Well, and that's pretty much the same energy that you brought into the exact, you know, into every piece of the process, and then of course, you know we always joke back and forth, we've been calling Kristin and she signs off as “old lady” and I call her “hey old lady”, just from this technology thing, which I love that even despite not being you know the tech-savviest person on the planet, you found a way, you haven't made excuses, you found a way to make it happen. And so, can you share with people just kind of what happened, even in terms of pre-sales of your book recently, that you just kind of did it with you know your list size and all of that.
Kristin: Yeah, so it was also kind of an interesting perfect storm because I was actually on vacation the second day that you sent out that, or maybe I missed it because I was traveling, the day you sent out the kind of request you guys have a list yet, do you wanna be involved know how to do a pre-sale, and so I kind of missed the bone and maybe I, even didn't understand the question because I didn't know what a list was, so I was really appreciative that you kind of reached out afterwards, said, “Hey Kristin, do you have a list? I didn't see your name on our list of people with lists.”
Sylvie: Yeah.
Kristin: And verified what that meant, and then I realized there was an opportunity to jump into something that sounded like it was new and maybe gonna be offered as part of the Ebook Engine course later, and I was like, why not? I'm on vacation, I have a little bit of extra time, um, I'm on the wrong time zone, I'm awake when other people aren't, and so I was able to kind of compile my list, picking it out of my email, and send out about 400 emails.
Sylvie: Wow, okay awesome. And so you sent it out to your list of, were these prior patients and…?
Kristin: Yeah, mostly prior patients. I had like 3 different tribes, I had like my prior patient list, I had a list of people who had been kind of following along several years ago when I was sort of starting a wellness center.
Sylvie: Yeah.
Kristin: People who had been kinda like following and interested and wanting to do stuff with me in that regard, and then I also sent it to some hand-picked Family Medicine people in my program, some medical students who follow what I do.
Sylvie: So, I love that because I mean, officially you didn't even have an official, you know, compiled email list, you sort of kind of, you know, just band-aided it together and made it happen, so and then you just followed our process exactly as we laid it out, and so how many pre-sales did you make in that little experiment?
Kristin: So, glad you asked, I just checked my e-junkie page right before the call, and 61 so far.
Sylvie: Wow. I love that, okay. Just so from this like makeshift email list, you made 61 sales right away. That is amazing. And what is the official launch date?
Kristin: October 1st.
Sylvie: Okay, that's amazing. So the book isn't even done, you've already got, you know, money in hand, and then also you've got now a heck of a kick in the butt to really make it happen by October 1st, is that right?
Kristin: Yeah, yeah, and it's—and these aren't even the folks I thought would wanna buy it necessarily because they're people who sort of already drinking the Kool-Aid or know my process or whatever, but it's been, definitely, it's 61 but it honestly could've been like two, to make me be like, oh my god, I really have to get this thing done.
Sylvie: Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up because really, you know, like two is what I feel like, okay great, we did pre-sales, fantastic. People want it, it's validated, now we have a kick in the butt. We've offered it, we promised it at a certain date, no time for excuses, let's get to work. But you really took that to the next level, and you did that with that little bit of a makeshift list. So, no website, no list, no book done, but you've already made 61 sales. I absolutely adore that. So I love Kristin, you know what you shared in terms of the actual tangible results with, you know, in terms of the pre-sales, and of course, you know, part of the reason you do it is to create that passive income stream for yourself, but a lot of times what we find is it's not only just those business results, and of course you're still in the early days of that and it will, I can't wait to talk to you a year from now and see what you do with all of that, but a lot of times we see this kind of trickle over into the personal realm as well. So I'm curious if any of this, you know, transformation, happened in your personal life as well. Whether it's in your mindset, or in your personal relationships, or in your personal life at all.
Kristin: I love that question, and it, to me, it reminds me of just how grateful I am for how much your team takes the whole transformation piece seriously, I mean, that's actually what my practice is about, so it's been a real, I don't know if you know that, it's been a really nice kind of resonance with what I do with my patients, you know, help them really work through mindset issues and sort of limiting beliefs that keep them from being able to take the steps that keep them moving towards their goal.
Sylvie: Yeah.
Kristin: It's been hugely validating, and also fun to be on the other side of that, and yes, I would say that, you know, I, the first part of our course where we read the book that is so immensely useful for every human being on the planet, and I've been sharing it with everyone I know, has been, you know, has been, that in itself was worth, you know, a ton of the investment because, there's nothing more important than like delivering the thing to the planet that you're supposed to deliver, so that's gonna become my mantra honestly. Like, that's, it's articulated for me, crystallized something that I've been trying to talk to patients about for a long time but it just made it so simple.
Sylvie: Yeah. So are you finding yourself passing that on, is there, like, I love seeing that domino effect a lot of the time, when it really doesn't just change your life or your life with your spouse or your kids or whatever but it goes into the hundred of people that you see. Are you taking that into your work as well?
Kristin: Absolutely. I mean, I think I, as often as I could share that book on Audible, I shared it until they stopped letting me share it–
Sylvie: I didn't really know that–
Kristin: Read this book, like I want everyone on the planet to have the same awareness of their potential, and the fact that they're the only one in their way.
Sylvie: Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, well the mindset piece is absolutely crucial, absolutely crucial. So, and of course you know a lot of the times those ripple effects are sort of compounding over time, so can you give us any sort of concrete example of a shift that you've made, you know, in terms of mindset or how it's happened in your personal life or in your day-to-day.
Kristin: Yes, so one of the big things that I've had to overcome internally in the last 5 years, it's not unique to just this e-book course, but this e-books course did take it to the next level.
Sylvie: Yeah.
Kristin: Idea of, if I go out in this different way and be in the world as a doctor in this different way which involves, you know, not just a bunch of one-on-one encounters for a big network or, you know, for someone else, who's doing all this other groundwork, if I'm spending time building a business and not seeing patients for example, then I'm not doing the work I'm supposed to be doing, like that was a real limiting belief for me. And I had overcome quite a bit of that in order to take the step out several years ago and start my own practice out of my home, and but every step of the way, like every little inch that I make in the direction, is it just what I was sort of trained to do, has been a struggle for me. And I think what it comes to–and I still have issues with the idea of like, I'm writing an e-book, not just so I can share all this helpful information, help people transform their lives, but I also have to make money. Like, it's, I have to, I'm replacing half my income, as of this past June. So, that's been a struggle for me, because I don't like, there's a tension there that feels like a conflict of interest. And yet of course I am aware that I am working and serving and I've always collected a salary, wasn't really that much different. So, that's a piece that I struggled and so every step of the way in which I'm asked to, and especially in your course there's a lot of the course where you're asked to kind of jump through these hoops and meet milestones that involve marketing ourselves, that to me always triggers that little piece of me that's like, “ah, I don't want to market myself, I want to help people, sit with people, and bear witness to their vulnerability and help them transform their lives.”
Sylvie: You know, that's such a, it's such an interesting thing you bring up and I'm glad you bring it up because this is so not unique to you, it's so not, you know, the first or the last time we've heard it, but it is, it's fascinating because if you think about it, it's actually a lot more costly for the patient to come see you 10 times for you to give them the information that you can give them for 25 dollars. But it's like you said, it's because you've always done it that way where that just feels normal well of course you're going to be paid 100, 200, whatever, for your time, that's normal because we've been doing that for, what, a century? But this, you know is a little, we're newer to this, this is maybe more 20 years into, you know, what the heck is this internet thing, and so it's a little newer, and especially for docs to be able to kind of go outside that traditional one-on-one model, it's sort of, it trickles that sort of, what is it, it's like a little mindset demon, I think. Right, because when you think about it, logically, and I love, every once in a while I invest 15 minutes in arguing with a troll on a Facebook ad, every once in a while I swear.
Kristin: Just for kicks.
Sylvie: Just for fun, and then I screenshot it and send it to my Facebook app person who just doesn't know what to do with me. But, you know, it really is, it's a fascinating thing because if you think about it, it is sort of a win-win-win for, for just about everyone other than maybe, you know, I don't know, maybe hospitals. But like really truly, you know, seeing a patient over and over again for 150 or 200 dollars a session, you know, for thousands of dollars for 80% of the visit to be focused on things that apply to everybody, and 20% of it to be on what really is their individual thing, you know, it, I mean, maybe we could at least sort of start thinking about, isn't that the worst way to deliver care?
Kristin: Yeah, no, I mean everything you say is right, it's just more of a habit of mind and a habit of default but I mean, I love one of the images you gave in one of your early mindset talks was about this concept of a table, and so the table is the foundation of your goals, and all your movement forward, the legs of the table sort of are evidence that support that this is gonna be possible.
Sylvie: Yeah.
Kristin: I'm not phrasing as well as you did.
Sylvie: That's okay.
Kristin: I think about, like, the different, you know, mantras and reminders and things like that you said about you have more impact, and this is actually the best way to do it that way, and the truth is also, it's really in alignment with who I am, and what I want to be for patients, to be giving them something, and then have them, you know, empower them with the information, then go home and do their work. You know, this is really, you know, healing's all self-healing, really. I'm not healing anybody I'm just sharing and I've got a big love here and I've got some pom poms, but it's not like I'm doing the work. So I'm hopeful that this will just be one more way in which I give people at a much cheaper rate the information they need to go heal themselves.
Sylvie: Yeah. And of course, you know, there is that refinement of that one-on-one, you know, nobody is planning on replacing one-on-one docs, we absolutely need you guys for so many different things, but it's more about, let's not be for the same old, same old conversation or for 80% of what you're repeating yourselves. So a lot of, a lot of my GPs are telling me, you know, that like they're just so tired of having that conversation that, you know, to boil it to really simplify it, and I'm sure I'm butchering the heck outta it, but really, the, you know, one of my doc clients literally told me that he grabbed the big gulp or whatever it was, the soda about this, big, during the office visit with a client just grabbed it from his hand and just put it in the trash can, and I just thought, I thought, that's pretty much the conversation I'm sure he's having 84 times a week. And at a certain point, it's sort of like, can we do this in a more leveraged way and maybe start talking about, okay, you've done all of this, what is your individual situation? Let's do your labs and figure out what is the last piece that you need versus, you know, the next guy. And the one-on-one model for that, that would be amazing.
Kristin: Right, right.
Sylvie: Yeah, and so that's really our goal, so our goal is really to impact thousands of, you know, people through, you know those thousands of practitioners for you guys to go, you know, impact millions in all of these different, you know, specialties that we certainly are not the experts in. So, I'm so honored Kristin that you, you know, decided to really roll up your sleeves and do the work because let's face it, there's nothing magic or overnight about this, it was really you doing the work and, to really help people with Lyme. And so I don't butcher, I'm going to read the title of your book so that people can look out for it on October 1st, help me guys, hold Kristin to it, which is “Life After Lyme: Revive your Inner Rockstar and Achieve a Full Recovery.” So, that is gonna make amazing ripples in the Lyme community, and it's gonna be so, so, so, so helpful so thank you for doing that Kristin, and we're gonna post a link to Kristin's website which will be up shortly, below this video so you can check that out as well. Is there anything else in the meantime that you'd like to share with people who are watching?
Kristin: Just first of all, thanks for that plug and for those kind words and for your vote of confidence in my project. I wanna say one other which is that, you asked about obstacles, there was a, I think if I had known, that I was gonna be writing an 150-page book, I would've been like, I would've freaked out and been like, there's no way I can do that.
Sylvie: Yeah.
Kristin: And I think, I think the little sort of mental trick I had going into this at the beginning was, I mean, I'd never really purchased an e-book, I'd never choose an e-book, so I was sort of imagining, oh, it's kind of probably like glossy, 35-page PDF.
Sylvie: Yeah.
Kristin: I can already see the design, and I can already see the parameters, and, you know, my outline might've been 35 pages. I mean, it was…
Sylvie: Yeah, we're making legit books here, yeah.
Kristin: Yeah, but it was, for me it was like a little bit of a leap of faith, and also kind of ignoring the inner part that said, “it's gonna be longer, it's gonna be longer”, I'm like, “shhh, shhh, shh, I'm cranking along, I'm not going to worry”.
Sylvie: Yeah, let's go.
Kristin: So, for people who think they can't do it, you know, I had 3 jobs up until June 15, I have 4 kids, one of my jobs I drive an hour each way, like, I need 8 and a half hours of sleep. There's a lot on my plate. I also make all of our meals from whole real foods because I'm kind of fanatical about that. So there's a lot going on, and there's nothing like channeling the thing you're supposed to deliver to the world to energize you. I mean, at the beginning of this, I would wake up at 5 in the morning and be like, oh, just like, the energy of this project has been so positively affirming and helpful to the, just to the project and I'm, you know, three quarters of the way done with a probably, 150-page e-book.
Sylvie: Yeah. That's amazing. And it's really not that long of a time, and I feel like,I mean, look, really just to recap it I mean, not only did you jump into this with 4 kids with, you know, recovering from Lyme yourself, with, you know, eating a real whole-food diet with 3 jobs that have now become 2, with hours commute, you've made 61 pre-sales with no list that you were copy pasting one email at a time, and, you know, you have the launch date of October 1st, which is eminent, and, you know, this is crazy and then it's also, you know, like trickled into your personal life and you're taking it into your patients as well in terms of teaching them mindset and whatever else. I mean, that's pretty phenomenal Kristin so I give you a lot of props for accomplishing all of that in basically a quarter.
Kristin: Thank you Sylvie, I appreciate that.
Sylvie: Yeah, that's really, really incredible, and I think you know part of it really just because, you know, you're just, excuses are not a part of your life, and you're like, I don't know tech, it doesn't matter, I'm just gonna figure it out, and what email do I send, okay great, copy and paste, I'm sending that. I love it, you're just an implementer. So that's fantastic.Anyways, thank you so muchKristin for sharing all of that.
For everyone watching, if you'd like to create an e-book, if this is the year you're gonna finally do it, if this is the quarter you're gonna finally do it, I invite you to book a call with my team. The link will be below the video which is sylviemccracken.com/call, and we'll get on a call and figure out whether we can help you or not, whether the time is now, whether the expertise is what is required to make it happen, and if we can help you we'll absolutely show you how. Alright, so click that link below the video, and we'll talk to you guys very, very soon.
Great interview!