After seeing 5,000 patients and counting (25-30 patients per day!) this endocrinologist knew there HAD to be a better way…
A better way to still impact thousands.
A better way than repeating himself all day every day.
A better way than seeing 25-30 patients a day!
And so he reached out to our team to see if we could help.
Listen in to Soham Patel's experience in packaging his I.P. into a digital product online.
PREFER TO READ? HERE’S THE TRANSCRIPT OF MY INTERVIEW WITH SOHAM PATEL
Sylvie: Welcome, everybody. It's Sylvie McCracken from SylvieMcCracken.com and today, I have one of my incredible clients, Soham Patel who is an endocrinologist and I'm so happy you're here today, Soham.
Soham: Hey, Sylvie, how are you doing?
Sylvie: Good, how are you?
Soham: Doing well. Excited to be on the call.
Sylvie: Fantastic! Okay, so Soham is an endocrinologist by trade within a clinical practice and before we get into kind of your book and all of that good stuff, why don't you tell people what you do kind of day to day in your practice? Who do you see and who do you help?
Soham: So I see anybody, 18 years of age and above and I literally see patients in that age group from 18 till they're alive. So to speak, I have 90-year-old patients, I have 18-year-old patients, I have 30, 40, 50, 60, all age groups and both genders. A lot of the patients that I see have diabetes and thyroid problems in addition to the things that we see like issues with osteoporosis, pituitary disorders, adrenal disorders. Those are more not so common aspects of endocrinology but the majority of it is thyroid and diabetes problems and we are definitely living in midst of an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and thyroid problems. Every other person I see has those problems or has their family member who has those problems or they're part and parcel of that problem.
Sylvie: Yeah. And so of course in a clinical setting, you have a certain amount of hours with them and a certain amount of help that you can do. So do you find yourself repeating yourself and helping the same, like what seems like a deja vu, a Groundhog Day, day after day helping kind of with the same thing?
Soham: Sure. Well that's definitely the case because I have a way of doing my nutritional counseling with the big aspect of my approach to patients is trying to prevent things or trying to treat with using food as medicine. As Hippocrates said, “Let thy food be medicine.” That's my goal for myself as well my patients. That does get repetitive. It may change a little bit patient to patient depending on the situation but a majority of it is the same information over and over again and it does feel like I'm repeating myself through the day.
Sylvie: What was the biggest reason or what was the biggest frustration that you had with your current practice and how it's built out or your current model or your current schedule that made you decide, “Okay, something's gotta change here. “I have to take the first step to kind of change this.”
Soham: It is very heavy volume clinical practice. I easily see between 25 to 30 patients a day.
Sylvie: Oh my god. So how much time do you have with them? Tangent but–
Soham: Um. It may seem like 10 to 15 minutes with each person but this is my approach and not the way things are done in the practice but my approach is, when I'm with the patient, I'm facing them even when I'm typing my notes. So they have my face time 100% while they are with me so if they're having a question, I can answer it while I'm doing things on the computer and I'm talking to them at the same time while I'm typing things so that does create the perception that I will spend more time with them although it may be just 10 or 15 minutes but they feel like they spend half an hour, and there are patients who I end up spending 40, 50 minutes if there was a complex situation going on and it backs me up, obviously that I'm running late, we're kind of explaining every patient afterwards that I had a complicated patient, that I ended up running late which also sounds repetitive. So my focus is to spend the time with the patients which they appreciate, which they understand and they like that. Thus, take it all on me because then I end up having to wrap up my notes add another day, adding another hour or hour and a half to my already long day. So that's one of the issues that has been bothering me.
Sylvie: Yeah, of course. The thing is, it sounds to me like obviously, you're very dedicated to your patients and we've spent several weeks together in our program so we've gotten to know you a little bit and I can tell that the dedication that you have the conditions that you treat and to your patients and to everyone that you see is obviously, it's paramount and it's there but obviously, there's a cap on how many people you can see in a day although it sounds to me like you're fitting in quite a few and also, obviously, that's it. There's kind of that cap of you couldn't possibly add that 31st patient, is that right?
Soham: Yeah, 22 is my comfort zone. 10 to 11 patients in each session but then every patient you add after that, it starts squeezing on to. So I've seen 30 patients a day, don't tell me how I fitted that all in a day but I can do it, it's not a sustainable model.
Sylvie: Yeah and obviously, there's no doubt about the experience that you've accumulated not only just through your studies and obviously, the 6 million years of school that you guys go through but also, in all these years of, I don't even know. Could you ballpark how many clients, how many patients you've seen over the years?
Soham: I've been in clinical practice for about 3 years now and I went into clinical practice directly from my fellowship so if I don't count my residency and fellowship and just the 3 years of practice, I would say I have had almost 5,000 patient encounters and I would say about 2,000 of those would be certainly when the patients will be following up periodically so I think 2,000 to 2,500 unique patients.
Sylvie: Yeah, that's amazing. And probably, a good percentage of those with the most common 2 things that you see, the diabetes or the thyroid conditions.
Soham: Yeah.
Sylvie: Yeah, that's amazing. So you know a little bit about diabetes and thyroid so that's amazing. And you have this expertise. Obviously, this is something that could help incredible amount of people, right? Especially if it's something, a big chunk of it which is fixing their nutrition so I'm so glad that you decided to kinda take this on and make sure that it gets into the hands of everyone that needs you that doesn't live in your area, that won't be able to see you one on one and that can benefit from having obviously not the same level of care of having you in front of them but have a good chunk of that and even more time of yours by reading your incredible knowledge. So what would you say Soham is the kind of the thing that you had a battle in terms of all the struggle of whether it was before you started the program or when you were in the program with us in terms of was anything kind of holding you back or anything that was difficult for you in terms of taking this on and say, “Okay, I'm gonna package my expertise. “I'm gonna create a book. “I'm gonna put myself out there online in a big way.” Did anything come up for you that made it a little bit difficult or tricky?
Soham: I'm in the process of quitting my busy job that I just described and setting up my own practice.
Sylvie: Wow.
Soham: Million things to do when you're setting up in your own practice on top of having a busy day like I described. Kind of having a job on top of a job and when I initially saw your ad on Facebook and it was a coincidence, I really say it's a coincidence because that was just, I'm not a very big Facebook person. I rarely go on to my profile every few months and I was just browsing through on a Saturday and I saw your ad and I just started clicking and I signed up for the webinar the next day and then after the webinar, my whole back was, okay, I'm trying to do all these things and will I have the time to fit this in? So the first thought was, “Okay, I'm gonna paced it. I'm not gonna get into this program right away.” But then, I got an email few days later about setting up a complimentary consultation call and I'm like, “Okay, I know it's busy, it's crazy right now” and it's gonna be like that. “Let me just talk and see what I get out of the consultative call and take it from there.” and so I talked with Angie and it was me and my wife both because they described you should have your partner on the call and my partner, my wife is gonna be my office manager so both of us were on the call and the way she summarized the whole… We talked for over an hour actually and at the end of the extended conversation, when she summarized what my bag on was, where I was coming from, and what I was trying to achieve, it felt like a whole story in 5 lines.
Sylvie: Yeah.
Soham: And I'm like, “Okay, I need to do this.” Then, she's like, “Okay, the cost is this much.” and if you sign up in one part, you get this much discount and naturally, you start thinking, “Okay, am I doing the right thing “or am I just rushing through it?” and so she was like, “The discount you get is for being decisive.” I'm like, I'm decisive. If I decide something, I can have 100 people saying no and I would still do it and then I will find out if I was right or wrong later on but once I make my mind up, then there's nothing that can stop me from doing it. So in that conversation, I think she said “Okay, you pay up certain amount upfront and we log the fees for 30 days and then we set up another call in 3 weeks and then we take it from there.” If I don't decide, I lose the deposit. If I decide, then we'll just pay the remainder in card and so in those 3 weeks, I was getting the emails. I was signed up into the Facebook group, the general Facebook group and I was getting the interviews. I think I saw an interview from Dr. Darlene Mayo.
Sylvie: Oh yeah yeah yeah.
Soham: It's a group interview. And then I'm blocking on the name but there's another physician who was a gynecologist and she had just recently started her practice like 5 months into practice and was-
Sylvie: You mean Angie Stoehr.
Soham: The topic was pelvic pain.
Sylvie: Yeah, that's right, Angie.
Soham: So I saw what those physicians or healthcare professionals had done in spite of what and they had any hectic schedule. That just made my result more stronger so when we finally have the call again, I was pretty much ready.
Sylvie: That's amazing. Clearly, lack of time. If you're seeing 20 some patients a day, obviously you have a lot going on which is amazing and it's interesting because I like to say that common phrase, whatever it is, the cliché of the “you want something done, give it to a busy person.” And most definitely, you are a busy person. So on that note, how much did you actually carve out and find time to do during the 8-weeks together? What was your progress during the 8 weeks? Of course, you don't have everything–
Soham: First step was zeroing in on the topic which immediately, my focus was and is whole food plant-based nutrition, helping reverse chronic diseases. It's not that it just helps diabetes. It helps a bunch of other things. And even worse, insulin resistance, you can have just kind of undo a lot of missteps that all fall in place as part of the body's biology is concerned and things start improving on its own. It wasn't just impact diabetes. It impacts multiple things. So my focus was a little this person, Millie does an exceptional job on getting those scattered thoughts zeroed on to a topic. That's why we're on to diabetes because for the first week, I think Laura Smith, that's one of the previous graduates.
Sylvie: That's right.
Soham: And I think a nutritionist who has also written on whole food plant-based nutrition and acts for busy persons to do. The first week I was in the program, there was this update from her saying, “Woohoo! My topic is approved.” and bla bla bla bla, whole food plant-based nutrition. I'm like, “Really? I'm writing on the same topic!”
Sylvie: A little funny how the universe brings things exactly when you need them.
Soham: But to the contrary, it actually sunk my heart a little bit because I feel like, someone else is writing on the same topic and I wrote back in my health ticket and the reply I got back still sticks in my head. Millie said, “No one else can write the book that you're gonna write.”
Sylvie: Yeah, that's 100% true.
Soham: It's a simple sentence but it's a profound sentence that this really changed, flipped my mindset when I started writing about what others are writing. I started focusing on what I needed to do. So to remove the topic and then second was going on to the outline, writing the outline, getting that approved, before the outline, doing the mind map but it's fun doing the mind map on the MindMeister app. The initial draft that I put in needed some refurbishments and changes and then I got that approved in 2 steps and then outline was pretty much approved by the first call.
Sylvie: That's awesome. That enough is sort of a lot in 8 weeks but you also have an incredible title as well. Do you wanna share the title with everyone?
Soham: Yeah, so the title took a little longer and we really went back and forth, I and Millie. I was at a point where I felt like “Okay, I'm having all these things, I wanna get into the title and I'm running out of space.” You keep telling on the group calls, it's prime real estate. You need to get the right idea in the least amount of words. You can't just be going on and on and I kept pondering on that. I did it in the morning, different times of the day, but finally, we zeroed down and I think it was two, three different things that Millie finally came up with the title so credit to her for getting my thoughts together and my title is Eating and Thriving with Diabetes with the subtitle, Reclaim Your Energy, Reverse Insulin Resistance, and Reduce Medications because those 3 are really important aspects.
Sylvie: Yup, that's a huge outcome. Just the title alone kinda tells you everything you need to know in terms of what exactly who this is for and what exactly it's going to accomplish which is incredible and there's so many people, in my family alone with diabetes that this is like, it's something that's obviously very close to my heart as well so I'm so glad you decided to do this. And how close are you to finishing the writing and actually launching?
Soham: I'm being honest here, my initial once I finished, I graduated on 17th of June. I had set up my timeline. I have accountability building.
Sylvie: Yes!
Soham: Lexy and I so we kinda try to keep each other on track.
Sylvie: Perfect!
Soham: We have our calendars shared so we remind each other every week and my initial goal was September 17th. What happened is because of the way I told you I'm working on setting my clinic up and there had been really things which had to be done, they couldn't wait like applications in for insurance, credentialing’s and things related to the clinic, things related to insurance, things and that which and again, though I hope they had a smaller contract. There are like 50, 60-page contracts that I review, get them done after having busy days–
Sylvie: That sounds fun! Sounds like a great deal of fun.
Soham: I wrote 20% of I have 10 chapters. I wrote 2 chapters.
Sylvie: Wow!
Soham: And after that, these last 10 days have been so much sleep-deprived and my current job has–
Sylvie: You slowed down a bit.
Soham: Yeah, slowed down. I actually like you have always mentioned on your group calls that I've made a conscious decision to take a break for the next, it's actually 2 and a half weeks 'til I finish the job and once I'm not working full time, I will have time to do things for the clinic and also focus back. Because what I found was once I start writing, I would need 2, 3 hours a night. I tried doing the 15 minutes or 30 minutes a day but then what happened is I was missing that rhythm. I was getting the new momentum and then I was having to stop.
Sylvie: Have to stop, yeah.
Soham: I really hated to make that decision but I'm like, if I don't make it, I was getting sleep deprived even today. I'm all dressed up right now but I can–
Sylvie: I know and you have to go to them. Well, I'm honored that you took time out of your day to really share this with us because I feel like what stands out to me in terms of you is that you're not an excuse maker. Where you have all these different conditions in your life right now where it's like you're wrapping up a day job, you're setting up a practice, you have most of the key pieces in place and now it just requires a little bit more time for you to actually get that written and finished that you can get it out into the world but what I love is that you're very conscious about the fact that you're taking a break and you're not giving up, you're not starting, you're not postponing it to someday which we all know, I've checked the calendar, it doesn't exist. Someday is not on there. You really are, you're kind of blocking it off and deciding, “Okay, this is when I'm doing this part and then here's where I'm gonna retake it. The summer is gonna be a little bit of a pause and I'm gonna take it back up and this is going to absolutely get done.” So that's pretty darn incredible, Soham. What I would ask you is in terms of, obviously, you just described a lot of the progress in terms of actually getting your book done and a lot of it has to do with the logistics and the structure and the marketing and all of this but I'm curious coz a lot of the times, people join our program and of course they come to us for that one thing and often times, they leave with not just that but a lot more in terms of a transformation and in terms of a change. So I'm curious, what did you experience in our program? Is there any part of it that transformed other areas of your life or how you show up in other areas of your life as well?
Soham: Yeah so as I think you read through my posting in the group about the book, The Big Leap, you've been recommending it to anybody who enters the program. I think that should be someone is even thinking they should first read that book. It's a humongous base which then, when we talked with–
Sylvie: Lottie?
Soham: Lottie. Yeah. For the mindset, give me the first call the middle of the course and then the end, I felt like if I had read that book, it really helped me to keep those rails in place and not keep my mindset wavering. Lottie does an amazing job on easing out what's bothering you and then getting it and putting it in a perspective where it just all makes perfect sense again. But the book and journaling and meditation which I used to do again. In the last 10 days, I have not done but—
Sylvie: Confessions! Confessional.
Soham: Things like this is you may feel like they take time away but actually, if you don't do them, you see the lack of that in your day to day life.
Sylvie: They say, if you don't have time to meditate or pray or whatever it is that you do, you should do it. You should meditate twice as long. The date going on time, that's when you need twice the amount so that's exactly right.
Soham: So like the previous participants, any interviews that I've seen, everybody said mindset was the biggest issue and I will agree with the same that mindset is something that you really get from the program. You get a whole lot of support regarding the ebook but more than the ebook, you get the mindset. The Mindset Minute that you talk about on your group calls every time. I've chimed in live to 2 of the calls of the 8 and then I had to listen to the recordings because of busy day, many times I've walked through lunch so I couldn't be live each time but even when I was listening in, every time you start, “Happy Thursday! Good morning.” It fills up freshness. It kind of puts light into your brain so to speak.
Sylvie: Well, thank you for saying that. That's super kind of you and yeah, we're really there. Really, what my team and I strive to do is simply help you guys structure your brilliance that you already have that we're not creating. We don't know anything about diabetes and so we really want to take out those gold necklaces in your head, untangle them and be able to structure them and also support you guys in terms of that mindset and that confidence and that belief in yourself that you really need in order to take the next step and get up when it's difficult or get back up, dust yourself off when you hit a struggle or whatever else it is so I'm really glad that that resonated with you. So Soham, what would you say to someone who maybe is an endocrinologist as well or in a private practice of a different kind and is sort of feeling like they're too busy, like they have too much going on or that maybe they don't have anything, that it's all been written before. Similar to kind of a couple of things you went through, both this lack of time and then also, it's all been written before and what do I even have to add to this? What would you say to them if they're hesitating?
Soham: So the first thing like the reply I got from Millie is “the book that you write is only gonna be written by you. Nobody else can write it.” So yes, there could be a hundred books on the same topic but depending on your experience, the perspective that you bring in is gonna be definitely different. So I think yes, there could be the same information but the way you present it may actually make more sense or maybe more easy to understand and there maybe information out there but if it's not easy to understand, it's not of any use.
Sylvie: Yup, yup. That is absolutely the case and we've yet to find. Even though we have a lot of different, we have a lot of kind of the same type of practitioners. So we have a lot of therapists or we have several dentists or we have whatever it is, it's never the same book, not even one time have we seen the same book. I 100% agree with that and I feel like you're not on this planet by accident. You're here to contribute something incredible so I'm so glad that you decided to really roll up your sleeves and carve out the time, not find the time, make the time to actually make this a reality. So Soham, I wanna thank you so much for being here today and for sharing all of your experience with everyone that's listening and we will put the URL to your new website as soon as it's done right below this video so that people can go ahead and find you and in the meantime, if you're watching this video, if you want to create your own ebook, if you are ready to step out of the one on one practice and kind of create a more leveraged online business and you would like to know if your topic is something that we could help you with, if your topic is appropriate for an ebook, if you have what it takes to get it done and if now is the right time, book a call with my team and we will be more than happy to help you out. The link to book a call will be right below this video. It's sylviemccracken.com/call. Thank you so much Soham for being here today.
Soham: Thank you Sylvie and thank you, gratitude!
Sylvie: You're welcome, absolutely! Our pleasure! Alright everybody, I'll see you next time!
