Raymond Correa, Chief Operating Officer, MarijuanaDoctors.com
Ray manages the day to day operations of MarijuanaDoctors.com. He is responsible for formulating organizational & operational strategies to improve the overall efficiency, profitability & scalability of the business. He collaborates directly with the CEO of MarijuanaDoctors.com & is responsible for articulating the value proposition that the #1 online MMJ referral platform offers to its team, clients, the medical community & marketplace. Ray manages the implementation of strategic relationships along with the execution of the processes necessary for unprecedented growth.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:01] You're listening to Thinking Outside the Bud where we speak with entrepreneurs investors thought leaders researchers advocates and policymakers who are finding new and exciting ways for cannabis to positively impact business society and culture. And now here is your host Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt.
[00:00:30] Are you a CEO looking to scale your company faster and easier. Checkout Thrive Roundtable thrive combines a moderated peer group mastermind expert one on one coaching access to proven growth tools and a 24/7 support community created by Inc. Award winning CEO and certified scaling up business coach Bruce Eckfeldt. Thrive will help you grow your business more quickly and with less drama. For details on the program visit Eckfeldt.com/thrive. That's E C K F E L D T.com/thrive
[00:01:06] Welcome everyone this is Thinking Outside the Boat. I’m Bruce Eckfeldt. I'm your host our guest today is Ray Correa and he is chief operating officer at marijuana doctors. We're gonna find out a little bit more about what they do and how they help the cannabis industry with that. Ray welcome to the program.
[00:01:20] Thanks Bruce great to be here. I'd love to tell our story so we can help as many people as possible.
[00:01:27] Yes. So and I like that because I think that a lot of the cannabis space is you know is about helping people I mean it's about building business and actually making money but it's also about helping people. And I'm I'm really curious about your business because I think it's an interesting kind of play and the whole you know patient doctor product dispensary area.
[00:01:45] So before we get into the business actually what don't we understand here a little bit about you. What's your background and how did you get into the cannabis space.
[00:01:53] Well oddly enough I was never in the cannabis space until I started doing a significant amount of research. Took me about four years of extreme due diligence before I decided I was going to walk away from a 20 year career on Wall Street which started at smaller brokerage firms was a vice president of the New York Stock Exchange firm Ladenburg Thalmann at 23 years old. Then I eventually I got paid to move my business to Oppenheimer and Company and then eventually UBS the Global Fortune 500 investment bank. They recruited me and they spent about seven years there before I decided to go all in in the industry.
[00:02:33] So I started off as the sales director and helped the company quadrupled their sales in a very short period of time and was recently promoted to be the COO. And now we're really we have a big initiative towards scaling the business because there couldn't be a better time.
[00:02:49] Yeah.
[00:02:49] So talk to me about why why cannabis so I mean you know making the jump from finance to you know this this kind of green you know the green rush the cannabis space is a bit different. I mean what did you see in terms of the opportunity or what did you see when you did all your research to convince yourself or tech events to make it a good financial choice or a good business decision to get into the space.
[00:03:09] That's really a great question. And there's a couple of different reasons why I'm doing what I do today. The first you know as you're getting older in life and I spent literally half my life over half my life on Wall Street I was registered as a stockbroker at 18 years old and then climbed the ranks and became an investment adviser in financial planning and worked with institutional and corporate accounts as well as my my retail client base and what I noticed was the financial industry was becoming way overregulated which essentially when I started my clients didn't have a computer on the other side of the phone so we had a competitive advantage as technologies evolved. Technology has really eaten up margins in a very big way in many different businesses. So I couldn't sit across from my clients anymore which I consider to be my friends because we have very long term relationships. Knowing that I did not have the best value proposition as I did when I initially started you know the competitive landscape. I just became so dynamic in fact where you can basically get the same products at Fidelity or Vanguard at probably one third the cost. So I didn't feel comfortable telling someone I had the best product out there and quite frankly the best price when I knew that wasn't in fact the case anymore. So there was a couple of different reasons. First off I lost my brother at seven years old. He died from HIV when no one knew what it was.
[00:04:41] And quite frankly I know that this helped him eat yeah because as anyone know going through wasting syndrome or wasting you know from whatever condition they have this helps them eat and probably you know gave them some time back on his life. Fortunately I did lose my my nephew as well to spite you a muscular atrophy which is a genetic disease very difficult time for my family. And unfortunately last year I lost one of my best friends and I consider to be a brother from cancer so other than working you know coming into this industry because I had so many people that were affected that this could have helped. And there's so many other people that we have to stand up for. Let's be realistic. And life is really about in my opinion what success. Life is the magnitude of the beneficial footprint that we leave on society. And I've already know I have patients coming to us at events saying you know thank you so much. You know without you guys I wouldn't have found my doctor I wouldn't know how this process worked. It's quite different. It's quite difficult to find someone and be educated because there's not a lot of information and not enough information out there. And that's really what we try to do. It's to educate everyone about the medical marijuana market and give them the ability to find a doctor. Schedule an appointment and get some help.
[00:06:02] Yeah good. A powerful story. I mean I think that you know the one thing I found in the spaces you know a lot of people have been been personally touched by people that have suffered you know illness you know addictions things like that that you know there's a potential here for cannabis early really help alleviate you know how help resolve in a way that's a you know avoiding a lot of the other kind of drugs out there.
[00:06:25] Eventually they will unfortunately.
[00:06:27] Yeah yeah. No exactly as it kind of a weird nut if it were actually before we dumped a job in the business because I'm very curious and I want listeners to understand the business model in to help explain I guess for the folks who use your your best in New York.
[00:06:40] Let me. I think we are a nation wide referral platform and we we operate in every state that's legal as a matter of fact we actually have waiting lists for patients that are just waiting for word for their state to approve it so we can refer them to positions.
[00:06:57] So you're capturing demand. Awesome. So different states are a different situation. Are you Are you primarily focused on medical.
[00:07:03] I'm assuming 100 percent medical.
[00:07:05] So offer it for listeners that are just kind of new to this space you know every status is coming in with different legislation and either passing medical and or potentially what we call an adult use or being able to use it without medical conditions or authorize medical conditions. But so explain to people a little bit how the medical market works you know in terms of from a cannabis point of view let's educate folks a little bit.
[00:07:29] Sure. So first it starts with educating yourself right. Every state has different laws in regards to what qualifies what the protocol is how many times you have to see the physician. And that's one of the things we do really well. If someone were to go to or say they would go click on you know once they get to marijuana doctor's dot.com they would go to legal status. We have every law in every state how to get your card what's involved the process to make it as seamless as possible. Once they're educated and they say yes this is for me this is something I'd like to do. Then they can go schedule an appointment so not to go off on a tangent on your question because I think I think we all know that finding a good doctor in general is tough enough as is. But it's always good to see other people that have gone to a doctor because if I'm sending my sick mother or my sick child God forbid I want to know a little bit about the person I'm sending them to. I want to know I also want to know how much it costs. I want to know when they're available I want to learn a little bit about that practice before I make that decision and we make it so transparent and easy for anyone to make a decision whether or not this is something they'd like to give a shot.
[00:08:35] So yes you're not only helping people just gonna find a doctor you're helping them really understand kind of the kind of a marker of the cannabis you know laws and application in the state giving them information about the doctor is actually kind of helping them with the process of finding choosing selecting a doctor and making that referral. And what are some of the challenges I mean when you talk to patients that are looking for information on cannabis or information on a doctor who prescribe or a doctor who authorizes the use of cannabis. What are the challenges like what are the obstacles or the problems that people have in this space so medical marijuana service providers.
[00:09:12] And keep in mind also in certain states nurse practitioners can actually recommend medical marijuana. You don't necessarily have to be a physician nurse practitioners can do it like in New York for example they could do this about six states I believe that a nurse practitioner can recommend medical marijuana. So one of the first problems is it's very difficult to engage with the marketplace right. Physicians and dispensaries they have to protect my personal health information or algorithms actively suppress cannabis products and services like for Google with example. And if you and I have a business a traditional business and we want to go on the first page of Google what do we do. We call we call cool or we we basically do with technology you know right through our computer. We would sign up for Google ads and every time someone Googles you know leather chairs right you're going to come up on the top of Google well Google will not take your money for the words cannabis or marijuana because complex Internet laws and these prejudicial algorithms they're making it very tough to make patients aware and to engage them. Facebook is not letting you advertise Instagram's not letting you advertise. You can educate but you can't advertise traditional sales funnels in CRM solutions Customer Relationship Management solutions. They're really not as effective because you have to maintain hip. Compliance and high tech compliance. Once you get blacklisted. Yeah. And then of course traditional drawbacks of a traditional marketing. Your poor conversion rates. It's very tough to measure your return on investment. It's costly. How much is it cost to get a commercial. 30 seconds played three times 10000 bucks. So when everyone wants to everyone wants to or should want to be on the first page of Google right for their business because 87 percent of all business on the Internet happens on the first page. 43 percent of all patients look online for a practitioner first. So when they Google marijuana doctor cannabis doctor in their city or state we're putting them at the top of the list so that the physicians that work with us they basically do have the majority of the market share.
[00:11:15] Got it. Now are you. Are you working with office options with the physicians that you've looked at and interacted with on some level I guess. How do you choose who to list.
[00:11:24] So a couple of ways it's a good question. So there's certain states like New York there's six states out there that that have list of doctors that just has their name their number and your specialty doesn't tell you much about them. And it's really a pain in the rear end to navigate the Department Health website I don't know if you've ever been on it once or twice yes. So if it's next to impossible and you know you're you're you're if you're not the most computer savvy person it's very difficult to get on there so we make it we make the process really simplified and it's just simply bridging the gap right the gap the gap being it's very difficult to find what you want and we're in an on demand world. You can go on our platform and see a physician on demand right in New York for example VR telemedicine platform get your medical marijuana card in the mail in two to four weeks. And guess what. We're rolling out dispensaries in two weeks. And by the way I'm very confident that you know we have contracts out for two of the top five dispensaries that'll be signing up with us. We make it just very easy for everyone to interact in a in a setting that is compliant to protect personal health information.
[00:12:32] So you're early. So the primary focus here is helping patients to navigate the system find the doctors actually. Are you. How are you doing telemedicine. Is that your platform is that a third party.
[00:12:42] Absolutely. So we have a telemedicine platform built right and you can go to certain physicians in New York that that do use telemedicine as part of their practice. And it really leverage it and actually they love it. You know I think that the toughest thing is it takes time to be adopted know in patient behavior. Right. Yeah we all know that this is where the market's going. I mean five years from now I think you know we see two to three times at least the recommendations via telemedicine versus traditional. It's just much easier and someone's got their patient records. Someone's got terminal disease HIV or something of that nature. You know the doctor doesn't necessarily have to feel and touch them you know because in any normally to have their primary care physician that's the person that's seeing and touching them. You know for the most part in every state other than Florida it's a recommendation. Florida really makes it like a prescription. What are doctors essentially doing is under the state law checking off a box that says yes this patient has this condition. And yes I think medical marijuana is a better alternative.
[00:13:45] Got it. And let's dig in that just a little bit for folks as I'm not sure it gets a little complicated I'm not sure folks really appreciate the detail so. So the way the state laws work is that the state essentially passes a law that says we're going to allow the use of cannabis for these scheduled conditions ailments. And the legislature basically lists out specific and general categories that that are authorized for medical matter marijuana use. Correct. Correct me if I'm wrong.
[00:14:12] Yeah. Basically the state lays out the conditions and the protocols that are involved with the physician's responsibilities with the patient responsibility as dispensaries responsibilities are and we have all that on our on our site. So if anyone needs to get a good understanding it's they're written in a way that they'll understand it.
[00:14:30] Got it. So then you go to the doctor to get basically an authorization letter a letter saying that you have a condition that meets the requirements that then allows you to get a medical card from the state.
[00:14:40] Correct. Correct correct.
[00:14:41] So doctors basically getting a recommendation and that's what essentially circumvents them recommending medical marijuana being a Schedule 1 narcotic because it's under their freedom of speech.
[00:14:52] Exactly. So then so that kind of skirts around the federal issues and then you can use that card to go dispensary and then a medical only state then you know you would have to have a valid card to be able to purchase from a dispensary.
[00:15:06] That's how basically the patient experience would work correct and I think some very important to put out there. I have yet to see a physician get into trouble by any regulator if he followed the state protocol. Right. As long as you're following state law the federal government is not coming after you.
[00:15:24] And is that is that a concern for physicians have they been worried about this from getting a. Ball point of view that they're gonna get and they're gonna run into problems from the state or federal government.
[00:15:33] I tell you what. It's changing very rapidly. That that used to be the the tone that they have in the newer states that aren't legal yet medically you know you you still sort of see that a little bit unless they have a good friend in another state that has medical marijuana but I could tell you when we first started talking to doctors in New York their attitude was way different than it is right now. We're seeing that come full circle and it's it's really amazing to see happen before your eyes. And when did you start when you to start talking to New York doctors marijuana doctors has been working with New York doctors since the program was about six months before the program went live. See the one thing that I've come to find with physicians and I advise them on their finances for physicians being some of the smartest intelligent people in the world. The one thing they lack is business and marketing acumen right. They go to tend to 16 years of school and they're not taught business.
[00:16:31] You know and that's wonderful.
[00:16:32] And when you're running a business now. Patient care always has to be has to come first. That's where we have to we're very patient centric. But also physicians are running a business so we really guide them in terms of marketing. You'd be surprised just some some very novice things that they could do. They don't do it so we'll try to do is really provide value added by advising them on just simple things that they can do which are going to bring in more patients get them seen a little bit easier.
[00:16:59] Yeah. Yeah I think that's a good point. I mean I think that I guess the way that I look at it is you're not doing your patients any good if you're not running a healthy business. If you're if you're struggling with business and you're going to risk your practice you know that doesn't help your patients so you have to you know you have to run a successful practice and a profitable practice. What are some of the things that you find that they're not doing so what are some other techniques or or suggestions that you make or or ways that you can help them with the marketing side of things.
[00:17:25] You would be surprised when I was doing sales. I would ask them to walk me through the process. I would ask them to walk me through the process and I would actually so much go to coach the girls or the people answering the phone to the front desk. Yeah you'd be surprised how little they know sometimes. And if I'm calling you and my family members sick or I'm sick you can't answer basic questions. Guess what. I'm not coming to see you right automating automating things right. The reality is technology is replacing so many jobs. If you employ technology and you spend 500 bucks a month if that. It's like getting the productivity of two to three more employees. So automating everything I tell every every physician when ever someone calls with a schedule appointment and not cinema case study. So there's some research educate them teach about the end the cannabinoid system let them know how it works. Let them get the science as to why it's working so they're not just thinking about the old stereotype of medical marijuana or marijuana.
[00:18:22] Yeah yeah. Do you think. I guess you know as as this market matures and as we move kind of or adopt more and more kind of personas or users or customer bases into this I mean that's gonna get more and more complicated right. I mean it's one thing to sell cannabis to someone who's been using cannabis you know for years and knows all the lingo and knows all the products and how they work you know. But for you know for the soccer mom who is just getting involved you know for whatever reason it's a it's a really different group. How do you see kind of the segmentation or how do you see kind of marketing getting more sophisticated as this market develops.
[00:18:58] Well I think you know just as we're doing people are starting to employ a I mean all sorts of computer learning. We're very centered on really creating the user experience be second to none. What we want patients and physicians in the industry to rely on us as a source of information. You know I would almost say that we are we have some attributes of a Web M.D. of Zac Doc tying that into the medical marijuana industry by educating patients and giving them selection of a physician to choose in their area or anywhere they'd like to go.
[00:19:33] Yeah. Any thoughts or insights that you've had about actually how to choose a physician.
[00:19:36] So I mean I guess what information you provide on the physicians and what guidance do you give folks in terms of how to choose a physicians just on reviews as a based on their training is it like what is it that what criteria do people use to make a good selection.
[00:19:51] So while we the doctors that work with us. Anyone who is an M.D. has a license in good standing can basically register with us. Now if I were if it was me and I'm picking at it a physician listen if I have cancer I prefer we go to someone who's an oncologist that believes in this right. I would try to stick to the specialty and you could search by specialty on our on our on our site as well so you could pick look for a physician in New York City that is an oncologist that does medical marijuana. So I would look at the reviews. I would look at. I would look at their profile that we have. I would look at you know I would I would ask questions. I mean that's really what it comes down to how do we get comfortable with any relationship.
[00:20:32] We ask questions to really find out find out about them their background why they prescribe cannabis those things and see if a match can match what you what you want and what you think and what you believe you know.
[00:20:42] Listen a physician these days it's medicine is not the way it used to be. Right. So my opinion I want to go to the physician that educates me Empower Me you empower you empower your patient. Now they feel a little bit more confident that they're fighting this battle whatever battle that be with a little bit more ammunition. And I think that that's very encouraging to someone who's going through a very difficult time because of their medical issues.
[00:21:08] And how are you. How are you finding doctors. I mean are you. Are you reaching out to them and explaining the platform. Are they coming to you. What's the process for onboarding finding and onboarding doctors.
[00:21:19] Sure. And that's a great question. And you know we we're having a tough time meeting demand just because you know we have I'm limited on my staff. I have seven salespeople that are working for me now. Keep in mind the longest someone's been working with me is it'll be on the sale side all the physicians and practices used to come to us and they still do. They register on a site and then we call them give them a live demonstration. Show me how everything works and then you know they typically sign up with us but now they do have outbound salespeople we have some independent contractors. You know folks that are like that have a presence in a physician's office. Now like medical sales reps pharma reps that you know we're contractually allowed to offer other products as a true contractor. So we do get a decent amount of clients come to us that way. We do get a lot of referrals but I would say we have a nice nice amount of doctors that register on our site. And then you know they typically sign up right away with us and then we do make outbound calls to physicians that we know are in the industry and that's where I mean we can't even meet that demand because you know once one of my sales reps they get a certain amount of counts they have to manage those accounts work with the staff of the physicians office or medical practitioners office. And that's one of the reasons we're doing this capital raise because we're going to basically triple the size of our our sales team because all they need is bodies in the seats and we have the demand.
[00:22:47] Now it seems like you are getting getting them. It's one thing to find a of find the lead I think things actually get them on board and trained on the system and effective.
[00:22:55] Yeah I could see that I could see that being a challenge. So in terms of states what have been the more kind of active states for you and why do you think that is. Do you see do you see any patterns or differences between the states.
[00:23:08] Well there's definitely a lot of differences and I could tell you the physicians in Florida you know they have a different temperament than the physicians in Utah. Right. But I would say that you know Florida there's a huge amount of demand. You know normally you have a bigger state in terms of population that's really you know normally we're going to see bigger numbers. We are getting some say going into this. But I think it's very important to address because one of the major trends that I see is number one this five studies out there now that are seeing that that patients prefer medical marijuana over opioids. I might even get into that for that part of why I why I'm in this industry. But unfortunately everyone I don't know a person out there that hasn't been affected whether it's a friend family member themselves. You know this is an epidemic. I have just had my fourth child literally a month ago yesterday. Congratulations sir. Thank you very much and very blessed with an amazing wife and four amazing children. But one of the things that as you're getting older in life you know we have to leave this place a better way than we found it. And in my opinion it's it's disgusting what has gone on in the industry in regards to opioids. And I feel obligated to do what I know I can do to help reduce it. And I know just be the feedback I'm getting from the doctors I work with. Gentlemen we just announced as our medical director Dr. Joseph Rosado from Florida. He had a patient that in three months they were taking 40 pills for PTSD chronic pain.
[00:24:40] And I think some some bipolar medicine now he got them down to this lady down to three pills within three months. Now think about that 40 pills to three girls in three months.
[00:24:55] That's what makes me feel even more confident what we're doing. Because when you work on Wall Street you have to understand risk and reward.
[00:25:02] Right. You know you have to know how to manage risk.
[00:25:04] And you know one thing I always say to any patient or or to anyone in business is what do you want your outcome to be and what can go wrong. Well what can go wrong here with medical marijuana you know in my opinion the absolute worst thing that the two worst things that can happen it gets into a minor's hands. Right. Which we all know is is happening with alcohol and everything else. And that really comes down to how these. Being raised in what they have access to and the other thing really is we're seeing a trend in how patients are learning about this stuff. I'll give you an example. My son sent me a video just the other day which I didn't see it was that 60 Minutes show. Did you see how well they basically mentioned how the opioid epidemic really took off. They just changed the label on the box to saying that it's okay for long term use Oxycontin is okay for long term use.
[00:25:56] Wow.
[00:25:57] Now I don't know I don't understand how that happened. But anyone who's basically tells you that heroin's OK.
[00:26:04] You know something to right. You know actually heroin is good for long term use.
[00:26:09] My think is crazy. Yeah. So I felt I feel that it's our responsibility when we know better to do better. And you know I'm seeing it hand over fist patients. But you know either reducing or completely getting off opioids and we know based on the numbers right. We've seen a 19 percent less prescriptions in states where we have medical marijuana and 25 percent less deaths.
[00:26:33] You No it's real. They're real numbers. It's really it's starting to we're really starting to generate some data around that.
[00:26:39] So talk to me a little bit about I mean you know a powerful mission and powerful goals and topics here if you're able to really push the business the way you want to push it. Where do you see yourselves in a couple of years. I mean what's what's the goal or what's the what's the business look like if this growth continues to happen and the market continues develop.
[00:26:56] Well I have listen I could tell you that there was one other time in my career in my business career where I saw similar similar characteristics of an industry unfolding and that was when I first got into the financial industry. We're seeing what happened with technology. I see the writing on the wall. It's so clear to me where we're going we're eventually going to get a schedule change which will open up the market completely. And you know put this into perspective in the past. Right we can go spend 20 dollars on a copay for ten dollars more. Go to CBS and get 30 pills that will kill you. What happens to the market when we go medically legal federally. When you spend 20 dollars for your copay and then go get an FDA approved medication for ten dollars and you're not spending two to 300 bucks a month you know on products like people are now in the market just opens right up.
[00:27:52] And what roughly what are what's your kind of doctor and patient base and where do you hope to get to in the next couple years.
[00:27:59] Great question. So in regards to physicians right now we have about 420,000 prescreened patients that have gone through our system. Right. The market's about two point four million. We think that number we're going to get to one point five million within the next three years.
[00:28:18] Those are big numbers but seem doable.
[00:28:20] Oh you're absolutely and then look at the way we unfortunately didn't have a sales staff to meet and meet demand in Leo. It's tough. I pride myself on having the right culture because I think that's so important from you know from infancy stage company ornament producing revenues for three years now. So bringing the right people in is very tough. And it takes me 40 I go to 40 interviews to get one person now but those all those people every one of our employees we've broken out even on within two and a half months because they're trained I spent a lot of time with them and really trying to develop them so they can take the torch and help the company get to the next stage. We think it will triple revenues year over year once we're funded and we you know we triple the size of our sales team. We also think that with where the markets that I mean the valuations out there are ridiculous. I don't know if you've seen them but I know I come from a different world and I don't like to give people fluff but put to you this way you know high times as is IPO is is out there on the mark well it should be coming out and you know they're there fetching about a and 270 million dollar valuation. Put it this way if we were valued at the multiple they were we would be somewhere in the neighborhood of them do the math based on high blind we would have a projected value of 62 million dollars.
[00:29:49] Nice nice.
[00:29:51] And you know we know we're where we know the sweet spot for investors in our is. And to me it's very important we take a lot of pride. Every dollar that someone invests with me it's just as it always has. I look at as someone gave me something that I didn't have before and I have a real job to protect it. And especially being in the position I'm in helping them get a significant return on investment and getting paid for their risk.
[00:30:17] And you're doing a capital raise right now.
[00:30:19] You said yes we're in the middle capital raise we're raising about 8 million dollars of growth capital.
[00:30:25] Great. Yeah. So. Sometimes I think that you know a lot of businesses are are in this fun period where they've kind of proven their business model they've got you know initial kind of traction they've got customers and they really have a nice path and that's one way to really start growing. So I'm curious to see how things go for the next next 6 12 months. I'm sure it's going to be an exciting ride. One final question that would be helpful for folks is you know as this market unfolds where do you see you know kind of that the opportunity is right now. I mean because a lot of people have been getting into space and I think some people been saying oh well you know you know there's no room left to innovate. There's no there's no new ideas to be had and the cannabis space. What areas you see that that still have room still have opportunities for new ideas for growth for innovation.
[00:31:10] Well the first thing I would tell those people is that's what people said after the industrial revolution.
[00:31:15] Right. Exactly. And I think we've come a long way since then really.
[00:31:19] I think the opportunity is now is for anyone to get that's going into this industry. Another thing that physicians really haven't done well is creating a digital footprint. Right. I found that physicians when they go to sell their their business when they retire they don't get a multiple on that on that business. And it's simply due to the fact that they're going to lose a lot of those patients. The person coming in is not going to pay a premium if you don't have a digital footprint. Think about it in these terms if I googled let's say leather seats and Melville New York and I'm the owner of the company but I sold it to somebody else a new person at searching for you. They don't care that the guy sold the company they're looking for a leather chair right. So by being baffling to us their own Web site actually goes up the rankings in Google. I have so many clients that are working with us that didn't start on the first page of Google like except being linked to us. But now because they've been working with us so long. Their site is now on the first page of Google. So what does that mean. Let's say there's 13 links on the first page of Google. Two of my marijuana doctors one is our client. You have a 25 percent chance of someone choosing you. Yeah right on that first piece that 87 percent of the business or all happens. So the key is with any business you want to have a digital footprint you want to be found. Right. More people find you. The more business. Plain and simple.
[00:32:41] It makes sense.
[00:32:41] The other thing is streamlining the process. You know our platform is turnkey. It's streamlined. We give the doctors the forms so you don't have to go spend or pay your attorney three to five billable hours or do it yourself. We're giving it to you. You know we have the internet. Telemedicine we have the intake forms. Just for a traditional patient that visits your office. So we really give them all those tools. I think that's great. What about automating a lot of their business training their staff how to run a business.
[00:33:09] Yeah right. When I answer that phone they have to basically be able to show that a that they're compassionate they're caring knowledgeable and that they really want to help the people.
[00:33:19] Right that the person customer service is customer service.
[00:33:22] Yeah I think that's another area but I think their digital footprint getting some getting exposure reputation management. I can't tell you how many doctors I had that were working at a hospital. They left the hospital start their own practice.
[00:33:36] When you Google their name it shows up over their little numbers. I mean a classic somebody's patient.
[00:33:43] Because of that. I'm not going to search you up I call the hospital. You ever call the hospital and ask for a doctor. It will take you a half hour to get him on the phone.
[00:33:50] Yeah know exactly. This was insightful educational. It was fun. I appreciate you taking the time. If people want to find out more about you about marijuana doctors what's the best way to get that information so you can always go to jail.
[00:34:03]www.marijuanadoctors.com my assistance name is Zena. If someone has someone is interested in potential investment wants to talk more strategic partnerships. You can e-mail zena@marijuanadoctors.com. She takes care of my whole schedule I'm lucky as can be she's the most assist that I've ever had in my life and I think she'll get she'll get you the information you need or set an appointment so we can talk more and otherwise all patients please visit us at www.marijuanadoctors.com and we really love what we do and we'll help you feel great again Great I appreciate it.
[00:34:45] I'll make sure those are the link and the emailer and the show so people can click through and get that again right. Thank you. This has been a pleasure. I really appreciate you taking the time.
[00:34:54] Listen I just want to say also thank you very much for doing what you're doing because I can't tell you how important it is for society and people like us to engage a community educating them. Let's dictations. Let's let the consumer decide once all the regulatory bodies have set the laws in place. Let the consumer decide what is going to work best for them based on their doctor or practitioner's guidance. And I think we'll see a much better improvement in health care where we do a lot of. Cost in the governmental programs and at the same time to save lives. Yeah.
[00:35:32] Thank you again and I appreciate you getting the word out and you can reach me anytime you need anything that I can help you with.
[00:35:38] Perfect. Thanks for. I appreciate it. And we will keep in touch. You're very welcome. Have a nice day.
[00:35:44] You've been listening to Thinking Outside the Bud with Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt to find a full list of podcast episodes. Download the tools and worksheets and access other great content. Visit the Web site at thinkingoutsidethebud.com. And don't forget to sign up for the free newsletter at thinkingoutsidethebud.com/newsletter.