Transcript

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Welcome to another edition of Bootstrap MD. My name is Dr. Michael Ming. I'm a 20 plus year physician entrepreneur.

 

Welcome to the show. Now, last week we talked about starting your own email newsletter. So, I want to build upon what we learned from last week and talk about how to grow to a,000 subscribers and what's actually working these days. says, "Specifically," how to get to a thousand subscribers without turning into a full-time content creator.

 

So, here's what I keep seeing, and I work with physicians, and they say within the first month, they want to build an email list. They want to grow their email list, but what they're really saying is, "How can I do this without it becoming a second job?" And the answer is, you don't do what all of these marketing gurus tell you out there to do. You don't have to post on Instagram three times a day, run Facebook ads before you even know anything what you want to know is actually working. You're not creating Tik Toks in between patients.

 

So when I looked at the doctors who are actually building a subscriber list to at least a thousand and the ones who are still doing it, they're still living their actual life. And the pattern is simple. They just keep it simple. They pick two channels and they showed up consistently for 6 to 12 months and that's it.

 

Now, you may be asking why a thousand why does a thousand subscribers actually matter? Because I think it's the threshold where email stops becoming a hobby and it turns into like a real business asset because you can fill a webinar with a,000 people on your list. You can launch a course and you can actually have enough people to say to validate that whether it's good or not. You can test offers and get real feedback instead of just guessing.

 

Because this is where I think a lot of people miss this that those thousand email subscribers can represent 10 to 20,000 people in your sphere of influence. It's just when your email conversion rates run 5 to 10%. So if a thousand people trust you enough to give you their email, they're 10 to 20 times many who maybe seen your content but maybe they haven't subscribed. And I think that leads to real powerful leverage.

 

That's when you stop having to manual DM people to join your webinar and to start actually having an actual what we call a distribution channel. So let's talk about and give you guys like a reality check. What is what I see physicians what they're doing and it's not actually working is doing daily social media post. You'll do it for a couple weeks.

 

You feel really productive but then you miss a day because you got slam with patients and then it seems like the whole thing falls apart. And I watched this happen like a dozen times or 24 times. What doesn't work is having complicated funnel sequences. You don't have to optimize 14 different landing pages.

 

You're not a full-time marketer. Stop pretending that you need to be. You don't need to do paid ads before you know what converts. I think this is where I often see people, they spend a lot of money and they're like burning a hole because they don't even know what they have is something that people will want to buy.

 

What you need to do is you figure out the offer first and then spend money amplifying it. And so for a lot of this growth hacking stuff that just feels inauthentic. I think you know if your audience is doctors they're going to see right through it. They're smart.

 

They're skeptical. And if you're being manipulative that's going to be gone. So what is actually working first? Use what you have.

 

Leverage what you actually have. And that's the credibility. You have professional relationships. You have colleagues who trust you.

 

That's your unfair advantage. That's why you need to use it. Secondly, you want to create an asset that works repeatably. not five different lead magnets, but one really good lead magnet that you can promote over and over again.

 

And third is do that front-loaded works. You're going to spend 10 to 15 hours setting up systems, setting up your email platform, your welcome sequences, a good lead magnet, sign up forms. Then it's a two to four hours to maybe maintain it. So do the work up front and you're going to get rewarded later on.

 

Fourth, I think there's a physician to physician what I call trust transfer. This is where another doctor vouches for you when you're on another physician podcast and that trust transfers instantly. You can't buy that with ads. So, real timeline expectation.

 

It may take you about 4 to 6 months to hit 1,000 subscribers faster if you already have a network in your niche. Slower if you can only dedicate maybe a couple hours to it. But the set work setup work is real. You need to devote at least 10 to 15 hours to get everything configured because once it's running, you're looking at maybe a couple hours weekly.

 

And this is some passive income baloney. Anyone telling you email of growth is passive is selling you something. But it can be sustainable along with you doing your work as a doctor. I know because I watch doctors do this all the time.

 

All right. So let's talk about this channel method. I'm calling it actually the three channel method, but you said, "Well, I thought you were talking about two." Well, okay. You have three channels, but you're going to be picking two.

 

So maybe you start with one and then add the second one in month three, but you're not doing all three unless you got 10 hours a week, which you probably don't have. So channel one, and again, this is going to be different for different people, but I think a lot of doctors are starting on with LinkedIn. And I think this might be the most primary channel for most of you, and it works for a few reasons. First, your colleagues are already there.

 

You're not asking them to install a new app or follow you on some platform that they don't use. They're on LinkedIn, and they're checking in between patients already. There's a professional context that gives you credibility. When you post about physician entrepreneurship on LinkedIn, it makes sense.

 

When you post the same thing on maybe Instagram, it feels a little bit awkward or weird. And the algorithm rewards engagement, not follower content. 20 people meaningfully engaging with your post will make LinkedIn show to hundreds more. You don't need tens of thousand followers to get traction.

 

So, here's what you do. Get on LinkedIn. You post two to three times a week. Not daily, not multiple times a day.

 

two to three times consistently for about the next 90 days minimum and early destructive system. Simple. You just have clinical observation can lead to a parallel business can lead to a call to action. So for example, you had three patients today with the same chronic condition.

 

They're all smart. They're all motivated. They're all making the same mistake, but they're trying to change everything at once instead of picking one thing and actually doing it. And so physicians, I think we do the same thing in business.

 

You want to be in everything. You try to launch on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, start a podcast, build a course all on the same time. Then you burn out six weeks and quit before anything gains traction. So here's what works instead.

 

I want to give yourself some actual insight, a framework, a pattern. You end with I put together a onepage framework on how to focus your first 90 days. LinkedIn comment. That's it.

 

Clinical credibility up front, business relevance in the middle, and clear next step at the end. So put your newsletter signup link in your LinkedIn feature section. Go to your profile. Scroll down to features.

 

Pin your newsletter link there. Every single person who clicks on the profile sees it. And here's a button nobody wants to do, but it actually matters. 15 minutes a day engaging on other people's posts.

 

Not just hitting like, actually commenting with something useful. This gets your name in front of people who might be interested in your stuff. And it builds relationship with other physician entrepreneurs who might promote your stuff later. So, if you show up consistently on LinkedIn, and I mean consistently, not perfectly, consistently, I think you can get 30 to 50 new subscribers a month.

 

That's 400 to 600 subscribers in a year from one channel that's taking you maybe 3 to four hours a week. Okay. Channel number two, guest appearances. This is straight leverage.

 

One appearance on another physician's podcast can bring you 20 to 100 subscribers. You didn't build that audience, you're borrowing it. So maybe target one to two guest spots per quarter. You're not doing this every week.

 

Maybe once every six to eight weeks you're appearing on somebody else's platform. And here's why that matters. Physiciansp specific shows only. Don't pitch general business podcast.

 

Don't go on to big entrepreneurship shows where you're competing with tech founders. Go where physicians are actually are. When you pitch, you lead with a topic that serves with your audience. Not my journey from emergency medicine to entrepreneur.

 

That's boring and it's about you. Instead, three legal structures every physician need to understand before starting a side practice. That's useful information to your audience and it's all about them. And you're offering an exclusive resource.

 

I've created a framework specifically for your listeners on how to test a tele medicine offers in 14 days. They can grab it at this link. That link goes into your show notes, your bio, everywhere. So, where do you actually find these opportunities?

 

Go check out the Dr. Podcast Network. Yes, I'm a co-owner. Spoiler alert alert.

 

I have a vested interest if you join. But you'll meet other physicians who have other podcasts in adjacent specialties. So you're an ER doctor and maybe you're building a utilization review business. You can go on hospitals podcast.

 

You're a gerantologist creating a online skincare course. Talk to primary care docs. Another place to go medical society webinars. There can be gold mines.

 

They're always looking for speakers. They have built-in physician audiences and you have instant credibility because you're one of them. And don't sleep on alumni associations and resident programs. You know, you graduated from this program.

 

They would love for you to come back and talk to current residents about building leverages, you know, outside clinical medicine. For the most part, they say yes to 90% of the time. Realistic numbers, you might get 50 to 200 new subscribers per appearance depending on the audience size. You do this twice a quarter.

 

You're looking at 4 to 800 subscribers over 6 months just from this channel. All right, channel three, content syndication. This is where you create once and distribute everywhere. Not unique content for each platform.

 

I think that's unsustainable. Same content, different formats. Simple workflow, just have it. Every week you write one email to your current subscribers.

 

Even if it's 50 people, even if it's 20, you're writing that weekly email. This is your newsletter. That's your core content creation. You take the best insight from that email, turn it into a LinkedIn post.

 

Same message, different format. It takes you 10 minutes. Same email could get published on Substack or maybe Medium, a public post. Now it's searchable.

 

People can find it six months from now through Google, you know, but once a month you take your last four weekly emails, combine them into a YouTube video or a podcast episode. You're literally just reading your email content in a different format. So why does this work? because you're spending maybe a couple hours, three hours writing that weekly email, then another hour distributing it.

 

4 hours total and you're building presence across multiple platforms simultaneously. And there's this compounding part. The content from 6 months ago is still working. People are still finding it through search, through Medium, through old LinkedIn posts.

 

Each platform funnels back to your email signup. You're building authority across all these channels at the same time instead of starting from zero on each one. And then once that system is running, you're probably looking at 40 to 80 new subscribers per month. And it scales better than the other channels because old content keeps bringing in new people.

 

All right. Now, we get to what I call the leverage cascade. This is how you can get each subscriber to bring you more subscribers. So, you have a welcome sequence.

 

When someone joins your list, what happens? most physicians and one welcome email. That's it. You want maybe three to five emails over the first week.

 

Day one, you give them the lead magnet plus something extra they didn't expect. You overd deliver immediately. Day three, you ask them to forward it. If this was valuable, would you forward to one of your colleagues who might benefit?

 

10 to 15% might actually do this. Day seven, have an explicit referral ask. Know a college, know a colleague thinking about starting something outside clinical medicine? Send them this link.

 

So if you set this up right, 10 to 15% of your new subscribers will each send your content to one or two people. So that math works in your favor. So level two, have a referral mechanism. Every email you send has a PS at the bottom.

 

You enjoying this? Forward this to a colleague. Make it really stupidly simple. Pre-write the email that they can forward.

 

Say, I've been following Dr. Mike's newsletter on physician entrepreneurship that you might find it useful. Here's a sign up. Then they copy paste.

 

Send done. If you want to get fancy, you can track it with unique signup URLs. Most email platforms let you create custom links. Then you know what's actually working.

 

And then level three, collaboration trades. Find two to three other physician entrepreneurs with similarly size lists. Not someone with 10,000 subscribers. They're not promoting you.

 

Someone with 300, 500, a,000. You do newsletter swaps. You promote theirs. They promote yours.

 

Guest content exchanges. Co-branded lead magnets. Do the math. 500 subscribers, 10% refer one person each, that's 50 new subscribers.

 

Two newsletter swaps per quarter, another 40 to 100. The leverage cascade adds 30 to 40% growth on top of your direct work. This is the difference between hitting a,000 in 12 months versus 6 or 7 months. All right, I want to give you end with like a road map for you guys.

 

The six-month road map. So month one to two, you set up your email platform. You could choose between Mailchimp, ConvertKit, whatever. Just pick one and set it up.

 

Stop researching the perfect platform. You create one lead magnet, one checklist, one framework, one short email course. You don't have to do five, just one really good one. Start posting on LinkedIn twice a week.

 

Consistently valuable with a clear call to action every time. Build your welcome sequence. Three to five emails over the first week for every new subscriber. Your goal is to get about 100 150 subscribers from your existing network plus LinkedIn.

 

You're emailing colleagues you already know, posting on LinkedIn, leveraging relationships you spent years building. Months three to four, you start building momentum. Start booking those one to two guest appearances. Do podcast interviews, do webinar slots, medical society presentations.

 

Start syndicating your content. Weekly emails goes to Medium, LinkedIn, whatever makes sense for your niche. Turn on your referral prompts. Make it easy for people to share.

 

And then here's the critical part. Optimize what's working and stop what isn't. LinkedIn crushing it and maybe Medium is doing nothing, then double down on LinkedIn. Guest spots are bringing in tons of subscribers and but syndication maybe is eating too much time.

 

Then simplify the syndication. Your goal is to get 350 400 subscribers. You should hopefully be by 500 subscribers by the end of month four. And then month through six, double down.

 

Double down to what'sever working best. LinkedIn in your top channel. Go from two posts weekly to three. Guest appearances are crushing.

 

Book one per month instead of per quarter. Execute those newsletter swaps and collaboration trades. You've been doing this for 4 months now. Keep doing it.

 

You know, other physician entrepreneurs start leveraging their relationships on here. Your goal is to get 500 subscribers, a thousand total by the end of month six. Okay. So now most of you won't hit 1,000 subscribe in 6 months.

 

That's fine. The ones who do, they pick two channels and execute. They don't get distracted. They don't chase new tactics.

 

They just show up consistently. You don't need fancy funnels. You don't need to become a marketing expert. You just need to have good content.

 

Do this persistently and sustainable. All right. So I hope this was of useful to you guys. Guys, you know, at the end of the day, just start with one.

 

I want you to give you something this week. Pick your primary channel. Just do LinkedIn for most of you. LinkedIn, maybe it's Facebook for others.

 

Number two, create a lead magnet a week. Not next month, this week. Look, a couple hours. Get your lead magnet out there.

 

Three, set up your email platform and your welcome sequence. This is your foundation. Four, commit to doing maybe three posts per week for the next 90 days. That's it.

 

Put it on your calendar. Treat it like your patient appointments. If you wouldn't cancel on a patient, don't cancel on this. You know, growing to a thousand subscribers isn't about becoming a marketing genius.

 

It's about showing up consistently with valuable content for your audience. All right, medicine pays the bills. AI builds the balance sheet, but email can build the audience to make both of those scale. So, hope you found this useful.

 

If you found this podcast list useful, send it to a colleague, someone who would actually need it. Maybe they're building a newsletter right now. You maybe want to listen to this again and again. So, I want to thank you guys as always.

 

You're going to have ups and downs as a physician entrepreneur. Do something a little each day to get you closer to your goals and keep moving forward.