Ann & Sarah's SAM Schedule - We Want to Hang Out!

Featured Meeting: Updates in Sports Medicine: Practical Pearls

The FABI Nugget: The Importance of Nurturing Your Database

Tricks of the Trade - DPMs: Know Thyself

Speak Up DPMs: Um... Do I Even Know You?

Featured Sponsor Article: Using CBD for Psoriatic Arthritis

Practice Partner Academy - Upcoming Sessions and Recent Recordings

Tricks of the Trade - Vendors: The Answers Lie Within

Tricks of the Trade - Meeting Planners: Have You Tried to Know Them?

Meeting Calendar - Next 90 Days

One of our goals at SAM is to get to know you better! If you've never hung out with us, we hope you take a moment to do so this week! You can always pop by and chat with us at Booth 1035. You'll also have a good shot at finding us wandering around the hotel bars for a cocktail and some snacks. Come say, "Cheers to the New Year" with us!

Also don't forget about...  EXPERIENCED EXHIBITOR WORKSHOP Thursday in the Exhibit Hall at 2:30 at the Main Stage DPM APPRECIATION MIX AND MATCH Take a Break from Learning Labs and Join Us for an Appreciation Mix & Match - Giveaways Galore! Friday in the Exhibit Hall at 12:30 at the Learning Lab Innovation Theater Area 1

Featured Event ACPM Presents... Updates in Sports Medicine: Practical Pearls The American College of Podiatric Medicine is excited to announce its upcoming contribution to continuing education in Podiatric Medicine.

SATURDAY | MARCH 4 9AM - 4PM EST | 6 CECH

This unique, focused educational event will feature some of the profession's most noted sports medicine experts and key opinion leaders including:

James Losito DPM, FACFAS, FAAPSM

Mark Mendeszoon DPM, FACPM, FACFAS

Donald Kasitinon MD

Alicia Canzanese DPM, FAAPSM, ATC

Michael VanPelt DPM, FACFAS

Jay Spector DPM, FAAPSM

Howard Osterman DPM, DABFAS, FAAPSM

Richard Blake DPM, FAAPSM, MS

Daniel Stewart DPM, FAAPSM

For complete conference details including registration, topics to be covered and faculty bios visit: acpmonline.org

FABI Nugget: Bite-Sized Chunks For Your Practice Let’s Get to Know Each Other: The Importance of Nurturing Your Database

Garbage in is garbage out. With the New Year upon us, it’s time to sort through the trash and clean up our databases to maximize our marketing efforts. To what databases am I referring? Your databases of patients, referral sources, and vendors of course. If you don’t maintain a list of these groups with up-to-date contacts, then you’re missing a great opportunity to up your marketing game. Each of these groups needs your brand of service whether they know it or not and quite frankly it’s your job to make them know it! You do this by nurturing these relationships. So let’s explore how to nurture each of these groups to improve their world and expand yours.

The Patients: Without patients to help, we don’t have a business. The more patients we have, the more we can use our talents to improve their quality of life. If we improve one life, chances are that life will entrust us with others in their life and so on. It’s important to communicate with patients in what I call the peri-patient phase which includes before their first appointment, during their active management and after they’ve been discharged. My partner Chris Milkie often refers to this as the before unit, during unit and after unit of marketing that he learned from Dean Jackson. Nurturing is all about connection. As expert marketer Joe Polish wrote in his new book What’s In It For Them, “connecting with people requires a balance of trust, rapport, and comfort.” Author Neil Strauss defines rapport as trust plus comfort where trust is developed from comfort overt time. So in essence, building rapport with anyone requires time to make them comfortable that you’re not just business-hungry but coming from a place of service. With time comes comfort that you are indeed the right person/practice to help them and once you’re trusted to help them and do, rapport can develop. Now if you just “treat ‘em and street ‘em”, you likely didn’t develop trust or rapport. So much can be said about bedside manner and overall presentation for building rapport – refer back to a previous FABI Nugget I wrote entitled “P-ing Your Way to Patient Prosperity” for some advice. The Referral Sources (other than patients): Physicians, health clubs, shoe stores, nail spas, etc are relationships that simply must be nurtured – if not by you, be certain it will be by any potential competitor (they’re likely reading this too right now). In days of financial relationships between primary care physicians and specialists within their corporate group (hospital or multi-specialty), physician referrals to the independent specialists are waning in many areas. The exception to this is typically if you provide exceptional service/care to their patients and themselves. Staying top of mind is essential to nurture these relationships. You can do this by sending them chart notes after each mutual patient encounter. You can do this after initial encounters only, each and every encounter, initial encounter and discharge- it’s a matter of choice and preference. You can also educate these providers on your services through newsletters or monthly updates – FABI’s Marketing Machine members receive a monthly mailing specifically to be sent to referring physicians – the work is done for you (thanks Chris Milkie:)) so there’s really no excuse to not extend yourself in a helpful way. Aside from referring providers, connect with shoe stores, nail spas, health clubs and educate the staff at each. Education is power and you provide value to their business in extending yourself to them. The Vendors: Is this guy seriously going to tell me to market to my vendors? Well – yes – sort of. Nurturing relationships with your vendors can only help you and you nurture them through communication and connection. When did you last send a Happy Holidays greeting to a pharmaceutical rep and thank them for their dedication to helping us provide better patient care? We don’t do this because we want them to bring our staff lunch and we don’t purchase or use products for anything other than providing additional/better services to our patients. We do this because it’s easier to do business with people who like us. It costs virtually nothing but a minimal amount of time to cultivate relationships with those who help us and maybe get us better pricing on services/products. So go ahead and write a thank you note to some vendors – expressing gratitude is good for your soul and relationships. Bonus Database! The Team: Maintain a database of your team members with date of birth, date of hire, immediate family names and birthdays, favorite foods/restaurants, hobbies, and anything else that gives you insight into how to best treat your beloved team members. Most social media platforms collect this data to improve user experience. You as an owner, employer and overall nice person should be doing the same. Then go ahead and use the information collected to best celebrate your team members and the families they work for. You don’t need to be a statistician or expert marketer to maintain and manage a database. FABI can help practices large and small create or enhance their marketing efforts. I do hope through this Nugget that I’ve given you more value than the time you spent reading it. Do you feel nurtured yet? If so, please reach out and let’s get comfortable over time to build some trust and further nurture our rapport. From my database to yours. To the nurturer in you, Matthew C. Dairman, DPM MS

TRICKS OF THE TRADE - Quick Tips for DPMs Know Thyself. Sarah Breymeier Last month I provided a tip that focused on switching up your schedule strategically based on meeting characteristics that align with your passion and your practice niche. The concept of niching is something I'm very passionate about and so it's not unusual to see it as a common thread in my blogging. Check out last month's tip, so that this month's tool makes more sense for you! This month, I want to continue with the same sentiment about knowing yourself so you can know what meetings will be a good fit for you. To help you do so, I've created a tool that you can download. The goal here is to help you better understand what kinds of patients you like to see, and which patients you actually see; and then we can identify which type(s) of meetings work best for your unique needs! DOWNLOAD THE "CHOOSING THE RIGHT MEETINGS FOR ME" GUIDE HERE

SPEAK UP, DPMs Monthly Quick Poll - Who's Out There??? We are always trying to get a better understanding of how we can provide more content that is useful to you! In order to do that, we need to know a little bit more about who is engaging with our content. Doing a quick poll on this newsletter is a bit tricky though to get the information we would love to know. So, can you tell us if you would be willing to complete a short survey that lets us know things like: How long have you been in practice? What kinds of patients do you MOSTLY see (i.e. sports med, diabetic, geriatric, etc.)? Are you in private practice? BONUS! If you let us send you a survey and you complete it, you will be entered to win some goodies from Ann & Sarah!

Can we send you the link to our short DPM demographics survey? Yes and I hope I win an awesome prize! Select No - I don't want you to know what content would be useful to me. Select

SPONSOR FEATURE: Using CBD To Help Your Patients' Psoriatic Arthritis

For many reasons, people are looking for alternatives to harsh medications to help manage psoriatic arthritis symptoms. One trend that is gaining momentum is the use of cannabinoids like CBD. While there is still much to learn about how CBD works, many studies have shown promise in CBD’s ability to help manage pain. CBD for Psoriatic Arthritis Due to the nature of psoriatic arthritis, many people use CBD in topical and oral forms.  Because psoriasis commonly presents symptoms on the skin, topical CBD application can help manage redness and irritation that results from the effects of psoriasis. Oral administration is also popular because it allows for increased absorption into the body. This may also help support the body’s immune response.

CBD as an Alternative to Medication It is well known that CBD can influence a variety of biological processes, including regulating the immune, gastrointestinal, and nervous systems.  In addition to the many functions the endocannabinoid system helps regulate, CBD has been shown to have positive effects on related functions. Because of this, CBD could potentially provide even more benefits, including: Improved mood Circulatory maintenance Immune system support Overall joint and muscle mobility Support of nutrient absorption Bolstered energy and performance LEARN MORE ABOUT CANODYNE CBD GEL FOR YOUR PATIENTS

PRACTICE PARTNER ACADEMY Helping You Choose Strategic Partners for Your Practice Register for upcoming sessions below, or CLICK HERE to register on our website.

BREAKING THE FUNGAL RECURRENCE CYCLE: THE IMPORTANCE OF DISINFECTING FOOTWEAR  Presented by Bryan Markinson, DPM, FACPM Tuesday, February 28th @ 8pm EST

DO YOU WANT TO REGISTER FOR THIS SESSION Twist My Arm? Of course I want to be there! Please send me the login details! Select No thank you... I have to fold 100 paper cranes for origami class. Select

Did you miss our January sessions? Well, we're bummed you didn't show up for the live airing, but we always have our Academy Sessions recorded. Check out our latest!

Marketing Fireside Chat with Dr. Barbara Aung

Regenerating Lipids for Patients with Dry, Cracked Skin

TRICKS OF THE TRADE - Quick Tips for Vendors The Answers Lie Within Sarah Breymeier This week at SAM we are going to be putting on an Experienced Exhibitor Workshop with the main focus centering around Choosing The "Right" Conferences. As I've been preparing for the workshop, it became very clear that there is no perfect list of meetings for everyone. In fact, when Ann and I get this question from exhibitors - "which meeting should I attend?" - it is a little overwhelming because there are so many factors that come into play when making these decisions. Hence, the need for the Experienced Exhibitor Workshop at SAM this week! One area that I simply want to mention here and now, is that the best way to get to the root of this question, is to KNOW YOURSELF. And when I say know yourself, I really mean know your company inside and out... Ask yourself these questions - and answer them TRUTHFULLY: What is the makeup of the majority of my current customer base? Again, answer truthfully; meaning describe what your current base actually is, not what you would want it to be. It's fine if you do answer the question what you want it to be, but that's an answer for a different question. What is the makeup of the ideal DPM for the exact product you sell? For example, if your staple product is an antifungal, targeting DPMs who are highly surgical may be more secondary or tertiary - vs. primary. If your most popular product is a sport orthotic, you may want to consider creating a sales funnel that targets the AAPSM. Does geography affect your product/service or customer satisfaction? Consider things like shipping/turnaround time; sales rep locations; ability to scale in a particular area. It's not always the worst thing to focus on a particular region and do it really well, vs. trying to cover a larger region and service it poorly. How Does Knowing All This Affect the Outcome of The Meetings I Choose? Once you more fully understand the makeup of your current customer base, or the customer base you desire, you are in a better position to determine what kinds of meetings they go to. Additionally, once you know what you're really good at providing, and/or the location in which you thrive, you can make decisions on where you know you are going to crush it! There are a lot of ways to segment meeting types, but one of the ways I see to do is by the following criteria: Regional and/or State Conferences (i.e. the National, SAM, MPC) Niche Conferences (i.e. DermFoot, AAPSM, AMIFAS, ACFAP) Series Conferences (i.e. Present, IFAF, Podiatry Institute) There are so many aspects to consider when going through this process, so join us on Thursday at SAM in the exhibit hall at 2:30pm for our Experienced Exhibitor Workshop for more details on choosing the right meetings for you!

SPEAK UP, VENDORS Monthly Quick Poll If you didn't catch it above - this week at SAM we are going to be putting on an Experienced Exhibitor Workshop with the main focus centering around Choosing The "Right" Conferences. Please use the poll below to let us know if you are going to be at SAM and we will make sure to come by your booth to remind you to join us on Thursday afternoon at 2:30pm!

Will you be at SAM and want to come to our Workshop? Yes! I'll be at SAM and please stop by and remind me to come to the workshop. Select I'll be at SAM, but I will be playing on my phone the whole time - but thanks. Select I won't be at SAM and I'm crying every night because I will miss you so much. Select

90-DAY MEETING OUTLOOK Click below to see industry events for upcoming months.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE Quick Tips for Meeting Planners Have You Really Tried Knowing Them? Sarah Breymeier

Over the last couple of years, Ann and I have had the awesome opportunity to work with more of you - the planners behind the scenes! We've also been able to get a closer look at those who are going the extra mile to truly get to know their audiences - both DPMs/attendees and the exhibitors. While every meeting is going to have DPMs complete evaluations, I challenge you to reflect on what you're actually doing with those evaluations. Are you just sifting through them and getting a general idea of common remarks, or are you really taking them into consideration and documenting for progress? If you've been in the business long enough, it can be easy to feel like evaluations are just an opportunity for disgruntled DPMs to complain. Because I 100% understand that frustration, I would recommend that you take the evaluation documentation process OFF YOUR HANDS. Ask a staff member to go through each evaluation and create a spreadsheet of all commentary and to find common themes. This will separate you from seeing the same old feedback from the same old complainers; but instead give you the opportunity to not focus on who said what, but to also see a long list of positives and areas for improvement without the defensive mentality. The main reason I bring this up, though, is that if you are simply going through the motions of collecting feedback as a formality, but not doing anything with it - you are losing a major opportunity to find new ways to promote your meeting with testimonials, statistics, and knowing what you're REALLY good at so you can use that to shape an awesome brand! The same principle applies to your exhibitors. And trust me - we know this one is a doozy! That's why Ann and I take the time to do quarterly Experienced Exhibitor Mastermind Sessions so that we can be a liaison between meeting planners and exhibitors in an effort to get objective information in a comfortable, open forum. If you are wanting more information about how exhibitors feel about your meeting, give us a shout! But one of the best things you can do is to SEND THEM TO OUR SURVEY PAGES! Yes, I know this can be scary because you want to control the evaluation process. But, again, if you are really looking to dig deep and find meaningful information, using a third-party evaluation will get you more transparent information that will truly help you make progress. Additionally, we often get a sense of fear from meeting planners that their evaluations are going to be "doomsday" reviews. What we have seen on our end is quite the opposite. Yes, there are going to be reviews and evaluations that aren't all sunshine and rainbows, but there are also a lot of individuals who really want to sing your praises - so encourage their voices!

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