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Grow Your Local Business
How Qianlei built a thriving acupuncture practice from opening to fully booked -- with a 3 month waitlist AND 1 million Instagram followers
00:33:25
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- [00:00]
A
You're invited to kick off 2025 with me in the local Go To Challenge. It's my favorite way to start a new year and it's happening Monday, January 13th through Wednesday, January 15th. During this three day live free challenge, you'll learn how to show up in your business every day as that local go to person. You'll learn how to talk about what you offer in a way that makes people want to work with you specifically. And and you'll learn how to bring something 100% new and original to your community that no one is offering. But you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the show notes on whatever episode you're listening to to get signed up and I'll see you there. You are listening to the Grow youw Local Business Podcast where local marketing expert and life coach Leslie Presnell shares the strategies and the mindset to help you reach more people in your city and bring in a steady stream of clients. Dive in. Welcome to episode 105. You are in for a treat today. I have my student and client Chanlay on the podcast and she is gonna drop so much experience and knowledge on us that she has had in the past one and a half years. From opening her acupuncture practice to now being fully booked with with a three month wait list. She's raised her prices multiple times and now she's even launched a digital course and digital products to continue bringing in revenue into her business. And she's grown her Instagram to over a million followers. I think we all have a few things that we can learn today and she's just keeping it so real and honest because like most of us in the first one and a half years of her business, she went through the same things that we all do. She had pricing drama, she was scared to charge her prices. She literally apologized to her clients for not taking insurance, which she's going to tell us about. And she was ghosted more times than she can count when she was reaching out to collaborate with other local businesses. But she's actually going to share a really fun trick on how she got people to start responding to her. Actually, she has a few tricks, so let's dive in. You may want to listen to this one a few times. It is packed with everything that she has learned.
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B
Hello.
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A
Okay. Thank you so much for being here today. I know my listeners are about to just learn so much from you with just the steps that you've taken and the mindset shifts you've had in really such a short amount of Time to grow your acupuncture practice and to really become that like local go to person. But also you've just become so, so well known in the online space. So not only are you getting to serve people like in person, day in and day out, but now helping people all over the world. So you've built just this huge social media following, over a million on Instagram. You can tell us all the specifics of that, but you've built up your email list TikTok all the things. So I just can't wait to dive, dive in and hear how you did it. So do you want to introduce yourself and just tell us who you are, what you do, where you're located and all the things?
- [03:27]
B
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. It's been a dream. My name is Chen Lei. I'm a second generation Chinese medicine practitioner and licensed acupuncturist. I'm located in Alexandria, Virginia. So both my parents are Chinese medicine doctors. Growing up, I know the power of Chinese medicine. But when I moved to the U.S. i realized that it's really not really well known. Most people think it's like, can treat a small handful of issues, which is not true. So I had a background in biochemistry and I was like, I kind of want to follow my parents foot footsteps. And that's what I did. I opened my private practice in September 2023.
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A
That's crazy. So just what, a year and three months ago?
- [04:17]
B
Yeah, a year and a three months ago. That sounds crazy to me too.
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A
Does it seem like it went really fast? It does for me.
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B
Yeah, it does, it does.
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A
Okay, so did tell us in like this short time that you've had your business, like, what are some of the biggest results you've had?
- [04:37]
B
I became fully booked, I think in March, March 2024 and I increased my price for the first time in June 2024. And then my patient wait time continues to grow longer and longer. At first it was I was fully booked for two weeks and then it was for a month and then it was for two months. Now it's like between two and three months. And I increased my price again in 2020 for October. And yeah, I like people keep booking and I have this waitlist for almost three months now.
- [05:27]
A
That's incredible. Okay, so I know like, I definitely want to get into some of the how that you, you did that and this may kind of all go along together. But tell us starting out because I started working with you like right, you're like less than a month of opening, I think when we started working together.
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B
Before I even opened, because I was like, do this. Right, Right.
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A
Yeah. Okay, so what were. I mean. And you were fully booked within six months, which is incredible. So what are. Looking back now, like, what are some of the things that you. You struggled the most with when you were just starting out?
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B
I was really insecure about the idea that I'm an acupuncturist and I don't take insurance, because previously I was working with a large acupuncture group that basically runs on insurance. They're really fully booked. So I had this mindset of, you know, hey, I can be fully booked, but I don't know, the idea of not taking insurance, that's my first, you know, limit mindset. The second limit mindset I had was, hey, I'm just an acupuncturist. You know, I used to work with a psychiatrist who has a private practice who does not take insurance. But my limit belief was that, oh, you know, she's a psychiatrist. She can do this. I don't know about me. Those two are my biggest limit beliefs when I first started.
- [07:00]
A
Yeah. Okay, so was it like a price point thing? Like, I hear that a lot with a lot of physicians or therapists that come to me when they don't take insurance, they don't have the belief that their clients are willing to pay that. Is that what you were going through?
- [07:17]
B
Yeah, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. Because if you have insurance, if your insurance covers the treatment, the treatment could cost you $20. Whereas if you don't take insurance, it could range like 10 times that amount.
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A
Right.
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B
So. And as I were speaking, there's another limit belief that we really worked hard on. This was I kept telling myself that I'm not estab.
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A
I remember that, like, at our very. I think I recorded a podcast. Yeah, I think it may have been the local credibility podcast that I recorded, like, right after we talked, because I was like, so many people. Yeah. Think this exact thing. Okay, so let's talk about both, though. Let's go back to the insurance question, because I think even if you're not even in this industry or a similar industry and don't take insurance, don't even have anything to do with insurance. Like, I think we can just get so much from the pricing mindset, shifts that you had to go through.
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B
For sure.
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A
So what was that like for you? Like, I mean, tell us how did you actually start getting more comfortable charging your prices? Like, just tell us what you went through with that.
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B
Right. So at first I started the price point, which was really high to me at the beginning, but I had patients coming in, they were my old patients that I had before. And I, I, I think what I was thinking through is, you know, we all talked about it. It's like I over deliver, you know, all these time that I spend with a patient, all 60 minutes, I'm fully there. My attention is at worst how much I was charging, which is $160 at the time. I was like, yeah. And also there's a lot of conversation in between where you told me this one point that really hit me still. You said, have you ever had someone that you just love paying? Like you told me, hey, the person comes in to clean the grass for you, you love paying them the money. When you go to facial, you love paying them the money. I'm like, yes, the same for me. And then you said, this is what you are for other people. They love giving you their money because whenever they pay you, that means they feel better.
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A
I love that I actually have, and I don't know if I told you this, I have a sticky note or I had it for years, it may not be there anymore, but next to my desk that said be someone that people love to pay. Because I think it shifts how you show up. And you're right, you use the word like over deliver. And so what I think a lot of people run into is they just see their price and then they maybe look at competitor pricing or for you, like the insurance pricing. And what I always tell my people is like, it starts with you. Like you have to spend the time to sell yourself on your price first.
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B
Yes.
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A
Or like it's, it's never going to work because your voice is going to be shaky. You can be like me. Like whenever I first started my business, I would change. Or when I was a social media manager, I would change my price mid sentence. Like talking to potential clients. I'd be like, it's only this much. And then I would like be scared to invoice them because I just had so much pricing drama. And I really do think it's because I hadn't taken the time to really show my brain why I was pricing myself at that price and what my clients were actually getting for that price.
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B
Exactly.
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A
And just showing my brain day in and day out how it is such an over delivery. Like I hear people say all the time, like, oh, people just are always going to go with the cheapest option. And we heard that does not happen with you at all.
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B
Yeah, it's not true.
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A
Yeah. So why do you think that is? Do you have any theories?
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B
I think it goes back to one point that you always mentioned is, who is your best people? If you are talking to someone, you make sure you're only talking to your best people. And if you are offering this service, it's not for everyone, but there's got to be people there that are your best people and that's what matters.
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A
Right? Like staying focused like the 10%.
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B
Yes, yes.
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A
And just letting the other 90% exist where so many people want to try to talk to everybody. Yeah, yeah. Then that's, I think, where a lot of the disbelief comes in.
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B
For sure. Definitely. I see a huge difference because before I start working with you, I got. I got. Before I start working with you, I used to get this question a lot. Hey, do you take insurance? My response back then was always like, I'm sorry, I don't. But you know, you can do all of these. And this is why you, you know, a provider that does not take insurance will work better for you. And I will feel. I used to feel really bad when they ended up not booking with me. Whereas gradually, gradually, gradually, the answer becomes no. There's no. I'm sorry, but this and that, it's just no.
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A
Yeah, I think so, too. Just to add on, you know, when people are maybe asking, like, why do you not take insurance? Or what's the difference? Like, what do I actually get for my money? I just hear a lot of people say that where their clients will say, well, so and so down the street's a hundred bucks cheaper. Like, what. What am I getting with you and not them? And what I find too is just a lot of people haven't slowed down to really think about that, to where they can articulate that back to the person. And what a lot of people do too, is I think they, they say, well, I went and got training for this long, or I've spent this much on equipment, or my rent is this much, or this, this and this. Like, these are all the reasons my price is this. And it actually has nothing to do with. With the client's results.
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B
Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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A
And it's like all the people care about is, can you help me? And how amazing is it going to be?
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B
Exactly, exactly.
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A
And then I think they're more than willing to pay that once they see the difference in the ways that you're going to over deliver. And like you being able to clearly articulate that to them.
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B
Right, exactly. And that, which is what you've Done. Yeah. Well, with your help, yes.
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A
Okay, so what was the other limiting belief. Oh, not being established.
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B
Not being established. Yes. Yeah. I was so struggling with this. I told you that I felt like I was not established and I'm just going to go on my own. I really made sure nobody on social media knew that I was gonna be on my own. I was really hiding it. I remember all the messaging I was putting out there was like, I'm doing rebranding, which was not true. The truth was that, hey, I left with, you know, I left a practice, I'm going to be on my own. But I was so scared and I felt that people was gonna see this as, oh, you're a newbie, you don't know anything, which is true.
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A
I remember this well. So. So how did you overcome that?
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B
You told me this either example or analogy. You said, if there's a restaurant down the street, they are newly opened, but they've been doing this for a while. You know, their food is good. Would you think they're not a good restaurant? I said, no, I'm excited. There's a new restaurant. I want to go try it out.
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A
Right. Yeah. We wouldn't be like, well, they're not established. We're like, oh, a great. A new business. How amazing.
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B
Yeah. And you also said if there's a dentist that, you know, just opened their own practice, they used to work someone else. Would you think they're not established? I said, no, I would think they did really well on their own. That's why they can be on their own now.
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A
So good. That's such good advice.
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B
All of those really was just stuck with me.
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A
So good. Okay, so let's get a little bit more into the how. Like, let's talk about some of the things that you did to get fully booked up in your physical location. Like, what were some of the strategies or like, things that were on your marketing plan that worked really well for you?
- [15:51]
B
Right. So you and I, we worked together. We had this little spread. A little note on my phone. It says like a consistent marketing daily, weekly task, something like that. So, like, we came up together with, hey, every week I need to do these tasks, which included posted on Instagram three times a week, talk on story a couple of times a week. And then I need to reach out just to say hi to the local other providers that are in the health niche, just to do introduction and to ask if we can meet up. And that's something that I did for. For, I think, six months.
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A
Yeah. And what. What part of that do you think was super effective?
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B
All of them? I think like you said, it's not just one thing. It's like people, you need all these touch points.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And it is so true that sometimes on social media a lot of people know you, they like your posts, they don't book with you, but what happens is that they just don't have that enough touch points.
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A
Yeah.
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B
But when, you know, when somebody they also go to in the health niche also talk about you or another type of click happen to them, they're going like, okay, I need to see this person.
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A
Yeah, okay, I definitely want to get into like your social media growth and stuff. But before we do that, like you just did some really solid in person networking marketing that, that I know was really effective for you. And, and I know we kind of worked through that a lot. We, we always were taking it through the evaluation process. Every time you would reach out to another local business or physician's office, like whoever, and we would really evaluate like what's working, like why are they not reaching back out, like what can we do? And then as far as like you went into some offices and like brought them lunch and like, so tell us some of that stuff. See you rolling your eyes out. It worked.
- [17:56]
B
I did. I was so scared back then when I was doing the local marketing outreach, I was talking to someone else in the house niche. She had a local business as well. And she was like, you should do these lunches that I, you know, those pharmaceutical reps do for the doctors. So you kind of sneak in your way and then they recommend you patients. And I was like, oh, that sounds like a great idea. I, I really scared of just thinking about it, but that sounds like something I should do. So I ended up scheduling lunches for two places and I kind of did catering for both places. And what happened was after the first time, it was so bad. I remember we talked about it. I was like, I'm never going to do this again. This is terrible.
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A
And hold on, why was it so bad?
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B
I think looking back, it was only so bad because I made it sound like it was so bad. I made it awkward. I went in, there is nobody talking to me because to them it's just lunch. They don't even know I was there. But I didn't know what to do. I was never those so new to me. So at the end we were doing this evaluation, you said, so now you know next time when you go there, your first goal is just to talk to 20 people that come in. That's Your goal. Don't worry about the rest. So then the second time I went in, I made sure I stood there and I talked to as many people as I can. So at least they know who am I.
- [19:34]
A
Right? Yeah. So I think at the first one, it was like you had provided lunch. People didn't even know who it was from. You were kind of there but not talking about. And we realized that you weren't even standing next to the door.
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B
No, I wasn't.
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A
And I remember, like, we. I was like, let's change that. Like, let's put you standing right next to the door so that every single person that comes in, you're introducing yourself, and I think you, like, had something to hand them. Right. Sign up for your email list, which is also, like, my number one rule for any sort of local events. Like getting people on your email list. Yeah, yeah. So, okay. I do want to ask you one thing, because I know a lot of people get really overwhelmed when they're kind of doing the business to business outreach. And because they're like, okay, I'm reaching out to people. No one's responding to me. And I know you went through some of that too, so I think let's first normalize that.
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B
Yep, yep.
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A
And. And what did you do to get people to start responding back to where you could actually get in these offices and start getting in front of people?
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B
I think it divided into two different scenarios. The first one is more people that have their own practice, they are more open to things like this because they've done this before. Um, those people are easier to reach. I just reached them on Instagram because we've been following each other for a while at this point. The second type is those doctor's office, which is hard to get in. So what I did is I basically showed up at the front desk. What happened was I had a patient back then. She was a pharmaceutical representative. So she told me what they do is they either showed up or they either call and ask, hey, who schedules lunches? And that's kind of their language. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna try this. And I was like, I remember her appointment was 4pm and I was like, I'm gonna go right after this. So I went and I showed up. I was like, I'm just. I was wondering who schedules lunches for your office? And they're like, talk to her. I'm like, oh, this works.
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A
Everybody will talk to you for free lunch. That's so good. Yeah.
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B
And. And then the next part is, oh, and you also Said, how does, how do we make it not as overwhelming if they don't respond to you? What you told me back then I was really helpful is what we should do is just say, hey, every week I'm sending out an email. Every week I'm making one phone call. That's what I do. Doesn't matter if they respond. That's not my job.
- [22:07]
A
Yeah. Okay, so I remember this. We kind of made a little system. Like part of your marketing plan was you were going to do outreach to a certain number of businesses. And so it's kind of like, okay if I pitch myself to this many businesses this week? No, I think we had like a little follow up system for you as well. But it's like, okay, if nobody responds this week I'm still going to evaluate everything I said, try to tweak it for next time. But also knowing that you're just going to send out like another batch next week to more people.
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B
Exactly, exactly.
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A
I think so many people stop after one or two pitches.
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B
Yeah.
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A
They're like, well, I don't know, I pitched these two offices and nobody responded. So I don't think this is going to work for me. And you just kept going, right?
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B
Yeah. And looking back, I feel like it's so normal that people don't respond. It's not about you. They are probably so busy and they probably don't really have a good system with their own business. So they don't have time to like respond to you or come out to you. But when they see these messages, if they're successful, most likely they've done it before. So like this is not strange. Everybody does this.
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A
Yeah. And I think too is showing other businesses when you are reaching out to them for collaborations is like, how, how is this going to be valuable for them? Exactly. You know, like what's in it for them? So it's not just you benefiting.
- [23:35]
B
Yeah, you said that in the emails. It was one of the tweaks that you know, hey, this person didn't respond. How do we change that? That's actually one of I did to got to have got more responses is I went from hey, I'm so and so, I'm new in town, just want to say hi. And I changed that to hey, I see that you treat these several conditions. It's also what I do, you know, would like to collaborate and that definitely got better results.
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A
So good. Okay, so let's, let's talk about your social media. I know Instagram is huge for you. Can you give us. Well, first off. Tell us how many followers you currently have.
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B
So, on Instagram, I have 1.1 million followers. On TikTok, I'm almost 600,000.
- [24:20]
A
Oh, my gosh. Okay, so can you give us some, like, tangible actions? Like once you are fully booked, you started, then it's like, okay, I can go beyond local now. Like, I'm ready for this. You know, like, let's protect the profit locally. You're fully booked now. We gotta grow some more. So, like, what were some really tangible actions you took to start seeing this type of growth in your Instagram account?
- [24:46]
B
The work that put in was I was posting on TikTok three times a day. I was posting on Instagram every day. And I would analyze with all this content that I posted on TikTok, what worked well, what didn't work well. And as I were doing all of these videos, I kind of started to realize, who am I talking to? What am I feeling the best when I'm, you know, what type of content that I feel the best doing, what type of content have the best result?
- [25:19]
A
So what did you. Were you just looking at? Like, these are the videos that are getting some sort of traction and you just kept recreating that type of video and it just kept snowballing.
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B
Yeah, exactly. So sometimes when you spend very little time and you're like, I just have to throw a content out there. And that piece did so well. So I just made more of those that did well. It was one piece of video that I recorded. It was just me talking to the camera. I did not plan for it. I was just like, people need to hear this. So I recorded it. And then that video, literally as I posted up, people started liking it. People started commenting it and it did not stop. And that's where it took off.
- [26:06]
A
I think I know what happened. You thought of it from your person's perspective. Like, you just said it. You're like, people need to hear this.
- [26:15]
B
Ah.
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A
And it was so focused on them and not you. Because some. I mean, how often are we posting on Instagram? And you're like, am I going to get the likes from this? Am I going to get the followers or the clients going to come from this? But I think that's it. Like, you started creating content that was genuinely, like, helping your people. Right? Thinking, like, this is what they need to hear today.
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B
Right, right. I love that.
- [26:39]
A
And then you saw that it did well, and you just recreating that. And look at you now, you know exactly what to do. What is your current Instagram strategy?
- [26:48]
B
It's still the same. I post once a day. I alternating between two type of content. One is what I think people really need to hear. The second type is what people really like watching.
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A
Okay, how do you know the difference?
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B
Because the first type is I know I'm doing this because it's like a talking video where I'm like, you need to hear this. But they don't perform as well compared to the second type, which is a short video with like a. What is the word called trending audio. Whenever I post that, I get way more likes, but I'm like, okay, that's not my extremely, extremely target audience, but it brings me growth.
- [27:29]
A
Yeah. Okay, so how much, like, selling and making offers are you doing within Instagram?
- [27:36]
B
So with my local practice, I don't actively say, hey, you know, please book here, because the. I think the traction has already gone beyond that.
- [27:49]
A
Yeah.
- [27:50]
B
But do. When I first started, what I did was, remember you had this caption challenge month. It was February.
- [27:58]
A
Yeah.
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B
And we wrote a bunch of captions and you edit all the captions at the end of the caption. It would be, you know, this is. How does this help you? How does it help you as anna, be like, P.S. make an appointment here. That was really. Those were really helpful. And now the sales that I do is still at the end of the caption, I'll be like, you know, hey, go to the second link in my bio, whatever. Like a call to action at the end.
- [28:25]
A
Yeah. So now just to kind of catch everybody up, she. You have your practice, which is full, but also you've recently launched your first digital product, which you call the bundle, and you have an online course. So tell us a little bit about how you knew it was time to shift into the more digital products and a little bit of your journey with that.
- [28:50]
B
The time when I was like, I want to do a digital product is actually sounds pretty funny. I was on Instagram and I saw somebody else was selling a digital course, and I was like, oh, what is that? I can do that. Like, I should probably just do this. And that idea kind of hit me. Like, I kind of like stayed thinking about for a while and I was like, yeah, maybe I should do that. So I started doing that. So, yeah, it was not planned.
- [29:21]
A
When did you. When did you launch it?
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B
I launched it in June 2024.
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A
Okay, so you had been fully booked for a while?
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B
I was, yeah, I was fully booked for three months.
- [29:32]
A
Yeah. So I mean, for you, is that just kind of the next natural step to keep growing, like revenue I think.
- [29:41]
B
It was more like, okay, I'm fully booked right now. I don't have more rooms. My lease still have a few years on it. What am I gonna do? And that's when I'm like, okay, I should try this.
- [29:54]
A
Oh, so, like, not, like, being able to expand into a bigger practice or something like that? Yeah. Okay, so good. So what. What was the difference for you when you did start reaching out beyond local? Like, how did you make that shift when you're like, okay, I'm fully booked. I. I know I need to start talking to people all over the world. Like, what was the difference in your content?
- [30:18]
B
The difference in my content changed in terms of the. In terms of the call to action. It went from, you know, book an appointment to purely educational and be like. Like a follow for more. More broad.
- [30:38]
A
And now it's. I mean, you're making offers into your.
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B
Bundle and course right now, that's the offer that I make on my social media.
- [30:46]
A
So good. Okay. So is there. Is there anything else that you want to share from our coaching together or anything else you want to talk about?
- [30:54]
B
I'm just so glad that I found you. And I know, I promise you didn't ask me to say anything good about you, but, like, really, all these things that I've done, it's really. I couldn't have done any of that without you, and I'm so glad I did it. Like, I literally started coaching with you before my practice started existing, and that was really good decision. Was the best decision I've made. There are small pieces that you told me every single session that has made a huge difference. It could be as simple as when I first had my website and you took a look. You're like, you need to add in your location here in a really obvious place. And I was like, oh, it's not there. And I was like, back then I was calling my practice some concierge practice. You're like, that's not what concierge means. You're a private. So things like that, every little piece, even like now at this point, every time I do a launch, we do evaluation, all the mindset, everything plays into the big picture.
- [31:55]
A
Oh, so good. I'm just. I'm so excited because, like I said, it's. You've been doing this a year and three months.
- [32:02]
B
Yes.
- [32:03]
A
And, like, fully booked for months out. You're having so much success with your digital product and your course now. Just helping thousands of people already all over the world, which is incredible. So great. I just. I can't wait to keep. To keep watching you. Like it's gonna blow my mind. I can't wait. Okay, so tell us how can we find you? And I'm gonna put it all in the show notes, too.
- [32:29]
B
So on Instagram and TikTok. And TikTok. My. My handle is Old Town underscore acupuncturist. And my practice is called Nature's Gift Acupuncture in Alexandria, Virginia.
- [32:44]
A
Yeah, and if you want to come see her, you better get on the wait list now and plan a trip for what, three months from now, four months from now? She can get you in so good. Okay. Thank you so much for being here.
- [32:59]
B
Thank you so much for having me here.
- [33:02]
A
Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, I want to invite you to check out my program, the LocalPreneur Academy. This is the only program for small business owners who want to become the local go to in their industry with a steady stream of clients. You can find more information@lesleypressnell.com and I'll see you ins.