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Every year, I spend a couple of days chatting with a handful of colleagues about our businesses. We exchange wins, frustrations, ideas, goals and hopes for the future.
This year I didn’t get to chat with every single one of them. Our schedules just didn’t match. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done in the future.
Which brings me to the first lesson I want to share with you this year.
Now before I do, this is going to be the last email in 2025. You won’t be hearing from me until February, and there are a few reasons why, but I won’t be getting into those just yet.
I figured it would be a great time for me to share with you some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned this year, and throughout the last seven years to help you level up this upcoming year.
So let’s get to it:
There’s no “best” time to plan your next move.
This year I met an older gentleman by the name of Scott while smoking a cigar in a lounge near the house. He had just taken over as manager in a small training facility nearby that teaches welding to non-traditional students. We got to talking about strategic planning and action taking. He mentioned how he felt as he was always catching up, or reacting to things that were happening around him and the business. He felt as if he was always one step behind.
I felt that. Moving back home, and comparing my clinic to what it was, and where others were. I felt as if I had taken 17 steps behind and was now simply reacting to what was happening around me, and I had no time to catch up. That was before I revised and updated all the systems in my clinic.
That week, we met up at his office to chat about the business strategy. There was nothing. When I asked more about what they had done in the past and what he was planning for the future, he mentioned he was waiting until the next quarter to get his ducks in a row. This was at least 5 weeks away.
No wonder he kept reacting. There was no strategy on where he was going, how he was managing, nothing. He had zero control of where the business would go.
We got to work on his strategy that same day. There’s no reason to wait, to plan for the future. That’s wasting your valuable time and that of those around you. That’s what keeps him reacting and not acting.
By the end of the quarter, he had systems in place. He knew exactly how much money he was spending in marketing, knew where to spend more of his marketing dollars, and finally felt that he had his business under control. This last quarter, they finally hired a few additional interns to help with the increased traffic.
Many of us have been, or might be in a similar situation. You may feel that you are reacting, trying to catch up on promoting your clinic/business. Stop.
It’s time for you to sit down for an hour or two, and take control of the next few weeks. Stop reacting to the things that simply rob your energy on a day-to-day basis.
Execute today for a distant future, not tomorrow.
This one I am pretty sure I’ve mentioned in the past. Maybe I haven’t written on it, but I sure as heck have spoken about it in our courses.
What you do today, won’t show up for another 90 days (or so).
In business, the idea that a few posts on IG and FB are going to drive a huge amount of clients your way is absurd.
Let me just give you a real life example from our clinic.
When I first opened my practice, I didn’t start sharing on social media until the first day we were open (Oct 2019). I saw a handful of patients within the first month (5-6). I thought that was awesome.
When we moved to a new city, I started sharing 3 months prior. My first week I had 13 new patients.
To this day, the marketing that I do is not for the current month. It’s done with next month in mind.
My current marketing is not on social media as I have been quite successful building my hybrid brand in person. This is going to change as we get into 2026.
Build it and they will come is obsolete.
You can have the cure for low back pain, shoulder pain, migraines… the best dry needling course… whatever. But no one will find you, if you don’t promote yourself.
Just the idea of doing self-promotion sounds yucky eh? Well guess what.
You are your best promoter. Nobody else is going to do it for you.
This has been, and has continued to be my kryptonite on social media. This is changing in 2026.
Your patients, your parents, your best friends will support you behind closed doors, but when it’s time to share it with the world… you are your biggest promoter.
It’s true that people will share negative experiences faster than positive ones.
I’m sorry to break it down like that — but it’s the truth.
The easies, cheapest and most effective marketing you’ll ever do, will come from YOU!
You have to be willing to promote yourself if you want to be seen.
Forget about how your mom will see you, or what your friend’s friend will think about you.
This is where I focused my time this year growing my clinic:
Gym promotions with trainers (top tier)
Lunch meetings with local DPTs and DCs (hit and miss)
Written referrals to local Primary Cares (poor connection, but highly appreciated by my patients)
I’ve always tried to support the businesses that remind me to leave a review for them. I get it as a business and a consumer. If you want good things coming your way, do good things for others.
(If you are feeling generous, leave us a google review here)
Track it, or lose it.
This might not sound like the sexiest thing to do, but think about it…
If you don’t track something, how do you know if you are trending positively or negatively?
Think about weight loss. How do you know you are losing weight?
Because the scale give you a number, and that number is tracking in a negative trend when compared to the initial number a few days, weeks, months back.
This give you enough data to assess, address and take action on the next steps to obtain a certain outcome.
Why wouldn’t you track how many patient visits you have? How many new leads you got from a specific post? Where your leads come from? Etc?
This wasn’t obvious at first to me either. I thought this type of tracking was not necessary.
At first it may seem unnecessary. After all your business most likely might be pretty simple.
You share stuff on instagram, someone reaches out, your bring them in, and bam… you made a new patient.
What if you tracked which posts performed best? What type of content brought you more clients? Wouldn’t that just give you more data to make better decisions, attract more clients, and make more money?
Yes.
It doesn’t have to be complicated, but if you don’t track where you are spending your time, money and effort. How can you make informed decisions to benefit your office? To give you more time off without losing money? To scale appropriately?
This is exactly how I am making my decisions for SmartCARE Ed.™ and The Athlete Spot™ for 2026. Some are already in the works.
As I mentioned earlier in this email. You most likely won’t hear from me again until late January 2026. I haven’t forgotten about you. 2026 will be a busy year, and I have a lot of content coming to help you level up as a clinician and business owner.
For now, that is all I have for you!
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Thank you for your continued support and trust!
In health and strength,
Dr. Thomas Kauffman
P.S. The FCW Founders Camp emails went out earlier today! If you didn’t get one, send me an email.