About this episode

Clinic owners spend a lot of time talking about what clinicians should do better. Far fewer ask clinicians what clinic owners are getting wrong.

In this episode, Michael sits down with osteopath Chloe Gibson to explore what running a clinic looks like from the clinician’s side.

They discuss why self-employed clinicians are often treated like employees without receiving the security or support of employment, why new hires are brought into clinics without enough patient demand, and why mentoring is often too vague, inconsistent or clinically narrow.

They also examine the tension between commercial KPIs and ethical patient care, the role of hands-on treatment, what actually creates patient loyalty, and why patient experience often matters more than clinical credentials.

The conversation also covers work ethic, younger clinicians, business education, technology, difficult patients, gender in MSK healthcare, and why clinic owners may be hiring for the wrong qualities.

Show Notes

• Where clinic owners consistently go wrong
• Self-employed clinicians being treated like employees
• Why hiring before there is enough patient demand fails
• Employment versus contractor models in healthcare
• The problem with fragmented clinic systems and expectations
• KPIs, rebooking rates and ethical patient care
• Hands-on treatment versus exercise-led rehabilitation
• Why patient experience matters more than outcomes alone
• What makes patients trust and return to a clinician
• Hiring for personality, communication and emotional intelligence
• Why clinical knowledge is useless without communication skills
• Technology, shockwave, force plates and unnecessary investment
• What newly qualified clinicians actually need from mentorship
• Why business and financial education should be part of clinical training
• Work ethic, work-life balance and changing expectations
• Managing difficult patients
• Reviews, referrals and long-term patient loyalty
• Gender, authority and patient preferences in MSK healthcare

What You’ll Learn

• Why filling a clinician’s diary should begin before they are hired
• How contractor models can damage culture, consistency and retention
• Why strict KPIs can create poor clinical and commercial decisions
• How good communication improves both patient care and revenue
• Why patients often decide whether to return within the first few minutes
• What effective mentoring should include beyond clinical skills
• Why clinicians need to understand business, finance and profitability
• How patient experience drives reviews, referrals and repeat business
• Why expensive technology does not automatically create a better clinic
• What clinic owners should look for when recruiting clinicians
• Why long-term profitability usually follows good care rather than aggressive selling

Who This Episode is For

• Clinic owners and healthcare founders
• Physiotherapists, osteopaths and chiropractors
• Newly qualified and early-career clinicians
• Clinic managers responsible for recruitment and performance
• Healthcare professionals considering self-employment
• Clinicians planning to open their own clinic
• Anyone interested in the commercial realities of private healthcare

Guest Details

Chloe Gibson – Osteopath and Personal Trainer

Chloe is an osteopath with a background in personal training. She has worked across a range of private healthcare businesses, from small room-rental clinics to larger multi-site organisations.

Her experience gives her a direct view of the differences between well-run clinics and those that struggle with recruitment, culture, mentorship, patient experience and clinician retention.

Visit https://hmdg.co.uk for further information.

Follow Michael on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjschumacher100

Overview

Most people see the success story of a business. Very few see what it actually costs to build one.

In this episode, Michael sits down with HMDG co-founder and his fiancée, Hannah, to talk honestly about what building HMDG actually looked like behind the scenes.

Not the polished LinkedIn version. The real version.

From having almost no money and wondering how they were going to pay bills, through to building and selling one of the best-known healthcare marketing businesses in the UK, this episode breaks down the stress, burnout, scaling problems, health scares and emotional pressure that came with it.

They also talk about building a business together as a couple, leadership, female founders in healthcare, selling the company, and why entrepreneurship often feels far less glamorous than people imagine.

Show Notes

• How HMDG actually started
• Going from broke to building a million-pound business
• Burnout, stress and health problems from scaling
• Working together as a couple
• Leadership, team culture and managing people
• Selling the company and the reality behind exits
• Female founders and being underestimated in healthcare
• Why business ownership can feel isolating
• The emotional pressure of entrepreneurship

What You’ll Learn

• What building a healthcare business really looks like
• Why growth often creates more stress, not less
• The hidden emotional cost of entrepreneurship
• Why systems become critical as businesses scale
• What selling a business actually involves
• How leadership changes as companies grow
• Why luck plays a bigger role than people admit

Who This Episode Is For

• Clinic owners and healthcare founders
• Entrepreneurs building service businesses
• Couples working together in business
• Healthcare professionals considering starting a company
• Anyone struggling with stress, burnout or scaling problems

Guest Details

Hannah Humphries – Co-Founder & Managing Director, HMDG

Originally trained as a physiotherapist, Hannah co-founded HMDG and helped grow it into one of the UK’s leading healthcare marketing businesses.

Visit https://hmdg.co.uk for further information.

Follow Michael on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjschumacher100

Overview

Part honest conversation, part industry insight, this episode explores one of the most misunderstood topics in healthcare: sales.

Most clinics think they have a marketing problem. In reality, many have a follow-up problem. Enquiries come in through forms, phone calls, WhatsApp, social media, and email, but too often nobody really knows what happens next. Patients drift away, systems miss them, and clinics lose revenue without ever spotting where the leakage is happening.

In this episode, Michael sits down with Jared Aron, founder of Coherent, to talk about why sales should not be a dirty word in healthcare. They unpack patient drop-off, recall, reactivation, lead conversion, poor PMS data, and the hidden cost of clunky clinic systems. They also touch on how better visibility tools like the HMDG Capacity Engine (https://capacity.hmdg.co.uk/) and Retention Engine (https://retention.hmdg.co.uk/) can help clinics actually understand what’s going on beneath the surface.

Show Notes

• Why sales is misunderstood in healthcare
• Jared’s background in clinics and healthcare technology
• The idea of patient leakage and where clinics lose people
• Why PMS data is often inaccurate or misleading
• The gap between medical records and customer records
• Why many clinics stop following up too early
• How better follow-up improves lead conversion and recall
• What healthy inquiry-to-booking conversion can look like
• Why poor booking systems create friction and lost revenue
• How irrelevant automation trains patients to ignore clinics
• Why timing, channel, and relevance matter in patient communication
• The real ROI of better follow-up

What You’ll Learn

• Why sales in healthcare is really about better follow-up
• How clinics lose patients without realising it
• Why PMS retention figures can be misleading
• What stronger lead handling actually looks like
• Why consistency matters as much as speed
• How reactivation varies across different services
• Why poor systems reduce bookings
• How better communication can improve conversion
• Why tools like the Capacity Engine (https://capacity.hmdg.co.uk/) and Retention Engine (https://retention.hmdg.co.uk) help you understand performance properly
• Why ROI includes both revenue gained and time saved

Who This Episode Is For

• Private practice owners who feel they are losing patients
• MSK clinic owners looking to improve conversion and recall
• Healthcare businesses frustrated by poor systems and messy data
• Practice owners who want growth without being overly salesy
• Marketing and growth teams working with clinics

Guest Details

Jared Aron - Founder, Coherent

With a background in clinic leadership, medical devices, and healthcare technology. After seeing how difficult it was for clinics to manage patient drop-off, retention, and recall with existing systems, he founded Coherent to help practices improve revenue by fixing leakage across the patient journey.

Visit https://hmdg.co.uk for further information.

Follow Michael on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjschumacher100