Phillip Liao

Phillip Liao I help clinic owners and health professionals improve their sales and communication skills.

02/05/2026

A patient retention hack I wish I'd learnt earlier...

Is to treat each consult like the patient is searching for a win.

A lot of clinicians head into consults looking to 'treat' patients.

On paper, they're doing their exact job.

But so many patients drop off because these treatments don't leave them with a WIN.

See patients want to leave every consult feeling like they've 'won' somehow.

And one of the best wins you could give them is the gift of a great conversation.

Don't get me wrong - you should definitely still do your clinical job.

But you can only talk clinically sporadically before they tune out anyway.

That's why one of the pillars of any great clinician is their ability to start, hold and maintain a conversation.

It's not about being a chatterbox either.

It's about asking the right questions, listening thoughtfully and responding in an authentic way.

Sometimes, it's these very conversations that reveal more psychosocial factors that you can use to treat them even better.

This is just one aspect of retention I write about in my free book 'How To Retain Patients Without Being Sleazy,'. If you want a copy, comment 'retention' and I'll send it through.

30/04/2026

People buy from people who believe in the value they bring.

A lot of clinicians talk about 'exercises' to improve a certain condition.

But what they don't do is elaborate on the value of them.

Quite often this is because they themselves don't truly understand or can articulate the exercise selection.

Everything in my pre-hab program, I put thought and clinical rationale into.

And if I was to explain this to a lead, I would tell them exactly where the value in that exercise lies.

The farmer's carry on its' own is not valuable to own.

But the farmer's carry increases cuff activation with low re-injury risk is valuable.

The wide grip row is not valuable on its own.

But when they can see and experience the contraction of that muscle for themselves and how much more sturdy their shoulder feels - it immediately becomes valuable.

You're not 'sellling' exercise.

You're selling your thought process behind the exercise.

Insight is the difference between a $120 and a $240 consult. Patients are happy to pay you more if you can demonstrate y...
29/04/2026

Insight is the difference between a $120 and a $240 consult.

Patients are happy to pay you more if you can demonstrate you understand the problem at an extremely deep level.

With new graduates every year that claim to have certain specialties (and some genuinely do)...

It's even more important that you learn how to mix your professional education with personal experience and your unique method of solving the problem.

This is insight, and NO ONE can copy this off you.

They might copy your program, but they cannot possibly copy your interpretation.

To develop insight, the answer isn't in more formal education.

It's going back to how experts first were developed.

By spending time in THE THING.

It's a completely different conversation when a patient speaks to a clinician whose has walked part of that journey.

You get each other more. You also understand them beyond what 'rehab' is.

Develop insight. No one can copy this.

28/04/2026

In my 10th year of business and I learnt these the hard way...

1. It's not about how much I know, it's about how much I'm ready to do. I read multiple textbooks on marketing, business, leadership and sales but none of it prepared me properly for my first sales call.

2. Working long hours makes me feel good about myself, but isn't actually business success. I used to glorify 50-60 hour work weeks. I told myself 'I needed to grind' in order to make it work. The truth? I was just using long hours to cover up my own feelings of self worth.

3. Use money to buy time back. Don't use time to earn more money. This is the biggest trap I fell into in my 20s. I kept trading my hours for sessions. Every hour increased my income. But it didn't increase my time. I started sitting around on weekends wondering, where did all my time go?

4. It's okay to not want to make a million dollars. I think most people enter business with this weird figure of 'I want to make 7 figures' but the reality is most people never do. And the ones who do will say 'now that I have it, I think I would've been happier with less.' Lifestyle businesses are just as great to have.

5. I realised how selfish people really are. I remember spending months building a new product, spending thousands of my own money and charging a very affordable price. People still ask for discounts. They still ask for freebies. they still say 'I'm spending money so shouldn't I get...' But that's the game.

6. I realise just how much my upbringing affected my growth. Growing up in a low income immigrant household made me think that working hard and saving my money was the mature thing to do. What I didn't realise on my business journey is that's only half of what needs to happen. Spending money is actually how you grow. Investing in your vision is how you change your life.

7. Business is unfair. I don't mean that in a negative way, but 1 hour into one business does not equal the same dollars from another business. (Cont in comments).

27/04/2026

Can a psychotherapist convert consults at $250 for a session?

Of course they can. But it's not easy.

I worked briefly with , aka Eunice on improving the quality of her sales calls and how to position herself as a premium service provider. Here are three quick strategies we used.

1. Niche hard. It's not about nicheing, it's about specialisation based off what you're good at. Eunice has a clear channel to her clients - a unique blend of experience and professional training. No one can compete with her on this. She lives it everyday.

2. Improve lead quality by showing exactly what she does on her website (compounded by Google Ads). This means that people who do book in are most likely people with the EXACT problem she can solve.

3. Restructuring her sales calls. Instead of pitching a service, focus on understanding a prospect's problems and demonstrating your pathway forward. This alone helps clinicians convert better instantly.

BONUS: To step into premium pricing requires outsized value. If you want to charge high, be prepared to give value at scale like nobody else in your niche. That's how you outgrow the profession and become the provider people go to see.

EDIT: Eunice is a psychotherapist, not psychologist. My bad 🙏

Need 1-1 help? DM me and let's chat.

25/04/2026

Seeing more people is not the answer to building a 200K/Year clinician.

Seeing moderate amount of people for a higher fee per consult, IS.

Let me break down why all these strategies work.

1. Increase Prices - A lot of resistance when it comes to raising prices comes to access. But time and time again, all my clients that raise prices INCREASE in utilisation. The paradox is pricing sends a signal. Patients who truly value what you do are happy to pay $20-30 extra IF it means they are well looked after.

2. Increase Treatment Times - The argument against this is 'but if we increase treatment times, we see less patients and that means less volume.' In the short term this is true, but here's the trade-off. When your consult times increase, patient satisfaction improves and you are far more likely to RETAIN your patients. Your clinicians are writing less notes, have more time with their patients and will increase overall job satisfaction.

3. Cap Patient Numbers - Opening your books from 7am - 7pm will not improve your patient numbers. Even if it does, it'll destroy your clinicians over time. Patients who want to come and see you will find ways to work around their schedule. Will you miss out on some patients? Of course. But you can say the same thing for not opening from 7am - 12am. When you cap patient numbers, demand for your time improves, patients stick and they're far more likely to turn up.

If you want even more ways to build your next 200K clinician, comment RETENTION and I'll send over my free eBook.

24/04/2026

at added to his bottom line by working less.

As a solo operator, its not about how much you can do, but how effective you can be WITHOUT doing more.

Most solo operators run out of time because they measure success by time spent.

This will always lead to a time poor outcome.

If you want to work together 1-1, DM me and lets chat!

23/04/2026

The three visit drop off is not JUST a systems problem.

There is something that ISN'T happening in the initial consult.

Most of the time, clinicians are too afraid to be honest with realistic rehab timelines.

They get patients out of pain.

But they dont help patients see the next set of problems.

And that causes more drop offs than any text message you haven't sent.

Nothing will work unless you get the initial expectations right.

If you want to level up your team on the essentials of retention, I am currently giving away my second book, 'How to Retain Patients WITHOUT Being Sleazy' - absolutely FREE.

Just comment 'retention' below and I'll send you a copy.

21/04/2026

Physio/coach used this $0, 3 step strategy to get her first 5 clients.

Take this as a sign you can do it too. Les go!

20/04/2026

The #1 skill that all physios MUST learn to protect themselves from burnout.

These past 2 years I've listened to my gut instinct more than ever before - and it's paid off in ways I never imagined.B...
17/04/2026

These past 2 years I've listened to my gut instinct more than ever before - and it's paid off in ways I never imagined.

Besides the outward success, it's the knowing that my thoughts, judgement and creativity are correct.

It's the trust I've learnt to place on my own judgement.

Hope this inspires you to start trusting your own.

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