Dr. Phil is doing his best to keep people off his operating table | #575

Today we chat with Dr. Phil. Nope. Not that Dr. Phil. Our Dr. Phil is a Florida-based heart surgeon who’s doing everything he can to keep patients OFF his operating table. In other words, he doesn’t want any clients! It’s heart-stopping (maybe that should be heart–starting?!) episode 575 of The (12 year-old, award-winning) Small Business Big Marketing podcast.

A little more about heart surgeon Dr. Philip Ovadia …

For as long as Dr Philip Ovadia can remember, he was overweight. As a child. As a teenager. As a student at medical school. Even as a cardiac surgeon.

Then, one day when he was making the rounds in the hospital he was working at, he was convinced he was having a heart attack.

Fortunately it was just severe heartburn, however that incident scared him into action.

He lost all the weight he needed to (easier said than done!), then set off on a journey to end obesity and keep others off his operating table.

And this is where it gets interesting.

Here’s a guy who’s dedicated years of his life to becoming a heart surgeon, he’s saving lives by performing open-heart surgery on a daily basis, and (like all surgeons) earning a pretty damn good income. It would appear from the outside that he was living the dream.

But he was anything but in-flow.

What he really wanted was no clients. No patients. 

So, over recent years, he finds himself choosing to operate less and less, and instead coaching people to optimise their metabolic health, in order to avoid heart issues and cure their diabetes. Yeah, he’s essentially become a well-being coach!

So much so that he’s written a book titled Stay Off My Operating Table: A Heart Surgeon’s Metabolic Health Guide to Lose Weight, Prevent Disease & Feel Your Best Every Day. He does 1-on-1 coaching, has an online forum, podcast, blog. He’s a marketing machine.

I began by asking Dr Phil why he became a heart surgeon in the first place …

Timbo’s Top 3 Attention Grabbers from my chat with Dr. Philip Ovadia …

1. Do what brings you joy and flow, even if it means initially earning less than you are right now.
2. Embrace and respect the power of marketing. Here’s a guy who’s a heart surgeon by trade, with little business or marketing knowledge … Yet the mix of marketing tools he’s using to get noticed and understood is amazing.
3. I love his offer of a 15-minute telehealth call. ALthough not scalable, it’s a great way to build initial enquiry and conversion into a new business idea.

Other interviews with medical practitioners on The Small Business Marketing Podcast

Interview with Dentist Padi Lund

Interview with podiatrist Daniel Gibbs

Interview with naturopath Katherine Maslen

Last Week’s Episode of The Small Business Big Marketing Podcast

Interviews with Zarraffa’s Coffee founder Kenton Campbell & Nutrition Warehouse founder Grant Mayo.

Thanks for tuning in. May your marketing be the best marketing.