We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amanda Brummitt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amanda below.

Alright, Amanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Along with taking care of clients, taking care of our team is one of the most important things we can do as leaders. Looking back on your journey, did you have a boss that was really great? Maybe you can tell us about that boss and what made them a wonderful person to work for?
I’ve been fortunate to have many bosses and mentors that were generous with teaching and guiding. My boss that likely taught me the most was the CEO of the hospital that I worked at when I was quite young. I landed a Director position at 23 and I’m pretty sure no one knew just how young I was. What made this boss great was that he gave me permission to fail.

When I would bring an issue to him, he would never tell me how to fix it even when I asked him what to do. He would ask what I thought the options were and force me to think through them on my own. He may give a little push here and there, but wouldn’t tell me what he thought the right solution was. He would always tell me to go with what I thought and circle back with him to tell him if it was the right decision. If it was right, great. If it was wrong, that was fine too as long as I could explain what I had learned and how I would do it differently if I had it to do over again.

It was an incredible gift to be allowed to be wrong and allowed to fail. It gave me the confidence to boldly make decisions and the ownership in the outcome. I truly believe it was a major building block in my ability to make executive-level decisions.

Amanda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’ve been doing consulting work in the healthcare space since 2008 and have been in the industry since 2000. The consulting services are fairly broad encompassing everything from strategy to operations, but my real love is patient experience. I truly believe that all of our jobs in healthcare exist for the patient…and that if we aren’t putting the patient first, it’s time to find a new job.

I love going into organizations to secret shop remotely and in-person to assess where their strengths and weaknesses may lie. We can get a fairly good gauge for the patient experience and then offer feedback on what they are doing well and areas for improvement. Often, it is rewording language and reworking processes so they are more friendly towards patients. Sometimes, it is evaluating whether or not someone should actually be patient-facing. Not everyone is cut out to work with patients!

And, we love to take what we learn and then help the organization to improve by training their team to offer a very patient-friendly experience. It is so rewarding to see the changes take place to improve that patient experience. And, it usually ends up making it a more friendly workplace!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Taking great care of our existing clients is our sole strategy for growth. And, it’s been effective since we opened our doors in 2008. When you take great care of people, they tell other people. 100% of our business is referral and we are beyond proud of that. Does this mean we sometimes make decisions that aren’t financially great for us because it is good for our client? Yep. Does this mean we work ourselves out of projects and refer out work where someone else can do a better job? You better believe it. But, I’ve found that doing the right thing for clients always pays off and allows me to sleep at night knowing I’ve done what is right.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lot of our work ends up happening in the healthcare marketing space. I think my clients are amazing and I love to brag about them. When “selling” their services in person, I’ve always been good about asking questions first and listening a lot rather than just pitching their services blindly.

But, here’s the big thing I had to unlearn and it’s one of my clients that taught it to me. In digital and print marketing about them, I bragged about them and used pictures of them and it was all about them. One day, one of my clients said, what if we make this about the patient and not about us? Mind blown. Why hadn’t I ever thought of that? I thought about all the things patients would want to know and want to learn, but I never thought about actually making the marketing piece about the patient.

It totally changed my approach to marketing to patients. Rather than lots of pictures of the doctors, I use imagery that the patient can see themselves in and relate to on a personal level. Rather than spouting off accolades, I now explain what those accolades mean for the patient experience and why the patient should care.

It’s such a simple concept, but I was completely missing it because I was so enamored by the selling point being my client rather than what my client could do in a patient’s life and health.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thebrummittgroup.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebrummittgroup/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrummittGroup/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-brummitt-group
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/brummittgroup

Image Credits
Lillie Brummitt