You know what would make for a killer Q1? Plugging the leaks in your patient pipeline before they cost you another year of revenue walking out the door.

And today I want to talk to you about a gold nugget of patient psychology that will serve you well as you move to dominate your market and grow your surgical volume in 2026.

Right this second, there's a “room” in your practice absolutely packed wall-to-wall with people who want surgery from you.

They're sitting there quietly, wondering if they should pull the trigger. Checking their bank accounts, reading reviews about you online, and the thing is… your front desk has no clue any of them are even there.

Because they're not in your actual waiting room (or lobby, as I prefer to call it). They're in their kitchens and living rooms and parked cars. These are the folks who filled out your contact form three months ago. The ones who came in for a consultation but decided not to book for whatever reason. The people who called asking about prices then vanished into thin air.

Here's the thing we often forget about how humans actually make big scary medical decisions: We tend to think if someone doesn’t book right away, they’re a ‘bad lead.’ But that's not how brains work when you're talking about someone letting you do surgery on their eyes.

Most people need weeks or even months bouncing the idea around in their heads before they're ready. It’s not that they're not blowing you off. They're just working up the nerve to make a big change in their own lives.

You know what actually happens during all that time though? Life happens.

They get busy with work. The kids have soccer tournaments (or baseball / softball tourneys, in my family’s case). Their boss needs that report by Friday.

Then they look up and “suddenly” three months have passed. This isn’t news to you, it happens to all of us in life in some form or fashion. We all have a lot going on. It’s fine, but it’s real and needs to be addressed.

So for your prospects, it's not that they decided against surgery… they just straight-up forgot. The interest is still there somewhere in the back of their mind, but you've completely fallen off their radar because nobody's been having a conversation with them.

When they finally do hit that moment of "okay I think I’m ready," guess which practice pops into their head first? The practice that wins is the one that has been consistently educating them, creating a-ha moments, entertaining them and coach them how to make a confident decision.

To put it on a bumper sticker: The practice that wins is the practice that exhibits Leadership.

Of course you should be following up with new leads multiple times directly. But let’s be honest - your team doesn’t have the bandwidth to host struggle sessions with all your non-converted leads all day long.

So the question becomes - how can we educate / a-ha / entertain / coach your prospective patients at scale, without sucking a ton of your team’s time? And perhaps even activate that “Ok, I think I’m ready” thought sooner rather than later?

I’ll reveal one of my preferred plans of attack later this week.

For now, keep this in mind as you start your year: Prospects need you. They need your leadership. (For those of you in our coaching programs, you know we belabor “Leadership” perhaps more than any other concept.)

So consider: Are we doing all we can to LEAD our prospects at the highest level?

And I’ll tell you an effective way to showcase your leadership without adding an extra minute of time to your scheduling team’s already busy task list…

Talk soon,

Troy “Waiting Room Revealer" Cole