Yuri Elkaim | Healthpreneur

Starting over...

The past year has been a strange one.

At times, it's felt like a rocket re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

Everything shaking.

Heat everywhere.

Pieces flying off as you wonder what will still be left when it's over.

We've made some of the biggest changes in Healthpreneur's history.

We've parted ways with nearly half our team.

Restructured the business.

Evolved our offerings.

And made some difficult decisions to better align with our vision of helping one billion people achieve better health.

It hasn't been easy.

In fact, this chapter may one day go down as the "dark ages" of Healthpreneur.

But I also know it won't be the last time we're forced to reinvent ourselves.

Most people will never understand decisions like these.

They don't have all the context.

They only see the outcome, not everything that led to it.

And that's okay.

As a leader, your job isn't to make everyone happy.

It's to make the decisions that give your business the best chance to fulfill its mission.

Sometimes that means letting go of what got you here.

Because what got you here won't always get you where you want to go.

You shouldn't feel trapped by decisions you made years ago.

You should have the freedom to step back, take inventory, and build the business that aligns with the life you want today.

That's not inconsistency.

That's growth.

Netflix used to mail DVDs.

Airbnb had to completely rethink parts of its business during COVID just to survive.

The companies that endure aren't the ones that resist change.

They're the ones that embrace it before they have no other choice.

Business is no different than life.

The only constant is change.

The leaders who thrive are the ones willing to evolve with it.

- Yuri

1 week ago | [YT] | 4

Yuri Elkaim | Healthpreneur

A hotel owner once hired a celebrated chef to transform his struggling restaurant.

The chef had talent.

He also had a reputation for being difficult.

During their first meeting, the owner saw flashes of it.

The chef interrupted people.

He dismissed simple questions.

He treated every disagreement like a challenge to his authority.

But the owner gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Great talent often comes with sharp edges, he thought.

So he assigned one of his most patient managers to help the chef settle in.

At first, the manager overlooked the late changes, unreasonable demands, and occasional outbursts.

She wanted the relationship to work.

But every accommodation taught the chef the wrong lesson.

He didn’t see her patience as professionalism.

He saw it as permission.

Soon, the occasional outbursts became daily events.

The demands became more unreasonable.

The disrespect spread from the manager to the rest of the staff.

When the owner finally confronted him, the chef laughed.

“Do you know how difficult it will be to replace me?”

The owner paused.

Then he said, “Your talent got you through the door, but your character just showed you out.”

The restaurant struggled for several weeks after the chef left.

Then something unexpected happened.

The staff became more confident.

People shared ideas again.

Service improved.

Customers noticed the difference.

Within six months, the restaurant was doing better than it ever had under the celebrated chef.

The owner learned something he never forgot.

When people show you their true colours, pay attention.

You can set a boundary, or you can teach them that your boundaries do not exist.

Compassion matters.

Everyone is fighting a battle you cannot see.

But giving someone the benefit of the doubt does not mean giving them unlimited opportunities to mistreat people.

A title does not make someone special.

Talent does not excuse arrogance.

Status does not give anyone permission to treat others as if they are beneath them.

Some people confuse kindness with weakness.

The longer you tolerate their behaviour, the more entitled they become.

That is why protecting your people is one of the most important jobs of any leader.

You can replace talent.

You can rebuild revenue.

You can solve operational problems.

But once your team believes you will tolerate disrespect to protect the business, you lose something far more valuable.

You lose their trust.

Give people grace.

Look for what you could have done better.

Make reasonable accommodations.

But when a pattern becomes clear, believe the pattern.

Respect is not negotiable.

- Yuri

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

Yuri Elkaim | Healthpreneur

As the leader of your business, your number one job is prioritization.

Every day you'll have dozens of problems competing for your attention.

The challenge isn't deciding what to do.

It's deciding what NOT to do.

Because if you focus on the wrong problem, you'll spend weeks or months optimizing something that never should've been your priority in the first place.

Every “should” question is really a strategic question.

And strategy is simply prioritization.

Where should you invest your time?

Your energy?

Your money?

Your team's attention?

The longer you're in business, the better you become at recognizing patterns and identifying the better answers to these questions.

But if you're early in your journey, it's easy to mistake symptoms for the actual problem.

That's why guidance matters.

One of our clients recently showed me the numbers across her entire client acquisition pipeline.

At first glance, the bottleneck seemed obvious.

Her discovery calls were converting at only 20%.

The natural conclusion was that she needed to improve her sales skills.

But then she casually mentioned something else.

She was running ads in several different countries.

And one country had dramatically lower show rates and close rates than everywhere else.

Suddenly, the problem changed.

Maybe her close rate wasn't the issue at all.

Maybe she was simply attracting the wrong prospects and her targeting was the reason.

My recommendation was simple.

Stop advertising in that country.

Then look at the numbers from the U.S. and Canada on their own.

If those close rates were healthy, then sales was never the problem.

Targeting was.

Without looking deeper, she could've spent months stressing over a sales issue that wasn’t an issue to begin with.

That's what great leaders do.

They don't just solve problems.

They identify the real constraint.

Then they put all of their energy into solving that one thing before moving on to the next.

That's the game of business.

- Yuri

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 4

Yuri Elkaim | Healthpreneur

Should I bring back the #winning videos?

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

Yuri Elkaim | Healthpreneur

There are days when you don't want to be in business.

Days when everything feels like it's falling apart.

When it seems like every problem finds you at once.

And all you want to do is pull the covers over your head.

That's why entrepreneurship isn't for everyone.

It's not for the faint of heart.

It's not for people who quit when things get uncomfortable.

It's for a special kind of maniac.

The kind who's willing to give up a “norma”l life for the chance to build an exceptional one.

The kind who's willing to endure years of uncertainty, setbacks, and sacrifice for moments that make it all worthwhile.

At least, that's what you think in the beginning.

Then something changes.

When you stay in the game long enough, you realize it was never about those moments.

It was about the journey.

Most people aren't willing to endure the ups and downs that come with building something meaningful.

But for those of us who are, it's the greatest ride imaginable.

The wins.

The failures.

The sleepless nights.

The breakthroughs.

The lessons.

Every one of them shapes you.

And over time you realize the business was never the destination.

It was the vehicle.

The real reward isn't the money.

Or the freedom.

Or the recognition.

It's the person it makes of you along the way.

That's why we don’t retire.

We just keep building.

Keep learning.

Keep growing.

Because once you've experienced a life of purpose and pursuit, standing still is no longer an option.

It’s not for everyone.

But if you get it…you get it.

Yuri

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 7

Yuri Elkaim | Healthpreneur

When I started Healthpreneur, almost all of our growth came from paid ads.

A few years later, a couple of my clients convinced me I needed to become more active on Instagram.

So I reluctantly gave in.

Several years later, I can tell you with complete conviction...

I hate it.

Not because Instagram doesn't work.

It clearly does.

But because it rewards a style of content that doesn't bring out my best.

Spend five minutes scrolling my Explore page.

It's endless entertainment.

Lifestyle.

Flexing.

Attention grabbing hooks.

Some of it's creative.

Most of it's not useful.

And I leave feeling like I just wasted five minutes of my life.

For years, we built content systems around keeping up with the algorithm.

One to three posts a day.

Stories.

Reels.

Carousels.

Constantly feeding a machine that always wanted more.

106k followers later…

Eventually I asked myself...

Why?

So I stopped.

Today, I post when I have something worth saying.

Sometimes that's once a week.

Sometimes less.

And guess what?

It hasn't hurt our business.

It’s not even trying to compete with creators or influencers who are better entertainers than I am.

It’s fundamentally a format of content that I don’t enjoy.

I'm at my best when I'm teaching, sharing insights, and providing real, actionable value.

That's why I love YouTube.

It's where I consume the most valuable content.

It's where I enjoy creating the most valuable content.

And in just the past two years, our YouTube content has contributed more than $21 million in revenue to our business.

Not because we chased views.

Because we built content for the types of clients who love to help - health practitioners who are scaling their business and impact.

I see so many health practices trying to go viral with skits, trends, and videos designed to grab attention.

Meanwhile, the patients they're trying to attract are simply looking for someone they can trust.

Help people first.

Attention follows.

So does trust.

For me, YouTube is where that happens.

The influencers can have Instagram.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 6

Yuri Elkaim | Healthpreneur

Who would've thought a puppy could teach me so much about sales?

We've had dogs for nearly 20 years.

Most recently, we welcomed Joey, our new puppy.

She's only nine weeks old.

Everything is new to her.

New sounds.

New smells.

New people.

A new environment.

At this stage, my job isn't to teach her dozens of tricks.

It's to help her feel safe.

If we want her to love her crate, we can't use it as punishment.

We have to help her associate it with safety.

Comfort.

Reward.

Trust.

Only then does she willingly go inside.

It reminded me that sales works the same way.

Before people buy from you, they need to feel safe with you.

They may want to change.

But they also fear making the wrong decision.

They don't know if they can trust you.

Or if your solution will actually work for them.

Your job isn't to pressure them.

It's to reduce that fear.

You can do that over time by consistently publishing helpful content that allows people to get to know you, like you, trust you, and understand how you think.

You can do that with overwhelming amounts of proof that lets them know your solution actually works.

In a discovery call, you don't win by pushing harder.

But by making people feel understood.

Heard.

And at ease.

The more psychological safety you create, the easier the decision becomes.

Because people don't buy at the point of maximum desire.

They buy at the point of minimum fear.

Yuri

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 8

Yuri Elkaim | Healthpreneur

I've been speaking with several health practice owners recently whose businesses have contracted over the past year or two.

It's never fun when your business starts moving backwards.

Heck, ours did at the end of last year.

But the most important job of a business owner isn't to avoid problems.

It's to understand why they're happening.

If your business doubled, what specifically caused it?

If it shrank, why?

What's the one constraint that, if solved, would create the biggest breakthrough?

That's where your focus belongs.

It's easy to feel productive checking things off your to-do list.

But unless you're ruthlessly focused on the biggest bottleneck in the business, you'll likely end up in the same place a year from now despite working incredibly hard.

We experienced this ourselves.

The CAC for our main coaching program increased significantly last year.

At first, we asked the obvious questions.

Was it our sales process?

Was it our messaging?

Not really.

The real issue was the market.

Advertising costs had risen to a point where the economics no longer made sense for that specific offer.

After 8 years of optimizing the same model and offer, it became clear that another small tweak wasn't the answer.

We needed to adapt.

Not by changing our mission.

Not by changing who we serve.

But by slightly changing how we serve them.

Same business.

Same vision.

Same values.

Just a better strategy for today's market.

This won't be the last time we'll have to adapt.

I've been in business for more than 20 years.

I've lived through recessions, financial downturns, and a pandemic.

Every challenge forced us to evolve.

The businesses that survive aren't the ones that never get knocked down.

They're the ones that keep adjusting.

Look at the Fortune 500 from 1955.

More than 85% of those companies no longer exist.

Netflix used to mail DVDs.

Blockbuster had every opportunity to evolve but didn't.

The lesson is simple.

Business is an endurance sport.

The goal isn't to avoid change.

It's to adapt to it.

No matter what you're facing right now, remember this.

A few years from now, today's challenge will probably become one of your best stories.

Just stay in the game.

- Yuri

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

Yuri Elkaim | Healthpreneur

Yesterday, England lost their World Cup semifinal against Argentina.

After scoring first, they spent the next 30 minutes sitting back to protect the lead.

It backfired.

Argentina came in waves.

Attack after attack.

Eventually, the pressure broke them.

You can only defend for so long before something gives.

Business works the same way.

You don't grow by playing it safe.

You don't scale by constantly cutting expenses or protecting what you've already built.

At some point, you have to go on the offensive.

You have to create.

You have to market.

You have to consistently put value into the world.

If you sit back hoping referrals keep coming or that patients somehow find you, you'll eventually hit a ceiling.

Meanwhile, your competitors are investing in growth.

They're becoming more visible.

Building more trust.

Expanding their reach.

And over time, they'll pass you.

I see this all the time.

There are clinics doing $500k to $1 million a year almost entirely from referrals.

They're proud they don't spend money on marketing.

They wear it like a badge of honour.

But it's also the reason they stay where they are.

The practitioners who lead their market don't wait for opportunity.

They create it.

They add more value than anyone else.

They're more visible.

They're more trusted.

And over time, they become the obvious choice.

The best defense in business has always been a great offense.

Your friend and coach,

Yuri

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 4

Yuri Elkaim | Healthpreneur

If you follow any business mentors online (myself included), you've probably noticed something over the past couple of years.

Almost all of them have gone all in on YouTube.

Why do you think that is?

A few years ago, most of the big names relied heavily on paid ads.

Many (like us) still do.

But they've also seen the writing on the wall.

Trust is becoming the most valuable asset in business.

Think about it.

How do you know who to trust anymore?

Every third post on social media is an ad.

Everyone and every offer sounds the same.

AI has made it easier than ever to create content (or should I say “AI slop”).

And harder than ever to know who's real.

Naturally, we want something deeper.

We want to spend time with someone we resonate with.

We want to understand how they think.

Their philosophy.

Their personality.

Their perspective.

Only then do we decide whether they're someone we want to learn from or do business with.

We can't do that in person with everyone.

So, long-form content is the next best thing.

That's why YouTube has become such an important part of our business.

In just two years, our YouTube channel has contributed more than $21.4 million in tracked revenue for our business.

That's remarkable considering most of our client still originate from Meta ads.

A few years ago, I realized the days of running an ad, booking a call, and enrolling a client were fading.

People need more trust before making big decisions.

I'm completely okay with that.

I've always loved teaching.

My goal isn't to chase views.

It's to answer the questions I know my best clients are already asking.

I don't care about viral topics.

I care about the right topics.

I don't care about millions of viewers.

I care about the right viewers.

That's why, even with a relatively small channel of just 27,000 subscribers, YouTube has become one of the biggest contributors to our business.

More importantly, it's become our greatest trust-building asset.

I'm not creating content for this month.

I'm building a body of work that will live for decades.

A library of answers for every meaningful question our market is asking.

That's the game I'm playing.

Because YouTube, and business itself, rewards people who think long term.

The goal isn't to become the most viewed.

It's to become the most trusted.

And over time, being seen as a trusted authority helps you become the obvious choice in your market.

If that's the kind of business you want to build, this can likely help.

Your friend and coach,

Yuri

PS. Here's an example of a question I get asked all the time and a quick video that provides some perspective on it...

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 0