Whether you’re a DMS student, employee, or an ultrasound tech running their own business, providing exceptional service from both a patient care and professionalism standpoint is key to building long term relationships with colleagues, co-workers, and providers alike.

Transcript:

(00:00):

Grab a seat and a cup of coffee because you just enrolled in Ultrasound Business School. We are obsessed with all things ultrasound and are here to take you on a journey through the messy and the magical side of business ownership. Think marketing, contracts, vendors, admin, growth mindset. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This is the Talking Tech Podcast, a sonographer’s guide to entrepreneurship. Here’s your host, Jennifer Lindsey.

Jen (00:30):

All right, everybody. I’m a fangirl right now because I have the pleasure of introducing my guest, Naroopa Narine from Ultrasound Techniques. Naroopa, I have followed you on Instagram forever, and I’m just so pumped to have you here. Now, you guys all know her from ultrasoundtechniques.com and on Instagram. Her handle is @ultrasoundtechniques. So if you’re not following her, get over there right now and click follow because her content is so good. So, Naroopa, thank you so much for taking some time to talk with me.

Naroopa (01:05):

Thank you.

Jen (01:07):

I’m so excited to have you here.

(01:10)
I love it. Well, you’ve got a ton of experience in sonography and the medical field in general prior to that. I’m so excited to chat with you today because it will give ways for our listeners to really uplevel the service they’re providing to the practices. And I think it will really help techs, honestly, in every stage they’re at. So whether they’re in school right now and kind of tag this information for future use, or whether they’re a tech employed at an office now, those considering starting their own business, those, of course, that already have a business. Providing that exceptional service from both, you know, a patient care standpoint and a professional standpoint is key for building long-term relationships. So I’m just so excited for you to be here and share your thoughts with us today.

Naroopa (01:59):

Thank you so much. This is so exciting.

Jen (02:01):

Yes. I love it. We’ve been planning this for a while, and I know we are excited to chat. I think it gives such an awesome additional perspective to the listeners here at the podcast. So I would love for you to give us a little bit of background on yourself and over at your blog on ultrasound techniques. Give us a background.

Naroopa (02:25):

Sure. So, I’ll keep it nice and short and sweet because I can probably talk about this for hours.

Jen (02:31):

I know. It’s your passion. I love it.

Naroopa (02:35):

Yes, and I’m 13 years in, so I’ve seen a lot; I’ve done a lot, as I can give stories for days. But basically, yes, I’ve been in the field for 13 years, including my schooling. And I started as a mobile tech. And for anyone listening, I went through the same struggles as you did in school. Same struggles you’re going through now, even though I went to school so long ago and I went through the same struggles in my first career. And I worked my way up, and now I kind of just followed my path, and I work at a private office. I do mainly thyroid ultrasounds throughout the day. And I started actually teaching at one of the universities nearby in their lab. And unfortunately, I haven’t been able to go back because of COVID. It was such a great experience. I was able to work one-on-one with physician assistants in like an ultrasound lab. It was so cool. And we did, like biopsy procedures on like chicken breasts, interesting things that I would never do.

Jen (03:40):

Sure. That’s awesome.

Naroopa (03:43):

And that sparked my interest in teaching and just sharing knowledge and information because it opened my eyes to the different scopes of ultrasound. It’s not just being technicians and scanning babies. You know, physician assistants use ultrasound, doctors use ultrasounds in their office, and for certain fields, it’s not easily accessible. Some information or training, perhaps. Not just for physician assistants, you know, they don’t really know what they’re doing. They send them into the lab, and they’re like, here’s a scan and there, so it was really nice to work with them. So that sparked my interest in teaching and sharing. So I created a platform. I created my LLC, Ultrasound Techniques. I started doing gender reveal because of COVID. I’m not really doing that right now. I have Instagram, where I’m teaching and just sharing information. I have my website, ultrasoundtechniques.com, where I have a blog where I can share my experiences with students. And I answer a lot of frequently asked questions there. And I’ll have a YouTube where I make videos and, you know, share once again verbally and explain in detail things about the ultrasound to anybody interested or searching for information.

Jen (05:03):

That’s so awesome. Do you have the link to your, I didn’t realize you had a YouTube; I don’t know how I missed that. Do you have a link to that over on your blog that people could go to?

Naroopa (05:11):

On my Instagram if you click on my bio, my Instagram is @ultrasoundtechniques. It takes you to all my platforms. My YouTube handle is @ultrasoundtechniques. So it’s very simple to remember.

Jen (05:23):

Yeah, that’s great.

Naroopa (05:24):

So, wonderful. It’s very easy to find.

Jen (05:28):

Well, I love that you’re doing all that, and I bet that working with PA students was so interesting. My nephew is actually in PA school here in Indiana, and he had an ultrasound lab a couple of weeks ago and was sending me a bunch of pictures, so it was so fun.

Jen (05:44):

Yeah. He actually interned with us at our company. Oh gosh. It’s probably been a couple of years ago now. It was really fun. I love that you have that platform. So I want to encourage our listeners to go check out, wherever they like to, look at stuff, whether it’s YouTube or Instagram or online, to check that out. Because you’ve got such great content, I think it’s such a big help for people.

(06:12)
Well, I’m excited, like I said, to go ahead and kind of chat a little bit about just some of the things that we can do and that our listeners can kind of be thinking about as they’re talking about up-leveling their just professionalism and patient care and that type of thing. I would love for you to chat about how our listeners can prepare for a new site. So in terms of scanning, getting familiar with their environment before they start, what are some of the things that you suggest they kind of take a look at?

Naroopa (06:46):

Sure. So from a technologist’s perspective, when you’re opening up an office, there is the business perspective, which is huge because you want to acquire clients. And that’s what’s bringing in revenue. But also, it’s very important to understand the technician’s perspective and what the sonographer is going to expect. And I feel like to be successful; you have to plan ahead, have a plan A and B, know what to expect. And I feel like even if you’re going to war, if you know your enemy, there’s more of a chance you’ll win. You have to think about it like you’re going to war, you know, everything’s going to be thrown at you, and you have to be ready.

(07:33)
So I feel like the first thing is if you know what type of office you’re going to be working at, which I’m sure you will if you’re acquiring a contract. So let’s say, for example, you’re working at an endocrine office like where I work. So you would start with research, I personally would Google it. People don’t think about it, but you can get so much information on the internet, just searching. But as long as you know what you’re searching for, you can get great and reliable information. So I would look up perhaps what, as an endocrinologist, what type of procedures do the endocrinologist’s office do? And if you look this up, you’ll see that an endocrinologist’s office deals with a lot of thyroid and diabetes patients.

(08:24)
And a lot of offices do FNAs (fine needle aspirations), biopsies, and thyroid procedures in office. So you would expect to possibly be helping out with that. You can expect to be doing a ton of thyroid. So now you’re going to the anatomy and physiology aspect of it. You want to be efficient. So I would look up how to quickly find the thyroid. What is the easiest way to find the thyroid? What am I looking for? What does a nodule look like? Also, I would look at case studies because you can learn a lot about the whole process. Right. There are tons of case studies you can read about online and, you know, the what if’s and what to do. You know, what if I find a nodule?

(09:15)
What is something you have to think about? For example, as a tech in an OB/GYN office, we’re not supposed to speak on the results or diagnosis. However, you have to know what’s urgent. You know, if you worked in an OB’s office and you see the cord wrapped around the baby’s neck, you have to say something right away. Of course, same thing. If you’re working in an endocrinologist’s office and you’re doing thyroid, what’s something that is urgent that I need to know about right away? So I think that’s very important to know. If the patient is in pain, what type of pain? Should you alert the doctor? What if the patient feels woozy?

(09:59)
Then also know the patient’s perspective. For example, when I do thyroid ultrasounds, I sometimes, most of the time, my patients are elderly or just in general about the age of 60. These types of patients tend to have vertigo when they’re laying down, and thyroid ultrasounds are done laying down. When they get up, they get very dizzy. They say that the room feels like it’s spinning. And I can tell you, more than 50% of my patients feel like this. So I think it’s important to know that when a patient sits up as a technician, you want to be there to make sure that they’re not dizzy or getting up too quickly. The worst thing is like a fall. Nobody wants to deal with a fall.

(10:47)
It just opens up so much you don’t want to deal with. And it’s just, yeah. There are levels to that. We don’t want to deal with that. So know your office, and know what type of scans you’ll be doing. Know the anatomy and physiology of that scan. Know the pathology, what’s urgent, what’s not, and what to expect from the patient’s perspective. How to best care for them. What are some symptoms they could have? Because, in general, ultrasound is not a harmful procedure. And it should be quick and easy. Patients shouldn’t feel much, but you have to think about people getting dizzy when lying down. You know, things you don’t think about. If you research a bit more and you especially look at case studies, things like this will come to you, and it’ll help you be a better tech, and it’ll help you build trust within the office.

Jen (11:37):

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you touched on so many good points. I think it’s so important to research ahead of time the physician practice because it could even be something where the physician might not even realize they can use ultrasound either as like a precursor to some of the procedures they’re doing or to be able to help with some of the procedures.  We’ve had some sports medicine guys who have always done their injections without ultrasound. They knew it was an opportunity, but sometimes you can even help the physicians understand some additional types of services they can provide with the help of ultrasound. So I love that perspective on just making sure that you’re researching ahead of time the types of scans you’ll be doing, especially the patients. I love that too. I think when your physician, either as an employee or your physician as a contracted client, when they know you’re taking great care of the patients, and that is number one, they’re going to hear about that from the patients, and they’ll hear about it the other way too. 

Naroopa (12:45):

Yes. Exactly.

Jen (12:46):

To build those relationships that way by providing such good service all the way around. I love those points. It brings in so many good things to think about before you head into that office, just to be well prepared. I’d love for you to give us some tips on how to connect with the other medical professionals in the office quickly. Because I think this is key to creating those long-term relationships.

Naroopa (13:14):

Yeah. So I also want to mention this, this also goes for just technicians in general. You know, what we just spoke about, and we’re going to speak about now. If you’re starting a new job or doing a job, these are things that can apply across the board. I feel like connecting with somebody entails trust. It entails finding commonalities. It entails, you know, intelligence. It entails communication. And I feel like first impression is huge because it does mean something. People say, I don’t judge, people don’t judge, but people do judge you. It doesn’t always have to be in a negative connotation. It’s this natural human instinct. 

Naroopa (14:09):

You see something good, you feel good. You see something negative, you feel bad.

Jen (14:14):

Yep. That’s a great way to put it. 

Naroopa (14:16):

Yeah. And these places have expectations. So you want to dress the part, look professional, research what you’re walking into, and know what you’re walking into. Know the dialect. Know the medical terminology. If you’re walking into an OB/GYN’s office, know the medical terminology so that you can use it when the doctor is speaking to you and when the other techs are speaking to you. You’re speaking their language, you’re speaking their medical terminology, you’re understanding them. They’re going to say to themselves, Hey, you know, girl or this guy knows what they’re talking about. They know what they’re doing. And it immediately builds trust. And I would also stay out of the gossip. Don’t talk too much just about yourself. Just remember you’re there to learn. Remember, you’re there to focus and think about your goal for the day. You know, why are you there? What do they need you for? And focus on that and just try to live up to that as best as you can. And it’s okay to also ask questions. It shows that you’re not just guessing or doing things your way. It shows that you’re interested in doing things the right way.

Jen (15:43):

Absolutely. And that goes along with what we’re talking about here. We both have a wide breadth of types of techs that follow us. You know, each of us, I know a lot of groups are students. A lot of mine are people either with businesses or thinking about it, but so many of them cross over. And so I think this goes for everybody, no matter where you’re at in your tech journey, whether you are getting a new job or you’re going in as a mobile ultrasound tech with your own business providing services, providing that opportunity to go in there and learn more about their practice. With our mobile business, one of the things we’re really careful of when we first go into a new office is we try to ask many questions.

(16:32)
How do you usually tell your staff that a patient is here and ready? Because we don’t want to tell them how to tell us. We want to try to blend as much in with their office and culture as possible so that it all is easy. It all flows. And it goes for an employee all the way up to someone who is, you know, has their own business and is going in there,  you know, with their own company providing the services. I think those are such great points. And important because you’re right, first impressions do matter, and we want to come across either from an employee or business owner perspective as someone who knows what they’re talking about. Someone who’s ready to learn how their practice does things and ready to integrate as seamlessly as possible into what they’re doing. Absolutely. I’d love for you also to give us some tips on what not to do at the office.

Naroopa (17:27):

Ok. I could speak on this list for a while, so maybe the short end of it, right? So, like I mentioned, you’re there for a purpose. You’re there for a reason. I think one of the most important things to steer you out of trouble is to ask; most offices provide this, you know, from the get-go, a policy, and procedures. I would ask for that. What are your policy and procedures? I think that’s great. You know, it leaves out any gray areas and any room for you just honestly embarrassing yourself doing something offline. And then you can’t just always say; I didn’t know; not everyone will buy that. People want you to know; you’re supposed to know if you’re in their facility, you should know that.

(18:16)
And I think you should ask for that. Also, focus, like I said, on the goal; focus on why you’re there. You know, don’t gossip, don’t get, you know, caught up in any drama. Yes. Never, you know, overstep or try, you know, undermine anyone. You know, you don’t want to ever question the radiologist. You don’t ever want to question. You know, I don’t like to say ever because there are times, you know, where I don’t know if something’s totally off or, you know, your gut is telling you something. It’s legitimate, but you don’t want just to be the newbie, and you’re questioning something that the radiologist is telling you to do that’s legitimate for them to be telling you to do. It’s good to ask questions but keep in mind also that if you’re shadowing someone as a student or if you’re there providing a service, other people are busy too.

(19:16)
And, I think it’s good to be aware of your surroundings and other people’s feelings and busyness. It might not be the right moment to ask a question. Let’s say the tech or the office manager is handling something; if something can wait, let it wait until it’s a better time for them to address it. And they’ll be able to give you a better answer because they’re not rushing. So gauge and be aware of yourself, where to put yourself, when to interrupt, and what not to interrupt. It’s very important to not just to get under anyone’s skin, especially earlier in, just know your boundaries. 

Jen (20:04):

I love it. 

Naroopa (20:05):

We’ve been there.

Jen (20:07):

Yes. There’s a time and a place for that.

Naroopa (20:17):

Think, I think it’s important to create a space for yourself. Now work on your space; if you’re providing a service and you’re there to provide a mobile ultrasound service, I’m sure you have your own exam room; I would just create that space to be comfortable for yourself. And it’ll make you feel good, and it’ll exude positivity.

Jen (20:37):

Absolutely. I love that. I would love for you to give us some ideas on how to help our listeners stand out as a tech and stand out against other competition if they’re, you know, a business owner and a mobile company. It kind of goes both ways as an employee or a business owner just out.

Naroopa (21:03):

I think there are a few layers to this from the technologists’ perspective. And their other employees and the patient. So I feel like number one, especially in the climate of COVID and everything going on right now, is compassion, caring, and understanding. I see so many patients daily, and they all exude different levels of anxiety or paranoia or, you know, some people are just honestly leaving their houses or haven’t literally left their house twice since March. Right. So just, you know, be understanding of the patient. As a technologist, I would go above and beyond in the knowledge that you need. I keep going back to focusing on what type of scans you will be doing. In offices, you usually have to do more than one type of scan.

(22:01)
Know those scans, and don’t just know those scans. Know, like, for example, with the thyroid, when I first started working there, I would Google and look up thyroid images. I would teach myself lymph node mapping. Like, nobody taught me this in school. Nobody taught me this in the office. Not every office has time to sit down with you. You are the tech. You should know what you’re going to be looking at. You should know that thyroid cancer spreads to lymph nodes, so know your lymph nodes. You know, if the radiologist asks you, hey, you know, what does level two look like? You should know what level two cervical lymph nodes are.

Jen (22:40):

Sure. Yeah.

Naroopa (22:41):

And that would definitely help you stand out, of course. And be like, okay, she knows what she’s doing. Know incidental findings as a technologist, we see things all the time that, you know, wasn’t ordered, but we find a pathology in an adjacent organ, or for example, I’m going back again to the thyroid, is what I do every day. While scanning the thyroid, the carotids are right there in every picture. Look at the carotid. Do you see any plaque? Report that. Say, hey, I know you ordered a thyroid ultrasound. I just want to let you know that the patient also has some carotid plaque in there. And as a patient, I would appreciate that. The patient always appreciates that. And I think it sets you apart from ignoring that and giving the bare minimum per se.

Jen (23:31):

Right, right.

Naroopa (23:33):

Absolutely. And I think that would help you stand out and the language, the way you communicate, be detailed. Be very detailed. I don’t think you could ever be too detailed.

Jen (23:43):

Yeah.

Naroopa (23:43):

Whenever I take a message, I speak to somebody, whatever information even that the patient relays to me, as a technologist, I note it in my report—even the smallest thing. Or I try to look for it on the screen. I don’t just say, oh, okay, I’ll let the doctor know. For example, if a patient says, yeah, the left side of my neck hurts. Well, I’m going to do the scan; you’re going to show me exactly where it hurts. Most of the time, I find it before they even point it out. Just because sure they’ve been doing it for so long, but pay attention to what they’re feeling. Ask the patient, Hey, are you in any pain, or are you feeling any discomfort? Especially before you start scanning because you don’t want to exacerbate anything that’s already going on.

(24:26)
Right. And you know, point that out. Say, hey, the patient has a small calcified area under their salivary gland. I mean, that is going to make you stand way out. And that will build trust. And in terms of your competition, I feel like trust is one of the strongest bonds that you can have with your office. And if they trust you, you don’t have to worry about the competition. They’re not going to be thinking about anybody else. They’re going to say, well, this, this tech is great, and we trust her, and she’s on point, and she’s pointing out things that, you know, and it’s going to trickle down because you have to think about it. Now you’re reporting incidental findings; you’re reporting, you know, a patient has a mass that they pointed out to me here to the radiologist.

(25:17)
They’re now going to write that in the report. This report is going to trickle back down to the referring doctor, the primary care, the specialist, or whoever it may be. They’re going to now report this to the patient, and the patient’s going to say, wow, that’s excellent. Thank you. Thank you so much for telling me that. And they’re, you know, the patient’s going to feel like, wow, I’m going to go back to this imaging facility the next time I need something done because the tech was great. They’re probably going to ask for the tech, and then the doctor’s going to say, wow, this imaging facility is great. I’m going to send all my patients there. And it’s just a win-win to be on point as a technician, on the business side of  having the contracts with the offices and just going the extra mile and, you know, being detailed. It trickles down to every level of the patient’s health.

Jen (26:14):

Absolutely. Just going above and beyond. I think that’s always some, and it really in anything you do in life, to be honest. Right. Because it does build that trust factor. And, like you said, that is just one of the hardest bonds to break. When someone trusts you and knows that you know what you’re talking about, you know what you’re doing, and you’re going to take care of them because you’re passionate about it. I agree. It’s just that’s such an important thing. And you’re right. It does help you stand out because why would they switch if they know you’re doing a great job? They trust what you’re doing. The doctors trust what you’re doing, and they’re, you know, getting happy patients out of it because they’re being well taken care of. I love that. Yeah. Totally. That makes sense. Totally.

(26:52)
That makes so much sense. I’d love for you too. And I think this goes again for really techs at any stage of the game, what issues our listeners might come across and how they can help themselves come up with solutions. Because, like you talked about,  they may be in a facility where they’re the only tech, for example, in a physician’s office or something like that. Or if they have their own mobile company, they will be the only tech there providing the services. And so being able to feet and up with solutions really quickly is important. So

Naroopa (27:35):

Are so many issues that you can go so many levels, right? So I’m going to try to just quickly go through every level. So and we’re laughing. I want the audience to know, because we’ve been doing this for so long, and I feel like when you go through so many issues, you just laugh when an issue comes. 

Jen (27:57):

Because you’re like well, let’s do this.

Naroopa (27:59):

And you’re ready. Exactly. Your skin gets so thick that you’re like, yeah, bring it on. Let’s do this.

Jen (28:05):

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Naroopa (28:12):

Preparation will always make you successful. Just prepare yourself. So, from the aspect of, let’s say, having your supplies, so the worst thing is to run out of supplies, and you’re stuck. Like now, what do I do? You know, the facility’s not always going to have everything you need, and you know what you need, so you should be prepared. I would have a checklist, and I would check off everything that I need for the day. That way, you don’t come across the problem of, you know, oh, I ran out of gowns, I ran out of gel, I needed to bring more tissues. Even the most trivial things can make a big difference. So I would have a checklist. So let’s just avoid that. Issues from, let’s say, a technical aspect like as a technician.

(29:03)
Let’s say imaging-wise. You’re not finding an image, and you know, let’s keep in mind if you’re at the site, you’re usually by yourself scanning, right? So you can’t just go grab a tech and say, hey, can you help me? Or can you do this for me? It’s just you. And this also takes me back to my mobile days because it was me, and it was my first job, and I used to freak out every day. But like you said, it makes us stronger. So just remember certain things like as a technician, remember what you learned in school, remember that you’re in control and ultrasound is technician dependent like this is you. So you have to know your moves. If you’re playing chess, if you’re playing checkers, you have to know your moves.

(29:52)
And those moves are knowing what you can control so you can control the patient’s position. So move the patient. You can manipulate your controls on the ultrasound machine, change your settings or recheck your settings. Maybe the machines have different settings: OB, small parts, and vascular. You may not be on the right settings, so check your settings. And it’s also great to make a checklist of these things because, in the moment, you get really nervous and think, and you don’t know what to check. So if it’s there, it’ll get you to your solution like much quicker with less stress.

Jen (30:29):

Absolutely.

Naroopa (30:31):

So also you can think about objects, pillows, for example, or cushions. If the patient can’t hold themselves a certain way, sometimes when you’re doing an abdomen exam, or you’re doing a vascular lower extremity exam, you need their leg a certain way. If they can’t hold it a certain way, bring pillows with you, you can prop up the leg. The patient doesn’t have to hold their leg up in pain if they’re in pain. You don’t have to hold their leg up, and you’re losing one arm, and now you’re like scanning with the leg with your left arm, your right arm is like occupied holding this patient’s leg up, grab your pillow. If you need two pillows through, throw two pillows in there. You know, sometimes when you’re doing a thyroid ultrasound, the patients can’t really put their head back too much. Throw a pillow back there, and pillows come in all different shapes and sizes. And if they’re comfortable, it also takes a lot of stress off of you because nobody needs to be stressing through an exam, and you’re not finding the image, and now you’re sweating, and you can’t think, and then the patient’s complaining. Like that’s just like whammy on whammy.

Naroopa (31:42):

It’s like happy life at this point. 

Jen (31:49):

Yes, that is so true.

Naroopa (31:51):

And then you can do your part with ease.

Jen (31:54):

Yes. That is so true.

Naroopa (31:56):

So I would, yes. Now what you can control and control it. Another issue I can think of is your equipment. Your bread and butter is something other than your equipment; nothing’s happening with your equipment. So I would check your equipment before you get there and try to have extra equipment. That’s like such a golden rule, extra batteries, extra connection cords, extra USBs, extra gel, anything, you know, things happen. You can knock your gel over. I don’t know. You can have a power failure in the facility and like it shorts your equipment or your plugs. However, I don’t know how that works, but it can happen. I’m sure.

Jen (32:39):

Anything that can happen will. Right.

Naroopa (32:40):

Yes. We know that at this point, we know that.

Naroopa (32:46):

Bring extra equipment because that is a problem that it will eventually happen. Something’s not going to work. And you want to just be able to reach in your bag of goodies. Yes. Reach in your closet and be like, oops, slap on an extra battery. Get an extra bottle of gel and go and know what you can substitute, you know, if I found that, you know, if you forget your gel, it’s not the end of the world. You can use lotion. That’s the facilities. You have some lotion there, some lotion somewhere. And you know, if that’s usually that’s a last resort and like, you know, you know, you’re having a bad day as a tech if you’re scanning with, you know, Bath and Body Works scented lotion, but hey, smells good, it’s getting it done. It’s ok.

Jen (33:27):

We need to make that into a T-shirt. It’s a bad day as a tech scanning with Bath and Body Works.

Naroopa (33:33):

Yes. But it’s ok, you know,

Jen (33:37):

We have our quote for the day. Exactly. That’s so good.

Naroopa (33:43):

I’ve been there. I’ve been there.

Jen (33:45):

Goodness. I know. It’s like half the things that I tell my clients and probably half the things that you tell the people that you know, you’re chatting with on a regular basis is like stuff that’s actually happened to us that we’ve had to figure out that we’re like, no, we got that. This is how you fix this.

Naroopa (33:59):

Yeah. This is fine. Everyone’s moisturized. Exactly.

Jen (34:03):

Yeah.

Naroopa (34:09):

For the, and that helps you stand out as a tech, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Another one.

Jen (34:18):

But it’s so true, though, because I always,  I always think about this, and I think this even goes for, you know, just techs in general, but you know, from a business perspective too, it’s like anybody can provide good customer service when everything’s going great. But when something happens, I feel like you really see people’s true colors. So that’s whether you’re an, you know, a tech employee or a student or a business owner, you know when things go wrong, you want to stay as calm as possible. And like you said, checklists, I’m a checklist girl. So that’s one of the things we have in, you know, our courses is just the checklist we use here because they’re so important. Love it. You’re right. I mean, it’s like, what do I need to have every single day when I go? What do I need to do before I start a new client? You know, checklist, checklist, checklist. Because you’re right, when things do go wrong, it’s so nice to just have something that you’ve already prepared in a safe mental state when you’re not stressed about what’s going on,

Naroopa (35:16):

Exactly. Go back

Jen (35:17):

Say, alright, I’ve done this, I’ve done this, I’ve done this. So that’s so important to think about, from any perspective, student tech, business owner, it’s what you do when there are issues that really show your true colors. And so to show that you will show up, you will have a clear head on your shoulders. To say these are the things that we need to do next to make sure this is fixed. I just think that shows people so much about what you’re able to do, and that is really where things come in. You’re able to shine when something happens, and you are easily able to fix it may take a little bit of time, but you make it in that seamless way where you are not causing more of an issue. You are providing that chill backend; let’s get this done. I think that’s just so, so important. I love those. I love those tips so much.

Naroopa (36:15):

Yeah. Yeah.

Jen (36:16):

Is there anything else you can think of? We’ve gone through the main points that I wanted to chat about. Is there any other advice that you have about at all?

Naroopa (36:28):

I’m sorry.

Jen (36:34):

I said we’ve gone through so much tonight. I love this.

Naroopa (36:36):

I know the time’s flying. We could be here all night.

Jen (36:41):

Yes. I’m sure we could; we need about five different podcast episodes for all the things.

Naroopa (36:47):

This is like series one out of like a hundred. I love it. So I would just say, in general, maybe end where we’re good on the questions, right?

Jen (37:00):

Yeah. Yeah. Those were the questions I had tonight. 

Naroopa (37:03):

Okay. Great. Yeah, that was great. Thank you so much for having me and asking those awesome questions, and giving me the opportunity to share with everyone. Students appreciate it. Business owners. Yes. Everyone can benefit, and I love that I can get that information out there in this way. So thank you so much for giving me that opportunity to do that and help so many people, I’m sure. Absolutely. And I wanted to say to all of the students, all the texts, anyone listening that I get so many messages every day of people, you know, just struggling, and I can agree. Like things just get harder and harder. Like as the years go by, you know, things cost more.  Courses are longer, things are more stressful, especially these days with, you know, everything going on, and there’s just such,  I feel like there’s less, what’s the word?

(37:55)
Less outreach. Less information to just less people to just, you know, communicate with. Because, you know, COVID has a lot of people laid off, number one. I just feel like don’t give up. You know, just keep going. Just find a way, especially my students that are like always, you know, telling me that they’re struggling and school card and they can’t talk to anybody. Like, you know, if I can do it, you can totally do it. You know, business owners out there, you know, I do have my LLC, and I was able to dive into, you know, the whole business entrepreneur life for a few months, and I kind of scaled back just because with everything going on, it’s just too much for me to take on right now. Yeah. And I still work full-time. But just do it every day if you just do one thing and, as you know, just every day you do one little thing, it builds, and it sure does, does it builds moment keeps you going and Yeah. It, it’ll, it’s not going to take you anywhere bad, you know, just do that one little thing every day.

Jen (39:01):

No progress is still progress, right?

Naroopa (39:02):

Exactly. Correct. Yes. And we’re just so hard on ourselves sometimes, and you don’t have to do 50 things a day to be productive. You can do one thing a day; I always say just getting out of bed and brushing your teeth and getting dressed, and going is already a success in itself. That’s already a win.

Jen (39:23):

Absolutely. Yeah. I think that’s such a good point. Yeah. Slow progress is still progress, and it’s not. We should be comparing ourselves with what this person has done, or that person has done.  

Jen (39:37):

Yes. We all started in the same place. We all started at the beginning with zero clients, you know, or at the beginning of the school on day one. Everybody starts at the same spot, so you can’t compare yourself to others. Mm-hmm, just have to look, look to other people as inspiration, I think and to help, because I think that’s what both of us love doing so much is, you know, community, find out what their goals are and keep making steps forward to get to them. So I just think that’s so important. Like you said, just doing one thing every day, that slow progress is still progress. Ultrasound is such a small community when we think about it. And so it’s one of those things where so many people are ready and willing to help, so take advantage of that, right?

Naroopa (40:30):

For sure.

Jen (40:30):

Go out and work towards the goal and really look at the people that have been there and done that and use them as inspiration and guidance for what you’re looking to do next.

Naroopa (40:41):

And yeah, at one point, neither of us knew what we were doing, you know? No. And that’s how we start. And that’s okay.

Jen (40:49):

That’s the honest truth.

Naroopa (40:50):

That’s why, that is why you figure it out as we go.

Jen (40:54):

Yes, you do. Yes, you do, but you’ve got to take this step. Exactly right.

Naroopa (40:59):

Plan it and do it. Just go. Exactly.

Jen (41:02):

Exactly. Naroopa, thank you so much. This has been so much fun. It was such a treat for me, and I know it was for our listeners too, and I just have to tell everybody, go, whatever platform is your favorite. Go check her out on Instagram and YouTube; both of them are @ultrasountechniques, right on Instagram and YouTube, and then ultrasoundtechniques.com for her blog. It’s so good. You guys have got to check that out. And until next time, hey, we are both going to be over here just cheering everybody on

Naroopa (41:33):

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Jen. This was such a blast. And it makes me so happy to get this information out there, and I love it. You know, even if we help one person with this.

Jen (41:46):

Absolutely.

Naroopa (41:47):

Just the one talking to you and connecting with you. And thank you so much.

Jen (41:50):

So much fun. I had such a great time. Thank you again.

(41:54):

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