Walk-Ins Welcome: A Healthcare Marketing Podcast

This week, Nick and Michael take a fiery deep dive into the origin of branding (yes, the cattle kind) and what it reveals about how urgent care clinics build reputation, loyalty, and trust in a crowded market. From cowboys with hot irons to orange juice campaigns that changed breakfast forever, this episode explores how great brands aren’t just seen—they’re felt . Whether you're running one locati...

Alan Ayers has helped shape urgent care as we know it, and he’s still helping operators across the country start, grow, and improve their clinics with smarter strategy and fewer missteps. With nearly 20 years in the space, Alan has done it all: CEO, COO, consultant, dealmaker, and senior editor at The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine. He has also served on the board of the national Urgent Care Asso...

Ira Pasternack has been in urgent care marketing since before LinkedIn existed, and today, he’s helping clinics rethink growth by leaning into a service line that most still overlook: occupational medicine. As the founder of WebForDoctors and a long-time leader in urgent care strategy, Ira has spent over two decades helping practices grow volume, build smarter websites, and scale services like Occ...

We're switching gears this week! No guests, no webinars, just Nick and Michael reflecting on what it means to lead well when things slow down. After a packed few months of interviews, webinars, and travel, the guys are stepping back to share personal stories from their own summer reset, including an 8-day, 3,000-mile camping trip to Maine, a deep dive into instrument flight training, and a very re...

🎙️ The Advocacy Podcast is officially launched! Expect policy updates, expert guests, grassroots strategy, and why advocacy doesn’t have to be boring. Listen now: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2460989/episodes/17307710 This week on Walk-Ins Welcome , we’re joined by Kristin Rastatter , Advocacy Manager at the Urgent Care Association (UCA) —and someone who’s turning policy conversations into powerful...

With summer in full swing and lots of folks (ourselves included) taking some time for vacations and travel, we’re mixing things up this week with a special rewind episode. We’re bringing back one of our all-time favorites from last year—a powerful conversation with Lyn Askin from EOS Worldwide. Lyn shares how a life-threatening health scare pushed him to rethink everything about how he ran his bus...

This week, we're sharing something special: Michael’s full talk from the 2025 Urgent Care Association (UCA) Conference in Dallas. Titled The Front Desk Evolution , this session was standing-room-only and sparked conversations that continued long after the conference ended. In this high-impact presentation, Michael makes the case that the front desk is not just a cost center—it’s your clinic’s...

Michael is back after a whirlwind week at the 2025 Urgent Care Association (UCA) Conference in Dallas—and he's recapping the entire event with Nick. From standing-room-only sessions to surprise podcast shoutouts, this episode is a full debrief of everything that went down. Michael shares the behind-the-scenes of his packed talk, Front Desk Evolution , which sparked a lot of head-nodding and fo...

Today’s episode is a deep dive into real-world urgent care marketing—and what it actually takes to grow and scale a multi-location clinic. Nick and Michael are joined by Chryssa Rich, Director of Marketing at Primary Health Medical Group, a physician-owned, 24-location urgent care brand based in Idaho. With 12 years of experience leading marketing at Primary Health—and a career that spans finance,...

This week’s episode is a little different. The PCMP team has been on the ground at the UCA Convention, connecting with forward-thinking clinic owners and operators from across the country. So instead of our usual format, we’re bringing you a high-impact clip from our latest live webinar: “How to Use Google Ads to Beat the Summer Slump.” In this session, Michael and Nick are joined by our in-house...

Nick and Michael are back behind the mics diving into one of the biggest mistakes clinics make: putting all their eggs—and their patient acquisition—into one basket. From paid ads to word-of-mouth to grassroots outreach, they break down why true growth only happens when you build everywhere, not just online. It’s part marketing strategy, part reality check, and 100% focused on helping your urgent...

Vision isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the difference between a clinic that coasts and one that climbs. Nick and Michael (Milo’s tea in hand) dig into why so many urgent care owners are unknowingly flying VFR—reactive, unstructured, and stuck below the clouds. With aviation as the metaphor, they draw a clear line between clinics that are just getting by and those operating with intention, strategy, and...

Today’s episode is all about choosing the right software to scale your urgent care clinic—without getting burned by the wrong vendor. Nick and Michael are joined by two powerhouse guests: Jim Dhein from athenahealth and Warren Herring, President and CEO of TrustCare Health , a 12-location urgent care powerhouse in Mississippi. This episode is a first for the show—bringing on both the tech vendor a...

Today's episode is all about the real cost of marketing (or not marketing 👀). Nick and Michael are back in the studio (lower chairs and all), tackling one of the most misunderstood mindsets in urgent care: why paid advertising gets treated like an expense, when it should be seen as an investment that actually pays you back . From frustrated clinic owners who expect ads to be free, to teams cu...

📗 Check out our DIY Resource Toolkit: https://offer.patientcaremarketingpros.com/diy-toolkit We’re going global on this episode of Walk-Ins Welcome ! With Nick out, we’re shaking things up with a special guest: Dr. Simon Rohde , founder of Angel Urgent Care in Brisbane, Australia 🇦🇺 Simon is one of the very few private urgent care clinic owners in the entire country—where urgent care is still a b...

📗 Check out our DIY Resource Toolkit: https://offer.patientcaremarketingpros.com/diy-toolkit Nick and Michael kick off this episode of Walk-Ins Welcome with a bold claim: you've been lied to about your patient acquisition costs. They break down the real numbers they're seeing across urgent care clinics nationwide (spoiler: it's under $20), and unpack the three biggest culprits behind inflated cos...

📗 Check out our DIY Resource Toolkit: https://offer.patientcaremarketingpros.com/diy-toolkit Nick and Michael dive into an unexpected source of inspiration for urgent care clinics—Michael's cat, Poe, who had a near-miss after eating a toxic tulip. What does an urgent vet visit have to do with patient experience in urgent care? A lot more than you’d think. From seamless check-ins to thoughtful...

📗 Check out our DIY Resource Toolkit: https://offer.patientcaremarketingpros.com/diy-toolkit Nick and Michael dive into the power of patient follow-ups and how small gestures can drive big results for urgent care clinics. They discuss how a simple thank-you card, a follow-up text, or an automated voicemail can improve patient retention, boost repeat visits, and even increase revenue. Drawing insi...

📗 Check out our DIY Resource Toolkit: https://offer.patientcaremarketingpros.com/diy-toolkit Nick sits down with Ayo Omojola, founder and CEO of Substrate AI, to discuss how AI is transforming revenue cycle management for urgent care clinics. Ayo shares insights from his experience at Carbon Health, where he helped scale operations using AI-driven automation, and explains how Substrate AI is elim...

📗 Check out our DIY Resource Toolkit: https://offer.patientcaremarketingpros.com/diy-toolkit Nick and Michael sit down with Geoffrey Gu, co-founder and CEO of Fluency, to discuss how AI is revolutionizing efficiency in urgent care clinics. Geoffrey shares the story behind Fluency, an AI-powered clinical co-pilot designed to streamline patient intake, clinical documentation, and coding processes....

📗 Check out our DIY Resource Toolkit: https://offer.patientcaremarketingpros.com/diy-toolkit We’re diving into the difference between being a thermostat vs. a thermometer in your urgent care clinic. Are you reacting to daily challenges, like staff turnover, patient volume fluctuations, and negative reviews, or are you proactively setting the tone for success? Michael and Nick discuss how clinic o...

🚨 Join us for our upcoming webinar, “Own Your Marketing: DIY Tips for Attracting More Patients” on Thursday, February 27th at 11:00 am CST/12:00 pm EST. Register now: https://webinars.patientcaremarketingpros.com/diy-tips-webinar 🚨 How do you successfully scale an urgent care brand across both rural and urban markets? Al Yousefi, Head of Marketing at MainStreet Family Care and KidsStreet Urgent...

📗 Check out our DIY Resource Toolkit: https://offer.patientcaremarketingpros.com/diy-toolkit We sit down with Dr. Andy Miller, founder of Evergreen Urgent Care, to discuss his unconventional journey from ER doctor to successful urgent care owner. Dr. Andy shares how he challenged the traditional urgent care startup model—bypassing the hefty $1.5M investment and finding innovative ways to remain p...

📗 Check out our DIY Resource Toolkit: https://offer.patientcaremarketingpros.com/diy-toolkit In this episode of Walk-Ins Welcome, we sit down with Patrice Pash, seasoned urgent care expert and representative of UrgentIQ, to explore how the urgent care industry continues to adapt and thrive. Patrice shares her 20+ years of experience, reflecting on the evolution of urgent care—from the days of “do...

🚨 Register for our upcoming, "Your 2025 Healthcare Marketing Plan" webinar: https://webinars.patientcaremarketingpros.com/2025-plan In this episode of Walk-Ins Welcome, we kick off 2025 with special guest April Gillam, Head of Industry Strategy and Consulting at Solv. Health, making her second appearance on the podcast. Known as the "industry's best friend," April shares i...