AI Can Do Your Marketing (So why are you still stuck?)

In this post I want to talk about:

• Why so many proven marketing strategies fail healthcare practice owners

• The fatal flaw in focusing on tactics without alignment

• Why mindset work is not optional (and why surface-level positivity isn’t enough)

• Why AI won’t magically fix a misaligned business owner

• How mindset, marketing and intelligent AI use work together to create momentum

• And why the first piece of the puzzle is always you

Upfront honesty: I just want you to know that I use AI to help me research and write my blog posts. I'm not going to pretend (like many) that I don't. It saves me time and means I can create more detailed, thorough content in much less time than just my dyslexic brain on it's own would allow me to. The result? I believe higher quality content delivered more efficiently - I hope you agree 👍🏼

AI is an incredible tool. It speeds things up. It removes friction. It makes starting easier.

BUT . . . it doesn’t create your personal clarity, or help you choose your positioning. It doesn’t give you conviction. And it certainly doesn’t create consistency, or guarantee amazing results.

And that is where most people misunderstand what actually drives results in a healthcare practice.

Let’s talk about what many business coaches get really wrong when working with healthcare practice owners.

I've been helping tiny practices build momentum since 2010, and I've seen every flavour of business advice out there. A lot of it - and I say this with love - often doesn't help healthcare practice owners really move forward.

Many business coaches teach strategies and tactics - which do actually work to help people grow their businesses - but just not everyone, and this gives us a clue I'll come back to later.

The latest business strategies and tactics are increasingly revolving around using AI to support you in your practice marketing and administration.

ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot, you name it - there are a lot of AI platforms out there that can help you build a sound marketing strategy, create knockout content and automate more of your marketing activities than ever before. 

But then why, if we have sound marketing strategies that work, and AI to speed things up and streamline things for us, are so many owners of tiny practices still struggling and stuck in groundhog day, getting exactly the same results month after month, and sadly year after year?

 
The marketing tactics coaches

You'll have seen them in your social media feed, and you might even have signed up for their freebies along the way - those marketing experts who focus heavily on growth strategies designed to increase enquiries, boost visibility and drive more bookings into your practice. After all who doesn't want that in their practice?

Their advice often sounds like this:

“Build a stronger presence on Instagram.”
“Run targeted Facebook or Google ads.”
“Create a lead magnet and nurture sequence.”
“Build a proper email list.”
“Develop a funnel that educates and converts.”
“Start showing up consistently on video.”

And now there’s a shiny new addition:

“Harness AI to create all your content and automate your processes.”

I want to be really clear here - none of those strategies are ridiculous. In fact, they’re sound. They work well. I teach versions of many of them inside Practice Momentum. When implemented properly, they absolutely can grow a healthcare practice.

My issue with this approach isn’t that the tactics are wrong. My point is that tactics, on their own, assume the person implementing them is clear, confident and consistent - but often they are not.

Does this sound familiar?

You start building your Instagram presence but overthink every caption and only post when you “feel ready.” You create a lead magnet but quietly doubt its value, so you don’t promote it properly and only three people download it. You build an email list but hesitate to email because you don’t want to annoy people. You experiment with ads but panic at the daily spend and switch them off before they’ve had chance to optimise. You consider video but feel exposed, so you set up your YouTube Channel BUT never upload any videos after he first one.

Maybe you've even asked AI to write blogs or posts for you. It does it in seconds. It gives you captions, emails, blog drafts, offer descriptions - AMAAAAZING 🎉

BUT then you sit there thinking, “That sounds too confident.” Or, “That’s not really me.” Or, “What if people judge me for that strong opinion?” So you tweak it. Soften it. Dilute it. Delay posting it. Never post it. You tell yourself you can do it better and so you go back to writing everything from scratch - it consumes your spare time, you resent it, you half arse it and post it on your blog yeyyy. You share it on your Facebook page, then quietly shrink back into your comfort shell. No one sees it, it doesn’t drive traffic to your website, it makes not a jot of difference.

Not because the strategy is wrong, or the tactics are poor, but because your execution sucked.

And your execution sucked because somewhere inside you are telling yourself that promoting your business is not entirely safe.

Maybe you’re worried your service isn’t actually as good as it should be. Maybe you secretly doubt your clinical skills, even though you’ve got years of training and experience behind you. Maybe you’re scared that if you speak confidently, someone more “qualified” will challenge you publicly and expose you.

Maybe you’re worried about being judged. About colleagues thinking you’re “too commercial.” About patients thinking you’re pushy. About friends or family raising an eyebrow at your ambition.

Or maybe you’re scared it might actually work 😱 🤯 🫣.

What if the enquiries flood in and you can’t cope? What if you raise your fees and people say yes? What if you become wildly successful and that changes how people see you? What if your partner, your parents or your friends quietly resent you for earning more, doing more, being more visible?

These fears are often subconscious, rarely logical. But they are VERY powerful.

And until they are acknowledged and dealt with, they will quietly sabotage even the best marketing strategy and the smartest AI tools.

Your mindset is turning a great strategy into a weak one through controlling your actions. Remember . . . 

BELIEFS → THOUGHTS → FEELINGS → ACTIONS → RESULTS

And so even though you are "using" the proven strategies and tactics nothing changes.

Your diary still has gaps, sometimes BIG ones. You're still undercharging. You're still feeling like everyone else has it figured out except you. You're still struggling with the weight of imposter syndrome.

And now you feel even worse because apparently AI is meant to make this easier - and you're STILL struggling.

Your problem

Your problem isn't lack of tactics or poor tactics - let's face it you know what to do - or if you're a bit unsure - you can ask AI 😁.

Your problem is the mindset blocks preventing you from implementing those tactics confidently and consistently, causing really poor execution.

AI can help you build strategy. It can generate the words. It can even analyse your data. But it cannot give you belief. It cannot create confidence. And it cannot make you consistent.

That part is an inside job.

Which is why for the last 15 years I’ve been preaching:

Marketing AND mindset - because one without the other doesn’t work.

Jill Woods 😁

Success is absolutely an inside job

I believe your thoughts shape your emotions.
Your emotions shape your energy.
Your energy shapes how you show up in the world.
And how you show up absolutely influences the results you create in your life, including in your practice.

If you’re walking around in some state of fear - telling yourself, in lots of different ways, that you’re not good enough, that for you to succeed others have to lose, that charging properly is selfish, that being visible is dangerous, or that success is “not for people like me,” those thoughts and that negative energy leaks into everything. It affects how confidently you speak. It affects how clearly you communicate your value. It affects whether you follow up on enquiries. It affects whether you press publish.

Great results come from clarity, confidence and consistency. And those three things cannot be outsourced to AI or anyone else. They have to come from you.

So yes, mindset matters. Energy matters. Alignment of your beliefs with your dreams for your life, matter.

Where things go wrong in building successful practices is when the focus is wholly on strategies and tactics, and when mindset work is treated as woo woo or separate from practical execution. Or when, as I have seen many times, mindset work stops at surface-level positivity and vision boards without addressing the actual beliefs running underneath. Your beliefs run deep and often silently, to the extent that you might have no idea what it is that keeps you self sabotaging or procrastinating.

So this is where I’m going to get Yorkshire straight with you.

Saying “I am abundant” twenty times in the mirror is not the same as genuinely believing resources are abundant and you are safe earning way more money, and feeling excited about it. Writing in your journal about your dream clinic is not the same as confronting the fear that success might change how people see you and digging in to why yo believe that. Visualising a full diary is not the same as dealing with the part of you that is terrified (possibly subconsciously) of being fully booked because it might mean more responsibility, more pressure, more expectation - because you're not good at dealing with pressure - or at least that's the story you are telling yourself, to keep yourself "safe".

If you are affirming one thing but deep down believing another, your inner compass, in order to keep you "safe", is going to be leading you away from the things you need to do and you'll experience procrastination on an epic scale and sadly history repeating itself year after year.

You cannot declare that you want growth while secretly believing growth will cost you your health or your relationships.
You cannot say you want to raise your fees while carrying guilt about earning more than your patients.
You cannot talk about wanting visibility while ignoring every time someone comments on your post.

That inner contradiction is not a small thing
It's THE thing keeping you stuck.

When your beliefs are really aligned with the healthcare practice, and the life you say you want to build, you don’t have to force yourself to show up. You won't procrastinate for years on end. You take action, the right action, almost every day. You price from known value instead of guilt. You act from conviction and excitement instead of fear.

This is why some people you see in your profession are nailing private practice and others are struggling, a lot. Alignment of dreams with your beliefs is rocket fuel 🚀

Now layer AI into that.

AI can draft the post. It can refine the wording. It can structure the offer. But if you don’t believe you’re worthy of being seen, you will soften the language. If you don’t believe you’re good enough, you will dilute the message. If you don’t believe success is safe, you will unconsciously slow yourself down.

Technology magnifies whatever energy you bring to it. 🔎

Aligned beliefs and vision, plus a clear strategy, plus intelligent tools, creates real momentum.

Misaligned beliefs and vision, plus brilliant tools, creates very efficient and effective self-sabotage.

Here’s the hill I will die on:

You need mindset AND marketing.
And now you need to integrate AI properly too.
Because one without the others is just going to be really hard work.

If your marketing strategy is solid but your beliefs are shaky, you will hesitate, dilute, procrastinate and abandon things just before they start to gain traction.

If your mindset is strong but your marketing foundations are weak, you will feel motivated but directionless. Busy but not productive. Positive but not profitable.

And if you bolt AI onto either of those without clarity and alignment, you simply accelerate the confusion. You create more content, more ideas, more moving parts - but not necessarily more momentum.

Do you recognise any of those scenarios?

Momentum doesn't come from choosing one to get good at - Alignment of beliefs and vision - Marketing strategy - Smart technology

It comes from integrating all three - BUT The first piece of the puzzle MUST be mindset. Without your head in the right place - i.e. having empowering positive beliefs, that align with your vision for your future you're going no where fast.

What that actually means in real life

So if mindset is the first piece of the puzzle, what does that actually mean for you as a tiny healthcare practice owner?

It means before you obsess over the next tactic, the next course, the next AI tool, you have to get honest about what you believe is possible for you. Not in theory, not in a journal, but in your bones. The easiest way to figure this out is to look with real honesty at your current situation.

Does your life and practice look like:

- You genuinely believe you are capable of building an amazing, thriving, profitable practice?
- You believe you are allowed to earn really well from the skills you have spent years developing?
- You believe you can be visible without being judged, criticised or rejected?
- You are earning what you are worth, all the lives you change for the better every day?

Because if it doesn't - then you have your answer. Some belief or beliefs - potentially hidden deep in your subconscious is/are keeping you in the struggle of groundhog day. Not because you’re lazy, not because you’re incapable, but because your internal wiring is trying to keep you safe by persistently causing self sabotaging activity. Self-sabotage in a tiny practice rarely looks dramatic. It looks ordinary. Sensible even. But over time it keeps you stuck.

It might look like:

• Overthinking a post for three hours and then not publishing it.

• Rewriting your website again instead of promoting it.

• Not increasing your fees “just for now” to avoid an awkward conversation.

• Deciding you need one more qualification before niching down.

• Saying yes to every patient instead of defining who you actually want to help.

• Turning off ads after three days because they “aren’t working.”

• Avoiding looking at your numbers because you don’t want to see the truth.

• Sending promotional emails but never making a clear offer.

• Posting once with enthusiasm and then disappearing for three weeks.

• Telling yourself you’re “too busy” to market, while scrolling other people’s content.

• Investing in another course instead of implementing what you already know.

None of these behaviours scream sabotage, but added together, they quietly maintain the status quo of struggle and being stuck in practice paralysis.

That is why mindset work has to come first.

Then you can fly

Once you have done the deeper work of challenging and reshaping the beliefs that have been quietly holding you back - and yes, that takes focus, honesty, and time, effective marketing strategies combined with intelligent AI support become rocket fuel. When you are clear about who you help, confident in the value you bring and consistent in how you show up, AI stops being a gimmick and starts becoming leverage. It helps you think better, act faster, analyse smarter and communicate more powerfully, but now it is amplifying something that is already aligned. If you are unclear, hesitant or underpricing, it will only scale that confusion. AI is not the architect of your practice - you are, but in the hands of someone with empowering beliefs and solid strategy, it becomes an extraordinary accelerator.

So yes, AI can do your marketing.

The real question is - why are you still stuck?

Ready to find out?

If you’re serious about figuring this out once and for all, start here.

Take the free “Is it me?” quiz and get clarity on whether the biggest obstacle in your practice right now is strategy - or you.

Because great results come from clarity, confidence and consistency.

And those start on the inside ❤️.

Thank you soooo much for taking the time to stop by my healthcare marketing blog today. I really hope you found value in spending some time here today.

I’d be so grateful if you could spare me just another 5 minutes to share your thoughts or questions in the box at the end of this page. What are you going to do differently now in your private practice?

Oh, and please use the social share buttons if you think other people you know might benefit from seeing this.

Until next time.

Thank you

Jill Woods
Healthcare Marketing Specialist
Founder of Practice Momentum

Want to explore the other principles that guide my work? Check out Jill's Philosophy on Happiness