Mexico Surfing Trip with Chiropractors from around the globe!
A little movie from bits of video casually taken, and below, some photos as well.
Gracias!
June, 2016
2016 – Chiropractic Surfing Trip in Mexico!
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Author Archives: Edward Petty
Vaxxed – The Movie and Questioning Authority
I just watched Vaxxed, a new movie about the relationship between vaccinations and autism, the CDC (a federal agency, the Center for Disease Control and Protection), and Big Pharma. It has limited showing across the U.S. and is currently playing in Milwaukee until today (June 30th). (Downer Theater)
Most of the film quotes M.D.’s and PH.D’s, except for a few stories by the parents of vaccine injured kids. Some of the clips show M.D.’s over time as they discover a link for themselves.
A key element in the film centers around an admission of the key research scientist, Dr. William Thompson who, after working for the CDC, claims that he is now a whistleblower. He says that data was manipulated and evidence was destroyed to cover-up a direct link between certain vaccination protocols and autism. “I have a boss who is asking me to lie… The higher ups wanted to do certain things and I went along with it…” [paraphrased]
After the movie I did a fast Google and found: “Autism rates soar, now affects 1 in 68 children…” from USA Today, 2014. It occurs 4-5 times more in boys than in girls, according to Wikipedia. In 1995 it was 1 in 500, and back in 1975 it was 1 in 5000. (autismspeaks.org)
Vaccine rates have also soared – 49 doses of 14 vaccines before age 6. CDC schedule. 2 With both numbers soaring, there is at least a correlation.
But my attention is on the money. It is no secret how many Big Pharma lobbyists work in Washington (about 2 to 1 for every member of Congress) – or how profitable the pharmaceutical industry is, or how much they spend to influence government, doctors, and the public.
And it is also not an odd coincidence that the head of the CDC when Dr. Thompson was doing research on vaccinations, Julie Gerberding, gets hired by Merck. She was put in charge of Merck’s vaccine division. Big surprise! Merck had or has 12 vaccines on the market, including Gardasil – a vaccine India is suing Merck for in the deaths of girls. It is hard to tell how much she is making, but one report shows that she just cashed in Merck stock for over 2 million dollars.
You may remember Merck, the company that produced Vioxx that killed 38,000 Americans, maybe more. Merck finally pulled the drug in the early 2000’s. And there were cover-ups and whistleblowers back then too. Dr. David Graham who worked in the FDA, (Food and Drug Administration) testified that “Nearly 60,000 people may have died.” After his testimony, Graham was publicly criticized by the FDA. He later sought help from a whistleblower protection organization. It is dangerous to be a whistleblower or to go against powerful interests!
But you don’t need to be a whistleblower to connect the dots. From cigarettes to finally aspartame, people are gradually seeing that what is popular is not always what is healthy or in their best interest.
Yet, with enough money, consent can be manufactured through Big Data and Big Marketing. It can do it subtly and in a thousand different ways. Public Relations is a science and is becoming more sophisticated every day and unless you do your homework and have an open mind, and QUESTION AUTHORITY and CONVENTION, you may be like someone who supported invading Iraq because Sadam Hussien caused 9/11. ( Even two years after 9/11: “Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe it is likely that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the Sept. 11 attacks…” USA today, 9/6/2003)
So, yes, I recommend the movie Vaxxed and draw your own conclusion, but more importantly and always… question authority.
“You don’t need a weatherman – To know which way the wind blows.” Bob Dylan
Your Perennial Waiting List Chiropractic Practice: Like Daffodils, Your Patients Keep Coming Back
Daffodils from Linda’s back yard in Wisconsin, 2016
Spring is finally with us and the flowers and trees are beginning to bloom up here in the northern Midwest.
What is amazing to me is that I start seeing flowers pop up where I must have planted them, or someone did, a few years past. Pop, pop… a daffodil here and tulip there, some lilies and Astors and I don’t know what! Who planted these?
Growing, developing, and sustaining a chiropractic practice corresponds in many ways to the laws of nature or the laws of a farm. What makes these plants bloom are many things – the warmer weather, some biological clock, water, of course, and sunlight. Maybe some organic fertilizer now and then.
They also have something else. Something that has allowed them to weather the snow and the cold and the storms so that they are here now… waving to us in the still cool of early spring.
A few years ago I wrote an article about roots and patient retention. I know… seems like an odd comparison, but it’s not really. The thing with roots is that they are not seen and not always appreciated. I made the analogy of having a good root system in your practice – which would be the loyalty your patients have with you. I discussed methods to create and improve this relationship in the article, Chiropractic Root System
I just reviewed the article and realized that I omitted a key component in creating great patient loyalty, patient retention, and patient referrals. It is actually pretty obvious and something I see in the offices I visit.
But first, let me include here some survey information from the 2010 Customer Experience Impact Report (CEI) for North America by Rightnow Technologies* that will help make my point.(My underlines and bolds.)
“WORD OF MOUTH IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
Consumers aren’t only demonstrating their power with their wallets, but they are influencing those around them as well. Whether a consumer has a positive or negative experience, their friends, family, colleagues and networks are sure to hear about it and what they are saying carries weight.
Customer service is the most influential thing a company can do to increase customer advocacy.
55% (up from 53% in 2009) of consumers recommend a company because of its customer service, compared to products at 49% and price at 42%.
But those who have issues are also voicing their opinions and it can have a severe impact on a company’s reputation and ultimately bottom line.
Imagine the result of 66% of a company’s frustrated customers on a mission to discourage others from buying from that company. Consumers aren’t just complaining when something goes wrong, they are determined to have their presence felt by the company at fault:
- 79% of consumers that had a negative experience with a company told others about it
- 97% used word of mouth as their preferred method to share their experience
WHAT MAKES A GREAT EXPERIENCE?
Consumer expectations continue to rise, but their requests are reasonable and within reach. Put simply, consumers want easily accessible, accurate information to make well informed buying decisions. And they want to be respected, treated well, and have their issues resolved in a timely fashion.
Of those who decided to stop doing business with an organization,
- 73% was a reaction to rude staff
- 51% reacted to unknowledgeable staff
- 55% were because of issues that weren’t resolved in a timely manner.”
Finally, it all comes down to this:
“WHEN YOU HAVE A BAD EXPERIENCE, YOU DON’T GO BACK.
This has been a mainstay result from the Customer Experience Impact Report (CEI). The fifth annual report cited that 82% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company as a result of a negative experience.”
So, it is not “time” or “money” as the primary reason patients drop out of care. Simply put – their experience was not AWEsome enough!
This is why Google Reviews or any legitimate review has such a strong impact on referrals. It is Word of Mouth marketing.
But how do you create it? Is there some fancy form or new procedure? A Dx code perhaps? Well, there are forms and procedures, but these are 20th on the list. The first 19 have to do with excellent communication and service. Communication that is genuine and caring.
In the article about increasing patient retention and the root system, I do give a few ideas on how to improve your service and, in turn, retention and referrals. But… so apparent to me now, I left something out!
Time and time again, where I see an office struggling to get new patients… I also notice a low morale office.
The low morale may not be obvious. In fact, studies show that the majority of employees (70%) are really not engaged in their work, but simply go through the motions.** This is so common that blasé, disinterested employees or time crunched, rote professionals seem to be the cultural norm.
But I routinely interview staff and work with office managers and hear THEIR side of the story, at least part of it.
If a team member is disgruntled, disaffected, discouraged, or in any way “dis”, the quality of service they provide to the patient will be affected. Let’s put it another way: if your team is anything BUT happy and cheerful and truly looking forward to their day with YOU and the patients, you have a problem.
There are many studies that show the cause and effect of employee morale and customer service. But I have personally observed it many times myself.
The offices with the HIGHEST patient retention and most patient referrals are the ones where the support team and doctor, or doctors, have a great relationship with each other. In fact, aside from the now and then stress points, you could say that they truly like and admire each other and respect each other’s good work.
Adding to this, these offices also have dedicated a continuous effort for training and education. Webinars, seminars, internal trainings, coaching (Hi there!), and books – one of the most overlooked training tool.
Now, what hampers all this is the stress of running a business. Doctors like to “doctor.” Chiropractic, or whatever good care you provide, does not fail. Doctors can always improve, and should, but it is usually the support organization that finally jams up on itself like railroad cars banging into each other, or even jackknifing.
As many of you know, I am working on a practice CEO training program. After a certain point of practice growth, it becomes difficult to continue to grow the business as a doctor. There is just too much to do. This is why you now need to learn and implement some fast flow procedures as a CEO, procedures which are very different from a doctor.
The CEO is a leader. John Maxwell*** lists five levels of leadership. At the first level people will follow you because they have to. At the second level they follow you because they actually like you! You have a relationship with them. At the third level they see that you get real results for the organization. Fourth… you are helping them become leaders! The last level is many orders of magnitude above the others… they follow you because of what you represent. Think of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, etc.
Practical Steps to Take to Improve Morale, Customer Service, Patient Retention and Referrals:
- Improve your communication with your team. That’s it. If it is good enough for your patients and for your family and friends, it is also good enough for your team members. As the doctor, of course, you are very busy. You are here for the patients and we are here for you. But… as the CEO, you are here for us. Please listen to us, help us get better at helping you and the patient. Schedule time to do this each month with your veteran team members. A few minutes in the office, or even a lunch now and then. It will pay off! And besides, it is only the decent thing to do.
- Plan events or projects to improve everyone’s competence. Schedule the team for training and coaching (Hi, again!) …or have them propose learning activities. Help them become leaders. Help them become expert. Lots of study and training and coaching.
As this happens, a lighthearted sense of pride and confidence will grow in your office. Synergy will improve. Staff will be engaged with the patients more and the patients themselves will also become part of the synergy.
Your practice will become well-nourished and strong, like perennial plants and trees that flower each spring.
Your patients will keep coming back.
# # #
Learn to look after your staff first — and the rest will follow.Customer service can make or break a business. If you treat your staff well, they will be happy. Happy staff are proud staff, and proud staff deliver excellent customer service, which drives business success. – Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Companies)
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Chiropractic Root System and Patient Retention
*Rightnow Technologies. Download the report here. http://media.stellaservice.com/public/pdf/Customer_Experience_Impact_North_America.pdf
**http://www.gallup.com/poll/181289/majority-employees-not-engaged-despite-gains-2014.aspx
*** John Maxwell, The 5 Levels of Leadership
Extreme Chiropractic Practice DevelopMENT! California Jam®, 2016
I am standing on a beach by the partially ice-covered Lake Michigan, sometimes referred to as part of the “Third Coast.” It is a good day!
Once a year I send out a promotion for the wildest and most unique chiropractic seminar I have seen in 30 years.
“Out-of-the-box” is a cliché that doesn’t really do Cal Jam justice. Like extreme sports, Cal Jam pushes the boundaries of what is customary and conventional.
But isn’t that chiropractic? Isn’t that you?
Chiropractic is unique (and wild) because it has purpose and soul.
Purpose and Soul, plus plenty of… Rock and Roll.
At Cal Jam!
Hope to see you there!
Date: March 18-20, 2016
Link to site: California Jam: www.CaliforniaJam.com
Your Most Important Set of Chiropractic Office Procedures
An Introduction to the Practice Development Process of Continuous Improvement
A key difference between a successful and profitable chiropractic business and a roller coaster type practice can be traced back to procedures and systems.
Many practice problems occur because procedures are not established, consistently followed, and regularly improved. This has been the secret to franchising. Starbucks may offer new products and services now and then, but for the most part, they follow their checklists and manuals of successful procedures. The local New Age coffee shop down on the corner with the unemployed guitar player usually lasts for about a year before the owner’s savings and inspiration dry up, along with the last cup of coffee.
Of all the categories of systems in your office, what would you say would be the most important?
☐Patient Accounts (Billing/Collections) Systems
☐Marketing Systems
☐Front Desk Systems
☐Therapy and Clinical Support Systems
☐ Doctor Systems
☐ Business Systems (Payroll, Financial Planning, Taxes,)
☐ Leadership
☐Office, Practice Management Systems
My guess is that you usually keep most billing procedures in place as… obviously, you need to be paid. And, you will usually keep most front desk procedures in place. These deal with patients and patients are obviously in the office, or not. And you, of course, follow your clinical procedures.
Your marketing procedures come and go, at least they do in most offices. They are just not consistent. This is why I put together the Marketing Manager System in 2000. The biggest error in most offices with their marketing is that it simply isn’t done consistently.
But the most important category of systems is not so obvious. These are the management procedures and systems. Why are these most important? Because they keep all the other procedures in place and are continually being improved upon.
Why do you think CEO’s are paid so much money? Because they are in charge of the management of a business and are able to increase its bottom line by the millions. They have procedures that they follow and insist that others do as well. These procedures all add up to systems.
Over the years, Petty Michel and Associates has been very successful at increasing the revenues of practices. One of the reasons is that we implement what we call the Practice Development Process. It is a monthly system of management that gradually works to objectively improve the business, repetitively over and over. It integrates into your current systems and does not take that much extra time. But in the end, it saves you a great deal of time, extra work, and lost revenue.
To learn more about the 3Goals Practice Development Process: 3Goals PDP
The 3Goals Practice Development Process for Chiropractic Success
Four steps to continuously develop and improve your practice
The Practice Development Process is a simple, yet powerful practice building system that can help take you and your business to its full potential of a systematized, team driven and profitable business.
It transforms your practice. Month by month, it helps move your practice to a more profitable service oriented business that runs at near full capacity – with less ups and downs that demand your time and extra work.
It is based upon the idea of constant improvement.
The principle of constant improvement in management science has been a major factor in the success of large manufacturing corporations around the world. The success of the Japanese automobile manufacturing rests heavily on a process of constant improvement called Kaizen (kai = change, zen = good). Motorola developed its own program called “Six Sigma”, a process of continuous improvement.
We have adapted these processes to be applied in practice management and call it the 3Goals Practice Development Process (PDP).
The Practice Development Process has four steps:
- Access
- Plan
- Supervise
- Document
Integrate This Process As Part Of Your Team Meetings. The first two steps, Assess and Plan, are usually done before or during the first staff meeting of the month. Supervision goes on during the month to ensure that the plan gets completed. At the end of the month, successful procedures are documented in a practice playbook for future training and assessments.
Your Consultant and Coach. This process is best done with your practice and business coach. Each month, the two of you should work through step 1 and 2. During the month, your coach may also be able to help with the implementation of the plan.
THE 4 STEPS OF THE PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS:
1. Assess and Review. At the end of the month, look over the statistics and note what areas improved and what areas didn’t. Then check what was actually done, or not done in each area. Use your departmental checklists from your Practice Playbook if you have started this.
Many business owners still manage without looking at objective indicators. They manage by emotions, mistakes, fear, “bright ideas”and other flighty factors that ultimately hold a clinic back, or often just burn it out.
Effective clinic managers, like an athletic team coaches, base their actions first on actual outcomes and performance monitors. These are your daily, weekly, and monthly practice statistics. PM&A has developed a specialized form of review which is called Practice Analytics System which we display on our client’s personal Practice Dashboard’s.
This assessment also includes reviewing checklists of the key procedures and whether or not key duties were done.
2 Plan. Work out the key areas you want to work on in the next month. Pick just one or two areas that will make the biggest difference and make a list of a few action steps that will help improve the area in your office you have targeted. Get the actions assigned with a date on when they should be done.
3 Supervise. Regularly monitor the implementation of the action steps with yourself, your team, and your consultant. Provide help where needed to get them done.
4 Systematize. You do not want to keep inventing the wheel, so at the end of each month, document any procedure that worked well.
List all successful activities for each department and “lock them in” as standard operating procedures. Keep what works, throw out what doesn’t. Start with just a checklist of key procedures. Later, you can write or videotape a description of each procedure. It is from this that you will do your training and “coaching reviews.” Use your playbook often: refer to it and practice.
Gradually, you should have your own system of practice management and patient management and have it outlined simply in your Practice Playbook. For example, the “Smith Chiropractic System of Patient Management.”
IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE
Week 1. First Week of the Month: Do Steps 1 & 2 – Assess and Plan
Week 2. Supervise. Coordinate upcoming activities. Study and Train. (Optional: Separate Marketing Meeting)
Week 3. Supervise. Coordinate upcoming activities. Study and Train.
Week 4. Supervise. Coordinate on upcoming activities. Celebrate and party for a great month! Add to Practice Playbook.
REPETITION
Do The Practice Development Process Every Month.
The success of this process derives much of its power from a simple principle from Aristotle.
“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
This often referenced quote is from a series of lectures he was to have given at the Greek Lyceum on ethics (300 B.C.). We could say, then, that continuing to do the Practice Development Assessment, and all of your procedures and systems, is ethical and leads to excellence. The contrary would also be true.
GOALS AND CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT
It is important to keep in mind WHY we are doing the PDP each month.
It is assumed we all want to improve, that improvement is possible, and that we have higher purposes and goals. Our patients do. That is why they see us and we help them improve and get closer to their goals at each visit.
By consistently working the 3 Goals Practice Development Process each month you, the practice, and each team member will also get closer to the higher goals each of you share.
Kaizen: Constant Practice Improvement – From Wooden to Deming
What improvements do you need to make in your practice for 2016?
Managing your practice is similar to managing a sports team in many ways. There are goals, rules, plays (procedures,) skill development, strategies, winning and losing. There is also coaching and training.
The teams that win the most constantly work to improve. But the improvements often focus on just the refinement of the basics.
One chiropractor I worked with told me stories about his experiences with John Wooden. Coach Wooden was a very successful basketball coach who coached the UCLA basketball team to 10 national championships over a 12-year period.
Here is what Coach Wooden has said:
“When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur…. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement.
Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens – and when it happens, it lasts.”
In Japan they have something called Kaizen. This means continuous improvement. Part of this was developed by another Midwesterner (Wooden was from Indiana), Edwards Deming (Iowa).
The Deming Cycle is a process of continuous improvement that helped grow the Japanese car industry in the 60’s to what it is today. For a long time, Detroit auto companies weren’t that interested in what Deming had to say – and, of course, we can see how that turned out for them!
Constant improvement takes discipline. Those of you who had to practice a musical instrument or an athletic skill in school remember the daily routine. Improving the little things can get boring and when a colleague calls with excitement about this new seminar or gadget or website, many doctors are off to the chase the “shiny things.”
Innovation needs to happen, certainly. But the real successful businesses and teams continually work to master what they already do.
Mastering the basics is always the key to success. Deliberate practice, study and good coaching. And this takes discipline and… a certain degree of humility to admit you can personally improve.
But since you are not a full time coach and mostly work IN the practice, you have to schedule specific times to work ON the practice. But what do you work on? ICD 11? (Yes… it IS on the horizon!) More E.H.R?
Well, maybe, but these are not the areas that will significantly improve your business over the long run and take it to the next level.
To help you uncover what should be improved, you can use our updated Practice Progress Grid. You can go over it with your team and plot where you were, where you are now… and then where you want to be next year! (Link is below.)
This can help reveal what organizational and engineering steps you need to build a better business machine for 2016.
In most cases, the improvements don’t have to be major. They just have to be continuously refined. But some areas that are holding you back from your goals can be hidden or overlooked.
If you want to dig deeper, we also have our Practice Development Assessment(PDA). It takes more time to complete but gives you a more complete analysis. (The link is below.)
The world is changing faster and faster. You have to constantly improve to keep up, let alone, to stay ahead. And if you don’t… well, your patients will be going to those offices that are.
From all of us at PM&A, we look forward to your continued improvements and to helping you get closer to your goals in the New Year.
Ed Petty
Link to Practice Progress Grid
Link to Practice Development Assessment (No charge for first 15 users, $25 thereafter.)
Presidential Award Given to Dave Michel of Petty Michel & Associates
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Dr. LaGuardia, Dr. Conway with David Michel of Petty Michel & Associates
MILWAUKEE, WI – November 27, 2015 – Petty, Michel and Associates (PM&A), a national chiropractic practice management company, is pleased to announce that David Michel, a partner with PM&A, was recently awarded the 2015 Presidential Award by the Chiropractic Society of Wisconsin (CSW). The award, presented during the Awards Ceremony at the CSW’s second annual 2015 Health & Wellness Summit, held at the Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells this past October 9th through the 11th, identifies:
- Those who have made significant contributions to the mission of CSW
- Those who have served selflessly expecting little in return
- The acknowledgement is to give thanks and recognition to the individual for all their hard work and commitment
Mr. Michel serves on the Board of Directors for the Chiropractic Society of Wisconsin (CSW). The CSW is a member driven and member controlled State organization that develops and maintains positive relations with consumers (patients), chiropractors, legislators, lobbyists, insurance companies and medical providers.
Dr. Jay LaGuardia, President of the CSW, when presenting the award to Michel, stated: “We would not have been able to achieve the success we have thus far without his valuable service.”
David Michel has been involved with the Chiropractic Society of Wisconsin since its inception in 2012.
Petty Michel & Associates (PM&A), a practice development company, was founded in 1988 as an alternative to conventional practice management seminar programs. For more information, go to: http://www.pmaworks.com
The Marketing Flywheel versus the “Paleo” Practice
If you are like many chiropractors, other doctors and professionals, you are wasting potential revenue and don’t even realize it.
Before I tell you how this happens, let me give you a definition that I have been using for years that has helped many offices.
Definition of a Practice
A practice is a network of relationships that is created and sustained through communication and service.
OK. Keep that definition in mind.
Now, here is how you can lose extra income and create extra work for yourself and your team: You start out spending a great deal of time and effort on generating new patients and then on processing them. You get to know the new patients and hear their stories. You empathize with them, ask them questions, and examine them. You explain what you have found about their condition and worked out what you see as their best option for treatment.
During their first few visits you are sensitive to how they are responding to your care and so continue to communicate with them. You put all this work into your new patient in order to help them follow your treatment plan and get better.
But as the patient improves and their frequency of visits decrease, your focus on them lessens. Your attention gravitates to the new patients.
When the patient has moved through your care plan, they often just drift back out into their community with an inadequate lifeline back to your office.
You have invested in, and created, a great relationship with your patient. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to stay in communication with them? They know you and like you and your team — shouldn’t you keep the connection alive and active? Just because their health condition has improved, don’t you still have approaches to help them become healthier and happier?
They have family and friends that can use your help now. They also belong to businesses and other groups that could use your help. Why let this relationship atrophy? Why not secure that lost income as well?
The Other “Paleo” Practice
In some sense, the business is constantly starting and stopping. It is nomadic. This is the other “Paleo” practice: each day when the sun comes up across the plains, you are out hunting for and gathering new patients. This may be good for a diet, but not if you want a low stress practice. Wouldn’t it be better to create a business where existing long time patients would routinely stop by for care and refer their family and friends? This would save you a lot of effort, money, and stress, wouldn’t it?
The Practice Flywheel
A practice should be supported by business systems.
These systems are like an engine. An engine has starts and stops, but it also has a flywheel. The flywheel is a heavy wheel that, once it begins to spin, continues to do so with much less effort than it took to get it going.
A good practice is supported by a business flywheel, or a number of flywheels as there are different sub-engines in the business.
For internal marketing, the flywheel is the conversation that you first began. You want to keep it going and going. After you get it spinning in high gear, it takes little effort to keep it humming along.
How Do You Do This?
You put in place a system of constant communication with your patients when they are NOT in the office through e-newsletters, hard copy newsletters, notes and cards, Facebook, and any other medium available. And of course, there is also personally seeing them at events in your community – county fair, grocery store, restaurant, salon or barber shop, etc. You want to keep the conversation going.
A very effective method is through electronic newsletters. Done right, and they usually aren’t, these newsletters can improve the numbers in your office.
We have tested this and found that the offices that do have personalized newsletters to their patients have more returning patients, more referrals, and more wellness visits as a result. Hence, more revenue and less stress about generating new patients.
See link below for a procedural article on what we have found that seems to work best for e-newsletters. Your customized e-newsletter can fuel your Facebook page, website, hard copy newsletter, and other mediums. We have worked out a relatively simple and very cost effective system that offices are using now to make this work.
Keep in mind that if your patients are not in listening to you, they will be listening to someone. For example, there are about 80 ads for drugs every hour on television (http://www.topmastersinhealthcare.com/drugged-america/) and this statistic is more than ten years old. It has been estimated that each of us are bombarded with about 2,000 advertising impressions per day. How many of these ads influence your patients toward unhealthful products or services?
Customized newsletters, and the cascading communications that they can feed, cost little but they help to keep the patient flywheel – and the communication – going. And in so doing, the patient wins, the community wins, and so does your business.
-Edward Petty
Publishing Your Newsletter – Does your mailing bottleneck when it comes to time to do the monthly newsletter Follow our easy steps to get your newsletter out “simple and fast”.
Newsletter Content – 9 suggested topics to include in your monthly newsletter to keep the conversation going.
Your Newsletter: CONTENT
The purpose of your newsletter is to keep the conversation going. It is designed to sustain the relationship that you have started. It can even help create new relationships. It serves to remind the patient that you are there for them and can continue to help them.
Marketing IS communication. Nothing beats live two-way communication – in person or via the phone. But next to live communication, the personal letter is best. The letter is a tried and true form of communication.
A newsletter is NOT a brochure, or a pamphlet, or regurgitated “content.” It is a personal communication from you to someone else. Too many newsletters are mass produced and have generic types of “content.” The one thing that is becoming more valuable in today’s world is authenticity. This is important because it creates trust – which is also scarce. So, keep your newsletter personal, even “folksy” and your patients will feel that the real you is talking to the real them and will have a greater impact.
Components of a patient newsletter should include some the following:
1. Letter from the Clinic Director
A short letter to the patients from the Clinic Director anchors the newsletter. If you include nothing else, this is the most important part of your newsletter.
It can be short or long. Shorter is better, with only 4 or 5 paragraphs. A longer letter also works ONLY if it is compelling. A worthy story or rant against some injustice…these can work. If it expresses your VOICE, it will work.
Your letter should usually include some reference to you personally. For example: “Yesterday, when I was taking my kids to school, my youngest mentioned she was told that she needed to receive 43 vaccinations next week….”
You can include some health news, with statistics and cite a reference, or refer to an article in another part of the newsletter. You can include office news. Refer to a photo attached of the new carpet, painted wall, or gift from a patient. New research, celebrities utilizing similar services, recent chiropractic success cases in the office, clinic expansion or renovation, new computer system, and personal adventures … all of these are good.
This can also be done via a short video as well.
Whatever you say, it should be delivered as if you are talking to just one person, perhaps the last patient you just saw. End the letter by saying something like… “I look forward to seeing you soon.”
2. Health Tips
Information for a “Health Tips” column, such as “Health Sleep Habits for Kids” The topic should be consistent with the time of year (September – back to school month) or Community Education Program theme (Children’s Health). Dr. Mercola has built his empire with great health tips from his newsletter. If you are not a subscriber, I encourage you to look into it. (www.mercola.com)
3. Special Promotions
Information on any upcoming promotions, spinal care classes, community education lectures, or anything else of a special nature.
4. Staff News
Include any news about staff, such as a new baby, new staff, new staff promotion, continuing education or seminar attendance. Pictures please.
5. Doctor/Clinical News
Include news about doctors, such as new seminars attended, advanced training, specialties, new associates, new diagnostic or treatment equipment, etc.
6. Patient News
Any news that is appropriate about patients, such as patient of the month, patient success stories (include photograph of patient), patient news: “Joe Smith wins the lottery and enrolls at Palmer!” Ensure you have a signed release from any patients that you want to include information about. Some clinics like to include a copy of their “thank you for referring board.”
7. Community Education Calendar
List the dates, times, places, and other pertinent information about community events that you will be sponsoring during the next month or quarter.
8. Just for Fun
Begin a recipe column. Assign this to one of the staff as appropriate. For example, if your office manager’s name is Jean, have a column called “Jean’s Recipes”. Each month, Jean can feature a different recipe, including, for example, the doctor’s favorite special chili recipe. Recipes should be simple (or at least not take up too much space). “Jean” should make some comments about the recipe.
9. Cartoons and Jokes!
Newsletter CONTENT Checklist
Submitted in digital format (Via computer). Bonus if you include photos or even a video.
- Letter from the Clinic Director
- Health Tips
- Special Promotions Upcoming
- Staff News
- Doctor/Clinical News
- Patient News
- Community Education Calendar
- Just for Fun
- Cartoons and Jokes
Getting the Newsletter Out – Simple and Fast Steps
There is a fast way to “keep the conversation going” with your patients, vendors, allies, and other people connected to your practice and business.
Use an email service.
It has simple templates in which you can paste the content you want. Later, with some easy editing, you can also print out the newsletter and have a hard copy for in office fliers or mailers. You can paste the content of your newsletter to your website and to your Facebook page. You can even use short video clips.
The email service makes it easy. Smooth organization and delegation of the work makes it even easier.
Almost ANY communication is better than none. On a regular basis, get your newsletters out regardless of how neat or interesting they are. Quantity first, then improve the quality.
Here is a short outline of some of the steps you can use to get your newsletter out fast.
- Someone in Charge. Assign one person to be in charge of collecting the info. I call this person the “Sunshine Coordinator,” though you may want to call this person the “newsletter assistant,” or some other creative name. (Sunshine Assistant: the one who helps bring the sunshine of our office to your home.)
- Newsletter Content Assigned. Get different categories of the newsletter assigned. See the Content Checklist for ideas. Encourage photos of patients, staff, doctor, etc. Each person can take a section and be responsible for submitting quality content. However, they do not personally have to create the article. For example, whoever is in charge of testimonials can encourage any team member to solicit the testimonial from the patients. Not all sections need to be in each newsletter.
- Content Letter from the doctor. (Could be a video.)
- Recipe section. “Christina’s Cool Recipe’s”
- Try to get a photo. Take a quote and make it into the title.
- “Health Tips.” This is a practical section about health that the reader can use now. Sort of a home remedy section. Include citation to a study, a few tips on what to do for a condition. Always encourage them to call in for a no charge consultation. (This can also be a video.)
- Upcoming promotional events
- Office news, jokes, miscellaneous.
- Digital Content. Don’t hand in slips of paper or a photocopy. Make sure the content is sent to our Sunshine Assistant in Word or text format. Include photos and video as attachments.
- Set when the letter goes out and when all the content should be to the Sunshine Assistant –usually 1 week earlier.
- E-newsletter. Use a newsletter service. They are simple, not that expensive, and for many other reasons, just the best way to go. Constant Contact is easy to use. There is also Mail Chimp, and many others that are available.
- Publishing Steps.
- Someone should be in charge of this on line service.
- Pick a template.
- Acquire and upload existing emails to get started.
- Cut and paste text content in each block of the newsletter.
- Have someone qualified to review readability and edit.
- Regular uploading of new emails.
- Posting important newsletter content on website blog.
- Cross post info from website blog to Facebook.
- Convert email newsletter to PDF handout for hardcopy newsletter for handouts, statement stuffers, and mailers as desired.
- Monthly. Some offices send out a short letter from the doctor two weeks after the main newsletter, along with upcoming notices on occasion. Generally, the more the better.
- Video. You will need to make your own YouTube Channel, or use another service to upload your video. There is special formatting for ideal optimization to keep in mind. Once posted, the video can be included in your newsletter, on your website, on Facebook, and on other Internet properties. It does take some extra work, but in the long run, it is worth it. Video is very powerful. Think of T.V. and how much it is used. With Video, you are creating your own TV station.
How to Create a Wondrous Practice Life
FORTY ONE YEARS AGO, around this time of year (August 7), a twenty four year old managed to sneak up to the twin tours of the World Trade Center, shoot a cable to the other side, get it rigged up tight, and walk across it to the other side. Actually, he made 8 passes, performed dances and entertained an audience a 1/4 of a mile below. He finally came in when it started to rain.
He was arrested, but the the charges were later dismissed if he performed for children in Central Park, which he did.
I recently had the opportunity to listen to Philippe Petit (on August 7, 2015), now 65 years old. He gave a stirring presentation in San Francisco to chiropractic health professionals at the Wave, a seminar put on by Life West Chiropractic College.
Philippe was born in 1949 and still very active. He considers himself, among all things, an artist. But he also juggles, climbs rocks, fights bulls, fences, builds structures with 18th century tools and considers himself an accomplished equestrian.
He explained that he learned early in life to follow his passion and his intuition. But his creativity seemed to be overlooked or given little importance when he was young and so he felt that it must be illegal.
In his book Creativity, Philippe writes: “The creator must be an outlaw. Not a criminal outlaw, but rather a poet who cultivates intellectual rebellion.”
In his talk to us on August 7th, he offered some tips, or precepts that he thought might help us as they have helped him in his life.
He began by talking about his passion to pursue his goals. But right next to that, he emphasized the importance of tenacity. This was a word that included determination, discipline, preparation, and training to do what was needed to be done to achieve those goals about which you are passionate.
He exhibited this nearly a half a century ago as he pursued his goal to walk from one 1,300 foot tall building to another on just a wire. He started planning the walk when he was only 17 living in Paris. The Towers were not yet built. Certainly, the walk itself took immense focus at the time. But it lasted only less than an hour. The real work was in the planning and preparation and training. This took tenacity.
He stressed to listen to your intuition. When you have a question or a problem, listen to your gut and an answer, sooner or later, will visit you. But you do have to listen.
He emphasized simplicity in all that you do, but still be elegant. And don’t be afraid to make mistakes. This is how we learn and move forward. All this, of course, takes courage.
You have to believe in yourself. (Or as Dr. Jimmy Parker used to say, you have to have “FCB – Faith, Confidence and Belief.”) In your role of doctor, provider, and as a professional team member, you have to have faith in yourself and in the services you provide.
In our 3 Goals System of Practice Development, the Third Goal includes your greater purposes. These go beyond financial demands (Goal 1), which are necessary, or profession and business competence (Goal 2), which should be sought. But above it all are your Greater Purposes, your highest values — professionally and personally, that we really seek and that make life worth living.
We learn at an early age to quell our passions and creativity and to fall in line with convention. Obey and comply. And, to some extent, this is necessary for a society and a business to function. But in the bargain, we often lose our spirit. Our creative aspirations, our sense of fellowship with each other, and the outrage at the wrongs that we see — these gradually lose their importance. Our greater purposes become blunted — or even forgotten.
Certainly, this has happened to many people in your community as they “report in,” zombie like to the local drug store for “health care”, especially if it is promoting “free flu shots.” (Average drug prescriptions per person in 1993 was 7.1 In 2014 it was 12.2 And watch out for anyone over 50 where the average prescriptions used are 19, and over for those over 65 – 27. That’s right – 27 prescription medications per person. Average!2)
It is important to keep your greater purposes in sight and to respect them enough to keep them alive. They can and should be integrated into your professional life as you do not work in a factory assembly line as your parents or grandparents may have, or as those who produce your cool t-shirts and running shoes do now. For example, if you like children, have pictures of kids on your walls and have a special “Kids Day.” If you like running, put up pictures of runners and get your patients to join more running clubs. If you want to help the homeless kids in your town, promote a donation program for the local shelter.
Back at the seminar: I noticed that some of the presentations were held in ballrooms that had special, but temporary names. For example, there was the “The Reggie Gold” ballroom, the “Frank Sovinsky” ballroom, and the “Lloyd Latch” ballroom.
In the mid 1980’s, I worked for several years directly for and with Dr. Lloyd Latch. Though he didn’t promote it much, I am sure that he did have the largest chiropractic clinic in the world. While his personal production was high, the total office saw over 2,000 visits per week. The key was that he had created a wonderful team of doctors adjusting patients in 28 adjusting rooms and supported by a dedicate team of professionals.
And what was a key to his success? Over and over I heard Dr. Latch tell his doctors, and others who would visit, that success was “an inside job.”
I think this is exactly what Mr. Petit was getting at.
Success doesn’t come from the latest marketing procedure… it comes from deep inside. It comes from your heart, your passion, your imagination, and the tenacity to work and train daily.
Mr. Pettit says that there are –
“qualities inside all of us, that we are rarely encouraged to recognize
but that are essential to make our dreams come true, to plan, to construct a wondrous life.”3
Successful people learn from others, but ultimately take their own counsel.
As Philippe wrote:
“Observation was my conduit for knowledge, intuition my source of power.”3
So, follow your greater purposes and integrate them into your professional and work life. Allow your team members to also pursue their greater purposes – and you will see your practice become more creative, productive and wondrous.
Carpe Diem (seize the day),
Ed
———————–
- Generation Rx How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies by Greg Critser (https://danmurphydc.com/Critser.pdf) , also http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/retail-rx-drugs-per-capita.
- www.imshealth.com/deployedfiles/imshealth/Global/Content/Corporate/IMS%20Health%20Institute/Reports/US_Use_of_Meds_2013/Percent_population_prescriptions_per_capita.pdf
- Creativity, the Perfect Crime. Philippe Petit
Chiropractic Marketing and a Staff Member Conspiracy
This is a tale of a staff member conspiracy.
It is about a hidden and quiet plan by scheming staff members.
The planning took place towards the end of 2014 in a chiropractic office next to a river. By a lake. But that is not important.
Quietly, Ann and Betty met to discuss how they were going to fix the … situation. (I changed the names, but the rest is true.)
Dr. JM is an excellent and respected doctor who has a loyal following of patients. But as much as he wanted more new patients — as he was only generating about 6 per month — he just could not bring himself to do much marketing. And this is in spite of the excellent advice and support of his faithful and expert coach and consultant (moi).
But secretly, the two ladies hatched their own private strategy. And it worked.
More new patients started to come in. In fact, on my last visit to their office, they had three new patients come in, more than they usually see in a week.
What exactly did these enterprising chiropractic assistants do? Hmmm?
Maybe you could do the same?
Yes, you can and here is what they did:
Betty, the office manager, and Ann, the front desk coordinator, got together and worked up a procedure for generating patient reviews on Google.
The office manager wrote up a procedure for patients on how to post a review on Google. Ann, who calls most of the patients “honey” and says that they are all “her” patients, can be very forward and, well, controlling. She would simply get the agreement of key patients to make a review. She then gave them the procedure that was on a slip of paper and told them to go forth and spread the word.
In time, with her friendly but insistent nudging, they would. And now, their doctor has over twenty great reviews spread out over many months. The new patient increase is coming from people calling in off of the Internet.
Everybody is a reviewer.
People buy on the Internet from reviews. This is like word-of-mouth of old, only now it is a 4 or 5 star review. In fact, Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, uses reviews as their primary marketing tool. Once you buy something from them online, you are continually asked to post a review about what you thought.
I recently posted a review for something I purchased and found out that I have a “review rank” of 16,678,570. (But at least I earned 1 “helpful vote”, so that is nice.)
There are now many web sites that a consumer can go to review you.
Everyone is a reviewer. It is the new currency used to buy and sell products and services.
Get reviewed.
To help you, we have provided links on our blog for the following:
- Article for staff on how to generate web reviews. (PDF)
- Procedure sheet for patients on how to make a review on Google. (PDF)
- Procedure sheet for patients on how to make a review on Facebook. (PDF)
- A patient log for the staff to follow up on patients who have agreed to post a review. (PDF)
If you are an active client, you can go to our members site and download the same files as customizable WORD files. Get Reviewed info on PMAmembers.com
Start your own conspiracy to help share the successes of your services. But… get reviewed and watch the new patients come in.
Health Independence and Freedom – For Chiropractors and Your Patients
Here in the good Ol’ USA, we are about to celebrate Independence Day, the date we commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and declared our freedom from the yoke of the British Empire.
I think for those of us in health care this day bears special significance. In fact, I think of the chiropractic profession in particular.
Chiropractic has remained independent for 120 years. It has been fought by monopolist trade organizations, suppressed, and slandered, but it still stays outside of the clutches of Eli Lilly, Merck, or Monsanto.
To Chiropractors and those who work in the profession: You are brave, tough, and independent. You are living the American Way. You are a gritty bunch for sure and have maintained your integrity for putting care before profits.
The challenge you have is not only to remain free, but to help your patients and community also be free and independent.
Your patients are at the receiving end of billions and billions of dollars that are spent to manipulate them to purchase products that are known to be unhealthy. Through pervasive and clever marketing and massive efforts to influence government, Americans have become over fed, over medicated, and under nourished. Obesity rates have tripled (11% in 1960’s, 37% 2010)1, drug consumption has soared (average 7 per person in 1993 to 12.2 per person in 2014).2 Vaccination recommendations for our children from our government has increased from 64 in the 1950’s to over 1000 in 2013 (69 doses of 16 vaccines between day of birth and age 18).3
And the results? American’s health rates compared to other countries are abysmal. We are the worst or close to it in many categories. 4 Yet this is not what is advertised, so it would be shock for most Americans to hear that in the competition with other countries for the best health care, that they are losers.
The true American Way5 was and is to question authority, seek the truth and to stand up for justice.
But the truth can be obscured and the path of least resistance is easier, and it can seem more acceptable to simply follow convention and herd mentality. But the facts are there – provided by whistle blowers, mothers, and researchers, and we all need to look at the facts, do our research, and continue to educate ourselves and stay vigilant.
We can’t forget our patients… they too need to learn how their health choices have been manipulated, how they have been deceived, and what they should do to truly improve their health.
There is a price to pay for freedom. It takes work and is not always easy, but — it is the American thing to do. Stay brave, stay alert, and continue to help your patients achieve better health.
Happy Independence Day from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, USA
References.
- Obesity.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2419425-2-healthcare-stocks-that-appear-to-trade-below-fair-value-estimates - Drug Usage.
Generation Rx How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies by Greg Critser (https://danmurphydc.com/Critser.pdf) , also http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/retail-rx-drugs-per-capita. www.imshealth.com/deployedfiles/imshealth/Global/Content/Corporate/IMS%20Health%20Institute/Reports/US_Use_of_Meds_2013/Percent_population_prescriptions_per_capita.pdf - Vaccinations.
http://www.nvic.org/CMSTemplates/NVIC/pdf/49-Doses-PosterB.pdf - Rating American Health Care.
http://www.nvic.org/CMSTemplates/NVIC/pdf/49-Doses-PosterB.pdf
http://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/Briefing-Note-UNITED-STATES-2014.pdf - The American Way.
“The American Way of life is individualistic, dynamic, and pragmatic.” (Wikipedia: The American Way)
The Importance of Why in Chiropractic Practice Development
Remember when your child, or a kid you knew, constantly asked you “why?”
“Time to go to bed honey.” “But why, Mommy?” “Dad, why is the grass green? ”
This happens for a few years until the child finally learns that it is just so much trouble to keep asking the “why” question.
This happens to us all. After a while, we all just become inured to the day to day demands and take for granted our eventual roles of working in a world of work that has little other reason than to pay our bills. And we begin to live just for the weekends.
But living for the weekend is not much of a motivation to do good work, to perform our duties with excellence that inspire trust in others, and to be happy with it.
Our jobs should have a reason beyond money or relief from work. What we do for money should have a higher purpose than money. It should satisfy us and motivate us in and of itself.
After many years of research, Stephen Covey determined that those people and companies that were the most effective followed the habit of: “Begin with the End in Mind.” In other words, start with a goal in mind. He emphasized the value of developing and living by a personal mission statement as well as one for your business, and even your family.
Some of the better offices that I have had the privilege of working with would often end their team meetings by reciting their group’s mission statement.
While this helps, it can also become rote so that the real meaning of the mission becomes dull. One way to remedy this is to now and then ask “Why?” Simply ask each team member to describe, in their own words, why this is, or should be, the mission statement.
We are all looking for greater meaning in our lives – or at least have at one time or another. “What does all that I do account for?” “What do I account for?” “What will be my legacy after I am gone?”
This applies in leadership as the CEO of your chiropractic business.
The primary responsibility of a leader in a purpose-based organization is to build, nurture, and sustain the core purpose of the organization. (“It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For.” Roy M. Sence, Jr.)
But leadership is also marketing. You are putting your noble ideas out into the world to give others a clear vision of what is possible and why it is important. You stand out as different – because you are stating WHY you are making a difference.
A few years ago, I posted a T.E.D. talk on our website (www.pmaworks.com) that focused on how “WHY” was so important in leadership. (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.) The key differential between the very successful companies and leaders was not what their company provided, or how they provided it. The key difference was that they communicated why they did what they did. (The link to this talk by Simon Sinek is below.)
Much of corporate medicine has devolved into a goalless and soulless technology and bureaucracy. The relationship between the patient and the MD has become interrupted by critical paths and reimbursement protocols, techs, testing, and terms (codes and abbreviations), and lots of notes. Yet, the stats for America’s health care relative to other industrialized countries worldwide are poor.
Be nice and genuinely interested in patients and talk about WHY you want to help them AND their family, and do so, and you can’t help but win.
Let prospective patients know WHY you are a chiropractor, why you chose their community, and why you do what you do. Let them know why you adjust children, seniors, teen athletes, and “Los Pobres.” Communicate this to your existing patients as well. In fact, any promotion you do will work better if you tie in to WHY you are promoting.
For example, take the donation campaign called “Coats for Kids. “ It has all but lost its meaning over the years with every TV and radio station jumping onto some kind of faux goodwill activity. Promoting what it is about and how it will benefit kids as well as patients will help make it successful. But to make your promotion much more successful, explain that the reason you are participating in this campaign is that you have worked in homeless shelters and seen shivering and poorly clothed kids. This is “why.”
Attached is an article on “Why We Promote.” It is a sample letter you can mail to your patients after their first progress exam, or simply have it as a handout. You can also use its theme to end a new patient class. Feel free to embellish it or change it. (Active clients can get a customizable Word doc here. http://pmamembers.com/?p=874)
Personally, take time to remind yourself about the WHY for what you do. Study resources that support this “why.” What is the mission of your office and why is that the mission? Remind your team about this “why.” Training new staff on this is particularly important. Go over the “why” for the office, as well as the “why” for their particular role.
So the next time your child, or any child asks you “why?” take your time to answer. And as they get older, you can start asking them “why?” (Get even!) But the world unfolds and reduces to its raw and basic truths when you do – and this in turn allows passion and purpose a clearer channel to help you achieve your goals.
Golden Circle a TED talk by Simon Sinek. http://pmaworks.com/observations/2011/02/10/leadership-in-chiropractic-the-golden-circle/
Sample Letter to pts-Why we promote.
[This article is from the upcoming book: “The Third Goal: A New Practice and Business Building Methodology That Is Simpler, Faster, and More Fun than What You Are Doing Now.) by Edward Petty, due to be published in late 2015. © 2015]
“Ichi-go Ichi-e:” The Springtime Secret to Improving Your Chiropractic Practice
The best chiropractic businesses excel at the basics. Too often we can take the fundamentals of practice excellence for granted and go off to chase the “shiny” things, forsaking the powerful potentials right in front of us.
So here is an organic reminder that you, and all of us, can immediately put to use to help us keep growing and groovin’.
Most of us enjoy spring…flowers blooming, birds singing. It is new. It is creative. It is a beginning.
Life goes in cycles – everything has a beginning, a progression, and an ending. Some cycles are longer – every twelve months the tulips come through the winter mud. Some are shorter – each day the sun comes up and we have a new cup of coffee. But nature endures through cycles.
Unfortunately, we don’t always follow nature in our offices.
If you are like most of us, you don’t really start your day. It sort of happens and you just go along. You walk into the office a see what the appointment book offers you. Based upon the urgencies of the morning, you make your way through to the afternoon until you can leave to go home in the evening. But do you really end your day or does it linger with you as you go home, or even stay with you till the next morning?
Most of us are stuck in the blur of stretched out cycles that are blended one moment to the next so that there is never any real beginning or never any real ending. One phone call in the middle of a busy afternoon is very similar to the one you had in the morning…everyday for the last three years. This adjustment to this patient is just too similar to the one you gave…3,000 times before. One moment blurs to the next.
Jim Parker, of Parker Seminars, used to talk about “PTC”, Present Time Consciousness, as a key element to practice success. A practice can suffer because, over time, our consciousness gets stuck in past moments, strung out so that we have less consciousness in the here and now. When you greet your patient, you are not as “here” or as conscious in the present as you might have been the first month you were in practice, or the first week you were on the job. And your patients know it, at least on a subliminal level. They can have a sense that you are disinterested in them and so end up leaving and looking for a doctor who is.
Each encounter with each patient should be new. It should be its own cycle. Each phone call, each adjustment should be unique, separate, as if it has never happened before.
The Japanese have a name for this: “Ichi-go Ichi-e.” Roughly, It means “one time, one meeting” — that this one time will never happen again. It is its own time. It is special.
What would happen to your practice if each day – today – was brand new? Like spring. If this week was the first week you were finally able to see patients after years of preparation?
First of all, you wouldn’t be bored. You wouldn’t be burned out, worried, or angry. Why? Because you are just starting and you have a chance to create the practice anyway you want.
So, what causes us to lose our “PTC” and fall into doldrums? How can we stay in the “now” and be creative each moment we are with our patients, each other, and our loved ones outside of practice?
First, watch out for the backlogs. They are energy dumps. Try to complete your work when you are doing it. Patient notes, insurance reports, filing…try to get it all done as soon as possible. You see, when you start to put your consciousness into a cycle you don’t really get all of it back until you complete that cycle. So, every pile of paperwork and partially completed job that is lying around the office will gradually draw your attention into the past.
Spend a weekend applying the 4 D’s: With each task: Get it DONE, or DELEGATE it, or DUMP it in the trash can. Not all jobs can be completed now, and so some can be DELAYED with a time noted to complete it.
Here are some other steps to make each moment new:
- Early to Rise. Begin your day a little earlier… with a walk or a book, some music, meditation or prayer.
- Morning Group Planning. Begin your day in the office with a case management meeting, reviewing who is coming in, what special actions need to be coordinated. Maybe add a joke to keep things from getting serious.
- End Each Encounter. After each patient contact, end the meeting in your mind.
- Interest. With each new patient contact, genuinely find something interesting and new about them – their appearance, their week, something about their story.
- Business Coach. Meet with your business coach and review your business and make plans for the next month.
- Get Away. Get away on a vacation with your spouse, or a sabbatical and seminar for yourself. ( I’m heading out to Cal Jam this week. Hope to see you there!)
- Un-Serious. Do things in your office that are different, fresh, and new. One office has a “fruity Friday” and offers fruit to the patients. Avoid the deadly disease of “seriousness.” Tell a joke, be silly.
- The Four D’s (again): Do it, Dump it, Delegate it, Delay it. Avoid backlogs.
Some of this takes discipline and creating rituals to help ensure these actions take place
But you are part of nature and spring is already in your heart. You just have to let it out, like a song that is ready to be sung or a jig ready to be danced. You already have the creative spark of newness inside you.
So just breathe.. and let your spring happen today and each day. And help others to do the same.
Carpe Diem and Happy Spring!
–Ed
Cal Jam Chiropractic Conference, 2015, Costa Mesa, California
(Spring Equinox, Northern Hemisphere – 2015)
Cal Jam is not like your father’s seminar.
It is a celebration of health and chiropractic.
It is a music festival.
It is a science briefing.
It is a par-tay!
It goes beyond simple sayings about positive mental attitudes and marketing tactics of many seminars. While these things can be useful, there is a bigger picture of which the chiropractor stands as a leader. There is a bigger purpose.
Cal Jam is about the revolution…one that must happen and is, in fact, happening.
There is an assault on our health: our bodies, our environment, and perhaps our minds and even our souls. Are we to submit to the dictates of corporate pharmaceutical medicine, be fed from factory farms and frankencows, beholding to monopolies that own franken-seeds and food – and perhaps soon our water? Is our health owned and controlled by the corporate state?
There is a small but growing band of independent minded health oriented and highly educated people that are becoming radicalized around the threat of a totalitarian state held in place through our food and water supply, and “health” care.
Is this extreme?
Perhaps, but there are many more MDs, scientists, and very educated mothers who believe this to be the case and are taking action than are reported in the corporate owned media. Just to look at the soaring statistics of organic food consumption over the last ten years – this must indicate something about a concern over the toxins in our food supply.
This goes beyond politics and race. These are just soap operas designed to keep us bickering amongst ourselves as the real maneuvers take place.
For those of you in the health profession, the choice is yours to make: play along… or do not go quietly into this smack zoned pen we are being herded into. One holistic MD I talked to recently told me that most MDs were lemmings.
I chose and have stayed in this profession, not because I am a chiropractor, because I am not. I consider myself, at my best, someone who has helped the helpers provide true health. But I have done so in part as an act of defiance against those who would profit on the bad health of others. I have my personal story, as do you. But on my better days I am in the fight along with you.
Chiropractors have always been revolutionaries. Reggie Gold, Jim Sigafoose, Sid Williams, Chester Wilk… the list goes on and on, to B.J and D.D. Palmer. Used to be you weren’t an experienced D.C. until you spent your time in jail for “practicing without a license.” It actually goes down the ages… the fight against tyranny.
Cal Jam is not necessarily better than other chiropractic health conferences, but I’d say that it is the most revolutionary… and fun.
Hope to see you there.
Ed
8 Fast Tips on Chiropractic Team Training
$70,000,000,000.
That is 70 billion dollars and was the amount spent by corporations last year (2014) on personnel development in the United States. Corporations spent $130 billion worldwide.(Reference below.)
Large corporations recognize the value in developing and training their employees as a good investment. This fact also applies to smaller businesses but is not always acted upon.
I have often seen production held back due to poorly trained, educated, and motivated support staff. Here are some fast pointers on training your team.
1. CULTURAL BARRIER
Your team may not consider themselves as professionals. Perhaps you don’t consider them professionals either. Some doctors still call their staff members “girls.”
But we have long since passed the Industrial Age and have moved through the Information Age to the Networked Age. We are in a knowledge and networked economy and offices that do the best operate as a team of professionals.
In hiring and then training your team, you may be dealing with an unconscious cultural set of values that places health care service workers as “Girl Fridays.” The front desk, rather than having the challenging role of increasing the office visits through her or his skill, can be looked at as an underworked secretary and receptionist.
This idea can be harbored by both employee and employer and as a result, no one has the goal of training to becoming a professional.
It may take YEARS for your staff to become experts, but that should be their goal and yours as well.
As the CEO of your business, ensure that your team members understand that you want them to become experts and leaders in their field. Then, make sure they get good monthly training in-house, at seminars, receive coaching, attend webinars, and study books.
2. KNOW-IT-ALL BARRIER
This applies more to newer employees, but it can apply to all of us. When starting a new job, the new employee must understand that while their past experience may be useful, for now, they are a “freshman” and they need to learn as if this was the first job they ever had. In Japanese martial arts (taken from Zen Buddhism) there is a term called “Shoshin”, meaning “beginners mind.” Even when you are a black belt, you should always strive to learn as if you were just beginning with no preconceptions.
3. ROLES AND GOALS FOR TEAM TRAINING
- Team member. (Defined by mission statement and company core values.)
- Specialist. (Front Desk, Patient Accounts, Therapy, Etc.)
- Marketing. (We all sell health.)Remember that each role…has a goal.
4. END IN MIND
Training begins and ends primarily on the purpose of the role as well as on the outcomes of the role. If these are really clear, the team member can better understand the details. Too often we start training a staff member on HOW to do the job rather than WHY. Train on the WHY first and often as we all can get caught up in the details and lose sight of the end goals and our mission.
5. ENGAGEMENT
You might find that many people, staff and patients, do not have the best study habits. Staff members will nod in agreement when you ask them if they understand how to do something you just explained. They will think they understand how to do a procedure, yet when the time comes for them to do the task, they don’t do it.
Because of this, training should include participation and engagement. We all learn by doing. All training should include quizzes, challenges and or practical exercises that require the team member’s demonstration of what they’re studying. For example:
- Terms. Clear up the terms. You would be surprised how many of your staff cannot define even the basic words such as “health”, “subluxation”, “toxic”, etc.
- Have them demonstrate a concept. Rehearsing, role playing, quizzes, or requiring demonstrations can help your team become engaged with the information and more skilled in application.
- Training frequency. Ideally, team member training should take place weekly. Maybe you cannot get the whole staff there, maybe the veterans only go once or twice a month, but the rookies can get short sessions weekly. Make sure the time is uninterrupted.
6. EDUTAINMENT
All training should be entertaining, fun, and motivating. Challenging is fine, as long as each individual leaves the training with the feeling of accomplishment. OK to be serious now and then, but in the end, it should be enjoyable.
7. LENDING LIBRARY
Make sure you have a full library of books and movies about health for your patients. This is also for your staff. Give your team members a $30 bonus for a book report given at staff meetings and a $10 bonus for every report on a DVD from the library. All staff should watch Doctored, for example, and then discuss it.
8. ROI
Keep in mind that team training does take time, but it offers a positive return on the investment. Team members become more motivated and their moral goes up as their competence increases!
Team training does not cost… it pays.
[1] Forbes.com forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2014/02/04/the-recovery-arrives-corporate-training-spend-skyrockets/
Was Darwin Wrong? Happy Valentine’s Day!
Was Darwin wrong? Let’s find out.
BUT FIRST CONSIDER THIS WARNING:
You and your staff may have an uninspected cultural bias that is toxic to you and your office and is negatively affecting your best efforts. This could be happening right now as you read this!
How could this be?
Well, ingrained in our culture is the idea that to survive, we must compete and overcome others. It is a win-lose world: either I win and you lose, or you win and I lose.
This idea had much support with the work of Charles Darwin. Darwin’s perspective of evolution included the concept of survival of the fittest with a sort of “dog eat dog” theme.
However, recent studies suggest this is not entirely the case.
“When biologists look closely at nature they cannot help but notice cooperative partnerships that do not comfortably fit with the competitive struggle that is central to Darwinanin evolution.” (Darwin’s Blind Spot: Evolution Beyond Natural Selection, Frank Ryan)
This theory of cooperation in evolution was actually put forth 50 years before Darwin, by a Frenchman by the name of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarack (1744 – 1829), who established evolution as a scientific fact.
According to Bruce Lipton, “Not only did Lamarck present his theory fifty years before Darwin, he offered a much less harsh theory of the mechanisms of evolution. Lamarck’s theory suggested that evolution was based upon an “instructive,” cooperative interaction among organisms and their environment that enables life forms to survive and evolve in a dynamic world. (Biology of Belief, page 11)
But Lamarck’s ideas, which also included what is now called epigenetics, were cast aside and rejected until recently. So, instead of seeing that organisms in nature evolve symbiotically and cooperatively, Darwin saw that: “living organisms are perpetually embroiled in a struggle for existence. For Darwin, struggle and violence are not only a part of animal (human) nature but the principal “forces” behind evolution advancement. Darwin wrote of an inevitable “struggle for life” and that evolution was driven by “the war of nature, from famine and death.” (Bruce Lipton, PhD, Biology of Belief) [my emphasis]
The idea of “survival of the fittest”, obviously, is not very cooperative. In an office, it can create brooding jealously, competitive back stabbing, fear and defensiveness, and make us objectify our patients as “cases” and statistics. It can create at a division between us and our patients — between each other.
I got to thinking about all of this as another Valentine’s Day approached. As it turns out, Valentine’s Day is observed all around the world and has been around for hundreds of years, even as early as 300 AD. And, it wasn’t always about romantic love. One legend has it that:
“… in order “to remind these men of their vows and God’s love, Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment”, giving them to these soldiers and persecuted Christians, a possible origin of the widespread use of hearts on St. Valentine’s Day.” (From Wikipedia)
The Greeks had 4 different types of love:
- Agape =Charity, or the love of Man for God or vice versa.
- Eros = We all know this – romantic, intimate love.
- Philia = Love between friends or family.
- Storge = love of parents for children (Wikipedia)
Valentine’s Day is about love. Romantic love, sure but also about charity, generosity, compassion, caring – all kinds of love. And this takes us back to the notion that love, or a type of love, has been the basis for survival of all species on this planet – including mankind. Survival of life forms requires mutual support on some level – survival is cooperative and caring.
In many offices I have noticed a degree of an adversarial undercurrent. You can almost feel a sub-sub culture of “dog eat dog.” You have experienced this, I am sure. For example, if the mood is wrong, the phones don’t ring. Right? When there is a high degree of compassion and care and good will for each other and for the patients, the phones start ringing.
To some degree , Darwin’s “war of nature” may be embedded in the culture of your office. Darwin was right about many things, but life evolved through cooperation and caring – not through war.
Look: Your patients want to survive better. Just find out what their goals are and help them get there. They will need some education and coaching, sure – you have had thousands of hours of what they are just now hearing. But care for them and do your very best to help them get to their health goals.
Your doctor wants to practice and live better – find out what she wants and help her get there. You may have to ask lots of questions and train and read and struggle at it for a while, but keep at it and you can make a big difference. In turn, this will help your patients do better – and of course, you do better as well.
And doctor, your team members want to do better and also have better lives – find out how you can help them do so – and do so.
As I mature, I truly see that this planet is getting smaller and that we are all in this adventure together, for better or worse. Hopefully, for the better. But there are no guarantees. If we are to get it better, it all comes down to what we can do here and now to help each other MORE than we have been.
The world can be a struggle, but we all have evolved because of cooperation, caring for each other, and love. If we continue to do so, we can continue to evolve in our practice’s and business, and in our lives.
And have no doubt, Petty, Michel and Associates are in the mix as well. We love your patients, team members and you, and want to do all we can to help you survive and thrive.
Here are our best wishes to you that everyday – is Saint Valentine’s Day!
# # #
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (From the New Testament, Corinthians 13:4-8, “love” is elsewhere replaced by the word “charity.”)
10 Practice Development Strategies for Chiropractors in 2015
[If you think that you could make more money selling pharmaceuticals, injecting patients with vaccines and promoting flu shots in front of your office, these recommendations are not for you. For those matters, you might want to ask Palmer Chiropractic College or the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association for their opinions.]
What strategic moves should you be taking now to make sure that you have a better year in 2015 and in years to come?
After reviewing current literature and statistics, and based upon my observations and experience, I have put together a report which makes a number of recommendations that can be helpful to you. I have also included an extensive list of references for your further study.
The report contains a lot of information and so it is only for the serious practice executive. It will be a useful resource for you to refer to while you implement some of the suggestions I offer. Reading time is about 15 minutes. It offers new views on practice marketing, management, and leadership, with 25 specific recommendations. To go straight to the main course, go here:
Here is a shorter version:
Executive Summary – 10 Strategies to Prosper and Flourish in 2015 and Beyond
1. Know Your Environment. The Medical-Pharmaceutical industries are spending more to dominate the market place. Their efforts are becoming more pervasive in reach and more covert in manipulation. At the same time, wellness statistics continue to grow. More people are turning to organic foods and are focused on wellness.
2. Marketing Positioning. My recommendation is to embrace the popular movement towards natural health and own it. Be its champion. You are the Healthy Life Doctors. This is your niche.
3. Unique Selling Proposition. Stay committed to your core services, but articulate your Unique Selling Proposition to your specific market niche(s). Not everyone is your patient. Select certain markets that are already reaching for your type of services: people fed up with drugs, baby boomers who want to stay healthy, mothers who want to avoid drugs for their children, athletes, employers who want healthy employees, etc.
4. Get More For Less. Watch your economics but don’t get stuck in a scarcity mindset. Central to economics is a return on investment -ROI. Invest in yourself and especially in making your support team expert professionals. Learn and apply the Pareto Principle (how 80 percent of your results come from just 20% of your efforts).
5. Insurance or Cash? Yes! Take insurance but don’t kowtow to the Insurance Cartel. There are millions of people who want help and can pay for it and are just looking for a solution. You have to let them know that you have their solution.
6. Shift from Personality Driven Practice to Team Driven Business. The successful offices of the future will be team driven and systematized. Each team member has to be an expert as a specialist, as a team member, and as a marketer. And each should try to achieve this as well. The doctor will delegate most marketing and administrative details to others.
7. Shift from Solo Practice to Group Practice. For those of you who are ready, you should join forces with other doctors in a group practice. This has not had a lot of success in the chiropractic profession as it has in other professions, but the time is right now to band together synergistically as brothers and sisters. There are many good reasons to do this now. However, it has to be set up — and maintained — correctly.
8. New Role: CEO and Leader. Why do CEO’s get paid so much? Because they can make such a positive difference in the business. Up to now in your career you have taken on administrative and marketing projects mostly from the role of doctor, or perhaps owner. The CEO role probably has not been emphasized. Shifting to the role of CEO changes everything. Growing a business becomes easier, you have more time available, and you make more money.
9. Seek Out and Integrate Your Greater Purposes with Your Business. The power for your office, and you, comes from those things that mean the most. This would include your family and your spiritual pursuits. But our world is smaller and we live in a networked economy and culture. Your office, in its own right, has to be a leader in your community and environment and contribute in some way beyond its walls. This also includes having a voice in your professional organization. Your greater purposes also include your personal hobbies. Since you are not working on an assembly line, many of these purposes should be integrated into your work.
10. Get an Executive Coach. Why does corporate America spend over a billion dollars on executive coaching? Because the return of investment proves to be at least 7 times, and in some cases, 10-49 times cost. Executive coaching doesn’t cost – it pays.
An executive coach is different from a clinical coach. An executive coach will help you be a better CEO – a better leader, marketer and manager who builds a team driven business which allows you to delegate most non clinical duties. He or she will help you sort out what tasks will produce the greatest positive effects for your business, and help you get those tasks done. He or she will be your partner, counselor, confident, coach, teacher, drill instructor, and friend.
The future has never looked brighter, but the challenges are not slight. This makes your success all the more important – and sweeter.
Ed Petty