About Edward Petty

Consultant with Petty, Michel & Associates, Author of Marketing Manager System, the Goal Driven Business www.GoalDriven.com. Father and grandfather, husband, student, active in athletics, and in health and environmental causes.

Getting the Newsletter Out – Simple and Fast Steps

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Edward Petty

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

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Edward Petty

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

IMG_1390 copy

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

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Edward Petty

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

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Edward Petty

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

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Edward Petty

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

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Edward Petty

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

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Edward Petty

(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.

Link to CAL JAM

8 Fast Tips on Chiropractic Team Training

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Edward Petty

$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!

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Edward Petty

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

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Edward Petty

[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

Giving Thanks – Appreciating Each Other

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Edward Petty

I know you are busy now.

We all are.

We fly through our days, adjust and treat patients, make our calls, do our paper work, and then rush out to our personal lives.

But often we are like bus drivers, driving so fast that we drive past of our bus stops where our passengers are waiting for us.

So this is just a short note to remind each of us to stop, now and then, and say thanks. (And I know you know this, but a gentle reminder never hurts.) Over here in the U.S., we are celebrating Thanksgiving Day, so it is a customary holiday for us. But we really need to give thanks daily.

Gratitude is a powerful attitude and a feeling that we can use and regularly adopt to make our lives better. But its practical application derives from the fact that it is a basic recognition of a deep truth that we probably too often overlook.

The truth is that we are given so much — and that there is so much goodness in the world that deserves our appreciation.

And so this is a note to also let you know that all of us at PM&A are truly thankful for the work each of you do.

We know how hard you work and we know how much you help your patients and your community and we sincerely honor it. In fact, it is the reason we do what we do.

Unlike other management companies, we have seen you in your offices, talked to your staff, and know your numbers. We know that you don’t really get the appreciation that you deserve, but thankfully, you are not waiting around to receive “thank you” cards! Each of you are too busy helping others.

You really are the leaders in health care. You haven’t sold out. You are strong in your principles and motivated in your mission. And so are we. How each of us arrived in this line of work — who knows? Perhaps it is part of a plan, or a calling… but here we are.

I think it is safe to say that each one of you also appreciates the good work of each other across this planet in helping others get better naturally – even though you haven’t all been introduced. We are all connected by our basic efforts to help others get healthier.

And when you think about what we are all doing to help others, there certainly is a lot to be grateful for. It can almost give hope that the world can be, and will be, a better place.

With much gratitude and best wishes,

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all.

Swiss Army Knife of Chiropractic Practice Development

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Edward Petty

Ever see a one of those Swiss Army Knives?

I have one. It shows up now and then in one of my drawers. I always forget how many applications it has and I am always surprised when I keep pulling out more.

Well, there is a particular practice building tool that works like a Swiss Army Knife for your office.

It is inexpensive, almost free, yet this one tool serves many purposes more effectively than most anything else you can do in your office.

You could call it the Swiss Army Knife of Practice Development.

Once you, and your team, and especially your patients watch Bought, you will understand the power of the Swiss Army Knife of Practice Development.

This one tool can be your most effective marketing procedure. It can be your best therapeutic modality or ancillary service. It can also serve as your best tool to boost team productivity.

But like with my Swiss Army Knife, it can easily get taken for granted and NOT USED.

I can guarantee that IF you energetically use the Swiss Army Knife of Practice Development, your patients will stay with you longer, they will get healthier, your team will be more productive, you will generate more patients, and, yes, you’ll see your collections increase.

What is the Swiss Army Knife of Practice Development?

Education.

Education brings about an increase of awareness and results in a motivation to make a change. It does this for your patients in terms of improving their health, in motivating them to get others to use your services, and in helping to make your team even more purposeful.

You know chiropractic and what it does for people. Each day, miracles occur. It gets almost routine. You know how chiropractic works and you know why it works. Your patients do not. And most of your staff only have a general, and perhaps forgotten understanding.

By educating your patients you are fortifying them with knowledge that makes them aware of the power of your services and the importance of continuing care. It counteracts the propaganda they receive in the form of hundreds of ad impressions we all receive each day for drugs and bad food. It increases their awareness and will motivate them to not only continue with their care, but to benefit more from it.

This will, in turn, encourage them to bring in their family and friends to see you. They may even encourage you to speak to their work place or organizations.

Education can motivate your staff. I have seen numbers go up 25% quickly once the rest of the team was educated more on chiropractic and natural health care.

Lastly, education motivates you.

Education is your least expensive modality or ancillary service, it is the most cost effective marketing tool you have, and costs nothing to educate your staff.

Here are some sample actions to take to improve your educational activities.

Look at your office as an educational facility even more than a care facility. You increase people’s knowledge so that they can take more responsibilty for their health, and for those they care about.
Spend a hour or more each week studying. Read, listen to audios, go to seminars, have lunch with a colleague. Call your coach!
Watch a movie with your staff such as Bought, Doctored, Food Inc., and then have a discussion period afterwards.
Staff Meetings. Go over a case history or two.
Patient Care Class.
Start a Lending Library and position your office as an educational facility. Even if you lose a few books or DVD’s each month, it is worth it as your patients will see that you are serious about health and health education. Give each staff member a bonus for a book report presentation at a staff meeting.

There are many ways to educate yourself, your team, and your patients. Done right, education turns into enlightenment and this will produce a greater return than many other activities you do.

Like a Swiss Army knife, health education serves many purposes. But also like a Swiss Army knife, it has to be kept out, used, not hidden away in the back of a drawer or on a bookcase.

The Most Cost Effective Tool You Have to Build Your Chiropractic Practice and Help Your Patients – and you probably are barely using it!

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Edward Petty

what if I told you copy

Forget about the roller tables, stretching bands, balance boards, traction devises, taping, decompression, protein powder, vibrating platforms, laser, lipo body sculpting, ultrasound, stim, tens, supplements, orthotics, etc.

Any or all of these may or may not be appropriate for your practice, but they should not be your first choice in providing a modality or ancillary service to your patients.

Think about this: what could you do for your patients, in addition to your adjustments, that would help them improve their health the most?

EDUCATE THEM

The more the patient knows about how chiropractic works – and how your services help them – the more motivated they will be in following through with their health care plan.

People don’t know about subluxations just like they really didn’t know about asbestos or cigarettes. It was a while ago but advertising was rampant on television and in print promoting cigarettes. MD’s were often used to legitimize the use of cigarettes.

Today, your patients are also being inundated with propaganda about food, drugs, and basic lifestyle choices that are not healthy, let alone not true. They are told that drugs are safe solutions for headaches, back pain, and other ailments when in many cases they are found to be poisonous. (Vioxx, Accutane, Cylert, Darvon & Darvocet, for example.) Nearly all the food they eat has various toxins, from aspartame in diet food to herbicides that linger (glyphosate, used in “Roundup” and sprayed on your kid’s schools playgrounds).

Educated patients are better equipped to keep to their treatment program and continue improving their health. Isn’t this what you want?

This is your #1 ancillary service.

#1 Marketing Tool
Educated patients are more motivated to refer those they know to you and to help you set up external events. They can become your ambassadors, field representatives and sales force. They know that someone with headaches, low back pain, or other odd symptoms may be helped by chiropractic and your services. They may be able to refer them directly, or you can help them by providing special workshops, special events, and opportunities for external programs at their place of work.

#1 Team Management Tool
All of this also applies to each of your team members as well.

We are all “numbed down” by a conventional lifestyle and a culture that is greatly manufactured by just a few large industries such as Big Pharma and Big Food that use media and government to achieve its ends.

And, frankly, we tend to take what we do for granted. Imagine a patient who had a headache for years and after your care is now pain free and can get a full night’s sleep and her relationships with her family have improved., etc. Amazing, right? But for us, pretty routine. We can end up being more concerned about billing her secondary or supplement insurance or keeping her scheduling than in just celebrating with her.

Almost anything you know about health care will be “new news” to your patients and probably many of your staff. Plus, we all tend to forget what we once knew.

What is the big difference with you from when you started chiropractic college and after you graduated (Besides debt) . THE difference was and is that you were motivated. And you were motivated because… you were educated and even more, you were enlightened. You were able to see things in people’s health conditions that you never saw before. And with all this understanding, you were now more motivated.

But in time, awareness can dim and so can motivation. New patients start dropping off, treatment plans get shorter, and the quality of staff performance erodes. The solution is to keep educating patients and team members so that they stay awake and motivated.

In other words, WAKE THE FLOCK UP!

Patient and staff education provide the best ROI of any activity you have. Modalities and extra services have many overlooked costs such as staff time to account and bill for the therapies, extra staff to apply the services, someone to take inventory of the products and to sell them, etc. Patient education is pretty much a no cost proposition. How much does a care class cost? Watching “Doctored” or “Food Inc. ” or “Bought” with your staff and then discussing it afterwards (that is very important), it is much cheaper than flying to Las Vegas.

And if you do it often and effectively, you will be able to afford that next seminar in Hawaii.

As the doctor, you are the CEO, the Chief Evangelizing Officer. I first heard this term from Guy Kawasaki, who was called this when he worked for Apple when the Macintosh was first launched in the early 80’s. Macintosh was trying to win over users from IBM computers to the Apple Macintosh.

You are creating converts to a chiropractic and natural health lifestyle.

Remember that education, both staff, patients, and your own education as well should cover not only what your services do, and how they do it, but WHY you provide these services. In fact, your emotional connection to the reason you do your services communicates the strongest.

WHAT TO DO
1. First, keep yourself aware and amazed at the innate healing power of the body and the great affects your services provide. Provide an hour or two of study for yourself each week. Just like you work IN your office, you have to work ON your office – and that includes yourself.

2. Let yourself get emotional about what the FLOCK is going on! Don’t be “correct”, well heeled and a good little domesticated “provider.” It is natural that you become somewhat “riled up” about the injustice that your patients and their family and friends experience in receiving “health care” or at the misinformation “fed” to people about healthy living.

3. Educate your team. Watch a movie with them and then have a discussion period afterwards. (The discussion is very important as it helps get everyone engaged in the process.)

4. Staff Meetings. Go over a case history or two.

5. Patient Care Class. There are many different names for this, but all patients get better, faster, and stay healthier longer if they know more about chiropractic and health. Make it a part of their treatment plan and bribe them with food!

6. Start a Lending Library and position your office as an educational facility. Even if you lose a few books or DVD’s each month, it is worth it as your patients will see that you are serious about health and health education. Give each staff member a bonus for a book report presentation at a staff meeting.

There are many ways to educate yourself, your team, and your patients. Done right, education turns into enlightenment and this will produce a greater return than many other activities you do.

# # #

Bought – The Movie

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Edward Petty

The Movie BOUGHT – available now for pre-release viewing.

The Movie BOUGHT is out. The same people that brought you DOCTORED have now produced one on general health care and how it has been taken over by the pharmaceutical industry, as well as Monsanto. I have watched it and found it to be very powerful, supported by credible authorities, statistics, as well as personal stories.

It can be a very effective tool in patient and staff education.

It is not actually distributed yet, but you can get a pre-release viewing of it now for the next 30 days or so before it gets shown in movie theaters around the country.

Go to www.boughtmovie.com, or view the trailer here:

Below is a statement from Jeff Hays, the Producer.
Watch it and I get others to do the same.

bought

Best,

Hi, I’m Jeff Hays, an award winning filmmaker who’s been short-listed for an Academy Award. I’ve been known for making documentaries on controversial topics such as health care, alternative medicine and 9/11.

And over the last 12 months, I’ve been digging into the ugly truth behind vaccines, GMO’s, and our entire health care system.

With our crew, we flew all over the U.S. and got exclusive access to whistleblowers, former drug reps and university scientists…

We were shocked by what we uncovered.

As you probably know already…

For years now, Wall Street has literally “BOUGHT” your health and your family’s health. The food, drug, insurance and health industry is a multi-BILLION dollar enterprise… focused more on profits than human lives.

But I was not prepared to see how deep the rabbit hole went. And I was simply not ready to see things like…

Drug and vaccine companies blatantly falsifying documents…

Whistleblowers getting completely BURIED…

Government looking the other way…

Bribery…

And that’s not even to mention the tragic human cost of families ruined by unsafe drugs, vaccines, and food… endless medical bills… ruined marriages… and a rapid rise in chronic disease (especially in children).

By the end of my travels, We knew we had a controversial documentary that would not only open eyes, but could spark a movement for change across the US and the world.

It took over six more months of care, attention and energy to edit the film. But now it’s finally ready for the world to see.

Marketing Plans for Your Chiropractic Office This Fall

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Edward Petty

As we move from the summer months into fall, I thought that it might be helpful to preview some marketing ideas for the rest of the year.

Below is a link to several articles on our web site referencing marketing procedures and programs for the autumn and the early winter months.

Marketing is basically physics: for energy to come in, energy has to go out.

Ideally the energy is well directed and of a high quality, but mainly, it has to get out. Quantity first, then gradually, improve the quality.

But everything is done twice: first in your mind and then in the world. First comes the meta-physics, then comes the physics

This is why the most important and first step starts with you – your faith, confidence, and belief in what you are doing and especially, why you are doing it.

Organizational system failures or personal situations can often get in the way that distract us and cause us to lose sight of our purpose or of the great results we have achieved for others in the past.

And, there will always be the negative few that seem to outweigh the positive many.

Sometimes we focus on the “barking dogs” that come out to chase us for a while rather than concentrating on the fire we are racing towards to put out.

Marketing is about communication. It is an “outflow” that sooner or later, directly or indirectly, generates an “inflow.” It is your creative voice that is either filled with mission and purpose, or is forced and desperate. Stymied by failures or disappointments, our “voice” can recede to a whimper or a mumble.

But the fear that can grip us is mostly an invention because too often, we take things too seriously.

The fact is, as Ben and Rosa Zander point out in their book, The Art of Possibility, most of life is just “invented.” I listened to Ben Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, give an inspirational presentation at the chiropractic seminar called the WAVE in San Francisco in August.

He advised that when we slip and make a mistake, we should just throw out our arms, lean back slightly and exuberantly and say: “Fascinating.” We just can’t take things too seriously and instead we should move on passionately expressing ourselves. Not bad advice from a maestro whose goal is to get musicians to play better.

You could also go out to a field or park and just yell: “I am the greatest and the world loves me and wants to come to my office.”

Don’t be surprised if the universe cooperates.

Marketing your services, like helping people get better, should be enjoyable. It should be fun. You should be smiling and laughing.

And you know, as the song goes:

♪ When you’re smiling, ♫When you’re smiling,♪
♫The whole world smiles with you,♫
♫When you’re laughing, ♫When you’re laughing,♪
♪The sun comes shining through,♫
♫Wishing you plenty of smiles and all the best,♪

Click Link for more Marketing Articles

Here is a great rendition of the song by Frank Sinatra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=351l62Yx0oI

Join us at EPOC for Dr. Billy DeMoss!

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Edward Petty

Download the flier Billy D Poster-Aug 2014

Epicenter of Chiropractic “EPOC” of Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin

presents

BILLY DeMOSS, D.C.

Monday, August. 25, Grand Geneva Resort, Lake Geneva, WI 8 pm

You don’t want to miss this event: Get motivated, inspired, and educated. Bring your entire team!

Billy DeMoss is a chiropractor in the Los Angeles area who founded the largest rock health festival in America called CalJam which is held yearly in Costa Mesa, CA. He also regularly hosts speakers at his busy chiropractic office sponsored by the Dead Chiropractic Society (DC/S), a group he also started.

Billy is an educator and a ferocious advocate for health. Learn more about him at these sites: www.californiajam.org ~www.deadchiropracticsociety.com

Monday, August. 25 at the Grand Geneva in Lake Geneva.

There is limited seating so please RSVP soon. Refreshments served.
Let us know if you will be there and you will be entered in a drawing for a DC/S t-shirt* (two will be drawn.)

Please let us know if you plan to come by RSVP’ing to Services@PMAworks.com.
Make checks out to “EPOC” and pay at the door.
Doctor $100/ea Staff $50/ea check

Questions: Call or email Linda. Linda@pmaworks.com (262) 749-0221

*this offer is not associated with EPOC. Please RSVP to Services@PMAworks.com to participate. Include full names of all participants.

Download the flier now Billy D Poster-Aug 2014

Sage on the Stage or Guide from the Side: Chiropractic Seminars vs. Coaching – Which is Better?

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Edward Petty

They both can be expensive, so what service gives the greatest “bang for the buck?”

I go to seminars. I like them. In fact, I hope to see some of you at the WAVE, sponsored by Life West in San Francisco this weekend (8/1/2014). (If you are going please contact me by calling the office number below and it will forward to my phone. It would be great to say “hi” in person!)

Seminars provide a good opportunity to get away. B.J. Palmer talks about this, of course, in his Rule Number #9. (1)

Also, by disengaging from your work, you can better re-engage in it when you get back. The science of this is discussed in a book called: The Power of Full Engagement.

Plus, networking. Nothing like meeting new people and hearing how and what they are doing and trading fish stories – even if they are often embellished. (“Don’t tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.” Attributed to Mark Twain.)

And, they can be entertaining.

Plus, you can learn things. Learning new things that work and unlearning things that don’t work is probably the MOST important skill you can have. And it is getting more important every day. Our world is changing SO fast that in order to keep up, you have to really spend time and money learning.

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” ― Alvin Toffler

However, there are drawbacks.

Seminars: the Sage on the Stage

First, there is the expense of the seminar. Actually, by comparison, most chiropractic seminars are dirt cheap compared to other seminars that run into the thousands. The expense is in the travel. The hidden expenses add up considerably, especially if you take your staff, which you should now and then.

Then, there is the actual content – the information being imparted. Much of it is motivational and that is nice. However, the seminar speaker does not know you. He hasn’t been to your office, your home, talked with your staff or know your family. He hasn’t read your town’s newspaper or seen your patients. He doesn’t know your situation. He teaches you a procedure that sounds good in theory and may have even worked in his office 15 years ago, for a while. He may be entertaining, or coercive. But, often only 10% of what is taught at a seminar is applicable to you and your office. And of that, very little gets implemented, and in two months, less than 5% of the seminar may be in operation at your office. The following is an example that shows how much useful information gets reduced down to actual implementation in most offices.

Actual Value of Seminar (approximate percentages)

Motivational (can sometimes be excellent, but is very temporary.)
Percent of information verifiably valid: 70%
Percent of information comprehensible, heard, or understood: Of the 70%, one half is comprehended, heard, or understood, leaving 35%)
Percent of information applicable to your particular city, staff, patient base, your style and personality, etc.: Of that 35%, perhaps 15% isn’t applicable, leaving you with 20%.
Percent of information that can be implemented in your office: Of the remaining 20%, perhaps only half can get applied, leaving 10%.
Percent of information that gets applied: In two weeks time, only 5% gets applied.
Percent of information that stays in application: After two months, only 1-5% percent of the original information is still applied.
If you had spent $2,000 on a seminar program, using the rough example above, you would have wasted all but 5%, or $1,900.

This example is a little harsh, I‘ll admit, but I wanted to make a point. But you know what? Even this small percent may still be worth attending the seminar.

Coaching – The Guide from the Side

Our company grew because doctors did not or could not adequately apply what they heard at the seminars. Starting out many years ago, I remember seeing doctor’s shelves full of binders, VHS cassettes, and manuals that were barely touched since they were brought home from the seminar.

So, back in the late 1980’s, we came up with our niche and our identity, encapsulated in our tag line:

When Seminars Aren’t Enough sm

Good coaching, helps you and helps your team discover what systems work best for you, and then helps you make them better – over and over until your TEAM becomes expert.

A good coach, like a competent doctor, has the experience to quickly identify what needs to be worked on that can bring about the quickest improvements. This is what we do. We have become skilled at spotting the key leverage points (3) in an office and have developed new and effective methods to make the changes necessary for faster improvements.

But, we do this as your guide. We don’t impose a particular patient system into your office. You are unique and what works for a doctor in Nebraska may not work for the same one in San Diego. We help you discover what works best for you and help your team get better at supporting you.

A good coach trains, advises, nudges, listens, counsels, teaches, and when possible, even does some of the work. And is this effective? You sure as hell bet it is! We have been doing this for nearly 30 years and those doctors that have worked with us know this to be true.

But the real reason for coaching is economics: bottom line, baby! Return on Invest. ROI. Studies show a pay back of 5 to 7 times on your investment. We have certainly seen this occur. (3)

Like chiropractic, good care doesn’t cost, IT PAYS. Health IS wealth. The same applies to education – and in particular – coaching. It doesn’t cost – it pays.

Seminars? Yes. Coaching? Hell yes! But books and webinars and mentors as well. A weekend of reading a book is a great investment.

In the end, you have to constantly study and learn to stay in the game. Success is, now more than ever, dependent upon constant never ending improvement. You have to do this just to keep up, let alone to get ahead.

And if you don’t – well, your community and patients will be seeking a healthcare office that is.

References
(1) Rule #9: Every man owes it to himself, his people and his service to go away about every so often. The more detail he has, the oftener he should go. The more worries, the more he needs to go. The bigger his work, the longer his vacation should be. – B.J. Palmer https://pmaworks.com/observations/2008/08/18/getting-away-rule-9/

(2) Leverage Points http://www.donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Leverage_Points.pdf , also: Eli Goldratt, The Goal

(3) BUSINESS IMPACT STUDIES

Research conducted by MetrixGlobal on coaching at a Fortune 500 company showed that coaching produced a 529% return on investment and significant intangible benefits to the business. Including the financial benefits from employee retention boosted the overall ROI to 788%.
A landmark study commissioned by Right Management Consultants found a return-on-investment of dollars spent on executive coaching of nearly 600%. Executives engaged in coaching reported increases in productivity, improvement in relationships with direct reports and colleagues and greater job satisfaction.
According to a study by the Manchester Consulting Group, organizational benefits from executive coaching include:

Improved Relationships 77%
Improved Teamwork 67%
Improved Job Satisfaction 61%
Improved Productivity 53%

An International Personnel Management Association survey found that productivity increased by 88 percent when coaching was combined with training (compared to a 22 percent increase with training alone).
Studies completed by the American Society for Training and Development showed a ROI of 5 times the cost of coaching.

BUSINESS PRESS EXCERPTS

“Many of the world’s most admired corporations, from GE to Goldman Sachs, invest in coaching. Annual spending on coaching in the United States in estimated at roughly $1 billion.” Harvard Business Review

“Coaches are not for the meek. They’re for people who value unambiguous feedback. All coaches have one thing in common. It’s that they are ruthlessly results-oriented.” Fast Company Magazine

“Business coaching is attracting America’s top CEO’s because, put simply, business coaching works. In fact, when asked for a conservative estimate of monetary payoff from the coaching they got….managers described an average return of more than $100,000 or about six times what coaching had cost their companies.” Fortune Magazine

“[A Coach] is part advisor, part sounding board, part cheerleader, part manager and part strategist.” The Business Journal

“Between 25 percent and 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies use executive coaches.” The Hay Group International

“Once used to bolster troubled staffers, coaching now is part of the standard leadership development training for elite executives and talented up-and-comers at IBM, Motorola, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and Hewlett Packard. These companies are discreetly giving their best prospects what star athletes have long had: a trusted adviser to help reach their goals.” CNN.com

“In a 2004 survey by Right Management consultants, 86% of companies said they used coaching to sharpen skills of individuals who have been identified as future organizational leaders.” Harvard Management Update

“A coach may be the guardian angel you need to rev up your career.” Money Magazine

http://transverseleadership.com/roi.html

Patient Retention in Chiropractic and Delivering Happiness

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Edward Petty

In our webinar on chiropractic patient retention, we reviewed some basic procedures that can be used to decrease patient drop outs.

More significantly, we looked at a new paradigm for patient retention that many businesses are using successfully.

If your visit average is less than 60, then you can benefit from the material we covered.

The webinar also included a short presentation on an effective patient recall system used many years by Linda Skiles, former Chiropractic Assistant of the year in WI. The forms discussed in the webinar are located on our PM&A members site.

We discussed why patients drop out of care – the basic reasons, and ten strategies you can put into place to improve your visit average .

One of the last strategies examined a company called Zappos. This is an online shoe selling company that began in 1999 and ten years later was selling a billion dollars worth of shoes. We looked at a couple of key features on how it did this.

Under the strategy of “Take Care of Each Other”, we reviewed their ten core principles. According to the founder and CEO ,Tony Hsieh, employees are hired in part based upon these core values. He discusses this in his book, Delivering Happiness.

These are the ten core values that Zappos employees live by:

Deliver WOW Through Service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth and Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More With Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble

What are the core values of your office? Have you defined them? Should you? Does each team member live by them?

Below are two links to two short videos that illustrate how Zappos applies these core values. The first is a music video put together by Zappos and their employees. Just fun – and maybe even inspirational.

Then, watch as Rachel Ray anonymously calls in to place an order on Zappos and see how she is treated.

Zappos illustrates the strategy we call: “Taking Care of Each Other” and “Creating a Community.” Both of these are effective strategies that can help increase patient retention.

You can use these videos at a staff training meeting and discuss how it could apply to your team.

If you are an active client, you can also watch the webinar on our members site.

Your patients may come to you for health and relief, but they stay because of friendship and how you make them feel as people. By hiring the right team members and helping each other stay true to patient centered core values as exemplified by Zappos, your patients will want to come back and see you again and again.

If you are having trouble viewing the video above, please click this link:

http://youtu.be/4gHlEBU_NSg

If you are having trouble viewing the video above, please click this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td-nVat6cLY&feature=colike

Independence and Dr. Jim Sigafoose

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Edward Petty

Dr. Jim Sigafoose in San Francisco, 1985

What makes chiropractic so remarkable is that it works so effectively. If you work in the chiropractic profession or receive chiropractic adjustments, you have witnessed this first hand.

But there is another factor that makes chiropractic even more remarkable – something that makes it truly unique above most if not all professions.

It hasn’t sold out. For the most part, since its inception in 1895, it has maintained its integrity. It has remained relatively independent and free from mega corporations that have otherwise hijacked our so called “health care” system.

It has stood up to the medical-industrial complex, and though coerced and bribed and enticed to go away or give up, chiropractors and their supporters have prevailed. With your help, it has stood strong and unbowed.

Certainly, there are odd roads that segments of the profession have tried to go down every now and then, not the worst of which has been catering to the “health” cartel. And the chiropractic profession will need to find its way to work more inter-dependently with all legitimate medical and health disciplines.

But most of all — it needs to continue to be itself.

Jim Sigafoose reminded us what chiropractic is and who we are in the chiropractic profession.

Yesterday, I was informed that he passed on.

I have to get personal here. Years ago I worked with Siggy, as did my business partner, Dave Michel. In the 80’s we hung out and worked with him in certain management seminars, or would work with him in the field with our clients. We recommended our clients attend his seminars, his “Gatherings”, and buy his educational material.

Siggy was my own Bob Dylan of chiropractic. He was a troubadour that didn’t play for any king nor cater to any earthly lord. He couldn’t be bought. I am not a doctor of chiropractic, but your profession appealed to me because it was so helpful and revolutionary – and even respected the spiritual aspect mankind. Dr. Sigafoose represented chiropractic to me in this way and were it not for him, I am sure I would be working in other endeavors than chiropractic.

At a WAVE seminar sponsored by Life West a couple of few years ago, Siggy went on the stage and challenged the audience why they felt they needed all the products sold by the vendors lining the hallways of the seminar. He said that he didn’t think saying this was going to be appreciated by the sponsors of the event, but I am sure Siggy felt the principles were more important than the profits.
After his talk, he walked down and sat down by himself. I went over and sat beside him and we listened to Bruce Lipton give a great presentation – full of science and slides.

People like science and slides. But science and slides should simply prove the principles – which was actually Dr. Lipton’s whole point. D.D. Palmer had it correct back in the 19th Century.

As did Siggy.

When he talked, the complexity of what we do in chiropractic fell way, like rust falling off of a hinge. Like crusted ice breaking apart on a car windshield here on a Midwest winter, when Siggy talked, you could see the truth better. And it was a truth that you already knew but was obscured by mental and physical clutter.

Siggy’s message seemed to motivate you not be a warrior, but to be a more loving servant.

I guess mostly I always felt Siggy was my friend and that he genuinely liked me. But I only say this because it seemed to me that he made everyone he touched feel like they were his personal friend.

He was passionate, he cared, and he suffered. He was tireless. He did not retire. He kept going. He was courageous. And I think he did all this because, most of all… because of love. I think he loved chiropractic, God, his family, his patients and all patients, and those of us who work in chiropractic.

Today in America, we celebrate our independence. But with independence comes responsibility and the need for integrity. Forfeit your personal and professional responsibility, care less, comprise more, and you will gradually slip into the state of dependence.

This is the tide that is rushing at your patients – to become more dependent upon drugs and vaccinations, entertainment, and big business masquerading as government.

For those of us in the chiropractic profession, we owe so much to those who have come before us, like Dr. Jim Sigafoose. For, like America, we have been given the hard won gift of independence. Through Dr. Sigafoose’s work, and others like him, we are reminded that we have to work to stay independent and help our patients to do the same.

(same article in PDF form for download)

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Here is a short clip with Siggy. 4 minutes

Anthem Chiropractic Network Reductions

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Edward Petty

(Wisconsin, April 4) Chiropractors in WI received certified letters from Anthem BCBS announcing that they are initiating a sweeping reduction of their chiropractic provider network to supposedly “right size their provider network as a result of the ACA”.

According to Mr. Dave Michel of Petty, Michel & Associates, if you have one of these letters, you’ll be removed from the BX network on Sept 30 “without cause”, as allowed under your provider agreement.

He says that it looks like they may be targeting larger clinics in each city with higher utilization and also possibly those with a focus towards wellness,and that this doesn’t bode well for their customer base.

Dave mentioned that a similar tactic was used by insurance companies in Massachusetts with the introduction of “Romney-Care” in 2006 and after the hue and cry, chiropractic offices continued to grow. This has also been the case with offices that we have worked with when the doctor was booted from a network – stats go up!

In many cases, the out of network benefits are close to those in network.

Dave has written a letter that you can customize and send to your patients should you get hit by an insurance company claiming they need to “right size.” You can download a copy of this letter as a Word file with the link provided below.

A key to survival is patient education, not only on chiropractic, but also on chiropractic benefits. This is why we stress the Patient Financial Consultation, or the Post Report of Findings.

Lastly, Dave recommended working together as a group with your state associations and respectfully confronting any insurance company that discriminates against chiropractic services with the facts. And the facts are that chiropractic care doesn’t cost… it pays.

While you may not practice in Wisconsin, there may be a time when you receive such a letter and if you do, these suggestions can help.

For PM&A clients, if you have received a letter like this, let us know and we’ll work with you on your options.

Sincerely,

Dave Michel’s Letter to patients: Anthem Termination Letter

Observations

observations from our travels in the world of chiropractic

Author Archives: Edward Petty