Author Archives: Edward Petty

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.

What Do You Think of When The Phone Rings?

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This New Year has reminded us of a powerful fundamental principle in practice management and marketing.

It started with an office out West. 2020 was a bad year for them. There was COVID, of course, but there had also been repeated staff turnover and other issues. A once busy office in an upscale mall, it had seen better days. The doctor, staff, and I just could not find a way to get the office going like it once was. New patients had decreased to a trickle. We tried one thing and then another – nothing worked. With little fanfare, sometime in late fall, the lead doctor finally resolved a long-term personal challenge that had been haunting him for years. Not much seem to change in the office, but when I got the numbers for January and plotted them, they were literally off the chart. Somehow, doing nothing really that different, the office saw its highest number of new patients since it began, over 20 years ago.

Just last week, we had another reminder. Over in another part of the country, an office had been struggling with some recent procedural changes, and December and January (last month) saw its lowest new patient numbers in years. Ordinarily a high volume two doctor office, the first week of February wasn’t looking any better. We got together on a conference call to sort things out. Then, the team got together for a comprehensive meeting with doctors and staff and worked out confusions and log jams, focused on the mission and its WHY. Just a few days ago, the second week of February, they reported their highest number of new patients in months.

What does this tell us?

A few years back I wrote an article that I think explains this phenomenon.

== == == == == == == == ==

What Do You Think About
When the Phone Rings?

You are sitting there, trying to finish your notes. You hear your phone ring. You are a bit behind. Maybe slightly irritated by an arbitrary denial of an insurance company and you haven’t yet planned out tonight’s evening with the family, spouse, or friend.

The phone rings again.

What are your thoughts? What are your feelings?

Do you kinda wish it wouldn’t ring? Is it a bit of an interruption? Do-you-just-want-to-answer- the – dang-phone-to-stop-the-ringing-so-you-can-get-back-to-your-work?

Essentially, your thought is “Stop.” It is: “Don’t call me.” “Phone, don’t ring, don’t interrupt me!” I am sure this has happened to you – even if ever so slightly or subconsciously.

Now, imagine if your front desk has these thoughts when the phone rings?

To some degree, even the most devoted and hard-working staff can reactively feel put upon by phone calls. Or, in fact, by walk-ins. Or, in fact, by any patient encounter. I have seen this happen on the front desk when the doctor was busy with patients. But remember, this can happen with even the most ethical team member, including you! I have seen doctors do this often. (Extreme examples: “Oh, only two patients coming in on Saturday, go ahead reschedule them. It is MY office, and I can do what I want.”)

Our thoughts can and do determine our behavior and affect how we treat others. Our environment mirrors our thoughts.

Going back to your front desk, realize that the staff on the front desk have tremendous control over the office, nearly as much as the doctor does. The front desk can be a magnet for your patients and attract or repel them.

When the phone rings, you want your front desk, and all staff, including yourself, thinking “YES.” “Call me. Phone – ring now!” “I can hardly wait to talk to this person and see how they are. I am interested in them and how they are doing. I want to help get them to come in for care — and their family too.” “They must be really really cool and nice if they are calling us.” “I WANT to know more about them.” “I am grateful for their call and appreciate the effort they made in calling us.”

These are good thoughts. These are positive thoughts that can help bring in more patients.

You can practice this with your staff at a team meeting.

For example, someone acts as the prospective patient calling. The person acting as the front desk assistant should answer the phone with the attitude of really not wanting to talk to the person. Act it up. This can be funny. Try it a few times.

Then, do the same rehearsal with the front desk assistant positively anticipating the phone call, wanting the phone to ring, and then eagerly answering and talking to the prospective patient.

Keep the role-playing brief. You can and should do it again. It should be fun and act as a reminder to one and all that we should want to meet new people, talk to existing patients, and look forward to phone calls. We can always dismiss the occasional telemarketer or wrong number.
This can also be rehearsed in other types of patient encounters, from taking the new patient back to the exam room, sitting down to do a financial consultation, or checking a patient out and collecting their payments.

And speaking of how our environment does mirror us, here is a little trick you can use. Get a real mirror, about 4 inches by 4 inches, and put it at the front desk counter so that the team member can see it. You can write something on it like: “Are My Teeth Showing?” “Am I Smiling?” And staff, you can also put one of these in your doctor’s office on any day that he is feeling grumpy. It applies to us all.

So, the next time the phone rings, smile. Be interested and curious in who is taking the time to call. Make your thoughts happy so they help create an office that is brilliant, colorful, and full of happy patients.

Ed

The Morale Virus: What doctors say and how they are combating it

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Over the last few months, I have been noticing a particular phenomenon in offices that I don’t think I have seen before… maybe ever. It is like noticing a slight hand tremor that you never knew you had or a buzzing sound from outside that has become increasingly loud and annoying.

2020 was a long year, a stressful one. And you all have been in the thick of it. Daily, seeing more people in one day than most providers see in a week – or more.

My old football coach, Johnny Pappa from Davis, made a big impression on me as a young freshman when he said: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” In my then youthful life, I had never heard such profound words. They still apply – especially to you. You are tough!

But stoicism has its limits. The cognitive dissonance can finally get to you.

One doctor expressed to me extreme frustration about two young and very healthy patients, who exercised, got adjusted, ate well, took their vitamins, but decided to discontinue taking their outdoor walks for fear of COVID.

Another doctor, venting his dismay, told me that he couldn’t bear to watch the medical bureaucrats talk about masking and vaccinations as the only remedies to COVID when he knew of so many methods that have been demonstrated to ameliorate the virus. “People are frightened and told to stay at home, don’t socialize, wear a mask if you go out, and wait for the vaccine. That’s it? That’s all you got for people? This really shuts people down.”

One doctor I talked to who, after dealing with depressed and suicidal patients, many of them vets, has become depressed himself. Another wonders what the hell is happening to our chiropractic colleges – have they all been taken over by medical bureaucrats? Is chiropractic finally squashed?

Your good nature can become frayed, your patience worn thin, and regardless of your professional composure and your disciplined countenance, the stresses can have an affect. I mention this because most of you are tough as nails – you have successfully dealt with many types of stressful situations in the past, as a doctor, professional, and for many of you, a business owner.

Morale Virus

So if you are feeling a bit off, recognize that you might be affected by a contagious “Morale Virus.” The Morale Virus is what I call the social sickness that occurs as an emotional response to continual fear-baiting. Frightened, your patients are told they can’t do this and shouldn’t do that.

The Morale Virus is not caused by hardship itself. It is caused when you are pushed into a corner and given no way to fight back. You tend to give up. (Or go stark raving mad!) (Reminds me of the movie, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest when the star, McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), says: “You guys complain how much you hate it here, and then don’t even have the guts to leave! You’re all crazy!”)

There has been a constant assault of bad news emanating from officials and authorities. Yes, and I know the media plays a part — it is mostly owned and controlled by just a few rich people and corporations who have their own agenda — namely, more money. But still – no one buys boring newspapers. Sensation sells the news, and we, the consumers, buy it. We listen and read the “news” that riles us up and confirms our bias. Social media does the same, times ten.

Dirty Laundry (Song by Don Henley) 

I make my living off the evening news
Just give me something, something I can use

People love it when you lose. They love dirty laundry
We got the bubble-headed bleach-blonde who comes on at five

She can tell you about the plane crash with a gleam in her eye
It’s interesting when people die, give us dirty laundry

Morale Virus Disinfectant

Here are some ideas on how you can fight back, disinfect your office from this disease, and better help your patients regain their spirit of hope, kindness, and free enterprise. And yours as well.

Good Vibe Year

One doctor we work with likes to anchor her practice around a yearly theme. For 2021, she is calling 2021 the year of Good Vibes and has events planned to support this philosophy. And just to reinforce the idea, she has T-Shirts made that say Good Vibes. (And by the way, she has a bustling two-doctor office.)

Study. Acquire More Knowledge. Teach

Fear is often a byproduct of lack of knowledge – so arm yourself with the facts.

For example: Roommate 1: “Oh my god! (A panic shout is heard.) The television isn’t working and the game is on. What will we do?” (Drama ensues.) Roommate 2:(Calmly) “Check the remote for new batteries.”  Roommate 1: “Ah, that fixed it, thanks.”

Study, use critical thinking, avoid bias – your own and others. Go to the sources – research studies and from people who are actually working on what you are studying. Then, please educate your patients and clients on how to be happier and healthier. And educate your team, help them increase their knowledge. Arm them as well. Doctor comes from the Latin to docere – “to show, teach, cause to know.”

Leverage Point

What area in your office, if changed, will produce the most significant effect?

Obviously, first and foremost is the doctor. Each day should be a trip to the playground, the ski slope, the baseball field, the dance floor. Ideally, each day is a fresh opportunity to accept the privilege of helping as many people from suffering as possible, to teach them, and have fun doing so.

In most offices, I would also say it is your front desk. The front desk’s power is so poorly recognized in most offices that at least 20% or more production is lost. A vibrant, aggressively friendly, caring, mission and goal-oriented front desk can and will boost your volume – this week. Front Desk team members may need more support and less admin (billing) duties. They may need a better understanding of the mission and how your office is helping people.

Entrepreneur Harder

During cultural upheavals and shifts, entrepreneur businesses remain and often thrive. New opportunities open up. More established and larger companies are weighed down by dogmatic rituals, have high overhead and many vice presidents, and vast networks of suppliers. Change is difficult. But not for the entrepreneur. Most entrepreneurs are all too “change-happy.” You can adapt, innovate, and overcome quicker than companies who are afraid to or can’t. So what if in-person care classes are out for now? Get everyone on a Zoom class, give them a secret word. Test them when they come in again and if they answer correctly, give them a gift – a bottle of Vitamin D or a lunch at another patient’s business.

Stay Out of the Weeds

One doctor told me that her solution was to “stay out of the weeds.” To stay in her lane and just keep helping people and not get caught up in the storms of controversy. I suggest that this is the best course of action. You want news? Sensational news…? Just listen to your patients and staff and community. But stay on the fairway and don’t get sidetracked, mentally or in real life.

Goals

Stay with your goals. Goals are agreements that you made with yourself, and usually others. If you stay true to them, they will lead you out of the den of the morale sickness. Staying true to your goals is a point of integrity. Your goals are not in the weeds – they are straight ahead. Figure out new and better ways to get there or resurrect old ways that worked. Fall down 7 times, get up 8. Each day and each week — begin with the end in mind.

Your goals are in three categories:

  1. Financial. This includes marketing and production.
  2. Service. Developing individual and team expertise with constant improvement..
  3. Purpose. Your higher purposes, those goals outside of work that are greater than this week and that are most meaningful need to be integrated into your work-life.

The Future is Bright and Roaring!

We have seen harsher times. The past is easily forgotten, and we think we are in the worst of times. Well, the 1918 flu was much worse than COVID. Plus, we were sending our young boys to suffer in horror and die in the trenches in Europe in the Great War. But society prevailed and soon ushered in the Roaring 20’s, a time of economic growth and cultural freedom.

Prepare to roar!

Carpe Deum (Seize the Day)

Ed

Ed Petty - author

This is such an important subject, I encourage you to share it with your team and colleagues:  To print out a hard copy

GENERAL MARKETING STRATEGY — December 2020

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marketing for prefessionals Time to prepare for the New Year’s marketing.

But before we leave 2020, here are a few tips to help you round out this crazy year and lay the groundwork for a fresh, New 2021.

For December, work “internally” with your existing network, including your active and inactive patients and your external referral sources. But prepare for external marketing for the New Year now.

INTERNAL

The Team – Your First Line of Marketing
Every member of your office is a marketer – everyone sells health. 2020 has been one heck of a year. Why not acknowledge your staff as Health Hero’s with a pin, a certificate, or plaque, perhaps with a bonus if there are any funds available? You all deserve many “thank you’s.”

Holiday Cards and Letters to your Patients
Send cards and letters to both active and inactive patients. Recognize their good efforts to improve their health during this peculiar year and tell them that you look forward to helping them and their family stay healthy in 2021.

Health Never Takes a Holiday
Post a sign in your office in December that “Health Never Takes a Holiday” and schedule patients through December to January. We have a customizable poster on our Member’s site, and sample posters here.

Keep the Conversation Going.
Send out regular emails to patients. Email is more effective than social media, according to many studies, but social media has its place too. Assign email and social media posting to someone. A simple four-paragraph informal health tip from the doctor shows that you care and help improve your patient’s health. It is better that your patients hear from you than from the local chain store pharmacist.

Poinsettia Giveaway
Some offices have done well by giving away free poinsettias, or another holiday plant, one per family. Include a gift certificate with the plant for family members or friends. (See Member’s site for gift card samples.) Make a special arrangement with your local florist for a discount.

Patient Education
Now, more than ever, provide health tips for your patients to combat the heavy advertising of COVID-related reports. Stress is amplified by a lack of knowledge. Good education can help lessen the fear and help keep your patients stay healthier and happier. Plus, educated patients remain with you longer and refer more. There are many approaches that work, including: table talk, newsletters, whiteboards with “Patient Education Prompters,” and short five-minute weekly video health tips. The more you teach, the more you reach.

Donation Drives
Holiday time always brings an increased demand for helping those less fortunate. Within your office set up a collection area for any of the following programs and promote it in your newsletter. There are also other times of the year where donations are welcomed and needed. These can be scheduled throughout the year. Here are some sample donations:

  • Coats for Kids
  • Food for Families
  • Toys for Tots
  • Blood Drive
  • School Supplies
  • Animal Shelter $25 in exchange for first day services.

Also, you can support drives at local churches or gyms. EG “Free first-day services for every donation a member of YMCA makes to the homeless fund.”

Giving Tree/Angel Tree
The Giving Tree/Angel Tree Project is a great way to bring community awareness to your office. It is a simple project that can assist your patients to help others where they might not otherwise have the opportunity to do so.

EXTERNAL

Show Appreciation to External Referral Sources
Send a Holiday Card to any business or individual outside of your office who referred a patient to you or helped you with your marketing. Make sure you include a card of thanks and perhaps a fruit basket or other small gift. Let them know that you are looking forward to another year working together for better health.

Internet
Review your website with your Internet company. Set up a consultation with someone to review how well it is drawing new visitors. Make plans for improving traffic and conversion for the first three months of 2021.

Sample Plan for Special Events
January. Video series about improving the immune system: 10 Proven Shortcuts to Improving Your Immune System: 15-minute video every Friday. Include guest providers. PROMOTE these.
February. Valentines. Have a Heart gift certificate. Donation Drives.
March. Saint Patrick’s Day – Leprechaun Appreciation Day – A special kid’s day.
April. Earth Day. Community Clean-up Drive. Include external alliances to help.

100’s More Marketing Ideas
For 100’s more marketing ideas that have worked, if you are active with PM&A, go to our Member’s site, www.pmamembers.com. If not, we still have many effective marketing procedures right here on this blog.

Meet with Your Consultant
All offices are different. Some need fast action direct marketing — others benefit most from long term development of their external network. Meet with your consultant to make plans for the first part of 2021.

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

In over thirty years of marketing practices, I have found the following two factors to be the most important:

Someone to Coordinate
It is essential that you delegate someone to coordinate your marketing as a project manager. Too often, marketing does not get done because, well, no one person is responsible. This is a major cause of the Practice Roller Coaster. While your entire office and everyone in it, staff and doctors, have marketing roles, one person aside from the doctor needs to ensure each project and procedure is implemented.

Goals and Attitude
Commitment to your goals and the right attitude undercuts everything. How strong is your desire to fulfill the mission of your office? Does the WHY? of your business enliven you each day, and are you happy about it? (Yahoo! Can’t wait to get to the office to see my next patient!!)

Of all the projects and procedures mentioned and the hundreds not mentioned, your drive to your goals and your attitude about achieving them is the most fundamental component to marketing success. Work and improve on this each day.

Ed Petty

Bonus Article: Health Tips from Mercola.com

Selling the Invisible — Patient Education: An Inexpensive Marketing Procedure with a Big Return

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1

[Link to a checklist of patient education procedures below.]

Educate your patients!

There are so many reasons why — let’s look at a few of them. Then, I will show you how your team can implement your patient education procedures.

1. Selling the Invisible. Unlike buying a refrigerator, your patients are purchasing something they can’t see.

They are receiving a service for which there are no concrete, tangible references for them to judge whether the services were excellent, complete, or long-lasting. Outside of immediate relief from their symptoms, they may wonder if you provided a great service, shortchanged them, or are recommending more than they need.

On the other hand, you know the length, breadth, and depth of what you provide. Virtually, you can see the outcomes, know the measurements, understand the symptoms and know what they point to. But to your patients… it’s all an illusion. They have to trust you and what you say.

Typically, once the symptoms are relieved, many patients believe that the condition is resolved. But through education, your patients can understand how your treatment recommendations are a pathway to fully resolving their condition.

2. Beyond Your Services – Your Patient’s Optimal Health. Beyond your services and the treatment program you suggest, your patients will benefit from general health knowledge. Health is a lifestyle, including exercise and nutrition, but the healthy way of living is distorted by unrelenting drug advertising and propaganda.

Low-fat diets, diet soda, statins and other drugs are still an accepted part of the conventional health model. Pharma is increasingly pouring billions into advertising — $328.6 billion in 2016 from $116 billion in 1997.(1 ) In addition, there are untold sums spent on lobbying your elected officials and paying for their election expenses.

Health reality is being manufactured for corporate profits rather than for personal and family health and longevity. Your patients and neighbors in your community don’t have a chance without your calm teaching of the facts on how to achieve a healthy and long life.

3. Customer Education — From a strictly commercial point of view, other businesses are seeing the advantages of customer education. According to learning industry analyst John Leh, “In a world where customer success increasingly determines overall business success, customer education has become an imperative.”(2)

Studies support the idea that customer education pays off. According to studies by ThinkJar, a customer strategy consultancy, “Customers are thirsty for more information and knowledge.”(3) And a study by Eisingerich and Bell conclude that customer education improves the trust in the company.(4)

Major businesses are investing large sums in educating their customers, and a leading customer education platform, Skilljar announced it has raised $33 million in funding. That is a significant investment! Their goal is to provide tools to companies to better onboard, engage, and retain customers at a large scale.

So if you want healthier patients and a healthier community, and if you would like to generate more profit, simply spend more time educating your patients. It is not that expensive! But as with most value-added programs in a practice, projects rarely start, and when they do, they are abandoned almost as soon as they begin.

To avoid this, use a checklist!!

Download the Patient Education Checklist for some ideas on what you can do to educate your patients. Assign a team member this checklist and give them 1-3 hours per week to work on selected projects and report on them at your meetings. They can take on the role of Patient Education Coordinator and help everyone on your team up their game in patient education.

The more your patients know, the further they (and you) will go.

Ed Petty

1. Consumer Reports, January 14, 2019 
2. Avramescu, Adam. Customer Education: Why Smart Companies Profit by Making Customers Smarter.
3. Interview with Kolsky, Foundoer of ThinkJar. Huffpost, 10/15/2015
4. Andreas B. Eisingerich, Simon J. Bell, February 1, 2008 
Photo from UCLA

Selling the Invisible – a favorite book of mine by Harry Beckwith

Do You Want More New Patients? Use a Checklist! Here is How.

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Around the year 2000, I published the Marketing Manager System. It was initially a series of binders (3) to help chiropractors with their marketing. I received many compliments and positive reviews from both doctors and staff on how it helped them. Palmer Chiropractic College ordered a few hundred of the binders.

A couple of years later, I converted it into a software program and sold it as a CD package you could install on your computer. After a couple of years, I had to shelve the product. I was not set up to stay current with the constant changes in both software and the Internet.

Still, the information is sound, and it continues to work. Much of it is on our PM&A Member’s site, and though the graphics are somewhat outdated, the fundamentals still apply.

One of the motivations for publishing the Marketing Manager System was to solve a simple marketing challenge almost every practice we worked with had. In fact, the problem was so simple that it is almost embarrassing to explain.

We would get a call from an office requesting “something” to “get their new patients up.” “Got an ad that is working?” would be a typical request.  And we would often hear this after working out an effective marketing plan that had been working for months at generating more new patients.

“What happened to your new patients? They were doing very well, even increasing,” we would ask. But when we checked if they were still implementing the marketing plan we had worked on, the usual answer was “no.”

We would go over the action steps on the marketing plan with them. “Are you still doing X?”  “Umm, no, guess we forgot about that.”  “Are you still doing Y?” “Oh yea, well, the staff member in charge of that took on another role so she couldn’t do Y anymore.”

You get the idea.  What worked gradually gets abandoned.

So, I came up with the Marketing Checklists. These were a comprehensive list of marketing procedures, several hundred all told. They were a compilation of marketing procedures that we had used or had seen others use effectively. The idea was that by using the Marketing Manager System, the office would put together its own customized marketing checklists using ours as a template and reference.

This brings up the subject of checklists. In 2009, a surgeon named Atul Gawande wrote a book about checklists called The Checklist Manifesto. Here is a relevant section from his book:

“What is needed… is discipline. Discipline is hard — harder than trustworthiness and skill and perhaps even than selflessness.

We are by nature flawed and inconstant creatures. We can’t even keep from snacking between meals.  We are not built for discipline. We are built for novelty and excitement, not for careful attention to detail. Discipline is something we have to work at.

Good checklists, on the other hand are precise. They are efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations. They do not try to spell out everything–a checklist cannot fly a plane. Instead, they provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps–the ones that even the highly skilled professional using them could miss.

Good checklists are, above all, practical.”

By the way, I cover this in my new book, the Goal Driven Business scheduled to come out in early 2021. I have learned how to make these checklists more practical and, well, Goal Driven!  (I plan to update all of the Marketing Checklists into their new Goal Driven version next year.)

So, from the archives stored away since 2000, enclosed is one of the 13 marketing checklists from the Marketing Manager System. This one is on Patient Referrals.  It lists just a few procedures you can use to help generate more patient referrals. Of course, there are many more, and I recommend you make your own checklist and review it every 3 – 4 months.

And that is the key: keep marketing procedures that are working – working.

To help you do this, list them on a checklist and review the checklist regularly to ensure that they are still occurring. Use the checklist like an assessment. Look at each successful marketing action and ask: “Did this get done all the time, some of the time, or oops! Hardly at all.” Make sure all marketing duties are assigned. Then, where needed, improve them.

Stay Goal Driven and help your patients do the same!

Ed

Download the The Marketing Checklist on Patient Referrals.

Momentary Affluence — or Is the Tide Turning for True Health?

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Over the last few months, we have noticed that offices have continued to grow – some even breaking their previous records!

Why is this?

I have heard from doctors and office managers that patients may be hesitant to visit medical offices and prefer seeing chiropractors, acupuncturists, and other health-oriented offices instead. Are they just afraid of the COVID at medical centers, or are they truly seeking to improve their health and immune systems?

What have you heard?

I am going to guess that your practice is filling back up as well.  What should you do to augment your growth, sustain it, and even increase it?

RETENTION AND REFERRALS

You want to think about retention and then generating more referrals – from patients and from community members. Consider the following:

  1. First, don’t take this growth for granted. Each patient is unique and special and important. Provide world-class service and deliver world-class outcomes. In the end, this will ALWAYS be your #1 marketing tool.
  2. Educate. I can’t stress this enough. Please… Inform While You Perform. Factual information is one of the reasons patients see you. You are independent. Your strings are not pulled by Merck, Pfizer, or WHO. You can refer patients to information on your services, on Vitamin D, Zinc, and yes, Quercetin. They can trust you for the unedited and unspun truth about health.
  3. Communicate. Newsletters, workshops via Zoom, or in the office, outdoor events (staying in compliance with local ordinances – as you see fit!) – keep the conversation going. Maintain and improve the relationship with your patients.
  4. Capacity. Do you need another provider? Another team member? Don’t overextend yourself, but also, don’t stand in the way of your growth.
  5. Partner with other providers and businesses. Medical doctors are discovering that health solutions they have for COVID are being suppressed. The braver ones are speaking up. Doctors of all kinds, now more than ever, can share the same goal and help each other overcome similar challenges. Businesses as well, want practical solutions for their employees.
  6. Make a List. Make a list of patient retention and referral generation procedures that have worked for you and review them often. In upcoming newsletters, we will brush off some lists from our old Marketing Manager Systemsm that has hundreds of marketing procedures. You know many of them, but it always helps to be reminded!

You can also take your marketing a step further…

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU SELL, IT IS WHAT YOU STAND FOR

As a more aggressive approach, you may want to be more vocal in promoting better health in all its aspects, from what we eat, breathe, to the kind of health care we seek.  In this regard you could take on the role of Health Rebel, or even Health Outlaw!

Your unique selling principle (USP) should include your noble purposes that sets you apart from comparable alternatives.  Consumers are looking for businesses that take responsibility for social and environmental issues. And, according to several studies*, this is especially true for the younger generation – Generation X – those born in the 1990s. Speaking out for better health in your community and against toxic pollutants, for example, is not only a noble purpose but – if genuine, has practical marketing benefits.

There really are two sides in our health culture – one for optimal natural health of the planet and of our bodies, and the other as advertised by corporations.

Your community is bombarded with thousands of advertising messages each day, many of them promoting drugs and COVID hysteria fears.  Advertising is a form of population control, which is an advanced science, and which may be used increasingly to motivate your community to consume more vaccines, including for COVID.  Yale University, as reported by Mercola, is testing advertising messages to shame, embarrass, anger, and otherwise motivate people to take the vaccines.

And the campaign has already started. According to USA today, it is patriotic to get vaccinated.

And it is not just the push for vaccines. Corporate medicine has been discrediting natural health remedies, including chiropractic, nutritional supplements, and certain medical practices such as chelation for years.  And outside of health care, we can see advertisements for the cancer-causing Roundup (with glyphosate), “foods” with toxic ingredients (e.g. aspartame), and the suppression of information about mercury, hexavalent chromium (as in the movie Erin Brockovich), and other toxins currently in our drinking water.

This is really your time. This is a contest for health independence from corporate tyrants that have set up laws to escape liability for their actions.  But those of you in the chiropractic profession are used to the fray. Now, you are not alone. Other doctors are also experiencing suppression and personal and professional retaliation and are joining the fight.

The sales of organic food and supplements continue to increase. And based upon your practice returning to pre-COVID levels, the tide just may be shifting towards true health.

But only with all of our help.

Helping you to help more people,

 

Ed Petty, and all of us at Petty, Michel, and Associates

How to Defeat COVID: Be A HEALTH OUTLAW!

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“I will sell Chiropractic, serve Chiropractic, and save Chiropractic if it will take me twenty lifetimes to do it. I will promote it within the law, without the law, in keeping with the law or against the law in order to get sick people well and keep the well from getting sick.” — B. J. Palmer

What is it with all the bad news ALL the time?

Well, here is some good news: across the boards, practices are returning to their pre-COVID days. We monitor our clients’ numbers closely, and we see offices meeting, and in some cases, exceeding what they did at the same time last year! A few others are even hiring more doctors and staff.

What? Isn’t the world coming to an end?

Hell no! And here is why: people like you, and your patients, are, and always have been, rebellious. Health rebels! You question authority. (How dare you!)

What we are witnessing, for chiropractors and other non-conventional health offices, is nothing new. The good news and benefits of real health care are never promoted, and in fact, are suppressed. Got pain? Here, take some opioids. Back problem? We’ll just do surgery. Too much weight? We’ll suck the fat out. (yuck) Arthritis? Here, have some Vioxx.

You know what real health care is – and isn’t. And you know what? So do your patients. You can’t fool everyone all the time. And I would say that much of the world is with you, despite the massive media slant towards drugs and population crisis control. People are aware of organic food, for example, and so organic products and food stores have had explosive growth in the last 20 years. And supplements! The supplement industry has also seen mega growth and is expected to grow over 12% this year, according to Nutritional Business Journal*.

People know what side you are on – their side. They know what you stand for – health. You are the health doctors, coaches, and teams — curious, caring, and independent. You aren’t beholding to hospitals, a bureaucracy, or drug companies. This is what Dr. Zelenko cited as a factor to help him, and his colleagues come up with an inexpensive antidote for COVID that is 80-90% effective – so effective in fact, other countries are adopting it. I strongly recommend his YouTube videos, especially the one with Del Bigtree. (Link below.)

Here are some suggestions to Fight COVID:
How to Fight COVID: Steps for Health Outlaws

  1.  Goal: Get more people healthier.
  2. Stay on the offense. Stay true to your goal. Think about how you can help three times more people.
  3. Don’t let the negative few outweigh the positive many. Keep in mind, only a small percentage of bad things cause the majority of the bad news. (Pareto Principle – 80/20)
  4. Don’t get distracted by politics, or “I am right — you are wrong.”
  5. Be nice. Understand people are confused and frightened. Don’t call people sheeple, cowards, or selfish killers.
  6. Protesting is fine. Just don’t get side-tracked. Stay GOAL DRIVEN.
  7. Keep studying what is working. Mercola.com, Highwire with Del Big Tree, ChildrensHeathDefense.org, and others.
  8. Use your voice and educate others.
    a. Use Table Talk, your most powerful weapon when combined with excellent service and outcomes.
    b. Use newsletters. Genuine communication keeps the relationship and conversation going with you, rather than with the media or distraught neighbors or family members.
    c. Post on social media.
    d. Zoom workshops.
    e. Podcasts.
  9. Stay Well in Winter campaign. Consider promoting a health and conditioning program, Stay Well in Winter, to strengthen people for the seasonal flu and possible “2nd Wave” of COVID.
  10. Join or create a Health “Rebel” Alliance. Network with other providers in your area and form a health “conspiracy.” Chiropractors, acupuncturists, Holistic MD’s, Naturopathic Doctors, Biological Dentists, Exercise Trainers, Organic Food Co-ops, to name a few. Lead the way.

The chiropractic profession has been the largest and most active professional group standing up for true health for over 120 years. Absolute American and homegrown, your profession has been genuine guardians of health, and has withstood every attack imaginable. So, all this pandemic stuff is pretty routine for you guys and gals. And if this has made you Health Outlaws, I know that sits just fine with you.

Loads of sincere respect and thanks for crisis medical teams, as always. But keeping people out of crisis, out of hospitals is your goal, and ours as well. We share this goal with you and stand with you to help more people become healthier.

Thank you for all you do.

Ed and all of us at PM&A

Del Bigtree and Dr. Vladimir Zelenko 45 minutes
Deal Big Tree “Crimes Against Humanity” – with Dr. Zelenko and others, full presentation. 2:16

Nutritional Business Journal.

Music for Monday

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Each Monday in June, I’ll be presenting an upbeat musical piece with a link below.

Click the link and listen while you go to the office or while at the office.  Sing or hum it. Listen to it with your team before you start your day.  Play it while you see patients.

Play music during the week. Take a break, go out back, and dance like no one is watching. Don’t get too serious!

We are all part of a big family – you and your team, your patients, and your community. Nothing unties us more than music.

Good vibes to you,

Ed

JUNE 1 ––  Starting the month off with musicians from around the world.

The Weight,  

JUNE 8 — Let your patients — and community —  know that you will stand by them. Let your team that you will do the same for them.

Stand by Me

JUNE 15- Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects.  Dalai Lama (Azquotes.com)

We don’t always have to make a splash to cause ripples – sometimes our thoughts alone can make a difference.

Ripple

JUNE 22 – First Monday of Summer!! Just fun music:

Island in the Sun by Weezer

Supplemental tune, a little Country with some drama but uplifting all the same.

It’s a Great Day to Be Alive by Travis Tritt

JUNE 29 Independence Day Week! (in U.S.A.)

Pick one, pick all them, get happy feet and have a great week!

Only in America Brooks and Dunn

This Land Is Your Land Woodie Guthrie

Born Free Kid Rock

This is the last Monday Music for a while.  It’s been fun. Perhaps we’ll do it again sometime. 🙂

Take the Middle Road and Educate.

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“In other words, people may be dying for the need of Chiropractic, and yet they will refuse, unless they have been educated to its character and their need of it.”
B.J. Palmer (The Story of Selling Yourself)

I try to visit Facebook at least once a week. When I do, I sometimes see posts by others labeling the behavior of the public as “sheeple.” The term, I guess, refers to people acting obediently like sheep. The context usually includes those who believe that COVID-19 is a scam and view people who wear facemasks and observe CDC rules for quarantining as weak and stupid, and easily manipulated.

There certainly are indications, as well as precedents, that can support this view. The promotion of potential threats to generate fear has often been used to motivate people. Think of all the weapons of mass destruction that we were told Iraq had – which they didn’t have — that justified a 3 trillion-dollar war (estimated, Wikipedia) to the U.S. alone—not counting up to 400,000 killed. Someone made money off that scam.

There are over 100 cataloged types of biases, and we all have our own odd fears and weird ideas. Included with this is our basic “I-am-right” mechanism that makes others wrong and emboldens our ego.

Recently, I was talking to someone on their speakerphone while they drove in their car. They were wearing a mask and their voice was slightly muffled. I thought to myself that it was odd to talk to someone who was wearing a mask while in their car. Then, I was reminded that the person I was talking with has unselfishly devoted his entire life to taking care of his severely health-compromised daughter.

We all have our own stories and fight our own battles – with the best knowledge we have.

Another method to control people is to dissuade them from education and from learning to think critically and question authority.

So, I invite you to consider this as your #1 duty as a doctor – and as support staff — to educate your patients and community. Doctor, after all, means teacher.

People do not know what you know.

Perhaps they don’t want to know, are too tired, or seem too lazy to make an effort to learn. Maybe they have already made up their mind, and their view reinforces their own identity. But don’t give up on people — they are part of your family. They are your brothers and sisters.

Use newsletters, social media (even Facebook!), webinars, and especially Table Talk.

Educate because you care for people. Market your services from an attitude of compassion.

We are not sheep. We just don’t know. And regardless of what we say, privately, we look to you and your integrity — for your wisdom, your help, and your friendship.

Ed

The Story of Selling Yourself by B.J. Palmer

Keep putting your business THERE

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A tree withstands storms but continues with its systems.

Just a note here about procedures:

Keep the structure of your business – its policies and procedures — in place. As much as you can, stick to your usual routines.

Certainly, you want to integrate needed changes to prevent the spreading of the virus. And obviously, for many of you, patient volume has changed, so you may have to adjust your work hours and staff hours.

You do need to be flexible. Improvise — where needed, adapt, and overcome! (Paraphrase of Marine slogan!)

But do not let the virus be the tail that wags the dog!

Keep the recalls going. Keep the billing going. Hold staff meetings, if only by Zoom. Rally the team! Review numbers and SET GOALS. Give staff study assignments. If anything, increase your patient communication 5 times – or more.

Strengthen your network.

I bring this up as I have seen a few offices start to slack off on their procedures, and while this is understandable in many situations, it can be a slippery slope. This can set a precedent for neglecting other procedures. This is what leads to office anarchy and what I call “Procedural Atrophy.”

Procedural Atrophy is the gradual dropping out of procedures. For example, you used to call every new patient after their first adjustment and send out birthday cards. Then, you became so busy that you “didn’t have time” to do the calls or to makes sure the staff sent out birthday cards. Two years later, you wonder what happened to all your patients.

We are NOT victims. We will respond positively and use this opportunity to strengthen our resolve and our health network.

Hold true to time tested procedures during unusual conditions.

Stability breeds confidence. Your patients are looking to you to be the rock that they can count on.

Management’s job is to hold the structure of the organization in place. (And then improve upon it.) It may have to be abbreviated, economy of time, effort and money come into play, but … do the usual. Set your goals and stick to your successful procedures to reach them.

Do this, and after this storm passes — your business will be busier than ever.

Working now for the future,

Ed

Time to See the World and Your Future Anew

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See the Word AnewI have been in touch with most of you and, for the most part, you all are doing relatively well during these days of COVID-19. Of course, the keyword here is… relatively.

Whatta time, eh? Historic, that is for sure. It will change our society and our world as nothing has since, perhaps, WW 2.

The Lighthouse in the Storm

Your role, right now, is so very important. Perhaps more than you know.  Your patients have fears, questions, and doubts. Their parents could contract COVID, perhaps they could. They are out of work or soon will be, and there is the apprehension that all of this is a government plot towards totalitarianism.

With all the communication regarding our current situation, you have to remain as a calm source for sound, researched data that provides comfort and solutions. You will have to be a lighthouse in this storm.

YOU are independent. You do not work for a drug company, and you are not beholding to a boss that works for a hospital or a government agency. Therefore, when patients come to you with worries and questions, they trust that what you tell them is unadulterated, unbiased, and accurate information.

And even more, they hope that you genuinely care.

Time to See the World Anew

In some sense, the world is experiencing a big “Time Out.”

Perhaps we can all take this time to become closer to our families and friends. My daughter is cooking more, my son is homeschooling his kids, and I am practicing guitar tunes from my old 1960’s book of folk songs!

I notice on my walks and runs that here, in Milwaukee, the air is fresher, cleaner, and the sky is bluer. Less smog from our southern neighbors and nearby freeways and overhead airplanes. The difference is striking and one can only imagine what we have been breathing in all this time!

It is spring, you have a family and friends, and you have your own self. COVID-19 doesn’t change this.

Good to Great: Redesign your NEW Business.

But what I am most looking forward to is the NEW.

Right now, you have a unique opportunity, during this temporary slump, to reimagine and redesign your business.

You’ve had a good, perhaps a very good business before. But as Jim Collins explains in his book, Good to Great, good can be the enemy of great.

The Good is now the Old, and we have this moment to review our goals and engineer better pathways to them.  Now, you can create the Great!  This will be your new version of your business based upon all you have learned as a professional and as a business owner or stakeholder. This new version can be your best creation ever.

Over the next few months, we will be discussing this, and I and all of us at PM&A, look forward to helping you and your team create the business of your dreams.

Looking forward to the future,

Ed

PS Happy Earth Day!

Thank You, Essentials

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Petty Michel and Associates Thank the Essentials

(image from the movie Troy, with Brad Pitt playing Achilles, a Greek warrior. Reddit)

You and your team may not recognize this, and the word hero is overused, but in our book, this is what you are. Heroes.

Caught up with dealing with the urgencies of the times, you and your team may overlook the crucial and significant role you all play in raising the level of physical and emotional health of your community.

Without you, people in acute pain might tax critical and urgent care resources. Without you, patients on corrective or maintenance care might fall back into acute care.

You help alleviate our pain and improve our health – including our immune system.  You calm our concerns with your well-informed insight and give us action steps to improve our health.

Health, as we know, is dependent upon mechanical, chemical, and emotional factors. Besides your adjustments and therapy, you provide education – and reassurance that this pandemic will pass.

I hear about it every day. You risk your health to help others, both physically and mentally.

Let your team know the vital role that they are playing.

Years from now, when asked what they did during 2020 Pandemic, they will be able to say that they were Essential Health Care Workers — and didn’t flinch.

And we just wanted to tell you – very sincerely – THANKS!

From all of us at Petty Michel and Associates.

Fight the Nocebo Effect

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Knowledge is your lighthouse.

I am sure that all of you are trying to stay up with unfolding events regarding the virus and the governmental recommendations – and enforcement — to deal with it.

We are, as well.

I am sending this email out to encourage you to watch an informative video by Del Bigtree, who reviews the facts and numbers of the virus pandemic. It is a bit long, so I am sending this out this weekend in case you have more time to watch it.

I have also included an article by Bruce Lipton. Dr. Lipton is a cellular biologist who taught medical students at the University of WI medical college and often speaks at chiropractic seminars.

Plus, an article that states 99% of those who died from the virus had other illnesses.

(Links below.)

We must watch out for the GENERALITY of the virus. For example: “COVID-19 could kill us all!” “Who says?” “They do.” “Who is “they.””  “The authorities.”  “Who are the authorities?” “Those who are in charge.” You have to break it down and be as logical as you can.

I recommend that you review these sources, add to it what you are learning, and using your best judgment, continue educating your team members and patients/members/clients! 

Be the lighthouse in your community.

Education and knowledge displace fear and uncertainty.

Let’s eradicate what Dr. Lipton calls the “nocebo” effect — the opposite of a placebo.

And let’s continue our fight to help people get healthier!

Keep educating,

Ed

By the way, no one is saying you must close your office.  Even in California where San Francisco has a “Shelter in Place” or strict quarantine.  For example, the California Chiropractic Board of Examiners, on their website,  states:

  1. Should My Practice Remain Open?
    The Board does not have authority to close businesses or practices solely as a result of COVID-19.

YOUR SERVICES ARE VITAL!

The Exec. Director of the Kansas Chiropractic Association, in a letter to their state Governor (March 20, 2020), stated:

“We understand that with the severity of the current pandemic hospital emergency rooms may soon be filled with patients complaining of pulmonary symptoms. We offer our services in diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal complaints presenting to emergency rooms. Many Doctors of Chiropractic have arranged to be a referral point for their local emergency rooms on these conditions.

“We are prepared to see these patients in our offices that are already taking every precaution available to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.”

 

REFERENCES

Del Bigtree   Coronavirus Quarantine  March 19

Bruce Lipton Cornonvrus 2019-Covid-19 UPDATE

Bloomberg News March 18, 2020   99% of those who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says

Use Your Voice!

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Using your voice to help others.

(Painting by Norman Rockwell, 1943)

When you engage in work that taps your talent and fuels your passion  –  that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet  –  therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul’s code. (Stephen Covey)

 

For many of your patients, it may be difficult to tell how far to take precautions regarding COVID-19. Who can your patients turn to for a frank conversation and useful information?

Somewhere there is a middle ground between stockpiling hand wipes, toilet paper, and hiding in your bedroom and showing up at the gun show for a family barbecue and square dance. People are looking for reasonable answers without feeling that they are fearfully overreacting, or pridefully underacting.

You have to be that middle ground – and you can be. You do not have a boss that is beholding to Merck, or a company whose board members belong to the AMA. You are independent.

Use your voice and be a source of reason and information. Get in the conversation. You are only beholding to your patients and your community. They know your kids, and you know theirs. You are honest, thoughtful, and know that we are all in this together. You will ask your patients for their best advice on plumbing, cars, taxes, and other life needs. They will seek your advice regarding the best health for themselves and their family. You rely on them, and they rely on you – this year, now, and in the years to come.

Now is not the time to cocoon – not for you. Now is the time to speak up – to stand up.

Keep your practice open, but if not, keep communicating. Aside from seeing your patients in person, you can consider other activities that do not require face to face encounters:

  • Use email and social media to promote health tips.
  • Schedule webinars for health tips.
  • Set up video or phone consultations. 15 minutes, $45 – $100. Send follow-ups and include in patient files. Offer discounts for patients who need it.
  • Staff and doctors call patients for courtesy consultations. See how they are doing. Give them advice. Schedule them for an appointment as needed.
  • Sell supplements at a discount if you can. (Suppliers may be backlogged.)
  • Let us know about other outreach services you are providing!

You are a doctor – an educator, a leader. This applies to your team as well – they, too, are leaders and educators. Your community needs you now more than ever. Years from now, it will remember who was there, who stood up, who helped.

Use your Voice! Download the Poster Here

Always communicating,

Ed

We, too, are here to help.

Has the Coronavirus Affected Your Practice?

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How has the Coronavirus plague been affecting you and your practice…so far?

Most offices I talk to across the country seem to be doing just fine, thank you!

I ran across  an interesting thread on a social media site for chiropractors and as a limited sample survey of how other offices are being affected, most report that they are also doing well.

I want to add a few thoughts from a marketing vantage point that might help. I am sure you are following the clinical aspects of this virus, but I have links below to articles from Bruce Lipton, Ben Lerner, and Joe Mercola that are very informative.

More importantly, a great link from our old buddy, George Carlin just to put things into perspective. So, you might want to save this email just for the links. (Gotta watch Carlin!… WARNING… as usual cursing included!)

So, marketing…

The idea of the Coronavirus is that it could kill you, or at least make you very sick.  Consider these three promotional actions:

Safe Space. Promote your office as a Safe Zone. In your clinic, use plenty of disinfectant around the office. Let the patients see you wipe down tables, doorknobs, pens, clipboards, and have plenty of Purell (or something similar) around for hand wipes. This is to demonstrate that your office is taking all precautions to be a safe, sterile healing facility.

Get Healthier and Stronger. Secondly, promote the healing aspect of your services – how they can improve and bolster the immune system. The virus will have the most impact on the physically weak. Encourage patients to come in and get stronger in your safe space.  (Ben Lerner has a good article about this – link below.)

Communicate and Educate. Use your “table talk” time, and through newsletters and other media, to communicate with your patients. Give them health tips regarding the virus. But also relay positive activities that are going on in your office – an upcoming talk, a community clean-up drive, a patient success or a new team member. This goes for your team as well – educate your staff. People tend to hunker down during a crisis, somewhat out of fear. Standup, standout and maintain your positive presence and leadership – keep communicating.

The viruses may be real and get transmitted from person to person. But ideas can do the same. So spread the word — communicate your office as a worry-free environment where people can become stronger and healthier – safely.

-Ed

From a social media thread:
Chiropractors!! Is the whole coronavirus situation impacting your practice?! Or is it just me?
[March 9, 2020]

I’ve noticed that a lot less people are coming in for care, I’ve especially seen a decrease in overall NPs, is the trend global? related to coronavirus outbreak?? (people being in “survival mode” , or being more careful about their finances)? I’d love to know what you guys have noticed surrounding this issue? Cheers, Kir 2 days ago

ostninja
I’ve noticed a drop this week. I think it’s critical to wipe all surfaces with something that works and have hand sanitizer available. For reality and to create a safe space where they dont have to think about getting it from the table or face rest.
Everybody is concerned. I think it is people limiting their activities, worried about money, worried about the face rest. Let them see you wiping down face rest every time you finish. I’m wondering about sending communication detailing how we are protecting them and ourselves but I’m also wondering how useful overall that would be.

Kiirjava
Interesting… Thanks for sharing 🙂 that communication idea is actually brilliant!
It’s been a slow week so I’ll use this as an excuse lol · 2 days ago

lloydchiro
I’m just as busy as ever, and I’m in San Francisco. I imagine our town will get hit soon.

AshlamAllstar 2 days ago
CCCA here. Only a few one-off scenarios so far. One patient called to pause her treatment plan due to fear of being exposed and one came in with latex gloves, her own lysol wipes and a face mask. Otherwise, practice as usual, if not, a few more questions asking of the doctors’ opinion of the matter.
—-
DrGodzilla22
My practice had grown during since the news cycles started. Well educated patient are referring their friends and families.
—-
DrJayWill · 1 day ago
I’ve had the busiest week I’ve had in a while

All about TELOS and Three Actions to Start the New Year

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Goals: Telos
The Greeks believed that everything had its own innate goal – or Telos. Telos means ultimate aim or purpose of something. The Telos of an acorn is a tree – the purpose of a pencil is to write.

Steven Covey lists Beginning with the End in Mind as an essential habit in leadership and effectiveness.

Now is a good time to review the Telos of your office. What is its innate purpose? There may be a few of them.

Take it a step further – what are the values and standards in which the office must aspire to in order to achieve this mission? For example, “Deliver WOW through service?” (A core value of Zappos).

Reviewing these often and keeping them in mind will assist you and your team to manifest the tangible outcomes of these goals – more people helped and more income collected.

Your Patient’s Goals: Health Never Takes a Holiday
Your patients have made a goal for better health. Don’t’ let them down – help to keep them on their path to a pain free, functionally improved, and healthier life. Here is a desk poster for you to remind patients to keep their appointments over the Holidays. Link

Two Marketing Engines that Help You Reach Your Goals
One aspect of your clinic’s goals should be marketing. Marketing takes many forms, but ultimately it results in more people receiving benefits from your services.

Marketing gimmicks come and go. They work for a while, and then, soon enough, you find that that “hole” is “fished out.” Special promotions and direct marketing avenues need to be pursued. They work and are especially useful for new offices. But they need to be changed often – marketing channels get clogged quickly and the public tires of spam offers.

There are two forms of marketing, however, that will never wear out: extraordinary customer service and outcomes, and your network.

  • Extraordinary Service. Superior service will be THE distinguishing factor that differentiates your business from others. People want to go to the best provider – 5 Star reviews work – for now. But as Internet review systems get hacked – people will look for the best and rely more on word of mouth and endorsements. Simply – be the best at delivering the best.
  • Your Network. Those people who like you form relationships with you and others. Most offices have a network of supporters but are rarely nurtured. These supporters can and should be developed so that you create a network of alliances – people and business who all share your goals for better health are willing to send customers to each other because of their familiarity and trust.

Before the year is out, or just as the New Year begins, consider personally meeting with anyone in and out of your office who has sent you a patient, or supported you in any way. From patients to allied providers to the autobody repair shop down the street, send them a nice and unique gift, or a personal card, or make a phone call thanking them. Tell them you look forward to working with them and seeing them in the New Year. They are part of your network.

Lastly, on a personal note, we want you to know how much we appreciate all the great work you and your team do in helping people improve their lives. If you can, imagine all of us – you, and other offices like you, all of us working diligently as a positive force to make the world a better place.

This is a noble goal – and one we share with you in the New Year. We’ll see you then!

With admiration and respect,

Ed, David, and all of us, at Petty Michel & Associates

8 Successful Marketing Attitudes

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“Marketing is an inside job,” one business owner told me years ago.

He meant it first starts with your attitude and your drive to reach your goals.

Your mental outlook will determine the effectiveness of all of your marketing activities. The good news is that your attitude is something which you do have control over. Even if you have difficult personal and environmental factors acting against you, you still have a choice on how you decide to act. The way you look at your world is entirely up to you.

Practice marketing is ultimately an “inside-out job,” and though marketing includes “outside-in” activities, such as advertising, its success is dependent upon what is happening on the “inside.” On a scale of 1-5, where “5” is strongest, and “1” is weakest, you should work daily to reach a “5” on each of these eight attitudes.

At a team meeting every few months, you can hand this article out to each team member and have each person grade (1-5) how the office has been operating regarding each attitude. You can also have a team member summarize one particular attitude and describe it to the rest of the team in their own words. These attitudes are your marketing muscles that can drive and maintain your growth. Keep working them and making them stronger.

I have observed these eight attitudes in common with successful providers and business owners. I encourage you to use them yourself.

1.  Friendliness and Cheerfulness. When you smile, the whole world smiles with you. And that is what you want: your whole community smiling with you. A positive and cheerful outlook opens the channels of communication between you and your community. It is an unspoken “open invitation” for people to interact with you. The happier you are, and the more positive your outlook is, the easier all other marketing efforts will be. “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone….” From a Poem by Ella Wheeler (1883)

2. Interested Attitude. Where I have been successful in selling and marketing services, this has always been my secret: be interested in the other person. Don’t fake it. Just start with whatever strikes your curiosity. You will find that having an honest interest in people is one of your best sales and marketing tools. People respond positively to sincere curiosity about them. “Betty, where did you find those blue shoes?” “So Frank, I have always wondered, why do you guys call yourselves the Kiwanis?” You don’t have to be interested in everyone. Be courteous and be professional, of course. But you’ll find that you can find something of interest in most people. Since your interest is genuine and not simulated, the other person can begin to trust you. You are not a phony operating off of a script. Even if your curiosity makes you seem a bit forward, at least you are honest. Behind your interest should be a desire to understand the other person, and this requires empathy. This kind of interest begets communication which lays the foundation for the other person knowing you, liking you, and trusting you.

3. “Get to Know Me” Attitude. You should want the community to know you. You should want them to know that you are an excellent provider and that your business gets results. Don’t assume people know what you do – or even care. Maybe they know you are a provider but think you are retired, or too busy and no longer taking new patients, or too important to talk to them. And let them get to know about you personally– that your dog’s name is Louie and you are not from Canada, even though you are very nice. Be willing to have the whole community know all about you, and believe that once they do, they’ll like you. Don’t hide. We all spend too much time in boxes – our houses, our offices, our cars, and other buildings. Get out of the boxes and be willing to be seen and heard. “It is better to be looked over than overlooked.” (Mae West)

4. “Gratitude Attitude.” This is a term often used by Zig Ziglar, meaning be grateful and appreciative. The “Gratitude Attitude” melts the ice between people. It shows respect and honors those around you, especially patients, prospective patients, your teammates, and of course, your family and friends. People hate to be ignored and too often we take for granted the amazing souls around us each day. Be thankful to be a provider and business owner and that you have an opportunity to help people. Show your gratitude to others. Let them know how you appreciate them. Count your blessings daily. “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all the others.” (Marcus Tullius Cicero. 106 BC -43 BC)

5. Service Attitude. Be a missionary on a mission to help. Be a giver. In the office, think ahead of what each patient needs each day and make sure they get it. Outside of the office, realize that people are in trouble, have problems, and want relief, so help them. Many are looking for answers. Offer information, community services, consultations, and be a “do-gooder.” Find out what people want and help them achieve it – through your services or another’s. It has been said that “The hole that you give through — is the hole through which you will receive.”

6. Big Capacity Attitude. “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” (Napoleon Hill.) Hold the concept that everyone in your community should receive your services. THINK BIG. Think abundance. Be willing to meet hundreds of new people each day and be open to scores of new patients. The mechanics of paperwork, finances, and procedure will all follow. Don’t let yourself become encumbered mentally by these things now. Get rid of the yellow light in your business and turn them all green. “Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.” (David J. Schwartz, The Magic of Thinking Big.)

7. Industriousness Attitude. Your outlook towards moving the business forward has to be a vigorous one. You must be ready to jump into the thick of things any time and get the work done. You will need a “can do, will do” attitude, one that enjoys being productive. It takes much more energy and effort to get and keep a business going than most people think. Marketing is simply physics. If you expend energy into your business and the community, there will be a reciprocal force — in terms of goodwill and new patients – coming back. Like planting seeds in the spring. You harvest what you sow. Don’t blame the politicians if the tomatoes didn’t come in at harvest time this year because you were too lazy to plant them. The more you sow, the more you can reap.

8. Have Faith, Confidence, and Belief. Be forthright and confident about the benefits of your profession, your skills as a provider, and the services your office can bring about. From this knowledge, you can be authoritative in telling your story and scheduling new patients. Know that you can help your patient. Believe and decide that they will win and you will succeed. If you are confident in what you are selling, then others will be too.

Edward Petty

The Sickest Generation and Back to School Programs

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Happy Health KidsIn late summer, many offices sponsor a promotion for children and their health. This is often in the form of a backpack check-up, scoliosis and posture check, or a school supply drive. The idea is to link the new school year with children’s health to better promote clinic services, generate new patients, and of course, improve the health of the kids.

It’s been my experience that these events are usually only marginally effective. Still useful, I feel that the real opportunity is being missed.

You could be getting more families under care. How?

Educate your families and your community on:

1. The results you deliver. How the outcomes you generate with children’s health are extraordinary. Use written and video testimonials and endorsements.

2. What you stand for. Today’s children face more challenges to their health than their parents. In fact, our children today are sicker than earlier generations. Learn about this and make it your anthem, a flag you wave. Stand up for the kids in your community, and you will earn respect and allegiance of parents. Be their guardians in health.

3. Provide special promotions and events. These could be workshops, screenings, or a special day of services with donations going to a local charity.

4. Alliances and Partnerships. It would be a good idea to create alliances with midwives, doulas, biological dentists, acupuncturists, and other professionals who share a similar concern and goal for healthier children. Invite them to participate in your events. Have them contribute a short article in your newsletter – in exchange, you could do the same with them in their newsletters. Create partnerships.

5. Schedule an event every two months, or every month. Never stop.

Your leadership, based upon your awareness of the health crisis facing our youth, is the primary element that will drive the success of your kid’s programs.

Read the following from the ebook, The Sickest Generation and follow the link below to the entire article, and other resources to become even more acquainted with the challenges the next generation of children face.

  • American children have never been sicker. Over half (54%) are suffering from one or more chronic illnesses, with the late 1980s and early 1990s viewed as the gateway period that launched the decline.
  • Many chronic illnesses have doubled since that time. The “4-A” disorders—autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, asthma and allergies—have experienced meteoric growth, affecting children’s quality of life and contributing to premature mortality. The spike in autism prevalence has been particularly dramatic, with prevalence as high as 3% (one in 34 children) in some regions. Pediatric autoimmune conditions also are on the rise.
  • U.S. children are far more likely to die before their first birthday than infants in other wealthy countries and life expectancy is falling, driven largely by rising death rates in adolescents and younger adults. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in teens, half of whom are reported to have at least one mental, emotional or behavioral disorder.
  • The proportion of public school children using special education services is skyrocketing, with estimates ranging from 13% to 25% of school populations.

Sincerely,

Ed Petty

To the ebook, The Sickest Generation and other references.

Children’s Health Resources

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Happy Health ChildThe following are some sources of information regarding the health crisis affecting our children.

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The Children’s Health Defense is a powerful organization that is on the front lines in fighting corporate propaganda promoting harmful drugs for kids. They have many lawyers, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., working on exposing false information and corruption regarding children’s health.eBook Sign-Up—The Sickest Generation
Free eBook: The Sickest Generation: The Facts Behind the Children’s Health Crisis and Why It Needs to End Children are the key to a successful future and a prosperous nation, yet American children have never been sicker with a vast array of chronic illnesses. (Also available in Spanish.)

The Pharmaceutical Industry’s Front Men
By the Children’s Health Defense Team

The Medical Journals’ Sell-Out—Getting Paid to Play
By the Children’s Health Defense Team

Science Library
This database contains hundreds of peer-reviewed, published articles on environmental contaminants that are implicated in the rise of the childhood epidemics we are currently experiencing in the U.S. and other industrialized nations.

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Pathways is a long-standing publication with health articles that is free to members of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association. Its website has links to many articles, a few of which are below:

Pathways to Family Wellness

Are We Making Our Children Sick?
http://pathwaystofamilywellness.org/Nutrition/are-we-making-our-children-sick.html

Natural Immunity
http://pathwaystofamilywellness.org/Informed-Choice/natural-immunity.html

Ear Infections in Kids: Natural Remedies to Ease Ear Pain and Enhance Function
http://pathwaystofamilywellness.org/Holistic-Healthcare/ear-infections-in-kids-natural-remedies-to-ease-ear-pain-and-enhance-function.html

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There are many books on children’s health, and it is fascinating to search to find them. Commit to buying at least one per month, reading it, reporting on it to a team meeting, and placing it in your Lending Library. Have your team members do the same! Here are three:

Books

A Compromised Generation: The Epidemic of Chronic Illness in America’s Children Paperback – September 16, 2010 by Beth Lambert

The Vaccine-Friendly Plan: Dr. Paul’s Safe and Effective Approach to Immunity and Health-from Pregnancy Through Your Child’s Teen Years Paperback – August 23, 2016 Paul Thomas M.D.

How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor: One of America’s Leading Pediatricians Puts Parents Back in Control of Their Children’s Health Mass Market Paperback – May 12, 1987
by Robert S. Mendelsohn MD