“Ichi-go Ichi-e:” The Springtime Secret to Improving Your Chiropractic Practice

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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:

  1. Early to Rise. Begin your day a little earlier… with a walk or a book, some music, meditation or prayer.
  2. 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.
  3. End Each Encounter. After each patient contact, end the meeting in your mind.
  4. Interest. With each new patient contact, genuinely find something interesting and new about them – their appearance, their week, something about their story.
  5. Business Coach. Meet with your business coach and review your business and make plans for the next month.
  6. 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!)
  7. 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.
  8. 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

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Different people. Run to new opportunities
(Spring Equinox, Northern Hemisphere – 2015)

Cal Jam is not like your father’s seminar.
It is a celebration of health and chiropractic.
It is a music festival.
It is a science briefing.
It is a par-tay!

It goes beyond simple sayings about positive mental attitudes and marketing tactics of many seminars.  While these things can be useful, there is a bigger picture of which the chiropractor stands as a leader. There is a bigger purpose.

Cal Jam is about the revolution…one that must happen and is, in fact, happening.

There is an assault on our health: our bodies, our environment, and perhaps our minds and even our souls. Are we to submit to the dictates of corporate pharmaceutical medicine, be fed from factory farms and frankencows, beholding to monopolies that own franken-seeds and food – and perhaps soon our water?  Is our health owned and controlled by the corporate state?

There is a small but growing band of independent minded health oriented and highly educated people that are becoming radicalized around the threat of a totalitarian state held in place through our food and water supply, and “health” care.

Is this extreme?

Perhaps, but there are many more MDs, scientists, and very educated mothers who believe this to be the case and are taking action than are reported in the corporate owned media. Just to look at the soaring statistics of organic food consumption over the last ten years – this must indicate something about a concern over the toxins in our food supply.

This goes beyond politics and race. These are just soap operas designed to keep us bickering amongst ourselves as the real maneuvers take place.

For those of you in the health profession, the choice is yours to make: play along… or do not go quietly into this smack zoned pen we are being herded into. One holistic MD I talked to recently told me that most MDs were lemmings.

I chose and have stayed in this profession, not because I am a chiropractor, because I am not. I consider myself, at my best, someone who has helped the helpers provide true health. But I have done so in part as an act of defiance against those who would profit on the bad health of others.  I have my personal story, as do you. But on my better days I am in the fight along with you.

Chiropractors have always been revolutionaries. Reggie Gold, Jim Sigafoose, Sid Williams, Chester Wilk… the list goes on and on, to B.J and D.D. Palmer. Used to be you weren’t an experienced D.C. until you spent your time in jail for “practicing without a license.” It actually goes down the ages… the fight against tyranny.

Cal Jam is not necessarily better than other chiropractic health conferences, but I’d say that it is the most revolutionary… and fun.

Hope to see you there.

Ed

Link to CAL JAM

8 Fast Tips on Chiropractic Team Training

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Improve your skills

$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!

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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

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[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

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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.

Happy-Thanksgiving

Patriot Project: Chiropractic Care for Military, a Recorded Interview

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Phyllis Frase, consultant with Petty, Michel and Associates recently met up with Dr. Carol Ann Malizia in Texas.  Dr. Malizia began sharing her story of her involvement in helping military personnel obtain chiropractic care and the Patriot Project.

Below is  a recorded interview where Phyllis talks with Dr. Malizia as she shares her thoughts on the current climate of military health care today compared to years ago, how she became involved in the mission, and what the Patriot Project is all about and how you can get involved.

Patriot Project Interview (mp3-36 min)

Dr. Malizia mentioned a few books for followup reading:

  • 24/7 The First Person you must Lead is You, by Becky Halstead
  • 1 Degree of Change, by Dr. Georgia Nab
  • Steel Will, My Journey through Hell to Become the Man I Was Meant to Be, by Retired Staff SGT Shilo Harris
  • ArmyOneSource 10 hr training/certification

If you’d like to contact Dr. Malizia she can be reached at camdc63@aol.com 

If you’d like to learn more about the Patriot Project visit: Patriot Project

Patriot Project: Helping Military Families with Their Health Care.

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Patriot Project

You may have heard about the Patriot Project.

The Patriot Project is a grass roots movement to provide chiropractic care to all active military, their families, wounded warriors & all gold star dependents.

Chiropractic care is included in veteran’s health benefits but has not been made readily available for all wounded warriors. Many of the ailments are currently being treated largely with pain medication and psychotropic drugs but can be relieved more conservatively with chiropractic care.

It is important to offer our active duty non-drug, non-surgical options for their painful conditions and Doctors of Chiropractic offer such care with attention to the optimum function and health of the whole person.

The Patriot Project aims to make chiropractic care readily available for ALL active duty personnel, military veterans & their families including all gold star dependents.

Thursday November 20th Ms. Phyllis Frase will be interviewing Dr. Carol Ann Malizia, D.C., who is on the Board of Directors of the Patriot Project. She recently heard Dr. Malizia speak at Parker Seminar in Texas and was very moved by her compassion for our veterans and what she has done to help them.

On our webinar you will learn how the Patriot Project can help you grow your practice, and in return, how you can help our veterans.

Register now for Patriot Project – an interview with Dr. Carol Ann Malizia moderated by Ms. Phyllis Frase on Nov 20, 2014 12:30 PM Central Time at:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1716307227105199105

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

If you need assistance registering please contact Linda Skiles at linda@pmaworks.com or 262-749-0221.

For more information about the Patriot Project and Dr. Malizia:
Patriot Project

Swiss Army Knife of Chiropractic Practice Development

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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.Swiss army knife isolated

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.

  1. 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.
  2. Spend a hour or more each week studying. Read, listen to audios, go to seminars, have lunch with a colleague. Call your coach!
  3. Watch a movie with your staff such as Bought, Doctored, Food Inc., and then have a discussion period afterwards.
  4. Staff Meetings. Go over a case history or two.
  5. Patient Care Class.
  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.

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!

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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

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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,

Ed

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

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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,♪

Ed

Click Link for more Marketing Articles

Here is a great rendition of the song by Frank Sinatra

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

Fall Marketing for Chiropractic Offices

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Follow these links to some useful articles on what to do this fall to generate more new patients and increase your volume.

Chiropractic Marketing Ideas for Fall Promotions.
General Marketing Procedures and Ideas for Fall Marketing during October, November and December

Chiropractic Never Takes a Holiday.
Health doesn’t take a holiday, your appointment book doesn’t have to either.  Pointers on how to keep your patients on their care plan during the hustle and bustle of the fast approaching holiday season

Fall Marketing Ideas.
An outline of more Fall marketing ideas.

Heat up Winter With Chiropractic Health Promotions
Get a jump start on 2015 with putting good Healthy Promotions  for the New Year in place early.

Chiropractic Holiday Marketing Tips
This article covers effective marketing procedures, internal marketing, community talks, recurring events.

Fall Chiropractic Marketing
Internal promotions and External Community Events

Spinal Health Awareness Week
October is National Spinal Health Month.  This article covers ideas to get the word out.

Sample Poster for Spinal Health Awareness (PDF)

Promoting Kid’s Health 
Save your children the hassle of living with the same spinal problems you suffer from.  This article provides suggestions  to bring about awareness to Kid’s and Chiropractic

Special Event Health Care for Kids 
Detailed outline of how to hold a Kid’s Day or Kid’s Week.

Newsletters
The importance of doing an office newsletter and how to get the job done.

Join us at EPOC for Dr. Billy DeMoss!

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Download the flier Billy D Poster-Aug 2014

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

presents

DeMoss profile

   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