Life By Design | The Podcast For Chiropractors

You've probably read this article or at minimum seen it posted on various Facebook groups followed by streams of commentary. Chiropractic is BS. Now, you've been told to look away, don't draw attention to the article, do not comment on it or "share" it.  For many of those reasons, I agree. There's nothing worth starting an online debate about. It's a recycle of the same old s&*#. That said, I do believe there is value in using the article for our own education and personal development. Much of what the author says is built on straw men, cherry picking, appeals to authority and ad hominem attacks. There's a clear misunderstanding, misinterpretation of information or a blatant attempt to just leave out some of context. At first read, the scathing commentary about Chiropractic would make nearly any chiropractor defensive...the author is blasting the profession saying it's BS, it's been linked to injuries, stokes and death... But the deeper you go, the more you move past the easily dismantled arguments and fi

You may have noticed… We’ve been talking at length about “sales” over the past couple months. Yes, that’s the topic of our upcoming live event called Life Con AND it’s also one of the most important fundamental components of your success infrastructure. Let’s not forget that selling is a good thing. It’s getting people engaged in a future result that is good for them…it’s a win-win in every single way. Because of that, not having a sales process or skill set will tank your business as fast as not having any new prospective patients. In a Retention Based Practice, which we strongly endorse, you will depend on guiding people through the decision making process and getting an abundance of yeses. Without strong agreements, you’ll need a constant stream of new prospects just to survive. We have identified 10 situations that require a specific sales strategy, however, there are 3 areas that most often go overlooked and are probably costing you countless amounts of profit and potential impact in your community. Here

The reality is, you can do everything right… Create an extraordinary business, deliver a VIP experience to everyone, care about your customers, get results, become the best darn chiropractic office on the planet and you could STILL get a bad online review. For better or worse, online reviews come with the territory. If you’re operating a business in “modern” times, you should and likely do have an online presence. An online forum or review sites like Yelp, Google and Facebook are all platforms designed for your customers and prospects to interact with your business, which includes leaving their deepest thoughts and experiences for the rest of the world to read and make their judgement about. Sometimes the reviews are simply the rantings of an apparent lunatic who has never even been to or remotely close to your office. What can you do about those? Not much, they typically speak for themselves and your possible clients can recognize that too (hopefully). In other cases, you or your team made a tiny omission, a

There are 4 requirements necessary to create a successful chiropractic practice. 1. Leadership 2. Team 3. Systems …and if we had to pick the one most important, it would have to be 4. Communication! “The successful conveying of feelings or ideas.” Consider just how important this is to the growth and impact of your practice, not to mention the effect on your life as an entrepreneur! Can you imagine what life and practice would feel like if prospects understood your objective, patients really “got it”, happily told others, and you had a flourishing community that looked to you for leadership? It goes without saying, this would feel wonderful…yet the VAST majority of docs are not experiencing this and have no idea where to even start. Today’s episode is about the 3 necessary requirements you MUST have in place if you expect to develop into a master communicator. NOTE: This process takes time, there are few shortcuts, but the results are worth every second of time, every dollar invested and every ounce of energ

When it comes to selling, without a doubt it's something chiropractors (and plenty of other small business owners) absolutely hate doing. Why? Why is something that is at the core of operating any business so frowned upon by chiropractors? We wanted to know, so we asked you... In this episode we break down the results of our recent survey that helped us understand the 4 major reasons chiropractors hate selling so much. What we covered: Why selling has always been seen as "beneath" real healthcare providers and what the current landscape allows for. The fear that paralyzes chiropractors when faced with the opportunity to give their recommendations and how it completely derails success. How missing these fundamentals will steal your momentum and leave you without the tools to close the deal. You can't simply "fake it until you make it". The two requirements necessary for your certainty to be authentic. How to start bridging the gap between what they want and what you deliver without compromising your values.

One of the very first pieces of infrastructure we either confirm is in place or start creating with all new clients we work with is a Productivity System. Why? It’s simple…before you can begin learning a Day 1 framework, building a sales process, perfecting your table talk, developing a strategic planning protocol and more, you must have the time and capacity to do the work. Within your productivity system, you will have a bunch of moving parts, requirements and strategies…there’s a good chance it’s your “email system” that’s a massive bottleneck to your success. Brendon Burchard’s quote says it all. “Remember the inbox is nothing but a convenient organizing system for other people’s agendas.” The question is how do you make your email work for you, not against you? And how can you avoid becoming a slave to your inbox and turn it into an area that supports your productivity? You’ve likely heard of the concept “Inbox Zero” before, this is nothing new. However, what you’ll learn from today’s episode will be for

We ALL have stress in practice to deal with it... Some of it is out of your control and therefore should stay out of your mind but for those challenges that seem to show up far too often, it's very likely you... or your systems... or your team, well, you get the point... :-) Here is some low hanging fruit to help you get started. It won't be easy, but it is where you likely need to begin... A. Improve your understanding of 3rd Paradigm Chiropractic. Many challenges, especially handling questions at the table, start with a poor understanding of the context in which you practice chiropractic. Start with this and a large volume of your issues disappear. B. Increase your certainty. There's a reason chiropractors can say the "darnedest" things and get away with it. Imagine the incredible impact if you had certainty and you weren't saying crazy and insane things to your patients. C. Boost your self-esteem. Although this plays a big role in certainty, self-esteem is a stand alone issue. It needs to be cultivated and

When it comes to business principles and chiropractic practice, for some strange reason, we’ve been taught that they should never co-exist. In most cases, it hasn’t been overt, but the end product of the message being propagated across the profession (today and in the past) has been a reminder that “service” is the most important trait to build your practice on. Any doctor who wants to build their practice with profitability as one of it’s central metrics for success is looked upon as greedy and underhanded because the “true leaders” in chiropractic are in it to serve chiropractic and the world! Of course, we’ll pretend we don’t know that many who profess to be servants would contradict their principles in a flash if it meant more cash flowing into their pockets. How about we start having the impact we’ve preached about and be profitable, all the while…sticking to our guns and delivering what we say chiropractic is along with the life enhancing benefits that come with it? How do we do that? Learn to sell. Sel

How many times have you heard someone say “The time is now!” or “There’s no better time for chiropractic than right now!” More than enough right? It’s a common mantra at most seminars and I believe it’s actually TRUE but not because of chiropractic. Let me explain what I mean and why it’s important… You can call me a pessimist, you can disagree with me or maybe just call me a realist…. but IMO, this profession is 0% better than it was 25 years ago. There are a handful of aspects that have improved and just as many that have regressed or totally collapsed. For all of that time our “leaders” have told us “serve chiropractic and everything will be fine”…..”chiropractic needs you”…. Where has it gotten us? All of the effort, the investment, the campaigns, the attention, the focus that has gone into making “chiropractic” better and the end result…neutral….at best. Apple didn’t leave it’s mark because Steve Jobs wanted to “save” the tech world. The side effect of global impact came from the relentless pursuit of hi

You've done the tests... Myers-Brigg, DISC and many others. You know your personality type, you know your IQ and you've even started using them in your hiring process or team development. It's wonderful to have detailed information about yourself, your team or a position you'd love to fill, BUT do you know the one piece of information that could be the missing link to successfully applying the data you've harvested? How someone takes action is a primary determinant in achieving desired outcomes. Even the most intelligent, driven team member could be restricted if their tasks don't match well with how they naturally get $%&T done. Just think of all the times you've tried to launch or complete a project and found it painfully difficult or worse, impossible to gain traction. Maybe it wasn't you? Or at least not you in anyway you could modify or change. The Kolbe A Index is a powerful test that streamlines the process of identifying how people take action. On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropracto

How important is communication to the success of your business? It’s kind a rhetorical question… I feel confident anyone running a business, especially a chiropractic business, recognizes just how key quality communication is really is. In fact, there isn’t a single aspect of your business that doesn’t require it. Marketing, copywriting, case reviews, reports, feedback cycles, and especially public speaking! In every instance you are strategically moving your prospects down a funnel with the end goal of making a “sale”. I know that word may be taboo in chiropractic and other health care professions but that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’re selling someone on a future result that benefits them…s o you had better be incredible at doing it! On today’s episode we speak with communication expert Roberto Monaco. Not only has Roberto being coaching thousands of clients to success for years, but he has an affinity for working with chiropractors as chiropractic has made a massive impact on his life. Enjoy today’s e

In the world of chiropractic, it's commonplace to ADD extra 'stuff' into your practice. Ketogenic aids, protein powders, weight loss, every single vitamin known to humanity, pillows, orthotics, books, workshops, essential oils, rehab tools and in some (many) cases... you'll find everything under the sun! Should these extras be added? Is it anti-chiropractic to do anything else other than a check-up and correction? Are you tempting the chiropractic gods? This has been a heated debate among chiropractors for decades. Unfortunately, most of those in the debate have never paid attention to incorporating real world (vs. chiro-world) business principles to the conversation. No question, success leaves clues. What do the most successful companies in the world choose to do? What should you do? On today's episode, that's exactly the burning question we tackle. What we covered: What is your core product? How do you determine what is the central piece and what is peripheral? What are the biggest benefits to staying foc

Of course, new patients are important and are the lifeblood of the practice and yes, practice volume is a key stat... (assuming everyone is paying which isn't a guarantee in chiropractic) but there's much more to keeping your finger on the pulse of your business. With a solid statistical tracking system and a clear understanding about what each piece of information means you can make better, more objective decisions; you can properly plan for your practice's future; and you'll also know 'when it's time to fold 'em'. In this episode we map out the information you need to be pulling from your practice in order to know if it's successful and trending towards more or if you're failing and falling further in the wrong direction. What we covered: Why are statistics important to your business? How do you implement a statistical tracking system without adding more work to your already full plate? What are the secondary metrics that can add valuable information to your decision making process? The one metric that tru

Positioning your product (in the case of this podcast... chiropractic) is a key, yet often overlooked, component of your marketing strategy. By meticulously studying your ideal consumers and understanding their needs, desires and challenges, you can begin to uncover how to best communicate your service and its benefits to your customers. With proper positioning you can craft better messages, overcome competitive pressures and communicate in a way that resonates with and motivates your prospects to take action. You are searching to stake your claim to some key mental real estate in your audience's mind. This is the space where you, your product and your solution take ownership in meeting these needs for your customer. Done well, you control the narrative and more of the outcome. Done poorly, you risk being lumped in with nearly every other chiropractor and health care provider in the "alternative heath", "wellness" or "therapy" realm. On this episode we help you begin to figure out how to properly position you

It’s commonplace in a business setting (especially a small business and specifically a chiropractic business) to mistakenly train your team while minimizing or avoiding the necessity to train yourself. Contrast this with athletes at nearly all levels but most certainly at the professional level who train on a daily basis, constantly pushing themselves to get better and better. While team training is a fundamental component of success, if you yourself are not training you will not improve, you risk being being surpassed by your competition, and you cannot contribute your maximum effort to your team. There are endless benefits to building your own personal training curriculum. Regular and consistent chiropractic training will make you more competitive, increase your competency and make you more efficient so you can confidently claim that you are the best at what you do. In this episode we discuss why you need to train yourself, how do make sure it happens and what you should be training on. Enjoy! Here Is What

One of the most challenging tasks for any marketer (especially chiropractors) is creating marketing content your avatar cares about. It’s commonplace to fall into the trap of writing blogs, recording videos and podcasts about the topics we think are important and our market NEEDS to know about. The problem is if they don’t care, they won’t pay attention and they’ll never consume the content. Dr. Paul Groulx from DC on Fire has a special knack for knowing what people think, what they want and how to deliver it in a way that positions him as an expert. On today’s episode Paul gives you a simple framework so you can start doing the same. Here Is What We Covered The levels of desire that every patient has (whether they tell you or not.) How Paul started to figure out what people actually care about. 3 ways to create movement in your video and “catch” your prospects eye. The acronym guide to content creation. How to use the correct call to action for your media source. Stuff From This Episode How To Use Surveys

A recent episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors called "Master The Art Of The To Do List To Make 2017 Your Best Yet" opened up a pandora's box full of questions about which apps and tools we love and use ourselves. Apps can be wonderful way to boost your productivity, enhance your health, manage your finances and support your ongoing education... They can also lead you down a rabbit hole and steal your time. In today's episode we tell you about the ones we love and why! Of course, we couldn't cover them all so you can download the full list of tools for chiropractors here: http://www.lifebydesignforchiropractors.com/tools-for-chiropractors/Here Is What We Covered Hands down our favourite app we just couldn't imagine living without (and a backup app in case you're not a fan of Apple). An app that will quickly show you the quality of your sleep and give you insight into making it better. The long list of tools that will help you manage your files safely, design like a pro (for free), centralize ALL of yo

How many Chiropractors do you know with a massive vision? Just about every single one of them! How many Chiropractors do you know who have achieved even a fraction of that dream practice? Very few of them! Why? It's not for lack of dreaming big, it may be in part not having the skills and capabilities to make it a reality, but the most common issue is not knowing what to do first and how to plan those "to-do's" in your schedule. Today's episode covers exactly how we recommend you do it. What we covered: 1. How to solve the paralysis keeping you from getting things done. 2. You may have heard "to-do" lists don't work...find out why done well, not only do they work, but they're a game changer. 3. How to categorize your to-do's for efficient organization and structure. 4. Paper just won't cut it any more...the must have apps to make this as easy as possible. 5. Never again wonder know what you're supposed to be working on..learn how to schedule every single task in time.    

What do you do when you have time in between patient visits? Regardless of whether you are new, growing a practice base or run a thriving, busy chiropractic practice...there is still time in between patients. It may vary from a little to far too much but it's there...waiting for you to decide how to use it. Will it be surfing on Facebook? Replying to emails? Sending text messages? Checking stocks or sports updates? You may be thinking..."How does what I do or don't do between patients make a big difference?" Successful doctors know how you use this time can help make you or it can start breaking you. It happens very slowly but your choices during this "free" time will accumulate to add focus, preparation and mastery to your practice or they can eat away at your focus, attention and ultimately the experience for your patient. Here are 7 things to not let your quiet time sabotage your numbers. What we cover: Why multi-tasking is a myth and its real cost to your bottom line. The criteria to pick your own "quie

While the final two months of the year are a wonderful time for strategic planning, they are especially perfect for planning the marketing segment of your business. Most small businesses practice reactive marketing...when customers are dwindling, they institute an uptick to their marketing campaigns and launch recycled tactics to grab a few new clients to keep the machine churning. It can work, in fact it's how most chiropractic practices generate new business. The problem is that "working" is far from optimal. Without a marketing strategy and blueprint you're leaving massive impact and profits on the table, not to mention significantly increasing your stress and frustration. The solution is a well thought out Marketing Blueprint and a plan to start taking action. What we covered:   How to know exactly where your business is at and how much new business you need to reach your goals. 2 key components of a successful marketing blueprint that are necessary to ensure you hit the ground running in 2017. 7 areas t