These are some excerpts from my upcoming book…
Struggling, new or curious chiropractors… Start Here.
I believe that the self-imposed and apparent unyielding limits of possibility are often whisked away by just the mere question “what if?” Chiropractors, start here.
I believe in no less than clinical excellence, compassion, and giving. Chiropractors, start here.
I believe that chiropractors can elevate the health of the communities they touch. Chiropractors, start here.
The Goal is Achievable. I am not asking my clients to do anything that is impossible. A financially successful practice that allows chiropractors to live according to their highest values is possible. Start here.
I am Capable. I am qualified and capable to encourage, promote, facilitate and support my clients’ efforts.
Change is Necessary. My clients seek my help because they must make a change now.
Respect. I respect where my clients “come from”. The difficulties, fear, self-beliefs that they bring to this process. And I expect them to respect my motivation, objectives and capabilities.
We are on a collision course, and careening quickly towards disaster. Americans are fatter, more depressed, more tired and more fatigued than at any time in human history. Technology has enabled us to do remarkable things. We can communicate instantly with nearly anyone on the planet. We have access to seemingly unlimited information at our fingertips. We can be entertained with movies, music, literature and games from our computer screens. We can shop for anything, including food from our desk and have it all delivered and never need to move farther than the front door. And we are doing it.
Our sedentary lifestyle has given rise to new diseases and even as we strive to “cure” them with technology, we are in an epidemic of cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, pain, and depression. Once afflicted with the result of a sedentary lifestyle the result is usually even less movement and an acceleration of degeneration and premature death. For the first time in modern history, the current generation of children will die earlier than their parents.
How then, can we break free of the sedentary lifestyle? How can we adopt the Movement Lifestyle when all efforts seem to fail? When pain, fatigue and disappointment has been the result of even genuine past attempts, how can one be successful?
You. You are here to change all this. Though years of experience and research we have learned that the human body can change and adapt in remarkable ways. From seemingly mysterious “injures” to chronic pain syndromes, understanding and treating the body’s movement system can make incredible changes a reality. With your work you can lead people to break free from seemingly impossible setbacks. This is what you are here to do. That is the work. That is how you will connect with and inspire others. That is what will drive you.
But how, when the struggles of running a practice, managing employees, dealing with finances so often require you to step away from the mission and focus on the “other stuff”. Nobody starts out knowing how to balance “the work” with work. You certainly didn’t learn it in school. And if you were lucky enough to start out with a good role model, you probably didn’t learn how to do what he or she did while struggling to keep up with your patient visits, notes and reports.
This is why we see it so frequently: a chiropractor with fire in the belly, intent on “making a difference”, suddenly facing tough challenges of running a business becomes frustrated, confused and eventually burned out. Chiropractors get so focused on putting out fires in their business every day, slowly the fire inside is just an ember, suffocated by insurance companies, employee drama and all the other day to day realities of practice.
Then, there are those who avoid business altogether. The perennial associate. Always free to put their energy into caring for their patients. Only, it rarely works out that way. Most often, the owner’s mission doesn’t satisfy the associates own will to meaning. Growth can be stifled as the associate is bound to perform as expected, to produce results that aren’t always in the best interest of the patient or the associate. And in the end, there is little to show for years of hard work except a burned out chiropractor, replaced by the new associate, eager and hungry.
You didn’t learn how to manage it all in school. If your clinical education was good, if you are lucky enough and learned the necessary skills to do the work, you didn’t learn how to create a successful chiropractic business. This is why chiropractic management companies, coaches, franchises and personal injury mill chains prey upon the student, recent graduate and young chiropractor. They all hope you’ll give up out of fear, frustration or failure.
It can be tempting. “We do it all for you!… Focus on what you do best, care for your patients…” states the pitch for a typical franchise associate position. I’m sorry to tell you: nobody can do it all for you. Nobody knows your vision, your mission, your will to meaning or your “why”. The only way to fit in to someone else’s plan is to reshape yourself and follow their path, forged by their values and their vision. Your values and vision, your meaning does not apply.
I was there. I owned a large, financially successful practice. I had high-volume, high-income and low-satisfaction. The business was not born from my values and could not provide meaning for me. I had to start over, create a new business from the foundation. A practice built on the values, vision and objectives that served my family, my patients and my community in a way that satisfied my will to meaning.
This book — this course describes in detail that process. I explain how every chiropractor can —no, must— look deeply into themselves and know themselves. I will explain how to create a brand and an objective vision; how to measure what matters; how to position the practice in the market; develop systems that work; and how to train great people to help bring the vision to fruition.
You have a great gift to bring to your community. Your job is to create the business and serve in a way that is sustainable, scalable and enjoyable for as long as you choose to do it.
This is how… chiropractors, start here.