Life By Design | The Podcast For Chiropractors

Communication is ALWAYS one of the requirements for success in practice, business and life. During a crisis, what you say, how you say it and who you say it to becomes of the utmost importance. You'll find three very unique groups that you'll need to be speaking to with unique narratives for each. On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors we cover how to communicate during a crisis. What we covered The two fundamental starting points for every conversation during a crisis, but also when times are more chill. How to communicate to staff. What do they need to hear? How should it be said? How to bring them into the decision making process and allow them to regain a sense of control.  The narrative for your existing patients. What to say in order to make them feel safe, position your care properly and avoid the one question you dread hearing from them! What should you be saying to your leads and prospects? What should you not be saying? Click HERE for full show notes. Click HERE for more informati

These are crazy times.  No matter how to slice it, the current landscape for chiropractic and essentially every other business on the planet looks grim. We're weeks into closures, quarantines, social distancing and the economy is in a downward spiral. The worst part, not only is it bad, but we don't have any real idea as to when it's going to get any better. Job losses, businesses closing their doors for good and major financial doom... how in the world can we stay "growth minded" during this turmoil? That's exactly what we explore on today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors. What We Covered These are unprecedented times for most of us and especially for chiropractors. What are the first steps to stabilizing yourself and you business? What financial actions can be taken to protect your family and give you a sense of peace in order to forge ahead. Perspective. Use this mathematical formula to access the power of perspective. No one was wishing for something like this to happen but when you understa

We were all ready and fired up to start our foray into email marketing... When to send emails, how often, how to create the content, follow up emails, funnels and much more...then we realized, we might be skipping an important step. What is a list and why do you need one? As it turns out we were putting the cart before the horse and taking a step back led to a fantastic podcast episode! Enjoy this episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors. What We Covered The importance of having a list and why great brands put time and attention on building one. Are your Facebook, Instagram and YouTube subscribers considered a list? The number one platform and source you need to build your list on. What is a CRM and which one do we recommend? The list of thousands you might already have right under your nose. Mine this database first before jumping onto social and testing your hand at lead generation. To learn more about ConvertKit click HERE. 

What do you say at Day 2? What do you say at future reports? What do you say at the table? Let's start by saying, what I say isn't necessarily what you should be saying. Personally, I made the mistake of copying what Reggie or other great communicators would say to their patients and it took me years to realize it wasn't just what I was saying but WHO I was that was saying it. That's not to suggest having a well designed, strategic approach to your communication isn't helpful... it is...when it's authentically coming from you. With that context, here it is. Exactly what you're often asking for...what to say. This is a very small slice of what happens at The Life By Design TRAINING Camp.  Take note, I said TRAINING, as that's what makes this event unique. If you listen closely and more than once, and I suggest you do, you'll find important nuances that accumulate together to create an experience culminating in a strong win-win agreement. What I Covered How to create an environment that encourages clear, distr

Do you have trouble sleeping at night because of what you wished you had said to a patient or prospect? Maybe your insomnia is a product of the queasiness you feel from what you actually said but wished you hadn't! We've all heard about the advice some consultants have given to determine your day one & two success based on whether the person sitting in front of you was left in tears or not. On the flip side, some leaders propose chiropractic should be a decision based only on it's life enhancing benefits and positive outcomes.  What's right? What works? What will allow you to find that deep sleep and, at the same time, your patients to get what they need from you. What I Covered What is a realistic level of concern you should, as a doctor, communicate to a patient or prospect? What are the lasting effects of manipulating a response such as crying or extreme upset? It goes far beyond the impact to your patient, it leaves an imprint on your brand that can be difficult to cleanse. Authentic Concern.  What i

Could you afford your chiropractic care? That's a question I was once asked by a speaker from the stage and unfortunately the answer was "no". I say unfortunately, not because I couldn't afford my chiropractic care if I were the prospect, but because the thought that I couldn't afford it prompted me to start worrying that... 1. Others couldn't afford chiropractic care either and worse... 2. It was my responsibility to make sure that they could. Like most responsibilities in my life, I took this one seriously and if you've listened to this podcast the rest was history.  Years of good intentioned but very bad business decisions led to low revenues, non existent profits and more stress than I ever could have imagined I'd be able to handle. Fast forward a decade (almost two) and exposure to the right people with correct thinking... life and practice are much better. The goal of today's podcast is to help you avoid the massive pitfall that destroyed my practice before it ever started and kept me fighting for my pr

Can you believe it's 2020? It wasn't that long ago Y2K was going to be the end of the world as we know it...I mean how could we survive when our desktop computers couldn't register the year 2000? Fast forward 20 years and the world is still here, it continues to evolve at an accelerated pace and that includes your practice! You can either keep up or get crushed. Which will it be? On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors we share our practice predictions for 2020.  What's hot, what's not and what we see on the horizon. What We Covered Where will your leads come from? Is online the only way to go or will offline traffic make a comeback? This lever is the fastest and easiest way to increase your practice profitability...are you willing to pull it this year? We think you should!  The one question that will spark a renaissance in the practice retention and birth more creativity than you've probably felt in years. Email marketing is dead... or is it? What we see on the horizon for showing up in your

When it comes to your brand and your practice... who is the hero? Is it you, your business or is it the prospect and practice member? Great brands find a way to create a customer focused culture and your chiropractic practice should be no different! On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors I share my experience from the past 6 months during which we've invested a large volume of time and energy into making our members the hero of the story. What I Covered What great businesses do differently and how you can start thinking about your business in the same way. What do your prospects want and how understanding them on the deepest level gives you the upper hand over your competitors. How to start positioning your practice for prospects to begin the process of knowing, liking and finally trusting you. The one unexpected (and enormous) benefit to shifting the attention to creating an extremely customer focused environment.  Why developing the "hero" mentality can help spark a movement in your practic

Growth - expansion, more visits, more revenue, more new cases, more patients stockpiling in your practice. These are not the only metrics but they are a key performance indicators that would indicate "growth". Profitability - the bottom line, what's left after your gross revenue minus expenses. While growth and profitability are not mutually exclusive, it is very difficult to put your attention on both at the same time. A growth focus requires a certain mindset and a willingness to reinvest capital into developing areas within your business. On today's episode Life By Design For Chiropractors, we map out the required information and action steps to determine which focus you should have and the consequences of each. What We Covered Growth vs. Profitability mindset. Start by understanding your goal. The consequences of focusing on profitability too early in your business life cycle. Why it will massively slow your growth and cost you more in the long run. When it's time to shift from growth to retaining profit

Wouldn't it be a "dream come true" if patients told you what their check-up frequency should be and they actually got it right? There came a time in practice when we finally figured out how to build engaged patients who were committed to the beginning stage of care but at the time, we still struggled with how to keep that engagement high beyond the first few months and no surprise... growth was mediocre at best. Not only did I not know how to explain what to do next, but I found myself feeling anxious about asking patients to continue down the path at an ideal frequency that I had in mind for their care. After digging deep on why we were failing to stockpile patients following their corrective care phase, I developed and re-developed (and re-developed again) a framework that simply works. Led by a massive reduction in stress and anxiety, the new model worked to transition patients smoothly into the next phase of care and even better, they told me correctly how often they should be getting checked! I couldn't

Is there a more confusing area of communication than results? Is there an area that eats away at a doc's self-esteem more than results? Is there a topic that confuses most docs more than results? The concept of results and how they are communicated is responsible for much of the stress, strain and anxiety that plagues a chiropractors mind. On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors we discuss RESULTS. In the ins, the outs, the myths and more... What We Covered Defining "results". What does it mean? What are the unique areas of that results encompass? What is the primary difference between results in a "second paradigm" chiropractic practice and a "third paradigm" practice? How does technique impact the results you are expecting? Results myths and how to communicate clearly to ensure your patient's understand what you want them to know.  

Have you had enough? The staff is annoying you and their workload is falling on your plate. Patients just don't "get it" and you're beyond irritated with them. Your partner or spouse doesn't understand your situation and why you're so stressed. The bank won't give you the extra credit to make that practice change you know will make all the difference. The endless list goes on and on... and guess what? It always will. That's the nature of being a business owner and entrepreneur.  It comes with the job. You may be wondering if you're cut out for leading a chiropractic practice and and rightfully so... it's an important question to answer! On the flip side, once you've answered it and you're ready to move forward, the solution to your challenge doesn't come in reducing the amount of "stuff" you'll need to deal with (that never changes, it just becomes different stuff) it comes from handling that "stuff" better and easier. On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors I talk about exactly that... How t

Failure isn't inherently bad. We typically associate failure as a set back, something to be avoided at all costs and even an embarrassment. It's our emotional affiliation with failure that can keep us from pushing the boundaries where incredible growth happens. Need not fret... as failure, learning the lessons from failure and taking the next series of actions are trademarks of entrepreneurship and make up a fundamental cycle for development in nearly all successful businesses. On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors we share just some our failures over the past 12 months. There's many more but these failures and the lessons learned (and still learning) will give you solace if you're making your own and in some cases, help you bypass the failure but still receive the lesson :) What We Covered Why losing touch with your business, even if it's in the name of growth, will hamper you in the end. What happens practice is going so well, you can "take a break". The result of questioning your abilitie

Has there been a period of practice (or maybe it's been your entire practice life) where you've felt like your Chiropractic Assistant's are holding you hostage? I don't mean "putting a gun to your head" or even threatening to leave you... it could just be performing at sub-par levels, ignoring their full responsibilities or adding unwanted drama to your business. You can't continue to operate and grow a successful, low stress practice without the ability to make fearless decisions that are in your best interest. On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors we give you actions steps to help preempt being held hostage and how to manage your mental state when it's time to make a change. What We Covered Mike shares a funny but telling story about his 11 year old son Ashton taking over the front desk duties for a shift. What he surprisingly learned that changed his perspective. The cost of not making changes long before a crisis happens.  This applies to team development and can be transferred to plenty

Pricing, practice visits, retention, expenses... are ALL practice levers with significant power to increase or abolish your bottom line. Yet, pulling these levers in your favour depends deeply on ONE character trait.  This single character trait you'll find in the vast majority of the "ultra-successful" entrepreneurs, athletes and yes, chiropractors. What is it? Risk tolerance. No I'm not talking about jurisprudence, about screening assessments or note taking... the type of risk tolerance we care about for today's episode is taking calculated action. The reason it's such an important discussion is because at it's core are two pieces that are often avoided: Risk and action. The point of today's podcast is to give you a deeper appreciation for why you should consider improving your risk tolerance and help you overcome the anxiety that might be keeping you from pulling the trigger on to-do's that would have a massive impact on your ROI in all areas of life. What We Covered Why risk tolerance is such a significa

It's nice to be paid well for providing value, doing what you love... I highly doubt many docs would disagree. However, the thought of grinding out more patient visits or adding more days, especially if you're already feeling the pressure of your ceiling caving in, is haunting. The stress, fatigue and anxiety builds just starting to think about it. Thankfully, you saw a FB ad for the next, best product or service you can add to your practice and soon you'll be free!!!! "It's a simple, turnkey system."....suuuure it is. Forget the fact it has little to do with the Core Product you're delivering, that it's costing you precious time for a minuscule return or even worse, it's eating away at your credibility...  What if there was a way to increase your revenue without seeing more visits or working more days? It's called ascension. What We Covered The 5 segments of a customer pipeline you need to know and fall in love with. What is your Core Product and why do we keep talking about it. The missing link when calcul

Why don't chiropractors know their numbers? Are they terrified of what they might find out? Too "busy" to figure them out? They're already successful and don't need to know! For one of the above reasons or possibly a reason even more ridiculous, the majority of chiropractors don't know their numbers. I know what you're thinking :) I'm not talking about THAT number. Nearly all docs know their weekly visit totals, as somehow, somewhere that became the pinnacle of chiropractic success. 300, 500, 1000 + per week... What if you were finally seeing 300 visits per week...you've made it to the promise land but yet, you're still struggling to accumulate resources in your bank account.  You work harder, use the same approach to add more visits to your roster and still... no more cash building up. Frustrated yet?  I would be. On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors we review the numbers you need to know, why and what to with that information. Here's What We Covered The 2 numbers both myself and Kreso ind

We're back with part deux of the Team Extraordinary Chiropractor Report Card.  In part one we covered your Team Avatar, The Hiring Process, Onboarding, Team Training and Staff Feedback. These make up 5 of the 10 Requirements for a Successful Team. On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors we reveal 5 more and breakdown the highlights to get you started on building your world class team. What We Covered How well do you know your staff? How well should you get to know them? There's an important difference between understanding what motivates them, becoming friendly, treating them with respect and becoming friends. The secret gem to developing team members who will be loyal and dedicated to your company and it's not how much money you pay them. How to grade your staff. What are the objective measurements to know your team is producing and being productive? Other than The Hiring Process, this is our most often asked question..."When it comes time to bonus your staff, what options do you suggest?" E

At Life By Design For Chiropractors we love talking about your team! In part, it's because we understand just how important they are to a successful business... and #2, because choosing, onboarding and developing a world class team is such an overlooked part for the majority of practices we see. Check out this scenario and let me know if it sounds familiar: A team member quits (again) for a host of reasons that could be avoided AND you had an idea it was probably coming but did nothing (again) to prepare yourself. Finally you find someone who "needs" a job and they get thrown into the mix with little training and within a few weeks you're frustrated they're not meeting your expected needs. ...soon the cycle continues :( Obviously it doesn't need to be this way, in fact, it can't continue like this if your goal is a successful, low stress, high profit practice. On today's episode of Life by Design For Chiropractors we start with the first of the 5 Team Requirements for Success. What We Covered What is more im

When was it set in stone that a successful practice required every doc see 300+ patient visits per week? Who decided you shouldn't have a life outside your business until every man, woman and child was under chiropractic care? Why is it that working less and making more gets such a bad rap from colleagues or even friends and family? Somewhere along the way (or maybe right from the get go) the perspective on a successful business and practice went sideways. It become about maximum numbers at all costs, even at the cost of profitability and your own happiness. On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors I interview LBD ELITE doc, Dr. Shawna Dingman. Within the past year Shawna has redefined what "success" meant for her and has now created the practice to match! I know you'll enjoy today's show and be totally surprised by what it really takes to have the practice of YOUR dreams. Here's What We Covered The first question to ask yourself is "what do I want?" It's amazing how often we work endlessly tow