TNR Happenings October 1, 2018
November 2nd and 3rd is Miyagi time!
The rest of the profession accepts a handful of visits while we have a different slant on things. Health, not the absence of disease, is our number one priority. To truly embrace "Healthier people create a healthier world", you have got to be a very, very special type of DC. PVAs are plummeting. If you’re don't continue to work on increasing your belief with TNR training, society will wear you down with insurance restrictions, higher deductibles, minutia, paperwork, co-pays, and, of course, society’s commitment disability and allergic reactions to long-term care. Miyagi is a celebration of developing once-in-a-lifetime clinical abilities that the majority of DCs will never experience or will never realize they are possible.
There are so many other destructive and resistive forces at work to limit your sphere of practice members to musculoskeletal pain relief, but Miyagi is a celebration of possibility. If you haven’t noticed by now, all TNR training is tongue-in-grove: it has no beginning and no end. You just jump in and drink as much Kool-Aid as you are able. Having unparalleled clinical results in a humanitarian model is just as important, if not more so, than being paid 3,5, 10x the income of average DCs. The business model wants to be paid more for doing less. Continually updating and upgrading clinical skills is something that escapes the face-in-the-crowd DC. Don’t miss Miyagi: you’ll be thankful you didn’t.
Impressions from Intro Workshop
Is it my imagination or do offices get more impressive with time? I had not been to Bassett Family Chiropractic in a few years and was really impressed with Dr. Mark's office. From the LHNC books in the reception area and his great CAs, Katie and Amanda, to the beautiful colors and spaciousness you would not expect in a Chiropractic office, Dr. Mark's office is really unique. All the guest DCs remarked about the Taj Mahal office. There are so many DCs outside of TNR that are lost. Intro Workshops are a way of helping DCs find their way back to becoming a Chiropractor of distinction. Many lost DCs don’t want help. Others want help, but they have been bitten by the practice management sharks that patrol our waters. They are cautious and wary. Once you’ve tasted BSOs, it’s hard to get that taste out of your mouth. We’re looking for DCs who know they can do a lot better and they know the next best fad for attracting new patients will not get them there. They just don’t know where to look. A local host helps to bridge the gap and shows them "I’m living the life and so can you." If you are looking to have an Intro Workshop in your office, let us know! P.S.: having dinner with Dr. Kevin the night before the event is priceless. This very deep, face-to-face conversation is a rarity you’ll treasure!
Practice tip of the week
Don’t let practice members (or others) get under your skin! Don't allow the opinions and expectations of others to bother you and get you to question your commitment or conviction. Let’s face it; most of our practice members have less interest in being healthy than we do for them being healthy! Pretend for a moment you own a Karate studio. Every day you get new sign-ups from all of your marketing and speaking efforts. When they come into your studio, do you have an orientation for them or a way for them to understand why you are different? Do you have an Important Record Folder outlining their expectations of taking lessons at your studio? If you don’t have procedures in place, this is what you’re going to hear:
“I just want to kick someone’s butt.” (Translation: I just want pain relief)
“How long does it take?" (Translation: I don’t want to come in for more than a few visits.)
"Can I just skip all the philosophy, etc., and can you just show me how to take someone down as quickly as possible?" (Translation: they don’t see the big picture, only their immediate needs.)
A Karate studio has a HUGE retention problem. Out of a hundred that start Karate lessons, only 2-3 will stick it out to earn a black belt. Don’t you see the futility of this approach of concentrating merely on marketing and sales? The business model slices, dices, and repackages the same old things and then rolls out another version of BSOs. Getting more people in the door will not solve the real problem that’s holding back a studio or an office from growth. Retention is the permanent solution!
Is it any different for DCs? We keep cramming in low quality, new patients and plowing through them for a handful of visits. The new recruits in our fictional Karate studio never get a chance to experience real Karate because they don’t stay long enough!
When you create relationships of trust, along with having procedures and patient education systems in place, retention, referral, and respect are the natural outcomes. Practice members will want to stay in your office and will want their family and friends to experience care in your office. Seeing wellness patients, DCME cases, and kids allows a whole different dimension for practice members to experience Chiropractic. Your office will be different than anyone in your community. Much like Karate, your practice members will notice the side effects of continued care: chronic disease conditions lessening or completely disappearing, more energy, more purpose and meaning in their lives, more peaceful relationships. With Karate, you may have come into Karatesize someone (symptomatic relief) but with training a few years, even though you can Karatesize someone, you choose not to except in self-defense.
Relief of pain is on most people’s minds. The majority of people resonate at extremely low levels and predictably behave in certain ways. Treating all people equally and encouraging and inspiring people to adopt wellness care for their families instead of using force and sales takes great restraint and conviction to accomplish. It’s easy to cave or to give in to demanding practice members' expectations, but it’s much more rewarding and fulfilling at every level (humanitarian, clinical results, income) to have the practice members' best interests in your heart, even if that’s not what they want to do initially.
DCME confidential
There is something almost magical when a practice member joins with you to accomplish something that other doctors say can’t be done. The actual resonation and brain chemistry of the individual reflect this shift. Consensus or popularity doesn’t touch the person who has their back against the wall. After all, they have exhausted the quick, easy, inexpensive cures and now they must venture into the unknown underground.
Question 1: I have a 16-year girl patient with anxiety. She does self-mutilation and I suspect drug usage. I’m receiving pressure from the mother to work in tandem with all of her MDs so we can holistically help her daughter. Help!
Answer: Sometimes in the rush and excitement to help at-risk practice members, the ground rules are not explained thoroughly. Inevitably there are questions about the rules when you are playing the game. The guidelines should be hashed out BEFORE care and not during care because then it’s too late. The guidelines for DCME mean NOT WORKING in conjunction with other doctors, lawyers, teachers, school psychologists, state boards, and licensing agencies. (Wait until they hear of your fees!). The parents or guardians can continue to work with those people, just not you. Nothing gets in the way of your care. Argue this point or compromise on this point and you will see clinical results not happen. Family and social dynamics will raise their ugly heads.
Question 2: There is a person in my life that is in the proverbial corner with an incurable disease. They are not a relative or friend, just a person I know. Should I approach them and tell them I can help them, or keep my mouth shut?
Answer: That’s the fine line we walk in the underground world of DCMEs. If you offer this to an unwelcoming person, you will end up with gunpowder all over your face. Not only will you lose a friend forever, but they will also attack you viciously. Every shadow they have in their personalities will be unleashed. You would be questioning the number one belief in their lives: DISEASE IS KING! How dare you! You can’t take out a full page ad in the USA Today newspaper and tell everyone what you do because you would be attacked. You must do your best to pick and choose your spots. Your message will appeal to the few, not the many
Next Intro Workshop
We just scheduled an Intro Workshop with Dr. Chelsea Fleishman in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It will be on October 18th. On October 25th I will be at Dr. Tammy Le's office in Omaha, Nebraska. If you know of any DCs who are looking for solutions to their practice problems, let them know about these Intro Workshops. It doesn’t matter where they practice, they can jump on a plane. Yeah, their practice is that important and worth it! They are held on Thursday mornings from 9:00 a.m. to noon. DCs are connected now more than ever via social media, so even though you are not in these geographic areas, other DCs are still reading what you have to say about your TNR experiences. We had a TNR member invite their Chiropractic college buddy from Billings, Montana to an Intro Workshop in Rhode Island. Within a year, we had 6 TNR members in Montana.
LHNC news
Christmas on the Reservation will be on December 13th and 14th. We will be giving out high quality, non-perishable food in addition to the toys, gifts, and articles of clothing. As it was told to me, it's kind of hard to enjoy Christmas when you’re hungry. There may be an opportunity to deliver it to Frazier and Brocton like we did this past August. Maybe we could do some caroling when we deliver the food. Dr. Teri has volunteered to get a copy of the songbooks from her church so we know the words to the songs. I wonder if knowing the words will help our pitch? Ha, ha. Instead of diluting our gift fundraising, let's get a handful of practice members in a position to make a sizeable donation. If you have a practice member that can write a $1,000 or more check, ask them. We will thank them with a hand signed certificate, tee shirt, and photo book.
