Get your own chicks

Isn’t it amazing the number of ways people attempt to avoid what they aren’t good at? If you weren’t good at the dating game, there were ways of getting around it. When you were younger, did you notice how the ‘cool’ kids always had followers that were not so cool? What’s up with that?

The uncool kids that were allowed to hang with the cool kids were usually able to get the scraps or girls that were left over - they didn't have to perfect their dating game.

Today, if you can’t meet people, there are so many digital dating platforms where someone else does the work for you. Just pay a fee and you will get a date. During student clinic you had ‘pass me down’ patients. When you were supposed to raise money selling candy bars (or whatever), your parents wanted to spare you the life lesson and instead wrote the check. Is it really helping you or hurting you? If you can’t get what you want, you must develop the skill to get what you want. Nobody is going to do it for you. Denying this or ignoring this will cripple you!

Far too many DCs have poor face-to-face communication skills. Without great communication skills, you will experience resistance in every part of your life. Online communication skills don’t count when you are face-to-face with a real person.

"But I’m a great technician, a great diagnostician, and I have a brand new billing software." None of that matters. You will either settle for a small practice or you will finally bite the bullet and start to realize and develop the absolute necessity of great communication skills.

Communication skills need to be developed like a muscle or a foreign language or a musical ability. Without developing these skills, they lie dormant for your entire life. They don’t get better with time. Not only does it cripple your practice, but your marriage and your parenting will suffer as well.

What are the signs of these poor communication skills? Patients walking out your door never to return. Potential patients saying, “It sounds interesting.” Report of Findings where the patient says, “I’ll have to go home and ask my spouse.” You can’t escape its wrath!

For years DCs have been attracted to Bright Shiny Objects (new patient attractors), new modalities, nutrition and the like. There is nothing right or wrong with any of these if you are trying to be all things to all people.

If, however, you want to be successful with something above and beyond low back pain, your communication skills need to be upgraded immediately. Many reading this have read TNR books, attended seminars, etc. Your next step is to become a member and begin developing the ‘alpha’ skill of communicating to any person about Chiropractic. Isn’t a great practice worth you best effort?