Do you Struggle getting patients to your WORKSHOPS?

By Dr. Russ Rosen | Chiropractic Care , Communications

Has this ever happened to you?

At the start of the day, you have 10 people scheduled into your workshop. You’re pumped about the opportunity to share the chiropractic message and are looking forward to providing boat loads of value. But…as the day goes on you can hear your CA on the phone taking call after call as your patients continue to come up with excuses about why they can’t make it to your workshop tonight. By the time the workshop comes around your delivering your talk to 2 people….arghhhh!

If this sounds familiar then know that you’re not alone. This scenario plays out in this form or very similar ones in chiropractic offices around the globe!

So how do we get patients to our talks?

I have doctors and their entire teams tell me all the time that people just won’t come to talks in their area. And my response to them is this… nonsense! The truth is they just don’t know how to get people to their talks.

If this has happened to you enough then you’ve probably starting telling yourself that running workshops aren’t a good use of your time and you’re better off leaving the office early and spending some time with your family.

Well…the good news is, there is another way.

Don’t kid yourself though, if you really want your patients to GET IT…
• If you want them to see the value of a healthy functioning nervous system and reasonable lifestyle…
• If you want to be able to see a reasonable volume of patients and not have to spend tons of time with each patient every visit “educating” them…

Then you MUST do a killer series of talks!

If you want to get your patients to your talks you MUST have the right headspace as well as the right procedures to get them to your talks.

I’ve written an article that will show you EXACTLY how to get boat loads of your patients and their family and friends to your talks. (And if you have seen this article before I just added a new section of how to get your active patients to the talks, not just the new patients.)

Just click this link and it will take you right there. (Don’t worry, there’s no opt in and there isn’t even anything for sale, I just wanted to “hook” you up).

 

Love to hear your thoughts and comments.
Much love and aloha,

Russ and Angie

What to do when a patient says, “I can’t afford your care.”

By Dr. Russ Rosen | Chiropractic Care , Chiropractic issues

If you’ve been discovering how to run a profitable chiropractic business for more than 5 minutes, then a patient has told you that they need to stop or reduce care because they could no longer afford it!

This exact situation tends to impact us as chiropractors on so many levels. For many of us, it’s like an arrow to the heart and brings up all sorts of issues around value and self worth.

I want to share with you the two big mistakes chiropractors make when confronting this situation and share my top strategies for getting to the real reason your patient wants to stop care.

How You Respond Initially is Important

In my experience working with thousands of doctors around the globe, I have realized that most chiropractors respond to this statement in one of two (equally bad) ways.

Bad Response #1: The Confrontation

Classically “High Ds” or “Drivers” or “Assertives” respond by getting snippy or angry with their patients – trying to scare or manipulate them into care. By letting these troubled patients know about all of the terrible things that are going to happen to them without their care, “Assertives” tie up their frustration and anger in a beautiful pink ribbon labelled “in their patient’s best interests”.

At chiropractic seminars, they get to tell their friends about the time they really laid into their patients. They get to feel good knowing that they said what they wanted to say.

Bad Response #2: Rolling Over

Classically “Non-assertives” join what we call the “O.K corral” and just say, “okay”, letting the patient simply leave without a discussion. They feel very frustrated because they didn’t say what they really wanted to say and the relationship is essentially over.

Regardless of where you land on the assertiveness scale, the end result is almost surely the same: you are frustrated and the patient fails to get the results they came in for. It’s an absolute lose-lose scenario.

Responding with the Patient’s Perspective in Mind

I want you to imagine your patient has mustered up enough courage to finally say to you that they feel that they need to stop care because they don’t have enough money. I want you to recognize the stress that they are most likely under by the time they finally say this to you.

This is a big deal.

Now I want you to imagine you say to them:

“Mary, if you stop care now you will never get the results that you’re looking for and you will have serious problems in the future.”

Although you may manipulate her into continuing care in the moment, the odds are she will very soon quit care for good and never return.

What we find rarely ever works is TELLING people what they “HAVE TO” do. Regardless if they are patients, spouses, children or bank tellers, telling people what they have to do rarely works!

Instead, we need to ask Socratic questions to help us clarify what the problem truly is so we can come up with a reasonable and logical solution.

LAASR Focused

In our L.A.A.S.R process (Listen, Acknowledge, Ask, Solution, Resolution) we always make sure that we actively listen to our patients. Then we must acknowledge them. In this case I might say,

“Mary I am so sorry you’re going to have to stop care. I absolutely love working with you and you’ve been gaining such ground and doing so great.”

Do you see how this de-escalates the situation? Remember: she is stressed about having to quit -or even disappoint you – and has possibly come in ready for a fight! By Acknowledging their concerns and the situation this way we can take the wind out of the sail and de-escalate the situation. Now we can begin to have a conversation. But I am NOT going to TELL her what she HAS TO DO!

Instead we want to ask appropriate questions. I.e. “Mary let me ask you a question, if finances were not an issue – and I know that they are – but if they really were not an issue would you want to continue care? Or are you just (feeling good/unhappy with care/feeling stuck in care etc.) And would rather not continue at this time?”

If Mary says that she would do anything to continue care but she simply cannot afford it. She just lost her job, her mother got sick, her dog got hit by a car and she was living out a country song then I personally would buy it. And I would try to figure a way for her to be able to get some of the care that she needs. The odds are some care will be better than no care. (Of course you have to do what you feel is clinically best for your patients.)

But it if she were to say, “Yes the truth of the matter is I am really feeling pretty good and I think I will just stop at this time” then you have clarified the real problem that you can now address.

My experience is, if you will really focus and clarify the problem the solution will become self-evident. Then if you will use the L.A.A.S.R. process you can help people find solutions and resolution versus pissing them off or joining the okay corral.

I’d love to know your thoughts and hear what’s worked for you.

Much love and aloha,
Russ

How to FINALLY feel GOOD about DECREASING adjustment times

By Dr. Russ Rosen | Chiropractic issues , Chiropractic Strategies

Have you ever wanted to see more people in less time but you were afraid your patients would leave?

Perhaps you’ve thought, “If I did spend less time per patient, they will think all I care about is the money!”

Or maybe you’ve asked yourself how it is that other doctors are able to see more people per hour and not only get great results but also have patients who happily stay, pay, and refer?

Seeing more patients in less time can be such a conundrum! We want to serve more people but we also want to make sure that were getting the best results we can.

How many patients should you see in an hour?

I personally spent 45 minutes per adjustment when I got out of school and thought anyone spending less than that was ripping people off. I then got to two per hour and eventually settled at about 23 per hour (doing NSA when the average NSA doc was seeing 20 per day) and of course by then I recognized that it was not the amount of time I was spending but it was the results I was getting.

Now this might sound strange but my worst day in practice was actually my busiest: the day I saw 179 people in one day!

You see, I believed that if you were not seeing 200 patients per day you were not a real chiropractor (crazy hey!) At the end of the day I literally thought I was going to die! I ran an hour over and I was completely wiped out.

I cried that night knowing that I would never be a “real” chiropractor.

So when doctors tell me that they want to see more people, I like to rephrase that for them and say in reality: we want to serve more people in less time getting as good or better results.

Finding a Balance Between Time and Experience

This can be such a challenging problem for so many reasons. First we have to figure out how much time we actually need to spend with each patient to get the desired results and second we need to figure a way to help our patients be happy with that much time and that experience.

I ask doctors: if I were to duct tape your mouth AND duct tape your patients mouth, and all you did was give them a great adjustment, how much time would it take? (Duct taping your patient’s mouths is not a recommended strategy for practice growth!) I also ask them how much time they spend adjusting their family members.

I then ask them: how much time do you actually spend with your patients? The answer is usually 2 to 3 times more time spent then what the doctor really feels they need.

In other words, the doctor may say I truly need two minutes to give a great adjustment but I’m spending 5 to 6 minutes per person right now.

When I ask them why they are spending so much time the two most common answers are first that they need to talk with the patient in the extra time to “educate” them and second that they don’t feel the patient will be happy unless they spend that much time with them or they will think it is all about the money.

Does any of this ring a bell for you?

So what is the answer?

Establishing Goals for Your Adjustments

First I recommend getting extremely clear about what you want to accomplish with your adjustment.

Now I realize what I’m about to say is highly controversial and will offend many but from my experience we can either go deep or we can go wide. We hear the super high-volume doctors make fun of doctors spending more time and they say something like, “You only saw 50 people per today? I saw 50 people in the first half hour, what are you doing with the rest of your time?”

Don’t kid yourself – there are all kinds of tremendous styles of chiropractic out there that get different types of results. Some doctors need to spend more time doing specific things with their patients and they will get deeper and better results. I personally saw Scott Walker (NET Fame) eight hours a day, for four days in a row and I was his only patient for the week. He literally saved my life.

So first: get clear about the type of results you want to get AND the technique that will get you there. Do NOT hope to see 30 people per hour using a technique that takes 10 minutes per person. It will not work.

But the truth is most doctors do not spend more time because their technique requires it; they spend more time because they are insecure and they feel if they spent less time their patients would not be happy.

Three Important Steps

1. Clarify exactly what you want to accomplish each and every visit.
2. Figure out how much time that truly takes assuming you are not talking.
3. Make sure that you are only talking when your hands are on your patients. So if you need five minutes to give an adjustment you want to be able to talk while you are giving your adjustment and literally spend five minutes with your patient.

You must cultivate patients so that they understand how you do things in your office. You are not here to talk about all of their symptoms every time, you are not here to talk about the weather or sports, you are here to make sure that their nervous system is getting the best adjustment it possibly can and along with a great spine adjustment you are giving them a great mind adjustment.

Record an hour of your adjusting time and listen to it. You will find you are repeating certain concepts over and over again. I.e. I found I talked about retracing, subluxation vs. compensation etc. with a lot of patients throughout the day. So as soon as I recognized this I made up a handout for my patients.

Remember the only way to get amazing results in the shortest amount of time is to be able to stay in the zone or in present time consciousness! This is where magic happens. THIS IS A HUGE PIECE OF THE PUZZLE! And we spend quite a bit of time helping our docs find the zone and then stay in the zone! Automate your process as much as possible. Do killer health care talks, have handouts do whatever you need to do so you can be 100% present with the person in front of you, give them the best spine and mind adjustment possible and move on! I promise you it is NOT about the amount of time you spend. Instead it is about their perception and their experience of what just happened and it is about their results! People are happy to pay for a great experience and great results. The odds are you CAN spend less time and get way better results!

Hope this helps, I’d love to know your thoughts.

Much love and aloha

Russ

How to set MEANINGFUL Quarterly Objectives AND Follow Through

By Dr. Russ Rosen | Chiropractic issues , Chiropractic Strategies

I just had a great a great conversation with a client of mine who said,

“Russ, I see the value of quarterly objectives, really I do! I don’t want a rudderless ship! I have tried setting objectives in the past but felt pretty clueless and the truth is after we set them up we never looked at them again. I am really confused as to how to go about setting up reasonable objectives and then following through with them, can you help me?”

Below is the long and short of our discussion that I hope you will find valuable.

Get the Team to Grow the Practice

When setting quarterly objectives first you must make sure your team is on board. If you are in our program please take your entire team through “Get the Team to Grow the Practice”.

The first part of that module is all about getting the team on the same page philosophically and making sure they are all EXCITED to grow the practice.

Remember: seeing more people means more work so we MUST make sure they really get the big picture about what our Mission, Vision and Purpose is and they WANT to grow.

Since seeing more people means MORE WORK, you really want to have a great bonus system in place.

Now… how to set up meaningful, realistic and doable objectives:

Step 1: Get clear about what you want the BUSINESS to accomplish over the next 90 days.

There are two categories:
Projects

• I.e. get new software, change the carpet, record the visit two presentation etc.
• Make a list of all of the projects you want to get done over the next 90 days.
• Prioritize that list by what is most important to get done first.
• Put down how much time the project will take, who will be responsible to get it done and when it will be done by.

KPI’s

• Number of new patients
• Number of patient visits
• PVA or retention
• Missed appointments %
• Etc.

In general, we recommend coming up with up to five quarterly objectives for the business. If this is your first time setting quarterly objectives, error on the side of too little versus too much. I want your team to feel successful with this system. The last thing we want to happen is that they feel dejected that they couldn’t get everything done. You have plenty of time to add more if you like and course correct in your next set of objectives.

It is said that most people OVERESTIMATE what they can do in a day or a week but UNDERESTIMATE what they can do in a month or a year. Imagine how much you could get done if each person on your team got done one thing every week for 52 weeks. It is astounding! In fact I dare you to have each person make a list of 52 different things they could do!

Step 2: We now need to ask ourselves the question, “What will EACH person do on our team to make this business objective happen?”

This is how we come up with personal quarterly objectives.

Here is an example:

One quarterly objective for the business is to bring in an extra two new patients per week. So the question is: what will each person commit to in order to make this happen?

Doctor

• Ask for referrals.
  • Review “No stress secrets to easy and instant referrals”.
  • Commit to asking for 2 referrals per shift.
  • Set a safety net (I realize I may not remember so my tech CA has a window pop up to remind her to remind me before and after each shift).
• Commit to the Fast Track to Health Talk each week.
• Do an internal event with special offer for family and friends.
• Monthly theme.
• Go out and do one screening per month or two outside talks etc.
• Etc.
• CLEARLY THESE ARE JUST IDEAS! YOU MUST FIGURE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO

Front Desk CA

• Ask for referrals
  • Review “No stress secrets to easy and instant referrals”
  • Commit to asking for 2 referrals per shift.
  • Set a safety net (I realize I may not remember so my tech CA has a window pop up to remind her to remind me before and after each shift).
• Get great at setting up talks and commit to X number of active patients, X number of friends and family of patients to each talk.
  • Read and implement, “How to get people to your health talks” article.
• Review how to give out the internal event flyer and inspire people to refer.
• Review how to talk up the monthly up theme and commit to X people per day.
• Learn how to open up conversations with people outside of the office and bring in referrals.
  • Review “No stress secrets to easy and instant referral”.
• Etc.

You would then do this for each team member.
AND you would do it for each of the objectives.

How do we recommend each person figure out what they need to do to determine what their objectives should be? Get clear about the BUSINESS objective (i.e. increase new patients) and then:

1. Ask each person what they think they:
   1. Need help with?
   2. Need to improve upon?
   3. Could possibly add to what they do? (I.e. learn to open conversations outside of the office.)
2. Look at their Bonus Appraisal form which is really just a task list. Look at every BEHAVIOR and TASK that you have listed for them, have them grade themselves, you grade them and in essence use it as a springboard to help figure out BANG for the BUCK where they should focus and the things that need to become quarterly objectives.
3. Ask each team member what THEY think the other team members should work on, improve or add. (Wait to do this in group until you know everyone trusts each other etc. We don’t want fights!)

Yes, in our module on this we have the entire goals program, how to set up SMART goals, how to DIVE deeper into goals etc. But this article is only meant as an overview.

Step 3: It is critical that we have regular weekly meetings to review our objectives.

THIS IS WHERE MOST DOCTORS BLOW IT! They set the objectives and don’t look at them again for 90 days if they ever look at them again at all!

In our meetings, the second step is to do a “Brag Session” where each person brags about the one thing they promised they would do last week and how well they got it done and then they get clear about what they promise they will get done next week.

Obviously if they were not able to get it done as a team you would need to figure out why and make sure it got done the following week. Two weeks in a row of not getting something done would require using the “Action plan for improvement form” as we will not go week after week not getting things done.

Again, imagine what would happen if every single week each person on your team not only knew the highest priority items to get done but they actually did them.

Classically, people never get ahead of the game and because they don’t they are always putting out yesterday’s fires.

The 10,000 foot view of growing any type of practice is simply this. Reorganize and make space then fill it. Reorganize and make space then fill it. Repeat!

So here are some ideas in setting your quarterly objectives.

1. Make a list of all of the things you need to do to get caught up. Prioritize that list by what is most important to get done first. Put down how much time the project will take, who will be responsible to get it done and when it will be done by. Make sure that you also have a “Parking Lot”. This is a To Do List that you MAY get to at some time. Get it all on paper (or word document) out of your mind so you can focus on THIS prioritized to do list from your quarterly objectives.
2. Implement your Quarterly Objective System.
   • Get clear if you are in a “Reorganizational Phase”.
   • Ask each team member if they are bored, in the zone or stressed. You cannot SUSTAIN growth if ANYONE on your team is chronically stressed!
   • If no one is stressed look at the 90 day objectives. Ask each team member when you get to the next level will anyone be stressed? If so you MUST reorganize and make space, become more efficient etc. so they will not be stressed when you get there. If they are stressed you are sure to crash and stay on the roller coaster of growing, crashing, growing and crashing!
3. Stay ahead of the game by having REGULAR meetings!

Too many doctors never gain ground because they are always chasing their tails! Don’t be one of them. Implement the above procedures and you will create the practice and life of your dreams!

If you got some good energy from reading through this, you really should go grab a free program that I put together for some of my coaching clients. It’s literally called “Creating Time” and it helps a lot with setting goals!

Stroke Ammunition

By Dr. Russ Rosen | Chiropractic issues , Communications

I was going back and forth with Dr. Christopher Kent about info I could send to my docs about this whole stroke issue.

If you have not heard, it has blown up in California; I am sure there will be a ripple effect.

As far as I am concerned there is no one on the planet who knows more about this and who I trust more than Dr. Kent. Below is an email that he put together and we wanted to forward it to you.

Here is an interview I did with Dr. Kent several years ago and although it is dated there is still tremendous information.

Much love and aloha,

Russ and Angie

P.S.

Here are a few other articles that some docs sent me:

• Here is the article about the girl who just died
• Vertebral artery strains during high-speed, low amplitude cervical spinal manipulation
• Risk of Vertebrobasilar Stroke and Chiropractic Care
•  Chiropractic care and the risk of vertebrobasilar stroke: results of a case–control study
• Debunking the Myth that Chiropractic Causes Stroke

Email from Dr. Kent:

Dear Colleague—

Many of you have been trying to contact me regarding recent media coverage alleging that chiropractic care causes strokes. This e-mail is to address such requests. One of the latest and best papers on chiropractic and stroke was authored by a group of neurosurgeons. Their conclusion: “There is no convincing evidence to support a causal link, and unfounded belief in causation may have dire consequences.”

The paper is available free online. Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Chiropractic Care and Cervical Artery Dissection: No Evidence for Causation. Here is the link.

The best available evidence reports that people may present to an MD or DC office with a stroke in progress. See this link.

Failure to recognize the signs of a possible stroke, chart them, and manage them appropriately can have devastating consequences. An excellent resource is a summary by the professional liability company, ChiroFutures. The link to the article is here,

At a minimum, you should study these materials carefully.

For those who would like to purchase an online course addressing types of stroke, mechanical forces affecting the vertebral arteries, what occurs during a dissection, the issue of causality, imaging, and most important, how to recognize a stroke in progress and what not to do, visit: this page.

Best Wishes,

Christopher Kent, DC, JD

---

With all this said gang… (Back to a few thoughts from Russ…)

The question comes up as to how to deal with this in your office if patients bring it up.

As always I would use the LAASR process.

Listen, Acknowledge, ASK, Solution and Resolution.

Don’t dive right into a sermon.

Instead I would recommend Acknowledging what a tragedy this persons death is.

Then start Asking questions i.e. what do they think happened? Do they think a chiropractic adjustment could cause that? Are they concerned that your adjustment might cause that for them?

Clarify THEIR concerns first.

Then address those.

Having the above studies will help in punching a hole in their faulty premise or belief system of, “Chiropractic adjustments can cause strokes.” But my experience is if you get defensive or offensive they cannot HEAR what you have to say.

Hope that all helps!

Much love and aloha and thank you for being on the front lines and for all you do!

Russ and Angie

Can I still ask questions and be the authority? (Chiropractic Business Support)

By Dr. Russ Rosen | Uncategorized

Do I lose my AUTHORITY when I ask SOCRATIC questions?

I had a doctor ask me the other day, “Russ, how can I be Socratic and ask questions and STILL be the AUTHORITY?”

I think we’ve all heard this before: “You need to be the authority with your patients and you need to TELL them what to do.”

Yet many of us have found that by just “telling our patients” we don’t get the results that we would hope for. And of course why would we? The fact is most people do NOT like to be told what to do.

There is an old adage in marketing which states, “No one likes to sold, but everyone likes to buy.”

In my experience, people DO want you to be the “Authority.”

They want you to be the expert.

If they ask you a specific question such as, “How much vitamin C should I take?” Or “How much care would you recommend?” They do want to be given a straightforward answer and in essence they want to be told. You are the expert or authority and they are asking for advice and direction. Give it to them!

But know that asking Socratic questions in no way ever undermines you being an authority. In fact it actually strengthens the case that you are a true authority.

Think about this: you go to a car dealership and speak to the salesperson and the first salesperson tells you that they know just the right car for you. They go into the features and benefits and tell you that this is the car for you. How does that feel to you? Annoying, right?! What a sleazy salesperson!

The second salesperson asks clarifying questions so that they can get a better understanding of who you are and specifically what you’re looking for and after careful thought and deliberation they come up with a few options for you.

Which one would work better for you? Of course the second one!

We need to do the same thing for our patients. Recognize that by asking Socratic questions we do two very important things.

First by asking questions our intent is to help clarify what our patients REALLY want, in relationship to what we can REALLY do for them, so we can get a better understanding of what is REALLY best for them, so we then can show them to have what they REALLY want. So by nature Socratic questions are clarifying questions.

The second crucial value to asking Socratic questions is it keeps your patient engaged, causes them to come up with the solution to their problem, and drives that solution into their limbic system thereby becoming a new belief system for them. Know that we always have a better chance of following recommendations if it is THEIR idea or solution vs. ours!

Here is an example.

When showing somebody their x-rays, you could tell them that:

• they are in phase 2
• it took approximately 5 to 10 years to get there
• it will most likely take 2 to 3 years to get as much correction as possible.

Done this way, do you have any way of knowing if they really understood or believed what you have said?

No!

There is a very good possibility that they were in overwhelm or drifting off or possibly did not believe something you said.

On the other hand, if you:

• review the x-ray degeneration chart with them
• help them understand over time when you are subluxated three things occur
  • explain what happens to your alignment
  • explain what happens to the bone with lipping and spurring
  • explain what happens to the disk space

Phase I looks like this and you can see that takes approximately this long to occur, phase 2 looks like this and takes approximately this long to occur and this long to get as much change as possible and phase 3 looks like this and takes about this long to occur.

And then you ASK them,

“What do you see on your x-rays? What do you see with your alignment? What do you see as far as this disk space goes? Do you see any lipping and spurring? What phase do you think you’re in? And how long do you think it takes to get to that level of degeneration? And how many years do you think it takes to get as much correction as possible?”

When they answer those questions, I now understand that yes, they have heard and comprehend what I am saying. Unless I see a quizzical look on their face or something that tells me they “don’t buy it”, then I know that they do believe what they’ve just said. This means we have taken this new piece of information and moved it past the reptilian brain into the neo cortex where thinking and reasoning occur. From there it is moved over to the limbic system which now becomes their new belief system.

So realize that by asking Socratic questions you will get better results because you will clarify what they truly want, keep them engaged and drive these new concepts deep into their limbic system which becomes new belief systems for them. And it in no way hurts or questions your authority on the contrary it strengthens it.

As always we would love to know your thoughts.

Making Health Screenings & Outside Talks Work for Your Chiropractic Business

By Dr. Russ Rosen | Chiropractic issues , Communications

We have all heard the quote, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.

Can we really do well with outside talks and screenings? In this day and age do they still work?

YES! Emphatically yes! But you need to know HOW to get in and HOW to do them.

I speak with docs all the time that first don’t know how to set them up and second don’t know what to do if they do set them up. How about you?

I personally did not realize that “The Amazing Dave Mager” not only came out and did screenings and talks and taught offices how to do them, but he ALSO sets up talks and screenings with Corporations and nearby companies and teaches you how to do it!

In this interview Dave Mager and I talk about:

• How to set up talks and screenings
• What information to give to businesses
• What handouts we recommend giving at talks and screenings
• And what your mindset needs to be

Not only that, but Dave has offered to give you FREE OF CHARGE examples of:

• Cover letters, introduction letters and letters to the businesses
• Flyers
• Spinal Health Survey
• Basic instructions for screening flow using the substation
• Information on Corporate Wellness programs
• Checklist for doing screenings
• Before contacting businesses you MUST do the following list

Did I mention that he gives you all of that for FREE?!

 

Listen to my interview with Dave Mager where we talk down the subject!

 

We also did an interview together where we discuss HOW to do screenings.

 

You can contact Dave at [email protected] to receive his special package of FREE content that he put together for our doctors.

And as a SPECIAL OFFER to our doctors, you can save $150 when you ask Dave to come out to your office to:

• Set up talks and Screenings
• Perform Talks and Screenings
• Teach your team to set up Talks and Screenings
• FIRE UP your team and rock your world!

Nothing to it but to do it! Take action!

Feeling versus Function (Improving Chiropractor Communication)

By Dr. Russ Rosen | Chiropractic Care , Chiropractic Strategies

As a chiropractor, it’s sometimes challenging to get our patients to understand what we REALLY offer. If they did, they’d want it, every single time. My chiropractic coaching experience has given me some clarity on the matter that I’d like to share with you.

So where’s the disconnect?

One of the great challenges I find is that most chiropractors never find out what the patient actually wants before we tell them how much care they need. Chiropractor communication as a root cause leads to all sorts of problems with your practice.

You can picture it like a conveyor belt intended for mass production:

• Patient comes in, seeking care
• Staff greets them, checks them in, gets them ready for you
• You say hello, explain what you do, and go right into “where we go from here”
• The patient seems happy, thanks you for your help, and never comes back
• New patient arrives, you shake off the last one as “a bad apple”, and the process repeats

That’s an awfully bleak way to look at things, so let’s try it a different way:

• A patient comes in with a mildly sore neck
• They have seen a chiropractor before and got “Cracked” once or twice. It felt better & “Fixed”
• You do your consultation and examination, they come back for the report of findings and you tell them that they need “Lifetime care” or a “year of care” or whatever you tell them
• When they’re not convinced, you either try to scare them into care (beware, the SILENT KILLER!) or roll over and “admit” that they’ll feel better after a few sessions, but more “wellness care” would really be nice

By the way: neither the boogeyman nor passivity creates a loyal, fanatical follower who will stay, pay, and refer.

What’s Missing?

One of the most important concepts we need our patients to understand is this concept of “Feeling VS. Function”. We must ask questions of our patients in order to understand their headspace.

In the ROF we walk our patients through a particular process where we help them understand that on this “Path to optimal health” chart, a negative ten (-10) means near death.

A zero (0) means you are feeling comfortable but you are not functioning at your optimum. We have not resolved the underlying problems and if we were to redo all of these objective tests they would still show that things were not working right.

A positive ten (+10) means that not only are you feeling great but your body is functioning at its optimum, we have resolved the underlying problem and of course if we were to redo these objective tests we would expect them to be cleared.

Now that they understand the difference between feeling and function, we can find out what is best for them at this time in their life.

How to Transition More Patients to Care Plans

This seemingly simple exercise is the key to unlocking your chiropractic patient’s understanding of how your care really works. We have to first meet them where they are, explain how you will resolve their immediate issues, and then inspire them to commit to wellness.

• Someone who rates themselves as a negative five (-5) has to know that they’ll be out of pain before they can begin to listen to the idea of wellness care.
• Someone who comes in at a zero (0) isn’t experiencing the crippling emotional and phsyical punishment of constant pain, but they’re not in top condition, either. They’re going to be more open to the idea of wellness care but still need to express a desire to move closer to positive ten (+10).
• Someone who rates themselves as a positive five (+5) isn’t looking to remove pain because they don’t really have it. They’re ready to see the vision of wellness care.

Once you clarify what THEY truly want in relation to what you can truly do for them, you can then simply show them how to have it.

When Life Gives You Lemons

By Dr. Russ Rosen | Chiropractic issues , Chiropractic Strategies , Communications

When life gives you lemons: Every moment contains the ingredients for a positive lesson and an epic new adventure.

Recently my daughter posted this in her blog.

I thought we could all find value in it. Has life given you any lemons recently?

Hope you enjoy…

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When life gives you lemons… squeeze out all the juice you can possibly get!

Life throws (sometimes hurtles, sometimes aggressively catapults) experiences our way in hopes that we will grow from them. But at the first sign of discomfort, we often wriggle out of the lessons’ hold, squirm out of the teacher’s reach, and head to safer ground.

Phew! We made it. “Think again!” life chuckles as she gently taps on another domino nearby–watching with upturned lips as the chaos gracefully makes it way into our unknowing lives.

And there it is again–cloaked in different colors and shapes, but the underlying lesson is the same. And it will come and find its way into your life no matter how many times you escape its terrifying grasp. That is, and this part I hope is true, that is unless you give in, let those arms pull you in to the dark depths of the unknown, learn that damn lesson, make it your bitch (so to speak), and become the master. Once you have mastered the lesson, it will no longer be hungry for you. It will no longer seek you out.

And then… as life goes on… the lessons will continue. New lessons will keep rolling in, all brilliantly disguised that you may forget they are simply lessons, and you will just see them as the brightly colored masks they put on. They may appear to you wearing the tearful mask of a tragedy or the grief-stricken mask of an epic heartbreak. They may turn up one day as a loss of a job, and the next day a gut-wrenchingly difficult decision.

I believe the key is to first recognize it is only a mask, and second, to look inward and decide for yourself what priceless and life-altering positive lessons we can learn from them. The tragedy slips away to reveal inner-strength. The heartbreak flutters lightly on leaving the wing-prints of maturity and self-love. The decision that kept you up at night pushes you to take command, be purposeful with your life, and choose a direction.

Take off the masks that greet you. Don’t run in fear. Smile and embrace them as moments given to you to help push you up, reach greater heights with even greater perspectives, and become more powerful and whole versions of yourself.

When life gives you lemons–thank life for her sweet gift. Even when it stings and even when it burns, do everything you can to get every life-altering drop out of them. Each drop will stimulate you and inspire you to evolve. So if you truly squeeze every lemon’s lesson out, you will never have to look back on an experience with sorrow or anger. You will be able to look back, smile, and say, “I am so grateful this happened. Look what it taught me. Look who I have become.”

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Wow! I am so impressed with my little baby! Clearly she got the writing gene from her mom!

So here are my questions to you…

• What lessons have you learned recently? What lessons are you in the middle of learning right now?
• What lessons have you shied away from that keep rearing their same heads cloaked as different experiences but truly they are the same?
• What will you embrace this year to make it your best year ever?

Know that we are always here to help. If you want the rest of 2017 to be as good as it can get, please contact us for a free consultation. You will be amazed at how we can help you make SWEET LEMONADE with more ease, less stings, and fewer burns!

Engaging Patient Communication

By Dr. Russ Rosen | Communications

I was speaking with Dr. James Stubbs: one of our great “thinkers”.

He uses a whiteboard to puts up ideas to talk with patients about.

We were discussing the concept of framing things from a “Vitalistic” versus mechanistic perspective.

We were talking about putting up questions like, “Fever: good or bad?” (If you would like a great discussion on Vitalism vs. Mechanism just click here)

That would lead to discussions like:

If you were camping and knew that the stream water was bad and full of bacteria, what would you do before you drank it?

Of course, you would boil it.

Why?

You would boil it to kill off the bacteria and bad things in the water.

Did you know that bacteria can only live to a certain temperature and that is why innate wisdom or innate intelligence (not innate stupidity) causes a fever?

James and I were talking about putting up a poster with these three basic tenets (which are from the Five Branches of Philosophy that we learn from Pat Gentempo)

1. What do you believe to be true?
2. How do you know it is true?
3. How do you act or behave because of what you know to be true?

Then we could have discussions such as: “Do you believe that fevers are good or bad?” Odds are they will say “bad”. That would be their basic premise or belief, (what you believe to be true?).

We could then have a discussion like this story above which would “poke a hole” in their belief system or “B.S.” causing them to reevaluate what they believe to be true. Realize if you argue with step three, or how they behave (I take aspirin to reduce the fever) because of what they believe to be true (their B.S.)  you will only find resistance!

But if you poke a hole in their belief system first they will realize that if their belief system (B.S.) is not true. Then we can install a new belief system which of course would lead to new behaviors.

Obviously if they now realize that innate intelligence (not innate stupidity) causes a fever to get rid of the bad stuff so we can heal, then what they choose to do when they get a fever would be different than if they believe that the fever was bad.

We were looking at other concepts we could bring up like this. Such as, “Swelling: good or bad?”

The downside to swelling is it hurts, it limits our range of motion, and it may take longer before we can go do the thing we want to do, like play basketball.

The upside, again from a “Vitalistic” perspective, would be to ask the question, “Why would innate intelligence do such a thing?” The swelling does several different good things.

• First it is a natural brace and keeps us from moving the injured area.
• Second it brings white blood cells to the area to initiate healing.
• Third it brings blood and nourishment to the area so it can heal.

I think these are great conversations to have with our patients that could really shift their paradigm and consciousness leading to long lasting change.

Here is another good example: Why do we see lipping and spurring on X-rays and are they good or bad?

You would discuss the downsides to lipping and spurring AND from a VITALISTIC perspective why would innate intelligence (NOT innate stupidity) start to lay down calcium and eventually bridge the areas? Clearly to brace the area and stabilize the area. Mom nature is ALWAYS choosing the lesser of two evils. “Hmmm, I could just let this area continue to degenerate eventually severing my spinal cord, not a good thing! Or I could lay down calcium and brace the area. Yes I will have limited range of motion and pain but at least I won’t be paralyzed or die!” Do you start to get the idea?

I sent out an email and posted this on FB and got some really great other metaphors and stories.  I’ll be sharing them over the next few weeks, to spur along the conversation. if you have any you would like to add would you please add them in the “Comment” section of this blog? 

Here’s the first one:

From Dr. Lance Cotteril

Vomit, cough, sneeze, diarrhea…

Hi Russ. Back at school we used the examples of sneezing and vomiting as the base for the question of expressing health or expressing sickness. We had great debates in philosophy class on this. The question can be asked that when the body sneezes: “Is it expressing health or illness?” Our initial answers were that sneezing was a symptom of disease. However if the body was working well and in a healthy state and detected that there was something present in the body that would stop the body from expressing full health, then it would be in the body’s best interest to remove it. If there is a particle or irritant in the nose or throat then the body’s response is to expel it by sneezing. The exact same is true when thinking about vomiting, diarrhea and coughing; although it would be different toxins and irritants that the body is trying to expel. The more pertinent question can then be asked would it be more concerning if the body wasn’t sneezing, coughing or vomiting when there are toxins and/or irritants present in the body? (Dr. Cotteril, I agree 100%! Remember it is innate INTELLIGENCE not innate STUPIDITY! Innate wisdom is ALWAYS making choices that will lead to survival even if it does not look that way. It is ALWAYS choosing the lesser of two evils… until it cannot… – Russ)