Chiropractic Practice: Are You Fooling Yourself?

Today I want to ask, are you fooling yourself? Welcome to this week’s Thrive in Five. I’m Dr. Bob Hoffman for The Masters Circle Global, where legends are made and legendary practices are built through chiropractic coaching. It is my experience after 45 plus years as a chiropractor that most of us continue to fool ourselves And I’m betting you fool yourself.

So stay with me for just a few minutes and I’m going to help you big time. An example of fooling yourself is this. Every expert, every government agency, every measurement we have consistently documents that people are far sicker today than ever before. More chronic illness, more comorbidities, more drug dependence, more physical, chemical, emotional stress, more mental health struggles.

And yet. We chiropractors are still recommending the same frequency of care, the same adjust of techniques as if your patients were frozen in time and stuck in 1980 and you continue to fool yourself by thinking it’s okay and that your patients are thriving and wondering why your practice is stuck. And stagnant.

You also fool yourself into still thinking that one size fits all in how you communicate, how you adjust in what you recommend. When deep in your heart, you know that one size fits all has never worked. And all experts in all fields continue to emphasize the need for customization. You continue to fool yourself by staying trapped in an insurance based practice after hearing forever that insurance doesn’t cover or pay for chiropractic services, or insurance pays penny on the dollar when a 20 Employee seems to know better than you what your patients need and what’s covered and what’s not covered.

They’re making the healthcare decisions for you because apparently you’re not smart enough to do it. Maybe you still think that all DCs that work for chiropractic franchises are the losers in the profession. Or colleagues who can’t adjust or can’t get an associate position when the reality is that’s just not true And then you further fool yourself into thinking that the franchises don’t matter When they’re growing much faster than you are and are probably more profitable than you You also continue to fool yourself by hanging on to the misleading concept that you can go alone and do it alone.

It’s always easier to accomplish your dream when you have a rock solid team. And everyone with a team should always be looking for ways to upgrade their team with advanced training, ongoing training, and better hires. Our colleagues also fool themselves when they fail to effectively educate and engage their patients so that patients see your care as a luxury instead of seeing your care as a necessity.

When they view your care as a lot luxury, crazy things like time, distance, and money frequently get in the way. of establishing a long term relationship. Many continue to fool themselves that they’re stress hunting down more new patients, investing tons of money to hopefully create more new patients, that their whole focus is more new patients, even responding to ads that promise you 30 new patients in the next 30 days.

They’re fooling themselves because every business expert knows that the key to all successful and sustainable businesses is repeat business. What we in chiropractic call PVA or retention or compliance. So get this. More new patients add to your practice, but more retention multiplies your practice. And many of our colleagues fool themselves being totally focused on the patient’s structure and spine, instead of being primarily focused on the brain and the nervous system.

Remember, our goal is to normalize and maximize optimal neurological expression. Get this. I can go on and on giving you example after example on how you’re fooling yourself. But the bottom line is you have to change your mindset, your belief system, what you focus on, and you have to become an expert chief operating officer to have on your team, a coach or a mentor to help you see the forest for the trees to show you your faulty thinking patterns.

You’re failing to adapt habits, your antiquated and out of date beliefs that have sabotaged your success. You can’t succeed being the CEO of your practice and also trying to be the chief operating officer, the chief marketing officer, the chief clinical officer and trying to be all things to all people.

You have to wake up to the changing times and adapt without giving up your core identity. One of the most important character traits in life is to be coachable, to be okay with someone guiding you, helping you make the right decisions, helping you adapt to the changing times and helping you market and to know what to charge and to learn how to have your best year ever year after year.

The principles of chiropractic hasn’t changed and you don’t need to change it. But how you communicate, how you adjust the frequency of the care you recommend, the amazing technology you use to create better and faster clinical outcomes, how you charge for your care, how you develop an all star team, what hours and what days you should be open.

How you attract new patients, how you market it and advertise, how you make every patient feel safe and secure, how you reduce or eliminate the multiple points of friction in your practice, and so much more that has changed, and you’re fooling yourself if you think this is not important, and if you don’t think that you have to change, or have to adapt, or think this doesn’t apply to you.

You’re fooling yourself if you think you’re already doing your best, playing your best game and making the biggest difference. You’re fooling yourself if you think it’s impossible to get better, faster and longer lasting clinical results. And you’re fooling yourself if somehow you got to the point of seeing chiropractic as a job instead of realizing it’s your calling.

You’re fooling yourself if the joy and the happiness of serving others and changing the world has left you. You must be willing to let go of the past to embrace the present and prepare for the future. When you stop fooling yourself and wake up to what’s possible and recommit to your dream, being the best version of yourself and adapting to the changing times, restoring your energy, restoring your certainty, restoring your commitment, you will also recession proof and future proof your practices.

Remember, to have what only 5 percent have, you must be willing to do what the other 95 percent are unwilling to do. And quite frankly, the six essentials, and realizing that you most likely have been fooling yourself, should always be part of your daily and weekly training of yourself. serious about making an impact and moving the direction of becoming best in class.

If you’re not familiar with these strategies or the six essentials, then please start scanning the QR code on your screen right now. Go ahead, take out your camera. Scan that QR code. Don’t get lazy. Go ahead and do it and learn much more about these critical concepts. It will show you how to make the invisible visible in your practice and what you can do that no one else is doing.

The fundamentals have changed, ladies and gentlemen. The focus has changed. The business model has changed and the ability to influence your staff and your patients have changed. You need to know what these changes are and refinements are and how to implement that properly and effectively. I’m urging you for your sake, take action today and stop fooling yourself.

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