Chiro Coach Blog

FROM PROBLEM-SOLVING TO VISION-CREATING

Dr. Larry Markson — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:12:45 +0000

Chiropractors, bless you all, seem to be engaged in the perpetual task of making your practices better, with better being defined as more new patients, larger monthly patient volume and, of course, increased income.Unfortunately, the entire culture of our profession appears to be focused on what is wrong with the practice, why it is not better. Rarely is there a direct focus on it’s optimal well-being…on reaching its full potential.So, after all these years, the questions become, “Why are so few chiropractors willing to dream boldly…to reach for their highest visions…to know that there has never been a better time in the history of this profession to be a Doctor of Chiropractic?” And why, after 113 years of remarkable progress, where no one goes to jail just for practicing chiropractic, where none of us is called quack anymore, where we are superbly trained, clinically competent and philosophically sound, where we have post-graduate degrees, insurance equality and even hospital privileges, do a majority of our practitioners struggle to survive, not to mention build the practice and lifestyle of their dreams?Why? Because, in my opinion at least, the current cultural belief of our profession assumes a viewpoint in which each D.C. has learned to cope with, and fit in with a modified, watered-down version of what politics, inferiority and the need for social acceptance has caused us to become. For the vast majority in our profession, the Chiropractic health care delivery system now existing in America is challenging and oppressively restrictive…and we let it happen.

Rather than to create a thriving and successful practice that caters to anyone who has a vertebral subluxation and is serious about attaining and maintaining natural health as a way of life, we have become the shills of attorneys, the lackeys of insurance companies and the slave to any CPT code that could generate additional revenue. It seems we’ve lost our VISION and our PURPOSE…or have we?

The Ponderous Beast Is Turning

Ah, but take heart ye of little faith, the ponderous beast of Chiropractic is turning toward the light, albeit very slowly. I am pleased to report that more and more chiropractors are coming back in from the cold. They are being warmed by feelings of happiness that only comes from service and the resultant accomplishment.

They are once again being nourished and nurtured by growing practices composed of patients who are responding to chiropractic care, and more importantly, who are willing to come, stay and pay, even after their limited insurance benefits run out.

Let’s Go Back In Time

Almost thirty years ago we came to the marketplace as a traditional chiropractic management consultant, whose purpose was to teach chiropractors how to build bigger, better and more successful chiropractic practices. We did so by using what we will called “Strategy-Based Technology” in seminars and during our consultation time with members.

We taught doctors the strategies and actions of where to practice, how to design the office, what office hours are best, the fees to charge, the forms and procedures to use, how to train staff and conduct proper consultation, examinations, x-ray studies and reports of findings. We even scripted them and taught them what to say for every standard procedure or contingency that might arise. Yes, Strategy-Based management worked through the eighties and into the nineties, and we were extraordinarily successful.

And Then What Happened?

Well, then we began to notice that our lead-the-field results began to diminish somewhat. Practices still grew as doctors learned “what to do strategies,” but the percentage wasn’t as high. After careful analysis we came to an incredibly important distinction. Doctors knew what to do, but they were unable to do it.

For whatever reason, they lost some of their personal power and tenacity, and were reluctant or personally unable to give a truthful recommendation or charge a fair fee.

We watched a large part of this wonderful profession go into fear and be happy just to maintain their practices at former levels. Hope for growth was diminishing rapidly and doctors busied themselves on solving problems myriad of practice They lost their vision and got stuck in their limitations!

Capacity Limitations

We quickly learned that the CAUSE of practices that were on a plateau or in retraction of some kind was due to either a Capacity Limitation by Procedure or a Capacity Limitation by Concept and Vision. A procedural capacity limitation is the easier of the two to cure. It means a block by wrong hours, poor staff training, taking too much time with a patient, not enough space, inferior equipment, inadequate practice policies, etc., etc., etc.

As a side note there are only six (6) cures to a Capacity Limitation by Procedure. They are to: Add speed to what you do, add hours, add days, add hands (more help), add technology or add A & E (attitude and energy).

The other and far more complex is a doctor’s Capacity Limitation by Concept and Vision. This means how they see themselves, what they envision the future to be, the overall purpose upon which they base their actions, who they are inside-the-skin and what fears, doubts and insecurities dominate their thoughts and actions.

The Breakthrough

The breakthrough occurred when we learned that teaching doctors how to identify their practice weaknesses and develop strategies to overcome them was just the first step in making practices better. The key was that practice growth was indelibly linked to personal growth and that the practice followed the practitioner.

When the doctor showed up as the best person possible…when they were up, meaning focused, on purpose, energetic and willing to tell the truth to patients…then, the practice grew. When the doctor was not the best that they could be, meaning in fear, in doubt, scared, on survival, thinking what was wrong, blaming others, angry at their lot in life, etc.,… then, the practice began to retract.

A New Beginning

The light went on when years ago, I started a brand new company, whose purpose was to guide and help D.C’s build an Empowered Chiropractic Practice.

Along with some strategy-based teaching, which is still important to the practical foundation of a practice, we began to use our now trademarked and rapidly recognized unique selling proposition which we’ve entitled, Identity-Based Technology. Identity-Based Technology means that who you are inside-the-skin determines what you are able to say and the actions you are willing to take in your practice and in your life, as well.

Identity-Based management is about helping chiropractors develop the inner resources and confidence to put the strategies into action. It is no longer about Problem-Solving, rather it is clearly about Vision-Creating!

The New Chiropractic World

The New Chiropractic World is Creating a Vision for Your Practice; a vision that directs your gaze away from your problems and inabilities. To create an inspired practice you must develop an acute awareness of the possibilities and unlimited potential that lies within you. Until you do that, your potential remains dormant, try as you will.

Developing a VISION for your practice helps you overcome the places in your practice where you are having problems, while helping you discover and manifest your fullest possible potential.

Having a VISION helps you transform the capacity limitations, beliefs and behavior patterns that have been shackling you to anything less than you desire, and in fact, is your inalienable right.

It is a shifting in your basic attitude in practice from Problem-Solving to Vision-Creating.

Easier said than done we know, because it requires that you let go of the problem-oriented past programming from your Mothers, Fathers, Teachers and Preachers (MFTP’s)…and accept that you can and will create the practice, and indeed, the life you want.

Your Identity Determines Your Capacity

Attaining this powerful change in perspective takes more that a simple pep talk…an overnight cure. It takes time and requires you to learn to think and act in a compelling and dynamic new way. After all, Your Identity Determines Your Capacity… meaning who you BE inside determines what you create for yourself.

Miracles DO happen and they are available to any of you who are willing to create a bold vision, look honestly at yourself and commit to a process of self-discovery. Then and only then will you HAVE whatever it is you want.

Chiropractors Ask: What’s in it for me?

Dr. Rick Markson — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:13:27 +0000

We are often asked, “What’s in it for me?” by chiropractors across the country about our program and Tribal Gatherings.

We’ve come to learn that there are three things that every chiropractor wants to know, so here’s what you can expect from being a member of The Markson Connection tribe: 1) how to build your practice; 2) how to get through limiting beliefs, and 3) how to handle the financial aspect of your practice.

We have the tools, procedures, systems and knowledge to personally coach you to help you achieve exactly what you desire:an undeniably strong and booming practice, a fulfilled life, and the rewards of an extraordinary lifestyle.

Please take the time to view the video of Tribal Leaders Dr. Brett Axelrod and Dr. Rick Markson to learn what separates The Markson Connection from the rest…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgDtY5G_Gjk

Total Team Technology – The New Chiropractic Delivery System

Dr. Rick Markson — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:24:13 +0000

Please take the time to view this informative video about The Markson Connection’s updated and modern Chiropractic Delivery System called Total Team Technology™ designed to bring health and wellness to humanity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bctiwlpCEe0

All-Star Line-up Communicating the New Chiropractic Delivery System

Dr. Rick Markson — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:30:05 +0000

All-Star Line-up Communicating the New Chiropractic Delivery System from The Markson Connection

Dear Doctor,

We have created an updated and modern Chiropractic Delivery System called Total Team Technology™ designed to bring health and wellness to humanity. Our All-Star line-up will communicate this new system to you and show you how to communicate it to your staff and your patients at our June 6-8 Tribal Gathering at The Nature Place in Colorado.

The Markson Connection’s Total Team Technology™ is a new healthcare delivery system for the chiropractic industry where the team plays a much more integral role within the practice. The new system teaches chiropractors how to manage their teams, patients and finances. With this new and unique system, patients will have a better comprehension of chiropractic so they stay on their care plans longer, creating better results that ultimately makes the offices more profitable.

Our All-Star team will communicate our complete message of Chiropractic in an intimate setting covering our Four Pillars of Practice Success: Philosophy, Systems, Marketing and Headspace.

Special Guests:

David Fletcher

Bill Esteb

Troy Dukowitz

With Tribal Leaders:

Brett Axelrod

Rick Markson

Larry Markson

Guy Riekeman

Now, we implore you to come to our next Tribal Gathering on June 6-8 at The Nature Place in Colorado to learn and explore this new paradigm to grow your practice.

The Markson Connection leaders, Dr. Brett Axelrod and Dr. Rick Markson are still in practice, so they know the procedures and policies of Chiropractic today and they pass on this knowledge and personally coach Chiropractors to help achieve exactly what you desire: an undeniably strong and booming practice, a fulfilled life, and the rewards of an extraordinary lifestyle.

Why attend our Tribal Gathering?

We are confident that this experience will return you home to your family a different person, aware, vitalized and transformed, finally prepared to engage limitless success.

Use The Markson Connection as your resource to achieve success, don’t be on an island by yourself…
come GET CONNECTED!

To register as a guest for the June event click here: Guest Registration

For more information on The Markson Connection and to become a member click here: Membership

If you’d like to have a conversation to see if our Tribal Gathering is right for you, please call (877) 740-1177

Stack-a-Day

Dr. Rick Markson — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:43:22 +0000

One of the biggest challenges that I see as a coach is that many chiropractors have the, “I’ll believe it when I see it” mentality. When they hear of another doc seeing huge patient volume, their reaction is incredulous…”I don’t believe it. You can’t give good care in that amount of time…it’s impossible.”

Well, here are two tips to help you get past your doubts:

1. Get your butt out of your office and go visit someone who is seeing 2X your best week ever in patient volume. So, if your record is 200 visits in a week, go spend a day with someone seeing 400. If your best is only 75, go see what 150 looks like…IN PERSON. You have to see it with your own eyes to believe it, right? No trick photography, no sleight of hand. You will quickly realize that not only is it possible, but it isn’t as miraculous at you thought. Your glass ceiling will shatter forever.

2. Next, stack a day with 10% more patient volume than your record day. So, if you saw 70 people one day a few months or a few years ago, purposely stack 77 patients on the book (a Monday works best). It is probably going to be a freak show. You may run a little late. You may be sweating profusely. You may not urinate for the better part of 11 hours. But, guess what? YOU’LL DO IT! You will serve all of those people one way or another and you will be exhilarated. Those patients will get their subluxations removed and you will have cleared a huge subluxation that you had in your belief system. Your staff will be talking about it for weeks. Best of all, you’ll prove to yourself that you can achieve anything you desire and the sky’s the limit.

Value-Based Coaching

Dr. Rick Markson — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:54:43 +0000

Please take the time to view this short informative video about the importance of a coach and The Markson Connection unique value-based coaching model.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxb__Zedkb8

Setting Goals – Your Road Map to Success

Dr. Brett Axelrod — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:19:35 +0000

by Dr. Brett Axelrod

Setting goals has been and continues to be one of the most important habits of successful people. At The Markson Connection, we recommend a daily morning routine of saying affirmations, doing visualizations and meditations, and reviewing your written goals.

What is the difference between a dream and a goal? The written word. We recommend writing your goals by October 1^st of each year. We know that it takes the subconscious mind approximately 90 days of repetition for information to seep in and become believable. When January 1^st comes around, your mind is already in action like a heat-seeking missile, helping you to manifest all of your desires.

We need to do more than simply scribble down some ideas on a piece of paper. Our goals need to be complete and focused, much like a road map. Make sure that the goal you are working for is something your truly want, not just something that sounds good. A goal cannot contradict any of your other goals. Write your goal in the positive instead of the negative, focus on what you do want, not what you don’t want. Make sure your goal is big enough – shoot for the moon; if you miss you’ll still be in the stars. Remember, there are no unrealistic goals, just unrealistic time frames.

Create SMART goals:

S – Specific – your goals should be written in as much detail as possible.

M – Measureable – when you measure your progress, you stay on track.

A – Attainable – you can attain almost any goal when you plan your steps wisely.

R – Realistic – goals must represent an objective toward which you are willing and able to work.

T- Timely – all of your goals should have a specific time frame or date to create urgency.

Write your goals utilizing the “6P” format: Statement of Purpose, Personal goals, Professional goals, People goals, Play goals, and Prosperity goals.

If your goals are written out in as much detail as possible, have a specific date of completion, and contain the specific action steps necessary to attain them, there is only one more step to manifesting your goals … Add a reward or benefit that you will get when you accomplish your goals. This is an important step to give you a positive feeling. Your subconscious mind will help attract those feelings into your life.

Patient Education

Dr. Rick Markson — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:39:51 +0000

We have been learning about patient education since we were in Chiropractic College, but so few of us do it effectively…why is that?

One theory is that we are so busy trying to jam OUR agenda down our patients’ throats, that we never stop to figure out what THEIR agenda is. In other words, we need to ZIP IT! We need to stop caring so much about our robotic scripting and focus on making our patients feel heard.

The best way to do this is to ask questions and LISTEN TO THE RESPONSES. Many of us have been taught the benefits of using the Socratic method, but we are so eager to ask our next question, we never heard the answer to the first one. When your patients are willing to share their feelings, their fears, their motivators, and their priorities, you are getting a look into what is most important to them. When you link the benefits of lifetime chiropractic care with the Patient’s agenda, you are building a two-way bridge…your patient lives subluxation-free and you grow your practice to any level you desire.

RAPPORT vs. LIKEABILITY

Dr. Rick Markson — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:25:18 +0000

Throughout the past few weeks of coaching, a common theme continues to pop up and I’d like to share it with you. It seems as though when discussing the art of communication, many chiropractors are making a categorical mistake. Regardless of the history, background, or condition for which your patients are coming into your office, you must have rapport. The challenge is, most don’t know the difference between rapport and likeability.

Rapport is defined by freedictionary.com, as “Relationship, especially one of mutual trust or emotional affinity.” Likeability is defined by freedictionary.com, as “Pleasant or agreeable.”

What a huge difference; there is so much more to practice success than simple friendliness.

The chiropractors who have the largest practices undoubtedly are innately gifted rapport-builders. They understand the importance of creating an emotional bond with their patients the instant they walk into the office, if not before. Your patient retention, new patient conversion percentage, and referral statistics all depend on this ability. We are, of course, advocating that you ALWAYS tell the truth to your patients and never take advantage of your authority.

In order to improve your rapport:

1. Match and mirror the patient’s physiology – tone of voice, body language, posture

2. Find common discussion points – people, hobbies, culture

3. Resonate at a higher energy level – smile, certainty, enthusiasm

4. Manage the patient’s expectations – offer hope, be reassuring, lay out a plan

The fact of the matter is, friendliness is like the diploma on the wall… the patient expects it to be there, even before they walk into the office. You get no extra points for that – it just makes you a human being. Go the extra mile and actually care about the patient’s agenda instead of your own. The entire atmosphere of the practice will change and your results will go through the roof.

Prepare to be DisgusTED

Dr. Brett Axelrod — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:09:16 +0000

The internet is now an indelible part of each of our lives. Young children, grandparents, and everyone in between rely on the World Wide Web on a daily basis. We communicate, shop, learn, and entertain ourselves in front of a screen. Therefore, as a chiropractor, you may not see the link between having your hands on patients’ spines and the virtual world of the internet.

Sure, you can return a few emails, Tweet about what you ate for lunch, read some articles, or maybe get some CE credits; but these things are all about YOU. By using the internet for these tasks, you are comfortable knowing that you can keep up with the technology of the day. Here’s the question… What has the internet done for chiropracTIC?

“Well,” you say,” what about all of the videos on YouTube or the posts on Facebook that I’ve read or the new patients that I’ve gotten from my Google Ads?” Again, that is about YOU, not about the profession as a whole, our true impact on society or our position within the health care paradigm. So, let me get to my point.

Years ago, an intellectual think-tank known as TED (now known as TED.com) was founded by Richard Saul Wurman. The greatest minds: inventors, scientists, doctors, musicians, educators, humorists, etc. were invited to come to a TED conference and share. In fact, the tagline of the company is “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

Using the power of the internet, TED.com has developed an army of followers. People, from the CEO’s of the largest worldwide corporations to homemakers in the smallest towns, travel to these conferences, or better yet, log on to TED.com to watch the most recent video posts from the conferences held around the world. The unselfish open-sharing of ideas, for free, is an international phenomenon… with one dreadfully sad reality.

If you go to the search bar on TED.com and type in the word “chiropractic,” guess how many hits come back from the hundreds and hundreds of lectures that have been posted from around the planet since TED’s inception in 1984?

ZERO!

Are you kidding me? A profession that puts nothing into the body, takes nothing out of the body, requires no laboratory, no surgical center, no pharmacy and no side effects and gets PHENOMENAL results in assisting people with their health care challenges is not even mentioned on an international resource regarding the strongest thinkers and most valuable ideas?

Am I the only one who is freaking out here? For 116 years, we have persevered: struggling, evolving, and surviving and we are not even a blip on the world’s screen? THAT IS NOT OKAY!

At the end of last year, the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE dedicated an issue to health and wellness. They had articles from the leaders of the “wellness movement” regarding human physiology, nutrition, genetics, and alternative treatments. Guess how much space was dedicated to chiropractic…

NONE!

A few months ago, the University of Miami held a wellness symposium, which featured educators on the future of health care, alternative treatment and wellness. Was a chiropractor on the panel of speakers?

NO!

Time to wake up people… if you only care about your little practice in your little town and your little life, no worries - you’ll be sure to survive. If, however, you care about the fact that our profession is living a lie, then the glaring reality has to sink in. We simply are not making enough of an impact on our nation’s view of health. If we are not included in these conversations, it is because no one thinks we have anything valuable to say. Would you invite a kindergartener to participate in a nuclear physics seminar?

We are never going to be invited to these tables, nor see chiropractic reach its true height if we are screaming different stories at each other. We need to find our story – ONE STORY. This story can be open to various ideas regarding what chiropractic is and should be, but overall, we won’t be accepted until we accept each other. It’s as simple as that.

CHIROPRACTIC IS CERTAINLY AN IDEA WORTH SPREADING. I’ll race you to TED!