Hey, chiropractors. We're ready for another Modern Chiropractic Marketing Show with Dr. Kevin Christie, where we discuss the latest in marketing strategies, content marketing, direct response marketing, and business development, with some of the leading experts in the industry.
Kevin: Welcome to another episode of the Modern Chiropractic Marketing Show. This is your host, Dr. Kevin Christie, and today I'm going to bring a solo episode. I haven't done one of these in a little while. We've been doing a lot of great interviews, but I do try to have a solo episode once or twice a month to just kind of riff on an idea or dive deep onto a strategy.
Today it's more of an idea and I wanted to kind of challenge you, and where this comes from is just the fact that, at first, I was not watching the documentary Goober, the Netflix show or whatever you want to call it. My wife was. But there was an episode with a chiropractor on there doing the energy stuff, and I don't know if it's the same chiropractor that was doing the energy stuff on the other actress, whatever it is, but obviously it's unique to say the least and, in my opinion, not the greatest representation of what the chiropractic profession is and it gets a ton of exposure. [01:20.9]
I had posted a little bit of a blurb and in the FTCA, the Forward-Thinking Chiropractic Alliance, about creating content and community and how, yeah, we may feel like sometimes we're overshadowed by the chiropractors in our community or country or internationally that are doing things not necessarily the way we think that they should be done and not really helping out the profession too well.
We complained about it, and rightfully so, and it's concerning and it's frustrating, and in a lot of ways it holds us back and it can definitely be sometimes disheartening. [02:03.3]
I was having this conversation with another person about this is not a zero-sum and we shouldn't worry about that other type of chiropractors, this, that and the other thing, but I disagree with that. I'm more of the mindset of what's bad for the hive is bad for the bee type of mentality. Obviously, I think there's a lot of impact it has on the profession. Even if it doesn't impact my personal practice, it impacts the profession; it impacts the community. The general population doesn’t know any better, and so I do think it is a problem.
Now, there's a lot of different ways we can go about trying to position ourselves better in the eyes of the beholder and get that illustrious increase in the percentage of the population that is using chiropractic services that everybody says is 11 percent or whatever. But part of the reason why it's a low percentage, in my opinion, is because of the crazy stuff that's out there. [03:08.3]
With that said, I think it's one of the things we can learn from them, and this is what I posted in the group, the Facebook group that the reality of it is they are getting out there. Those chiropractors that we talk about that we feel are negatively impacting the profession, they're getting out there in their communities a lot. They're public speaking a lot. They're building a tribe. They are doing a lot of marketing. They're doing a lot of video. They are a part of a lot of groups. They're heavily involved in the community. They are passionate. They have a lot of communication skills it seems like in a lot of ways. And so, whether they're a small percentage of the profession or not, it seems like they've got a microphone. It seems like they're everywhere and we really get concerned with that. And my thought process on it is that we need to start getting our content out there even more. [04:06.0]
And I think where it starts is kind of the grassroots, whereas imagine if all of us chiropractors that are doing it the right way, and are patient-centered and ethical, and keeping up with the latest healthcare information that is substantiated, if we would start doing that and getting the content out into our communities consistently, that's how you can change the narrative town by town, city by city, neighborhood by neighborhood, where if you're putting out really good informational content into your community, you can start changing the thought process in the community.
Even if there's a few, there are a few really good chiropractors in my city. We're a bigger city, for sure. Boca Raton is definitely a large suburban city, and there are a handful of chiropractors doing really good work and getting really good content out there, and that's great. I don't necessarily look at it as competition because if we can get a lot of good information out in the community, more people will be seeking us out, us type of chiropractors out and getting it more mainstream. [05:16.5]
So, my challenge to you is what are you doing in your community to change that narrative? What content are you creating? What videos are you producing? How often are you public-speaking? A lot of times you see on Facebook a lot of these chiropractors doing dinners with the doctors. I don't do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to speak negatively on it, but that's just not what I'm going to do. But think about when a chiropractor does that, the tribe they are building. The community or the people that go to that dinner, they don't think really twice about it and they're getting information in a dinner, but they're doing all these tribe-building practices and strategies, and people like that. And so, what are you doing? [06:01.4]
Most likely and unfortunately, in our evidence-informed realm of chiropractic, most of us tend to be putting a lot of letters behind our name, putting up a shingle and thinking, because we're so good at what we do and we know so much, people are going to be knocking down our doors and we're above having to go out and public speak, that we're above having to spend a Saturday morning at a race event or some kind of maybe CrossFit event or whatever, or we're above shooting video, or we're concerned that if I shoot a video and I say one thing wrong and it's not completely right, then my colleagues are going to judge me.
Your colleagues don't give a shit. They're not even watching your videos most likely. You're running these videos for your community. That's your audience. You need to be speaking to them, not to me, not to the other chiropractors that you think are going to judge the content that you put out there. Obviously, if it's beneficial, it's legitimate, and it's not bait and switch type stuff, and you're really just trying to provide information, the audience is going to like that and you'll get better at it. That's the other thing. You will get better at doing this and you'll position yourself really well in the community. [07:18.9]
The amazing thing is you know so much information. Even if you're listening to this and you're only two years out of school, and you don't feel like you know a lot, part of the problem you're dealing with is, again, you're comparing yourself to the Craig Levinsons and the Greg Cooks and Greg Roses and everybody of the world, and you say, I only know a fraction of what they know. Who am I to get on a video or write a blog, or send emails on information?
In your community and compared to the lay public, you know way more about health, especially musculoskeletal health, and so you need to get that information out there. It's amazing how much information you have stored up in your brain and you’ve just got to get it out there, and start creating and trusting the process that you will get better at it. [08:08.8]
It's not going to be perfect right away, just like me and this podcast, just like me when I do public speaking, when I shoot videos. This has been a long journey to continue to improve, and I'm still obviously not perfect at it and never will be, but I'm always willing to push the envelope and grow with.
There are a few concepts that you've probably heard me talk about at some point, if you've listened to me on this podcast for some time, or you're part of the Chiropractic Success Academy or inside my Facebook group, whatever. But there are a few things that I really try to stick with that helped me get over the hump sometimes, and today is a good example.
I'm recording this at 06:50 a.m. I’ve got to start with patients at 07:45. I've got a full packed morning, and done at one o’clock. I was supposed to get this done yesterday, but I'm covering the office fully right now because the NFL Combine is going on. This is the first time I'm not going. I sent my associate there because my wife is due soon, and so no travel for me. [09:16.7]
But I was supposed to get this done yesterday. It was the due date to get it out for two weeks from now, but I missed it because it wasn't a procrastination thing yesterday. It’s just that we got overflooded with patients and the two time slots that I had that I could have recorded in just got eaten up with overflow of patients. So I said, “Okay, I've got to get in it at 06:30 tomorrow morning to get this done or it’s not going to.”
And so, I did that and it was overcoming the resistance and that's kind of principle one that I learned, and that's from the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and he talks about anybody that's a creator. Again, I'm trying to get you to feel like or look at yourself as a creator, because you are, whether you're creating a practice, you're creating a skill set to heal people or you're creating content maybe. [10:10.9]
So, I want you to start thinking of yourself as a creator and there's a lot that goes into that, and unfortunately the resistance of doing it really becomes a problem, and he talks a lot about that. He’s a big author and this book has really become the bible for writers and creators of any type to really overcome that resistance that you have to creating. And maybe that resistance is time management. Maybe you don't feel like you're worthy enough to be creating content. You're afraid of being judged, right? I put out this podcast for a lot of people to listen to and I'm always getting judged, but I'm willing to overcome that resistance of being judged and making mistakes, and looking like a fool sometimes in front of a lot of people.
So, that's principle one. It’s overcoming that, whatever the resistance is that's preventing you from writing that one blog a month or shooting a few videos, or getting the emails out or networking, or public speaking. Whatever that is you need to address, write it down; address it and start working towards overcoming them. [11:17.0]
Number two is a Dan Sullivan special here. The next two are. Obviously, Strategic Coach influences me a lot and I give him so much credit because it is what has helped me grow in the manner I have. One of the things he talks about is the 80 percent approach, which helps prevent perfectionism because perfectionism leads to procrastination.
If you feel like you’ve got to write that blog but you're worried about it being perfect, then it prevents you from sitting down and doing because you know how much of an effort it's going to be, and so, you end up procrastinating. And so, his concept is to just get 80 percent done and then find the next person that can do the other 80 percent. And when you get 80 percent done and then someone else does the other 80 percent, it becomes a 90-something percent thing, and that's a really good piece of creation that you've done. It doesn't have to be 100 percent. [12:18.7]
A couple of examples of that, one for me is this podcast. All I have to do is record or interview the person, and then I send it off to the Podcast Factory and they do everything else. So, I do the first 80 percent and then they do the rest. I'm shooting video. I just tried to get the video shot, and have someone else do the editing and distribution of it. So, there are just other examples of that, but the key point is to notice if you feel like you're becoming a perfectionist in something and realize that that's probably leading to the procrastination. And so, I don't want you to be a perfectionist, okay? I want you to create, get it out there. You'll get better. Your early work is not going to be phenomenal, but it's going to be very useful. Okay? And you'll find your voice. [13:07.6]
And then number three is the four Cs, which definitely you’ve probably heard me talk about if you've listened to me at all, and that is where you're trying to gain confidence. Step one is making the commitment to something, and for that, again, I'm going to just use this podcast and example. A lot of people don't realize, but I had a podcast called The Modern Desk Jockey and I started that in, I believe, it was August 2016, and it was just all about health and wellness for the desk worker.
It was good. I did 88 episodes. I made the commitment to do it and part of that commitment for me was also financial where I paid $1,500 for a really good podcasting course, and also invested in a podcast producer. And so, I put a little bit of money behind it, so that helped me with the commitment. But I was committed. Once I got that course and went through the learning of it, I was committed, and then that led to overcoming the fear of actually recording and distributing it for people to listen to and interviewing people, and that that took courage, so that’s the second C. It’s that if you can really stay committed to something, you'll maintain the courage to overcome that fear. [14:20.4]
Everybody has fears. Some people have the courage to overcome those fears. Some people just look at the fear and go the other direction. So, the courage is number two.
Once you've maintained that courage and obviously done the thing right that leads to a capability, so once I recorded the first four episodes and put it out there, I now had a capability. It didn't mean I was great at it, but I had a capability of podcasting. And then, when you do that long enough, you will be confident, and so that's the formula of how to develop confidence in something, just like I always relate it back to chiropractic. Right?
You made the commitment to go to chiropractic school. You had the courage to show up and stay when it got hard, and fight through those three and a half years or whatever and all the testing, and so you maintained your courage. You started to develop a capability through school, and then when you graduated, you still had a little bit of a capability. You were licensed, so they were saying you are capable, whether you were really or not. [15:21.4]
And then, it's going to take you some years to be confident, right? You're not going to be a confident chiropractor in year one or two. If you are, you're kind of fooling yourself and you're trying to be confident or project that. Sometimes that leads to arrogance and then we don't ever really get better as a practitioner. So, early on, you're not going to be that confident, but you then maybe in year five, 10, 20, whatever, you start to be pretty confident in your skill set, and that's how you could develop obviously the four Cs as it relates to chiropractic. So, I want you to apply that same thing to anything you're not doing that's going to help get your information out to the community. [16:00.6]
And so, to wrap this up a little bit, if you start thinking about how we can really change the narrative in our profession, I really do think it takes a combination of things, and one of them is all of us creating great content in our communities and getting that message out there. And then, what's going to end up happening is it's going to grow your practice, and so you're going to have a thriving practice and then that's going to help change the narrative.
One of the concerning things with the evidence-informed community is too many of you are out there struggling really badly to make a business out of this and you're a martyr for something that is not putting enough food on the table, can't pay off your student loans, struggling to hire someone that you really need to hire, and we have this poverty mindset and this section of our profession, and it's not going to just change. Insurance is not going to get better. Maybe we get some Medicare benefits that are better than they used to be. Maybe we get this, but it's not going to be lucrative per patient, right? It's just not going to happen. [17:08.3]
So, how do you do that? There's some really good chiropractors out there that are doing great things and I highly recommend you check out what they're doing. But a common thread of that is building a tribe. It's getting out and doing workshops. It's public speaking. It's networking. It's shooting videos. It's writing blogs. It’s making sure your Google My Business is great, making sure you have a good website, doing all the things it takes, because for the most part it's just not going to come to you.
Yeah, you might be able to name a couple that it did and they ran into this perfect storm of chiropractic and it all worked out great. But let's just assume you're not them and you need to do the things that are going to actually move the needle for your practice for the community and for the profession, and then that's how I think we can really make some changes. So, start creating content and get information out there. You know a lot of stuff. Your community needs it.
That's the other cool thing about what we do. We're not selling toilet plungers and wrenches and whatever. That can be hard to be exciting to create content around, but people's health, they care about it so much and you have some really good information and we fill a void in the community. [18:21.3]
So, get out there and start creating content. Stop making excuses. It's just getting tiring, right? It really is. It talks to a lot of chiropractors and the excuses are just getting really tiring, and it's not going to change unless you make the change.
Have a good week and practice. I'll be talking to you soon. Hopefully, I wasn't too disheartening for you. I'm excited about everything. I'm excited about the profession. I just think people need to get off their you-know-whats and start getting some stuff done.
Have a great week and talk to you soon.
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