By Dr. Barbara Eaton
I am really proud to say that since April of 2017 I have been on almost 600 private coaching calls. These are one-on-one calls between the doctor and
From that, I have learned A TON!
One theme I see over and over again is that most individuals are really craving being in a community of like-minded individuals. This is actually a good thing, because our greatest threat to living our optimum potential is a low-demand environment. So many times, whether we’re in practice or at school, we settle for being around people who have a poverty consciousness, or people who are “dooms-dayers.” But, it’s really important to surround yourself with individuals who think differently; who drive hard, who accept no excuses, and who want the very best for you, just like they want for themselves! Even if this community is online!
Another common theme I have seen is that there is a lack of conviction in what we are doing as chiropractors. So I’ve laid out a few lies involving our conviction. My hope is that this will help you to be more conscious of the things you believe, and how those things are affecting the actions you’re taking. Then, as always, my hope is that you will choose to TAKE ACTION in changing the way that you think and act, so that your thoughts and actions are more aligned with your true convictions.
- 1. LIMITING BELIEFS AND SELF DOUBT.
Limiting beliefs and self doubt, or in other words, a lack of conviction! I’m amazed at the number of doctors who have such a limited conviction about chiropractic. Whether it’s in the reported findings, or staying in the sale in order to lay out care instructions, I have seen way to many docs be unsure of the value that they are providing for people. And then, they are shocked that the practice member isn’t committing to chiropractic care!
It saddens me to see a doctor that doesn’t have the skillset to stay in the sale, and to overcome the objection!
So here’s the deal, you cannot provide value until a sale has been made, right? You’re not going to start chiropractic care with them until they start paying you, right? So in order for you to provide value to them, a sale has to be made; they have to at least pay for that adjustment that they are going to receive, and that’s when we start providing value.
Now, I am not saying that doing a health talk does not provide value, because it does. Educating a practice member is of course providing value. Once they are becoming educated, this will hopefully help with retention. However, if all they do is come to your health talk, or all you do is read blogs, and you don’t take any action, then there was no value transferred to that person. Does that make sense?
So, something that you really need to get in your head is that if you don’t do everything you can to care for that person, then you are actually being selfish. Let me say it in a different way. If you have something that will help someone else, and you choose to not give it to them, because they don’t see the value of it, or for any other reason, well, you still aren’t helping them! Even if someone does not know that they need help, if you know it, then it is still your responsibility to do something about it, right?
When someone doesn’t see the value of something, what is really being said is that they don’t understand what it is and how it can benefit them. So your job then becomes to show them how you can help them!
As a chiropractor, you have to find ways to educate people wherever you can, so that you will be able to provide them with care and value! It’s not about you, or being rejected, it’s about teaching them, so that they can make an informed decision, which is probably going to be to receive your care!
All right, so, here’s something interesting about limiting beliefs and self-doubt. Self-confidence is a huge subject matter in our country, right? I went on Amazon and found that there are over 3,000 book and Kindle titles on the subject of self-confidence! So, here’s my tips on self-confidence. Number one ,it takes action. Number two, it requires you to be in an environment where individuals are living bigger than you.
If you’re the wealthiest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. If you’re the most successful person in the room, you are in the wrong room. It’s time to level up. If in class you’re studying with individuals who get worse grades than you, you are studying with the wrong people.
“Gosh, Barb, that sounds harsh.” Okay, well, you will never help people by lowering who you are. You can help the most people by stepping it up, being bigger, being bolder, being more courageous, and being more convicted of where you stand. You don’t grow your self-confidence by just thinking about it, you grow it by doing, by making mistakes and moving past those mistakes.
- 2. YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TO SELL CHIROPRACTIC.
Not one penny has ever been made in any business on this planet, ever, without a sale happening. So the lie that you shouldn’t have to sell yourself, or you shouldn’t have to sell chiropractic, is completely untrue! There, I said it, and now I hope that you adopt that truth. Because you do have to sell, and if you’re not good at it, please learn!
I do lots of training in the Boot Camp on how to feel great about being a sales person. I do this because here’s the deal, if you’re not convicted about chiropractic, or if you’re not convicted about the care instructions that you have given to your practice member, you’re not going to be able to make the sale. Whether it’s just for chiropractic adjustments, or it’s for the other things in your office, if you’re not convicted that that is the very best thing for that individual to get those lasting results, then you will fall short! They will push back, and you won’t know what to do about it.
So, chiropractic car does have to be sold and it is your responsibility to get as good as sales as you possibly can!
- 3. YOU SHOULD HAVE THE CONFIDENCE BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING.
Confidence isn’t grown because we think about it, confidence is grown because we do it. Think about adjusting class, right? When we all started, we didn’t have any confidence in our adjusting skills, why? Because we hadn’t been doing it. But then the more we practiced, the more we rehearsed, the more confident that we got!
Individuals say to me, “Oh well public speaking is so easy for you.” You know why? Because I practice. I didn’t have confidence before I started doing it. Confidence comes from doing it. A child doesn’t have confidence riding a bike until they do what? Until they start doing it. So if you’re sitting back thinking you’re going to grow your confidence because you sit back, I promise you, it’s not going to grow. Your conviction is not going to grow until you step it up and require individuals, first yourself, to live to the standard that you have for yourself.
Another thing about confidence and conviction, if in your report of findings, you’re giving care instructions that are something like this, “You know, we’ll start with three times a week and see how it goes.” Then we have a problem right there!
Let me tell you why: because no leader ever said, “Well we’ll start with this and just see how it goes.”
Can you imagine if you signed up with a coach or you signed up for chiropractic college, and they said, you know what, start with these classes and we’ll see how it goes. You’d be like, “I’m outta here, I’m goin’ somewhere else,” right?
Because they didn’t lay out for you the future, they didn’t give you any kind of confidence about where you’re headed, and they didn’t have conviction about how you’re going to go from here to there.
So, please, lay out care instructions that are in agreement with your convictions about chiropractic care. If you truly are convicted that chiropractic care is for a lifetime, will you please lay out care instructions for that?
In the Boot Camp we teach you this. I’ll give it to you here.
So this is what I would say after their report of findings.
“There are three parameters that I use in forming my care instructions. Number one, your health history and the findings of your exams. Number two, my experience helping countless others just like you, and here are ten of their stories. Number three, what you told me you wanted yesterday during the consultation.”
So here is an example of how the conversation would go.
“Hey, Michele! Yesterday you said, hey Dr. Barb, y’know what, I want to get outta pain and I wanna stay like that forever.” “Beautiful, so, here’s what’s gonna happen, you’ll initially be checked three times a week for the next 12 weeks, then twice a week for 24 weeks after that. Every 12 visits you’ll have a re-exam, and the visit after that an extended consultation to discuss your progress. I always want to make sure that you’re on the best care plan to maximize your healing potential, how does that sound to you?”
“Oh, that sounds great.”
From there you would dialogue with them about what sort of benefits they can expect as a result of the care they will be receiving. Your conversation with them should be a dialogue. Three statements and a question, three statements and a question. Don’t have diarrhea on your practice members, because they don’t like being talked at, but they certainly like having a dialogue with you.
I hope you have found these tips helpful and I certainly hope you TAKE ACTION and use this information to provide others with VALUE!
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