Chiropractic is Enough, But Adjusting is Not

Blasphemous title right? 😳 

Right now the part of our profession who loves slinging probiotics and slaying primitive reflexes with tiny paintbrushes 🖌 is jumping for joy 😁 at the title of this blog post, while simultaneously the green-jacket-wearing principled portion of it wants to beat me senselessly with a copy of "The Bigness of the Fellow Within" or trap me under a Zenith Hi-Lo table! 😝 

Sorry to have roped you all in here, but the topic of this blog and take home point I want to drive home is NOT at all what you think it is with your first perceptions from the title! 

I'm not talking about the clinical end of chiropractic here, because if you've been inside of our practice then you know that while we absolutely love and support our patients when needed with healthy living, lifestyle support, or any other host of wellness endeavors... it is NOT even remotely close to the focus of our clinical care programs, which are 💯 subluxation-centered, neurologically-focused, and as principled chiropractic as can be. 

They get adjusted, they get empowered and educated, and they enjoy an incredible patient experience every time they walk thru our doors! The ultimate trifecta to crazy impact and success in chiropractic, nothing more, nothing less!!! 

But for this blog I'm taking on the reality that when it comes to what it takes for us as chiropractors on the job each and every day, learning how to be great at adjusting is simply not enough. 

I wish it was though! For real, is that not the absolute BEST part of the job!?! Just roaming back and forth from room-to-room, smiling 😃, chatting, laughing, educating, and adjusting (aka, slaying subluxations). 

If you take out the marketing, management, exams, reports, etc. it would literally feel like you're on a mission trip each and every day! And if you've ever done one, you know the pure joy and ease with which you can adjust hundreds of kids and people per day and leave with more energy than you went in with!

For the vast majority of us, it's our absolutely FAVORITE part - adjusting! Compared especially to marketing or leading and managing our team, it's like Doritos versus Kale chips. Everyone freaking loves Doritos (although it's hard to trust Cool Ranch people)! 

We love adjusting so much, we most commonly tie up nearly all of our self worth and success measurements in it. You know, the holy grail question in chiropractic "How many per week do you see?" 

But even if we look at this thing from a metric perspective, the volume we see is not near as important as the value we bring. The "Office Visit Average" from a financial perspective really shows your value in the financial 💰sense, and it incorporates exams and every other service you provide... showing clearly that even from a business perspective, adjusting alone is not what your business model is made up of. 

Now don't hear (read) me wrong here... I am absolutely NOT trying to downgrade or limit the power and value of the chiropractic adjustment. It is THEE THING that makes the miracles happen for millions. 

BUT...

First they have to hear about it - Branding and Marketing. 

Second, they have to trust you - Certainty, Empathy, & Authority

Third, they have to understand it and agree to it - Communication & Conversions. 

Fourth, they have to be scheduled, checked in, greeted, payment collected, experience generated, etc. - Team, Technology, & Systems

And then, finally, they can be adjusted. 

This blog is not at all designed to try and limit the power of the adjustment, not in immeasurable life-changing elements or straight statistical and financial measurements... but it is 💯designed to help you see how vitally important it is that that you are a 10/10 in certainty, empathy, branding, marketing, communication, conversion, leadership, and more. 

If all you bring to the table (literally) is the adjustment, then you are absolutely making a massive difference in this world.

But, how much MORE impact could you make if you committed to learning and excelling at ALL of those elements as well? 

• What if you could explain subluxation just as artfully and beautifully as you slay it (adjust)? 
• What if you could read the market and place your message just right, just as exceptionally as you can read an Insight Scan or X-Ray and select the perfect Care Plan? 
• What if you could find the exact emotional challenge and real, actual life goals a parent has for their child within 5 minutes of talking, exactly like you can find the primary subluxation within 5 minutes of looking? 

Being a Palmer grad, I was blessed to frequently hear stories of Dr. DD Palmer and Dr. BJ Palmer, and always remember the parable of Dr. Palmer saying we should "charge them for the education, and give the adjustment for free." 😎 

If 2020 taught us anything, it's how critically important the empowerment and educational part of chiropractic is! Did your patients see you as truly essential and keep showing up no matter what, or did they stop care and stay home? 

Those who know, understand, and live out our principles are still living a healthy, active, proactive life... not stuck at home, hiding, living in fear. As Dr. Barge taught so well in my favorite book 📖 of all time, "Life Without Fear" is absolutely the best life! That life comes to our patients not just through the adjustment, but the education! 

Doc, it's time we collectively as a profession stop whining and complaining about the "other elements" of our jobs like branding, marketing, communicating, team training, and leadership! 

How much would everything in your practice and your life change if you absolutely kicked ass at ALL elements of the job, instead of just one? 

The moment I made the shift from "hating" marketing and management, to straight up LOVING it just as much as slaying subluxations... was the moment we took off and have never looked back! 

Tackle each of those other elements EXACTLY in the same way you did adjusting, following this simple 2-step formula: 

1. Study, learn, train, get educated 📚 - find a mentor, a course, a seminar series where you can learn what you don't know 
2. Practice, practice, practice - if you try a new form or marketing or communication and you suck at it initially, well, you sucked at adjusting back in school and early on too so keep going 

Parents and families in your community are literally starving right now for a new path, and a different course to lead their family on. They are fed up with the fear and artificial approaches to health. The last year has "woke" up more families than ever, and is moving them TOWARDS us! 

As 2021 rolls in, commit to becoming the most kick ass Hope Dealing Marketer of all-time! Take your Day One Consultation & Education, and Day Two ROF and Conversions to unheard of levels! Stop using Table Talk to bash the media and talk politics, and teach TIC and share our principles instead! Be calm, confident, and more clear than ever as you Lead your Team this coming year! 

There is so much MORE you offer the world than "just" the adjustment doc, lean into it, learn more of it, love it... and let it rip! 

Love ya! 

Dr. Tony Ebel & The Pediatric Experience