Kats Chiropractic Consultants CHIROpulse

195 Chiropractic Success Doesn’t Just Happen

• Marisa Mateja

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Welcome to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast.  

This week’s topic:   Chiropractic Success Doesn’t Just Happen

The KC CHIROpulse Podcast is designed for Chiropractic professionals ready to elevate their practice to new heights, and is hosted by Kats Consultants coaches Dr Michael Perusich and Dr Troy Fox.  Perusich and Fox are both seasoned experts in Chiropractic business development.  This podcast provides invaluable insights and actionable strategies to help you create a flourishing and sustainable Chiropractic business.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • How success in chiropractic business doesn’t happen by accident
  • Why you have to drive your business from the inside out   
  • Why there is no magic formula for prosperity
  • Why you must always keep a keen eye on profitability
  • …and so much more…

In each episode of KC CHIROpulse, we delve into crucial aspects of building a successful Chiropractic practice, covering topics such as establishing a strong foundation, adopting a patient-centric approach, mastering marketing techniques, achieving financial fitness, fostering effective team building and leadership, integrating technology and innovation, and navigating common challenges in the field.

Whether you're a seasoned chiropractor or just starting your practice, the KC CHIROpulse Podcast offers a wealth of knowledge and personalized practical advice to help you navigate the intricate world of Chiropractic business. Join us on this journey as we explore proven strategies, share success stories, and connect with industry experts to empower you in your pursuit of building a thriving Chiropractic practice.

Don't miss out on the latest insights and expert guidance. Subscribe now and unlock the secrets to taking your Chiropractic practice to the next level. Your success is our priority at Kats Chiropractic Business Advisors.


DISCLAIMER:  The information presented in this broadcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to offer legal, investment, accounting, or medical advice, and represents the opinions of the speakers.  Seek the consultation of a professional for advice in those areas. And remember…your results using this information may be different than described.

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the Kats Consultants CHIROPulse Podcast
When you are ready we can help.


KC CHIROpulse Podcast. Helping Chiropractors keep their pulse on success. Thanks for listening.



Dr. Michael Perusich:

Do you think success will just happen? Hi everybody. Welcome to the KC Chiropulse Podcast, brought to you by Kats Consultants and Chiro Health USA. Today in the studio, myself, Dr. Michael Perus and Dr. Troy Fox. Troy, this is a great topic because we hear this all the time. How come success won't happen for me? How come success happened hasn't happened yet? How come I didn't just walk outta school and I'm successful?

Dr. Troy Fox:

You know, I think Kevin Kisner coined it best. And if you guys don't know who Kevin Kisner is, he's on, um, he's on TV now as a sportscaster for golf, but he played golf for years at a highly professional level. And, uh, he has a foundation and he had a hat. That were, uh, you could give donation and get these hats and they were the coolest hats because they really coined where we're at as chiropractors. And when we're, when we're trying to achieve success and you know what Kevin Kisner says about success, this ain't no hobby boys. Yeah. And here's a guy working at the highest level of professional golf with no guaranteed paycheck every week. Gosh, that sounds familiar, right? We don't have a guarantee paycheck. And he says, this ain't no hobby. I think sometimes we believe that if we just sit there long enough, it'll fall in our laps. And I don't believe that to be true.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

No, it takes a tremendous amount of work. It takes a tremendous amount of intention. It takes having the right business plan. It, and more than that, it, it takes the ability to know when you're going down the wrong path and to turn gears, switch gears and turn the ship around and do something different. You have to own up to your mistakes. You have to be constantly involved in it. There's nothing. An entrepreneur shouldn't want to do that will lead to success. I don't care how early you have to get up. I don't care how many books you have to read, how many coaches you need to hire. You've got to put yourself in a position to be successful and it requires work. A lot of hard work,

Dr. Troy Fox:

and I don't care how uncomfortable you are. Yeah, you, the problem is, is what I hear. And I'm going to get on my soap box for a second, because I hear some of you saying, well, I don't want to do that. That's embarrassing to do that. I can tell you that back in the day, I did things that. I didn't really find a lot of fun. You know, you guys don't have to do a ton of go sit at Walmart spinal screenings nowadays, back in the nineties, that was the thing. We would sit out there all day and you know what? I would get the old hand to the face every once in a while. I'll take a pass or no thank you. Or, you know, before you even said a word, they're already putting their hand out. It's like, Oh my gosh. Or, Oh, what kind of doctor are you? I'm a chiropractor. Oh, you know, we experienced that back in the day and you know what? It was uncomfortable, but you know what? I also ended up with some of the most successful. Patient stories ever from people that encountered me at Walmart. I also, it got a lot of success stories from people that encountered me when I went and walked and went to every business in my small town, a town of 10, 000. So there was a robust main street, every business on that main street and walked in and passed out my card and introduced myself. Was that uncomfortable? Oh my gosh, I am not one of those gregarious. I love to speak to groups. And I have fun talking to my patients. You put me in that type of situation. It's like somebody was pulling my fingernails off. Well, I was doing it, but I did it. It's not about your comfort level, but guess what it is about. Do you want to be successful or what's more uncomfortable sitting in your office with zero patients coming in the door or going out and talking to some people and introducing yourself? Oh my gosh, it's so scary.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

We need to take a quick break, but I want to come back and I want to talk about comfort versus success. So we're talking about the road to success and how you have to work at making it happen. In other words, the road to success is always under construction. Somebody said that that's not my quote, but we'll be, uh, we'll be right back after this. We're going to, we're going to jump into this topic a little bit deeper.

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Dr. Michael Perusich:

All right, everybody. Welcome back to the KC Chiropulse podcast, Troy. We're talking about success and whether it happens overnight and whether it takes a lot of work and you touched on something a second ago before the break about being comfortable and personally, I think. If you're going to be a successful entrepreneur, you better get comfortable with being uncomfortable because you're not posting yourself outside of your box. And you talked about doing spinal screenings at Walmart. I did them at Walgreens. And one time I had somebody come up to me and hand me 20 and say, I hope this will help feed your family. They thought I was out there begging on the corner, you know, talk about you. For every one of those patients, I got five patients that loved me and we did great things for, and you know, those are just the things we did to build our practice. I can remember walking the neighborhood and feeling like a politician because I'm putting door hangers on people's doors and I'm talking to people in their yards. And you know, I remember one guy asked me if I was politician. I said, no, I'm, I'm a new chiropractor in town. Oh my gosh. Well, that's great. Tell me about your practice. You know, you know, got to get out and go to where people are.

Dr. Troy Fox:

You know why you were good at that? I'm going to tell you why you were good at that. It's simple psychology for you youngsters out there that played video games, right? When you started playing the game, there was always a cheat code. You could look it up. My kids would do that online. If they got, got to a point, they'd get stuck. They do the cheat code and they could jump ahead in the game or get so many credits to help them or whatever. Folks, we have, we, we live in a world where everybody thinks there's a cheat code where you don't have to go from start to finish all the way through. And you believe that you can actually jump part, the hard part. And it's not possible. No, you and I didn't grow up that way. So what we did is somebody said, you got to get to the finish line and it's over here and you put your head down and did it. Even if somebody was handing you 20 bucks, hoping to, you should have told him it's 35 for two large buckets of chicken, by the way. Uh, but you, you, you did what you needed to do. You put your head down and went after it. So for you guys that are younger, we paved the way for you guys, by the way, because who's doing spinal screenings at Walmart anymore? Not very many people. We've achieved a level of success that doesn't require that anymore. People are seeking out chiropractors, but here's what you do need. You need a face in the community that you're in. You cannot sit behind your desk and just hope that they come through your door. What did Steve, what did Steve jobs say? Cause I want to relate this to you guys as chiropractors, you guys really are what Steve jobs has said, and I love this quote. So what did Steve jobs say about success?

Dr. Michael Perusich:

So I'm paraphrasing it just slightly, but he said, I was successful because I'm smarter than you at what I do.

Dr. Troy Fox:

Yes.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

And it's true.

Dr. Troy Fox:

That's you guys chiropractors.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

You're, you're doctors. Yeah. You're smarter than the average patient you're going to meet on the street. Yeah. And yet far too often I see you guys completely frightened about going out and talking to people.

Dr. Troy Fox:

And then you upload. Yeah.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

And, and so you just sit in your offices expecting the front door to open. And I'm going to tell you, if it does open, it's not going to be a great patient.

Dr. Troy Fox:

Right.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Because the door doesn't just open to the good patients. You have to go out and bring them in. It's kind of like that other quote. We should call this one the quote show. But yeah, it's like that other quote about if you want to find success, if you want your ship to sail, sometimes you got to swim out to it. Well, I'll take that one one step further. Sometimes you have to build the ship. Yeah, before you can swim out to it. Yeah. And so you've got to go out and you've got to build who you are in people's minds out in your community that does not happen with you sitting inside your office.

Dr. Troy Fox:

Yeah, I'm going to go out on a limb and tell you that if you are going to or are waiting for somebody to hand you that success there, you're waiting for somebody to hand you that golden ticket, that pot of gold. I can tell you right now that you're probably going to wither and die on the vine. It isn't going to happen. You're either going to go bankrupt. You're going to end up being a Walmart greeter, which they don't even have those anymore. So I'm not sure what you're going to do because you can't even do that. Um, or you're going to end up in another profession bitter about chiropractic because everybody else made it and you didn't.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Did you call it a profation?

Dr. Troy Fox:

A profation.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah, your Kansas accent coming out.

Dr. Troy Fox:

Yeah,

Dr. Michael Perusich:

you're, you're absolutely right. You know, you, you've got, I, I talked to doctors. I talked to one actually just this morning, he said, Oh my gosh, you just can't make it in chiropractic anymore. And I just, I wanted to throw something across the room. I'm like, what are you talking about?

Dr. Troy Fox:

There's

Dr. Michael Perusich:

never been a better time. I know we hear about the Mercedes eighties and all that. There's, there's no better time to be successful in chiropractic than right now. Mm hmm. Right now, because Troy, you said a little bit ago, we have been pushed so far up on the totem pole of healthcare options in this country. Thanks in large part to the pandemic, but yeah. You almost, it's like fishing in a pond without bait. There's so many fish in the pond that they just jump on your hook, but you got to take your pole to the pond and put the hook in the water.

Dr. Troy Fox:

The eighties was the gimmicky let's take advantage of insurance days. And unfortunately, I'm just being honest about this. There was a lot of that that happened, but what you're seeing in 2024 is a genuine want and need for chiropractic care. And all you have to do is be visible to that public and you have to be endearing. In other words, you have to be approachable. Yes. So who are you? Why do they want to

Dr. Michael Perusich:

come see you?

Dr. Troy Fox:

Yeah. Can you help them? That's why also when you're, when you're doing your Facebook stuff all the time, if you're not out in the community all the time, You have to be doing things that are not static posts on Facebook. People need to get to know who you are and that's, it may not be personable personable, but if you're chit chatting with them in a very personable way, it's not, I'm not telling you that you can still sit behind your desk and never leave your office, but it's a, it's a, a minimal substitute. For being out there and personable with the public is they at least get to know a little bit about your personality, but what does that say? People want to endear themselves to you. They want to know who you are. Most people don't just call because they drove by your office. Sometimes it happens. If you're the only show in town, fine. My little town I live in, I'm the only show in town. Some people call me because they saw my office. Hey, saw your office. I scheduled, I got a patient tomorrow that's doing that. I don't know the person. I've never met them. They don't know me. So this is going to be like a blind date. How many of you like blind

Dr. Michael Perusich:

dates and even see my practice from the road?

Dr. Troy Fox:

Yeah.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah. So you've got to have

Dr. Troy Fox:

that, you got to have that personable touch.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah. People knew who we were not because of the sign on the road or they, they had heard of our office. They knew us because we injected ourselves into the community. Whatever way you,

Dr. Troy Fox:

you know, why we injected ourselves into the community though, because we refuse to fail.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Yeah, it's not going to

Dr. Troy Fox:

be a success. It wasn't an, uh, I remember getting out of school going, I don't have an option to fail.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

So if you're sitting in your practice and all you can think about is failure, all you can think about is I don't have any patients right now. If you're new in practice. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps. You have a degree that says I'm a doctor. I have attained a level of education where people will pay me money for my knowledge, but you have to go out and find the people that match your personality well enough that they want to come in and be your patient. You'll never find them sitting in your office and sitting there boohooing in your office that I don't have any patients and I'm not making any money. It's just not an option. If you want to be successful, you got to get out. And so I'm going to get on my soapbox for a minute. If you've been in practice for a while and you're sitting in your office boohooing, cause you don't have any patients. Wake up because at one time you did, if you're still in practice, you've had some patience, you've had some success. What made that success happen? Go repeat those things. I promise you it was probably because you got out of your office and you don't want to do it anymore. But if you want to be an entrepreneur, you want to own a practice, I don't care if it's chiropractic practice or a shoe store, you've got to go out and bring the business in the door. So I want to talk about next steps when we come back from this break. Um, and what do you need to do to quit the boohoo to put yourself on the, on the path to success and how to keep yourself there.

Dr. Troy Fox:

Yeah. You got to have a roadmap, so let's talk about that after the break.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Okay. We'll be right back.

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Dr. Michael Perusich:

All right, everybody. Welcome back to the KC Chiropulse podcast. We are kind of on our soapbox a little bit today, just a little, just a little about creating your own road to success and that it doesn't just happen overnight. And Troy, we mentioned that we were going to talk about some next steps. So here's my first next step. Make a list of all the businesses that are within six blocks of you, one mile of you, two miles of you, depending on your, on your town and your location, who is by you, what can you do to go by and just say, Hey, I'm here. You know, here's what we do in our practice. Come over and visit our practice. Check it out. See how great we are. Can I take you to lunch? You've been a successful business person. I'd love to have coffee with you. Whatever your approach is. Go introduce yourself to them. Then the other thing I want you to do is make a list of two or three civic organizations. One could be the chamber, other civic organizations or things like the Kiwanis club, the lion's club, the optimist club, whatever, become a member, become a speaker, go to those meetings, talk to the speakers after they're done, ask them, Hey, can I, can I take you for coffee some morning? I just want to hear how you became so successful. Don't walk up to him and say, Hey, if you ever need care, give me a call. Here's my card. Then I'm going to do anything.

Dr. Troy Fox:

Now

Dr. Michael Perusich:

that's called building relationships. And when you build relationships, that's where your referrals come from. Go.

Dr. Troy Fox:

Here's also what you didn't hear in step number one. You notice we said, make a list. And then make another list, make a list of the businesses, make a list of civic organizations. What we didn't say is contact Facebook and one of those chintzy ads that says they're going to get you 25 or 30 new patients in the, oh my

Dr. Michael Perusich:

gosh, nails on a chalkboard.

Dr. Troy Fox:

It, it, here's the thing. We're trying to inject you into the community, not drive you farther away. If you want to do some chintzy junk. You're going to make it even worse.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Quit going after the cold leads. Go create warm leads.

Dr. Troy Fox:

And you can't buy your way out of this. That's the thing you think about it this way. Think about what are your patients that's in a fight or flight response. Can they supplement or exercise their way out of that? Well, to an extent, maybe they can get a little bit of help, but your patients are a train wreck for a reason because they need their nervous system reset. You don't know it. I know it. Yeah. It's not going to change until they do the right thing. So guess what? We're telling you the same thing. Make those lists. Now, if you don't know what to do and it's like, Oh, I can't even figure out how to make a list. I know you, I know you know how to do that, but if you don't know what to do, you do that and you're still in a pickle, I would say. Getting coaching is a very positive thing to do. And you may say, I can't afford coaching. Sometimes coaching is a lot cheaper than the alternative of failing. Number one, and number two, I think it's surprisingly cheap to get the information you need to boost your practice forward so you can start. Making leaps and strides in the right direction. So sometimes coaching is a proper step. Now, if you're resistant to that and you want to try to just do some of it, we're giving you good advice here, but we have a lot more behind the scenes as well.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

We also can help hold you accountable and all of that. I I'm sorry. Are you sitting out there telling me that a couple of hundred bucks for good coaching that's going to add 000 to your practice is a bad investment, dude, that's going to cut into my four

Dr. Troy Fox:

hybrid fund. I'm not going to buy a new golf club this month. I can't do coaching.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

You have to start thinking about things as an investment in your practice. So road to success takes work. Part of that work is investing back into your practice. Part of it's being innovative, coming up with new ideas. And I'm, I'm telling you right now, you're not smart enough out there to have all the great ideas. You just aren't. So if you want to be a great doctor, you can't be a great business person at the same time. I'm telling you, it's hard. Very few of us can ever make that work. So that's where coaches come into play to help you gain the accountability, gain the ideas, help you innovate, but innovate from a standpoint that makes sense. So you're not repeating mistakes that absolutely will not work.

Dr. Troy Fox:

So

Dr. Michael Perusich:

if you want to be successful, you have to first choose to be successful. You have to choose and say to yourself, I'm going to do whatever it takes. I don't care if I have to get up early in the morning, read some extra books, hire a coach, go join some civic organizations, go meet some people, get out of my office. Whatever it's going to take. Tell yourself right now, I want to be a successful doctor. Tell yourself right now, I can be a successful doctor.

Dr. Troy Fox:

And I don't care if you write down, I'm not going to be a loser. You can do it however you want, but you write it down and you put it on your desk. So that way, every time you start being a loser, you start not being as successful as you want, you look at it and you're disappointed in yourself because you didn't do what you knew you could do. That's how you get successful is by. Self analyzing on a very regular basis and realizing where your inadequacies lie. Once you start figuring that out, you can start figuring out how to move forward. But if you stick your head in the sand and just say, chiropractic is something I can't make money at anymore. And I don't care. You must be in an area where people are really utilizing chiropractic. In my area, that doesn't work. You're going to fail. You got to fail every time it's, Oh my gosh. Yeah, it is for sure. But that's, that's the roadmap to success is to get off your soap box about how bad your practice or chiropractic in general is and get to work, make it great. Nobody's doing it for you. Nobody's going to hand this to you.

Dr. Michael Perusich:

Every morning before your feet hit the floor, say to yourself, I am a successful doctor. Just say it. Yeah. Start believing in yourself. All right, everybody. We always appreciate everybody tuning in. Thanks for subscribing. Be sure to share this podcast with your friends, your neighbors, your relatives. Um, other doctors, especially. Um, so we appreciate all of you out there. Our podcast is growing like crazy. Go check us out at Kats, consultants. com. See all the great things that we're doing. Get some great freebies on there to help you build your practice. So from all of us here at Kats consultants, and on behalf of Chiro health USA, we will see you next time.

Dr. Troy Fox:

See ya.