Retention Based Practice™ with Dr. Jamie Richards

Communication is ALWAYS one of the requirements for success in practice, business and life. During a crisis, what you say, how you say it and who you say it to becomes of the utmost importance.

You'll find three very unique groups that you'll need to be speaking to with unique narratives for each.

On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors we cover how to communicate during a crisis.

What we covered

• The two fundamental starting points for every conversation during a crisis, but also when times are more chill.
• How to communicate to staff. What do they need to hear? How should it be said? How to bring them into the decision making process and allow them to regain a sense of control.
• The narrative for your existing patients. What to say in order to make them feel safe, position your care properly and avoid the one question you dread hearing from them!
• What should you be saying to your leads and prospects? What should you not be saying?

Click HERE for full show notes.

Click HERE for more information about Life By Design LITE.

These are crazy times.

No matter how to slice it, the current landscape for chiropractic and essentially every other business on the planet looks grim.

We're weeks into closures, quarantines, social distancing and the economy is in a downward spiral.

The worst part, not only is it bad, but we don't have any real idea as to when it's going to get any better.

Job losses, businesses closing their doors for good and major financial doom... how in the world can we stay "growth minded" during this turmoil?

That's exactly what we explore on today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors.

What We Covered

• These are unprecedented times for most of us and especially for chiropractors. What are the first steps to stabilizing yourself and you business?
• What financial actions can be taken to protect your family and give you a sense of peace in order to forge ahead.
• Perspective. Use this mathematical formula to access the power of perspective. No one was wishing for something like this to happen but when you understand your "number" you may find out you would have taken this break if it were offered under different circumstances.
• The exact action steps you can pull the trigger on to start feeling safe and move yourself into a growth mindset.

Click HERE for full show notes.

Click HERE for more information about Life By Design LITE.

We were all ready and fired up to start our foray into email marketing...

When to send emails, how often, how to create the content, follow up emails, funnels and much more...then we realized, we might be skipping an important step.

What is a list and why do you need one?

As it turns out we were putting the cart before the horse and taking a step back led to a fantastic podcast episode!

Enjoy this episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors.

What We Covered

• The importance of having a list and why great brands put time and attention on building one.
• Are your Facebook, Instagram and YouTube subscribers considered a list?
• The number one platform and source you need to build your list on.
• What is a CRM and which one do we recommend?
• The list of thousands you might already have right under your nose. Mine this database first before jumping onto social and testing your hand at lead generation.

To learn more about ConvertKit click HERE.

What do you say at Day 2?

What do you say at future reports?

What do you say at the table?

Let's start by saying, what I say isn't necessarily what you should be saying.

Personally, I made the mistake of copying what Reggie or other great communicators would say to their patients and it took me years to realize it wasn't just what I was saying but WHO I was that was saying it.

That's not to suggest having a well designed, strategic approach to your communication isn't helpful... it is...when it's authentically coming from you.

With that context, here it is. Exactly what you're often asking for...what to say.

This is a very small slice of what happens at The Life By Design TRAINING Camp. Take note, I said TRAINING, as that's what makes this event unique.

If you listen closely and more than once, and I suggest you do, you'll find important nuances that accumulate together to create an experience culminating in a strong win-win agreement.

What I Covered

• How to create an environment that encourages clear, distraction free communication.
• Why the 2nd report is likely making or breaking your practice growth.
• Learn an authentic communication strategy that almost feels like it should be illegal to use.

Click below to learn more about Life By Design Training Camp:

https://www.lifebydesignforchiropractors.com/tc

Do you have trouble sleeping at night because of what you wished you had said to a patient or prospect?

Maybe your insomnia is a product of the queasiness you feel from what you actually said but wished you hadn't!

We've all heard about the advice some consultants have given to determine your day one & two success based on whether the person sitting in front of you was left in tears or not.

On the flip side, some leaders propose chiropractic should be a decision based only on it's life enhancing benefits and positive outcomes.

What's right? What works? What will allow you to find that deep sleep and, at the same time, your patients to get what they need from you.

What I Covered

• What is a realistic level of concern you should, as a doctor, communicate to a patient or prospect?
• What are the lasting effects of manipulating a response such as crying or extreme upset? It goes far beyond the impact to your patient, it leaves an imprint on your brand that can be difficult to cleanse.
• Authentic Concern. What is it? How can you start to develop your own guideline for communicating it to a patient?
• Who does poor or a lack of communication hurt the most... the patient or you?

Could you afford your chiropractic care?

That's a question I was once asked by a speaker from the stage and unfortunately the answer was "no".

I say unfortunately, not because I couldn't afford my chiropractic care if I were the prospect, but because the thought that I couldn't afford it prompted me to start worrying that...

1. Others couldn't afford chiropractic care either and worse...

2. It was my responsibility to make sure that they could.

Like most responsibilities in my life, I took this one seriously and if you've listened to this podcast the rest was history.

Years of good intentioned but very bad business decisions led to low revenues, non existent profits and more stress than I ever could have imagined I'd be able to handle.

Fast forward a decade (almost two) and exposure to the right people with correct thinking... life and practice are much better.

The goal of today's podcast is to help you avoid the massive pitfall that destroyed my practice before it ever started and kept me fighting for my practice life for years.

What I Covered

• How "the question" and my vision for a dream practice come together to create a horrifying experience.
• The exact (and embarrassing) family plans I once lived by and why they were so destructive.
• The emotions I projected onto my patients... if you feel the same, it's time to take a deep look at your practice and make a change before it's too late.
• How it all changed. What was the turning point?
• How to correctly value and price your care to maximize impact, enhance the experience for your members and leverage the profits for your dream life.

Can you believe it's 2020?

It wasn't that long ago Y2K was going to be the end of the world as we know it...I mean how could we survive when our desktop computers couldn't register the year 2000?

Fast forward 20 years and the world is still here, it continues to evolve at an accelerated pace and that includes your practice!

You can either keep up or get crushed. Which will it be?

On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors we share our practice predictions for 2020. What's hot, what's not and what we see on the horizon.

What We Covered

• Where will your leads come from? Is online the only way to go or will offline traffic make a comeback?
• This lever is the fastest and easiest way to increase your practice profitability...are you willing to pull it this year? We think you should!
• The one question that will spark a renaissance in the practice retention and birth more creativity than you've probably felt in years.
• Email marketing is dead... or is it? What we see on the horizon for showing up in your prospects inboxes and inspiring them to read and action your messages.
• What is your niche and how can you crush it?

When it comes to your brand and your practice... who is the hero?

Is it you, your business or is it the prospect and practice member?

Great brands find a way to create a customer focused culture and your chiropractic practice should be no different!

On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors I share my experience from the past 6 months during which we've invested a large volume of time and energy into making our members the hero of the story.

What I Covered

• What great businesses do differently and how you can start thinking about your business in the same way.
• What do your prospects want and how understanding them on the deepest level gives you the upper hand over your competitors.
• How to start positioning your practice for prospects to begin the process of knowing, liking and finally trusting you.
• The one unexpected (and enormous) benefit to shifting the attention to creating an extremely customer focused environment.
• Why developing the "hero" mentality can help spark a movement in your practice.

Growth - expansion, more visits, more revenue, more new cases, more patients stockpiling in your practice.

These are not the only metrics but they are a key performance indicators that would indicate "growth".

Profitability - the bottom line, what's left after your gross revenue minus expenses.

While growth and profitability are not mutually exclusive, it is very difficult to put your attention on both at the same time.

A growth focus requires a certain mindset and a willingness to reinvest capital into developing areas within your business.

On today's episode Life By Design For Chiropractors, we map out the required information and action steps to determine which focus you should have and the consequences of each.

What We Covered

• Growth vs. Profitability mindset. Start by understanding your goal.
• The consequences of focusing on profitability too early in your business life cycle. Why it will massively slow your growth and cost you more in the long run.
• When it's time to shift from growth to retaining profit as your primary objective and what to expect in your business.
• How much profit do you need to keep and how much can be reinvested?

Wouldn't it be a "dream come true" if patients told you what their check-up frequency should be and they actually got it right?

There came a time in practice when we finally figured out how to build engaged patients who were committed to the beginning stage of care but at the time, we still struggled with how to keep that engagement high beyond the first few months and no surprise... growth was mediocre at best.

Not only did I not know how to explain what to do next, but I found myself feeling anxious about asking patients to continue down the path at an ideal frequency that I had in mind for their care.

After digging deep on why we were failing to stockpile patients following their corrective care phase, I developed and re-developed (and re-developed again) a framework that simply works.

Led by a massive reduction in stress and anxiety, the new model worked to transition patients smoothly into the next phase of care and even better, they told me correctly how often they should be getting checked!

I couldn't believe it, but after 8 years of using this communication strategy... it just works.

On today's episode of Life By Design For Chiropractors, I take you inside a live recording of this topic from our Life By Design Training Camp.

What I Covered

• The pitfalls and mistakes most often made at the end corrective care that will cut your acceptance rates drastically and leave you feeling frustrated.
• How to schedule for an end of phase review visit.
• Why the review at the end your first phase of care is the most important visit for your entire practice.
• My favorite and most successful communication framework. You'll be shocked at how well it works and leads patients to make decisions about their care that perfectly match with your expectations.