August 2002

‘Drop the Dead Fish’
And Other Handy Practice Tips
By Ivan Delman, DC

The ancient Greek philosopher Rodan of Alexandria had an excellent take on professional happiness: “Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself; you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.”

That’s not to say there won’t be bumps along the way; but if you can find professional happiness,regardless, you’ll have something no one can ever take away. And with each trial and tribulation, you will become a better doctor and businessperson.

Listed here are examples of some lessons I’ve learned from mentors and as a result of my making some horrendous mistakes:

• Choices: If your life stinks, that’s because you’ve made the decision to pick up a “dead fish.” You didn’t have to pick up that fish. It was your choice. If you do make a mistake and pick up a dead fish, it’s up to you to drop it.

We all know people who have a history of failure. I’m sure you have friends who consistently make poor business decisions and whose projects always seem to end in failure. When you discuss the reasons for the failure, they will tell you how someone else goofed up, took advantage of them, or whatever. This type of thinking tends to destroy an endeavor right out of its starting gate.

Paraphrasing Murphy’s Law, “If you choose a course of action and expect to lose, you will!”

If you examine why certain people consistently seem to fail, you will see that the majority of those failures are a result of poor choices that were consistently repeated. Those poor choices were most likely caused by a negative mind set. Those poor folks expect to lose… and they fulfill their expectations. Their negative mind sets can be changed only if they decide to do that.

For example, at one time, I needed an office manager who had the capability of handling the details of our office operations and for several businesses. I also needed someone to handle the supervision of the personnel involved in those ventures. A friend of mine was looking for a job and had a talent for details and handling personnel. At the time I first talked to him, he held down a management job for an international company; however, he repeatedly told me they were not letting him do a proper job and it was a dead-end deal.

Long story to short… I hired him and he proved to be an excellent manager and was well-compensated for his good work. We got along great and the personnel loved his style of management. After about a year, however, his old pattern reared its ugly head. He told me the job for which I hired him was “a dead-end job.” He said he felt “stymied,” etc. He quit (amicably) to look for another job.

I tracked his progress through three other failed jobs, all with the same end results and the same faulty reasoning. One day, he and I had a talk. He was concerned that he was approaching age 50 with no savings, no current career, and with a poor future outlook.

We talked honestly about attitudes. I think he finally understood what he had to do to change his luck. He had to program himself to succeed. He also had to start understanding and controlling his choices.

The last I heard, my friend/colleague had finally returned to his old international company, but in a different management position. More importantly, he had a new positive attitude. He now felt his future had a brighter outlook. I’m betting he will also now be happier in his accomplishments.

If you find yourself in this type of situation, don’t start looking around for someone else to blame. You are in control, and only you can change your course of action. If you are unhappy with where you are, then take control.

To take charge of your job and the direction of your life, you should have a good idea as to the type of decisions involved.

Start your evaluation by making a list of all the actions that brought you down the road to this undesirable position. Look at each decision and action to determine if they added or subtracted from your undesirable results. When you analyze the items on your list, it’s likely you will see a pattern of poor choices.

From that point on, you have to be aware of the decisions that have had poor results and base your new decisions accordingly. The key to successful choices is to avoid repeating the unsuccessful ones. If that sounds simplistic, it is. Fortunately, that makes the job of you making the right decisions much easier.

• Promote with class: You don’t need gimmicks to be successful. Playing with flashy promotions is okay, only if you want to have some fun. They are not, however, a long-term solution to the level of success you desire.

For example, you can offer adjustments for $3 and get takers for that offer. What it will do, however, is establish in the minds of your patients that your services are worth only $3. In the short run, you will probably get new patients. In the long run, you may lose your value and the validity of your recommendations.

There’s nothing wrong or harmful in trying to make it easier for new or current patients to use your services. It’s just how you go about accomplishing that project. A terrific way to do this is make those services worth something to your patients.

For example, which is the better approach - give a car to your son or have him earn it? He will appreciate and take better care of that car when he earns it, because there was an exchange of value. Getting his car for nothing demeans the value of that car. Giving away your services works the same way.

However, strategies such as free consultations to evaluate new patient concerns, payment plans, or even lowered first visit charges will not decrease the value of your services in most patients’ eyes. Gimmicks will.

Giving away chicken dinners, gifts, or free visits (vs. consultations) to induce new patient input are gimmicks, not long-term tools for success. Your best marketing tool is a focused marketing plan, executed in a methodical and consistent manner.

As always, the most important promotional plan your services should start with is yourself. Establishing your validity, expertise, and the ability to deliver what you promise is an excellent foundation upon which to build a healthy practice.

• Associate with winners: Associate with losers and you become “an associate in losing.” Run with the winners and you’ll become a top runner. I learned this when I was racing cars. I spent time with drivers who had a history of winning. I also chose a crew chief who had multiple championships as a driver/mechanic. He was a proven winner. His shared experiences, plus what I learned from the other drivers, were essential to whatever success we had in our road-racing programs.

When I opened my chiropractic practice, I followed the same pathway. I avoided people who wasted our time by throwing up their hands and blaming everything and everybody for their lack of achievement (except themselves).

Whenever possible, I associated with chiropractors who were successful and confident enough to share with me the methods that helped create their success.

• Ethics do matter: It’s difficult to believe in yourself or your work if you’re not proud of the manner in which it’s accomplished. Your work ethic must match the high principles by which you guide your life. This concept is not as ivory-towered as it may sound.

When you work at any task with passion, you’ll always have a strong chance of succeeding. You cannot have any dedication or passion if you’re just “putting in time” on the job. That’s why we’ve all heard the warning that if your reason for becoming a chiropractor was just for the money, you’ll be unhappy and eventually burn out. Your purpose must be higher, which will ignite your dedication and passion.

If you don’t have a formal list of ethics formulated yet, you might want to glance over the Rotary’s “Four-Way Test” to use as a guide:
- Is it the truth?
- Is it fair for all concerned?
- Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
- Will it be beneficial to all?

• Showcase your talents: The most effective way to market the merits of chiropractic is to first market your own merits. Some experts call that “relational salesmanship.” I’m sure you’ll agree that building a good relationship with those you want to deal with makes sense.

Remember the saying, “Would you buy a car from that person?” What it means is that the importance of the product, in the eyes of the consumer, is secondary to the importance of the product’s provider. When your prospective patients believe you have a good grasp of your job, coupled with a professional attitude, they will want to use your services.

There are three essential concepts that must be covered when discussing chiropractic with potential patients.

You must:
- Learn the chiropractic needs of that person.
- Thoroughly understand that you are offering an intangible service. Marketing a service is totally
different than marketing a product.
- Be able to convey the unique aspects of your services in a positive manner, without downgrading
similar providers.

The best way to validate your chiropractic message is to communicate to your patients the assets they consider important to the success in their treatment program. In other words, your expertise, experience, dedication, and history of past treatment triumphs will validate you in the eyes of your patients and prospective patients. Once they believe in you, they will start believing in your work.

• Information partners: Although the styles of various business coaches may vary, a central thread runs through most successful coaching systems. You’ll notice the majority of coaches emphasize changing yourself internally. They all work at strengthening your vision, modifying your thinking, and changing your protocols. These internal changes will guide you as you start to change your external procedures and environment. All this is directed to helping you better manage your practice and your life. You have to properly feed the inner man or woman before the outer one can do a decent job.

A Synergistic Suggestion
You will have a strong practice if you combine your personal and business motivations. It stands to reason that if your work involves what you strongly desire to accomplish as a doctor, coupled with the goals you’ve set for your business, your chances of making a positive difference in your community are much greater.

That’s because you have now added passion to your purpose. As a chiropractor with earnest aspirations, your work transcends your job into a lifelong mission.

Dr. Delman is the author of “The Business of Chiropractic: How to Prosper AFTER Startup” (the Second Edition of this how-to book was recently released). He has degrees in both business and chiropractic. His experience includes 20 years in business management, then 20 years as a chiropractor before retiring to write and travel. He can be reached at ivan@businessofchiropractic.com; or sign on to his website at www.businessofchiropractic.com